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THE  DESERT, 

KADESH,  THE  NEGEB, 

THE  ARa4BAH  AJ^D  EDOM. 

See  Page  555. 

SCALE  OF  MILES 


33  30 


34  Longitude  East  34*30^  from  Greenwloli  35 


35  30 


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THE 


B  I  B  L  E-W  O  R  K: 

THE  OLD  TESTAMENT. 

TOL.  11. 

XII.),  ycbiticus,  ^umbers  mrb 

THE  EXODUS  AXD  WANDERINGS.  THE  LEGISLATION  CODIFIED, 

THE  REVISED  TEXT,  ARRANGED  IN  SECTIONS  ;  WITH  COMMENTS  SELECTED  FROM  THE  CHOICEST, 
MOST  ILLUMINATING  AND  HELPFUL  THOUGHT  OP  THE  CHRISTIAN  CENTURIES, 

TAKEN  FROM  THREE  HUNDRED  SCHOLARLY  WRITERS. 

PREPARED  BY 

J.  GLENTWORTH  BUTLEll,  D.D. 


“  He  made  known  his  ways  unto  Moses, 

His  acts  unto  the  Children  of  Israel — Ps.  103  :  7. 


FUNK  ife  WAGNALLS,  Publisiieks. 


NEW  YORK: 

18  &  20  ASTOR  pLaCE. 


1889. 


LONDON : 

44  FLEET  STREET 


\_AU  rights  resbrved.'\ 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Copyright,  1888,  by 
FUNK  &  WAGNALLS- 


SPECIAL  INDEX. 

PAGE. 

Map  :  Tlie  Desert,  the  Negeb,  the  Arabah,  and  Edom . . Opposite  Title. 

Map  :  Route  from  Goshen  to  the  Red  Sea .  34 

Map  :  Encampment  near  Crossing  Place . . .  40 

Diagram  :  Elevations,  etc.,  on  Line  of  Suez  Canal,. .  .  43 

Map  :  Route  from  Red  Sea.  (By  the  courtesy  of  Dr.  H.  M.  Field.) .  66 

Map  :  Route  from  Red  Sea  and  Sinai  Region.  {Ordnance  Surrey.) . '.  81 

Map  :  Approaches  to  Sinai.  {Ordnance  Survey.) .  98 

Diagram  :  Section  of  Jebel  Musa .  .  100 

Illustration  :  Mountain  of  Sinai  and  Plain  of  Er  Rahah .  101 

Illustration  :  Tabernacle — Structure  and  Exterior .  292, 

Illustration  :  Interior  of  Tabernacle .  298 

Illustrations  :  Furniture  of  Tabernacle .  302-304 

Illustration  ;  Altar  of  Burnt  Offering .  312 

Diagram  :  Court  and  Tabernacle .  316 

Illustration  :  High-Priestly  Garments .  320 

Map  :  Edom,  Moab,  and  Gilead .  .  582 

Table  to  Find  any  Verse  in  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers  and 

Deuteronomy .  749-752 

Authors  Cited . 753-756 


b  I 


SYNOPSIS  OF  SUBJECTS. 


Xlo  1 

V . 


SECTION 

91 


93 

93 

94 

95 

96 

97 

98 

99 

100 

101 


Note.— The  value  of  this  Index,  prepared  with  great  fulness  and  detail,  will  be  appreciated 
by  its  careful  study  as  a  whole  ;  and  such  study  will  help  the  reader  in  its  use  for  reference  to 
particular  topics. 

HISTOEY:  FEOM  THE  EXODUS  TO  THE  LAW-GIVIXG. 

Preliminary  Thoughts,  Helpful  and  Suggestive  :  Identifica¬ 
tion  of  Old  and  New  Covenants.  The  Kingdom  of  God, 
the  Content  and  End  of  Both.  Divine  and  Human 
Personality  Disclosed.  Progress  of  Doctrine  Throughout. 

The  Source,  Periods,  Definition,  and  Evidential  Value  of 
Miracles.  Points  hearing  upon  Mosaic  Authorship.  Un¬ 
designed  Coincidences. 

The  Exodus.  Movement  from  the  Land  of  Eameses,  or 
Goshen,  to  the  Eendezvous  at  Succoth. 

From  Succoth  to  Etham.  From  Etham  to  the  Eed  Sea. 
Map  of  Eoute.  Map  of  Encampment  near  the  Crossing 
Place.  Diagram  of  Elevations  and  Depressions  on  the 
Line  of  the  Suez  Canal. 

The  Sea  Divided  for  IsraeTs  Safe  Passage.  The  Egyptian 
Army  Destroyed. 

Song  of  Moses  after  the  Passage  of  the  Eed  Sea.  . 

Three  Stages  Onward  from  the  Eed  Sea  :  Marah  ;  Bitter 
Waters  Sweetened.  Elim,  with  its  Twelve  Springs  and 
Seventy  Palm  Trees.  Encampment  by  the  Sea. 

The  Wilderness  of  Sin  (El  Markha).  Bread  Eained  from 
Heaven  ;  Quails  Covering  the  Camp.  Points  and  Teach¬ 
ings  Eespecting  the  Manna. 

Eoute  from  the  Eed  Sea  to  Sinai.  Full  and  Accurate  Map 
(Ordnance  Survey). 

Three  Encampments  :  Dophkah  and  Alush  ;  Eephidim,  in 
Feiran  or  Es  Sheikh  ?  Smiting  the  Eock  in  Horeb.  Battle 
with  Amalek.  - 

Sinai,  the  Mountain  of  the  Law.  Map  of  its  Approaches. 
Diagram  :  Section  of  Jebel  Musa.  Illustration  :  The 
Mountain  and  Plain. 


The  Legislation  of  Moses  :  Moral,  Ceremonial,  and  Civil. 
Fundamental  Principles. 


PAGE 

11 

25 

33 

46 

54 

59 

67 

79 

87 

97 

104 


672377 


4 


SYWOPSIS  OF  SUBJECTS. 


SECTION 

102 

103 


104 

10^ 

lOO 

107 

108 
lOO 
1  lO 

111 


1 12 

113 

114 

115 


■  * 


PAGE 

The  Three  Pentateuchal  Codes.  Critical  Hypothesis.  Tables  113  , 
of  Laws  Peculiar  to  the  Second  and  Third  Codes. 


The  First  Sinai  Covenant :  Comprehensive  and  Sublime^  121 
Promise  of  JEHOVAH  ;  Conditioned  upon  Obedience  ; 
Answering  Pledge  of  the  People.  The  Kingdom  of  God 
Inaugurated,  as  a  Theocracy,  at  Sinai.  AVhat  the  Theoc¬ 
racy  Was,  and  What  It  Might  Have  Achieved.  Its 
Ulterior  Development  and  Final  Issue  in  Christianity. 

Reasons  for  Its  Study.  Unity  of  the  Old  and  New  Cove¬ 
nants. 

Preparation  for  and  Descent  of  JEHOVAH  upon  Sinai.  .  139 

THE  MORAL  LAW. 

^^God  Spake. Meaning  of  ‘^^The  Ten  Words. Division  143 
into  Tables.  Two  Copies  of  the  Decalogue.  Its  Character 
and  Perpetuity.  Relation  of  the  Moral  Law  :  To  the  Cere¬ 
monial  Law  ;  To  the  Promise  ;  To  Christ,  Relation  of  the 


Christian  to  the  Moral  Law. 

The  Opening  Words.  The  First  and  the  Second  Command-  157 

ments. 

The  Third  and  the  Fourth  Commandments.  .  .  .  169 

The  Fifth,  the  Sixth,  and  the  Seventh  Commandments.  .  183 

The  Eighth,  the  Ninth,  and  the  Tenth  Commandments.  .  194 

Two  Essential  Principles  of  the  Law's  Requirements  :  First,  202 

With  Reference  to  Character,  Holiness,  or  Likeness  to 


JEHOVAH.  Second,  With  Reference  to  the  Actuating 
Force  of  the  Life,  Supreme  Love  to  God  and  Unselfish 
Love  to  Man.  Rational  and  Moral  Love  and  its  Fruits. 

The  Moral  Law  to  be  Laid  Up  in  their  Hearts,  and  to  be  217 
Taught  Diligently  to  their  Children.  Phylacteries,  Door- 
Post  Inscriptions,  and  Fringes  as  Reminders  of  God’s 
Commandments. 

INTERMEDIATE  INCIDENTS. 

Effect  of  the  Divine  Voice  upon  the  People.  Upon  their  224 
Appeal  Moses  Appointed  as  Mediator  with  JEHOVAH. 

The  Book  of  the  Covenant  Written  by  Moses  :  Its  Introduc-  227 
tion  ;  Its  Body,  The  Judgments  Its  Conclusion,  Prom¬ 
ises  and  Warnings. 

Solemn  Ratification  of  the  Covenant,  by  Sprinkling  of  Sacri-  234 
ficial  Blood  upon  Altar  and  People.  This  Covenant  the 
Central  Point  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  Basis  of  its  Internal 
Unity.  Law  and  Prophecy  in  their  Relation  to  the  Cove¬ 
nants. 

Chosen  Nobles  of  Israel  Called  to  a  Vision  of  God  and  Fellow-  240 


JSTWOPSIS  OF  SUBJECTS. 


rtKCTION  PAGE 

ship  with  Him.  Moses  on  the  Mount  with  God  Forty 
Days.  i\postasy  of  the  Golden  Calf. 

116  Moses  Receives  the  Two  Tables.  Informed  by  God  of  Israehs  J246 

Apostasy,  Moses  Intercedes  for  their  Forgiveness.  He 
Descends  from  the  Mount,  Breaks  the  Tables,  Destroys  the 
Calf,  and  Inflicts  Death  upon  the  Guiltiest  Transgressors. 

117  Unbidden,  Moses  Ascends  the  Mount  to  Plead  for  Israel’s  254 

Forgiveness.  Penitence  of  the  People.  The  Cloud-Pillar 
Descends  to  the  Temporary  Tent  of  Meeting,  and  there 
God  Speaks  Face  to  Face  with  Moses.  Third  Pleading  of 
Moses  in  Behalf  of  Israel. 

118  The  Great  Petition  of  Moses  (in  the  Tent),  and  Promise  of  2G0 

an  Answer  the  Next  Day  upon  the  Mount.  Two  Stone 
Tables  Prepared  by  Moses.  He  Ascends  the  Mount  with 
the  Tables.  The  Answer  of  JEHOVAH  in  the  Procla¬ 
mation  of  HIS  NAME.  Second  Forty  Days  upon  Sinai, 
where  his  Fervent  Pleading  for  Israel  Finally  Prevails. 

110  JEHOVAH  Renews  the  Covenant  with  Israel.  Second  Book  268 

of  the  Covenant,  or  Brief  Summary  of  the  Ordinances  Previ¬ 
ously  Given.  Second  Writing  of  the  ^^Ten  Words  ’’upon 
Tables  of  Stone.  Transfiguration  of  Moses’s  Face. 

THE  CEREMONIAL  LAWS,  PERTAINING  TO  WORSHIP  AND  RITUAL. 


130  Design  and  Use  of  the  Ceremonial  Law.  Classification  of  its  76 

Institutes.  Offerings  for  the  Sanctuary  :  Materials  ;  Spirit 
Desired  and  Realized  in  the  Offerers  ;  the  Workmen  Quali 
fied  and  Chosen  ;  Liberality  Restrained  ;  Sum  Contributed. 

131  The  Tabernacle  ;  Its  Names  ;  Structure  and  Appearance  ;  287 

Inner  Veil  and  Outer  Screen  ;  Meaning  and  Design  ;  Sym¬ 
bolism  and  Types.  Illustrations. 

133  Furniture  of  the  Tabernacle  :  Ark  and  Mercy-Seat  ;  Table;  296 

Candlestick  ;  Altar- of  Incense  (Silver  Trumpets).  Illus- 
tr  at  ions. 

133  Offerings  for  the  Service  of  the  Sanctuary  :  Beaten  Oil  for  307 

the  Lamps ;  Ransom  or  Atonement  Money ;  Incense ; 

Anointing  Oil  ;  Shew  or  Face  Bread. 

134:  The  Altar  of  Burnt-Offering,  the  Laver,  and  the  Court.  311 

Illustrations. 

1 35  High  -Priestly  Garments  :  The  Ephod  and  its  Onyx  Stones  ;  316 


Breastplate  ;  Urim  and  Thummim  ;  Robe  of  the  Ephod  ; 

3Iitre  and  its  Golden  Plate.  Vestments  of  the  Priesthood. 
Illustration. 

136  The  Work  Approved  and  the  Workmen  Blessed.  The  Taber-  326 

nacle  Reared  and  its  Furniture  Set  in  Place.  The  Court 
Enclosed.  The  Glory  Fills  the  Sanctuary.  Offerings  of 
the  Tribes  by  their  Princes. 

137  Consecration  of  Aaron  and  his  Sons  :  Washing  and  Robing,  334 


G 

SECTION 


1^8 


V29 


130 


131 


13*^ 


133 

134 

135 

136 


137 

138 


139 

140 

141 
14*4 

143 


STJ^iOPSIS  OF  SUBJECTS. 


Anointiug  with  Oil,  and  Sprinkling  with  Sacrificial  Blood. 
The  Tabernacle  and  Furniture,  Altar  and  Laver,  Anointed 
with  Oil.  The  Altar  of  Burnt-Offering  Sprinkled  with 
Blood.  JEHOVAH’S  Promise  to  Sanctify  Priest,  Altar, 
and  Tabernacle. 

Inauguration  of  the  Sanctuary  Service,  the  First  Ministry  of 
Aaron.  First  Priestly  Benediction.  Appearance  of  the 
Glory,  and  Kindling  of  the  Sacrificial  Fire. 

The  Priesthood — Duties  and  Maintenance  :  Charged  with  the 
Service  of  the  Altar  and  Sanctuary  ;  Appointed  Teachers 
of  the  People  ;  Their  Personal  Qualities  and  Eelations  ; 
Various  Provisions  for  their  Maintenance. 

The  Tribe  of  Levi  Set  Apart  for  Subordinate  Ministry  :  Puri¬ 
fication  (or  Ordination)  of  the  Levites  :  Their  Support 
from  Tithes  ;  Their  Position,  Office,  and  Work.  The 
Sacerdotal  (or  Levitical)  Order ;  Its  Place  and  Infiuence  in 
the  Hebrew  Polity. 

The  Sacrificial  System  :  Its  Necessity  and  Spiritual  Import  ; 
Definition  of  Sacrifice  ;”  Classes  of  Sacrifices ;  Order 
and  Significance  of  Acts  in  the  Blood  Sacrifices.  The 
Altar  an  Oracle  of  Grace  and  Hence  the  Place  of  Worship. 
Kelation  of  the  Levitical  to  the  Christian  Sacrifices  ;  and 
to  the  Lord’s  Supper. 

Details  Eespecting  Annual  Sacrifices  :  Animals  Offered  ;  Un¬ 
blemished  ;  Age  ;  To  be  Voluntary  ;  Place  of  Offering. 
The  Life  Blood  the  Essential  Feature  in  the  Sacrifice. 

The  Book  of  Leviticus.  Names  and  Order  of  the  Chief 
Offerings.  The  Burnt- Offering. 

The  Meal-Offering  and  Accompanying  Drink-Offering. 

The  Peace-Offering.  ....  .  .  .  . 

The  Sin-Offering  :  Sin,  as  Presented  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  ; 
Meaning  and  Place  of  the  Sin-Offering  ;  Diversity  of  Vic¬ 
tims  ;  Treatment  of  the  Blood  and  of  the  Victim  ;  Other 
Details.  Concluding  Thoughts. 

The  Trespass  or  Guilt-Offering.  ...... 

Appointed  Times  for  Worship,  a  Complete  and  Symmetrical 
Scheme.  Feasts  and  Holy  Convocations.  The  Three  His¬ 
torical  Festivals  :  Their  Design,  Effects,  Characteristics, 
and  Spiritual  Teachings.  The  Eighth-Day  Series.  Four 
Marks  of  Authenticity. 

The  Daily,  Weekly,  and  Monthly  Sacrificial  Worship.  . 

The  Passover  and  Feast  of  Unleavened  Bread.  Its  Essential 
Significance  :  A  Sacrifice  and  Expiation  ;  A  Feast ;  A 
Memorial  ;  Perpetuated  in  the  Lord’s  Supper. 

The  Pentecost,  or  Feast  of  Weeks.  Feast  of  Trumpets. 

The  Great  Day  of  Atonement.  Significance  of  the  Different 
Treatment  of  the  Two  Goats. 

The  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  or  Booths . 


PAG3 

341 

345 

352 

358 

366 

371 

376 

380 

383 

389 

393 


399 

403 

409 

413 

419 


srmpsis  OF  subjects.  7 

8KCTIOH  PAGE 

144  The  Seventh- Year  Sabbath,  and  Year  of  Jubilee.  .  .  422 

145  Hebrew  Slavery.  .  429 

146  Eespecting  Vows  as  Offerings.  The  Nazarite  Vow.  .  .  432 

147  Offerings  of  First-Born  of  Man  and  Beast.  Of  First  Fruits,  436 

etc.  Of  Tithes. 

148  Ordinances  Respecting  Food  :  Clean  and  Unclean  Animals  ;  440 

The  End  and  Purpose  of  these  Ordinances. 

149  Ceremonial  Uncleanness  and  Purification  :  Leprosy  in  the  446 

Person,  the  Garments,  and  the  Dwelling. 

150  Ceremonial  Uncleanness  and  Purification  :  Water  of  Purifi-  451 

cation  for  Contact  with  the  Dead.  , Childbirth.  Bodily 
Issues. 

151  Thoughts  Respecting  the  Hebrew  Ritual.  ....  456 


15^  Unlawful  Marriages.  Divorce.  Marrying  a  Brothers  Widow.  458 

Jealousy  Offering.  Punishment  of  Defaming  Husband. 

Sins  against  Chastity. 

153  Idols  and  Altars  to  be  Destroyed.  Idolaters,  Enticers  to  463 

Idolatry,  False  Prophets,  and  Wonder-Workers  to  be  Put 
to  Death  ;  and  Idolatrous  Cities  to  be  Burned.  Magical 
Arts  and  Divination  Penally  Condemned  ;  Also  Child- 
Sacrifice  to  Molech. 


CIVIL  LEGISLATION:  GOVERNMENTAL  AND  POLITICAL, 

JUDICIAL  AND  SOCIAL. 

154  The  Civil  Government  Instituted  by  Moses  :  Its  Distinguish-  468 

ing  Elements,  and  Its  Influence  upon  Subsequent  Civiliza¬ 
tions. 

155  The  Appointment  of  Judges,  by  Jethro^s  Counsel.  Requi-  476 

sites  of  Character.  Classification. 

156  The  Administration  of  Justice  :  Supreme  Court  ;  Charges  to  483 

Judges  :  Witnesses  ;  Punishments,  Design  and  Kinds. 

157  Crimes,  Injuries,  and  Penalties  :  Theft  and  Burglary;  Dam-  490 

age  or  Loss  ;  Injuries  to  Persons  and  to  Cattle.  The  Law 
of  Retaliation.  Death-Penalty  for  Special  Crimes  (Other 
than  Murder).  Stoning  of  the  Sabbath-Breaker  ;  And  of 
the  Blaspheming  Son  of  Shelomith.  Modes  of  Inflicting 
Death. 

158  Death  Penalty  for  Murder.  Cities  of  Refuge  for  Accidental  496 

or  Justifiable  Homicide.  Purgation  of  a  Community  for 
a  Hidden  Murder. 

159  .  The  Widow  and  the  Fatherless  ;  The  Stranger  and  the  Poor.  501 

Gleanings  of  Harvest  and  Vintage.  Usury.  Pledges  for 
Loans. 

160  Humane  and  Merciful  Precepts  :  Parapet  on  Roof  ;  Exemp-  507 

tion  from  Public  Service ;  Straying  or  Overburdened 
Animals  Restored  or  Helped  ;  Muzzling  of  the  Ox,  etc.. 
Forbidden. 


8 


STJS^OPSIS  OF  SUBJECTS. 


SECTION 

161 

16^ 

163 

164 

165 

166 

167 

168 

169 

170 


PAGE 

Additional  Precepts  :  Eespect  Enjoined  to  the  Sabbath  and  510 
Sanctuary,  to  Parents,  to  the  Aged,  the  Deaf  and  the 
Blind.  Tale-Bearing,  Neighbor-Hate,  Stealing,  Lying, 
and  Defrauding  (in  Several  Particulars)  Forbidden.  Vari¬ 
ous  Idolatrous  and  Indecent  Customs  Prohibited. 


Conclusion  of  the  Mosaic  Legislation  :  IsraePs  Threefold  Ee-  517 

lation  to  the  Threefold  Law.  Central  Place  of  the  Legis¬ 
lation  in  the  Old  Testament  History  ;  Coeval  with  IsraeTs 
Existence  as  a  Nation.  Principles  of  the  Civil  Code  of 
Universal  Application.  The  Written  Law  the  Chief  Cause 
of  National  Unity  and  Separation.  The  Divine  Code 
Superseded  Afterward  by  Two  Human  Codes. 

THE  HISTOEY  EESUMED. 

Deain  of  Nadab  and  Abihu  by  Eire.  .....  521 

The  Passover  (of  the  Second  Year)  at  Sinai.  Law  of  a  524 
Supplementary  Passover.  The -Cloud,  a  Divine  Guide  to 
Israel.  Hobab,  the  Human  Guide. 

The  Book  of  Numbers.  Preparations  for  Leaving  Sinai :  529 

Numbering  of  the  Fighting  Men  ;  Arrangement  of  the 
Camp,  and  Order  of  the  March ;  Numbering  of  .the 
Levites,  and  Assignment  of  Service  to  the  Three  Families. 

Advance  March  of  Three  Days  from  Sinai  to  Kibroth-Hat-  534 

taavah.  The  Hebrew  Element  a  Main  Constituent  of 
Modern  Civilization ;  Its  Distinctive  Characteristic,  the 
Instinct  of  Statical  Order. 

Murmuring  Punished  by  Fire  at  Taberah,  and  Moses  Inter-  538 
cedes.  A  Second  Murmuring,  and  Moses  Complains  to 
God.  Seventy  Elders  Appointed  to  Assist  Moses,  and 
Endued  with  the  Prophetic  Gift.  Quails  (sent  a  Second 
Time)  Followed  by  Plague  at  Kibroth-Hattaavah. 

Journey  to  Hazeroth.  Miriam  and  Aaron  Speak  against  544 
Moses.  JEHOVAH  Vindicates  Moses  and  Punishes 
Miriam  with  Leprosy.  At  the  Intercession  of  Moses  She  is 
Healed. 

From  Hazeroth  to  Kadesh  in  Wilderness  of  Paran.  Twelve  548 
Spies  Traverse  the  Land  of  Canaan.  Eeport  of  Ten,  and 
of  Caleb  and  Joshua.  Eebellion  of  the  People.  Upon  thq 
Pleading  of  Moses  JEHOVAH  Eemits  Judgment  of 
Destruction,  but  Announces  their  Doom  of  Forty  Years^ 
Wandering  and  Death  in  the  Desert.  The  Ten  Spies  De¬ 
stroyed  by  Plague.  Presumptuous  Attack  upon  their 
Nearest  Enemies  Punished  by  IsraeTs  Defeat. 

Wilderness  of  Paran.  Eoute  of  Israel  from  Sinai  to  Kadesh.  553 
Locality  of  Kadesh-Barnea.  The  Thirty-Seven  Years^ 


BECTION 

171 

ira 

173 

174 

175 

176 

177 

178 

179 

180 

181 

18^ 


STJV0PSI8  OF  SUBJECTS. 


Ban  :  Stations  of  the  Wandering ;  Life  and  Maintenance 
of  the  People. 

Rebellion  and  Destruction  of  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram. 

-  Murmuring  of  the  People  Punished.  The  Plague  Stayed 
through  Aaron's  Intercession.  The  High-Priestly  Office  of 
Aaron  Proved  by  the  Rod  that  Budded,  Bloomed,  and  Bare 
Fruit. 

The  Host  Gathered  at  Kadesh-Barnea  for  Final  Departure. 
Rebellious  Murmuring  of  the  Hew  Generation.  The  Sin 
of  Moses  at  the  Rock  in  Kadesh  ;  Its  Punishment  An¬ 
nounced. 

Messengers  to  Edom.  Kadesh  to  Mount  Hor  ;  Its  Locality. 
Death  and  Burial  of  Aaron.  Return  through  Kadesh 
Region.  Arad's  Attack  and  IsraePs  Vow.  Southward  and 
Eastward  Journey  through  the  Way  of  the  Red  Sea. 
Murmuring  Punished  by  Fiery  Serpents ;  Method  of 
Healing.  Further  Journeying. 

From  the  Desert  (Et  Tih)  into  the  Arabah  ;  To  Elath  and 
Ezion-Geber  on  the  Red  Sea  (Gulf  of  Akahah).  Horth- 
ward  Journey  on  the  Eastern  Boundary  of  Edom,  or  Mount 
Seir,  to  the  Valley  of  the  Arnon.  The  Desert  AYanderings 
Ended  by  Two  Songs  of  Gladness.  Map. 

Sihon  Smitten  ;  His  Land  and  Cities  Taken.  Og  and  his  People 
Destroyed  ;  Bashan  and  its  Cities  Possessed.  Encamp¬ 
ments  North  of  the  Arnon.  Final  and  Protracted  Gather¬ 
ing  of  Israel  on  the  Arboth  Moab,  or  Plains  of  Jordan. 

Balaam  and  Balak.  First  and  Second  Solicitation.  The 
Going  and  the  Divine  Hinderer.  Balaam's  First  Con¬ 
strained  Prophetic  Blessing. 

Balaam's  Second  and  Third  Prophetic  Blessings  upon  Israel. 
His  Sublime  Prophecy  of  the  Star  and  Sceptre  :  Destiny 
of  Existing  Nations  ;  Vista  of  the  Long  Future. 

Israel's  Sin  with  the  Moabites  and  Midianites.  Its  Punish¬ 
ment.  Judgment  Executed  by  Phinehas.  Destruction  of 
Midianites  ;  Division  of  Allowed  Spoil.  Balaam  Slain  with 
the  Sword. 

Third  Numbering  of  Israel.  Land  East  of  Jordan  Divided 
between  Two  and  a  Half  Tribes.  Boundaries  of  Canaan  ; 
Its  Division  by  Lot  among  the  Nine  and  a  Half  Remaining 
Tribes. 

A  Generation  Dead.  The  Levitical  Cities.  Law  of  Daugh¬ 
ters'  Inheritance  ;  The  Law  Amended.  Announcement  of 
Moses's  Death  ;  His  Twofold  Prayer.  The  Ordination  of 
Joshua  as  his  Successor. 


The  Book  of  Deuteronomy, . .  . 

First  Parting  Address  of  Moses  ;  Exordium  ;  Districts  of 


9 

PAGE 

560 

566 

570 

577 

584 

590 

598 

606 

613 

621 

626 

634 


PAGE 


10  SmOPSIS  OF  SUBJECTS. 

8ECTION 

Canaan.  Exhortations  to  Obedience,  based  upon  JEHO¬ 
VAH’S  Gracious  Disclosures  and  Dealings. 

1  83  Second  Parting  Address  :  Introduction.  Keminders  ;  Warn-  640 

ings ;  Entreaties. 

184  Same,  Continued  :  Past  Wilderness  Dealings  and  the  Pro-  647 

spective  Canaan  Inheritance  as  Motives  to  Fidelity. 

185  Same,  Continued:  Warnings,  Keminders,  and  Pleadings:  A  65:2 

Blessing  and  a  Curse  Set  before  them. 

1  86  Same,  Continued  :  One  Central  Sanctuary.  Law  Respecting  658 

the  King. 

18T  Same,  Continued  :  The  Prophet  like  unto  Moses.  Intimation  666 

of  a  Succession  of  Prophets.  Directions  Concerning  War¬ 
fare. 

188  Same,  Concluded:  Forbidden  and  Allowed  Fellowship.  673 

Thanksgiving  and  Prayer  at  Presentation  of  First-Fruits 
and  of  Second  Tithe.  Summary  of  Engagements  between 
JEHOVAH  and  Israel. 

189  Third  Address  :  Stone  Monuments  Inscribed  with  the  Law  678 

to  be  Erected  on  Mount  Ebal.  Blessings  and  Cursings  to 
be  Proclaimed  on  Gerizim  and  Ebal.  The  Twelve  Curses 
Pronounced  on  Ebal. 

1 90  Blessings  Promised  to  Obedience  :  At  Sinai  ;  Afterward  on  683 

the  Plains  of  Moab. 

191  Prophetic  Curses  :  At  Sinai  ;  x\mplified  on  the  Plains  of  686 

Moab.  Promises  of  Restored  Favor  upon  Repentance. 

19S  Closing  Address,  in  Connection  with  Solemn  Renewal  of  697 

Covenant.  Renewed  Appeals  to  Past  Mercies,  Calls  to 
Fidelity,  and  Warnings  of  Punishment  for  Apostasy. 

193  Great  Truths  Respecting  the  Divine  Revelation.  .  .  .  701 

194  Conclusion  of  Final  Address. .  708 

195  Special  Messages  :  of  Moses,  to  the  People,  to  Joshua,  to  the  715 

Priests  and  Levites  ;  of  Jehovah  to  Moses,  and  to  Joshua. 

196  The  Dying  Song  of  Moses.  .......  731 

197  Blessing  of  the  Tribes  by  Moses .  731 

198  Vision  of  Canaan  from  Pisgah.  Death,  Burial,  and  En-  737 

comium  of  Moses. 

199  Supplementary :  Genealogical  Outline  of  1  Chron.  .  .  748 


Explanatoet  Note. — Dislocations  of  text,  in  this  volume,  are  made  in  the  interest  of 
chronological  order,  as  respects  the  History  ;  and  of  natural  sequence  in  the  subjects,  as  respects 
the  Legislation,  While  the  matter  of  the  Books  of  Leviticus,  Numbers,  and  Deuteronomy  is 
largely  re-distributed  in  the  codifying  process,  yet  careful  note  is  made  throughout  of  the  dis¬ 
tinctive  character,  the  special  relation,  and  the  true  unity  of  each  of  these  Books,  Further,  as  to 
subjects  of  critical  inquiry,  it  is  believed  that  the  main  points  both  of  positive  exposition  and 
definite  refutation  are  sufficiently  presented  in  these  pages. 


ISRAEL’S  EXODUS  AND  WANDERINGS; 

THE  HEBREW  LEGISLATION. 


Section  91. 

PRELIMINARY  THOUGHTS,  HELPFUL  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


Cheistianity  stands  in  organic  connection 
with  the  Old  Testament  religion,  both  being 
parts  of  a  gradually  developing  system.  Of  the 
Hebrew  people,  Ewald  writes  :  “  The  history 
of  this  ancient  people  is,  at  the  foundation,  the 
history  of  the  true  religion  passing  through  all 
the  stages  of  progress  by  which  it  attained  to  its 
consummation  ;  the  religion  which,  on  this  nar¬ 
row  territory,  advances  through  all  struggles  to 
complete  victory,  and  at  length  reveals  itself  in 
its  full  glory  and  might,  to  the  end  that,  spread¬ 
ing  abroad  by  its  own  irresistible  energy,  it  maj^ 
never  vanish  away,  but  may  become  the  eternal 
heritage  and  blessing  of  all  nations.”  G.  P.  F. 

- While  the  economies  are  two,  while  the  Old 

and  the  New  Testaments  differ  widely  in  their  lit¬ 
erary  features,  there  still  remains  the  one  series 
of  truths  revealed  by  God  to  man  for  his  salva¬ 
tion.  The  Old  and  the  New  Testaments  are  still 
one  book  in  virtue  of  the  absolute  unity  of  the 
truths  which  they  reveal.  Thej’’  are  the  great 
fundamental  truths  of  Christianity  :  the  truths 
of  the  one  living  and  holy  God  ;  of  man  made 
in  the  image  of  God  but  fallen  ;  of  sin  ;  of 
man’s  inability  to  save  himself  ;  of  God’s  desire 
to  save  him  ;  of  the  salvation  provided  by  the 
merciful  God  ;  of  atonement  ;  of  the  friendship 
of  God  ;  of  his  communion  with  man  ;  of 
prayer  ;  of  providence  ;  of  holiness  ;  of  a  com¬ 
plete  redemption.  The  two  religions,  in  virtue 
of  this  community  of  truth,  are  one  religion  ; 
the  two  theologies  are  one  theology  ;  and  the 
two  Testaments — the  Old  Testament  and  the 
New — to  quote  the  words  of  Chalmers,  are  not 
“  cross-lights  that  dazzle  and  perplex  the  be¬ 
holder,  but  are  the  two  golden  candlesticks 
lighted  up  for  the  Church  of  Christ  upon  earth, 
and  which,  while  that  Church  has  being,  will 
never  be  taken  away.”  Be  Wiit. 


The  Bible  occupies  a  place  in  the  literature  of 
the  world  distinct  from  that  held  by  any  other 
volume.  It  contains  the  bulk  of  the  literary 
productions  of  one  race— the  Hebrew  ;  it  lies  at 
the  foundation,  permeates  all  the  materials, 
forms  the  very  capstone  itself  of  the  splendid 
literary  structure  reared  by  another  race — the 
Anglo-Saxon  ;  while  other  peoples  the  globe  over 
acknowledge  its  surpassing  merit.  The  Bible, 
holds  a  like  position  in  religion.  Among  religious 
writings,  this  book  stands  pre-eminent  ;  its 
morals  are  purer,  its  teachings  nobler,  its  influ¬ 
ence  more  notable  than  all  other  so-called  sacred 
books.  Where  its  precepts  are  honored,  there 
progress  in  all  that  concerns  man’s  betterment 
is  found.  Its  followers  are  earnest  and  aggres¬ 
sive  ;  and  as  the  Book  is  known,  men  acknowl¬ 
edge  its  truth  and  become  its  devoted  adherents. 
The  Bible  claims  supreme  auihm'Uy  over  men.  It 
enters  into  the  State,  comes  into  the  social  cir¬ 
cle,  opens  the  door  of  the  family,  and  penetrates 
the  soul  of  each  individual  ;  everywhere  declar¬ 
ing  the  true  principles  whereby  all  the  relations 
of  this  life  should  be  governed.  This  authority 
is  demanded  as  a  right,  for  the  Book  claims 
Divine  origin.  It  is  a  revelation,  disclosing  the 
one  God,  man’s  distance  from  him,  and  the 
bridge  that  spans  the  distance. 

In  its  spiritual  aim  the  Bible  differs  from  other 
books.  “  Instruction  in  righteousness”  is  its 
aim.  All  that  pertains  to  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  man  is  its  object.  It  reveals  God  as  one  re¬ 
garding  justice  and  loving  mercy,  it  pictures 
man  as  guilty  and  condemned,  it  displays  God’s 
great  purpose  of  redemption  in  Christ  Jesus. 
This  purpose  seen  in  dimmest  outline  in  Eden 
as  the  triumph  of  the  good  over  the  evil,  re¬ 
flected  in  shadowy  form  through  patriarch, 
priest,  and  prophet  ever  develops  —its  shadows 


n 


PRELIMINARY  THOUGHTS, 


ever  lessening,  its  outline  ever  filling  until  it 
bursts  in  the  grand,  full  splendor  of  the  Cross 
and  the  Resurrection.  We,  looking  backward, 
see  God’s  purpose  thus  accomplished,  and  in 
this  light  much  of  the  mystery  is  dissolved. 
What  to  Hebrew  sage  and  people  appeared  as  a 
flickering  rushlight,  to  us  blazes  as  the  full- 
orbed  sun  at  noonday.  Here  then  is  seen  the 
aim  of  the  Book  in  the  Divine  Man,  the  Lord 
Christ.  This  aim  must  guide  our  interpreta¬ 
tion  ;  forgetting  it,  we  are  wanderers  on  the  des¬ 
ert  and  all  around  is  strange  and  dreary.  The 
Bible  is  one,  yet  many  ;  giving  each  book  its 
value  as  a  unit;  they  combine  in  one  grand 
integer.  “It  is,”  to  use  the  words  of  Dr. 
Briggs,  “  the  unity  of  the  ocean,  where  every 
wave  has  its  individuality  of  life  and  movement. 
It  is  the  unity  of  the  continent  in  which  moun¬ 
tains  and  rivers,  valleys  and  uplands,  flowers 
and  trees,  birds  and  insects,  animal  and  human 
life,  combine  to  distinguish  it  as  a  magnificent 
whole  from  other  continents.  It  is  the  unity  of 
the  heaven,  where  star  differs  from  star  in  form, 
color,  order,  movement,  size,  and  importance, 
but  all  declare  the  glory  of  God.”  E.  R.  Pope. 

The  Old  and  New  Covenants  are  identified  mor¬ 
ally  and  spiritually.  The  same  moral  principles  of 
benevolence,  truth,  and  justice  prevail  through¬ 
out  the  Scriptures.  The  moral  code  of  both 
covenants  is  the  same.  The  Decalogue  i^  the 
moral  law  for  all  men  and  for  all  ages.  It  con¬ 
sists  of  two  grand  principles,  supreme  love  to 
God  and  sincere  love  to  man,  on  which  hang 
not  only  the  law  and  the  prophets  but  also  the 
apostles,  like  all  the  branches  of  a  tree  on  the 
trunk.  The  ground  of  all  obedience  is  the  re¬ 
vealed  character  of  God,  and  especially  his  love 
as  the  Lord  our  God  and  Redeemer,  and  the 
motive  or  mainspring  in  the  human  soul  is  felt 
love.  The  righteousness  of  this  law  the  Son  of 
God,  as  the  Son  of  Man,  has  not  only  fulfilled, 
but  magnified  and  made  honorable.  Conse¬ 
quently,  obedience  under  the  Gospel  is  enjoined 
on  the  same  grounds  and  from  the  same  motives 
— love  to  God  for  his  revelation  of  his  love  in 
the  person  and  work  of  Christ.  The  new  moral 
commandment  of  the  Gospel  is  certainly  not 
that  we  love  God  supremely  or  one  another  with 
a  pure  heart  fervently,  but  that  we  love  each 
other  as  Christ  hath  loved  us.  It  is  a  new  yet 
an  old  commandment,  old  as  Adam  in  its  prin¬ 
ciple,  and  as  Moses  in  its  formal  basis,  and  neNv 
merely  in  its  formal  motive,  the  gracious  w'ork 
of  Christ  ;  which  is  a  new  thing  in  the  earth,  a 
new  form  of  the  Divine  love.  And  all  the  spir¬ 
itual  or  gracious  feelings  required  and  exercised 
under  the  Law  and  the  Gospel  are  the  same. 


The  form  of  worship  is  different,  but  the  spirit 
is  the  same.  The  former  accordingly  is  changed, 
but  the  latter  remains  unchanged  and  unchange¬ 
able.  The  same  faith  and  the  same  fear,  the 
same  hope  and  the  same  joy,  the  same  humility 
and  the  same  holiness,  run  like  a  perennial  and 
pearly  stream  throughout  both  economies.  The 
principles  of  subjective  religion  are  the  same 
throughout.  A  complete  moral  and  spiritual 
identity  prevails. 

The  two  covenants  are  doctrinally  identified. 
Their  doctrinal  oneness  is  as  conspicuous  as  the 
harmony  of  the  solar  system,  as  the  unjty  of 
the  earth  itself,  or  the  unbroken  unity  ot  the 
arch  of  heaven.  Not  only  is  the  grand  method 
of  salvation  doctrinally  the  same,  there  is  also  a 
complete  and  constant  agreement  in  the  minor 
details  of  the  development  of  doctrine,  expressed 
in  different  languages  and  in  different  forms  of 
phraseology.  The  great  Teacher  and  the  authors 
of  the  New  Testament  constantly  quote  and  ex¬ 
pound  the  facts  and  truths  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment,  as  teaching  the  doctrines  which  they 
merely  developed  and  declared.  It  is,  indeed, 
their  text-book  and  book  of  reference  on  all  oc¬ 
casions.  They  regard  the  doctrine  of  the  proph¬ 
ets  as  the  same  as  their  own,  both  in  its  source 
and  in  its  substance.  A  grand  succession  of 
writers  of  different  ages  and  countries,  some  of 
whom  were  even  ignorant  of  each  others’  writ¬ 
ings  at  the  time  they  wrote  themselves,  have 
concurred  in  revealing  the  very  same  truths  to 
us,  on  whom  the  ends  of  the  age  are  come. 
And  the  two  Testaments  are  mutually  interpret¬ 
ing.  The  New  Testament  expounds  the  Old, 
which  in  turn  illustrates  the  New.  Both  are  to 
be  expounded  on  substantially  the  same  prin¬ 
ciples.  Mutually  necessary  and  singly  unintel¬ 
ligible,  the  one  unlocks  the  other.  We  read 
the  Old  in  the  clearer  light  of  the  New,  and  the 
New  in  the  light  of  the  language  and  literature 
of  the  Old.  As  the  human  race  was  furnished 
by  the  sacrifices  and  sensible  signs  of  the  law 
with  the  high  ideas  of  sin,  satisfaction,  and  sal¬ 
vation,  realized  in  the  Gospel,  we  must  now  read 
the  dispensations  in  the  light  of  one  another. 
The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  in  particular  is  a 
key  to  the  symbolism  of  the  law,  but  the  rich 
life  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  end  of  all  the  law,  is 
the  clear  light  in  which  we  read  those  mystical 
sacrifices  which  threw  their  shadows  forward, 
and  now  shed  down  their  light  upon  the  Cross. 
The  Law  and  the  Gospel  are  not  merely  the  lesser 
(  and  greater  lights  that  rule  respectively  day  and 
night,  but  binary  stars  that  commingle  and  com¬ 
bine  their  beams  to  dispel  the  darkness  of  the 
moral  world.  James  Scott. 


HELPFUL  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


13 


In  the  wider  and  deeper  sense  of  the  word, 
the  whole  Old  Testament  is  Messianic.  This  is 
the  position  taken  by  Christ,  the  best  exegete 
of  the  Old  Testament,  and  by  the  entire  New 
Testament,  the  best  commentary  on  the  Old. 
Christ’s  advent  and  work  are  everywhere  de¬ 
clared  to  be  historically  and  materially  based 
upon  the  Old  Testament  dispensation  and  rev¬ 
elation,  of  which,  in  turn,  they  are  the  fulfil¬ 
ment  and  consummation.  With  one  voice,  the 
New  Testament  teaches  that  the  Old  represents 
the  preparatory  stage,  which,  when  in  the  full¬ 
ness  of  time  the  Word  became  flesh,  was  trans¬ 
formed  into  the  actual  establishment  of  God’s 
kingdom  upon  earth.  In  this  manner  the  cen¬ 
tral  thought  of  the  books  of  pre-Christian  reve¬ 
lation  and  their  connecting  link  is  their  record, 
in  word  and  deed,  of  the  gradual  unfolding  of 
God’s  plans  for  man’s  redemption,  w'hich  plans 
became  a  reality  and  fact  through  the  person 
and  work  of  the  Messiah.  The  Old  Testament 
books  are  accordingly  not  an  accidental  collec¬ 
tion  of  the  literary  remains  of  the  Hebrew  peo¬ 
ple,  but  are  the  providentiall}^  given  and  pre¬ 
served  records  of  the  development,  in  time  and 
history,  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  from 
the  germs  in  the  prot-evangelium  in  Genesis 
3  : 15  to  the  completion  of  the  work  in  the  Mes¬ 
siah.  Schodde. 

The  grand  idea  of  the  kingdom  of  God  is  the 
connecting  thread  that  runs  through  the  entire 
course  of  divine  revelation.  We  behold  a 
kingdom,  planted  in  the  remote  past,  and  car¬ 
ried  forward  to  its  ripe  development,  by  a  series 
of  transactions  in  which  the  agency  of  God 
mingles  in  an  altogether  peculiar  way  in  the 
current  of  human  affairs.  There  is  a  manifes¬ 
tation  of  God  in  act  and  deed.  Verbal  teaching 
is  the  commentary  attached  to  the  historic  fact, 
ensuring  to  the  latter  its  true  meaning.  For 
example,  the  emancipation  of  the  Israelites  from 
bondage  in  Egypt  was  the  standing  illustration 
of  the  character  of  God,  who  revealed  himself 
in  that  act,  and  the  symbol  of  the  great  redemp¬ 
tion  from  sin,  itself  not  less  an  act  and  achieve¬ 
ment  than  the  event  which  prefigured  it- 
G.  P.  F. 

The  “Kingdom  of  God,  ’  internal  and  exter¬ 
nal,  is  the  Content  and  End  of  all  prophecy, 
the  realization  of  God’s  will  on  earth,  as  in 
heaven.  It  is  established  first  of  all  subjectively 
in  the  heart,  and  next,  politically,  in  a  national 
dominion  of  the  holy  people,  which  becomes, 
historically,  the  seed  of  a  development  ordained, 
under  new  forms,  to  embrace  the  whole  earth. 
Israel  is  the  result  of  prophecy.  The  Torah  it¬ 
self  goes  back  to  the  prophetic  word.  Again, 


every  prophet  stands  upon  the  Torah,  which  all 
prophecy  presupposes,  and  denounces  judg¬ 
ment  for  covenant  transgression,  and  blessing 
for  covenant  obedience.  The  covenants  of  In¬ 
heritance  made  with  Abraham,  and  of  Royalty 
with  David,  rest  upon  prophecy.  All  the  prom¬ 
ises  included  in  these,  all  the  political,  ethical, 
judicial,  and  ritual  parts  of  the  Torah — in  short, 
the  whole  Old  Testament  administration,  finds 
its  i3rinciple  of  unity  in  the  prophecy  and  prom¬ 
ise  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,”  set  up  to  regu¬ 
late  the  individual  and  national  life,  and  fore¬ 
shadow  the  subjection  of  the  world’s  dominion 
to  the  sovereignty  of  the  heavens.  Messianic 
prophecy  has  no  other  justification  than  this. 
On  this  rested  the  Theocrac5\  On  this  rests  the 
Church.  '[Vest. 

God’s  revelation  at  no  period  was  given  in 
the  form  of  abstract  delineations  of  truth  and 
duty,  but  has  ever  developed  itself  in  immedi¬ 
ate  connection  with -the  circumstances  of  indi¬ 
viduals  and  the  leadings  of  Providence.  From 
first  to  last  it  comes  forth  entwined  with  the 
characters  and  events  of  history.  Not  a  little  of 
it  is  written  in  the  transactions  themselves  of 
past  time,  which  are  expressly  declared  to  have 
been  “  written  for  our  learning.”  And  it  is 
equally  true  of  the  Law  and  the  Gospel,  that  the 
his\,orical  lines  with  which  they  are  interwoven, 
while  serving  to  increase  their  interest  and  en¬ 
hance  their  didactic  value,  by  no  means  detract 
from  their  general  bearing,  or  interfere  with 

their -binding  obligation.  P.  F. - The  whole 

history  of  the  children  of  Israel  is  the  expres¬ 
sion  of  the  plans  of  God  for  the  unfolding  of 
his  kingdom  on  earth.  This  is  much  more  true 
than  that  the  history  of  the  Church  is  the  ex¬ 
pression  of  the  New  Testament  ideal  ;  for  the 
people  of  the  Old  were  to  a  greater  extent  under 
the  direct  and  theocratic  guidance  of  God,  than 
are  those  of  the  New  ;  and  so  the  history  of  the 
Church  of  the  Old  Covenant — i.e.,  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  history,  is  for  this  purpose  especially  in¬ 
structive.  It  is  God’s  revelation  in  deeds  rather 
than  in  words  ;  and  in  many  instances  the 
truths  underlying  the  former  are  more  trans¬ 
parent  than  those  expressed  by  the  latter. 
Harper. 

It  is  the  hand  of  God  himself  that  ever  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  directing  the  transactions  of  Old 
Testament  history.  The  things  that  happened 
to  his  chosen  people  could  not  otherwise  have 
accomplished  the  great  ends  of  their  appoint¬ 
ment  ;  for  through  these  God  was  continually 
making  revelation  of  himself,  and  bringing 
those  who  stood  nearest  to  him  to  a  fuller  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  his  character  as  the  God  of  life 


14 


PRELIMmA BY  THO UGHTS, 


and  blessing.  It  was  therefore  of  essential 
moment  to  the  object  in  view  that  his  people 
should  be  able  without  hesitation  to  regard  them 
as  indications  of  his  mind  ;  that  they  should 
not  merely  consider  them  as  his,  in  the  general 
sense  in  which  it  may  be  said  that  “  God  is  in 
history,”  but  his  also  in  the  more  definite  and 
l^eculiar  sense  of  conveying  specific  and  pro¬ 
gressive  discoveries  of  the  divine  administra¬ 
tion.  How  could  they  have  been  recognized  as 
such,  unless  the  finger  of  God  had,  in  some 
form,  laid  its  distinctive  impress  upon  them  ? 
Taking  into  account,  therefore,  all  the  peculi¬ 
arities  belonging  to  the  typical  facts  of  Old  Tes¬ 
tament  history — the  close  relation  in  which  they 
commonly  stood  to  the  rites  and  institutions  of 
a  religion  of  hope,  the  evident  manner  in  which 
many  of  them  bore  upon  them  the  interposition 
of  God,  and  the  place  occupied  by  others  in  the 
announcements  of  prophecy— they  had  quite 
enough  to  distinguish  them  from  the  more  gen¬ 
eral  events  of  providence,  and  were  perfectly 
capable  of  ministering  to  the  faith  and  the  just 
expectations  of  the  people  of  God.  P.  F. 

Nowhere  is  personality  more  strongly  em¬ 
phasized  than  in  the  religion  of  the  Old  Tes¬ 
tament — the  personalitj'^  of  God,  and,  as  a 
consequence  of  this,  the  personality  of  man  ; 
yet  always  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  obliterate  the 
line  of  demarcation  between  the  Divine  and  hu¬ 
man.  The  Divine  is  never  humanized,  the 
human  is  never  deified.  The  Old  Testament 
knows  of  no  demigods.  Its  first  man  is  as  sim¬ 
ply  and  purely  human  as  any  of  his  descend¬ 
ants.  This  feeling  of  personality  gives  to  the 
religion  of  revelation  a  peculiar  hue.  It  substi¬ 
tutes  reverence  and  love  for  slavish  fear.  It 
throws  a  sacredness  around  human  life.  It  in¬ 
fuses  a  kindly  spirit  into  legislation.  And  the 
question  now  arises.  How  shall  we  account  tor 
its  presence  here,  when  it  is  so  sadly  wanting 
elsewhere  ?  For  the  origin  of  Old  Testament 
religion  Naturalism  can  furnish  no  satisfactory' 
answer  ;  we  must  have  recourse  to  a  supernat¬ 
ural  revelation.  Man,  in  his  present  state,  is 
unable  of  himself  to  rise  to  the  true  idea  of 
God.  He  has,  indeed,  a  vague  feeling  of  an  ! 
ultimate  power  lying  behind  the  visible  cosmos  ; 
but  what  that  power  is  he  cannot  say.  It  is  to 
him  the  “  Unknown  God.”  How  poor  are  even 
the  highest  conceptions  which  a  mind  so  pro¬ 
found  as  Plato’s  was  able  to  form  of  him  !  Yet 
from  the  first  there  existed  among  the  Hebrew 
people  a  true  idea  of  God  and  of  his  relation  to 
the  world.  Whence  did  it  spring  ?  Evidently 
not  from  philosophical  reflection  ;  for  we  can¬ 


not  ascribe  to  the  untutored  Semitic  mind  an 
achievement  in  thought  that  lay  altogether  be¬ 
yond  the  most  cultivated  Aryan  mind.  The 
only  explanation  lies  in  a  Divine  revelation.  If 
man  is  to  know  God,  God  must  come  to  man. 
And  this  he  did  when  he  appeared  to  Abraham. 
It  was  at  a  time  when  the  knowledge  of  the  true 
God,  possessed  by  former  ages,  had  become  lost, 
at  least,  in  Abraham’s  native  home  and  among 
his  kindred.  The  Bible  speaks  of  earlier  reve¬ 
lations  than  that  made  to  the  ‘  ‘  father  of  the 
faithful  but  whatever  their  character,  in  his 
day  they  had  ceased  to  be  remembered,  or,  at 
least,  obeyed  ;  and  his  friends  beyond  the  Eu¬ 
phrates  served  other  gods  than  the  Lord  of 
heaven  and  earth.  Then  it  was  God  came  to 
Abraham,  and  whether  by  outward  theophany 
or  by  inward  manifestation  to  his  spirit,  it  was 
a  real  historical  coming.  He  came  not  to  con¬ 
vey  to  his  mind  abstract  theological  truths,  but 
to  enter  into  a  communion  of  love  with  him  ; 
.and  in  this  communion,  Abraham,  by  living  ex¬ 
perience,  came  to  know  God  as  he  could  not 
know  him  simply  by  an  exercise  of  the  reason — 
came  to  know  him  in  his  unity,  his  spirituality, 
his  personality,  his  holiness.  He  recognized 
him  as  the  only  source  of  true  salvation,  and 
such  was  his  assurance,  that  he  chose  to  aban¬ 
don  fatherland  and  friends  rather  than  sur¬ 
render  his  faith  in  this  supermundane,  heav¬ 
enly,  and  only  true  God.  This  confidence  was 
the  root  of  his  life  and  influence.  “  He,”  says 
Ewald,  “  not  only  steadfastly  maintained  the 
knowledge  of  the  true  God  in  his  own  practice 
and  life,  but  knew  how  to  make  it  lasting  in  his 
house  and  race.  And  in  nothing  is  the  memory 
of  the  reality  and  grandeur  of  his  God-fearing 
and  God-blessed  life  more  evidently  preserved 
than  in  this,  that  powerful  and  devout  men, 
even  among  foreign  nations,  were  compelled  to 
confess  that  God  was  with  him  ;  and  eagerly 
sought  his  friendship  and  blessing.”  GasL 
The  central  conception  which  gives  unity  to 
the  religious  teaching  of  the  whole  body  of  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures  is  this  :  ihe  moral  character 
of  God,  in  personal  relation  with  mankind  and  with 
I  each  human  being.  This  great  central  doctrine 
!  (which  includes  the  truths  of  man’s  personality, 
moral  character,  and  accountableness)  is  devel¬ 
oped  by  means  of  human  history  and  experi¬ 
ence,  especially  the  experience  of  sin.  Four  main 
lines  of  illustration  combine  to  unfold  this 
greatest  of  lessons  :  1.  Public  history,  especially 

'  as  concerned  with  those  calamities  which  the 
i  Scriptures  represent  as  Divine  judgments  on 
sin  ;  as  the  Deluge,  the  destruction  of  Sodom, 
the  overthrow  of  Pharaoh,  the  punishment  of 


HELPFUL  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


15 


the  rebellious  Israelites,  the  extermination  of 
the  depraved  idolaters  of  Canaan,  the  Babylon¬ 
ish  captivity,  the  overthrow  of  Babylon.  2. 
Symbolic  worship  and  priestly  mediation.  3. 
Prophetic  ministry,  interpreting  God’s  law,  will, 
truth,  and  promises.  4.  Personal  experience, 
vividly  illustrating,  on  the  one  hand,  the  care 
and  guidance  of  God’s  providence  and  leading 
and  teaching  of  his  Spirit,  bestowed  on  those 
who  fear  him  ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  life  of 
faith,  penitence,  prayer,  and  loving  obedience 
to  God.  In  this  test  method  the  teaching  of 
the  three  other  methods  is  brought  to  a  practi¬ 
cal  focus.  It  may  be  summed  up  in  the  words  in 
which  the  most  sorrowful  of  the  prophets,  in 
the  most  mournful  book  of  Scripture,  utters  his 
peaceful  faith  :  “  The  Loed  is  good  unto  them 
that  wait  for  him,  to  the  soul  that  seeketh 
him”  (Lam.  3  ;  25).  E.  R.  Conder. 

The  period  covered  bj'^  the  central  books  of  the 
Pentateuch  is,  in  many  respects,  the  most  im¬ 
portant  in  Old  Testament  history,  not  only  so 
far  as  regards  Israel,  but  the  Church  at  all  times. 
Opening  with  centuries  of  silence  and  seeming 
Divine  forgetfulness  during  the  bondage  of 
Egypt,  the  pride  and  power  of  Pharaoh  are  sud¬ 
denly  broken  by  a  series  of  miracles,  culminat¬ 
ing  in  the  deliverance  of  Israel  and  the  destruc¬ 
tion  of  Egypt’s  host.  In  that  Paschal  night  and 
under  the  blood-sprinkling,  Israel  as  a  nation 
is  born  of  God,  and  the  redeemed  people  are  then 
led  forth  to  be  consecrated  at  the  Mount  by  or¬ 
dinances,  laws,  and  judgments.  Then  we  are 
shown  the  manner  in  which  Jehovah  deals  with 
his  people,  both  in  judgment  and  in  mercy,  till 
at  the  last  he  safely  brings  them  to  the  promised 
inheritance.  In  all  this  we  see  not  only  the 
history  of  the  ancient  people  of  God,  but  also  a 
grand  type  of  the  redemption  and  the  sanctifi¬ 
cation  of  the  Church.  Further,  this  narrative 
exhibits  the  foundation  of  the  Church  in  the 
Covenant  of  God,  and  also  the  principles  of  Je¬ 
hovah’s  government  for  all  time.  For  however 
great  the  difference  in  the  development,  the 
essence  and  character  of  the  covenant  of  grace 
are  ever  the  same.  The  Old  and  New  Tes¬ 
taments  are  essentially  one — not  two  covenants, 
but  one,  gradually  unfolding  into  full  perfect¬ 
ness,  “  Jesus  Christ  himself  being  the  chief 
corner-stone”  of  the  foundation  which  is  alike 
that  of  the  apostles  and  prophets.  A.  E. 

The  Pentateuch  is  full  of  God.  The  Deity 
overflows  the  wondrous  writing.  God  is  so 
near  his  creatures  he  speaks  to  them  face  to 
face  ;  he  is  familiar  with  them,  though  always  re¬ 
taining  the  augustness  of  his  Deity,  and  never 
relaxing  the  majesty  proper  to  his  being  and 


duration  ;  he  comes  down  to  earth,  walks  upon 
it,  talks  to  men,  tells  them  what  his  will  is, 
elects  them  to  service,  enriches  them  with 
promises,  points  out  their  respective  destinies. 
In  the  Pentateuch  God  is  a  God  nigh  at  hand, 
and  not  afar  off.  .  .  .  Without  the  Pentateuch 
Christ  as  revealed  in  the  Gospels  would  have 
been  impossible,  and  without  Christ  the  Penta¬ 
teuch  would  have  been  impossible.  I  find  no 
great  event  in  the  Pentateuch  that  is  not  for 
some  purpose  of  argument  or  illustration  used 
by  Christ  himself  or  by  his  disciples  and  apos¬ 
tles  in  the  interests  of  what  is  known  as  evan¬ 
gelical  truth.  It  lies  within  easy  proof  that 
Christ  is  the  text  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  that  the 
Old  Testament  is  the  text  of  Christ.  What  use  is 
made  in  the  New  Testament  of  the  creation  of 
the  universe,  the  faith  of  Abraham,  the  rain  of 
manna,  the  lifting  up  of  the  serpent,  and  the 
tabernacle  of  witness  !  The  sublime  apology  of 
Stephen  epitomizes  the  Old  Testament,  and  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  could  not  have  been 
written  but  for  the  ritual  of  Exodus  and  Leviti¬ 
cus.  In  its  purely  moral  tone  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  is  of  kindred  quality  with  the  New.  J.  P. 

Progress  of  Doctrine  Throughout. 

There  is  a  growth  in  doctrine  visible  through¬ 
out  the  Word  of  God.  Moses  did  not  have  so 
full  an  idea  of  God’s  purpose  as  did  James.  As 
Bernard  well  says,  “  In  the  Old  Testament  the 
progress  is  protracted,  interrupted,  often  lan¬ 
guid,  sometimes  so  dubious  as  to  seem  like  ret¬ 
rogression.  Yet  through  it  all  the  doctrine 
grows,  and  the  revelation  draws  nearer  the  great 
disclosure.  Then  there  is  entire  suspension. 
We  turn  the  vacant  page  which  represents  the 
silence  of  four  hundred  years — and  we  are  in 
the  New  Testament.  Now  again  there  is  prog¬ 
ress,  but  rapid  and  unbroken.  Our  steps  before 
were  centuries,  now  they  are  but  years.”  E. 

R.  Pope. - All  intelligent  students  of  the  Bible 

are  aware  that  this  book  represents  a  long  pro¬ 
cess  of  revelation.  The  revelation  begins  with  a 
few  primal  germs  of  truth  embodied  in  forms 
which  were  adapted  to  the  earlier  stages  of  re¬ 
ligious  training.  In  one  aspect  of  it,  this  reve¬ 
lation  is  a  Divine  process  of  education  in  which 
men  are  taught  more  and  more  concerning  God 
and  their  relations  to  him.  It  is,  therefore,  a 
revelation  of  God  as  well  as  from  God.  There 
is  in  this  process  a  continual  advance  from  the 
less  to  the  more  complete.  Larger  truth  comes 
as  man’s  capacity  to  receive  it  is  trained  and 
developed.  The  motives  which  are  at  first  urged 
for  right-doing  are  such  as  are  associated  with 
fear  of  penalty  and  with  temporal  rewards. 


16 


PRELIMINARY  THOUGHTS, 


Duty  is  enforced  with  higher  motives  as  rapidly 
as  the  process  of  training  permits,  but  the  lofti¬ 
est  plane  is  fully  reached  onl}'^  in  Christianity. 
While,  therefore,  we  cannot  claim  for  Old  Tes¬ 
tament  ethics  the  same  perfect  ideals  and  lofti¬ 
est  motives  with  which  duty  is  enforced  under 
Christianity,  we  are  to  remember  that  the  Old 
Testament  system  enfolded  the  same  principles, 
and  that  it  was  constantlj'  looking  and  working 
toward  their  highest  statement  and  applica¬ 
tions.  Many  of  the  moral  difficulties  which  the 
Old  Testament  presents  would  be  much  lessened 
if  we  viewed  them  in  the  light  of  their  time. 
Such  as  are  integral  parts  of  the  system  find  ex¬ 
planation  on  the  principle  of  progressive  reve¬ 
lation,  which  involves  a  process  extending  from 
the  less  to  the  more  complete.  The  perfect 
ideals  and  precepts  of  Christianity  would  have 
been  useless  in  that  rude,  early  time.  The 
people  could  not  have  understood  them,  and 
hence  could  not  have  been  greatly  helped  by 
them.  God  adapts  his  training  to  the  condi¬ 
tions  of  his  pupils,  and  gives  them  such  moral 
lessons  as  they  can  receive,  but  always  heightens 
the  character  of  the  instruction  as  those  under 
training  become  able  to  receive  it.  But  many 
of  the  moral  difficulties  are  not  parts  of  the  sys¬ 
tem  at  all.  The  sins  of  Jacob  or  of  David,  the 
imprecations  of  David  on  his  enemies,  are  no 
more  a  part  of  Old  Testament  ethics  than  the 
sins  of  Judas  and  Peter  are  a  part  of  Christian- 
it3^  The  most  that  can  be  said  of  such  defects 
of  character  is,  that  thej^  reflect  the  low  moral- 
itj'-  of  the  age,  and  are,  so  far,  contrary  to  the 
central  principles  of  the  sj^stem.  He  who  comes 
to  the  study  of  the  Old  Testament  with  candid 
historic  sense  will  find  it  a  book  of  new  mean¬ 
ings  and  value.  Stevens. 

Limits  of  Legitimate  Criticism. 

An  investigation  of  the  Scriptures  is  legiti¬ 
mate  and  right  only  when  it  takes  place  within 
the  limits  prescribed  by  Scriptures  themselves. 
For  instance,  the  Old  Testament  claims  to  be  a 
revelation  from  God,  and  the  history  of  a  revela¬ 
tion  On  every  page  is  unmistakably  imprinted 
the  fact  ihat  these  books  are  to  be  considered  as 
a  truthful  record  of  the  manner  in  which  God 
was  preparing  salvation  for  man,  and  man  for 
salvation.  The  golden  thread  running  through 
the  whole  collection  of  books  is  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth,  among 
his  chosen  people,  and  under  the  special  guid¬ 
ance  of  Jehovah,  through  miracles  and  wonders, 
down  to  the  time  when  the  Word  should  become 
flesh.  Any  biblical  research  that  runs  counter 


to  these  principles,  by  this  very  fact  excludes 
itself  from  the  domain  of  legitimate  biblical  sci¬ 
ence.  It  does  not  investigate  these  books  from 
the  standpoint  and  within  the  lines  which  they 
themselves  prescribe  as  the  all  essential  in  an 
honest  reproduction  of  their  contents.  When 
Kuenen,  then,  starts  out  with  the  proposition 
as  his  “  standpoint,”  that  the  religion  of  Israel 
is  one  in  kind  with  the  other  religions  of  the 
East,  “  nothing  less,  but  also  nothing  more,”  he 
steps  out  of  the  boundaries  of  legitimate  bibli¬ 
cal  science.  He  draws  the  controlling  data  in 
his  research  not  from  the  Bible  itself,  but  from 
a  philosophical  and  naturalistic  hypothesis  de¬ 
duced  from  non-biblical  sources.  His  philos¬ 
ophy  contradicts  the  very  fundamentals  of  legit¬ 
imate  Bible  study,  and  as  a  system  his  investi¬ 
gations  can  give  no  practical  help  to  a  correct 
biblical  science.  When  Baur,  the  father  of  the 
Tubingen  school  of  New  Testament  reconstruc¬ 
tionists,  says  that  miracles  must  be  excluded  in 
the  very  outstart  in  investigating  the  New  Tes¬ 
tament,  since  miracles  interfere  with  the  true 
philosophical  conception  of  history,  he  thereby 
deserts  the  domain  of  biblical  science,  denying 
a  priori  the  very  distinguishing  feature  which, 
according  to  these  records,  must  result  from  an 
honest  study  of  the  Word, 

A  further  limitation  is  the  teaching  of  Christ. 
If  Christ  has  spoken  clearly  on  any  point  what¬ 
ever,  then  the  matter  is  settled  for  a  Christian 
student.  We  have  no  patience  with  New  Tes¬ 
tament  rationalism  that  seeks  to  come  to  the  as¬ 
sistance  of  Old  Testament  rationalism  by  an¬ 
alyzing  either  the  New  Testament  records  or  the 
Saviour  of  the  New  Testament  into  unreliable 
sources  of  information.  Literary  criticism  has 
never  undertaken  a  more  sorry  work  than  to  at¬ 
tempt  to  undermine  the  historical  character  of 
the  gospels  or  of  the  account  there  given  of  the 
Saviour’s  work  and  words.  When  then,  Christ, 
and  with  him  the  whole  New  Testament,  de¬ 
clares  that  the  Old  Testament  is  the  revealed 
Word  of  God  ;  that  the  early  records  there  are 
fact,  and  not  fiction,  and,  least  of  all,  the  fabri¬ 
cation  of  wily  priests  ;  that  the  theological  ideas 
and  ethical  i^rinciples  of  the  Old  Testament  are 
substantially  those  accepted  by  the  evangelical 
church  in  general  —  thereby  limitations  are 
drawn  within  which  legitimate  biblical  science 
must  move  and  have  its  being.  If  it  produces 
results  that  transgress  these  limits,  then  it  has 
worked  with  principles  and  methods  drawn 
from  sources  foreign  to  the  Bible  itself.  But 
within  these  limits  there  can  be  in  many  points 
a  difference  between  Christian  scholars  equally 
reverent  and  equally  anxious  to  learn  the  truth. 


HELPFUL  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


17 


the  whole  truth,  and  nothing  but  the  truth. 
Schodde. 

Theophany  the  Source  of  Miracle  and  Prophecy. 

The  Christian  evidences  from  the  Bible  may 
be  summed  up  under  the  three  heads— The¬ 
ophany,  Miracle,  and  Prophecy.  The  Old  Tes¬ 
tament  is  full  of  theophanies,  and  in  the  New 
Testament  there  are  many  Christophanies  and 
pneumatophanies.  These  manifestations  of 
God  in  the  forms  of  space  and  time  and  in  the 
sphere  of  physical  nature  are  of  vast  importance 
in  the  unfolding  of  Divine  revelation.  These 
are  the  centres  from  which  miracles  and  proph¬ 
ecies  flow.  If  there  were  such  theophanies  or 
Divine  manifestations  in  the  successive  stages 
of  Divine  revelation,  then  we  should  expect  mir¬ 
acles  in  the  physical  world  and  prophecy  in  the 
world  of  man.  If  Jesus  Christ  is  God  manifest 
in  the  flesh,  then  prophecy  and  miracles  are  ex¬ 
actly  what  we  should  expect  so  long  as  He  abode 
in  this  world  in  the  flesh.  If  the  Holy  Spirit 
was  given  to  the  apostles  on  the  day  of  Pente¬ 
cost,  and  He  was  present  with  the  churches  of 
the  apostles  in  the  peculiar  manner  of  external 
manifestations  of  pneumatophany  such  as  are 
described  in  the  New  Testament,  we  are  not 
surprised  at  the  occurrence  of  miracle  working 
and  prophecy  during  that  period  ;  and  it  seems 
to  be  the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  that 
when  these  Divine  manifestations  ceased  mir¬ 
acle  working  and  prophecy  ceased  with  them. 
If,  then,  on  the  one  side,  recent  criticisms  have 
weakened  the  independent  value  of  the  evi¬ 
dences  from  miracles  and  prediction,  they  have, 
on  the  other  side,  given  something  vastly  better 
in  their  place.  They  have  called  the  attention 
to  the  presence  of  God  with  his  people  in  ex¬ 
ternal  manifestations  of  theophany  to  guide  the 
advancing  stages  of  the  history  of  redemption. 
Here  is  the  citadel  of  our  religion,  to  which  all 
its  lines  of  evidence  converge,  the  centre  of  the 
entire  revelation  and  religion  from  which 
prophecy  and  miracle  working  issue  in  all  their 
variet}’^  of  form.  The  evidences  from  miracles 
and  prophecy  gain  in  strength  when  they  are 
]daced  in  their  true  relations  to  the  theophany 
in  which  the  unity  of  the  evidence  is  found. 
Briggs. 

The  Seven  Great  Periods  of  Miracle 

Miracles  disclose  a  rational  order.  They  ap¬ 
pear  only  in  great  cycles,  with  long  periods. of 
time  between  them.  The  Bible  is  mainly  occu¬ 
pied  with  other  things.  It  is  the  ordinary  life 
of  man  and  of  nations  upon  which  it  casts  the 
light  of  eternity.  It  is  overwhelmingly  histori¬ 


cal  and  descriptive  in  its  temper.  And  the 
miracles  which  it  reports  cluster  around  great 
critical  periods  of  universal  historical  import, 
when  great  men  appeared  and  mighty  changes 
were  impending— just  the  times  when  extraor¬ 
dinary  events  would  be  probable.  Miracles  are 
the  strokes  of  God’s  hammer  within  the  clock 
of  the  world’s  history. 

They  do  not  occur  as  regularly,  but  they  do 
occur  as  rationally.  That  they  are  here,  and 
not  there,  nor  everywhere  has  a  rational  expla¬ 
nation  ;  and  faith  in  miracles  becomes  easier 
when  we  discover  that  they  follow  a  Divine  law. 
The  recorded  miracles  of  the  Bible  fall  into  six 
great  periods,  while  prophecy  points  to  a  sev¬ 
enth  and  last  as  completing  the  list. 

1.  The  first  period  of  miracles  is  associated 
with  the  creation.  The  miracles  of  this  period 
may  be  reduced  to  four — the  creation  of  mat¬ 
ter,  the  appearance  of  vegetation,  the  beginning 
of  animal  life,  and  the  appearance  of  man.  Ne 
science  has  been  able  to  explain  the  origin  of 
these  things.  They  are  all  here,  and  there  was 
a  time  when  they  were  not  here  ;  how,  then, 
came  they  to  be  here  ?  Call  to  your  aid,  if  you 
will,  the  nebular  hypothesis  ;  assume  that  an  at¬ 
tenuated  fire-mist  was  the  original  form  in 
which  the  universe  existed  ;  and  you  have  not 
shaken  off  the  grip  of  the  logic  which  insists 
upon  a  beginning,  and  grounds  that  beginning 
in  a  miracle  of  power  and  wisdom.  Whence 
came  that  seething  fire-mist,  and  how  out  of  it 
came  the  abundant  vegetation,  the  multitudi¬ 
nous  forms  of  animal  life,  and  the  reason  of  man  ? 
“There  is  no  spontaneous  generation”  is  the 
uniform  and  emphatic  testimony  of  science  ; 
“  there  is  no  development  of  plant  into  ani¬ 
mal,  nor  of  the  brute  into  man.’’  is  the  univer¬ 
sal  verdict  of  scientific  induction.  The  man 
who  is  not  carried  away  by  his  prejudices  must 
confess  that  in  accounting  for  the  origin  of  the 
world,  a  miracle  of  Divine  power  is  the  only 
rational  explanation. 

2.  The  second  period  of  miracles  brings  us  to 

I 

the  time  of  Noah.  For  more  than  sixteen  hun¬ 
dred  years  the  life  of  the  world  runs  in  its  ordi¬ 
nary  channels.  Men  marry,  and  found  commu¬ 
nities,  and  engage  in  agriculture  and  arts — while 
only  their  wickedness  is  colossal  and  defiant. 
A  hundred  and  twenty  years  of  preaching  by 
Noah  does  not  result  in  a  single  conversion. 
Slowly  but  steadily  good  men  were  crowded  to 
the  wall,  until  atheism  was  entrenched  and 
immorality  was  universal  and  shameless,  Onl,v 
one  miracle  breaks  the  awful  monotony,  and 
that  was  Enoch’s  translation,  a  reasonable  trib¬ 
ute  to  singiuar  righteousness,  but  one  which 


18 


PRELIMINARY  THOUGHTS, 


fell  unheeded  upon  the  ears  of  men.  At  last, 
when  the  cup  of  iniquity  was  full,  the  stroke  of 
judgment  fell  in  the  Deluge  ;  and  then,  lest  the 
former  impiety  should  be  repeated,  the  Confu¬ 
sion  of  Tongues  scattered  the  race  over  the  face 
of  the  earth.  It  was  an  extraordinary  crisis, 
and  called  for  extraordinary  measures.  The 
times  were  such  as  to  make  the  miracle  reason¬ 
able. 

3.  The  third  period  of  miracles  brings  us  to 
the  time  of  Moses.  And  here  again  we  have  an 
intervening  period  of  nearly  nine  hundred  years, 
during  which  the  world’s  life  is  represented  as 
moving  in  its  ordinary  channels.  Cities  are 
built,  empires  are  founded,  the  sciences  and  the 
arts  are  cultivated.  But  the  moral  life  of  man 
shows  no  improvement.  The  foulest  idolatries 
are  practised.  The  time  has  come  for  a  new 
departure,  one  of  the  highest  significance  to 
man — the  election  and  isolation  of  a  nation, 
whose  mission  it  should  be  to  recall  the  world 
from  idolatry  and  immorality.  These  are  the 
two  invaluable  legacies  of  Israel  to  the  world — 
the  doctrine  of  one  living  God  and  the  Deca¬ 
logue  as  the  rule  of  man’s  life.  Nearly  thirty 
miracles  are  recorded  in  connection  with  that 
great  movement  in  history  which  resulted  in 
the  deliverance  of  the  twelve  tribes  from  the 
tyranny  of  Egypt  and  their  establishment  in 
Palestine.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the 
fate  of  the  world  was  trembling  in  the  balances, 
and  this  gives  .to  the  recorded  miracles  their 
rational  justification. 

4.  And  now,  again,  the  miraculous  wave  re¬ 
cedes,  and  the  world’s  life,  that  of  the  Jews  in¬ 
cluded,  moves  in  the  ordinary  channels  for  nearly 
six  hundred  .years.  We  read  of  wars  and  inva¬ 
sions,  of  the  growing  moral  corruption  that  per¬ 
vaded  the  people,  until  only  a  few  remained 
true  to  God.  and  these  so  quiet  and  scattered 
that  they  were  unknown  to  Elijah.  Nearly 
twenty  miracles  are  associated  with  his  life  and 
that  of  his  successor,  Elisha.  Israel  had  touched 
the  lowest  point  of  its  immorality,  and  had  be¬ 
come  the  scorn  of  the  heathen.  Here,  again,  it 
is  clear  that  the  moral  needs  of  the  time  justi¬ 
fied  the  emergence  of  God’s  power  and  protest  in 
miracles  of  judgment  and  mercy. 

5.  Again  the  tide  recedes,  and  nothing  re¬ 
markable  confronts  us  in  the  world’s  history  for 
nearly  three  hundred  and  fifty  years,  until  Je¬ 
rusalem  is  destroyed  by  the  proud  King  of  Baby¬ 
lon.  We  come  to  the  time  of  Daniel,  with  its 
two  great  miracles  of  the  preservation  of  his 
three  friends  from  the  furnace  of  fire  and  his 
own  deliverance  from  the  lion’s  den,  and  with 
its  bold  and  hopeful  prophecies  of  the  kingdom 


of  God.  If  ever  idolatry  was  defiant,  it  w^as  when 
the  children  of  Abraham  were  captives  in  Baby¬ 
lonia.  Nebuchadnezzar  deemed  himself  God, 
and  ordered  men  to  worship  his  image  ;  and 
the  miracles  appear  as  the  Divine  judgment  cn 
the  audacious  blasphemy.  Was  there  not  pro¬ 
priety  in  these  signal  deliverances  ? 

6.  And  now,  once  more,  the  miracles  disap¬ 
pear,  to  emerge  only  after  nearly  six  hundred 
years,  when  Jesus  Christ  appears  at  the  greatest 
critical  period  of  the  world’s  history,  and  to  in¬ 
augurate  the  final  dispensation  in  the  kingdom 
of  God.  Nearly  sixty  miracles  belong  to  this 
period,  more  than  all  the  preceding  periods  to¬ 
gether,  including  the  four  great  miracles  of  the 
creation.  Does  not  that  fact  clearly  show  that 
miracles  are  the  signs  of  an  extraordinary  crisis 
in  hirman  affairs  ?  They  appear  only  in  company 
with  such  men  as  Moses,  Elijah,  Daniel,  and 
Christ,  and  at  periods  in  human  history  that 
must  be  recognized  as  turning-points. 

7.  And  so,  once  more,  when  the  end  shall 
come,  its  advent  is  to  be  ushered  in  by  the  great 
miracles  of  judgment  and  resurrection.  Mean¬ 
time,  the  world  returns  to  what  we  call  its  ordi¬ 
nary  life,  but  which  is  no  less  providential  and 
Divine  in  its  guidance  than  the  jjeriods  of  mir¬ 
aculous  action,  and  into  which  has  gone,  as 
iron  into  the  blood,  the  precipitate  of  all  mir¬ 
aculous  action  from  the  very  beginning. 

And,  now,  what  does  this  review  teach  us 
about  the  place  that  miracles'  have  in  human 
history?  Two  things. 

(1)  First  it  is  clear  that  miracles  are  connected 
with  great  moral  crises  in  the  affairs  of  the  world. 
The  extraordinary  event  is  associated  with  the 
extraordinary  time  of  its  occurrence  >  and  the 
more  critical  the  period,  the  more  numerous, 
varied,  and  impressive  are  the  miracles.  A 
rough  estimate  shows  twenty-seven  miracles  in 
the  time  of  Moses,  eighteen  miracles  in  the  time 
of  Elijah,  and  fifty-three  miracles  in  the  time  of 
Christ  ;  and  excepting  the  two  great  miracles 
of  the  Flood,  and  the  tw'o  that  belong  to  the 
time  of  Daniel,  I  cannot  recall  more  than  half  a 
dozen  that  are  not  connected  with  these  de¬ 
cisive  periods  in  God’s  discipline  of  man.  The 
record  plainly  shows  that  there  is  a  law  of  mir¬ 
acles,  a  reason  for  their  occasional  and  brief  ap¬ 
pearance,  with  long  periods  of  time  interven¬ 
ing.  They  meet  us  only  when  the  moral  needs 
of  the  hour  justifies  their  appearance. 

(2)  In  the  second  place,  the  miracles  of  the 
Bible  enter  as  permanent  factors  into  the  sub¬ 
sequent  life  of  the  world.  They  are  associated 
with  the  birth  of  permanent  institutions.  They 
are  the  signal-guns  of  great  events,  of  ever- 


UELPFUL  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


19 


widening  reach  and  power.  They  are  most 
numerous  and  impressive  in  the  two  great 
periods  of  Moses  and  of  Christ,  the  giving  of 
the  Law  and  of  tlie  Gospel,  the  creation  of  the 
Jewish  commonwealth,  and  the  founding  of 
the  Christian  Church.  However  the  Law  was 
given,  and  in  whatever  way  the  twelve  tribes 
came  to  possess  the  Holy  Land,  the  Jew  with 
the  Decalogue  in  his  hand  has  given  law  to  the 
world.  The  miracles  of  the  Exodus  and  the  Con¬ 
quest  are  associated  with  a  moral  movement, 
whose  course  is  still  widening  and  deepening. 

New  Testament  Definition  of  a  Mkade. 

Miracles  are  never  referred  to  in  the  gospels 
as  merely  wonders  ;  but  always  by  the  double 
phrases,  “  xconders  and  signs,"  or  “  signs  and 
wonders"  —that  is,  the  astonishment  is  traced  to 
a  rational  ground.  The  miracle  is  not  a  trick 
of  mere  power,  but  an  indication  of  what  he  is 
who  works  it,  or  in  whose  name  it  is  wrought. 
It  is  seen  to  be  in  perfect  harmony  with  his 
character  and  ministry.  It  is  a  sign,  rather  than 
a  credential.  It  neither  proves  that  Jesus  Christ 
was  a  holy  man,  nor  does  it  prove  his  doctrine 
to  have  been  Divine  ;  it  is  simply  such  an  act 
as  may  reasonablj’’  be  expected  from  what  he  is 
and  what  he  came  to  do.  Deeds  of  Divine 
power  must  attend  one  who  is  himself  God  or 
who  acts  in  God’s  name  ;  deeds  of  Divine  mercy 
must  characterize  the  ministry  of  one  who  came 
to  save  men  from  sin  and  death.  If  he  has  au¬ 
thority  to  forgive  sin,  he  must  have  power  to 
heal  the  paralytic  ;  if  he  can  raise  all  the  dead 
at  the  last  day,  he  must  have  power  over  the 
grave  now.  The  miracle  is  a  sign.  So,  again, 
the  miracles  of  our  Lord  are  called  '^powers," 
as  growing  out  of  jjersonal  energies  that  are  in¬ 
separable  from  his  own  nature.  They  are  the 
expressions  of  a  Divine  action.  They  are  not, 
therefore,  to  be  studied  as  isolated  and  strange 
occurrences  defying  explanation.  They  are 
parts  of  a  living  system.  They  have  their  place 
in  a  Divine  order.  They  can  be  explained — 
that  is,  they  have  a  rational  ground  and  a  moraj 
intention.  They  are  worthy  of  God  and  of  his 
prophet. 

Ignoring  now  all  arbitrary  or  a  priori  defini¬ 
tions,  and  confining  ourselves  to  the  New  Tes¬ 
tament  description,  three  things  plainly  appear  : 

First,  in  its  outward  form,  as  appealing  to  the 
senses,  a  miracle  is  a  deed  that  produces  and 
perpetuates  astonishment.  It  is  a  present  and 
perpetual  wonder.  The  remarkable  element 
does  not  wear  away  upon  closer  inspection  or 
upon  repetition.  A  miracle,  then,  is  a  present 
and  perpetual  wonder. 


But  every  effect  must  have  a  cause.  This 
leads  to  the  second  fact,  that  in  a  miracle  we 
liftve  the  forth-putting  and  the  expression  of 
the  personal  power  of  God.  The  existence  of 
God  is  the  primary  and  perpetual  wonder.  Yon 
can  comprehend  neither  his  eternity  nor  his 
infinitude.  The  senses  do  not  disclose  him. 
And  yet  what  you  see  compels  you  to  recognize 
his  presence  and  power.  The  visible  things 
proclaim  his  invisible  Godhead.  There  are  the 
stars,  here  is  the  globe,  and  here  are  5"ou,  all 
alike  bearing  the  stamp  of  limited  existence  ; 
whence  came  they  all  ?  It  is  not  the  Bible  alone 
that  affirms  a  beginning  ;  science  affirms  that 
matter  has  all  the  properties  of  a  manufactured 
article  ;  and  that  the  constitution  and  course  of 
the  universe  point  to  a  beginning,  as  they  sug¬ 
gest  a  future  dissolution  ;  wdiile  reason  finds  it 
impossible  to  rest  in  any  other  conclusion  than 
that  mind  preceded  matter,  and  that  only  the 
Living  God  can  be  self-existent,  uncreated,  and 
eternal.  An  eternal  nothing  is  inconceivable  ; 
an  eternal  evolution  or  revolution  is  an  absur¬ 
dity  and  a  contradiction  ;  daring  as  the  opening 
sentence  of  the  Apostles’  Cteed  is,  it  is  the  au¬ 
dacity  of  reason  as  well  as  the  loftiest  expres¬ 
sion  of  faith — “  I  believe  in  God  the  Father  Al¬ 
mighty,  maker  of  heaven  and  earth.  ’  ’  Here  the 
whole  controversy  hinges  ;  it  is  the  question  be¬ 
tween  God  and  no  God,  between  atheism  and 
theism.  The  debate  on  miracles  pushed  to  its 
inner  court  concerns  the  existence  of  God,  of 
his  eternal  and  independent  Being.  If  there  is 
a  God,  he  can  show  himself  by  deed  and  by 
word  ;  he  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  deliber¬ 
ately  and  eternally  fettered  himself.  The  mir¬ 
acle,  as  a  deed  of  Divine  power,  is  not  onlj^  pos¬ 
sible,  but  probable  and  rational,  so  long  as  God 
is  not  regarded  as  practically  non-existent. 
And  he  who  rejects  on  a  priori  grounds  the  mir¬ 
acle  of  power,  must  also  denj" inspiration,  which 
is  the  miracle  of  God’s  wisdom,  and  deny  prayer, 
which  is  the  miracle  of  fellowship,  and  deny 
providence,  which  is  the  miracle  of  government, 
and  deny  the  Incarnation  and  Besurrection  of 
Jesus  Christ,  which  are  the  living  miracles  of 
redemption.  Posit  the  supernatural  anywhere, 
and  you  must  affirm  it  everywhere  ;  deny  it  in 
any  sphere,  and  you  must  deny  it  in  all  spheres. 
Assuming,  then,  the  Divine  existence,  miracles 
have  their  rational  exj)lanation.  They  are  pos¬ 
sible,  probable,  and  necessary.  Their  occur¬ 
rence  becomes  a  question  of  evidence  and  of 
impartial  criticism. 

And  this  brings  me  to  the  third  element 
in  the  New  Testament  definition  of  a  miracle, 
that  it  is  such  a  forth-putting  of  the  power  of 


20 


PRELIMINARY  THOUGHTS, 


God  as  to  be  a  sign  of  him.  It  is  not  only  a 
wonder  indicating  his  power,  but  a  mirror  re¬ 
flecting  his  character.  It  must  be  worthy  of 
him,  and  answer  some  Divine  purpose.  The 
Bible,  so  far  from  encouraging  credulity,  insists 
that  no  wonderful  account  shall  be  believed, 
that  no  miracle  shall  be  recognized,  unless  it 
appear  as  worthy  of  God  and  as  answering  a 
Divinely  wise  and  beneficent  purpose.  The 
possibility  of  miracles  follows  from  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  God  ;  the  reality  of  the  miracle  .must 
be  determined  not  by  evidence  alone,  but  by 
its  agreement  with  the  character  and  purpose 
of  God.  Here  is  the  legitimate  province  of  crit¬ 
icism  ;  here  is  the  decisive  test  between  a  true 
and  a  false  miracle.  Faith  in  God  compels  to 
faith  in  miracle  ;  but  faith  in  God  also  compels 
me  to  scrutinize  any  and  everj^  alleged  miracle, 
and  its  recognition  is  obligatory  only  to  the  de¬ 
gree  of  its  agreement  with  the  revealed  character 
and  purposes  of  God. 

The  New  Testament  thus  defines  a  miracle  as 
a  deed  of  present  and  perpetual  wonder,  ac¬ 
counted  for  by  the  forth-putting  of  God’s  per¬ 
sonal  power,  and  as  worthy  of  the  Divine  char¬ 
acter  and  in  agreement  with  his  revealed  jDur- 
poses.  Nor  do  I  see  how  we  can  imj)rove  upon 
this  definition.  The  difficulties  of  the  problem 
emerge  when  we  come  to  state  how  this  forth- 
putting  of  God’s  personal  power  is  related  to 
what  we  call  the  order  of  nature — which  is 
strictly  the  order  of  nature  as  we  know  it.  Of 
this  order,  a  miracle  has  sometimes  been  said  to 
be  a  violation  or  suspension  ;  and  then  the  idea 
of  order  has  been  pitted  against  the  miracle. 
But  the  difficulties  here  are  purely  speculative 
and  imaginar}^  It  is  not  self-evident  that  mir¬ 
acles  involve  the  violation  or  suspension  of 
law,  any  more  than  the  force  of  gravity  is  sus¬ 
pended  when  I  lift  my  hand.  It  is  begging  the 
question  to  say  that  miracles  violate  order  ;  for 
if  they  are  signs,  they  bring  to  view  that  higher 
and  inclusive  order  of  which  observation  only 
discloses  a  very  small  part.  The  miracle,  then, 
has  its  rational  ground  in  the  existence  of  God, 
who  need  not  be  supposed  to  violate  or  sus¬ 
pend  any  natural  law  or  order  in  working  it  ; 
while  the  grip  of  a  miracle  is  in  its  moral  qual¬ 
ity,  in  its  inherent  propriety,  and  in  the  dis¬ 
closure  which  it  makes  of  God’s  essential  glory. 

Evidential  Value  of  the  Miracle. 

Miracles  have  an  evidential  value,  but  they 
are  neither  the  only  nor  even  the  highest  proofs 
of  a  Divine  revelation.  The  traditional  esti¬ 
mate  has  made  too  much  of  them.  The  Divine 
authority  of  the  Bible  has  been  made  to  rest 


upon  them.  The  miracle  has  been  held  to  prove 
the  doctrine,  completely  reversing  the  biblical 
order  in  which  the  doctrine  is  made  to  test  the 
miracle.  Christ  emphatically  declares  that  they 
are  not  the  ground  on  which  our  faith  in  him 
should  rest.  Philip  was  kindly  but  sharply 
rebuked  for  having  been  so  long  with  him,  yet 
asking  for  a  sign.  It  was  the  rebuke  of  a  grieved 
and  patient  heart  which  craved  faith  in  itself, 
faith  inspired  by  its  essential  goodness  and 
greatness.  Christ  deprecates  a  return  to  any 
lower  ground.  We  are  not  to  believe  in  him 
because  he  wrought  miracles  ;  we  are  to  believe 
in  the  miracles  because  we  believe  in  him,  radi¬ 
ant  in  his  person  and  work  with  a  Divine  glory. 
Then  followed  that  startling  declaration,  thai 
wonderful  as  his  own  works  had  been,  greater 
deeds  should  be  wrought  by  those  that  believed 
on  him. 

From  this  it  follows,  in  the  second  place,  that 
a  higher  evidential  value  must  be  assigned  to 
the  historical  triumphs  of  the  Gospel  than  to 
the  recorded  miracles.  What  Christianity  has 
clone  for  man  is  proof  of  a  higher  order  than 
any  single  miracle,  than  all  miracles  together. 
Next  to  what  Jesus  Christ  is  in  himself  is  the 
power  with  which  his  message  has  stirred  the 
hearts  of  men  and  has  leavened  the  life  of  the 
world.  And  yet,  in  the  third  place,  the  mir¬ 
acles  had  their  place.  They  were  necessary,  for 
had  they  not  accompanied  his  personal  pres¬ 
ence,  his  rejection  and  crucifixion  by  the  re¬ 
ligious  leaders  of  his  day  would  not  have  been 
inexcusable.  He  made  unusual  claims.  But 
unusual  claims  demand  unusual  evidences,  and 
had  these  not  been  forthcoming,  the  repudia¬ 
tion  of  the  claimant  would  have  been  reason¬ 
able.  But  every  possible  cavil  was  promptly 
and  full}'’  met,  and  the  whole  ministry  of  cur 
Lord  made  it  clear  that  the  men  who  rejected 
him  were  wickedly  blind,  hating  both  him  and 
his  Father. 

The  miracles  of  a  bad  man  are  to  be  unhesi¬ 
tatingly  rejected  as  false  and  misleading,  whether 
we  can  explain  them  or  not  ;  just  as  we  reject 
the  seeming  miracles  of  the  magician  who  im¬ 
itated  Moses.  And  the  miracles  accompanying 
immoral  teaching  are  to  be  rejected  as  false,  be¬ 
cause  the  doctrine  proves  the  real  miracle,  and 
not  the  miracle  the  doctrine.  That  cuts  the 
ground  from  nnderneath  all  the  pretensions  of 
modern  spiritualism.  The  miracles  are  false 
because  the  doctrine  is  false.  Goodness  and 
truth  are  the  great  things  to  be  kept  steadily  in 
view,  and  these  shine  in  their  own  light  ;  and 
where  these  are  absent  we  should  emphatically 
decline  lending  our  ears.  First  look  at  the 


HELPFUL  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


21 


prophets  of  the  system,  ask  what  kind  of  lives 
they  live,  and  what  are  their  teachings,  and 
upon  that  evidence  decide  their  claim  of  mir- 
acnlous  power.  This  is  the  common-sense  and 
Christian  course,  and  it  makes  short  work  of 
medimval  and  modern  miracles.  The  Deceiver’s 
mark  is  on  them  all.  Our  Lord  and  his  apostles 
solemnly  warn  us  against  lying  signs  and  won¬ 
ders.  The  true  miracle  culminated  in  the  min¬ 
istry  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  is  to  be  looked  for 
only  in  connection  with  his  final  advent  to 
judgment.  The  intervening  period  is  repre¬ 
sented  as  one  in  which  the  Christian  Church  is 
to  depend  upon  the  ministry  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
until  by  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  the  world 
shall  have  become  prepared  for  the  heavenly 
bridal.  Behrends. 

Points  bearing  upon  Mosaic  Authorship. 

That  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  in  which 
Moses  was  instructed,  included  a  high  concep¬ 
tion  of  God  and  a  high  standard  of  ethics, 
seems  to  be  indicated  by  the  monuments  of 
Egypt,  as  interpreted  by  some  of  the  most  em¬ 
inent  scholars  in  Egyptology.  M.  Eouge  af¬ 
firmed,  as  the  conclusion  of  his  thorough  study 
of  this  subject,  that  a  pure  monotheistic  re¬ 
ligion  was  the  primitive  religion  of  Egypt,  and 
that  even  through  the  forms  of  polytheism  and 
idolatry  which  supervened  on  this  early  faith, 
there  was  always  to  be  recognized  a  conscious¬ 
ness  of  the  primal  truth.  "  The  belief  in  the 
unity  of  the  Supreme  God,  and  in  his  attri¬ 
butes  of  Creator  and  Lawgiver  of  man,  whom  he 
has  endowed  with  an  immortal  soul — these,”  he 
says,  “  are  the  primitive  notions,  enchased, 
like  indestructible  diamonds,  in  the  midst  of 
the  mythological  superfetations  accumulated  in 
the  centuries  which  have  passed  over  that  an¬ 
cient  civilization.”  And  Eenouf,  who  does  not 
altogether  agree  with  Eouge,  declares  that  from 
neither  Greek  nor  Roman  literature  can  there 
be  quoted  such  passages  as  are  found  in  the 
Egyptian  literature,  in  recognition  of  the  high¬ 
est  Christian  conception  of  the  Supreme  Self- 
Existent  God. 

Of  the  ethical  teaching  of  the  religious  litera¬ 
ture  of  ancient  Egypt,  M.  Chabas  says  ;  ”  None 
of  the  Christian  virtues  is  forgotten  in  it  ;  piety, 
charity,  gentleness,  self-command  in  word  and 
action,  chastity,  the  protection  of  the  weak, 
benevolence  toward  the  humble,  deference  to 
superiors,  respect  for  property  in  its  minutest 
details,  ...  all  is  expressed  there,  and  in  ex¬ 
tremely  good  language.”  Renouf,  in  citing  this 
testimony  of  Chabas,  says  :  “  In  confirmation 
of  this,  I  will  add  that  the  translators  of  the 


Bible  and  of  the  early  Christian  literature,  who 
were  so  often  compelled  to  retain  Greek  words, 
for  which  they  could  discover  no  Eg^^ptian 
equivalent,  found  the  native  vocabulary  amply 
sufficient  for  the  expression  of  the  most  delicate 
notions  of  Christian  ethics.”  It  is  evident  that  in 
Egypt  there  were  better  external  advantages  for 
training  Moses  in  that  knowledge  which  would 
fit  him  to  be  the  recipient  of  God’s  revelation, 
in  his  new  sphere  as  Israel’s  lawgiver,  than 
were  to  be  found  elsewhere  on  the  face  of  the 
whole  earth,  in  the  days  of  Moses.  S.  S.  T. 

It  is  admitted,  even  by  the  extremest  scep¬ 
tics,  that  the  genuineness  of  the  work  carries 
with  it  the  authenticity  of  the  narrative,  at 
least,  in  all  its  main  particulars.  “  It  would 
most  unquestionably,”  says  Strauss,  “be  an 
argument  of  decisive  weight  in  favor  of  the  cred¬ 
ibility  of  the  biblical  history,  could  it  indeed  be 
shown  that  it  was  written  by  eye-witnesses.” 
“  Moses,  being  the  leader  of  the  Israelites  on 
their  departure  from  Egypt,  would  undoubtedly 
give  a  faithful  history  of  the  occurrences,  un¬ 
less”  (which  is  not  pretended)  he  designed  to 
deceive.”  And  further,  “  Moses,  if  his  intimate 
connection  with  Deity  described  in  these 
books”  (i.e.,  the  last  four)  “be  historically 
true,  was  likewise  eminently  qualified,  by  vir¬ 
tue  of  such,  connection,  to  produce  a  credible 
history  of  the  earlier  periods.”  If  Moses  in¬ 
deed  wrote  the  account  which  we  possess  of  the 
Exodus  and  of  the  wanderings  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,  and  if,  having  written  it,  he  delivered  it 
to  those  who  knew  the  events  as  w'ell  as  he,  the 
conditions  wffiich  secure  the  highest  degree  of 
historical  credibility,  so  far,  at  least,  as  regards 
the  events  of  the  last  four  books,  are  obtained. 
We  have  for  them  the  direct  witness  of  a  con¬ 
temporary  writer— not  an  actor  only,  but  the 
leader  in  the  transactions  which  he  relates — 
honest  evidently,  for  he  records  his  own  sins 
and  defects  and  the  transgressions  and  suffer¬ 
ings  of  his  people  ;  and  honest  necessarily,  for 
he  w^rites  of  events  which  were  public  and 
known  to  all — we  have  a  work  which,  by  the 
laws  of  historical  criticism,  is  thus  for  historical 
purposes  just  as  reliable  as  Ciesar’s  Commen¬ 
taries  or  Xenophon’s  “  Retreat  of  the  Ten  Thou¬ 
sand” — w^e  have  that  rare  literar3'  treasure,  the 
autobiography  of  a  great  man,  engaged  in  great 
events,  the  head  of  his  nation  at  a  most  critical 
period  in  their  annals,  who  commits  to  writing 
as  they  occur  the  various  events  and  transac¬ 
tions  in  which  he  is  engaged,  wherever  they 
have  a  national  or  public  character.  Setting 
aside,  therefore,  the  idea  of  inspiration,  we  pos¬ 
sess  in  the  last  four  books  of  the  Pentateuch  as 


22 


PRELIMINART  THOUGHTS, 


reliable  an  account  of  the  Exodus  of  the  Jews 
and  their  subsequent  wanderings  as  we  do,  in 
the  works  of  Caesar  and  Xenophon,  of  the  con¬ 
quest  of  Britain  or  of  the  events  which  pre¬ 
ceded  and  followed  the  battle  of  Cunaxa.  G.  R. 

The  faith  of  the  Israelite  rested  on  the  facts 
of  Abraham’s  call,  the  Exodus,  the  conquest  of 
Canaan.  What  is  supernatural  in  these  facts  is 
so  bound  up  with  what  is  historical,  that  the 
two  cannot  be  separated.  What  confirms  our 
faith  in  the  one  confirms  our  faith  in  the  other. 
It  happens,  therefore,  very  providentially  that 
while  certain  modern  habits  of  thought  are 
making  belief  in  the  supernatural  difficult  to 
some  minds,  criticism  and  research  are  tending 
every  year  to  strengthen  the  certainty  of  those 
historical  facts  with  which  the  supernatural  rev¬ 
elation  is  inseparably  interwoven.  Most  strik¬ 
ingly  has  this  been  the  case  with  the  most  im¬ 
portant  of  all  the  Old  Testament  records,  the 
record  of  the  Exodus.  Just  when  the  destruc¬ 
tive  criticism  of  unbelievers  was  trying  to  prove 
it  all  legendary,  trying,  by  a  studied  exagger¬ 
ation  of  every  apjoarent  difficulty,  to  shake  our 
faith  in  it,  it  pleased  God  to  open  up  to  us  the 
buried  monuments  of  that  kindred  nation  with 
which  Israel  at  this  period  was  so  closely  con¬ 
nected.  Slowly  out  of  these  monuments  we  are 
reconstructing  Egypt’s  history.  We  may  safely 
assert  that  the  Egypt  portrayed  on  these  stones 
and  papyruS-scrolls  is  precisely  the  Egypt  im¬ 
plied  and  required  by  the  Mosaic  narrative. 
J.  P.  N. 

The  linguistic,  geographic,  and  ethnologic 
notices  contained  in  the  books  of  Moses  are  of 
the  most  veracious  character,  stamping  the 
whole  narration  with  an  unmistakable  air  of 
authenticity.  And  the  fact  that  each  accession 
to  our  knowledge  of  the  ancient  times  helps  to 
remove  difficulties  and  multiplies  fresh  illus¬ 
trations  of  the  Mosaic  narrative,  affords  to  can¬ 
did  minds  an  argument  for  the  historic  truth  of 
the  narrative,  the  force  of  which  can  scarcely  be 
overestimated.  All  tends  to  show  that  we  pos¬ 
sess  in  the  Pentateuch  not  only  the  most  au¬ 
thentic  account  of  ancient  times  that  has  come 
down  to  us,  bat  a  history  absolutely  and  in 
every  respect  true.  All  tends  to  assure  us  that 
in  this  marvellous  volume  we  have  no  “  cun¬ 
ningly  devised  fable,”  but  a  “  treasure  of  wis¬ 
dom  and  knowledge” — as  important  to  the  his¬ 
torical  inquirer  as  to  the  theologian.  There 
may  be  obscurities  ;  there  may  be  occasionally, 
in  names  and  numbers,  accidental  corruptions 
of  the  text  ;  there  may  be  a  few  interpolations  — 
glosses  which  have  crept  in  from  the  margin  ;  but 
upon  the  whole  it  must  be  pronounced  that  we 


have  in  the  Pentateuch  a  genuine  and  authentic 
work,  and  one  which — even  were  it  not  inspired 
— would  be,  for  the  times  and  countries  whereof 
it  treats,  the  leading  and  paramount  authority. 

It  is  “  Moses”  who  is  still  ”  read  in  the  syn¬ 
agogues  every  Sabbath  day,”  and  they  who  “  re¬ 
sist  ”  him,  by  impugning  his  veracity,  like  Jannes 
and  Jambres  of  old,  resist  the  truth.’'  G.  R. 
(1859). 

The  New  Testament  proves  the  historical 
character  of  the  narratives  of  the  Pentateuch, 
the  fact  that  Moses  was  the  great  Lawgiver  and 
Prophet,  the  fundamental  position  of  the  Mosaic 
legislation  to  the  Old  Testament,  and,  above  all, 
the  Divine  authority  of  the  Pentateuch  ;  and  those 
who  antagonize  these  things  come  in  collision 
with  Jesus  and  the  apostles  ;  but  the  Mosaic 
authorship  of  the  whole  Pentateuch,  so  far  as  the 
New  Testament  is  concerned,  is  not  decided  for 
us.  Any  theory  of  its  composition  that  recog¬ 
nizes  Mosaic  authorship  of  the  chief  parts  of  it, 
and  the  essential  features  of  its  legislation  as 
Mosaic,  is  in  accord  with  the  New  Testament. 
Briggs. 

A  brief  compendious  statement  of  the  considera¬ 
tions  which  oppose  a  late  date  for  the  Pentateuch 
and  the  arguments  in  support  of  such  a  date.  (1) 
The  total  lack  of  external  evidence  in  its  favor. 
All  that  we  know  from  sacred  or  secular  sources 
is  on  the  side  of  the  traditionary  view.  (2) 
The  acknowledged  inconsistencies  that  remain. 
If  the  matter  of  the  Hexateuch  has  been  so 
often  revised  as  the  prevailing  theory  declares, 
how  comes  it  to  pass  that  so  many  seeming  con¬ 
tradictions  continue  to  be  found,  so  many  di¬ 
vergencies  in  tone,  in  spirit,  in  conception  ? 
On  the  ordinary  view  these  are  to  be  expected, 
but  by  no  means  on  the  other.  (3)  It  is  vain 
to  say  that  Moses  was  not  cultivated  enough  to 
write  the  books  attributed  to  him,  for  he  was 
trained  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,  who, 
in  his  day,  had,  as  we  know,  an  abundant  and 
varied  literature.  (4)  There  is  no  reason  to  dis¬ 
pute  the  existence  of  a  priesthood  in  his  day, 
since  it  is  clear  that  there  was  a  large  priestly 
caste  in  Egypt,  and  it  is  in  the  last  degree  im¬ 
probable  that  a  Hebrew  priesthood  should  wait 
a  thousand  years,  or  even  the  half  of  that 
period,  for  a  ritual.  (5)  The  theory  that  denies 
everything  but  a  few  fragments  to  the  Mosaic 
period,  and  relegates  all  psalms  and  proverbs  to 
a  post  exilian  date,  leaves  a  long  j)eriod  of  his¬ 
tory  without  any  literature,  and  offers  no  basis 
for  the  splendid  outburst  of  prophecy  which 
illumined  the  eighth  century  before  Christ. 
(6)  The  principle  that  the  non-observance  of  a 


HELPFUL  AND  SUGGESTIVE. 


23 


law  proves  its  non-existence  is  wholly  fallacious. 
(7)  The  language  of  the  Hexateuch  is  inconsis¬ 
tent  with  a  late  origin.  Its  parts  differ  among 
themselves,  but  in  nothing  like  the  degree  in 
which  they  differ  from  the  Hebrew  of  the  Per¬ 
sian  era.  (8)  The  local  allusions  throughout  are 
to  Egypt  ;  how  could  this  possibly  be  if  these 
writings  received  their  last  reduction  from  per¬ 
sons  all  whose  surroundings  were  Palestinian  or 
Babylonian  ?  (9)  There  are  continual  references 
to  a  life  in  the  wilderness,  a  journeying  through 
the  desert  ;  what  could  suggest  these  to  men 
whose  whole  lives  were  passed  in  fertile  and 
cultivated  regions  ?  (10)  The  doctrinal  con¬ 

tents  of  the  Hexateuch,  being  simple  and  ele¬ 
mentary,  are  in  harmony  with  the  traditionary 
date  and  not  the  imaginary  one.  (11)  The 
modern  theory  abounds  in  license.  Because 
King  Josiah  found  “  the  book  of  the  Law”  in 
the  temple,  it  is  insisted,  without  the  shadow 
of  reason,  that  this  book  was  Deuteronomy, 
which  had  just  been  written,  and  had  been 
secreted  in  order  that  it  might  be  found  !  Eze¬ 
kiel’s  splendid  idealization  of  the  Church  of  the 
future  is,  in  defiance  of  all  taste  and  judgment, 
converted  from  a  magnificent  symbolic  prophecy 
into  the  prosaic  outline  of  a  new  ritual  then  for 
the  first  time  introduced !  (12)  The  Jewish 

Babbis  enumerate  five  things  wanting  in  the 
second  temple  which  were  found  in  the  first  (the 
Shekinah,  the  ark  and  mercy-seat,  the  spirit  of 
prophecy,  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  and  the  fire 
on  the  altar)  ;  but  if  these  were  inventions  of 
Ezra  and  his  associates,  what  possible  motive 
did  they  have  for  constructing  a  style  of  worshijp 
which  would  only  make  more  evident  the  bald¬ 
ness  of  their  own  services  ?  (13)  In  some  cases 

the  theory  rests  upon  the  philosophical  postu¬ 
late  that  religion  in  any  case  is  only  a  natural 
development,  the  supernatural  being  impossible 
and  incredible  ;  this  is  certainly  the  view  of 
Kuenen  and  Wellhausen  ;  yet  no  man  who  holds 
it  can  possibly  be  a  fair  interpreter  of  Scrip¬ 
ture.  (14)  These  latter  writers  not  only  exclude 
the  Divine  factors  from  the  history  of  Israel,  but 
assert  the  existence  of  fictions  in  that  history, 
not  merely  in  single,  separate  instances,  but 
passim,  wherever  a  patch  was  needed  to  give  the 
story  an  air  of  authority.  (15)  The  analysis  of 
the  documents  is  based  often  upon  very  subtle 
criteria,  is  frequently  mechanical,  and  again 
makes  assumptions  that  are  purely  conjectural  ; 
hence  there  is  serious  difficulty  in  accepting 
its  conclusions  when  they  are  at  war  with  the 
statements  of  the  history  itself.  (16)  The  ex¬ 
istence  of  different  documents  is  no  argument 
against  the  Mosaic  authorship,  for  the  man  of 


God  may  have  compiled  his  first  book  from  an¬ 
tecedent  data,  and  in  those  that  follow'ed  may 
have  reduced  into  form  what  had  previously 
been  put  in  writing  by  others  under  his  direc¬ 
tion.  Conjecture  is  justas  allowable  in  favor  of 
Moses  as  it  is  against  him.  (17)  So  in  regard  to 
the  Book  of  Joshua,  the  natural  complement  of 
the  Pentateuch,  there  is  nothing  strained  or  un¬ 
natural  in  the  opinion  that  some  of  the  men 
trained  under  the  guidance  of  the  great  Law¬ 
giver  made  this  record.  (18)  The  testimony  of 
the  New  Testament  is  clear  and  strong  as  to  the 
Mosaic  authorship.  Our  Lord  said  (John  5  : 46) 
of  Moses,  ”  He  wrote  of  me,”  and  in  the  next 
verse  speaks  of  ”  his  writings.”  No  principle 
of  accommodation  will  explain  this  language. 
In  Mark  12  :  26  he  asked,  “  Have  ye  not  read  in 
the  Book  of  Moses  ?”  So  the  Apostle  Peter  said 
(Acts  3  : 22),  “  Moses  indeed  said  :  A  prophet 
shall  the  Lord  God  raise  up  unto  you,”  And 
the  Apostle  Paul  cites  •  the  Pentateuch  in  the 
terms,  ”  It  is  written  in  the  law  of  Moses,”  and 
again,  “  Moses  saith,’^  and  again,  “  Moses  de- 
scribeth  the  righteousness  that-  is  of  the  Law” 
(1  Cor.  9  ;  9  ;  Rom.  10  : 19  ;  10  : 5).  It  does 
not  seem  possible  to  understand  these  refer¬ 
ences  as  meaning  anything  else  than  the  ac¬ 
cepted  view  of  that  age  that  Moses  was  the  au¬ 
thor  of  the  books  that  bear  his  name.  Chambers. 

In  closing  mj^  remarks  on  the  books  of  Moses,  I 
make  brief  mention  of  a  few  other  points  in  favor 
of  their  veracity,  several  of  which  also  bespeak 
undesignedness  in  the  narrative  more  or  less.  (1) 
There  is  a  minuteness  in  the  details  of  the  Mosaic 
writings  which  argues  their  truth  ;  for  it  often 
argues  the  eye-witness,  as  in  the  adventures  of 
the  wilderness,  and  often  seems  intended  to 
supply  directions  to  the  artificer,  as  in  the  con¬ 
struction  of  the  Tabernacle.  (2)  There  are  touches 
of  nature  in  the  narrative  which  argue  its  truth, 
for  it  is  not  easy  to  regard  them  otherwise  than 
as  strokes  from  the  life — as  where  “  the  mixed 
multitude,”  -whether  half-casts  or  Egyptians, 
are  the  first  to  sigh  for  the  cucumbers  and  mel¬ 
ons  of  Egypt,  and  to  spread  discontent  through 
the  camp  ;  as  the  miserable  exculpation  of  him¬ 
self  which  Aaron  attempts,  with  all  the  cow¬ 
ardice  of  conscious  guilt—”  I  cast  into  the  fire, 
and  there  came  out  this  calf,”  the  fire,  to  be 
sure,  being  in  the  fault.  (3)  There  are  certain 
little  inconveniences  represented  as  turning  up 
unexpectedly  that  argue  truth  in  the  story  ;  for 
they  are  just  such  accidents  as  are  characteristic 
of  the  working  of  a  new  system  and  untried 
machinery.  What  is  to  be  done  with  the  man 
who  is  found  gathering  sticks  on  the  Sabbath 


24 


FUEL  mm  A  R  Y  THO  UGETS. 


day  ?  (Could  an  impostor  have  devised  such  a 
trifle  ?)  How  the  inheritance  of  the  daughters 
of  Zelophehad  is  to  be  disposed  of,  there  being 
no  heir-male.  Either  of  them  inconsiderable 
matters  in  themselves,  but  both  giving  occasion 
to  very  important  laws  — the  one  touahing  life, 
and  the  other  j^roperty.  (4)  There  is  a  simpUcily 
in  the  manner  of  Moses  when  telling  his  tale 
which  argues  its  truth— -no  parade  of  language, 
no  pomp  of  circumstance  even  in  his  miracles 
— a  modesty  and  dignity  throughout  all.  Let 
us  but  compare  him  in  any  trying  scene  with 
Josephus — his  description,  for  instance,  of  the 
passage  through  the  Ked  Sea,  of  the  murmuring 
of  the  Israelites,  and  the  suj)ply  of  quails  and 
manna,  with  the  same  as  given  bj’’  the  Jewish 
historian,  -or  rhetorician,  we  might  rather  say — 
and  the  force  of  the  observation  will  be  felt. 
(5)  There  is  a  candor  in  the  treatment  of  his  sub¬ 
ject  by  Moses  which  argues  his  truth  ;  as  when 
he  tells  of  his  own  want  of  eloquence,  which 
unfitted  him  for  a  leader  ;  his  own  want  of  faith, 
which  prevented  him  from  entering  the  prom¬ 
ised  land  ;  the  idolatry  of  Aaron  his  brother 
the  profaneness  of  Nadab  and  Abihu,  his 
nephews  ;  the  disaffection  and  punishment  of 
Miriam,  his  sister.  (6)  There  is  a  disinterested¬ 
ness  in  his  conduct  which  argues  him  to  be  a 
man  of  truth  ;  for  though  he  had  sons,  he  ap¬ 
parently  takes  no  measures  during  his  life  to 
give  them  offices  of  trust  or  profit  ;  and  at  his 
death  he  appoints  as  his  successor  one  who  had 
no  claims  upon  him,  either  of  alliance,  of  clan¬ 
ship,  or  of  blood.  (7)  There  are  certain  prophet¬ 
ical  passages  in  the  writings  of  Moses  which 
argue  their  truth,  as  several  respecting  the 
future  Messiah,  and  the  very  sublime  and  lit¬ 
eral  one  respecting  the  final  fall  of  Jerusalem. 

(8)  Above  all,  there  is  a  comparative  purity  in  the 
theology  and  morality  of  the  Pentateuch,  which 
argues  not  only  its  truth,  but  its  high  original  ; 
for  how  else  are  we  to  account  for  a  system  like 
that  of  Moses,  in  such  an  age  and  among  such  a 
people  ;  that  the  doctrine  of  the  unity,  the  self¬ 
existence,  the  providence,  the  perfections  of  the 
great  God  of  heaven  and  earth,  should  thus 
have  blazed  forth  (how  far  more  brightly  than 
even  in  the  vaunted  schools  of  Athens  at  its 
most  refined  era  1)  from  the  midst  of  a  nation, 
of  themselves  ever  plunging  into  gross  and 
grovelling  idolatry  ;  and  that  principles  of  social 
duty,  of  benevolence,  and  of  self-restraint,  ex¬ 
tending  even  to  the  thoughts  of  the  heart, 
should  have  been  the  produce  of  an  age  which 
the  very  provisions  of  the  Levitical  Law  itself 
show  to  have  been  full  of  savage  and  licentious 
abominations  ?  Such  are  some  of  the  internal 


evidences  for  the  veracity  of  the  books  of 
Moses. 

(9)  Then  the  situation  in  which  the  Jews  act¬ 
ually  found  themselves  placed,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  is  no  slight  argument  for  the  truth  of  the 
Mosaic  accounts  ;  reminded,  as  they  were,  by 
certain  memorials  observed  from  year  to  year, 
of  the  great  events  of  their  early  history,  just 
as  they  are  recorded  in  the  writings  of  Moses — 
memorials  universally  recognized  both  in  their 
object  and  in  their  authority.  The  Passover, 
for  instance,  celebrated  by  all-  no  man  doubt¬ 
ing  its  meaning,  no  man  in  all  Israel  assigning 
to  it  any  other  origin  than  one  — viz.,  that  of 
being  a  contemporary  monument  of  a  miracle 
displayed  in  favor  of  the  people  of  Israel — by 
right  of  which  credentials,  and  no  other,  it  sum¬ 
moned  from  all  quarters  of  the  world,  at  great 
cost  and  inconvenience  and  danger,  the  dis¬ 
persed  Jews — none  disputing  the  obligation  to 
obey  the  summons. 

(10)  Then  the  heroic  devotion  with  which  the 
Israelites  continued  to  regard  the  Law,  even  long 
after  they  had  ceased  to  cultivate  the  better  part 
of  it,  even  when  that  very  Law  only  served  to 
condemn  its  worshippers,  so  that  they  would 
offer  themselves  up  by  thousands  with  their 
children  and  wives  as  martvrs  to  the  honor  of 
their  temple,  in  which  no  image,  even  of  an  em¬ 
peror  who  could  scourge  them  with  scorpions 
for  their  disobedience,  should  bo  suffered  to 
stand  and  they  live  —so  that  rather  than  violate 
the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  day  the  bravest  men 
in  arms  would  lay  down  their  lives  as  tamely  as 
sheep,  and  allow  themselves  to  be  burned  in 
the  holes  where  they  had  taken  refuge  from 
their  cruel  and  cowardly  pursuers.  All  this 
points  to  their  Law  as  having  been  at  first  pro¬ 
mulgated  under  circumstances  too  awful  to  be 
forgotten  even  after  the  lapse  of  ages. 

(11)  Then,  again,  the  extraordinary  degree  of 
national  pride  with  which  the  Jews  boasted  them¬ 
selves  to  be  God’s  peculiar  people,  as  if  no  nation 
ever  was  or  ever  could  be  so  nigh  to  him  ;  a 
feeling  which  the  early  teachers  of  Christianity 
found  an  insuperable  obstacle  to  the  progress 
of  the  Gospel  among  them,  and  which  actually 
did  effect  its  ultimate  rejection — this  may  well 
seem  to  be  founded  upon  a  strong  traditional 
sense  of  uncommon  tokens  of  the  Almighty’s 
regard  for  them  above  all  other  nations  of  the 
earth,  which  they  had  heard  with  their  ears,  or 
their  fathers  had  declared  unto  them,  even  the 
noble  works  that  he  had  done  in  the  old  time  be¬ 
fore  them.  (12)  Then,  again,  the  constant  crav¬ 
ing  after  “  a  sign,”  which  beset  them  in  the  lat¬ 
ter  days  of  their  history,  as  a  lively  certificate 


SECTION  92. 


THE  EXODUS. 


25 


of  the  prophet  ;  and  not  after  a  sign  only,  but 
after  such  an  one  as  they  would  themselves 
prescribe — “  What  sign  shewest  thou  that  we 
may  see  and  believe  ?  .  .  .  our  fathers  did  eat 
manna  in  the  desert ;  '  this  desire,  so  frequently 
expressed,  and  with  which  they  are  so  fre¬ 
quently  reproached,  looks  like  the  relic  of  an 
appetite  engendered  in  other  times,  when  they 
had  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  more  intimate  com¬ 
munion  with  God — it  seems  the  wake  of  mir¬ 
acles  departed, 

(13)  Lastl}^  the  very  onerous  nature  of  the 
Law — so  studiously  meddling  with  all  the  oc¬ 
cupations  of  life,  great  and  small — this  yoke 
would  scarcely  have  been  endured,  without  the 
strongest  assurance  on  the  part  of  those  who 
were  galled  by  it  of  the  authority  by  which  it 
was  imposed.  For  it  met  them  with  some  re¬ 
straint  or  other  at  every  turn.  Would  they 
jolough  ?  Then  it  must  not  be  wdth  an  ox  and 
an  ass.  Would  they  sow  ?  Then  must  not  the 
seed  be  mixed.  Would  they  reap  ?  Then  must 
they  not  reap  clean.  Would  they  make  bread  ? 
Then  must  they  set  apart  dough  enough  for  the 
consecrated  loaf.  Did  they  find  a  bird’s  nest? 
Then  must  they  let  the  old  bird  fly  away.  Did 


they  hunt  ?  Then  they  must  shed  the  blood  of 
their  game,  and  cover  it  with  dust.  Did  they 
plant  a  fruit  tree  ?  For  three  years  was  the 
fruit  to  be  uncircumcised.  Did  they  shave  their 
beards  ?  They  were  not  to  cut  the  corners.  Did 
they  weave  a  garment  ?  Then  must  it  be  only 
with  threads  prescribed.  Did  they  build  a 
house  ?  They  must  put  rails  and  battlements 
on  the  roof.  Did  they  buy  an  estate  ?  At  the 
year  of  Jubilee  back  it  must  go  to  its  owner. 
This  last  in  itself  and  alone  a  provision  which 
must  have  made  itself  felt  in  the  whole  struc¬ 
ture  of  the  Jewish  commonwealth,  and  have 
sensibly  affected  the  character  of  the  people  ; 
every  transfer  of  land  throughout  the  country 
having  to  be  regulated  in  its  price  according  to 
the  remoteness  or  proximity  of  the  year  of  re¬ 
lease  ;  and  the  desire  of  accumulating  a  species 
of  property  usually  considered  the  most  invit¬ 
ing  of  any,  counteracted  and  thwarted  at  every 
turn.  All  these  (and  how  many  more  of  the 
same  kind  might  be  named  !)  are  enactments 
which  it  must  have  required  extraordinary  in¬ 
fluence  in  the  Lawgiver  to  enjoin,  and  extraor¬ 
dinary  reverence  for  his  powers  to  perpetuate. 
Blunt. 


Section  92. 


THE  EXODUS.  MOVEMENT  FROM  THE  LAND  OF  RAMESES,  OR  GOSHEN,  TO  THE 

RENDEZVOUS  AT  SUCCOTH. 

Exodus  12  :  37-42,  50,  51  ;  13  ;  3,  4.  Nu.  33  :  3-5. 


Ex,. 


E2  40  Now  the  sojourning  of  the  children  of  Israel,  which  they  sojourned  in  Egypt,  was 

41  four  hundred  and  thirty  years.  And  it  came  to  pass  at  the  end  of  four  hundred  and 
thirty  years,  even  the  selfsame  day  it  came  to  pass,  that  all  the  hosts  of  the  Lokd 

42  went  out  from  the  land  of  Egypt.  It  is  a  night  to  be  much  observed  unto  the  Loed 
for  bringing  them  out  from  the  land  of  Egypt  :  this  is  that  night  of  the  Lokd,  to  be 
much  observed  of  all  the  children  of  Israel  throughout  their  generations, 

50  Thus  did  all  the  children  of  Israel,  as  the  Lokd  commanded  Moses  and  Aaron,  so 

51  did  they.  And  it  came  to  pass  the  selfsame  da5%  that  the  Lokd  did  bring  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel  put  of  the  land  of  Egypt  by  their  hosts. 

13  3  And  Moses  said  unto  the  people,  Remember  this  day,  in  which  ye  came  out  from 

Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage  ;  for  by  strength  of  hand  the  Lokd  brought  you 
4  out  from  this  place  :  there  shall  no  leavened  bread  be  eaten.  This  day  ye  go  forth  in 
the  month  Abib. 

12  37  And  the  children  of  Israel  journeyed  from  Rameses  to  Succoth,  about  six  hundred 

38  thousand  on  foot  that  were  men,  beside  children.  And  a  mixed  multitude  went  up 

39  also  with  them  ;  and  flocks,  and  herds,  even  veiy  much  cattle.  And  they  baked  un¬ 
leavened  cakes  of  the  dough  which  they  brought  forth  out  of  Egypt,  for  it  was  not 
leavened  ;  because  they  were  thrust  out  of  Egypt,  and  could  not  tarry,  neither  had 
they  prepared  for  themselves  any  victual. 


2G 


SECTION  92.  THE  EXODUS. 


Nu.  33  3  And  they  journeyed  from  Eameses  in  the  first  month,  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the 

first  month  ;  on  the  morrow  after  the  passover  the  children  of  Israel  went  out  with 

4  an  high  hand  in  the  sight  of  all  the  Egyptians,  while  the  Egyptians  were  burying  all 
their  firstborn,  which  the  Loan  had  smitten  among  them  :  upon  their  gods  also  the 

5  Lord  executed  judgments.  And  the  children  of  Israel  journeyed  from  Eameses,  and 
pitched  in  Succoth. 


40,  41.  The  leng’li  of  ihelr  stay  in  Egypt  is 
here  clearly  and  unequivocally  stated  to  have 
been  430  years  :  “  Now  the  sojourning  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel,  icho  dwelt  in  Egypt,  was  four  hundred 

and  thirty  years.  ”  K. - The  statement  of  Moses 

in  verse  41  is  made  in  the  most  formal  and  pre¬ 
cise  terms,  with  the  express  purpose  of  fixing 
the  length  of  the  sojourn  permanently  upon  the 
national  mind.  Cook. - The  evidence  is  con¬ 

clusive  that  the  abode  in  Egypt  lasted  430  years. 
This  is  the  natural  sense  of  Ex.  12  :  40,  and  no 
one  would  ever  think  of  extracting  a  different 
meaning  from  it  but  for. reasons  outside  of  the 
verse  itself.  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  were 
not  “  children  of  Israel,”  that  their  sojourning 
should  be  included  ;  and  the  verse  makes  no 
allusion  to  Canaan,  but  only  to  Egypt.  In  Gen. 
15  :  13  the  seed  of  Abraham  were  to  be  strangers 
in  a  land  not  their  own,  where  they  would  be 
reduced  to  bondage  and  suffer  affliction.  W.  H.  G. 

The  LXX.  add  to  the  passage  “  and  in  the  land 
of  Canaan."  The  Samaritan  recension  adds  yet 
another  clause  :  “  And  the  sojourn  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel,  and  of  their  fathers,  in  the  land  of 
Canaan  and  in  the  land  of  Egypt.”  These  vari¬ 
ations  from  the  original  are  now  almost  univer¬ 
sally  regarded  as  interpolations,  intended  to  ob¬ 
viate  a  chronological  difficulty.  D.  M. - Had 

the  clause  inserted  by  the  LXX.  existed  in  the 
Hebrew  original,  there  is  no  assignable  ground 
on  which  we  can  imagine  it  left  out.  There  is 
a  readily  conceivable  ground  for  the  insertion 
of  the  clause  by  the  LXX.  in  their  anxiety  to 
harmonize  their  chronology  with  the  Egyptian 
system  prevalent  in  their  day.  Further,  the 
clause  has  the  appearance  of  an  insertion,  being 
irrelevant  to  the  narrative,  which  is  naturally 
concerned  at  this  point  with  Egypt  and  with 
Eg3"pt  only.  The  Samaritan  version  may  appear 
at  first  sight  to  lend  the  Septuagint  confirma¬ 
tion  ;  but  a  little  examination  shows  the  con¬ 
trary.  The  Samaritan  translator  has  the  Septu- 
agint  before  him,  but  is  dissatisfied  with  the* 
way  in  which  his  Greek  predecessor  has  amended 
the  Hebrew  text.  His  version  is  an  amendment 
of  the  Greek  text  in  two  points.  First,  he  sees 
that  the  name  “  children  of  Israel  ”  could  not 
properly  be  given  to  anj’^  but  the  descendants  of 
Jacob,  and  therefore  he  inserts  the  clause  “  and 
of  their  fathers.”  Secondly,  he  observes  that 


the  LXX.  have  inverted  the  historical  order  of 
the  sojourns  in  Egypt  and  in  Canaan,  placing 
that  in  Egypt  first.  This  he  corrects  by  a  trans¬ 
position.  No  one  can  suppose  that  he  derived 
his  emendations  from  the  Hebrew.  He  gave  his 
readers,  not  what  Moses  had  said,  but  what,  in 
his  opinion,  he  ought  to  have  said.  With  re¬ 
spect  to  Paul’s  statement  to  the  Galatians 
(3  : 17),  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  he  wrote 
to  Greek-speaking  Jews,  whose  oply  Bible  was 
the  Septuagint  Version,  and  that  he  could  not 
but  follow  it  unless  he  was  prepared  to  intrude 
on  them  a  chronological  discussion,  which  would 
in  no  way  have  advanced  his  argument.  His 
argument  is  that  the  Law,  having  been  given 
long  after  the  covenant  made  with  Abraham, 
could  not  disannul  it  ;  how  long  after  was  of  no 

consequence.  G.  E. - In  the  New  Testament 

Stephen’s  speech  (Acts  7 :  6)  recognizes  400 
years  as  the  period  when  the  seed  of  Abraham 
should  be  in  bondage  and  evil  entreated,  terms 
which  could  only  apply  to  Egypt.  Cook. 

In  the  prophecy  of  Gen.  15  ;  13,  14  [vol.  1.,  p. 
325,  where  this  subject  is  also  treated]  but  one 
land  is  spoken  of  and  but  one  people  ;  this 
people  is  to  afflict  Israel  for  four  hundred  years  ; 
it  is  then  to  be  judged  ;  and  after  the  judgment, 
Israel  is  to  “  come  out,”  to  come  out,  moreover, 
with  great  substance  Nothing  is  said  that  can 
by  any  possibility  allude  to  the  Canaanites,  or 
the  land  of  Canaan.  One  continuoiis  affliction 
in  one  country  and  by  one  people,  lasting— in 
round  numbers  — four  hundred  years,  is  an¬ 
nounced  with  the  utmost  plainness.  G.  E. - 

Two  [other]  considerations  support  the  author¬ 
ity  of  the  Hebrew  text.  The  arrival  in  Egypt 
was  on  a  definite  date.  But  none  such  can  be 
attached  to  the  arrival  of  Abraham  in  Palestine, 
as  no  locality  is  mentioned.  And  it  is  a  remark¬ 
able  coincidence,  that  the  15th  of  Abib,  on  each 
of  the  years  we  have  determined,  fell  on  the 
same  day  of  the  week,  in  accordance  with  the 
expression,  “  the  selfsame  day.”  The  second 
proof  is  the  fact  that  the  Bible  (1  Chron.  7  :  8) 
contains  the  genealogies  of  Kohath,  of  Gershom, 
of  Pharez,  of  Ephraim,  and  of  Bela  the  son  of 
Benjamin,  in  each  of  which  fourteen  genera¬ 
tions  occur  from  Abraham  to  the  time  of  Moses. 
This  allows  forty  years  for  a  generation,  a  period 
that  is  fully  coincident  with  genealogical  re- 


THE  EXODUS. 


27 


quirements.  Conder. - There  is  a  growing 

agreement  on  the  part  of  expositors  of  the  Old 
Testament  to  adhere  to  the  reiterated  statement 
of  the  Hebrew  text,  making  the  sojourn  in 
Egypt  four  hundred  or  (exactly)  four  hundred 
and  thirty  years,  and  to  reject  the  Septuagint 
emendation,  ‘‘  in  Egypt  and  the  land  of  Ca¬ 
naan.”  This  accords  with  the  ten  (or  eleven) 
generations  which  are  given  (1  Chron.  7  :  22-27) 
as  the  number  from  Ephraim  to  Joshua.  It 
corresponds  much  more  easily  to  the  alleged  in¬ 
crease  in  Egypt.  The  difficulties  admit  of  ex- 
jjlanation.  This  interval  is  also  thought  to  be 
confirmed  bj^  an  inscription  found  at  San  by 
Mariette  Bey,  making  the  interval  from  Bameses 
II.  back  to  a  certain  Shepherd  King,  Set,  four 
hundred  yeat-s.  S.  C.  B. 

42.  The  immediate  effect  of  the  death  of  the 
firstborn  was  exactly  such  as  had  been  calcu¬ 
lated.  It  was  a  strange  act  of  faith,  when  an 
entire  nation  stood  in  the  dead  of  the  night 
awake,  ready  for  a  journey,  in  the  conviction 
that  a  certain  judgment  was  to  be  inflicted  by 
the  hand  of  Heaven,  and  that  this  infliction 
would  infallibly  insure  their  departure  from  the 
house  of  bondage.  In  that  conviction  much 
labor  had  been  undergone,  and  large  prepara¬ 
tions  completed— for  we  may  conceive  that  it 
was  no  light  matter  for  so  vast  a  body  of  people, 
■with  all  their  flocks  and  herds,  and  with  numer  ¬ 
ous  women  and  children,  to  have  completed  its 
arrangements  for  a  sudden  departure  without 
confusion  or  disorder.  That  all  this  had  been 
done,  and  that  every  direction  of  Moses  and 
Aaron  was  implicitly  followed,  shows  that  the 
judgments  of  the  Lord  upon  the  Egj^ptians,  and 
their  own  exemption  from  the  plagues  which  had 
been  showered  upon  the  land,  had  not  failed  of 
their  effect  in  bringing  up  the  people  to  a  suffi¬ 
cient  pitch  of  faith,  confidence,  and  resolution. 

Kil. - At  last  the  deliverance  was  accomplished, 

and  Israel  went  free,  redeemed  from  the  plague 
of  death  by  the  blood  of  the  lamb  of  passover, 
and  redeemed  from  the  dominion  of  Pharaoh 
and  his  task-masters  by  the  power  of  God,  whose 
rod  Moses  carried  as  a  weapon  mightier  far  than 
sword  or  spear.  All  this  is  full  of  spiritual  sug¬ 
gestion  for  our  profit.  They  whose  consciences 
are  alive  to  the  true  nature  of  the  service  of  sin 
know  the  house  of  bondage,  and  the  brick-kilns, 
and  the  cruel  task-masters.  They  who  are  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  love  and  power  of  Christ, 
know  that  ho  has  borne  reproach,  and  not 
merely  risked,  but  suffered  death  to  deliver  us. 
By  his  precious  blood  are  our  lives  redeemed, 
and  by  his  rod  of  strength  are  our  enemies  sub¬ 
dued.  D.  E. 


42.  It  is  a  iii^lit  to  be  observed. 

The  'providences  of  that  first  night  were  very  ob¬ 
servable  ;  memorable  was  the  destruction  of  the 
Egyptians,  and  the  deliverance  of  the  Israelites 
by  it  :  God  herein  made  himself  taken  notice 
of.  The  ordinances  of  that  night,  in  the  annual 
return  of  it,  were  to  be  carefully  observed  ; 
This  is  that  night  of  the  Lord,  that  remarkable 
night  to  be  celebrated  in  all  generations.  The 
great  things  God  does  for  his  people  are  to  be 
perpetuated  throughout  all  ages  ;  especially  the 
work  of  our  redemption  by  Christ  :  this  first 
passover  night  was  a  night  of  the  Lord,  much  to 
he  observed  ;  but  the  last  jDassover  night,  in  which 
Christ  was  betrayed  (in  which  the  first  passover, 
with  the  rest  of  the  ceremonial  institutions,  was 
superseded  and  abolished),  was  a  night  of  the 
Lord,  much  more  to  be  observed,  when  a  yoke, 
heavier  than  that  of  Egypt,  was  broken  from  off 
our  necks,  and  a  land,  better  than  that  of 
Canaan,  set  before  us.  That  was  a  temporal 
deliverance  to  be  celebrated  in  their  generations  ; 
this  an  eternal  redemption  to  be  celebrated  in 
the  praises  of  glorious  saints  world  without  end. 
H. 

12  :  50,  51  ;  13  :  3,  4.  Moses  and  his  peo¬ 
ple  simply  left  Egypt,  as  they  had  a  glorious 
right  to  do  ;  nor  did  they  burst  through  any  re¬ 
straint  of  righteous  obligation  in  that  mighty 
uprising  and  marching  forth  of  their  hosts. 
Faith  in  the  God  of  their  fathers — the  Almighty 
One,  their  Defender,  liefuge,  and  Portion— sus¬ 
tained  Moses  in  this  otherwise  perilous  move¬ 
ment,  and  made  the  wrath  of  Egypt’s  king  seem 
to  him  but  a  puny  and  weak  thing.  The  set¬ 
ting  forth  of  this  fearlessness  of  Moses,  begot¬ 
ten  of  his  faith,  is  wonderfully  rich  and  expres¬ 
sive  ;  profoundly  logical,  and  yet  appealing  most 
vividly  to  the  imagination  :  “  For  he  endured  as 
seeing  him  who  is  invisible.”  H.  C. 

The  redemption  out  of  Egypt  was  the  most 
remarkable  of  all  the  Old  Testament  redemp¬ 
tions  of  the  Church  of  God.  It  was  the  greatest 
type  of  Christ’s  redemption  of  any  providential 
event.  This  redemption  was  by  Jesus  Christ, 
since  it  was  wrought  by  Him  that  appeared  to 
Moses  in  the  bush,  and  sent  Moses  to  redeem 
that  people.  This  glorious  Bedeemer  was  he 
that  redeemed  the  Church  out  of  Egypt  from 
under  the  hand  of  Pharaoh  ;  as  Christ  by  his 
death  and  sufferings  redeemed  his  people  from 
Satan,  the  spiritual  Pharaoh.  He  redeemed 
them  from  hard  service  and  cruel  drudgery  ;  as 
Christ  redeems  his  people  from  the  cruel  slavery 
of  sin  and  Satan.  He  redeemed  them  with  a 
strong  hand  and  outstretched  arm,  and  great 
and  terrible  judgments  on  their  enemies  ;  as 


28 


SECTION  92.  THE  EXODUS. 


Christ  with  mighty  power  triumphs  over  prin- 
c'palities  and  powers,  and  executes  terrible  judg¬ 
ments  on  his  Church’s  enemies,  bruising  the 
serpent’s  head.  He  saved  them,  when  others 
were  destroyed,  by  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood 
of  the  paschal  lamb  ;  as  God’s  Church  is  saved 
from  death  by  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of 
Christ,  when  the  rest  of  the  world  is  destroyed. 
Edwards. 

The  oppression  was  a  type.  Part  of  God’s 
design  in  it  was  to  prepare,  for  all  the  world, 
a  symbolic  prophecy  of  the  bondage  of  sin,  from 
which  the  greater  Moses  would  set  us  free.  The 
whole  is  a  parable,  as  the  Christian  conscious¬ 
ness  of  all  ages  has  felt.  The  entire  meaning 
of  the  Old  Testament  history  is  not  grasped  un¬ 
less  its  prophetic  and  symbolical  character  is 
recognized  ;  and  there  is  some  danger  lest,  in 
the  abundance  of  new  light  now  thrown  upon 
that  history  and  in  the  eagerness  of  critical  in¬ 
vestigation  into  the  origin  of  its  records,  this 
side  of  the  truth  should  be  lost,  and  the  typical 
aspect  should  be  relegated,  with  a  learned  smile, 
to  the  limbo  of  exploded  unscientific  fancies. 
If  science  consists  in  a  reasoned  ordering  of 
facts,  it  will  be  difficult  to  vindicate  the  appli¬ 
cation  of  the  name  to  any  view  of  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  history  which  omits  the  fact  that  God  has 
ordered  its  course  so  as  to  be  a  shadow  of  the 
Gospel  redemption.  .  .  .  Israel  had  grown 
under  oppression.  The  pressure  which  was  in¬ 
tended  to  crush  only  condensed.  “The  more 
they  affiicted  them,  the  more  they  .  .  .  grew.” 
It  is  the  history  of  the  nation  in  a  nutshell. 
The  same  marvellous  tenacity  of  life,  the  same 
power  of  baffling  oppression  and  thriving  under 
it,  have  been  their  dower  ever  since,  and  con¬ 
tinue  so  yet.  Babylonian  captivities,  Homan 
conquests,  mediaaval  barbarities,  modern  Euro¬ 
pean  mobs— this  strange  race  has  survived  them 
all,  and  fronts  the  world  to-day  an  unbroken 
whole.  Nothing  disintegrates  them,  nothing 
destroys  them.  The  powers  that  oppress  them 
fill  the  world  with  their  noise  for  a  while,  and 
pass  away  like  a  dream  ;  they  abide.  For  every 
tree  felled,  a  hundred  saplings  spring  up.  What 
does  it  mean  ?  and  how  comes  it  ?  The  only  an¬ 
swer  is  that  God  preserves  them  for  a  better  de¬ 
liverance  from  a  worse  bondage,  and  as  his  wit¬ 
nesses  in  their  humiliation,  as  they  were  his  in 
their  prosperity.  The  fable  of  the  one  of  their 
race  who  bade  Christ  march  on  to  Calvary  is 
true  concerning  them.  They  are  doomed  to 
live  and  to  wander  till  they  shall  recognize  him 
for  their  Messiah. 

That  growth  is  a  truth  for  God’s  Church,  too. 
The  world  has  never  crushed  by  persecuting. 


There  is  a  wholesome  obstinacy  and  chivalry  in 
human  nature  which  rallies  adherents  to  a  per¬ 
secuted  cause.  Truth  is  most  powerful  when 
her  back  is  at  the  wall.  “  The  blood  of  the 
martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  Church.”  Times  of 
oppression  are  times  of  growth,  as  a  hundred 
examples  from  the  apostles’  days  down  to  the 
story  of  the  Gospel  in  Madagascar  prove.  The 
world’s  favor  does  more  harm  than,  its  enmity. 
Its  kisses  are  poisonous  ;  its  blows  do  no  hurt. 
If  we  may  fancy  the  whole  Catholic  Church 
gathered  into  one  personality,  and  endowed 
with  a  voice,  she  would  attest  that  the  promise 
of  Israel's  increase  in  the  land  of  her  bondage 
was  but  a  foreshadowing  of  her  own  fruitfulness 
in  the  midst  of  hostilitv,  and  would  take  for  her 
own  the  triumphant  utterance  of  one  who  proved 
the  worst  that  earth  can  do  :  “  The  things  which 
happened  unto  me  have  fallen  out  rather  unto 
the  furtherance  of  the  Gospel.”  A.  M. 

Departure  from  Rameses.  Gathering  and  Resting 

at  Succoth. 

At  the  time  when  the  Israelites  occupied  the 
land,  the  term  ”  Goshen”  belonged  to  a  region 
which  as  yet  had  no  definite  boundaries,  and 
which  extended  with  the  increase  of  the  people 
over  the  territory  they  inhabited.  The  term 
“  Land  of  Eameses”  applies  to  a  larger  area,  and 
covers  that  part  of  the  delta  which  lies  to  the 
eastward  of  the  Tanitic  branch  ;  a  country 
which  Rameses  II.  enriched  with  innumerabl* 

works  of  architecture.  Naville. - The  stations 

given  in  the  narrative  are  none  of  them  towns 
or  cities.  Rameses  and  Succoth  are  districts. 
The  distance  between  the  several  stations  is  not 
necessarily  a  single  day’s  journey.  It  is  prob¬ 
able  that  more  than  one  week,  possibly  nearly 
three  w'eeks,  elapsed  between  the  Passover 
night  in  Goshen-Rameses  and  the  night  at  the 
Red  Sea.  A  comparison  of  the  dates  given  in 
Ex.  12  : 1-20,  29-39  ;  Nu.  33  : 3  ;  and  Ex.  16  : 1, 
will  show  how  leisurely  were  the  movements  of 
the  Hebrews  after  their  hurried  start.  H.  C.  T. 

Ex.  12  :  37  ;  Nm.  33  :  5.  The  departure 
of  Israel  was  from  the  Land  of  Rameses,  not  the 
town.  It  is  unwarranted  by  the  text  and  incon¬ 
ceivable  in  itself,  that  the  men,  women,  and  chil¬ 
dren,  with  their  cattle  and  movables,  should 
have  assembled  at  the  town  in  order  immedi¬ 
ately  to  depart  from  it.  It  is  notto])e  supposed 
that  even  the  full-grown  men  started  in  a 
formed  body  from  any  one  town,  place  it  where 
we  will.  Each  family  or  party,  on  receiving 
gifts  which  its  Egyptian  neighbors  pressed  upon 
its  acceptance,  turned  its  steps,  with  its  flocks 
and  herds  and  beasts  of  burden,  toward  the  bor- 


DEPARTURE  FROM  RAMESE8. 


29 


der.  They  slowly  and  steadily  moved  to  the 
east  and  south  along  the  north  end  of  the  bitter 
lakes,  without  any  fear  of  the  Egyptians,  who 
were  engaged  in  burying  their  firstborn,  or  at 
least  in  paying  them  the  last  sad  riles.  The 
males  over  twenty  years  of  age,  by  previous 
concert,  formed  themselves  into  marching  com  • 
panics  at  their  respective -positions,  and  faced 
toward  Succoth.  M. 

In  the  considerable  interval  occupied  by  pro¬ 
tracted  discussions  with  Pharaoh  and  the  series 
of  miracles,  opportunity  was  afforded  for  the 
thorough  organization  which  is  disclosed  upon 
the  march,  and  which  appears,  indeed,  in  the 
early  statement  that  they  went  up  out  of  Egypt 
“  harnessed  ”  (13  ;  18) — that  is,  taking  the  He¬ 
brew  word  at  its  lowest,  in  orderly  array.  It  is 
stated  or  implied  six  times  in  fifteen  verses  that 
they  marched  not  alone  from  Kameses  but  from 
“Egypt,”  and  the  expression  “hosts,”  twice 
used,  permits,  if  not  suggests,  the  supposition 
that  they  moved  in  many  companies.  We  may 
imagine  them  as  gathering  at  various  convenient 
points  to  join  the  general  movement.  Incident¬ 
al  allusions  also  imj)!}’-  that  in  the  subsequent 
march  through  the  wilderness  they  may  be  con¬ 
ceived  of,  not  as  massed  in  one  solid  body,  but 
spread  widely  out,  as  convenience  might  re¬ 
quire.  The  whole  company  may  have  sjiread, 
as  an  Arab  encampment  or  a  modern  army  often 
does,  over  an  area  of  many  miles.  S.  C.  B. 

Moving  out  from  their  various  homes  in  the 
land  of  Kameses-Goshen,  the  Israelites  must 
first  find  their  way  to  a  common  rendezvous,  in 
order  to  their  united  movement  as  one  people 
from  Egypt  into  the  wilderness  beyond.  That 
place  of  their  rendezvous  was  Succoth.  The 
numbers  of  the  Israelites  and  the  requirements 
of  the  Bible  narrative  forbid  the  suggestion 
that  any  city  or  town  was  a  starting-point  or  a 
stopping-place  in  the  route  of  the  exodus  ; 
hence  the  hope  of  determining  that  route  by 
any  discovery  of  the  ruins  of  one  town  or  an¬ 
other  in  Lower  Egypt,  is  based  on  a  misconcep- 
lion  of  both  the  letter  and  the  general  tenor  of 
the  Bible  narrative.  The  Israelites  started  out 
from  their  scattered  homes  in  the  district  of 
Rameses-Goshen,  and  made  their  general  ren¬ 
dezvous  at  Succoth,  in  an  extensive  camping 
field  along  the  line  of  lakes  of  which  Lake 
Timsah  is  the  centre.  (See  map  in  next  sec¬ 
tion.) 

It  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  all  the 
Israelites  reached  Succoth  on  the  day  of  their 
hurried  start  from  their  homes  in  Rameses- 
Goshen.  There  is  nothing  in  the  Bible  text 
that  requires  such  a  supposition  ;  and  there  is 


much  in  the  nature  of  the  case  to  forbid  it. 
The  start  was  made  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the 
first  month  (Abib)  of  the  new  year  of  the  Israel¬ 
ites.  ”  On  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  second 
month  after  their  departing  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt”  (16  : 1),  they  came  to  “  the  Wilderness 
of  Sin,”  which  was  their  eighth  station  be¬ 
yond  Rameses-Goshen.  At  the  briefest,  the  in¬ 
tervening  period  was  a  full  month  ;  which  had 
been  spent  at  or  between  the  stations  named. 
This  gives  an  average  of  four  days  to  each  stage. 
From  the  intimations  of  the  time  occupied  be¬ 
tween  the  Red  Sea  and  Elim,  it  might  even  be 
supposed  that  ten  days  would  be  an  ample 
period  for  the  movement  and  rest  on  that  side  of 
the  Egyptian  border  ;  leaving  twenty  days  be¬ 
tween  the  hurried  start  of  the  Israelites  from 
their  homes,  and  their  midnight  crossing  of  the 
Red  Sea.  This  would  easily  allow  several  days 
for  the  gaihering  at  the  Succoth  rendezvous.  Un¬ 
called-for  barriers  to  an  understanding  of  the 
Bible  narrative  have  been  raised,  by  a  popular 
belief  that  all  the  preparations  of  the  Israelites 
for  their  departure  out  of  Egypt  had  to  be  made 
during  the  passover  night,  and  that  the  first 
stage  of  their  journey  was  passed  before  the 
morning  of  the  coming  day.  Nothing  of  that 
sort  can  be  fairly  inferred  from  the  Bible  text. 
Moreover,  there  is  nothing  in  the  text  that  jus¬ 
tifies  the  belief  that  there  was  but  a  day’s  jour¬ 
ney  between  any  two  of  the  stations  named  as 
the  great  landmark  camping-places.  H.  C.  T. 

The  ”  Sweet  Water  Canal,”  from  a  point 
about  sixty  miles  N.  N.  E.  of  Cairo,  eastward  to 
Lake  Timsah,  carries  beside  it  a  belt  of  fertility, 
stretching  like  a  green  ribband  directly  through 
the  yellow  desert  for  forty  miles  to  Lake  Timsah, 
which  now  is  one  of  the  links  of  the  Suez  Canal, 
by  which  the  waters  of  the  Mediterranean  and  of 
the  Red  Sea  are  united.  Looking  at  the  coun¬ 
try,  it  seemed  almost  certain  that  the  Israelites 
would  concentrate  from  their  various  villages 
on  the  line  of  this  Sweet  Water  Canal.  Water 
they  must  have,  They  did  not  steal  away  fur- 
tivelj^  but  went  out  “with  a  high  hand.” 
“  With  a  strong  hand  hath  the  Lord  brought 
thee  out  of  Egypt.”  There  was  no  reason  for 
their  forsaking  this  route  to  the  Eastern  wilder¬ 
ness,  and  in  this  belt  of  inhabited  land  we  may 
fairly  locate  the  Succoth  where  they  made  their 

first  camp.  Dulles. - The  Sweet  Water  Canal 

carries  the  waters  of  the  Nile  to  Suez,  Ismailia, 
and  Port  Said.  This  canal  was  constructed  by 
the  Ship  Canal  Company,  and  it  occupies  very 
much  the  line  of  the  ancient  channel  intended 
to  connect  the  waters  of  the  Nile  with  those  of 
the  Red  Sea.  Hull. 


30 


SECTION  92.  THE  EXODUS. 


Succotll.  Thukut,  or  Thuku.  The  name 
of  a  district  in  which  at  the  time  of  the  exodus 
there  existed  not  only  Pithom,  bat  fortifications 
to  keep  off  the  invading  Asiatics.  The  camp¬ 
ing-ground  of  such  a  multitude  must  have  had 

a  great  extent.  Naville. - In  February,  1883, 

M.  Naville  began  the  work  of  excavation  at 
Tell  el  Maskhutah,  a  low  mound  about  twelve 
miles  west  of  Ismailia.  It  was  known  that  this 
mound  marked  the  site  of  an  ancient  Egyptian 
city,  but  scholarly  opinion  left  it  undecided 
whether  we  were  to  look  there  for  Kameses  or 
for  Pithom.  M.  Naville’s  excavations  quickly 
resulted  in  the  finding  of  monument  after  mon¬ 
ument  bearing  the  various  names  of  Pithom, 
which  had  already  been  made  familiar  to  us  by 
the  recovered  geographical  lists  of  ancient 
Egypt.  H.  C.  T. 

All  the  facts  yet  discovered  go  to  show  that  it 
was  the  very  city  in  question.  The  name  is 
found  in  the  tablet  of  Ptolemy  written  fully  and 
“determinated”  with  the  city  sign,  and  also 
not  thus  determinated  in  other  texts.  These 
same  texts  draw  a  distinction  between  the  city 
of  Turn  and  the  temple  of  Turn.  The  one  was 
Pi-Tam,  Pithom,  and  the  other  was  h'ia{i)-liim, 
temple  or  sanctuary  of  Turn.  This  distinction 
points  conclusively  to  the  existence  of  a  town 
called  after  the  main  deity  of  the  region,  and 
shows  by  monumental  evidence  that  the  city  is 
'there.  The  results  of  the  excavations  corre¬ 
spond  in  a  marked  way  with  the  facts  as  re¬ 
corded  ill  Exodus.  The  bricks  that  have  been 
found  (and  the  city  is  almost  entirely  composed 
of  these)  are  of  three  sorts,  with  straw,  with 
stubble,  and  without  either,  and  they  are  laid  in' 

mortar,  an  unusual  thing.  Gilleit. - When  M, 

Naville  had  digged  down  into  store-chambers 
built,  perhaps  by  the  Israelites,  in  this  store- 
city  of  the  Pharaohs,  he  had  done  a  great  deal 
more  than  discover  the  site  of  Pithom.  He 
fixed,  also,  the  centre  of  tha  biblical  district  of 
Succoth.  From  the  monuments  we  had  already 
known  that  Pithom  was  the  capital  of  the  Eg3’p- 
tian  nome  called  Abot,  or  East-land,  to  which 
was  often  given  the  alternative  name  of  Thuku 
or  Succoth,  the  place  of  tents,  or  camping- 
ground,  for  the  Semitic  nomads  who  entered 
Egypt  from  the  east.  This  district  or  nome  of 
Succoth  was  also  the  first  camping-place,  or  ren¬ 
dezvous,  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  their  march 
out  of  Egypt.  H.  C.  T. 

The  district  of  Thukut  west  and  northwest 
of  Lake  Timsah  would  be  a  very  convenient 
place  for  a  general  muster,  affording  a  wide 
space  and  abundant  pasture  in  the  spring-time, 
and  easily  reached  both  from  southwest  and 


northwest — in  the  one  case  by  the  Wady  Tumi- 
lat,  in  the  other  by  way  of  Tel-Dafneh  and  the 
western  shore  of  Lake  Ballah.  This  position 
for  Thukut  seems  indeed  to  be  definitely  fixed 
by  the  discovery  of  the  ruins  of  Pithom,  the 
capital  of  Thukut,  at  Tel  el-Maskutah,  combined 
with  the  statement  in  an  Eg^^ptian  text,  that 
Thukut  was  a  region  just  within  the  Egyptian 
frontier,  suited  for  grazing,  and  in  the  vicinitj^ 
of  some  lakes.  G.  E, 

The  recent  discovery  by  M,  Naville  of  the  true 
site  of  Pithom  at  Tel-el-Maskhutah  in  the  Wady 
Tumilat,  when  conjoined  with  the  fact  that  Pi¬ 
thom  was  the  chief  cit}'  of  the  district  of  Succoth 
mentioned  in  the  exodus,  and  that  it  was  one 

of  the  tw'o  “  store-cities,”  or  garrison  towns, 

* 

that  the  Israelites  are  said  to  have  been  com¬ 
pelled  to  build  for  Pharaoh  in  the  land  of 
Goshen,  has  thrown  a  flood  of  light  on  the  sub¬ 
ject.  It  marks  one  stage  in  the  exodus,  and 
also  carries  with  it  the  consequence  that  as 
Raineses  [the  store-city]  must  have  been  one 
day’s  march  or  thereabout  to  the  west  of  Suc¬ 
coth,  it  also  was  in  Wady  Tumilat,  but  at  the 
western  end  of  it.  Certain  ruins  at  the  en¬ 
trance  of  the  Wady  Tumilat,  hitherto  regarded 
by  many  as  marking  the  site  of  Pithom,  are 
therefore,  in  all  probability,  those  of  Rameses. 
Further,  as  the  monuments  at  both  places  indi¬ 
cate  that  Rameses  the  Great  (or  Rameses  II. ) 
was  their  builder,  the  view  held  by  the  majority 
of  Egyptologists  that  this  king  was  the  Pharaoh 
of  the  oppression  is  confirmed.  The  site  of 
Pithom  is  distinctly  visible  from  the  railway, 
about  twelve  miles  west  of  Ismailia,  and  presents 
the  remains  of  fortifications  and  extensive  gran¬ 
aries  built  with  crude  brick,  some  portions  of 
which  probably  date  from  before  the  exodus, 
though  the  site  was  occupied  down  to  the  Ro¬ 
man  times  as  the  chief  town  of  Succoth  and  an 
important  frontier  post.  Daring  the  construc¬ 
tion  of  the  Sweet  Water  Canal  it  was  also  se¬ 
lected  as  a  principal  station,  and  at  present  it  is 
occupied  by  Arabs,  who  cultivate  the  ground  in 
its  vicinit3^  Taking  it  for  granted  that  the  time 
of  the  exodus  was  in  the  reign  of  Meneptah, 
the  son  and  successor  of  Rameses,  that  the 
Wady  Tumilat  was  a  principal  part  of  the  land 
of  Goshen,  and  that  Rameses  and  Succoth  were 
in  this  valle}”,  let  us  study  the  geographical  con¬ 
ditions  of  the  question  as  thev  present  them¬ 
selves  on  an  examination  of  the  district,  now 
very  accessible  by  means  of  the  railway  from 
Cairo  to  Ismailia  and  Suez.  On  the  east  side  of 
the  delta  of  the  Nile,  about  fifty  miles  north¬ 
east  of  Cairo,  a  narrow  valley  of  cultivated  soil 
extends  eastward,  with  desert  on  both  sides,  for 


NUMBER  OF  THE  HOSTS. 


31 


aoout  eighty  miles  or  nearly  as  far  as  Ismailia, 
on  the  line  of  the  Suez  Canal,  M'here  this  crosses 
Lake  Timsah.  This  valley,  Wady  Tumilat,  is 
only  a  few  miles  wide  at  its  western  end,  and 
gradually  narrows  toward  the  east.  As  the  des¬ 
ert  sand  is,  however,  encroaching  on  it  from 
the  south,  and  has,  indeed,  in  places  over- 
vrhelmed  an  ancient  canal  which  at  one  time 
probably  ran  near  the  middle  of  the  valley,  it 
must  formerly  have  been  more  extensive  than  at 
present.  Kecent  surveys  also  render  it  certain 
that  this  valley  once  carried  a  branch  of  the 
Nile,  which  discharged  its  waters  into  the  Ked 
Sea.  This  branch,  or  a  canal  representing  it, 
must  have  existed  in  the  time  of  Moses.  At 
present  the  valley  is  watered  by  the  Sweet  Water 
Canal,  running  frorn  the  Nile  to  Suez  ;  and 
though  probably  inferior  to  the  land  of  Gosh¬ 
en  in  its  best  days,  it  is  still  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  districts  in  Egypt,  at  least  in  its 
western  part,  presenting  wide  stretches  of  fer¬ 
tile  land  covered  with  luxuriant  crops,  numer¬ 
ous  cattle  and  sheep,  large  groves  of  date-palms, 
whose  fruit  is  said  to  be  the  best  in  Egypt,  and 
numerous  populous  villages  ;  while  it  must  al¬ 
ways  have  been,  what  it  now  eminently  is,  a 
leading  line  of  communication  between  Egypt 
and  the  countries  to  the  east.  The  position  of 
this  valley  accords  admirably  with  the  scrip¬ 
tural  notices  of  it.  It  would  be  the  only  way  of 
convenient  entrance  into  Egypt  for  Jacob  with 
his  flocks  and  herds.  It  was  separated  to  a 
great  degree  from  the  rest  of  Egypt,  and  was 
eminently  suited  to  be  the  residence  of  a  j^as- 
toral  and  agricultural  people  differing  in  their 
habits  from  the  Eg3’ptians,  and  accustomed  to 
the  modes  of  life  in  use  in  Palestine.  Dawson. 

Number  of  the  Departing  Hosts. 

Ex.  :  37,  38.  600,000  men,  beside 
eliildren.  ...  A  mixed  multitude 
also,  and  verj’  much  calllc. 

From  the  census  taken  at  Sinai  (Nu.  1)  it 
appeared  that  the  whole  number  of  men, 
“  from  twenty  years  old  and  upward,  all  that 
w^ere  able  to  go  forth  to  war  in  Israel,”  was 
G03,550.  If  to  these  we  fidd  400,000  male  chil¬ 
dren  under  twenty  j’ears  of  age,  and  suppose 
the  females  to  have  been  about  as  numerous  as 
the  males,  we  find  that  the  entire  mass  of  the 
people  of  Israel  amounted  to  more  than  iw:> 
million  souls.  But  it  is  a  mistake  to  suppose 
that  the  two  millions  were  all  the  direct  descen¬ 
dants  of  Jacob.  When  Jacob  and  his  sons  went 
down  to  Egypt,  they  must  certainly  have  taken 
with  them  all  their  men-servants  and  maid-ser¬ 


vants,  as  well  as  all  their  cattle,  for  these  formed 
a  portion  of  their  wealth.  We  know  that  Abra¬ 
ham  had  318  servants  fit  for  war  and  trained  to 
arms  ;  his  nomadic  household,  therefore,  must 
have  contained  more  than  a  thousand  souls. 
Jacob,  again,  who  inherited  all  these,  brought 
with  him  from  Syria  many  men-servants  and 
maid-servants,  and  much  cattle.  With  such 
data  as  these,  we  are  justified  in  assuming  that 
the  number  of  those  who  went  down  with  Jacob 
to  Egypt  was  not  limited  to  his  sixty-six  chil- 
dren  and  grandchildren,  but  consisted  of  several 
thousand  men-servants  and  maid-servants.  But 
according  to  Gen.  17  : 12,  13,  these  had  been  all 
received  bj’’  circumcision  into  the  religious  com¬ 
munity  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  thus  the 
distinction  between  master  and  servant,  which 
is  never  very  marked  among  nomads,  must  have 
been  still  further  softened  down.  In  Egypt, 
where  the  striking  contrast  between  Israelites 
and  Egyptians  was  necessarily  a  great  impedi¬ 
ment  in  the  wmy  of  intermarriages,  the  descend¬ 
ants  of  Jacob  will  no  doubt  have  married  the 
descendants  of  his  servants.  And  under  such 
circumstances  the  distinction  must  gradually 
have  worn  away.  Hence  we  regard  the  two 
million  souls  who  left  Egypt  after  the  lapse  of 
430  3^ears  as  the  posterity  of  the  whole  of  the 
people  who  went  down  into  Egypt  with  Jacob.  K. 

Such  a  company  moving  at  once  the  world 
never  before  nor  since  witnessed  ;  upward  of 
two  millions  of  souls,  besides  their  flocks  and 
herds,  even  very  much  cattle  j  and  what  but  the 
mere  providende  of  God  could  support  such  a 
multitude,  and  in  the  wilderness,  too,  where  to 
this  day  the  necessaries  of  life  are  not  to  be 
found  ?  Had  not  Moses  the  fullest  proof  of  his 
Divine  mission,  he  never  could  have  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  such  an  immense  concourse  of 
people,  who,  without  the  most  especial  and 
effective  Providence,  must  all  have  perished  for 
lack  of  food.  This  single  circumstance  is  an 
ample  demonstration  of  the  Divine  mission  of 
Moses,  and  of  the  authenticity  and  Divine  in¬ 
spiration  of  the  Pentateuch.  To  suppose  that 
an  impostor,  or  one  pretending  only  to  a  Divine 
call,  could  have  ventured  to  place  himself  at  the 
head  of  such  an  immense  body  of  peojple,  to 
lead  them  through  a  trackless  wilderness,  utterly 
unprovided  for  such  a  journey,  to  a  land  as  jmt 
in  the  possession  of  several  powerful  nations, 
whom  they  must  expel  before  they  could  possess 
the  country,  would  have  implied  such  an  ex¬ 
treme  of  madness  and  folly  as  has  never  been 
witnessed  in  an  individual,  and  such  a  blind 
credulity  in  the  multitude  as  is  unparalleled  in 
the  annals  of  mankind  1  The  succeeding  stu- 


32 


SECTION  92.  TUE  EXOD  ITS. 


pendous  events  proved  that  Moses  had  the  au¬ 
thority  of  God  to  do  what  he  did.  A.  C. 

Aside  from  any  miraculous  aspects  of  the 
case,  the  exodus  must  be  recognized  as  one  of 
the  most  extraordinary  achievements  in  history  ; 
and  the  man  who  could  guide  it  to  a  prosper¬ 
ous  issue  must  have  been  second  to  no  man  in 
the  catalogue  of  great  names.  It  is  indeed  diffi¬ 
cult  to  name  a  successful  enterprise  which  can 
bear  a  moment’s  comparison  in  magnitude  and 
difficulty  with  the  taking  up  of  a  whole  people, 
men,  women,  and  children,  and  all  their  por¬ 
table  effects,  removing  the  great  heterogeneous 
company  in  the  face  of  a  mighty,  warlike  na¬ 
tion,  carrying  them  through  a  vast  desert  scant¬ 
ily  supplied  with  water  and  destitute  of  the 
accumulated  products  of  the  soil,  occupied  only 
by  hostile  tribes,  and  then  planting  them  so 
effectually  in  their  new  home  as  to  make  of 
them  a  nation  of  wealth  and  power,  and  of  unity 
unparalleled.  The  immigration  of  four  hundred 
thousand  Tartars  in  a  single  night  from  the 
confines  of  Eussia  into  their  own  native  deserts, 
sometimes  cited  in  illustration,  bears  but  the 
remotest  resemblance  to  it.  The  tourist  who 
travels  over  *the  region,  attended  by  a  dozen 
Arabs  and  as  many  camels,  to  carry  and  care  for 
him  on  the  way,  will  ordinarily  be  not  the  last 
ready  to  believe  that  no  natural  force  or  genius 
was  adequate,  except  as  re-enforced  by  some 
such  agencies  as  are  recorded  in  the  Hebrew 
history.  The  narrative,  however,  records  the 
most  complete  preparation  that  the  case  admit¬ 
ted  :  a  leader  who  had  himself  twice  passed 
over  the  region,  and  was  now  intrusted  with  ab¬ 
solute  authority  ;  long  expectation,  and  season¬ 
able  notice  at  last  ;  a  definite  time  and  place  of 
rendezvous;  an  organized  arrangement  —  for 
they  went  up  “  harnessed,”  or  rather,  in  orderly 
array  ;  a  method  of  march  and  encampment  as 
thorough  as  that  of  the  best  modern  arm}^  with 
many  sanitary  provisions  ;  and  negotiations, 


however  unsuccessful,  with  the  tribes  on  the 
way.  The  substantial  fact  of  the  expedition  is  no 
more  to  be  questioned  than  the  Norman  Con¬ 
quest.  Never  was  an  event  so  vitally  incorpo¬ 
rated  with  a  nation’s  history,  observances,  and 
literature,  in  every  form,  as  was  the  Egyptian 
residence  and  rescue  with  those  of  Israel. 
Bartlett. 

38.  A  mixed  multitude  weut.  Partly 
Egyptians  and  partly  natives  of  other  countries, 
who  had  been  prevailed  upon  by  the  miracles 
wrought  in  behalf  of  the  Israelites,  and  from 
other  motives,  to  go  with  them.  Some  were 
probably  Egyptians  of  the  poorer  class,  who 
were  in  hopes  to  better  their  condition  in  some 
way,  or  had  other  good  reasons  for  leaving 
Egypt.  Others  were  perhaps  foreign  slaves  be¬ 
longing  both  to  the  Hebrews  and  Egyptians, 
who  were  glad  to  take  the  opportunity  of  escap¬ 
ing  with  the  Israelites.  Others  again  were  such 
adventurers  and  debtors  as  could  no  longer  stay 
safely  in  Egypt.  Whoever  or  whatever  they 
were,  the  Israelites  were  no  better  for  their 
presence.  Bush. 

39.  The  provision  made  for  the  camp  was 
very  poor  and  slender.  They  brought  some 
dough  with  them  out  of  Egypt  in  their  knap¬ 
sacks  (verse  34).  They  had  prepared  to  bake  the 
next  day,  in  order  to  their  removal,  understand¬ 
ing  it  was  very  near  ;  but  being  hastened  away, 
they  took  the  dough  as  it  was,  unleavened,  and 
when  they  came  to  Succoth,  they  baked  unleav¬ 
ened  cakes,  and  though  they  were  insipid,  yet 
the  liberty  they  were  brought  into  made  it  the 
most  joyful  meal  they  had  ever  eaten  in  their 
lives.  H. 


“  History,”  says  Bunsen,  “  was  born  in  that 
night  when  Moses,  with  the  Law  of  God — moral 
and  spiritual— in  his  heart,  led  the  people  of 
Israel  out  of  Egypt.” 


SECTION  93. 


33 


Section  93. 

FEOM  SUCCOTH  TO  ETHAM,  FROM  ETHAM  TO  THE  RED  SEA. 


Exodus  13  :  17-22  ;  14  ;  1-9,  Nu.  33  ;  G,  7. 

Ec.  13  17  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Pharaoh  had  let  the  people  go,  that  God  led  them  not 
by  the  way  of  the  land  of  the  Philistines,  although  that  was  near  ;  for  God  said.  Lest 

18  peradventure  the  people  repent  when  they  see  war,  and  they  return  to  Egypt  :  but 
God  led  the  people  about,  by  the  waj"  of  the  wilderness  by  the  Red  Sea  :  and  the  chil- 

19  dren  of  Israel  went  up  armed  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  And  Moses  took  the  bones 
of  Joseph  with  him  :  for  he  had  straitly  sworn  the  children  of  Israel,  saying,  God  will 

20  surely  visit  you  ;  and  ye  shall  carry  up  my  bones  away  hence  with  you.  And  they 
took  their  journey  from  Succoth,  and  encamped  in  Etham,  in  the  edge  of  the  wilder- 

21  ness.  And  the  Lord  went  before  them  by  day  in  a  pillar  of  cloud,  to  lead  them  the 
way  ;  and  by  night  in  a  pillar  of  fire,  to  give  them  light  ;  that  they  might  go  by  day 

22  and  by  night  :  the  pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  and  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  departed  not 
from  before  the  peoj)le. 

14  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that 

2  they  turn  back  and  encamp  before  Pi-hahiroth,  between  Migdol  and  the  sea,  before 

3  Baal-zephon  ;  over  against  it  shall  ye  encamp  by  the  sea.  And  Pharaoh  will  say  of 
the  children  of  Israel,  They  are  entangled  in  the  land,  the  wilderness  hath  shut  them 

4  in.  And  I  will  harden  Pharaoh’s  heart,  and  he  shall  follow  after  them  ;  and  I  will  get 
me  honour  upon  Pharaoh,  and  upon  all  his  host  ;  and  the  Egyptians  shall  know  that  I 

5  am  the  Lord.  And  they  did  so.  And  it  was  told  the  king  of  Egypt  that  the  people 
were  fled  :  and  the  heart  of  Pharaoh  apd  of  his  servants  was  changed  towards  the 
people,  and  they  said,  What  is  this  we  have  done,  that  we  have  let  Israel  go  from 

6  serving  us  ?  And  he  made  ready  his  chariot,  and  took  his  people  with  him  :  and  he 

7  took  six  hundred  chosen  chariots,  and  all  the  chariots  of  Egypt,  and  captains  over  all 

8  of  them.  And  the  Lord  hardened  the  heart  of  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt,  and  he  pur¬ 
sued  after  the  children  of  Israel  :  for  the  children  of  Israel  went  out  with  an  high 

9  hand.  And  the  Egyptians  pursued  after  them,  all  the  horses  and  chariots  of  Pharaoh, 
and  his  horsemen,  and  his  army,  and  overtook  them  encamping  by  the  sea,  beside 
Pi-hahiroth,  before  Baal-zephon. 

Xa.  33  6  And  they  journeyed  from  Succoth,  and  pitched  in  Etham,  which  is  in  the  edge  of 

7  the  wilderness.  And  they  journeyed  from  Etham,  and  turned  back  unto  Pi-hahiroth, 
which  is  before  Baal-zephon  :  and  they  pitched  before  Migdol. 


Notwithstanding  the  difficulty  of  exactly  iden¬ 
tifying  localities  after  an  interval  measured  by 
thousands  of  years,  it  is,  on  the  whole,  surpris¬ 
ing  to  see  how  near  an  approach  can  be  made 
to  a  determination  of  the  route  by  which  Israel 
went  up  out  of  Egypt.  The  exceptional  config¬ 
uration  and  condition  of  the  country  are,  and 
always  have  been,  such  as  to  guide  and  restrict 
the  movements  of  large  companies  ;  and  the 
ascertainment  of  a  few  places  goes  far  toward 
settling  the  whole  line  of  march. 

The  Wady  Tumilat  is  a  narrow  fertile  strip 
lying  some  thirty-five  miles  north  of  the  latitude 
of  Cairo,  and  extending  from  the  Nile  delta  to 
the  eastern  edge  of  Egypt.  A  little  north  of 
Cairo  the  two  limestone  ridges  that  shut  in  the 
Nile  break  down  and  swing  off  to  the  northeast 
3 


and  the  northwest  respectively,  making  room 
for  the  delta.  The  northeastern  line,  greatly 
reduced  in  height,  opens  at  a  place  nearly  east 
of  Zagazig,  and  lets  a  narrow  tapering  valley  or 
depression  of  surface  shoot  directly  east,  almost 
to  Birket  Timsah,  the  Crocodile  Lake.  It  is 
the  Wady  Tumilat,  Goshen  unquestionably  in¬ 
cluded  Wady  Tumilat,  the  valley  of  the  modern 
canal  and  railway.  Along  this  valley  ran  the 
ancient  canal  of  the  time  of  the  exodus,  though 
not  then,  as  afterward,  extended  to  the  Red 
Sea.  From  Zagazig  the  railway  runs  almost  due 
east,  soon  entering  and  followdng  Wady  Tumi¬ 
lat.  For  a  long  distance  the  valley  seemed  the 
most  productive  part  of  Egypt  that  I  had  seen. 
In  its  wider  parts  it  may  be  two  miles  or  more 
I  in  breadth,  growing  steadily  narrower,  till  be- 


34 


SECTION  93.  FROM  SUGCOTH  TO  ETHAM. 


ROUTE  FROM  GOSHEN  (RAMESES)  TO  THE  RED  SEA. 


fore  reaching  Ismailia,  on  the  Crocodile  Lake 
(Timsah)  (which  is  by  rail  forty-seven  miles 
east  of  Zagazig),  it  entirely  fades  out.  The  rail¬ 
way  and  the  Sweet  Water  Canal  run  through  its 
entire  length.  Bartlett. 

13  :  17,  Ixoct  led  tl^ein  not  by  tlie 
“way  of  the  Philistines.  The  reason  is 
here  given  in  advance  for  the  change  in  their 
route  indicated  in  the  emphatic  command  to 
Moses  (14  : 1,  2).  B. 

18,  The  Way  of  the  Wilderness  by 
the  Red  Sea,  or  “  The  Way  of  the  -Bed 
Sea,”  was  the  road  which  swept  out  of  Egypt, 
across  the  wilderness  between  the  two  arms  of 
the  Red  Sea,  from  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez 
to  the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Akabah,  It  is  to¬ 
day  the  great  Hajj  route  from  Egypt  toward 
Mecca.  It  is  frequently  referred  to  in  the  nar- 
jative  of  the  exodus  and  wanderings.  H.  C.  T. 

To  say  nothing  of  the  Divine  purposes  rela¬ 
tive  to  the  drowning  of  the  Egyptians  in  the 
Red  Sea,  and  the  humbling  and  proving  of  the 
Israelites  by  a  protracted  sojourn  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,  they  could  not  enter  Canaan  by  the  direct 


route  without  encountering  the  Philistines,  who 
then  occupied  all  its  southern  borders.  These 
Philistines  were  a  powerful  and  warlike  nation, 
between  whom  and  the  Israelites  there  seems 
to  have  been  an  ancient  grudge  existing  from  a 
circumstance  mentioned  1  Chron.  7  :21,  22,  To 
avoid,  therefore,  the  perils  of  battle,  Moses  is 
directed  to  take  another  far  more  circuitous  and 
difficult  route  ”  by  the  way  of  the  wilderness  of  the 
Red  Sea.”  Moses  was  directed  in  this,  for  the 
circumstances  clearly  evince  that  he  could  have 
been  no  self-appointed  lawgiver,  leading  forth 
the  Israelites  from  Egypt  of  his  own  motion, 
but  that  he  all  along  acted  under  Divine  dicta¬ 
tion  and  control.  Bush. 

Their  spirits  were  broken  with  slavery  ;  the 
Philistines  were  formidable  enemies,  too  fierce 
to  be  encountered  by  raw  recruits  ;  it  was  more 
suitable  that  they  should  be  prepared  for  the 
wars  of  Canaan,  by  experiencing  the  difficulties 
of  the  wilderness.  God  proportions  his  peo¬ 
ple’s  trials  to  their  strength,  and  will  not  suffer 
them  to  be  tempted  above  what  they  are  able.  He 
tried  their  faith  and  patience  and  dependence 


FROM  SUCCOTII  TO  ETIIAM. 


35 


■upon  God,  and  inured  them  to  the  hardships  of 
the  wilderness,  and  so  instructed  them.  Every 
stage  had  something  in  it  that  was  instructive  ; 
even  when  he  chastened  them,  he  thereby  iavght 
ihern  out  of  his  Law.  It  is  said  (Ps.  107  :  7)  that 
he  led  them  forth  hy  the  right  way  ;  and  yet  here, 
that  he  led  them  about  ^  for  God  always  leads  his 
people  the  right  way,  however  to  us  it  may  seem 
about  ;  so  that  the  farthest  way  about  proves, 
if  not  the  nearest  waj^  yet  the  best  way  home 
to  Canaan.  How  God  instructed  them  is  ex¬ 
plained  long  after  (Neh.  9  ;  13),  Thou  gaveat  them 
right  judgments  and  true  laws,  good  statutes  and 
commandments ;  and  especially  (verse  20),  Thou 
gavest  them  also  thy  good  Spirit  to  instruct  them  ; 
and  he  instructs  effectually.  We  may  well  im¬ 
agine  how  unfit  that  people  had  been  for  Ca¬ 
naan,  had  they  not  first  gone  through  the  dis¬ 
cipline  of  the  wilderness.  H. 

In  this  wilderness  route  there  were  great  pur¬ 
poses  to  be  accomplished  in  the  moral  training 
and  culture  of  the  nation  and  in  the  manifesta¬ 
tions  of  the  God  of  their  fathers  before  their 
ej^es.  That  way  lay  the  passage  of  the  Eed  Sea 
which  God  i^rovided  as  the  burial-place  for  the 
proud  hosts  of  Pharaoh  ;  that  way  lay  Sinai — 
those  grand  mountain  cliffs  which  God  was  to 
shake  with  his  thunders  and  invest  with  the 
smoke  and  the  flame  of  his  glorious  i^resence, 
that  the  Law  might  be  written  in  letters  of  fire 
upon  the  souls  of  the  w'hole  people  ;  that  w'ay 
lay  the  long,  breadless,  waterless  route  of  almost 
forty  3^ears  wandering  and  sojourning  in  which 
the  Lord  fed  the  people  wdth  angels’  food  — 
bread  from  the  lower  heavens — the  manna  of 
the  desert,  and  with  w^ater  once  and  again  from 
smitten  rocks,  flowing  in  dry  places  as  a  river — 
that  they  might  learn  the  power  and  the  love  of 
their  God  ;  that  way  lay  also  their  long  tuition 
and  training  into  their  religious  system — a 
wonderful  arrangement  of  sacrifices  and  ordi¬ 
nances  for  wdiich  the  lifetime  of  a  genera¬ 
tion  was  scarce!}'  too  long.  All  these  great 
results  and  yet  others  were  contemplated  and 
provided  for  in  this  choice  of  the  wilder¬ 
ness  route  as  their  way  to  the  land  of  Canaan. 
H.  C 

According  to  the  course  of  the  country,  Moses 
might  have  marched  the  people  a  much  shorter 
w'ay,  and,  supported  by  the  power  of  God,  have 
taken  possession  of  the  land  of  Canaan  at  once  ; 
but  such  rapid  proceedings  would  not  have 
served  the  purpose  for  w'hich  the  children  of 
Israel  wmre  separated  from  all  other  nations.  It 
is  evident,  from  Moses’s  supposing  that  they 
would  ask  the  name  of  the  God  of  their  fathers, 
that  they  had  become  polytheists  during  their 


residence  in  Egypt.  Their  making  and  wor¬ 
shipping  of  the  golden  calf  is  a  proof  of  the 
strength  of  their  attachment  to  the  idolatry  of 
[  their  late  masters  ;  and  the  readiness  with 
which  they  suffered  themselves  to  be  seduced 
by  the  daughters  of  Moab,  indicated  their  prone¬ 
ness  to  idolatry  of  every  kind.  God  drew  them, 
as  he  says  himself  (Hos.  11  : 4),  “With  the 
cords  of  a  man,  and  bands  of  love,’’  that,  by 
appeals  made  to  their  understandings  and  their 
affections,  they  might  see  reason  to  become  at¬ 
tached  to  him  and  habituated  to  his  wmrship  ; 
but  this  could  be  done  only  by  detaining  them 
in  the  wilderness  till  their  religious  principles 
should  be  fixed  and  their  trust  in  him  and  at¬ 
tachment  to  his  service  be  strengthened  into 
habit  by  numerous  displays  of  goodness  and 
power,  such  as  were  never  vouchsafed  to  any 
other  people.  Had  they  been  carried  to  Canaan 
by  the  shortest  way  and  settled  there  at  once  by 
the  extermination  of  the  seven  nations,  nothing 
would  ever  have  been  heard,  either  by  them  or 
by  us,  of  the  Angel  of  God’s  Presence  visibly 
jDreceding  them  ;  nothing  of  his  dividing  the 
sea  to  facilitate  their  passage  ;  nothing  of  his 
overwhelming  their  enemies  in  those  very  floods, 
which  to  them  were  a  kind  of  w'all  on  each 
side  ;  nothing  of  his  drawing  out  rivers  of  water 
from  the  stony  rock  ;  nothing  of  his  (Ps.  78  : 24), 
“  sending  down  manna  upon  them,  and  giving 
them  food  from  heaven  nothing  of  his  “  rain¬ 
ing  flesh,  as  thick  as  dust,  and  feathered  fowls, 
like  as  the  sand  of  the  sea  nothing  of  his 
amazing  descent  upon  Mount  Sinai,  when,  in 
the  lofty  w'ords  of  the  Psalmist  (Ps.  18  :  9,  etc.), 
“he  bowed  the  heavens,  and  came  down,  and 
it  was  dark  under  his  feet  ;  he  rode  upon  the 
cherubims,  and  did  fly  ;  he  came  flying  upon 
the  wings  of  the  wind  ;  he  made  darkness  his 
secret  place,  his  pavilion  round  about  him  with 
dark  water,  and  thick  clouds  to  cover  him  : 
There  went  a  smoke  out  of  his  presence,  hail¬ 
stones,  and  coals  of  fire,  so  that  the  earth  trem¬ 
bled  and  quaked  ;  the  very  foundations  also  or 
the  hills  shook,  and  were  removed.’’  The  wil¬ 
derness,  in  short,  was  the  scene  which  God  had 
made  choice  of  for  the  display  of  his  almighty 
power  and  goodness  :  there  it  was  that  he  laid 
bare  his  arm,  as  he  calls  it,  to  the  Israelites  ; 
that  every  day  he  took  care  of  their  meat  and 
drink  and  clothing  ;  and  had  he  not  detained 
them  there  so  long,  he  had  not  been  so  kind. 
It  may  be  considered  further,  that,  before  this 
people  were  to  be  admitted  into  the  possession 
of  the  inheritance  which  God  had  promised 
them,  all  matters  were  to  be  adjnsted  between 
him  and  them  ;  and  to  this  purpose  laws  were 


3G 


SECTION  93.  FROM  8UCC0TH  TO  ETIIAM. 


to  be  given,  ordinances  instituted,  and  covenants 
sealed.  Stackhouse. 

In  the  sacred  story  there  are  three  great  typi¬ 
cal  lands  :  Egypt,  Arabia,  Canaan.  Egypt  is 
the  Land  of  Bondage  ;  Arabia  is  the  Land  of 
Training  ;  Canaan  is  the  Land  of  Best.  He  who 
would  pass  from  Egypt  to  Canaan  must  needs 
go  through  Arabia.  It  was  into  Arabia  that 
Moses  was  led,  in  his  training  for  his  work 
as  leader  and  lawgiver,  after  his  dwelling  in 
Egj^it.  Elijah  the  projihet  had  his  training 
lessons  there  (1  Kings  19  : 1-18).  And  thither 
was  Paul  sent  in  preparation  for  his  work  as  the 
ajiostle  to  the  Gentiles  (GaL  1  : 17).  H.  C.  T. 

1{>,  took  Ike  koiics  of  Joscpk 

U’itll  liiiii.  Nothing  in  all  Joseph’s  life 
showed  his  heart  so  plainly  as  the  directions  he 
left  at  his  death.  After  a  long  life  spent  in  their 
service,  he  so  loved  his  kindred  and  had  such 
faith  in  his  God  that  he  thought  only  of  how  he 
could  best  make  even  his  dead  body  serve  his 
jieople  and  glorify  God.  It  was  not  merely  a 
desire  to  be  buried  with  his  fathers  ;  for  all 
Egypt  would  have  united  with  his  kindred  in 
carrying  him  thither.  They  had  thus  carried 
Jacob  ;  still  more  willingly  would  they  have 
heeded  the  wish  of  their  great  statesman  who 
for  eighty  years  had  governed  Egypt  so  wisely 
and  so  well.  But  he  would  serve  his  people  and 
honor  his  God  with  his  dead  body.  A  long  life 
of  service  did  not  satisfy  him  so  long  as  there 
was  aught  he  could  do.  He  believed  God  would 
visit  the  23eople  and  lead  them  out  of  EgyjDt. 
But  the  time  might  be  long  and  their  faith  fail 
as  they  waited.  Nothing  he  could  say  or  do 
would  so  keep  the  coming  exodus  in  their  minds 
as  to  leave  his  bones  among  them  unburied, 
waiting  to  be  carried  up  from  hence.  Nothing 
would  serve  so  effectually  to  keejo  in  their  minds 
and  hearts  the  wonderful  story  of  God's  dealings 
with  Jose23h  himself  :  his  rescue  from  the  pit 
and  from  the  dungeon,  and  his  deliverance  of 
his  father’s  family  from  the  famine.  Year  after 
year,  as  they  march  back  and  forth  through  the 
desert,  wdiile  slowly  the  condemned  generation 
died  out  among  them,  that  coffin  is  borne  on  by 
his  descendants.  Those  who  bore  it  on  that 
night-march  from  Eg3"j)t  had  died,  and  their 
sons,  who  stood  looking  ujjon  it  then  with  won¬ 
dering  eyes,  had  taken  their  place.  And  still 
they  wandered  in  the  desert,  and  still  no  burial- 
place  was  found  for  Joseph.  But,  as  it  had 
done  in  EgyjDt,  that  coffin  strengthens  their  faith 
in  their  desert  march.  Does  despondency^  seize 
ujDon  some  son  of  Manasseh,  and  does  he  say 
gloomily  to  his  comrade,  “  We  shall  all  perish 
in  this  wilderness  ;  it  would  have  been  better 


to  have  remained  in  Egypt,  for  none  of  us  will 
ever  reach  the  land  of  Abraham  ?”— one  look 
toward  that  body  waiting  there,  and  which  had 
waited  so  long,  would  silence  him.  If  Joseph 
had  such  faith  so  long  ago,  why  should  his  chil¬ 
dren  doubt?  That  coffin  stood  a  silent  pledge 
that  the  wanderings  should  cease  and  they  rest 
in  the  land  promised  to  their  fathers.  It 
preached  to  them  not  only  faith  but  patience. 
Why  should  they  be  weary  of  these  few  years, 
when  Joseph  had  waited  for  burial  through  cen¬ 
turies?  Horn.  Rev. 

211.  Tke  Lord  wcKt  before  them. 

That-by  the  Lokd  here  is  meant  the  Lord  Jesus, 
we  have  the  authority  of  Paul  to  believe  (1  Cor. 
10  :  9).  It  was  He  whose  spirit  they  tempted  in 
the  wilderness,  for  it  was  He  who  led  them 
through  the  desert  to  the  jjromised  rest.  In  a 
pifiBar  of  cloud — of  fire.  This  pillar  or 
Ci'lumn  which  appeared  as  a  cloud  by  day,  and  a 
fire  by  night,  was  the  symbol  of  the  Divine  pres¬ 
ence,  the  Shekinuh  or  Divine  dwelling-ijlace,  and 
was  the  continual  j)roof  of  the  2)resence  and 

protection  of  GOD.  A.  C. - It  was  manifestly 

the  visible  presence  of  Jehovah  with  his  people. 
It  was  to  be  both  a  guide  to  them  in  all  their 
wanderings,  a  shelter  in  the  day  from  the  blaz¬ 
ing  sun  of  the  desert,  and  at  night  a  light  to 
illuminate  the  encamjmrent  ;  as  a  jrrotector  to 
flame  forth  against  their  enemies,  or  on  some 
si^ecial  occasions,  as  ui)on  the  doomed  violators 
of  his  covenant,  in  the  way  of  executing  the 
wrath  of  Jehovah  against  otfenders.  As  to  the 
form  and  structure  and  outward  aj)2)earance  of 
this  remarkable  symbol,  we  are  led  to  conceive 
of  it  as  a  majestic  column,  with  base  perhaps 
broad  enough  to  shade  the  whole  camj)  of  Israel 
from  the  sun,  which  must  have  been  six  or  eight 
miles  square.  By  day  it  was  an  opaque  body, 
by  night  the  ineffable  brightness  from  within 
shone  through  the  encircling  opaque  cloud. 
This  remarkable  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire  is 
spoken  of  as  the  Angel  of  Jehovah  (Ex.  23  :  20- 
23)  ;  as  the  glory  of  the  Lord  whose  sight  v/as 
like  devouring  fire  (Ex.  24  :  17).  So  in  De. 
1  :  32,  33  :  “  The  Lord,  your  God,  went  in  your 
way  before  you  to  search  you  out  a  place  to 
pitch  your  tents  in,  in  fiie  by  night  to  show  you 
by  which  way  ye  should  go,  and  in  a  cloud  by 
day.”  According  to  the  teaching  of  these  pas¬ 
sages,  this  cloud-fire  pillar  was  to  Israel  the 
Angel  Jehovah  of  the  nation,  and  they  looked 
upon  that  sublime  and  awful  column  as  the  vis¬ 
ible  embodiment  of  their  ever-present  God  look¬ 
ing  out  from  it  upon  them,  and  from  whom  the 
most  secret  action  could  not  be  hid.  It  was  also 
their  oracle  for  the  time— their  Shekinah,  or 


THE  PILLAR  OF  CLOUD  AND  FIRE. 


37 


visible  glory.  On  occasion  it  rose  from  their 
camp  and  ascended  to  the  summit  with  attend¬ 
ant  lightnings  and  thunders  ;  or  again  de¬ 
scended  from  Sinai  and  stood  over  the  newly- 
erected  tabernacle,  where  God  talked  with 
Moses  and  delivered  all  the  precepts  of  the  Le- 
vitical  Law.  In  short,  this  was  the  symbol  of 
the  Divine  presence  with  his  people,  and  as  a 
theophecy  typified  the  incarnation  of  God  in 
the  person  of  Jesus  “  the  brightness  of  the 
Father’s  glory.”  S.  K. 

This  inwrapped  inner  splendor  is  more  appro¬ 
priately  termed  “  the  Glory  of  the  Lord  and 
this  “  Glory”  is  said  to  have  appeared  in  the  day¬ 
time,  when  God  would  express  his  displeasure 
on  account  of  the  people’s  transgressions,  or 
when  he  would  strike  them  with  a  trembling 
awe  of  his  majesty,  as  at  the  giving  of  the  Law 
from  Sinai.  In  like  manner,  when  the  two  sons 
of  Aaron,  Nabab  and  Abihu,  offended  by  strange 
fire  in  their  offerings,  a  fatal  flash  from  the 
cloudy  pillar  instantaneously  extinguished  their 
lives.  We  cannot  doubt,  therefore,  that  this 
majestic  pillar  of  cloud  was  intended  to  serve  as 
the  Shekinah,  or  visible  representative  of  Je¬ 
hovah,  dwelling  in  the  midst  of  the  chosen  peo¬ 
ple.  The  Divine  nature — that  is,  the  Divine 
power,  efficacy,  authority,  majesty,  and  omnis¬ 
cience,  would  be  associated  with  the  external 
visible  symbol.  To  all  practical  purposes, 
therefore,  this  cloudy  pillar  was  to  them  the 
“  Angel  Jehovah,”  Christ,  the  God  of  their  na¬ 
tion,  and  they  were  to  look  up  to  that  sublime 
and  awful  column  as  a  visible  embodiment  of 
their  covenant  God,  as  an  ever-present  witness, 
from  whom  not  even  their  slightest  word  or 
deed  could  be  hidden.  This  view  of  the  cloudy 
pillar  as  a  kind  of  w^atch-tower  of  the  Almighty, 
an  aerial  Mizpeh,  or  “  place  of  espial,”  is  ex¬ 
pressly  recognized  in  the  remarkable  passage 
(Ex.  14  : 24,  25).  Bush. 

In  each  of  the  aspects  which  this  pillar  as¬ 
sumed,  we  find  the  corresponding  feature  most 
fully  verified  in  Christ.  He  is  the  light  of  men. 
The  glory  of  the  Father  shines  forth  in  him  as 
full  of  grace  and  truth.  He  alone  has  revealed 
the  Father,  and  can  give  the  spirit  of  wisdom  and 
revelation  in  the  knowledge  of  him.  Therefore 
he  is  the  Word  or  Revealer  of  God,  the  etfal- 
gence  of  his  glory.  And  while  merciful  and  com¬ 
passionate  in  the  last  degree  to  sinners — the  very 
jjersonification  of  love— he  yet  has  eyes  like  a 
flame  of  fire,  and  feet  as  of  burning  brass  ; 
and  he  w^alks  amid  the  golden  candlesticks,  as  he 
did  in  the  camp  of  Israel,  to  bring  to  light  the 
hidden  works  of  darkness,  and  cause  his  indig¬ 
nation  to  smoke  against  the  hypocrites.  P.  F. 


Christ  was  with  the  Church  in  the  wilderness 
(1  Cor.  10  :  9).  Now  their  king  passed  before  them, 
even  the  Lord  on  the  head  of  them  (Mic.  2  :  13). 
Those  w’hom  God  brings  into  a  wilderness,  he 
will  not  leave  nor  lose  there,  but  will  take  care 
to  lead  them  through  it.  Tltey  needed  not  to 
fear  missing  their  way  who  were  thus  led,  or 
being  lost  who  were  thus  directed  ;  they  needed 
not  to  fear  being  benighted  wdio  w'ere  thus  il¬ 
luminated,  nor  being  robbed  who  were  thus 
protected.  They  who  make  the  glory  of  God 
their  end  and  the  Word  of  God  their  rule,  the 
Spirit  of  God  the  guide  of  their  affections  and 
the  providence  of  God  the  guide  of  their  affairs, 
may  be  confident  that  the  Lord  goes  before  them, 
as  truly  as  he  went  before  Israel  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,  though  not  so  sensibly  ;  we  must  live  by 
faith.  H. 

Nothing  less  than  an  identification  of  Christ 
with  the  ”  Jehovah”  or  the  oracular  Presence,  the 
Shekinah,  of  the  Old  Testament  was  manifest 
in  that  overwhelming  display  of  which  John, 
Peter,  and  James  were  eye-witnesses  on  the 
Mount  of  Transfiguration,  when  there  was  a  tem¬ 
porary  laying  aside  of  the  veil  of  his  flesh,  the 
cloud  of  his  human  nature,  and  a  transient  dis¬ 
closure  of  the  indwelling  Shekinah,  the  glory  of 
his  Godhead.  This  was  a  preintimation  to  the 
senses  of  that  ineffable  light  and  splendor  in 
which  he  will  apjiear  when  he  comes  with  the 
retinue  of  his  saints  to  be  the  luminary  of  the 
New  Jerusalem,  W’hich  is  to  come  down  from  God 
out  of  heaven.  The  whole  scene  seems  to  have 
been  intended  to  afford  a  demonstration  to  the 
senses  of  the  substantial  identity  of  the  person 
of  the  incarnate  Pedeemer  with  the  manifested 
Jehovah  of  the  Jewish  dispensation.  Conse¬ 
quently,  whatever  of  essential  divinity  is  indi¬ 
cated  by  the  title  “  Jehovah,”  it  is  unquestion¬ 
ably  to  be  considered  as  belonging  to  Christ. 
Bush. 

To  lead  tliein  t5«e  way.  The  custom 
of  guiding  caravans  by  means  of  smoke  and 
light  is  referred  to  by  many  authors.  Curtius 
tells  of  Alexander  the  Great  employing  this 
method  in  his  campaigns.  A  beacon  or  cresset 
on  a  lofty  pole  before  his  headquarters  pavilion 
could  be  seen  by  all  from  near  and  far  ;  and  it 
was  a  guide  to  all.  ”  Fire  w'as  to  be  the  signal 
by  night;  smoke  by  day.”  “  We  cannot  but 
acknowledge,”  says  Kurtz,  ‘‘  that  in  the  pillar 
of  cloud  and  of  fire,  in  which  Jehovah  himself 
accompanied  and  conducted  his  jieople,  there 
was  some  reference  to  the  ordinary  cai*avan-fire, 
which  served  as  a  guide  as  w'ell  as  a  signal  of 
encampment  and  departure  to  the  caravans  and 
armies  of  the  East.  For  in  the  design  and 


38 


SECTION  93.  FROM  8UCC0TH  TO  ETIIAM. 


form  of  the  two  phenomena  we  can  trace  ex¬ 
actly  the  same  features  ;  the  difference  being 
that  the  one  was  a  merely  natural  arrangement, 
which  answered  its  purpose  but  very  imper¬ 
fectly  and  was  exceedingly  insignificant  in  its 
character,  while  the  other  was  a  supernatuial 
phenomenon,  beyond  all  comparison  more 
splendid  and  magnihcent  in  its  form,  which 
not  only  served  as  a  signal  of  encampment  and 
departure,  and  led  the  way  in  an  incomparably 
superior  manner,  but  was  also  made  to  answer 
far  greater  and  more  glorious  ends.”  Trumbull. 

The  i)illar  of  fire  and  cloud  had  also  certain 
offices  to  perform  to  the  Israelites.  These  were 
for  guidance  and  protection.  It  was  by  this 
that  the  Lord  directed  their  course  through  the- 
dreary  and  trackless  waste  which  lay  between 
Eg3"pt  and  Canaan,  showing  them  when  to  set 
forth,  in  what  direction  to  proceed,  where  to 
abide,  and  also  affording  light  to  their  steps 
when  the  journey  was  by  night.  In  addition 
to  these  benefits,  the  pillar  also  served  as  a 
shade  from  the  heat  of  a  scorching  sun  ;  and  on 
one  occasion  at  least,  when  the  Israelites  were 
closely  pursued  by  the  Egj’ptians,  it  stood  as  a 
wall  of  defence  between  them  and  their  enemies. 

P.  F. - Some  such  guidance  as  was  afforded 

the  jjeople  in  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire  was 
necessary.  The  host  of  Israel  being  so  numer¬ 
ous,  having  with  them  their  flocks  and  herds, 
and  being  only  to  a  small  extent  orgauized,  it  is 
difficult  to  see  how  they  could  possibly  have 
kept  together  so  as  to  march  in  any  one  direc¬ 
tion  or  to  come  into  camp  without  some  pro¬ 
vision  like  this  of  the  cloudy  pillar,  rising  high 
over  the  desert.  N.  C.  B. - As  far  as  the  pur¬ 

poses  of  the  Israelites  were  concerned,  that 
cloudy-fiery  pillar  was  the  Shekinah  or  dwelling¬ 
-place  of  Israel’s  God  ;  it  was  the  manifestation 
of  his  friendly  j^rotecting  presence  in  their 
midst.  There  was  sure  guidance  in  its  goings 
— a  pledge  of  safety  in  its  presence  ;  by  day  a 
welcome  awning  in  its  shadow,  and  by  night 
an  illumination  no  less  welcome  in  its  forth- 
flowing  effulgence.  IlamiUon. 

22.  TBie  pillar  of  cloud  departed 
not.  It  did  not  vanish  from  their  view,  bnt 
was  a  constant  and  unerring  signal  before  or  in 
the  sight  of  the  joeople.  We  have  not  now  the 
pillar  of  fire  and  cloud,  but  we  have  the  Word 
of  God,  which  is  a  lamp  to  our  feet  and  a  light 
to  our  path.  This  also  is  a  supernatural  revela¬ 
tion  of  the  present  Lord  and  his  Messiah  by  the 
eternal  Spirit,  conve.yed  through  the  minds  and 
words  of  holy  men.  This  spiritual  flame,  kindled 
from  heaven  and  enshrined  in  the  cloud  of  hu¬ 
man  speech,  has  not  been  lost  or  extinguished, 


but  continued  from  generation  to  generation, 
and  is  in  the  way  of  being  diffused  throughout 
the  whole  world,  to  be  the  guide  of  the  nations 
to  the  land  of  promise  till  the  days  of  darkness 
disappear.  It  remains  a  speaking  token  of  the 
continual  presence  of  the  God  of  all  grace,  of 
the  Father,  .the  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost  in  his 

church.  M. - The  Israelites  were  not  to  look 

at  the  road  they  traversed,  whether  it  was  rough 
or  smooth  ;  their  business  was  to  look  only 
upon  the  cloud,  and  follow  wherever  it  led  them. 
And  is  not  this  our  course?  We  are  not  re¬ 
sponsible  for  the  roughness  or  length  of  the 
road  ;  we  are  only  lesponsible  for  obeying  the 
command  of  him  who  has  placed  us  in  it.  In 
walking  through  life,  as  we  traverse  the  desert 
and  march  toward  Emmanuel’s  land,  we  are  to 
look  only  for  guidance,  for  strength,  for  pardon, 
for  peace,  for  success,  to  the  pillar  of  cloud  by 
day,  and  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night -the  bright¬ 
ness  of  the  Father’s  glory,  God  manifest  in  the 
flesh,  the  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  J.  C, 

FBOM  SUCCOTH  TO  ETHAM. 

Ex.  13  :  20.  Nu.  33  :  6. 

20.  Ethain,  In  tlic  edg^e  of  tlie  wil¬ 
derness.  We  are  to  look  not  for  a  cityf  but  for 
a  region  of  that  name.  The  papyrus  of  Saneha 
says  that  leaving  the  lake  Kemuer  (Timsah)  he 
arrived  at  a  place  called  Alima,  which  could  not 
be  very  far  distant.  And  the  papyrus  Anatasi, 
VI.,  a  document  of  the  time  of  the  exodus,  has 
this  passage  :  “  We  have  allowed  the  tribes  of 
the  Shasu  of  the  land  of  Atuma  to  pass  the 
stronghold  of  King  Meneptah  of  the  land  of 
Succoth,  toward  the  lakes  of  Pithom  of  King 
Meneptah  of  the  land  of  Succoth.”  That  I 
consider  the  region  of  Eiham,  the  land  which  the 
papyri  call  Atima  or  Atuma.  It  was  inhabited 
by  Shasu  nomads,  and  as  it  was  insufficient  to 
nourish  their  cattle,  they  asked  to  share  the 
good  pastures  assigned  to  the  Israelites.  Both 
the  nature  of  the  land  and  its  name  agree  well 
with  what  is  said  of  Etham,  that  it  was  ”  in  the 
edge  of  the  wilderness.  ”  I  believe  Etham  to 
be  the  region  of  Atuma,  the  desert  which  began  at 
Lake  Timsah,  and  extended  south  of  it  near  the 
Arabia  Gulf.  Naville. 

We  best  meet  the  requirements  of  the  narra¬ 
tive  if  we  suppose  Etham  to  have  been  beyond 
the  eastern  end  of  Wady  Tumilat,  toward  Pales¬ 
tine,  and  not  far  from  the  northern  end  of  Lake 
Timsah.  It  would  thus  lie  on  ”  the  edge  of 
the  wilderness — ”  that  is,  on  the  line  where 
Egypt  ends  and  the  Arabian  desert  begins.  It 
would  be  where  the  way  was  open  before  Israel, 


FROM  ETIIAM  TO  THE  RED  SEA, 


39 


either  to  pass  over  the  heights  of  Guisr,  or  to 
strike  northward  into  the  main  road  to  the  Phil¬ 
istine  territory  and  to  Palestine.  The  command 
at  that  place,  to  move  in  the  direction  of  Suez, 
would  indeed  be  an  order  to  “  turn  back,” 

Bartlett. - All  the  desert  east  of  the  present 

Suez  Canal  was  called  the  desert  of  Etham  ;  and 
the  ‘‘  edge"  of  this  desert  on  the  route  followed 
by  the  Israelites  must  have  been  near  the  present 
town  of  Ismailia,  at  the  head  of  Lake  Timsah. 
At  this  point  the  desert  portion  of  the  journey 
direct  to  Palestine  begins  ;  and  here,  between 
Lake  Timsah  and  Lake  Ballat,  is  the  highest 
23art  of  the  isthmus  and  the  best  road  out  of 
Egypt  to  the  east.  Dawson. 

Had  the  Israelites  passed  out  of  Egypt  at  this 
point,  the  march  W'ould  naturally  have  been 
across  the  desert  some  way  s.^uth  of  Lake  Ser- 
bonis  to  the  Wady  El  Arish,  and  thence  along 
the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  to  Gaza  and  the 
low  tract  of  the  Shefeleh.  But  the  nation  was 
not  yet  in  a  fit  condition  to  meet  and  contend 
with  the  war -like  people  of  that  rich  and  valu¬ 
able  region — the  Philistines.  God  accordingly^ 
w'ho  guided  the  march  by  the  pillar  of  the  cloud 
and  of  fire  (verses  21,  22),  “  led  them  not  the 
way  of  the  land  of  the  Philistines,  although  that 
w’as  near  ;  for  God  said,  Lest  the  people  repent 
when  they  see  war.”  G.  B. 

FROM  ETHAM  TO  THE  RED  SEA. 

Ex.  14  ;  1,  2,  Nu.  33  :  7. 

The  general  line  of  march  is  clearly  indicated 
through  Succoth  to  Etham  “  on  the  edge  of  the 
wilderness”  that  lies  east  of  Egypt,  then  by  a 
“  turn”  to  the  Red  Sea  by  a  route  probably  not 
far  from  the  line  of  the  present  railway  from 

Ismailia  to  Suez.  S.  C.  B. - This  route  would 

save  the  crossing  of  two  high,  rocky  ridges, 
which  run  from  w^est  to  east  parallel  with  the 
canal,  and  would  afford  a  broad  plain  of  desert 
over  which  to  march  southward,  in  accordance 
with  the  Divine  purpose,  when  God  “  led  the 
people  about  ”  to  the  Red  Sea.  Dalles. 

Ex.  14  :  2.  Turn  back.  They  are  to 
turn  to  the  south,  at  right  angles  to  their  former 
course,  along  the  west  side  of  Lake  Timsah  and 
the  Bitter  Lakes.  This  would  have  the  tempo¬ 
rary  advantage  of  keeping  them  for  a  little  longer 
wdthin  reach  of  water  and  pasturage,  but  the 
great  disadvantage  of  obliging  them  at  some 
point  to  the  southward  to  cross  the  Red  Sea,  an 
operation  which  they  might  hope  to  perform  if 
unmolested  and  with  abundance  of  time,  but 

not  otherwise.  Dawson. - As  you  go  south-  , 

ward  from  Ismailia,  the  lakes  on  your  left,  now  i 


filled  by  water  from  the  Mediterranean,  glitter 
wdth  tints  of  blue  that  are  exquisite,  contrasting 
delicately  with  the  amber-colored  sand,  while 
the  gravelly  desert  on  your  right,  with  a  stunted 
herbage,  glows  in  the  hot  sunlight  up  to  the 
foot  of  the  hills  which  are  bare  and  desolate 
masses  of  rock.  The  way  to  Suez,  at  the  head 
of  the  western  arm  of  the  Red  Sea,  is  broadly 
open  for  a  moving  caravan.  But  a  little  south 
of  Suez,  on  the  western  side,  a  mountain  ridge, 
the  Gebel  Attaka,  runs  boldly  from  the  north¬ 
west  across  the  southward  path,  abuts  upon  the 
sea,  and  renders  a  forward  movement  imprac¬ 
ticable.  Dulles. 

Encampment  neab  the  Ceossing-Place. 

14:2.  Encamp  before  Pi-hahirotli, 
between  lUiiirdol  and  the  sea,  before 
Baal-Zeplion,  by  the  sea.  They  were 
near  the  way  of  the  wilderness  of  the  Red  Sea  ; 
near  the  modern  way  of  the  Hajj  out  of  Lower 
Egypt,  a  highway  which  has  swept  across  the 
desert,  from  gulf  to  gulf,  from  time  immemorial. 
They  were  not  far  from  the  shore  of  the  Red 
Sea  ;  in  a  locality  where  three  well-known  land¬ 
marks  were  back  of  them,  or  about  them  :  Mig- 
dol,  Pi-hahiroth,  and  Baal-Zephon.  Migdol  was 
the  outlook  tower  which  overlooked  that  south¬ 
ernmost  road  desert  ward.  H.  C.  T. - Migdol 

means  fort  or  tower,  and  might  designate  simply 
a  fortified  place.  Niebuhr  first  suggested  for  it 
Bir-Suweis,  two  miles  from  Suez,  where  there  are 
two  wells  of  very  brackish  water  and  a  massive 
stone  building  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
Kalisch  favors  it  ;  and  Canon  Cook,  in  view  of 
an  investigation  by  Chabas,  showing  that 
”  Maktal,  ”  or  Magdal,  which  Seti  I.  visited  on 
his  return  from  Syria,  was  built  over  a  well, 
thinks  there  is  “  scarcely  any  room  for  doubt.” 
We  may  accept  it  as  a  very  suitable  conjecture. 
Pi-hahiroth  is  written  in  Numbers  “  Hahiroth,  ” 
giving  some  support  to  the  opinion  that  the  syl¬ 
lable  “pi”  isonlythe  Egyptian  article,  and  that 
Ihe  essential  word  is  Hahiroth.  There  seems, 
on  the  whole,  to  be  good  reason  for  finding^ 
Hahiroth  at  Ajrood.  It  is  the  view  of  Jablonsky, 
Laborde,  Winer,  Kurtz,  Keil,  Knobel,  Ebers, 
Sharpe,  and  apparently  of  Lange  and  Ewald. 
The  name  Hahiroth,  as  they  have  shown,  corre¬ 
sponds  in  its  consonant  elements  very  closely 
to  Ajrood.  This  name  is  certainly  as  old  as  the 
twelfth  century.  Other  reasons  concur.  The 
situation  and  circumstances  well  correspond. 
The  distance  from  the  sea,  four  hours  north¬ 
west  of  Suez,  is  suitable.  A  large  plain,  adapted 
to  an  encampment,  ten  miles  long  and  nearly  as 
broad,  stretches  to  the  sea.  This  camping- 


40 


SECTION  93.  THE  CROSSING-PLACE. 


i  .\Aj/bon  Moosa'0.t^ 


Pa-haTiirotlr 

^AJrood 


Migdolo 

Muktuta 


ENCAMPMENT  NEAR  THE  CROSSING-PLACE. 


ground  lies  in  front,  or,  as  the  Hebrew  mighi  < 
be  translated,  east  of  the  place.  A  deep  well 
(two  hundred  and  lifty  feet),  though  containing 
bitter  water,  must  have  made  the  spot  a  place 
of  mark  in  former  as  in  recent  times.  A  fortress 
stands  there  now.  These  several  circumstances 
will  satisfy  the  conditions.  Barileii. 

Baal-Zephon  is  the  name  of  a  divinity.  It  rep¬ 
resents  a  combination  of  Semitic  and  Egyptian 
objects  of  worshij).  The  name  itself  of  the 
dualistic  deity  in  its  Semitic-Egyptian  form  of 
Ba’ali-Zapoona,  or  Ba’ali-Tsapuna,  is  found  on 
the  monuments  ;  and  that  this  is  the  same  name 
as  the  Ba’al-Zephon  (or  the  Ba’al-Tsephon)  of 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  does  not  admit  of  serious 
question.  In  fixing  the  location  of  the  shrine 
of  Ba’al-Zephon  there  are  helps  in  its  mention 
in  the  text.  The  place  of  the  encampment  of 
the  Israelites  by  the  Bed  Sea  is  described  by 
four  cardinal  points.  It  is  in  some  way  bounded, 
or  indicated,  by  :  Migdol,  the  sea,  Pi-hahiroth, 
and  Ba’al-Zephon.  The  sea  must,  in  the  nature 
of  things,  have  lain  at  the  eastward.  As  the 
commandment  was  to  encamp  “  between  Migdol 
and  the  sea,”  Migdol  is  naturally  to  be  looked 
for  at  the  westward  of  the  Sea.  And  as  Pi- 
hahiroth  is  said  to  be  “  before,”  or  “  over 
against,”  Ba’al-Zephon,  while  the  camp  is  at 


;  one  time  said  to  be  ”  before, or  over  against 
Pi  hahiroth,  and  again  to  be  ”  before”  or  “  over 
against  ”  Ba’al-Zephon,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
was  “  before”  Migdol,  it  follows  that  Pi-hahirotb 
and  Bti’al-Zephon  must  have  been  in  the  rela¬ 
tion  of  northerly  and  southerly  to  each  other  ; 
since  Migdol  was  westerly,  as  over  against  the 
Sea  which  lay  easterly.  This  corresponds  with 
the  supposed  identifications  of  Migdol,  at  or 
near  Muktala  ;  and  of  Pi-haliiroth,  or  Hahiroth, 
at  Ajrood.  The  landmarks  at  the  northerly 
and  westerly  bounds  of  the  place  of  encamp¬ 
ment  are  at  points  which  conform  with  all  the 
indications  of  the  text.  This  goes  to  fix  the 
shrine  of  Ba’al-Zephon  as  at  some  point  south¬ 
erly  from  Ajrood,  and  southward  of  a  line  run¬ 
ning  from  Muktala  to  the  sea.  In  that  direc¬ 
tion  the  mountains  of  Ataliah  stand  cut  too 
prominently  to  be  overlooked  as  a  probable  site 
of  such  a  shrine  as  that  of  Ba  al-Zephon  must 
have  been.  Their  summit  commands  a  view  of 
the  isthmus,  of  the  sea,  and  of  the  desert  east¬ 
ward.  Ebers  has  advocated  Gebel  Atakah  as  a 
site  of  Ba’al-Zephon,  and  other  scholars  have 
accepted  his  judgment  on  this  point  as  probably 
correct.  It  is  not  easy  to  find  any  sound  reason 
for  questioning  its  correctness.  Trumbull. 

At  the  western  edge  of  the  plain  northwest  of 


PLACE  OF  THE  PASSAGE. 


41 


Suez  the  station  Muktala  (Migdol)  is  found. 
The  Israelites  “  encamped  between  Migdol  and 
the  Sea,”  for  which  there  would  be  abundant 
room,  as  the  distance  is  above  ten  miles.  They 
Avere  “  beside  Pi-hahiioth  and  before  Baal- 
Zephon.”  These  conditions  would  be  sufd- 
cienllj’’  answered  if  Pi-hahiroth  were  at  Ajrood, 
and  Baal-Zephon  were  on  the  northeastern 
flank  of  Jebel  Atakah.  We  can  only  say  that 
here,  on  the  western  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez, 
would  be  ainple  room  for  the  encampment  of 
the  entire  Israelitish  host  ;  that  in  this  position 
it  might  well  seem  that  “  the  wilderness  had 
shut  them  in”  (verse  3)  ;  and  that  the  host  would 
be  ”  before  a  Migdol  ”  (Nu.  33  :  7),  and  perhaps 
“  beside  a  Pi-hahiroth,”  The  sea  in  front  was 
but  two  or  three  miles  across,  and  might  easily 
have  been  passed  in  a  night  ;  the  bottom  was 
such  as  would  naturally  clog  the  Egyptian 
chariot  wheels,  and  the  further  shore  was  desti¬ 
tute  of  springs,  a  true  “  wilderness,”  where  the 
Israelites  may  well  have  gone  ”  three  days 
without  water.”  G.  R. 

That  the  place  of  the  passage  called  “  Pi- 
hahiroth  before  Baal-Zephon”  Avas  in  the  neigh¬ 
borhood  of  the  present  town  of  Suez,  at  the 
head  of  the  gulf,  there  can  be  little  doubt, 

Hull. - They  remained  within  the  territory  of 

Egypt,  going  southward  to  a  point  Avhere  they 
Avere  completely  shut  in,  by  the  sea  and  moun¬ 
tains  in  front  and  on  the  two  sides  and  by  Pha¬ 
raoh’s  chariots  in  the  rear.  If  Ave  look  for  a 
spot  on  the  Avestern  shore  of  the  gulf  Avhich  an¬ 
swers  to  this  description,  Ave  find  it  in  the  plain 
of  Su^z.  This  plain  is  large  enough  to  hold  two 
millions  of  men  ;  it  is  bounded  on  the  Avest  and 
southwest  b}’'  the  mountains  of  Atakah,  and 
these  mountains  approach  so  nearly  to  the  sea, 
which  is  here  considerably  Avidened  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  a  rapid  curve  to  the  Avest,  that  very 
few  men  could  jjass  side  by  side  along  the 
shore,  K. 

Here  are  found  all  the  requisites  of  the  Scrip¬ 
ture  narrative — “entangling  land”  and  a  wil¬ 
derness  to  “  shut  them  in,”  a  place  of  encamp¬ 
ment  “  by  the  sea,”  wind,  high  and  low  water, 
a  possible  passage,  a  practicable  distance,  and  a 
natural  connection  with  the  subsequent  jour¬ 
ney,  The  landmarks  are  here,  and  apparently 
one  of  filenames,  “Hahiroth, ”  in  Ajrood,  and 
the  traditional  name  of  “  Moses’s  Wells”  on  the 
opposite  shore.  That  the  names  should  not  be 
universally  or  generally  traceable  through  the 
journey,  except  in  some  frequented  watering- 
place  like  these,  is  perfectly  natural  in  a  region 
Avhere  there  has  never  been  a  settled  popula¬ 
tion.  Names  perish,  though  landmarks  remain. 


At  the  northwestern  side  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez 
lies  a  plain  ten  miles  long  and  nearly  as  broad. 
Accepting  Ajrood  at  its  northern  extremity  for 
Hahiroth  (Pi-hahiroth,  with  the  Egyptian  article 
prefixed),  Avhere  the  name  is  handed  down  in 
connection  with  the  deep  Avell  Avhich  made  it  a 
place  of  resort  ;  “  Migdol  ”  may  have  been  at 
Bir  Suweis,  two  miles  north  of  Suez,  where  are 
two  wells  of  brackish  water  and  a  stone  building 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  in  a  region  where 
Seti  I.  is  shown  by  Chabas  to  have  visited 
“  Maktal  ”  built  over  a  well;  and  “Baal- 
Zephon”  may  w’ell  have  been  the  high  and  pre- 
cijpitous  mountain  Jebel  Atakah,  the  chief  ob¬ 
ject  in  full  view  of  Ajrood,  shutting  down 
sharply  to  the  western  shore  some  distance 
soutiiwest  of  Suez,  and  sweeping  off  indefi¬ 
nitely  westward.  Here  they  were  absolutely 
shut  in  by  Jebel  Atakah  in  front,  and  the  sea  on 
the  east,  extending  two  miles  or  more  north  of 
Suez,  and  terminating  in  a  marshy  region,  and 
Avith  the  enemy  in  the  rear,  S.  C.  B. 

3-5.  We  find  here  the  same  miraculous  guid¬ 
ance  of  the  Lord  which  at  all  times  attends 
God’s  kingdom  on  earth.  He  might  have  per¬ 
mitted  his  people  to  gain  the  wilderness  by  the 
accustomed  route,  and  there  by  simple  means 
have  defended  them  from  the  power  of  Pha¬ 
raoh  ;  but  he  Avilled  to  make  known  his  glory  on 
this  self-willed  heathen,  and  at  the  same  time, 
by  a  mighty  miracle  of  deliverance,  to  sever  his 
people,  and  forever,  from  felloAA^ship  with  the 
heathen.  When  the  need  has  reached  its  high¬ 
est  point,  the  Lord  shows  himself  a  deliverer  in 
the  mightiest  way.  Ctrl. 

The  last  movement  of  Heaven  in  this  marvel¬ 
lous  chain  of  providences —the  leading  of  the 
children  of  Israel  as  into  a  net,  between  the  Red 
Sea  and  the  mountains  of  the  Avilderness — was  ' 
fitted  to  suggest  the  thought  to  Pharaoh,  when 
he  had  recovered  a  little  from  his  consternation 
and  felt  the  humiliation  of  his  defeat,  that  now 
an  opportunity  jiresented  itself  of  retrieving  his 
lost  honor  and  with  one  stroke  avenging  himself 
on  his  enemies.  He  was  thus  tempted  in  the 
confident  hope  of  victory  to  renew  the  conflict, 
and  when  apparently  sure  of  his  prey  Avas  led, 
by  the  opening  of  the  sea  for  the  escape  of  the 
Israelites,  and  the  removal  of  the  Divine  cloud* 
to  the  rear  so  as  to  cov^r  their  flight,  into  the 
fatal  snare  which  involved  him  in  destruction. 
In  the  whole  we  see  the  directing  and  control¬ 
ling  agency  of  God,  not  in  the  least  interfering 
with  the  liberty  of  Pharaoh  or  obliging  him  to 
sin,  but  still,  in  judgment  for  his  sinful  oppres¬ 
sion  of  the  Church  of  God  and  unjust  resistance 
to  the  claims  of  Heaven,  placing  him  in  situa- 


42 


SECTION  93.  PURSUIT  OF  PHARAOH. 


tions  wliicli,  tbougli  fitted  to  influence  aright  a 
well-constituted  mind,  were  also  fitted  when 
working  on  such  a  temperament  as  his  to  draw 
him  into  the  extraordinary  course  he  took. 

r.  F. 

The  best  proof  of  its  Divine  character  is  that 
it  is  a  movement  wdiich  no  human  leader  would 
have  directed.  It  was  to  lead  to  a  yet  more 
signal  display  of  the  Lord’s  power  in  the  dis¬ 
comfiture  of  the  Egyptians,  and  was  designed 
for  the  deliverance  of  Israel,  not  only  from  pres¬ 
ent  danger,  but  from  the  future  fears  from  the 
side  of  Egypt.  To  the  Egyptians,  who  took  care 
to  watch  the  movements  of  the  Hebrew  host,  this 
must  have  seemed  the  height  of  suicidal  infatu¬ 
ation.  The  king,  concluding  that  they  were 
forsaken  by  the  God  whose  power  he  had  full 
cause  to  know,  resolved  to  take  advantage  of 
such  egregious  foil}'’,  and  pursue  them  with  all 
the  forces  at  his  disposal.  This  shows  that  not¬ 
withstanding  the  humbled  language  he  had  used 
in  allowing  the  Israelites  to  take  their  depart¬ 
ure,  his  heart  was  still  essentially  unsoftened  ; 
and  now  that  the  opportunity  seemed  to  offer  of 
avenging  the  disgrace  and  loss  he  had  sus¬ 
tained,  he  prepared  for  action  against  the  fugi¬ 
tive  host.  Kii. 

The  fact  that  Pharaoh  had  not  the  remotest 
idea  that  the  Israelites  would  return,  but  on  the 
contrary  regarded  it  as  certain  that  they  would 
not,  is  clearly  proved  by  his  astonishment  when 
he  heard  that  they  had  not  gone  straight  into 
Asia,  but  were  still  within  the  borders  of  Egypt 
on  this  side  of  the  Red  Sea.  “  They  have  missed 
their  way,”  he  said,  ”  the  wilderness  hath  shut 

them  in.  ”  K. - The  Bible  meaning  of  the 

word  wilderness  is  that  of  ‘‘  a  wide  open  space, 
with  or  without  actual  pasture  ;  the  country  of 
‘  the  nomads,  as  distinguished  from  that  of  the 
agricultural  and  settled  people.  ”  In  our  coun- 
trj^  the  word  wilderness  suggests  a.  forest,  and  it 
is  difficult  for  the  ordinary  Bible  reader  not  to 
attach  this  preposterous  feature  to  the  wilder¬ 
ness  of  Sinai  or  Judea.  The  kindred  word, 
“  desert,”  in  the  Bible,  does  not  commonly  in¬ 
dicate  a  barren  region,  but  rather  an  uninhabited 
region,  which  may  be  either  barren  or  fertile. 

N.  C.  B. - As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  the  supposed 

track  of  the  Israelites,  sand  deserts  without 
vegetation  are  the  exception.  S.  C.  B. 

5.  They  inquire  among  themselves.  Why  they 
have  let  the  children  of  Israel  depart?  as  if  they 
had  not  endeavored  in  every  way  to  prevent 
their  free  exit  ;  as  if  their  pertinacity  had  not 
been  ten  times  divinely  overcome  ;  as  if  God 
had  not  at  length  torn  the  people  from  them,  in 
spite  of  their  reluctance.  They  were  worn  out 


by  fierce  and  dreadful  punishments  ;  but  now 
as  if  nothing  had  happened  they  discuss  why 
they  had  not  resisted  God  even  to  the  end,  when 
he  had  compelled  them  to  submit  with  extreme 
reluctance,  after  they  had  ten  times  found  out 
that  they  struggled  against  him  in  vain.  Such 
is  the  pride  by  which  the  reprobates  are  driven 
onward  to  their  own  destruction,  when  they 
fight  against  God.  Calv. 

Pursuit  of  Pharaoh  and  his  Army. 

6-9.  It  was  in  that  part  of  Lower  Egyjit 
which  lay  toward  the  Bed  Sea,  the  most  exposed 
of  all  the  borders  of  Egypt,  that  according  to 
the  accounts  of  profane  authors  almost  the  en¬ 
tire  military  power  of  Egypt  was  concentrated, 

E.  C.  W. - The  great  caste  of  the  warriors, 

the  second  in  dignity,  were  regularly  quartered 
in  certain  cities  on  the  different  frontiers  of  the 
kingdom,  so  that  a  considerable  force  could  bo 
mustered  on  any  emergency.  With  great  rapid¬ 
ity  he  drew  together  600  war  chariots  and  a 
multitude  of  others,  with  their  full  equipment 
of  officers.  Milman. 

The  military  organization  of  the  Egyptians  at 
the  time  of  the  exodus  is  represented  as  very 
complete.  Now,  it  appears  by  the  Egyptian 
monuments  that  the  military  system  was  brought 
to  its  highest  perfection  by  Seti  I.  and  Eameses 
II.  It  is  certain  that,  in  their  time,  the  army 
was  most  carefully  organized,  divided  into 
brigades,  and  maintained  in  a  state  of  constant 
preparation.  The  chariot  force  was  regarded  as 
of  very  much  the  highest  im23ortance,  and 
amounted,  according  to  the  lowest  comjiutation, 

to  several  thousands.  G.  R. - The  strength  of 

Pharaoh’s  army  consisted  chiefly  in  his  war 
chariots.  TIengstenherg  has  shown  how  strougly 
this  account  is  supported  by  information  derived 
from  the  monuments  respecting  the  customs  of 
ancient  Egypt.  The  chariots  on  the  Egyptian 
monuments  are  drawn  by  two  horses,  and  gen¬ 
erally  hold  one  driver  and  one  warrior.  Pharaoh 
hastily  gathered  together  all  the  available  chari¬ 
ots  that  could  be  procured,  and  did  not  wait  till 
the  entire  force  could  be  brought  from  the  most 
distant  military  stations.  In  addition  to  the 
charioteers,  he  was  also  attended  by  a  propor¬ 
tionate  number  of  horsemen.  K. 

Elevations  and  Depressions  on  the  Line  of 
THE  Suez  Canal.  ^ 

The  Isthmus  of  Suez  at  its  narrowest  part  is 
seventy-two  miles  wide.  The  canal,  indeed, 
measures  one  hundred  miles  from  Port  Said  to 
Suez,  but  it  does  not  cross  the  narrowest  jilace 


PLACE  OF  CROSSING. 


43 


ELEVATIONS  AND  DEPRESSIONS  ON  THE  LINE  OF  THE  SUEZ  CANAL. 


nor  follow  a  straight  line.  Following  the  line 
of  the  canal  southward,  we  pass  for  many  miles 
through  the  broad  Lake  Menzaleh,  and  reach 
first  a  series  of  sandy  downs,  the  highest  i)oint 
of  which  is  Kantara,  “  the  bridge”  between  the 
eastern  and  the  western  deserts.  Here  ran  one 
of  the  greatest  thoroughfares  of  the  world,  the 
highway  between  Egypt  and  the  East.  Passing 
next  the  shallow  Lake  Ballah,  we  reach  El  Gisr, 
the  greatest  elevation  on  the  isthmus,  about  ten 
miles  in  width,  and  at  its  highest  point  sixty- 
five  feet  in  height.  Then  comes  Lake  Timsah, 
the  “  crocodile”  lake,  midway  between  the  two 
seas.  South  of  it  is  the  second  elevation,  the 
heights  of  Serapeum,  about  eight  miles  broad, 
and  at  its  highest  point  sixty-one  feet  high. 
South  of  this  lie  the  Bitter  Lakes,  a  great  de- 
l^ression,  extending  southeasterly  some  twenty- 
two  miles  in  length,  and  from  two  and  a  half  to 
five  miles  in  breadth.  Their  greatest  dej)th  is 
about  thirty-five  feet  below  the  sea-level.  Be¬ 
fore  the  water  was  admitted  in  1867  by  the  mod¬ 
ern  canal,  this  depression  was  and  had  for  ages 
been  dry.  The  bottom  was  covered  with  a 
layer  or  layers  of  salt  of  great  extent  (seven 
miles  by  five)  and  of  variable  thickness,  but 
reaching  the  depth  of  thirty -three  feet.  Be¬ 
tween  the  Bitter  Lakes  and  the  Bed  Sea  lies  the 
third  and  last  barrier,  the  heights  of  Chaloof, 
about  five  miles  broad  from  north  to  .south,  and 
rising  for  a  short  distance  twenty  feet  or  more 
above  the  sea-level.  Then  follows  the  sandy 
plain  of  Suez  for  a  distance  of  about  ten  miles, 
rising  but  a  few  feet  (about  four  on  the  average) 
above  the  level  of  the  sea.  Since  the  geological 
times  the  heights  of  Gisr  must  have  formed  an 
effectual  barrier  to  the  Bed  Sea  ;  and  it  will 
hardly  be  claimed  that  within  historic  times 
these  waters  have  extended  over  the  ridge  of 
Serapeum.  But  some  reasons  have  been  urged 
for  supposing  that  in  the  times  of  the  exodus 
the  Bitter  Lakes  were  but  part  of  a  continuous 
arm  of  the  Bed  Sea.  Three  circumstances  have 
been  adduced  for  this  opinion  ;  First,  the  de¬ 
posits  of  salt  found  in  the  Bitter  Lakes  ;  sec¬ 
ondly,  the  identity  of  shells  found  at  the  sides 


and  bottom  of  the  lakes  with  those  of  the  Bed 
Sea;  and,  thirdly,  the  name  “Bitter  Lakes,” 
implying  the  knowledge  of  a  time  when  they 
were  filled  with  salt  water.  But  neither  the 
deposits  of  salt  nor  of  shells,  unless  the  shells 
were  of  modern  species  (which  is  not  affirmed), 
would  determine  the  que.stion  whether  such  a 
connection  existed  during  the  present  geological 
condition  of  the  earth.  It  is  not  doubted  that 
during  and  before  the  tertiary  period  this  con¬ 
nection  existed,  and,  indeed,  many  hold  that  at 
some  time  anterior  the  Bed  Sea  and  Mediter¬ 
ranean  were  connected.  The  name  “Bitter 
Lakes”  is  accounted  for  either  by  the  salt 
marshes  which  existed  there  before  the  modern 
canal  introduced  the  sea  water,  or  it  may  point 
back  to  an  earlier  time  involved  in  the  Arab 
tradition  (mentioned  by  Bobinson),  that  these 
marshes  “  were  made  by  a  canal  cut  thus  far 
from  the  Bed  Sea,  and  then  neglected.” 

But  the  decisive  objection  to  the  theory  of  a 
connection  between  the  Bed  Sea  and  these  lakes 
in  modern  geological  times  is  found  in  the  fact 
that  the  impassable  bar  of  Chaloof  is  a  tertiary 
formation.  Such  is  the  positive  testimony  of 
Fraas,  and  of  M.  Mauriac,  the  engineer  of  the 
Suez  Canal  Company,  and  the  admission  of  M. 
Bitt.  Secondly,  there  is  apparently  clear  testi¬ 
mony  that  in  early  times  the  breadth  of  the 
isthmus  was  substantially  the  same  as  now. 
Thirdly,  the  remains  of  the  ancient  canal  lead¬ 
ing  northward  from  the  gulf  toward  the  Bitter 
Lakes  complete  the  evidence.  They  show  that 
in  ancient  times,  as  in  modern,  the  connection 
was  an  artificial  one.  Burckhardt  recognized 
the  line  of  the  canal  long  ago,  and  Biippell  trav¬ 
elled  for  an  hour  and  a  half  along  its  bed, 
where  it  was,  as  he  judged,  one  hundred  feet 
broad.  Herodotus  distinctly  describes  the  course 
of  this  canal  in  his  day  as  leading  eastward  from 
Bubastis,  near  Patumos,  and  skirting  the  base 
of  the  hills,  till  it  “  turns  southward  and  enters 
the  Arabian  Gulf.”  He  affirms  that  this  south¬ 
ern  connection  was  completed  by  Darius,  and  a 
stone  bearing  the  name  of  that  monarch,  in 
Persian  characters,  near  the  terminus  of  the 


44 


SECTION  93.  PLACE  OF  CROSSING. 


canal,  sustains  liis  statement,  and  carries  us 
back  nearly  five  hundred  years  before  the  Chris¬ 
tian  era.  Of  course,  the  construction  of  the 
canal  disproves  the  natural  extension  of  the  gulf 
to  the  Bitter  Lakes  at  that  time.  We  may  as¬ 
sume,  till  positive  evidence  is  adduced  to  the 
contrary,  that  as  in  the  time  of  Darius  so  in  that 
of  Moses,  the  Bed  Sea  did  not  connect  with  the 
Bitter  Lakes,  but  that  the  ridge  of  Chaloof,  ris¬ 
ing  far  above  the  highest  known  seas,  and  send¬ 
ing  off  a  brancli  ri  irtlintly  and  northwesterly  to 
form  the  western  Innik  of  the  Bitter  Lakes,  and 
to  join  the  eastern  slope  of  Jebel  Geneffe,  was 
then,  as  now,  an  impassable  barrier.  At  the 
same  time,  the  appearances  about  Suez,  the  con¬ 
stant  drifting  of  the  sands,  and  the  present  low 
level  of  the  plain,  would  justify  the  belief  that 
the  gulf  may  have  extended  somewhat  further 
north  than  at  present.  Schleiden  may  be  right 
in  supposing  that  the  whole  distance,  if  we  ac¬ 
cept  the  heights  of  Chaloof,  was  more  marshy 
than  now,  and  probably  untravelL.d,  if  not  im¬ 
passable.  Barileii. 

At  a  time  when  existing  species  of  shells  were 
living,  the  waters  of  the  Bed  Sea  extended  over 
the  lands  of  Egypt  aud  along  the  shore  of  the 
Gulf  of  Suez  to  a  height  of  iJOO  feet  above  the 
present  level  of  these  waters.  The  process  of 
elevation  of  this  sea-bed  over  so  large  a  tract 
was  probably  exceedingly  gradual,  and  at  the 
date  of  the  exodus  the  elevation  may  not  have 
taken  place  up  to  the  present  extent.  A  strip 
of  Bed  Sea  water — not  very  deep — may  at  this 
time  have  stretched  northward  from  the  Gulf  of 
Suez,  forming  to  the  host  of  Israel  an  effective 
barrier  to  their  progress  into  the  desert.  Hall. 

In  his  correspondence  with  President  Bartlett, 
M.  Mauriac  held  that  “  the  ridge  of  Chaloof  is 
now  far  above  the  highest  known  seas  that 
“it  is  of  the  same  age  with  the  mountain  Ge- 
neffeh,  of  which  it  is  a  kind  of  buttress  or  pro¬ 
longation  that  the  overflow  of  the  Bed  Sea 
into  the  basin  of  the  Bitter  Lakes,  which  left 
there  the  existing  strata  of  salt,  “  could  not 
have  taken  jflace  during  the  present  geological 
condition  of  the  globe  ’  that  the  level  of  the 
Bed  Sea  has  not  materially  changed  within  this 
geological  epoch  ;  and  that  there  has  been  “  no 
communication  of  the  lakes  with  the  Bed  Sea 
except  in  pre-historic  times.”  Again,  Dr. 
Klunzinger,  a  naturalist  of  no  mean  degree,  who 
went  to  Egypt  directly  in  the  interests  of  sci¬ 
ence,  and  “  with  the  special  object  of  making 
zoological  investigations  and  collections  on  the 
Bed  Sea,”  has  recently  furnished  important 
testimony  on  this  point,  as  a  result  of  observa¬ 
tions  in  his  particular  sphere.  He  says  :  “  The 


arm  of  sea  which  springs  from  the  great  Indian 
Ocean,  and  bears  the  name  of  Bed  Sea  or  Arabian 
Gulf,  is  a  genuine  tropical  sea,  although  it 
stretches  northward  far  beyond  the  tropic. 
Though  it  is  separated  from  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  only  by  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  in  the  charac¬ 
ter  of  its  animal  life  it  is  sharply  distinguished 
from  the  former  sea,  and  only  a  few  cosmopoli¬ 
tan  forms  are  common  to  both,  a  proof  that  in 
recent  epochs  at  least  there  has  been  no  com¬ 
munication  between  the  two.”  Trumbull. 

Place  of  Crossing. 

The  exact  spot  of  the  passage  through  the  Bed 
Sea  will  never  probably  be  identified.  It  is  dif¬ 
ficult  even  to  determine  how  great  a  change  the 
lapse  of  3500  years  may  have  made  in  the  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  gulf.  Its  head  has  evidently  been 
silted  up  to  some  extent,  but  the  ruins  of  an 
ancient  town  at  Suez  seem  to  point  to  the  fact 
that  the  level  of  its  shores  has  not  materially 
altered.  The  passage  of  the  Israelites  is  gener¬ 
ally  supposed  to  have  taken  place  in  the  imme¬ 
diate  neighborhood  of  Suez,  aud  a  careful  ex¬ 
amination  of  the  isthmus  and  head  of  the  gulf 
has  led  me  fully  to  concur  in  this  opinion. 
Holland. 

Wellsted  judiciously  remarks  thus,  on  the* 
whole  aspect  of  the  case  :  “  When  I  look  away 
from  all  hypotheses,  and  confine  mj^self  to  the 
Holy  Scrijptures,  I  must  decide  that  the  passage 
took  place  in  the  neighborhood  of  Suez.  The 
objection  that  the  water  was  not  sufficient  to 
drown  the  whole  host  of  Pharaoh  has  no  weight. 
It  is  now  certainly  enough,  and  must  formerly 
have  been  more  than  enough,  whereof  there  ex¬ 
ist  most  striking  evidences.  It  is  expressly  re¬ 
lated  in  the  Bible  that  a  strong  wind  co-oper¬ 
ated  with  the  miracle.  At  Suez  the  water  re¬ 
cedes  when  the  northeast  wind  has  blown  for 
some  time  ;  and  if  a  southeast  wind  follows  it, 
then  the  water  suddenly  rises  more  than  six 
feet,  and  causes  the  ford  itself,  one  and  a  half 
English  miles  north  of  the  town,  to  become  im¬ 
passable.  Fatal  accidents  not  seldom  take 
place.  We  have  only  to  think  of  Bonaparte, 
who  on  the  passage  had  nearly  perished.  In 
other  parts  of  the  Bed  Sea,  the  rise  and  fall  of 
the  water  is  dependent  on  the  winds,  but  no¬ 
where  so  greatly  as  here  at  the  end  of  it.  If  we 
suppose  the  passage  of  the  Israelites  at  Suez, 
the  determination  of  the  next  stations  has  no 
difficulty  ;  since,  on  the  modern  journey  from 
Suez  to  Sinai,  they  easily  come  round  of  them¬ 
selves.  The  Desert  of  Shur,  wherein  they  spent 
three  days,  is  the  desert  stretching  between  Suez 
and  Hawarah,  upon  which  to-day  no  drinking- 


PLACE  OF  CROSSING. 


45 


water  is  found.  The  whole  distance  between 
these  two  points  amounts  to  fifteen  hours  (33  to 
35  miles)  ;  and  if  they  marched  five  hours  on 
each  of  the  three  days,  travelling  with  their 
baggage  and  effects,  that  would  be  as  much  ao 
we  could  expect.  Hawwarah,  with  its  bitter 
waters,  must  be  Marah,  since,  so  far  as  I  could 
find,  there  are  no  other  bitter  fountains  in  the 
region.  Gharandel,  where  there  are  water  and 
palms,  becomes  the  biblical  Elim.”  And  fixing 
the  Encampment  by  the  Sea  near  Ras  Selima, 
he  adds,  “  From  Eas  Selima  to  Mount  Sinai  are 
expressly  made  five  more  stations.  I  used 
twenty-five  hours  ;  which  gives  for  the  Israel¬ 
ites,  again,  five  days’  marches  of  five  hours 
each.”  B  irtlelt. 

The  topography  of  the  head  of  the  Bed  Sea 
we  found  to  be  as  follows  ;  The  sea  coming  up 
from  the  south  is  several  miles  wide,  and  is 
deep  enough  for  the  largest  ships,  until  within 
two  or  three  miles  of  Suez.  Then  the  water 
shoals  rapidly,  so  that,  at  low  tide,  wide  sand- 
flats  are  exposed,  and  the  water  is  reduced  to  a 
small  river-like  and  shallow  stream.  At  the 
same  time  the  sea  is  narrowed  to  the  width  of 
perhaps  two  miles,  by  the  coming  in  from  the 
.west  of  the  sandy  peninsula  on  which  stands  the 
town  of  Suez.  The  sea  running  northward, 
from  below  Suez,  makes  a  sudden  bend  to  the 
west  around  this  peninsula,  so  as  to  pass  along 
the  northern  side  of  the  town  from  east  to  west. 
Before  fairly  clearing  the  town  it  turns  again 
northward,  but  after  a  short  distance  loses 
itself  in  a  tangle  of  shallows  and  sand-banks. 
N.  C.  B. 

In  a  line  running  southeast  from  the  town, 
directly  toward  ”  the  weds  of  Moses,”  is  a  com¬ 
paratively  shallow  region  where  at  low  tide  the 
Arabs  have  always,  prior  to  the  dredging  of  a 
channel  for  the  ship-canal,  been  in  the  habit  of 
fording  the  gulf,  and  where  they  now  pass,  after 
crossing  the  dredged  channel  wuth  a  boat.  This 
passage  is  now  a  little  less  than  three  miles  in 
length,  w'ith  much  deeper  wuater  on  each  side. 
When  a  northeasterly  wind  concurs  with  Iom" 
tide  on  the  one  hand,  or  a  strong  southerly 
wind  W’ith  high  tide  on  the  other,  the  differences 
in  depth,  as  shown  by  the  Maritime  Canal  Com¬ 
pany’s  chart,  amount  to  ten  feet  and  seven 
inches.  The  Scripture  narrative  distinctly  in¬ 
troduces  the  wind,  W’hich  blew  “  all  that  night 


and  made  the  sea  dry”  (Ex.  14  :21),  and  again 
says  in  the  sequel  (15  : 10),  “  Thou  didst  blow 
W’ith  thy  w’ind,  the  sea  covered  them.”  (It  has 
sometimes  been  objected  as  an  inconsistency  to 
recognize  the  introduction  of  a  natural  cause 
here.  But  the  inconsistency  w’ould  be  in  not 
recognizing  a  fact  explicitly  asserted  in  the  nar¬ 
rative  itself.  The  prevalent  winds  are  north  or 
northwest  winds,  but  “the  most  terrible,” 
says  M.  Mauriac,  the  engineer  of  the  Canal 
Company,  are  “  those  from  the  southwest,” 
W’hich  would  accompany  the  returning  tide.) 
The  distance  across  and  the  time  assigned,  as 
show’n  by  Dr.  Eobinson  in  detail,  would  corre¬ 
spond  W’ith  what  was  practicable  for  such  a 
host.  “  The  w’aters  w’ere  a  wall  unto  them  on 
their  right  hand  and  on  their  left — ”  that  is,  com¬ 
pletely  protected  their  flanks  from  attack.  With 
the  morning  light  came  the  returning  tide  and 
changing  w’ind,  and  the  fate  which  Napoleon 
narrowly  escaped  at  another  ford  two  miles 
north  befell  the  Egyptian  army.  Bartlett. 

From  the  Bible  account  of  this  miracle,  it  ap¬ 
pears,  first,  that  the  miracle  was  of  a  mediate 
character,  or  that,  as  has  well  been  said,  it  was 
wrought  by  natural  causes  supernaturally  ap¬ 
plied.  The  W’aters  retired  from  before  the 
Israelites  through  the  agency  of  a  wind  which 
the  Lord  caused  to  blow  just  at  the  right  time 
and  in  the  right  direction  for  the  purpose.  The 
language  is  :  “  And  Moses  stretched  out  his 
hand  over  the  sea  ;  and  the  Lord  caused  the  sea 
to  go  back  by  a  strong  east  w’ind  all  that  night, 
and  made  the  sea  dry  land,  and  the  waters  were 
divided.”  So,  after  the  crossing,  it  was  the 
W’ind  blow’ing  from  the  opf)osite  quarter  which 
brought  the  sea  back  overwhelmingly  upon  the 
Egyptians.  Thus  sang  Miriam  :  “  Thou  didst 
blow  W’ith  thy  W’ind,  the  sea  covered  them.” 
Secondly,  the  passage  occurred  in  the  night¬ 
time,  and,  it  would  seem,  in  a  single  night. 
The  continuance  of  the  wind  was  “  all  that 
night,”  and  it  was  “  in  the  morning  watch” 
that  “the  Lord  looked  unto  the  host  of  the 
Egyptians,”  and  troubled  them,  prior  to  their 
destruction  in  the  waters.  Now,  both  these 
items  argue  for  the  view  that  the  place  of  the 
crossing  was  near  the  head  of  the  sea,  where  the 
W’aters  were  shallow  and  narrow,  rather  than 
farther  down,  where  they  were  deep  and  broad. 
N.  C.  B. 


4(3 


SECTION  94.  TEE  SEA  DIVIDED. 


Section  94. 

THE  SEA  DIVIDED  FOR  ISRAEL’S  SAFE  PASSAGE.  THE  EGYPTIAN  ARMY 

DESTROYED. 

Exodus  14  :  10-31.  Nu.  33  :  8. 

Sr.  14  10  And  when  Pharaoh  drew  nigh,  the  children  of  Israel  lifted  up  their  eyes,  and, 
behold,  the  Egyptians  marched  after  them  ;  and  they  were  sore  afraid  :  and  the 

11  children  of  Israel  cried  out  unto  the  Lokd.  And  they  said  unto  Moses,  Because 
there  were  no  graves  in  Egypt,  hast  thou  taken  us  away  to  die  in  the  wilderness  ? 

12  wherefore  hast  thou  dealt  thus  with  us,  to  bring  us  forth  out  of  Egypt  ?  Is  not  this 
the  word  that  we  spake  unto  thee  in  Egypt,  saying,  Let  us  alone,  that  we  may  serve 
the  Egyptians?  For  it  were  better  for  us  to  serve  the  Egj^ptians,  than  that  we 

13  should  die  in  the  wilderness.  And  Moses  said  unto  the  people.  Fear  ye  not,  stand 
still,  and  see  the  salvation  of  the  Lord,  which  he  will  work  for  you  to-day  :  for  the 

14  Egyptians  whom  ye  have  seen  to-day,  ye  shall  see  them  again  no  more  for  ever.  The 
Lord  shall  fight  for  j^ou,  and  ye  shall  hold  your  peace. 

15  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Wherefore  criest  thou  unto  me  ?  speak  unto  the 

16  children  of  Israel,  that  they  go  forward.  And  lift  thou  up  thy  rod,  and  stretch  out 
thine  hand  over  the  sea,  and  divide  it  :  and  the  children  of  Israel  shall  go  into  the 

17  midst  of  the  sea  on  dry  ground.  And  I,  behold,  I  will  harden  the  hearts  of  the 
Egyptians,  and  they  shall  go  in  after  them  :  and  I  will  get  me  honour  upon  Pharaoh, 

18  and  upon  all  his  host,  upon  his  chaiiots,  and  upon  his  horsemen.  And  the  Egyp¬ 
tians  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord,  when  I  have  gotten  me  honour  upon  Pharaoh, 

19  upon  his  chariots,  and  upon  his  horsemen.  And  the  angel  of  God,  which  went 
before  the  camp  of  Israel,  removed  and  went  behind  them  ;  and  the  pillar  of  cloud 

20  removed  from  before  them,  and  stood  behind  them  ;  and  it  came  betsveen  the  camp 
of  Egypt  and  the  camp  of  Israel  ;  and  there  was  the  cloud  and  the  darkness,  yet 

21  gave  it  light  by  night  :  and  the  one  came  not  near  the  other  all  the  night.  And 
Moses  stretched  out  his  hand  over  the  sea  ;  and  the  Lord  caused  the  sea  to  go  hack 
by  a  strong  east  wind  all  the  night,  and  made  the  sea  dry  land,  and  the  waters  were 

22  divided.  And  the  children  of  Israel  went  into  the  midst  of  the  sea  upon  the  dry 
ground  :  and  the  waters  were  a  wall,  unto  them  on  their  right  hand,  and  on  their 

23  left.  And  the  Egyptians  pursued,  and  went  in  after  them  into  the  midst  of  the  sea, 

24  all  Pharaoh’s  horses,  his  chariots,  and  his  horsemen.  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the 
morning  watch,  that  the  Lord  looked  forth  upon  the  host  of  the  Egyptiaus  through 

25  the  pillar  of  fire  and  of  cloud,  and  discomfited  the  host  of  the  Egyptians  And  he 
took  off  their  chariot  wheels,  that  they  drave  them  heavily  :  so  that  the  Egyptians 
said.  Let  us  flee  from  the  face  of  Israel  ;  for  the  Lord  fighteth  for  them  against  the 
Egyptians. 

26  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Stretch  out  thine  hand  over  the  sea,  that  the  waters 
may  come  again’ upon  the  Egyptians,  upon  their  chariots,  and  upon  their  horsemen. 

27  And  Moses  stretched  forth  his  hand  over  the  sea,  and  the  sea  returned  to  its  strength 
when  the  morning  appeared  ;  and  the  Egj'^ptians  fled  against  it  ;  and  the  Lord  over- 

28  threw  the  Egyptians  in  the  midst  of  the  sea.  And  the  waters  returned,  and  covered 
the  chariots,  and  the  horsemen,  even  all  the  host  of  Pharaoh  that  went  in  after  them 

29  into  the  sea  ;  there  remained  not  so  much  as  one  of  them.  But  the  children  of  Israel 
walked  upon  dry  land  in  the  midst  of  the  sea  ;  and  the  waters  were  a  wall  unto 

30  them  on  their  right  hand,  and  on  their  left.  Thus  the  Lord  saved  Israel  that  day 
out  of  the  hand  of  the  Egyptians  ;  and  Israel  saw  the  Egyptians  dead  upon  the  sea 

31  shore.  And  Israel  saw  the  great  work  which  the  Lord  did  upon  the  Egyptians,  and 
the  people  feared  the  Lord,  and  they  believed  in  the  Lord,  and  in  his  servant 
Moses. 


JSUA  EL'S  SA  FE  PAS.SA  G  E. 


47 


Xa.  8  And  they  journeyed  from  before  Hahiroth,  and  passed  through  the  midst  of  the 

sea  into  the  wilderness. 


The  Captain  takes  command  in  person.  Cen¬ 
turies  have  gone  by  ;  plans  have  been  matured, 
man  developed.  Now  is  the  crisis.  The  nation 
is  a  compact  host,  well  ordered  by  families, 
ready  to  march.  The  Captain  of  their  salvation 
and  ours  takes  command  in  person  ;  for  this 
“  Angel  of  Jehovah,”  that  appeared  to  Abram, 
that  rained  destruction  on  Sodom,  w'ho  wrestled 
with  Jacob,  and  appeared  unto  Moses,  is  no 
other  than  the  Lord  Jesus.  The  cloudy  pavilion 
is  his  chariot  ;  from  it  ho  looks  with  loving  light 
on  his  beloved  ;  from  it  he  looks  wrath  and 
hurls  thunder  and  panic  on  his  enemies.  This 
is  the  beginning  of  his  forty  years’  leading  of 
Israel  like  a  flock  in  the  wilderness.  Warren. 

10-14.  As  Luther  puts  it,  they  were  like  a 
mouse  in  a  trap  or  a  partridge  in  a  snare.  The 
desert,  the  sea,  the  enem}^  were  their  alterna¬ 
tives.  And  as  they  camped,  they  saw  in  the 
distance  the  rapid  advance  of  the  dreaded  force 
of  chariots.  No  wonder  that  they  lost  heart, 
Moses  alone  keeps  his  head  and  his  faith.  A,  M. 

- In  a  human  point  of  view  their  case  was 

bad  enough.  The  mountains  were  on  the  west 
and  south,  the  sea  on  the  east,  and  the  war 
chariots  of  the  well-appointed  foe  advancing  on 
the  north.  There  was  not  the  slightest  prospect 
of  ultimate  escape  for  a  fugitive  people  scantily 
furnished  with  the  means  of  defence.  M. 

Shut  in  between  mountains,  the  sea,  and  Pha¬ 
raoh’s  host  ;  neither  prepared  nor  able  to  fight, 
and  without  the  least  human  prospect  of  vic¬ 
tory,  deliverance,  or  flight  ;  the  people  now  be¬ 
gan  to  despair.  ”  Vere  there  no  graves  in 
Egypt,”  they  cried  out  to  Moses,  “  that  thou 
shouldest  lea  I  us  away  (o  die  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness?”  Nor  did  Moses  see  any  human  way  of 
escape.  But  his  faith  expected  deliverance  from 
Jehovah,  and  from  Jehovah  it  came.  “  Fear 
not,”  said  he  to  the  desponding  people,  ”  stand 
firm,  and  see  the  salvation  wdiicli  Jehovah  will 
effect  for  you  to-day.  Jehovah  will  fight  for 
you,  and  ye  shall  be  sti'.l.  ”  It  was  now  to  be 
clearly  shown  that  the  wa3's  of  God,  though 
they  may  appear  to  be  foolish  by  the  side  of  the 
wisdom  of  men,  insure  the  result  in  the  safest, 
quickest,  and  most  glorious  way.  K. 

Stand  still.  What  would  this  be  in 
any  mere  human  leader  but  the  ravings  of 
frenzy  ?  Yet,  wonderful  to  relate,  the  event  ac¬ 
cords  with  it.  The  Israelites  escape  “  by  the 
waj"  of  the  sea;”  the  Egyptians  perish  in  the 
same  sea.  Graves. - The  Lord  did  not  pro¬ 

pose  to  bring  the  people  into  battle  with  the 


trained  hosts  of  Egypt  at  this  early  stage  of 
their  new  life  of  freedom.  They  were  in  no 
manner  prepared  for  the  conflict  of  arms.  This 
time  the  Lord  alone  would  go  into  battle  against 
Egypt.  Israel  might  stand  still  and  look  on  ! 

H.  C. - If  God  himself  bring  his  people  into 

straits,  he  will  himself  discover  a  wa}'  to  bring 
them  out  again.  In  times  of  great  difficulty 
and  great  exjjectation,  it  is  our  wisdom  to  keep 
our  spirits  calm,  quiet,  and  sedate  ;  for  then  we 
are  in  the  best  frame  both  to  do  our  own  work, 
and  to  consider  ihe  work  of  God.  Your  s'rengih  is 
io  sit  still  (Is,  30  ;  7).  H. 

“  Fear  net,  stand  still,  and  see  the  salvation 
of  the  Lord  ;  the  Lord  will  tight  for  you.”  Thus 
speaks  the  true  hero,  and  the  type  of  all  true 
heroic  men  of  p.ll  ages,  amid  all  the  darkness  of 
overshadowing  danger,  whether  divinely  in¬ 
spired  by  direct  inspiration  or  not.  Fear  not  ; 
jmu  have  obeyed  plain  orders.  You  can  do 
nothing  more.  But  what  of  that,  if  it  is  really 
and  truly  the  fact  that  ye  have  done  all  and  have 
nothing  more  to  do.  Leave  the  rest  to  God. 
Make  no  vain  efforts  in  jmur  frantic  fear.  S'aral 
siiil  and  see  the  salvation  of  God.  Would  to 
God  the  Church  in  this  age  could  thoroughly 
grasp  the  great  idea  of  this  exhortation,  and 
learn  that  this  want  of  earthly  resources,  and 
numbers,  and  wealth,  and  worldly  influence 
need  cause  no  solicitude  or  discouragement  to 
his  faithful  people.  Would  that  the  Church 
could  learn  that  her  success  is  “  not  by  might 
nor  by  power,  but  by  my  Sx^irit,  saith  the 
Lord,”  and  thus  learn  to  cast  awaj’  all  de|jen- 
dence  on  external  power  and  influence,  and 
simplj"  standing  still,  look  ux3  to  the  unseen 
shrine  of  her  risen  Saviour,  and  look  for  Pente¬ 
costal  effusions  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  the  power 
which  alone  can  give  the  Gospel  success  against 
all  opposition  and  deliverance  out  of  all  difficul¬ 
ties  however  insuperable.  S.  E. - As  long  as 

human  means  can  avail,  it  is  a  man’s  duty,  trust¬ 
ing  to  Divine  help,  to  employ  them.  To  sit  and 
wait,  where  effort  can  avail,  is  to  insult  God’s 
providence.  The  “salvation  of  the  Lord”  is 
when  all  conceivable  means  have  been  em¬ 
ployed,  and  have  failed.  The  hand  can  do,  the 
heart  can  devise,  nothing  more.  Such  positions 
are  frequently  arrived  at  in  life.  We  feel  that 
we  are  at  the  end  of  all  endeavor,  and  the  ob¬ 
ject  has  not  been  gained.  Our  strength  and  re¬ 
sources -all  possible  expedients  — have  been 
brought  into  exercise.  The  last  reserve  has 
been  thrown  into  the  battle,  and  yet  it  goes 


48 


SECTION  94.  THE  SEA  DIVIDED. 


against  ns.  We  may  struggle  on  with  a  blind 
despair,  and  as  long  as  strength  remains  we 
must  struggle  on  ;  but  this  power,  too,  seems  to 
be  failing.  It  is  then  that  the  case  rises  dis¬ 
tinctly  into  “  ihesnlvation  of  the.  Lord.”  Nothing 
can  save  us  but  his  marked  interposition,  and 
the  heart  must  put  itself  in  the  attitude  of 
“  hope  and  quiet  waiting”  for  it.  Ker. 

Ye  slinSI  §ee  tlieiii  ag^ain  no  more. 
Here  was  strong  faith,  accompanied  by  the 
spirit  of  prophecy.  God  showed  Moses  what 
He  would  do  ;  ”  he  believed,  and  therefore  he 
spoke.”  A.  C. 

It  is  the  littleness  of  oiir  faith  which  makes 
us  dwarfs  in  spiritual  stature,  cowards  in  con¬ 
flict  and  in  enterprise,  narrow-minded  in  our 
views  and  plans  of  duty,  and  niggards  in  sacri¬ 
fice  and  in  contribution  to  the  cause  of  Christ. 
It  is  the  sin  and  the  misery  even  of  the  sincere 
disciples  of  Christ  that  the  promises  of  God 
have  so  little  daily  influence  on  their  practical 
habits.  Be  afraid  of  unbelief  ;  be  ashamed  of 
unbelief  ;  only  believe,  and  act  as  if  you  be¬ 
lieved,  and  you  shall  see  the  salvation  of  God. 
S.  Miller. 

15.  We  hear  not  one  word  of  Moses’s  pray¬ 
ing  ;  and  yet  the  Lord  asks  why  he  cries  unto 
Him  ?  From  which  we  may  learn  that  the  heart 
of  Moses  was  deeply  engaged  with  God,  though 

he  did  not  articulate  one  word.  A.  C. - His 

heart’s  language  God  well  understood,  and  took 
notice  of.  Moses’s  silent  prayers  of  faith  pre¬ 
vailed  more  with  God  than  Israel’s  loud  outcries 
of  fear  (verse  10).  Moses  had  bidden  them  stand 
still,  and  expect  orders  from  God  ;  and  now 
orders  are  given.  They  thought  they  must  have 
been  directed  either  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the 
left.  “No,”  says  God,  “  speak  to  them  to  go 
forward,  directly  to  the  sea-side  as  if  there 
had  lain  a  fleet  of  transport-ships  ready  for 
them  to  embark  in.  When  we  are  in  the  way 
of  our  dut}^  though  AVG  meet  with  difficulties,  we 
must  go  forward,  and  not  stand  in  mute  aston¬ 
ishment  ;  we  must  mind  present  work,  and  then 
leave  the  event  to  God  ;  use  means,  and  trust 
him  with  the  issue.  H. 

There  was  no  occasion  to  cry  to  the  Lord  ;  for 
he  had  already  manifested  so  decidedly  that  he 
was  determined  to  deliver  his  people,  that 
neither  they  nor  Moses  ought  to  have  had  a 
doubt  about  it.  And  this  was  no  time  for  prayer. 
There  was  something  else  to  be  instantly  done. 
It  was  the  time  for  him  and  them  to  act. 
“  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel  that  they  go 
forward.”  In  the  most  difficult  and  appalling 
circumstances,  the  command  is  often  to  be 
heard  by  us,  “  Go  forward.”  Though  there  may 


be  mountains  of  opposition  or  seas  of  danger 
in  the  path  of  duty,  yet  the  word  is  “Go  for¬ 
ward.”  Faith  has  its  most  perfect  work  in  the 
hour  of  darkness.  Follow  its  guidance,  and  “  a 
way  shall  be  made  in  the  sea,  and  a  path  in  the 
mighty  waters.’’  Bush. 

When  God  leads  us  into  danger,  he  will  take 
us  safely  through  it.  Had  the  Israelites  gone  of 
their  own  accord  to  encamp  at  Pi-hahiroth, 
they  would  have  had  no  claim  on  the  Divine 
protection  ;  but  because  God  had  taken  them 
thither,  he  stood  near  to  help  them.  It  makes 
all  the  difference  in  the  world,  Avhen  I  am  in 
danger,  whether  I  am  there  for  my  own  pleas¬ 
ure  and  of  my  own  motive,  or  on  the  business 
and  at  the  bidding  of  the  Lord.  In  the  former 
case,  I  have  no  warrant  for  his  protection  ;  in 
the  latter,  I  may  be  sure  that  he  will  put  him¬ 
self  between  me  and  the  peril,  and  make  him¬ 
self  indeed  my  shield.  This  principle  is  far- 

» 

reaching,  and  may  be  applied  by  us  to  business, 
to  amusements,  and,  indeed,  to  every  depart¬ 
ment  of  life.  To  go  into  danger  thoughtlessly, 
is  rashness  ;  to  go  into  it  wantonly,  is  foolhardi¬ 
ness  ;  but  to  go  into  it  because  only  thereby  can 
I  follow  my  Master,  and  do  what  he  commands, 
is  true  courage  ;  and  at  such  times  I  shall  always 
find  Him  at  my  side.  Pharaoh  tried  to  cross 
the  sea  without  warrant,  and  he  was  drowned  ; 
but  the  Hebrews,  following  their  God,  went 
over  on  dry  land.  Faith  is  one  thing  ;  presump¬ 
tion  is  another.  To  expect  that  God  will  keep 
me,  no  matter  though  I  go  recklessly  into  dan¬ 
ger,  is  presumption  ;  to  go  through  that  danger 
on  his  service,  is  courage.  W.  M.  T. 

It  is  no  tame  application,  no  degradation  of 
the  Divine  watchword,  if  we  say  to  one  an¬ 
other,  Go  forward  !  Go  forward  in  faith  and 
holiness,  in  activity  and  zeal  ;  go  forward  in 
brotherly  kindness  and  charity,  in  devotion  and 
self-denial  ;  go  forward  in  the  self-knowledge 
which  destroys  confidence  in  the  flesh  ;  go  for¬ 
ward  in  the  courage  which  waxes  strong  in 
Christ  Jesus  ;  go  forward  in  the  humility  which, 
conscious  of  unworthiness,  still  high-hearted 
and  hopeful,  seeks  the  things  above  ;  and  for¬ 
ward  in  that  seriousness  which,  taking  truer 
views  of  life  and  its  outgoings,  bas  also  joys  and 
consolations  unguessed  by  carnal  levity.  Go 
forward  !  for  in  the  van  are  the  bravest  and 
best  ;  go  forward,  for  the  guiding  pillar  is  far 
before— so  far  before  that  the  Bible  is  some¬ 
times  like  to  get  out  of  our  sight  altogether  ;  go 
forward,  for  the  Forerunner  bas  passed  ahead, 
and  they  are  the  happiest  pilgrims  who  so  far 
can  overtake  as  to  pursue  their  course  ”  look¬ 
ing  unto  Jesus.”  Go  forward  !  for  the  best  ac- 


ISRAEL'S  SAFE  PASSAGE. 


40 


coTTitnodations  and  refreshments  await  those 
who  are  farthest  in  advance  ;  and  “  from 
strength  still  onward  unto  strength,”  their  bur¬ 
dens  are  the  lightest  and  their  difficulties  the 
fewest  who,  “  forgetting  the  things  that  are  be¬ 
hind,”  evermore  “  press  forward — ”  forward  cn 
the  way  where  the  guiding  pillar  precedes,  “  to 
the  prize  of  our  high  calling,”  even  the  place 
which  Christ  has  prepared.  Hamilton. 

19.  That  the  Israelites  might  not  be  dis¬ 
mayed  at  the  appearance  of  their  enemies,  and 
that  these  might  not  be  able  to  discern  the  ob¬ 
ject  of  their  pursuit,  the  pillar  of  cloud  moved 
from  the  front  to  the  rear  of  the  Israelitish 
camp,  so  as  perfectly  to  separate  between  them 

and  the  Egyptians.  A.  C. - The  pillar  of  fire 

and  cloud,  the  symbol  of  the  Divine  Presence, 
jiasses  from  the  van  to  the  rear.  Its  guidance 
was  not  needed  wdien  but  one  path  through  the 
sea  \vas  possible.  Its  defence  was  needed  when 
the  foe  was  pressing  eagerly  on  the  heels  of  the 
host.  His  people’s  needs  determined  then,  as 
they  ever  do,  the  form  of  the  Divine  Presence 
and  help.  Long  after  the  prophet  seized  the 
great  lesson  of  this  event,  when  he  broke  into 
the  triumphant  anticipation  of  a  yet  future  de¬ 
liverance,  which  should  repeat  in  fresh  experi¬ 
ence  the  ancient  victory,  “  The  Lord  will  go  be¬ 
fore  you  ;  and  the  God  of  Israel  will  be  your 
rearward.”  In  the  place  where  the  need  is  sor¬ 
est  and  in  the  form  most  required,  there  and  that 
will  God  ever  be  to  those  who  trust  him.  A.  M. 

20,  And  it  came  Oulween  the  camp 
ol  pt  and  llie  camp  of  Israel.  As 
an  obstruction  and  a  barrier  to  the  former. 
The  next  clause  is  strictly  translated  in  the  Ee- 
vision.  And  there  loas  the  cloud  and  the  darkness, 
yet  gave  it  light  hy  night.  This  sets  forth  the 
double  aspect  and  function  of  this  supernatural 
pillar.  It  is  evident  from  the  connection  that 
the  reference  is  not  here,  as  in  Ex.  13  :21,  to 
its  different  ap()earance  by  day  and  by  night. 
These  two  aspects  are  not  successive,  but  simul¬ 
taneous,  and  set  forth  what  it  was  upon  its  two 
sides.  On  one  side  it  was  all  cloud  and  dark¬ 
ness  ;  on  the  other  it  was  luminous.  The  dark 
side  was  turned  to  the  Egyptians  and  the  bright 
side  to  the  Israelites  ;  and  this  is  confirmed 
by  Josh.  24  :  7.  The  obscurity  prevented  the 
Egyptians  from  seeing  the  retreating  host  be¬ 
fore  them  and  from  seeing  their  own  way,  and 
thus  perplexed  them  and  retarded  their  prog¬ 
ress.  St)  that  the  one  came  not  near  the  other  all  the 
night  :  Pharaoh  and  his  army,  thus  checked, 
were  not  able  to  advance  upon  the  Israelites, 
alihough  they  were  already  in  such  close  prox- 

iiuifv  to  Ihem.  W.  H.  G. 

%/ 

4 


Darkiiei^§  .  .  .  yet  light.  In  its  typical 
sense,  especially  on  the  occasion  of  passing 
through  the  sea,  on  this  occasion  the  pillar 
strikingly  represents  the  twofold  providence  of 
God  which  are  light  to  his  people  while  death 
to  his  enemies  ;  looking  down  upon  the  one 
with  kindness  and  love,  while  he  frowns  in 

wrath  upon  the  other.  S.  E. - It  was  a  guide 

and  a  light  to  the  believing,  but  a  darkness  and 
terror  to  the  unbelieving.  In  the  approach  of 
difficult}',  it  was  a  protection  to  one  and  a  de¬ 
struction  to  the  other.  “  By  faith  his  people 
passed  through  the  Eed  Sea  as  by  dry  land, 
which  the  Egyptians  assaying  to  do  were 
drowned.”  So  it  is  with  the  principles  and 
promises  of  God’s  Word.  Without  faith  work¬ 
ing  by  and  through  love,  receiving  the  truth  in 
the  love  of  it,  we  are  mere  children  of  sense  and 
of  darkness,  mere  Egyptians  ;  and  the  Word, 
instead  of  being  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  a 
flame  of  holy  animating  light,  is  a  cloud  of  thick 
judgment  and  terrible  darkness.  There  are 
nothing  but  elements  of  condemnation  in  it. 
And  so,  too,  it  must  be  wdth  God’s  providences. 
There  is  a  bright  side  to  them  and  a  dark  one  ; 
not  indeed  in  themselves,  for  with  reference  to 
God  they  are  all  bright,  as  revelations  of  his  at¬ 
tributes  and  parts  of  his  administration.  But 
to  the  view  and  experience  of  different  souls,  as 
submissive  and  believing  or  unsubmissive  and 
unbelieving,  as  selfish  and  dark  or  loving  and 
bright,  God's  providences  are  all  just  like  that 
]3illar  of  cloud  and  flame.  It  was  only  the  side 
tow'ard  God’s  own  people  that  w'as  bright  ;  the 
side  tow'ard  the  Egyptians  w'as  darkness.  So 
it  ever  must  be  with  all  God ’s  dispensations. 
They  have  a  bright  and  a  dark  side  ;  but  the 
bright  side  is  bright  only  to  faith,  and  the  dark 
side  is  dark  only  to  unbelief.  Cheever. 

It  is  fire  as  life,  and  not  as  death,  that  is  the 
symbol  of  God.  It  speaks  the  might  of  his 
transforming  power,  the  melting,  cleansing, 
vitalizing  influence  of  his  communicated  grace, 
the  warmth  of  his  conquering  love.  It  hath, 
indeed,  an  under  side  of  possible  judgment, 
punishment,  and  destruction,  but  it  hath  a  face 
of  blessing,  of  life-giving,  of  sanctifying  pow'er. 
And  therefore  the  Baptist  spake  glad  tidings 
when  he  said,  “  He  shall  baptize  you  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire.”  A.  M. 

21.  The  process  is  definitely  stated  in  the 
Scripture  narrative,  by  wdiich  the  sea  was  di¬ 
vided  and  reunited  :  “  The  Lord  caused  the  sea 
to  go  back  by  a  strong  east  wind  all  the  night, 
and  made  the  sea  dry  land,  and  the  w'aters  were 
divided.”  This  clearly  asserts  that  the  effect 
v/as  wrought  by  a  natural  agency,  though  pro- 


50 


SECTION  94.  THE  SEA  DIVIDED. 


ternaturally  applied,  S.  C,  B. - It  would  be  a 

great  mistake  to  imagine  that  the  passage  of 
such  a  great  caravan  (as  the  Israelites)  could 
have  been  effected  by  purely  natural  means. 
No  caravans  go  this  way  nowadays,  at  least  from 
Cairo  to  Sinai,  though  it  would  be  a  great  sav¬ 
ing  of  distance  if  they  could.  But  it  was  even 
less  possible  for  the  children  of  Israel  to  cross 
thus,  thousands  of  years  ago,  fur  the  water  was 
then  apparently  broader  and  deeper.  The  water 
seems  not  only  to  have  retreated  since,  but  the 
bottom  of  this  shallow  point  appears  to  have 
been  raised  by  the  sand  blown  in  for  ages  from 
the  desert.  Nebuhi'. 

Wonder  did  now  justly  strive  with  fear  in  the 
Israelites,  when  they  saw  the  cloud  remove  be¬ 
hind  them,  aud  the  sea  remove  before  them. 
They  were  not  used  to  such  bulwarks.  God 
stood  behind  them  in  the  cloud  ;  the  sea  reared 
them  up  wails  on  both  sides  them.  That  which 
they  feared  would  be  their  destruction  pro¬ 
tected  them.  Bp.  IL 

Every  one  must  see  a  miracle  of  the  most 
wonderful  kind  in  producing  the  effect  here 
narrated— viz.,  the  passage  on  dry  ground  of 
two  millions  of  men,  with  their  herds,  during  a 
.space  of  twelve  hours.  Whoever  receives  the 
account  as  true  will  feel  even  now,  on  reading 
it,  an  awe  in  thought  of  the  Divine  Majesty 

W'hich  then  revealed  itself.  Oerl. - In  the  Sc.  ip- 

tures  the  supernatuntl  element  is  continually 
presented,  with  simplicity,  dignity,  and  a  tone 
of  authority  ;  is  treated  as  familiarly,  wdth  as 
little  attempt  at  startling  expression,  as  if  it  lay 
level  with  the  commonest  experience,  yet  with 
astonishing  harmony  and  majesty  in  the  out¬ 
lines  and  vast  adumbrations  of  its  glory.  No 
greater  mistake  can  possibly  be  made  than  to 
sujipose  this  amazing  supernatural  element  — 
whose  recognized  presence  in  the  Scriptures 
leads  some  to  rejiel  them  --depressing  or  harass¬ 
ing  to  the  stimulated  mind.  Above  all  things 
else,  it  is  the  one  power  which  exalts,  inspires, 
and  re-enforces.  R.  S.  S. 

22,  And  tSic  waters  were  a  wall 
unto  tliein  on  tlicw  rig^lit  liand,  and 
on  tlieir  Icfi.  It  ’would  be  consistent  'with 
these  w'ords  to  assume  that  the  channel  which 
was  laid  dry  for  the  passage  of  the  children  of 
Israel  was  bordered  by  deep  water  on  either 
hand,  which  thus  was  a  wall  of  defence  to  them 
on  both  sides  (compare  Nah.  3  : 8).  It  is  not, 
however,  consistent  with  Ex.  15  : 8,  according 
to  which  the  waters  stood  in  a  perpendicular 
mass,  as  though  they  were  congealed.  It  is  ex¬ 
pressly  declared  that  this  was  the  fact  at  the 
crossing  of  the  Jordan  (Josh.  3  :  16),  and  there 


is  no  reason  why  it  may  not  likewise  have  been 
the  case  in  this  instance.  ,  .  .  These  various 
miracles  were  wrought  by  the  immediate  exer¬ 
cise  of  God’s  power.  Yet  Moses’s  instrumen¬ 
tality  was  used  in  announcing  and  effecting 
them,  in  order  to  j^ut  honor  upon  Moses  a.s 
God’s  agent  and  duly  accredited  messenger. 
Moses’s  rod  and  his  hand  had  no  efficiency  in 
dividing  the  sea.  And  yet  stretching  them 
forth  was  the  divinely  ordained  means  for  ac¬ 
complishing  this  result  ;  and  the  sea  would  not 
have  been  divided  had  not  Moses  stretched 
them  forth.  It  is  thus  with  the  appointed 
means  of  grace — the  Word  as  read  or  preached, 
the  sacraments,  and  prayer.  They  are  made 
efficient  only  by  the  accompanying  power  of  the 
Spirit  of  God.  W.  H.  G. 

The  graphic  description  of  the  passage  needs 
little  comment.  The  author  describes  all  so 
concisely  and  in  a  tone  so  unimpassioned, 
that  it  is  difficult  to  realize  that  he  is  de¬ 
scribing  one  of  the  most  stupendous  miracles 
in  the  history  of  the  race  since  the  flood. 

S.  E. - He  uses  no  ornaments  of  language  in 

celebrating  this  miracle.  He  simply  saj's  that 
the  sea  was  divided  by  the  rod  of  Moses  ;  that 
space  enough  for  the  passage  of  the  people  was 
dry  ;  that  the  mighty  mass  of  waters  stood  like 
solid  rocks  on  either  side.  Designedly  has  he 
set  the  whole  matter  before  our  eyes  bare  of  all 
verbal  splendor  ;  although  it  will  be  celebrated 
soon  after,  in  accordance  with  its  dignity,  in 
the  Canticle,  and  it  is  everywhere  more  splen¬ 
didly  magnified  by  the  prophets  and  in  the 
Psalms,  Oalu. 

The  scene,  conceived  of  even  according  to  the 
ascertained  facts  of  the  case,  was  more  sublime 
than  we  commonly  imagine.  Remember  that 
the  passage  was  made  in  the  night  ;  made 
amid  the  howlings  of  that  eastern  blast  which 
bore  down  on  the  waters  of  the  sea  with  resist¬ 
less  force.  And  then  take  into  the  account  what 
we  learn  from  descriptions  given  in  the  Psalms  ; 
that  this  was  a  tempestuous  wind,  of  clouds, 
and  poured-out  rains,  and  lightnings  shooting 
athwart  the  sky,  and  thunders  pealing  round 
the  horizon  and  shaking  the  earth,  while  the 
mysterious  fiery  cloud  of  God  sent  forth  its 
ruddy  glare  on  the  scene.  Says  the  Psalmist 
(77  : 16-20)  :  “  The  waters  saw  thee,  O  God,  the 
waters  saw  thee;  they  were  afraid  :  the  depths 
also  were  troubled.  The  clouds  poured  out 
water  :  the  skies  sent  out  a  sound  :  thine  ar¬ 
rows  also  went  abroad.  The  voice  of  thy  thun¬ 
der  was  in  the  heaven  :  the  lightnings  lightened 
the  world  :  the  earth  trembled  and  shook.  Thy 
way  is  in  the  sea,  and  thy  path  in  the  great 


PHARAOH'S  HOST  DESTROYED. 


waters,  and  thy  footsteps  are  not  known.  Thou 
leddest  thy  people  like  a  flock  by  the  hand  of 
Moses  and  Aaron.”  N.  C.  B. 

The  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  takes  this  as  an 
instance  of  “  faith”  on  the  part  of  the  Israelites  ; 
and  truly  we  can  feel  that  it  must  have  taken 
some  trust  in  God’s  protecting  hand  to  venture 
on  such  a  road,  where,  at  any  moment,  the 
walls  might  collapse  and  drown  them  all.  They 
were  driven  to  venttire  by  their  fear  of  Pha¬ 
raoh  ;  but  faith,  as  well  as  fear,  wrought  in 
them.  Our  faith,  too,  is  often  called  upon  to 
venture  upon  perilous  paths.  We  may  trust 
him  to  hold  back  the  watery  walls  from  falling. 
The  picture  of  the  crossing  carries  eternal  truth 
for  us  all.  The  way  of  safety  does  not  open  till 
we  are  hemmed  in,  and  Pharaoh’s  chariots  are 
almost  come  up.  It  often  leads  into  the  very 
thick  of  what  we  deem  perils.  It  often  has  to 
be  ventured  on  in  the  dark,  and  with  the  wind 
in  our  faces.  But  if  we  tread  it  in  faith,  the 
fluid  shall  be  made  solid,  and  the  jDathless  pass¬ 
able,  or  any  other  apparent  impossibility  be 
realized,  before  our  confidence  shall  be  put  to 

shame,  or  one  real  evil  reach  us.  A.  M. - 

The  passage  through  the  sea  turns  out  to  be 
much  safer  than  the  path  along  the  quiet  shore, 
as  soon  as  it  appears  that  Ood  is  with  us  ;  for  — 
and  let  it  be  inscribed  on  all  our  hearts  —safety 
does  not  depend  upon  the  road,  but  on  the 
guide  we  choose.  Far  better  to  pursue  what 
seems  a  hopeless  track  with  God  upon  our  side, 
than  without  God  or  against  his  will  to  tread  a 
path,  however  smooth,  that  flesh  and  blood  has 
opened  up  to  us.  Why  should  we,  then,  retreat 
a  single  inch-breadth,  even  on  a  road  beset  with 
every  kind  of  difficulty,  when  the  God  who 
calls  is  also  faithful,  and  does  far  above  what 
we  can  ask  or  think  ?  Van  0. 

24,  25,  Now  when  God  sees  the  Egyptians 
too  far  to  return,  he  finds  time  to  strike  them 
with  their  last  terror  :  thej'-  know  not  why,  but 
they  would  return  too  late.  Those  chariots  in 
which  they  trusted  now  fail  them,  as  having 
done  service  enough  to  carry  them  into  perdi¬ 
tion.  God  pursues  them,  and  they  cannot  fly 
from  Him,  Bp.  H. 

24.  Ill  tlie  inorniiig  watch.  The  He¬ 
brews,  as  well  as  the  Homans,  divided  the  night 
into  four  parts,  or  watches,  of  about  three  hours 
each  ;  so  called,  because  at  the  beginning  of 
each  part  the  guard  of  soldiers  who  kept  watch 
was  changed.  The  morning  watch  was  the  last 
of  them,  immediately  before  sunrise.  Bp. 

Patrick. - The  LOED  looked  forth.  We 

know  of  no  sentence  more  memorably  impres¬ 
sive  in  the  Bible  than  that  which  tells  us  that 


o  I 

God  looked  out  of  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  the 
fire,  and  troubled  the  Egyptians.  Such  is  the 
difference  between  the  light  of  his  countenance 
and  the  rebuke  of  his  countenance.  T.  C. 

25.  Let  tis  flee.  The  Egyptians  now  re¬ 
pented  of  their  precipitate  madness,  and  deter¬ 
mined,  as  conquered  by  God’s  power,  to  leave  the 
children  of  Israel  and  to  return  home  ;  but  God 
shut  up  the  way  of  escape  at  this  ver}’-  crisis. 
That  we  may  know  how  evident  a  miracle  was 
here,  Moses  adds  (verse  27)  that  the  morning 
then  appeared,  so  that  the  broad  daylight  might 
show  the  whole  transaction  to  the  eyes  of  the 
spectators.  Calv. - Israel  is  now,  all  of  a  sud¬ 

den,  become  as  much  a  terror  to  them  as  they 
had  been  to  Israel.  They  might  have  let  Israel 
alone  and  would  not  ;  now  they  would  flee  from 
the  face  of  Israel  and  cannot.  Men  will  not  be 
convinced  till  it  is  too  late  that  those  who 
meddle  with  God’s  people  meddle  to  their  own 
hurt  ;  when  the  Lord  shall  come  with  ten  thou¬ 
sands  of  his  saints  to  execute  judgment,  the 
mighty  men  will  in  vain  seek  to  shelter  them¬ 
selves  under  rocks  and  mountains  from  the  face 
of  Israel  and  Israel’s  King  (Eev.  6  :  15).  God 
reckoned  with  Pharaoh  for  all  his  proud  and  in¬ 
solent  conduct  toward  Moses  his  ambassador  j 
mocking  the  messengers  of  the  Lord  and  play 
ing  the  fool  with  them,  bring  ruin  without 
remedy  :  now  God  got  him  honor  upon  Pharaoh 
H. 

27.  And  Moses  streleiacd  fortli  Iiis 

liand.  The  rod  of  Moses  is  again  stretched 
over  the  sea,  and  it  returns  to  its  strength. 
Those  very  waters  which  had  guarded  the  pas¬ 
sage  of  Israel  again  obey  the  sus]3ended  law  of 
gravitation,  and  rushing  down  upon  the  heads 
of  the  Egyptians  with  overwhelming  force,  en¬ 
gulf  them  all  beyond  the  power  or  possibility 
of  escape.  “  The  sea  covered  them  ;  they  sank 
as  lead  in  thg  mighty  waters.”  The  same  ele¬ 
ment  is  the  defence  of  the  one  and  the  de. 
stroyer  of  the  other.  Not  an  Israelite  peri.shed, 
not  an  Egyptian  survived.  Bash. 

30.  Tlans  JeiiOTali  saved  Israel 
tlaat  day  oait  of  the  Eiand  of  the- 
Egyptians.  Thus  Israel  went  beyond  the 
Land  of  Bondage  into  the  Land  of  Training,  as 
a  nation  of  freemen.  H.  C.  T. 

Often  mentioned  both  in  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  the  dividing  of  the  Bed  Sea  before 
the  children  of  Israel  was  the  terror  of  the  Ca- 
naanites  (Josh.  2  ;9,  10),  the  praise  and  triumph 
of  the  Israelites  (Ps.  114  :  3  ;  106  ;  9  ;  136  : 13, 
14).  It  was  a  type  of  baptism  (1  Cor.  10  : 1,  2). 
Israel’s  passage  through  it  was  typical  of  the 
conversion  of  souls  (Is.  11  :  15),  and  the  Egyp- 


52 


SECTION  94.  THE  SEA  DIVIDED. 


tians’  perdition  in  it  was  typical  of  the  final 

ruin  of  all  impenitent  sinners  (Rev.  20  :  14), - 

The  Old  Testament  people  confess  that  the  ex¬ 
odus  from  Egypt  was  their  redemption.  The 
bringing  back  from  Babylon  is  a  fact  in  holy 
history  ;  but  the  bringing  out  of  Egypt  stands 
high  above  it.  It  is  an  article  of  the  Israelitic 
creed,  holding  the  first  place  in  the  Decalogue, 
included  among  the  reasons  for  observing  the 
Sabbath  commandment  (De.  5  ;  15),  solemnized 
by  two  feasts  at  the  beginning  of  the  eccle¬ 
siastical  year  (the  pascha)  and  of  the  civil  year 
(the  feast  of  tabernacles),  urgently  impressed  by 
the  proi)hets  and  sx)lendidly  celebrated  in  many 
IDsalms.  Delitzsch. 

33.  The  feared  tlie  ILord. 

They  were  convinced  by  the  interference  of 
Jehovah  that  his  power  was  unlimited,  and 
that  he  could  do  whatsoever  he  pleased,  both  in 
the  way  of  judgment  and  in  the  way  of  mercy. 
Aad  S>eaieved  in  the  Lord.  They  clearly 
discerned  that  God  had  fidfilled  all  his  prom¬ 
ises,  and  that  not  one  thing  had  failed  of  all 
the  good  which  he  had  spoken  concerning  Israel. 
And  they  believed  his  servant  Moses.  They  had 
now  the  fullest  proof  that  he  was  divinely  ajD- 
pointed  to  work  all  these  miracles,  and  to  bring 
them  out  of  Egypt  into  the  promised  land. 
Thus  God  got  himself  honor  upon  the  Egyq)- 
tians,  and  credit  in  the  sight  of  Israel.  After 
this  overthrow  of  their  host,  the  Egyptians  in¬ 
terrupted  them  no  more  in  their  journeyings. 
How  strange  that  after  such  displays  of  the  jus¬ 
tice  and  mercy  of  Jehovah  the  Israelites  should 
ever  have  been  deficient  in  faith  or  have  given 
place  to  murmuring  !  A.  C. 

So  complete,  so  marvellous  was  the  deliver¬ 
ance  :  thus  the  Israelites  were  baptized  to 
Moses  in  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea.  When  they 
left  Baal-Zephon  they  were  separated  finally 
from  the  idolatry  of  Egypt  ;  when  they  passed 
the  Red  Sea  their  independence  of  its  power 
was  sealed  ;  their  life  as  a  nation  then  began,  a 
life  inseparable  henceforth  from  belief  in  Je¬ 
hovah  and  his  servant  Moses,  only  to  be  merged 
in  the  higher  life  revealed  by  his  Son.  Cook. 
— — This  great  work  which  God  wrought  for 
them  by  the  ministry  of  Moses  bound  them 
effectually  to  follow  his  directions,  under  God. 
This  confirmed  their  faith  in  the  promises  that 
were  yet  to  be  fulfilled  ;  and  being  brought  thus 
triumphantly  out  of  Egypt,  they  did  not  doubt 
that  they  should  be  in  Canaan  shortly,  having 
such  a  God  to  trust  to  and  such  a  mediator  be¬ 
tween  them  and  Him.  Oh,  that  there  had  been 
such  a  heart  in  them  as  now  there  seemed  to 
be  !  Sensible  mercies  when  they  are  fresh  make 


sensible  impressions  ;  but  with  many  these  im¬ 
pressions  soon  wear  off  :  while  thej^  see  God’s 
works  and  feel  the  benefit  of  them,  they  fear  him 
and  trust  in  him  ;  but  they  soon  forget  his 
works,  and  then  they  slight  him.  H. 

The  beginnings  and  foundations  of  true  re¬ 
ligion  do  not  rest  upon  human  but  upon  Divine 
productivity  and  human  receptivity.  The  Di¬ 
vine  productivity  is  seen  in  the  supernatural 
revelation  ;  the  human  receptivity  in  faith, 
which  receives  the  revelation.  At  the  begin¬ 
nings,  in  the  case  of  Abraham  (Gen.  15  :  6)  and 
here  in  the  Mosaic  age,  faith,  elsewhere  rarely 
occurring  in  the  Old  Testament,  is  expressly 
mentioned.  Aaberlen. 


In  1  Cor.  10  : 1-4  the  apostle  is  representing 
the  position  of  the  Israelites  in  the  desert  as 
substantially  one  with  that  of  the  Corinthians. 
And,  to  make  it  more  manifest,  he  even  applies 
the  terms  fitted  to  express  the  condition  of  the 
Corinthians  to  the  case  of  the  Israelites.  These, 
says  he,  were  baptized  like  you.  had  Christ 
among  them  like  you,  and  like  you  were  priv¬ 
ileged  to  eat  and  drink  as  guests  in  the  Lord’s 
house.  Of  course,  language  transferred  thus 
from  one  part  of  God’s  dispensations  to  an¬ 
other  could  never  be  meant  to  be  taken  very 
strictly  ;  no  more  could  it  be  so  when  the  new 
things  of  the  Christian  dispensation  were  ap¬ 
plied  to  the  Israelites  than  when  the  o/d  things 
of  the  Jewish  are  applied  to  the  members  of  the 
Christian  Church.  In  this  latter  mode  of  appli¬ 
cation  the  Christian  Church  is  spoken  of  as 
having  a  temple  as  Israel  had  an  altar,  a  pass- 
over-lamb  and  feast,  a  sprinkling  Vvdth  blood,  a 
circumcision.  Yet  ever}^  one  knows  ttiat  what 
is  meant  bj'  such  language  is,  not  that  the  ver}' 
things  themselves,  the  things  in  their  outward 
form  and  appearance,  but  that  the  inward  reali¬ 
ties  signified  by  them  belong  to  the  Church  of 
Christ.  The  old  name  is  retained,  though  actu¬ 
ally  denoting  something  higher  and  better. 
And  we  must  interpret  in  the  same  way  when 
the  transference  is  made  in  the  reverse  order — 
when  the  new  things  of  the  Christian  Church 
are  ascribed  to  the  ancient  Israelites.  By  the 
cloud  passing  over  and  resting  between  them 
and  the  Egyptians,  and  afterward  by  their  pass¬ 
ing  under  its  protection  through  the  Red  Sea 
in  safety,  they  were  baptized  into  Moses  ;  for 
thus  the,  line  of  demarcation  was  drawn  between 
their  old  vassalage  and  the  new  state  and  pros¬ 
pects  on  which,  under  Moses,  they  had  entered  ; 
and  Christ  himself,  whose  servant  Moses  was, 
was  present  with  them,  feeding  them  as  from 


AFTER  rilE  DELIVERANCE. 


53 


his  own  hands  with  direct  supplies  of  meat  and 
drink,  till  they  reached  the  promised  inheri¬ 
tance.  In  short,  these  were  to  them  relatively 
what  Christian  baptism  and  the  Lord’s  Supper 
are  to  believers  now,  but  not  in  themselves 
formally  the  same.  Christ  was  there  only  in  a 
mystery  ;  Gospel  ordinances  were  possessed  only 
under  the  shadow  of  means  and  provisions, 
adapted  immediately  to  their  bodily  wants  and 
temporal  condition.  Yet  still  Christ  and  the 
Gospel  were  there  ;  for  all  that  was  then  given 
and  done  linked  itself  by  a  S23iritual  bond  with 
the  better  things  to  come,  and  as  in  a  glass 
darkly  reflected  the  benefits  of  redemption.  So 
that  as  the  Israelites  in  the  desert  stood  rela¬ 
tively  in  the  same  i^osition  with  the  professing 
church  under  the  Gosjjel,  the  language  here 
used  by  the  apostle  merely  shows  how  clearly 
he  perceived  the  points  of  resemblance,  and 
how  profoundly  he  looked  into  the  connection 
between  them.  P.  F. 


Three  results  would  naturally  follow  on  the 
occurrence  of  such  circumstances  as  thoso  re¬ 
corded  in  Exodus.  Egypt  would  be  for  a  time 
weakened  in  a  military  point  of  view,  and  her 
gloiy,  as  a  conquering  power,  would  suifer  tem¬ 
porary  eclipse.  The  royal  authority  would  be 
shaken  and  encouragement  afforded  to  the  pre¬ 
tensions  of  any  rival  claimants  of  the  throne. 
The  loss  of  six  hundred  thousand  laborers  would 
bring  to  an  end  the  jjeriod  of  the  construction 
of  great  works,  or,  at  the  least,  greatly  check 
their  rapid  multii)lication.  Now  this  is  exactly 
what  all  historians  of  Egypt  agree  to  have  been 
the  general  condition  of  things  in  Egypt  in  the 
later  years  of  Meneptah  and  the  period  immedi¬ 
ately  following.  Military  expeditions  cease 
until  the  time  of  Rameses  III.,  a  space  of  nearly 
forty  years.  The  later  years  of  Meneptah  are 
disturbed  by  the  rise  of  a  pretender,  Ammon- 
mes,  who  disputes  the  throne  with  his  son,  and, 
according  to  Manetho,  occupies  it  for  five  years. 
Seti  II.,  or  Seti-Meneptah,  has  then  a  short 
reign  ;  but  another  claimant  is  brought  forward 


by  a  high  official,  and  established  in  his  place, 
Soon  afterward  complete  anarchy  sets  in,  and 
continues  for  several  years,  till  a  certain  Set- 
nekht  is  made  king  by  the  jjriests,  and  tran¬ 
quillity  once  more  restored.  The  construction 
of  monuments  during  this  period  almost  en 
tirely  ceases  ;  and  when  Rameses  III.  shows  the 
desire  to  emulate  the  architectural  glories  of 
former  kings,  he  is  compelled  to  work  on  a 
much  smaller  scale,  and  to  content  himself  with 
the  erection  of  a  comparatively  few  edifices. 
G.  R. 

Meneptah’ s  irortraits  which  have  been  jDre- 
served  indicate,  in  full  harmonj’’  with  the  bibli¬ 
cal  account,  a  ruler  with  weak  womanish  fea¬ 
tures,  lacking  every  trace  of  masculine  decision 
of  character.  Of  his  end  we  know  nothing  ex¬ 
cept  what  is  contained  in  the  Bible.  His  grave 
is  preserved  in  the  valley  of  the  royal  vaults  in 
western  Thebes  ;  but  this,  as  well  as  the  sarcojah- 
agus,  was  usually  constructed  in  the  lifetime 
of  the  king  himself.  Menep tab’s  mummy  was 
not  found  in  the  cachette  of  Ber-el-Bahri,  where, 
six  years  ago,  the  bodies  of  his  father  and  of  so 
man}^  other  important  Pharaohs  were  found. 
This  may,  of  course,  be  an  accident.  Ebevs. 


Either  the  plagues  of  Egypt  hai^iDened,  or 
they  did  not.  Either  the  Red  Sea  was  divided, 
or  it  was  not.  Either  the  jjillar  of  fire  and  of 
the  cloud  guided  the  movements  of  the  hosts 
for  forty  years,  or  there  was  no  such  thing. 
Either  there  was  manna  each  morning  round 
about  the  camp,  or  there  was  none.  The  facts 
were  too  plain,  too  simple,  too  obvious  to  sense 
for  there  to  be  any  doubt  about  them.  The 
record  is  either  a  true  account  or  a  tissue  of 
lies.  We  cannot  imagine  the  writer  an  eye-wit¬ 
ness,  and  reject  the  main  features  of  his  story, 
without  looking  on  him  as  an  imj3ostor.  No 
“enthusiasm,”  no  “poetic  temperament,’’ 
could  account  for  such  a  record  if  the  exodus 
was  accomplished  without  miracles.  The  writer 
either  relates  the  truth,  or  was  guilty  of  con¬ 
scious  dishonesty.  G.  R. 


54 


SECTION  95.  SONG  OF  MOSES. 


Section  95. 

SOXG  OF  MOSES  AFTER  THE  PASSAGE  OF  THE  RED  SEA. 

Exodus  15  ;  1-21. 


Ex.  15  1  Then  sang  Moses  and  the  children 

of  Israel  this  song  unto  the  Lord, 
and  spake,  saying, 

I  will  sing  unto  the  Lord,  for  he 
hath  triumphed  gloriously  : 

The  horse  and  his  rider  hath  he 
thrown  into  the  sea. 

2;  The  Lord  is  my  strength  and  song. 
And  he  is  become  my  salvation  : 
This  is  my  God,  and  I  will  praise 
him  ; 

My  father’s  God,  and  I  will  exalt 
him. 

3  The  Lord  is  a  man  of  war  : 

The  Lord  is  his  name. 

4  Pharaoh’s  chariots  and  his  host 

hath  he  cast  into  the  sea  : 

And  his  chosen  captains  are  sunk  in 
the  Red  Sea. 

5  The  deeps  cover  them  : 

They  went  down  into  the  depths 
like  a  stone. 

6  Thy  right  hand,  O  Lord,  is  glorious 

in  power, 

Thy  right  hand,  O  Lord,  dasheth  in 
pieces  the  enemy. 

7  And  in  the  greatness  of  thine  excel¬ 

lency  thou  overthrowest  them  that 
rise  up  against  thee  : 

Thou  sendest  forth  thy  wrath,  it 
consumeth  them  as  stubble. 

8  And  with  the  blast  of  thy  nostrils 

the  waters  were  piled  up, 

The  floods  stood  uj>right  as  an  heap  ; 
The  deeps  were  congealed  in  the 
heart  of  the  sea. 

9  The  enemy  said, 

I  will  pursue,  I  will  overtake,  I  will 
divide  the  spoil  : 

My  lust  shall  be  satisfied  upon 
them  ; 

I  will  draw  my  sword,  my  hand  shall 
destroy  them. 

10  Thou  didst  blow  with  thy  wind,  the 

sea  covered  them  : 

They  sank  as  lead  in  the  mighty 
waters. 

11  Who  is  like  unto  thee,  O  Lord, 

among  the  gods  ? 


Who  is  like  thee,  glorious  in  holiness, 
Fearful  in  praises,  doing  wonders  ? 

12  Thou  stretchedst  out  thy  right  hand. 
The  earth  swallowed  them. 

13  Thou  in  thy  mercy  hast  led  the  peo¬ 

ple  which  thou  hast  redeemed  : 
Thou  hast  guided  them  in  thj’ 
strength  to  thy  holy  habitation. 

14  The  peoples  have  heard,  they 

tremble  : 

Pangs  have  taken  hold  on  the  in¬ 
habitants  of  Philistia. 

15  Then  were  the  dukes  of  Edom 

amazed  ; 

The  mighty  men  of  Moab,  trembling 
taketh  hold  upon  them  : 

All  the  inhabitants  of  Canaan  are 
melted  away. 

16  Terror  and  dread  falleth  upon  them  ; 
By  the  greatness  of  thine  arm  they 

are  as  still  as  a  stone  ; 

Till  thy  people  pass  over,  O  Lord, 
Till  the  people  pass  over  which  thou 
hast  purchased. 

17  Thou  shalt  bring  them  in,  and  j)lant 

them  in  the  mountain  of  thine  in¬ 
heritance, 

The  place,  O  Lord,  which  thou  hast 
made  for  thee  to  dwell  in. 

The  sanctuary,  O  Lord,  which  thy 
hands  have  established. 

18  The  Lord  shall  reign  for  ever  and 

ever. 

19  For  the  horses  of  Pharaoh  went 
in  with  his  chariots  and  with  his 
horsemen  into  the  sea,  and  the 
Lord  brought  again  the  waters  of 
the  sea  upon  them  ;  but  the  children 
of  Israel  walked  on  dry  land  in  the 

20  midst  of  the  sea.  And  Miriam  the- 
prophetess,  the  sister  of  Aaron,  took 
a  timbrel  in  her  hand  ;  and  all  the 
women  went  out  after  her  with  tim¬ 
brels  and  with  dances.  And  Miriam 
answered  them, 

21  Sing  ye  to  the  Lord,  for  he  hath  tri¬ 

umphed  gloriously  ; 

The  horse  and  his  rider  hath  he 
thrown  into  the  sea. 


SONG  OF  DELIVERANCE. 


55 


1.  Then  i^aiig;  IHo§es,  On  this  memo¬ 
rable  deliverance  Moses  composed  a  thanksgiv¬ 
ing,  which  he  and  the  Israelites  sang  unto  tbe 
Lord.  It  is  also  a  sublime  prophec}',  foretelling 
the  powerful  effect  of  this  tremendous  judgment 
on  the  neighboring  nations  of  Edom,  Moab, 
Palestine,  and  Canaan  ;  the  future  settlement 
of  the  Israelites  in  the  promised  land  ;  the  erec¬ 
tion  of  the  temple  and  sanctuary  on  Mount 
Sion  ;  and  the  perpetuity  of  the  dominion  and 

worship  of  God.  Hales - The  most  ancient 

of  all  poems  now  extant  is  this  thanksgiving  ode 
of  Moses  after  the  j^assage  of  the  Ked  Sea  :  it  is 
at  the  same  time  most  perfect  in  its  kind.  It 
shows  the  early  connection  which  subsisted  be¬ 
tween  poetr3?  and  religion,  and  is  an  example 
of  that  species  of  poetical  composition  which 
the  Helrew.s  cultivated  more  than  all  others, 
and  in  which  they  particular! 3^  excelled  —  namely, 
the  rendering  of  public  thanks  in  songs  of  tri¬ 
umph  to  God  for  prosperity  in  their  enterprises 
and  far  success  in  war.  Bp.  Lovoth. 

As  the  Jewish  nation  produced  men  of  great 
genius,  without  considering  them  as  inspired 
writers,  t  hey  have  transmitted  to  us  many  hymns 
and  Divine  odes,  which  excel  those  that  are  de¬ 
livered  down  to  us  by  the  ancient  Greeks  and 
Homans  in  the  poetr^^  as  much  as  in  the  subject 

to  which  it  was  consecrated.  Addison. - The 

poetry  of  the  Hebrew  was  the  handmaid  of  his 
religion  ;  there  is  therefore  in  the  jauetry  of  the 
Bible  something  which  elevates  it  above  all 
other  literature  of  the  same  kind.  It  is  the 
supreme  excellence  of  Hebrew  jaoetry  that  it 
raises  the  strain  not  of  courage  and  virtue  onlj^ 
mighty  as  these  are,  but  of  truth  and  holiness, 
of  faith  and  hope,  of  progress  and  perfection, 
of  fidelity  to  God  and  unbroken  trust  in  his 
goodness  and  love.  Ever  since  it  was  poured 
forth  from  the  full  hearts  of  the  singers  of 
Israel,  the  world  has  been  drinking  deep 
draughts  of  life  and  strength  from  its  stream. 
Whatever  dreams  of  future  glory  humanity 
shapes  for  itself,  the  poetry  of  the  Bible  is  not 
excluded,  but  is  welcomed  as  the  music  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  Aglen. 

If  this  jjoem  contains  parts  which,  it  might 
seem,  could  not  well  have  been  sung  in  that 
period,  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  temple, 
the  holy  places,  and  the  land  which  the  Israel¬ 
ites  were  destined  to  occupy  existed  already" 
clearly  in  God’s  and  Moses’s  minds  ;  and  the 
latter  prepared  the  people  successfully  for  the 
exertions  and  sacrifices  necessary  for  the  real¬ 
ization  of  their  hopes.  Herder. - This  song 

is  honored  among  the  Jews  by  being  com¬ 
monly  call  Skirah,  the  song,  par  excellence.  It  is 


not  only  publicly  recited  in  the  synagogues  on 
the  seventh  day  of  the  Passover,  when  the  tran¬ 
sit  of  the  Israelites  is  believed  to  have  taken 
place,  but  it  has  been  embodied  in  the  daily 
prayers.  Kalisch. 

The  song  of  Moses  is  a  proof  of  the  miracu¬ 
lous  passage  of  the  Israelites  through  the  Ked 
Sea.  There  has  been  no  period  since  the  He¬ 
brew  nation  left  Egypt  in  which  this  song  was 
not  found  among  them,  as  composed  on  that  oc¬ 
casion  and  to  commemorate  that  event.  It  may  be 
therefore  considered  as  completely  authentic  as 
an}’-  living  witness  could  be  who  had  himself 
jiassed  through  the  Ked  Sea,  and  whose  life  had 
been  protracted  through  all  the  intervening  ages 
to  the  present  day.  It  is  a  song  of  triumph  for 
the  deliverance  of  the  peojDle  of  God  ;  and  it 
was  intended  to  point  out  the  final  salvation 
and  triumph  of  the  whole  Church  of  Christ. 
A.  C. - This  song  of  thanksgiving  and  tri¬ 

umph,  repeated  every  Sabbath  in  the  temple 
when  the  drink-offering  of  the  festive  sacrifice 
was  poured  out,  reminded  Israel  that  to  all  time 
the  kingdom  was  surrounded  by  the  hostile 
powers  of  this  world  ;  that  there  must  always 
be  a  contest  between  them  ;  and  that  Jehovah 
would  always  himself  interpose  to  destroy  his 
enemies  and  to  deliver  his  people.  Thus  that 
great  event  for  all  times  has  been  a  prophecy, 
a  comfort,  and  a  song  of  anticipated  sure  vic¬ 
tory  to  the  Church.  A.  E. 

Of  this  song,  composed  on  the  instant  of 
deliverance,  and  chanted  to  the  music  of  the 
timbrel,”  Milman  justly  says  ;  “  What  is  the 
Koman  arch  of  triumph  or  the  pillar  crowded 
with  sculpture  compared,  as  a  memorial,  to  the 
Hebrew  song  of  victory,  which,  having  survived 
so  many  ages,  is  still  fresh  and  vivid  as  ever, 
and  excites  the  same  emotions  of  awe  and  j)iety 
in  every  human  breast  susceptible  of  such  feel¬ 
ings  which  it  did  so  many  ages  past  in  those  of 
the  triumphant  children  of  Israel  ?”  How  the 
act  of  victorious  judgment  this  ode  celebrates 
was  intended  to  foreshadow  the  final  putting 
down  of  all  power  that  exalts  itself  against  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  is  manifest  from  Kev.  15  : 3, 
where  the  glorious  company  above  are  repre¬ 
sented  as  singing  at  once  the  song  of  Moses  and 
of  the  Lamb,  in  the  immediate  prospect  of  the 
last  judgments  of  God,  and  of  all  nations  being 
thereby  led  to  come  and  worship  before  him  ! 
P.  F. 

This  very  incident  has  for  its  last  echo  in 
Scripture  that  wonderful  scene  in  the  Apoc¬ 
alypse  where,  in  the  pause  before  the  seven 
angels  bearing  the  seven  plagues  go  forth,  the 
seer  beholds  a  company  of  choristers,  like  those 


66 


SECTION  95.  SONG  OF  MOSES. 


who  on  that  morning  stood  on  the  Red  Sea 
shore,  standing  on  the  bank  of  the  “  sea  of  glass 
mingled  with  lire’* — which  s3nnbolizes  the  clear 
and  crystalline  depth  of  the  stable  Divine  judg¬ 
ments,  shot  with  liery  retribution — and  lifting 
np  by  anticipation  a  song  .of  tbanksgiviiig  for 
the  judgments  about  to  be  wrought.  That  song 
is  expressly  called  “  the  song  of  Moses”  and 
“  of  the  Lamb,”  in  token  of  the  essential  unity 
of  the  two  dispensations,  and  especially  of  the 
harmony  of  both  in  their  view  of  the  Divine 
judgments.  Its  ringing  praises  are  modelled  on 
the  ancient  lyric.  It,  too,  triumphs  in  God’s 
judgments,  regards  them  as  means  of  making 
kaown  his  name,  as  done  not  for  destruction, 
but  that  his  character  may  be  known  and  hon¬ 
ored  by  men,  to  whom  it  is  life  and  jDeace  to 
know  and  love  him  for  what  he  is.  That  final 
victory  over  “  the  beast,”  whether  he  be  a  per¬ 
son  or  a  tendency,  is  to  reproduce  in  higher 
fashion  that  old  conquest  by  the  Red  Sea. 
There  is  hope  for  the  world  that  its  oppressors 
shall  not  always  tyrannize  ;  there  is  hope  for 
each  soul  that,  if  we  take  Christ  for  our  deliv¬ 
erer  and  our  guide,  he  will  break  the  chains 
from  off  our  wrists,  and  bring  us  at  last  to  the 
eternal  shore,  where  we  may  stand,  like  the 
ransomed  people,  and  as  the  unsetting  morn¬ 
ing  dawns  see  its  beams  touching  with  golden 
light  the  calm  ocean,  beneath  which  our  op¬ 
pressors  lie  buried  forever,  and  lift  up  glad 
thanksgivings  to  him  who  has  ”  led  us  through 
fire  and  through  water,  and  brought  us  out  into 
a  wealthy  place.”  A.  M. 

All  this  is  rich  in  spiritual  suggestion  for  us. 
They  who  are  now.  the  people  of  God  are  not 
only  rescued  from  bondage,  but  are  baptized 
into  Christ,  and,  being  made  partakers  of  his 
resurrection,  sing  to  the  Lord  a  new  song,  and 
then  set  out  on  a  new  career.  That  career  must 
be  in  separation  from  the  Amrld,  and  lowly  de¬ 
pendence  on  Christ  for  bread  and  water  of  life, 
and  for  victory  over  those  that  war  against  their 
souls.  It  is  a  M^alk  by  faith,  not  sight,  and 
though  marred  by  murmuring  and  folly  on  the 
part  of  the  pilgrims,  it  is  guarded  day  and  night 
by  the  power  of  God,  and  reveals  the  riches  of 

his  long-sutfering  grace.  D.  F. - And  when 

it  is  considered  that  the  w^hole  of  this  transac¬ 
tion  shadowed  out  the  redemption  'f  the  human 
race  from  the  thraldom  and  power  of  sin  by  the 
Lokd  Jesus,  and  the  final  triumph  of  the  Church 
of  God  over  all  its  enemies,  we  also  may  join  in 
the  song  and  celebrate  Him  who  has  triumphed 
so  gloriously",  having  conquered  death  and 
opened  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  all  believers. 
A.  C. 


1-1 1,  The  night  of  doom  to  Pharaoh  was  the 
night  of  redemption  to  Israel.  With  the  morn¬ 
ing  light  they  “  saw  the  Egyptians  dead  upon 
the  sea-shorc.”  Men  in  their  armor  of  battle, 
horses  in  the  proud  trappings  of  Egypt,  broken 
chariots,  all  powerless  now',  are  dashed  up  by 
the  waves  of  the  turbid  sea  and  lie  strewn  upon 
the  eastern  shore —memorials  at  once  of  the 
danger  that  was  and  of  the  victory  and  triumph 
that  are  to  be  the  joy  of  God’s  redeemed  people. 
Most  fiftly  the  deep  emotions  of  the  people 
seek  expression  in  song.  The  oldest  song 
known  to  history  and  one  of  the  grandest  is 
here  before  us.  “  I  will  sing  unto  the  Lord, 
for  he  hath  triumphed  gloriously.”  It  w'as  the 
Lord  who  wrought  the  victory,  who  went  down 
alone  into  that  eventful  battle,  and  who  came 
back  the  mighty  conqueror  I  “  The  horse  and 
his  rider  hath  he  throwm  into  the  sea.”  Over 
and  over  this  central  idea  appears  ;  “  Pharaoh’s 
chariots  and  his  host  hath  he  cast  into  the  sea  ; 
his  chosen  chariots  also  are  drow’ned  in  thu  Red 
Sea.”  ”  Thou  didst  blow  wdth  thy  wind  ;  the 
sea  covered  them  ;  they  sank  as  lead  in  the 
mighty  waters  ”  Let  the  Great  God  of  Israel 
be  praised  for  all  this  !  Appropriately  this  is 
the  burden  of  the  song  :  The  Lord  is  my 
strength  and  my  song,  and  he  is  become  my  sal¬ 
vation.”  “Who  is  like  unto  thee,  O  Lord, 
among  the  gods  ?  Who  is  like  to  thee,  glorious 
in  holiness,  fearful  in  praises,  doing  w'onders  ?” 
H.  C. 

The  burden  of  this  magnificent  ode  sank  into 
the  hearts  of  the  Hebrew  race  and  fired  the 
genius  of  inspired  poets  century  after  century, 
reappearing  again  and  again  in  psalm  and  proph¬ 
ecy.  As  here,  the  strain  of  all  these  allusions 
to  the  great  deliverance  is,  that  “  not  unto  us, 
not  unto  us,  O  Lord,  but  unto  thy  name  give 
glory,  for  thy  mercy  and  for  thy  truth’s  sake.” 

Geikie. - 1.  This  song  is  sung  to  Jehovah." 

The  people  are  filled  with  the  thought  of  him 
and  his  great  act.  It  has  been  rightly  called 
the  marriage  hymn  of  Israel  ;  as  the  bride  re¬ 
joices  in  the  bridegroom,  so  the  people  here  re¬ 
joice  in  God.  Auhei-len. - Its  most  charac¬ 

teristic  and  outstanding  feature  is  the  entire 
absence  of  self-glorification  or  mere  national 
exultation.  From  the  beginning  to  the  end  it 
celebrates  the  praises  of  Jehovah,  the  Redeemer 
of  Israel.  J.  M.  G. 

The  entire  hymn  consists  of  two  parts.  The 
first  looks  back  on  the  past,  on  the  mighty  deed 
of  Jehovah  just  experienced  ;  the  other  looks 
forward  with  confidence  to  the  future — the  rest 
and  peace  in  Canaan — and  so  becomes  at  the 
same  time  a  prayer.  Thankfulness  for  the 


SOJ^G  OF  MOSES. 


57 


mercy  received  is  the  ground  of  hope  that  the 
Lord  will  not  leave  the  work  he  has  begun.  We 
find  in  this  hymn  the  first  traces  of  that  ar¬ 
rangement  of  Hebrew  poetry  which  divides 
each  verse  into  two,  and  often  more,  lines.  Ap¬ 
parently  these  hymns  were  sung  from  the  first 
responsively  or  antiphonally.  As  soon  as  the 
chorus  of  men  had  finished,  the  chorus  of 
women  repeats  the  whole.  The  song,  by  the 
peculiar  force  and  beauty  with  which  it  sets  the 
whole  history  before  us,  had  also  the  purpose  of 
being  a  living,  continual  witness  to  the  great 
event.  It  was  intended  to  declare  to  posterity 
through  all  ages  that  so  many  hundred  thou¬ 
sands  beheld  the  great  works  of  the  Lord  which 
gave  existence  to  his  people,  and  left  behind 
them  such  a  monument  for  their  children. 
Therefore  we  find  in  many  poetical  parts  of  the 
prophets  echoes  of  this  song  of  Moses.  Ge7'l. 

3.  The  I^ord— i.e.,  Jehovah,  is  his  name, 
lie  has  now,  as  the  name  implies,  given  com- 

i^lete  exis'euce  to  all  his  promises.  A.  C. - In 

the  story  of  the  exodus  deliverance  breathes  out 
from  every  line,  and  '*  Jehovah”  is  the  great 
Deliverer.  Jehovah  destroys  the  Egyptians, 
“  i^asses  over”  the  dwellings  of  his  people,  and 
institutes  the  great  feast  of  the  ”  Passover,”  to 
be  perpetuated  as  a  ”  memorial  ”  together  with 
his  “  memorial  name”  to  all  generations.  That 
great  feast,  to  be  called  by  the  Israelites  “  Je¬ 
hovah’s  Passover,”  is  still  observed  throughout 
all  Christendom,  with  a  change,  and  yet  a  cor- 
re.spondence  of  emblems,  in  commemoration  of 
the  deliverance  of  “  Christ  our  Passover,”  and 
is  called  “the  Lord’s  Sapper”— thus  perpetu¬ 
ating  the  great  “  memorial  ”  of  Israel’s  deliver¬ 
ance  from  bondage},  and  the  yet  greater  deliver- 
o.nce  foreshadowed  in  the  prophetic  name  of 
Jehovah,  So  also  the  great  and  final  act  of 
Jehovah  in  delivering  his  people  from  the 
power  of  the  Egyptians  is  commemorated  in  a 
song  of  Moses  and  the  hosts  of  Israel,  wLich 
song  also  is  in  the  Eevelation  represented  as 
sung  by  the  redeemed  hosts  of  Christ  the  De¬ 
liverer.  “  And  they  sing  the  song  of  Moses, 
and  the  song  of  the  Lamb.  ”  The  union  of  the 
song  of  Moses  with  that  of  the  Kedeemed 
through  Christ  is  a  union  of  the  two  great  his¬ 
toric  divisions  of  the  Church  in  a  common  song 
of  deliverance.  And  deliverance  is  the  grand  rep¬ 
resentative  idea  of  the  Jewish  system.  He  w^ho 
was  to  become  the  Theocratic  Head  of  the  na¬ 
tion,  their  Lawgiver  and  King,  takes  upon  him¬ 
self  the  name  of  Deliverer,  and  in  illustration  of 
that  name,  introduces  his  government  by  a 
glorious  act  of  deliverance.  Thus  in  the  history 
of  Israel  as  a  nation,  before  the  idea  of  the  Law¬ 


giver  and  the  subject,  comes  that  of  Redeemer 
and  Redeemed.  McWhorter. 

11,  Lit.  ;  “  Who  is  as  thou  among  the  gods, 
Jehovah  ?  who  is  as  thou,  glorious  in  holiness, 
fearful  in  praises,  doer  of  wonders  ?”  His 
matchless  greatness  forces  itself  on  the  observ¬ 
ance  of  those  who  consider  his  deeds.  Aiiioiig^ 
llie  He  comjAares  the  Lord  with  all 

heathen  deities.  The  expression  is  a  bold 
poetic  figure  of  speech,  by  which  the  nothing¬ 
ness  of  the  gods  is  designated.  God  is  glorious 
in  holiness  :  all  the  glorious  attributes  of  his  Di¬ 
vine  nature  are  pervaded  and  animated  by  his 

holiness.  Gerl. - It  is  this  which  makes  all 

his  attributes  beautiful,  for  which  he  claims  the 
supreme  reverence  and  delight  of  angels  and 
men,  and  for  which  he  is  the  highest  object  of 
complacent  delight  to  his  own  infinite  mind. 
H.  B.  Smith. 

The  Divine  holiness  is  so  familiar  a  thought 

with  us,  enters  so  necessarily  into  all  our  con- 

* 

ceptions  of  God,  that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to 
realize  its  coming  into  the  minds  of  men  as 
something  entirely  new.  But  so  it  was.  The 
heathen  nations  were  destitute  of  the  idea  ;  and 
the  people  of  God  had  to  be  taught  it  foy  the 
first  time  at  the  period  of  the  exodus.  The 
word  “holy”  does  not  occur  in  Genesis.  The 
first  introduction  of  it  is  at  the  burning  bush  : 
“  Put  off  thy  shoes  from  off  thy  feet  ;  for  the 
place  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy  ground.” 
13,  The  biblical  idea  of  holiness  is,  through¬ 
out,  associated  with  that  of  love  and  mercy  ; 
and  herein  we  see  the  appropriateness  of  this 
reference  in  the  Red  Sea  Song  of  salvation  : 
“  Thou  in  ihy  mercy  hast  led  forth  the  people 
which  thou  hast  redeemed.”  Just  as  it  is 
through  “  the  apprehension  of  the  mercy  of 
God  in  Christ  ”  that  a  sinner  is  led  to  true  re¬ 
pentance,  so  the  revelation  of  the  Divine  love 
is  the  path  through  which  alone  we  can  reach 
the  knowledge  of  the  Divine  holiness.  J.  M,  G. 

14,  Tlie  peoples.  An  expression  now 
justified  by  usage,  and  necessary  in  this  passage 
to  give  the  true  meaning.  Tlie  iiiliabi- 
taiits  of  Pliilislia— i.e.,  the  country  of  the 
Philistines.  They  were  the  first  who  would  ex¬ 
pect  an  invasion,  and  the  first  whose  district 
would  have  been  invaded  but  for  the  faintheart¬ 
edness  of  the  Israelites.  It  is  obvious  that  the 
order  of  thoughts  would  have  been  very  differ¬ 
ent  had  the  song  been  composed  at  a  later 
period,  since  in  fact  Philistia  was  the  last  district 

occupied  by  the  Israelites.  Cook. - 15,  16, 

In  this  magnificent  hymn  of  thankfulness  there 
breathes  for  the  first  time  a  consciousness  of 
the  high  destiny  that  was  in  store  for  them. 


58 


SECTION  95.  SONG  OF  HOSES. 


Already  they  seem  to  see  the  Philistines,  the 
Edomites,  the  Moabites,  and  all  the  inhabitants 
of  Canaan  “  amazed  ”  and  “  melting  away”  be¬ 
fore  their  triumphant  march,  and  themselves, 
the  redeemed  of  Jehovah,  entering  upon  their 
long  promised  inheritance,  the  Holy  Land  or 
“  sanctuary,”  where  Jehovah  should  reign  over 
them  “  for  ever  and  ever.”  J.  P.  N. 

The  signal  display  of  Divine  power  for  their 
protection  must  have  deeply  impressed  them 
with  a  conviction  of  the  Lord’s  goodness  and 
power.  Their  tendency  to  distrust  and  unbelief 
must  have  been  greatly  checked  by  it  ;  and  al¬ 
though  that  tendency  broke  out  in  repeated  acts 
of  discontent  and  rebellion,  nothing  can  more 
clearly  show  the  strong,  salutary  impression 
produced  than  the  prominent  manner  in  which 
this  event  is  set  forth  and  the  pointed  way  in 
which  it  is  referred  to  in  all  the  subsequent  lit¬ 
erature  of  the  people,  especially  in  the  Psalms 
of  David.  Kit. - Two  ways  this  great  deliver¬ 

ance  was  encouraging.  First,  it  was  such  an 
instance  of  G-od’s  power  as  would  terrify  their  en¬ 
emies  and  quite  dishearten  them  (verses  14-16). 
The  verj''  tidings  of  the  overthrow  of  the  Egyp¬ 
tians  would  be  more  than  half  the  overthrow 
of  all  their  other  enemies  ;  it  would  sink  their 
spirits,  and  that  would  go  far  toward  the  sink¬ 
ing  of  their  powers  and  interests.  The  Philis¬ 
tines,  Moabites,  Edomites,  and  Canaanites  (with 
each  of  which  nations  Israel  was  to  graj^ple) 
would  be  alarmed  by  it,  and  would  conclude  it 
was  in  vain  to  fight  against  Israel  when  a  God 
of  such  power  fought  for  them.  It  had  this 
effect  :  the  Edomites  were  afraid  of  them  (De. 
2  : 4),  so  were  the  Moabites  (Nu.  22  :  3),  and 
the  Canaanites  (Josh.  2  ;  9,  10).  Thus  God  sent 
his  fear  before  them  (ch.  23  :27),  and  cut  off 
the  spirit  of  princes.  Next,  it  was  such  a  be¬ 
ginning  of  God’s  favor  to  them  as  gave  them 
an  earnest  of  the  perfection  of  his  kindness. 
This  was  but  in  order  to  something  further  (verse 
17),  Thou  shalt  hrivg  them  in.  If  he  thus  bring 
them  out  of  Egypt,  notwithstanding  their  un- 
worthiuess  and  the  difficulties  that  lay  in  the 
way  of  their  escape,  doubtless  he  will  bring 
them  into  Canaan ;  for  has  he  begun  {so  begun), 
and  will  he  not  make  an  end  ?  Our  experiences 
of  God’s  power  and  favor  should  be  improved 
for  the  support  of  our  expectations  :  “  Thou 
hast — therefore  not  only  thou  canst,  but  we  trust 
thou  wilt,”  is  good  arguing.  H. 

20.  “  Miriam  the  Prophetess,  the  sister  of 
Aaron,”  whose  name  now  first  appears  in  the 
history  of  the  Church,  afterward  to  become  so 
renowned  through  its  Grecian  and  European 
form  of  Maria  and  Mary,  came  forth,  as  was  the 


wont  of  Hebrew  women  after  some  great  vic¬ 
tory,  to  meet  the  triumphant  host,  with  her 
Egyptian  timbrels  and  with  dances  of  her  coun 

try-women.  A.  P.  S. - Miriam  is  called  a 

‘‘  prophetess,”  but  this  often  means  in  Scrip¬ 
ture  only  one  who  says  or  makes  known  the 
doings  of  God  or  his  praises,  whether  with  or 
without  musical  instruments.  Thus  the  singers 
appointed  by  David  are  called  “  prophets,”  and 
are  said  “  to  prophesy  with  harps,”  etc.,  and 
“  to  give  thanks  and  to  praise  the  Lord  ”  (1  Ch. 

25  ;  1-3).  Geikie. - Miriam  is  described  as  the 

sister  of  Aaron.  At  the  very  outset  the  position 
is  indicated  which  she  afterward  occupied  in 
the  community  of  Israel.  She  is  called  the  sis¬ 
ter  of  Aaron,  and  not  the  sister  of  Moses,  be¬ 
cause  her  position  was  co-ordinate  with  that  of 
Aaron,  but  subordinate  to  that  of  Moses.  Al. 
though  Aaron  was  the  brother  of  Moses,  j'et  in 
his  official  position  he  was  only  the  mouth,  the 
prophet  of  Moses.  In  the  same  way  Miriam 
was  placed  in  a  position  of  subordination  to  the 
brother  she  had  saved  ;  for  Jehovah  had  chosen 
him  to  be  the  mediator  of  his  covenant,  and 
placed  him  at  the  head  of  Israel.  Hence  she 
entirely  mistook,  her  position  when  at  a  later 
period  she  took  upon  herself  to  rebuke  him.  K. 

The  monuments  reproduce  this  scene  in  all 
its  parts.  Separate  choirs  of  men  and  women 
are  represented  on  them,  singing  in  alternate 
responses  ;  the  timbrel,  or  tambourine,  is  rep¬ 
resented  as  the  instrument  of  the  women,  as 
the  flute  is  that  of  the  men  ;  and  the  playing  of 
the  tambourine,  unaccompanied,  as  here,  by 
other  instruments,  is  represented  in  connection 
with  singing  and  the  dance.  Further,  it  ap¬ 
pears  from  the  monuments  that  music  had 
eminently  a  religious  destination  in  Eg3"pt, 
that  the  timbrel  was  specially  devoted  to  sacred 
uses,  and  that  religious  dances  were  performed 

in  the  worship  of  Osiris.  E.  C.  W. - In  the 

tombs  at  Thebes  timbrels,  like  Miriam’s,  round 
and  square,  are  seen  in  the  hands  of  women  ; 
while  pipes,  trumpets,  sistrums,  drums,  and 
guitars  are  there  in  great  abundance  and  variety, 
and  harps  not  much  unlike  the  modern  instru¬ 
ment,  with  varying  numbers  of  strings  up  to 
twenty-two.  The  colored  pictures  of  the  harp 
and  the  player  in  one  of  the  tombs  are  as  fresh 
as  those  of  a  Eoman  gallery.  S.  C.  B. 


The  history  of  the  Jewish  exodus,  or  deliver¬ 
ance  from  Egypt  under  the  direction  of  Moses, 
was  undoubtedly  preserved  in  the  Egyptian 
records,  and  from  thence  was  derived  the  strange 
and  disfigured  story  which  we  read  in  Diodorus, 
Strabo,  Justin,  and  Tacitus.  Unfortunately,  the 


SECTION  96.  TO  MAllAII  AND  ELIM. 


59 


ancient  enmity  between  the  Egyptian  and  He¬ 
brew  people  was  kept  alive  by  the  civil,  relig¬ 
ious,  and  literary  dissensions  and  jealousies  un¬ 
der  the  reign  of  the  Ptolemies  in  Alexandria, 
Josephus,  in  his  treatise  against  Apiou,  has  ex¬ 
tracted  the  contradictory  accounts  of  his  ances¬ 
tors  from  three  Egyptian  historians,  Manetho, 
Chaeremon,  and  Lysimachus.  In  each  of  these 
there  is  the  same  attempt  to  identify  or  connect 
the  Jews  with  the  earlier  shepherd-kings,  the 
objects  of  peculiar  detestation  to  the  Egyptian 
people.  So  much  is  their  history  interwoven, 
that  some  learned  writers,  probably  Josephus 
himself,  considered  the  whole  account  of  the 
fierce  and  conquering  shepherds  a  fable,  built 
on  the  history  of  the  Israelites.  He  states, 
though  in  somewhat  ambiguous  terms,  that  in 
another  copy  of  Manetho  the  word  Hyksos,  usu¬ 
ally  translated  shepherd -kings,  was  also  rendered 
shepherd-captives.  Yet  the  Egyptian  monu¬ 
ments  conclusively  prove  the  existence  of  this 
distinct  race  of  conquerors.  Milman. 

One  of  the  most  enlightened,  discriminating, 
nnd  cautious  of  scholars — Sir  Gardner  Wilkin¬ 
son — bears  this  distinct  and  important  testi¬ 
mony  ;  “  Wherever  any  fact  is  mentioned  in  the 
Bible  history,  we  do  not  discover  anything  on 
the  monuments  which  tends  to  contradict  it.” 
In  all  the  references  to  Egypt  contained  in  the 
Pentateuch,  though  so  many  and  so  various. 


though  scattered  through  every  part  of  the  writ' 
ing  and  mixed  up  with  almost  every  topic  which 
it  embraces,  there  cannot  be  detected  a  single 
element  which  is  not  clearly  and  decisively 
Egyptian.  Could  a  fictitious  narrative,  fabri¬ 
cated  in  a  remote  country  and  a  distant  age,  ac¬ 
complish  such  a  result  ?  Equally  with  the  ex¬ 
tent  and  accuracy  of  the  writer’s  knowledge  of 
Egypt,  does  the  manner  in  which  he  brings  it  out 
seal  the  trustworthiness  of  the  narrative.  This 
is  always  so  incidental,  so  unpremeditated,  so 
undesigned,  so  perfectly  inartificial,  and  so  des¬ 
titute  of  all  explanatory  remarks  as  not  neces¬ 
sary  for  his  immediate  readers,  as  to  constitute 
an  indubitable  signature  of  truth.  Such  a  man¬ 
ner  would  be  quite  natural  in  Moses,  but  most 
unnatural,  and  indeed  impossible,  in  a  mythic 
historian.  It  is  a  manner  which  cannot  be  as¬ 
sumed  by  an  impostor.  We  have  here,  then, 
both  in  the  Egyptian  knowledge  of  the  author 
and  in  the  manner  of  its  exhibition,  a  strong 
internal  proof  of  the  credibility  of  the  Penta¬ 
teuch,  of  its  composition  in  the  age  of  Moses, 
and  consequently  of  its  Mosaic  origin.  He  who 
is  not  convinced  by  it  of  the  genuineness  and 
authenticity  of  the  work,  is  certainly  very  far 
removed  from  credulity  ;  but  then  he  stands 
at  an  equal  distance  from  that  intelligent  can¬ 
dor  which  feels  and  owns  the  force  of  truth. 
E.  C.  W. 


Section  96. 

THEEE  STAGES  ONWAED  FROM  THE  RED  SEA  :  I.  MARAH  ;  BITTER  WATERS 
SWEETENED.  H.  ELIM,  WITH  ITS  SPRINGS  AND  PALM  TREES.  III.  ENCAMP¬ 
MENT  BY  THE  SEA. 

Exodus  15  :  22-27.  Nu.  33  :  8-10. 

Ex,,  15  22  Akd  Moses  led  Israel  onward  from  the  Red  Sea,  and  they  went  out  into  the  wilder- 

23  ness  of  Shur  ;  and  they  went  three  days  in  the  wilderness,  and  found  no  water.  And 
when  they  came  to  Marah,  they  could  not  drink  of  the  waters  of  Marah,  for  they 

24  were  bitter  ;  therefore  the  name  of  it  was  called  Marah.  And  the  people  murmured 

25  against  Moses,  saying.  What  shall  we  drink  ?  And  he  cried  unto  the  Lobd  ;  and  the 
Lord  shewed  him  a  tree,  and  he  cast  it  into  the  waters,  and  the  waters  were  made 
sweet.  There  he  made  for  them  a  statute  and  an  ordinance,  and  there  he  proved 

26  them  ;  and  he  said.  If  thou  wilt  diligently  hearken  to  the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy  God, 
and  wilt  do  that  which  is  right  in  his  eyes,  and  wilt  give  ear  to  his  commandments, 
and  keep  all  his  statutes,  I  will  put  none  of  the  diseases  upon  thee,  which  I  have 

27  put  upon  the  Egyptians  :  for  I  am  the  Lord  that  healeth  thee.  And  they  came  to 
Elim,  where  were  twelve  springs  of  water,  and  threescore  and  ten  palm  trees  ;  and 
they  encamped  there  by  the  waters.  * 


60 


SECTION  96.  THREE  STAGES  ONWARD  FROM  THE  RED  SEA. 


Nu.  33  8  And  they  went  three  days’  journey  in  the  wilderness  of  Etham,  and  pitched  in 

9  Marah.  And  they  journeyed  from  Marah,  and  came  unto  Elim  :  and  in  Elim  were 
twelve  springs  of  water,  and  threescore  and  ten  palm  trees  ;  and  they  pitched  there. 
10  And  they  journeyed  from  Elim,  and  pitched  by  the  E,ed  Sea, 


In  studying  the  geography  of  the  peninsula,  j 
the  first  lesson  to  be  learned  is  to  know  what  is  , 
meant  by  a  wady.  Destitute  as  these  broad  j 
stretches  of  barrenness  are  of  springs  or  run-  | 
ning  brooks,  yet  at  times  they  are  swept  by  ter¬ 
rific  storms,  when  torrents  dash  down  the  moun¬ 
tain-side,  and  plough  deep  furrows  in  the  sandy 
w^aste.  The  dry  beds  which  they  leave  behind 
are  wadies.  These  wadies,  depressed  below  the 
level  of  the  surrounding  plain,  are  the  favorite 
places  for  pitching  tents,  as  the  banks  on  either 
side  furnish  a  shelter  from  the  winds  that  sweep  j 
over  the  desert.  Several  of  these  w'e  crossed  to-  j 
day,  in  which  thje  half-dried  mud  showed  that 
there  had  been  recent  rains.  Wherever  the 
moisture  had  touched,  there  were  signs  of  vege¬ 
tation.  Field. 

Ayun  Musa  [or  Wells  of  Moses,  opposite 
Suez]  is  an  oasis  reclaimed  from  the  hopeless 
sand  by  a  supply  of  unpalatable  water,  which  is 
arrested  and  brought  to  the  surface  by  the  labor 
of  infinitesimal  insects.  The  only  springs  which 
are  still  left  in  their  natural  state  are  at  the  ex¬ 
treme  south  of  the  locality,  outside  of  all  the 
enclosures.  But  the  principal  flow  of  water  is 
now  found  (or  diverted)  elsewhere  ;  for  at  a 
short  distance  to  the  north  is  a  series  of  live 
large  gardens  or  plantations,  enclosed  by  high 
reed  fences,  and  partly  filled  with  palms,  tama¬ 
risks,  apricots,  pomegranates,  and  other  trees, 
and  occupied  chiefly  by  beds  of  vegetables  and 
herbs,  irrigated  by  the  water  from  these  wells. 
Some  of  these  enclosures  contain  small  summer¬ 
houses,  and  are  places  of  resort  from  Suez.  In 
the  southernmost  of  these  plantations  was  a 
large  pool  a  hundred  and  sixty-five  feet  in  cir¬ 
cumference,  as  I  paced  it,  kept  full  by  a  spring 
which  bubbles  up  vigorously  near  the  centre 
and  flows  off  at  the  side.  The  traditional 
name,  “  Moses’s  Wells,”  carries  with  it  intrinsic 
probability  A  situation  so  important,  with 
fountains  at  a  suitable  distance  to  suppl}’^  the 
van  aud  the  rear  of  the  immense  host,  could 
hardly  have  failed  to  be  a  place  of  encampment, 
even  though  the  place  of  crossing  had  not  been 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood,  and  much 
more  if  it  was.  S.  C.  B. 

Israel  now  entered  on  the  long  march  in  the 
wilderness,  through  which  he  was  to  reach  the 
Promised  Land.  The  Bed  Sea  is  divided  on 
the  north  side  into  two  long  bays,  that  of 
Heroopolis  and  .®lan — or,  as  they  are  now 


called,  of  Suez  and  Akaba.  Between  these  two 
is  situated  the  peninsula  which,  together  with 
the  breadth  of  desert  to  the  north,  on  the  Medi¬ 
terranean  and  south  border  of  Palestine,  is 

called  Arabia  Petraea.  Gerl. - Their  route  lay 

southward  down  the  east  side  of  the  Gulf  of 
Suez,  and  at  first  along  the  shore.  The  station 
of  Ayun  Musa  (the  We’ls  of  Moses),  with  its  tam¬ 
arisks  and  seventeen  wells,  served  for  their 
gathering  after  the  passage.  They  marched  for 
three  days  through  the  wilderness  of  Shur  or 
I  Etham,  on  the  southwest  margin  of  the  great 
j  desert  of  Paran  {et-  Tih),  where  they  found  no 
water.  The  tract  is  a  part  of  the  belt  of  graved 
which  surrounds  the  mountains  of  the  penin¬ 
sula,  and  is  crossed  by  several  vmdies,  whose 
sides  are  fringed  with  tamarisks,  acacias,  and  a 

few  palm-trees.  P.  S. - As  the  Israelites, 

leaving  Ayun  Musa,  turned  their  faces  south¬ 
ward  away  from  the  land  of  their  bondage  and 
the  scene  of  their  great  deliverance,  they  must 
have  gazed  on  the  same  features  that  now  strike 
the  eye  of  the  traveller  on  his  way  from  Suez  to 
Jebel  Musa,  for  the  general  aspect  of  the  desert 
can  have  altered  little.  On  their  left  would  be 
the  long  level  range  of  Er-Rahah  ;  in  front,  the 
terraced  plain  several  miles  broad,  sloping 
gently  down  to  the  bright  blue  sea,  and  beyond 
the  sea  westward  the  picturesque  line  of  cliffs, 
on  one  point  of  which  the  name  of  Bas  Ata- 
kah  (Mount  of  Deliverance)  still  lingers.  Wil¬ 
son. 

22.  Tlic  wilderness  of  Sliur.  This 
name  has  before  occurred  in  Gen.  16  :  7  ;  20  : 1  ; 
25  ;  18.  The  wilderness  includes  the  district 
lying  east  of  Egypt  between  the  Mediterranean 
and  the  Bed  Sea.  It  is  called  in  Nu.  33  : 8, 
“  the  wilderness  of  Elham,"  and  Josephus  ren¬ 
ders  it  by  “  ihe  desert  of  Pelusium.''  Mr.  Hol¬ 
land  says  of  the  desert  east  of  Suez  :  “  Some 
twelve  or  fifteen  miles  from  the  coast,  and  par¬ 
allel  to  it,  runs  Jebel  er-Bahah,  appearing  in 
the  distance  as  a  long  flat-headed  range  of  white 
cliffs,  which  form  as  it  were  a  wall  enclosing  the 

desert  on  the  north.”  Alf. - When  Hagar 

fled  from  Palestine  to  Egypt,  the  angel  of  the 
Lord  found  her  by  a  fountain  in  the  desert  on 
the  way  to  Shur.  Abram  lived  for  some  time 
at  Gerar,  between  Kadesh  and  Shur.  According 
to  the  other  passages,  Shur  stood  “  in  front  of 
Egypt.”  The  whole  of  these  passages  lead  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  desert  of  Shur  was  the 


MURMUnmO  at  mar  ail 


61 


entire  tract  of  desert  by  which  Egypt  was 
bounded  on  the  east.  K. 

A  favorite  identification  of  Shur  [Holland, 
Pcilmer,  Wilson,  etc.]  has  been  in  a  range  of 
mountains  a  little  to  the  eastward  from  the  Gulf 
of  Suez,  having  the  appearance  of  a  wall,  and 
bearing  the  name  Jebel  er-llahah,  being  in  fact 
the  northwestern  end,  or  extension,  of  Jebel 
et-Tih.  But  Jebel  er-Rahah  does  not  stand 
“  before  Egypt  as  thou  goest  to  Assyria”  (Gen. 
25:18).  It  is  too  far  south  for  that.  “Shur” 
means  ^  ‘  a  wall  and  from  its  meaning,  as 
well  as  from  the  various  references  to  it  in  the 
text  (Gen.  16  :  7,  14  ;  20  : 1  ;  25  : 18  ;  1  Sam. 
15  :  7  ;  27  : 8),  it  would  seem  clear  that  Shur 
was  a  border  wall,  or  extended  line  of  fortifica¬ 
tions,  across  the  entire  northeastern  front  of 
Lower  Egypt,  from  the  Mediterranean  Sea  to  the 
Gulf  of  Suez.  This  wall  was  the  closure  of  the 
only  entrance  by  land  to  Egypt  from  the  East  ; 
and  it  was  from  the  East  alone  that  there  was, 
in  those  da3’-s,  any  special  danger  of  invasion. 
References  to  this  wall  are  found  in  the  Egyp¬ 
tian  records,  both  before  and  after  the  supposed 
date  of  the  exodus.  Its  earliest  mention,  as  yet 
ascertained,  is  in  what  is  known  as  the  St. 
Petersburg  Papyrus,  which  treats  of  Egyptian 
history  prior  to  the  tenth  dynasty.  There,  ac¬ 
cording  to  Golenischeff  as  cited  by  Meyer,  it  is 
known  as  “  the  Royal  Wall  for  defence  against 
the  ‘  Amu,’  ”  or  Amorites.  Again  it  finds  men¬ 
tion  in  a  papyrus  of  the  twelfth  dynasty,  prior  to 
the  Hykshos  invasion.  It  is  there  spoken  of  as 
a  barrier  “  which  the  king  had  made  to  keep  off 
the  Sakti,”  or  Eastern  enemies  of  Egypt,  Yet 
again  it  is  brought  into  notice  in  a  papyrus  of 
the  nineteenth  dynasty,  in  a  manner  which 
seems  to  indicate  its  extended  stretch.  The 
historic  data  thus  cited  cover  a  period  from  be¬ 
fore  the  days  of  Abraham  to  Moses.  If,  in¬ 
deed,  there  were  no  corroboratory  facts  or  tra¬ 
ditions,  these  Egyptian  references  to  the  border 
wall  of  Egypt  would,  in  themselves,  be  sufficient 
to  justify  a  conviction  of  its  existence  ;  for  the 
term  which  is  employed  in  its  mention  is  rec¬ 
ognized  by  Egyptologists  generally  as  indica¬ 
tive  of  a  continuous  wall,  or  of  an  extended 
line  of  fortifications,  which  in  reality  amounts 
to  a  defensive  wall.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  is  no  lack  of  corroboratory  facts  and  tradi¬ 
tions.  H.  C.  T. - [For  a  full  discussion  of  this 

interesting  question,  see  “  Kadesh-Barne'i T  pp. 
44-58,  and  Sunday-school  Times,  Ma3’-14th,  1887.] 

Journey  to  Marah ;  Marmuririq  of  Israel ;  Sweet 
ening  of  the  Waters  (verses  22-26). 

22.  Three  day§.  The  distance  between 


Ayun  Musa  and  Hawara,  the  first  spot  where 
any  water  is  found  oh  the  route,  is  thirty-three 

geographical  miles.  Cook. - With  such  a  host, 

encumbered  as  they  were  with  women  and  chil¬ 
dren,  and  flocks  and  herds,  the  distance  of  a 
day’s  march  cannot  have  averaged  more  than 
twelve  miles.  How  striking  to  find  that  even 
now  a  journey  of  about  thirty-five  miles  has  to 
be  made  before  w^ater  is  reached,  and  then 
that  the  water  is  bitter  and  unwholesome,  as 
were  the  waters  of  Marah  !  Holland. 

23.  The  place  of  encampment  at  Maeah  has 
been  almost  universally  recognized,  since  the 
time  of  Burckhardt,  as  identical  with  the  well 
(Ain)  Hawara^  w^hich  had  never  been  mentioned 
before.  It  is  situated  at  a  distance  of  fifteen  or 
sixteen  hours’  journey  from  the  wells  of  Moses 
— a  distance  which  answers  admirably  to  the 
three  days’  journey  of  the  Israelites.  The 
countr}"  between  is  a  sandy  desert,  entirely  des¬ 
titute  of  water.  The  water  of  the  Hawara  well 
is  impregnated  with  alum  and  salt,  and  more 
bitter  than  any  other  water  that  is  met  with  in 
the  ordinary  routes  of  the  peninsula.  The  basin, 
whose  white  rocky  substance  has  evidently  been 
formed  in  the  course  of  time  by  a  precipitate 
from  the  water,  is  said  by  Robinson  to  be  six  or 
eight  feet  across,  w'hile  the  water  is  about  two 

feet  deep.  K. - The  soil  throughout  this  part 

of  the  country,  being  strongly  impregnated  with 
natron,  produces  none  but  bitter  or  brackish 
water  ;  and  the  first  of  these  springs  with  which 
we  meet,  Ain  Hawara,  is  reached  on  the  third 
day  of  our  desert  journey  to  Sinai.  Palmer. 

The  heat  continued  opj)ressive  till  we  reached 
Hawara.  We  did  not  wonder  that  the  Israel¬ 
ites,  who  passed  along  here  perhaps  a  month 
later  in  the  season,  after  their  long,  hot,  and 
dreary  march,  and  their  fresh  recollections  of 
the  water  of  the  Nile,  were  dreadfully  discour¬ 
aged  when  they  reached  Marah  and  found  no 
good  water.  This  fountain  varies  somewhat 
from  time  to  time  in  the  surroundings  and  in 
the  quality  of  the  water.  At  times,  probably 
when  the  flow  is  very  copious  after  rains,  the 
water  is  drinkable^  but  statedly  it  is  disagree¬ 
able,  and  sometimes  even  nauseous.  The  palm- 
bushes  near  it  are  the  first  that  the  traveller  en¬ 
counters  after  leaving  Ayun  Musa.  In  favor  of 
this  place  as  the  Marah  of  the  Scriptures,  there 
are  the  distances  from  Ayun  Musa  (a  fair  “  three 
days’  journey”  for  such  a  company),  the  fact 
that  it  is  the  first  water  lying  directly  on  their 
track,  and  the  expectation  naturally  awakened 
by  the  palm-bush  indications,  the  quality  of  the 
water  itself,  still  presented  and  still  recognized, 
the  correspondence  of  the  next  station,  Elim, 


62 


SECTION  96.  THREE  STAGES  ONWARD  FROM  THE  RED  SEA. 


and  perhaps  we  may  add  the  not  unsuitable 
camping-ground  a  little  beyond  the  place. 
S.  C.  B. 

24-26.  The  people,  tormented  with  thirst, 
murmured  against  Moses,  who,  at  the  command 
of  God,  cast  a  certain  tree  into  the  waters  which 
made  them  sweet.  This  was  the  first  great  trial 
of  their  patience  ;  and  God  who  had  healed  the 
waters,  promised  to  deliver  them  from  all  the 
diseases  of  Egypt,  if  they  would  obey  him,  and 
confirmed  the  promise  by  the  name  of  “  Jehovah 

the  Healer.”  P.  S. - Hei’e  is  the  first  handsel 

that  God  gives  them  in  their  voyage  to  the  Land 
of  Promise— thirst  and  bitterness.  Satan  gives 
us  pleasant  entrances  into  his  ways,  and  re¬ 
serves  the  bitterness  for  the  end  :  God  inures 
us  to  our  worst  at  first,  and  sweetens  our  con¬ 
clusion  with  pleasure.  The  same  God  that 
would  not  lead  Israel  through  the  Philistines’ 
land  lest  they  should  shrink  at  the  sight  of  war, 
now  leads  them  through  the  wilderness,  and 
fears  not  to  try  their  patience  with  bitter  potions. 
If  he  had  not  loved  them,  the  Egyptian  furnace 
or  sword  had  prevented  their  thirst,  or  that  sea 
w'hereof  their  enemies  drunk  dead  ;  and  yet  see 
how  he  diets  them..  Never  any  have  had  so 
bitter  draughts  upon  earth  as  those  he  loves 
best  ;  the  palate  is  an  ill  iudge  of  the  favors  of 
God.  Bp.  H. 

To  realize  their  suffering,  to  have  an  adequate 
idea  of  it,  we  should  need  to  be  put  in  their  sit¬ 
uation,  beneath  a  burning  sun,  a  cloudless  skj’-, 
surrounded  by  the  bare,  dry,  gray,  shining  des¬ 
ert.  This  seemed  indeed  a  deplorable  com¬ 
mencement  of  their  journey.  They  thought 
when  God  had  brought  them  safely  through  the 
Bed  Sea,  that  that  was  the  way  in  which  he 
would  cause  them  to  triumph  continually. 
They  knew  very  little  of  themselves,  still  less  of 
God.  They  knew  very  little  of  God’s  methods 
of  discipline,  very  little  of  their  own  need  of 
that  discipline.  They  could  sing  God’s  praises 
on  occasion  of  a  great  deliverance,  provided 
Moses  would  prepare  an  ode  for  them.  But 
their  obligations  to  God  and  their  dependence 
upon  him  they  had  scarcely  begun  to  realize. 
All  the  discipline  of  faith  they  were  yet  to  ex¬ 
perience.  And  therefore,  after  the  first  tri¬ 
umph,  after  God  had  brought  them  safely  out 
of  Egypt,  and  across  the  Red  Sea,  their  first  ex¬ 
perience  was  trial  and  disappointment.  Cheever. 

24,  These  Israelites,  instead  of  praying,  mur¬ 
mur  ;  instead  of  praying  to  God,  murmur  against 
Moses  Whal  hath  the  righteous  done  f  He  made 
not  either  the  wilderness  dry  or  the  waters  bit¬ 
ter  ;  yea,  if  his  conduct  were  the  matter,  what  | 
one  foot  went  he  before  them  without  God  ?  , 


The  pillar  led  them,  and  not  he  ;  yet  Moses  is 
murmured  at.  Never  any  prince  so  merited  of 
a  people.  He  thrusts  himself  upon  the  pikes  of 
Pharaoh’s  tyranny.  He  brought  them  from  a 
bondage  worse  than  death.  His  rod  divided  the 
sea,  and  shared  life  to  them,  death  to  their  pur¬ 
suers.  Who  would  not  have  thought  these  men 
so  obliged  to  Moses,  that  no  death  could  have 
opened  their  mouths  or  raised  their  hands 
against  him  ?  Moses  took  not  on  him  their 
provision  but  their  deliverance.  He  was  in  the 
same  want  of  water  with  them,  in  the  same  dis¬ 
taste  of  bitterness,  and  yet  they  say  to  him, 
“  AVhat  shall  we  drink  ?”  Bp.  H. 

Never  once  during  his  twelve  months  of  con¬ 
flict  with  the  power  of  Pharaoh  had  the  faith  or 
courage  of  Moses  quailed.  Contemned,  cajoled, 
threatened,  spurned  from  the  royal  presence, 
he  had  never  faltered.  And  now  his  triumph 
over  Egypt  was  complete.  But  the  far  greater 
difficulties  of  his  task  had  yet  to  begin.  As  he 
had  learned  forty  years  before,  to  crush  the  op¬ 
pressor  is  easier  than  to  discipline  and  educate 
the  oppressed.  The  very  people  who  but  now 
were  singing  the  praises  of  Jehovah,  and  feeling 
as  though  the  Promised  Land  was  already  in 
their  grasp,  were  three  days  later  ”  murmuring 
against  Moses”  because  the  waters  of  the  wil¬ 
derness  were  bitter.  J.  P.  N. 

25.  What  course  doth  Moses  now  take  ?  That 
which  they  should  have  done  and  did  not  :  they 
cried  not  more  fervently  to  him  than  he  to 
God  :  if  he  were  their  leader,  God  was  his  ;  that 
which  they  unjustly  required  of  him,  he  justly 
requires  of  God,  that  could  do  it  ;  he  knew 
whence  to  look  for  redress  of  all  complaints  ; 
this  was  not  his  charge,  but  his  Maker’s,  who 
was  able  to  maintain  his  own  act.  It  is  to  thee, 
O  God,  that  we  must  pour  out  our  hearts, 
who  only  canst  make  our  bitter  waters  sweet. 

jjp  22 - Ye  who  are  bravely  battling  for  the 

right,  the  pure,  the  benevolent,  whether  it  be 
in  the  sweeping  out  of  corruption  from  political 
offices,  or  in  the  closing  of  those  pestilential 
houses  which  are  feeding  the  intemperance  of 
our  streets,  or  in  the  maintenance  in  the 
churches  of  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints — take  heart  of  grace  from  Moses  here. 
Go  with  your  causes  to  the  Lord,  and  he  sure  that 
they  who  are  on  his  side  are  always  in  the  end 
victorious.  W.  M.  T. 

He  cried  unto  the  L<ord.  Moses  was 
not  only  their  leader,  but  also  their  mediator. 
Of  prayer  and  dependence  on  the  Almighty,  the 
great  mass  of  the  Israelites  had  little  knowledge 
at  this  time.  Moses,  therefore,  had  much  to 
bear  from  their  weakness  ;  and  the  merciful 


SWEETEmNO  OF  THE  WATER. 


63 


Lord  was  long-suffering.  A.  C. - The  hand  of 

faith  never  knocked  at  heaven  in  vain  :  no 
sooner  hath  Moses  shown  his  grievance  than 
God  shows  him  the  remedy  ;  yet  an  unlikely 
one,  that  it  might  be  miraculous.  He  that 
made  the  waters  could  have  given  them  any 
savor  ;  the  same  hand  that  created  them  might 
have  immediately  changed  them.  But  Almighty 
Power  still  works  by  means  ;  and  the  glory  of 
Omnipotence  is  manifested  by  the  improbabil¬ 
ity  of  the  means  which  He  employs.  Elisha 
with  salt,  Moses  with  wood,  shall  sweeten  the 
bitter  waters.  Let  no  man  despise  the  means, 
when  he  knows  the  Author.  Bp.  II. 

The  water  is  bitter  — so  bitter  as  to  be  loath¬ 
some  even  to  their  intense  agony  of  thirst. 
Pity  them  ;  but  judge  them  not  too  severely  if, 
in  that  awful  moment  of  disappointed  hope, 
with  the  waters  of  Marah  before  their  faces  and 
the  waters  of  the  Nile  before  their  thoughts, 
they  did  murmur,  they  did  complain  that  they 
had  been  brought  from  unfailing  waters  to 
perish  in  that  thirsty  desolation.  They  should 
have  trusted  in  God.  They  had  been  rescued 
from  more  imminent  danger  ;  and  it  was  no  arm 
of  flesh,  but  the  sacred  pillar  of  cloud,  which 
had  indicated  their  way,  and  brought  them  to 
that  place.  They  should  have  prayed  to  their 
Divine  Protector  to  supply  their  wants,  as  he 
was  well  able  to  do  ;  and  although  there  is  much 
in  the  real  misery  they  suffered  to  extenuate 
tkis  offence,  their  forgetfulness  and  neglect  was 
most  blameworthy.  Yet,  in  consideration  of 
their  sufferings,  God  himself  excused  them  in 
this  more  readily  than  man  has  done.  It  will 
be  seen  in  the  sacred  record  that  he  dealt  ten¬ 
derly  with  them.  He  did  not,  as  on  other  occa¬ 
sions,  when  they  sinned  in  like  manner  without 
tlie  like  excuse,  reprove  them  ;  but  when  Moses 
cried  to  him  for  help,  he,  in  the  tenderness  of 
his  great  pity,  at  once  healed  the  waters,  and 
made  them  sweet  and  salutar}’.  Kit. 

God  sends  trial  for  the  purpose  of  teaching 
faith,  and  when  that  is  somewhat  accomplished, 
his  wisdom  and  love  are  glad  to  bestow  bless¬ 
ings.  It  was  infinitely  better  to  have  bitter 
water  with  God’s  healing,  than  the  best  of  water 
without  God,  The  very  trials  and  disappoint¬ 
ments  of  a  Christian,  if  God  comes  with  tliein,  are 
better  than  all  the  blessings  of  the  worldling. 
It  was  better  to  have  the  disappointment  at  first, 
and  God's  interposition  afterward,  than  to  have 

found  a  sweet  fountain  at  once.  Cheever. - Of 

all  gifts,  Christ  is  the  sweetest  gift.  As  the  tree 
“  sweetened  the  bitter  waters,”  so  this  gift,  the 
Lord  Jesus,  sweetens  all  other  gifts  that  are  be¬ 
stowed  upon  the  sons  of  men.  He  turns  every 


bitter  into  sweet,  and  makes  the  sweet  more 
sweet.  Brooks. 

There  he  made  for  them  a  statute 
and  an  ordinaiiee,  and  there  he 
proved  them.  The  “  statute,”  or  principle, 
and  “  the  ordinance,”  or  right,  was  this,  that  in 
all  seasons  of 'need  and  seeming  impossibility 
the  Lord  would  send  deliverance  straight  from 
above,  and  that  Israel  might  expect  this  during 
their  wilderness  journey.  This  “  statute  ’  is, 
for  all  times,  the  principle  of  God’s  guidance, 
and  this  “  ordinance”  the  right  or  privilege  of 
our  heavenly  citizenship.  But  he  also  ever 
“  proves”  us  by  this,  that  the  enjoyment  of  our 
right  and  privilege  is  made  to  depend  upon  a 
constant  exercise  of  faith.  A.  E. 

26.  The  scriptural  record  expresslj^  describes 
the  event  at  Marah  under  the  aspect  of  a  trial. 
They  had  left  Egypt,  with  its  abundance  of 
sweet  and  wholesome  water,  for  the  purpose  of 
escaping  from  slavery  ;  but  the  desert,  the  place 
of  freedom,  the  asylum  of  safety,  threatened 
them  with  death  from  exhaustion.  Then  they 
murmured  against  Moses  ;  and  to  murmur 
against  Moses  was,  in  fact,  to  murmur  against 
Jehovah.  How  ungrateful  and  unbelieving, 
and  yet  how  natural  !  But  this  was  just  the 
intention  of  the  trial.  The  unholy,  natural  root 
of  the  heart  was  to  be  laid  bare,  that  it  might 
be  healed  and  sanctified  by  the  discij)line  and 
merej"  of  God  ;  it  was  necessary  that  the  mur¬ 
muring  should  be  heard,  in  order  that  it  might 
be  brought  to  shame,  and  counteracted  bj  the 
mercy  and  faithfulness  of  God.  This  really  oc¬ 
curred  :  the  bond  by  which  Israel  was  united  to 
his  God  was  thus  drawn  closer  and  knit  more 
firmly  ;  and,  as  a  seal  thereof,  God  gave  the 
people  on  this  occasion  “  a  statute  and  an  or¬ 
dinance,”  and  said  :  “  If  thou  wilt  diligently 
hearken  to  the  voice  of  Jehovah  thy  God,  and 
do  that  which  is  right  in  his  sight,  I  wall  put 
none  of  these  diseases  upon  thee  which  I  have 
brought  upon  the  Egyptians,  tor  I  am  Jehovah, 
thy  Physician."  Thus  the  difference  which  Je¬ 
hovah  had  already  made  in  Egypt  between 
Israel  and  the  Egyptians  was  to  be  still  perpet¬ 
uated  so  long  as  Israel  would  maintain  its  own 
distinction  from  the  heathen,  as  the  people  of 

God,  by  obedience  to  Jehovah’s  will.  K. - 

The  prophet  Jeremiah,  a  thousand  years  after¬ 
ward.  referred  to  it  to  show,  that  from  the  very 
earliest  period  of  Israel’s  covenant  relation  to 
Gofl,  their  sacrifices  had  been  held  as  of  no  ac¬ 
count  compared  with  obedience  (Jer.  7  : 22,  23), 
“For  I  spake  not  unto  your  fathers,  nor  com¬ 
manded  them  in  the  day  that  I  brought  them 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  concerning  burnt- 


64 


SECTION  96.  THREE  STAGES  ONWARD  FROM  THE  RED  SEA. 


offerings  or  sacrifices  :  But  this  thing  com¬ 
manded  I  them,  saying,  Obey  my  voice,  and  I 
will  be  3'our  God,  and  ye  shall  be  my  people  : 
and  walk  ye  in  all  the  ways  that  I  have  com¬ 
manded  you,  that  it  may  be  well  unto  you.” 
Nor  is  it  less  important  for  us  at  this  day  to  be 
assured  that  God  will  deal  with  iis  according  as 
we  demean  ourselves  toward  to  him.  The  ret¬ 
ribution  may  not  indeed  be  now  so  visibly 
marked  by  outward  signals,  but  it  will  be  no 
less  real  in  secret  visitations  upon  the  spirit,  in 
the  conscious  well  or  ill  being  of  the  inner 
man.  And  in  many  cases  the  frown  or  the  smile 
of  God  will  be  evident  in  the  dispensations  of 
his  Providence.  Bush. 

God  taught  his  people  by  actions,  as  well  as 
words.  This  entrance  showed  them  their  whole 
journey  ;  wherein  they  should  taste  of  much 
bitterness,  but  at  last,  through  the  mercy  of 

God,  sweetened  with  comfort.  Bp.  II. - Two 

great  objects  God  had  in  view  :  first  to  show 
the  people  themselves,  and  next  to  show  them 
himself.  Neither  of  these  lessons  can  be  taught 
at  a  sitting.  It  is  only  by  degrees  that  we  learn 
how  poor  and  weak  and  helpless  we  are  ;  and 
how  great  and  loving  and  helpful  God  is  ;  and 
so  we  need  not  wonder  that,  with  a  people  so 
slow  to  learn,  the  lesson  should  extend  over 
forty  years.  But  though  it  takes  a  long  time  to 
teach  it  practically^  we  can  see  it  very  readily 
in  a  picture  ;  and  it  is  painted  there  in  charac¬ 
ters  quite  large  and  striking,  on  this  Marah  page 
of  Israel’s  history.  What  had  become  of  that 
splendid  faith  in  God  which  found  expression 
in  the  Bed  Sea  song  ?  Why  did  it  never  occur 
to  these  people  that  he  who  had  opened  a  way 
through  the  sea  could  very  easily  provide  for 
them  in  the  desert  ?  The  truth  is,  that  while 
faith  is  very  easy  after  a  great  deliverance,  it  is 
exceeding  hard  before  it.  When  our  hearts  are 
filled  with  gratitude  to  God  at  a  time  when 
there  is  nothing  to  try  us,  let  us  not  build  too 
much  upon  it  as  an  evidence  of  Christian  char¬ 
acter,  for  it  may  not  be  so  certain  after  all 
whether  it  is  God  or  self  we  are  in  love  with. 
The  test  will  be  when  sorrow  comes,  when  y^ou 
are  thirsty,  and,  stooping  down  to  drink,  you 
find  the  waters  bitter— then  if  you  can  still 
praise  God,  and  trust  his  love  and  power,  you 
prove  ymurself  a  disciple  indeed.  But  with 
many  the  time  of  trial  is  a  time  of  humiliating 
disclosures  of  weakness  and  faithlessness,  as  it 
was  in  tbe  case  of  Israel  so  lately  triumphant, 
but  whose  very  fir^t  trouble  was  too  much  for 
them.  But  God  does  not  leave  his  people  thus. 
Having  taught  them  the  sad  lesson  of  what  they 
are,  ho  presently  comforts  them  by  showing 


them  what  he  is.  As  soon  as  they  cried  to  him 
he  found  (how  easily)  a  way  to  make  the  bitter 
waters  sweet,  and  thus  made  himself  known  as 
Jehovah  the  Healer  (verse  2G).  He  had  already 
fully  revealed  himself  as  Jehovah  the  Saviour, 
their  great  Deliverer  from  Egyptian  bondage. 
His  work  as  the  healer  of  his  people  follows 
next  in  order.  Bless  Jehovah,  0  my  soul, 
and  forget  not  all  his  benefits  :  who  forgiveth 
all  thine  iniquities  ;  who  healeth  all  thy  dis¬ 
eases.” 

Tho  Marah  “  statute  and  ordinance”  is  the 
first  trace  of  Law  in  God’s  dealing  with  his  peo¬ 
ple.  Up  to  this  time  it  has  been  all  Gospel. 
They  have  had  simply  to  “  stand  still,  and  set 
the  salvation  of  the  Lord.”  Not  a  word  has 
been  said  to  them  about  “  doing  that  which  is 
right  in  his  sight,’  ’  and  ‘‘keeping  his  statutes,” 
till  now.  Thus  we  find  that  the  order  of  the 
New  Testament  is  also  the  order  of  the  Old.  It 
is  not,  “  obey  and  be  saved,”  but  “  be  saved 
and  obey^”  It  is  not,  “  obey  in  order  that  you 
may  be  saved,”  but  “  obey  because  you  have 
been  saved.”  There  had  been  certain  acts  of 
obedience,  of  course  ;  but  these  were  all  in  tho 
way  of  accepting  a  salvation  already  provided, 
as  for  instance  when  they  killed  the  lamb  and 
sprinkled  the  blood,  which  was  simply  their 
acceptance  of  tho  atonement  provided  by  the 
Lord  ;  or  again,  when  at  the  word  of  the  Lord 
they  walked  through  the  sea  ;  but  up  till  this 
time  there  is  not  a  single  intimation  of  good 
deeds  as  a  condition  of  blessing.  God  did  not 
give  them  his  Law  in  Egypt  and  tell  them  if 
they  kept  it  he  would  bring  them  out.  No  :  he 
first  brings  them  out,  and  then  says,  “  Keep  my 
Law.”  el.  M.  G. 

E  lm,  with  its  Twelve  Springs  and  SevenUj  Palms. 

Ex.  15  :  ;  Nii.  33  :  9.  Wady  Ghar- 

andel  may  be  safely  identified  with  Elim.  The 
whole  desert  is  almost  absolutely  bare  and  bar¬ 
ren,  but  Wady  Gharandel  is  fringed  with  trees 
and  shrubs,  forming  a  charming  oasis.  Hero 
are  the  stunted  palms,  with  their  hairy  trunks 
and  dishevelled  branches.  Here,  too,  are  tho 
feathery  tamarisks,  with  gnarled  boughs,  their 
leaves  dripping  with  what  the  Arabs  call  manna  ; 
and  here  is  the  acacia,  with  its  gray  foliage  an. I 
bright  blossoms,  tangled  by  its  desert-growth 
into  a  thicket.  Pleasant  is  the  acacia  to  the  sight 
wearied  by  the  desert-glare  ;  but  it  has  a  higher 
and  holier  interest,  as  the  tree  of  the  “  Burniug 
Bush”  and  the  “  shittim-wood  ”  o,f  the  tabei- 

nacle.  J.  L.  P. - The  Wady  Gharandel  is  ono 

of  the  most  fertile  valleys  in  the  desert.  It  ile- 
scends  from  the  east  along  the  base  of  a  ridge 


ELIM,  WITH  ITS  SPlilEGS  AND  PALMS 


Go 


of  limestone  fully  two  thousand  feet  in  eleva¬ 
tion.  To  the  west,  bordering  the  sea,  was  the 
corresponding  limestone  ridge  of  Jebei  Ham- 
man,  at  the  base  of  which  breaks  forth  the  warm 
.springs  of  the  Hamman  Faroun.  IIulL 

Just  below  the  point  where  the  road  crosses 
[Wady  Gharandel],  several  water  holes  are 
found,  which  have  been  frequently  described. 
But  it  is  not  generally  known  how  large  a  sup¬ 
ply  of  water  is  to  be  found  about  two  miles 
lower  down  the  w^ady.  A  stream  here  gradually 
oozes  out  from  the  bed  of  the  "wady,  and  soon 
forms  considerable  pools  of  w^ater,  which  are 
overgrown  wdth  rushes,  and  affords  a  favorite 
resort  for  wdld  ducks  and  other  birds.  An 
abundant  supply  of  water  is  to  be  found  here 
during  the  vdiole  year.  The  banks  of  the 
stream  and  dry  f)ools  from  which  the  water  has 
evaporated  are  often  covered  with  a  white  de¬ 
posit  of  natron,  and  the  standing  water  is  brack¬ 
ish  and  unwholesome  ;  but  wdien  running 
briskly  and  freshly  drawm,  it  is  very  drinkable, 
and  the  traveller’s  water-skins  are  generally 
filled  here  on  his  way  to  and  from  the  south. 
The  lower  portions  of  Wady  Gharandel  are  well 
clothed  with  tamarisks  and  palms.  Holland. 

- A  very  large  area  around  was  enclosed  by  a 

sheltering  circle  of  hills,  perhaps  sixty  feet 
high  ;  and  as  ^ve  looked  back  upon  the  place  on 
leaving  it,  we  could  not  help  thinking  what  an 
admirable  and  inviting  spot  for  a  large  encamp¬ 
ment.  The  water  we  found  to  be  excellent— as 
good  as  the  Nrle  water.  And  nowhere  on  the 
peniirsula  except  at  Wady  Feiran  did  we  find  it 
so  copious.  Nearly  every  traveller  and  scholar 
from  the  time  of  Burckhardt  have  recognized 
this  as  theFJim  of  the  Bible,  where  W'ere  twelve 
wells  of  water  and  threescore  and  ten  palm- 
trees.  The  relaiive  situation,  next  to  Marah 
and  a  very  short  march  from  it,  the  abundant 
water  and  the  trees,  and  all  the  peculiarly 
marked  and  inviting  features  of  the  place,  make 
the  supposition  in  the  highest  degree  credible, 
and  render  it  even  improbable  that  it  should 
not  have  been  occupied  as  a  camping-place. 
S.  C.  B. 

This  refreshing  valley  may  be  regarded  as  the 
first  resting  place  of  the  sons  of  Israel  after 
their  departure  from  Egypt.  Here,  accord¬ 
ingly,  they  remained  for  the  space  of  three 
weeks  (IG  ;  1),  during  which  they  had  leisure  to 
accommodate  themselves  in  some  measure  to 
desert  life  and  to  the  habits  of  freedom  and  in¬ 
dependence.  M. 

Elim  presents  the  same  contrast  to  Marah  as 
the  temptation  on  the  part  of  God  to  the  fruit 
of  that  temptation,  or  as  the  state  of  heart 


evinced  bj'^  the  murmuring  people  to  the  loving¬ 
kindness  and  mercy  of  Jehovah.  Marah  was 
the  representative  of  the  desert,  so  far  as  it  was 
the  scene  of  trial  and  discipline  ;  Elim,  so  far 
as  it  was  the  place  in  which  a  covenant  was 
1  made  with  God,  and  his  gracious  guidance  wms 
enjoyed.  Elim  was  a  place  expressly  prepared 
for  Israel,  for  it  bore  the  characteristic  mark 
of  the  nation,  in  the  number  of  its  wells  and 
Ijalm-trees  ;  there  was  a  well  for  every  tribe 
ready  to  refresh  both  man  and  beast,  and  the 
shade  of  a  palm-tree  for  the  tent  of  everj^  one 
of  the  elders  of  the  people  (ch.  24  ;  9).  K. 

Their  bitter  disappointment  at  first,  and 
God’s  merciful  interposition,  had  begun  to  teach 
them  that  everything  of  good  must  come  from 
God.  They  were  beginning  to  learn  this  great 
lesson  of  faith  ;  and  now  these  twelve  wells  and 
seventy  palm-trees  were  from  him  also  ;  and  his 
previous  discipline  with  them  made  them  feel 
this.  It  is  one  lesson  of  faith,  perhaps  the 
latest  learned,  and  also  it  is  one  of  the  greatest 
proofs  of  faith,  to  receive  our  daily  mercies  as 
from  God.  This  is  the  life  of  faith  amid 
sense.  What  <ire  our  daily  mercies  but  daily 
miracles,  daily  and  remarkable  interpositions 
of  God’s  mercy,  preventing  the  ordinary  course 
of  nature  ?  It  is  quite  out  of  the  course  of  na¬ 
ture  for  a  rebellious  race  to  receive  mercies,  and 
it  is  only  by  God  s  interposition  in  Christ  that 
we  do  receive  them  ;  a  greater  miracle  by  far 
than  when  God  interjDosed  to  heal  the  fountain 
in  the  desert.  Justice  to  the  full  would  be  the 
course  of  nature,  but  the  supernatural  cross  in¬ 
tervenes,  and  miracles  of  mercy  are  wrought  for 
us.  Our  life  is  a  perpetual  miracle.  It  is  a 
proof  of  faith  to  feel  this,  and  it  is  a  blessed  life 
of  faith  to  live  thus  upon  God.  Cheever. 

Is  there  ever  a  Marah  without  an  Elim  near 
it,  if  only  we  follow  on  in  the  way  the  Lord 
marks  out  for  us  through  the  wilderness  ?  The 
notice  of  Elim  occupies  less  than  four  lines, 
while  there  are  as  many  verses  in  the  record  of 
Marah,  and  a  whole  chapter  following  about  the 
Wilderness  of  Sin  ;  and  we  are  apt  to  draw  the 
hasty  inference  that  the  bitter  experiences  were 
the  rule,  and  the  delightful  ones  the  exception. 
And  so  it  often  seems  in  the  checkered  life  of 
the  tried  disciple  of  the  Lord.  But  look  again. 
The  bitter  time  at  Marah  was  quite  short, 
though  it  occupies  a  great  deal  of  space  in  the 
history.  These  four  verses  tell  the  story  prob¬ 
ably  of  as  many  hours  or  less.  But  the  four 
lines  about  Elim  are  the  story  of  three  weeks, 
during  which  “  they  encamped  there  by  the 
waters.”  When  troubles  come,  the  time  seems 
long  ;  when  troubles  have  gone,  the  time  seems. 


66 


SECTION  96.  TEHEE  STAGES  ONWARD  FROM  TUE  RED  SEA. 


short  ;  and  so  many  are  apt  to  think  that  they 
are  hardly  dealt  with,  whereas  if  they  would 
look  more  carefully  into  the  Lord’s  dealings 
with  them,  they  might  find  that  they  have  far 
more  to  be  thankful  for  than  to  grieve  over. 
Hours  at  Marah  are  followed  by  weeks  at  Elim. 
J.  M.  G. 

S3  :  10.  Encampment  by  the  Red  Sea. 
After  passing  the  Wady  2'ayibeh,  the  route  de¬ 
scends  through  a  defile  on  to  a  beautiful  pebbly 
beach,  the  Encampment  bv  the  Led  Sea,  which 
is  mentioned  in  Nambers  next  to  Elim,  but  is 
omitted  in  Exodus.  Here  the  Israelites  had 
their  last  view  of  the  Eed  Sea  and  the  shores  of 

Egypt.  P,  S. - -The  plain  at  the  mouth  of 

Wady  Tayibeh  has  been  suggested  as  the  prob¬ 
able  site  of  the  Encampment  by  the  Red  Sea.  As 
from  a  comparison  of  the  various  routes  we  (of 
the  Ordnance  Survey)  were  unanimously  of 
opinion  that  the  Israelites  must  have  taken  the 
lower  route  by  the  sea-shore,  and  as  the  Wady 
Tayibeh  is  the  only  valley  by  which  they  could 
have  descended  to  the  sea  shore  after  crossing 
Wady  Gharandel,  we  acquiesced  in  this  identi¬ 
fication.  Palmer.  (See  map,  Sec.  98.) 

If  they  proceeded  south  from  the  Wady  Ghar- 
;andel  or  the  Wady  Useit,  they  cannot  have 
reached  the  Eed  Sea  bj’’  any  other  route  than 
through  the  Wady  Tayibeh ;  for  there  is  a  range 
•of  mountains  at  the  south  of  the  Wady  Useit 
which  approaches  so  nearly  to  the  sea  as  to  ren¬ 
der  it  impossible  to  pass  along  the  shore.  The 
Israelites  must  therefore  have  gone  round  these 
mountains.  The  next  valley,  the  Wady  Thai, 
which  passes  through  the  mountains  to  the  sea 
merely  as  a  narrow  gorge,  must  also  have  been 
•crossed.  They  then  arrived  at  Wady  Shebekth, 
from  which  the  Wady  Tayibeh  branches  off  tow¬ 
ard  the  east  and  leads  to  the  sea-shore.  “We 
reached,’'  says  Slrauss  (p.  142),  “  the  broad  and 
beautiful  valley  of  Tayibeh,  which  is  covered 
with  tamarisks  and  fresh  herbage.  The  valley 
winds  about  between  steep  rocks,  and  frequently 
appears  to  lead  into  an  enclosure  from  which 
there  is  no  outlet,  until  suddenly  an  opening  is 
•discovered  at  the  side.  After  travelling  about 
•eight  hours  from  Gharandel,  we  arrived  once 
more  at  the  Ked  Sea  tnear  Kas  Zelimeh).  To  the 


north  the  mountains  and  rocks  came  close  upon 
the  sea,  but  toward  the  south  a  plain  opened  be¬ 
fore  us,  which  was  bounded  on  the  east  by  wild 
and  rugged  rocky  formations.”  This  was  un¬ 
doubtedly  the  station  of  the  children  of  Israel 
by  the  Eed  Sea.  The  sandy  plain,  on  which 
there  is  a  great  quantity  of  vegetation,  runs 
along  by  the  sea-shore  for  three  or  four  miles, 
and  is  about  three  quarters  of  a  mile  in  breadth  ; 
but  after  this  the  rocky  wall  approaches  so 
nearly  to  the  sea,  that  it  is  only  at  the  ebb  that 
there  is  an^^  road  at  all.  K. 

Suddenly  the  cliffs  opened,  and  before  us  lay 
the  Eed  Sea,  beyond  which  was  a  range  of 
mountains,  the  line  of  which  was  broken  by 
peaks  shooting  up  here  and  there,  like  the  cliffs 
of  Capri  or  the  islands  of  the  Greek  Archipel¬ 
ago.  It  was  now  five  o'clock,  and  the  sun  was 
sinking  in  the  west,  so  that  every  point  of  that 
long  serrated  ridge  stood  up  sharp  and  clear 
against  the  sky.  Here  was  a  scene  which  no 
artist  could  transfer  to  canvas.  We  had  before 
us  at  once  the  mountains  and  the  sea,  and 

mountains  on  both  sides  of  the  sea.  Field. - 

Turning  the  corner  at  the  end  of  the  valley,  our 
tents  stood  on  the  left,  the  Eed  Sea  glistened 
and  rippled  in  front,  and  a  spacious  area  lay 
spread  out  between  the  hillside  and  the  water’s 
edge.  It  was  a  sandy  plain,  extending  some  four 
or  five  miles  along  the  shore,  shut  in  by  a  range 
of  wild  cliff’s,  and  terminated  by  a  high  prom¬ 
ontory  on  the  north,  and  a  rocky  wall  approach¬ 
ing  close  to  the  sea  on  the  south.  There  is 
scarcely  room  for  doubt  that  here  was  the  ‘‘En¬ 
campment  by  the  Sea,”  and  that  down  this  very 
valley  of  Tayibeh  the  Israelites  had  travelled 
before  us.  Here  was  room  for  a  great  camp. 
S.  C.  B. 

In  a  host  like  that  of  the  Israelites,  consist¬ 
ing  of  more  than  two  millions  of  people,  with 
many  flocks,  it  can  hardly  be  supposed  that 
they  all  marched  in  one  body.  More  probably 
the  stations,  as  enumerated,  refer  rather  to  the 
headquarters  of  Moses  and  the  elders,  with  a 
portion  of  the  people,  who  kept  near  them  ; 
while  other  portions  preceded  or  followed  them 
at  various  distances,  as  the  convenience  of  water 
and  pasturage  might  dictate.  Robinson. 


\Wells  of  Moses 


Nliklil 


Springs  of  irawatil' 
^ifarah,;! 


.'Nakb  cr-E^kineii 


Burabit  e1\Kfiaclim  ' 


liara' 


Oasis  of  J’eiran/ 

MoUrt  Serbal 

V..: 


‘"^>riIE  CONVENT 
Je'bel  Mousa  ^  : 
M(^unt  Katherine  f 


UnritShomer/ 


■m- 


Camp  oy 
the  Jted  Sea 


PENINSULA  OF  S 


_ from  the  WelU  of  Moses  to  the  Convent  lo3  Miles 

Camel’s  Journey  a  day  20  to  25  Miles, 

Route  Camps 


Ras  Mohammed 

HEn  SE^L 


SECTION  97. 


67 


Section  97. 

THE  WILDERNESS  OF  SIN  (EL  MARKKA).  BREAD  RAINED  FROM  HEAVEN; 

QUAILS  COVERING  THE  CAMP. 

Exodus  1G  :  1-36.  Nu.  33  :  11. 

Eu.  33  11  And  they  journeyed  from  the  Red  Sea,  and  pitched  in  the  wilderness  of  Sin. 

Ex,.  16  1  And  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel  came  unto  the  wilderness  of  Sin, 

w'hich  is  between  Elim  and  Sinai,  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  second  month  after 

2  their  departing  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  And  the  whole  congregation  of  the  chil- 

3  dren  of  Israel  murmured  against  Moses  and  against  Aaron  in  the  wilderness  :  and  the 
children  of  Israel  said  unto  them,  Would  that  we  had  died  by  the  hand  of  the  Lokd 
in  the  land  of  Egypt,  when  we  sat  by  the  flesh  pots,  when  we  did  eat  bread  to  the 
full  ;  for  ye  have  brought  us  forth  into  this  wilderness,  to  kill  this  whole  assembly 

4  with  hunger.  Then  said  the  Lord  unto  Moses,  Behold,  I  will  rain  bread  from 

heaven  for  you  ;  and  the  people  shall  go  out  and  gather  a  day’s  portion  every  day, 

5  that  I  may  prove  them,  whether  they  will  walk  in  my  law.  or  no.  And  it  shall  come 
to  pass  on  the  sixth  day,  that  they  shall  prepare  that  which  they  bring  in,  and  it 

6  shall  be  twice  as  much  as  they  gather  daily.  And  Moses  and  Aaron  said  unto  all  the 
children  of  Israel,  At  even,  then  ye  shall  know  that  the  Lord  hath  brought  you  out 

7  from  the  land  of  Egypt  ;  and  in  the  morning,  then  ye  shall  see  the  glory  of  the 

Lord  ;  for  that  he  heareth  your  murmurings  against  the  Lord  ;  and  what  are  we,  that 

8  ye  murmur  against  us  ?  And  Moses  said,  This  shall  be,  when  the  Lord  shall  give  you 
in  the  evening  flesh  to  eat,  and  in  the  morning  bread  to  the  full  ;  for  that  the  Lord 
heareth  your  murmurings  which  ye  murmur  against  him  :  and  what  are  we  ?  your 

9  murmurings  are  not  against  us,  but  against  the  Lord.  And  Moses  said  unto  Aaron, 
Say  unto  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel,  Come  near  before  the  Lord  : 

10  for  he  hath  heard  your  murmurings.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  Aaron  spake  unto  the 
whole  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  looked  toward  the  wilderness, 

11  and,  behold,  the  glory  of  the  Lord  appeared  in  the  cloud.  And  the  Lord  spake 

12  unto  Moses,  saying,  I  have  heard  the  murmurings  of  the  children  of  Israel  ;  speak 
unto  them,  saying,  At  even  ye  shall  eat  flesh,  and  in  the  morning  ye  shall  be  filled 

13  with  bread  ;  and  ye  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.  And  it  came  to  pass 
at  even,  that  the  quails  came  up,  and  covered  the  camp  :  and  in  the  morning  the 

14  dew  lay  round  about  the  camp.  And  when  the  dew  that  lay  was  gone  up,  behold, 
upon  the  face  of  the  wilderness  a  small  round  thing,  small  as  the  hoar  frost  on  the 

15  ground.  And  when  the  children  of  Israel  saw  it,  they  said  one  to  another,  'VVhat  is 
it  ?  for  they  wist  not  w^hat  it  was.  And  Moses  said  unto  them.  It  is  the  bread  which 

16  the  Lord  hath  given  you  to  eat.  This  is  the  thing  which  the  Lord  hath  commanded. 
Gather  ye  of  it  every  man  according  to  his  eating  ;  an  omer  a  head,  according  to  the 
number  of  your  persons,  shall  ye  take  it,  every  man  for  them  which  are  in  his  tent, 

17  And  the  children  of  Israel  did  so,  and  gathered  some  more,  some  less.  And  when 

18  they  did  mete  it  with  an  omer,  he  that  gathered  much  had  nothing  over,  and  he 
that  gathered  little  had  no  lack  ;  they  gathered  every  man  according  to  his  eating. 

19  And  Moses  said  unto  them.  Let  no  man  leave  of  it  till  the  morning.  Notwithstand- 

20  ing  they  hearkened  not  unto  Moses  ;  but  some  of  them  left  of  it  until  the  morning, 

21  and  it  bred  worms,  and  stank  :  and  Moses  was  wroth  with  them.  And  they  gathered 
it  morning  by  morning,  every  man  according  to  his  eating  :  and  when  the  sun  waxed 

22  hot,  it  melted.  And  it  came  to  pass,  that  on  the  sixth  day  they  gathered  twice  as 
much  bread,  two  omers  for  each  one  :  and  all  the  rulers  of  the  congregation  came 

23  and  told  Moses.  And  he  said  unto  them.  This  is  that  which  the  Lord  hath  spoken, 
To-morrow  is  a  solemn  rest,  a  holy  sabbath  unto  the  Lord  :  bake  that  which  ye  will 
bake,  and  seethe  that  which  ye  will  seethe  ;  and  all  that  remaineth  over  lay  up  for 

24  you  to  be  kept  until  the  morning.  And  they  laid  it  up  till  the  morning,  as  Moses 


I 


68 


SECTION  97.  THE  WILDERNESS  OF  SIN. 


25  bade  :  and  it  did  not  stink,  neither  was  there  any  worm  therein.  And  Moses  said, 
Eat  that  to-day  ;  for  to-day  is  a  sabbath  nnto  the  Lord  :  to-day  ye  shall  not  find  it 

26  in  the  field.  Six  days  ye  shall  gather  it  ;  but  on  the  seventh  day  is  the  sabbath,  in 

27  it  there  shall  be  none.  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  seventh  day,  that  there  went  out 

28  some  of  the  people  for  to  gather,  and  they  found  none.  And  the  Lord  said  unto 

29  Moses,  How  long  refuse  ye  to  keep  my  commandments  and  my  laws?  See,  for  that 
the  Lord  hath  given  you  the  sabbath,  therefore  he  giveth  you  on  the  sixth  day  the 
bread  of  two  days  ;  abicle  ye  every  man  in  his  place,  let  no  man  go  out  of  his  place 

30  on  the  seventh  day.  So  the  people  rested  on  the  seventh  day.  And  the  house  of 

31  Israel  called  the  name  thereof  Manna  :  and  it  was  like  coriander  seed,  white  ;  and 

32  the  taste  of  it  was  like  wafers  made  with  honey.  And  Moses  said,  This  is  the  thing 
which  the  Lord  hath  commanded,  Let  an  omerful  of  it  be  kept  for  your  genera¬ 
tions  ;  that  they  may  see  the  bread  wherewith  I  fed  you  in  the  wilderness,  when  I 

33  brought  you  forth  from  the  land  of  Egypt.  And  Moses  said  unto  Aaron,  take  a  pot, 
and  put  an  omerful  of  manna  therein,  and  lay  it  up  before  the  Lord,  to  be  kept  for 

34  your  generations.  As  the  Lord  commanded  Moses,  so  Aaron  laid  it  up  before  the 

35  Testimony,  to  be  kept.  And  the  children  of  Israel  did  eat  the  manna  forty  years, 
until  they  came  to  a  land  inhabited  ;  they  did  eat  the  manna,  until  they  came  unto 

36  the  borders  of  the  land  of  Canaan.  Now  an  omer  is  the  tenth  part  of  an  ephah. 


1.  The  next  station  is  the  Wilderness  of  Sin, 
which  we  would  identify  with  El  Markha,  an 
extensive  plain  on  the  coast,  open,  level,  covered 
in  parts  with  slight  vegetation,  and  well  suited 

for  a  large  encampment.  Wilson. - South  of 

the  Enc.unpment  by  the  Sea  (at  the  mouth  of 
Wady  Tayibeh)  the  mountains  approach  nearer 
to  the  sea,  but  sufficient  space  is  left  for  a  road 
along  the  shore  for  several  miles  until  the  moun 
tains  again  recede  and  the  plain  of  EL  Markha  is 
reached.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this 
plain  marks  the  site  of  the  Wilderness  of  Sin, 
where  the  children  of  Israel  made  a  long  halt, 
and  where  God  gave  them  bread  from  heaven, 
and  they  were  fed  with  manna  and  quails.  This 
plain  extends  as  far  south  as  Wady  Feiran,  a 
distance  of  about  twenty-five  miles.  Like  most 
of  the  coast  plains,  it  is  somewdiat  barren  now  ; 
still,  it  is  not  without  some  vegetation,  and 
probably  in  former  days,  when  the  rainfall  was 
larger,  and  the  drainage  from  the  mountains 
descended  gradually,  instead  of  sweeping  every 
thing  before  it  by  a  flood  as  at  the  present  time, 
it  would  have  afforded  excellent  pasturage. 
Holland,  (See  map,  Sec.  98.) 

Fifteenth  <lay  of  second  inontti. 
When  precisely  one  month  had  passed  since 
their  departure  out  of  Egypt  (compare  Nu.  33  :  3), 
they  murmured  again,  this  time  for  want  of 
bread.  It  was  by  means  of  such  privations  and 
trials  that  God  vvas  testing  the  fidelity  of  his 
people,  and  imi^arting  to  them  a  better  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  himself,  with  the  resources  at 
his  command,  and  of  his  readiness  to  employ 
them  for  their  benefit,  and  thus  training  them 
to  a  more  devoted  attachment  to  his  service 
(De.  8  ;  15,  16).  That  faith  in  God  which  can 


trust  him  in  the  midst  of  plenty  and  prosperity, 
but  which  grows  faint  and  fails  in  the  time  of 
privation  and  peril,  has  great  need  of  being 
strengthened— if,  indeed,  it  deserves  the  name 
of  faith.  One  great  object  of  God’s  dealings 
with  his  children  in  this  world  is  the  same  that 
he  had  in  view  in  the  discipline  of  the  wilderness 
— namely,  to  train  them  to  the  exercise  of  faith 
in  him,  and  to  develop  ‘and  strengthen  that 
faith.  W.  H.  G. 

3,  The  stores  of  wheat,  flour,  and  food  of 
various  kinds,  brought  from  Egypt,  which  must 
have  been  enormous  to  have  lasted  so  long,  be¬ 
gan  to  fail,  in  spite  of  any  additions  which  may 
have  been  procured  at  their  last  station.  Water 
had  failed  them  before,  and  the  intolerable 
agonies  of  thirst  had  raised  murmurs  against 
Moses.  Famine  now  threatened,  and  in  the 
presence  of  this  new  fear,  the  miracles  of  the 
jrast  were  forgotten.  Geikie. 

Would  tliat  we  had  died  by  the 
hand  of  the  Ford.  And  by  whose  hand 
would  they  die  if  they  perished  by  famine  ? 
God  carried  them  forth  ;  God  restrained  his 
creatures  from  them  ;  and  while  they  are  ready 
to  die  thus,  they  cry,  “  Oh,  that  we  had  died  by 
the  hand  of  the  Lord  !’  ’  It  is  the  folly  of  men 
that  in  immediate  judgments  they  can  see  God’s 
hand,  not  in  those  whose  second  causes  are 
sensible  ;  whereas  God  holds  himself  equally 
interested  in  all,  challenging  that  there  is  no 
evil  in  the  city  but  from  him  (see  Amos  3:6). 
It  is  but  one  hand  and  many  instruments  that 
God  strikes  us  with.  It  is  our  want  of  faith 
that  in  visible  means  we  see”  not  “  Him  that  is 
invisible."  Bp.  H. 

Their  faith  vvas  sorely  tried.  A  military  man 


BREAD  FROM  HEAVEN. 


69 


who  has  witnessed  the  difficulty  of  providing  a 
regular  supply  of  victuals  even  in  a  peopled 
country  for  a  large  body  of  men,  whether  by 
purchase  or  by  eiitorced  contribution,  can  better 
than  any  other  person  appreciate  the  faith  re¬ 
quired  from  Moses  when  he  undertook  to  lead 
into  “  the  waste  howling  wilderness,”  where  no 
provisions  existed  or  could  be  obtained  by  force 
or  purchase,  a  people  whose  numbers  exceeded 
by  threefold  the  largest  army  which  the  am¬ 
bition  or  pride  of  man  ever  brought  together. 
We  have  often  had  occasion  to  reflect  upon  this 
fact,  and  have  always  returned  to  it  with  new 
and  Increased  astonishment  at  the  “  largeness 
of  heart”  it  is  possible  for  God  to  bestow  on 
man— in  that  he  gave  such  incredible  capacity 
of  faith  to  Moses  as  enabled  him  to  believe 
that  the  imn>ense  host  which  he  had  led  from 
amid  the  fatness  of  Egypt  would,  by  the  power 
of  God’s  bountiful  right  hand,  be  sustained  in 
the  wilderness.  KiK 

We  sat  C>y  the  flesh  pots,  and  we 
did  eat  bread  to  the  tiill.  What  vivid 
likenesses  we  still  have  of  those  old  flesh  pots  ! 
For  what  the  flesh  pots  were  to  the  complain¬ 
ing  Hebrews  on  their  way  to  Canaan,  the  s>jceets 
of  sin  are  to  men  yet,  wdien  the  Good  Spirit  is 
striving  to  get  us  out  of  our  low  estate  into  “  the 
liberty  of  the  children  of  God  ”  It  is  the  sheer¬ 
est  assumption  and  shallowest  sing-song  that  we 
hear  from  those  who  speak  of  man’s  natural  as¬ 
piration  for  moral  excellence.  Man  has  no  such 
natural  aspiration.  From  the  lowest  grade  of 
life  to  the  loftiest  that  we  know  on  the  planet 
— that  is,  from  a  plant  to  a  saint— there  is  al¬ 
ways  a  tendency  to  deteriorate  and  retrograde. 
Never  in  history  was  it  known  that  a  barbarous 
tribe  or  nation  reformed  itself  from  within,  so 
as  to  recover  itself  to  moral  excellence  and 
honor.  What  arrant  nonsense  it  is  to  talk  of 
mankind  self-evolving  from  vice  to  virtue  ;  for 
not  only  is  such  a  thing  unknown,  but,  by  the 
flesh  pots  of  Egypt,  this  is  known  ;  that  when 
the  loving  Father  in  heaven  by  a  mighty  hand 
begins  to  bring  men  out  of  the  bondage  of  sin, 
how  they  hunger  to  get  back  again  !  Withrow. 

4.  1  wiQl  rain  bread  from  heaven. 
God  hears  the  murmurings  of  Israel  and  is 
grieved  with  this  generation,  and  yet  continues 
his  care  of  them,  as  the  tender  parent  of  the 
frowar'd  child.  He  promises  them  a  speedy, 
sufficient,  and  constant  supply.  H. - To  edu¬ 

cate  their  faith  they  were  suffered  to  endure 
this  distress.  It  had  been  as  easy  for  God  to 
anticipate  and  prevent  their  wants  as  to  satisfy 
them  when  they  were  expressed.  But  so  he 
deals  not  with  the  children  to  whom  he  is  teach¬ 


ing  the  great  lessons  of  his  school,  and  God 

dealt  with  them  as  with  his  children.  Kit. - 

God  does  not  take  the  rod  to  his  whimpering 
children,  but  rather  tries  to  win  them  by  i^a- 
tience,  and  to  shame  their  unbelief  by  his  swift 
and  overabundant  answers  to  their  comi^laints. 
When  he  must,  he  punishes  ;  but  when  he  can, 
he  complies.  Faith  is  the  condition  of  our  re¬ 
ceiving  his  highest  gifts  ;  but  even  unbelief 
touches  his  heart  with  pity,  and  what  he  can 
give,  to  it,  he  does,  if  it  may  be  melted  into 
trust.  The  farther  men  stray  from  him,  the 
more  tender  and  penetrating  his  recalling  voice. 
We  multiply  transgressions,  he  multiplies 
mercies.  A.  M. 

Gather  a  day’s  portion  every  day. 

He  would  not  bestow  a  large  supply  at  once, 
which  they  might  store  up  for  future  use  ;  but 
he  would  supply  their  daily  wants  day  by  day, 
thus  keeping  them  mindful  of  their  constant 
dependence — a  dependence  which  is  just  as  real 
in  those  who  have  laid  by  the  largest  stores, 
though  it  may  not  be  so  obvious  nor  so  keenly 
felt.  God  had  another  design  in  granting  them 
their  supplies  only  as  they  were  needed.  This 
is  stated  in  the  next  clause  —  /  may  prove 

them,  whether  they  will  walk  in  rny  Law,  or  no.  The 
regulations  given  respecting  the  manna  afforded 

tests  of  their  obedience.  W.  H.  G. - To  prove 

them,  whether  they  would  follow  him  implicitly, 
depending  upon,  and  taking  such  provision  as 
he  sent,  and  under  the  conditions  that  he  dis 
pensed  it,  God  would  now  miraculouslj"  supply 
their  wants.  Bread  and  meat  would  be  given 
them,  both  directly  sent  from  God,  yet  both  so 
given  that  while  unbelief  was  inexcusable,  it 
should  still  be  possible.  Alike  in  the  “  rain  of 
bread  from  heaven,”  in  the  ordinance  of  its  in- 
gathering,  and  in  the  Sabbath  law  of  its  sancti¬ 
fied  use,  did  God  prove  Israel— even  as  he  now 
proves  us  :  whether  we  will  “  walk  in  his  Law, 
or  no.”  A.  E. 

5,  They  shall  gather  twice  as  much  as  on 
ordinary  days,  as  it  is  explained  in  verse  22. 
It  was  to  obviate  the  necessity  of  their  going 
out  to  seek  their  food  on  the  seventh  day,  or 
the  Sabbath,  and  is  evidence  that  the  Sabbath 
was  observed,  and  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  was 
known,  before  the  Ten  Commandments  were 
proclaimed  from  the  summit  of  Sinai.  These 
declarations  of  the  Lord  to  Moses  are  only  sum¬ 
marily  stated  ;  further  particulars  are  left  to  be 
gathered  from  Moses’  repetition  of  them  to  the 
people  in  the  verses  that  follow. 

6.  Then  shall  ye  know  that  the 
I.<ord  hath  brou$;lit  yon  out  from  the 
lailil  <if  Eg'ypt.  You  shall  have  an  evidence 


70 


SECTION  97.  THE  WILDERNESS  OF  SIN, 


o£  his  presence  and  power,  proving  that  it  is 
not  we,  Moses  and  Aaron,  who  have  brought 
you  forth  into  this  wilderness  (verse  3),  but  Je¬ 
hovah  himself.  W.  H.  G. - After  all  the  mir¬ 

acles  they  had  seen,  they  appear  still  to  suj)- 
pose  that  their  being  brought  out  of  Egypt 
was  the  work  of  Moses  and  Aaron  ;  for  though 
the  miracles  they  had  already  seen  were  con¬ 
vincing  for  the  time,  yet  as  soon  as  they  had 
passed  by  they  relapsed  into  their  former  infi¬ 
delity.  God  therefore  saw  it  necessary  to  give 
them  a  daily  miracle,  in  the  fall  of  the  manna, 
that  they  might  have  the  proof  of  his  Divine  in¬ 
terposition  constantly  before  their  eyes.  Thus 
they  knew  that  JehovdJi  had  brought  them  out, 
and  that  it  was  not  the  act  of  Moses  and  Aaron. 
A.  C. 

9,  To  show  the  more  clearly  that  these  deal¬ 
ings  were  from  the  Lord,  they  were  bidden 
“  come  near  before  Jehovah,”  and  “  behold  the 
glory  of  Jehovah,”  as  it  “appeared  in  the 
cloud.”  That  Presence  ought  to  have  prevented 
their  murmuring,  or  rather  changed  it  into 
prayer  and  praise.  And  so  it  always  is  that 
before  God  supplies  our  wants  he  shows  us  that 
his  presence  had  been  near,  and  he  reveals  his 
glory.  That  Presence  is  in  itself  sufficient  ;  for 
no  good  thing  shall  be  wanting  to  them  that 
trust  in  hun.  A.  E. 

09.  While  Aaron  was  speaking  the  attention 
of  the  people  was  attracted  toward  the  desert, 
where  the  glory  of  Jehovah  flashed  out  from 
the  cloud  with  majestic  brilliancy,  to  attest  the 
truth  of  the  words  of  reproof  and  promise 

which  w'ere  spoken  by  his  servants.  K. - It 

enhances  our  wonder  that  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
should  be  seen  bv’  the  children  of  Israel  at  or 
about  the  time  of  their  murmurings,  and  that 
such  repeated  manifestations  should  have  thus 
been  thrown  away  upon  them — as  if  the  con¬ 
stancy  of  miracles  made  them  cease  to  be  mir¬ 
aculous,  or  at  least  cease  to  have  the  effect  of 
miracles.  Another  and  stupendous  miracle  of 
forty  years’  standing  w^as  now  to  commence  ; 
and  this  to  make  them  know — what  by  this  time 
they  might  have  well  known — that  he,  under 
whose  guidance  they  were,  was  the  Lord  their 
God.  T.  C. 

II,  12,  Here  is  the  Lord’s  definite  promise 
of  flesh  at  even  and  of  bread  in  the  morning,  to 
which  Moses  had  referred  inverses  6-8.  13-15, 
Following  the  promise  is  the  record  of  fulfil¬ 
ment,  by  the  quails  that  covered  the  camp  at 
even,  and  the  manna  that  lay  upon  the  face  of 
the  wilderness  when  the  dew  was  gone  up  in 
the  morning.  B. 

13,  As  evening  gathered  around  the  camp. 


the  air  became  darkened.  An  extraordinary 
flight  of  quails,  such  as  at  that  season  of  the 
year  passes  northward  from  the  warmer  regions 
of  the  interior,  was  over  the  camp.  The  mir¬ 
aculousness  chiefly  consisted  in  the  extraordi¬ 
nary  number,  the  seasonable  arrival,  and  the 
peculiar  circumstances  under  which  these 

quails  came.  A.  E. - God  gave  quails  to  his 

people  twice  :  once,  on  this  occasion,  a  short 
time  after  they  had  passed  the  Bed  Sea  ;  and 
a  second  time  at  the  encampment  called  Kibrolh- 
hatt'iav'ih,  or  the  graves  of  lust.  Doth  of  these 
happened  in  the  spring,  when  the  quails  pass 
from  Asia  into  Europe.  Then  they  are  found 
in  great  quantities  on  the  coasts  of  the  Bed  Sea 
and  the  Mediterranean.  God,  by  a  wind,  drove 
them  within  and  about  the  camp  of  Israel  ;  and 
in  this  the  miracle  consists  that  they  were 
brought  so  seasonably  to  the  jDlace,  and  in  so 
great  numbers,  as  to  suffice  two  or  three  mill¬ 
ions  of  persons  longer  than  a  month.  Calmet. 

It  was  not  of  any  natural  instinct,  but  from 
the  overruling  power  of  their  Creator,  that  these 
quails  came  to  the  desert.  Needs  must  they 
come  whom  God  brings.  His  hand  is  in  all  the 
motions  of  his  meanest  creatures.  Not  only  we, 
but  they  move  in  him.  As  not  many  quails,  so 
not  one' sparrow  falls  without  him  :  how  much 
more  are  the  actions  of  his  best  creature,  man, 
directed  by  his  providence  !  Who  can  distrust 
the  provision  of  the  great  Housekeeper  of  the 
world,  when  he  sees  how  he  can  furnish  his 
tables  at  pleasure?  God  delights  to  have  us 
live  in  a  continual  dependence  upon  his  provi¬ 
dence,  and  each  day  renew  the  acts  of  our  faith 
and  thankfulness.  Bp.  II. 

14.  The  dew  is  the  gift  of  heaven,  which  fer¬ 
tilizes  the  groirnd  and  causes  it  to  bring  forth 
bread.  But  in  the  desert  the  dew  can  produce 
no  effect,  because  there  is  nothing  sown.  If, 
then,  notwithstanding  this,  the  dew  still  brought 
them  bread,  it  was  truly  the  bread  of  heaven. 

B  turn. - God  gives  them  meat  of  kings  and 

bread  of  angels.  Never  prince  was  so  served  in 
his  greatest  pomp  as  these  rebellious  Israelites 
in  the  wilderness.  God  loves  to  over-deserve  of 
men,  and  to  exceed  not  only  their  sins,  but 
their  very  desires,  in  mercy.  How  good  shall 
we  find  him  to  those  that  please  him,  since  lie 
is  so  gracious  to  offenders  !  Bp.  H. 

15.  A  §iiiall  round  tliiiig^,  small  as 
the  hoar  frost  on  the  g^round.  The 
people  did  not  comprehend  it,  and  asked  one 
another,  “What  is  this?”  The  Hebrew  of 
which  being  Man-hu,  caused  the  name  of  Manna 
to  be  given  to  it.  Moses  was  able  to  answer  the 
question.  He  told  them  that  this  was  the  sub- 


THE  MANNA. 


71 


stance  which,  in  the  place  of  bread,  God  des¬ 
tined  for  their  substantial  food —their  staff  of 
life.  It  was  to  fall  every  morning,  except  on 
the  Sabbath  day  ;  but  on  the  day  preceding  that 
a  double  quantity  would  fall,  as  a  supply  for 

the  two  days.  Kit - The  whole  of  the  gift 

was  a  continual  training,  and  therefore  a  con¬ 
tinual  test,  for  faith.  God  willed  to  let  his  gifts 
come  in  this  hand-to-mouth  fashion,  though  he 
could  have  provided  at  once  what  would  have 
obviously  lasted  them  all  their  wilderness  life, 
in  order  that  they  might  be  habituated  to  cling 
to  him,  and  that  their  daily  bread  might  be 
doubly  for  their  nourishment,  feeding  their 
bodies  and  strengthening  that  faith  which,  to 
them  as  to  us,  is  the  condition  of  all  blessed¬ 
ness.  God  lets  our  blessings,  too,  trickle  to  us 
drop  by  drop,  instead  of  pouring  them  in  a  flood 
all  at  once  upon  us,  for  the  same  reason.  A.  M. 

'  18.  Keep  ever  before  you  a  firm  intention  of 

serving  God  always  and  with  your  whole  heart, 
and  then  take  no  thought  for  the  morrow 
only  strive  to  do  your  very  best  “  to-day.” 
When  to-morrow  arrives,  it  will  have  become 
“  to-day,”  and  then  it  will  be  time  enough  to 
take  thought  for  it.  In  all  such  matters  we 
must  have  absolute  trust  and  confidence  in 
God  :  we  must  gather  our  provision  of  manna 
for  the  day  that  is  passing,  no  more  ;  never 
doubting  but  that  God  will  send  it  again  to¬ 
morrow,  and  the  next  day,  and  as  long  as  we 

need  it,  Francis  de  Sales. - Happiness,  like 

manna,  is  to  be  gathered  in  the  grains  and  en¬ 
joyed  every  day  ;  it  will  not  keep  ;  it  cannot  be 
accumulated  ;  nor  need  we  go  out  of  ourselves, 
nor  into  remote  places  to  gather  it,  since  it  has 
rained  down  from  heaven,  at  our  very  doors,  or 
rather  within  them.  An. 

Why  did  each  receive  but  three  quarts  a 
day  ?  Might  not  a  nutritious  and  delicious  kind 
of  food  like  this  be  stored,  and  become  an 
article  of  merchandise  and  a  source  of  wealth  ? 
No,  the  Edenie  law  was  not  merely  a  penalty, 
but  a  method  of  mercy,  of  life,  and  health.  It 
required  labor.  But  there  is  a  profounder  rea¬ 
son  for  the  prayer  Give  us  ih>s  day  our  daily 
bread.”  We  are  to  get  out  of  to-day  all  we 
can,  and  trust  God  for  to-morrow.  We  possess 
only  what  we  can  assimilate,  so  the  miracle  does 
no  more  than  to  provide  for  one  da3\  You  say 
that  you  possess  property.  No,  another  may 
more  truly  possess  it.  I  who  tarry  by  your  gar¬ 
den,  or  the  beggar  who  feasts  upon  its  beauty 
with  appreciating  and  admiring  eyes  gets  more 
out  of  it  than  you.  Y'ou  harry  away  to  business 
early  in  the  morning,  and  are  gone  till  dark,  too 
burdened,  it  may  be,  to  give  it  a  glance.  So 


with  your  library  or  pictures.  He  posse.sse3 
who  assimilates.  If  your  wealth  makes  you  anx¬ 
ious,  or  leads  you  to  dissipation,  tlien  you  pos¬ 
sess  not  wealth,  but  anxiety  and  disease. 
BraisUn. 

10-26.  With  regard  to  the  origin,  the  appear¬ 
ance,  and  the  nature  of  the  manna,  the  Bible  con¬ 
tains  the  following  particulars  :  Jehovah  rained 
it  from  heaven  (verse  4)  ;  when  the  dew  fell  by 
night  upon  the  camp,  the  manna  fell  upon  it 
(Nu,  11  :9)  ;  when  the  dew  had  ascended,  it  lay 
upon  the  surface  of  the  desert,  fine,  and  like 
scales,  as  fine  as  the  hoar  frost  upon  the  earth 
(verse  14)  ;  it  was  like  white  coriander  seed,  and 
tasted  like  cake  and  honey  (verse  31).  When  the 
heat  of  the  sun  became  great,  it  melted  (verse  21), 
and  therefore  had  to  be  gathered  early  in  the 
morning.  It  is  repeatedly  stated  most  emphati¬ 
cally  that  it  supplied  the  place  of  bread.  In 
Nu.  11  :  7  it  is  compared  to  coriander  seed,  and 
its  appearance  to  that  of  the  (bright,  transpar¬ 
ent)  bdellium  ;  the  people  ground  it  in  mills  or 
crushed  it  in  mortars,  and  then  boiled  it  in  pots 
and  made  cakes  of  it,  the  flavor  of  which  re¬ 
sembled  the  (mild)  flavor  of  oil-cakes.  If  it  was 
kept  till  the  morning,  it  bred  worms  (verse  20). 
We  may  form  some  idea  of  the  quantity  of 
manna  collected,  if  we  consider  that,  according 
to  verse  16  sqq.,  a  nomer  full  (not  less  than  a 
pound)  was  gathered  daily  (at  least  in  the  early 
part  of  the  sojourn  in  the  desert)  for  every 
member  of  the  congregation,  and  that  it  is 
stated  in  verse  35  that  the  children  of  Israel  ate 
manna  for  forty  years,  until  they  arrived  at  the 
border  of  Canaan,  the  land  in  which  they  were 
to  dwell.  K. 

The  manna  did  not  appear  in  the  wilderness 
before  the  hour  assigned  by  Moses  in  obedience 
to  God’s  command.  No  change  of  weather  pre¬ 
vented  the  manna  from  dropping  in  a  regular 
measure  ;  neither  frost,  nor  rain,  nor  heat,  nor 
winter,  nor  summer,  interrupted  the  course  of 
its  distillation.  A  quantity  sufficient  for  the 
immense  multitude  was  found  every  day,  when 
they  took  up  an  oiner  for  every  individual. 
Again,  on  the  sixth  day,  the  quantity  was 
doubled,  that  they  might  lay  by  a  second  omer 
for  their  Sabbath  food.  If  they  preserved  any 
beyond  their  due  allowance,  it  was  subject  to 
putrefaction,  whereas  on  the  Sabbath  day  the 
second  portion  remained  good.  Wherever  they 
were,  this  blessiug  of  God  always  accompanied 
them,  while  the  neighboring  nations  lived  on 
corn,  and  the  manna  was  only  known  in  their 
camp.  As  soon  as  they  entered  a  fruitful  and 
corn-growing  country,  the  manna  ceased.  That 
portion,  which  Moses  was  commanded  to  lay  up 


SECTION  97.  THE  WILDERNESS  OE  SIN. 


T2 

in  a  vessel,  did  not  grow  corrupt.  Let  these 
points  be  well  weighed,  and  the  miracle  will  be 
more  than  sufficiently  conspicuous.  Galv. 

In  certain  parts  of  Arabia,  and  especially  in 
that  part  which  lies  around  Mount  Sinai,  a  sub¬ 
stance  has  been  always  found  very  much  re¬ 
sembling  this  manna,  and  also  bearing  its  name 
— the  juice  or  gum  of  a  kind  of  tamarisk-tree, 
which  grows  in  that  region,  called  tarfa,  oozing 
out  chiefly  b}'  night  in  the  month  of  June,  and 
collected  before  sunrise  by  the  natives.  Such  a 
fact  was  deemed  perfectly  sufficient  to  entitle 
modern  rationalists  to  conclude  that  there  was 
no  miracle  in  the  matter,  and  that  the  Israelites 
merely  collected  and  used  a  natural  production 
of  the  region  where  they  sojourned  for  a  period. 
But  even  supjrosing  the  substance  called  nianria 
to  have  been  in  both  cases  precisely  the  same, 
there  was  still  ample  room  for  the  exertion  oc 
miraculous  power  in  regard  to  the  quantity  ;  for 
the  entire  produce  of  the  manna  found  in  the 
Arabian  peninsula,  even  in  the  most  fruitful 
years,  does  not  exceed  seven  hundred  pounds, 
which,  on  the  most  moderate  calculation,  could 
not  have  furnished  even  the  ihous-andih  ixirl 
necessary  for  one  day's  supply  to  the  host  of 
Israel  !  Besides  the  enormous  disproportion, 
however,  in  regard  to  quantity,  there  were  other 
things  belonging  to  the  manna  of  Scripture 
which  clearly  distinguished  it  from  that  found 
by  naturalists — especially  its  falling  with  the 
dew,  and  on  the  ground  as  well  as  on  plants  ; 
its  consistence,  rendering  it  capable  of  being 
used  for  bread,  while  the  natural  is  rather  a  sub¬ 
stitute  for  honey  ;  its  corrupting,  if  kept  be¬ 
yond  a  day  ;  and  its  coming  in  double  quanti¬ 
ties  on  the  sixth  day,  and  not  falling  at  all  on 
the  seventh.  If  these  properties,  along  with 
the  immense  abundance  in  which  it  was  given, 
be  not  sufficient  to  constitute  the  manna  of 
Scripture  a  miracle,  and  that  of  the  first  magni¬ 
tude,  it  will  be  difficult  to  say  where  anything 
really  miraculous  is  to  be  found.  .P.  F. 

An  exudation  like  honey,  produced  by  in¬ 
sects  ;  falling  on  the  ground  only  from  accident 
or  neglect,  and  at  present  produced  in  sufficient 
quantities  only  to  support  one  man  for  six 
months,  has  obviously  but  few  points  of  simi¬ 
larity  with  the‘*  small  round  thing,  small  as  the 
hoar  frost  on  the  ground  ;  like  coriander  seed, 
white  ;  its  taste  like  wafers  made  with  honey  ; 
gathered  and  ground  in  mills,  and  beat  in  a 
mortar,  baked  in  pans,  and  made  into  cakes, 
and  its  taste  as  the  taste  of  fresh  oil.”  A.  P.  S. 

- The  natural  products  of  the  Arabian  deserts 

and  other  Oriental  regions  which  bear  the  name 
of  manna  have  not  the  qualities  or  uses  ascribed 


to  the  manna  of  Scrij>ture.  They  are  all  condi¬ 
ments  or  medicines,  rather  than  food  ;  stimulat¬ 
ing  or  purgative,  rather  than  nutritious  ;  the}' 
are  produced  only  three  or  four  months  in  the 
5’em%  from  May  to  August,  and  not  all  the  year 
round  ;  they  come  only  in  small  quantities, 
never  affording  anything  like  fifteen  million 
pounds  a  week,  which  must  have  been  requisite 
for  the  subsistence  of  the  whole  Israel itish  camp, 
since  each  man  had  an  omer,  or  three  Ei'glish 
quarts,  a  day,  and  that  for  forty  years  ;  they  can 
be  kept  for  along  time,  and  de  not  become  use¬ 
less  in  a  day  or  two  ;  they  are  just  as  liable  to 
deteriorate  on  the  Sabbiiih  as  on  any  other  day  ; 
nor  does  a  double  quantity  fall  on  the  day  pre¬ 
ceding  the  Sabbath  ;  norwould  natural  products 
cease  at  once  and  forever,  a.s  the  manna  is  rep¬ 
resented  as  ceasing  in  the  Book  of  Joshua. 

P.  S. - Knobel,  a  sharp  scholarly  rationalise, 

sums  up  the  points  of  disagreement  thus  :  The 
manna  (1)  comes  with  the  cloud  and  dew  from 
heaven  (verses  4,  14  ;  Nu.  11:9);  (2)  fallsin  such 
enormous  quantities  as  to  supply  every  person 
of  the  great  host  with  an  omer  a  day  [the  mod¬ 
ern  product,  says  Stanley,  would  support  but 
one  man  six  months]  ;  (3)  yields  every  man  ex¬ 
actly  what  he  needs,  neither  more  nor  less  ;  (4) 
falls  only  on  six  days  out  of  seven,  with  a  double 
portion  on  the  sixth  ;  (5)  corrupts  when  kept 
from  one  work-day  to  another,  but  keeps  per¬ 
fectly  over  the  seventh  day  ;  (6)  is  ground  in 
mills  and  pounded  in  mortars,  which  cannot  be 
done  with  the  modern  manna  ;  (7)  is  boiled,  and 
baked  into  .cakes,  for  which  the  modern  manna 
is  wholly  unsuitable.  To  which  may  be  added, 
it  was  independent  of  particular  localities  and 
seasons,  and  continued  steadily  till  the  fortieth 
year  ;  also  that  the  modern  manna,  as  Schubert 
well  remarks,  “  contains  none  of  the  substances 
necessary  for  the  daily  nourishment  of  the  ani¬ 
mal  frame,”  being  now  used  only  for  medicinal 
purposes.  S.  C.  B. 

It  was  miraculous  in  its  origin  (rained  from 
heaven),  in  its  quantity,  in  its  observance  of 
times  and  seasons,  in  its  putrefaction  and  pres¬ 
ervation — as  rotting  when  kept  for  greed  and 
remaining  sweet  when  preserved  for  the  Sab¬ 
bath.  It  came  straight  from  the  creative  will  of 
God,  and  whether  its  name  means  ”  What  is 
it  or  “  It  is  a  gift,”  it  is  equally  true  and  ap¬ 
propriate,  pointing,  in  the  one  case,  to  the  mys¬ 
tery  of  its  nature  ;  in  the  other,  to  the  love  of 
the  Giver,  and  in  both  referring  it  directly  to 

the  hand  of  God.  A.  M. - Clearly  this  was  a 

direct  supply  from  the  hand  of  God  :  “  He  gave 
them  bread  from  heaven  to  eat  and,  as  Moses 
said  afterward,  it  was  designed  to  teach  the 


THE  MANNA. 


73 


people  their  dependence  npon  God  for  daily 
bread,  and  also  “  that  man  doth  not  live  by 
bread  onl3%  but  by  every  word  that  proceedelh 
out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Lord.”  J.  P.  T. 

Their  meat  was  strange,  but  nothing  so  much 
as  their  bread.  To  fiml  quails  in  a  wilderness 
was  unusual  ;  but  for  bread  to  come  down  from 
hea^’en  was  yet  more.  They  had  seen  quails 
before,  though  not  in  such  number  :  manna 
M’as  never  seen  till  now.  From  this  day  till 
their  settling  in  Canaan  God  vvrought  a  perpet¬ 
ual  miracle  in  this  food  :  a  miracle  in  the  place  ; 
other  bread  rises  up  from  below',  this  fell  down 
Iroin  above  ;  neither  did  it  ever  rain  bread  till 
iiow  ;  yet  so  did  this  heavenl}^  shower  fall  that 
it  is  contined  to  the  camp  of  Israel  :  a  miracle 
m  the  quantity  ;  that  every  morning  should  fall 
enough  to  till  so  many  hundred  thousand 
mouths  :  a  miracle  in  the  composition  ;  that  it 
was  sw'eet  like  honey-cakes,  round  like  corian- 
ders,  transparent  as  dew  :  a  miracle  in  the  qual¬ 
ity  ;  that  it  melted  by  one  heat,  by  another 
hardened  :  a  miracle  in  the  difference  of  the 
fall  ;  that,  as  if  it  knew  times  and  would  teach 
them  as  well  as  feed  them,  it  fell  double  in  the 
even  of  the  Sabbath,  and  on  the  Sabbath  fell 
not  :  a  miracle  in  the  putrefaction  and  preserv¬ 
ation  ;  that  it  "was  full  of  woims  when  it  was 
kept  beyond  the  due  hour  for  distrust  ;  full  of 
sweetness  when  it  w'as  kept  a  day  longer  for  re¬ 
ligion,  yea  many  ages  in  the  ark  for  a  monu¬ 
ment  of  the  power  and  mercy  of  the  Giver  :  a 
miracle  in  the  continuance  and  ceasing  ;  that 
this  shower  of  bread  followed  their  camp  in  all 
(heir  removals,  till  they  came  to  taste  of  the 
bread  of  Canaan,  and  then  withdrew  itself,  as  if 
it  should  have  said,  “  Ye  need  no  miracles  now 
ye  have  means.”  They  had  the  types  ;  we  have 
the  substance.  In  this  wilderness  of  the  world 
the  true  manna  is  rained  upon  the  tents  of  our 
hearts.  lie  that  sent  the  manna  was  the  manna 
which  he  sent.  He  hath  said,  “  I  am  the  manna 
that  came  down  from  heaven.”  Behold,  their 
whole  meals  w^ere  sacramental  :  every  morsel 

they  did  eat  was  spiritual.  Bp.  II. - Like 

Him  w'hom  it  typified,  it  was  the  only  thing  of 
the  kind,  the  onl}^  bread  from  heaven  which  God 
ever  gave  to  preserve  the  life  of  man.  A.  C 

The  manna  is  called  spiritual  meat  (1  Cor. 
10  :  3),  becau''e  it  was  typical  of  spiritual  bless¬ 
ings  in  heavenly  things  ;  Christ  himself  is  the 
true  Hanna,  the  Bread  of  life,  of  which  this  w'as 
a  figure  (John  G  ;  49-51).  The  Word  of  God  is 
the  manna  by  which  our  souls  are  nourished 
(Matt.  4  : 4).  The  comforts  of  the  Spirit  are 
hidden  manna  (Rev.  2  : 17).  These  come  from 
heaven,  as  the  manna  did,  and  are  the  support 


and  comfort  of  the  Divine  life  in  the  soul  while 
we  are  in  the  wilderness  of  this  world.  It  is 
food  for  Israeli  es,  for  those  only  that  follow  the 
pillar  of  cloud  and  fire  ;  it  is  to  be  gathered, 
Christ  in  the  Word  is  to  be  applied  to  the  soul, 
and  the  means  of  grace  are  to  be  used  ;  we 
must  every  one  of  us  gather  for  ourselves,  and 
gather  in  the  morning  of  our  days,  the  morning 
of  our  opportunities,  Avliich  if  we  let  slip,  it 
may  be  too  late  to  gather.  The  manna  they 
gathered  must  not  be  hoarded  up,  but  eaten  ; 
they  that  have  received  Christ  must  by  faith 
live  upon  him,  and  not  receive  his  grace  in 
vain  ;  there  was  manna  enough  for  all,  enough 
for  each,  and  none  had  too  much  ;  so  in  Christ 
there  is  a  complete  sufficiency,  and  no  super¬ 
fluity.  But  they  that  did  eat  manna  hungered 
again,  died  at  last,  and  w’ith  many  of  them  God 
was  not  well  pleased  ;  whereas  they  that  feed 
on  Christ  by  faith  shall  never  hunger,  and  shall 
die  no  more,  and  with  them  God 'will  be  for¬ 
ever  well  pleased  ;  the  Lord  evermore  give  us 
this  bread  !  H. 

16-19,  They  were  to  gather  it  every  morn¬ 
ing  (verse  16),  the  portion  of  a  day  in  his  day  (verse 
4).  Thus  they  must  live  upon  daily  providence, 
as  the  fowls  of  the  air,  of  whom  it  is  said.  That 
thou  givest  them  they  gather  (Ps.  104  ;  28)  ;  not  to¬ 
day  for  to-morrow,  let  the  morrow  take  thoxight  for 
the  things  (f  itself.  To  this  daily  raining  and 
gathering  of  manna  our  Saviour  seems  to  allude 
when  he  teaches  us  to  pray.  Give  us  this  day  our 
daily  bread.  We  are  hereby  taught  :  (1)  Prudence 
and  diligence  in  providing  food  convenient  for 
ourselves  and  our  households  ;  what  God  gra¬ 
ciously  gives,  we  must  industriously  gather, 
with  quietness  working,  and  eating  oar  own 
bread,  not  the  bread  either  of  idleness  or  deceit. 
God's  bounty  leaves  room  for  man’s  dut}^  ;  it 
did  so  even  when  manna  was  rained,  they  must 
not  eat  till  they  have  gathered.  (2)  Content¬ 
ment  and  satisfaction  with  a  sufficiency  ;  they 
must  gather,  every  man  according  to  his  eating  / 
enough  is  as  good  as  a  feast,  and  more  than 
enough  is  as  bad  as  a  surfeit.  They  that  have 
most  have  for  themselves  but  food  and  rai¬ 
ment  and  mirth  ;  and  they  that  have  least 
generally  have  these  ;  so  that  he  who  gathers 
much  has  nothing  over,  and  he  who  gathers  little  has 
no  lack.  There  is  not  so  great  a  disproportion 
between  one  and  another,  in  the  comforts  and 
enjoyments  of  the  things  of  this  life,  as  there  is 
in  the  property  and  possession  of  the  things 
themselves.  (3)  Dependence  upon  Providence  — 
‘'Let  no  man  leave  till  morning  (verse  19),  but  let 
them  learn  to  go  to  bed  and  sleep  quietly, 
though  they  have  not  a  bit  of  bread  in  their 


74 


SECTION  97.  THE  WILDEMNESS  OF  SIN. 


tent,  nor  in  all  their  camp,  trusting  that  God, 
with  the  following  day,  will  bring  them  their 
daily  bread. ”  It  was  surer  and  safer  in  God’s 
storehouse  than  in  their  own,  and  would  thence 
come  to  them  sweeter  and  fresher.  Head  with 
this  (Matt.  6  : 25),  Take  no  thought  for  your  life, 
etc.  See  here  the  folly  of  hoarding.  The  manna 
that  was  laid  up  by  some  (who  thought  them¬ 
selves  wiser  and  better  managers  than  their 
neighbors,  and  who  would  provide,  in  case  it 
should  fail  next  day),  putrefied  and  bred  worms, 
and  became  good  for  nothing.  That  proves  to 
be  most  wasted  which  is  covetously  and  dis¬ 
trustfully  spared.  Those  riches  are  corrupted 
(Jas.  5  : 2,  3).  Think  of  that  great  power  of 
God  which  fed  Israel  in  the  wilderness,  and 
made  miracles  their  daily  bread.  What  cannot 
this  God  do,  who  prepared  a  table  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,  and  furnished  it  richly  even  for  those  who 
questioned  whether  he  could  or  no  ?  (Ps.  78  : 19, 
20).  Never  was  there  such  a  market  of  pro¬ 
visions  as  this,  where  so  many  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  men  were  daily  furnished,  without  money 
and  without  price.  Never  was  there  such  an 
open  house  kept  as  God  kept  in  the  wilderness 
for  forty  years  together.  H. 

20.  The  supply  of  manna  came  daily,  and 
faith  had  to  be  exercised  ^on  the  providence  of 
God,  that  each  day  would  bring  its  appointed 
provision  ;  if  they  attempted  to  hoard  for  the 
morrow,  their  store  became  a  mass  of  corrup¬ 
tion,  In  like  manner  must  the  child  of  God 
pray  for  his  soul  every  morning  as  it  dawns, 
“  Give  me  this  day  my  daily  bread.”  He  can 
lay  up  no  stock  of  grace  which,  is  to  save  him 
from  the  necessity  of  constantly  repairing  to 
the  treasury  of  Christ  ;  and  if  he  begins  to  live 
upon  former  experiences,  or  to  feel  as  if  he  al¬ 
ready  stood  so  high  in  the  life  of  God  that,  like 
Peter,  he  can  of  himself  confidently  reckon  on 
his  superiority  to  temptation,  his  ver^^  mercies 
become  fraught  with  trouble,  and  he  is  the  worse 
rather  than  the  better  for  the  fulness  imparted 
to  him.  His  soul  can  be  in  health  and  prosper¬ 
ity  only  while  he  is  every  day  “  living  by  the 
faith  of  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  him,  and 
gave  himself  for  him.”  P.  P. - Past  experi¬ 

ence  will  justify  a  man  in  trusting  Christ  now 
and  for  the  time  to  come,  but  not  in  trusting  in 
his  own  strength,  not  even  his  strength  of  grace. 
Experience,  as  Henry  Martyn  used  to  say,  rots 
on  one’s  hands,  if  a  man  trusts  to  that  instead 
of  Christ  ;  just  as  the  manna  of  the  Israelites 
bred  worms  if  they  hoarded  it  up  for  the  mor¬ 
row,  instead  of  trusting  in  God  for  a  new  sup 
ply.  This  was  a  striking  lesson  of  faith  in  the 
wilderness,  and  we  too  must  come  to  Christ 


daily  for  grace  trusting  not  in  yesterday’s 
strength  of  grace  or  in  what  remains  over, 
Christ,  who  has  supplied,  must  still  supply  it, 
or  it  will  fail.  So  a  man  must  saj^  I  have  noth 
ing,  can  da  nothing,  am  nothing,  but  in  Christ, 
Cheever. 

God’s  principles  of  dealing  with  his  Church 
are  the  same  for  all  ages.  When  transacting 
with  his  people  now  directly  for  the  support  of 
the  spiritual  life,  he  must  substantially  re-enact 
what  he  did  of  old,  when  transacting  with  them 
directl}^  for  the  support  of  their  bodily  life.  And 
as  even  then  there  was  an  undercurrent  of  spir¬ 
itual  meaning  and  instruction  running  through 
all  that  was  done,  so  the  faith  of  the  Christian 
now  has  a  most  legitimate  and  profitable  exer¬ 
cise,  when  it  learns  from  that  memorable  trans¬ 
action  in  the  desert  the  fulness  of  its  privilege 
and  the  extent  of  its  obligations  in  regard  to 
the  higher  provision  presented  to  it  in  the  Gos¬ 
pel,  P,  P. 

The  manner  in  which  the  Sabbath 
first  presents  itself  on  the  field  of  Israelitish 
history  as  an  existing  ordinance  which  God 
himself  respected,  in  the  giving  of  the  manna, 
before  the  Law  had  been  promulgated,  is  a  clear 

proof  of  its  prior  institution.  P,  F. - From 

this  passage  and  from  verse  5  it  is  inferred  that 
the  seventh  day  was  previously  known  to  the 
people  as  a  day  separate  from  ail  others,  and  if 
so,  it  must  have  been  observed  as  an  ancient 
and  primeval  institution.  No  other  account  of 
the  command  (given  without  any  special  expla¬ 
nation),  or  of  the  conduct  of  the  j)eople  who  col¬ 
lected  the  manna,  is  satisfactory  ;  thus  Hosen- 
miiller  and  others.  It  is  at  the  same  time  evi¬ 
dent  that  Moses  took  this  opportunity  of  en¬ 
forcing  a  strict  and  more  solemn  observance  of 
the  day.  Cook. 

No  doubt,  in  the  oppression  and  darkness  of 
Egypt,  the  seventh-day  (Sabbath)  observance  had 
fallen  into  partial  disuse  ;  though  even  in  EgyjJt 
in  that  era,  as  among  the  more  eastern  peoples, 
the  traditional  seventh-day  rest  seems  to  have 
lingered,  and  therefore  the  usages  of  Egypt  may 
not  have  militated  against  the  rest  on  the  sev¬ 
enth  day.  However  that  may  be,  still  there  was 
need  of  this  training  to  the  Sabbath  observance  ; 
and  this  ordinance  of  the  manna  was  just  the 
preparation  needful  for  their  receiving  heartil}'’ 
the  statute,  “  Hemember  the  Sabbath  day,” 
when  it  came  to  them  through  Mose?  from  the 

mount.  S.  R - In  all  the  Jewish  history 

there  never  again  occurred  as  favorable  a  time 
for  imposing  the  Sabbath  observance  upon  the 
people  as  at  the  giving  of  the  manna.  For  forty 
years,  comprising  more  than  two  thousand 


NO  MANNA  ON  THE  SABBATH 


75 


weeks,  they  were  to  subsist  upon  manna  as 
their  daily  food.  God  was  to  furnish  it  eveiy 
day  ;  they  were  to  gather  it  every  day.  Thus 
was  presented  the  opportunity  both  for  God  to 
mark  the  day  and  for  man  to  keep  it.  Dur¬ 
ing  all  these  two  thousand  weeks  God  gave 
them  a  double  supply  on  the  sixth  day,  and  pre¬ 
served  that  given  on  that  day  fresh  for  two 
days,  instead  of  one.  Two  thousand  Sabbaths 
came,  but  on  them  no  manna.  It  was  vain  for 
them  to  look  for  it.  Soon  they  ceased  to  do  so 
altogether.  What  a  lesson  for  beginners  !  The 
most  stupid  and  the  most  obdurate  alike  learned 
it.  Time  and  the  world  may  be  searched  for 
another  series  of  events  by  which  it  would  be 
possible  to  impress  the  idea  of  a  Sabbath  upon 
the  minds  of  the  people  as  effectually  as  by 
this.  Weston. 

*2G,  God  would  have  the  Israelites  continu¬ 
ally  dependent  on  himself  for  all  their  sup¬ 
plies  ;  but  he  would  make  them,  in  a  certain 
way,  workers  with  him.  He  provided  the 
manna  ;  they  gathered  and  ate  it.  The  first  was 
God’s  work  ;  the  latter  their  own.  They  could 
not  produce  the  manna,  and  God  would  not 
gather  it  for  them.  Thus  the  providence  of  God 
appears  in  such  a  way  as  to  secure  the  co-oper¬ 
ation  of  man.  None  fell  on  the  Sabbath  !  Hence 
we  find  that  the  Sabbath  was  considered  a  Divine 
institution  previously  to  the  giving  of  the 
Mosaic  Law  ;  and  that  God  continued  to  honor 
that  day  by  permitting  no  manna  to  fall  during 
its  course.  Whatever  is  earned  on  the  Sabbath 

is  a  curse  in  a  man’s  property.  A.  C. - When 

the  Lord  sent  that  double  portion  on  the  last 
day  of  the  week,  and  none  on  the  next,  it  was 
as  much  as  to  say,  that  in  his  providential  ar¬ 
rangements  for  this  world  he  had  given  only 
six  days  out  of  the  seven  for  worldly  labor,  and 
that  if  men  readily  concurred  in  this  plan  they 
should  find  it  to  their  advantage  ;  they  should 
find  that  in  tfie  long  run  they  got  as  much  by 
their  six  days’  labor  as  they  either  needed  or 
could  profitably  use,  and  should  have,  besides, 
their  weekly  day  of  rest,  of  spiritual  refreshment, 
and  bodily  repose.  Nor  can  we  regard  this 
lesson  of  small  moment  in  the  eye  of  Heaven, 
when  we  see  no  fewer  than  three  miracles 
wrought  every  week  for  forty  years  to  enforce  it 
— viz.,  a  double  portion  of  manna  on  the  sixth 
day,  none  on  the  seventh,  and  the  preservation 
of  the  portion  for  the  seventh  from  corrupting 
when  kept  beyond  the  usual  time.  P.  F. 

27,  The  outward  manna  fell  not  at  all  on  the 
Sabbath  ;  the  spiritual  manna,  though  it  balks 
no  day,  yet  falls  double  on  God’s  day  ;  and  if 
we  gather  it  not  then  we  famish.  In  that  true 


Sabbath  of  our  glorious  rest  we  shall  forever 
feed  of  that  manna  which  we  have  gathered  in 
this  even  of  our  life.  Bp.  H. 

28,  29.  See,  saith  he,  the  Lord  hath  given  you 
on  the  sixth  day  the  bread  of  two  days  :  How  long 
REFUSE  ye  to  keep  my  commandments,  and  my  laws  ? 
It  was  not  blindness  or  ignorance,  but  down¬ 
right  perverseness  ;  for  refusing  is  an  act  of  the 
will.  They  could  not  but  see  and  know  what 
the  Lord  had  done  for  them  ;  but  they  would 
not  see  ;  they  had  eyes,  and  saw  not  ;  they  had 
ears,  and  heard  not  ;  because  thej"  would  not. 
This  was  the  character  and  temper  of  their  pos¬ 
terity  in  our  Saviour’s  time,  which  he  so  olten 
upbraids  them  with.  And,  alas  i  is  it  not  still 
the  very  spirit  and  temper  of  us  all  ?  Who  is 
there  that  enjoys  his  double  portion  of  the  good 
things  of  this  life,  and  yet  hankers  not  after 
more  ?  We  are  neither  contented  with  the  por¬ 
tion  of  time  nor  the  provision  of  bread  which 
God  has  been  jjleased  to  allot  us  for  our  neces¬ 
sary  wants.  And  though  God  reserve  to  himself 
but  a  seventh  of  our  time,  how  few  are  there  who 
do  not  seem  to  think  that  seventh  part  too 
much  ?  How  often  are  we  entrenching  on  the 
Lord’s  own  day  by  our  pursuits  of  the  profits 
or  pleasures  of  the  world  ?  Wogan. 

“  To  morrow  is  the  rest  of  the  holj^  Sabbath” 
(verse  23)  Not  shall  he,  nor  yet  that  every  sev¬ 
enth  shall  be,  but  simply,  “  To-morrow  is.” 
This  is  clearlj^  the  language  of  the  historian,  not 
the  legislator.  It  is  but  the  familiar  method  of 
speaking  of  something  already  in  existence. 
Besides,  it  does  not  say,  thou  shalt  rest  every 
seventh  day  from  all  work,  but  simjily  from 
manna  gathering.  The  direction  seems  to  have 
been  given  with  exclusive  reference  to  the  reg¬ 
ulation  of  manna  gathering,  and  this  very  fact 
seems  to  recognize  the  pre-existence  of  the  ap¬ 
pointment,  and  here  only  made  applicable  to 
the  manna.  And  this  view  agrees  precisely  with 
the  after  declaration,  “  See,  for  that  the  Lord 
hath  given  you  the  Sabbath  ;  therefore  he  giveth 
you  on  the  sixth  day  the  bread  of  two  days” 
(verse  29),  Thus  placing  the  Sabbath  before 
the  manna,  and  showing  why  the  manna  was 
doubled  on  the  sixth,  and  why  there  would  be 
none  on  the  seventh,  because  the  seventh  had 
been  previously  given  as  a  day  of  rest.  Then 
let  it  also  be  observed  that  the  expressed  ob¬ 
ject  of  giving  the  manna,  and  especially  in  the 
manner  of  it,  was  to  prove  Israel,  and  not  to 
institute  a  Sabbath.  “  I  will  rain  bread  from 
heaven  for  you,  and  the  people  shall  go  and 
gather  a  certain  rate  every  day,  that  I  maj’’  prove 
them,  whether  they  will  walk  in  my  Law,  or  no  ’ 
(verse  4).  What  law  ?  and  how  prove  them  ? 


SECTIOJV  97.  THE  WILDERNESS  OF  SIN. 


:6 


The  law  was  cleaily  the  Sabbatic  law,  and  the 
])roof  consisted  in  this,  whether  they  would  ob¬ 
serve  his  rest,  even  when  appearances  were 
against  them,  “  To  morrow  is  the  rest  of  the 
holy  Sabbaih  unto  the  Lord,”  one  of  those  rest 
days  appointed  from  the  beginning  ;  therefore, 
a  double  quantity  is  given.  Now  bake,  and 
seethe,  and  prepare  for  to-morrow.  And  on  the 
morrow  he  said.  Eat  to-day  what  is  left  from 
yesterday,  and  which  is  miraculously  i:)reserved, 
for  none  will  be  given  to-day.  And  yet  some  of 
the  people  disbelieved,  and  went  out,  but  found 
none.  Hence  the  Lord  asks,  ‘‘  How  long  refuse 
ye  to  keep  my  commandments  and  my  laws?” 
(Verse  28.)  The  whole  history  indicates  that 
the  manna  was  doubled  on  the  sixth  day  because 
the  next  was  the  Sabbath,  thus  showing  its  pre¬ 
vious  existence  ;  for,  so  far  as  the  record  goes, 
the  manna  was  actually  doubled  before  one 
word  was  said  to  the  jieople  about  the  Sabbath. 
If  the  apioointment  did  not  previously  exist, 
would  it  not  be  a  strange  procedure  to  double 
the  manna  before  the  proclamation  of  the  Law  ? 
Was  the  passover  lamb  actually  slain  before  the 
jreople  were  told  what  was  to  be  done?  And 
furthermore,  that  the  object  of  the  whole  trans¬ 
action  was  to  test  Israel’s  obedience  to  a  law 
already  in  existence,  and  not  formally  to  enact 
a  new  one. 

As  confirmatory  of  all  this  is  the  fact  that 
Moses,  in  De.  5  : 15,  clearly  connects  the  insti¬ 
tution  with  the  deliverance  from  Egypt.  The 
reason  there  assigned  is  the  fact  that  they  were 
delivered.  Because  they  had  been  “  delivered 
through  a  mighty  hand  and  by  a  stretched-out 
arm.”  “  Therefore  the  Lord  thy  God  com¬ 
manded  thee  to  keep  the  Sabbath  day.”  If  the 
deliverance  from  Egypt  be  the  secondary  ground 
of  the  giving  of  the  Sabbath,  then  surely  the 
giving  of  the  manna  could  not  be  that  ground, 
nor  yet  the  initiation  of  the  ordinance.  And 
as  further  confirmation  of  this  view,  we  men¬ 
tion  the  fact  that  the  Sabbath  is  everywhere 
s]ooken  of  as  the  proj^erty  of  the  Lord,  as  ap¬ 
pears  from  the  expressions  :  “The  Sabbath  of 
the  Lord  thy  God  “  ye  shall  keep  my  Sab¬ 
baths  “I  gave  them  my  Sabbaths” — all  show¬ 
ing  that  the  Sabbath  was  the  property  of  the 
Lord  ;  something  he  had  previously  in  his  pos¬ 
session,  and  now  formally  given  to  his  people. 
Stacy. 

32,  The  preservation  of  this  manna  from 
waste  and  corruption  was  a  standing  miracle, 
and  therefore  the  more  proper  memorial  of  this 
miraculous  food.  “  Posterity  shall  see  the  bread,” 
says  God,  “  lohereuiilh  I  have  fed  you  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness  see  what  sort  of  food  it  was,  and  how 


much  each  man’s  daily  portion  of  it  was,  that  it 
may  appear  they  were  neither  kept  to  hard  fare, 
nor  to  short  allowance,  and  then  judge  between 
God  and  Israel,  whether  they  had  any  cause 
given  them  to  murmur,  and  find  fault  with  their 
provisions,  and  whether  they,  and  their  seed 
after  them,  had  not  a  great  deal  of  reason  grate- 
fully  to  own  God’s  goodness  to  them.  Eaten 
bread  must  not  be  forgotten  ;  God's  miiacles 
and  mercies  are  to  be  had  in  everlasting  re¬ 
membrance,  for  our  encouragement  to  trust  in 
him  at  all  times.  H. 

33.  ”  An  omer  full  of  manna”  was  to  be 
“  laid  up  before  Jehovah”  in  a  “  golden  pot,” 
Together  with  “  Aaron’s  rod  that  budded,  and  the 
tables  of  the  covenant,”  it  was  afterward  placed 
in  the  holiest  of  all,  within  the  ark  of  the  cove¬ 
nant,  overshadowed  by  the  cherubim  of  glory.” 

A.  E, - How  long  the  i^ot  of  manna  was  j^re- 

served  in  the  ark  of  the  covenant  cannot  be 
known  definitely.  We  have  the  fact  that  the 
Lord  directed  its  preservation  there  ;  and  the 
further  fact  that  when  the  ark  was  placed  in  the 
new  temple  of  Solomon  there  was  nothing  in  it 
save  the  two  tables  of  stone  (1  Kings  8  :  9).  It 
was  doubtless  kept  long  enough  to  subserve  all 
the  valuable  purposes  of  a  memorial  to  the  gen¬ 
erations  of  Israel.  It  has  been  embalmed  in  the 
Christian  consciousness  of  the  Christian  age  by 
its  symbolical  use  in  the  teachings  of  our  Lord 
in  which  it  represents  his  flesh  which  he  gave 
for  the  life  of  the  world — the  far  more  real  bread 
of  life  from  heaven  (John  6  : 31-35  ;  47-58). 
H.  C. 

35,  This  verse  was  no  doubt  added  when 
Moses  was  revising  and  completing  his  materi¬ 
als  for  Exodus,  in  the  plains  of  Moab,  by  Jor¬ 
dan,  near  Jericho  (Nu,  36  : 13),  or  in  the  valley 
over  against  Beth-peor  (De.  3  : 29).  The  sen¬ 
tence  is  evidently  such  as  might  be  written  by 
a  prophet  who  was  aware  that  the  forty  years 
of  wilderness  life  were  drawing  to  a  close,  and 
perceived  the  supply  of  manna  waning  to  its 
end,  according  as  the  natural  products  of  the 
land  were  approaching  to  a  full  satisfaction  of 
the  people’s  wants.  M. 

Biel  eat  manna  forty  ycarg.  The 
manna  began  to  fall  just  thirty  days  after  they 
left  Egypt,  and  ceased  the  day  after  the  pass- 
over  which  they  kept  in  the  fortieth  year  (Josh. 

5  : 11,  12).  Bp.  Patrick. - Here  the  supply  of 

manna  is  spoken  of  as  continuing  till  the  peo¬ 
ple  “  came  to  a  land  inhabited,”  or  to  their 
reaching  “  the  borders  of  Canaan.”  In  Josh. 
5  : 12  its  actual  cessation  is  said  to  have  taken 
place  only  when  they  had  entered  Canaan,  and 
ate  the  corn  of  the  land.  But  why  might  not 


77 


MANNA  FOR  FORTY  YEARS. 


the  first  passage,  written  in  anticipation  of  the 
future,  indicate  generally  the  period  during 
which  the  manna  was  given — viz.,  the  exclusion 
of  the  people  from  a  land  in  such  a  sense  in¬ 
habited,  that  they  were  still  dej^endent  on  mir¬ 
aculous  supplies  of  food  ?  Then  the  passage  in 
Joshua  records  the  fact  that  this  dependence 
actually  ceased  only  when  they  had  crossed  the 
Jordan,  and  lay  before  Jericho  ;  so  that  we  may 
conclude  their  conquests  to  the  east  of  Jordan, 
though  in  lands  inhabited,  had  not  sufficed  till 
the  period  in  question  to  furnish  an  adequate 
supply  to  their  wants.  P.  F. 

It  is  not  meant  that  during  the  whole  of  this 
period  they  had  no  other  sustenance  :  the  herds 
which  they  had  brought  out  of  Egypt  had  not 
failed  them  at  Sinai,  nor  even  when  they  were 
about  to  pass  through  Edom  (Nu,  20  : 19),  nor 
even  when  the  Peubenites  and  Gadites  peti¬ 
tioned  to  be  settled  on  the  east  of  Jordan  (Nu. 
32  : 1).  It  is  plain  that  they  had  bread  (Lev. 
8  : 2,  26,  31),  and  meal  (Lev.  9:4;  10  : 12  ;  24  : 5, 
etc.),  and  that  they  bought  food  and  water  from 
the  Edomites  (De.  2  :  6).  And  from  Josh.  1  : 11 
we  see  that  the  staple  of  their  victuals  must 
have  been  other  than  manna,  for  there  they  are 
commanded  to  lay  in  three  days’  provision,  and 
the  manna  would  not  keep  from  day  to  day. 
But  it  was  granted  to  them  during  all  this  time 
to  help  out  other  provision,  and  probably  it  was 
the  only  food  of  those  who  could  not  afford  the 
rarer  and  costlier  kinds.  It  is  only  mentioned 
specially  after  this  in  Nu.  11  :  7,  at  their  first 
breaking  up  from  Sinai,  and  in  Nu,  21  : 5,  dur¬ 
ing  the  circuit  of  Edom,  and  after  the  death  of 

Aaron.  Alf.. - We  may  assume,  as  in  most 

cases  of  miracle,  that  the  supernatural  supply 
was  commensurate  with  their  actual  necessity. 
Moses  gives  a  complete  history  of  manna  till  the 
end  of  his  own  life.  The  manna  was  not  with¬ 
held  in  fact  until  the  Israelites  had  passed  the 
Jordan.  Moses  writes  as  a  historian,  not  as  a 
prophet.  Cook. 

Many  comment  on  this  subject  as  if,  during 
the  whole  forty  years  in  the  wilderness,  the 
Israelites  subsisted  entirely,  or  at  least  chiefly, 
on  manna  and  quails  miraculously  given  them 
from  heaven — as  if,  in  this  particular  case,  God 
undertook  to  train  a  race  to  habits  of  hardihood 
by  relieving  them  of  all  necessity  of  doing  any¬ 
thing  to  provide  for  their  own  need^.  But  from 
many  passages  in  Ex.,  Lev.,  Nu,,  and  De.  we 
learn  that  Israel  in  the  wilderness  had  flocks  and 
herds,  which  were  several  times  in  danger  of 
perishing  for  lack  of  water,  and  for  which  it 
was  proposed  to  buy  water,  when  they  asked 
leave  to  pass  through  Edom  ;  that  they  left 


Egypt  with  money  and  other  commercial  re¬ 
sources,  and  reached  Palestine  able  to  purchase 
such  things  as  they  needed  ;  that  they  are  as¬ 
sumed  to  have  resources  of  hunting  and  fishing  ; 
that  the  ceremonial  law  throughout  implies 
their  possession,  not  only  of  animals  for  sacri¬ 
fice,  but  of  agricultural  products  ;  that  the  civil 
laws  contemplate  their  being  engaged  in  agri¬ 
culture,  as  well  as  in  the  care  of  flocks  ;  that 
what  we  are  accustomed  to  designate  their 
wandering  in  the  wilderness  is  actually  de¬ 
scribed  as  their  being  shepherds  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness.  In  fine,  these  writings  represent  God’s 
treatment  of  Israel  in  the  wilderness  to  have 
been  just  what  we  should  expect,  in  view  of  the 
principles  on  which  he  ordinarily  deals  with 
men.  As  a  rule,  he  threw  them  upon  their  own 
resources,  and  thereby  trained  them  ;  when  ex¬ 
ceptional  needs  arose  during  the  forty  jmars, 
especially  when  the  need  arose  from  their  obey¬ 
ing  some  especial  command  which  diminished 
their  abilit}^  to  provide  for  themselves  by  or¬ 
dinary  means,  then  God  cared  for  them  by  mir¬ 
acle.  IF.  J.  Beecher. 


The  manna  is  the  greatest  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  miracles.  It  was  not  one  miracle,  but  an 
astonishing  combination  of  many.  It  was  a 
regular  supply  of  food  during  nearly  forty  years. 
It  fell  around  the  camp  of  the  Israelites  regu¬ 
larly,  in  all  places  and  at  all  seasons,  during  all 
their  removals.  The  supply,  regularly  inter¬ 
mitted  once  in  every  week,  was  compensated  by 
a  double  supply  the  preceding  day.  It  became 
unfit  for  use  if  kei^t  to  the  next  day,  and  yet, 
once  a  week,  it  might  be  kept  for  two  days. 
And  when  the  miracle  was  about  to  be  discon¬ 
tinued,  as  no  longer  necessary,  a  pot  full  of  it 
was  directed  to  be  laid  aside,  and  preserved  as 
a  memorial  to  future  generations.  All  these 
marvellous  circumstances  are  not  mere  abstract 
qualities  of  the  manna,  but  historical  facts — 
facts  inseparably  interwoven  with  the  history  of 
the  chosen  people.  It  is  surely  then  an  attemjjt 
of  no  common  hardihood,  though  it  has  been 
made,  to  endeavor  to  bring  this  sublime  set  of 
miracles  within  the  limit  of  a  natural  probabil¬ 
ity.  Bush. 

The  manna  was  a  revelation  in  miraculous 
and  transient  form  of  an  eternal  truth.  The 
God  who  sent  it  sends  daily  bread.  The  words 
which  Christ  quoted  in  his  wilderness  hunger 
are  the  explanation  of  its  meaning  as  a  witness 
to  this  truth.  “  Man  doth  not  live  by  bread 
alone,  but  by  every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of 
the  mouth  of  God.”  To  a  Christian,  the  Divine 


78 


SECTION  97.  THE  WILDERNESS  OF  SIN 


power  is  present  and  operative  in  all  natural 
processes  as  really  as  in  what  we  call  miracu¬ 
lous.  God  is  separable  from  the  universe,  but 
the  universe  is  not  separable  from  God,  If  it 
were  separated,  it  would  cease.  So  far  as  the 
reality  of  the  Divine  operation  is  concerned,  it 
matters  not  whether  he  works  in  the  established 
fashion,  through  material  things,  or  whether  his 
will  acts  directly.  The  chain  which  binds  a 
phenomenon  to  the  Divine  will  may  be  long  or 
short  ;  the  intervening  links  may  be  many,  or 
they  may  be  abolished.  And  the  Divine  cause 
and  the  visible  effect  may  touch  without  any¬ 
thing  between.  But  in  either  case  the  power  is 
of  God.  Bread  made  out  of  flour  grown  on  the 
other  side  of  the  world,  and  fashioned  by  the 
baker,  and  bought  by  the  fruits  of  my  industry’’, 
is  as  truly  the  gift  of  God  as  was  the  manna. 
For  once,  he  showed  these  men  his  hand  at 
work,  that  we  might  know  it  was  at  work,  when 
hidden.  The  lesson  of  the  “angel’s  food” 
eaten  in  the  wilderness  is  that  men  are  fed  by 
the  power  of  God’s  expressed  and  active  will — 
for  that  is  the  meaning  of  “  the  word  that  pro- 
ceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  God” — in  what¬ 
ever  fashion  they  get  their  food.  The  gift  of  it 
is  from  him  ;  its  power  to  nourish  is  from  him. 
It  is  as  true  to-day  as  ever  it  was  :  ”  Thou  open- 
cst  thine  hand,  and  satisfiest  the  desire  of  every 
I’ving  thing.”  The  manna  ceased  when  the 
people  came  near  cornfields  and  settled  homes. 
Miracles  end  when  means  are  possible.  But  the 
God  of  the  miracle  is  the  God' of  the  means. 

The  manna  was  typical  of  Christ,  Our  Lord 
himself  has  laid  his  hand  upon  it,  and  claimed 
it  as  a  faint  foreshadowing  of  what  he  is.  The 
Jews,  not  satisfied  with  the  miracle  of  the 
loaves,  demand  from  him  a  greater  sign,  as  the 
condition  of  what  they  are  pleased  to  call  ”  be¬ 
lief  ” — which  is  nothing  but  accepting  the  tes¬ 
timony  of  sense.  They  quote  Moses  as  giving 
tbe  manna,  and  imply  that  Messiah  is  expected 
to  repeat  the  miracle.  Christ  accepts  the  chal¬ 
lenge,  and  goes  on  to  claim  that  he  not  only 
gives,  but  himself  is,  for  all  men’s  souls,  all 
and  more  than  all  which  the  manna  had  been  to 
the  bodies  of  that  dead  generation.  Like  it,  he 
came  —but  in  how  much  more  profound  a  sense 
— from  heaven.  Like  it,  he  was  food.  But  un¬ 
like  it,  he  could  still  forever  the  craving  of  the 
else  famishing  soul  ;  unlike  it,  he  not  only 
nourished  a  bodily  life  already  possessed,  but 
communicated  a  spiritual  life  which  never  dies  ; 
and,  unlike  it,  he  was  meant  to  be  the  food  of 
the  whole  world.  His  teaching  passed  beyond 
the  symbolism  of  the  manna,  when  he  not  only 
declared  himself  to  be  the  true  bread  from 


heaven  which  gives  life  to  the  world,  but  opened 
a  glimpse  into  the  solemn  mystery  of  his  aton^ 
ing  death,  by  the  startling  and  apparently  re¬ 
pulsive  paradox  that  his  flesh  was  food  and  his 
blood  drink  indeed.  The  manna  does  not  typi¬ 
cally  teach  Christ’s  atonement,  but  it  does  set 
him  forth  as  the  true  sustenance  and  life-giver, 
sweet  as  honey  to  the  soul,  sent  from  heaven 
for  us  each,  but  needing  to  be  made  ours  by  the 
act  of  our  faith.  An  Israelite  might  have 
starved,  though  the  manna  lay  all  round  the 
camp,  if  he  did  not  go  forth  and  secure  his  por¬ 
tion  ;  and  he  might  no  less  have  starved,  if  he 
did  not  eat  what  heaven  had  sent.  Crede  et 
manducasti — “Believe,  and  thou  hast  eaten”  — 
as  St.  Augustine  says.  The  personal  appropri¬ 
ating  act  of  faith  is  essential  to  our  having 
Christ  for  the  food  of  our  souls.  The  bread 
that  nourishes  our  bodies  is  assimilated  to  their 
substance,  and  so  become  sustenance.  This 
bread  of  God,  entering  into  our  souls  by  faith, 
transforms  them  into  its  substance,  and  so  gives 
and  feeds  an  immortal  life.  The  manna  was 
for  a  generation  ;  this  bread  is  “  the  same  yes¬ 
terday,  and  to-day,  and  forever.”  That  was 
for  a  handful  of  men  ;  this  is  for  the  world. 
Nor  is  the  prophetic  value  of  the  manna  ex¬ 
hausted  when  we  recognize  its  witness  to  Christ. 
The  food  of  the  wilderness  is  the  food  of  the 
city.  The  bread  that  is  laid  on  the  table, 
“  spread  in  the  presence  of  the  enemy,”  is  the 
bread  that  makes  the  feast  in  the  king’s  palace. 
The  Christ  who  feeds  the  pilgrim  soldiers  is  the 
Christ  on  whom  the  conquerors  banquet.  “  To 
him  that  overcometh  will  I  give  to  eat  cf  the 
hidden  manna.”  A.  M. 

The  apostle  in  1  Cor.  10  gives  a  spiritual  sig- 
nificancy  to  the  whole  of  this  narrative  of  the 
exodus,  the  murmuring,  and  the  supply  of  bread 
and  w’ater  in  the  desert.  In  an  earnest  admo¬ 
nition  against  murmuring  and  want  of  self-con¬ 
trol,  he  cites  this  story  of  the  desert  as  a  signal 
example  of  failure  to  hold  fast  the  profession 
after  even  the  very  highest  exaltation  to  priv¬ 
ileges,  reminding  the  Corinthians  “  how  our 
fathers  were  under  the  cloud,  and  all  passed 
through  the  sea,  and  were  all  baptized  into 
Moses  in  the  cloud  and  in  the  sea  ;  and  did  all 
eat  the  same  spiritual  meat,  and  did  all  drink 
the  same  spiritual  drink  ;  for  they  drank  of  that 
spiritual  rock  that  followed  them,  and  that  Bock 
was  Christ.  But  with  many  of  them  God  was 
not  well  pleased,  for  they  were  overthrown  in 
the  wilderness.  Now,  these  things  were  our  ex¬ 
amples  that  we  should  not  lust  after  evil  things 
as  they  also  lusted.”  The  meaning  of  which 
is  :  Beware,  how,  after  coming  into  covenant 


SECTION  98.  RED  SEA  TO  SINAI. 


79 


with  Christ,  ye  give  away  to  temptation.  Ke- 
inember  how,  though  all  of  our  fathers  were  de¬ 
livered  from  Egypt,  yet  Caleb  and  Joshua  only 
entered  the  land  of  promise.  Say  not  :  Will 
God  allow  those  to  perish  whom  he  hath  thus 
exalted  in  conferring  upon  us  the  gifts  of  the 
spirit,  the  power  of  miracles,  tongues,  proph¬ 
ecy,  interpretation?  For  remember  the  lofty 
privileges  of  the  fathers.  They  were  baptized 
into  the  discipleship  of  Moses  under  that  cloud 
w’hich  sheltered  and  guided  them,  and  in  the 
passage  through  the  sea  which  gave  them  final 
deliverance  from  Egypt.  For  such  deliverance 
and  guidance  placed  them  under  the  same  obli¬ 
gation  to  recognize  Moses  as  leader  by  Divine 
commission,  as  your  baptism  and  its  vows  bind 
you  to  recognize  Christ.  And  as  they  had  their 
baptism  so  also  their  Eucharist.  They  all  fed 
not  upon  natural  food  but  upon  manna — the 
food  directly  provided  by  God  ;  and  they  drank 
not  water  naturally  furnished  by  springs  in 'the 
desert,  but  by^  the  stream  from  the  smitten 
rock,  whose  stream  followed  them  in  the  des¬ 
ert,  which  rock  sy^mbolized  the  smitten  Christ  ; 
and  yet  after  all  these  exalted  privileges  they 
murmured,  rebelled,  and  failed  to  reach  the 
earthly  Canaan.  And  remember  this  record  is 
made  not  merely  as  a  curious  history — ‘  ‘  they  are 
written  for  our  admonition  upon  whom  the  ends  of 
the  world  are  come."  The  apostle  is  not  making 
any  allusion  to  baptism  wdth  water,  but  only  to 
the  display  of  God’s  power  in  the  cloud  and  in 
the  sea,  and  of  God’s  goodness  in  giving  them 
the  manna  for  food  and  the  water  from  the  rock 
for  drink,  which  bound  them  to  serve  God  and 
follow  his  servant.  And  as,  notwithstanding 
all  this,  they  failed,  so  those  in  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  Church  who  enter  into  covenant  with 
Christ  in  their  baptism  and  receive  spiritual 
gifts  may  fail  through  a  similar  rebellious  and 


murmuring  spirit.  It  is  both  interesting  and 
important  to  notice  how  thus,  in  the  practical 
application  of  the  lessons  of  the  Old  Testament, 
both  Jesus  and  his  apostles  constantly  assert 
not  only  the  pre-existence  of  Christ,  but  also 
that  he  is  really  the  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment.  The  rock  was  Christ.  The  Israelites 
“  tempted  Christ  in  the  wilderness.”  It  was  the 
“  spirit  of  Christ  in  the  prophets  that  testified.” 
In  like  manner  it  is  represented  in  the  New 
Testament  that  thisbodj^of  people  under  Moses 
was  the  Church  of  Christ  ;  as,  for  instance,  the 
martyr  Stephen  speaks  of  it  as  “  the  Church  in 
the  wilderness.”  S.  E. 

The  events  recorded  to  have  happened  under 
the  old  dispensation  are  often  strikingly  pre- 
figurative  of  those  which  occur  under  the  new  : 
and  the  temporal  circumstances  of  the  Israelites 
seem  designedly  to  shadow'  cut  the  spiritual 
condition  of  the  Christian  Church.  The  con¬ 
nection  is  ever  obvious  ;  and  points  out  the 
consistency  of  the  Divine  purpose,  and  the 
harmony  deliberately  contrived  to  subsist  be¬ 
tween  both  dispensations.  Thus  in  the  servi¬ 
tude  of  Israel  are  described  the  sufferings  of  the 
Church.  In  the  deliverance  from  Egypt  ]s  fore- 
showm  its  redemption,  and  the  journey  through 
the  wilderness  is  a 'lively  representation  of  a 
Christian's  pilgrimage  through  life,  to  his  in¬ 
heritance  in  everlasting  bliss.  So  also  the 
manna,  of  which  the  Israelites  did  eat  (John 
G  :  33-38  ;  Kev.  2  : 17),  and  the  rock  of  which 
they  drank  (1  Cor.  10  : 1-4).  as  w'ell  as  the  brazen 
serpent  by  which  they  were  healed  (John  3  ;  14), 
were  severally  typical  of  correspondent  particu¬ 
lars,  that  were  to  obtain  under  the  Christian  es¬ 
tablishment  ;  as  under  the  sacrifices  and  cere¬ 
monial  service  of  the  Law,  of  which  the  institu¬ 
tion  is  recorded  in  this  book,  was  described  the 
more  spiritual  worship  of  the  Gospel.  Orey. 


Section  98. 

ROUTE  FROM  THE  RED  SEA  TO  SINAI. 


At  last,  the  obscurity  which  has  so  long  hung 
over  the  Peninsula  of  Sinai,  with  regard  to  the 
possible  determination  of  the  route  of  the  Israel¬ 
ites  through  the  desert,  has  been  removed.  Al¬ 
most  the  whole  of  the  country  has  now  been 
explored  ;  and  that  portion  of  it  which  possess¬ 
es  the  greatest  interest  for  us  has  been  most 


carefully  mapped,  by  an  expedition  sent  out 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Director-General  of 
our  Ordnance  Survey.  Holland. 

Note. — The  finely  executed  map  (on  page 
81)  is,  in  its  general  outlines,  an  accurate  re¬ 
drawing  from  that  of  the  Ordnance  Survey. 
But  wo  have  sought  to  make  especially  clear  all 


80 


SECTION  98.  ROUTE  FROM  THE  RED  SEA  TO  SINAI. 


the  names  and  valley  lines,  together  with  the  imme¬ 
diate  connec'ions  and  surroundings  of  Sinai,  the 
}noutitain  of  the  Law.  In  studying  this  sec¬ 
tion,  see  also  map  fronting  title-page  and  that 
on  p.  Gl.  B. 

The  admirable  work  of  the  Ordnance  Survey 
in  the  Peninsula  of  Sinai  has  forever  settled  all 
questions  lespecting  the  mount  of  the  Law  and 
the  way  thither.  It  has  done  more  than  this, 
for  the  accurate  labors  of  the  scientific  surveyor 
have  vindicated  in  the  most  remarkable  manner 
the  accuracy  of  the  narratives  in  Exodus  and 
Numbers.  Every  scientific  man  who  reads  the 
reports  of  the  Survey  and  studies  its  maps,  must 
agree  with  the  late  Professor  Palmer  that  they 
afford  “  satisfactory  evidence  of  the  contempo¬ 
rary  character  of  the  narrative.”  They  prove, 
in  short,  that  the  narrator  must  have  personally 
traversed  the  country,  and  must  have  been  a 
witness  of  the  events  he  narrates.  More  than 
this,  they  show  that  the  narrative  must  have 
been  a  sort  of  daily  journal,  written  from  time  to 
time  as  events  proceeded,  and  not  corrected  even 
to  reconcde  apparent  contradictions,  the  expla¬ 
nation  of  which  only  becomes  evident  on  study  of 
the  ground.  Dawson. 

Eoute  from  Elim  to  Sinai. 

• 

From  Wady  Useit  [south  of  Elim],  two  roads 
lead  to  Jebel  Musa  :  one,  the  north  route,  runs 
up  Wady  Hamr,  and  thence  past  Sarabit  el- 
Khadim  to  Wady  es-Sheikh  ;  the  other,  the  coast 
route,  turns  down  Wady  Tayibeh  to  the  sea,  and 
thence  follows  the  course  of  Wady  Feiran.  The 
coast  route  is  far  the  most  easy,  and  we  have  an 
indication  that  this  was  followed  bv  the  Israel- 

V 

ites  in  Nu.  33  : 10,  which  places  the  encamp¬ 
ment  on  the  sea-coast  probably  on  the  broad 
level  plain  at  the  mouth  qf  Wady  Tayibeh. 
From  El  Murkha  three  roads,  which  afterward 
join  each  other,  branch  off  ;  one  passes  over  the 
Nagb  Buderahto  Wady  Mukatteb,  another  turns 
up  Seih  Sidreh  to  the  same  place,  and  thence 
both  pass  to  Wady  Feiran,  while  the  third  fol¬ 
lows  the  course  of  Wady  Feiran  throughout. 
The  first  is  impracticable  for  the  passage  of  a 
large  host,  but  the  other  two  routes  are  perfectly 
easy,  and  the  Israelites  may  have  followed  either 
or  both.  Wilson. 

The  circumstances  of  the  case,  and  the  char¬ 
acter  of  the  ground,  both  lead  to  the  opinion 
that  the  course  of  the  Israelites  lay  down  the 
wdiole  length  of  the  plain  of  Murkha,  and  then 
U[)  Wady  Feiran.  This  wady  presents  a  level 
bed  np  which  wnignns  might  be  driven  without 
the  slightest  difficulty.  It  is  somewhat  confined 
in  parts  bv  the  surrounding  mountains,  but 


opens  out  here  and  there  so  as  to  jiresent  ad¬ 
mirable  positions  for  encampments.  Holland. 

Travellers  in  the  present  day  do  not  follow 
Wady  Feiran,  but  turn  off  by  Wady  Shellal 
[northeast  end  of  El  Murkha],  and  make  for 
Wady  Mukatteb  by  the  Niigb  Bu derail,  but  the 
road  over  that  pass  was  unquestionably  con¬ 
structed  at  a  date  posterior  to  the  exodus,  and 
had  it  even  existed  then  would  have  been  less 
practicable  than  Wady  Feiran,  and  have  pre¬ 
sented  a  further  difficulty  in  the  pass  of  Jebel 
Mukatteb.  Beyond  Wady  Feiran  there  is  no 
practicable  valley.  Prof.  Palmer. 

Their  journey  w'ould  lie  over  the  plain  of  El 
Murkha  along  the  coast,  a  plain  which  would 
correspond  to  the  Desert  of  Sin,  and  by  reason 
of  the  oppressiveness  of  a  spot  where  my  ther¬ 
mometer  on  the  11th  of  February,  1874,  rose  to 
9G°  at  noon  (though  but  44°  by  the  sea  in  the 
morning),  would  explain  the  first  “  murmur¬ 
ing”  of  Israel.  The  more  encumbered  portion 
and  their  wagons”  would  have  gone  along  the 
sea-coast  (a  weary  journey)  to  the  mouth  of 
Wady  Feiran,  a  valley  ranging  in  width  from 
half  a  mile  to  two  miles  or  more,  and  enclosed 
by  high,  precipitous  walls.  By  the  route  thus 
indicated,  a  carriage  can  be  driven  all  the  way 
from  tbe  Wells  of  Moses  by  way  of  wadys  Feiran 

and  es-Sheikh  to  Mount  Sinai.  S.  C.  B. - 

There  are  two  practicable  routes  from  Feiran  to 
Jebel  Musa-Safsafeh  :  one  following  the  course 
of  the  Wady  es-Sheikh  throughout  ;  the  other 
passing  up  Wady  Solaf  and  across  the  low  hills 
to  El  Watiyeh,  or  turning  through  the  Nagb 
Hawa  to  the  plain  of  Er  Eahah.  Either  or  both 
of  these  routes  may  have  been  followed  by  the 
Israelites  ;  the  main  body,  with  the  flocks  and 
herds,  may  have  gone  round  by  the  Wady  es- 
Sheikh,  while  Moses  and  the  elders  travelled  by 
the  shorter  route  of  Wady  Solaf.  Wilson. 

The  Feiran  Valley  is  “  the  largest  and  most 
fertile  of  all  the  valleys  in  that  region,  and  the 
only  one  through  which  a  clear  rivulet  is  still 
flowing  for  several  miles.  The  exact  source  of 
this  stream,  and  its  disappearance  beneath  the 
rocky  soil,  have  not  been  by  any  means  suffi¬ 
ciently  investigated.  Again,  in  all  that  rocky 
wilderness  there  is  no  other  oasis  so  beautifully 
studded  with  palm-groves,  fruit-gardens,  and 
cornfields,  as' the  Wady  Feiran.”  The  Wady 
es-.^heikh  is  described  hy  Ritter  as  “  the  large, 
crooked,  principal  vallejq  the  cleft  which  con¬ 
nects  the  Sinai  and  the  Serbal  groups  in  the 
central  range,  and  the  only  convenient  road  by 
which  the  two  are  connected.”  Immediately 
behind  the  spot  at  which  the  rocky  hill  el-BuGb 
contracts  the  Feiran  Valley  to  so  great  an  ex- 


MAP:  MARAH  TO  SINAL 


81 


82 


SECTION  98.  ROUTE  FROM  THE  RED  SEA  TO  SINAI. 


tent,  you  enter  the  longer  and  broader  Sheikh 
Valley.  It  winds  first  toward  the  northeast, 
then  toward  the  east  and  southeast,  and  lastly 
toward  the  south,  and  thus  describes  almost  a 
perfect  semicircle  of  ten  hours’  journey  in 
length.  This  great  wady  continues  to  ascend 
gently,  but  constantly  ;  so  that  at  the  point  at 
M'hich  it  issues  into  the  plain  of  er-Iiahah,  at 
the  foot  of  the  Sinaitic  group,  it  is  more  than 
twenty-three  hundred  feet  higher  than  at  its 
jnnction  with  the  Wady  Feiran.  The  waters  of 
the  innumerable  side  wadies  flow  into  this  one  ; 
and  hence  it  is  well  watered  for  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  year,  and  contains  many  tracts  of 
meadow  land,  with  a  large  number  of  tarfah- 
trees.  It  is  especially  noted  as  yielding  the 
largest  supjDly  of  manna  at  the  present  day. 
Moreover,  there  is  no  spot  in  the  whole  penin¬ 
sula  so  densely  populated  as  this  wady  and  its 
numerous  side  valleys.  K. 

Peninsula  of  Sinai  :  Geographical  Relations,  Ge¬ 
ology,  Climate,  and  Hob  it  ableness. 

The  Desert  Tableland,  of  which  the  valley  of 
the  Nile  and  the  two  gulfs  of  the  Eed  Sea  are 
depressions,  may  bo  divided  into  three  belts  : 
on  the  north,  the  sandy  desert,  which  stretches 
along  the  Mediterranean  from  the  Isthmus  of 
Suez  to  the  confines  of  Palestine  ;  south  of  this 
is  a  mass  of  limestone  called  the  Desert  of  et-Tih 
{i.e.,  the  Wandering)  ;  next,  separated  by  a  belt 
of  sandstone  from  the  Desert  of  et-Tih,  is  the 
terrific  group  of  granite  rocks  which  fill  up  the 
southern  triangle  of  the  Peninsula  of  Sinai. 
The  width  of  the  peninsula,  in  its  exacter  limits, 
from  Saez  along  the  30th  parallel  of  north  lati¬ 
tude  to  the  hills  of  Edom,  is  about  130  miles  : 
its  length  from  its  southern  point  (Ras  Moham¬ 
med)  to  the  same  parallel  is  about  140  miles, 
and  to  the  Mediterranean  upwards  of  20  more. 
The  width  of  the  southern  triangle  of  primitive 
rocks  along  the  29th  parallel  of  north  latitude  is 
about  80  miles,  and  its  length  a  little  less  :  in 
fact,  it  is  nearly  an  equilateral  triangle.  The 
Desert  of  et-Tih  has  all  the  characters  of  lime¬ 
stone  scenery.  It  is  a  tableland  rising  to  more 
than  2500  feet  high,  broken  by  ravines,  and 
bounded  by  long  horizontal  ranges  of  moun¬ 
tains,  w'hich  culminate  in  the  southern  range  of 
Jebel  et-Tih,  whose  chief  summit  {Jebel  Edime) 
rises  to  4654  feet.  The  belt  of  sandstone  (Debbel 
er-Ramleh),  which  divides  this  range  from  the 
granite  group,  and  which  is  continued  along  the 
shore  of  the  Gulf  of  Suez,  is  almost  the  only 
sand  in  the  peninsula,  which  is  therefore  a 
rocky,  but  not  a  sandy  desert.  Finally,  the 
great  granite  mass,  called  by  the  general  name 


of  the  Tar  {i.e.,  the  Rock),  is  broken  into  in 
numerable  peaks  (like  those  called  horns  and 
needles  in  the  Aljis),  and  shivered  into  ravines, 
which  in  a  few  cases  oxien  out  into  wdder  plains. 
In  a  northern  climate,  these  plains  would  ba 
filled  with  lakes,  and  mountain  torrents  would 
rush  down  the  ravines  ;  but  here  the  want  of 
water  causes  a  silence  which  adds  immeasurably 
to  the  awful  grandeur  of  the  rocks  themselves, 
and  which  becomes  still  more  impressive  from 
the  clearness  and  reverberation  of  every  sound 
that  reaches  the  traveller’s  ears.  This  death¬ 
like  stillness  is  broken  by  mysterious  noises 
amoDg  the  mountain-tops,  and  by  the  winds 
which  roar  down  the  ravines,  realizing,  in  one 
sense,  at  least,  its  description  as  a  “  waste  howl¬ 
ing  wilderness.”  P.  S. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  historical  testi¬ 
monies  to  the  truth  of  the  scriptural  narrative 
exists  in  the  name  of  the  wilderness  Tih-Beni- 
Israil,  which  signifies  “  Wandering  of  the  Chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel.”  This  name  is  usually  shortened 
to  et-Tih,  which  signifies  “  The  Wandering.” 
G.  E.  Post. 

That  tract  of  land  which  bears  the  name  of 
the  Peninsula  of  Sinai  extends  between  the 
Gulf  of  Suez  on  the  west,  and  that  of  Akaba  (or 
the  Persian  Gulf)  on  the  east.  Its  configura¬ 
tion  is  heart-shaped,  the  broader  part  lying  tow¬ 
ard  Palestine,  the  narrower,  or  apex,  stretching 
southward  into  the  sea.  It  really  consists  of 
three  distinct  portions.  The  northern,  called 
the  Wilderness  of  Tih,  or,  “  of  the  Wandering,” 
is  pebbly,  high  tableland,  the  prevailing  color 
being  that  of  the  gray  limestone.  Next,  border¬ 
ing  the  Tih,  comes  a  broad  belt  of  sandstone 
and  yellow  sand,  the  only  one  in  the  desert  of 
the  exodus.  To  the  south  of  this  belt,  in  the 
apex  of  the  peninsula,  lies  the  true  Sinaitic 
range.  This  portion  consists  in  the  north  chiefly 
of  red  sandstone,  and  in  the  centre  of  red  gran¬ 
ite  and  green  porphyry.  The  prevailing  char¬ 
acter  of  the  scenery  is  that  of  an  irregular  mass 
of  mountains,  thrown  together  in  wild  confu¬ 
sion.  The  highest  peak  rises  to  about  nine 
thousand  feet.  Between  these  wind  torrent- 
beds,  filled,  perhaps,  for  a  very  short  time  in 
winter,  but  generally  quite  dry.  These  are 
called  wadies,  and  they  form  the  highways 
through  the  wilderness.  Here  and  there,  where 
either  a  living  spring  rises,  or  the  torrent  has 
left  its  marks,  or  where  the  hand  of  man  is  at 
work,  cultivated  patches,  fair  and  fruitful,  are 
found  ;  palm-trees  spring  up,  even  gardens  and 
fields,  and  rich  pasture  ground.  But,  gener¬ 
ally,  the  rocky  mountain-sides  are  bare  of  all 
vegetation,  and  their  bright  coloring  gives  the 


PENINSULA  OF  SINAI. 


83 


scenery  its  peculiar  character.  The  prevailing 
tints  are  red  and  green  ;  but  this  is  varied  by 
what  seems  a  purple,  rose,  or  crimson-colored 
stream  poured  down  the  mountain-side,  while, 
occasionally,  the  green  of  the  porphyry  deepens 
into  black.  Over  all  this  unbroken  silence  pre¬ 
vails,  so  that  the  voice  is  heard  in  the  pure  air 
at  extraordinarv  distances.  A.  E, 

The  Peninsula  of  Sinai  is  one  of  the  most 
mountainous  and  intricate  countries  in  the 
world  ;  tracts  of  sand  are  rarely  met  with,  plains 
are  rather  the  exception  than  the  rule,  and  the 
roads  for  the  most  part  run  through  a  labyrinth 
of  narrow,  rock-bound  valleys.  It  is  a  desert, 
certainly,  as  Major  Palmer,  K.E.,  well  describes 
it,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  word,  but  a  des¬ 
ert  of  rock,  gravel,  and  bowlder,  of  gaunt  peaks, 
dreary  ridges,  and  arid  vallej^s,  and  plateaus, 
the  whole  forming  a  scene  of  stern  desolation 
which  fully  merits  its  description  as  ‘  the  great 
and  terrible  wilderness.’  ”  In  the  centre  of  the 
peninsula  rises  a  vast  crystalline  mass,  split  up 
into  innumerable  peaks  that  attain  a  consider¬ 
able  altitude,  as  Jebel  Zebir,  8551  feet  ;  Jebel 
Katerin,  853G  feet  ;  Jebel  Umm  Shoiner,  8449 
feet  ;  Jebel  Musa,  7375  feet  ;  Jebel  Serbal,  6734 
feet.  Wilson. 

The  granite  mountains  lie  in  such  a  rugged, 
tumbled  chaos  as  scarcely  to  admit  of  classifica¬ 
tion.  It  has  been  usual  to  divide  them  into 
three  clusters — that  in  the  west  having  Mount 
Serbal  for  its  highest  point,  the  central  or  Sinai 
group,  and  the  group  to  the  south  culminating 
in  the  magnificent  peak  of  Umm  Shomer.  But 
there  are  several  other  groups  and  peaks  which 
are  scarcely  less  grand  and  imposing.  Prof. 
Palmer. 

On  the  east  the  mountains  descend  somewhat 
abruptly  to  the  sea,  while  on  the  west  they  are 
flanked  by  an  arid  plain  which  extends  almost 
without  interruption  to  the  Mediterranean,  and 
which,  fur  some  distance  north  of  Tar,  is  sep¬ 
arated  from  the  Gulf  of  Suez  by  a  low  range  of 
hills  of  tertiary  sandstone.  Northward,  a 
broken  sandstone  district  separates  the  Sinaitic 
mountains  from  the  limestone  plateau  of  the 
Till.  The  mountains  forming  the  crystalline 
“  core”  of  the  peninsula  are  composed  of  gran¬ 
ites,  sienites,  and  varieties  of  gneiss  and  schists, 
traversed  by  dikes  of  diorite  and  dolerite.  They 
exhibit  every  variety  of  profile  :  great  rounded 
bluffs,  isolated  peaks  and  pinnacles,  and  ser¬ 
rated  ridges  rise  up  to  .stupendous  heights,  and 
blending  in  wild  confusion,  present  views  of 
the  most  grand  and  impressive  character.  The 
sandstone  district,  rich  in  antiquities  and  min¬ 
eral  wealth,  is  broken  up  into  quaint  forms 


which,  combined  with  the  rich  coloring,  give  a 
peculiar  charm  to  the  scenery  ;  while  on  its 
jilains  are  found  the  only  tracts  of  deep,  heavy 
sand  met  with  in  the  peninsula.  In  the  cre¬ 
taceous  and  tertiary  districts,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  features  are  devoid  of  interest,  and 
the  scenery  is  monotonous,  except  ivlien  lighted 
up  by  the  rich  glow  of  the  rising  or  setting  sun  ; 
this  district  stretches  as  far  south  as  Tur,  and 
includes  the  dreary  desert  of  El  Gaah,  which 
for  a  distance  of  eighty  miles  stretches  along 
the  western  foot  of  the  mountains.  Wilson. 

Fraas  mentions  a  fact  which  strongly  strikes 
the  notice  of  the  traveller — how,  in  coming  from 
the  sea  to  Sinai  by  Feiran  or  Hebran,  “every 
intermediate  formation  between  the  newest  sea- 
deposit  on  the  shore  and  the  oldest  crystalline 
mountains  is  absolutely  wanting,  and  has  always 
been  wanting.  Of  later  upheavals  in  palmozoic 
times,  or  in  the  second  or  third  age  of  the 
world,  there  is  not  one  indication.  Rugged  and 
steep,  in  undisturbed  and  restful  majesty,  from 
Serbal  to  Umm  Shomer,  and  from  Umm  Shomer 
to  Ras  Mohammed,  rises  in  vertical  cliffs  the 
primeval  gneiss  and  granite,  or,  in  mineralogi- 
cal  terms,  the  masses  of  colorless  qtrartz,  flesh- 
red  felspar,  greenish  hornblende,  and  black 
mica.  Never,  from  the  time  of  their  formation, 
have  these  crystalline  masses  mingled  with  any 
other  geological  period  w'hatever  ;  from  the  be¬ 
ginning  of  things  have  they  thrust  their  heads 
out  of  the  ocean  untouched  by  Silurian  or  De¬ 
vonian,  by  Dyas  and  Trias,  by  Jura  and  chalk. 
Only  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  fastness  has 
the  Red  Sea,  on  the  one  side,  drawn  a  wreath 
of  corals  about  Mount  Sinai,  and  with  its  help 
formed  in  modern  times  a  coast  ;  and  on  the 
other  side  has  the  sea  in  the  cretaceous  era 
spread  out  on  the  north  the  chalk  plateau  of  et- 
Tih  (four  thousand  feet  above  the  sea),  which 
extends  over  all  Syria  to  Lebanon.”  S.  C.  B. 

The  valleys  or  “  wadies”  of  the  peninsula  are 
deeply  cut,  and  descend  rajjidly  to  the  sea  ; 
they  frequently  rise  in  open  plains  or  “  fershes,” 
covered  with  desert  vegetation,  that  lie  at  the 
foot  of  the  higher  peaks  and  form  one  of  the 
most  interesting  topographical  features  of  the 
interior.  In  the  granite  district  the  valleys 
wind  in  broad  reaches  between  lofty  hills  amid 
the  grandest  of  mountain  scenery,  or  break 
through  the  mountain  barriers  by  narrow  de- 
files,  sometimes  not  more  than  twelve  feet  wide, 
in  which  vertical  walls  of  rock,  several  hundred 
feet  high,  rise  up  so  as  almost  to  shut  out  the 
light  of  the  sun.  In  the  sandstone  district  the 
cliffs  are  lower,  but  the  richness  of  their  color¬ 
ing  produces  bright  pictures  of  which  the  eye 


84 


SECTION  9S.  ROUTE  FROM  THE  RED  SEA  TO  SINAI. 


never  grows  weary  ;  while  in  the  limestone  dis¬ 
trict  the  tiaveJler  is  glad  to  hurry  through  the 
dreary  valleys  and  escape  from  the  scorching 
rays  of  the  sun,  which  are  reflected  with  intense 
power  from  the  white  rocks  on  either  hand. 
The  two  great  valleys  of  the  j)eninsula  are  the 
Wady  Feiran  with  its  innumerable  feeders,  one 
descending  from  the  base  of  Jebel  Musa,  on  the 
west  ;  and  the  Wady  liahabeh  draining  an  al¬ 
most  equal  extent  of  country  on  the  east.  The 
former,  from  its  open  character  and  gradual  as¬ 
cent,  is  marked  out  by  Nature  as  the  great  high 
road  into  the  interior  ;  and  it  was  the  route  by 
which  the  Israelites  probably  approached  binai. 

The  climate  of  the  peninsula  is  perhaps  one 
of  the  most  liealthy  in  the  world,  espec  ally  of 
that  i^ortion  of  it  which  is  elevated  from  three 
to  flve  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  There  is 
generally  a  great  difference  between  the  night 
and  day  temperatures,  from  40°  to  50°,  and  even 
on  the  plains  the  thermometer  falls  in  winter  to 
within  a  few  degrees  of  the  freezing-point.  No 
one  who  has  travelled  in  the  desert  can  forget 
the  exhilarating  efl^ect  of  the  fresh  morning  air, 
or  the  joyous  feeling  of  life  and  strength  that  it 
brings  with  it  ;  the  mere  act  of  breathing  is  a 
pleasure,  and  we  can  hardly  be  surprised  at  the 
stories  wdiich  have  been  handed  down  of  the 
great  age  attained  by  many  of  the  hermits  and 
anchorites,  or  that  they  believed  that  man  needs 
in  the  desert  “  hardly  to  eat,  drink,  or  sleep, 
for  the  act  of  breathing  will  give  life  enough.” 
In  summer  the  heat  is  intense,  especially  in  the 
limestone  districts  ;  while  in  winter  the  cold  in 
the  mountains  is  severe,  and  the  frost  brings 
down  huge  masses  of  rock  which,  rolling  down 
the  steep  mountain-sides,  cause  the  mysterious 
noises  often  heard  in  the  higher  districts.  The 
most  remarkable  features  of  the  climate  are  its 
intense  dryness  and  the  clearness  of  the  atmos¬ 
phere,  enabling  places  to  be  seen  at  extraordinary' 
distances.  No  less  remarkable,  too,  is  the  still¬ 
ness  ;  there  is  often  no  sound  that  the  sharpest 
ear  can  detect,  and  for  days  together  the  silence 
is  unbroken  even  by  the  wind.  The  coloring 
too  is  so  varied,  so  gorgeous,  and  at  times  so 
fantastic,  that  any  attempt  to  convey  an  idea  of 
it  either  by  words  or  on  canvas  must  fail.  In 
winter  the  peninsula  is  frequently  visited  by 
heavy  gales  of  wind  unaccompanied  by^^  rain, 
and  the  etfect  of  these  in  the  mountains  is  won¬ 
derfully  grand.  Whirlwinds  often  start  up  like 
magic  from  the  beds  of  the  valleys,  and  hurrv 
along  with  great  force  until  they  are  broken  by 
some  ob.^tacle  ;  and  on  the  plains  the  khamasin 
blows,  parching  and  drying  up  the  air,  and 
striking  the  face  like  a  blast  from  a  furnace  ; 


the  whole  air  is  filled  with  fine  sanl,  which 
penetrates  everywhere  and  presentis  th«  appear¬ 
ance  of  a  dense  haze,  while  sometimes  the 
heavier  jjarticles  are  caught  up  and  driven  across 
the  level  ground  in  a  wild  sand  storm.  The 
average  annual  rainfall  is  small,  but  it  varies  in 
different  y^ears  ;  snow  falls  every  year  on  the 
higher  mountains,  though  never  lying  long,  and 
rarely  reaching  below  fifty-five  hundred  feet 
above  the  sea.  The  peninsula  is  subject  to  vio¬ 
lent  rain-storms,  which  fill  the  dry  beds  of  the 
valleys  with  roaring  torrents,  and  are  sometimes 
attended  with  loss  of  life.  Wilson. 

Productiveness  ;  Rainfall ;  Plant  and  Animal  Life. 

It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  wilderness 
offered  no  means  of  support  to  those  who  in¬ 
habited  it.  Even  now  it  sustains  a  not  incon¬ 
siderable  population,  and  there  is  abundant  evi¬ 
dence  that,  before  neglect  and  ravages  had 
brought  it  to  its  present  state,  it  could,  and  did, 
support  a  very  much  larger  number  of  people. 
There  were  always  Egyptian  colonies  engaged 
in  w'orking  its  large  copper,  iron,  and  turquoise 
mines,  and  these  settlers  would  have  looked 
well  to  its  springs  and  cultivated  spots.  Nor 
could  the  Israelites,  any  more  than  the  modem 
Bedouin,  have  had  difficulty  in  supporting,  in 
the  desert,  their  numerous  herds  and  flocks. 
These  would  again  supply  them  with  milk  and 
cheese,  and  occasionally'  with  meat.  A.  E. 

Long  before  the  children  of  Israel  marched 
through  the  wilderness,  the  mines  w'ere  worked 
by  the  Egyptians,  and  the  destruction  of  trees 
was  i^robably  going  on.  It  is  a  well-known  fact 
that  the  rainfall  of  a  country  depends  in  a  great 
measure  upon  the  abundance  of  its  trees.  The 
destruction  of  the  trees  in  Sinai  has,  no  doubt, 
diminished  the  rainfall,  which  has  also  gradu¬ 
ally  been  lessened  by  the  advance  of  the  desert, 
and  decrease  of  cultivation  on  the  north  and 
northwest  ;  whereby  a  large  rain-making  area 
has  been  gradually  removed.  Holland. 

Ample  proof  exists  that  the  Sinaitic  peninsula 
was,  in  old  time,  a  well-wooded  region.  To  this 
day  trunks  of  palm-trees  are  often  w'ashed  up 
on  the  shores  of  the  Bed  Sea,  as  silent  witnesses 
of  rushing  floods  sweeping  down  valley's,  whence 
w^ater  and  palm-trees  have  for  centuries  disap¬ 
peared.  Travellers  constantly  find  remains  of 
dwellings  of  stone,  gardens,  and  enclosures,  tes¬ 
tifying  to  the  existence,  in  past  ages,  of  a  settled 
population  ;  and  even  as  late  as  the  sixth  and 
seventh  centuries  of  our  era  numerous  inhabi¬ 
tants  existed  in  regions  now  utterly^  desolate. 
Even  now  the  rainfall  absolutely  is  not  incon¬ 
siderable,  but  nothing  is  done  to  husband  it. 


PltODUCTlVENESS  OF  THE  PEN  IE  SUL  A. 


85 


Before  the  country  was  denudeil  of  woods  it 
must  have  been  very  large,  lying,  as  the  Penin¬ 
sula  of  Sinai  does,  just  north  of  the  great  Indian 
Oceao,  whence  every  southern  wind  would  come 
laden  with  clouds.  But  the  whole  country  has 
been  so  ravaged  by  the  Arabs,  both  before  and 
since  the  time  of  Mahomet,  that  all  its  fertility 
has  disai^peared,  and  yearly  it  sinks  still  lower  [ 
in  the  scale.  For  the  Bedouins  ruthlessly  de¬ 
stroy  the  remaining  acacia-trees  to  make  them 
inio  charcoal,  which  now  forms  the  chief — per¬ 
haps  it  might  be  said  the  only  -  traffic  of  the 
peninsula.  II.  P.  S. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  vegetation  of  the 
wadies  has  considerablj'^  decreased  from  the  vio¬ 
lence  of  the  winter  torrents,  the  reckless  waste 
of  I  he  Bedouin  tribes  (who  have  of  late  years 
ruthlessly  destroyed  the  acacia-trees  for  char¬ 
coal),  The  Wady  er-Jiahak  (at  Sinai),  which 
was  ‘‘  a  vast  green  plain”  in  the  sixteenth  cen¬ 
tury,  is  now  entirely  bare.  Seetzen  gives  a  list 
of  sixty-three  places  as  a  proof  that  the  region 
from  the  Hijaz  to  the  neighborhood  of  Damas¬ 
cus,  now  arid  and  desolate,  was  once  extremely 
populous.  The  gardens  at  the  Wells  of  Moses 
(Ayuit  3fusa)  and  at  Mount  Sinai  are  conspicu¬ 
ous  examples  of  successful  attempts  to  produce 
vegetation  in  this  desert.  There  seems  to  be  no 
deficiency  of  rain.  Human  fostering  hands 
might  extend  the  prospect  of  possible  resources 
from  the  present  “  transparent  coating  of  vege¬ 
tation”  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai  to  a  point  as 
far  in  excess  of  jireseiit  facts  as  were  the  num¬ 
bers  of  the  Israelitish  host  above  the  six  thou¬ 
sand  Bedouins  computed  now  to  form  the  pop¬ 
ulation  of  the  desert.  E.  S.  Poole. 

That  rain  actually  fell  during  the  passage  of 
the  Israelites  through  the  country  we  learn  from 
Ps.  68  ;  7-9.  V  The  earth  shook,  ihe  heavens 
also  dropped  at  the  presence  of  God.”  “  Thou, 

0  God,  didst  send  a  plerdifid  rain,"  etc.  And 
such  passages  as  “  the  clouds  poured  out  water’  ’ 
(Ps.  77  : 17),  where  the  allusion  is  evidently  to 
Sinai,  also  tend  to  confirm  the  supposition  that 
the  peninsula  was  better  supplied  with  water  at 
the  time  of  the  exodus.  Prof.  Palme?'. 

Wherever  there  is  running  water,  abundant 
vegetation  is  found  ;  the  gardens  in  the  valleys 
round  Jebel  Musa  are  well  stocked  with  fruit- 
trees,  and  in  the  lower  valleys  there  are  fertile 
and  beautiful  oases,  such  as  the  great  palm-grove 
in  Wady  Feiran,  and  the  lesser-known  oases  of 
Dhahab,  En  Nuweibeh,  Ain  Hudherah,  Hebran, 
Tor,  etc.  The  general  vegetation  is  sparse,  but 
there  are  not  wanting  indications  that  it  was 
formerly  more  plentiful,  and  even  now  there  is, 
at  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  a  considerable 


amount  of  vegetation  on  the  upland  plains. 
The  rimlh,  <ibeiih<ran,  sliiah,  nairr,  sekkeran,  the 
rose  of  Jericho,  and  other  almost  sapless  herbs 
and  shrubs  peculiar  to  desert  soils,  are  found 
at  different  altitudes,  affording  sufficient  pas¬ 
turage  for  the  Bedawi  flocks  and  herds  ;  and 
after  the  winter  rains  small  patches  of  grass 
I  may  be  seen  on  the  hill-sides,  creeping  jjlants 
of  Various  kinds  come  to  life,  and  in  some  places 
the  ground  is  covered  with  a  profusion  of  small 
flowers.  Of  larger  trees,  tbe  larjah,  or  tamarisk, 
from  which  the  traditional  manna  exudes,  oc¬ 
curs  in  several  localities,  often  in  dense  thick¬ 
ets  ;  the  ban-tree  grows  on  the  sides  of  the 
hills  ;  the  retem,  or  broom,  the  “  juniper”  of 
the  Bible,  under  which  Elijah  “  lay  aiul  slept,” 
is  found  in  most  of  the  valleys,  and  puts  forth 
in  spring  beautiful  white  and  purple  blossoms  ; 
while  the  plains  and  open  valleys  are  dotted 
with  the  sey(d,  or  acacia,  the  ”  shittah-tree”  used 
so  largely  in  the  construction  of  the  tabernacle 
and  ark  of  the  tabernacle.  Wil>on. 

In  every  wady  which  descends  from  the  dark 
range  of  the  Tih  Mountains  to  the  Fed  Sea  is  a 
long  line  of  vegetation  ;  and  almost  everywhere 
in  these  wadies  water,  more  or  less  potable, 
could  be  obtained  by  digging.  In  many  places, 
as  in  Wady  Gharandel  and  Wady  Hamr, 
.springs  exist  from  which  camels  and  Arabs  can 
drink.  In  the  wadies  and  on  the  plateaus  there 
are  hundreds  of  species  of  plants,  man}^  of  them 
annuals,  with  no  great  depth  of  root,  and  others 
very  succulent,  .and  suggesting,  by  their  fat, 
juicy  leaves,  a  copious  source  of  moisture  be . 
neath  or  above  the  soil.  In  many  places  there 
are  thickets  of  acacias,  tamarisks,  palms,  retem 
(juniper),  jujube,  and  other  trees  and  bushes, 
furnishing  fuel,  pasturage,  and  a  certain  amount 
of  fruit.  In  addition  to  these  sptingless  re¬ 
gions,  with  moisture  enough  beneath  the  sur¬ 
face  to  support  the  growth  of  trees,  shrubs,  and 
herbs,  there  are  a  number  of  oases,  in  which  are 
gardens,  wells,  and  even  streams  of  limpid, 
drinkable  water.  In  the  Tih,  where,  in  place 
of  the  rugged  mountain-chains  and  narrow  wa¬ 
dies  of  Sinai,  there  is  a  broad  plateau  traversed 
by  low  ranges  of  barren  hills,  there  are  some 
tracts  of  soil,  from  which,  in  seasons  when  rain 
falls,  abundant  harvests  can  be  gathered. 
Throughout  Sinai  and  the  Tih  there  are  at  times 
copious  rains,  as  the  complete  denudation  of 
the  mountains  of  soil  and  the  great  granite  and 
sandstone  bowlders  carried  down  by  the  tor¬ 
rents  testify.  There  are,  in  several  of  the  wadies, 
remnants  of  lacustrine  deposits,  which  show 
that  dikes  must  once  have  crossed  and  dammed 
up  the  valleys,  and  that  chains  of  lakes  existed. 


8G 


SECTION  98.  BOUTE  FROM  THE  RED  SEA  TO  SINAI. 


There  is  also  considerable  animal  life  in  the 
desert.  The  ibex  and  gazelle,  and  many  small 
mammals,  and  lizards  and  snakes,  exist  among 
the  mountains  of  Sinai,  Biiais  of  many  kinds 
abound  in  the  variousregiuns  of  the  wildernt-s.-'. 
The  Arabs  raise  large  droves  of  camels  and  asses, 
and,  in  some  places,  sheep  and  goats.  For  all 
these  animals  there  are  watering  jilaces,  hnown 
to  themselves  and  their  masters,  and  they  all 
tind  pasturage.  Pos'. 

3Iount  Serhal,  and  ihe  View  from  its  Illyhesi  Peak. 

Serbal,  next  to  Sinai,  is  the  most  interesting 
mountain  in  the  peninsula.  It  is  even  more 
grand  and  striking  in  outline  than  its  honored 
rival.  It  rises  high  above  the  neighboring  sum¬ 
mits— “all  in  lilac  hues  and  purple  shadows,” 
as  the  morning  sun  sheds  upon  it  his  bright 
beams.  It  is  a  vast  mass  of  peaks.  The  high¬ 
est  ]ieak  is  a  huge  block  of  granite.  On  this 
you  stand  and  overlook  the  whole  Peninsula  of 
Sinai.  The  Eed  Sea  with  the  Egyptian  hills 
opposite,  on  tlie  east  the  vast  cluster  of  what  is 
commonly  called  Sinai,  and  lowering  high  above 
all,  the  less  famous  but  most  magnificent  of  all, 
the  Mont  Blanc  of  these  parts,  the  unknown  and 
unvisited  Umin  Shomer.  Porter. 

The  entire  Sinaitii;  groui^  presents  the  most 
impressive  indications  of  the  terrible  convul¬ 
sions  by  which  its  labyrinth  of  mountain  heights 
has  been  rent  and  torn  since  its  first  upheaval. 
From  the  summit  of  Mount  Serbal,  as  from  a 
watch-tower  in  high  heaven,  xine  looks  down 
upon  a  perfect  sea  of  mountain  ridges,  often 
jrrecipitous,  always  intenseh^  steep,  and  culmi¬ 
nating  in  a  sharp  edge  at  the  height  of  two,  three, 
or  four  thousand  feet  from  their  base.  The  en¬ 
tire  line  of  these  mountains  is  seen  to  have  been 
rent  transversely  by  clefts  from  the  base  to  the 
summit,  filled  with  injections  of  basaltic  rocks, 
strijiing  the  niDimtain  on  every  side  with  black 
bands.  The  whole  assemblage  is  a  perfect  gan¬ 
glion  of  ridges  thrown  up  in  wild  confusion  with 
its  strata  dislocated,  disjointed,  dipping  in  all 
directions  and  at  every  angle  from  horizontal  to 
perpendicular.  The  mountains  of  Sinai  form 
no  system,  no  regular  ranges,  like  the  Alps,  the 
AjDennines,  the  Pyrenees,  or  the  mountains  of 
America.  Coleman. 

The  view  from  Mount  Serbal  was  wide,  and 
in  its  kind  superb  — a  vast  mass  of  seamed,  rag¬ 
ged,  bare,  parti -colored  mountains,  intersected 
b}^  a  twisted  maze  of  deep  narrow  valleys,  that 
were  sharply  marked  by  their  sand-colored  beds. 
Its  wildness  seemed  like  a  caprice  of  Nature  — 
a  peef)  into  some  other  world,  almost  as  strange 
as  the  surface  of  the  uioon  seen  through  a  pow'- 


erful  telescope.  It  was  such  a  scene  as  can  oe 
witnessed  probably  nowhere  else  but  on  this 
peninsula  ;  and  it  well  lepaid  the  toil.  Our 
starting-point  at  Suez  was  indicated  by  the  clear 
peak  (if  Jebel  Atukah,  south  of  which  could  be 
seen  the  long  line  of  African  mountains,  and  on 
this  side  the  blue  waters  of  the  Bed  Sea.  We 
could  see  wdiere  we  had  crossed  the  plain  of  El 
Murkha,  the  mouth  of  Wady  Feiran,  and  south 
of  that  the  long,  unbroken  plain  of  El  Gaah,  the 
palm-grove  of  Tor,  ihe  depression  that  forms 
the  end  of  Wady  Hebran.  From  Jebel  Atakah 
eastward  the  e\  e  ran  along  the  range  of  et  Tih, 
the  heights  of  Sarabit  el  Khadim,  the  sand-plain 
of  Debbet  er  Bamleh,  and  apparently  the  moun¬ 
tains  of  Edom  in  the  northeast,  till  it  rested 
upon  St.  Catherine  and  Emm  Shomer,  of  the 
Sinai  group,  in  the  southeast.  In  the  circle  be¬ 
tween  lay  Wadies  Feiran,  es-Sheikh,  Solaf,  and 
a  whole  netwoik  of  valleys  twined  round  among 
this  mass  of  dark-red  mountains,  rendered  as 
distinct  to  tbe  eye  by  their  lighter  beds  as 
though  they  had  been  purposely  colored  on  a 
map.  The  geography  of  ihe  peninsula  indeed 
lay  here  almost  completely  mapped  out  to  the 
sight.  Thus  we  could  trace  the  whole  coast¬ 
line  as  far  as  Tor,  and  see  the  entire  practicable¬ 
ness  of  a  journey  to  the  mouth  of  Wady  Hebran. 
S.  C.  B. 

Serbal  rises  so  perpendicularly  that  its  five 
separate  masses  appear  like  gigantic  columns, 
lifting  their  heads  against  the  sky.  We  stood 
on  the  brow'  of  a  precipice,  w'hich  might  well 
make  one  shudder  as  he  advanced  to  the  point 
of  the  cliff,  and  looked  over  to  a  depth  of  four 
thousand  feet.  We  saw  beneath  us  a  panorama 
as  extensive  as  that  seen  from  the  Bighi  ;  but 
instead  of  the  smiling  cantons  of  Switzerland, 
wdth  green  fields  and  waving  forests  and  crystal 
lakes,  W'e  saw  only  the  barrenness  of  utter  deso¬ 
lation,  yet  in  such  awful  forms  as  produced  an 
impression  of  indescribable  grandeur.  All 
round  us  the  horizon  was  piled  with  mountains. 
Indeed  the  whole  jreninsula  is  a  sea  of  moun¬ 
tains,  in  which  jreaks  on  jreaks  are  tossed  up 
like  weaves.  It  seems  as  if  they  had  been 
thrown  up  out  of  a  lake  of  fire  ;  as  if  in  a  re¬ 
mote  geological  period,  when  the  body  of  our 
planet  was  a  molten  mass,  and  material  forces 
were  acting  with  an  intensity  and  violence  of 
which  w'e  have  no  conception,  in  some  tremen¬ 
dous  convulsion  the  flaming  crests  were  tossed 
against  the  sky,  and  then  suddenly  arrested  by 
the  Creator’s  hand,  which  held  them  fixed  in 
their  utrnost  wildness,  so  to  remain  forever. 
Betw'een  these  awful  mountains,  and  winding 
round  among  them  in  countless  turnings,  are 


SECTION  DO,  *  JOURNEY  TO  REP  HID  IM. 


87 


llio  allies  or  livir  beds,  through  which  in  the 
time  of  rains  and  storms  there  pour  furious  tor¬ 
rents,  which  as  quickly  pass  away  to  the  sea, 
leaving  behind  them  only  the  traces  of  the  ruin 
they  have  made.  Of  these  wadies,  one  here 
obtains  the  most  complete  view.  See  how  they 
wind  ami  wind,  mining  hither  and  thither  in 
endles.s  confusion  !  Here  then  we  have  the  com¬ 
plete  anatomy  of  the  Sinaitic  peninsula.  One 
takes  it  in  at  a  glance  in  its  whole  extent,  from 
end  to  end,  and  from  side  to  side.  It  is  en¬ 
closed  on  the  east  and  the  west  by  the  two  arms 
of  the  Bed  Sea — the  Gulfs  of  Suez  and  of  Akaba, 
The  former  seemed  to  lie  at  our  feet,  and  fol¬ 
lowing  it  with  the  eye,  we  could  almost  see  the 
city  of  Suez  itself.  The  Gulf  cf  Akaba  w'as 
farther  away,  and  wasliidden  from  us  by  inter¬ 
vening  mountains.  It  lies  in  a  depression,  but 
over  it  and  beyond  it  we  saw  distinctly  the  long 
range  of  the  mountains  of  Arabia,  as  across  the 
Gulf  of  Suez  we  saw  the  mountains  of  Africa  ; 
while  southward  rose  the  great  heights  of  Mount 


Catherine  and  Umm  Shomer.  What  a  glorious 
vision  of  mountains  to  be  embraced  in  one 
view  !  One  such  sight  were  enough  to  repay  a 
hundred  times  the  fatigue  of  our  climb  to  the 
summit  of  Serbal,  And  what  memories  did 
those  names  recall  !  That  Gulf  of  Suez  was  the 
sea  across  which  Moses  led  the  Israelites  ;  on 
the  Gulf  of-  Akaba  sailed  the  fleets  of  Solomon  ; 
while  turning  northward  the  eye  rested  on  a 
long  line  of  white  clifl's — the  escarpment  of  a 
tableland  which  was  the  Great  and  Terrible 
Wilderness  in  which  the  Israelites  wandered 
forty  years.  Thus  a  wonderful  nature  M'as 
cliosen  for  a  w^onderful  history.  It  is  this  min¬ 
gling  of  the  moral  sublime  with  the  sublime  in 
nature  which  makes  the  great  interest  of  the 
Peninsula  of  Sinai.  Beyond  all  the  stupendous 
altitudes  of  the  mountains,  beyond  the  Alpine 
heights  and  fathomless  abysses,  in  power  to  stir 
the  soul  with  awe,  is  the  human  historj'  that 
has  been  enacted  amid  these  great  forms  of 
nature.  Feld. 


Section  99, 

\ 

THREE  ENCAMPMENTS.  DOPHKAH  AND  ALUSH.  BEPHIDIM :  IN  FEIBAN  OB  ES 
SHEIKH?  SMITING  THE  BOCK.  BATTLE  WITH  AMALEK. 

Exodus  17  ;  1-16.  Nu.  33  :  12-14. 

Nu.  33  12  And  they  journeyed  from  the  wilderness  of  Sin,  and  pitched  in  Dophkah.  And 

13  they  journeyed  from  Dophkah,  and  pitched  in  Alush.  And  they  journeyed  from 

14  Alush,  and  pitched  in  Bephidim,  where  was  no  water  for  the  people  to  drink. 

Ex.  17  1  And  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel  journeyed  from  the  wilderness 

of  Sin,  by  their  journeys,  according  to  the  commandment  of  the  Loud,  and  pitched 

2  in  Bephidim  :  and  there  was  no  water  for  the  people  to  drink.  Wherefore  the  people 
strove  with  Moses,  and  said,  Give  us  water  that  we  may  drink.  And  Moses  said 

3  unto  them.  Why  strive  ye  with  me  ?  wherefore  do  ye  tempt  the  Loud  ?  And  the 
people  thirsted  there  for  water  ;  and  the  people  murmured  against  Moses,  and  said. 
Wherefore  hast  thou  brought  us  up  out  of  Egypt,  to  kill  us  and  our  children  and  our 

4  cattle  with  thirst?  And  Moses  cried  unto  the  Lord,  saying.  What  shall  I  do  unto 

5  this  people?  they  be  almost  ready  to  stone  me.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses, 
Pass  on  before  the  people,  and  take  with  thee  of  the  elders  of  Israel  ;  and  Ihy  rod, 

6  wherewith  thou  smotest  the  river,  take  in  thine  hand,  and  go.  Behold,  I  will  stand 
before  thee  there  upon  the  rock  in  Horeb  ;  and  thou  shalt  smite  the  rock,  and  there 
shall  come  water  out  of  it,  that  the  people  may  drink.  And  Moses  did  so  in  the 

7  sight  of  the  elders  of  Israel,  And  he  called  the  name  of  the  place  Massah,  and 
Meribah,  because  of  tbe  striving  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  because  they  tempted 
the  Lord,  saying,  Is  the  Lord  among  us,  or  not  ? 

8  Then  came  Amalek,  and  fought  with  Israel  in  Bephidim.  And  Moses  said  unto 

9  Joshua,  Choose  us  out  men,  and  go  out,  fight  with  Amalek  :  to-morrow  I  will  stand 


88 


SECTION  99.  THREE  ENCAMPMENTS. 


10  on  the  top  of  the  hill  with  the  rod'  of  God  in  mine  hand.  So  Joshua  did  as  Moses 
had  said  to  him,  and  fought  with  Amalek  :  and  Moses,  Aaron,  and  Hur  went  up  to 

11  the  top  of  the  hill.  And  it  came  to  jDass,  when  Moses  held  up  his  hand,  that  Israel 

12  prevailed  :  and  when  he  let  down  his  hand,  Amalek  prevailed.  But  Moses’  hands 
were  heavy  ;  and  they  took  a  stone,  and  put  it  under  him,  and  he  .sat  thereon  ;  and 
Aaron  and  Hur  sta^^ed  up  his  hands,  the  one  on  the  one  side,  and  the  other  on  the' 

13  other  side  ;  and  his  hands  were  steady  until  the  going  down  of  the  sun.  And  Joshua 

14  discomfited  Amalek  and  his  people  with  the  edge  of  the  sword.  And  the  Loun  said 
unto  Moses,  Write  this  for  a  memorial  in  a  book,  and  rehearse  it  in  the  ears  of 
Joshua  :  that  I  will  utterly  blot  out  the  remembrance  of  Amalek  from  under  heaven. 

15  And  Moses  built  an  altar  and  called  the  name  of  it  Jehovah-nissi :  and  he  said.  The  Lord 

16  hath  sworn  :  the  Lord  will  have  war  with  Amalek  from  generation  to  generation. 


God  was  pleased  wonderfully  to  represent  the 
progress  of  his  redeemed  Church  through  the 
world  to  their  eternal  inheritance  by  the  journey 
of  the  children  of  Israel  tnrough  the  wilderness, 
from  Egypt  to  Canaan.  Here  all  the  various 
steps  of  the  redemption  of  the  Church  by  Christ 
were  represented,  from  the  beginning  to  its  con¬ 
summation  in  glory.  The  state  they  are  re¬ 
deemed  from  is  represented  by  Egypt  and  their 
bondage  there.  The  purchase  of  their  redemp¬ 
tion  was  represented  by  the  sacrifice  of  the 
paschal  lamb,  which  was  offered  up  that  night 
that  God  slew  all  the  firstborn  of  Egypt.  The 
beginning  of  the  application  of  the  redemption 
of  Christ’s  Church  in  their  conversion  was  rep¬ 
resented  by  Israel’s  going  out  of  Egypt,  and 
passing  through  the  Red  Sea  in  so  extraordi¬ 
nary  and  miraculous  a  manner.  The  travel  of 
the  Church  through  this  world,  and  the  various 
changes  through  which  it  passes  iri  different 
stages,  was  represented  by  the  journey  of  the 
Israelites  through  the  wilderness.  The  manner 
of  the  Church’s  being  conducted  by  Christ  was 
represented  by  the  Israelites  being  led  by  the 
pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  the  pillar  of  fire  by 
night.  The  manner  of  the  Church’s  being  sup¬ 
ported  in  their  progress,  supplied  with  spiritual 
food  and  continual  daily  communications  from 
God,  was  represented  by  God’s  supplying  the 
children  of  Israel  with  manna  from  heaven,  and 
water  out  of  the  rock.  And  innumerable  other 
things  they  met  with  wmre  lively  images  of 
things  which  the  Church  and  saints  meet  with 
in  all  ages  of  the  world.  That  these  things  are 
typical  of  things  that  pertain  to  the  Christian 
Church  is  manifest  from  1  Cor.  10  :  11.  The 
apostle,  speaking  of  those  very  things  which  we 
have  now  mentioned,  says  expressly,  that  they 
happened  unto  them  for  types,  or  ensamples,  for 
our  admonition.  Edwards. 

iVll.  :  fll,  112.  The  next  two  encamp¬ 
ments  [not  noted  in  Exodus],  Dophkah  and 
Alush,  are  mere  names  in  the  itinerary  without 
any  special  description  ;  they  were  intermediate 


stations  between  the  Wilderness  of  Sin  and 
Rephidim.  Wilson. - It  is  impo.ssible  to  iden¬ 

tify  these  stations.  There  are  no  existing  names 
in  the  peninsula  which  correspond  with  them. 
They  may  be  placed  somewhere  in  Wady  Feiran 
or  Wady  es  Sheikh,  up  which  Israel  must  have 
marched  to  Mount  Sinai.  Holland. 

Ex.  17  :  I.  Rephidim.  As  this  is  the 
only  important  locality  between  the  Red  Sea 
crossing  and  Sinai  concerning  wdiich  there  is  a 
difference  of  opinion  between  equally  qualified 
explorers,  it  is  deemed  proper  to  present,  on 
the  one  side,  the  view  of  Professor  Palmer,  Cap¬ 
tain  Wilson,  and  other  members  of  the  Ordnance 
Surs^ey,  accepted  by  President  Bartlett  ;  and, 
on  the  other,  that  of  Rev.  F.  W.  Holland,  in  ac¬ 
cord  with  Dr.  Robinson  before  him.  B. 

1.  The  Oasis  in  W'ady  Feiran,  as  the  Site  of 

Rephidim. 

At  the  base  of  Mount  Serbal,  in  Wady  Feiran, 
is  a  large  and  comparatively  fertile  tract,  with  a 
palm-grove  which  extends  for  miles  along  the 
valley.  It  is  the  most  fertile  part  of  the  penin¬ 
sula,  and  one  which  the  Amalekites  would  be 
naturally  anxious  to  defend  against  an  invading 
force  ;  in  this  respect  it  answers  to  the  position 
of  Rephidim.  [Mr.  Palmer  “  discovered  a  rock 
which  Arab  tradition  regards  as  the  site  of  the 
miracle.’*]  The  great  objection  to  the  identifi¬ 
cation  of  Feiran  with  Rephidim  is  that  the  Bible 
describes  the  next  stage  of  the  journey  thus  : 
“  For  they  were  departed  from  Rephidim,  and 
were  come  to  the  Desert  of  Sinai,  and  had 
pitched  in  the  wilderness  ;  and  there  Israel 
camped  before  the  mount  ”  (Ex.  19  :  2).  Now, 
if  Jebel  Musa  be  Sinai,  it  could  hardly  be 
reached  [from  Feiran]  in  a  single  day’s  journey 
by  any  large  host  with  heavy  baggage.  The  dif¬ 
ficulty  may  be  explained  away  on  several  hy¬ 
potheses.  The  journey  from  Feiran  to  the  Nagb 
Hawa  may  be  considered  as  the  last  stage  of  the 
march,  and  when  thej'’  had  come  to  that  pass 
which  forms  the  gate  of  the  Sinai  district,  they 


LOCATION  OF  REPIIIDIM. 


89 


may  be  fairly  said  to  have  reached  “  the  Desert 
of  Sinai.”  The  words,  “and  there  Israel 
camped  before  the  mount,”  seem  to  imply  a 
separate  operation.  They  had  reached  the  wil¬ 
derness  of  Sinai— that  is,  the  Sinai  district  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Nagb  Hawa  ;  and  here  they 
began  to  look  out  for  a  suitable  place  for  a  per¬ 
manent  camp.  The  operation  of  pitching  the 
camp  for  so  protracted  a  stay  would  occupy  a 
longer  period  than  usual.  If  it  be  objected  that 
the  distance  from  Feiran  to  the  Pass  of  Nagb 
Hawa  is  too  long  for  a  single  day’s  journey,  I 
would  answer  that  a  day’s  journey  is  not  neces¬ 
sarily  restricted  to  eight  or  nine  hours.  Prof. 
Pahmr. 

Captain  Wilson  states  his  reason  for  placing 
the  site  of  Kephidizi  in  Wady  Feiran  to  be  as 
follows  :  (1)  He  does  not  consider  it  necessary 
to  place  Rephidim  within  one  day’s  march  of 
Mount  Sinai,  since  he  thinks  that,  in  Ex.  19  : 2, 
there  is  an  indication  of  a  break  in  the  march 
of  the  Israelites,  the  operations  of  ”  pitching  in 
the  wilderness”  and  “  encamping  before  the 
mount  ’  ’  being  separate  and  distinct.  (2)  Be¬ 
lieving  that  the  Amalekites  would  probably  come 
out  to  oppose  the  march  of  the  invaders  of  their 
country,  he  holds  that  the  position  in  Wady 
Feiran  would  for  military  reasons  be  more  nat¬ 
urally  selected  as  the  point  of  attack.  Captain 
Wilson  and  the  other  members  of  the  expedition 
consider  Jebel  Tahunah,  which  is  situated  op¬ 
posite  the  mouth  of  Wady  Aleyat,  to  be  the  hill 
on  which  Moses  sat  while  Aaron  and  Hur  sup¬ 
ported  his  arms  as  he  overlooked  the  battle.  I 
have  little  doubt  that  this  was  believed  to  be 
the  site  of  Rephidim  w'hen  Serbal  was  held  to 
be  the  traditional  Mount  Sinai  ;  but  its  distance 
from  Jebel  Musa,  about  twenty-five  miles  even 
by  the  most  direct  road,  seems  to  me  to  prove 
that  the  site  of  the  battle  must  be  looked  for  at 
a  nearer  point  to  that  mountain.  Holland. 

2.  El  Watiyeh,  in  the  Wady  Es  Sheikh. 

The  Wady  Sheikh  is  the  great  valley  of  the 
western  Sinai,  which  collects  the  torrents  of  a 
great  number  of  smaller  wadies.  The  Wady 
Feiran  is  a  continuation  [on  the  west]  of  Wady 

Sheikh.  Barckhardl. - The  Wady  es-Sheikh,  a 

broad  open  valley  extending  uj)  to  the  base  of 
Jebel  J.Iusa  itself,  cuts  right  through  the  granite 
wall,  forming  a  narrow  defile  with  a  tolerably 
level  floor  and  lofty  precipitous  rocks  on  either 
side.  In  this  gorge,  which  is  called  El  Waiiyeh, 
the  Arabs  show  a  large  detached  rock,  not  un¬ 
like  an  arm-chair  in  shape,  as  the  seat  of  the 
prophet  Moses.  Mr.  Holland  suggests  that  this 
may  be  the  site  of  Rephidim.  In  many  waj'S  the 


situation  answers  well  to  the  description  given 
in  the  Bible.  El  Waiiyeh  is  the  only  practicable 
pass  into  the  fertile  district  around  Jebel  Musa, 
and  one  which  the  Amalekites  would  conse¬ 
quently  be  desirous  of  holding  against  an  invad¬ 
ing  force.  There  is  also  ample  room  for  the 
encampment  of  either  host,  and,  the  pass  once 
crossed,  abundance  of  water  within  easy  reach. 

Prof.  Palmer. - Captain  Wilson  and  Captain 

Palmer  (Ordnance  Survey)  both  acknowledge 
the  value  of  the  pass  of  El  Watiyeh  as  a  strong 
military  position  that  could  be  held  with  ease 
against  a  large  force,  and  would  certainly  place 
the  site  of  Rephidim  there,  if  not  at  Wady 

Feiran.  Holland. - The  gorge  of  El  Watiyeh 

was  one  of  the  grandest  I  had  ever  seen  ;  the 
walls  of  red  porphyry  rising  from  eight  hundred 
to  one  thousand  feet  above  the  remarkably  level 
floor  of  the  pass  itself.  On  emerging  we  found 
ourselves  in  an  open  space,  and  in  front  of  a 
succession  of  granitic  heights  and  intervening 
valleys  by  which  the  ascent  to  Jebel  Musa  is 
made.  Hull. 

My  reasons  for  arriving  at  the  conclusion  that 
the  pass  of  El  Watiyeh  marks  the  site  of  the 
battle  of  Rephidim  are,  first,  its  nearness  to 
Jebel  Musa,  from  which  it  is  distant  only  about 
twelve  miles,  and  the  Bible  apparently  speaks 
of  Rephidim  as  within  a  day’s  journey  of  Mount 
Sinai  (Ex.  19  : 2  ;  Nu.  33  : 15)  ;  secondl}",  my 
belief  that  all  the  requirements  of  the  battle  are 
to  be  found  there.  The  pass  consists  of  a  nar¬ 
row  defile  about  three  hundred  yards  in  length, 
and  from  forty  to  sixty  yards  in  breadth,  with 
a  level  bed,  but  enclosed  on  either  side  by  lofty 
perpendicular  rocks.  A  very  remarkable  line  of 
precipitous  granite  mountains  stretches  across 
the  centre  of  the  peninsula  from  the  head  of 
Wady  Hibran,  and  presents  an  imposing  barrier 
to  an  invading  force.  In  this  line  of  mountains 
are  found  only  three  passes,  the  most  eastern 
being  that  of  El  Watiyeh,  which  affords  an  easy 
road,  while  the  two  western  passes  of  Nagb 
Hawa  and  Wady  T'lah  are  too  narrow  and  rugged 
to  allow  even  a  laden  camel  to  pass  without 
great  difficulty.  This  natural  barrier  defends 
on  the  north  the  high  and  well -watered  cen¬ 
tral  group  of  mountains  which  includes  Jebel 
Musa,  and  the  holding  of  the  passes  by  the 
Amalekites  would  then  secure  to  them  the  most 
fertile  portion  of  the  whole  peninsula.  Holland. 

Rev.  F.  W.  Holland  [who  made  three  tours 
through  the  peninsula]  places  Rephidim  at  the 
pass  of  El  Waiiyeh,  at  the  eastern  end  of  Wady 
es-Sheikh,  to  the  north  of  the  point  where  it 
joins  the  Wady  Ed  Deir.  He  believes  that  the 
Israelites  passed  through  the  Wady  Feiran  with* 


90 


SECTION  99. 


REPHIDIM. 


out  encounterinj^  oppositicn,  aod  that  they  then 
traversed  the  Wady  e.s-Slit  ikh  to  this  poiut, 
which  is  shut  in  l)y  perpendicular  rucks  on 
either  side.  The  Amalekites  holding  this  detile 
would  be  in  a  position  of  great  strength  ;  and 
their  choice  of  this  point  for  the  attack  is  well 
accounted  for,  supposing  the  Israelites  to  have 
reached  it  without  previous  molestation.  It 
commands  the  entrance  to  the  wadies  surround¬ 
ing  the  central  group  of  Sinai,  on  and  about 
which  the  Bedouins  pasture  their  flocks  during 
the  sammer.  All  the  requirements  of  the  nar¬ 
rative  appear  to  be  satisfied  by  this  assumption. 
On  the  north  is  a  large  plain  destitute  of  water 
for  the  encampment  of  the  Israelites  ;  there  is 
a  conspicuous  hill  to  the  north  of  the  defile 
commanding  the  battle-field,  presenting  a  bare 
cliff,  such  as  we  may  suppose  the  rock  to  have 
been  which  Moses  struck  with  his  rod.  On  the 
south  of  the  pass  is  another  plain  sufficient  for 
the  encampment  of  the  Amalekites,  within  easy 
reach  of  an  abundant  supply  of  water.  At  the 
foot  of  the  hill  on  which  Moses  most  probably 
sat,  if  this  be  Rephidim,  the  Arabs  point  out  a 
rock,  which  they  call  “  the  seat  of  the  prophet 
Moses.”  The  arguments  appear  to  preponder¬ 
ate  in  favor  of  this  view,  which  accepts  all  the 
facts  ascertained  by  the  Expedition  of  Surve}^ 
and  presents  a  series  of  coincidences  of  great 
weight  in  the  settlement  of  the  question.  Canon 
Cook. 

The  summary  statement  of  Mr.  Holland  is  as 
follows  :  “  The  features  of  the  ground  at  El 
Watiyeh  agree  well  with  the  short  account  which 
is  given  us  of  the  battle  of  Rephidim.  There  is 
a  large  plain  destitute  of  water  for  the  encamp¬ 
ment  of  the  Israelites  ;  a  conspicuous  hill  on 
the  north  side  of  the  defile  commanding  the 
battle  ground  and  presenting  a  bare  cliff,  such 
as  we  may  suppose  the  rock  to  have  been  which 
Moses  struck  ;  and  another  large  open  tract  of 
country  on  the  south  of  the  pass  for  the  en¬ 
campment  of  the  Amalekites,  with  abundance 
of  water  within  easy  reach.”  We  add,  that  in 
two  other  respects  this  location  of  Rephidim 
seems  to  be  in  closer  accord  with  the  narrative  : 
(1)  In  its  considerably  greater  distance  from  the 
Wilderness  of  Sin,  ample  space  is  allowed  for 
the  two  intermediate  stations  mentioned  in  Nu. 
33:11,  12,  Dnphkah  and  Alush.  (2)  By  its 
nf^arer  proximity  to  Horeb,  it  better  accounts 
for  the  smiting  of  the  rock  in  Horeb  while  the 
l)eople  were  “  pitched  in  Rephidim.”  Obvi¬ 
ously  the  nearer  position  to  Horeb,  whatever 
the  extent  of  the  region  bearing  that  name,  more 
fully  meets  this  necessity  of  the  narrative.  B. 
1.  ]¥«  water  to  drink.  Before,  Israel 


thirsted  and  was  satisfied  ;  af  er  that,  they 
hungered  and  were  filled  ;  now,  they  thirst 
again.  God  led  them  on  purpose  to  this  dry 
Rephidim  :  he  could  as  well  have  conducted 
them  to  another  Elim,  to  convenient  waterings  ; 
or  he,  that  gives  the  waters  of  all  their  channels, 
could  as  well  have  derived  them  to  meet  Israel  ; 
but  God  doth  purposely  carry  them  to  thirst. 
This  should  have  been  a  contentment  able  to 
quench  any  thirst  :  ”  God  hath  led  us  Litlnir  ,” 
if  Moses  out  of  ignorance  had  misguided  us,  or 
we  by  chance  fallen  upon  these  dry  deserts, 
though  this  were  no  remedy  of  our  grief,  yet  it 
might  be  some  ground  of  our  complaint.  But 
now  the  counsel  of  so  wise  and  merciful  a  God 
hath  drawn  us  into  this  want  ;  and  shall  not  he 
as  easily  find  the  way  out  ?  “  It  is  the  Lord, 

let  him  do  what  he  will.”  There  can  be  no  moie 
forcible  motive  to  patience,  than  the  acknowl¬ 
edgment  of  a  Divine  hand  that  strikes  us.  It  is 
fearful  to  be  in  the  hand  of  an  adversary  ;  but 
who  would  not  be  confident  of  a  Father  ?  Bp.  11. 

2.  They  know  that  fountains  and  rivers  can¬ 
not  be  created  b^"  mortal  man  ;  wherefore  then 
do  they  quarrel  with  him,  and  not  call  directly 
upon  God,  in  whose  hand  are  the  waters  as  well 
as  all  other  elements  ?  If  there  had  been  a 
spark  of  faith  in  them,  they  would  ha\e  had  re¬ 
course  to  prayer.  Rightly  does  Moses  expostu¬ 
late,  that  in  chiding  with  him  they  tempt  God 

himself.  Calv. - ”  Why  contend  ;you  withme? 

Why  tempt  ye  the  Lord  ?”  In  the  first  expostu¬ 
lation  he  condemns  them  of  injustice,  since  not 
he  but  the  Lord  had  afflicted  them  :  in  the  sec¬ 
ond,  of  presumption  ;  that  since  it  was  God  who 
tempted  them  by  want,  they  should  tempt  Him 
by  murmuring.  In  tne  one  he  would  have  them 
see  their  wrong  ;  in  the  other  their  danger. 
As  the  act  came  not  from  him  but  from  God,  so 
he  transfers  it  to  God  from  himself  :  “  Why 
tempt  the  Lord?”  The  opposition  which  is 
made  to  the  inslrumerds  of  God  redounds  ever  to 
his  person.  He  holds  himself  smitten  through 
the  sides  of  his  ministers.  Bp.  H. 

3,  4,  Their  behavior  is  most  flagrant  ;  and 
the  harshest  judgment  cannot  estimate  their 
offence  too  severely.  They  had  lately  seen  their 
Wyants  relieved  in  a  similar  emergency  ;  and  at 
this  very  time  they  were  receiving,  day  by  day, 
from  heaven  their  daily  bread.  Yet  so  strangely 
unreasonable  was  their  spirit,  that  they  re¬ 
proached  Moses  for  having  brought  ihem  out  of 
Egypt,  to  kill  them  and  their  children  and  their 
cattle  with  thirst  ;  and  their  violence  of  manner 
was  such  as  led  Moses  to  cry  unto  the  Lord, 
saying,  “  What  shall  I  do  unto  this  people? 
they  be  almost  ready  to  stone  me.”  Thus  al- 


SMITING  OF  THE  ROCK. 


91 


ready — in  one  little  month— were  the  ransomed 
people  prepared  to  deal  with  their  deliverer,  all 
whose  toil  and  thought  was  spent  for  th^ir  ad¬ 
vantage.  It  seems  to  have  been  in  order  that 
Moses  might  not  be  plunged  in  deeper  discour¬ 
agement,  that  the  Lord  forbore  to  declare  his 
own  displeasure.  He  simply  indicated  the  mode 
in  which  he  meant  to  provide  for  their  wants. 
Kit. 

4.  And  moses  cried  unto  the  Lord. 

Moses  has  recourse  to  Him,  who  was  able  at 
once  to  quench  their  thirst  and  to  curb  their 
fury.  It  is  the  best  way  to  trust  God  with  his 
own  causes.  If  we  be  sure  we  have  begun  our 
enterprises  from  Him,  we  may  securely  cast  all 
events  on  His  providence,  which  knows  how  to 

dispose,  and  how  to  end  them.  Bp.  II. - 

Prayer  moves  the  hand  that  moves  the  world. 
It  secures  for  the  believer  the  resources  of  Di¬ 
vinity.  What  battles  has  it  not  fought  !  what 
victories  has  it  not  won  !  what  burdens  has  it 
not  carried  !  what  wounds  has  it  not  healed  ! 
what  griefs  has  it  not  assuaged  !  It  is  the  wealth 
of  poverty;  the  refuge  of  affliction  ;  the  strength 
of  weakness  ;  the  light  of  darkness.  It  has  ar 
rested  the  wing  of  time,  turned  aside  the  very 
scjdhe  of  death,  and  discharged  heaven’s  frown¬ 
ing  and  darkest  cloud  in  a  shower  of  blessings, 
(jrathrie. 

The  familiarity  of  Moses’s  pleadings  with 
God,  almost  in  the  tone  of  one  who  had  received 
injury  at  his  hand,  is  worthy  of  observation. 

This  repeated  indulgence  on  the  part  of  God, 

* 

and  the  as  oft-repeated  ingratitude  on  the  part 
of  the  Israelites,  give  asignificancy  to  that  verse 
in  one  of  our  historical  Psalms  (106)  :  “  He  gave 
them  their  request,  but  sent  leanness  into  their 
soul.”  T.  C. 

Western  Asia  and  its  history  are  full  of  the 
name  of  Moses.  Jews,  Christians,  and  Mahome¬ 
tans  style  him  the  First  Prophet,  the  Great 
Lawgiver,  the  Great  Theologian  ;  everywhere, 
in  the  scene  of  the  events  themselves,  the  places 
retain  a  memory  of  him.  What  did  Moses  do 
to  obtain  a  renown  so  great  and  so  enduring  ? 
He  gained  no  battles  ;  he  conquered  no  terri¬ 
tory  ;  he  founded  no  cities  ;  he  governed  no 
state  ;  he  was  not  even  a  man  in  whom  elo¬ 
quence  replaced  other  sources  of  influence  and 
power.  There  is  not  in  this  whole  history  a 
single  grand  human  action,  a  single  grand  event 
proceeding  from  human  agency  ;  all  is  the  work 
of  God  ;  and  Moses  is  nothing  on  any  occasion 
but  the  interpreter  and  instrument  of  God.  To 
this  mission  he  has  consecrated  sonl  and  life  ; 
it  is  only  by  virtue  of  this  title  that  be  is  pow¬ 
erful,  and  that  he  shares,  as  far  as  his  capacity 


I  as  a  man  permits,  a  work  infinitely  grander  and 
more  enduring  than  that  accomplished  by  all 
the  heroes  and  adl  the  masters  that  the  world 
ever  acknowledged.  I  know  no  more  striking 
spectacle  than  that  of  the  unshakable  faiili  and 
inexhau.^tible  energy  of  Moses  in  the  pursuit  of 
a  work  not  his  own,  in  which  he  executes  what 
he  has  not  conceived,  in  which  he  obeys  rather 
than  commands.  Guizot. 

Smiting  of  the  Rock  in  Hoeeb  (verses  5-8). 

5.  Moses  was  to  take  some  of  the  elders  as 
witnesses  ;  the  miracle  was  not  to  be  seen  by 
the  people  generally.  The  miracle  was  to  be 
wrought  not  by  any  power  of  Moses,  but  by  the 

special  presence  of  God  on  the  spot.  Alf. - 

Moses  must  lake  his  rod  :  God  could  have  dime 
it  by  his  will,  without  a  word  ;  or  by  his  m  ord, 
without  the  rod  ;  but  he  will  do  by  means  that 
which  he  can  as  easily  do  without.  There  was 
no  virtue  in  the  rod,  none  in  the  stroke  ;  but 
all  in  the  command  of  God.  Means  must  be 
used,  and  yet  their  efficacy  must  be  expected 
out  of  themselves.  It  doth  not  suffice  God  to 
name  the  rod,  without  a  description  :  “  Whereby 
thou  smotest  the  river  wherefore  but  to 
strengthen  the  faith  of  Moses,  that  he  might 
well  expect  this  wonder  from  that  which  he 
had  tried  to  be  miraculous.  Bp.  II. 

God  bears  and  forbears  with  them,  gives  them 
miracle  upon  miracle,  and  ever  as  they  mur- 
mured,  another  miracle  still.  Truly  judgment 
is  his  strange  work.  He  might  have  retaliated  ; 
retribution  was  richly  deserved  ;  it  was  most 
deeply  provoked  ;  but  instead  of  doing  so,  he 
whose  ways  are  not  our  ways,  nor  his  thoughts 
our  thoughts,  said  unto  Moses,  “  Thy  rod,  where¬ 
with  thou  smotest  the  river,  take  in  thy  hand 
and  go.  Behold,  I  will”  do  what?  Not  smite 
the  people  with  the  rod  that  smote  all  Egypt, 
and  that  in  my  hand  is  still  capable  of  terrible 
effect  ;  but  I  will  make  the  rod  that  was  the  ex¬ 
ecutor  of  judgment  upon  Egypt  to  be  only  the 
opener  of  springs  and  fountains  in  the  rock,  for 
what  was  death  to  others  shall  be  life  to  Israel. 
“  Thoushalt  smite  the  rock,”  the  most  unlikely 
thing,  ‘  ‘  and  there  shall  come  water  out  of  it, 
that  the  people  may  drink.”  How  gracious  is 
the  Lord  !  and,  still  the  same,  he  delights  in 
mercy.  Oh,  that  we  could  only  realize  that 
God  has  infinitely  more  than  a  father’ sieve  with 
omnipotence  to  wield  it,  and  omniscience  to  see 
where,  when,  and  by  whom  it  is  most  needed  ; 
and  ever  readj^  ever  waiting,  ever  willing  to 
bless  !  J.  C. 

They  distrust  Him  after  they  had  received 
such  proofs  of  his  power  and  goodness,  for  the 


92 


SECTION  99.  THE  ROCK  IN  IIOREB. 


confirmiition  of  his  promise  :  they  do,  in  effect, 
sui^pose  that  Moses  was  an  impostor — Aaron  a 
deceiver — the  pillar  of  cloud  and  tire  a  mere 
sham  and  illusion,  which  imposed  upon  their 
senses— that  long  series  of  miracles  which  had 
rescued  them,  served  them,  and  fed  them,  a 
chain  of  cheats — and  the  promise  of  Canaan  a 
banter  upon  them  ;  it  was  all  so,  if  ilia  Lord  was 
not'  among  ihem.  Oh,  the  wonderful  patience 
and  forbearance  of  God  toward  provoking  sin¬ 
ners  !  He  maintains  those  that  are  at  war  with 
him,  and  reaches  out  the  hand  of  his  bounty  to 
those  that  lift  up  the  heel  against  him.  Thus 
he  teaches  us,  if  our  enemy  hunger  to  feed  him, 
and  if  he  thirst,  as  Israel  did  now,  to  give  It  ini 
drink.  Will  he  fail  those  that  trust  him,  when 
he  was  so  liberal  even  to  those  that  tempted 
him  ?  If  God  had  only  showed  Moses  a  foun¬ 
tain  of  water  in  the  wilderness,  as  he  did  Hagar, 
that  had  been  a  great  favor  ;  but  that  he  might 
show  his  power  as  well  as  his  pity,  and  make  it 
a  miracle  of  mercy,  he  gave  them  water  out  of  a 
rock.  Thai  Rock  was  Christ  (1  Cor.  10  : 4).  The 
graces  and  comforts  of  the  Spirit  are  compared 
to  rivers  of  living  water  (John  7  :  38,  39).  These 
flow  from  Christ,  who  is  the  Eock  smitten  by 
the  Law  of  Moses,  for  he  was  made  under  the 
Law.  Nothing  will  supply  the  needs  and  satisfy 
the  desires  of  a  soul  but  water  out  of  the  rock, 
this  fountain  opened.  H. - As  Christ  associ¬ 

ated  himself  with  the  manna,  the  apostle  associ¬ 
ates  him  with  the  water  at  Eephidim  :  “  that 
Eock  was  Christ.”  He  does  not  say  the  water 
was  Christ.  So  Christ  himself,  though  he 
said,  “  I  am  the  Bread  of  life,”  never  said,  “  I 
am  the  Water  of  life.”  Again  and  again  he 
spoke  of  giving,  but  never  of  being,  the  water 
of  life.  What  is  the  reason  of  this  ?  Is  it  not 
that  the  water  is  the  familiar  symbol  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  ?  (See  as  an  illustration  of  this  Isa. 
44  : 3).  The  Eock  was  Christ,  from  whom,  after 
he  had  been  smitten  on  Calvary,  there  flowed 
the  full  and  blessed  pentecostal  stream,  that 
river  of  salvation  which  has  ever  since  followed 
the  Church  in  her  journey  through  the  wilder¬ 
ness.  J.  M.  G. 

The  Personage  who  has  always  occupied  the 
throne  of  heaven,  against  whom  Satan  con¬ 
spired  ;  the  voice  that  spoke  to  Moses  ;  the  mys¬ 
terious  visitor  whom  Abraham  entertained,  and 
to  whom  he  prayed  ;  the  angel  with  whom  Jacob 
wrestled  and  prevailed  ;  the  form  of  the  fourth 
that  stood  in  the  blazing  furnace  with  the  three 
trusty  followers  of  God,  and  whose  face  the  king 
declared  was  bright  like  that  of  the  Son  of  God  ; 
the  Angel  of  the  Covenant  ;  the  man  that  spake 
as  never  man  spake,  and  died  upon  a  cross,  is 


the  same  existence,  the  same  Christ  of  God ! 
He  was  the  manifestation  of  Deity  throughout 
the  Old  Testament  dispensation,  and  through¬ 
out  all  dispensations  ;  throughout  the  Christian 
era,  and  throughout  all  eras  ;  from  everlasting 
to  everlasting.  Through  all  the  journeyings  of 
the  children  of  men,  as  of  the  children  of  Israel, 
this  personality  is  ever  present  in  one  form  or 
another — the  cloud  by  day,  the  pillar  of  fire  by 
night,  or  the  rock  from  which  gushes,  at  every 
turn  of  our  journey,  the  waters  of  life.  Town¬ 
send. 

7,  Wonderful  things  had  Israel  already  ex¬ 
perienced.  The  enemies  of  Jehovah  had  been 
overthrown  in  the  Eed  Sea  ;  the  bitter  waters 
of  Marah  been  healed  ;  and  the  wants  of  God’s 
peo^Dle  su[)plied  in  the  wilderness.  But  a 
greater  miracle  than  any  of  these — at  least  one 
more  palpable — was  now  witnessed,  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  showing  Israel  that  no  situation  could 
be  so  desperate  but  Jehovah  would  prove  “  a 
very  present  help  in  trouble.”  That  this  was 
intended  to  be  for  all  time  its  meaning  to  Israel, 
appears  from  the  name  Massah  and  Merihah, 
temptation  and  chiding,  given  to  the  place,  and 
from  the  after  references  to  the  event  in  De. 
6  : 16  ;  Ps.  78  : 15  ;  114  : 8.  A.  E. 

As  the  rock  at  Horeb  comes  into  view  not  as 
something  by  itself,  but  simply  as  connected 
with  the  water  which  Divine  power  constrained 
it  to  yield,  it  might  justly  be  spoken  of  as  fol¬ 
lowing  them,  if  the  waters  flowing  from  it  pur¬ 
sued  for  a  time  the  same  course.  That  this,  to 
some  extent,  was  actually  the  case  may  be  in¬ 
ferred  from  the  great  profusion  with  which  they 
are  declared  to  have  been  given — “  gushing 
out,”  it  is  said,  “like  overflowing  streams,” 
“  and  running  like  a  river  in  the  dry  places.” 

P.  F. - The  spring  thus  opened  seems  to  have 

formed  a  brook,  which  the  Israelites  used  dur¬ 
ing  their  whole  sojourn  near  Sinai.  P.  S. 

This  occurrence  must  not  be  confounded  wifh 
another  considerabl}’  similar,  of  which  an  ac¬ 
count  is  given  in  Nti.  20.  This  latter  occnnence 
took  place  at  Kadesh,  and  not  till  the  beginning 
of  the  fortieth  jear  of  the  sojourn  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,  when  the  period  of  their  abode  there  was 
drawing  to  a  close.  On  account  of  the  rebellious 
conduct  of  the  people,  Moses  called  the  rock 
smitten,  in  both  cases,  by  the  name  of  Meribah, 
or  Strife.  The  last  was  also  unhappily  distin¬ 
guished  from  the  first,  in  that  Moses  and  Aaron 
so  far  transgressed  as  to  forfeit  their  right  to 
enter  the  promised  land. 

The  points  of  instruction  are  chiefly  the  fol¬ 
lowing  :  (1)  Christ  ministers  to  his  people 
abundance  of  spiritual  refreshment,  while  they 


BATTLE  WITH  AMALEK. 


93 


are  on  their  way  to  the  heavenly  inheritance. 
They  need  this  to  carry  them  onward  through 
the  trials  and  difficulties  that  lie  in  their  way  ; 
and  he  is  ever  ready  to  impart  it.  “  It  any  man 
thirst,  let  him  come  unto  me  and  drink. ’■  What 
he  then  did  in  the  sphere  of  the  bodily  life,  ho 
cannot  but  be  disposed  to  do  over  again  in  the 
higher  sphere  of  the  spiritual  life  ;  for  there  the 
necessity  is  equally  great,  and  the  interests  in¬ 
volved  are  unspeakably  greater.  Let  the  be¬ 
liever,  when  parched  in  sj)irit,  and  feeling  in 
heaviness  through  manifold  temptations,  throw' 
himself  back  upon  this  portion  of  Israel’s  his¬ 
tory,  and  he  will  see  written,  as  with  a  sun¬ 
beam,  the  assurance  that  the  Saviour  of  Israel, 
who  fainteth  not,  nor  is  weary,  will  satisfy  the 
longing  soul,  and  pour  living  water  upon  him 
that  is  thirsty.  (2)  In  providing  and  minister¬ 
ing  this  refreshment,  he  will  break  through  the 
greatest  hindrances  and  impediments.  If  his 
people  but  thirst,  nothing  can  prevent  them 
from  being  partakers  of  the  blessing.  “He 
makes  for  them  rivers  in  the  desert  the  ver}’’ 
rock  turns  into  a  flowing  stream  ;  and  the  val¬ 
ley  of  Baca  (weeping)  is  found  to  contain  its 
pools  of  refreshment,  at  which  the  travellers  to 
Zion  revive  their  flagging  spirits,  and  go  from 
strength  to  strength.  How'  often  have  the  dark¬ 
est  providences — events  that  seemed  beforehand 
pregnant  only  with  evil — become,  through  the 
gracious  presence  of  the  Mediator,  the  source 
of  deepest  joy  and  consolation  !  (3)  “  The  rock 
by  its  water  accompanied  the  Israelites — so 
Christ  by  his  Spirit  goes  with  his  disciples  even 
to  the  end  of  the  world.”  The  refreshments  of 
his  grace  are  confined  to  no  region,  and  last 
through  all  ages.  Wherever  the  genuine  be¬ 
liever  is,  there  they  also  are.  Within  him  he 
has  “  a  well  of  water  springing  up  to  life  ever¬ 
lasting.”  P.  F. 

The  smiting  of  a  flinty  rock,  for  the  purpose 
of  obtaining  water,  was  a  scheme  of  the  Divine 
mind,  whose  ways  are  higher  than  our  ways, 
and  his  thoughts  than  our  thoughts.  It  w'as 
certainly  the  last  place  to  w'hich  Moses  would 
have  gone  for  water  ;  and  he  might  have  ex¬ 
pected  the  stroke  to  elicit  sparks  of  fire  rather 
than  cool  refreshing  streams.  What  ejm  had 
not  seen  and  ear  had  not  heard,  either  of  men 
or  of  angels— what  had  not  entered  into  the 
heart  of  any  created  being  to  conceive,  terres¬ 
trial  or  celestial— was,  that  the  smiting  of  the 
Shepherd  should  save  the  sheep  ;  that  the  con¬ 
demnation  of  the  Just  should  bring  the  unjust 
to  God  ;  that  the  making  of  Messiah  a  curse 
should  secure  infinite  blessings  to  mankind  ; 
that  the  poverty  of  Jesus  should  enrich  us,  and 


his  death  raise  us  to  life  eternal.  Consuming 
flames  of  Divine  indignation  might  have  been 
expected  to  flash  upon  the  guilty  world  from 
every  wound  of  the  thorns,  the  nails,  and  the 
spear,  in  the  sacred  person  of  Emmanuel  ;  but, 
to  the  astonishment  of  men  and  angels,  a  tide 
of  love  and  mercy  ran  freely  from  every  bleed¬ 
ing  vein  to  wash  away  the  guilt  and  pollution 
of  human  crimes,  according  to  the  determinate 
counsel  and  immutable  promise  of  our  God. 
Christinas  Evans. 

Battle  with  Amalek  (verses  8-13). 

8,  It  was  in  Kephidim  that  the  new-formed 
nation  fought  their  first  great  battle.  As  yet 
they  have  seemed  alone  in  the  desert  ;  but  now 
an  enemy  comes  against  them,  their  kinsman 
Amalek,  a  nomad  tribe  descended  from  Eliphaz, 
the  son  of  Esau.  The  range  of  the  Amalekites 
seems  to  have  been  at  this  time  over  the  south 
of  Palestine  and  all  Arabia  Petrsea.  P.  S. 

From  Ex.  3  we  learn  that  Horeb  was  in  the 
territory  of  the  Midianites.  These  two  tribes, 
Amalekites  and  Midianites,  appear  to  have  been 
both  well  organized,  and  to  have  lived  side  by 
side  in  the  peninsula.  Now  there  were  two 
large  mountain  ranges  in  the  peninsula,  the 
Serbal  on  the  west,  and  the  Sinai  on  the  east. 
In  both  of  these  water  was  to  be  found  ;  and 
either  of  them  answered  admirably  as  the  head¬ 
quarters  of  a  pastoral  tribe.  DietericL 

A  victory  over  so  formidable  a  foe  must  have 
been  of  great  importance,  in  kindling  a  spirit  of 
manhood  and  nationality  among  the  Hebrews, 
for  Amalek  was  one  of  the  greatest  peoples  of 
these  remote  ages.  Even  in  Abraham’s  time 
they'  are  mentioned  as  inhabiting  the  regions 
southwest  of  the  Dead  Sea  ;  and  Balaam,  a  few 
y'ears  after  this  battle,  speaks  of  them  as  “  the 
first  of  the  nations” — that  is,  as  having  been  a 
mighty^  race  from  what  was  then  a  distant  an¬ 
tiquity.  Geikie. 

9,  10,  We  learn  (Nu.  13  ;  17)  that  Joshua’s 
original  name  was  Hosea.  The  change  in  his 
name  was  no  doubt  connected  with  this  victory 
over  the  Amalekites,  Moses  called  Hosea  Joshua 
{Jehovah  is  a  help),  because  he  had  proved  him¬ 
self  a  help  to  Israel.  The  alteration  in  his  name 
had  also  a  prophetic  signification.  It  was  his 
ordination  to  a  new  course,  which  was  to  be¬ 
come  more  glorious  in  its  future  stages.  Hur 
is  mentioned  as  an  assistant  of  Moses,  and  a 
man  of  great  distinction.  Josephus  follows  the 
Jewish  tradition  which  describes  him  as  the 

husband  of  Miriam,  Moses’s  sister.  K. - Hur 

was  the  fourth  in  descent  from  Judah,  and  the 
grandfather  of  Bezaleel  (31  :2  ;  1  Ch.  2  : 9- 


94 


SEGTIOJSr  99.  BATTLE  WITH  AM  ALEE. 


20).  As  he  was  the  grandfather  of  a  full  grown 
man,  and  a  member  of  the  distinguished  tribe 
of  Judah,  he  was  the  meet  companion  of  Aaron 
in  attendance  upon  Moses.  M. 

Moses  does  nothing  of  himself,  but  occupies 
the  station  appointed  him  by  God  on  the  top  of 
the  hill,  but  he  sends  down  the  others  to  fight 
hand-to-hand  before  him,  since  it  had  pleased 
God  thus  to  order  the  battle.  That  single  rod 
was  of  more  avail  than  as  if  they  had  gone  into 
the  field  preceded  by  a  thousand  banners.  It 
is  sometimes  called  the  rod  of  God,  sometimes 
of  Moses,  sometimes  of  Aaron,  according  to  cir¬ 
cumstances  ;  because  God  used  it  as  an  instru¬ 
ment  to  exercise  his  power  through  his  minis¬ 
ters.  So  God  does  not  detract  from  his  own 
honor,  when  he  works  effectually  by  his  minis¬ 
ters.  6G/a  - At  other  times,  upon  occasion  of 

the  plagues,  the  quails,  and  the  rock,  he  was 
commanded  to  take  the  rod  in  Ins  hand  ;  now 
he  doth  it  unbidden  ;  he  doth  it  not  now  for 
miraculous  operation,  but  for  encouragement  ; 
for  when  the  Israelites  should  cast  up  their  eyes 
to  the  hill  and  see  Moses  and  his  rod  (the  man 
and  the  means  that  had  wrought  so  powerfully 
for  them),  they  could  not  but  take  heart  lo 
themselves,  and  think,  “  There  is  the  man  that 
delivered  us  from  the  Egyptian,  why  not  now 
from  the  Amalekite  ?  There  is  the  rod  wdiicli 
turned  waters  to  blood  and  brought  varieties  of 
plagues  upon  Egypt,  why  not  now  on  Amalek?” 
Nothing  can  more  hearten  our  faith  than  the 
view  of  the  monuments  of  God’s  favor  ;  if  evtr 
we  have  found  any  word  or  act  of  God  cordial 
to  us,  it  is  good  to  fetch  it  forlh  oft  to  the  eye. 
The  renewing  of  our  sense  and  remembrance 
makes  every  gilt  of  God  perpetually  beneficial. 

1 0 ,  Amalek  rose,  and  Israel  fell,  with  his 
hand  falling  ;  Amalek  fell,  and  Israel  rises,  with 
his  hand  raised.  Oh,  the  wondrous  powder  of 
the  [»rayers  of  faith  !  All  heavenly  favors  are 
derived  to  us  from  this  channel  of  grace  ;  to 
this  are  we  beholden  for  our  peace,  preserva¬ 
tions,  and  all  the  rich  mercies  of  God  which  we 
enjoy.  We  could  not  want,  if  we  could  ask. 

Bp.  II. - It  seems  the  scale  vvavered  for  some 

time  before  it  turned  on  Israel’s  side  ;  even 
the  best  cause  must  expect  disappointments  as 
an  allay  to  its  success  ;  though  the  battle  be 
the  Lord’s,  Amalek  may  prevail  fir  a  time  ;  the 
reason  was,  Moses  let  down  his  hands.  The 
Church’s  cause  is,  commonly,  more  or  leas  suc¬ 
cessful,  according  as  the  Church’s  friends  are 
more  or  less  strong  in  faith  and  fervent  in 

praver.  H - It  is  indis]-)U^ably  true,  that 

while  the  hands  are  stretched  out -  that  is,  while 
the  soul  exerts  itself  in  prayer  and  supplication 


to  God,  we  are  sure  to  conquer  our  spiritual  ad¬ 
versaries  ;  but  if  our  hands  become  heavy,  if 
we  restrain  prayer  before  God,  Amalek  will  pre¬ 
vail  :  every  spiritual  foe,  every  internal  corrup¬ 
tion,  will  gain  ground.  Aposfasy  begins  in  the 
clo.'iet  :  no  man  ever  backslid  from  the  life  and 
power  Ojf  Christianity,  who  continued  constant 
and  fervent,  especially  in  private  pra3mr.  He 
who  prays  vnlhout  ceasing  is  likely  to  rejoice 
evermore.  A.  C. 

Then  onl}^  can  wo  jaraj'  with  hope,  wdien  we 
have  done  our  best.  And  though  the  means 
cannot  effect  that  which  we  desire,  j'et  God 
will  have  us  use  the  likeliest  means  on  our  part 
to  effect  it.  Where  it  comes  immediately  from 
the  charge  of  God,  any  means  are  effectual  :  one 
stick  of  wood  shall  fetch  water  out  of  the  rock, 
another  shall  fetch  bitterness  out  of  the  water  ; 
but  in  those  projects  which  we  make  for  our 
own  purposes  we  must  choose  those  hellos  which 
promise  most  efficac.y.  In  vain  shall  Moses  bo 
upon  the  hill,  if  Joshua  be  not  in  the  valley. 
Prayer  without  means  is  a  mockerj'  of  God. 
Here  are  two  shadows  of  one  substance  ;  the 
same  Christ,  in  Joshua  fights  against  cur  spirit¬ 
ual  Amalek,  and  in  Moses  spreads  out  his  arms 
r.pon  the  hill  ;  and  in  both  conquers.  Bp.  H. 

- Christ  is  both  our  Joshua,  the  Captain  of 

our  salvation,  who  fights  our  battles,  and  our 
Moses,  who,  in  the  upper  world,  ever  lives, 
making  intercession  that  our  f,iith  fail  not.  H. 

In  the  Targums  we  read  that  “  when  Moses 
held  up  his  hands  in  prayer,  the  house  of  Israel 
prevailed  ;  and  when  he  let  down  his  hands 
frorn  prayer,  the  house  of  Amalek  prevailed.” 
Here  is  that  hallowed  combination  of  agencies 
which  ought  never  to  be  separated — the  depen¬ 
dence  upon  heaven,  with  the  use  of  appointed 
means.  The  rod  in  the  hand  of  Moses,  and  the 
sword  in  that  of  Joshua  ;  the  embattled  host  in 
the  valley  below,  and  the  praying  band  in  the 
mount  above  -  all  were  necessary  in  the  Divine 
economy  to  the  victory  of  Israel  over  his  foes. 
So  must  it  be  in  our  own  conflict  with  the 
Amalek  which  lies  ambushed  within,  to  hinder 
our  progress  to  the  mount  of  God.  We  ma}^  ex¬ 
pect  no  manifestation  of  the  Lord’s  power,  no 
interference  of  his  goodness,  but  as  the  result 
of  a  blessing  upon  our  own  zealous  conflict  with 
temptation.  “  He  who  entreats  deliverance 
from  the  onset  and  power  of  evil,  yet  never 
makes  an  effort  in  his  own  behalf,  nor  strives 
agam^^t  the  sin  that  wars  within  him.  draws  nigh 
to  God  with  his  lips,  but  is  wholly  estranged 
from  the  fervor  of  that  supplication  that  issues 
from  the  depths  of  the  heart.”  It  was  most 
effectually  taught  by  this  example  that  the  up- 


AGAINST  AMALER. 


95 


JUDGMENT 

lifted  hand  of  Moses  contributed  more  to  their 
safety  than  their  own  hands —his  rod  more  than 
their  weapons  of  war  ;  and  accordingly,  their 
success  fluctuates  as  he  raises  up  or  lets  down 
his  hands.  In  like  manner  will  the  Christian 
warfare  be  attended  with  little  success,  unless 
it  be  waged  in  the  practice  of  unceasing  earnest 
prayer.  It  will  never  be  known  on  this  side 
the  Lord’s  second  coming  how  much  his  cause 
and  the  work  of  individual  salvation  have  been 
advanced  by  the  effectual  fervent  prayer  of 
righteous  men.  Let  us  take  to  ourselves  all  the 
encouragement  derivable  from  the  assured 
knowledge,  that  he  who  marshals  the  sacra¬ 
mental  hosts,  who  leads  them  to  battle  and 
fights  in  their  behalf,  sustains  another  office 
equally  important.  He  has  ascended  to  the 
summit  of  the  everlasting  hills,  and  is  there 
employed  in  prevalent  intercession  for  their 
success  ;  and  wo  may  well  be  consoled  with  the 
assurance  that  a  greater  than  Moses  is  mediat¬ 
ing  for  us  in  the  mount  above  ;  and  his  hand  is 
never  weary,  his  love  never  faint,  his  voice  never 
silent.  Kit. 

13.  The  battle  was  evidently  protracted  and 
obstinate.  Beginning  in  the  morning,  it  lasted 
to  “  the  going  down  of  the  sun.”  Amalek, 
“  that  first  of  the  nations,”  was  no  enemv  to  be 
vanquished  in  a  skirmish.  But  in  the  end  vic¬ 
tory  was  gained  ;  “  Joshua  discomfited  Amalek 
and  his  people  with  the  edge  of  the  sword.” 
E.  V. 

God's  Judgment  against  Amalek  (verses  14-16). 

The  memory  of  so  signal  an  event  was  not  to 
be  allowed  to  die  out.  An  altar  was  built  by 
Moses,  probably  on  the  spot  on  the  summit  of 
the  hill  where  he  had  stood,  inscribed  with  the 
words,  ”  Jehovah-nissi, ’’  “  the  Lord  is  my  ban¬ 
ner.”  He  was  also  expressly  commanded  by 
(rod  to  write  an  account  of  this  battle  in  the 
book  he  was  instructed  to  draw  up,  as  a  record 
of  God’s  dealings  with  his  people,  and  “  re¬ 
hearse  it  in  the  ears  of  Joshua,”  together  with 
the  command,  to  be  transmitted  through  him  to 
after  ages,  for  tlie  complete  extermination  of 
ihe  Amalekites.  Thus  early  was  the  intimation 
i'iven  that  Joshua  was  to  be  the  successor  of 
Moses,  and  carry  on  the  work  that  ho  had  be¬ 
gan.  E.  V. 

14.  I  will  utterly  put  out  the  re- 
liiemhranee.  Hebrew,  wiping  I  will  wipe 
out.  The  denunciation  is  awfully  emphatic.  It 
('declares  that  in  process  of  time  Amalek  should 
bj  t. it  lily  ruined  and  rooted  out,  thac  he  should 
bu  remembered  cnly  in  history.  This  was  but 
meting  out  to  them  the  measure  of  destruction 


which  they  themselves  had  meditated  against 
Israel,  Their  language  was  that  reported  by  the 
Psalmist  (Ps.  83:4),  “Come,  and  let  us  cut 
them  off  from  being  a  nation  ;  that  the  name  of 
Israel  may  be  no  more  in  remembrance.”  God 
therefore  determines  not  only  to  disappoint 
them  in  that,  but  to  cut  off  their  name.  It  was 
to  be  known  for  the  encouragement  of  Israel, 
whenever  the  Amalekites  should  be  an  annoy¬ 
ance  to  them,  that  sentence  had  irrevocably 
gone  forth  against  them  ;  they  were  a  doomed 
people  ;  and  the  chosen  race  should  not  fail  at 
last  to  triumph  over  them.  This  sentence  was 
executed  in  part  by  Saul  (1  Sam.  15)  ;  and  com¬ 
pletely  bj^  David  (1  Sam.  30  ;  2  Sam.  1  : 1-8,  12), 
after  which  we  never  read  so  much  as  the  name 
of  Amalek.  Bush. 

These  Amalekites  were  of  the  descendants  of 
Esau,  who  allied  himself  with  the  Ishmaelites, 
and  took  possession  of  the  great  mountain  range 
running  from  the  south  of  Palestine  toward  the 
eastern  horn  of  the  Bed  Sea,  in  which  region 
are  still  found  the  wonderful  ruins  of  Petra  ex¬ 
cavated  in  the  rocky  cliffs,  and  also  the  ruins  of 
other  large  cities.  They  were,  no  doubt,  in¬ 
spired  in  this  attack  by  the  hereditar^^  hatred  of 
Esau,  their  ancestor,  toward  Jacob.  And  this 
hatred  is  now  aroused  afresh  as  they  perceive 
from  current  reports  that  the  covenant  prom¬ 
ises  to  the  children  of  Jacob  are  about  to  be  ful¬ 
filled,  This  hereditary  hate  was  fired  by  a  de¬ 
sire  to  seize  upon  the  rich  spoils  which  Israel 
was  bearing  away  from  Egypt,  It  is  important, 
also,  as  showing  the  ground  of  the  dreadful 
curse  denounced  upon  Amalek  upon  this  occa¬ 
sion — of  war  to  all  generations  against  the 
Amalekites  till  their  utter  extinction — to  note 
their  special  guilt  in  this  attack  upon  Israel.  In 
the  first  place,  they  had  no  plea  of  self-defence 
against  Israel  as  invaders  of  their  countr)%  for 
Israel  was  passing  far  to  the  south  of  them,  and 
the  expression  “  then  came  Amalek”  shows  that 
the  war  was  not  only  entirely  offensive,  but  also 
that  they  were  obliged  to  march  some  distance 
to  reach  the  camp  of  Israel.  In  the  second 
place,  as  we  learn  from  De.  25  :  18,  it  was  a 
wanton  and  cruel  and  unmanly  attack  ;  made  by 
falling  in  a  most  cowardly  manner  upon  their 
rear  and  smiting  the  weary  and  broken-down, 
who  could  neither  resist  nor  escape.  Forty 
j^ears  afterward,  Moses,  rehearsing  to  the  people 
the  story  of  all  the  way  in  which  Jehovah  had 
led  them,  reminds  them,  “  Remember  what 
Amalek  did  unto  thee  by  the  way  when  ye  were 
come  forth  out  of  Egypt  ;  how  he  met  thee  by 
Iho  way  and  smote  t'-e  hindmost  of  thee,  even 
all  that  were  feeble  behind  thee,  when  thou 


96 


SECTION  99.  “  JEIIO  VA II- N IS  SI.  ’  ’ 


wast  faint  and  weary  ;  lie  feared  not  God.”  And 
this  last  declaration  suggests  that  this  attack 
was  in  high-handed  recklessness  and  contempt 
for  Jehovah.  “  He  feared  Kot  God."  These  im¬ 
pious  jieople,  in  face  of  all  that  had  just  occurred 
at  the  Eed  Sea— in  face  of  the  fact  of  the  im¬ 
mediate  presence  of  Jehovah  before  their  eyes 
in  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire  for  the  protec¬ 
tion  of  Israel,  rushed  on  as  it  were  to  make  at¬ 
tack  upon  Jehpvah  himself.  Therefore  the 
dreadful  curse  pronounced  now  and  the  exposi¬ 
tion  of  the  curse  forty  years  afterward.  “  There¬ 
fore  it  will  be  when  the  Lord  thy  God  hath 
given  thee  rest  from  all  thine  enemies  round 
about  in  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giv- 
eth  thee,  that  thou  shalt  blot  out  the  name  of 
Amalek  from  under  heaven,  thou  shalt  not  for¬ 
get  it  ”  And  accordingly  the  judgment  was  ex¬ 
ecuted  in  part  by  Saul,  and  fully  by  David,  after 
which  the  name  of  Amalek  never  reappears  in 
the  history.  S.  li. 

Israel  had  in  no  way  provoked  the  onset,  and 
the  Amalekites  were,  as  descendants  of  Esau, 
closely  related  to  them.  But  there  is  yet  deeper 
meaning  attaching  both  to  this  contest  and  to 
its  issue.  For,  first,  we  mark  the  record  of 
God’s  solemn  determination  “  utterly  to  put 
out  the  remembrance  of  Amalek  from  under 
heaven,”  and  his  proclamation  of  “  war  of  Je¬ 
hovah  with  Amalek  from  generation  to  genera¬ 
tion.”  Secondly,  we  have  in  connection  with 
this  the  prophetic  utterance  of  Balaam  to  this 
effect  :  “  Amalek  the  firstfruits  of  the  heathen” 
(the  beginning  of  the  Gentile  power  and  hostil¬ 
ity),  “  but  his  latter  end  even  to  destruction 
while,  lastly,  we  notice  the  brief  but  deeply  sig¬ 
nificant  terms  in  which  Scripture  accounts  for 
the  cowardly  attack  of  Amalek  :  “  he  feared  not 
God.”  The  contest  of  Amalek  therefore  must 
have  been  intended,  not  so  much  against  Israel 
simply  as  a  nation,  as  against  Israel  in  their 
character  as  the  people  of  God.  It  was  the  first 
attack  of  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  upon  the 
kingdom  of  God,  and  as  such  it  is  typical  of  all 
that  have  followed.  A.  E. 

15.  Called  tlie  name  of  it  Jeliovali- 
ni§§S.  Hebrew,  Yehovah-nis.si,  the  Lord  rny  ban¬ 
ner,  This  was  a  grateful  acknowledgment  to 
him  to  whom  the  glory  of  the  recent  victory  was 
due.  It  was,  in  fact,  virtually  adopting  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  Israel  in  the  Psalms,  “  Not  unto  us,  O 
Lord,  not  unto  us  ;  but  unto  thy  name,  give 
the  glory.”  “  Wc  will  rejoice  in  thy  salvation, 
and  ill  the  name  of  our  God  wdl  we  set  vp 

onr  Jn.'.mrs,"  Bash. - That  which  is  most 

carefiillv  recorded  is  the  inscription  upon  the 
altar,  Jehocah-niaai — The  Lord  is  my  banner  : 


which  probably  refers  to  the  lifting  up  of  the 
rod  of  God  as  a  banner  in  this  action.  The 
presence  and  power  of  Jehovah  were  the  banner 
under  which  they  enlisted,  by  which  they  were 
animated  and  kept  together,  and  therefore 
which  they  erected  in  the  day  of  their  triumph. 
In  the  name  of  our  God  we  must  always  lift  up 
our  banners  (Ps.  10  :  5).  H. 

As  God  is  careful  to  maintain  the  glory  of  his 
miraculous  victory,  so  is  Moses  desirous  to  sec¬ 
ond  him  ;  God  by  a  book,  and  Moses  by  an  altar 
and  a  name.  God  commands  to  enrol  it  in 
parchment  ;  Moses  registers  it  in  the  stones  of 
his  altar  ;  which  he  raises  not  only  foi*  future 
memory,  but  for  present  use.  That  hand,  which 
was  weary  of  lifting  up,  straight  offers  a  sacri¬ 
fice  of  praise  to  God  :  how  well  it  becomes  the 
just  to  be  thankful  !  0  God,  we  cannot  but 

confess  our  deliverances  :  where  are  our  altars  ? 
Where  are  our  sacrifices?  Where  is  our  Je- 
hovah-nissi?  I  do  not  more  wonder  at  thy 
power  in  preserving  us,  than  at  thy  mercy, 
which  is  not  weary  of  casting  away  favors  upon 
the  ungrateful.  Bp.  II. 


The  more  I  see  of  the  desert,  the  more  the 
miracle  of  the  exodus  grows  upon  me,  and  the 
more  profound  the  reverence  I  feel  for  that 
stern  old  Hebrew  Cromwell  who  was  the  leader 
of  the  Israelites  in  that  great  crisis  of  their  his¬ 
tory.  In  all  our  marches  the  past  week,  that 
presence  has  never  been  absent.  The  figure  of 
Moses  is  the  one  great  figure  which  gives  su¬ 
preme  interest  to  this  land  of  desolation.  When 
we  pass  through  deep  mountain  gorges,  the 
cliffs  on  either  hand  take  on  a  new  interest  as  I 
think  that  they  have  looked  upon  Moses  as  he 
passed  by,  perhaps  with  a  countenance  grave 
and  downcast,  bearing  the  burden  of  a  nation 
on  his  mighty  heart.  Often  doubtless  did  he  lie 
down  in  these  dark  mountain  recesses,  with 
only  a  stone  for  a  pillow,  and  look  up  to  tho 
stars  shining  in  this  clear  Arabian  sky,  and 
wonder  if  the  God  whom  he  worshipped  would 
carry  him  through.  In  the  battle  which  was 
fought  more  than  three  thousand  years  ago,,  it 
was  not  onlj’’  the  Israelites  fighting  with  tho 
Amalekites  :  it  was  the  battle  of  civilization 
with  barbarism.  The  exodus  was  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  a  series  of  events,  unfolding  through 
centuries,  which  marked  a  steady  movement  <  f 
the  nations.  When  Moses  fought  with  Amalek, 
he  carried  in  his  right  hand  the  destiny  of  mill¬ 
ions  yet  unborn.  If  he  had  perished  on  that 
fatal  day,  there  would  have  been  no  Common¬ 
wealth  of  England,  and  no  Commonwealths  in 


SECTION  100, 


97 


New  England  ;  the  dial  of  human  progress 
would  have  been  set  back  a  thousand  years. 
Field. 


Note. — Exodus  18  will  be  found  in  its  chro¬ 
nological  jjlace  at  Section  155,  with  statement  of 
reasons  for  the  transfer.  B. 


Section  100. 

SINAI,  THE  MOUNTAIN  OF  THE  LAW. 

Exodus  19  :  1,  2.  Nu.  33  :  15. 

Ex.  Id  1  In  the  third  month  after  the  children  of  Israel  were  gone  forth  out  of  the  land  of 
2  Egypt,  the  same  day  came  they  into  the  wilderness  of  Sinai.  And  when  they  were 
departed  from  Ilephidirn,  and  were  come  to  the  wilderness  of  Sinai,  they  pitched  in 
the  wilderness  ;  and  there  Israel  camped  before  the  mount. 

Nu.  33  15  And  they  journeyed  from  Eephidim,  and  pitched  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai. 


The  distance  to  Mount  Sinai,  from  the  point 
on  the  Gulf  of  Suez  at  which  the  Hebrews  had 
crossed  the  Bed  Sea,  is  only  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles,  including  the  windings  of  the 
route  ;  but  it  was  not  till  the  third  month  after 
the  exodus  that  the  host  at  last  pitched  its  tents 
under  the  shadow  of  the  mountain.  They  had 
rested  at  various  points  for  refreshment  or  sup¬ 
plies  ;  now  they  were  to  camp  on  the  same  spot 
for  nearly  eleven  months,  while  they  were  being 
finally  organized  as  a  nation.  Geikie. 

It  is  but  about  seven  weeks  since  Israel  came 
out  of  Egypt  ;  in  which  space  God  had  cher¬ 
ished  their  faith  by  five  several  wonders  :  yet 
now  he  thinks  it  lime  to  give  them  statutes 
from  heaven,  as  well  as  bread.  The  manna  and 
water  from  the  rock  (which  was  Christ  in  the 
Gospel)  were  given  before  the  Law  ;  the  sacra¬ 
ments  of  grace  before  the  legal  covenant. 
Bp.  II 

1.  Isi  tlie  third  montln.  Hebrew,  in  ike 
third  new  {moon)  ;  as  the  term  properly  signifies, 
by  which  is  to  be  understood,  according  to 
Jewish  usage,  the  first  day  ol  the  month,  although 
for  the  sake  of  greater  explicitness  the  phrase, 
“the  same  day, ”  is  added,  meaning  the  first 
day  of  the  month.  This  was  just  forty-five  days 
after  their  departure  from  Egypt  ;  for  adding 
sixteen  days  of  the  first  month  to  twenty-nine 
of  the  second,  the  result  is  forty-five.  To  these 
we  must  add  the  day  on  which  Moses  went  up 
to  God  (verse  3),  the  next  day  after  when  he  re¬ 
turned  their  answer  to  God  (verses  7,  8),’  and 
the  three  days  more  mentioned  (verses  10,  11), 
which  form  altogether  just  fifty  days  from  the 
passover  to  the  giving  of  the  Law  on  Mount 
Sinai.  Hence  the  feast  which  was  kept  in  after- 
7 


times  to  celebrate  this  event  was  called  Pente¬ 
cost,  or  the  fiftieth  day.  And  it  was  at  this  very 
feast  that  the  Holy  Ghost  was  given  to  the 
apostles,  to  enable  them  to  communicate  to  all 
mankind  the  new  covenant  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  Bush. 

2.  “And  pitched  in  the  wilderness 
of  Sinai. After  their  long  halt,  exulting  in 
their  first  victory,  they  advanced  deeper  into 
the  mountain  ranges,  they  knew  not  whither. 
They  knew  only  that  it  was  for  some  great  end, 
for  some  solemn  disclosure,  such  as  they  had 
never  before  witnessed.  Onward  they  went, 
through  winding  valley,  and  under  high  cliff, 
and  over  rugged  pass,  and  through  gigantic 
forms,  on  which  the  marks  of  creation  even  now 
seem  fresh  and  powerful  ;  and  at  last,  through 
all  the  different  valleys,  the  whole  body  of  the 
people  were  assembled.  On  their  right  hand 
and  on  their  left  rose  long  successions  of  lofty 
rocks,  forming  a  vast  avenue,  like  the  approaches 
which  they  had  seen  leading  to  the  Egyptian 
temples  between  colossal  figures  of  men  and  of 
gods.  At  the  end  of  this  broad  avenue,  rising 
immediately  out  of  the  level  plain  on  which 
they  were  encamped,  towered  the  massive  cliffs 
of  Sinai,  like  the  huge  altar  of  some  natural 
temple  ;  encircled  by  peaks  of  every  shape  and 
height,  the  natural  j)yramids  of  the  desert.  In 
this  sanctuary,  secluded  from  all  earthly  things, 
they  waited  for  the  revelation  of  God.  A.  P.  S. 

The  use  of  the  names  Sinai  and  lloreb  has  always 
been  very  variable.  Hengstenherg  and  Robinson 
decide  that,  in  the  Pentateuch  and  the  Bible 
generally,  Horeb  is  used  as  the  original  name  of 
the  entire  group,  while  Sinai  is  restricted  to 
one  particular  mountain  (that  of  the  Law)  ;  and 


08  SECTION  WO.  SINAI  THE  MOUNTAIN  OF  THE  LAW, 


miiiiiiimm 


JI§e^DEIfO 


g;f#5^'/,cMU33HEiiH‘i .;: 
=#•  #*. 


<ieb€^0 

,W  Ee=^ 

|(J 


ifer«f^6 


Jpsill^p 


C0NVEHT'//QF7//M 

\SrKAfHERiNE' 


CONVENT 

f'^ll\  0'i-5^^^JF.BEt.ASU 


^iyiDi\ini.jflH,p('-/ 


fJEBE  . 
MUSA 


i<<^mliMWM 

COm^NT'OFimHEl 

^jmSi 


MOUNT  SINAI  AND  ITS  APPROACHES. 

{From  the  Ordnance  Siirve^j.) 


in  this  decision  liodiger  and  Hitter  concur.  It  is 
•certain,  at  the  outset,  that  if  either  of  the  two 
names  is  more  comprehensive  than  the  other,  it 
must  be  the  name  Horeb  ;  for  there  is  not  a 
single  passage  in  the  Old  Testament  in  which 
the  name  Sinai  is  employed  where  the  context 
shows  that  it  necessarily  refers  to  the  entire 
group  of  mountains.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
plain  at  the  foot  of  the  particular  mountain  (of 
the  Law)  is  always  called  “  the  desert  of  SlnaiT 

K. - The  mention  of  Horeb  in  later  books 

ie.g.,  1  Kings  8:9;  19  :  8)  seems  to  show  that  it 
had  then  become  the  designation  of  the  mountain 
and  region  generally.  But  Sinai  is  clearly  a 
summit  distinctly  marked.  Die.  B. 

The  mountain  mass  of  Jehel  Musa  (Horeb),  or 
as  it  wmuld  be  better  named,  Musa-Sufsafeh,  is 
about  two  miles  long,  running  from  southeast 


to  northwest,  and  one  broad.  Its  general  eleva¬ 
tion  is  6500  feet,  but  at  its  southern  extremity 
Jebel  Musa  rises  to  7363  feet,  and  at  its  north¬ 
ern  end  the  peak  of  Has  Sufsafeh  (Sinai)  to  6937 
feet,  while  the  intervening  space  is  cut  up  by  a 
series  of  deep  clefts  into  numerous  peaks  of 
lower  altitude.  On  the  west  the  mountain  is 
bounded  by  Wady  Leja,  and  on  the  east  by 
Wady  ed-Deir  ;  both  valleys  run  northward, 
and  the  former  sweeping  round  the  foot  of  Suf¬ 
safeh,  which  rises  almost  precipitously  to  a 
height  of  2000  feet,  joins  the  latter  at  Aaron’s 
Mound  (Harun).  To  the  north  of  the  Kas  Suf¬ 
safeh,  and  sloping  uniformly  down  to  its  very 
base,  lies  the  plain  of  Er  Bahah.  containing  four 
hundred  acres  of  available  standing-ground  di¬ 
rectly  in  front  of  the  mountain.  The  southern 
boundary  is  formed  by  Wady  Sebaiyeh,  the  bed 


THE  MOUNTAIN  OF  THE  LAW. 


90 


of  which  is  separated  by  nearly  a  mile  and  a 
quarter  of  rugged  broken  ground  from  the  peak 
of  Jebel  Musa.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the 
block  Musa-Sufsafeh  is  almost  isolated,  and  we 
must  mention  another  feature,  Wady  Slireich, 
which  runs  nearly  parallel  to  Wady  Leja,  and 
cuts  off,  as  it  were,  a  thin  slice  from  the  west¬ 
ern  face  of  the  mountain. 

Though  the  peak  Jebel  Musa  has  been  identi¬ 
fied  with  Sinai  from  the  fourth  or  fifth  century, 
it  cannot  be  seen  from  the  plain  of  Er  Eahab, 
and  there  is  not  sufficient  space  near  ihj  moun¬ 
tain  to  accommodate  the  Israelites  in  Wady 
Sebaiyeli.  The  Has  Sufsafeh,  on  the  other 
hand,  stands  directly  over  the  plain  of  Er  Kahah, 
and  as  we  find  in  it  every  topographical  fea¬ 
ture  required  by  the  Bible  even  to  the  minutest 
detail,  we  would  identify  it  with  the  mount 
of  the  Law  in  preference  to  the  lival  peak  Jebel 
Musa.  We  have  here  a  moun  ain  summit  over¬ 
looking  a  plain  which,  with  its  branches  Sell 
Leja  and  Wady  ed-Deir,  contains  4,293,000 
square  yards  in  full  view  of  the  mount,  ample 
standing-ground  for  the  Israelites  without  in¬ 
cluding  the  mountain  slopes  on  which  large 
numbers  of  people  could  have  stood.  There  is 
also  in  the  valleys  within  a  radius  of  six  miles 
of  Has  Sufsafeh  sufficient  space  for  the  w'hole 
multitude  to  have  encamped,  and  from  this  dis¬ 
tance  they  could  easily  have  been  assembled  be¬ 
fore  the  mount  on  any  special  occasion.  On  Er 
Kahah  the  people  would  be  able  to  stand  at 
“  the  nether  part  of  the  mount,”  on  sloping 
ground  where  they  would  be  well  placed  for 
hearing  the  voice  of  the  Lord  when  he  spake 
“  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire,”  and  they  would 
be  able  to  “  remove  and  stand  afar  off  ”  on  the 
ground  to  the  north  near  the  mouth  of  the  Nagb 
Hawa.  The  peak  of  the  Kas  Sufsafeh  is  the  first 
object  which  strikes  the  eye  of  the  traveller  as 
he  leaves  the  Nagb,  and  from  that  moment  he 
never  loses  sight  of  the  “  top  of  the  mount  ” 
till  he  reaches  the  foot  of  the  great  mass  which 
rises  so  abruptly  that  it  may  well  be  described 
as  a  mountain  that  can  be  “  touched.”  The 
block  of  Musa-Sufsafeh  is  so  completely  isolated 
from  the  surrounding  mountains  that  there 
would  be  no  difficulty  in  placing  bounds  round 
it,  and  there  is  in  its  vicinity  a  better  supply  of 
water  and  pasturage  than  in  any  other  part  of 
the  peninsula  ;  besides  six  perennial  streams, 
there  are  several  large  and  good  springs  ;  the 
numerous  gardens  show  what  can  be  produced 
by  a  little  cultivation,  and  everywhere  among 
the  mountains  there  are  small  basins  in  which 
grass  and  other  desert  vegetation  grow  in  great 
profusion.  Without  attempting  to  localize  the 


minor  incidents  of  the  narrative,  we  may  point 
out  how  well  the  features  of  Wady  Shreich,  with 
its  tiny  stream,  its  easy  ascent  to  the  mountain, 
and  the  bend  near  its  mouth,  lend  themselves 
to  the  incident  of  the  Golden  Calf  ;  and  the 
peculiar  features  of  Jebel  Moneijali  (the  Mount 
of  Conference)  well  adapt  it  to  have  been  the 
original  site  of  the  Tabernacle  of  Witness. 
Wilson, 

The  peaks  of  Kas  Sufsafeh  have  been  wrongly 
described  by  some  travellers  as  an  independent 
mountain.  The  Kas  Sufsafeh  does,  in  fact,  form 
the  northern  portion  of  Jebel  Musa.  Its  peaks 
rise  up  precipitously  from  the  bottom  of  the 
plain  of  Er  Kahah  to  a  height  of  about  two 
thousand  feet,  being  distinctly  visible  from 
every  part  of  that  plain,  and  they  are  well  de¬ 
scribed  by  Dean  Stanley  as  “  standing  out  in 
lonely  grandeur  against  the  sky  like  a  huge 
altar.”  A  central  elevated  basin,  encircled  by 
a  ring  of  higher  peaks,  is  a  common  feature  of 
the  granitic  mountains  in  the  Peninsula  of 
Sinai,  and  such,  more  or  less,  is  the  character 
of  Jebel  Musa,  which  is  about  two  miles  long 
from  north  to  south,  and  one  mile  in  breadth. 
The  southern  peak,  on  which  stand  a  little 
chapel  and  the  ruins  of  a  mosque,  is  its  highest 
point  ;  and  although  the  name  of  Jebel  Musa 
is  used  for  the  whole  mountain,  it  is  more  espe¬ 
cially  applied  to  this  one  peak. 

On  the  east  of  the  mountain  runs  Wady  ed- 
Deir,  “  the  Valley  of  the  Convent,”  so  called 
from  the  convent  of  St.  Catharine,  which  is  sit¬ 
uated  near  its  head.  On  the  west  of  it  runs 
Wady  Shreich,  a  very  steep  and  rocky  valley, 
containing  old  monastic  gardens  and  a  copious 
spring.  This  valley,  again,  is  separated  by  the 
narrow  ridge  of  Jebel  Fara  from  Wady  Leja,  a 
valley  lying  farther  westward. 

Thus,  on  the  north,  east,  and  west,  Jebel 
Musa  [Horeb]  is  separated  from  the  surround¬ 
ing  mountains  ;  on  the  south  two  smaller  val¬ 
leys— one  flowing  eastward  into  Wady  Sebaiyeh, 
and  the  other  westward  into  Wady  Leja— sepa¬ 
rate  it  also  from  the  range  of  mountains  which 
lies  between  the  Wady  Sebaiyeh  and  Jebel 
Catharine.  And  so,  being  isolated  by  valleys 
from  the  mountains  on  every  side,  it  would  be 
by  no  means  difficult  to  set  bounds  round  about 
it,  while,  at  the  same  time,  its  northern  cliffs 
rise  so  precipitously  from  the  plain  beneath 
that  it  might  well  be  described  as  ”  a  mountain 
that  CO  aid  be  touched,”  and  at  the  nether  part 
of  which  the  people  could  stand.  It  is  easily 
seen  on  the  spot  that  the  Wady  Sebai3'eh  could 
not  have  been  the  place  where  the  Israelites 
were  assembled  to  receive  the  Law.  That  val- 


100 


SECTION  100.  SINAI  THE  MOUNTAIN  OF  TEE  LAW. 


ley  does  not  lie  immediately  below  the  moun¬ 
tain  ;  and  its  character,  position,  and  extent,  all 
appear  to  render  such  a  view  extremely  improb¬ 
able.  On  the  other  hand,  no  place  could  be 
conceived  more  suitable  than  the  plain  of  Er 
Kahah  for  the  assembling  together  of  many 
thousands  of  people,  both  to  witness  “  the 
thunders  and  lightning,  and  the  thick  cloud 
upon  the  mount,”  and  to  hear  the  voice  of  the 
Lord,  when  he  spake  unto  them. 

The  plain  itself  is  upward  of  two  miles  long, 
and  half  a  mile  broad,  and  slopes  gradually 
down  from  the  water-shed  on  the  north  to  the 
foot  of  Eas  Snfsafeh.  About  three  hundred 
yards  from  the  actual  base  of  the  mountain  there 
runs  across  the  plain  alow,  semicircular  mound, 
which  forms  a  kind  of  natural  theatre,  while 
farther  distant  on  either  side  of  the  plain  the 
slopes  of  the  enclosing  mountains  would  afford 
seats  to  an  almost  unlimited  number  of  specta- 


of  the  water-shed  of  the  plain  of  Er  Eahah,  and 
runs  westward  into  the  Wady  T’lah  ;  and  a 
fourth  is  formed  by  the  drainage  from  the 
mountains  of  Umm  Alawy,  to  the  east  of  Wady 
Sebaiyeh,  and  finds  its  way  into  that  valley  by 
a  narrow  ravine  opposite  Jebel  ed-Deir.  In  ad¬ 
dition  to  these  streams  there  are  numerous  wells 
and  springs,  affording  excellent  water.  Through¬ 
out  the  whole  of  the  granitic  district  I  have  sel¬ 
dom  found  it  necessary  to  carry  water  when 
making  a  mountain  excursion  ;  and  the  imme¬ 
diate  neighborhood  of  Jebel  Musa  would,  I 
think,  bear  comparison  with  many  mountain 
districts  in  Scotland  with  regard  to  its  supply 
of  water.  There  is  also  no  other  district  in 
the  peninsula  which  affords  such  excellent  pas¬ 
turage.  Holland. 

Jebel  Musa  is  not  a  single  peak,  but  a  huge 
mountain  block,  about  two  miles  in  length  and 
one  mile  in  breadth,  with  a  narrow  valley  on 


- - -  /,  \-J-oaa  Fjz  Mtsove  SFALivrL 

SECTION  OF  JEBEL  MUSA  (HOREBJ 


tors.  The  members  of  our  expedition  were 
unanimous  in  their  conviction  that  the  Law 
was  given  from  Eas  Sufsafeh  to  the  Israelites 
assembled  in  the  plain  of  Er  Eahah. 

It  appears  to  be  quite  unnecessary  to  suppose 
that  all  the  tents  of  the  Israelites  were  pitched 
before  the  mount ;  but  I  may  mention  that  there 
is  near  the  mouth  of  Wady  Leja  an  extensive 
recess,  about  a  mile  and  a  half  long,  by  three 
quarters  of  a  mile  broad,  which  would  add 
largely  to  the  available  camping-ground  so  sit¬ 
uated.  With  regard  to  the  water-supply,  there 
is  no  other  spot  in  the  whole  peninsula  which 
is  nearly  so  well  supplied  as  the  neighborhood 
of  Jebel  Musa  [Horeb],  Four  streams  of  run¬ 
ning  water  are  found  there  :  one  in  Wady  Leja 
[it  runs  just  at  the  foot  of  Sufsafeh.  S.  C.  B,]  ; 
a  second  in  Wad}’’  T’lah,  which  waters  a  succes¬ 
sion  of  gardens  extending  more  than  three  miles 
in  length,  and  forms  pools  in  which  I  have  often 
had  a  swim  ;  a  third  stream  rises  to  the  north 


either  side  (Wady  Shreich  and  Wady  ed-Deir),  a 
somewhat  larger  one  at  the  southeastern  ex¬ 
tremity  (Wady  Sebaiyeh),  and  a  spacious  plain. 
Er  Eahah,  at  the  northwestern  end.  The  sum¬ 
mit  (Jebel  Musa,  the  southeastern  end)  is  invis¬ 
ible  from  any  part  of  the  spacious  plain  of  Er 
Eahah.  Fronting  that  plain  and  commanding 
a  view  of  its  entire  extent  is  the  magnificent 
bluff  called  Eas  Sufsafeh,  in  which  the  moun¬ 
tain  terminates  on  the  northwestern  end  of  the 
massive  block.  Palmer. 

Sufsafeh,  while  affording  this  magnificent  am¬ 
phitheatre  at  its  ver}’  foot,  and  while  so  facile 
of  ascent,  rises  sharp,  grand,  and  absolutely 
separate  and  solitary  ;  a  unique  temple,  not 
made  with  hands,  fit  resting-place  for  the  glory 
of  the  sole  Jehovah.  S.  C.  B. 

The  “  nether  part  of  the  mount ’’—namely, 
the  bluff  of  Sufsafeh,  rises  so  abruptly  from  the 
plain  that  you  may  literally  stand  under  it  and 
touch  its  base.  Palmer. - 1  was  astonished  at 


JJOUJS'T  SINAI  AND  TIIR  PLAIN  OF  ER  RAHAH. 


102 


SECTION  100.  SINAI,  TUB  MOUNTAIN  OF  THE  LAW. 


the  lUeiTvl  truth  of  the  Scripture  passage  which 
speaks  of  iJie  i noun  ahi  that  might  he  touched.  I 
had  often  w’oudered  what  it  m<ranr,  for  it  seemed 
a  natural  question  respecting  any  mountain, 
“  Where  it  commenced.”  Now,  howes^er,  when 
I  saw  Mount  Sinai,  the  literal  truth  of  the  Avhole 
description  flashed  ujoon  me.  Duff. 

The  whole  block  of  Jebel  Musa  is  so  separated 
from  the  adjacent  mountains  by  narrow  rugged 
valleys  that  it  would  be  easj’’  to  “  set  bounds 
about  the  mount.” 

The  full  proportions  of  the  E,as  Sufsafeh  are 
best  seen  from  the  approach  by  the  great  plain 
of  Er  Eahah.  At  the  base  of  the  bluff  is  a  long 
semicircular  mound,  forming  a  sort  of  amphi¬ 
theatre,  from  which  a  select  congregation  of 
elders  might  obtain  a  nearer  view  of  the  moun¬ 
tain.  Palmer. 

The  Plain  cf  Er  llahah. 

It  is  clear  that  at  the  foot  of  Sinai  there  was 
a  plain  commanding  a  view  of  the  mountain 
from  every  part,  and  sufficiently  large  to  admit 
of  the  people  manoeuvring  upon  it  ;  at  one  time 
to  “  come  near  and  stand  under  the  mountain,” 
at  another  “to  remove  and  stand  afar  off.”  The 
words  of  the  Bible  (Ex.  ID  :17)  do  not  imply 
that  all  the  Israelites  were  encamped  upon  the 
lelain  itself.  They  would  doubtless  spread  over 
a  considerable  area,  and  occupy  many  of  the 
neighboring  glens,  valleys,  and  mountain-sides, 
especially  where  there  was  plenty  of  water  and 
jDasturage  for  their  flocks  and  herds.  All  that 
is  required  is  a  plain  capable  of  affording  stand¬ 
ing  room  for  the  Israelites  as  spectators  ;  and 
the  plain  of  Eu  Eahah  more  than  satisfies  this 

condition.  Puhner. - There  is  space  for  the 

entire  host  of  the  Israelites,  taking  the  highest 
calculation  of  their  numbers.  This  fact,  of  car¬ 
dinal  imponance  in  the  question,  is  attested  by 
the  military  officers  who  conducted  the  survey. 
Indeed  Sir  Henry  James  concurs  with  those 
officers  in  the  or)inion  that  no  spot  in  the  W'orld 
can  be  pointed  out  'which  combines  in  a  more 
remarkable  manner  the  conditions  of  a  com¬ 
manding  height,  and  of  a  plain  in  every  part  of 
which  the  sights  and  sounds  described  in  Ex¬ 
odus  would  reach  an  assembled  multitude  of 
more  than  two  million  souls.  Cook. 

That  such  a  plain  should  exist  in  front  of 
such  a  cliff  is  so  remarkable  a  coincidence  with 
the  sacred  narrative  as  to  furnish  a  strong  in- 
ternal  argument,  not  merely  of  its  identity  with 
the  scene,  but  of  the  scene  itself  having  been 
described  by  an  eye-witness.  The  awful  and 
lengthened  approach,  as  to  some  natural  sanc¬ 
tuary,  would  have  been  the  fittest  j)reparation 


for  the  coming  scene.  The  low  lino  of  alluvial 
mounds  at  the  foot  of  the  cliff  exactly  answers 
to  the  “  bounds”  which  were  to  keep  the  peoxjlo 
off  from  “  touching  the  mount.”  The  plain  it¬ 
self  is  not  broken  and  uneven,  and  narrowly 
shut  in,  like  almost  all  others  in  the  range,  but 
X^resenting  a  long  retiring  sweep,  against  which 
the  joeople  could  “  remove  and  stand  afar  iff.” 
The  cliff,  rising  like  a  huge  altar  in  front  of  the 
whole  congregation,  and  visible  against  the  sky 
in  lonely  grandeur  from  end  to  end  of  the  whole 
jilain,  is  the  very  image  cf  the  “  mount  that 
might  not  be  touched,”  and  from  which  “  the 
voice”  of  God  might  be  heard  far  and  wide  over 
the  stillness  of  the  xilain  below.  St'iyiley. 

As  we  advanced  [from  the  north  toward  Er 
Eahah]  the  valley  still  oxrened  wider  and  wider, 
shut  in  on  each  side  by  lofty  granite  ridges  with 
rugged,  shattered  peaks  a  thousand  feet  high, 
while  the  face  of  Horeb  rose  direct  I}'  before  us. 
Both  my  companion  and  myself  involuntarily 
exclaimed  :  “  Here  is  room  enough  for  a  large 
encamximent  !”  Beaching  the  top  of  the  ascent, 
a  fine  bread  plain  laj’  before  us,  sloping  down 
gently  toward  the  S.  S.  E.,  enclosed  by  rugged 
and  venerable  mountains  cf  dark  granite,  stern, 
naked,  splintered  x>eaks  and  ridges,  of  inde¬ 
scribable  grandeur,  and  terminated  at  the  dis¬ 
tance  of  more  than  a  mile  by  the  bold  and  awful 
front  of  Horeb,  rising  perpendicularly  in  frown¬ 
ing  majesty  from  twelve  to  fifteen  hundred  feet 
high.  It  was  a  scene  of  solemn  grandeur,  and 
the  associations  which  at  the  moment  rushed 
uxDon  our  minds  were  almost  overwhelming. 
Pohinfion. 

As  we  picked  our  waj*  down  the  rocky  pass, 
there  ojjened  before  us,  not  a  narrow  mountain 
gorge,  nor  even  a  somewhat  spacious  wady,  but 
a  plain  over  two  miles  long  and  half  a  mile  wide, 
which  was  enclosed  by  hills,  and  thus  formed  a 
natural  amphitheatre.  It  was  not  level,  but 
slightly  descending,  like  the  floor  of  some  grand 
auditorium,  so  that  all  who  stood  upon  it  might 
be  in  full  sight  and  hearing  of  a  vision  and  a 
voice  that  were  in  the  very  focus  of  this  vast 
circumference.  Every  eye  could  be  fixed  upon 
that  awful  mount.  Such  an  arena,  a  hundred 
times  more  salacious  than  the  Coliseum  at  Borne, 
seems  as  if  prepared  for  a  great  assembly  and  a 
great  occasion.  'Never  was  there  a  s^rct  more 
fitted  for  a  scene  so  august.  No  sooner  does 
1  one  enter  it  than  he  feels  that  it  must  have  been 
intended  for  the  cam^)  of  Israel,  and  for  the 
hearing  of  the  Law.  The  impression  grows  as 
we  advance  toward  the  foot  of  the  mount,  for  at 
each  step  we  jiass  over  the  very  ground  where 
Israel  stood.  .  .  .  From  the  top  of  Sufsafeh 


VIEW  FROM  JEBEL  MUSA. 


1C3 


observed  what  we  had  noticed  in  the  plain, 
that  the  groiind  is  lowest  nearest  the  mountain, 
and  that  it  rises  as  it  recedes,  like  the  seats  of 
an  amphitheatre,  so  that  all  converge  to  one 
point,  which  is  the  centre  of  the  scene.  At  the 
farther  end  of  the  plain  the  surface  is  more 
broken,  rising  and  falling  in  gentle  undulations, 
so  that  if  any  fled  terror-stricken  from  the  base 
of  the  mount,  they  could  still  behold  it  afar  off, 
from  the  distant  slopes,  while  they  heard  the 
mighty  voice  that  swept  across  the  plain,  and 
reverberated  like  thunder  in  the  farthest  re¬ 
cesses  of  the  mountains.  F,eld. 

In  the  afternoon  I  went  by  myself  down  Wady 
ed-Deir  and  up  the  plain  of  Er  Eahah  to  the 
water-shed.  The  air  was  so  clear  that  objects  a 
mile  distant  seemed  quite  close  at  hand.  This 
noble  plain,  over  two  miles  long  and  half  a  mile 
wide,  is  almost  perfectly  smooth  in  its  whole 
extent,  with  scattered  tufts  of  desert  herbage 
onl}^  ;  and  it  would  be  as  difficult  to  find  here  a 
place  that  was  unfit  for  a  camp  as  in  Sebaiyeh 
to  find  a  spot  that  was  fit.  There  could  hardly 
be  a  more  magnificent  area  for  the  'purpose  re¬ 
corded  in  the  Scriptures,  all  in  full  sight  of  and 
close  contact  with  the  sharply-defined  and  iso- 
lated  peak  at  its  foot,  while  surrounded  by  all 
facilities  for  pastumge  and  water-supply.  It 
was  an  easy  thing  to  surrender  the  mind  and 
heart  to  all  the  historic  associations  of  the  an¬ 
cient  scene.  S.  C.  B. 

View  from  the  Southeastern  Summit— Jtbel  Musa. 

The  summit  of  the  mount  was  reached,  a  holy 
place  to  the  mightier  half  of  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  to  Jews,  Moslems,  and  Christians.  The 
view  from  its  height  of  7000  feet  extends  over  a 
circle  of  more  than  360  miles  in  diameter,  and 
1600  miles  in  circumference  ;  a  rugged  outline 
of  a  desert  panorama  of  terrible  beauty  under 
the  blue  vault  of  the  purest  and  brightest  heaven 
of  Arabia.  No  other  place  comes  near  to  it  in 
all  this.  On  the  east  and  west  the  eye  catches 
glimpses  of  tne  girdle  of  sea  which  encircles  the 
highlands  of  the  peninsula  :  beyond  it  are  seen 
the  ranges  of  Arabian  and  Egyptian  heights. 
In  the  space  between  no  green  meadow,  no  cul¬ 
tivated  field,  no  wood,  no  brook,  no  village,  no 
Alpine  hut.  Only  storm  and  thunder  resound 
in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai,  else  forever  silent. 
Schubert. - Everywhere  the  rocks  are  rent,  fis¬ 

sured,  and  crumbling  ;  breaking  off  along  steep 
walls,  and  traversed  by  dry  ravines  and  treeless 
valleys.  The  ideas  of  solitude,  of  waste,  and 
desolation  contend  with  those- of  awe  and  ad¬ 
miration.  Beyond,  the  eye  wanders  over  a  suc¬ 


cession  of  rugged  mountains  and  deep  ravines, 
bounded  on  either  hand  by  the  deep  dejiressions 
in  which  lie  the  Gulfs  of  Suez  and  Akabah. 
Distant  glimpses  of  the  tableland  of  the  Tih  to 
the  north,  and  of  the  mountains  of  Edom  which 
bound  the  Arabah  on  the  east,  are  also  ob¬ 
tained.  Ilv.U. 


One  who  went  from  the  summit  of  Jebel  Musa, 
along  the  heights  to  Sufsafeh,  says  :  “  No  one 
w’ho  has  not  seen  them  can  conceive  the  rug¬ 
gedness  of  these  vast  piles  of  granite  rocks,  rent 
into  chasms,  rounded  into  small  summits,  or 
splintered  into  countless  peaks,  all  in  the  wild¬ 
est  confusion,  as  they  appear  to  the  eye  of  an 
observer  from  any  of  the  heights.  But  when  we 
did  arrive  at  the  summit  of  Suksafeh,  and 
cast  our  eyes  over  the  wide  plain,  -we  were  more 
than  repaid  for  all  our  toil.  One  glance  was 
enough.  We  were  satisfied  that  here,  and  here 
only,  could  the  wondrous  displays  of  Sinai  have 
been  visible  to  the  assembled  host  of  Israel  ; 
that  here  the  Lord  spoke  with  Moses  ;  that  here 
was  the  mount  that  trembled  and  smoked  in 
presence  of  its  manifested  Creator  !  We  gazed 
for  some  time  in  silence  ;  and  when  we  spoke, 
it  was  with  a  reverence  that  even  the  most 
thoughtless  of  our  company  could  not  shake  off. 
I  read  on  the  very  spot,  with  what  feelings  I 
need  not  say,  the  passage  in  Exodus  which  re¬ 
lates  the  wonders  of  which  this  mountain  was 
the  theatre.  We  felt  its  truth,  and  could  almost 
see  the  lightnings  and  hear  the  thunders,  and 
the  ‘  trumpet  waxing  loud.’  I  had  stood  upon 
the  Alps  in  the  middle  of  July,  and  looked 
abroad  upon  their  snowy  emj)ire  ;  I  had  stood 
upon  the  Apennines,  and  gazed  upon  the  plains 
of  beautiful  Italy  ;  I  had  stood  upon  the  Alba¬ 
nian  Mount,  and  beheld  the  scene  of  the  (Eneid 
from  the  Circean  j^romontory,  over  the  Cam- 
pagna,  to  the  eternal  city  and  the  mountains  of 
Tivoli  ;  I  had  sat  down  upon  the  pyramids  of 
Egyjot,  and  cast  my  e3^es  over  the  sacred  citj^  of 
Heliopolis,  the  land  of  Goshen,  the  fields  of 
Jewish  bondage,  and  the  ancient  Memphis, 
where  Moses  and  Aaron,  on  the  part  of  God  and 
his  people,  contended  with  Pharaoh  and  his 
servants,  the  death  of  whose  ‘  firstborn  of  man 
and  beast  in  one  night’  filled  the  land  with 
wailing  ;  but  I  had  never  set  my  feet  on  any 
spot  from  whence  was  visible  so  much  stern, 
gloom}’-  grandeur,  heightened  by  the  silence  and 
solitude  that  reign  around,  but  infinitely  more 
by  the  awful  and  sacred  associations  of  the  first 
great  revelation  in  form  from  God  to  man.” 
Durbin. 


104 


SEGTION  10 U  THE  LEGISLATION  OF  MOSES. 


Section  101. 

THE  LEGISLATION  OF  MOSES. 


Thkeefold  :  Moeal>  Ceeemonial,  ani>  Civu.. 

Of  law,  there  can  no  less  be  acknowledged 
than  that  her  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God,  her 
voice  the  harmony  of  the  world.  All  things  in 
heaven  and  earth  do  her  homage  ;  the  very  least 
as  feeling  her  care,  the  greatest  as  nut  exempt 
from  her  power.  Both  angels  and  men,  and 
creatures  of  what  condition  soever,  though  each 
in  a  diti'erent  soft  and  name,  yet  all,  with  one 
uniform  consent,*  admire  her  as  the  mother  of 
their  peace  and  joy.  Hooker. 

The  Law— the  intermediate  point  between  the 
fall  and  redemption — had  its  preparation  as  well 
as  the  Gospel.  When  the  properly  legal  period 
came,  the  materials  to  a  considerable  ex¬ 
tent  were  already  in  existence,  and  only  needed 
to  be  woven  and  consolidated  into  a  compact 
system  of  truth  and  duty.  It  is  enough  to  in¬ 
stance  the  case  of  the  Sabbath,  not  formally  im¬ 
posed  though  divinely  instituted  from  the  first 
— the  rite  of  piacular  sacrifice,  very  similar  as  to 
its  original  institution— the  division  of  animals 
into  clean  and  unclean — the  consecration  of  the 
tenth  to  God — the  sacredness  of  blood — the 
Levirate  usage — the  ordinance  of  circumcision. 
The  whole  of  these  had  their  foundations  laid, 
partly  in  the  procedure  of  God,  partly  in  the 
consciences  of  men,  before  the  Law  entered  ; 
and  in  regard  to  some  of  them  the  Law’s  pre¬ 
scriptions  might  be  said  to  be  anticipated,  while 
still  the  patriarchal  age  was  in  progress.  P.  F. 

The  Mosaic  economy  was  a  school  of  prepara¬ 
tory  training,  in  which  certain  habits  of  thought 
and  feeling  were  to  be  wrought  into  the  national 
character  by  a  forcible  pressure  from  without. 
Under  such  a  system  the  forms  of  religion  are 
of  paramount  importance,  for  it  is  by  these  that 
the  inner  spirit  is  to  be  called  into  existence. 
The  object  aimed  at  is  to  hold  human  nature  in 
a  fixed  mould  until  it  has  received  the  desired 
impression  and  imbibed  the  spirit  which  lies 
latent  in  the  form  ;  the  mould,  therefore,  must 
be  of  inflexible  material,  incapable  of  exjoansion 
and  contraction,  and  of  elaborate  finish,  and 
must  i^ress  from  without  upon  all  parts  of  the 
religious  life.  The  lawgiver  will  multiply  rules, 
enjoin  specific  acts  of  religion,  appoint  “  days 
and  months  and  times  and  years  instead  of 
general  principles,  issue  literal  prescriptions  ; 
in  short,  construct  such  a  religious  polity  as,  by 


the  Divine  wisdom,  was  imposed  on  the  Israel- 

itish  people.  Litton. - The  Mosaic  system  as 

a  whole  in  all  its  great  departments  was  pre¬ 
parative.  It  was  not  intended  to  endure.  It 
bore  within  itself  the  evidence  of  its  own  tran¬ 
sitoriness.  Israel  w'as  allowed  scarcely  any  in¬ 
itiative.  He  was  confined  to  routine.  The  ut¬ 
most  precision  in  following  that  routine  was  his 
merit.  That  routine  was  his  sacred  trust.  Yet 
it  W’as  more  than  dead  routine.  It  was  a  Divine 
education.  It  provided  the  germs  of  all  those 
moral  or  mental  states  and  operations  which 
are  involved  in  man’s  first  becoming  reconciled 
to  God,  and  then  living  as  a  loyal  citizen  of 
God’s  kingdom.  It  provided,  also,  for  the  grad¬ 
ual,  and  at  length  the  complete  development  of 
those  germs.  Grey. 

The  time  was  now  come  for  the  revelation  of 
a  Divine  law,  extending  to  every  department  of 
their  religious  and  civil  life,  perfect  in  its  adap¬ 
tation  to  its  end.  That  end  was  to  educate  a 
nation  so  degraded  by  oppression,  so  little  ca¬ 
pable  of  moral  principle,  that  some  rules  were 
enacted  (as  we  know  on  the  highest  authority), 
because  of  “  the  hardness  of  their  hearts,”  And 
yet  throughout  these  rules,  merely  ceremonial 
and  coercive  as  they  may  seem  at  first  sight, 
there  was  a  profounder  purpose  which  they  no 
less  perfectly  fulfilled,  and  that  was  to  develop 
in  this  nation  a  sense  of  sin,  and  a  conviction 
that  God  is  the  only  redeemer  from  sin,  which 
prepared  the  seed  of  Abraham  for  the  fulfilment 
of  the  promise,  that  in  his  seed  all  the  nations 

of  the  earth  should  be  blessed.  J.  P.  N. - 

This  chosen  family  has  now  become  a  nation, 
ready  to  be  planted  on  the  hills  of  Palestine 
along  the  Mediterranean  as  the  spiritual  light¬ 
house  of  the  nations.  And  Moses  is  selected  as 
the  agent  of  God  to  convey  to  them  from  God 
himself  a  system  of  religious  and  civil  govern¬ 
ment  adapted  to  the  designs  wLich  Providence 
intended  to  accomplish  by  this  chosen  people 
—namely,  to  hold  up  the  standard  which  he 
designed  to  erect  of  the  one  true  God  in  oppo¬ 
sition  to  the  world’s  idolatry  ;  to  exhibit  them 
as  an  example  of  God’s  divine  providence  over 
men,  by  rewarding  their  piety  and  punishing 
their  sins  ;  and  to  prepare  the  way,  by  them, 
for  the  promised  Saviour  Christ  Jesus. 

Here  was  indeed  a  lofty  purpose  to  be  accom¬ 
plished  by  a  system  of  law — something  more 


THE  LEGISLATION  OF  MOSES. 


105 


than  the  ordinary  purpose  of  “  protecting  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.”  If  a 
scheme  of  law  was  contrived  to  answer  such  an 
end  effectually,  it  is  thereby  demonstrated  to 
be  of  God.  S.  R. 

Israel  was  not  to  be  merely  a  nation,  like  the 
other  nations,  resting  on  no  other  basis  than 
that  of  natural  life.  According  to  its  vocation 
and  its  destiny  it  was  to  be  the  naiion  of  God,  the 
holy  nation,  the  chosen  race,  the  possessor  and 
messenger  of  salvation  for  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth.  Moses,  the  deliverer  cf  the  people  by 
the  power  of  God,  led  them  to  the  majestic  altar 
of  the  Lord,  that  altar  which  he,  the  Creator  of 
the  heavens  and  the  earth,  had  erected  for  him¬ 
self  among  the  rocks  of  Sinai,  with  their  heads 
lifted  toward  heaven  ;  and  there  they  were  set 
apart  as  a  holy  nation.  But  as  God  never  de¬ 
mands  without  giving,  so  he  never  gives  with¬ 
out  demanding.  And  therefore,  when  Israel 
entered  upon  the  privileges  of  the  covenant- 
nation,  and  obtained  possession  of  the  gifts  and 
goods,  the  promises  and  hopes  of  the  covenant, 
it  necessarily  undertook  the  duties  of  a  covenant- 
nation,  and  submitted  to  the  commandments, 
the  restrictions,  and  the  sacrifices  which  such 
a  relation  involved.  The  conclusion  of  the 
covenant  was  therefore  accompanied  by  the  giv¬ 
ing  of  a  law,  which  defined  the  privileges  and 
prescribed  the  duties  of  the  covenant  nation. 
This  Law  also  conferred  upon  Israel  a  constitu- 
t'on,  suited  to  its  vocation  and  its  future  des¬ 
tiny,  by  which  its  internal  organization  was 
completed,  its  external  distinctions  defined,  and 
its  safety  insured.  The  events  attendant  upon 
the  legislation  and  the  conclusion  of  the  cove¬ 
nant  ushered  in  the  second  step  in  the  enward 
progress  of  the  nation— namely,  the  determina¬ 
tion  of  the  peculiar  constitution,  which  was 
henceforth  to  regulate  the  course  and  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  history  of  Israel — in  other  words,  the 
establishment  of  the  Theocracy.  The  mediator  of 
the  covenant  and  the  agent  in  the  foundation  of 
the  Theocracy  was  Moses,  the  man  of  God.  K. 

A  large  portion  of  the  second  and  fourth  books 
of  the  Pentateuch  (Exodus  and  Numbers),  and 
nearly  the  whole  of  its  third  and  fifth  books 
[Lecilicus  and  Deuteronomy),  are  occupied  with 
the  Laws,  which  Moses  was  the  instrument  of 
'giving  to  the  Jewish  people.  He  keeps  ever  be¬ 
fore  our  eyes  the  fact  that  the  Law  was  the  Law 
OF  Jehovah  This  is  the  only  authentic  case, 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  of  a  newly-formed 
nation  receiving  at  once  and  from  one  legislator 
a  complete  code  of  laws  for  the  direction  of 
their  whole  future  course  of  life.  P.  S. 

The  most  ancient  legislators,  to  enforce  their 


codes  by  irrefragable  authority,  have  pretended 
to  deliver  them  as  of  Divine  origin  ;  but  these, 
like  all  other  human  institutions,  have  decayed 
and  perished.  The  tabulous  deities  of  Poly¬ 
theism  never  manifested  themselves  by  a  prodi¬ 
gality  of  miracles  ;  but  the  sublime  Hebrew  ap¬ 
peals  to  “  the  many  great  and  terrible  things 
their  eyes  had  seen  from  the  God  of  Israel.” 
The  laws  of  other  legislators  have  passed  away, 
for  their  views  were  tiansient  as  the  glory  of  the 
people  to  whom  they  were  administered — there 
was  no  holy  principle  in  them  of  enduring  po¬ 
tency  to  carry  them  beyond  the  state  they  gov¬ 
erned.  But  the  laws  of  Moses —unaltered  as 
they  were  first  delivered  to  his  race,  breathing 
the  inspiration  in  which  they  originated,  and 
binding  together  the  spirit  of  religion  with  the 
spirit  of  polity — after  countless  ages  are  now 
operating  on  their  unchangeable  people,  still 
ancient  and  still  our  contemporaries  !  The  sub¬ 
lime  legislator  led  his  people  like  children  ;  and 
the  immortal  historian  of  the  Hebrews  was 
struck  by  this  great  singularity.  Thus  speaks 
Josephus  :  ‘‘  We  live  under  our  laws  as  under 
the  care  of  the  father  of  a  family  ;  and  that  we 
may  not  fail  in  them  on  the  plea  of  ignorance, 
our  legislator,  not  satisfied  that  we  should  hear 
them  once  or  twice,  has  obliged  us  to  abstain 
from  all  labors  one  day  in  the  week,  that  we 
may  apply  ourselves  to  hear  and  to  learn  them  ; 
a  circumstance  which  all  other  legislators  seem 
to  have  neglected.”  Disraeli. 

Historically,  ethnologically,  politically,  th® 
Greek  and  Roman  founders  are  nearer  to  us, 
much  nearer  to  us,  than  the  Oriental  Lawgiver  ; 
but  spiritually,  humanly,  in  all  that  concerns 
our  truest,  our  most  central  manhood,  how 
much  more  akin  to  us  is  Moses  than  Lycurgus 
or  Numa  ?  How  much  better  we  understand — 
not  his  writings  merely,  but  his  humanity  as 
one  with  our  humanity.  How  much  more  does 
he  enter,  not  only  into  the  religion,  but  into  the 
literature,  the  legislation,  in  a  word,  the  whole 
thinking  of  our  modern  society,  than  anj"  influ¬ 
ence  that  has  descended  from  Greek  or  Roman 
books.  T.  L. - The  uniqueness  of  the  leader¬ 

ship  of  Moses  consists  less  in  the  number  and 
character  of  the  functions  he  assumed,  than  in 
the  manner  of  discharging  them.  In  him  the 
grandeur  of  the  prophetical  office  received  its 
highest  expression  ;  beside  him,  the  greatest 
prophets  of  other  religions  seem  pygmies.  Ma¬ 
homet,  in  so  far  as  his  message  was  new,  was 
intelligible  only  to  certain  martial  and  passion¬ 
ate,  half-civilized  peoples  of  Asia  and  Africa. 
To  Moses  progressive  mankind  has  listened, 
and  must  forever  continue  reverently  to  listen  ; 


106 


SECTION  101.  THE  LEGISLATION  OF  MOSES. 


for  the  Irutlis  Lo  faugbt  are  the  only  basis  of 
durabie  uud  lieaiibiiil  progress.  Mjrae. 

Moses  tells  us  that  these  laws  are  not  liis  ;  be 


ered  his  people  ;  m  the  name  of  that  great  God 
and  by  commission  from  Him,  they  were  given 
to  the  Jews.  The  obligation  to  observe  them 
liovvs  from  Ilis  sovereign  will,  which  is  always 
wise  and  just,  and  the  only  solid  foundation  of 
virtue  ;  and  the  sanctions  of  these  laws  are  that 
prosperity  which  He  promises  to  them  as  the 
leward  of  their  obedience,  and  those  dreadful 
scourges  which  He  denounces  against  them  in 
case  of  disobedience.  These  sanctions  no  other 
legislator  ever  presumed  to  give  to  his  laws, 
but  here  they  were  verified  by  a  wonderful 
series  of  evenls.  Every  part  of  the  Jewish  leg¬ 
islation  displays  the  high  and  Divine  wisdom  of 
the  legislator.  Its  doctrines  are  rational  and 
sublime  ;  its  religious  and  moral  precepts,  holy 
and  jiure  ;  its  political,  military,  and  civil  laws 
are  wise,  equitable,  and  mild  ;  even  its  ritual 
laws  are  founded  in  reason  ;  all  of  them,  in 
short,  are  admirably  suited  to  the  designs  and 
^  iew's  of  the  legislator,  to  the  circumstances  of 
time,  place,  climate,  to  the  inclinations  of  the 
Hebrews,  and  to  the  manners  of  the  neighbor¬ 
ing  nations.  There  is  nothing  in  this  legisla¬ 
tion  that  contradicts  the  laws  of  nature  or  of 
virtue.  Everything  here  breathes  justice,  piety, 
honesty,  benevolence.  Its  object,  its  antiquity, 
its  origin,  its  duration,  the  talents  and  virtues 
of  the  legislator,  the  respect  of  so  many  nations, 
all  these  things  conspire  to  j^rove  the  excellence 
of  it.  Jews  Leilers. 

When  we  speak  of  the  Law,  we  reach  a  plane 
purely  Divine.  But  we  feel  how  fitting  beyond 
nil  other  men  was  the  man  selected  and  trained 
by  God  to  communicate  that  legislation  to  the 
Jewish  nation,  and,  in  its  basis  and  a  multi- 
tuie  of  its  principles  and  details,  to  the  world. 
For  it  has  been  well  said  :  “  Throughout 

Europe,  with  its  American  dependencies,  the 
larger  part  of  Asia,  and^the  north  of  Africa,  the 
opinions,  the  usages,  the  civil  as  well  as  the  re¬ 
ligious  ordinances,  retain  deep  and  indelible 
traces  of  their  descent  from  the  Hebrew  polity 
and  these  traces  are  growing  wider  and  deeper 
as  Christian  civilization  is  moving  round  the 
world.  It  was  a  law  eternal  in  its  principles, 
though  national  in  its  adaptation,  and  tinged 
with  traces  of  the  desert  in  which  it  was  first 
given  to  man.  An. 

FUND.4.MENTAL  PRINCIPLES  OP  THE  MoSAIC  LaW. 

The  leading  principle  is  its  theocratic  charac¬ 
ter — i.e.,  its  reference  of  all  actions  and  thoughts 


of  men  lirec  ly  and  immediately  to  the  will  of 
God.  But  this  theocratic  character  of  the  Law 
depends  necessarily  on  the  belief  iu  Gon,  as  not 
only  the  Creator  and  sustaiuer  of  the  world,  but 
as,  by  special  covenant,  the  head  of  the  Jtwish 
7iation.  This  immediate  reference  to  God  as 
their  king  is  clearly  seen  as  the  groundwork  of 
their  whole  polity.  From  this  theocratic  nature 
of  the  Law  follow  important  deductions  with 
regard  to  (a)  the  view  which  it  takes  of  political 
society  ;  (/>)  the  extent  of  the  scope  of  the  Law  ; 

(c)  the  penalties  by  which  it  is  enforced  ;  and 

(d)  the  character  which  it  seeks  to  impress  on 
the  people.  («)  The  Mosaic  Law  seeks  the  basis 
of  its  polity,  first,  in  the  absolute  sovereignty  of 
God,  next  in  the  relationship  of  each  individual 
to  God,  and  through  God  to  his  countrymen. 
It  is  clear  that  such  a  doctrine,  while  it  contra¬ 
dicts  none  of  the  common  theories  (of  the  dele¬ 
gation  of  individual  rights  to  political  authori¬ 
ties,  mutual  needs  of  men,  “  social  compact,” 
etc.),  yet  lies  beneath  them  all.  (6)  The  Law, 
as  proceeding  directly  from  God,  and  referring 
directly  to  him,  is  necessarily'’  absolute  in  Us  su 
premary  and  unlimited  in  its  scopt.  It  is  supreme 
over  the  governors,  as  being  only  the  delegates 
of  the  Lord,  and  therefore  it  is  incompatible 
with  any  despotic  authority  in  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  supreme  over  the  governed,  rec¬ 
ognizing  no  inherent  rights  in  the  individual, 
as  prevailing  against  or  limiting  the  Law.  It 
regulated  the  whole  life  of  an  Israelite.  His  ac¬ 
tions  were  rewarded  and  punished  with  great 
minuteness  and  strictness  ;  and  that  according 
to  the  standard,  not  of  their  consequences,  but 
of  their  intrinsic  morality’.  His  religious  wor¬ 
ship  was  defined  and  enforced  in  an  elaborate 
and  unceasing  ceremonial.  (c)  The  pemdbes 
and  rewards  by  which  tht^  Law  is  enforced  aie 
such  as  depend  on  the  direct  Theocracy.  With 
regard  to  individual  actions,  as  some  penalties 

I  are  generally  inflicted  by  the  subordinate,  and 
some  only  by  the  supreme  authority^  so  among 
the  Israelites  some  penalties  came  from  the 
hand  of  man,  some  directly  from  the  provi¬ 
dence  of  God.  The  bearing  of  this  principle 
on  the  inquiry  as  to  the  revelation  of  a  future  life 
in  the  Perdateuch,  is  easily  seen.  The  sphere  of 
moral  and  religious  action  and  thought  to  which 
the  Law  extends  is  beymnd  the  cognizance  of 
human  laws  and  the  scope  of  their  ordinary' 
penalties,  and  is  therefore  left  by  them  to  the 
retribution  of  God’s  inscrutable  justice,  which, 
being  but  imperfectly  seen  here,  is  cimtemplated 
especially  as  exercised  in  a  future  state.  Hence 
arises -the  expectation  of  a  direct  revelation  of 
this  future  state  in  the  Mosaic  Law.  Such  n. 


LEGISLATION^  OF  MOSES. 


107 


revelation  is  certainly  not  given.  The  truth 
seems  to  be  that  in  a  law  which  appeals  directly 
to  God  himself  for  its  authority  and  its  sanc¬ 
tion,  there  cannot  be  that  broad  line  of  demar¬ 
cation  between  this  life  and  the  next  which  is 
drawn  for  those  whose  j)ower  is  limited  by  the 
grave,  (d)  But  perhaps  the  most  important 
consequence  of  the  theocratic  nature  of  the  Law 
was  the  peculiar  character  (f  goodness  which  it 
sought  to  impress  on  the  people.  The  Mosaic 
Law,  beginning  with  pietj^  as  its  first  object, 
enforces  most  emphatically  the  purity  essential 
to  those  who,  by  tlieir  union  with  God,  have 
recovered  the  hope  of  intrinsic  goodness,  while 
it  views  righteousness  and  love  rather  as  deduc¬ 
tions  from  these  than  as  independent  objects. 
The  appeal  is  not  to  any  dignity  of  human  na¬ 
ture,  but  to  the  obligations  of  communion  with 
a  Holy  God.  The  subordination,  therefore,  of 
this  idea  also  to  the  religious  idea  is  enforced  ; 
and  so  long  as  the  due  supremacy  of  the  latter 
was  preserved,  all  other  duties  would  find  their 
places  in  proper  harmony.  But  the  usurpation 
of  that  supremacy  in  practice  by  the  idea  of  per¬ 
sonal  and  national  sanctity  was  that  which  gave 
its  peculiar  color  to  the  Jewish  character.  It  is 
evident  that  this  characteristic  of  the  Israelites 
would  tend  to  preserve  the  seclusion  which,  under 
God’s  providence,  was  intended  for  them,  and 
w^ould  in  its  turn  be  fostered  by  it.  Die.  B. 

Of  the  theology  of  this  system,  the  first  principle 
is  “Hear.  O  Israel!  The  Lord  thy  God  is  one 
Lord."  And  of  the  attributes  of  this  one  God, 
the  one  most  prominently  brought  forth  is  his 
self-existence— the  very  attribute  out  of  which 
as  their  source  modern  scientific  theology  seeks 
to  develop  logically  all  the  attributes  of  God. 
He  is  the  Jehovah — “I  am  that  I  am.’’  This 
self-existent  God  is  supreme.  “Know  there¬ 
fore  this  day  the  Lord,  he  is  God  in  heaven 
above  and  upon  the  earth  beneath  ;  there  is 
none  else.”  This  self-existent  and  Supreme 
God  possesses,  also,  every  perfection  :  “  The 
Lord,  the  Lord  God,  merciful  and  gracious, 
long-suffering,  and  abundant  in  goodness  and 
truth,  keeping  mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving 
iniquity,  transgression,  and  sin.”  And  this 
God  is  governing  the  universe  not  merely  by 
general  laws,  but  by  a  particular  providence 
over  the  affairs  of  men.  He  is  a  God  nigh  at 
hand.  For  the  very  foundation  of  this  whole 
civil  Government  w'as  reliance  upon  this  special 
providence  of  Jehovah  over  it.  Contrast  these 
pure  and  lofty,  yea  most  philosophical  con¬ 
ceptions  of  God,  with  the  ideas  current  in 
that  era  of  the  world,  as  testified  by  the  history 
of  all  the  monuments  of  that  era  of  civilization  ; 


and  let  any  one  account,  if  ho  can,  for  these 
ideas  of  Moses  in  such  marked  antagonism  to 
all  the  theological  theories  of  the  world,  and 
separated  by  a  gulf  as  wide  and  bridgeless  as 
that  between  heaven  above  and  earth  beneath 
from  all  the  theologies  of  the  world,  on  any 
other  theory  than  that  Moses  was  guided  di¬ 
rectly  by  God  himself.  S.  B.  The  primary  truth 
of  the  theology  of  the  Jewish  system,  the  truth 
which  underlies  the  whole  system,  the  truth 
which  it  is  the  leading  object  of  the  system  to 
unfold  and  enforce,  is  that  great  doctrine,  which 
forms  the  basis  of  all  true  religion— the  self¬ 
existence,  eternity,  unity,  perfections,  and  prov¬ 
idence  of  Jehovah,  the  creator  of  heaven  and 
earth.  Setting  itself  in  opposition  to  the  uni¬ 
versal  religious  belief  and  j)ractice  of  mankind, 
at  the  time  of  its  promulgation,  it  rejected  and 
denounced  all  false  gods  ;  all  image-worship, 
whether  the  object  of  adoration  w'as  intended 
as  a  representation  of  the  true  God  or  of  idols  ; 
and  all  the  absurdities,  pollutions,  impieties, 
and  abominations  of  idolatry,  of  every  name 
and  sort.  Nor  was  this  all.  The  Law  of  Moses 
revealed,  in  type  and  shadow,  the  whole  mys¬ 
tery  of  redemption,  through  the  sacrificial  death 
and  the  intercession  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  pre¬ 
pared  the  way  for  the  introduction  and  universal 
diffusion  of  that  more  spiritual  religion,  which 
was  promulgated  in  the  Gospel.  This  is  largely 
proved  by  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He¬ 
brews.  Still  further  :  Not  only  did  the  Mosaic  - 
Law  maintain  the  radical  principles  of  true  the¬ 
ology,  not  only  did  it  prepare  by  its  typical  rejj- 
resentations  for  the  introduction  of  the  Gospel 
and  the  establishment  of  Messiah’s  kingdom, 
but  by  the  spirituality,  breadth,  and  strictness 
of  its  moral  precepts,  it  j^robed  the  human  heart 
to  the  core,  and  laid  bare  the  depths  of  its  de¬ 
pravity.  Thus  did  it  expose  to  man  his  moral 
weakness,  his  inability  to  obtain  eternal  happi¬ 
ness  on  the  ground  of  his  own  merit,  and  his 
need  cf  a  justifying  righteousness  out  of  him¬ 
self.  Thus  did  it  shut  him  up  to  the  faith  of 
the  Gospel,  and  serve  as  “  a  schoolmaster  to 
bring  him  to  Christ.” 

A  civil  constitution,  inseparably  interwoven 
with  the  worship  of  the  one  living  God,  was,  as 
far  as  we  can  judge,  an  indispensable  agency  in 
enabling,  rather  in  compelling  the  Hebrews  to 
answer  their  high  destination.  By  this  means 
the  worship  of  the  true  God  would  be  made  im¬ 
perishable  so  long  as  the  nation  continued  a 
nation.  By  this  means  it  would  happen  that 
religion  and  the  political  existence  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  must  be  annihilated  together.  Whatever 
reason,  therefore,  there  was  for  desiring  the 


108 


SECTION  101.  THE  LEGISLATION  OF  MOSES. 


overthrow  of  idolatry,  there  was  the  same  reason 
for  incorporating  the  idea  of  the  Divine  unity 
into  the  political  structure  of  the  Hebrew  com¬ 
monwealth. 

Heathen  legislators  employed  religion  in  es¬ 
tablishing  their  political  institutions,  while 
Moses  made  use  of  a  civil  constitution  as  a 
means  of  perpetuating  religion.  With  the 
heathen  legislators  religion  was  the  means,  and 
government  the  end,  while  with  him  govern¬ 
ment  was  the  means,  and  religion  the  end.  Thus 
Moses  made  the  worship  of  the  one  only  God 
the  fundamental  law  of  his  civil  institutions. 
This  law  was  to  remain  forever  unalterable, 
through  all  the  changes  which  lapse  of  time 
might  introduce  into  his  constitution.  There 
is  one  God,  says  the  Jewish  Lawgiver,  and  there 
is  none  besides  him.  He  is  the  sole  object  of 
religious  trust  and  worship.  Himself  the  su¬ 
preme  being  and  the  necessary  source  of  all 
other  beings,  there  is  no  other  that  can  be  com¬ 
pared  with  him.  A  spirit,  pure,  immense,  in¬ 
finite— no  material  form  can  be  a  fit  symbol  of 
his  nature.  He  framed  the  universe  by  his 
power  ;  he  governs  it  by  his  wisdom  ;  he  regu¬ 
lates  it  by  his  providence.  Nothing  escapes  his 
omniscient  glance  ;  nothing  can  resist  his  al¬ 
mighty  power.  The  good  and  evil  of  life  are 
alike  dispensed  by  his  righteous  hand. 

A  public  worship  of  this  God  is  instituted. 
Ministers  to  preside  over  it  are  appointed.  Sac¬ 
rifices  and  offerings  and  a  splendid  ceremonial 
are  established.  But  all  this  pomp  is  nothing 
in  his  eyes,  unless  prompted  and  animated  by 
the  sentiments  of  the  heart.  The  worship 
which  he  demands,  before  all  and  above  all,  is 
the  acknowledgment  of  our  absolute  dependence 
and  of  his  supreme  dominion  ;  gratitude  for 
his  benefits  ;  trust  in  his  mercy  ;  reverence  for 
his  authority  ;  love  toward  his  excellence  ;  and 
submission  to  his  Law. 

What  purity  and  beauty  in  the  moral  doctrines 
of  this  code  !  Equity,  probity,  fidelity,  indus¬ 
try,  compassion,  charity,  beneficence  —  in  a 
word,  everything  that  makes  men  respectable  in 
their  own  eyes,  everything  that  can  endear  them 
to  their  fellows,  everything  that  can  assure  the 
repose  and  happiness  of  society — are  placed 
among  the  number  of  human  duties. 

Where  else,  in  all  antiquity,  are  to  be  found 
ideas  of  God  and  his  worship  so  just  and  sub¬ 
lime  ;  religious  institutions  so  pure  and  spirit¬ 
ual  ;  ethical  doctrines  so  conformable  to  the 
sentiments  of  nature  and  the  light  of  reason  V 
Recall  the  picture  of  the  religious  and  moral 
condition  of  the  ancient  world.  What  false  and 
grotesque  notions  of  the  Divine  nature  !  What 


extravagant,  impure,  and  cruel  rites  !  What 
objects  of  adoration  !  From  the  heavenly  orbs 
to  the  meanest  plant,  from  the  man  distin¬ 
guished  for  his  talents  or  his  crimes  to  the  vilest 
reptile— everything  has  its  worshippers.  Here, 
chastity  is  sacrificed  in  the  temples.  There, 
human  blood  flows  upon  the  altars,  and  the 
dearest  victims  expire  amid  flames,  kindled  by 
superstition.  Again,  nature  is  outraged  by 
beastly  amours,  and  humanity  brutalized  by 
vices  that  cannot  be  named  without  offence. 
Everywhere  the  people  are  plunged  into  a 
frightful  ignorance,  and  the  philosophers  them¬ 
selves  grope  in  doubt  and  uncertainty.  Where¬ 
fore  this  difference  ?  But  one  cause,  adequate 
to  the  result,  can  be  assigned.  All  the  pagan 
nations  had  for  their  guide  only  the  feeble  and 
tremulous  light  of  human  reason.  Among  the 
Hebrews,  a  higher,  even  the  pure  and  eternal 
reason,  had  pierced  the  darkness,  scattered  its 
shades,  and  poured  a  Divine  illumination  into 
the  mind  of  prophet,  priest,  lawgiver,  judge, 
and  king.  Thus  was  the  intellect  of  the  nation 
enlightened  and  its  heart  purified.  Thus  were 
its  manners  humanized,  its  morals  elevated,  its 
institutions  liberalized.  Thus  was  the  nation 
educated  for  its  great  mission  of  guidance  and 
of  blessing  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth,  in  all 
the  periods  of  their  history. 

The  Hebrew  government  was  a  government  of 
tutelage.  No  form  of  polity'  has  ever  approached 
it  in  grandeur,  purity,  simplicity,  and  benefi¬ 
cence.  Had  men  been  more  perfect,  it  would 
have  stood  forever.  But  human  inconstancy 
wearied  even  of  a  perfect  government  ;  mortal 
passions  corrupted  even  a  Divine  institution  ; 
and  the  commonwealth  of  Israel,  like  the  em¬ 
pire  of  Rome,  at  length  fell  beneath  the  weight 
of  its  own  vices,  and  disappeared  from  the 
brotherhood  of  nations.  It  lives  only  in  bis¬ 
tory,  a  monument  at  once  of  the  Divine  good¬ 
ness  and  equity.  E.  C.  W. 

Old  Testament  Ethics  is  practical.  It  sets  be¬ 
fore  man  a  vivid  thought  of  God  and  of  his  will 
as  the  reason  for  duty.  Old  Testament  ethics 
is  not  a  philosophy  ;  the  Hebrew's  had  none.  It 
is  not  speculative  ;  it  has  no  abstract  reason¬ 
ings  about  the  nature  or  grounds  of  duty.  It 
enforces  duty-by  considerations  drawn  from  the 
direct,  personal  relation  which  men  sustain  to 
the  holy  God.  Men  are  to  be  merciful  because 
God  has  been  merciful  to  them.  The  motives 
of  gratitude  are  all  drawn  from  this  personal  re¬ 
lation.  When  they  are  threatened  for  disobedi¬ 
ence,  the  same  conception  of  God  as  directly 
rewarding  and  punishing  is  vividly  presented. 


LEGISLATION  OF  MOSES. 


109 


The  commandments  and  prohibitions  of  the 
Old  Testament  all  bear  this  personal  character. 
Duty  is  obedience  to  God,  and  whatever  the 
motives  by  which  it  is  enforced,  they  are  drawn 
from  a  vivid  realization  of  the  character  of  God 
as  personal,  and  of  every  man’s  relation  as  di¬ 
rect  to  him.  How  any  one  could  volatilize  the 
Old  Testament  conceptions,  as  Matthew  Arnold 
has  done,  so  as  to  find  in  the  God  of  the  Jews 
only  a  non-personal  “  not-ourselves,”  in  their 
monotheism  only  “  seriousness,”  and  in  Old 
Testament  morals  and  religion  only  an  “  aspect 
of  the  not-ourselves,”  ”  which  makes  for  right¬ 
eousness,”  and  then,  to  crown  all,  could  con¬ 
ceive  the  “righteousness”  of  the  Old  Testament 
as  only  equivalent  to  “  conduct  ”  (“  Literature 
and  Dogma,”  p.  31),  is  a  psychological  problem 
for  which  the  known  laws  of  normal  human 
thought  furnish  no  solution.  The  facts  are, 
that  the  Old  Testament  conception  of  God  is 
most  intensely  personal,  amounting  even  to 
ascriptions  of  events  to  his  personal  agency 
which  we  are  wont  to  attribute  to  nature,  or  to 
the  working  of  providential  laws. 

Old  Testament  ethics  deals  with  man  as  he 
is.  It  does  not  speculate  ;  it  does  not  argue 
with  him.  It  assumes  that  the  will  of  the  per¬ 
sonal  God  is  law,  and  it  bases  its  commands  and 
precepts  upon  that  will  as  revealed  to  chosen 
leaders  and  teachers.  It  adapts  itself  to  man  in 
his  actual  needs  and  conditions.  It  gives  no 
vague  principles  ;  it  tells  him  what  to  do  ;  it 
proclaims  the  consequences  if  he  disobe^^s.  It 
doesn’t  look  upon  sin  as  an  abstraction,  but  as 
a  reality— concrete  and  guilty.  It  is  personal 
and  practical  throughout. 

Old  Testament  ethics  is  not  merely  individ¬ 
ual,  but  social.  It  has  the  building  up  of  so¬ 
ciety  always  in  view.  “I  will  be  your  God, 
and  ye  shall  be  my  people.”  It  teaches  not 
merely  what  a  man  shall  be  and  do,  considered 
apart  by  himself,  but  what  he  shall  be  as  a 
member  of  a  community  which  is  to  have  a  col¬ 
lective  unity  as  God’s  people.  The  rights  of 
men  in  their  mutual  relations  and  their  corre¬ 
sponding  duties  have  a  large  place  in  this  mo¬ 
rality.  This  is  not  the  case  among  primitive 
heathen  peoples.  There  all  is  atomism.  Here 
life  is  organic  There  the  principle  is  :  Every 
man  ,for  himself.  Here  the  idea  prevails  that 
every  man  is  his  “  brother’s  keeper.”  Every 
man  is  keeper  of  his  brother’s  rights  and  priv¬ 
ileges  as  far  as  he  has  any  relations  to  him. 
Hence  the  Mosaic  Law  contains  ameliorations 
for  the  unfortunate,  the  poor,  and  the  enslaved 
unknown  to  any  other  primitive  people.  Every 
seventh  year  the  land  lay  fallow  “  that  the  poor 


of  thy  people  may  eat.”  The  grain  in  the  cor¬ 
ners  of  the  field  and  the  fallen  fruit  of  the  vine¬ 
yard.  were  left  for  the  poor.  In  the  year  of 
jubilee  all  slaves  went  free  ;  all  cruelty  and -in¬ 
humanity  in  their  treatment  during  servitude 
were  severely  forbidden.  In  like  manner  the 
family  was  protected  and  fostered  as  in  no  other 
primitive  community.  Crimes  against  purity 
were  rigorously  i)uaished,  and  the  ideal  Hebrew 
woman  was  she  “  in  whom  the  heart  of  her  hus¬ 
band  doth  safely  trust  ”  (Prov.  31  : 11).  The  evils 
of  polygamy,  so  universal  in  early  ages,  were 
mitigated,  and  principles  were  set  in  operation 
which  at  length  secured  its  termination.  Thus 
the  Old  Testament  morality  aimed  at  founding 
a  social  fabric  in  which  the  notion  of  Theocracy 
— the  reign  of  God— shall  be  realized.  The 
watchword  of  this  society  is  “  Holiness  ;”  and 
both  the  idea  and  the  ground  of  this  holiness 
are  derived  from  the  holiness  of  the  personal 
God  :  “  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy.”  And  just 
as  the  life  of  the  individual  was  not  for  itself 
alone,  but  for  the  community,  so  the  life  of  the 
community  was  not  for  itself  alone,  but  for  the 
world.  As  early  as  the  covenant  with  Abraham 
it  was  clearly  stated  that  the  blessing  guaranteed 
to  him  was  for  the  world  (Gen.  18  :  18).  The 
undercurrent  of  thought  running  through  the 
Old  Testament  is  that  Israel  is  charged  with  a 
world-redeeming  mission.  The  Messianic  hope 
everywhere  presupposes  this.  The  whole  pro¬ 
cess  of  moral  training,  therefore,  has  this  greater 
result  for  its  goal.  It  has  in  view  the  universal 
good.  Stevens. 

If  we  compare  the  Mosaical  and  the  Christian 
dispensations,  we  may  observe  that  both  pro¬ 
ceeded  from  the  same  author,  teach  the  same 
religion,  inculcate  the  same  moral  duties,  breathe 
the  same  spirit  of  devotion,  love,  and  purity, 
and  are  mutually  connected  with  each  other. 
The  former  was  preparatory  to  the  latter,  and 
typical  of  it.  The  former,  as  to  its  ritual,  was 
the  shadow  ;  the  latter  is  the  substance.  The 
former  was  partial  in  its  discoveries,  material  in 
its  ordinances,  limited  in  its  application,  and 
temporary  in  its  duration  ;  but  completeness, 
spirituality,  universality,  and  perpetuity  are 
the  attributes  of  the  latter.  An. 

Consider  the  Hebrew  Law  as  designed  and 
■formed  to  answer  many  useful  ends,  all  of  them 
of  great  service  to  the  state  of  the  Church  and 
world  at  that  time  ;  observe  carefully  how  it 
answered  the  great  ends  of  religion,  the  true 
knowdedge  of  the  one  true  God,  in  a  worship 
honorable  and  acceptable  to  Him  ;  and  how 
well  it  improved  the  mind  in  virtue  and  real 
goodness,  the  true  perfection  and  happiness  of 


110 


SECTION  101.  THE  LEGISLATION  OF  MOSES. 


the  soul.  Consider  it  further  as  a  wise  and 
most  effectual  means  to  prevent  the  great  and 
most  dangerous  progress  of  idolatry,  which 
threatened  the  extirpation  of  all  true  religion, 
and  with  it  the  true  principles  of  virtue,  out  of 
the  world.  Observe,  once  more,  of  what  great 
use  this  Law  was,  to  jirepare  the  minds  of  all 
men,  Gentiles  as  well  as  Jews,  for  the  more  per¬ 
fect  state  of  a  Catholic  Church,  when  in  the  ful¬ 
ness  of  time  the  promised  Messiah  should 
come,  and  you  will  find  great  reason  to  justify 
and  admire  this  constitution  as  an  instance  of 
great  wisdom  and  goodness  in  God,  of  great 
favor  to  the  family  of  Abraham,  and  of  univer¬ 
sal  advantage  to  all  the  nations  of  the  earth 
when  the  mystery  of  Christ  was  revealed,  that 
“the  Gentiles  should  be  fellow-heirs,  and  par¬ 
takers  of  his  promise  in  Christ,  by  the  Gospel  ” 
(Eph.  3  :  6).  Lowman. 

The  Sinai  covenant  [Mosaic  system]  is  to  be 
considered  in  its  twofold  character  of  a  law  to 
convict  of  sin,  and  a  gospel  to  teach  pardon 
tond  justification  by  faith,  and  that  a  faith  which 
purifies  the  heart.  In  this  view  it  is,  on  the 
one  hand,  a  law  of  commandments  “  exceeding 
broad,  reaching  to  the  thoughts  and  intents  of 
the  heart,”  with  Divine  annotations  showing 
the  application  of  its  precepts  to  every  relation 
of  man  as  a  creature  of  God,  and  as  a  social 
being  with  relations  to  his  fellow-men.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  sets  forth  in  fullest  detail  the 
Gospel  salvation  by  symbols  and  types.  The 
perpetual  dailj'  offering  of  the  lamb  upon  the 
altar  is  its  central  symbol  ;  and  around  that 
ancient  figure  of  the  old  covenants  is  arranged, 
in  eloquent  symbols,  the  whole  subjective  pro¬ 
cess  of  salvation — faith,  purification — consecra¬ 
tion  to  Jehovah.  It  is  law,  but  not  antithetical 
to  the  Gospel,  or  as  contrasted  with  the  doc¬ 
trines  of  Jesus  and  his  apostles.  It  is  law  and 
gospel  both.  Nay  the  very  Law  itself  is  grounded 
upon  an  evangelical  motive,  “  I  am  Jehovah  thy 
God  who  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  ’  ’ 
— who  have  redeemed  thee,  and  entitled  myself 
to  grateful  service  and  obedience — therefore 
worship  me  only  ;  nor  in  deed,  nor  word,  nor 
desire,  do  any  injury  to  thy  fellows.  Hence, 
that  which  is  most  distinctively  ethical  in  the 
Sinai  revelations  is  yet  distinctly  evangelical  in 
the  ground  and  motive  of  obedience.  Having 
in  literal  terms  furnished  a  law  of  life  to  con¬ 
vict  of  sin,  far  more  clear  and  in  detail  than  any 
previous  revelation,  the  Sinai  covenant  pro¬ 
ceeds  also,  far  more  clearly  and  in  detail  than 
ever  before,  not  only  to  hold  up  as  heretofore 
the  Gospel  provision  for  sin  in  atoning  bloorl, 
but  the  Gospel  instructions  for  the  application 


of  that  provision  to  the  conscience  of  the  sinner 
by  faith  — the  cleansing  of  the  heart  to  which 
such  faith  leads,  and  the  consecration  of  the  life 
to  the  Eedeemer.  Thus  the  Gospel  according 
to  Moses  differs  neither  in  creed  nor  practical 
religion  from  the  Gospel  according  to  Jesus  and 
Paul,  but  only  in  the  language  in  which,  from 
the  necessity  of  the  case,  it  had  to  find  utter¬ 
ance.  S.  E. 

Form  of  the  Mosaic  Legislation. 

The  legislation,  properly  so  called,  comprises 
a  series  of  minute  yet  laconic  regulations  di¬ 
rectly  opposite  in  form  to  the  endless  iterations 
and  synonymns  of  modern  statute  books.  These 
laws,  instead  of  being  wrought  into  a  system, 
or  standing  insulated  by  themselves,  are  inter¬ 
rupted  yet  connected  by  a  running  narrative, 
with  dates  and  geographical  specifications,  at 
unequal  intervals.  .  .  .  The  legislation  is  one 
in  f)urpose  and  harmonious  in  detail,  but  re¬ 
corded  in  the  order  of  its  promulgation.  It  dif¬ 
fers  from  a  formal  system,  such  as  some  would 
find  in  it,  just  as  a  modern  statute  book  or 
digest  differs  from  the  journal  of  a  legislative 
body  in  which  the  enactments  are  recorded  at 
length.  It  is  a  code  of  laws  inserted  in  a  frame 
of  history.  To  this  fact  due  regard  must  be  had 
in  the  interpretation  of  the  laws  themselves. 
J.  A.  A. 

The  laws  of  the  Pentateuch  are  anything  but 
a  carefully  arranged  code.  You  have  laws  in¬ 
termixed  with  the  history,  laws  repeated,  laws 
inserted,  apparently  as  they  were  given  by  God, 
or  as  the  need  arose.  In  its  lack  of  arrange¬ 
ment,  it  is  just  the  book  which  Moses  might 
have  been  supposed  to  write  during  the  desert 
wanderings,  when  he  had  to  bear  the  burden  of 
the  people  alone.  Watson. 

Divisions  ff  the  Law. 

As  the  people  of  Israel  may'  be  viewed  under 
a  threefold  aspect,  so  we  have  a  foundation  laid 
in  this  fact  for  a  threefold  acceptation  of  the 
word  Law.  They  may'  be  viewed  :  (1)  As  rational 
and  responsible  creatures,  depending  upon  God 
and  subject  to  his  will  as  the  supreme  Euler 
and  Judge  of  the  universe.  In  this  capacity  the 
law  of  the  ten  commandments,  or  the  moral  law, 
was  given  to  them,  which  is  substantially  one 
and  the  same  with  the  law  of  nature,  and  bind¬ 
ing  all  men  as  such.  (2)  As  the  Church  of  the 
Old  Testament,  expecting  the  Messiah,  and  fur¬ 
nished  with  a  system  of  worship  embracing  a 
great  variety  of  rites  and  ceremonies  which 
pointed  more  or  less  distinctly'  to  Him.  Viewed 
in  this  ecclesiastical  character,  God  bestowed 


MORAL,  CEREMONIAL,  CIVIL. 


A 


111 


upon  them  the  ceremonial  law,  which  was  a  body 
of  rules  and  precepts  regulating  their  religious 
worship.  (3)  As  a  peculiar  people,  having  a 
civil  polity  and  constitution  especially  appointed 
for  them  and  distinguishing  them  from  all  other 
nations,  their  government  being  in  fact  a  the¬ 
ocracy.  in  which  God  himself  was  their  supreme 
magistrate.  Viewed  in  this  light  a  code  of  civil 
laws  was  prescribed  them.  The  term  “  the  Law” 
is  sometimes  applied  to  one  of  these  systems, 
and  sometimes  to  another,  and  again  to  the 
whole  taken  collectively  ;  so  that  we  must  often 
be  governed  in  great  measure  by  the  context  in 
determining  the  precise  sense  in  which  the  term 
is  used.  It  is,  however,  most  legitimately  and 
emphatically  employed  in  reference  to  the  first 
of  these,  the  moral  law,  which  was  distinguished 
from  the  others  by  being  audibly  delivered  by 
God  himself  and  afterward  written  by  him  upon 
two  tables  of  stone.  Bush. 

1.  MoRAii  Law. 

Where  in  the  whole  compass  of  human  liter¬ 
ature  can  a  summary  of  moral  duty  be  found 
comparable  to  that  contained  in  the  Decalogue  ? 
Here  are  the  seminal  principles  of  all  virtue, 
piety,  filial  duty,  justice,  truth,  benevolence, 
and  internal  purity.  The  Law  of  Moses  enjoined 
supreme  love  to  God,  love  to  our  neighbor  equal 
to  that  which  we  bear  ourselves,  reverence  for 
old  age,  forgiveness  of  injuries,  the  rendering 
of  good  for  evil,  mutual  kindness,  compassion 
toward  the  unfortunate,  and  a  generous  hospi¬ 
tality.  It  earnestl}"  enforced  the  conviction  that 
God  requires  of  his  rational  creatures  not  a 
mere  external  service,  but  an  internal  worship  ; 
desires  duly  regulated  ;  and  a  benevolence  ex¬ 
pansive,  ardent,  and  active.  It  represented  the 
love  of  God  as  a  practical  principle,  stimulating 
to  the  cultivation  of  puritj^  justice,  humanity, 
mercy,  and  truth.  In  a  word,  the  Gospel  itself 
has  scarcely  a  single  moral  precept  which  had 
not  been  already  promulgated  in  the  Mosaic  in¬ 
stitution.  In  its  moral  teachings,  Christianity 
does  little  more  than  give  a  greater  breadth  to 
principles  which  Judaism  had  formed  into  a 
body  of  practical  ethics  more  than  a  thou¬ 
sand  years  before  Socrates  and  Plato  flourished. 
E.  C.  W. 

2.  Ceeemoniax  Laws. 

The  ceremonial  law  relates  to  the  priests,  the 
tabernacle,  the  sacrifices,  and  other  religious 
rites  and  services.  God  commanded  that  those 
who  should  be  employed  about  the  tabernacle 
or  in  Ihe  offices  of  public  worship  should  be  of 
the  posterity  of  Levi  ;  and  hence  this  law  is 


sometimes  called  the  Levitioal  Law  ;  but  the 
priesthood  itself  was  to  be  confined  to  Aaron 
and  his  descendants.  The  principal  objects  of 
the  ceremonial  law  were  to  preserve  the  Jews 
from  idolatry,  to  which  all  the  neighboring  na¬ 
tions  were  addicted,  and  to  keep  up  in  their 
minds  the  necessity  of  an  atonement  for  sin. 
A.  C. 

The  purpose  of  the  ritual  law  was  to  teach  by 
signs  and  actual  observances  at  a  time  when 
teaching  by  language  was  not  understood  ;  and 
by  means  of  these,  emblems  and  usages,  all  of 
which  referred  to  Jehovah  as  King,  to  instil  into 
the  minds  of  the  whole  people  the  feeling  that 
every  relation  of  life,  every  movement  of  na¬ 
ture,  every  detail  of  human  intercourse,  placed 
them  in  constant  dependence  on  God.  Gerl. 

The  highest  laws  are  not  to  be  regarded  as 
useless  because  they  are  certain  to  be  generally 
neglected.  The  Hebrew  Law  in  regard  to  sacri¬ 
fices,  attendances  at  the  Temple,  and  the  Holy 
Convocations  was  perhaps,  even  in  ordinary 
times,  as  much  neglected  as  the  rules  of  the 
Christian  Church  are  in  our  day.  But  the  Law 
was  not  foiled  of  its  purpose.  It  was  intended 
to  represent  human  duty  in  its  relation  to  Divine 
holiness,  to  show  forth  and  reprove  human 
weakness,  not  to  stoop  to  it.  Its  require- 
ments  were  not  lowered  to  the  probabilities  of 
man’s  conduct.  It  was  not,  like  the  legislation 
of  ordinary  States,  intended  primarily  to  meet 
the  exigencies  of  existing  facts  and  to  keep 
offenders  in  order.  Its  purpose  was  to  help 
and  instruct  the  best  of  the  people,  not  merely 
to  chastise  the  worst.  Other  legislators  have 
taken  their  starting  points  from  human  facts. 
Moses  took  his  from  the  character  and  purpose 
of  God.  Clark. 

3.  CivilLaws. 

Beside  their  political  and  judicial  aspects, 
these  relate  to  the  ownership  of  the  soil,  its  sale, 
redemption,  and  inheritance  ;  to  domestic  cir¬ 
cumstances  ;  to  servants  or  slaves,  their  treat¬ 
ment  and  manumission  ;  to  debts,  lending  of 
money,  and  the  recovery  of  it  ;  to  the  rights  of 
the  poor,  the  stranger,  the  infirm,  the  old,  and 
even  of  the  lower  animals.  Almost  all  of  them 
have  a  moral  import,  and  rest  upon  a  moral 
foundation.  They  aimed  at  the  general  good, 
and  at  the  preservation  and  training  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  of  God  with  reference  to  that  peculiar  posi¬ 
tion  which,  in  virtue  of  the  moral  and  cere¬ 
monial  law  and  of  the  Divine  promises,  they 
already  occupied  among  the  nations.  Even  this 
description  of  laws,  which  we  find  scattered  up 
and  down  from  Exodus  to  Deuteronomy,  evince 


112 


^  SECTION  101.  THE  LEGISLATION  OF  MOSES. 


great  lenity  and  indulgence,  require  the  same 
charity  as  the  moral  law  demands,  and  equally 
put  to  the  test  the  obedience  of  the  people  to 
that  sovereign  Lord  and  King  from  whom  they 
had  been  received.  The  entire  legislation,  com¬ 
prehending  the  civil  precepts  and  administra¬ 
tion  of  justice,  has  a  distinct  reference  to  Je¬ 
hovah.  Reverence,  love,  and  obedience  to  him 
were  to  manifest  themselves  among  the  people 
in  all  the  relations  of  life.  Every  law,  even  such 
as  related  to  the  commonest  affairs,  was  ordained 
and  sanctioned  by  Jehovah.  C.  G.  B. 

If  we  once  admit  that  all  the  national  con¬ 
cerns  of  Israel  were  under  an  extraordinarv 

ft. 

guidance  from  above,  it  becomes  unnecessary  to 
assume  a  twofold  constitution,  since  all  public 
affairs  were  in  a  certain  sense  religious,  because 
all  designed  for  a  religious  purpose,  and  di¬ 
vinely  ordered  so  as  to  secure  it.  Under  such  a 
dispensation,  things  which  with  us  require  a 
double  machinery  could  be  effected  by  a  single 
undivided  organization.  The  whole  nation  was 
a  kingdom  of  priests.  Its  rulers,  therefoie,  were 
religious  rulers.  In  providing  for  the  spiritual 
wants  of  the  people,  provision  was  effectually 
made  for  many  of  their  most  important  secular 
interests,  or  such  as  must  be  secular  in  our 
case,  from  the  total  difference  of  our  situation. 
Those  regulations  of  the  Law  which  seem  to 
have  least  of  a  religious  character  are  not  then 
to  be  looked  upon  as  fragments  of  another  sys¬ 
tem,  accidentally  and  partially’  disclosed,  but 
as  the  more  subordinate  and  less  important  parts 
of  that  which  is  described  at  length.  J.  A.  A. 

The  Hebrew  system  surpassed  all  others,  es¬ 
pecially  in  this  -that  it  gave  to  human  government 
and  law  the  sanction  of  God's  authority,  and  en¬ 
forced  them  upon  the  human  heart  and  con¬ 
science  by  this  most  impressive  and  benign  of  all 

influences.  H.  C. - Political  laws  are  not  only 

enacted  with  reference  to  earthly  affairs,  in 
order  that  men  should  maintain  mutual  equity 
with  each  other  and  should  follow  and  observe 
what  is  right,  but  that  thej’’  should  exercise 
themselves  in  the  veneration  of  God.  For  Plato 
also,  when  he  lays  down  the  legitimate  consti¬ 
tution  of  a  republic,  calls  the  fear  of  God  the 
preface  of  all  laws  ;  and  every  other  profane 
author  has  confessed  this  to  be  the  priucipal 
part  of  a  well-constituted  state,  that  all  with  one 
consent  should  reverence  and  worship  God. 
The  wisdom  of  men  was  at  fault  in  that  they 
deemed  any  religion  which  they  might  prefer 
was  to  be  sanctioned  by  laws  and  by  punish- 
ment.s  :  yet  the  principle  was  a  just  one,  that 
tiie  whole  system  of  law  is  perverted  if  the  cul¬ 
tivation  of  piety  is  ignored  by  it.  Calv. 


This  divinely  given  codt  rested  upon  justice 
and  equity,  and  determined  everything  by  this 
standard.  So  doing,  it  ruled  out  at  once  a  mul¬ 
titude  of  interests  and  ends  which  human  lav^s 
have  often  sought  to  secure.  Its  example  there¬ 
fore,  in  so  far  at  least,  was  simply  and  supremely 
beneficent.  It  recognized  the  common  and 
equal  rights  of  all  men.  It  appreciated  at  their 

just  value  the  rights  of  the  poor.  H.  C. - The 

laws  governing  the  details  of  business  inter¬ 
course  were  all  such  as  to  promote  industry  and 
peaceful  social  relations.  For  they  all  have 
their  germinal  idea  in  the  great  conirnaml  : 
“  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.” 
And  all  their  very  remarkable  social  and  civil 
institutions  tend  to  the  same  end.  Jt  is  a  na¬ 
tional  government  by  families,  in  which  free¬ 
dom  is  seemed,  property  protected,  life  held 
sacred,  religion,  a  real  religion  of  the  heart,  cul¬ 
tivated,  beneficence,  toward  the  poor  and  helpless 
and  the  stranger  inculcated  in  the  most  forcible 
manner.  And  these  also  with  the  most  awful 
sanctions  Even  the  favor  or  displeasure  of 
their  sovereign.  Jehovah  himself.  S.  R. 

While  the  moral  law  forms  the  groundwork  of 
the  whole  political  and  social  constitution  of 
the  people,  it  is  perfectly  clear  that  the  object 
of  all  the  other  commandments  was  to  bring 
these  ten  commandments  to  bear  on  every  par¬ 
ticular  of  daily  life.  As  the  Lawgiver  himself 
is  a  Spirit,  and  holy,  so  are  all  these  command¬ 
ments  holy,  and  to  be  understood,  not  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  letter  only,  but  after  a  spiritual, 
moral,  and  inward  sense.  At  the  same  time 
that  the  prohibition  goes  on  from  deed  to  word, 
and  from  word  to  desire,  it  is  quite  clear  that 
the  thing  prohibited  is  not  to  be  understood 
merely  as  the  outward  act,  but  is  regarded  in 
its  inmost  root— in  its  inward  cause  and  excit¬ 
ing  spirit  as  an  offence  against  God.  Gerl. 

Thus  the  religion  of  the  Hebrews  not  only 
included  all  that  regarded  the  worship  of  God  ; 
it  extended  to  the  regulation  of  the  common¬ 
wealth,  the  ratification  of  the  laws,  the  forms 
and  administration  of  justice,  and  almost  all 
the  relations  of  civil  and  domestic  life.  With 
them  almost  every  point  of  conduct  was  con¬ 
nected  either  directly  or  indirectly  with  re¬ 
ligion.  Lowih. - In  this  high  position  ac¬ 

corded  to  the  community  by  the  theocratic  piin- 
ciple  of  the  constitution,  what  a  boon  was  con¬ 
ferred  on  Israel  !  It  gave  to  every  one  who  im¬ 
bibed  the  spirit  of  the  constitution  the  lofty 
sense  of  a  near  relationship  to  God,  and  not 
only  warranted,  but  in  a  manner  constrained 
him  to  view  everything  connected  with  his  state 
in  the  light  of  the  Divine  will  and  glory.  What 


SECTION  102. 


113 


he  possessed,  he  held  as  a  sacred  charge  com¬ 
mitted  to  him  from  above  ;  what  he  did,  he  be¬ 
hooved  to  do  as  a  steward  of  the  great  Lord  of 
heaven  and  earth.  Then,  in  the  oneness  of 
this  covenant  standing  among  the  families  of 
Israel,  what  a  sacred  bond  of  brotherhood  was 
established  !  what  a  security  for  the  mainte¬ 
nance  of  equal  rights  and  impartial  administra¬ 
tions  between  man  and  man  !  Members  alike 
of  one  divinely  constituted  community — sub¬ 
jects  of  one  Almighty  King— partakers  together 


of  one  inheritance,  and  that  an  inheritance  held 
in  simple  fee  of  the  same  Lord  ;  surely  nowhere 
could  the  claims  of  rectitude  and  love  have  been 
more  deeply  grounded — nowhere  could  acts  of 
injustice  and  oppression  have  worn  a  character 

more  hateful  and  unbecoming.  P.  F, - Their 

laws  were  their  religion  ;  and  their  religion, 
descending  from  heaven,  sent  forth  a  mightier 
impulse  than  that  uncertain  patriotism,  which 
is  its  imperfect  substitute  among  other  nations, 
D' Israeli.' 


Section  102. 

THE  PENTATEUCHAL  CODES. 


There  are  three  codes  which  can  be  clearly 
discriminated  from  one  another.  (1)  One  is 
called  the  Book  of  Ike  Covenant,  and  is  contained 
in  Ex.  20-24,  of  which  chapter  34  is  a  compen¬ 
dium.  It  IS  expressed  in  a  brief,  sententious 
way,  and  is  in  general  of  a  judicial  character. 
(2)  Another  is  contained  in  De.  12-26,  and  was 
called  by  Eichhorn  a  'people' s  code,  because  of  its 
popular  character.  It  was  directed  to  a  people 
already  dwelling  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  in 
it  Moses  comes  forward  as  a  prophet  of  Jehovah 
to  exhort  the  people  to  obey  the  laws  made 
known  to  them.  (3)  The  third  is  the  Priest 
code,  consisting  of  the  scattered  legislation  found 
in  the  middle  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  in  which 
the  whole  Levitical  system  is  developed. 
Chambers. 

The  variation  in  the  three  codes  is  so  con¬ 
stant  that  it  is  impossible  to  explain  it  away. 
These  variations  were  noted  in  part  by  Calvin, 
who  wrote  a  Harmony  of  the  Legislation,  but 
be  was  not  followed  by  later  writers.  These 
variations  were  more  closely  scrutinized  by 
Eichhorn,  and  he  explained  them  on  the  ground 
that  the  Deuteronomic  code  was  a  people's  code, 
the  legislation  of  the  middle  books  a  priests' 
code.  Another  important  difference  to  which 
Rielim  calls  attention  is  that  the  Priest  code 
was  designed  for  a  people  still  wandering  in  the 
wilderness,  the  other  for  a  people  dwelling  in 
the  land  of  Canaan.  Moreover,  the  Deutero¬ 
nomic  code  is  connected  with  a  new  covenant 
besides  the  original  covenant  at  Horeb  (De. 
29  :  9-14).  The  Priest  code  is  given  as  the  words 
of  Jehovah  revealed  to  Moses.  In  the  Deuter- 
8 


onomic  code  Moses  comes  forward  as  a  popular 
orator  to  urge  the  people  to  the  observance  of 
the  laws  wKich  he  makes  known  as  the  prophet 
of  Jehovah. 

Thus,  according  to  Eichhorn  and  Eiehm,  we 
have  a  difference  of  point  of  vieio,  which  deter¬ 
mines  the  structure  and  the  character  of  these 
codes,  and  necessarily  produced  a  variation 
throughout.  To  this  discrimination  of  the 
Deuteronomic  and  Priests’  codes  we  may 
add  that  the  codes  Ex.  20-24  and  34  differ  no 
less  strikingly  from  them  both.  They  were 
written  by  Moses  in  an  earlier  and  later  Book 
of  the  Covenant.  They  contain  brief,  terse, 
pregnant  sentences  of  command.  They  resemble 
the  Decalogue  itself.  ...  We  thus  have  a 
third  and  earlier  point  of  view.  These  three 
codes,  therefore,  present  us  the  judicial,  the 
prophetical,  and  the  priestly  points  of  view, 
which  determine  the  variation  in  aim,  form, 
structure,  and  character  of  the  three  codes,  .  .  . 
Let  us  look  at  the  differences  and  inquire  how 
they  may  be  harmonized.  The  following  five 
specimens  of  variation  will  be  sufficient  for  our 
purpose. 

{a)  In  the  Priesthood.  The  Book  of  the  Cov¬ 
enant  knows  no  priests  as  such,  the  Deutero¬ 
nomic  code  presents  the  Levites — the  whole  tribe 
of  Levi — as  priests,  the  Priest  code  makes  the 
sons  of  Aaron  the  priests  and  Levites  subordi¬ 
nate  ministers. 

(6)  In  the  Altars.  The  Book  of  the  Covenant 
commands  the  erection  of  altars  “  in  all  places" 
where  Jehovah  records  his  name  (Ex.  20  : 24). 
The  Deuteronomic  code  forbids  the  offering  of 
sacrifices  at  any  place  save  “  in  the  place  that 


114 


SECTION  102.  THE  PENTATEUCHAL  CODES. 


Jehovah  chooselh  in  one  of  thy  tribes  '  (De.  12  : 13). 
The  Priest  code  commands  the  sacrifices  to  be 
presented  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting, 
and  that  the  Aaronic  j^riests  shall  receive  the 
blood  and  apply  it  to  the  altar  (Lev.  1,  sq  ). 

(c)  The  Sacrifices.  Those  in  the  Covenant  code 
are  burnt  offerings  and  peace  offerings  only. 
The  Deuteronomic  code  adds  tithes,  votive  and 
free-will  offerings.  The  Priest  code  adds  the 
sin  and  trespass  offerings,  and  specifies  various 
details  of  the  other  classes. 

(d)  Purifications.  According  to  the  Covenant 
code,  the  men  of  Israel  are  holy,  and  are  not  to 
eat  flesh  of  beasts  in  the  field.  The  Deutero¬ 
nomic  code  forbids  them  to  cut  themselves,  dis¬ 
tinguishes  the  clean  from  the  unclean  animals 
(14:3-21),  prescribes  washing  with  water  for 
uncleanness  (23:10,  sq.).  The  Priest  code 
gives  an  extended  series  of  purifications  in  the 
varied  use  of  water,  and  by  the  use  of  ashes  of 
the  red  heifer  (Lev.  12  ;  Nu.  19),  and  various 
ingredients  in  the  healing  of  the  leper  (Lev. 
13-14). 

(e)  The  Feasts.  The  Covenant  code  ordains 
the  Sabbath,  feasts  of  unleavened  bread,  har¬ 
vest  and  ingathering-;,  and  the  seventh  year 
i(Ex,  23  : 10-17).  The  Deuteronomic  code  men¬ 
tions  the  passover,  feast  of  unleavened  bread, 
feast  of  weeks,  feast  of  tabernacles,  and  year  of 
release  (De.  15,  16).  The  Priest  code  gives  a 
complete  cycle  of  feasts  (Lev.  23  ;  Nu.  28),  new 
moons,  Sabbaths,  the  seven  great  Sabbaths, 
passover  and  unleavened  bread,  day  of  first- 
fruits,  feast  of  trumpets,  day  of  atonement, 
tabernacles,  the  seventh  j’ear's  feast,  the  year  of 
jubilee — a  most  artistic  system, 

It  will  be  observed  that  these  variations  are 
in  the  chief  features  of  the  ceremonial  system. 
They  present  the  appearance  of  develoiament 
from  the  more  simple  to  the  more  complex,  and 
in  the  order.  Covenant  code,  Deuteronomic 
code,  and  Priest  code.  A  code  for  the  elders 
and  judges  of  tribes  or  clans  in  their  various 
localities,  a  code  for  the  instruction  of  the  na 
tion  as  a  whole  in  rhetorical  and  popular  form, 
and  a  code  for  the  priests  from  the  holy  place 
as  a  centre,  in  the  nature  of  the  case  will  show 
a  progress  from  the  simple  to  the  more  and 
more  complex  and  elaborate  in  matters  of  rit¬ 
ualistic  observance.  The  Covenant  code  is  a 
series  of  decalogues  for  the  elders  in  the  adminis¬ 
tration  of  justice  in  various  localities.  It  is  based 
on  the  Sinaitic  cov^’enant,  and  lies  at  the  root 
of  the  Pentateuchal  legislation.  It  is  expressly 
claimed  as  written  by  Moses  in  the  two  books 
of  the  Covenant.  The  Deuteronomic  code  is  a 
people’s  code  in  a  prophetic  form  to  instruct  and 


stimulate  the  people  of  Jehovah  as  an  organic 
whole.  It  is  based  on  the  experience  of  the 
wandering  in  the  wilderness,  it  looks  forward 
to  a  prolonged  occupation  of  the  promised  land, 
and  is  based  on  a  new  covenant  in  the  plains  of 
Moab.  We  would  expect  to  find  progretis  and  de¬ 
velopment  here,  especially  on  the  practical  side. 
This  code  is  also  claimed  to  have  been  written 
by  Mo>es,  and  we  can  see  no  sufficient  reason 
for  doubting  it  as  to  its  essential  features.  The 
Priest  code  is  from  the  priestly  point  of  view  in 
connection  with  the  tabernacle  and  its  institu¬ 
tions.  It  will  necessarily  exhibit  progress  and 
development  on  the  technical  side  in  the  details 
of  the  ritual.  This  code  is  scattered  in  groups 
in  the  middle  books,  and  broken  up  by  inser¬ 
tions  of  historical  incidents,  but  when  j)ut  to¬ 
gether  exhibits  an  organic  whole,  a.  unity  and 
symmetry  which  is  wonderful  in  connection 
with  the  attention  given  to  details.  This  code 
is  represented  as  given  by  Jehovah  to  Moses  or 
Aaron,  or  both,  but  it  is  not  represented  as  writ¬ 
ten  down  by  Moses,  as  is  the  case  with  the  two 
other  codes.  It  claims  to  be  Mosaic  legislation, 
but  if  we  should  suppose  that  Eleazar  or  some 
other  priest  gathered  these  detailed  laws  and 
groups  of  laws  into  a  code  in  the  time  subse- 
cj^uent  to  the  conquest,  all  the  conditions  of  vari¬ 
ation  and  development  might  be  explained. 

There  are  several  insuperable  obstacles  to  the 
composition  of  the  Priest  code  in  the  post-exil¬ 
ian  period  :  (1)  The  language  of  the  Elohistand 
Priest  code  is  classic,  and  cannot,  on  that  ac¬ 
count,  be  placed  subsequent  to  Jehoshaphat. 
The  discussions  respecting  the  language  of  the 
Elohist  have  proved  beyond  question  marked 
differences  from  the  Jehovist  and  Deuterono- 
mist,  but  they  have  not  proved  any  such  deflec¬ 
tion  in  syntax  of  the  vav  consecutive,  and  mul¬ 
tiplication  of  nouns  formed  by  affixes  as  char¬ 
acterize  Jeremiah  and  Ezekiel,  not  to  speak  of 
post-exilian  writers. 

(2)  The  Priest  code  is  a  unit  in  its  wonderful 
variety  of  detail.  Given  the  ark  of  the  cove¬ 
nant  as  the  throne  of  Jehovah,  the  King  of  Israel, 
the  holy  God,  and  all  the  institutions,  and  the 
ritual  seem  to  be  the  most  appropriate  elabo¬ 
ration  of  that  one  idea.  They  are  wrapped  up 
in  the  idea  itself  as  a  germ,  and  we  do  not  see 
why  it  should  require  centuries  for  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  germ  into  its  legitimate  flowers  and 
fruit.  An  idea  like  that  would  be  more  than 
seed-corn  to  Israel  in  the  wilderness.  We  would 
expect  some  such  practical  development  as  we 
do  find  in  the  Priest  code  at  the  time 

(3)  The  Priest  code  is  realistic,  and  its  realism 
is  that  of  the  wilderness,  of  the  wanderings,  and 


PENTATEUCIIAL  CODES 


115 


the  nomadic  life.  This  is  so  inextricably  in¬ 
volved  with  the  ideal  in  all  parts  of  the  legisla¬ 
tion,  so  simple,  artless,  and  inartistic,  that  it 
seems  incredible  that  it  should  be  pure  inven¬ 
tion  or  the  elaboration  of  an  ideal  which  could 
not  escape  anachronisms  in  some  particulars. 

(4)  The  Elohist  and  the  Elohistic  Priest  code 
differ  in  their  doctrinal  and  ethical  conceptions 
in  many  respects  from  the  Jehovist  and  the 
Deuteronomist  and  their  codes,  but  these  differ¬ 
ences  are  in  iijpe  and  point  of  view.  The  doc¬ 
trines  and  morals  of  the  Elohist  are  still  at  the 
basis  of  the  doctrinal  and  the  ethical  develop¬ 
ment  of  Old  Testament  theology.  In  the  whole 
Pentateuch  we  find  the  Messianic  idea  knows 
nothing  of  the  Messianic  king  or  the  suffering 
servant.  In  eschatology  it  knows  nothing  of 
the  Resurrection,  or  of  the  joyful  communion 
with  God  in  Sheol  such  as  we  find  in  Job  19 
and  Ps.  16.  In  the  appropriation  of  redemj)- 
tion  it  is  behind  the  conceptions  of  Ps.  40,  50  ; 
Mic.  6  ;  and  Is.  1,  57.  In  ethics  it  is  less 
developed  than  Ps.  15  ;  Is  33,  and  especially 
Job  31.  The  four  constituent  parts  of  the  Pen¬ 
tateuch  resemble  one  another  in  theology  far 
more  than  any  of  them  resemble  the  Prophets, 
the  Psalter,  or  the  Ethical  writings.  They  dif¬ 
fer  from  one  another  and  yet  resemble  one  an¬ 
other,  as  do  the  gospels,  and  lie  at  the  roots  of 
Old  Testament  theology,  as  do  the  gospels  at 
the  basis  of  the  New  Testament. 

1.  We  have  not  one  narrative,  but  a  fourtold 
narrative  of  the  origin  of  the  Old  Covenant  relig¬ 
ion  coming  down  to  us  from  the  Mosaic  age,  as 
we  have  a  fourfold  gospel  giving  the  narrative  of 
the  origin  of  the  New  Covenant  religion.  There 
is,  indeed,  a  remarkable  correspondence  in  these 
four  types  or  points  of  view.  The  second  Elohist 
may  be  compared  with  Mark,  the  Jehovist  with 
Matthew,  the  first  Elohist  with  Luke,  and  the 
Deuteronomist  with  John.  The  difference  be¬ 
tween  the  Pentateuch  and  the  gospels  is  that  the 
four  narratives  of  the  Pentateuch  have  been 
compacted  by  an  inspired  redactor  ;  whereas  the 
gospels  have  to  be  harmonized  by  uninspired 
teachers  in  the  Church.  How  this  unify  in  va¬ 
riety  strengthens  the  credibility  of  the  Pentateuch  ! 
As  the  four  gospels  contain  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  so  the  narratives  of  the  Pentateuch  con¬ 
tain  the  Law  of  Moses.  As  our  Saviour  is  set 
forth  by  the  evangelist  as  the  mediator  of  the 
New  Covenant,  Moses  is  set  forth  by  the  narra¬ 
tives  of  the  Pentateuch  as  the  mediator  of  the 
Old  Covenant. 

2.  The  Pentateuch  does  not  give  us  one  Mosaic 
code,  but  three  codes  of  Mosaic  legislation — a 


judicial  code,  a  people’s  code,  and  a  priest  code — 
contained  in  the  Jehovistic,  Elohistic,  and  Deu- 
teronomic  narratives,  somewhat  as  the  gospels 
present  us  the  discourses  of  Jesus  in  the  varied 
t3^pes  peculiar  to  Matthew,  to  Luke,  and  to 
John.  As  we  harmonize  the  latter  for  a  com¬ 
plete  and  symmetrical  statement  of  the  doctrine 
of  Jesus,  so  we  harmonize  the  three  codes  of 
the  Pentateuch  for  a  complete  and  sj'mmetrical 
exposition  of  the  legislation  of  Moses,  The  Law 
was  given  through  Moses  ;  grace  and  truth  came 
through  Jesus  Christ. 

3.  The  Mosaic  legislation  was  delivered  through 
Moses,  but  it  was  enforced  only  in  part,  and  in 
several  stages  of  advancement,  in  the  historical 
life  and  experience  of  Israel  from  the  conquest 
to  the  exile.  It  was  a  Divine  ideal,  a  supernat¬ 
ural  revealed  instruction,  to  guide  the  people 
of  Israel  throughout  their  history,  and  lead 
them  to  the  prophet  greater  than  Moses,  who 
was  to  fulfil  and  complete  his  legislation.  The 
Law  was  the  true  light  of  Israel  until  the  First 
Advent,  even  as  the  Gospel  is  the  light  and 
guide  of  the  Church  until  the  Second  Advent. 
Israel  appropriated  more  and  more  the  instruc¬ 
tion  of  the  Law  as  the  Church  has  appropriated 
more  and  more  the  doctrine  of  the  Gospel.  The 
history  of  God’s  people  under  both  covenants 
has  been  essentially  the  same— a  grand  march 
forward  under  the  supernatural  light  of  a  Divine 
revelation. 

4.  Law  and  prophecy  are  not  two  distinct 
and  separate  modes  of  revelation,  but  the  same. 
The  Law  of  Moses  was  as  much  prophetic  as  ' 
legal.  Moses  was  even  more  a  prophet  than  a 
lawgiver.  The  prophets  of  God  that  followed 
him  all  give  Divine  law  as  well  as  Divine  proph¬ 
ecy.  As  the  apostles  in  the  New  Covenant  were 
not  merely  expositors  of  the  Gospel,  but  came 
forth  from  the  risen  and  glorified  Christ  with 
new  revelations,  enlarging  and  completing  the 
Gospel,  so  the  projjhets  were  not  mere  exposi¬ 
tors  of  the  Law,  but  came  forth  immediately 
from  the  presence  of  Jehovah  as  reality  as  Moses 
did,  with  new  revelations,  enlarging  and  com¬ 
pleting  the  old.  The  distinction  between  law 
and  prophecy  in  the  Bible  is  a  fluctuating  one, 
so  that  the  whole  Divine  revelation  may  be 
called  law,  and  also  prophecjq  according  to  the 
usage  of  the  Bible  itself. 

5.  There  is  in  the  Law,  as  in  the  Gospel,  a  Di¬ 
vine  transforming  power  which  shaped  the  his¬ 
tory  of  Israel,  as  the  Gospel  has  shaped  the  his¬ 
tory  of  the  Church  in  successive  stages  of  ap¬ 
propriation.  Not  without  some  reason  have 
many  recent  Christian  scholars  after  Neander 
divided  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church 


116 


SECTION  102.  THE  PENTATEUCHAL  CODES. 


after  the  names  of  the  chief  apostles,  as  indicat¬ 
ing  the  Yarious  types  of  Christianity.  With 
even  more  reason  might  we  divide  the  histoiy 
of  Israel  into  stages  of  progress  in  accordance 
with  the  three  Mosaic  codes.  The  Christian 
Chnrch  may  look  forward  to  a  time  when  the 
unity  and  variety  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  shall 
be  fully  manifested  in  her  historic  life.  The 
people  of  Israel  also  reached  a  stage  when  in  her 
historic  life  the  three  codes  were  harmonized, 
and  the  whole  bent  of  the  nation  was  in  the 
study  of  the  Law  and  a  conscientious  fulfilment 
of  it,  and  then  in  the  fulness  of  time  Christ 
Jesus  the  Messiah  came. 

The  deeper  study  of  the  unity  and  variety  of 
the  Pentateuchal  narratives  and  laws,  as  we  de¬ 
fend  them  against  Keuss,  Kuenen,  and  Well- 
hausen,  and  advance  in  the  apprehension  of 
their  sublime  harmony,  will  fructify  and  enrich 
the  theology  of  our  day,  just  as  the  dee])er 
study  of  the  unity  and  variety  of  the  gospels  by 
the  school  of  Neander,  in  the  defence  of  them 
against  Strauss,  Eenan,  and  Eaur,  has  been  an 
unsi:>eakable  blessing  in  the  past  generation. 
This  having  been  accomplished,  we  may  look 
forward  to  a  time  when  our  eyes  shall  be  opened 
as  never  before  to  the  magnificent  unity  of  the 
whole  Bible  in  the  midst  of  its  wondrous  variety. 
Then  the  Word  of  God,  as  one  supernatural  Di¬ 
vine  revelation,  will  rise  into  such  a  position  of 
spiritual  power  and  transcendent  influence,  as 
shall  greatly  advance  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  and  hasten  the  realiza¬ 
tion  of  that  most  blessed  hope  of  both  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments,  the  coming  of  the  Mes¬ 
siah  in  glory.  Briggs  (Pres.  Bev.,  1883). 

The  Codes  and  the  Ckitical  Hypothesis. 

The  Critical  View. 

These  three  groups  of  laws  the  critics  declare 
cannot  belong  to  any  one  iieriod  of  the  world’s 
history,  much  less  to  one  so  early  as  that  of 
Moses.  It  is  not  denied  that  this  is  the  uniform 
representation  of  the  Pentateuch  itself  ;  but  it 
is  said  that  it  is  one  which  is  inherently  im¬ 
probable  and  does  not  harmonize  with  the  form 
and  contents  of  the  work.  Kuenen  does  not  for 
a  moment  hesitate  before  the  alternative,  which 
he  himself  puts  as  follows  :  “  Either  the  laws 
really  came  from  Moses  and  the  desert,  or  they 
are  merely  put  into  his  mouth,  and  the  desert 
and  so  forth  belong  to  their  literary  form  of 
presentment.”  The  three  codes,  it  is  asserted, 
reflect  not  only  three  distinct  and  widely  sepa¬ 
rated  periods,  but  almost  every  intervening 
period.  They  are  a  growth  in  thought,  it  is 


said,  which  began  first  to  take  on  tangible  writ¬ 
ten  form  about  the  time  of  the  earlier  kings  of 
Israel  and  reached  its  present  completeness  at 
the  time  of  the  exile,  or,  as  Kuenen  maintains, 
considerably  later  than  that.  During  all  this 
time  priests  and  prophets,  especially  the  former, 
were  making  new  laws  supposed  to  be  suitable 
to  the  exigencies  of  their  own  periods,  and,  in 
order  to  give  them  currency,  ascribed  them  to 
Moses,  or  fo  Moses  and  Aaron,  or  to  Moses  and 
Eleazar,  after  the  assumed  death  of  Aaron.  As 
a  part  of  the  illusion,  Moses  is  made  to  say  that 
all  the  commandments,  institutions,  and  judg¬ 
ments  which  he  had  to  teach  to  Israel  he  re¬ 
ceived  from  Jehovah,  on  Mount  Horeb,  and  on 
the  “  face  of  the  whole  legislation,  we  read  that 
the  theatre  is  the  desert  ;  Israel  is  encamped 
there  ;  the  settlement  of  Canaan  is  in  the 
future.” 

Can  we  fairly  conceive  of  such  a  process  of 
law-making  as  possible  ?  It  is  kept  up  for  a 
millennium,  the  sons  doing  as  the  fathers  did 
in  this  respect  for  thirty  generations.  Every 
new  statute  coming  into  being  is  carefully  and 
most  ingeniously  given  the  Mosaic  stamp  and 
the  coloring  of  the  desert.  Or  if  this  was  not 
done  at  the  time  the  laws  were  made,  it  was 
done  subsequently  through  the  skilful  retouch¬ 
ing  of  later  editorial  hands.  It  might  be  asked, 
Why  should  it  have  been  done  at  all,  if  not  at 
first?  If  the  help  of  Moses’s  name  was  needed, 
it  was  needed  most  when  the  law’s  were  first 
promulgated.  To  attach  it  to  them  after  they 
had  once  come  to  be  known  as  the  w’ork  of  con¬ 
temporaneous  legislators  would  have  been,  one 
might  suppose,  an  occasion  of  w’eakening,  more 
than  strengthening  their  authority. 

But  in  the  one  way  or  the  other  this  most 
anomalous  method  of  legislating  for  a  great  peo¬ 
ple,  it  is  affirmed,  went  on  for  hundreds  of 
years.  Nobodj’  pretends  to  assert  that  there 
has  ever  appeared  any  evidence  that  the  people 
of  Israel  themselves  recognized,  as  such,  the 
illusion  with  which  they  beguiled  themselves. 
Every  supposed  legislator— there  must  have 
been  scores  of  them— keeps  himself  as  carefully 
out  of  sight  as  though  he  had  never  existed. 
The  result  of  the  whole  is  the  Pentateuch,  a 
literary  composition  equally  a  marvel  of  moral 
elevation  and^intellectual  strength  — a  work  that 
presents  a  body  of  laws  making  just  claim  to  be 
essentially  a  unit  in  conception  and  teaching, 
and  one  that,  placed  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Bible,  has  left  its  indelible  mark  on  every  part 
of  it.  It  is  admitted  that  there  are  some  seri¬ 
ous  difficulties  involved  in  the  common  view  of 
the  origin  and  literary  structure  of  the  Penta- 


THE  THREE  CODES. 


117 


teuch  ;  there  are  surely  none  that  call  for  such 
a  stretch  of  credulity  as  tnis.  But  it  is  pro¬ 
nounced  highly  improbable  that  such  a  body  of 
legislation  cuuUl  have  oiiginated  in  the  limited 
period  allowed — that  is,  during  the  first  year 
after  the  exodus  and  the  closing  months  of  the 
fortieth  year  in  the  wilderness.  Admitting  the 
claim,  however,  that  these  laws  were,  to  a  large 
extent,  supernaturally  given,  there  need  be  no 
improbability  attaching  to  the  matter.  Even 
without  this  postulate,  their  origin  in  this  lim¬ 
ited  time,  all  things  considered,  is  much  more 
credible  than  the  alternative  hypothesis. 

The  Moral  Q.uestioii  Involved. 

At  the  outset  of  our  inquiries  concerning  the 
Pentateuch  laws,  we  are  confronted  with  the 
fundamental  question  whether  the  representa¬ 
tion  they  make  that  they  come  “  from  Moses 
and  the  desert  ”  is  probably  genuine  or  belongs 
simiily  to  their  “  literary  form  of  presentment,” 
as  it  is  alleged.  It  is  certain  that  there  is  noth¬ 
ing  in  the  substance  of  these  laws  to  encourage 
a  theory  of  deception.  The  moral  plane  on 
which  they  move  is  confessedly  the  highest. 
Not  only  is  supreme  loyalty  to  Jehovah  de¬ 
manded,  but  thoroughly  upright  dealing  be¬ 
tween  man  and  man.  Let  there  be  noted,  for 
example,  under  what  strict  rules  judges  and 
officers  are  put  in  the  discharge  of  their  func¬ 
tions  (De.  16  : 18-20  ;  17  :8-13)  ;  the  require- 
ment  respecting  those  testifying  in  criminal 
suits  (17  : 6  ;  19  : 15)  ;  the  severe  punishment 
visited  upon  false  witnesses  (19  : 15-21),  and  the 
strenuous  insistence  on  the  use  of  correct 
weights  and  measures  in  business  transactions 
(25  : 13-16).  It  is  too  much  to  suppose,  as  the 
theory  of  Kuenen  does,  that  persons  introduc¬ 
ing  laws  of  this  character  would  themselves  fla¬ 
grantly  sin  against  them. 

Changes  in  the  Legislation  of  Deuteronomy. 

Compare  the  amount  of  new  or  revised  legis¬ 
lation  called  for  in  one  of  the  United  States  in 
a  single  year  with  that  of  the  whole  Israelitish 
nation  in  a  peculiar  period  of  its  histor}’'  and 
during  the  space  of  forty  years.  Compare  further 
with  the  same  the  changes  that  are  often  thought 
necessary  in  laws,  made  one  year,  by  a  legisla¬ 
ture  meeting  the  next  or  the  second  year  after, 
under  circumstances  to  all  appearance  quite 
similar,  and  one  will  be  surprised  not  only  at 
the  condensed  form  but  the  wonderful  unity 
and  consistency  of  the  laws  of  the  Pentateuch. 

It  is  said,  however,  thaji,  as  God-given,  the 
same  subject  being  under  consideration,  there 
should  have  been  no  change  ;  no  Deuteronomy, 


for  example,  following  so  soon  the  Book  of  the 
Covenant  and  tbe  code  of  Exodus — Numbers. 
Such  a  statement  betrays  a  serious  misunder¬ 
standing  not  only  of  what  might  be  expected  to 
be,  but  of  what  actually  is  the  uniform  method 
of  the  Bible.  It  adapts  itself  to  the  circum¬ 
stances  of  men.  Its  declared  aim  is  to  be  a 
stimulus,  and  not  a  discouragement.  It  was 
meant  to  have  an  educating  intiuence  as  well  as 
to  offer  a  goal  and  standard  of  ultimate  appeal. 
Had  it  not  been  so,  there  would  have  been  no 
need  of  any  Old  Testament  at  all.  The  fully 
developed  teachings  of  Christ  and  his  apostles 
w'ould  have  been  given  at  once  at  the  beginning 
of  human  history.  As  it  is,  we  find  many  pre¬ 
cepts  and  injunctions  touching  matters  civil, 
social,  and  ecclesiastical  which  again  and  again 
change  their  form  as  the  needs  of  the  people 
for  whom  the.y  are  designed  are  changed. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  they  should  change, 
even  within  the  limits  of  a  few  months,  when 
we  consider  the  mighty  crisis  through  which  the 
children  of  Israel  were  passing  at  the  time 
when  the  laws  i^urport  to  have  been  given  ; 
much  less  that  the  trying  forty  years  of  the  wil¬ 
derness  sojourn  should  make  more  radical  alter¬ 
ations  necessary.  Meanwhile,  it  is  to  be  care¬ 
fully  noticed  that  there  is  also  something  un¬ 
changing  in  them  :  the  ethical  and  spiritual  ele¬ 
ment.  The  demand  for  supreme  loyalty  to 
Jehovah,  for  example,  is  made  upon  the  ancient 
Hebrew  in  form  and  degree  just  as  it  is  upon 
the  modern  Christian.  An  inflexible  standard 
in  certain  things,  combined  with  development 
and  change  in  others  that  concern  not  the  es¬ 
sence  but  the  form,  is  in  perfect  harmony  with 
the  theory  that  the  Bible  is  a  supernatural  rev¬ 
elation  ;  it  is  an  inexplicable  problem  to  him 
w'ho  would  explain  it  solely  on  the  hypothesis 
of  a  natural  development. 

Origin  of  the  Three  Codes  in  the  Mosaic  Period. 

Looking  at  the  several  Pentateuch  codes  as  dis¬ 
tinct  collections,  there  was  good  and  sufficient  reason 
for  the  origin  of  each  of  them  in  the  Mosaic  period. 

1.  Book  of  the  Covenant.— The  Bible  nowhere 
states  that  every  specific  law  arose  de  7iovoiit  the 
period  of  the  exodus.  It  is  exceedingly  prob¬ 
able  that  not  a  few  of  those  found  in  the  so- 
called  Book  of  the  Covenant  represent,  either  in 
a  written  or  unwritten  form,  previous  customs 
of  the  people  under  their  elders  and  judges. 
Israel  went  down  into  Egypt  as  a  family  under 
its  patriarchal  head.  It  dwelt  in  Goshen  as  a 
distinct,  and  for  a  long  time,  as  it  would  ap¬ 
pear,  as  a  5  m<?i-independent,  people.  It  cannot 
have  been  without  laws  of  some  sort  during  this 


118 


SECTION  102.  THE  PENTATEUCHAL  CODES. 


time.  Whatever  laws  they  may  have  had  they 
doubtless  took  back  with  them  to  Canaan.  In 
principle,  many  of  them,  we  believe,  are  found 
in  chapters  21-23  of  Exodus.  The  terse,  laconic 
form  in  which  they  appear  is  entirely  in  har¬ 
mony  with  this  supposition  ;  and  there  is  docu¬ 
mentary  confirmation  of  it.  Before  the  giving 
of  the  Law  on  Sinai  Moses  is  represented  as  say¬ 
ing  to  Jethro,  his  father  in-law  :  “  The  people 
come  unto  me  to  inquire  of  God  .  .  .  and  judge 
between  a  man  and  his  neighbor,  and  I  make 
them  know  the  statutes  of  God,  and  his  laws.” 

2.  The  leyislaiion  respecting  the  tabernacle  and  its 
worship  contained  in  Exodus — Numbers.  The  laws 
centering  in  the  sanctuary,  with  its  sacrifices 
and  ministry,  had  a  no  less  direct  historic  occa¬ 
sion.  When  the  people  of  Israel  left  Egypt,  and 
for  some  time  afterward,  there  appeared  no  sign 
of  a  Levitical  priesthood.  It  looked  as  though 
Jehovah  intended  to  take  as  his  priests  the  first¬ 
born  of  every  family.  By  sparing  them  in  Egypt 
he  had  made  good  his  claim  upon  them.  This 
seems,  in  fact,  to  be  implied  in  the  w'ords  ad¬ 
dressed  to  Moses  just  before  the  giving  of  the 
Sinaitic  law  ;  “  Ye  shall  be  unto  me  a  kingdom 
of  priests  and  an  holy  nation.”  Such  a  high 
calling,  however,  was  a  contingent  on  Israel's 
obeying  in  the  matter  of  the  covenant.  The 
subsequent  sin  with  the  golden  calf  was  of  the 
nature  of  a  revolution  It  radically  changed 
the  status  of  Israel.  The  covenant  had  been  lit¬ 
erally  broken,  as  it  was  symbolically  when 
Moses  dashed  in  pieces  the  tables  of  stone. 
A  change  of  administration  was  therefore  found 
to  be  wise.  That  it  had  been  foreseen  and  pro¬ 
vided  for  does  not  alter  the  facts.  It  consisted 
in  designating  the  whole  tribe  of  Levi  for  ser¬ 
vice  at  the  sanctuary  in  place  of  the  firstborn 
of  each  family.  Why  this  tribe  in  preference  to 
another  was  chosen  the  history  gives  us  distinct 
intimation  (Ex.  32  : 26).  And  how  definitely  the 
idea  of  substitution  ruled  throughout  -one  tribe 
being  accepted  for  all  the  firstborn — appears  in 
the  fact  that  the  exchange  was  made  in  detail, 
man  for  man,  by  actual  count.  Wherein  the 
one  tribe  failed  to  cover  the  whole  number  of 
firstborn  was  made  good  by  a  contribution  of 
money  to  the  sanctuary  (Nu.  3  : 46-48).  Pre¬ 
vious  to  the  worship  of  the  golden  calf,  the  build¬ 
ing  of  the  tabernacle  and  the  consecration  of 
Aaron  and  his  sons  had  been  enjoined.  Subse¬ 
quent  to  it,  the  setting  apart  of  the  rest  of  the 
tribe  of  Levi  for  service  at  the  sanctuary  was 
legalized,  and  all  the  laws  respecting  worship, 
the  maintenance  of  priests  and  Levites,  and  the 
like,  were  promulgated.  Further,  it  cannot  be 
disputed  that  there  was  a  highly  fitting  occasion 


in  the  exodus  period  for  such  a  collection  of 
I  laws  as  the  one  found  in  the  middle  books  of 
I  the  Pentateuch.  To  take  them  out  of  their 
jjresent  historical  setting,  in  which  along  with 
the  narrative  of  the  national  revolt  at  Sinai  and 
I  its  alleged  results  are  interwoven  such  incidents 
as  that  of  the  free-will  offerings  of  the  people 
for  the  tabernacle,  the  rebellion  of  Nadab  and 
Abihu,  the  leprosy  of  Miriam,  the  diary  of  the 
journeyingsof  ihe  camp  from  place  to  place,  and 
scores  of  others,  for  auj’  such  reason  as  our 
critics  give,  appears  to  us  rash  and  unjustifiable 
in  the  extreme. 

3.  The  occasion  for  the  Deuieronomic  code  as  a 
product  of  this  period  is  perhaps  clearest  of  all. 
j  The  representation  is  that  the  addresses  in 
,  which  it  is  included  were  spoken  by  Moses  in 
the  fields  of  Moab  just  before  the  crossing  of  the 
Jordan.  The  introductory'  address  is  a  brief  re- 
I  view  of  the  experiences  of  the  preceding  forty 
years  in  the  wilderness.  The  code  itself  has 
I  a  hortatory,  popular  form,  precisely  such  as  the 
I  alleged  circumstances  might  lead  us  to  expect. 

I  It  is  especially  noticeable  in  three  particulars  : 
[  It  does  not  refer  in  detail  to  the  body’’  of  priestly 
legislation  found  in  the  middle  books  of  the 
Pentateuch,  but  only'  cursorily',  though  some¬ 
times  directly,  to  some  parts  of  it.  It  has  laws 
peculiar  to  itself,  and,  as  can  easily'  be  shown, 
they  are  such  as  grow  out  of  the  altered  cir¬ 
cumstances  of  the  people.  It  repeats,  enlarges, 
or  otherwise  modifies,  as  occasion  seems  to  de¬ 
mand,  the  succinct  precepts  of  the  Book  of  the 
Covenant  (Ex,  20  : 23  ;  23).  Now,  in  the  very 
statement  of  these  facts,  sufficient  ground  for 
the  existence  of  the  third  code  is  apparent.  The 
others  needed  to  be  supplemented  and  modified 
in  certain  particulars  by'  this,  in  order  to  fit 
them  for  a  people  like  Israel  at  this  juncture.  It 
is  not  sufficiently  to  the  point,  though  in  gen¬ 
eral  quite  true,  for  Kuenen  to  say  that,  inasmuch 
as  the  laws  contained  in  Exodus — Numbers  were 
themselves  shaped  for  a  settled  people,  cultivat¬ 
ing  the  soil,  there  should  have  been  no  demand 
for  any  modification  of  them  on  entering  Canaan. 
It  is  literally  true  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Le¬ 
vitical  priestly  legislation  of  the  middle  books. 
It  required  and  received  no  modification.  There 
were  laws  that  were  repeated,  it  would  seem, 
for  the  mere  sake  of  repetition  and  emphasis,  as 
in  the  case  of  that  concerning  the  destruction 
of  idols,  the  worship  of  Moloch,  food  as  clean 
and  unclean,  mourning  customs  and  the  like  ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  there  were  some  laws 
which,  on  the  ground  of  altered  circumstances 
or  new  experience,  actually  needed,  as  they  ap¬ 
peared,  to  be  revised  to  some  extent.  As  it  re- 


THE  THREE  CODES. 


119 


spects  such  laws,  it  would  be  disingenuous  to 
affirm  that  in  their  original  form  they  assume 
to  be  final,  or  so  to  cover  the  future  with  their 
claim  as  to  admit  of  no  alteration. 

Supposing,  then,  that  the  Pentateuch  codes 
arose  in  this  manner — that  is,  as  described  in 
detail  in  the  Bible — there  is  nothing  surprising 
ill  the  fact  that  each  has  a  peculiar  linguistic 
character,  and  is  marked  by  fixed  fonriulce  not 
found  in  the  other  groups,  though  too  much  may 
easily  be  made  of  this  fact.  Comparing  the  code 
of  Deuteronomy  with  that  of  the  middle  books, 
for  example,  there  are  no  differences  of  this 
sort  that  cannot  be  readily  explained  on  the 
ground  of  the  changed  point  of  view  of  the  leg¬ 
islator  or  other  iiatur  il  circumstances.  The 
one  is  priestly  legislation,  the  other  is  popular. 
The  one  is  at  the  beginning  of  forty  years  of 
wandering,  the  other  at  its  close.  The  one  has 
immediately —though  not  ultimately — before  it 
life  in  camp,  the  other  life  in  Palestine.  .  .  . 
The  statement  which  the  Bible  makes  concern¬ 
ing  the  origin  of  the  codes  is  sufficient  to  ex¬ 
plain  perfectly  their  outward  diversity.  And  if 
they  were  not  meant  to  supplement  one  an¬ 
other,  and  together  present  a  complete  rule, 
their  contradictions  are  certainly  of  the  baldest 
character.  We  should  not  only  be  unable  to  in¬ 
terpret  them  in  harmony  with  one  another  as 
originating  in  the  period  of  the  exodus,  but  in 
any  other  period  of  Israelitish  history.  The  law 
of  Deuteronomy  is  naturally  fuller  than  that  of 
the  Book  of  the  Covenant,  and  its  amplifications 
perfectly  accord  with  the  representation  of  its 
rise* in  the  borderlands  of  Canaan.  That  Moses 
actually  penned  the  whole  Pentateuch  no  one 
holds.  Under  his  general  direction  a  number 
of  hands  may  have  been,  and  in  all  probability 
were,  employed  upon  it.  Accordingly,  we  find 
ourselves  under  no  necessity  for  harmonizing 
the  style  of  the  several  parts,  so  that,  for  in¬ 
stance,  the  same  name  of  God  shall  be  every¬ 
where  used,  the  same  method  of  designating 
the  months,  the  same  expression  for  capital 
punishment,  and  the  like.  Bissell. 

The  three  Pentateuchal  codes  do  not  belong 
to  distinct  periods  of  the  people’s  history.  It 
is  claimed  for  them  all  in  the  most  explicit 
manner  that  they  were  delivered  immediately 
by  Moses  himself.  The  account  given  of  them 
is  quite  simple  and  satisfactory,  and  there  is  no 
sufficient  reason  for  discrediting  it.  The  Book 
of  the  Covenant  was  drawn  up  at  Mount  Sinai 
directly  after  the  proclamation  of  the  ten  com¬ 
mandments  from  its  summit  and  preparatory  to 
the  formal  ratification  of  the  covenant  between 
Jehovah  and  Israel.  That  such  a  relation  was 


established  then  and  there  and  under  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  here  recorded  was  the  steadfast  faith 
of  Israel  from  that  time  forward  ;  a  faith  which 
is  well  accredited,  and  is  the  more  remarkable 
as  the  scene  is  altogether  outside  of  the  terri¬ 
tory  of  Israel, .the  holy  land,  to  which,  as  the 
critics  tell  us,  Jehovah  and  his  worship  were  so 
strictly  bound.  No  possible  reason  can  be  given 
why  this  most  sacred  transaction,  which  lay  at 
the  basis  of  the  entire  history  and  worship  of 
Israel,  should  have  been  referred  to  this  remote 
point  in  the  desert,  away  from  the  sacred  soil 
of  Canaan,  away  from  every  patriarchal  associa¬ 
tion,  away  from  every  spot  that  was  venerated 
in  the  past  or  that  was  hallowed  or  resorted  to  in 
the  present,  unless  that  was  the  place  where  it 
actually  occurred.  That  laws  first  issued  in 
Jehovah’s  name  in  Canaan  should  be  attributed 
to  this  mountain  in  the  wilderness,  with  which 
Jehovah  had  no  special  connection  before  or 
since,  is  inconceivable.  The  sublime  miracles 
attending  the  promulgation  of  the  Law  are  surely 
no  reason  for  disputing  the  truth  of  the  record  : 
for  they  were  certainly  in  place  if  miracles  ever 
were.  Moses,  trained  in  the  wisdom  of  Egypt, 
was  plainly  competent  to  the  task  of  framing 
this  simple  body  of  statutes,  which  was  largely 
intended  in  the  first  instance  for  the  guidance 
of  the  judges  who  had  recently  been  appointed 
to  assist  Moses  in  the  settlement  of  controver¬ 
sies  arising  among  the  people.  And  as  they  ex¬ 
pected  shortly  to  take  possession  of  Canaan, 
these  laws  naturally  contemplated  not  only  the 
immediate  present,  but  the  proximate  future 
when  they  wmuld  be  the  owners  of  fields  and 
vineyards  and  be  engaged  in  agricultural  pur¬ 
suits. 

After  the  covenant  with  Jehovah  had  been 
duly  ratified,  provision  was  next  made  for  the 
maintenance  of  this  relation  by  instituting  or¬ 
dinances  of  worship.  A  new  body  of  regula¬ 
tions  was  accordingly  demanded  for  this  specific 
purpose,  establishing  a  sanctuary,  a  priesthood, 
a  ritual,  and  sacred  seasons.  This  was  done  in 
the  Levitical  law  or  the  so-called  Priest  code, 
which  was  mainly  drawn  up  during  the  year 
that  the  people  remained  encamped  at  Sinai, 
and  then  added  to  from  time  to  time  during  the 
subsequent  journeying  in  the  wilderness.  The 
particularity  and  minuteness  of  its  prescriptions 
need  not  surprise  any  one  who  recalls  the  nu¬ 
merous  petty  details  with  which  the  ritual  of 
ancient  Egypt  was  burdened. 

Finally,  when  Israel  had  reached  the  borders 
of  the  promised  land,  and  their  great  leader 
knew  that  he  must  die,  he  delivered  those  im¬ 
pressive  farewell  discourses  w'hich  are  found  in 


120 


SECTION  102,  THE  PENTATEUCHAL  COPES. 


the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  exhorting  them  in 
the  most  tender  and  earnest  terms  to  adhere 
faithfully  to  the  Loed's  service  and  to  obey  his 
laws.  And  he  takes  this  opportunity  to  reca¬ 
pitulate  them  so  far  as  was  needed  for  the  guid¬ 
ance  of  the  people,  with  such  modifications  as 
were  suggested  by  the  experience  of  forty  years 
and  the  altered  circumstances  of  Israel,  who 
were  now  to  enter  at  once  upon  the  inheritance 
promised  to  their  fathers. 

Each  of  these  bodies  of  law  has  thus  its  dis¬ 
tinct  occasion  and  separate  purpose,  and  each 


is  appropriate  to  the  circumstances  which  called 
it  forth.  They  are  throughout  cast  in  the 
mould  of  the  Mosaic  age  and  of  the  abode  in 
the  wilderness,  and  their  whole  style  and  char¬ 
acter  are  as  different  as  possible  from  that  which 
they  must  have  borne  if  they  had  been  pro¬ 
duced  at  any  subsequent  period.  Much  of  the 
contents,  particularly  of  Deuteronomy  and  of 
the  Levitical  law,  would  be  not  only  superflu¬ 
ous,  but  preposterous,  if  the  former  was  pro¬ 
duced  in  the  time  of  Josiah,  and  the  latter  in 
that  of  Ezra.  W.  H.  G. 


TABLE  OF  LAWS  PECULIAK  TO  THE  “  PBIESTS’  CODE.” 


Subject. 


Exodus. 


Leviticus. 


Numbeks. 


Blasphemy, 

Sacred  Vestments, 

Consecration  of  Priests, 

Anointing  Oil, 

High  Priest  from  Eleazar’s  Line, 
Who  might  Eat  of  the  Sacrifices, 
Special  Prerogatives  of  Priests, 
Tabernacle  and  its  Furniture, 

Altar  of  Incense, 

Table  of  the  Shew- bread, 

Care  of  the  Lamps  of  the  Tabernacle, 
The  Burnt  Offering, 

Meal  and  Drink  Olfering, 


28  :  1-43. 

29  ;  1-42. 

30  :  22-33. 


25  :  1-27  : 19  ;  cf.  36  : 1-38  ; 
31. 

30  ;  1-21.  34-38. 

25  :  23-30. 

27  :  20,  21. 


Peace-Offering, 


Sin-Offering,  .  .  .  . 

Trespass-Offering.  .  .  .  . 

Of  Release  from  Vows,  .  .  .  . 

The  Nazarite,  .  .  .  . 

Purification  at  Childbirth,  .  .  .  . 

Purification  by  the  Ashes  of  a  Red 
Heifer,  .  .  .  . 

Initial  Feast  of  Seventh  Month,  .  . 

The  Day  of  Atonement,  30  :  10. 


24  :  15,  16.  15  :  30,  31. 

6  :  12-16’:  8. 

10  :  8-11  ;  21  : 1-24. 

.  .  .  .  25  :  10-13. 

22  :  1-16.  18  :  10  ff. 

....  6  :  22-27  ;  10 : 1-10. 


24  ;  5-9. 

24  :  1^. 

1  :  1-17  ;  6  : 1-6. 

2  :  1-16  ;  6  :  7-11  ; 
13. 

3  ;  1-17  :  7  :  11-34  ; 
8  ;  22  :  29,  30. 

4-5  :  13  ;  6  :  17-23. 
5  :  14-26  ;  7  :  1-10. 
27  :  1-34. 

12  :  1-8. * 


8  :  1-4. 

28 :  1-15. 

10  :  12,  15  :  1-12  ;  ch.  28. 
19  :  5- 

15  :  22  -28. 

5  :  5-10. 

6  :  1-21. 


.  .  .  .  19  :  1-22. 

23  ;  23-25.  29  :  1-6. 

16  :  1-34  ;  23  :  26-32.  29  :  7-11. 


TABLE  OF  LAWS  PECULIAR  TO  OR  REPEATED  AND  MODIFIED  IN 

DEUTERONOMY. 


Subject. 


Deutekoxomt. 


Exodus. 


Leviticus  and 
Numbers. 


1  Introductory, 

2  Destruction  of  idols,  etc., 

3  Centralization  of  worship, 

4  Worship  of  Moloch, 

5  Seduction  to  idolatry, 

6  Destruction  of  Canaanitish  cities. 


12  :  1  (see  Hebrew  text 
throughout). 

12  :  2-4.  29,  30  ;  4  :  15-19  ; 

7  :  5,  25,  26  :  20  :  18 
12  :  5-28  ;  cf.  26  :  2  ff . 

12  :  31  :  cf.  18  ;  10 

13  ;  1-19  ;  16  :  21-22 
13  :  13-19  ;  20  : 15-18 


7  Forbidden  mourning  customs, 

8  Food  as  clean  and  unclean, 

9  Animals  eaten  to  be  properly 

slain, 

10  Offerings, 

11  Sabbatic  Year, 

12  Release  of  Hebrew  servants, 

13  Sacrifices  to  be  faultless, 

14  The  feasts, 

15  Judges  and  Officers, 

16  Oppression  of  the  poor, 

17  Punishment  of  Hebrew  Idolaters, 

18  Witnesses  needful, 

19  The  king, 

20  Priests  and  Levites, 


14  :  1,  2 
14  :  3,  20 

14  :  21 

14  :  22-29  ;  cf.  12  :  17-19  ; 
15  :  19-23  ;  26  :  12-19 

15  :  1-11 
15  :  12-18 

15  :  19-23  ;  17  :  1 

16  :  1-17 

16  :  18-20  ;  19  :  8-13 

16  :  19-20  ;  24  :  14,  15 

17  :  2-5  ;  cf.  4  :  19 

17  :  6,  7  ;  cf.  19  :  15,  16 

17  :  14-20 

18  :  1-8 


23  :  24  ,  33  ;  34  :  12-17  ;  cf. 
23  :  13 

20  :  24,  25  ;  34  :  23-26 


23  :  23,  24,’  27-33  ;  34  :  12- 
16 


22  :  30 

22  :  29  ;  23  :  18,  19a  ;  34  : 
19.  20  25,  26a 

23  ;  9-11 
21  :  2-6 

23  :  14-17  ;  34  :  '21-23 

22  :  21-24 
22  :  19 


N.  33  :  51, ’52’ 

L.  17  : 1  ff.  ef.  pasnm. 

L.  18  :  21  ;  20  :  2-5 

N.  33  :  50-k  ‘ 

L.  19  ;  27,  28  ;  21  :  5 
L.  11  :  1-21,  22-43 

L.  17  :  15 

N.  18  :  21-32  et  passim, 

L.  25  :  1-7 
L.  25  :  39-46 
L.  22  :  19-27 

L.  23  :  4  ff . ;  N.  28  : 11  ff. 
L.  19  :  33,  34 
N.  35  :  30  * 

L.  7  :  8-10’;  io  14, 15  ;  N. 
18  ;  8-20 

L.  19  :  26,  31  ;  20  :  6,  27  • 
N.  23  :  23 


21  Magical  arts,  etc., 

22  The  prophet. 


18  :  9-14 
18  :  15-22 


22  :  17 


SECTION  103.  COVENANT  AT  SINAI. 


121 


TABLE  OF  LAWS  PECULIAR  TO  OR  REPEATED  AND  MODIFIED  IN  DEUTERONOMY— 


Subject, 


- « - 

Deuteronomy.  Exodus. 


Leviticus  and 
Numbers. 


23  Citias  of  refuge, 

24  Removing  Landmark, 

25  False  witness, 

25  Preparation  for  battle, 

27  Hostile  cities, 

28  Puritication  for  murder, 

29  Female  captives, 

30  Right  of  inheritance, 

31  Disobedient  son, 

32  Hanging, 

33  Property  of  a  brother  Israelite, 

34  Kindness  to  animals, 

35  Regard  for  human  life, 

35  Mixing  of  diverse  things, 

37  Fringes, 

38  Charge  of  unchastity, 

39  Sin  against  chastity, 

40  Persons  shut  out  of  the  congrega¬ 

tion, 

41  Cleanliness  of  the  camp, 

42  Fugitive  slave, 

4^3  Prostitution, 

44  LTsury, 

45  Vows, 

46  Divorce, 

47  Pledges. 

48  Man-stealing, 

49  Leprosy, 

50  Gleaning, 

51  Forty  stripes, 

52  Levirate  Marriage, 

53  Punishment  of  mimodesty, 

54  Just  weights  and  measures, 

55  Amalek, 

55  Offering  of  first-fruits,  etc. 


19  : 1-13  ;  cf.  4  :  41-43  ;  23  :  21  :  13 
1(5 

19  :  14 

19  :  15-21  23  :  1-3 

20  :  1-9  ;  24  :  5 

20  :  10-14,  19,  20 

21  :  1-9 
21  :  10-14 
21  :  15-17 
21  :  18-21 

21  :  22-23 

22  :  1-4  23  :  4,  5 

22  :  6,  7  ;  cf.  14  :  21 ;  25  :  4  23  :  196  ;  34 
22  :  8 

22  :  5,  9-11 
22  :  12 
22  :  13-21 

22  :  22-29  ;  23  :  1  22  :  16,  18 

23  :  2-9 
23  :  10-15 
23  :  16,  17 
23  ;  18,  19 

23  ;  20,  21  22  :  24 

23  :  22-24  ;  cf.  12  :  6, 11, 17, 

26 

24  :  1-4 

24  ;  6,  10-13,  17,  18  22  :  25,  26 

24  :  7  21  :  16 

24  :  8,  9 

24  :  19-22 

25  :  1-3 
25  :  5-10 
25  :  11,  12 
25 :  13-16 

25  :  17-19 

26  :  1-19 


266 


N.  35  :  1-34 


L.  19  :  12,  15,' 16 


N.  27  :  1  ff 


;  ch 


36 


L.  22  :  28 

L.  19  :  19  ’ 

N.  15 :  37-41 

L.  18  :  6-30  ;  ’20’;  10-26 


L.  15  ;  1-33  :  ’  N.  5  ;  1-4  et 

passim. 

L.  18  :  22  ;  19  :  29 
L.  25  :  35-37 

L.  chs.  7,  22,  23,  27 ;  N. 
chs.  6,  15,  29,  30 


L.  chs.  13,' 14 
L.  19  :  9, 10  ;  23  ;  22 


L.  19:  35, '36' 


“  The  Pentateuch  ”  by  E.  0.  Bissell,  D.D. 

Note  — In  this  connection  refer  to  Section  181  (Introduction  to  Deuteronomy).  Besides  these 
two  Sections,  the  reader  will  lind  upon  many  pages  of  this  volume  citations  bearing  upon  posi¬ 
tions  assumed  by  leading  critics  of  the  destructive  school.  These  passages  are  cited  for  the 
double  purpose  of  effective  refutation  and  as  presenting  a  clear  statement  or  exposition  of 
particu'ar  laws.  B. 


Section  103. 

THE  FIRST  SINAI  COVENANT  :  COMPREHENSIVE  AND  SUBLIME  PROMISE  ;  CON¬ 
DITIONED  UPON  OBEDIENCE  ;  ANSWERING  PLEDGE  OF  THE  PEOPLE  ;  THE 
KINGDOM  OF  GOD  INAUGURATED,  AS  A  THEOCRACY,  AT  SINAI.  DISTINCTIVE 
NATURE  OF  THE  THEOCRACY.  WHAT  IT  MIGHT  HAVE  ACHIEVED.  UNITY 
OF  THE  OLD  AND  NEW  COVENANTS. 

Exodus  19  :  3-9. 

Ex.  19  3  And  Moses  went  up  unto  God,  and  the  Lord  called  unto  him  out  of  the  mountain, 

saying,  Thus  shalt  thou  say  to  the  house  of  Jacob,  and  tell  the  children  of  Israel  ; 

4  Ye  have  seen  what  I  did  unto  the  Egyptians,  and  how  I  bare  you  on  eagles’  wings,* 

5  and  brought  you  unto  myself.  Now  therefore,  if  ye  will  obey  my  voice  indeed,  and 
keep  my  covenant,  then  ye  shall  be  a  peculiar  treasure  unto  me  from  among  all 

6  peoples  :  for  all  the  earth  is  mine  :  and  ye  shall  be  unto  me  a  kingdom  of  priests, 
and  an  holy  nation.  These  are  the  words  which  thou  shalt  speak  unto  the  children 

7  of  Israel  And  Moses  came  and  called  for  the  elders  of  the  people,  and  set  before 


122 


SECTION  103.  THE  FIRST  SINAI  COVENANT. 


8  them  all  these  words  which  the  Lord  commanded  him.  And  all  the  people  answered 
together,  and  said,  All  that  the  Lord  hath  spoken  we  will  do.  And  Moses  reported 

9  the  words  of  the  people  onto  the  Lord.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Lo,  I  (!ome 
unto  thee  in  a  thick  cloud,  that  the  people  may  hear  when  I  speak  with  thee,  and 
may  also  believe  thee  for  ever.  And  Moses  told  the  words  of  the  people  unto  the 
Lord, 


The  Mosaic  religion  did  not  start  into  being 
as  something  original  and  independent ;  it  grew 
out  of  the  Patriarchal,  and  was  jast,  indeed,  the 
Patriarchal  religion  in  a  further  state  of  progress 
and  development.  So  much  was  this  the  case, 
that  the  mission  of  Moses  avowedly  begins 
where  the  communications  of  God  to  the  patri¬ 
archs  end  ;  and,  resuming  what  had  been  for  a 
time  suspended,  takes  for  its  immediate  object 
the  fulfilment  of  the  purpose  which  the  Lord 
had,  ages  before,  pledged  his  w^ord  to  accom¬ 
plish.  Its  real  starting-point  is  the  covenant 
made  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  with  an 
especial  reference  to  that  part  of  it  which  con¬ 
cerned  the  occupation  of  the  land  of  Canaan. 
And  as  the  one  disjiensation  thus  commenced 
with  the  express  design  of  carrying  out  and 
completing  what  the  other  had  left  unfinished, 
the  latter  of  the  two  must  be  understood  to  have 
recognized  and  adopted  as  its  own  all  the  truths 
and  principles  of  the  first.  What  might  now  be 
regarded  as  fundamental,  and  required  as  such 
to  be  interwoven  with  the  historical  transac¬ 
tions  by  which  the  dispensation  of  Moses  was 
brought  in,  must  have  been,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  super-additional  -including  those,  in¬ 
deed,  which  belonged  to  the  Patriarchal  religion, 
but  coupling  with  them  such  others  as  were  fit¬ 
ted  to  constitute  the  elements  of  a  more  ad¬ 
vanced  state  of  religious  knowledge  and  attain¬ 
ment.  The  Patriarchal  religion  was  designed 
to  inspire  the  hope  and  direct  the  steps  of 
Adam’s  fallen  family  to  a  paradise  restored. 
The  religion  associated  with  the  redemption 
from  Egypt  began  with  an  inheritance,  not  lost, 
indeed,  but  standing  at  an  apparently  hopeless 
distance,  though  conferred  in  free  grant,  and 
secured  by  covenant  promise  to  a  peculiar  seed. 
It  was  the  immediate  aim  of  the  mission  of 
Moses  to  conduct  the  heirs  of  that  promise  into 
the  actual  possession  of  its  blessings  ;  and  to 
do  this,  not  simply  with  the  view  of  having  the 
hope  turned  into  reality,  but  so  as  at  the  same 
time,  and  in  accordance  with  God’s  general 
plan,  to  unfold  the  great  principles  of  his  char¬ 
acter  and  government,  and  raise  his  people  to  a 
higher  position  in  all  religious  knowledge  and 
experience.  In  a  word,  God’s  object  then  w'as, 
as  it  has  ever  been,  not  merely  to  bring  man  to 
the  possession  of  a  promised  good,  but  to  fur¬ 


nish  by  his  method  of  doing  it  the  elements  of 
a  religion  corresponding  in  its  nature  and  effects 
to  the  inheritance  possessed  or  hoped  for,  and 
thus  to  render  the  whole  subservient  to  the 
highest  purposes  of  his  moral  government.  P.  F. 

With  the  narrative  of  the  exodus,  the  forty 
days  in  the  wilderness,  and  the  conquest  of 
Canaan  is  interwoven  the  record  of  the  national 
code  and  constitution,  moral,  religious,  politi¬ 
cal,  and  social.  The  historic  reality  of  the  Di¬ 
vine  manifestation  to  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Israel  is  assumed  as  the  necessary  starting- 
jjoint  of  God’s  dealings  wdth  their  descendants. 
His  promise  to  Abraham  is  treated  as  a  “  cov¬ 
enant,”  to  which  Divine  faithfulness  stands  ir¬ 
revocably  pledged.  But  a  new  starting-point  is 
now  given,  after  the  deliverance,  by  a  fresh 
“  covenant  ”  granted  by  Jehovah,  and  freely  ac¬ 
cepted  by  the  people.  Such  a  record  as  this 
has  no  parallel  in  fact  or  fiction.  Many  law¬ 
givers  have  claimed  Divine  authority.  Many 
sacred  books  have  been  accounted  divinely  in¬ 
spired  ;  many  nations  have  deemed  themselves 
patronized  by  a  national  deity  and  favorites  of 
heaven.  But  this  description  of  the  founding 
of  a  nation  and  laying  the  basis  of  national  leg¬ 
islation,  by  a  solemn  contract  of  sovereignty  and 
obedience  between  the  Almighty  Creator  and 
the  representatives  of  the  whole  nation,  is  abso¬ 
lutely  unique  in  its  sober  majest)%  its  severe  lit¬ 
eral  reality,  and  its  moral  grandeur.  On  the 
basis,  thus  laid,  the  whole  fabric  of  legislation 
and  framework  of  national  life,  according  to  the 
books  of  Moses,  rested.  All  the  subsequent 
history  proceeds  from  this  starting-point.  The 
I  religion  of  personal  faith,  prayer,  and  obedi¬ 
ence,  depicted  in  Genesis,  is  never  lost  sight 
of  ;  but  it  is  overshadow^ed  by  the  religion  of 
national  faith,  public  worship,  and  obedience 
to  the  law  binding  on  the  nation.  The  Ten 
Commandments,  and  the  subsequent  laws  given 
by  Moses,  are  expressed  in  such  a  form  that  the 
word  “  Thou” -may  apply  equally  to  the  indi¬ 
vidual  Israelite  or  to  the  nation.  Divine  provi 
dence  and  government  are  illustrated  on  a  cor¬ 
responding  scale  The  wanderings  of  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  and  the  sufferings  and  glory 
of  Joseph,  illustrate  God’s  care  and  control  of 
personal  history  down  to  its  least  details.  Egypt, 
the  Bed  Sea,  Sinai,  the  desert,  the  manna,  the 


THE  SINAI  COVENANT. 


123 


water  from  the  rock,  the  pillar  of  cloud  and 
fire,  teach  a  like  lesson  in  regard  to  national 
histor}^  on  a  scale  never  equalled,  never  to  be 
repeated.  E.  R.  Conder. 

God,  the  self  moved  source  of  the  Covenant. 

3.  Thus  shall  thou  say  to  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel.  Tlie  Maker  and  the  first 
Mover  of  the  covenant  is  God  himself.  Noth¬ 
ing  was  said  or  done  by  this  unthinking  people 
themselves  toward  this  settlement  ;  no  motion 
made,  no  petition  j^ut  up  for  God’s  favor  ;  but 
this  blessed  charter  was  granted  purely  oat.  of 
God’s  own  good  w’dl.  So  in  all  our  dealings  with 
God  free  grace  prevents  us  with  the  blessings  of 
goodness,  and  all  our  comfort  is  owing,  not  to 
our  knowing  God,  but  to  our  being  known  of 
him  (Gal.  4  : 9).  We  love  him,  visit  him,  and 
covenant  with  him,  because  he  first  loved  us,  vis¬ 
ited  us,  and  covenanted  with  us.  H. 

God's  gracious  dealings  the  basis  'upon  which  the 
covenant  is  presented. 

4.  Ye  have  §ccu  what  I  did.  This  is 
the  ground  upon  which  God  presents  his  claim 
upon  their  obedience  and  fidelity.  He  had  de¬ 
livered  them  from  the  Egyptian  bondage.  They 
had  abundant  evidence  of  his  power  to  deliver 
and  of  his  purpose  to  bless.  He  appeals  to 
their  past  experience  of  his  goodness  as  the 
proof  of  his  good  will  toward  them,  and  of  his 
ability  to  fulfil  these  new  and  vastly  larger, 
richer  promises.  B. He  gave  before  he  de¬ 
manded  ;  he  gave  proofs  of  his  love  before  he 
asked  for  obedience  ;  he  gave  himself  to  Israel 
before  he  required  Israel  to  give  itself  to  him.  K. 

How  I  bare  you  ou  eagles’  wings. 
The  parent  bird  it  is  said  sweeps  gently  past  the 
young  ones  perched  on  a  ledge  of  rock,  and 
when  one  venturing  to  follow  begins  to  sink 
with  drooping  wing,  glides  underneath,  and 
bears  it  aloft  again.  This  beautiful  figure  strik¬ 
ingly  illustrates  the  patient  tenderness  with 
which  the  Lord  labored  to  train  his  people  for 
the  escape  from  Egypt,  and  guarded  them  from 

the  hazards  of  the  way.  M. - A  similitude 

denoting  the  speed,  the  security,  and  the  ten¬ 
der  care  with  which  they  were  transported  from 
the  house  of  bondage,  and  which  is  expanded 
in  fuller  significancy  (De.  32  : 11,  12),  “  As  an 
eagle  stirreth  up  her  nest,  fluttereth  over  her 
young,  spreadeth  abroad  her  wings,  taketh  them, 
beareth  them  on  her  wings  ;  so  the  Lord  alone 
did  lead  him.”  In  like  manner,  as  the  Church 
of  Israel  here  fled  from  the  dragon  Pharaoh,  as 
he  is  termed  (Ezek.  29  ;  3),  so  the  Christian 
Church  in  a  time  of  persecution  is  represented 


(Kev.  12  :  14)  as  flying  into  the  wilderness  from 
the  serpent  or  dragon,  with  two  wings  of  a  great 
eagle.  Wings  in  this  acceptation  are  a  symbol 
of  protection.  The  idea  of  this  passage  is  strik¬ 
ingly  set  forth  by  the  prophet  at  a  long  subse¬ 
quent  period  (Is.  G3  : 9).  “In  all  their  afflic¬ 
tion  he  was  afflicted,  and  the  angel  of  his  pres¬ 
ence  saved  them  :  in  his  love  and  in  his  pity  he 
redeemed  them  ;  and  he  bare  them,  and  carried 
them  all  the  days  of  old.”  Bash. 

The  comprehensive  and  sublime  promise  (verses  5,  6). 

5.  And  now  is  added  the  promise  in  new  and 
expressive  terms,  containing  the  three  great  ele¬ 
ments  of  salvation,  as  expressed  in  the  terms 
wdiich  ever  since  have  been  household  words  in 
the  Church  of  God,  Ye  shall  be  a  pecul¬ 
iar  treasure  unto  me.  It  is  the  phrase 
so  often  occurring  afterward.  “  For  the  Lord’s 
portion  is  his  people.”  “The  Lord  thy  God 
hath  chosen  thee  to  be  a  special  people  unto 
himself,”  repeated  Moses  forty  years  afterward. 
So  David,  “  The  Lord  hath  chosen  Israel  for  his 
peculiar  treasure.”  It  is  this  germinal  sajdng 
which  doubtless  Paul  had  in  mind  when  he 
wrote  Titus,  ”  Who  gave  himself,  that  he  might 
purify  unto  himself  a  peculiar  people  zealous 
of  good  works  ”  And  Peter,  “  Ye  are  a  chosen 
generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  an  holy  nation, 
a  peculiar  people.”  Thus  showing  that  the 
apostles  attached  to  the  language  here  at  Sinai 

the  highest  spiritual  significance.  S.  R, - 

God’s  promise  to  Israel,  “  Ye  shall  be  a  peculiar 
treasure  unto  me,”  has  often  been  misconceived 
as  meaning  that  Israel  should  be  a  peculiar 
people  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  that  phrase. 
The  exact  sense  of  the  words  is  “  mine  own 
possession”  —  i.e.,  peculiarly  mine — mine  in  a 
sense  in  which  no  other  people  is.  Chambers. 

- Throughout  the  Old  and  New  Testaments 

{jewels,  Mai.  3  :  \1 ,  peculiar  people,  1  Pet.  2  :  9)  the 
word  means  something  select,  precious,  endeared; 
something  exceedingly  prized  and  sedulously  pre¬ 
served.  Bush. 

As  Elohim,  he  was  a  King  over  Israel,  as  he 
is  over  every  nation,  by  virtue  of  unconditional 
necessity  ;  as  Jehovah,  he  was  King  over  Israel 
in  consequence  of  the  free  concurrence  of  the 
people,  and  in  a  sense  in  which  no  other  nation 
could  claim  him  as  King,  The  first  position 
assigned  to  Israel  by  the  covenant  of  Jehovah 
was  this  :  “  Ye  shall  be  my  property  out  of  (before) 
all  nations,  for  the  whole  earth  is  mine."  All  the 
nations  of  the  earth  are  God’s  property— they 
are  so  by  virtue  of  their  creation.  Israel,  how¬ 
ever,  was  to  be  so,  not  by  creation  only,  but  by 
virtue  of  redemption  also.  For  this  reason  the 


124 


SECTION  108.  THE  FIRST  SINAI  COVENANT. 


preliminaries  of  the  covenant  commenced  with  a 
reference  to  the  deliverance  from  Egypt.  K. 

6.  Yc  §liall  be  unto  me  a  kiiiji^clom 
of  priests.  That  is,  a  kingdom  whose  citi¬ 
zens  are  priests,  and  as  such  possess  royal  dig¬ 
nity  and  power,  or,  in  the  language  of  Peter, 
“  a  royal  priesthood.”  So  far  as  Israel  was  con¬ 
cerned,  the  outward  and  visible  Theocracy 
which  God  established  among  them  was  only 
the  means  by  which  this  end  was  to  be  obtained, 
just  as  their  observing  the  covenant  was  the 
condition  of  it.  But  the  promise  itself  reached 
far  beyond  the  Old  Covenant,  and  will  only  be 
fulfilled  ill  its  completeness  when  the  Israel 
of  God” — whom  already  the  Lord  Jesus,  “  the 
First-begotten  of  the  dead  and  the  Prince  of  the 
kings  of  the  earth,”  “hath  made  kings  and 
priests  unto  God  and  his  Father”  —  shall  share 
with  him  his  glory  and  sit  with  him  on  his 
throne.  Thus  the  final  object  of  the  royal 
priesthood  of  Israel  were  those  nations,  from 
among  whom  God  had  chosen  his  people  for  a 
precious  possession.  Toward  them  Israel  was 
to  act  as  priests.  For  just  as  the  priest  is  the 
intermediary  between  God  and  man,  so  Israel 
was  to  be  the  intermediary  of  the  knowledge 
and  salvation  of  God  to  all  nations.  And  this 
their  priesthood  was  to  be  the  foundation  of 
their  royalty.  A.  E. 

Out  of  the  mass  of  fallen  men  God  purposed 
to  save  some  in  Christ.  Until  this  Saviour  act¬ 
ually  came,  the  body  of  the  saved  was  repre¬ 
sented  by  a  chosen  people,  who  might  therefore 
be  collectively  regarded  as  a  kind  of  mediator, 
and  correctly  represented  as  a  nation  of  priests. 
But  in  order  that  this  same  great  doctrine  might 
be  kept  before  the  minds  of  the  representatives 
themselves,  a  single  tribe  was  set  apart  from 
among  them,  to  represent  the  whole,  and  as  it 
were  to  mediate  between  God  and  his  people. 
By  a  further  application  of  the  same  sjunbolical 
idea,  a  single  family  was  chosen  from  this  chosen 
tribe,  as  if  to  represent  it  ;  while  in  this  family 
itself,  a  single  individual,  its  natural  hereditary 
head,  represented  his  family,  and  through  that 
family  his  tribe,  and  through  that  tribe  his  peo¬ 
ple,  and  through  that  people  the  elect  of  God. 
In  the  High  Priest,  therefore,  the  entire  repre¬ 
sentation  was  concentrated  and  completed.  At 
the  same  time,  this  symbolical  representative  of 
the  body  was  a  typical  representative  of  the 
Head,  the  promised  Saviour,  the  two  functions 
being  not  only  consistent  but  inseparable  on 
account  of  the  peculiar  and  most  intimate  rela¬ 
tion  of  the  Head  and  the  body  to  each  other. 
In  no  other  system  upon  record,  whether  civil 
or  religious,  has  the  great  principle  of  represen¬ 


tation  been  so  fully  embodied  and  distinctly 
carried  out  as  in  the  sacerdotal  system  of  the 
ceremonial  law.  An  important  corollary  from 
this  statement  is,  that  even  under  that  economy, 
the  Jewish  race  was  not  so  much  the  people  of 
God  as  its  appointed  representative.  J.  A.  A. 

The  Septuagint  renders  the  phrase  “  a  priest¬ 
hood  of  kings,”  instead  of  “a  kingdom  of 
jiriests  and  the  Apostle  Peter  seems  to  follow 
that  rendering  in  calling  it  “  a  royal  priest¬ 
hood.”  And  the  Apostle  John,  in  the  Apoca- 
lypse,  doubtless  referring  to  these  remarkable 
terms  in  the  Sinai  transaction,  in  his  magnifi¬ 
cent  opening  doxology  evidently  understands  it 
to  be  both — “  And  hath  made  us  to  be  kings 
and  priests  unto  God  and  his  father.”  And  in 
like  manner  he  represents  the  rejoicing  myriads 
around  the  throne  in  heaven  as  singing,  “  Thou 
hast  redeemed  us  to  God  by  thy  blood  out  of 
every  kindred,  and  tongue,  and  people,  and  na¬ 
tion  ;  and  hast  made  us  kings  and  priests  to 
our  God  ;  and  we  shall  reign  on  the  earth.” 
Thus  not  only  are  these  words  of  Jehovah  to  be 
taken  in  the  highest  spiritual  sense,  but  what¬ 
ever  is  implied  in  them  is  true  of  the  Church 
through  all  the  after  ages  and  onward  in  eter¬ 
nity.  Nor  need  we  any  other  evidence  to  prove 
to  us  that  the  matter  we  are  now  entering  upon,  ^ 
so  far  from  being  a  mere  historical  transaction 
with  the  house  of  Jacob  at  Sinai,  is  with  the  re¬ 
deemed  Church  of  God  in  all  the  ages  through 
the  “  sons  of  Israel  representing  there  the 
Church  of  all  ages  alike.”  It  is  manifest  that 
the  kingdom  of  priests  here  represents  the 
great  idea  of  a  community  organized  and  in¬ 
vested  with  powers  of  sovereignty  ;  and  being  a 
kingdom  of  priests  indicates  not  only  the  benign 
sway  of  this  sovereignty,  but  also  that  this 
kingdom  finds  mankind  under  the  ban  of  dis¬ 
obedience  and  the  doom  of  death.  That  it  is 
the  function  of  this  priestly  kingdom  to  provide 
atonement  for  the  sin  of  the  world,  to  intercede 
for  the  penitent  and  lead  him  to  God.  And 
where  do  these  functions  meet  their  full  solu¬ 
tion  until  apostles  in  times  describe  the  spirit¬ 
ual  body  of  which  Christ  is  the  head,  by  virtue 
of  his  kingly  and  priestly  offices  ?  Then  there 
is  this  Church— the  one  and  the  same  Church 
of  the  ages — standing  thus  at  Sinai  to  renew 
her  covenant  of'  obedience  to  her  redeeming 
Lord.  S.  R. 

Condition  of  the  Covenant. 

5.  If  ye  will  obey  my  voice,  and 
keep  my  covenant.  The  key-note  to  the 
Mosaic  legislation  is  found  in  the  opening  words 
of  the  covenant  made  in  Sinai.  They  precede 


THE  SINAI  COVENANT. 


125 


all  law  and  all  ritual.  They  also  give  a  tone  to 
the  whole  legislation,  which  it  loses  the  moment 
they  are  overlooked.  The  words  are,  “  If  ye 
will  obey  my  voice,  and  keep  my  covenant.”  A 
form  of  speech  the  same,  or  nearly  the  same,  runs 
through  the  whole  Old  Testament,  though  lost 
sight  of  in  our  English  translation.  As  the 
Hebrew  word  for  to  keai'  means  also  to  obey,  the 
mixing  up  of  the  two  ideas  in  the  English  Bible 
has  obscured  the  sense  in  many  passages.  The 
phrase,  “  To  obey  my  voice,”  with  its  various 
changes  of  form,  became  the  thread  on  which  the 
events  of  history  were  ultimately  strung.  “  Obey'' 
was  the  first  and  the  great  thing  ;  “  sacrifice" 
came  far  behind  then,  even  as  it  did  in  Samuel’s 
day.  Sime. 

This  passage  is  addressed  to  the  people  both 
in  their  natural  relations  as  “  the  house  of 
Jacob”  and  in  their  spiritual  relations  as  ”  the 
children  of  Israel.”  After  reminding  them  of 
the  great  act  of  redemption  from  the  bondage 
of  Egypt,  and  how  fully  he  has  kept,  on  his 
part,  the  passover  covenant  by  which  he  prom¬ 
ised  to  deliver  them,  he’now  calls  upon  them  to 
accept  lovingly  and  cheerfully  his  claim  to 
obedience.  S.  E. - God  will  make  no  cov¬ 

enant  with  the  unwilling  ;  how  much  less  the 
Covenant  cf  Grace,  which  stands  all  upon  love  ! 
If  we  stay  till  God  offer  violence  to  our  will,  or 
to  us  against  our  will,  we  shall  die  strangers 
from  him.  The  obstinate  have  nothing  to  do 
with  God  :  the  title  of  God’s  people  is,  A  Will¬ 
ing  People.  Bp.  II. 

All  lioSy  nation.  The  same  word  which 
declared  them  to  have  been  taken  by  God  for  a 
peculiar  treasure,  and  a  kingdom  of  priests, 
called  them  to  be  an  holy  nation — to  be  holy, 
even  as  God  himself  was  holy.  And  through¬ 
out  all  the  revelations  of  the  Law,  and  its  mani¬ 
fold  ordinances  of  service,  the  voice  which  con¬ 
tinually  sounded  in  the  ears  of  the  people  was, 
in  substance,  this  :  “  I  am  the  Lord  your  God, 
which  have  separated  you  from  other  people. 
And  ye  shall  be  holy  unto  me  ;  for  I  the  Lord 
am  holy,  and  have  severed  you  from  other  peo¬ 
ple,  that  ye  should  be  mine.”  Next  to  the  fun¬ 
damental  principle  of  the  Divine  Unity,  the  point 
in  respect  to  which  the  object  of  Jewish  wor¬ 
ship  differed  most  essentially  from  the  gods  of 
the  heathen,  was  the  absolute  holiness  of  his 

character.  P.  F. - “  Holy,”  in  the  Scripture, 

always  includes  the  idea  of  separation  from  what 
is  common  and  unclean,  “  and  the  surrender  to 
God  and  his  service.”  In  the  Old  Testament 
the  more  external  signification  appears  to  pre¬ 
vail,  of  being  dedicated  to  the  outward  service 
of  God.  But  as  this  outward  service  of  God 


bore  a  continual  reference  to  the  inward,  the 
exjoress  relation  of  the  holiness  of  the  people  to 
the  holiness  of  God  (Lev.  11  ;  44  ;  19  :  2),  which 
is  represented  as  the  direct  opposition  to  all 
that  is  evil,  alone  exj)lains  the  perfect,  entire 
meaning  of  the  expression.  Gerl. 

A  still  more  solemn  description  of  Israel,  and 
of  us  who  are  called  ”  the  Israel  of  God,”  is  that 
of  ”  holy  nation.”  As  Calvin  observes  :  “  This 
designation  was  not  due  to  the  piety  or  holiness 
of  the  people,  but  because  God  distinguished 
them  by  peculiar  j)rivileges  from  all  others. 
But  this  sanctification  implies  another — viz., 
that  they  who  are  so  distinguished  by  God’s 
grace  should  cultivate  holiness,  so  that  in  turn 
they  sanctify  God.”  The  Hebrew  term  for 
“holy”  is  generally  supposed  to  mean  ‘‘sepa¬ 
rated,  set  apart.”  But  this  is  only  its  secondary 
signification,  derived  from  the  purpose  of  that 
which  is  hoi}'.  Its  primary  meaning  is  to  be 
splmdid,  beautifid,  pure,  and  uncontaminated. 
God  is  holy  -  as  the  absolutely  pure,  resplendent, 
and  glorious  One.  Hence  this  is  symbolized  by 
the  light.  God  dwelleth  in'light  that  is  unap¬ 
proachable  ;  he  is  ‘‘  the  Father  of  light,  with 
whom  is  no  variableness,  neither  shadow  of 
turning” — light  which  never  can  grow  dimmer, 
nor  give  place  to  darkness.  And  Israel  was  to 
be  a  holy  people  as  dwelling  in  the  light, 
through  its  covenant  relationship  to  God.  It 
was  not  the  selection  of  Israel  from  all  other 
nations  that  made  them  holy,  but  the  relation¬ 
ship  to  God  into  which  it  brought  the  people. 
A.  E. - Ever}'  part  of  the  Law  is  directed  tow¬ 

ard  the  supreme  end  of  holiness,  which  is  here 
brought  into  view  at  the  very  beginning  :  ‘‘If 
ye  will  obey  my  voice,  and  keep  my  covenant, 
then  ye  shall  be  a  .  .  .  holy  nation.”  The  re¬ 
ligion  of  the  Bible  is  a  character  religion  through¬ 
out.  “  God  hath  called  us  unto  holiness” — 
through  form,  through  faith,  through  Moses, 
through  Christ  ;  but  always  to  holiness.  “  Be 
ye  holy,  for  I  the  Lord  your  God  am  holy.” 
This  is  the  kernel  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  is 
also  the  core  of  the  New,  .  .  .  Temporal  bless¬ 
ings  were  included  under  the  Old  Covenant,  just 
as  they  are  under  the  new  ;  but  the  great  bless¬ 
ings  of  the  Old  Covenant  were  undoubtedly  spir¬ 
itual,  as  is  manifest  here.  Nearness  to  God, 
dearness  to  God,  holiness— these  were  the  char¬ 
acteristic  blessings  of  the  Old  Covenant.  These 
promises  are  among  the  richest  and  most  deeply 
spiritual  in  the  whole  Bible.  J.  M.  G. 

There  comes  out  here  the  grand  idea  of  this 
body  having  kingly  and  priestly  functions,  and 
withal  qualified  by  being  ”  a  holy  nation,"  to 
become  the  agency  for  the  salvation  of  the 


126 


SECTION  103.  THE  FIRST  SINAI  COVENANT. 


world.  S.  R. - The  words  mark  the  special 

character  assigned  to  the  Israelites,  and  still 
more  to  the  spiritual  Israel.  Not  that  they  were 
to  be  separated  from  all  nations  in  proud  exclu¬ 
siveness,  for  their  own  sake  :  this  was  the  great 
mistake  of  their  history.  But  as  “  all  the 
earth  is  Jehovah’s,”  they  were  his  in  a  special 
sense,  to  bring  all  nations  back  to  him  ;  kings 
and  priests  for  others’  good,  and  a  holy  nation 

for  a  pattern  to  all  the  rest.  P.  S. - As  Israel 

was  ideally,  so  all  nations  were  through  Israel’s 
ministry  to  become  really  the  possession  of 
God  :  a  kingdom  of  priests,  a  holy  people  ;  for 
all  the  earth,  as  well  as  Israel,  was  God’s.  And 
the  realization  of  this  would  be  the  kingdom  of 
God  on  earth.  All  the  institutions  of  Israel 
were  in  strict  accord  with  this  ideal  destiny. 
Alike  the  laws,  the  v'orship,  the  institutions, 
and  the  mission  of  Israel  were  intended  to  ex¬ 
press  two  things  :  acknowledgment  of  God  and 
dependence  upon  God.  A.  E. 

They  were  to  be  the  trustees,  for  humanity  at 
large,  of  the  revelations,  promises,  and  ordi¬ 
nances  which  God  communicated,  and  they  were 
to  keep  them  for  the  benefit  of  all  mankind. 
For  a  time,  indeed,  these  heavenly  communica¬ 
tions  were  to  be  reserved  to  themselves  ;  only, 
however,  that  they  might  be  the  more  securely 
preserved  ;  but  at  length  all  restrictions  would 
be  broken  down,  and  that  which,  in  its  ritual 
exclusivism,  had  been  confined  to  them  would, 
in  its  spiritual  pervasiveness,  become  the  heri¬ 
tage  of  every  true  believer  who  should,  like  them, 
enter  into  covenant  with  the  Lord,  not  over  a 
merely  typical  sacrifice,  but  over  the  true  and 
real  atonement  which  Christ  would  make  for 
the  sins  of  men.  Thus,  in  this  peculiar  prom¬ 
ise,  which  looks  at  first  as  if  it  conferred  a 
patent  of  protected  privilege,  we  see  that  the 
present  protection  is  in  order  to  the  future  dif¬ 
fusion  ;  and  we  have  an  echo  of  the  Abrahamic 
blessing,  “  In  thee  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed.”  What  the 
Levitical  tribe  ultimatel)''  was  among  the  Israel¬ 
ites  themselves,  that  the  Israelites  were  to  be 
among  the  nations  ;  and  the  more  faithfully 
they  performed  their  duties,  the  richer  would 
be  the  ultimate  blessing  to  the  Gentiles.  Read¬ 
ing  these  words  in  the  light  of  the  history  to 
which  they  form  the  introduction,  it  needs  no 
keenness  of  insight  to  perceive  the  bearing  of 
these  principles  upon  ourselves  ;  for  we  Chris¬ 
tians  are  now  the  world’s  priests,  custodians  of 
those  spiritual  blessings  by  which  our  fellow- 
men  are  to  be  benefited  ;  and  only  in  propor¬ 
tion  as  we  maintain  holiness— not  of  ritualism, 
but  of  character— shall  we  discharge  our  duties 


to  mankind  at  large.  So,  side  by  side  with 
these  promises,  at  the  foundation  of  the  earthly 
Theocracy,  we  place  the  words  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  in  his  manifesto  at  the  inauguration  of 
the  kingdom  of  which  he  is  the  head  ;  and  we 
find  in  the  latter  the  spiritual  interpretation  of 
the  former  :  “  Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world.  A 
city  that  is  set  on  a  hill  cannot  be  hid.  Neither 
do  men  light  a  candle,  and  put  it  under  a  bushel, 
but  on  a  candlestick  ;  and  it  giveth  light  unto 
all  that  are  in  the  house.  Let  your  light  so 
shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see  your  good 
works,  and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven.”  W.  M.  T. 

Answering  Pledge  of  the  People. 

§.  All  tliat  tlie  Lord  liatli  §pokeii 
we  will  do.  This  was  the  acceptance  of  the 
covenant  by  the  people,  Moses  acting  strictly  as 
mediator  or  go-between  in  the  transaction.  And 
this  his  mediatorship  was  to  be  substantiated 
(verse  9)  by  the  speaking  of  Jehovah,  present  in 
the  darkness  of  a  cloud,  with  Moses,  and  the 
people  hearing.  Then  they  would  believe  for¬ 
ever  in  the  Divine  mission  and  authority  of 
Moses.  Alf. 

That  the  people  should  have  an  authoritative 
voice  in  the  enactment  of  the  laws  is  another 
of  those  great  ideas  which  underlie  the  Hebrew 
government.  When  Moses,  on  descending  from 
the  mount,  rehearsed  to  the  people  the  laws 
which  he  had  received  from  the  Lord,  with  one 
voice  they  answered  and  said,  “  All  the  words 
that  the  Lord  has  said,  will  we  do.”  What  is 
this  but  an  acceptance  by  the  nation  of  the 

t 

constitution  proposed  to  them  ?  “This  adop¬ 
tion  by  the  Jewish  nation  of  the  laws  which 
Moses  brought  from  God  was  repeated  at  the 
death  of  Moses,  and  by  a  statute,  once  in  seven 
years  was  to  be  repeated  ever  after  by  the  as¬ 
sembled  nation.  So  that  from  generation  to 
generation,  once  in  seven  years,  the  tribes  met 
in  a  great  national  convention  and  solemnly 
ratified  the  constitution.”  E.  C.  W. 

No  longer  one  famil}^  as  in  Abraham  and  Isaac 
and  Jacob  ;  no  longer  a  mere  tribe,  clustering 
several  families  under  one  or  more  patriarchs, 
but  a  group  of  many  tribes,  enlarging  fast  tow¬ 
ard  the  proportions  of  a  great  nation  ;  and 
what  is  more,  a 'people  no  longer  under  the 
emasculating  incubus  of  bondage,  but  emanci¬ 
pated,  and  free  to  rise  and  assume  the  duties  of 
self-government  with  all  its  possibilities  of 
growth  and  improvement,  personal  and  national 
— this  great  people  were  at  this  point  sum¬ 
moned  of  God  to  enter  into  solemn  national 
covenant  with  himself.  In  its  spirit  and  signifi- 


THE  KINGDOM  OF  GOD  INAUGURATED. 


127 


cance  this  covenant  differed  in  no  essential 
point  from  that  which  God  made  with  Abraham 
more  than  six  hundred  years  before.  In  that 
earlier  covenant  Abraham  spake  for  himself,  and 
so  far  as  it  was  naturally  possible,  for  his  pos¬ 
terity  as  well  ;  and  God  on  his  part  promised  to 
be  a  God  not  to  him  only  but  to  his  seed  after 
him  ;  yet  when  this  seed  of  Abraham  became  a 
great  people,  there  was  special  fitness  in  sum¬ 
moning  them  to  renew  this  covenant  for  ihem- 
.sel'iies.  Precisely  this  was  done  before  Sinai. 
A.  C. 

The  promise  of  a  covenant  with  the  nation 
leads  us  back  to  the  promise  formerly  made  of  a 
covenant  with  the  family  (“  In  thee  and  in  thy 
seed  shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be 
blessed  ’  ’),  and  it  becomes  apparent  that  the 
covenant  at  Sinai  was  precisely  the  same  as  that 
which  had  formerly  been  concluded  at  Mature. 
The  one  was  merely  a  renewal  of  the  other-  a 
transference  to  the  nation,  which  had  sprung 
from  the  family’’,  of  the  promise  and  call  which 
the  family  itself  had  already  received.  The  in¬ 
dividuality  and  exclusiveness  which  character¬ 
ized  the  former  covenant  were  equally  manifest 
in  the  latter,  for  out  of  all  nations  Israel  was  the 
property  of  Jehovah  ;  but  the  fact  that  the  cov¬ 
enant  was  destined  for  the  most  unlimited  uni- 
versalism,  appeared  in  the  latter  also,  bright 
and  clear,  as  the  pole-star  of  the  future.  Here 
aUo  w^as  the  truth  exhibited  and  confirmed — 
that  Israel  was  merely  the  firstborn,  not  the  only 
child  of  Jehovah;  that  the  other  nations,  as 
younger  members  of  the  family  of  Jehovah,  were 
to  be  made  partakers  of  the  same  sonship  which 
Israel  was  the  first  to  receive,  but  which  it  re¬ 
ceived  as  the  pledge  of  the  future  adoption  of 
the  other  nations  of  the  earth  ;  “  for  the  whole 
earth  is  mine,”  saith  the  Lord.  K. 

And  from  this  great  swearing-in  at  the  foot  of 
the  mount  which  might  not  be  touched,  the 
people  passed  away  with  a  sublime  and  awful 
consciousness  that  God  had  spoken  and  so  had 
they.  “  I  will  be  your  God,”  had  Jehovah  said, 
“and  all  that  thou  hast  spoken  will  we  do,” 
had  they  replied,  and,  registered  in  heaven,  it 
seemed  as  if  the  vow  were  written  on  the  floor 
and  roof  at  once  of  that  great  desert  sanctuary. 
Had  the  people  been  but  equal  to  it,  here  was 
an  occasion  unprecedented,  an  opportunity 
given  to  a  new  and  virgin  nation  to  start  on  a 
career  the  like  of  which  had  never  been  exhib¬ 
ited,  receiving  their  laws  from  God  and  from 
him  deriving  their  protection-  God  dwelling 
among  them  palpably,  fighting  their  battles, 
brightening  their  abodes,  preserving  their  going 
out  and  coming  in,  and  with  his  approving  pres¬ 


ence  glorifying  their  entire  existence.  The 
ideal  was  imperfectly  realized.  Except  to  a  very 
partial  extent,  and  for  brief  intervals,  the  nation 
never  rose  to  its  high  calling,  and  seldom  w'as  it 
that  either  the  camp  of  its  pilgrimage  or  the 
land  of  the  promise  suggested  the  heaven  on 
earth  which  it  ought  to  have  been.  But  no 
knowledge  of  Israel’s  frailty,  no  foresight  of 
human  failure,  hindered  the  Most  High  from 
expounding  his  own  gracious  plan.  Hamilton. 

The  Kingdom  of  God  Inaugurated  at  Sinai. 

The  real  beginning  of  the  kingly^  rule  w'as 
when  Jehovah  bound  the  tribes  of  Israel  into  a 
community  by  the  formation  of  a  legal  covenant. 
This  covenant  was  the  constitution  of  the  king¬ 
dom  of  God.  It  had  been  necessary-  to  make  a 
preparation  for  this  inauguration  of  the  king¬ 
dom,  even  as  a  preparation  was  needed  for  the 
coming  of  Christ.  The  family  of  Abraham  had 
been  enlarged  to  a  tribe — to  a  race  ;  the  furnace 
of  affliction  in  Egypt  and  the  w-onderful  deliv¬ 
erance  under  the  guidance  of  Jehovah  made  the 
race  a  nation  ;  the  preparation  was  completed  ; 
the  kingdom  was  inaugurated,  for  a  fulness  of 
time  was  reached.  The  records  respecting  the 
inauguration  of  this  kingdom  are  in  Ex.  19  : 3- 
19;  20:18-21;  24:3-8.  The  covenant  pro¬ 
posed  by  God  was  verbally  accepted  by^  the  peo¬ 
ple  at  once,  and  later  it  was  formally  ratified. 
In  Ex.  19  : 3-6  we  find  that  God’s  assumption  of 
the  kingship  is  based  upon  his  deliverance  of 
Israel  from  Egypt.  Even  as  to-day  we  assure 
the  saint  and  sinner  alike  that  they  belong  to 
God  by  virtue  of  a  redemption  wrought  out  in 
Christ,  so  Moses  and  the  prophets  always  based 
God's  peculiar  claims  to  Israel  upon  the  deliv- 
erance  from  Egypt.  There  is,  however,  a  yet 
broader  presupposition— ie.,  that  Jehovah  owns 
all  the  earth.  As  all  other  nations  have  forsaken 
God  and  know  him  not,  God  left  them  and 
chose  Israel  as  his  peculiar  people,  and  this  for 
some  reason  of  his  own.  In  this  choice  there 
was  also  an  element  of  separation  or  exclusive¬ 
ness.  This  exclusiveness  was  temporarily'^  exter¬ 
nal.  Although  there  was  to  be  forever  an  inner 
separation,  the  outer  separation  ■was  not  an  es 
sential  or  permanent  characteristic  of  the  re¬ 
ligion.  The  real  meaning  of  the  exclusiveness 
concerned  a  holy  character,  and  that  has  not 
abated  even  at  this  day.  The  purpose  of  this 
choice  was  to  bring  Israel  into  intimate  relations 
with  God.  They  were  to  be  priests — i.e.,  ser¬ 
vants  to  God  ;  holy— I e.,  dedicated  to  him. 
The  exclusiveness  was  not  explained  save  that 
it  was  based  upon  their  relations  with  God  and 


128 


SECTION  103.  THE  FIRST  SINAI  COVENANT. 


that  it  was  for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  these 
relations. 

The  Kingdom  or  God  as  a  Theoceacy. 

In  the  historical  development  of  this  kingdom 
it  has  been  called  a  Theoceacy.  All  political 
powers  were  united  in  God,  and  he  ruled 
through  such  agents  as  he  chose.  The  character 
of  the  agent  was  no  essential  element  in  the 
Theocracy,  provided  he  was  sent  from  God. 
Neither  was  a  constant  miraculous  element  nec¬ 
essary  more  than  it  has  been  in  the  Christian 
Church.  The  great  fact  was  that  Israel  was  in 
covenant  with  God,  so  that  they  were  his  pecul 
iar  peoj^leand  he  their  chosen  king.  The  agent 
in  this  Theocracy  might  be  jirophet,  as  Samuel, 
priest,  as  Phinehas,  or  king,  as  David,  or  a 
special  servant,  as  Jcishua  or  Gideon.  Still  the 
Theocracy  was  established  through  the  media¬ 
tion  of  a  prophet,  and  a  prophet  was  regarded 
as  occupying  a  chief  rank  among  the  agents  in 
the  Theocrac3\ 

The  privileges  in  this  kingdom  w'ere  the  near¬ 
ness  of  God  (De.  4  ;  7,  8)  and  a  righteous  Law 
(De.  33  :  3,  4  ;  4  :  G).  This  relation  had  been 
entered  as  a  matter  of  choice,  hence  it  was  a 
moral  relation  ;  it  recognized  duties  and  obliga¬ 
tions,  hence  it  required  discipline.  Such  was 
the  ideal  of  the  kingdom  at  the  time  of  its  inau¬ 
guration.  Denio. 

The  Pentateuch  is  the  history  and  the  picture 
of  the  personal  government  by  God  of  the  Israel¬ 
ites.  “Our  legislator,”  says  the  historian 
Josephus,  “  had  in  his  thoughts  not  monarch¬ 
ies,  nor  oligarchies,  nor  democracies,  nor  any 
one  of  those  iDolitical  institutions  :  he  com¬ 
manded  that  our  government  should  be  (if  it  is 
permitted  to  make  use  of  an  expression  somewhat 
exaggerated)  what  may  be  styled  a  Theocracy.” 
Guizot. - To  describe  the  spiritual  and  mys¬ 

terious  government  of  the  Jewish  people,  Jose¬ 
phus  combined  two  Greek  words  in  the  term 
Theokraiia,  Theocracy,  or  God’s  rule  ;  a  govern¬ 
ment  administered  by  men,  but  the  sovereignty 
was  held  by  the  Divinity.  The  Deity  mani¬ 
fested  himself  in  the  double  character  of  a  ce¬ 
lestial  and  a  terrestrial  sovereign.  Wherever  the 
Israelite  turned  he  was  reminded  of  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  his  God  and  of  his  King.  His  King  was 
in  heaven  :  his  God  was  on  earth.  I.  U  Israeli. 

But  Jehovah  was  not  the  less  Israel’s  God  be¬ 
cause  he  became  Israel’s  King.  The  peculiarity 
of  the  new  relation  was  jnst  this,  that  he  was 
God  and  King  in  one  person  ;  in  other  words, 
was  Go'l-King.  And  as  divinity  and  royalty 
were  thus  combined  in  the  Head  of  the  new 
commonwealth  (their  God  manifesting  himself 


and  acting  as  their  King,  and  their  King  as  their 
God),  all  his  commandments  bore  this  twofold 
character  :  the  religious  commandments  were 
also  political,  and  the  political  at  the  same  time 
religious.  The  breach  of  a  religious  command¬ 
ment  was  also  a  civil  crime  :  and  the  violation 
of  a  civil  and  political  institution  was  treated  at 
once  as  sin.  The  moral,  civil,  and  ceremonial 
laws  were  not  in  any  way  subordinated  the  one 
to  the  other,  but  were  in  all  respects  equal  ;  and 
whenever  they  were  broken,  they  all  required, 
according  to  the  heinousness  of  the  offence,  in 
precisely  the  same  way,  religious  expiation  and 
civil  punishment.  A  faithful  subject  was  there¬ 
fore  a  pious  child  of  God,  and  vice  versa.  And 
this  did  not  apply  to  the  commands  alone  ;  but 
the  gifts  and  j^romises  of  this  God  and  King 
partook  of  the  same  twofold  character.  What 
he  promised  as  God,  he  performed  as  King  ; 
and  what  he  did  as  King,  subserved  his  Divine 
purposes — viz.,  the  accomplishment  of  his  eter¬ 
nal  plan  of  salvation.  K. 

The  distinctive  nature  of  the  Theocracy  stood 
in  the  formal  exhibition  of  God  as  King  or  Su¬ 
preme  Head  of  the  commonwealth,  so  that  all 
authority'  and  law  emanated  from  him  ;  and  by 
necessary  consequence  there  were  not  two  so¬ 
cieties  in  the  ordinary  sense,  civil  and  religious, 
but  a  fusion  of  the  two  into  one  body,  or,  as  we 
might  express  it  from  a  modern  point  of  view,  a 
merging  together  of  Church  and  State.  This  is 
a  different  thing  from  giving  religion,  or  the 
priesthood  appointed  to  represent  its  interests 
and  perform  its  rites,  a  high  and  influential 
place  in  the  general  administration  of  affairs. 
The  religious  interest  was  peculiarly  powerful 
in  Egypt.  The  priestly  caste  stood  nearest  to 
the  throne,  and  furnished  from  its  members  the 
supreme  council  of  State.  Much  of  the  prop¬ 
erty,  and  many  of  the  higher  functions  of  gov¬ 
ernment,  were  in  their  hands  ;  so  that  they 
formed  a  kind  of  ruling  hierarchy.  But  this  by 
no  means  rendered  the  constitution  a  Theoc¬ 
racy.  The  civil  and  the  religious  were  still  dis¬ 
tinct  provinces  ;  and  it  was  more  as  “  a  highly 
privileged  nobility’’  (to  use  an  expression  of 
Heeren’s)  that  the  priesthood  had  such  a  sway 
in  the  government,  than  as  persons  acting  in 
their  religious  capacity.  It  was  otherwise  in 
Israel,  where  tlie  doctrine  of  one  living  and  true 
God  formed  the  Alpha  and  the  Omega  of  all  in¬ 
struction.  Here  there  was,  what  was  elsewhere 
wanted,  a  proper  religious  centre,  whence  a  sov¬ 
ereign  and  presiding  agency  might  issue  its  in¬ 
junctions  upon  every  department  of  the  State, 
as  well  as  upon  all  the  spheres  of  domestic  and 
social  life.  And  this  is  simply  the  idea  em- 


THE  KINGDOM  .1^  THEOCRACY, 


120 


bodied,  in  the  Jewish  Theocracy  ;  it  is  the  fact 
of  Jehovah  condescending  to  occupy’",  in  Israel, 
such  a  centre  of  power  and  autliority.  Ho  pro¬ 
claimed  himself  “King  in  Jeshurun. I-rael 
became  the  commonwealth  with  which  lie  more 
peculiarly  associated  his  presence  and  his  glory. 
Not  onl}'^  the  seat  of  his  worship,  but  his  throne 
also,  was  in  Zion — both  his  sanctuary  and  his 
dominion.  The  covenant  established  with  the 
people  laid  its  bond  upon  their  national  not 
less  than  their  individual  interests,  and  the  laws 
and  precepts  which  were  “  written  in  the  volume 
of  the  book”  formed  at  once  the  directory  of 
each  man’s  life  and  the  statute  book  of  the  en¬ 
tire  kingdom.  Nor  was  this  state  of  things  ma¬ 
terially  interfered  with  by  the  special  commis¬ 
sions  given  to  prophets,  the  temporary  elevation 
of  judges,  or  the  more  settled  government  of  the 
kings  ;  for  these  had  no  authority  to  do  or  pre¬ 
scribe  aught  but  as  the  ambassadors  and  dele¬ 
gates  of  him  who  dwelt  between  the  cherubim. 
Nay,  the  higher  any  one  might  stand  in  office, 
he  was  only  held  the  more  specially  bound  to 
“  meditate  in  the  Law  of  the  Lord,  and  observe 
to  do  all  that  was  written  therein.”  Hence, 
also,  as  being  alike  formally  and  really  at  the 
head  of  the  kingdom,  Jehovah  charged  himself 
with  the  practical  results  of  its  administration  ; 
according  to  the  loyalty  or  disobedience  of  his 
subjects,  he  made  distribution  to  them  in  good 
or  evil. 

God  himself  was  disclosed  in  ihe  details  of  his 
ruling.  His  relation  to  his  people  as  King  of 
Zion,  with  the  many  special  appointments  of 
service  and  interpositions  of  Providence  to 
which  it  naturally  gave  rise,  served  to  bring  out, 
in  almost  endless  variety  and  minuteness  of  de¬ 
tail,  the  revelation  of  his  mind  and  will.  Every 
attribute  of  his  character  received  in  turn  its 
appropriate  manifestations  ;  and  nothing  that 
essentially  concerned  his  wisdom  and  power,  his 
faithfulness  and  love,  his  inflexible  hatred  of 
sin  or  supreme  regard  to  righteousness  and 
truth,  could  remain  hid  from  those  who  medi¬ 
tated  aright  in  his  word  and  ways.  Not  only 
so  :  but  things  connected  with  these  which 
might  have  been  known,  and  yet  continued  dim 
and  shadowy  to  men’s  view,  became,  through 
the  working  of  the  Theocratic  institution, 
clothed  as  with  flesh  and  blood  ;  the  Eternal 
was  brought  as  from  the  depths  of  infinitude, 
whither  the  human  spirit  labors  in  vain  to  find 
him,  and  rendered  objectively  present  to  the 
soul  by  being  on  every  hand  allied  to  the  rela¬ 
tions  of  sense  and  time.  The  children  of  the 
covenant,  continually  as  they  came  to  draw  near 
to  his  habitation  and  witness  or  take  part  in  the 
9 


outward  ministrations  of  his  service,  "were  made, 
in  a  manner,  to  feel  as  if  they  saw  his  form  and 
heard  his  voice.  And  even  now,  amid  the  higher 
privileges  and  ampler  revelations  furnished  to 
our  hand,  yet  how  much  do  not  we  owe  for  our 
clearness  of  concejjtion  in  the  things  of  God, 
and  for  fitting  terms  to  teT  forth  our  concep¬ 
tions,  to  the  records  of  these  dealings  of  God 
with  Israel,  and  the  impressions  produced  by 
them  on  the  hearts  of  the  j)eople  !  What  a  loss 
should  we  not  have  sustained  had  we  but  wanted 
the  more  special  reflection  given  of  them  in  the 
Book  of  Psalms  ! — a  book  to  which  even  the 
French  theosophists  of  the  last  century  were 
fain  to  betake  themselves  when  seeking  to  com¬ 
pose  a  liturgical  service  to  their  god  of  nature, 
and  of  which  one  of  the  profoundest  of  modern 
historians  (John  von  Muller)  writes  :  “  My  most 
delightful  hour  every  day  is  furnished  by  David. 
His  songs  sound  to  the  depth  of  my  heart,  and 
never  in  all  my  life  have  I  so  seen  God  before 
my  eyes.” 

The  results  which  ihe  Theocracy  produced  in  ihe 
personal  and  family  life  of  ihe  people  were  nowhere 
else  produced  in  the  ancient  world.  It  is  to 
Israel  alone  of  all  the  nations  of  antiquity  that 
we  must  turn  alike  for  the  more  pure  and  lovely, 
and  for  the  more  stirring  examples  of  moral  ex¬ 
cellence-sanctified  homes,  where  the  relations 
of  domestic  and  family  life  stood  under  law  to 
God,  and  where  something  was  to  be  seen  of 
the  confiding  simplicity,  the  holy  freedom,  and 
peaceful  repose  of  heaven  ;  lives  of  patient  en¬ 
durance  and  suffering,  or  of  strong  wrestling  for 
the  rights  of  conscience,  and  the  privilege  of 
yielding  to  the  behests  of  duty  ;  manifestations 
of  zeal  and  love,  in  behalf  of  the  higher  inter¬ 
ests  of  mankind  such  as  could  scorn  all  inferior 
considerations  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  even  rise 
at  times  in  “  the  elected  saints”  to  such  a  noble 
elevation,  that  they  have  “  wished  themselves 
razed  out  of  the  book  of  life,  in  an  ecstasy  of 
charity  and  feeling  of  infinite  communion” 
(Bacon).  For  refreshing  sights  and  ennobling 
exhibitions  like  these,  we  must  repair  to  the 
annals  of  that  chosen  seed,  who  were  trained 
under  the  eye  of  God,  and  moulded  by  the 
sacred  institutions  of  his  kingdom.  How 
different  from  what  is  recorded  of  the  worldly, 
self-willed,  luxurious  Asiatics  around  them  ! 
And  how  fraught  with  lessons  of  wisdom  and 
heroic  example  to  future  times  and  other  gen¬ 
erations  ! 

Let  but  one  be  selected  who  had  thoroughly 
imbibed  the  spirit  of  the  Theocracy,  and  entered 
cordially  into  its  design  :  take  David,  for  exam¬ 
ple,  of  whom  this  may  strictly  be  said,  notwith- 


130 


SEGTIOy  103.  THE  FIRST  SINAI  COVENANT. 


standing  a  few  mournful  failures,  wliicli  he  him-  j 
self  most  bitterly  deplored  ;  and  where,  in  those 
ancient  times,  sha’l  any  apj^roach  be  found  to 
his  marvellous  combination  of  gifts  and  graces  ? 
Where  may  we  descry  a  character  at  once  so 
high-toned  and  so  fully  orbed  ?  Think  of  this 
man  as  passing  from  the  rustic  simplicities  of 
shepherd-life  to  the  throne  of  the  kingdom, 
5'et  bearing  with  him  still  the  same  tender, 
open,  and  glowing  heart  ;  treated  on  his  way 
to  the  throne  with  the  basest  ingratitude  and 
most  ruthless  persecution,  forced  even  to  be¬ 
come  for  many  tedious  years  the  tenant  of 
savage  wilds  and  caves  of  the  desert,  yet  never 
lifting,  when  it  was  in  his  j^ower  to  do  so,  the 
arm  of  vengeance,  but  ever  repaying  evil  with 
good,  and  over  the  fall  of  his  fiercest  persecutor- 
raising  the  notes  of  a  most  pathetic  lamenta¬ 
tion  ;  distinguished  above  others  by  deeds  of 
chivalr}’  and  military  prowess,  by  which  the 
kingdom  was  raised  from  its  oppression  and 
widely  extended  in  its  domain,  yet  reigning  not 
for  selfish  ambition  or  personal  glory,  but  as 
Jehovah’s  servant  for  the  establishment  of  truth 
and  righteousness  in  the  land  ;  gifted,  moreover, 
with  a  genius  so  fine,  with  sympathies  so  fresh 
and  strong,  as  to  be  able  to  originate  a  new 
species  of  poetry,  j-et  consecrating  all  to  the 
service  of  the  same  Lord,  in  celebrating  the 
praise  of  his  doings,  and  telling  forth  the  moods 
and  experiences  of  the  soul  in  its  efforts  to  be 
conformed  to  the  will  of  Heaven  ;  and  doing  it  in 
strains  of  such  toirching  pathos  and  power,  that 
they  have  found  an  echo  in  every  pious  bosom 
through  succeeding  generations,  and  to  myriads 
of  tempted  souls  have  proved  the  greatest  solace 
and  support.  The  history  of  remote  times  can 
indeed  tell  of  individuals  who  have  risen  from 
humble  and  sequestered  life  to  sit  with  princes 
•of  the  earth,  or  extend  the  glory  of  their  coun¬ 
try  ;  but  it  can  teli  of  no  individual  fitted  by 
many  degrees  to  be  placed  beside  the  shepherd- 
king  and  swmet  psalmist  of  Israel.  Nor  could 
it  have  told  of  him,  but  for  the  training  he  en¬ 
joyed  under  that  Theocracy  wdth  which  he  was 
•SO  closely  identified,  and  of  which,  in  the  grand 
features  of  his  character,  he  was  at  once  the 
legitimate  offspring  and  the  noblest  representa¬ 
tive.  P.  F. 

What  the  Theocracy  Might  have  Achieved. 

The  Israelitish,  or  Theocratic  government, 
was  a  model  of  society  beyond  all  human  con- 
frivance  ;  it  was  a  government  of  tutelage,  and 
no  form  of  government  approached  its  simplicity 
and  its  magnificence.  Had  men  been  more  per- 


j  feet,  it  w^as  a  state  which  wmnld  have  everlast- 
!  ingly  endured.  D'ls'aeU. 

Bishop  Butler,  in  his  Analogy,”  refers  to 
the  Jewish  people  as  an  illustration  of  the  infiu- 
ence  w-hich  a  kingdom,  administered  with  high¬ 
est  wisdom  and  perfect  righteousness,  would  have 
on  the  face  of  the  earth.  “  It  vvould  plainly  be 
superior  to  any  other,  and  the  wmrld  must  grad¬ 
ually  come  under  its  empire.  The  head  of  it 
wmuld  be  an  universal  monarch  ;  and  the  East¬ 
ern  style  wmuld  be  literally  applicable  to  him, 
that  all  peoples,  nations,  and  languages  should 
serve  him.”  In  the  fullest  sense  would  this 
have  been  realized  in  the  Jews  abiding  as  a  faith¬ 
ful  people  under  the  Theocracy.  An  example  of 
the  highest  form  of  national  life,  just,  virtuous, 
peaceful,  and  prosperous,  undisturbed  by  in¬ 
ternal  strifes,  invincible  yet  not  ambitious  or  ag¬ 
gressive,  these  influences  must  have  been  felt 
throughout  all  nations  ;  and  the  truth  of  their  re¬ 
ligion,  their  conceptions  of  God,  of  his  unity, 
wisdom,  holiness,  goodness,  and  power,  must 
have  found  wide  recognition  in  all  lands.  In 
due  time  all  peoples  would  have  recognized 
them  as  the  just  and  holy  nation  ;  their  land  as 
“  a  delightsome  land,”  and  their  God  as  worthy 
the  reverence  and  adoration  of  all.  Thus  through 
the  Theocratic  relation  and  as  the  Head  of  a 
nation  could  Jehovah  present  himself  as  the 
King  to  whom  all  rulers  on  the  earth  owed  obedi¬ 
ence,  and  as  the  God  whom  all  should  w^orship. 
However  bitterly  opposed  the  spirit  of  heathen¬ 
ism  to  the  pure  religion  of  Jehovah,  many  wmuld 
have  been  found  among  all  peoples  who  would 
have  hearkened  willingly  to  spiritual  truth  com¬ 
ing  to  them  from  a  people  which  illustrated  it 
in  all  its  national  acts,  and  in  the  holy,  blame¬ 
less  lives  of  its  citizens  The  w'ords  of  the 
j)rophet  Isaiah  (2  :  3)  w'ould  early  have  found 
the  beginning  of  their  fulfilment  :  ‘‘  Many  i^eople 
shall  go  and  say.  Come  ye,  and  let  us  go  up  to 
the  house  of  the  God  of  Jacob  :  and  he  will 
teach  us  of  his  ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  his 
paths.”  Andrews. 

The  Ulterior  Devel’pment  and  Final  Issues  of  the 
Jewish  Theocracy  in  Christianity. 

There  was  a  striking  difference  in  respect  of 
development  between  the  kingdom  of  God  in 
Israel  and  the  worldly  kingdoms  by  which  it 
was  surrounded,  and  for  a  time  overborne. 
“Their  end  and  aim,”  so  the  difference  is 
drawn  even  by  Ewald  in  his  History  of  the  Jew¬ 
ish  People,  “  lay  only  in  themselves,  rose  into 
strength  through  human  power  and  caprice,  and 
again  passed  aw*ay.  But  here  (viz.,  in  the  Jew. 
ish  Theocracy)  we  have,  for  the  first  time  in  his- 


THE  JEWISH  THEOCRACY. 


131 


tory,  a  kingdom  which  finds  its  origin  and  its 
aim  external  to  itself,  which  did  not  come  into 
being  of  man,  nor  of  man  attained  to  its  future 
increase  ;  therefore  a  kingdom  which,  itself 
affecting  only  what  is  Divine,  carries  also  in  its 
bosom  the  germ  of  an  eternal  duration,  in  spite 
of  all  incidental  change,  preserves  .still  its  inner 
truth,  and  revives  anew  in  Christianity  as  with 

the  freshness  of  a  second  youth.  ”  P.  F. - The 

form  of  the  Theocracy  was  changeable  and  tem¬ 
porary.  Its  essence,  like  the  i^urposes  of  salva¬ 
tion  from  which  it  had  sprung,  was  imperish¬ 
able  :  it  existed  before  the  establishment  of  the 
ancient  covenant,  and  continued  to  exist  vvhen 
the  design  of  the  covenant  had  been  fully  accom¬ 
plished.  The  kingdom  of  God  on  earth  then 
passed  beyond  the  national  limits,  within  which 
the  wisdom  of  God  had  confined  it  during  the 
time  of  the  ancient  covenant  ;  the  sphere  of  the 
operations  of  Jehovah  henceforth  embraced  all 
nations,  and  was  co  extensive  with  that  of  the 
operations  of  Elohlm.  Jehovah  was  still  a  King, 
as  he  had  been  before  ;  but  his  kingdom  was  no 
longer  a  national  one,  and  his  government  no 
longer  political  and  magisterial.  For  the  political 
affairs  of  a  State  arise  out  of  its  separation  from 
other  States,  and  its  connection  with  or  opposi 
tion  to  them  ;  but  in  the  new  Divine  State,  in 
the  kingdom  of  God  under  the  New  Testament, 
all  distinction,  separation,  and  opposition  be¬ 
tween  tribes  and  nations  have  been  abolished  — 
“  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  but  all  are  one 
in  Christ.”  In  the  same  way  are  the  magisterial 
functions  {lit,  the  police  administration)  of  the 
Divine  government  intrusted  (or  rather,  like  the 
political,  they  naturally  fall  again)  to  the  very 
same  authorities  to  which  they  had  been  in¬ 
trusted  from  the  beginning,  under  the  universal 
government  of  Elohim.  But  the  real,  eternal, 
imperishable  kernel  of  the  Theocracy,  the  per¬ 
sonal  interposition  on  the  part  of  God  to  carry 
out  his  plans  of  salvation,  his  personal  activity 
in  connection  with  human  affairs,  his  incorjDO- 
ration  in  the  creature,  have  not  come  to  an  end, 
but,  on  the  contrary,  have  now  received  their 
complete  and  highest  fulfilment.  K, 

The  Spirit-endowed  Church  of  Christ  is  the 
Theocracy  in  its  new,  its  higher,  its  perennial 
form  ;  since  it  is  that  in  which  God  peculiarly 
dwells,  and  with  which  he  identifies  his  char¬ 
acter  and  glory.  Everj’^  individual  member  of 
this  Church,  according  to  the  proper  idea  of  his 
calling,  is  a  king  and  ajDriest  to  God  ;  therefore 
not  in  bondage  to  the  world,  nor  dividing  be¬ 
tween  the  world  and  God,  but  recognizing  God 
in  all,  honoring  and  obeying  God,  and  receiving 
power,  as  a  prince  with  God,  to  prevail  over  the 


opposition  and  wickedness  of  the  world.  Every 
particular  Church,  in  like  manner,  is,  according 
to  the  idea  of  its  calling,  an  organized  community 
of  such  kings  and  priests  ;  therefore  bound  to 
strive  that  the  idea  may  be  realized  by  the  united 
strenuousness  of  its  exertions  in  the  cause  of 
Christ,  and  the  stead}^  growth  of  <  its  members 
toward  a  state  in  which  they  shall  be  without 
spot  and  blameless.  The  more  this  is  the  case, 
the  more  is  the  prayer  of  the  Church  fulfilled, 

I  “  Thy  kingdom  come  and  the  nearer  shall  we 
be  to  that  happy  time,  when  all  power,  and  au¬ 
thority,  and  rule  shall  give  vuiy  before  the  one 
heaven-anointed  King,  to  whom  the  heritage  of  - 

the  earth  belongs.  P.  F. - Simple  as  the  phrase 

”  kingdom  of  heaven”  may  seem,  we  cannot  be 
said  to  have  grasped  the  fulness  of  its  meaning 
until  we  see  in  it  the  germinant  thought  of  all 
the  Scriptures  ;  the  moving  force  of  all  dispen¬ 
sations  ;  the  focal  point  of  ail  the  activities  in 
heaven  and  on  earth.  It  is  no  insignificant 
height  to  which  we  are  lifted  when  we  pray  : 

“  Thy  kingdom  come  ;  thy  will  be  done  in  earth 
as  it  is  in  heaven.”  Nothing  appears  as  more 
characteristic  of  this  kingdom,  whose  proclama¬ 
tion  and  unfolding  engaged  the  thought  of 
prophet  and  apostle,  whose  realization  is  the 
mission  of  the  Church,  than  the  directness  of 
its  relation  to  each  one  of  its  innumerable  sub¬ 
jects.  It  is  not  the  rule  of  preservation,  or  of 
Providence,  or  even  of  moral  law,  but  of  grace, 
to  which  our  attention  is  summoned  ;  the  king¬ 
dom  of  redeemed  and  sanctified  souls,  of  a  new 
heaven  and  earth,  delivered  from  bondage, 
cleansed  from  sin,  established  in  righteousness. 
That  kingdom  is  not  of  the  letter  but  of  the 
spirit.  It  comes  not  in  and  by  ordinances  ;  its 
every  enactment  is  a  law  of  life.  The  rule  is  im¬ 
mediate,  23ersonal,  spiritual.  There  is  very  little 
of  pomp  ;  there  is  much  of  power.  It  is  a  king¬ 
dom  whose  constitution  inheres  in  the  holy  will 
of  God  ;  all  the  machinery  of  whose  administra¬ 
tion  is  lodged  in  his  moral  omnipotence  ;  repre¬ 
senting  the  most  absolute  of  autocracies  sus¬ 
tained  by  the  most  radical  of  all  democracies. 
The  emphasis  on  this  feature  of  personal  au¬ 
thority  appears  in  the  very  vord  translated 
“  kingdom,”  which  signifies  both  the  royal 
authority,  and  the  constituency  or  territory 
under  its  control.  So  intimately  related  are  the 
authority  and  the  subjects  on  whom  it  termi¬ 
nates,  that  one  word  describes  them  both.  The 
despotisms  of  the  East  present  no  such  concen¬ 
tration  of  power  as  that  which  meets  us  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  Yet  was  Athens  not  half 
so  democratic.  For  there  is  no  compulsion  but 
that  of  reason,  no  constraint  but  that  of  love. 


132 


SECTION  108.  THE  FIRST  SINAI  COVENANT 


The  enactments  are  not  formal  and  external,  en¬ 
forced  by  the  instruments  of  law  or  fear  ;  they 
are  inward  and  self-administrative,  mastering 
the  thoughts,  bringing  into  captivity  the  deepest 
and  subtlest  of  mental  and  moral  activities. 
The  kingdom  of  God  is  a  form  of  government  in 
which  the  ruler  and  the  subject  are  brought  into 
closest  personal  relation.  It  takes  its  departure 
from  the  New  Birth  ;  personal,  radical  regener¬ 
ation  is  the  centre  of  which  the  kingdom  is  the 
rounded  sphere— the  renewal  of  the  soul  into 
complete  and  cordial  conformity  to  the  will  of 
God. 

It  is  plain  that  Church  and  State,  the  forms  of 
civil  and  religious  life  as  we  know  them,  must 
both  disappear  before  the  rising  into  noonday 
sovereignty  of  this  coming  rule.  They  are 
means,  not  ends  ;  a  universal  and  inclusive 
Theocracy  or  Christocracy  is  the  ideal  of  Scrip¬ 
ture.  The  clamor  for  a  king  by  Israel  was  treat¬ 
ed  as  an  act  of  apostasy,  an  abandonment  of 
their  lofty  calling  to  a  nationality  of  kings  and 
l^iiests.  Instituted  government  is  indeed  of 
God,  and  the  civic  magistracy  is  worthy  of 
honor  ;  the  Church,  too,  is  of  Divine  parentage  ; 
but  they  exist  in  deference  to  man’s  weakness, 
his  inability  of  complete  self-government  ;  they 
are  limitations  and  helps  that  are  provisional 
and  disciplinary,  to  be  laid  aside  when  he  has 
reached  his  spiritual  maturity.  The  final  form 
of  government  is  that  in  which  the  civil  and 
the  ecclesiastical  blend  in  the  Divine,  in  which 
all  machinery  becomes  needless,  in  which  free¬ 
dom  and  law,  duty  and  preference,  walk  arm-in¬ 
arm,  in  which  every  citizen  is  a  sovereign,  a 
king,  and  a  priest,  while  one  personal  will  bil¬ 
lows  its  authority  over  and  through  all  minds 
and  hearts.  Behrends. 

Reasons  for  the  Study  of  the  Hebrew  Theocracy. 

The  first  reason  for  the  study  of  the  Hebrew 
Theocracy  is  found  in  the  supreme  worth  to  the 
race  of  moral  ideas,  and  the  for  this  reason  im¬ 
mense  interest  that  attaches  to  that  nation 
which,  during  an  age  of  comparative  groping 
after  moral  truth  among  otherwise  extremely 
enlightened  peoples,  received  and  transmitted 
from  generation  to  generation  a  morality  that 
in  its  outlines  presents  still  the  canons  for  all 
mankind.  This  morality,  intimately  connected 
with,  even  the  outgrowth  of,  a  sublime  mono¬ 
theism,  is  presented  in  the  Old  Testament  in 
such  commanding  simplicity  and  with  such  rea¬ 
sonable  grandeur  as  to  make  all  the  precepts 
and  corollaries  of  the  heathen  mythologies  of 
refined  peoples  seem  puerile  and  empty.  If  the 
mythologies  of  Greece  and  the  Norsemen  are 


worth  studying  for  the  thought  of  the  people 
whose  conceptions  they  embody,  then  the  ethi¬ 
cal  and  religious  conceptiono  of  a  people  more 
ideal  than  the  Germans,  of  intenser  self-respect 
than  the  Eomans,  of  majestic  purity  as  com¬ 
pared  with  the  Greeks,  of  more  ardent  family 
feeling  than  the  English — the  people  from  whose 
moral  and  religious  reservoir  all  the  world  has 
drawn  the  tonic  of  daily  social  life — is  worthy 
of  study  in  its  origin  and  history,  in  its  ritual 
and  its  literature. 

The  second  reason  for  the  study  of  the  He¬ 
brew  Theocracy  is  to  be  found  in  the  great  in¬ 
fluence  which  the  ideas  of  this  Theocracv  have 

V 

exerted  in  the  reformatory  crises  in  the  history 
of  the  race.  To  pass  by  for  the  present  the 
transition  of  those  ideas  into  the  essence  of 
Christianity,  with  what  intensity  and  power  the 
idea  of  the  wide  and  ineffaceable  difference  be¬ 
tween  right  and  wrong— the  idea  of  retribution 
swift  and  certain  for  iniquity,  and  of  ultimate 
blessedness  for  the  righteous — the  idea  as  ap¬ 
plied  to  nations  that  there  can  be  no  permanent 
peace  or  prosperity  except  through  obedience 
to  the  perfect  moral  law,  with  what  intensity 
and  power  these  ideas  leaped  forth  in  the 
preaching  of  Savonarola,  in  the  reformation  work 
of  Luther  and  Calvin,  in  the  awakening  of  the 
demand  for  liberty  of  conscience  in  the  Nether¬ 
lands  and  in  England,  and  in  the  settlement 
and  early  legislation  of  our  own  New  England. 
In  the  preparation  of  the  nations  for,  and  in  the 
attainment  of,  a  purer  life,  it  has  always  been  the 
ideas  of  that  Theocracy  that  have  had  the  most 
stimulating  and  unrelenting  force.  The  Law, 
the  Hebrew  moral  Law,  has  always  been  for  the 
nations  the  schoolmaster  to  quicken  and  arouse 
the  sleeping  conscience,  and  to  prepare  the  way 
for  liberty. 

Another  reason  for  the  study  of  the  ideas  of 
the  Hebrews  is  found  in  the  thoroughness  with 
which  these  ideas  pervade  the  new  literatures. 
This  is  but  an  extension  of  the  previous  reason, 
but  by  considering  this  W'e  shall  see  still  more 
plainly  how  momentous  the  Jewish  influence 
has  been  in  the  new  moral  beginnings,  in  the 
great  revivals  of  the  world.  As  Ulfilas  cariied 
the  Bible  to  the  Goths  in  their  own  tongue,  and 
secured  the  fragments  of  that  precious  monu¬ 
ment  to  scholars,  so  everj^  renewal  of  literary 
life  among  the  Germans  has  been  enkindled  or 
accelerated  by  Hebrew  ideas,  though  in  some 
cases  the  Jewish  conceptions  have  been  over¬ 
laid  by  the  Christian.  The  old  High-German 
literary  revival  had  its  impulse  in  connection 
with  the  extension  of  the  sway  of  the  Eoman 
Church,  the  Middle-German  from  the  crusades. 


THE  OLD  TESTAMENT  COVENANT  ONE  WITH  THE  NEW. 


133 


though  translations  from  the  Psalms  and  the 
Pentateuch  are  amoTig  the  remains  from  that 
period  ;  but  the  revival  of  morality  in  the  Bef- 
ormation,  by  the  aid  of  Luther’s  Bible,  renewed 
the  German  language,  and  that  popular  transla¬ 
tion  did  for  the  common  language  the  same,  but 
much  more  than  King  James  s  version  has  done 
for  the  English.  Hence  even  in  the  noblest 
literary  monuments  the  traces  of  the  original 
inspiration,  both  in  language  and  ideas.  Mil¬ 
ton’s  “  Paradise  Lost”  was  the  outgrowth  of  a 
greater  moral  revival  than  Dante’s  "  Inferno,” 
and  to  it  must  be  referred  the  inspiration  that 
produced  for  the  Germans  Klopstock’s  “Mes¬ 
siah.  ” 

The  attitude  and  isolation  of  the  Jews,  the 
origin  and  maintenance  of  such  a  morality 
under  such  conditions,  the  history  and  j)olity 
of  that  Theocracy  furnish  a  valid  argument 
against  the  sceptical  patrons  of  development  and 
the  best  antidote  for  too  much  Hellenism  in 
modern  education.  If  with  all  our  boasted  prog¬ 
ress  we  have  not  yet  in  moral  purity  surpassed 
w'hat  underlies  the  Ten  Commandments,  if  the 
history  of  the  Jews  studied  with  care  confirms 
the  teaching  of  sound  philosophy  that  in  ethical 
conceptions  the  race  has  descended,  not  ascend¬ 
ed,  then  what  is  better  wherewith  to  controvert 
a  false  philosophy  than  the  records  of  a  people 
who  cannot  be  brought  under  the  deductions  of 
developed  atoms  endowed  with  the  promise  of 
morality,  but  as  a  unique  race,  though  sometimes 
disobeying  and  sometimes  stoning  their  j)roph- 
ets,  who  yet  on  the  whole  make  good  by  the  maj¬ 
esty  and  purity  of  their  ideas  their  claim  to  be 
the  chosen  people  of  the  one  true  God  ?  And  if 
in  the  development  of  individualism  in  the  mod¬ 
ern  enthusiasm  for  Greek  art  and  the  dominion 
of  beauty,  there  are  creeping  in  tendencies  among 
the  most  cultivated  akin  to  those  which  John 
Foster  deprecated  as  likely  to  result  from  classi¬ 
cal  study,  but  far  more  devastating  in  a  land 
like  ours  than  any  that  could  arise  in  England, 
what  shall  hold  to  the  supremacy  of  perfect 
moral  law  and  prevent  any  man’s  becoming  a 
law  unto  himself,  any  man’s  assuming  as  good 
for  his  life  and  personality  such  freedom  of 
habits  and  such  disregard  of  moral  sanctions  as 
characterized  the  Greeks?  The  agnostic  phi¬ 
losophy  and  the  adoration  for  beauty  may  issue 
in  Greek  license  and  frivolity— in  an  utterly  so¬ 
ciological  morality  in  which  depravity  is  sin  be¬ 
cause  it  is  hideous,  and  not  hideous  because  it 
is  sin.  As  preventive  of  such  results,  as  de¬ 
structive  of  the  very  germs  of  such  a  ghastly  mo¬ 
rality,  the  ideas  of  the  Hebrew  Theocracy  furnish 
the  best  antidote. 


Once  more,  we  need  this  study  because  it  is 
the  historical  basis  of  Christianity.  However 
foreign  the  knowledge  of  those  types  and  sym¬ 
bols  might  have  been,  if  the  thing  signified  had 
never  come  forth  ;  however  vague  and  shadowy 
those  prophetic  utterances  of  rapture  over  a 
coming  Messiah  might  have  been,  if  the  Messiah 
were  still  expected  ;  these  types  and  utterances 
would  still  command  the  admiration  of  the  up¬ 
right,  as  embodying  the  loftiest  morality  and 
representing  in  the  sharpest  light  the  wide, 
eternal  difference  between  right  and  wrong. 
One  might  tremble  beneath  Sinai  and  w^onder 
at  the  imprecations  in  the  Psalms,  but  an  ear¬ 
nest  mind  could  not  fail  to  feel  the  solemnity  of 
human  conduct  under  the  reiteration  of  such 
commandments,  of  rubrics  so  red  with  the  blood 
of  sacrifices.  But  now  that  the  sharpness  of 
law  has  been  merged  in  the  love  of  an  incarnate 
rectitude  ;  now  that  the  prohibitory  maxims  like 
faint  day-stars  have  paled  before  the  law  of  love, 
the  splendor  of  a  risen  “  Sun  of  righteousness 
now  that  “  the  blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats”  has 
given  place  to  “  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  founda¬ 
tion  of  the  world  now  that  Jesus  has  come 
in  the  line  of  Abraham  and  David,  and  the  reign 
of  this  pacific  Prince  has  expanded  the  scope  and 
dominion  of  Hebrew  ideas  through  the  loving 
zeal  of  his  followers,  and  embraced  as  did  his 
arms  upon  the  cross  all  the  world  ;  now  that  what 
Matthew  Arnold  calls  the  narrow,  dogmatic 
spirit  of  Hebraism  has  been  lost  in  the  chari¬ 
table  sweetness  of  Christianity,  how  profoundly 
instructive  the  Old  Testament  becomes  and  all 
Hebrew  history  previous  to  Christ.  Who  would 
not  know  the  history  and  the  customs  of  that 
j)eople  ?  Carter. 

The  Old  Testament  Covenant  one  with  the 

New,  an  Unchangeable  Covenant  of  Grace. 

With  a  mighty  arm  Jehovah  leads  his  jieople 
out  of  the  land  of  bondage  ;  and  when  they  have 
been  witnesses  again  and  again  of  his  power 
and  merciful  protection,  he,  at  Mount  Sinai, 
enters  into  a  covenant  relation  with  them  as  a 
people.  The  motive  is  the  same  in  the  cases  of 
both  Abraham  and  Israel —namely,  outwardly  to 
establish  them  in  such  surroundings  that  God 
could  accomplish  his  inner  educational  purpose 
within  them.  The  rule  of  God,  or  the  Theocracy, 
in  the  individual  now  becomes  such  in  a  people. 
For  that  reason,  they  are  to  form  one  nation 
separated  entirely  from  all  the  rest,  living  in  a 
land  chosen  for  them  and  their  historical  mis¬ 
sion  by  God  himself,  and  under  his  own  pe¬ 
culiar  rule  and  government.  If  the  great  plans 
of  God  are  to  be  realized  then  such  a  separation 


134 


SECTION  103,  THE  FIRST  SINAI  COVENANT. 


and  such  a  Theocracy  were  a  necessity.  Other¬ 
wise  the  attractions  of  sin  would  have  thwarted 
the  Divine  i)urposes. 

The  plans  o£  God  in  Israel  are  the  same  as 
those  he  had  in  view  in  the  case  of  the  patri¬ 
archs  ;  for  the  covenant  he  makes  with  the  jpeo- 
ple  is  the  same  in  principle  and  character,  and 
is,  in  fact,  identical  with  the  one  entered  upon 
by  Abraham  and  the  other  fathers.  This  iden¬ 
tity  is  throughout  the  sacred  records  everywhere 
felt  and  expressed.  God  reveals  himself  to 
Moses  as  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  .Jacob, 
and  as  such  Jehovah  is  to  be  proclaimed  to  the 
jDeople,  and  Moses  is  to  inform  them  that  now 
the  time  has  come  when  God  wall  redeem  his 
jiromises  given  unto  the  patriarchs,  and  will 
lead  his  people  into  the  possession  of  the  land 
flowing  with  milk  and  honey.  But  as  these 
promises  were  given  to  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob  in  virtue  of  the  covenant  of  grace  and 
faith  existing  between  them  and  their  God,  this 
fulfilment  of  the  promises  on  God’s  part  is  in 
itself  alone  a  sufficient  testimony  that  the  same 
covenant  was  still  abiding  in  the  case  of  the 
people.  There  is  not  only  not  a  syllable  in  all  the 
revelations  through  Moses,  and  in  all  the  ar¬ 
rangements  of  Mosaism,  that  points  to  a  change 
or  abrogation  in  the  character  of  the  covenant, 
but  there  is  proof  abundant  both  clearly  ex- 
jjressed  and  implied,  that,  before  as  after,  the 
covenant  relation  depended  upon  the  faith  and 
trust  pitt  by  men  in  the  promises  and  words  of 
God. 

The  objective  ground  of  this  covenant,  or  the 
reason  why  God  selects  Israel  and  no  other  peo¬ 
ple  to  be  the  recipients  of  his  special  mercies, 
is  everywhere  in  the  Pentateuch  recognized  to 
be  the  unmerited  grace  of  Jehovah,  Nowhere 
is  there  any  intimation  given  that  Israel  was 
chosen  on  account  of  any  special  merit  ;  but 
rather  the  very  opposite,  the  confession  that 
Israel  was  entirely  unworthy  of  this  election, 
finds  repeated  expression.  The  Lord  chose 
them  because  he  laved  them  (De.  7  :  7,  8  ;  8  : 
17).  The  mighty  deeds  of  God  in  delivering 
the  people  from  the  hands  of  their  oppressors^ 
and  of  doing  so  without  any  merit  or  virtue  on 
their  part  to  deserve  it,  is  a  thought  underlying 
not  only  all  Mosaism,  but  also  all  later  revela¬ 
tion.  He  who  fails  to  see  this  deejj  undercur¬ 
rent  of  a  confession  of  unworthiness  of  God’s 
grace,  and  the  strong  consciousness  of  sin  in 
the  whole  Old  Testament  revelation,  will  never 
be  able  thoroughly  to  understand  and  appreci¬ 
ate  pre-Christian  revelation.  Mosaism  knows 
nothing  of  self-righteousness,  but  acknowledges 
itself  as  the  constant  recipient  of  undeserved 


mercies  in  God’s  hands.  This  idea,  which  nec¬ 
essarily  lies  at  the  bottom  of,  and  is  presupposed 
in,  a  covenant  of  grace,  finds  a  much  clearer  ex¬ 
pression  in  the  early  narratives  of  Israel  than  in 
the  accounts  of  Abraham.  It  was  only  on  this 
basis  that  they  hoped  to  be  a  “  peculiar  treasure 
above  all  people  ...  a  kingdom  of  priests  and 
a  holy  nation  ”  For  in  the  disavowal  of  all 
merit  or  righteousness  in  themselves  lay  the 
other  element,  or  the  subjective  side,  of  this 
covenant— namely,  faith  in  God.  Although  this 
demand  of  the  covenant  finds  its  clearest  and 
plainest  expression  not  in  words,  but  in  the 
actions  of  the  people,  in  the  following  of  God’s 
appointed  servant,  in  their  willingness  to  be 
guided  by  Jehovah,  in  their  religious  ceremonies 
and  ordinances  ;  yet  it  is  also  plainly  expressed, 
that  Israel  as  a  people,  and  individually,  is  ac¬ 
ceptable  and  righteous  before  the  Lord—  i.e.,  is 
true  to  the  covenant  relation  with  the  Lord,  if 
he,  like  his  forefathers,  the  patriarchs,  puts  his 
trust  and  confidence  in  God  and  in  God  alone. 
The  chief  sin  of  which  the  Mosaic  system,  and  in¬ 
deed  the  whole  Old  Testament  and  its  covenant 
has  any  knowledge,  is  that  of  idolatry,  which  is 
nothing  but  the  transfer  of  a  faith  and  confi¬ 
dence  from  the  true  to  a  false  God.  In  this 
manner  the  spirit  of  the  covenant  could  be,  and 
was,  most  easily  violated  ;  and  against  this  sin 
the  very  first  of  the  Ten  Commands  which  form 
the  corner-stone  of  the  whole  Mosaic  structure 
is  directed.  It  recognizes  faith,  then,  as  the 
subjective  basis  of  this  covenant.  Indeed,  the 
whole  spirit  of  God’s  revelations  to  Israel  and 
His  deeds  in  the  formative  stage  of  their  na¬ 
tional  life,  show  clearly  enough  two  things  as 
essential  elements  in  the  covenant  established 
between  them  :  First,  that  God  chose  Israel,  and 
showered  His  blessings  upon  it  as  an  act  of  pure 
grace  and  mercy  ;  and,  secondly,  that  Israel,  if 
it  would  be  acceptable  before  the  Lord,  must  in 
faith  and  obedience  follow  the  leading  of  the 
Lord,  as  this  is  laid  down  in  the  ordinances  and 
commands  he  has  given  to  them.  An  Israelite 
was  then  true  to  the  covenant,  if  his  life  and 
actions  showed  that  he  had  faith  and  confidence 
in  the  Lord  of  the  covenant. 

But  how  about  the  Law  ?  Does  not  the  exist¬ 
ence  and  object  of  the  Mosaic  Law  prove  false 
the  view  of  the  Old  Testament  religion  here  ex¬ 
pressed?  By  no  means  ;  but,  if  rightly  under¬ 
stood,  it  only  confirms  what  has  been  said.  It 
cannot  be  repeated  too  often,  that  to  identify 
the  Old  Covenant  with  the  Mosaic  dispensation, 
or  to  make  Mount  Sinai  annul  the  Abrahamitic 
covenant,  and  establish  in  its  place  a  new  cove¬ 
nant  with  the  principle  of  legal  righteousness. 


THE  OLD  COVENANT  ONE  WITH  THE  NEW. 


135 


is  totally  false.  Mosaism  nowhere  claims  this 
for  itself,  and  there  is  no  scriptural  warrant  for 
such,  a  view.  The  Law  finds  its  mission  in  and 
within  the  covenant,  and  represents  one  stage 
in  the  growth  and  unfolding  of  this  covenant. 
Its  object  was  not  to  supplant  the  covenant  of 
grace  and  faith,  but  rather  to  be  subservient  in 
making  this  effectual  in  Israel’s  spiritual  life 
and  in  the  history  of  God’s  kingdom.  Paul, 
who  so  clear!}’’  states  that  the  Old  Testament 
saints  were  justified  by  faith  alone  has  not  for¬ 
gotten  to  inform  us  of  the  important  vvoik  of  the 
Law  in  the  unfolding  of  God’s  plans.  He  says 
(Gal.  3  ;  19)  :  “  Wherefore  then  serveth  the  law  ? 
It  was  added  because  of  transgressions,  till  the 
seed  should  come  to  whom  the  promise  was 
made  ;  ’  and  in  verses  21-24  :  “  Is  the  law  then 
against  the  promises  of  God  ?  God  forbid  :  for 
if  there  had  been  a  law  given  which  could  have 
given  life,  veril.y  righteousness  should  have  been 
by  the  law.  But  the  Scripture  hath  concluded 
all  under  sin,  that  the  promise  by  faith  of  Jesus 
Christ  might  be  given  to  them  that  believe.  But 
before  faith  came,  we  were  kept  under  the  law, 
shut  np  unto  faith  which  should  afterward  be 
revealed.  Wherefore  the  law  was  a  school¬ 
master  [R.  'V.  tutor]  to  bring  us  unto  Christ, 
that  w’e  might  be  justified  by  faith.”  liaidayoyog 
eig  'S.oiGTov  tells  the  secret.  The  Law  w’as  an 
educational  means  to  bring  the  people  to  a  real¬ 
ization  of  the  requirements  and  to  a  full  and 
real  acceptance  of  the  covenant.  Its  aim  was  a 
propmdeutic  and  preparatory  one,  both  for 
Israel  and  for  the  history  of  God’s  kingdom.  If 
the  ideal  attitude  of  the  souls  of  the  covenant 
adherents  toward  the  covenant  Lord,  as  this  is 
expressed  in  the  official  covenant  established 
at  Mount  Sinai,  was  ever  to  become  a  life  and  a 
truth  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  not  a  mere 
outward  formality,  then  the  people  would  have 
to  be  educated  up  to  an  understanding  of  its 
principles,  and  the  acceptance  of  all  that  it  in¬ 
volved.  That  they  had  not  attained  to  this 
standard  when  the  covenant  was  established, 
nor  indeed  ever  afterward,  is  one  of  the  most 
evident  teachings  of  their  history.  A  righteous¬ 
ness  accounted  through  faith  implies  recogni¬ 
tion  of  a  want  of  righteousness  in  one’s  self,  and 
a  dependence  for  righteousness  and  salvation 
upon  somebody  else.  In  the  covenant  of  the 
Old,  as  well  as  in  that  of  the  New,  Testament, 
the  anthropological  principles  of  an  absolute 
inability  to  render  one’s  self  acceptable  or  just 
before  God,  as  also  the  soteriological  principle 
that  such  a  salvation  or  re-estahlishment  of  that 
true  relationship  between  God  and  man,  which 
existed  before  the  break  caused  by  sin,  must 


come  from  the  grace  and  mercy  of  the  Lord,  are 
implied  and  j)resupposed.  The  covenant  re¬ 
quired  faith  and  absolute  allegiance  to  God  ; 
but  faith  and  absolute  allegiance  to  God  would 
be  possible  only  when  it  was  apparent  that  such 
faith  and  allegiance  were  the  only  means  of 
righteousness  ;  and  this  brought  with  it  the 
further  truth  that  any  departure  from  such  a 
life  of  faith  —  i.e.,  any  sin  of  'v\Latever  nature  and 
character,  was  also  a  violation  of  the  covenant 
relation,  and  hence  a  forfeiture  of  the  blessings 
it  brought  ;  for  which  sin  some  restoration  and 
atonement  would  have  to  be  made,  if  the  broken 
covenant  relation  was  to  be  re-established. 
That  all  these  principles  are  embraced  in  the 
covenant  in  its  Mosaic  form  is  apparent  from 
the  sacrificial  and  atonement  system,  where  they 
are  recognized  by  word  and  deed. 

In  order  that  these  great  truths  in  God’s  plans 
of  redemption  should  work  out  their  way  into 
the  consciousness  and  convictions  of  the  chosen 
people,  and  in  order  that  these  should  become 
the  people  of  the  covenant  in  truth,  God  estab¬ 
lished  them  as  a  po’itico-religious  state,  under 
His  own  special  government,  and  gave  them  the 
whole  complex  system  of  moral  and  ceremonial 
law  known  as  Mosaism,  and  contained  in  the 
Pentateuch.  This  body  formed  the  limits  in 
which  the  covenant  as  a  soul  should  have  its 
being  and  undergo  its  development.  The  whole 
legal  system,  as  established  by  Moses,  in  its  re¬ 
ligious,  political,  and  social  features,  was  the 
outward  wmll  that  protected  the  inner  growth  of 
the  covenant  principle,  and  at  the  same  time 
promoted  the  latter.  The  commandments  of 
the  Lord,  from  the  highest  of  the  Ten  Com¬ 
mandments  to  the  lowest  and  least  behest  for 
the  conduct  of  private  affairs,  represented  to 
those  under  the  covenant  the  just  demands 
which  the  Lord  of  the  covenant  had  a  right  to 
make  upon  those  who  would  possess  the  bless¬ 
ings  of  the  covenant  ;  it  represented  to  those 
who,  of  their  own  free  will  and  choice,  had 
sworn  allegiance  to  this  covenant  at  Mount  Sinai 
the  duties  which  they  owed  to  Jehovah.  It 
brought  vividly  and  strongly  before  their  eyes 
the  knowledge  of  what  the  faithful  performance 
of  their  covenant  relation  involved  and  demand¬ 
ed  of  them,  and  at  the  same  time  would  neces¬ 
sarily  aw'aken  in  them  a  consciousness  of  their 
inability  to  comply  with  these  demands,  and 
to  be  faithful  to  their  promises.  Indeed,  this 
latter  fact  of  inability,  and  of  a  sinful  state,  is 
rec "Agnized  by  the  Law  itself  as  a  necessary 
feature  in  the  life  of  those  subject  to  it.  For 
the  same  law  that  commands  and  eontlemns 
also  provides  for  means  of  pardon  and.  atone- 


136 


SECTION  103.  THE  FIRST  SINAI  COVENANT. 


ment  for  the  violation  of  its  mandates,  primarily 
indeed  only  typically  and  hopefully,  but  this  in 
view  of  the  real  atonement  and  pardon  to  come 
in  Christ.  The  sacrificial  portion  of  the  Mosaic 
system  can  be  understood  only  on  the  premises 
that  an  honest  child  of  the  covenant  would  rec¬ 
ognize  his  sinful  state  and  deserved  condemna¬ 
tion  and  rejection,  and  that  the  life  under  the 
Law  w^ould  necessarily  be  a  life  of  constant  con¬ 
trition  and  confession  of  transgressions,  and  a 
constant  resort  to  the  throne  of  grace  for  pardon 
and  a  renewed  acceptance.  This  feature  of  the 
legal  code  shows  that  at  the  bottom  of  the  cove¬ 
nant,  of  which  it  was  the  outward  framework, 
lay  the  ideas  of  repentance  for  sins  and  faith  in 
Jehovah  to  forgive  these  sins.  As  Christ  says 
(Matt.  23  :  23)  the  weightier  matters  of  the  Law 
were  “  judgment,  mercy,  and  faith.”  To  pro¬ 
mote  these  in  the  hearts  of  the  Israelites  was 
the  purpose  of  the  Sinaitic  code.  Its  complex 
character  and  minute  ramifications  covered  the 
whole  public  and  private  existence  of  the  Israel¬ 
ite,  and  constantly  reminded  him  of  what  he 
owed  his  Divine  King,  whose  rule  he  had  chosen 
for  himself  by  agreeing  to  accept  his  covenant. 
Hence,  too,  for  the  Israelite  there  was  no  differ¬ 
ence  between  a  moral  and  a  ceremonial  law  ; 
both  were  equally  an  expression  of  the  will  of 
Jehovah  under  the  covenant  relation  ;  a  viola¬ 
tion  of  either  was  a  rejection  of  the  principle  of 
faith  and  obedience,  and  hence  equally  punish¬ 
able.  Later,  when  the  kingdom  of  God  had 
passed  beyond  the  circumscribed  limits  of  a 
single  state  and  nation,  and  had  become  more 
spiritual,  and  particularity  had  developed  into 
universality,  then  those  features  of  the  Law 
which  were  conditioned  by  the  preparatory 
stage,  and  were  not  based  upon  the  fundamental 
truths  of  the  covenant,  could  fall  away,  as  they 
did  when  Christ  came  and  established  the  con¬ 
gregations  of  saints,  not  only  in  Israel,  but  over 
the  whole  world.  But  as  long  as  the  covenant 
was  circumscribed  by  locality  and  nationality 
for  the  education  of  a  peculiar  people,  so  long, 
too,  all  those  laws  established  by  God  for  effect¬ 
ing  his  purpose  were  equally  binding  upon  the 
adherents  of  the  covenant.  Under  such  cir¬ 
cumstances,  a  transgression  of  a  ceremonial  law 
was  punishable  equally  with  one  of  the  moral 
command. 

These  facts  explain  why  it  is  that  in  the  es¬ 
tablishment  of  the  covenant,  as  this  is  recorded 
in  Ex.  19  sqq.,  so  much  stress  is  laid  upon  the 
obedience  of  the  people  to  the  commands  of  the 
Lord.  This  obedience  is  the  obedience  of 
faith,  and  the  faith  of  those  living  under  the 
legal  rule  finds  its  expression  in  the  obedience 


to  this  law  of  the  covenant.  An  Israelite  is  pny, 
or  jusi,  in  so  far  as  he  complies  with  the  norm 
of  the  Law  :  because  a  transgression  of  these 
laws  given  by  Jehovah  for  the  guidance  of  his 
life  and  worship  is  a  rejection  of  the  authority 
of  God  and  a  refusal  to  trust  him.  A  rebellion 
against  God’s  ordinances  is  a  rebellion  against 
the  very  covenant  itself.  An  Israelite  who 
truly  believed  in  Jehovah  would  necessarily  feel 
himself  in  duty  bound  to  obey  these  laws.  He 
could  not  do  otherwise,  or  his  life  and  his  con¬ 
fession  would  antagonize  each  other.  But  never 
do  we  read  that  such  an  obedience  is  to  be  re¬ 
garded  in  itself  as  a  meritorious  act,  or  a  means 
of  righteousness.  The  Mosaic  system  knows  of 
no  legal  or  work  righteousness. 

While  recognizing,  then,  their  duty  to  obey 
in  all  their  minuticR  the  commands  of  the  Law, 
and  learning  by  that  how  sinful  they  were,  those 
under  the  Law  put  their  trust  for  righteousness 
and  deliverance  in  the  mercy  of  the  Lord.  Just 
to  what  extent  the  object  of  their  faith  was  the 
mercy  of  God  in  general,  or  the  merits  of  the 
promised  seed,  might  be  a  debatable  question. 
In  truth,  the  real  objective  ground  ever  was  the 
latter,  and  was  undoubtedly  recognized  to  be 
such  by  at  least  the  most  advanced  among  the 
covenant  children.  (Cf.  John  8  :  56  ;  Gal.  3  : 
10-18.)  Their  life  under  the  Law  certainly  point¬ 
ed  out  to  them  the  necessity  of  looking  solely  to 
the  grace  of  Jehovah  ;  but  whether,  and  to  \vhat 
extent,  they  were  conscious  of  the  fact  that  the 
objective  grounds  of  this  grace  were  the  life  and 
death  of  the  promised  Messiah  may  not  be  easily 
decided.  Certain  it  is,  though,  that  from  the 
time  of  the  protevangelium  in  Gen,  3  to  the 
evangelistic  flights  in  the  second  part  of  Isaiah 
(chiefly  in  ch.  53)  there  is  a  golden  chain  of 
prophecies  running  through  the  whole  Old 
Testament  life  and  revelation,  that  a  Redeemer 
and  a  Messiah  should  come.  And  that  in  the 
Mosaic  system  this  personal  Saviour  is  the  ob¬ 
ject  of  faith  seems  evident  from  the  typical  and 
symbolical  actions  in  the  sacrifices  and  atone¬ 
ments,  as  their  true  significance  and  meaning 
are  explained  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
There  and  in  other  places  in  the  New  Testament 
the  typical  character  of  the  tabernacle,  of  the 
cultus  in  its  different  kinds,  of  the  festivals,  etc., 
is  recognized,  and  the  relation  between  the  type 
and  thing  typified  shown,  and  there  Mosaism 
repeatedly  recognizes  the  coming  of  a  personal 
Messiah  and  Deliverer,  and  has  before  it  all  the 
grand  prophecies  to  this  effect  given  to  the  pa¬ 
triarchs  centuries  before. 

Such  then,  according  to  the  New  Testament, 
and  also  according  to  the  Old,  was  the  histori- 


THE  OLD  COVENANT  ONE  WITH  THE  NEW. 


137 


cal  mission  of  the  Law  in  its  relation  to  and 
bearing  on  the  Old  Covenant.  Far  from  stand¬ 
ing  in  an  antagonism  to  a  covenant  of  grace  and 
faith,  its  aim  was  to  develop  and  make  such  a 
covenant  the  soul  and  life  of  a  nation,  so  that 
its  principles  might  become  in  the  growth  of 
this  people  some  of  the  great  truths  of  history, 
that,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  Christianity  might 
base  its  work  of  victory  on  such  results  of  an 
earlier  development. 

Hand  in  hand  with  the  Mosaic  dispensation, 
and  closely  allied  to  it,  was  prophecy  in  Israel. 
It  is  a  fatal  error  of  the  new  critical  school  to 
place  the  Law  and  the  prophets  in  antagonism  to 
each  other.  Those  passages  in  the  prophets 
that  seem  to  speak  slightingly  of  the  Law  can  be 
interpreted  as  in  opposition  to  the  proper  mis¬ 
sion  and  functions  of  the  Law  only  by  a  misin¬ 
terpretation  of  the  legal  features  in  the  religious 
development  of  Israel  ;  not  the  use,  but  the 
abuse  of  the  Law,  by  reducing  it  to  an  opus  oper- 
atum  formalism,  or  to  a  means  of  pharisaic  self- 
righteousness,  is  condemned  by  the  prophets. 
The  Law  and  the  prophets  are  not  only  contem¬ 
poraneous  in  the  point  of  time,  but  are  also 
closely  related  in  the  covenant  work  and  mutu¬ 
ally  complimentary.  The  fact  that  the  earlier 
prophets  were  men  of  action  chiefly,  and  the 
latter  engaged  also  in  literary  work,  should  not 
mislead  us  into  separating,  as  far  as  time  is  con¬ 
cerned,  what  is  actually  found  at  the  same  time. 
Moses  himself,  the  Lawgiver,  was  also  a  prophet  ; 
and  both  Mosaism  and  Prophecy,  in  their  Divine 
purposes  and  actual  workings,  conspired  to¬ 
gether  toward  the  development  of  the  great 
truths  of  the  covenant  between  God  and  the 
chosen  people.  Instead  of  being  contradictory 
and  antagonistic,  they  rather  work  together  to 
make  God’s  plans  facts  and  truths.  While  the 
Law  points  out  to  man  the  duties  he  is  to  per¬ 
form  as  a  child  of  the  covenant,  and  thus  in¬ 
structs  him  in  the  great  truths  of  sin  and  the 
constant  need  of  Divine  pardon  and  mercy,  and 
while  this  Law  is  to  make  these  truths  the  teach¬ 
ings  of  Israel's  history  in  them  and  for  others, 
the  prophets,  as  the  speakers  and  seers  of  God, 
accompany  this  historical  development  with 
their  revelations  of  knowledge,  reproof,  guid¬ 
ance,  and  consolation.  The  prophets  are  the 
instructors  of  the  people,  sent  by  the  Lord  of 
the  covenant,  so  that  the  people  would  be  taught 
to  walk  and  live  aright  under  the  conditions  of 
this  covenant,  toward  the  fulfilment  of  their  his¬ 
torical  mission.  Prophecy  had  thus,  like  the 
Law,  a  work  to  perform  in  the  unfolding  of  God’s 
kingdom,  and  this  work  was  for  the  same  ulti¬ 
mate  end.  It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the 


chief  work  of  the  prophets  was  not,  as  it  is 
sometimes  supposed  to  be,  the  prediction  of 
future  events.  The  prophets  were  decidedly 
men  of  words  and  actions  for  the  immediate 
present,  for  the  demands  of  the  hour.  They 
preached  to  Israel,  and  not  only  or  principally 
to  later  generations  ;  and  what  they  did  and 
said  was  intended  to  have  its  effect  in  moulding 
the  religious  destiny  of  the  people  they  ad¬ 
dressed.  All  prophecy,  both  those  specially  so 
called,  as  also  the  books  written  in  a  prophetic 
spirit,  as  also  the  Psalms  and  the  other  Hagio- 
grapha,  must  be  looked  upon  and  interpreted  as 
reflecting  the  character,  spirit,  and  life  of  the 
Old  Covenant.  They  represent  one  phase  in  the 
development  of  this  covenant,  and  hence  can 
fairly  be  called  upon  for  instruction  as  to  what 
the  nature  of  this  covenant  really  was.  The 
lives  and  teachings  of  the  prophets  and  psalm¬ 
ists,  as  well  as  of  all  those  under  the  Old  Cove¬ 
nant  who  proved  acceptable  before  the  Lord, 
can  be  fairly  regarded  as  expressive  of  its  genius 
and  soul.  Yet  nowhere  do  we  find  among  the 
Old  Testament  believers  a  single  one  who  con¬ 
siders  himself  just  because  of  his  obedience  to 
the  Law,  and  who  bases  the  correctness  of  his 
attitude  to  the  covenant,  and  consequently  his 
hope  of  justification,  upon  the  fulfilment  of  the 
Mosaic  code.  The  experience  and  faith  of  the 
men  of  God  under  the  old  dispensation,  as  this 
finds  utterance  in  the  records  of  the  sacred 
volume,  those  correct  exponents  and  indices  of 
the  religious  life  and  hope  under  the  covenant, 
leave  no  room  for  doubt  or  debate  that  they  knew 
nothing  of  a  legal  or  self-righteousness.  So 
strongly  does  the  confidence  of  faith  find  ex¬ 
pression  in  the  Psalms,  for  instance,  that  later 
revelation  and  Christian  gratitude  have  found 
no  higher  and  deeper  utterance  for  it.  One 
thing  is  sure,  that  the  saints  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  felt  and  rejoiced  in  their  acceptance  be¬ 
fore  the  Lord  ;  for  them  full  righteousness  and 
membership  in  the  kingdom  of  God  was  not  re¬ 
garded  simply  as  a  possibility  of  the  future,  but 
as  a  present  reality  and  a  fact.  That  the  proph¬ 
ets  and  psalmists,  and  all  the  true  representa¬ 
tives  of  the  Old  Testament  covenant  life,  feel 
this  in  their  heart  of  hearts,  and  that  peace 
with  God  was  to  their  souls  existence  and  life, 
is  as  historically  certain  as  anything  in  tho 
sacred  records  can  be,  and  that  they  did  not 
base  this  happiness  upon  the  righteousness  of 
the  Law  is  equally  certain.  The  total  absence  of 
any  hint  or  word  in  this  direction  is  alone  a 
sufficient  testimony.  But  the  evidence  for  the 
opposite  is  found  in  abundance.  Every  page  of 
the  prophetic  books  or  the  Hagiographa  fur- 


138 


SECTION  103.  THE  FIRST  SINAI  COVENANT. 


nisbes  (bis.  Tbe  prophets,  as  a  rule,  start  out 
vvitb  tbe  lesson  of  tbe  Law — namel}^  tbe  recogni¬ 
tion  and  confession  of  sin.  They  recite  bow 
merciful  tbe  Lord  bas  been  to  bis  people,  bow 
undeserving  of  this  grace  they  bave  been,  and 
bow  unfaithful  they  bave  been  in  their  cove¬ 
nant  relation.  On  tbe  basis  of  this  knowledge 
they  exhort  tbe  people  to  repentance  and  faith, 
assuring  them  in  tbe  name  of  tbe  Lord  of  the 
covenant,  whose  spokesmen  tbej^  are,  that  if  tbe 
sinners  will  return  in  repentance  tbe  Lord  will 
pardon  them  their  transgressions,  and  again 
receive  them  as  bis  own  peculiar  people,  and 
that  they  should  put  their  confidence  in  him, 
and  in  him  alone.  It  is  this  line  of  thought 
that  we  everywhere  find  in  tbe  prophetic  words 
and  the  prophetic  deeds.  They  upbraid  sin,  call 
to  repentance,  and  then  offer  to  tbe  repentant 
and  trusting  sinner  tbe  fulness  of  God’s  mercj". 
In  tbe  prophetic  features  of  tbe  Old  Testament 
development,  these  are  tbe  cardinal  and  leading 
thoughts,  and  show  with  clearness  that  for  them, 
too,  it  was  a  covenant  of  grace.  In  one  promi¬ 
nent  point  tbe  prophets  advance  beyond  llosa- 
ism — namel}',  in  tbe  clear  announcement  of  tbe 
objective  ground  of  grace  which  God  promises 
to  tbe  penitent  sinner.  Tbe  Messianic  feature 
of  tbe  prophecies  constantly  grows  in  clearness 
and  emphasis,  until  in  such  visions  as  Isaiah 
53  we  seem  to  bear  not  prophecy,  but  tbe  rec¬ 
ord  of  history.  Tbe  evangelical  clearness  in 
prophecy  is  ever  unfolding  itself  more  and 
more.  In  their  hands  tbe  Law  becomes  more 
and  more  a  scbool-master  unto  Christ,  because 
they  can  interpret  tbe  Law.  They  teach  not  only 
that  tbe  Law  cannot  justify,  and  that  in  bis 
mercy  God  will  do  so,  but  also  that  be  will  do 
so  for  tbe  sake  of  tbe  future  Kedeemer.  They 
believed  not  only  in  a  salvation  to  come,  but  also 
in  a  Saviour  to  come,  and  it  was  thus  only  that 
tbe  circuit  of  saving  truth  w'as  completed. 

This,  then,  in  general  outlines,  is  tbe  charac¬ 
ter  of  tbe  Old  Testament  covenant.  It  is,  like 
tbe  New,  a  covenant  of  grace  ;  tbe  fundamental 
ideas  of  both  are  tbe  samo.  Tbe  chief  differ¬ 
ence  lies  in  this  :  that  in  tbe  Old  is  found  tbe 
preparatory  stage,  where,  within  tbe  bounds  of 
a  nation  and  the  hedge  of  a  law,  the  conscious¬ 
ness  of  sin  and  tbe  need  of  a  Saviour  were  de- 
velojjed  ;  tbe  New  starts  out  with  this  knowl¬ 
edge,  and  proclaims  tbe  Saviour  from  these  sins. 
Tbe  sins  demanded  a  sacrifice  ;  Christ  did,  by 
bis  life  and  bis  deeds,  become  a  sacrifice  and 
atonement  ;  and  with  these  words  tbe  greatest 
difference  between  tbe  Old  and  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  covenant  bas  been  stated.  Tbe  Old  teaches 
the  knowledge  of  sin,  and  looks  forward  to  tbe 


corning  sacrifice  as  a  hope  and  a  promise  ;  the 
New  starts  out  with  this  conviction,  and  bas  tbe 
complete  sacrifice  already  i:)erformed.  But  tbe 
basis  of  hope,  tbe  object  of  faith,  is  in  both  tbe 
same — namely,  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 

In  view  of  these  tacts,  it  may  be  called  apiece 
of  doubtful  wisdom  to  speak  of  two  covenant.^, 
as  now  understood,  at  all.  In  reality  time  is 
but  one  covenant- namely,  that  of  gr<.ce  i-uil 
faith,  but  in  two  historical  stages  of  develop¬ 
ment,  tbe  preparatory’  and  tbe  completed.  Be¬ 
tween  tbe  two  there  is  a  difference,  not  of  kind, 
but  merely  of  degree.  Tbe  biblical  and  tradi¬ 
tional  theological  terminology,  concerning  a  new 
and  an  old  covenant,  as  these  are  generally  un¬ 
derstood,  tends  rather  to  separate  and  keep 
apart  as  distinct,  or  even  antagonistic,  two 
things  that  are  really  but  tbe  two  sides  of  one 
and  tbe  same  thing.  The  covenant  idea  is  tbe 
connecting  link  between  tbe  two  testaments,  as 
it  is  declared  to  be  by  the  preaching  of  John  tbe 
Baptist,  and  of  Christ.  They  announce  that 
tbe  kingdom  of  God,  which  bas  hitherto  been 
in  preparation  and  a  promise,  bas  now  arrived 
and  is  at  band  ;  and  they,  consciously,  thus 
place  their  mission  and  work  in  direct  connec¬ 
tion  as  complementary  to  that  which  has  pre¬ 
ceded.  They  build  upon  tbe  foundation  of 
Moses  and  tbe  prophets. 

Our  examination  has  shown  how  intimately, 
in  their  roots  and  essence,  tbe  two  testaments 
are  connected,  and  how  correct  is  tbe  terse  dic¬ 
tum  of  St.  Augustine,  that  tbe  New  Testament 
lies  concealed  in  tbe  Old,  and  the  Old  lies  re¬ 
vealed  in  tbe  New.  Both  proclaim  tbe  sin  of 
man,  but  both  announce  also  tbe  mercy  of  God, 
ready  to  pardon  man  if  be  repents.  They  re- 
cord  for  us  bow  God,  who  did  not  desire  tbe  dire 
work  of  sin  to  succeed,  made  a  covenant  for  tbe 
purpose  of  thwarting  the  destruction  of  man¬ 
kind  ;  how  this  covenant,  in  which  God  asked 
that  man  should  bave  faith  and  confidence  in 
him  alone,  grew  and  developed  under  tbe  po¬ 
litico-religious  kingdom  of  Israel,  until  in  tbe  ful¬ 
ness  of  time  this  development  had  taught,  be¬ 
yond  a  doubt,  its  great  lesson,  the  need  of  a 
Saviour  ;  tbe  Saviour  really  came  and  performed 
what  had  been  predicted,  prefigured,  and  typi¬ 
fied  before  -namely,  the  work  of  redemption 
and  salvation.  „Tbe  New  and  tbe  Old  are  one 
undivided  revelation,  because  they  are  the  rec¬ 
ord  of  one  kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  Schodde. 


Tbe  Covevant  is  tbe  fundamental  principle  of 
the  Divine  revelation,  to  which  the  Divine  rev¬ 
elation  commits  its  treasures  and  from  which 
man  continually  draws  upon  them.  The  Cov- 


SECTION  104. 


139 


enant  lias  a  great  variety  of  forms  in  the  sacred 
Scriptures,  but  the  most  essential  and  compre¬ 
hensive  form  is  that  assumed  in  the  Mosaic  Cov¬ 
enant  at  Sinai  which  becomes  the  Old  Covenant 
pre-eminently,  and  over  against  that  is  placed 
the  New  Covenant  of  the  Messiah  Jesus  Christ, 
so  that  the  great  historical  division  becomes 
the  Theology  of  the  Old  Covenant  and  the  Theology 
of  the  New  Covenant.  The  Covenant  is  a  union 
and  communion  effected  between  God  and  man. 
It  involves  a  ‘personal  relationship  which  it 
originates  and  maintains  by  certain  events  and 
institutions.  This  is  Eeligion.  The  Covenant 
and  its  relations,  man  apprehends  as  an  intel¬ 


ligent  being  with  meditation,  reflection,  and 
reasoning.  All  this  he  comprehends  in  doc¬ 
trines,  which  he  ajiprehends  and  believes  and 
maintains  as  his  faith.  These  doctrines  w'ill 
embrace  the  three  general  topics  of  God,  of 
Man,  and  of  Eedtrnption.  The  Covenant  still 
further  has  to  do  with  man  as  a  moral  being, 
imposing  moral  obligations  upon  him  with  ref¬ 
erence  to  God  and  man  and  the  creatures  of 
God.  AiJ  these  are  comprehended  under  the 
general  term  Ethics.  Theso  distinctions  apply 
equally  well  to  ail  the  periods  of  Divine  reve¬ 
lation  ;  they  are  simple,  they  are  comprehen¬ 
sive,  they  are  all-pervading.  Briggs. 


Section  104. 

PEEPAKATION  FOE  AND  DESCENT  OF  JEHOVAH  UPON  SINAI. 

Exodus  19  :  10-25. 


Ex, 


19  10  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Go  unto  the  people,  and  sanctify  them  to-daj’^  and 

11  to  morrow,  and  let  them  wash  their  garments,  and  be  ready  against  the  third  day  :  for 
the  third  day  the  Lord  will  come  down  in  the  sight  of  all  the  people  upon  Mount 

12  Sinai.  And  thou  shalt  set  bounds  unto  the  people  round  about,  saying.  Take  heed 
to  yourselves,  that  ye  go  not  up  into  the  mount,  or  touch  the  border  of  it  :  whoso- 

13  ever  toucheth  the  mount  shall  be  surely  put  to  death  :  no  hand  shall  touch  him,  but 
he  shall  surely  be  stoned,  or  shot  through  ;  whether  it  be  beast  or  man,  it  shall  not 

14  live  :  when  the  trumpet  soundeth  long,  they  shall  come  up  to  the  mount.  And 
Moses  went  down  from  the  mount  unto  the  people,  and  sanctified  the  people  ;  and 

15  they  washed  their  garments.  And  he  said  unto  the  people.  Be  ready  against  the 
third  day  :  come  not  near  a  woman. 

16  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  third  day,  when  it  was  morning,  that  there  were  thun¬ 
ders  and  lightnings,  and  a  thick  cloud  upon  the  mount,  and  the  voice  of  a  trumpet 

17  exceeding  loud  ;  and  all  the  people  that  were  in  the  camp  trembled.  And  Moses 
brought  forth  the  people  out  of  the  camp  to  meet  God  ;  and  they  stood  at  the  nether 

18  part  of  the  mount.  And  Mount  Sinai  was  altogether  on  smoke,  because  the  Lord 
descended  upon  it  in  fire  ;  and  the  smoke  thereof  ascended  as  the  smoke  of  a  fur- 

19  nace,  and  the  whole  mount  quaked  greatly.  And  when  the  voice  of  the  trumpet 

20  waxed  louder  and  louder,  Moses  spake,  and  God  answered  him  by  a  voice.  And  the 
Lord  came  down  upon  Mount  Sinai,  to  the  top  of  the  mount  :  and  the  Lord  called 

21  Moses  to  the  top  of  the  mount  ;  and  Moses  went  up.  And  the  Lord  said  unto 
Moses,  Go  down,  charge  the  people,  lest  they  break  through  unto  the  Lord  to  gaze, 

22  and  many  of  them  perish.  And  let  the  priests  also,  which  come  near  to  the  Lord. 

23  sanctify  themselves,  lest  the  Lord  break  forth  upon  them.  And  Moses  said  unto 
the  Lord,  The  people  cannot  come  up  to  Mount  Sinai  :  for  thou  didst  charge  us, 

24  saying,  Set  bounds  about  the  mount,  and  sanctify  it.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  him. 
Go,  get  thee  down  ;  and  thou  shalt  come  up,  thou,  and  Aaron  with  thee  :  but  let 
not  the  priests  and  the  people  break  through  to  come  up  unto  the  Lord,  lest  he 

25  break  forth  upon  them.  So  Moses  went  down  unto  the  people,  and  told  them. 


God  had  entered  into  covenant  with  his  peo¬ 
ple.  Israel  was  now  no  longer  a  family  or  tribe. 
They  had  begun  to  be  a  great  nation.  God 


would  make  them  his  “peculiar  treasure.” 
And  all  the  people  had  said,  “  All  that  the  Lord 
hath  spoken,  we  will  do.”  But  a  people  that 


140 


SECTION  104.  DESCENT  OF  JEHOVAH  UPON  SINAI. 


is  to  be  the  Lord’s  must  know  his  will.  That 
will  he  is  now  to  make  known.  And  he  pref¬ 
aces  the  utterance  by  signs  which  indicate  that 
he  is  great  and  terrible  in  his  holiness  ;  a  jeal¬ 
ous  as  well  as  long-suffering  God.  Everything 
is  ordered  so  as  to  deepen  this  impression. 
Two  days  are  given  to  cleansing.  Bounds  are 
set  so  that  neither  man  nor  beast  can  come  near 
the  mountain.  Then,  amid  thunderings  and 
lightnings,  the  quaking  of  the  mountain  and 
the  terror  of  the  people,  the  Lord  descends. 
An. 

Pkepaeation  foe  the  Thied  Day  (verses  10-15). 

10,  They  were  about  to  approach  a  holy  God, 
a  God  of  infinite  purity,  who  cannot  bear  any 
unclean  thing  in  his  presence,  and  therefore 
they  were  to  take  care  that  no  defilement  was 
upon  them.  They  were  to  wash  their  clothes 
and  preserve  their  persions  free  from  all  impu¬ 
rity.  Not  that  there  was  any  intrinsic  virtue  in 
mere  external  ablutions  and  abstinences  ;  they 
were  to  do  this  in  token  of  their  cleansing  them¬ 
selves  from  all  sinful  pollutions.  Bush. 

12.  By  what  follows  in  verse  23  it  appears  that 
this  command  of  setting  bounds  was  meant  of 
placing  a  material  fence  around  the  bottom  of 
the  actual  rise  of  Sinai,  so  that  the  people  could 
not  break  through.  Alf. 

13.  If  a  man  or  a  beast  should  break  through 
the  prescribed  limits  and  advance  toward  the 
mountain,  they  were  to  slay  him  on  the  spot  by 
casting  stones  or  shooting  darts  at  him  from  a 
distance.  What  a  speaking  commentary  upon 
God’s  estimate  of  presumptuous  sin  !  Bush. 

See  the  difference  of  God’s  carriage  to  men 
in  the  Law  and  in  the  Gospel  :  here,  the  very 
hill  where  he  appeared  may  not  be  touched  of 
the  purest  Israelite  ;  there,  the  hem  of  his  gar¬ 
ment  is  touched  by  the  diseased  woman,  yea, 
his  very  face  was  touched  with  the  lips  of 
Judas  :  here,  the  very  earth  was  prohibited  them 
on  which  he  descended  ;  there,  his  very  body 
and  blood  is  proffered  to  our  touch  and  taste. 
Oh,  the  marvellous  kindness  of  our  God  '  How 
unthankful  are  we,  if  we  do  not  acknowledge 
this  mercy  above  his  ancient  people  !  They 
were  his  own  ;  yet  strangers,  in  comparison  of 
our  liberty.  It  is  our  shame  and  sin,  if,  in  these 
means  of  entireness  we  be  no  better  acquainted 
with  God,  than  they  which  in  their  greatest 
familiarity  were  commanded  aloof.  Bp.  H. 

Jehovah  Descends  upon  the  Mount  (verses 

16-25). 

As  the  people  gazed  on  it,  “  Mount  Sinai 
was  altogether  on  smoke.”  That  vast  isolated 


mountain-block — two  miles  in  length  and  one 
in  breadth — seemed  all  on  fire  !  As  ”  the  smoke 
of  a  furnace”  it  rose  to  heaven,  “  and  the  whole 
mount  quaked  greatly,”  and  “  there  were  thun¬ 
ders  and  lightnings,”  and  “  the  voice  of  the 
trumpet  exceeding  loud.”  But,  more  awful 
than  any  physical  signs,  “  Jehovah  came  down 
upon  Mount  Sinai.”  A.  E. 

The  account  of  the  way  in  which  God  ap¬ 
peared  and  of  what  he  did,  is  worthy  of  him, 
and  quite  in  harmony  with  the  nature  and  ob¬ 
ject  of  revelation  at  this  stage.  The  two  great¬ 
est  phenomena  of  nature,  sea,  and  mountain, 
obey  his  will  and  bow  before  his  glory  !  The 
sea  divides  ;  the  mountain  trembles.  Both 
become  scenes  of  the  display  of  his  righteous 
power.  By  the  sea  his  might  as  judge  is  re¬ 
vealed  upon  his  enemies  ;  on  the  mountain, 
his  might  and  authority  as  Euler  and  Legislator 
for  the  people.  Through  the  act  of  giving  the 
Law,  Jehovah  comes  personally  before  the  peo¬ 
ple  as  their  King  and  Lord,  in  the  fulness  of 
his  majesty.  That  they  might  be  thrown  ujDon 
him,  and  not  be  engrossed  again  with  worldly 
affairs,  Israel  is  not  led  directly  to  Canaan,  but 
by  long  journeys  through  the  desert.  He  under¬ 
takes,  as  the  wilderness  is  without  food  and 
without  a  road  (the  simplest  signs  of  civiliza¬ 
tion)  to  feed  the  people  with  manna  and  to  lead 
them  by  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire,  so  that 
they  may  be  pointed  to  him  directly,  and  ac¬ 
customed  to  the  thought  of  him.  Therefore 
was  the  wonder-working  grace  of  God  thus  daily 
visible  throughout  the  long  march  in  the  wil¬ 
derness,  on  the  earth  by  the  manna,  in  heaven 
by  the  cloudy,  fiery  pillar.  Auberlen. 

The  great  miracle  of  Judaism  was  the  Divine 
institution  of  the  religion.  “  The  earth  shook 
and  the  heavens  also  dropped  in  the  presence 
of  God.”  The  devouring  fires  of  Sinai  pro¬ 
claimed  the  deliverance  of  the  Law  of  Moses. 
The  apparition  of  the  Deity— an  apparition 
without  similitude — rested  before  the  eye  of 
mortal  man.  Two  millions  of  human  witnesses 
attested  and  trembled.  From  amidst  the  dense 
cloud  hanging  on  the  mountain,  ”  the  voice  of 
the  words”  established  Judaism.  On  this  aw¬ 
ful  revelation  to  a  whole  people  rests  the  foun¬ 
dation  of  the  Jewish  faith  in  the  Law  of  Moses. 
D' Israeli. 

16.  And  it  came  to  pas§  on  the  third 
day.  The  eventful  day  at  length  arrived,  the 
sixth  of  the  month  Sivan,  and  the  fiftieth  after 
the  departure  from  Egypt.  The  morning  was 
ushered  in  with  terrible  thunders  and  light¬ 
nings,  and  a  cloud  of  deep  lowering  darkness 
resting  upon  the  summit  of  the  mount.  The 


DESCENT  OF  JEHOVAH  UPON  SINAI. 


141 


heavens  and  the  earth  and  the  elements  conspired 
to  signalize  the  advent  of  the  Creator  and  Lord 
of  the  universe  to  this  part  of  his  dominions. 
Nearly  every  object  of  grandeul*  and  awe  of 
which  we  can  conceive,  enters  into  the  descrip¬ 
tion.  Thunder,  lightning,  tempest,  the  black¬ 
ness  of  darkness,  smoke,  tire,  earthquake,  and 
the  trumpet  of  God  !  Never  till  the  light  of  the 
last  morning  shall  dawn,  and  the  trump  of  the 
archangel  shall  peal  its  summons  to  arouse  the 
dead,  will  such  a  spectacle  be  again  witnessed 
on  earth.  A  deep  moral  impression  in  regard 
to  the  Law  about  to  be  delivered  was  to  be  pro¬ 
duced.  Everything  accordingly  was  so  ordered 
as  to  afford  the  most  striking  display  of  the 
glorious  majesty  of  the  Lawgiver,  to  point  out 
the  character  of  the  Law  in  its  strictness  and 
rigor,  and  its  tremendous  penalty. 

The  people  Irenihletl.  When  a  sound 
was  heard,  shrill  and  piercing  like  the  notes  of 
a  trumpet,  but  rising  above  the  peals  and  the 
crash  of  the  thunder,  no  wonder  that  the  im¬ 
pression  upon  the  people  was  terrific  beyond  all 
conception.  No  wonder  that  the  terms  “  voice 
of  the  archangel  and  trump  of  God  ”  should 
have  arisen  from  this  incident  of  the  dread 
phenomena  which  struck  the  senses  of  assem¬ 
bled  Israel  at  the  base  of  the  holy  mount  ;  and 
that  the  Scriptures  associate  the  sound  of  a 
great  trumpet  with  the  awful  occurrences  of  the 
da}^  of  judgment,  of  which  the  giving  of  the 
Law  from  Sinai  was  intended  to  be  a  faint  type 
and  shadow. 

19.  God  aii§wered  by  a  voice.  Their 
hearing  with  their  own  ears  the  voice  of  God 
speaking  to  his  servant,  would  utterly  cut  off 
all  future  pretext  for  saying  that  Moses  palmed 
upon  them  a  system  of  laws  and  statutes  of  his 
own  devising,  or  imposed  upon  their  credulity 
in  any  way  whatever.  In  affirming  this  they 
would  be  witnesses  against  themselves.  They 
had  a  demonstration  that  the  Laws  to  which 
they  were  required  to  submit,  were  promulgated 
from  the  highest  authority  in  the  universe,  of 
which  Moses  was  merely  the  ministering  medi¬ 
ator.  Bush. 

Never  was  so  great  a  congregation  called  to¬ 
gether,  and  preached  to,  at  once,  as  this  was 
here.  No  one  man’s  voice  could  have  reached 
so  many,  but  the  voice  of  God  did. 

Now,  at  lengthy  is  come  that  memorable  day, 
that  terrible  day  of  the  Lord,  that  day  of  judg¬ 
ment,  in  which  Israel  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord 
God  speaking  to  them  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire, 
and  lived  (De.  4  :  33).  Never  was  there  such  a  ser¬ 
mon  preached,  before  or  since,  as  this  which  was 
here  preached  to  the  Church  in  the  wilderness. 


The  Preacher  was  God  himself  (verse  18)  ;  The 
Lord  descended  in  fire,  and  (verse  20),  The  Lord 
came  down  up(m  Mould  Sinai.  The  Shekinah,  or 
Glory  of  the  Lord,  appeared  in  the  sight  of  alt 
the  people  ;  he  shined  forth  from  Mount  Paran, 
with  ten  thousands  of  his  saints  (De  33  :  2) — that 
is,  attended,  as  the  Divine  Majesty  always  is, 
with  a  multitude  of  the  holy  angels,  who  were 
both  to  grace  the  solemnity  and  to  assist  it. 
Hence  the  Law  is  said  to  be  given  hy  the  disposi¬ 
tion  of  angels  (Acts  7  :  53).  The  pulpit  (or  throne 
rather)  was  Mount  Sinai,  hung  with  a  thick  cloud 
(verse  16),  covered  with  smoke  (verse  18),  and 
made  to  quake  greatly.  Now  it  was  that  the 
earth  trembled  at  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  and 
the  mountains  .skipped  like  rams  (Ps.  114  : 4,  7)  ; 
that  Sinai  itself,  the  rough  and  rocky,  melted  from 
before  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  (ludg.  5  : 5).  Now 
it  was  that  the  mountains  saw  him,  and  trembled 
(Hab.  3  : 10).  H. 

God  was  ever  wonderful  in  his  works  and  fear¬ 
ful  in  his  judgments  ;  but  he  was  never  so  terri¬ 
ble  in  the  execution  of  his  will,  as  now  in  the 
promulgation  of  it.  Here  was  nothing  but  a 
majestical  terror  in  the  eyes,  in  the  ears  of  the 
Israelites  ;  as  if  God  meant  to  show  them  by 
this  how  fearful  he  could  be.  Here  was  the 
trumpet  of  God  drowning  the  thunder-claps,  the 
voice  of  God  outspeaking  the  trumpet  ;  the 
cloud  enwrapping,  the  smoke  ascending,  the 
fire  flaming,  the  mount  trembling,  Moses  climb¬ 
ing  and  quaking,  paleness  and  death  in  the  face 
of  Israel,  uproar  in  the  elements,  and  all  the 
glory  of  heaven  turned  into  terror.  And  if  the 
Law  were  thus  given,  how  shall  it  be  required? 
If  such  were  the  proclamation  of  God's  stat¬ 
utes,  what  shall  the  sessions  be  ?  I  see  and 
tremble  at  the  resemblance.  To  the  one,  Moses, 
that  climbed  up  that  hill  and  alone  saw  it,  says, 
“  God  came  with  ten  thousands  of  his  saints 
in  the  other,  “thousand  thousands  shall  min¬ 
ister  to  him,  and  ten  thousand  thousands  shall 
stand  before  him.”  In  the  one.  Mount  Sinai 
only  was  on  a  flame  ;  all  the  world  shall  be 
so  in  the  other.  In  the  one,  there  were  fire, 
smoke,  thunder  and  lightning  ;  in  the  other,  a 
fiery  stream  shall  issue  from  him,  wherewith  the 
heavens  shall  be  dissolved  and  the  elements 
shall  melt  away  with  a  noise.  O  God,  how 
powerful  art  thou  to  inflict  vengeance  upon  sin¬ 
ners,  who  didst  thus  forbid  sin  !  and  if  thou 
wert  so  terrible  a  Lawgiver,  what  a  Judge  shalt 
thou  appear  !  Bp.  H. 

If  he  was  dreadful  at  Sinai,  coming  in  threat¬ 
ening  flames  to  promulgate  his  Law  ;  what  must 
he  be“  coming  in  flaming  fire  to  take  vengeance 
on  them  that  know  not  God,  and  obey  not 


142 


SECTION  104.  DESCENT  OF  JEHOVAH  UPON  SINAI. 


the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  !”  Bush. 

- For  even  in  Calvary,  Sinai  is  not  forgotten. 

The  steps  of  the  earthquake  are  felt  beneath  the 
Cross,  thick  darkness  overshadows  it,  a  piercing 
voice  that  tells  of  the  fearful  evil  of  sin  descends 
from  it,  and  we  are  addressed  in  the  Gospel  : 
“  Wherefore  let  us  have  grace  whereby  we  may 
serve  God  acceptably  with  reverence  and  godly 
fear  :  for  our  God  is  a  consuming  fire.”  Ker. 

The  Law  was  given  in  an  awful  manner  to 
make  all  sensible  how  great  that  authority, 
power,  and  justice  was,  that  stood  engaged  to 
exact  the  fulfilment  of  this  Law,  and  to  see  it 
fully  executed  ;  and  how  strictly  God  would 
require  the  fulfilment  ;  and  how  terrible  his 
wrath  would  be  against  every  breaker  of  it  ;  that 
men,  beiog  sensible  of  these  things,  might  have 
a  thorough  trial  of  themselves,  and  might  prove 
their  own  hearts,  and  know  how  impossible  it 
is  for  them  to  have  salvation  by  the  works  of 
the  Law,  and  might  see  the  absolute  necessity 
they  stood  in  of  a  mediator.  We  regard  this  Law 
now  given  at  Mount  Sinai  not  as  the  covenant  of 
works,  but  as  a  rule  of  life  ;  so  it  is  made  use  of 
by  the  Kedeemer  as  a  directory  to  his  people, 
to  show  them  the  way  in  which  they  must  walk 
as  they  would  go  to  heaven  :  for  a  way  of  sincere 
and  universal  obedience  to  this  Law  is  the  nar¬ 
row  way  that  leads  to  life.  Eclucards. 

20-24.  Moses,  called  of  God,  ascended,  fol¬ 
lowed  by  the  eager  eyes  of  the  multitude,  up 
into  the  cloud  ;  only,  however,  to  be  sent  down 
again,  to  take  yet  stronger  precautions  lest  any 
one,  through  ignorance  or  rashness,  might  break 
through  the  bounds  and  perish.  W.  M.  T. 

20.  All  the  verbs  here  should  be  rendered  in 
the  pluperfect  tense,  ”  had  come  down,”  “  had 
called,”  “had  gone  up,”  and  the  whole  verse 
considered  as  parenthetical.  The  scope  of  it  seems 
to  be,  to  inform  us  how  it  happened  that  Moses 
was  in  a  situation  to  hold  this  intercourse  with 
Jehovah  ;  for  it  does  not  appear  that  in  any 
stage  of  the  proceedings  did  God  communicate 
with  Moses  while  he  remained  among  the  peo¬ 
ple  below.  He  was  invariably  called  up  to  the 
summit,  or  near  the  summit  of  the  mountain. 
Bush. 

When  we  think  of  Moses  coming  so  near  to 
Jehovah  in  his  majesty  wielding  the  terrific 
agencies  of  flood  and  storm  and  fire,  of  dark¬ 
ness  and  lightning  and  the  voice  of  trumpet  ex¬ 
ceeding  loud — Mount  Sinai  rocking  beneath  his 
feet,  and  Moses  alone  drawing  near  the  Awful 
Presence  and  talking  with  God  face  to  face  there 
— what  shall  we  say  of  the  possibilities  of  com¬ 
munion  between  man  and  his  Maker?  What¬ 
ever  speculations  we  may  have  as  to  the  means 


and  methods  by  which  the  thought  of  God  was 
borne  to  the  mind  of  Moses  and  the  thought  of 
Moses  to  the  mind  of  God,  the  great  fact  of 
communion  of*  mind  with  mind — thought  meet¬ 
ing  thought  — of  command  from  the  superior 
party,  received  and  obeyed  by  the  inferior— is 
on  the  outer  face  of  the  whole  history  and  ad¬ 
mits  of  no  question.  God  can  speak  to  man  so 
that  man  shall  know  the  voice  to  be  His  and 
comprehend  perfectly  its  significance.  Kela- 
tions  of  obedience,  confidence,  and  love  on  the 
jsart  of  man  toward  his  Maker  are  established, 
and  God  meets  them  with  appropriate  manifes¬ 
tations  of  his  favor.  This  great  fact  is  one  of 
telling  significance  in  the  whole  province  of 
Christian  experience.  Its  significance  cannot 
terminate  with  the  present  life,  but  must  pass 
on  to  be  unfolded  far  more  gloriously  in  the 
revelations  of  the  eternal  world.  “  It  doth  not 
yet  appear”  [in  all  points]  “  what  we  shall  be” 
— but  it  does  appear  that  God  has  made  us  capa¬ 
ble  of  exceedingly  intimate  relations  to  himself 
— as  we  shall  know  more  perfectly  when  we 
shall  see  as  we  are  seen  and  know  as  also  we 
are  known.  H.  C. 

22.  Let  the  priests  sanctify  them¬ 
selves.  There  were  priests  among  the  He¬ 
brews  before  the  consecration  of  Aaron  and  his 
sons.  Though  their  functions  might  be  sus¬ 
pended  while  under  persecution  in  Egypt,  yet 
the  persons  existed  whose  right  and  dutj^  it  was 
to  offer  sacrifices  to  God.  Moses  requested 
liberty  from  Pharaoh  to  go  into  the  wilderness 
to  sacrifice;  and  had  there  not  been  among  the 
people  both  sacrifices  and  priests,  the  request 
itself  must  have  appeared  nugatory.  Sacrifices 
from  the  beginning  had  constituted  an  essential 
part  of  the  worship  of  God  ;  and  there  certainly 
were  priests  whose  business  it  was  to  offer  them 
to  God,  before  the  giving  of  the  Law  ;  though 
this  for  especial  reasons  was  restricted  to  Aaron 
and  his  sons,  after  the  Law  had  been  given. 
As  sacrifices  had  not  been  offered  for  a  consid- 
erable  time,  the  priests  themselves  were  con¬ 
sidered  in  a  state  of  impurity  ;  and  therefore 
God  requires  that  they  also  should  be  purified 
for  the  purpose  of  approaching  the  mountain. 
A.  C.  * 


There  is  a  tradition  current  among  the  Jews 
that  the  Law  was  given  upon  Mount  Sinai  on 
the  fiftieth  day  from  the  date  of  the  Exodus  ; 
and  there  seems  every  reason  to  accept  it. 
Sinai  then  was  the  Pentecost  of  the  old  dispen¬ 
sation.  And  conversely,  Pentecost  is  the  Sinai 
of  the  new.  Fifty  days  after  the  slaying  of  the 
paschal  lamb  there  was  the  coming  down  of  the 


SECTION  105.  THE  MORAL  LAW. 


143 


Holy  One  upon  the  mount.  Fifty  days  after 
“  Christ  our  Passover  was  sacriliced  for  us”  the 
Holy  Spirit  descended  on  the  Church  met  to¬ 
gether  on  that  mount  of  ordinances  in  the  upper 
room.  The  inner  relations  of  the  two  events 
will  be  clearly  discerned  by  an  examination  of 
that  passage  in  Jeremiah  which  is  quoted  with 
so  much  effect  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  : 
“  Behold,  the  days  come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  I 
will  make  a  New  Covenant  with  the  house  of 
Israel,  and  with  the  house  of  Judah  :  not  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  covenant  which  I  made  with 
their  fathers  in  the  day  that  I  took  them  by  the 
hand  to  bring  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  ; 
which  my  covenant  they  brake,  although  1  was 
an  husband  unto  them,  saith  the  Lord  :  but  this 
shall  be  the  covenant  that  I  will  make  with  the 
house  of  Israel  ;  After  those  days,  saith  the 
Lord,  I  will  put  my  Law  in  their  inward  parts, 
and  write  it  in  their  hearts”  (Jer.  31  :  31-33). 
This,  as  we  all  know,  is  the  work  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.  On  the  Pentecostal  day  of  the  Old  Cov¬ 
enant,  Jehovah  came  down  from  heaven  to  re¬ 
veal  himself  as  the  Holy  One,  and  give  his  Law 
to  his  redeemed  people  ;  on  the  Pentecostal  day 
of  the  New  Covenant  in  like  manner  he  de¬ 


scended  in  the  person  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to 
write  his  Law,  “  not  in  tables  of  stone,  but  in 
the  fleshy  tables  of  the  heart  ” — the  hearts  of 
all  who  were  redeemed  by  the  blood  of  the 
Great  Sacrifice  which  had  been  offered  up  on 
Calvary  ;  and  this  seems  to  have  been  in  the 
mind  of  the  apostle  when  he  wrote  :  “  The  Law 
of  the  spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  hath  made 
me  free  from  the  Law  of  sin  and  death”  (Rom. 
8  : 2).  And  just  as  the  holy  Law  was  securely 
kept  in  the  ark  of  the  covenant  within  the  holi¬ 
est  of  all  ;  so  has  the  Holy  Ghost  remained  in 
the  midst  of  the  true  Church  of  Christ,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  Saviour’s  promise.  So  too  every  true 
believer  should  have  in  his  inmost  heart  a  shrine 
for  the  Holy  One,  who  comes  to  dwell  in  us  in 
the  blessed  fulness  of  Pentecostal  grace.  Thus 
and  thus  only  can  we  realize  the  fulfilment  of 
those  “great  and  precious  promises,”  which 
were  given  of  old  to  Israel,  and  of  which  vve 
who  believe  in  Christ  are  the  true  heirs  ;  thus 
and  thus  only  can  we  prove  ourselves  to  be  “a 
chosen  generation,  a  rojal  priesthood,  a  holy 
nation,  a  peculiar  people,  to  show  forth  the 
praises  of  him  wh'o  hath  called  us  out  of  dark¬ 
ness  into  his  marvellous  light.”  J.  M.  G. 


Section  105. 


MORAL  LAW:  “GOD  SPAKE.”  MEANING  OF  “THE  TEN  WORDS.”  DIVISION 
INTO  TABLES.  TWO  COPIES  OF  THE  DECALOGUE.  ITS  CHARACTER  AND 
PERPETUITY.  RELATION  OF  MORAL  LAW  :  1.  TO  THE  CEREMONIAL  ;  2.  TO 
THE  PROMISE  ;  3.  TO  CHRIST.  RELATION  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  TO  THE  LAW. 

Exodus  20  :  1.  De.  4  :  11-13  ;  5  :  22. 

Ex.  20  1  And  God  spake  all  these  words,  saying, 

De.  4  11  And  ye  came  near  and  stood  under  the  mountain  ;  and  the  mountain  burned  with 

12  fire  unto  the  heart  of  heaven,  with  darkness,  cloud,  and  thick  darkness.  And  the 
Lord  spake  unto  you  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire  :  ye  heard  the  voice  of  words,  but 

13  ye  saw  no  form  ;  only  ye  heard  a  voice.  And  he  declared  unto  you  his  covenant, 
which  he  commanded  you  to  perform,  even  the  Ten  Commandments  ;  and  he  wrote 
them  upon  two  tables  of  stone. 

De.  5  22  These  words  the  Lord  spake  unto  all  your  assembly  in  the  mount  out  of  the  midst 
of  the  fire,  of  the  cloud,  and  of  the  thick  darkness,  with  a  great  voice  :  and  he  added 
no  more.  And  he  wrote  them  upon  two  tables  of  stone,  and  gave  them  unto  me. 


Definitely  conceive  this  natural  .scenery  of  a 
plain  sloping  gradually  down  for  a  mile  in 
M'idth,  extending  two  miles,  with  crescent  shape 
in  length,  as  a  huge  amphitheatre,  with  the 
dark,  perpendicular  cliff  of  granite  rising  from 


the  foot  of  the  gentle  slope  some  fifteen  hun¬ 
dred  feet  in  height,  seeming  to  one  standing 
near — for  such  is  ever  the  impression  from  gaz¬ 
ing  directly  upward  from  the  foot  of  a  lofty 
crag -to  tower  “  up  to  the  midst  of  heaven,” 


144 


SECTION  105.  ‘MiVD  GOD  SPAKE'’ 


while  the  loose,  black,  ragged  masses  of  granite 
appear  ready  to  let  go  their  hold  on  the  side  of 
the  crag  and  drop  into  the  plain  beneath.  As 
Israel  is  waiting  in  solemn  expectation  this 
morning,  behold,  the  immense  pillar  of  cloud, 
that  hitherto  has  guided  their  march,  is  ob¬ 
served  to  rise  slowly  and  majestically.  It  as¬ 
cends  upward  and  upward  to  the  midst  of 
heaven.  Then  it  moves  toward  the  lofty  sum¬ 
mit  and  covers  Sinai  as  a  cloud.  Thereupon 
the  lightnings  begin  to  flash  from  the  cloud  and 
the  thunders  roll  terrifically,  causing  the  earth 
to  tremble  under  their  feet.  Then  the  clang  of 
the  mighty  signal  trumpet  calls  forth  all  the 
hosts  of  Israel  from  their  camp.  Under  the  di¬ 
rection  of  Moses  and  their  leaders,  they  ap¬ 
proach  near  the  foot  of  the  dark  cliff,  and  the 
myriads  are  arranged,  row  upon  row,  in  serried 
ranks  of  two  miles  in  length.  They  stand  in 
breathless  silence,  for  every  spirit  is  awe-struck. 
As  the  thunders  at  length  cease,  and  the  voice 
of  the  trumpet  is  hushed,  suddenly  there  bursts 
forth  from  the  darkness  on  the  summit  an  artic¬ 
ulate  voice,  loud  as  the  voice  of  the  thunders 
and  the  trumpet. 

“And  God  Spake.” 

Distinctly  and  audibly  the  voice  of  Jehovah 
himself  spake  to  the  assembled  nation — issuing 
from  the  Glory  on  the  summit  of  Sinai.  The 
inspired  lawgiver  forty  years  afterward  de¬ 
clares,  “  The  Lord  talked  with  jmu  face  to  face 
out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire.  These  words  the 
Lord  spake  unto  all  your  assembly  in  the  mount 
out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire,  of  the  cloud,  and  of 
the  thick  darkness  with  a  great  voice,  and  he 
added  710  more.  And  he  wrote  them  on  two 
tables  of  stone  and  delivered  them  unto  me.” 
Thus  the  very  mode  of  the  revelation  of  this 
Law,  in  view  of  Moses,  the  lawgiver,  set  it  apart 
to  itself  as  above  all  the  revelations  made 
through  Moses.  S  K - Moses  adds  else¬ 

where,  “For  ask  now  of  the  days  that  are  past, 
which  were  before  thee,  since  the  day  that  God 
created  man  upon  the  earth,  and  ask  from  the 
one  side  of  heaven  unto  the  other,  whether 
there  hath  been  any  such  thing  as  this  great 
thing  is  ;  or  hath  been  heard  like  it  ?  Did  ever 
people  hear  the  voice  of  God  speaking  out  of  the 
midst  of  the  fire,  as  thou  hast  heard,  and  live?” 
Bush. 

In  Acts  7  : 38  Stephen  affirms  that  Christ  was 
the  Jehovah  who  spake  to  Moses  in  Mount 
Sinai  (see  also  Ps.  68  :  7,  8  ;  Eph.  4  : 8).  B. 
- God  has  many  ways  of  speaking  to  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  men  :  by  his  Spirit,  by  conscience,  by 


providences,  by  his  voice  ;  all  which  we  ought 
carefully  to  attend  to  ;  but  he  never  spake,  at 
any  time  or  upon  any  occasion,  so  as  he  spake 
the  Ten  Commandments,  which  therefore  we 
ought  to  hear  with  the  more  earnest  heed.  It 
was  not  only  spoken  audibly,  but  with  a  great 
deal  of  dreadful  pomp.  H. 

The  scenes  of  Sinai  were  a  long  and  magnifi¬ 
cent  step  of  progress  in  the  revelations  of  God 
to  men.  We  may  think  here  not  so  much  of 
the  external  surroundings— the  bringing  into 
service  of  all  the  grandest  agencies  of  nature  to 
impress  men  with  reverence  and  fear  and  awe, 
and  so  to  plant  the  more  deeply  in  their  souls 
the  idea  of  law  as  emanating  unmistakably  from 
the  Infinite  One  ;  but  we  may  consider  the  great 
fact  itself  of  a  revealed  Law.  It  is  surely  a  point 
in  the  progress  of  God’s  revelations  of  himself 
second  to  nothing  that  has  gone  before — second 
to  nothing  in  all  the  ages  save  the  greater  mis¬ 
sion  of  his  Son  for  the  purposes  of  redemption. 
God  revealing  to  man  a  rule  of  duty  ;  express¬ 
ing  it  in  terms  at  once  so  simple  and  so  com¬ 
prehensive  ;  including  the  duties  we  owe  to 
God  on  the  one  hand  and  to  fellow-beings  on 
the  other  ;  putting  it  on  permanent  record  ;  ac¬ 
companying  it  with  demonstrations  of  majesty 
and  glory,  endorsing  it  so  surely  and  so  sub¬ 
limely  ;  adjusting  it  so  nicely  in  harmony  with 
the  intelligent  convictions  of  rational  minds, 
and  so  commending  it  to  every  man’s  conscience 
as  intrinsically  and  eternally  right  truly 
the  promulgation  of  such  a  law  through  such 
agencies  is  surpassingly  grand  and  glorious  ; 
and  is  one  of  the  great  epochs  in  the  march  of 
God’s  revelations  of  himself  to  mortals.  H.  C. 

The  Ten  Commandments  formed  a  distinct  part  of 
God's  revelation.  They  were  spoken  by  God’s 
own  voice  from  the  midst  of  the  fire.  They 
only  were  thus  promulgated  ;  “he  added  no 
more.”  They  were  written  on  tables  of  stone. 
They  were  deposited  in  the  ark  of  the  covenant. 
These  facts  show  that  they  held  a  distinct  place 
in  the  Law-giving  at  Sinai,  and  that  they  ara 
not  to  be  confounded  with  the  ceremonial 
and  judicial  statutes,  subsequently  given.  The 
grounds  of  this  distinction  :  The  Decalogue  was  : 
(1)  An  epitome  of  universal  moral  truth.  (‘2)  In¬ 
ternally  complete  as  such — the  first  table  laying 
down  our  duties- to  God,  as  respects  his  being, 
his  worship,  his  Name,  his  day,  his  human  rep¬ 
resentatives  ;  the  second  forbidding  all  injury 
to  our  fellow-men  (injuries  to  life,  property, 
chastity,  character),  while  requiring  by  impli¬ 
cation  the  fulfilment  of  all  positive  duties,  and 
the  regulation  even  of  our  secret  thoughts.  (3) 
The  basis  of  the  covenant  with  Israel.  The 


TEN  COMMANDMENTS,  NAME  AND  MEANING. 


145 


foundation  on  which  all  subsequent  legislation 
was  reared.  Oi'r. 

The  Promulgation  of  the  Decalogue  from  the 
heights  of  Sinai,  in  the  manner  set  forth  in  the 
Book  of  Exodus,  stands  before  us  as  an  instance 
that  is  better  fitted  than  any  other  which  might 
be  named,  as  determiiiative  of  the  question  now 
moved  within  the  Church,  conjerning  the  Re¬ 
ality  of  a  Revelation,  authenticated  by  super¬ 
natural  attestations.  There  needs  no  argument 
to  show  that,  if  the  Promulgation  of  the  Law 
from  the  heights  of  Sinai  took  place  in  the  man¬ 
ner  affirmed  in  the  Mosaic  books— if,  indeed, 
then  and  there  God  spake  these  words  “from 
out  of  the  thick  darkness,”  and  amid  the  blasts 
of  the  trumpet  ;  if  it  be  so,  then  this  descent  of 
the  Almighty  — speaking  to  man,  carries  with 
it,  as  well  the  immediate  antecedents  of  the 
event,  as  its  more  proximate  conditions,  and  its 
next  following  consequences.  If  this  history  be 
true  as  to  its  central  fact,  it  must  be  true,  also, 
as  to  its  indispensable  conditions.  The  Sinaitic 
narrative  must  be  true  altogether,  or  it  must  be 
false  altogether.  I  ask  a  moment’s  attention  to 
the  central  fact. 

The  most  unmarked  spot  on  earth’s  alluvial 
levels  might  have  been  chosen  as  the  scene  of 
the  event  of  which  we  read  in  the  nineteenth 
and  twentieth  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Exodus. 
But  it  was  otherwise  ordered,  and  a  group  of 
mountains,  remarkable  beyond  any  other  else¬ 
where  found,  was  singled  out  as  the  fittest  for 
so  great  an  occasion.  Thus,  therefore,  it  is 
that  the  enduring  continuity  of  local  traditions 
which  gives  a  sort  of  indestructible  vitality  to 
the  names  of  places,  whether  they  be  important 
or  unimportant,  has  clustered  upon  this  moun¬ 
tain  mass  with  a  peculiar  strength,  as  if  it  should 
never  come  to  be  doubted  where  it  was  that  the 
Eternal,  the  King,  Immortal,  Invisible,  came 
down  to  hold  converse — not,  as  often  hereto¬ 
fore,  with  favored  men  apart  and  singl}^  but 
now  with  a  people  congregated  to  meet  him  at 
his  call.  The  stern  sublimity  ^f  this  group  of 
precipices,  its  unchanging  conditions,  which 
neither  man  nor  nature  has  affected  in  the  lapse 
of  ages,  have  preserved,  in  its  primeval  majest}’-, 
a  scene  which  the  modern  traveller,  devout  or 
undevout,  acknowledges  as  signally  proper  for 
the  purpose  when  a  nation  was  summoned  to 
appear  before  God.  Sinai,  in  its  aspect  as  the 
Hebrew  people  saw  it  when  it  was  crowned 
with  the  unquenchable  fires,  and  such  as  the 
traveller  now  sees  it  in  its  unchanging  aspect  of 
sterile  majesty,  is  a  scene  proper  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  to  which  then  it  was  made  subservient. 

The  Arabian  spearman,  as  if  heaven  had 
10 


placed  him  there,  has  held  watch  around  the 
heights  of  Sinai  these  thirty  centuries  and 
more  ;  and  this  guard  has  been  conservative  of 
the  Sinaitic  tradition.  Throughout  the  ages  of 
the  Saracenic  history,  this  functionarj'— whether 
intended  or  involuntary — has  held  the  memory 
of  the  one  event,  as  if  in  the  freshness  of  a  re¬ 
cent  recollection.  Yet  more  has  the  Law, 
spoken  from  Sinai,  lived  in  the  constant  heart 
and  in  the  obduracy,  too,  in  the  better  nature, 
in  the  noble  martyr  strength,  and  also  in  the 
senile  traditions,  and  in  the  daily  habitudes, 
and  in  the  ponderous  literature,  and  in  the 
speech  of  the  people,  whose  ancestors  then 
filled  the  wide  plain  at  the  foot  of  Sinai.  It  is 
the  same  people,  immovable  in  mind,  and  now, 
as  for  ages  past,  a  %vitness  for  God  in  all  lands. 
Each  Jewish  heart  is  an  enduring  tablet  where¬ 
upon  the  Sinaitic  words  are  anew  and  anew 
written— as  with  the  finger  of  God.  I.  T. 

The  Ten  Commandments. 

Name,  and  its  Meaning. 

The  Hebrew  name  which  is  rendered  in  our 
Version  the  Ten  Commandments  occurs  in  Ex. 
34  : 28  ;  De.  4  : 13,  10  :  4.  It  literally  means  the 
Ten  Words  In  Ex.  24  : 12,  the  Ten  Command¬ 
ments  are  called  the  Law,  even  the  Commandment. 
They  are  elsewhere  called  the  Words  of  the  Cov 
enant  (Ex.  34  :  28,  where  the  strict  rendering 
would  be,  the  Words  of  the  Covenant,  even  the  Ten 
Words),  the  Tables  of  the  Covenant  (De.  9  :  9,  11, 
15),  and  simply  the  Covenant  (De.  4  : 13)  ;  also  the 
Two  Tables  (De.  9  : 10,  17).  But  the  most  fre^' 
'  quent  name  for  them  in  the  Old  Testament  is, 
the  Testimony,  or  the  Two  Tables  of  the  Testimony. 
In  the  New  Testament  they  are  called  simply 
the  Commandments.  The  name  Decalogue  is 
found  first  in  Clement  of  Alexandria,  and  was 
commonly  used  by  the  Fathers  who  followed 
him.  Clark. 

What  we  call  the  “  Ten  Commandments,”  are 
currently  called  in  the  Hebrew  text  ‘  ‘  the  ten 
words”  (see  Ex.  34  :  28  ;  De.  10  :  4  ;  4  : 13,  the 
article  being  used  in  all  three  places).  The 
words  of  the  Hebrew  stem  9  a  w  a,  commonly 
translated  by  the  English  verb  “command” 
and  its  derivatives,  are  not  currently  used  to 
denote  what  we  call  “  the  Ten  Commandments,” 
and  are,  perhtjps,  not  even  once  used  distinc¬ 
tively  in  this  meaning.  This  special  meaning 
of  the  word  “  commandment  ”  is  purely  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  translation- usage,  and  not  of  Hebrew 
usage.  What  is  thus  true  of  the  term  com¬ 
mandment,  as  applied  to  “  the  ten  words,”  is 
perhaps  even  more  emphatically  true  of  the 


146 


SECTION  105.  DIVISION  INTO  TABLES. 


term  “  law”  in  the  same  application.  We  are 
accustomed,  and  correctly,  so  far  as  the  ethical 
aspects  of  the  matter  are  concerned,  to  regard 
“the  ten  words’  as  being  pre-eminently  the 
Law  of  Jehovah,  as  Recorded  in  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment.  Nevertheless,  neither  the  Old  Testament 
nor  the  New  are  accustomed  to  apply  the  term 
Law  distinctively  to  “  the  ten  words  it  is 
doubtful  whether  they  so  apply  it  in  even  a 
single  instance.  “  The  ten  words”  are  a  por¬ 
tion  of  the  commandments  of  Jehovah  ;  they 
are  found  in  the  Law  of  Jehovah  ;  they  are  an 
especially  important  jiart  of  the  Law  and  the 
commandments  ;  but  it  is  not  according  to  bib¬ 
lical  usage  to  call  them  either  by  the  name  law 
or  by  the  name  commandments.  This  is  the 
more  noteworthy  because  the  Bible,  instead  of 
signalizing  their  importance  by  applying  these 
two  names  to  them,  has  other  names  which  it 
uses  for  this  purpose.  It  speaks  of  “  the  two 
tallies  of  the  testimony''’  (E.v.  31  : 18  ;  32  : 15, 
etc.),  and  of  “  the  tables  of  the  covenant"  (Ve. 
9  : 9,  11,  15  ;  Heb.  9  :4,  etc.).  The  Bible  re¬ 
gards  “the  ten  words,”  indeed,  as  precepts  to 
be  obeyed  ;  but  it  far  more  prominently  regards 
them  as  the  foundation  and  evidence  of  special 
privileges  accorded  to  Jehovah’s  people— as  a 
charter  of  rights,  rather  than  a  code  of  prohibi¬ 
tions.  The  Law  was  kept  beside  the  ark,  the 
pot  of  manna  and  other  national  memorials,  be¬ 
fore  the  ark,  but  only  the  two  tables  within  the 
ark  (1  Kings  8  : 9).  The  two  tables  were  kept, 
not  for  purposes  of  study  or  appeal  (it  was  death 
to  look  into  the  ark),  but  as  a  testimony,  as 
sacred  Divine  credentials  ;  the  Law,  on  the^ 
other  hand,  was  in  the  custody  of  the  priests 
and  elders  for  purposes  of  administration.  The 
two  tables,  in  the  ark,  with  the  mercj^-seat  over 
them,  forming  the  central  object  of  the  sanctu¬ 
ary  and  its  worship,  represent  the  moral  prin¬ 
ciple  of  the  religion  of  Israel.  God’s  covenant 
with  Israel,  as  with  any  man  in  all  time,  is  on 
ithe  basis  of  the  keeping  of  the  “  Ten  Command¬ 
ments  yet  there  is  propitiation  for  the  re¬ 
pentant  man,  who  is  conscious  of  sin  because 
he  has  failed  to  keep  them.  This  twofold  sym¬ 
bol  is  to  the  religion  of  the  Pentateuch  what 
the  life  and  death  of  Christ  are  to  Christianity 
— a  fixed  standard  of  obligation,  coupled  with  a 
proclamation  of  forgiving  grace.  Beecher. 

Division  into  Tables. 

We  know  that  the  Tables  we/e  two,  and  that 
the  Commandments  were  ten,  in  number.  But 
the  Scriptures  do  not,  by  any  direct  statements, 
enable  us  to  determine  with  precision  how  the 
Ten  Commandments  are  severally  to  be  made 


out,  nor  how  they  are  to  be  allotted  to  the  Two 
Tables.  On  each  of  these  points  various  opin¬ 
io  as  have  been  held.  Cook. 

The  Ten  Commandments  were  engraved  on 
two  tables  of  stone  (Ex.  31  : 18),  and  on  both 
sides  of  the  tables  (32  : 15,  16),  and  w'hen  these 
were  broken  by  Moses,  as  significant  of  the  fact 
that  the  covenant  of  God  with  the  people  had 
been  broken  by  the  sin  of  the  golden  calf 
(32  : 19),  two  other  tables  of  stone  were  by  Di¬ 
vine  direction  prepared  like  unto  the  first,  and 
the  Lord  wrote  the  commandments  upon  them 
afresh  (34  ;  1).  We  are  nowhere  express!}’’  in¬ 
formed  how  many  commandments  were  writ¬ 
ten  on  each  of  the  tables.  The  most  equable 
division  of  the  matter  wmuld  be  to  put  the  pref¬ 
ace,  together  with  the  first  three  command¬ 
ments,  in  the  first  table,  and  the  last  seven  in 
the  second.  The  original  tables  of  stone  upon 
which  they  were  written,  and  which  Moses  de¬ 
posited  in  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  were  still  in 
existence  in  the  time  of  Solomon  (1  Kings  8:9). 
Probably  they  perished  together  with  the  ark 
when  the  temple  was  burned  by  Nebuchadnez¬ 
zar.  But  if  monumental  evidence  is  w’orth  any¬ 
thing,  the  text  of  these  commandments  is  be¬ 
yond  dispute.  W.  H.  G. 

In  the  numerical  arrangement  and  distinction 
of  the  several  precepts  of  the  Decalogue,  the 
Eomanists  differ  essentially  from  Protestants. 
The  Eoman  Church  makes  but  one  command¬ 
ment  of  the  first  two,  while  they  divide  the  tenth 
into  two,  making  the  first  sentence  of  that  com¬ 
mandment  the  ninth.  The  motive  for  thus  ab¬ 
stracting  the  second  commandment  from  the 
Decalogue  is  very  easily  imagined  on  the  part  of 
a  church  w’hich  gives  so  much  countenance  to 
image- worship  ;  and  it  is  equally  obvious  that 
the  partition  of  the  tenth  into  two,  is  wholly  with 
a  view  to  compensate  the  mutilation  by  leaving 
the  nominal  integrity  of  the  code  unimx)aired. 
That  such  a  disjunction  of  the  parts  of  the  tenth 
commandment  is  wholly  unauthorized  and  vio¬ 
lent,  will  be  evident  upon  a  comparison  of  the 
text  as  it  stands  in  Exodus  with  that  oj.  Deu¬ 
teronomy.  In  the  one  the  coveting  of  a  “  house” 
occurs  before  the  coveting  of  a  “  wife  whereas 
in  the  other  the  order  is  reversed,  and  “  house” 
occurs  after  ‘  ‘  wife.”  If,  then,  the  Papal  division 
were  well  founded,  the  ninth  commandment  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  one  reading  would  be,  “  Thou 
shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor’s  house,"  and  ac- 
cording  to  the  other,  “  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy 
neighbor’s  wife."  Such  a  diversity,  it  appears 
from  Hallett’s  “  Notes  on  Scripture  Texts,”  ac¬ 
tually  exists  in  some  of  the  Catechisms  and 
Manuals  of  the  Koman  Church.  Bush. 


TWO  COPIES  OF  THE  TEN  WORDS. 


147 


Two  Copies  of  ihe  Decalogue. 

In  addition  to  the  copy  af  ihe  Decalogue  in  Ex. 
20,  which  is  evidently  tbe  original  and  authentic 
one,  we  have  a  second,  and  in  some  respects  a 
different  cop3%  in  De.  5.  The  differences  are 
merely  formal  and  for  the  most  part  imma¬ 
terial.  K. 

In  De.  5  :  7-21,  we  find  e  tepeiition  of  ihe  Ten 
Commandments.  On  these,  as  the  basis  of  the 
covenant,  the  whole  legislation  rests,  and  there¬ 
fore  a  rehearsal  of  them  is  a  fitting  introduction 
to  a  repetition  and  enforcement  of  the  Laws  of 
the  Theocracy.  Some  differences  appear  be¬ 
tween  the  statement  of  the  “  ten  words,”  as 
given  here  and  as  given  in  Ex.  20.  It  is  chiefly 
in  the  fourth  commandment  that  these  are  to 
be  found.  It  begins  here  with  “  remember” 
for  “  keep  reference  is  made  to  the  command 
of  God  as  sanctioning  the  Sabbath,  which  is 
omitted  in  Exodus  ;  a  fuller  description  of  the 
animals  to  be  exempted  from  work  on  that  day 
is  given  ;  the  words,  “  that  thy  manservant  and 
thy  maidservant  may  rest  as  well  as  thou,”  are 
added  ;  and  in  place  of  a  reference  to  the  rest¬ 
ing  of  God  after  the  Creation  as  the  ground  of 
the  Sabbath  institute,  as  in  Exodus,  there  is  a 
reference  to  the  deliverance  of  the  Israelites 
out  of  bondage  in  Egj^pt  as  a  reason  wLy  the 
Lord  commanded  them  to  keep  the  Sabbath 
day.  In  the  fifth  commandment  there  are  two 
additions  here— the  one  of  the  words,  “  as  Je¬ 
hovah  thy  God  hath  commanded  thee,”  and  the 
other  of  the  words,  “  that  it  may  go  well  with 
thee.”  In  the  tenth  commandment  the  first 
two  clauses  are  transposed,  “  desire”  appears 
in  place  of  “  covet  ”  in  relation  to  wife,”  and 
“  field  ”  is  added  to  the  specification  of  objects. 
These  differences  are  of  little  moment.  The 
only  one  demanding  notice  is  that  in  the  fourth 
commandment,  where  different  reasons  are  as¬ 
signed  for  the  ordinance  of  the  Sabbath.  The 
two  reasons  assigned,  however,  are  perfectly 
compatible  ;  the  one  is  fundamental  and  uni¬ 
versally  ai3plicable,  the  other  is  subsidiary  and, 
special -in  its  application  ;  the  one  is  a  reason 
why  the  Sabbath  was  originally  instituted  and 
is  for  all  men,  the  other  is  a  reason  why  it  was 
speciall}’’  and  formally  instituted  in  Israel  and 
was  especially  memorable  to  that  people.  In  a 
popular  address  to  them  it  seems  fitting  that 
the  latter  rather  than  the  former  should  be  the 
one  adduced.  As  a  memorial  of  their  deliver¬ 
ance  from  Egypt,  the  Sabbath  was  all  impor¬ 
tant  to  them,  for  by  it  they  were  constantly  re¬ 
minded  that they  were  thereby  freed  from  the 
dominion  of  the  world  to  be  a  peculiar  posses¬ 
sion  of  Jehovah,  and  so  amid  the  toil  and  trouble 


of  the  world  had  part  in  the  holy  rest  of  their 

God.”  Baum. - It  was  also  fitting  in  a  reca- 

j)itulatory  address  that  special  emphasis  should 
be  laid  on  the  fact  that  what  the  Law  enunci 
ated  was  what  “the  Lord  had  commanded.” 
The  addition  of  “  field  ”  in  the  tenth  com¬ 
mandment  is  probably  due  to  the  fact  that  now, 
the  occupation  and  division  of  the  land  having 
begun,  the  j)eople  were  about  to  have  what  they 
had  not  before — each  his  own  property  in  land. 
In  the  tenth  commandment,  also,  there  is  a  dif¬ 
ference  in  the  two  accounts  worthy  of  notice. 
In  Deuteronomy  “  field  ”  is  added  to  the  enu¬ 
meration  of  objects  not  to  be  coveted,  and  the 
“  wife”  is  J3ut  first  and  apart,  while  in  Exodus 
the  “  house’  ’  precedes  the  ‘  ‘  wife,  ’  ’  and  the  lat¬ 
ter  ranks  with  the  rest.  In  Deuteronomy  also 
this  separation  of  the  wife  is  emphasized  b}^  a 
change  of  the  verb  :  Neither  shall  ihou  desire 
thy  neighbor's  wfe,  7ieilher  shall  ihou  covet  ihy 
neighbor's  house."  W.  L.  A. 

A  mere  annalist  would  naturally  repeat  these 
laws  verbatim,  as  first  pronounced  on  Sinai. 
But  Moses  was  God’s  own  lawgiver,  filled  with 
the  Spirit  of  God  to  complete  a  code  already"  be¬ 
gun.  And  hence,  in  his  case  alone,  there  might 
be  weighty  reasons  for  some  partial  change  in  the 
way  of  expansion  or  comment  when  the  Deca¬ 
logue  was  republished.  In  the  preface  and  the 
first  three  commands  where  the  first  person  is 
used,  the  repetition  is  exact.  But  in  the  fourth 
and  fifth  commandments  Moses  speaks  as  the 
Lawgiver,  and  renews  them  both  with  Divine 
authority,  adding  that  significant  clause,  “  as 
the  Lord  thy  God  commanded  thee.”  A  fresh 
reason  is  now  given  for  the  observance  of  the 
Sabbath,  from  the  great  deliverance  and  re¬ 
demption  which  God  had  wrought  for  his  peo¬ 
ple  Israel.  Such  a  change  is  quite  natural,  and 
adds  to  the  force  of  this  repetition  of  the  Deca¬ 
logue,  transferring  the  command  from  past  time 
to  time  present,  when  the  speaker  is  God’s  own 
inspired  messenger,  the  dying  Lawgiver  of  his 
people.  Instead  of  a  mere  record  of  what  had 
occurred  forty  years  before,  it  now  becomes  a 
present  voice  of  authority  from  the  living  God 
to  his  own  loeople.  And  nothing  else  than  the 
high  dignity  of  Moses  as  the  mediator  of  the 
Old  Covenant  can  fully  explain  this  transition 
from  the  simple  annalist  to  the  voice  of  authority 
and  the  tones  of  the  Legislator,  so  that  the 
change  increases  and  renews  the  impressiveness 
without  impairing  the  authority  of  the  original 
message.  Birks. 

Negative  or  Prohibitory  Form  of  the  Precepts. 

The  predominantly  negative  character  is 


148 


SECTION  105.  MORAL  LAW. 


rather  a  testimony  to  their  deep  spiritual  im¬ 
port,  as  confronting  at  every  point  the  deprav¬ 
ity  and  sinfulness  of  the  human  heart.  The 
Israelites  then,  as  professing  believers  now,  ad¬ 
mitted  by  Divine  grace  into  a  covenant  relation 
to  God,  and  made  heirs  of  his  blessed  inheri¬ 
tance,  should  have  been  disposed  of  themselves 
to  love  and  serve  God  ;  they  should  not  even 
have  needed  the  stringent  precepts  and  binding 
obligations  of  law  to  do  so.  But  as  a  solemn 
proof  and  testimony  how  much  the  reverse  was 
the  case,  the  Law  was  thrown  chiefly  into  the 
prohibitory  form  :  “  Thou  shalt  not  do  this  or 
that  as  much  as  to  say,  Thou  art  of  thyself 
ready  to  do  it — this  is  the  native  bent  of  thy  in¬ 
clination — but  it  must  be  restrained,  and  things 
of  a  contrary  nature  sought  after  and  performed. 

In  itself  the  Law  was  simply  the  revelation 
of  God’s  holiness,  with  its  circle  of  demands 
upon  the  faith,  love,  and  obedience  of  his  peo- 
jdIo  :  it  testified  of  what  was  in  his  heart  as  the 
invisible  Head  of  the  kingdom,  in  respect  to  the 
character  and  conduct  of  those  who  should  be 
its  members.  But  the  testimony  it  thus  deliv¬ 
ered  for  him  necessarily  involved  a  testimony 
against  them,  because  of  the  innate  tendency  to 
corruption  which  existed  in  their  bosoms.  And 
this  incidental  testimony  against  the  sinfulness 
of  the  people — which  is,  at  the  same  time,  an 
evidence  of  the  Law’s  inherent  spirituality  and 
goodness  -has  its  reflection  in  the  very  form  of 
the  precepts  in  which  it  is  contained.  .  .  .  It  is 
also  to  be  noted  that  the  negative  commands 
include  in  them  the  injunction  of  the  contrary 
duties,  and  the  positive  commands  the  prohibi¬ 
tion  of  the  contrary  sins,  so  that  in  each  there 
is  something  required  as  well  as  forbidden. 
Further,  the  precept  which  forbids  the  external 
acts  of  sin,  forbids  likewdse  the  inward  desires 
and  motions  of  sin  in  the  heart  ;  so  also  the 
precept  wdiich  commands  the  external  acts  of 
duty,  requires  at  the  same  time  the  inward  feel¬ 
ings  and  principles  of  holiness,  of  which  the 
external  acts  could  only  be  the  fitting  expres¬ 
sion.  P.  F. 

Character  and  Perpetuity  of  the  Moral  Law. 

The  Jew’s  had  three  sorts  of  law’.  They  had 
the  moral  law,  the  ceremonial  law,  and  the  civil 
law.  The  civil  law  existed  for  a  time  ;  its 
principles,  as  far  as  they  are  moral,  relate  to  all 
time.  The  ceremonial  law  lasted  till  Christ,  its 
end  and  its  object,  came.  But  the  moral  law, 
like  the  God  that  announced  it,  is  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  forever.  This  law  W’as 
not  invented  on  Mount  Sinai,  but  only  enunci¬ 
ated  there.  It  w’as  ever  true  ;  it  is  now  true  ; 


and  it  ever  will  be  true.  God’s  enunciation  of 
it  on  Mount  Sinai  w'as  an  act  of  mercy  in  letting 
his  creatures  know  what  was  the  precise  exac¬ 
tion  of  his  will,  and  what  would  be  the  highest 
conformity  to  that  W’ill,  if  the  commands  in 
stone  could  be  transferred  to  the  heart,  and  be 
made  actual  and  real  in  the  life  and  the  exjDeri- 
ence  of  mankind.  J.  C. - The  moral  law,  ex¬ 

pressed  briefly  in  the  Ten  Commandments,  is 
that  part  of  the  Law  of  Moses  which  is  binding 
upon  all  men,  and  at  all  times.  It  contains  a 
brief  view  of  what  is  ever  and  unchangeably 
right — right  in  the  eyes  of  God,  and  right  for 
man  to  do  ;  it  is  the  Law  that  should  be  en¬ 
graven  upon  every  heart  ;  it  should  ever  be  the 
standard  of  duty  ;  and  every  man’s  prayer  should 
be  that  his  heart  “  may  be  inclined  to  keep  it 

alway,  even  to  the  end.”  W.  G.  B. - Though 

the  Mosaic  dispensation  be  now  at  an  end,  yet 
concerning  these  moral  precepts  of  it,  our  Sav¬ 
iour  declares,  that“  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in 
no  wise  pass  from  the  law’,  till  all  be  fulfilled  ” 
(Matt.  5  : 18).  Accordingly  w’e  find  both  him 
and  his  apostles  quoting  these  Ten  Command¬ 
ments  as  matter  of  perpetual  obligation  to  Chris¬ 
tians  ;  who  are  now,  as  the  Jews  w’ere  formerly, 
“  the  Israel  of  God.”  Ahp.  Seeker. 

In  every  mode  of  incidental  allusion,  and  of 
the  most  solemn  and  formal  authentication, 
Christ,  in  the  exercise  of  his  public  ministry, 
recognized  the  Decalogue,  and  also  the  summary 
of  it,  in  two  great  commandments,  as  the  Law’ 
of  God.  Christ,  the  Light  of  the  w’orld,  and 
the  Author  of  a  spiritual  religion  for  all  nations, 
to  the  end  of  time,  Christ,  whose  word  is  our 
warrant,  and  it  is  our  only  warrant  for  the  hoiie 
of  immortality,  establishes  his  mission,  and  he 
expressly  founds  his  religion  upon  the  Mosaic 
revelation  at  large  ;  and  he  does  so  in  an  em¬ 
phatic  manner  ujion  the  Sinaitic  Decalogue.' 

'  He  takes  this  Law  as  the  very  ground  of  that 
higher  and  more  spiritual  interpretation  which 
an  intimate  moral  code  demands.  The  several 
occasions  on  which  he  does  this  at  once  authen¬ 
ticate  the  Mosaic  Canon,  and  expand  its  letter 
so  as  to  send  it  in  to  govern  the  thoughts  and 

intents  of  the  heart.  I.  T. - Only  one  Law 

and  Testimony  W’as  ever  referred  to  by  our 
Lord  ;  one  Law  of  Love  (Lev.  19  :  18  ;  De. 
6  :  5).  Christ’s  words  illuminated  the  unity  and 
Mosaic  authorship  of  the  whole  when  he  said, 
“  On  these  tw’o  commandments  hang  all  the 
law  and  the  prophets.”  He  never  quoted  any 
other  code  nor  referred  to  any  other  lawgiver 
than  Moses.  Neither  did  his  disciples  nor  the 
apostles.  “  Master,  Moses  said”  (Matt.  22  :  24)  ; 
“  Master,  Moses  wrote  to  us”  (Luke  20  :28)  ; 


ITS  CHARACTER  AND  PERPETUITY. 


141} 


“  This  is  that  Moses  in  the  wilderness,  who  re¬ 
ceived  the  living  oracles  to  give  nnto  us”  (Acts 
7  :  37).  Chttver. - Even  if  there  were  no  Pen¬ 

tateuch  in  existence,  the  fact  of  the  giving  (f  the 
Law  at  Sinai  through  the  mtdiuiion  of  Moses  would 
be  more  firmly  established  than  any  other  fact 
of  ancient  history.  An  event  which  has  struck 
such  deep  roots  in  the  consciousness  of  a  nation 
as  the  giving  of  the  Law  at  Sinai  rests  upon  as 
sure  a  foundation  as  the  existence  of  the  nation 
itself.  To  establish  this  conclusion,  we  do  not 
even  need  the  line  of  testimony  which  we  act¬ 
ually  possess,  and  which  reaches  back  to  the 
very  earliest  antiquity  of  the  nation  of  Israel.  K. 

The  Laws  of  the  Ten  Commandments  stood  out 
from  all  the  other  precepts  enjoined  under  the 
ministration  of  Moses,  and  were  intended  to 
form  a  full  and  comprehensive  exhibition  of  the 
righteousness  of  the  Law,  in  its  strict  and  proper 
sense.  No  doubt  many  of  the  other  precepts 
teach  substantially  what  these  commandments 
did,  or  contain  statements  and  regulations  bear¬ 
ing  some  way  upon  their  violation  or  observ¬ 
ance.  But  this  was  not  done  with  the  view  of 
supplying  any  new  or  additional  matter  of  ob¬ 
ligation  ;  it  was  merely  intended  to  explain  their 
real  import,  or  to  give  instructions  how  to  adapt 
to  them  what  might  be  called  the  jurisprudence 
of  the  State.  P.  P. 

Its  two  tables  are  a  standing  declaration  of 
the  true  relation  between  morality  and  religion 
for  all  nations  and  ages.  The  fourth  com¬ 
mandment  is,  in  its  principle,  no  exception  to 
this.  The  Decalogue  belonged  to  the  Israelites, 
not  because  the  truths  expressed  in  it  were  ex¬ 
clusively  theirs,  but  because  it  was  revealed  to 

them  in  a  special  manner.  Clark. - The  very 

order  of  the  precepts  is  suggestive.  First  come 
our  duties  to  God,  and  then  those  to  our  fellow- 
men.  As  in  the  Lord’s  Prayer  we  are  taught 
to  think  first  of  God’s  name  and  kingdom,  be¬ 
fore  we  ask  anything  for  ourselves,  so  in  the 
Decalogue  our  obligations  toward  God  are  first 
set  before  us,  and  then  those  under  which  we 
lie  to  our  fellow-men.  The  earliest  thing  to  be 
sought  by  any  one  is  to  be  right  with  God,  and 
that  will  bring  him  into  harmony  with  men. 
Beligion  is  the  foundation  of  morality.  The 
first  table  of  the  Law  is  the  root  and  trunk  of 
the  tree  ;  the  second  is  the  outbranching,  efflor¬ 
escence,  and  fruitage  thereof.  W.  M.  T. - No 

theory  of  morals  is  built  upon  the  deepest 
foundation  which  does  not  recognize  the  final 
ground  of  the  obligation  of  duty  in  the  voice  of 
God.  Duty  is  dehitum — debt.  Who  is  the  credi¬ 
tor  ?  Myself  ?  An  impersonal  law  ?  Society  ? 
No,  God.  The  practice  of  morality  depends, 


like  its  theory,  on  religion.  In  the  long  run, 
and  on  the  wide  scale,  nations  and  periods 
which  have  lost  the  latter  will  not  long  keep  the 
former  in  any  vigor  or  purity.  He  who  begins 
by  erasing  the  first  commandment  will  sooner 
or  later  make  a  clean  sweep  of  all  the  ten.  And, 
on  the  other  hand,  wherever  there  is  true  wor¬ 
ship  of  the  one  God,  there  all  fair  charities  be¬ 
tween  man  and  man  will  flourish  and  fruit. 
The  two  tables  are  one  law.  Duties  to  God 
come  first,  and  those  to  man,  who  is  made  in 
the  image  of  God,  flow  from  these.  A.  M. 

By  every  precaution  against  their  destruction 
and  by  every  honor  which  could  be  paid  to 
them,  God  seemed  to  intimate  what  a  peculiar 
value  was  to  be  attached  to  this  central  code  of 
duty  ;  as  though  he  would  imprint  on  Isiael  and 
on  us  this  great  truth,  that  no  rites  of  worship 
and  no  statutes  of  civil  jurisprudence  are  of 
worth  in  his  eyes  unless,  at  the  heart  of  them 
all,  there  lie  enshrined  and  observed  the  great 
maxims  of  spiritual  religion  and  of  everlasting 
rectitude.  It  is  morality  which  must  lie  at  the 
basis  of  national  order  and  prosperity.  It  is  re¬ 
ligion  which  must  form  a  foundation  for  national 
morals.  Both  religion  and  morality  must  live 
as  the  informing  soul  at  the  centre  of  a  nation’s 
institutes,  if  the  nation  is  to  possess  true  vital¬ 
ity.  Are  not  these  the  lessons  taught  by  the 
very  history  of  the  Decalogue,  and  by  its  posi¬ 
tion  in  the  statute  books  of  Israel  ?  Dykes. 

It  was  the  boast  of  Josephus,  that  whereas 
other  legislators  had  made  religion  to  be  a  i^art 
of  virtue,  Moses  had  made  virtue  to  be  a  j^art  of 
religion.  Of  this,  among  all  other  indications, 
the  Ten  Commandments  are  the  most  remark¬ 
able  and  enduring  example.  Delivered  with 
every  solemnity  of  which  place  and  time  could 
admit,  treasured  up  with  every  sanctity  which 
religion  could  confer,  within  the  holiest  shrine 
of  the  holiest  of  the  holy  places — more  sacred 
than  altar  of  sacrifice  or  altar  of  incense — they 
yet  contain  almost  nothing  of  local  or  cere¬ 
monial  injunction.  The  words  were  “written 
by  the  finger  of  God,”  but  the  tables  were 
not  less  surely  fragments  hewn  out  of  the  rock 
of  Horeb.  Hard,  stiff,  abrupt  as  the  cliffs  from 
which  they  were  taken,  they  remain  as  the  firm, 
unyielding  basis  on  which  all  true  spiritual  re¬ 
ligion  has  been  built  up  and  sustained.  The 
Ten  Commandments,  in  letter  and  in  spirit, 
represent  to  us,  both  in  fact  and  in  idea,  the 
granite  foundation,  the  immovable  mountain  on 
which  the  world  is  built  up  ;  without  which  all 
theories  of  religion  are  but  as  shifting  and  fleet¬ 
ing  clouds  ;  they  give  us  the  two  homely  funda¬ 
mental  laws,  which  all  subsequent  revelation 


150 


SECTION  105.  MORAL  LAW. 


has  but  confirmed  and  sanctified — the  law  of 
our  duty  toward  God,  and  the  law  of  our  duty 
toward  our  neighbor,  A.  P.  S. 

It  is  a  law  exclusively  religious  and  moral, 
which  only  busies  itself  about  the  duties  of  man 
to  God  and  to  his  fellow-creatures,  and  admits, 
by  its  very  silence,  all  the  varying  forms  of  gov¬ 
ernment  that  the  external  or  internal  State  of 
society  may  seem  to  require.  Characteristic, 
grand,  and  original,  not  to  be  met  with  in  the 
l^rimitive  laws  of  any  other  nascent  state,  and 
an  admirable  and  remarkable  manifestation  of 
the  Divine  origin  of  this  one!  It  is  to  man’s 
natural  and  his  moral  destiny  that  the  Deca¬ 
logue  addresses  itself  ;  it  is  to  guide  man’s  soul 
and  his  inmost  will  that  it  lays  down  rules  ; 
whereas  it  surrenders  his  external,  his  civil  con- 
dition  to  all  the  varying  chances  of  place  and  of 
time.  Another  characteristic  of  this  law  is  not 
less  original  or  less  urgent.  It  places  God,  and 
man’s  duties  toward  God,  at  the  head  and  front 
of  man’s  life  and  man’s  duties  ;  it  unites  inti¬ 
mately  religion  and  morality,  and  regards  them 
as  inseparable.  If  philosophers,  in  studying, 
discriminate  between  them  ;  if  they  seek  in  hu¬ 
man  nature  the  sjiecial  principle  or  principles 
of  morality  ;  if  they  consider  the  latter  by  itself 
and  apart  from  religion,  it  is  the  right  of  science 
to  do  so.  But  still  the  result  is  but  a  scientific 
work,  only  a  partial  dissection  of  man’s  soul, 
addressed  to  only  one  part  of  its  faculties,  and 
holding  no  account  of  the  entirety  and  the  re¬ 
ality  of  the  soul’s  life.  The  human  body,  taken 
as  one  whole,  is  by  nature  at  once  moral  and 
religious  ;  the  moral  law  that  he  finds  in  him¬ 
self  needs  an  author  and  a  judge  ;  and  God  is 
to  him  the  source  and  guarantee,  the  Alpha  and 
Omega  of  morality,  Guhot. 

The  Law  of  God  is  not  a  string  of  precepts  ; 
it  is  a  principle,  a  spirit,  a  unity.  It  encircles 
one  like  a  ring  of  gold.  If  he  steps  over  it  at 
any  point,  he  goes  outside  of  it,  and  is  a  trans¬ 
gressor  as  really  as  though  he  should  break  it  in 
pieces  at  every  point,  J,  P,  T, 

The  Law  is  to  he  regarded  as  a  unity.  It  is  not 
made  up  of  isolated  precepts.  Our  Saviour  de¬ 
clares  that  it  is  summed  up  in  two  command¬ 
ments,  And  the  apostle  reminds  us  that  “  Love 
is  the  fulfilling  of  the  Law  :  ’  love  to  God  the 
root,  and  love  to  man  the  fruit.  Taking  them 
in  order,  the  first  four  require  of  us  a  love  that 
shall  worship  God  alone,  honoring  his  nature, 
revering  his  name,  and  guarding  his  rest  day  for 
his  special  service.  The  six  later  ones  enjoin 
love  to  man,  requiring  loyalty  in  the  home,  re¬ 
straint  in  the  temper,  j^urity  of  the  body,  fidel¬ 
ity  of  the  hand,  government  of  the  tongue,  un¬ 


selfishness  in  the  heart.  What  part  or  power 
of  our  being  is  there  that  is  not  held  in 
the  Law’s  comprehensive  grasp  ?  And  how 
deeply  it  strikes  I  It  is  a  “  critic”  of  the 
thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart.  No  super¬ 
ficial  obedience  can  meet  its  claims.  It  is  not 
difficult  to  see  the  2)urpose  which  it  was  designed 
to  serve.  It  w^as  the  basis  of  Israel’s  national 
life  and  legislation.  It  was  for  the  instruction 
of  the  nations  round  about.  And  though  it  was 
set  on  a  basis  of  redeeming  mercy,  it  was  de¬ 
signed  to  awaken  the  conscience  to  a  sense  of 
sin,  to  take  the  people  to  school,  and  thus  to 
become  their  child-guide  unto  Christ,  It  was 
a  form,  written,  of  that  high,  that  holy,  that 
eternal  law  of  righteousness  which  is  the  same 
for  all  times,  all  places,  and  all  peoples — yea,  of 
that  Law  of  perfect  love  which  the  Divine  Being 
fulfils  in  absolute  perfection,  and  after  which 
he  would  have  his  creatures  conformed,  C,  C. 

If  men  loved  God  supremely,  there  would  be 
no  idolatry  upon  the  earth,  nor  any  of  its  atten¬ 
dant  abominations  ;  no  profaning  of  the  name 
of  God,  nor  making  a  gain  of  godliness  ;  no 
perjuries  nor  hypocrisies,  no  pride  nor  self-com- 
jplacency  under  the  smiles  of  Providence  ;  no 
murmuring,  sullenness,  no  suicide  under  its 
frowns.  Love  would  render  it  men’s  meat  and 
drink  to  obey  God,  and  they  would  take  every¬ 
thing  well  at  his  hands.  And  if  they  loved  their 
fellow-creatures  as  themselves,  there  would  be 
no  wars  between 'nations  ;  no  strifes  between 
neighbors  ;  no  intolerance  nor  persecuting  bit¬ 
terness  in  religion  ;  no  deceit  nor  overreaching 
in  trade  ;  there  would  be  no  murders,  thefts 
nor  robberies  ;  no  cruelty  in  parents  or  mas¬ 
ters  ;  no  ingratitude  nor  disobedience  in  chil¬ 
dren  or  servants  ;  no  unkindness  nor  treachery 
between  friends  ;  no  jealousies  nor  bitter  con¬ 
tentions  in  families — in  short,  none  of  those 
streams  of  death,  one  or  more  of  which  flow 
through  every  vein  of  society,  and  poison  its 
enjoyments,  Andrew  Fuller. 

Its  contents  are  just  what  they  ought  to  be. 
Thej  enjoin  only  wnat  is  right  ;  they  forbid 
only  what  is  wrong.  They  err  neither  in  excess 
nor  in  defect.  No  error  or  incongruity  can  be 
detected  from  beginning  to  end.  The  ground 
that  is  covered  takes  in  all  the  relations  and  in¬ 
terests  of  man,  the  recognition,  the  worship, 
the  reverence,  and  the  proportion  of  time  he 
owes  to  God,  all  relative  duties  arising  from  the 
family,  the  household  and  the  state,  the  regard 
due  to  the  life,  the  domestic  circle,  the  property, 
and  the  good  name  of  one’s  neighbor  ;  and  then 
the  whole  winds  up  with  a  precept  that  shows 
that  thought  as  well  as  speech  and  act  is  in- 


ITS  UNITY  AND  PERFECTION 


151 


eluded  in  the  obligation.  No  modem  theory  of 
practical  ethics  discloses  any  duty  which  is  not 
contained  in  the  Sinaitic  summary.  That  sum¬ 
mary  is  suited  to  all  lands,  all  races,  all  times, 
all  states  of  society.  It  contains  nothing  that 
is  sectional,  or  national,  or  fortuitous,  or  tem- 
l^orary.  It  is  addressed  to  man  as  man  every¬ 
where  and  always.  It  lays  hold  of  Jew  and 
Greek,  Barbarian  and  Scythian,  male  and  fe¬ 
male,  bond  and  free,  high  and  low,  all  nations, 
all  classes  without  exception  ;  for  whatever 
other  differences  obtain,  all  stand  upon  the 
same  footing  as  rational,  responsible  beings, 
and  alike  need  some  authoritative  directory  of 
conduct.  .  .  .  The  perfection  of  the  Decalogue 
ma}’^  be  argued  from  its  manifest  reasonable¬ 
ness.  If  there  be  no  God,  then  religion  does 
not  exist,  and  it  is  folly  to  talk  of  sacred  pre¬ 
cepts  ;  but  if  there  be  a  God,  the  maker  of 
heaven  and  earth,  and  sole  ruler  of  the  children 
of  men,  the  one  in  whom  we  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being,  then  the  duties  prescribed  in 
the  first  table  are  due  unto  him.  Nothing  less 
can  meet  his  exalted  claims.  Every  feeling  of 
propriety  and  gratitude  summons  us  to  render 
to  him  love,  honor,  reverence,  worship,  and 
obedience.  And  so  with  the  other  part  of  the 
Ten  Words.  If  men  be  a  race,  if  they  have 
sprung  from  a  common  ancestor,  if  they  are  of 
one  blood,  if  they  are  linked  together,  not  casu¬ 
ally  or  temporarily,  but  by  a  bond  of  nature, 
then  beyond  question  they  owe  to  each  other 
all  that  the  second  table  enjoins.  They  are 
members  one  of  another,  and  as  such  must  be 
governed  invariably  by  the  law  of  love.  There  is 
nothing  arbitrary  or  capricious  in  any  precept. 
All  spring  from  a  common  source,  and  are  self- 
commended  by  their  bearing  upon  human  wel¬ 
fare.  And  as  far  as  the  Decalogue  is  obeyed  in 
its  spirit,  just  so  far  is  earth  made  to  resemble 
heaven.  .  .  .  The  Decalogue  stauds  alone  in 
the  literature  of  the  world.  Whether  we  go  to 
the  west  or  to  the  farthest  east,  nowhere  is  there 
found  anything  approaching  it  in  correctness 
and  completeness  as  a  standard  of  human  duty. 
All  rivals  fall  short  either  in  excess  or  in  de¬ 
fect.  They  are  vague  or  inaccurate  or  confused. 
They  mingle  the  trivial  with  the  important,  or 
they  confuse  ethics  with  politics  ot  economics. 
They  overlook  the  state  of  the  heart,  and  they 
omit  to  ground  their  precepts  either  in  right 
reason  or  the  will  of  the  supreme  lawgiver.  In 
distinction  from  all  these,  the  Ten  Words  stand 
out  as  a  clean-cut  manual,  resolving  all  duty 
into  its  essential  principles,  stating  these  with 
the  utmost  precision  and  clearness,  and  basing 
them  upon  the  nature  and  perfections  of  the 


ever-living  God.  As  has  well  been  said,  “  There 
is  contained  in  this  short  summary  the  outline 
of  all  treatises  on  morality  and  all  codes  of  jus¬ 
tice.  Not  the  least  blemish  of  any  vicious  or 
barbarous  legislation  is  mingled  with  it.  The 
form  is  Hebrew,  national  ;  but  the  truth  is  as 
broad  as  human  life,  and  fitted  to  the  wants  of 
the  race.  If  we  compare  this  code  with  the  re¬ 
mains  of  other  ancient  peoples,  with  the  code  of 
Menu,  the  sacred  books  of  China,  the  fragments 
of  the  Persian  religion,  there  is  nothing  like 
it.”  Chambers. 

If  these  Ten  Commandments  are  examined 
closely  reasons  will  appear  on  the  face  of  them 
for  their  perpetual  obligation.  Their  binding 
force  comes  not  from  the  fact  that  they  are  en¬ 
actments,  but  from  the  fact  that  they  represent 
duties  that  cannot  be  separated  from  man’s  well¬ 
being,  or  even  from  the  normal  conception  of 
right  and  righteousness.  They  were  before  the 
Mosaic  code,  and  they  will  survive  it,  like  the 
life  that  precedes  organization  and  outlives  it. 
Had  God  not  said,  “  Thou  shalt  have  no  other 
gods  before  me,”  it  would  have  been  sin  to  wor¬ 
ship  any  other  God.  And  so  of  every  other  com¬ 
mand.  The  Sabbath  can  be  traced  back  to 
Eden,  and  was  sanctified  before  any  sin  marred 
the  creation,  and  even  before  ore  prohibition 
was  laid  ujjon  man.  These  laws  need  no  apol¬ 
ogy  or  vindication,  because  the  moral  instinct 
of  mankind  approves  them  as  holy,  just,  and 
good.  We  might  almost  say  that  if  God  had  not 
framed  the  Decalogue,  the  conscience  and  rea¬ 
son  of  man  would  have  demanded  it.  Pierson. 

It  was  not  given  to  give  life.  “  By  the  deeds 
of  the  Law  shall  no  flesh  living  be  justified.” 
It  was  designed  as  a  Divine  revelation  of  man’s 
religious  and  moral  duties,  as  a  perfect  standard 
and  rule  of  obedience,  and  one  of  perpetual  and 
universal  obligation.  For  as  every  precept  of  it 
flows  directly  from  the  unchangeable  perfec¬ 
tions  of  God,  it  must  forever  make  the  same  un¬ 
compromising  demand  upon  the  obedience  of 
its  subjects.  The  ceremonial  statutes  might 
serve  a  temporary  end  and  be  abolished.  But 
the  moral  law  must  necessarily  enter  into  the 
Christian  dispensation,  and  pervade  it  through 
every  period  of  its  existence.  It  will  even  pass 
into  heaven  itself,  and  there  be  the  delight  and 
govern  the  service  of  every  glorified  spirit  and 
ministering  angel.  Bush. 

The  brevity  of  the  Sinaitic  Law,  its  compre¬ 
hensiveness  and  its  spirituality,  its  firm  theistic 
cautions  and  its  ethical  effectiveness — these,  its 
own  qualities,  these,  its  intrinsic  attestations, 
this,  its  proper  force  for  grasping  and  holding 
the  human  conscience — these  qualities,  which 


152 


SECTION  105.  MORAL  LAW. 


are,  indeed,  the  strength  of  the  Law,  given  in 
t3n  j)recepts,  have,  from  that  remote  age  to  this, 
commanded  the  conscience  of  men,  wherever 
the  knowledge  of  it  has  come.  These  Ten 
Words,  true  as  to  their  substance  in  all  worlds, 
and  of  perpetual  force,  as  in  heaven  so  toward 
the  human  family  throughout  all  time— this 
Sinaitic  proclamation — who  is  it  now  that  shall 
dare  spend  upon  it  his  nugatory  criticism  ? 
I.  T. - How  marvellous  is  the  logical  arrange¬ 

ment  !  How  completely  exhaustive  its  require¬ 
ments  !  How  all-searching  its  reach  — leaving 
not  an  act  of  the  life  or  thought  of  the  soul  un¬ 
touched.  Who  can  carefully  study  it  and  not 
see  that  “  a  greater  than  Moses  is  here  ?”  Sim¬ 
ple  in  its  structure,  sublime  in  its  aim,  all- 
embracing  in  its  infinite  sweep,  and  glorious 
in  its  holiness,  it  stands  before  us  as  a  blaz¬ 
ing  mirror,  reflecting  the  attributes  of  God. 
S.  K. 

Nothing  can  be  added  to  it  or  taken  from  it, 
y.o  as  to  make  it  better.  It  is  perfect.  The  first 
commandment  directs  us  to  make  the  Creator 
the  object  of  our  supreme  love  and  reverence. 
This  is  right.  If  he  be  our  creator,  preserver, 
and  supreme  benefactor,  we  ought  to  treat  him, 
and  none  other,  as  such.  The  second  forbids 
idolatry.  The  third  forbids  profaneness.  The 
fourth  finds  a  time  for  religious  worship.  If 
there  be  a  God,  he  ought  surely  to  be  worship¬ 
ped.  It  is  suitable  that  there  should  be  an  out¬ 
ward  homage,  significant  of  our  inward  regard. 
If  God  is  to  be  worshipped,  it  is  proper  that 
some  time  should  be  set  apart  for  that  purpose, 
when  all  may  worship  him  harmoniously  and 
without  interruption.  One  day  in  seven  is  cer¬ 
tainly  not  too  much.  The  fifth  defines  the 
peculiar  duties  arising  from  the  familj^  relations. 
Injuries  to  our  neighbor  are  then  classified  by 
the  moral  law.  They  are  divided  into  offences 
against  life,  chastity,  property,  and  character. 
And,  applying  a  legal  idea,  I  notice  that  the 
greatest  offence  in  each  class  is  expressly  for¬ 
bidden.  Thus,  the  greatest  injury  to  life  is 
murder  ;  to  chastity,  adultery  ;  to  property, 
theft  ;  to  character,  perjury.  Now,  the  greater 
offence  must  include  the  less  of  the  same  kind. 
Murder  must  include  every  injury  to  life  ;  adul¬ 
tery,  every  injury  to  purity,  and  so  of  the  rest. 
And  the  moral  code  is  closed  and  perfected  by 
a  command  forbidding  every  improper  desire  in 
regard  to  our  neighbor. 

Where  did  Moses  get  that  law  ?  I  have  read 
history.  The  Egyptian  and  adjacent  nations 
were  idolaters  ;  so  were  the  Greeks  and  Ho¬ 
mans  ;  and  the  wisest  and  best  Greeks  or  Ho¬ 
mans  never  gave  a  code  of  morals  like  this. 


Where  did  Moses  get  this  Law,  which  surpasses 
the  wisdom  and  philosophy  of  the  most  enlight¬ 
ened  age?  He  lived  at  a  period  comparatively 
barbarous,  but  he  has  given  a  law  in  which  the 
learning  and  sagacity  of  all  subsequent  time  can 
detect  no  flaw.  Where  did  he  get  it  ?  He  could 
not  have  soared  so  high  above  his  age  as  to  have 
devised  it  himself.  It  must  have  come  from 
heaven.  An. 

Worshipping  the  Deity  under  the  image  of 
even  the  lower  creature-forms,  the  religion  of 
Egypt  must  have  been  of  an  essentially  grovel¬ 
ling  tendency,  and  could  scarcely  fail  to  have 
carried  along  with  it  many  foul  excesses  and 
pollutions.  Some  of  the  most  profound  in¬ 
quirers  into  the  religion  of  the  ancients  have 
recently  shown,  on  evidence  the  most  complete, 
that  the  worship  of  ancient  Egypt  was  essen¬ 
tially  of  a  bacchanalian  character,  full  of  lust  and 
revelry  ;  that  its  most  frequented  rites  were  ac¬ 
companied  with  scenes  of  wantonness  and  im¬ 
pure  indulgence  ;  and  that  it  sometimes  gave 
rise  to  enormities  not  fit  to  be  mentioned.  Such 
was  the  atmosphere  in  which  the  Israelites  had 
lived  during  their  abode  in  Egypt  ;  and  it  was 
when  fresh  from  such  a  region  that  the  Law  of 
the  Ten  Commandments  was  proclaimed  in  their 
hearing,  and  given  to  be  enshrined  in  the  inner¬ 
most  recess  of  their  sacred  structure — a  law 
which  unfolds  the  clearest  views  of  God’s  char¬ 
acter  and  service — which  denounces  every  form 
and  species  of  idolatr^”^  as  inconsistent  with  the 
spirituality  of  the  Divine  nature— which  enjoins 
the  purest  worship  and  the  highest  morality, 
and  in  its  very  form  is  a  model  of  perfection 
and  completeness.  Wisdom  of  this  kind  Moses 
could  least  of  all  have  learned  from  the  Egyp¬ 
tians  ;  nor  could  it  have  been  his,  unless  it  had 

descended  to  him  from  above.  P.  F. - Step 

by  step  in  the  space  of  one  thousand  years  the 
whole  world  had  become  utterly  degraded.  As 
men  became  gods,  their  gods  more  and  more 
became  men,  with  all  the  follies,  vices,  and  pas¬ 
sions  of  men.  Thus  the  idolatry  of  Assyria, 
Phoenicia,  Egypt,  had  become  foul  and  odious. 
And  these  were  the  centres  of  the  world’s  civ¬ 
ilization  and  power.  Now,  just  at  the  lowest 
stage  of  this  degradation,  in  every  nation  of 
earth,  as  all  history  testifies,  arises  this  man 
Moses  among  a  band  of  Egyptian  slaves,  and 
sets  forth  to  the  world  a  law  every  way  worthy 
of  the  character  of  God,  as  reason  will  certify. 
Whence,  then,  came  this  Law  ?  From  what  hu¬ 
man  source  could  he  have  gathered  it  in  such  an 
age  ?  There  is  but  one  of  two  solutions  of  the 
wonder  possible— either  the  eternal  God  spake 
it  and  gave  it  to  Moses,  or  Moses  and  his  Law  of 


ITS  RELATION  TO  THE  RITUAL. 


153 


Ten  Commandments  stands  yet  as  the  greatest 
miracle  of  all  history.  S.  R. 

When  we  know  how  early  in  the  world’s  his¬ 
tory  this  Law  was  promulgated,  it  is  very  mar¬ 
vellous  to  find  that  an  infant  nation  should,  at 
starting,  have  a  code  of  moral  law  so  complete, 
yea,  so  elevated,  that  no  other  nation  at  that 
time  presented  anything  like  it,  and  that  even 
now,  thirty-three  hundred  years  afterward,  not 
the  wisest  man  in  the  world  can  suggest  any¬ 
thing  loftier  !  The  kingdoms  of  Babylon,  As¬ 
syria,  Egypt,  have  furnished  us  with  naught  like 
this,  to  say  nothing  of  the  Roman,  Grecian,  and 
Persian  empires,  the  earliest  of  which  was  not 
founded  for  centuries  after.  And  if,  leaving  the 
merely  civil  and  political  side  of  legislation,  we 
ask  for  an  embodiment  of  a  moral  and  religious 
code  on  which  legislation  could  safely  be  based, 
we- do  not  find  aught  to  be  compared  with  this. 
Nor,  if  we  look  at  the  record  of  the  national  life 
of  the  very  people  to  whom  this  Law  was  first 
given,  do  we  find  that  even  they  approximated 
to  conformity  to  it.  In  fact,  nothing  is  more 
marked  in  their  subsequent  literature  than  their 
grievous  departure  from  their  own  standards. 
When  man  makes  any  code  of  laws,  those  laws 
reflect  himself  and  his  own  standard  of  attain¬ 
ment.  But  here  is  a  code  far  beyond  the  at- 
cainment  of  any  yet  recorded  nation.  It  is  not 
necessary,  however,  to  go  to  ancient  nations  to 
show  that  this  Law  betokens  a  higher  than  hu¬ 
man  origin.  Look  at  legislation  now.  Look  at 
the  moral  sentiment  of  peoples  now.  What  is 
theory?  Love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself?  Em¬ 
phatically  no  !  But  “  take  care  of  your  own  in¬ 
terests,  and  let  your  neighbors  look  after  them¬ 
selves  !”  “  Remove  your  neighbor’s  landmark 

as  you  think  well  !”  Why,  if  no  nation  in  the 
world  is  good  enough  to  adopt  the  standard  of 
the  Decalogue,  could  it  have  created  it,  without 
ever  having  had  any  of  its  educating  influence  ? 
And  if  no  nation  now  could  do  it,  how  could 
they  who  were  just  liberated  from  centuries  of 
slavery  ?  But  more  than  this.  This  Law  is  high 
above  the  attainment  of  well-trained  Christian 
congregations.  Let  a  minister  proclaim  the 
mercy  of  God  in  forgiving  sin,  and  his  preach¬ 
ing  may  charm.  Let  him  insist  on  the  demands 
of  God’s  righteousness,  and  while  some  earnest 
holy  souls  will  lay  it  to  heart,  and  humble  them- 
selves  before  God,  many  will  be  offended  at  the 
enforcement  of  righteousness.  This  Law  from 
man  ?  No  !  it  is  too  good  for  that.  When  man 
is  brought  face  to  face  with  its  holy  heart-search- 
.ingness  he  hates  it  !  But  again.  Take  the  most 
advanced  and  holiest  Christian  you  can  find. 
Let  him  stand  in  full  front  of  this  holy  Law — 


and  soon  he  will  be  crying  out,  in  agony,  “  God 
be  merciful  to  me  the  sinner  !”  “  But,”  it  may 

be  said,  “  are  not  Christians  always  preaching 
up  to  a  higher  level  than  that  of  their  attain¬ 
ments  ?”  But  whj"  ?  Because  they  feel  and 
know  that  here  is  a  Law  which  is  infinitely 
above  them,  and  which  proclaims  its  intrinsic 
authority,  and  proves  itself  Divine.  This  Law 
shines  by  its  own  light,  and  is  “  a  lamp  unto 
our  feet  and  a  light  to  our  path.”  C.  C. 

The  Law  and  the  Ceremonial  Institutions  of  the  Old 

Testament. 

The  Law,  perfect  in  its  character  and  perpet¬ 
ual  in  its  obligation,  formed  the  groundwork  of 
all  the  symbolical  services  afterward  imposed  ; 
as  was  distinctly  implied  in  the  place  chosen 
for  its  permanent  position.  For,  as  the  centre 
of  all  Judaism  was  the  Tabernacle,  so  the  centre 
of  this  again  was  the  Law — the  Ark,  which  stood 
enshrined  in  the  Most  Holy  Place,  being  made 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  keeping  the  two  tables 
of  the  covenant.  So  that  the  reflection  could 
hardly  fail  to  force  itself  on  all  considerate  and 
intelligent  worshippers,  that  the  observance  of 
this  Law  was  the  great  end  of  the  religion  then 
established.  And  imperfect  as  those  symboli¬ 
cal  rites  and  services  were,  the  members  of  the 
Old  Covenant  were  still  chiefly  dependent  upon 
them  for  having  the  character  of  the  Divine 
Law  exhibited  to  their  minds,  and  its  demands 
kept  fresh  upon  the  conscience.  It  was  there¬ 
fore  fit  that  they  should  pervade  all  the  more 
important  relations  of  life,  that  the  Israelite 
might  thus  find  something  in  what  he  ordinarily 
saw  and  did — in  the  very  food  he  ate  and  the 
garments  he  wore  —to  remind  him  of  the  Law 
of  his  God,  and  stimulate  him  to  the  cultivation 
of  that  righteousness  which  it  was  his  parar 
mount  duty  to  cherish  and  exemplify. 

Were  these  things  duly  considered,  another 
and  worthier  reason  would  easily  be  discovered 
for  the  occasional  intermingling  of  the  moral 
and  the  ceremonial  parts  of  the  Mosaic  legisla¬ 
tion,  than  what  is  very  commonly  assigned. 
This  did  not  arise  from  a  confounding  of  the 
positive  and  moral,  the  shadowy  and  the  abid¬ 
ing,  as  if  they  stood  upon  the  same  level,  and 
no  distinction  were  recognized  betwixt  them. 
The  position  of  the  Law  of  the  Ten  Command¬ 
ments  in  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  to  saj'  nothing 
of  the  other  marks  of  distinction  belonging  to 
it,  stood  as  a  perpetual  sign  before  the  eyes  of 
the  people,  that  the  things  there  enjoined  held 
immeasurably  the  highest  rank.  It  is,  in  truth, 
the  most  sublime  exaltation  of  the  moral  above 
all  material  symbols  of  revelation,  or  ceremonial 


154 


SECTION  105.  MORAL  LAW. 


forms  of  worship,  to  be  found  in  the  religious 
annals  of  antiquity.  In  heathendom  there  is 
nothing  to  be  compared  with  it,  nor  in  the  after 
history  of  the  covenant  people  is  there  anything 
that  can  justly  be  placed  above  it.  The  elevated 
moral  teaching  of  the  prophets  is  but  the  reflec- 
tion,  or  specific  and  varied  aiDplication,  of  what 
stood  embodied  before  them  in  the  lofty  pattern 
exhibited  in  the  handwriting  of  Moses,  wherein 
the  ceremonial  was  appointed  only  for  the  sake 
of  the  moral,  and  in  a  relation  of  subservience 
to  it,  P.  F. 

Relation  of  the  Law  to  the  Promise. 

The  Old  Testament  Church  had  two  covenants 
connected  with  her  constitution — a  covenant  of 
grace  as  well  as  of  law  ;  and  that  the  covenant  of 
law,  as  it  came  last,  so  it  took  for  granted  the 
provisions  of  the  elder  covenant  of  grace.  It 
was  grafted  upon  this,  and  grew  out  of  it. 
Hence,  in  revealing  the  terms  of  the  legal  cove¬ 
nant,  the  Lord  spake  to  the  Israelites  as  already 
their  God,  from  whom  they  had  received  life  and 
freedom — proclaimed  himself  as  the  God  of 
mercy  as  well  as  of  holiness  — recognized  their 
title  to  the  inheritance  as  his  own  sovereign 
gift  to  them— thus  making  it  clear  to  all,  that 
the  covenant  law  raised  itself  on  the  ground 
of  the  previous  covenant  of  grace,  and  sought 
to  carry  out  this  to  its  legitimate  consequences 
and  proper  fruits.  It  was  to  impart  greater 
solemnity  to  this  revelation  of  righteousness — 
to  give  to  its  calls  of  duty  a  deeper  impression 
and  firmer  hold  upon  the  conscience — to  render 
it  clear  and  palpable  that  the  things  required  in 
it  were  of  most  sure  and  indispensable  obliga¬ 
tion — it  was  for  such  reasons  alone  that  the 
Law,  after  being  proclaimed  from  Sinai,  was 
solemnly  ratified  as  a  covenant  (Ex.  24  : 3-8). 
But  its  having  been  turned  into  a  covenant  did 
not  confer  on  it  a  different  character  from  that 
which  belonged  to  it  as  a  rule  of  life  and  con¬ 
duct,  or  materially  affect  the  results  that  sprang 
either  from  obedience  or  disobedience  to  its  de¬ 
mands  ;  nor  was  any  effect  contemplated  beyond 
that  of  adding  to  its  moral  weight  and  deepen¬ 
ing  its  hold  upon  the  conscience.  And  the  very 
circumstance  of  its  being  ratified  as  a  covenant, 
having  God  in  the  relation  of  a  Bedeemer  for 
one  of  the  contracting  parties,  was  fraught  with 
comfort  and  encouragement  ;  since  an  assur¬ 
ance  was  thus  virtually  given,  that  what  God 
in  the  one  covenant  of  law  required  his  people 
to  do,  he  stood  pledged  in  the  other  covenant 
of  promise  with  his  Divine  help  to  aid  them  in 
performing.  The  blood  of  the  covenant  as 
much  involved  a  Divine  obligation  to  confer  the 


grace  to  obey,  as  it  bound  them  to  render  the 
obedience. 

That  this  also  is  the  order  of  God’s  procedure 
with  men  under  the  Gospel,  nothing  but  the 
most  prejudiced  mind  can  fail  to  perceive. 
Everywhere  does  God  there  present  himself  to 
his  people  as  in  the  first  instance  a  giver  of  life 
and  blessing,  and  only  afterward  as  an  exactor 
of  obedience  to  his  commands.  Their  obedi¬ 
ence,  so  far  from  entitling  to  salvation,  can 
never  be  acceptably  rendered  till  they  have  be¬ 
come  partakers  of  the  blessings  of  salvation. 
These  blessings  are  altogether  of  grace,  and  are 
therefore  received  through  faith.  For  what  is 
faith  but  the  acceptance  of  heaven’s  grant  of 
salvation,  or  a  trusting  in  the  record  in  which 
the  grant  is  conveyed  ?  So  that,  in  the  order  of 
each  man’s  experience,  there  must  be,  as  is  fully 
brought  out  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  first 
a  participation  in  the  mercies  of  God,  and  then 
growing  out  of  this  a  felt  and  constraining  obli¬ 
gation  to  run  the  way  of  God’s  commandments. 
Men  must  first  become  partakers  of  grace 
through  the  channel  of  God’s  own  providing. 
Only  when  they  have  done  this  are  they  in  a 
condition  to  please  and  honor  him.  Not  more 
certainly  is  faith  without  works  dead,  than  all 
works  are  dead  which  do  not  spring  from  the 
living  root  of  faith  already  implanted  in  the 
heart.  P.  F. 

The  Law  a  Schoolmaster,  Leading  to  Christ. 

The  apostle  states  (Gal.  3  : 19)  that  “  the  Law 
teas  added  because  of  transgressions,  till  the  seed 
should  come  to  whom  the  promise  was  made." 
It  was  added  to  the  provisions  secured  in  the 
earlier  covenant  of  promise  because  of  the  dis 
position  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  to  trans¬ 
gress  the  obligations  under  which  they  stood. 
It  had  an  immediate  and  direct  pur23ose  of  re¬ 
straining  the  innate  tendency  to  transgression, 
while  it  might  be  said  to  have  the  further  end  in 
view  of  pre2)aring  the  minds  of  men  for  that 
coming  seed.  It  brought  the  people  into  contact 
with  the  moral  character  of  God,  and  bound 
them  by  covenant  sanctions  and  engagements  to 
make  that  the  standard  after  which  they  should 
endeavor  to  regulate  their  conduct.  But  con¬ 
science,  enlightened  and  aroused  by  the  lofty 
ideal  of  truth  and  duty  thus  presented  to  it, 
became  but  the  more  sensible  of  transgressions 
committed  against  the  righteousness  required. 
Instead  of  being  a  witness  to  which  men  could 
appeal  in  proof  of  their  having  fulfilled  the  high 
ends  for  which  they  have  been  chosen  and  re¬ 
deemed  by  God,  the  Law  rather  did  the  part  of 
an  accuser,  testifying  against  them  of  broken 


A  SCIIOOLJ/ASrBU,  LEADING  TO  CHRIST. 


155 


vows  and  violated  obligations.  A.nd  thus  keep¬ 
ing  perpetually  alive  upon  the  conscience  a 
sense  of  guilt,  it  served  to  awaken  in  the  hearts 
of  those  who  really  understood  its  spiritual 
meaning,  a  feeling  of  the  need,  and  a  longing 
expectation  of  the  coming,  of  him  who  was  to 
bring  in  the  more  perfect  state  of  things,  and 
take  away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  himself.  It 
was  this  feature  of  the  Law  which  the  same 
apostle  had  more  particularly  in  his  eye,  when 
he  described  it  as  a  “  schoolmaster  to  lead  men 
to  Christ,”  shutting  them  up,  by  its  stern  re¬ 
quirements  and  wholesome  discipline,  to  the 
faith  which  was  afterward  to  be  revealed.  And 
the  contrast  which  he  draws  in  2  Cor.  3  between 
the  Law  and  the  Gospel,  proceeds  entirely  upon 
the  same  ground  in  reference  to  the  Law  ;  that 

is,  it  is  viewed  simply  as  a  revelation  of  the  per¬ 
fect  righteousness  of '  God,  and  apart  from  the 
covenant  of  promise  with  which  it  was  con¬ 
nected,  fitted  only  to  inspire  fear,  or  to  bring 
condemnation.  He  therefore  calls  it  the  minis¬ 
tration  of  condemnation,  a  letter  that  killeth,  as 
in  Rom.  7  : 10  he  testifies  of  having  found  it  in 
his  own  experience  to  be  unto  death;  .The 
apostle  does  not  mean  to  say  that  this  was  prop¬ 
erly  the  object  for  which  the  Law  was  given  ; 
but  that  it  was  an  inseparable  effect  attending 

it,  arising  from  the  perfection  of  its  character 
as  a  rule  of  righteousness,  compared  with  the 
manifold  imperfections  and  sins  of  men.  And 
hence  it  only  required  spiritual  minds,  first  to 
make  them  deeply  sensible  of  their  own  guilt, 
and  then  to  awaken  in  them  the  desire  of  some¬ 
thing  higher  and  better  than  was  then  provided 
for  the  true  consolation  of  Israel. 

An  important  connection  thus  arises  between 
the  Law  and  the  Gospel,  and  both  are  seen  to 
hold  respectively  their  proper  places  in  the  order 
of  the  Divine  dispensations.  “  It  is  true,”  as 
Tholuck  has  remarked  with  sound  discrimina¬ 
tion,  “  that  the  New  Testament  speaks  more  of 
grace  than  of  sin  ;  but  did  it  not  on  this  very 
account  presuppose  the  existence  of  the  Old 
Covenant  with  the  Law,  and  a  God  who  is  an 
holy  and  jealous  God,  that  will  not  pass  by 
transgression  and  sin  ?  The  Old  Covenant  was 
framed  for  the  conviction  of  sin,  the  New  for 
the  forgiveness  of  sin.  The  moral  law,  which 
God  has  written  in  indelible  lines  upon  the 
heart  of  every  man,  was  once  also  proclaimed 
with  much  solemnity  from  Sinai,  that  it  might 
be  clear  that  God,  who  appeared  in  fire  and 
flame  as  the  revealer  of  his  holy  Law,  is  the 
same  who  has  imprinted  the  image  of  holiness 
deep  in  the  secret  chambers  of  the  bosom.  Is 
not  Israel,  incessantly  resisting  with  his  stiff 


neck  the  God  of  love,  until  he  has  always  again 
been  reduced  to  subjection  by  the  God  of  fiery 
indignation,  an  image  of  proud  humanity  in  its 
constant  warfare  against  God,  who  seeks  to 
conquer  them  by  anger  and  love  ?”  Hence  the 
order  of  God’s  dispensations  is  substantially 
also  the  order  of  each  man’s  experience.  The 
sinner  must  be  humbled  and  bruised  by  the 
Law  —that  is,  through  the  manifestation  of 
God’s  righteousness,  he  must  have  his  con¬ 
science  aroused  to  a  sense  of  sin — before  he  can 
be  brought  heartily  to  acquiesce  in  the  Gospel 
method  of  salvation.  P.  P. 

Relation  of  the  Christian  to  the  Law. 

When  the  believer  receives  Christ  as  the  Lord 
his  righteousness,  he  is  not  only  justified  by 
grace,  but  he  comes  into  a  state  of  grace,  or  gets 
grace  into  his  heart  as  a  living,  reigning,  gov¬ 
erning  principle  of  life.  What,  however,  is  this 
grace  but  the  Spirit  of  life  in  Christ  Jesus  ? 
And  this  Spirit  is  emphatically  the  Holy  Spirit ; 
holiness  is  the  very  element  of  his  being,  and 
the  essential  Law  of  his  working  ;  every  desire 
he  breathes,  every  feeling  he  awakens,  every 
action  he  disposes  and  enables  us  to  perform,  is 
according  to  godliness.  And  if  only  we  are  suf¬ 
ficiently  possessed  of  this  Spirit,  and  yield  our¬ 
selves  to  his  direction  and  control,  we  no  longer 
need  the  restraint  and  discipline  of  the  Law  ; 
we  are  free  from  it,  because  we  are  superior  to 
it.  Quickened  and  led  by  the  Spirit,  we  of  our¬ 
selves  love  and  do  the  things  which  the  Law 
requires. 

Does  not  nature  itself  teach  substantially  the 
same  lesson  in  its  line  of  things  ?  The  child,  so 
long  as  he  is  a  child,  must  be  subject  to  the  law 
of  his  parents  ;  his  safety  and  well-being  de¬ 
pend  on  his  being  so  ;  he  must  on  every  side 
be  hemmed  in,  checked,  and  stimulated  by  that 
law  of  his  parents,  otherwise  mischief  and  de¬ 
struction  will  infallibly  overtake  him.  But  as 
he  ripens  toward  manhood  he  becomes  freed 
from  this  law,  because  he  no  longer  needs  such 
external  discipline  and  restraint.  He  is  a  law 
to  himself,  putting  away  childish  things,  and 
of  his  own  accord  acting  as  the  parental  author¬ 
ity,  had  he  still  been  subject  to  it,  would  have 
required  and  enforced  him  to  do.  In  a  word, 
the  ndnd  has  become  his  from  which  the  parent¬ 
al  law  proceeded,  and  he  has  consequently  be¬ 
come  independent  of  its  outward  prescriptions. 
And  what  is  it  to  be  under  the  grace  of  God’s 
Spirit,  but  to  have  the  mind  of  God? — the  mind 
of  him  who  gave  the  Law  simply  as  a  revelation 
of  what  was  in  his  heart  respecting  the  holiness 


SECTION  105.  THE  CHRISTIAN  AND  THE  LAW. 


15  G 

of  his  people.  So  that  the  more  they  have  of 
the  one,  the  less  obviously  they  need  of  the 
other  ;  and  if  only  they  were  complete  in  the 
grace  of  the  Spirit,  they  should  be  wholly  inde¬ 
pendent  of  the  bonds  and  restrictions  of  the 
Law.  .  .  .  The  Law  would  be  of  no  use  to 
those  really  under  the  Spirit  if  the  work  of  spir¬ 
itual  renovation,  which  his  grace  is  given  to 
effect,  were  perfected  in  us.  But  since  this  is 
far  from  being  the  case — since  imj^erfection  still 
cleaves  to  the  child  of  G<>d,  and  the  flesh,  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  still  wars  against  the 
Spirit,  the  outward  discipline  of  the  Law  can 
never  be  safelj’^  dispensed  with.  Even  Paul  was 
obliged  to  confess  that  he  found  the  flesh  lust¬ 
ing  against  the  Spirit,  and  that  though  he  was 
ever  following  after,  he  was  conscious  of  not 
having  yet  attained  to  the  full  measure  of  grace 
and  excellence  in  Christ.  Therefore,  for  his 
own  quickening  and  direction,  as  well  as  for 
that  of  others,  he  felt  it  needful  to  press  the 
demands  of  law,  and  to  look  to  the  exceeding 
breadth  of  its  requirements. 

Thus  there  are  three  different  respects  in 
which  we  still  need  the  Law  of  God  :  (1)  To  keep 
us  under  grace,  as  the  source  of  all  our  security 
and  blessing.  This  we  are  ever  apt,  through 
the  pride  and  self-confidence  of  the  flesh,  to 
forget,  even  though  we  have  already  in  some 
measure  known  it.  Therefore  the  Law  must  be 
our  schoolmaster,  not  only  to  bring  us  to  Christ 
at  the  beginning  of  a  Christian  life,  but  also 
afterward  to  keep  us  there,  and  force  continu¬ 
ally  back  upon  us  the  conviction  that  we  must 
be  in  all  respects  the  debtors  of  grace.  For 
when  we  see  what  a  spirituality  and  breadth  is 
in  the  Law  of  God,  how  it  extends  to  the 
thoughts  and  affections  of  the  heart  as  well  as 
to  our  words  and  actions,  and  demands,  in  re¬ 
gard  to  all,  the  exercise  of  an  unswerving  de¬ 
voted  love,  then  we  are  made  to  feel  that  the 
Law,  if  trusted  in  as  a  ground  of  confidence, 
must  still  work  wrath,  and  that,  convinced  by 
it  as  transgressors,  we  must  betake  for  all  peace 


and  consolation  to  the  grace  of  Christ.  Here 
alone,  in  his  atonement,  can  we  find  satisfaction 
to  our  consciences  ;  and  here  alone  also,  in  the 
strengthening  aid  of  his  Spirit,  the  ability  to  do 
the  things  which  the  Law  requires.  (2)  The 
Law,  again,  is  needed  to  restrain  and  hold  us 
back  from  sins  which  we  might  be  inclined  to 
commit.  It  is  true  that  in  one  who  is  reallv  a 
subject  of  grace  there  can  be  no  habitual  incli¬ 
nation  to  live  in  sin  ;  for  he  is  God’s  workman¬ 
ship  in  Christ  Jesus,  created  in  him  unto  good 
works.  But  the  temptations  of  the  world,  and 
the  devices  of  the  spiritual  adversary,  may  often 
be  too  much  for  any  measure  of  grace  he  has 
already  received,  successfully  to  resist  ;  he  may 
want  in  certain  circumstances  the  willing  and 
faithful  mind  either  to  withstand  evil  or  to 
prosecute  as  he  should  the  path  of  righteous¬ 
ness  ;  and  therefore  the  Law  is  still  placed  be¬ 
fore  him  by  the  Spirit,  with  its  stern  prohibi¬ 
tions  and  awful  threatenings  to  move  with  fear, 
whenever  love  fails  to  prompt  and  influence  the 
heart.  Thus  even  the  Apostle  Paul,  with  all  his 
zeal  and  devotedness  to  the  cairse  of  Christ, 
finds  it  necessary  to  place  before  his  view  the 
dreadful  possibility  of  his  so  far  failing  in  duty 
as  to  become  a  castaway.  (3)  And  the  Law  is 
yet  again  needed  to  present  continually  before 
the  eye  of  the  mind  a  clear  representation  of 
the  righteousness  which,  through  the  grace  of 
the  Spirit,  believers  should  be  ever  striving  to 
attain.  While  that  grace  is  still  imperfect,  they 
are  necessarily  in  danger  of  entertaining  low 
and  defective  views  of  duty  ;  nay,  in  times  of 
peculiar  temptation  or  undue  excitement,  they 
might  even  mistake  the  motions  of  the  flesh  for 
the  promptings  of  the  Spirit,  and  under  the 
guise  of  truth  embrace  the  way  of  error.  But 
the  Law  stands  before  them,  with  its  revelation 
of  righteousness,  as  a  faithful  and  resplendent 
mirror,  in  which  they  may  behold,  without  any 
danger  of  delusion  or  mistake,  the  perfect  image 
of  that  excellence  which  they  should  be  ever 
yielding  to  God.  P.  F. 


From  the  first,  the  great  revelation  of  Sinai  was  designed  to  work  in  the  mind  of  the  Hebrew 
a  deeper  conviction  of  his  sinfulness,  and  a  wider  appreciation  of  what  the  Divine  holiness 
required  of  him.  It  was  meant  to  teach  him  that  the  Law  of  God  is  searching,  pure,  and  spirit¬ 
ual  ;  that  it  demands  truth  in  the  inward  parts  ;  and  that  it  is  not  possible  for  unrenewed  human 
nature  perfectly  to  fulfil  it.  It  was  meant  to  bring  home  to  his  conscience  the  sense  of  failure 
to  stimulate  his  trust  in  God’s  mercy,  and  to  educate  him  for  the  advent  of  a  religion  in  which 
external  rules  should  be  interpreted  by  a  Spirit  of  moral  life,  and  the  Law  be  written  no  more  on 
blocks  of  stone,  but  on  the  tablets  of  a  loving  heart.  Dykes. 


So  there  it  stood,  th’s  Law  so  holy,  just,  and  good,  so  brief,  so  plain,  so  self -commending  in 
its  requirements,  so  majestic  in  its  origin — there  it  remained  ;  by  Jehovah’s  finger  written  on  the 


SECTION  106. 


157 


tablets  of  stone  ;  by  Moses  transcribed  in  the  Book  of  the  Covenant  ;  engraven  on  the  minds  of 
the  people  by  the  Koleinnities  of  so  august  a  promulgation.  There  that  Jjaw  remained,  a  revela¬ 
tion  of  its  Author’s  holiness,  a  preacher  of  righteousness,  a  protest  against  the  sins  of  men,  and 
furnishing  a  text  of  tremendous  import  to  every  Elijah  or  Malachi  or  John  the  Baptist  who  came 
enforcing  the  claims  of  God,  and  appealing  to  the  conscience  of  his  countrymen.  There  it  stood 
a  challenge  to  the  world  for  fifteen  centuries,  w'hen  at  last  Christ  came.  Entering  on  his  mission, 
one  of  the  first  things  he  did  was  to  resuscitate  this  Law  and  expound  it  all  anew.  The  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  was  a  sequel  and  a  supplement  to  Sinai  ;  but,  as  befitted  the  dawn  of  a  more  spirit¬ 
ual  era,  there  was  no  cloud  nor  voice  of  trumpet  to  stun  the  soul  and  overwhelm  the  sense  ;  but 
it  was  the  simple  force  of  truth,  the  tremendous  power  of  heart-searching  W'ords — words  pene¬ 
trating  as  Omniscience,  end  weighty  as  unchanging  righteousness.  Then,  as  in  many  others  of 
his  sermons,  the  Lord  Jesus  expounded  the  Decalogue.  From  its  negative  he  printed  off  tie 
positive,  and  showed  how  beautiful  is  the  resultant  holiness,  how  blessed  is  the  soul  thus  brought 
to  harmony  with  God  ;  and  by  something  more  Divine  than  any  rhetoric,  by  the  authority  with 
which  he  spoke,  and  by  his  own  sublime  separateness  from  sin,  he  awakened  in  his  hearers  at 
once  a  wonder  and  a  wisLfulness  :  “  Never  man  spoke  as  this  man.  Oh,  that  I  were  like  him  !” 
Hamilton. 


Section  106. 

MOKAL  LAW  :  THE  PEEFACE  :  FIRST  AND  SECOND  COMMANDMENTS. 


Exodus  20  :  2-6 

Ex.  20  2  I  AM  the  Lord  thy  God,  which 
brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt, 
out  of  the  house  of  bondage. 

3  Thou  shalt  have  none  other  Gods 
before  me. 

4  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  a 
graven  image,  nor  the  likeness  of  any 
form  that  is  in  heaven  above,  or  that 
is  in  the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in 

5  the  water  under  the  earth  :  thou  shalt 
not  bow  down  thyself  unto  them, 
nor  serve  them  :  for  I  the  Lord  thy 
God  am  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the 
iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  chil¬ 
dren,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the 
fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate 

6  me  ;  and  shewing  mercy  unto  thou¬ 
sands,  of  them  that  love  me  and  keep 
my  commandments. 

The  Opening  Words 
Ex.  20  : 2. 

I  am  the  L.or<l  thy  Godo  Heb.  Jehovah 
thine  Elohim.  These  words  may  be  considered 
as  a  preface  to  the  ensuing  commandments,  em¬ 
bracing  a  declaration  of  the  grounds  on  which 
their  authority  rests.  Bush. - The  prepara¬ 

tion  of  the  salvation  of  the  world  by  Israel  in¬ 
evitably  required  as  its  starting-point  the  rev- 


.  De.  5  :  6-10. 

Be.  5  6  T  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  which 

brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage. 

7  Thou  shalt  have  none  other  goda 
before  me. 

8  Thou  shalt  not  make  unto  thee  a 
graven  image,  the  likeness  of  any  form 
that  is  in  heaven  above,  or  that  is  in 
the  earth  beneath,  or  that  is  in  the 

9  water  under  the  earth  :  thou  shalt 
not  bow  down  thyself  unto  them,  nor 
serve  them  ;  for  I  the  Lord  thy  God 
am  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the  in¬ 
iquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  chil¬ 
dren,  and  upon  the  third  and  upon 
the  fourth  generation  of  them  that 

10  hate  me  ;  and  shewing  mercy  unto 
thousands,  of  them  that  love  me  and 
keex>  my  commandments. 

OF  THE  Moral  Law. 

De.  5:6. 

elation  of  this  fundamental  verity,  “  I  am  that 
I  am,”  to  which  the  natural  intelligence  of  man¬ 
kind  could  not  of  itself  attain.  Accordingly 
God,  after  having  revealed  to  Moses  this  sub¬ 
lime  idea,  inscribed  it  on  Mount  Sinai  at  the 
head  of  the  national  law  :  “  I,  Jehovah,  am  thy 
God.”  The  fulfilment  of  the  ancient  promises 


158 


SECTION  106.  MORAL  LAW:  THE  PREFACE. 


made  to  Abraham  by  El  Shaddai,  the  present 
work  entrusted  to  the  ministry  of  Moses,  the 
future  salvation  of  mankind  to  be  effected  by 
Christ,  all  rested  definitively  upon  this  doctrine, 
as  the  entire  building,  from  the  lowest  to  the 
highest  story,  rests  upon  the  foundation  laid 

once  for  all.  Godet. - The  two  grounds  or 

motives  on  which  God  required  the  obedience 
of  the  Jews  are  :  that  He  was  “  the  Lord  their 
God  and  that  He  had  “  brought  them  out  of 
the  house  of  bondage.”  These  reasons  extend 
to  us  Christians,  no  less  if  not  more  than  they 
did  to  the  Jews.  For  we  are  the  “spiritual 
Israel,  and  heirs  of  the  promises.”  He  is  the 
”  Lord  our  God,”  by  a  more  excellent  covenant 
than  he  was  theirs.  He  has  brought  us  out  of 
that  slavery,  of  which  the  Jews’  Egyj)tian  bond¬ 
age  was  but  a  type.  And  he  has  prepared  for 
us  an  inheritance  in  heaven,  in  comparison  of 
which  their  land  of  Canaan  is  of  no  account. 
Abp.  Wake. 

The  ground  and  reason  of  the  Law  is  not  that 
which  underlies  all  natural  law  -the  obligation 
of  man  the  creature  to  God  the  Creator  ;  but  of 
man  redeemed  to  God  the  Redeemer.  ”  I  am 
Jehovah,  thy  God,  who  brought  thee  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt  and  out  of  the  house  of  bond¬ 
age.”  And  seeing  that  ye  are  mine  by  this 
double  right,  and  bound  to  me  by  every  tie  of 
gratitude,  I  ask  this  obedient  service  at  thy 
hands.  S.  R. - The  motive  to  obedience  in¬ 

volved  in  this  miraculous  interposition  is  still 
more  emphatically  dwelt  upon  De  6  : 20-24, 
“  And  when  thy  son  asketh  thee  in  time  to 
come,  saying,  What  mean  the  testimonies,  and 
the  statutes,  and  the  judgments,  which  the  Lord 
our  God  hath  commanded  you  ?  Then  thou 
shalt  say  unto  thy  son,  We  were  Pharaoh’s  bond- 
men  in  Egypt  ;  and  the  Lord  brought  us  out  of 
Egypt  with  a  mighty  hand  :  and  the  Lord 
showed  signs  and  wonders,  great  and  sore,  upon 
Egypt,  upon  Pharaoh,  and  upon  all  his  house¬ 
hold,  before  our  eyes  :  and  he  brought  us  out 
from  thence,  that  he  might  bring  us  in,  to  give 
us  the  land  which  he  sware  unto  our  fathers. 
And  the  Lord  commanded  us  to  do  all  these 
statutes,  to  fear  the  Lord  our  God,  for  our  good 
always,  that  he  might  preserve  us  alive,  as  it  is 

at  this  day.”  Bash. - Even  here,  in  the  Ten 

Words,  grace  is  the  foundation  of  all.  The  pref¬ 
ace  to  the  Decalogue  is  the  gospel  of  the  grace 
of  God.  One  of  the  Rabbinical  questions  on 
this  preface  used  to  be  :  “  Why  did  not  Jehovah 
rather  proclaim  himself  as  Lord  of  heaven  and 
earth?”  It  is  easy  for  us  now,  in  the  light  of 
the  New  Testament,  to  answer  the  question 
which  perplexed  the  rabbis.  It  is  not  the  great¬ 


ness,  but  the  goodness  of  God,  and  specially  his 
redeeming  love,  that  leads  men  to  repentance, 
that  inclines  their  hearts  to  obey  all  the  words 
of  this  Law.  J.  M.  G. 

The  covenant  is  based  upon  a  merciful  deliver¬ 
ance.  God  gives  his  Law  to  his  people  after 
their  deliverance  from  Egyptian  bondage.  It  is 
intended  to  be  a  rule  of  life  for  those  already 
redeemed.  The  Gospel  precedes  the  Law — 
Moses  the  deliverer  precedes  Moses  the  law¬ 
giver  ;  the  Lord  was  first  known  as  the  foun¬ 
tain  of  freedom,  and  then  as  the  fountain  of 
that  Law  within  whose  bounds  freedom  is  to  be 

realized.  Edgar. - God  speaks  to  the  nation 

as  a  whole,  establishing  a  special  relation  be¬ 
tween  himself  and  Ihem,  which  is  founded  on 
his  redeeming  act,  and  is  reciprocal,  requiring 
that  they  should  be  his  people,  as  he  is  their 
God.  The  manifestation  in  act  of  his  power 
and  of  his  lov^e  precedes  the  claim  for  reverence 
and  obedience.  This  is  a  universal  truth.  God 
gives  before  he  asks  us  to  give.  Even  in  the 
system,  which  is  eminently  ‘‘the  Law,”  the 
foundation  is  a  Divine  act  of  deliverance,  and 
only  when  he  has  won  the  people  for  himself 
by  redeeming  them  from  bondage  does  he  call 
on  them  for  obedience.  His  rule  is  built  on 
benefits.  He  urges  no  mere  right  of  the  might¬ 
ier,  nor  cares  for  service  which  is  not  the  glad 
answer  of  gratitude.  The  flashing  flames  which 
ran  as  swift  heralds  before  his  descending 
chariot  wheels,  the  quaking  mountain,  the  long- 
drawn  blasts  of  the  trumpet,  awed  the  gathered 
crowd.  But  the  first  articulate  words  made  a 
tenderer  appeal,  and  sought  to  found  his  right 
to  command  on  his  love,  and  their  duty  to  obey 
on  their  gratitude.  The  great  Gospel  principle, 
that  the  Redeemer  is  the  Lawgiver,  and  the  re¬ 
deemed  are  joyful  subjects  because  their  hearts 
are  touched  with  love,  underlies  the  apparently 
sterner  system  of  the  Old  Testament.  God 
opens  his  heart  first,  and  then  asks  for  theirs. 
A.  M. 

The  Jehovah  of  the  Bible  is  our  Maker  un¬ 
questionably  ;  our  Providence,  too  ;  our  Legis¬ 
lator  and  Rewarder  and  Arbiter.  All  these, 
with  other  characters,  does  he  sustain.  He  sus¬ 
tains  them  to  all  men,  and,  as  common  and  un¬ 
derlying  and  natural,  they  are  everywhere  taken 
for  granted  in  Scripture  ;  but  the  character 
which  is  pecTiliar  to  the  God  of  revelation,  and 
which  it  has  pleased  him  throughout  the  his¬ 
tory  of  revelation  to  sustain  toward  selected 
men,  is  that  of  Deliverer  or  Saviour  from  evil. 
Is  man  in  bondage  ?  Jehovah  sets  him  free.  Is 
man  assailed  by  foes,  visible  and  invisible  ?  Je¬ 
hovah  is  his  defence.  Is  man  sick  in  soul  ?  Je- 


GOD'S  COVENANTING  WORDS. 


159 


bovali  heals  him.  Is  he  under  sentence  of  law  ? 
Jehovah  redeems  him.  Is  he  spiritually  dead  ? 
Jehovah  regenerates.  Whatever  evil,  in  brief, 
his  chosen  people  underlie,  the  history  of  revela¬ 
tion  is  the  history  of  gracious  interposition  for 
rescue  and  deliverance  out  of  it.  “  I  am  thy 
God,  which  have  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage  !”  “  Thou 

shalt  call  his  name  Jesus  :  for  he  shall  save  his 
people  !”  Dykes. 

The  Law  of  God,  in  its  holiness,  justice,  and 
goodness,  is  held  up  to  those  who  have  been 
delivered  from  the  bondage  of  sin — those  who 
have  been  released  from  the  spiritual  Egypt. 
It  is  not  so  held  up  to  the  ungodly — they  can¬ 
not  love  it,  they  cannot  see  its  beauty.  The 
Law  of  God  is  given  as  a  rule  of  life,  not  as  a 
means  of  salvation.  By  the  Lord’s  telling  us 
that  he  has  already  brought  us  out  of  Egypt  and 
bondage,  he  does  not  say  when  he  gives  us  the 
Law,  “  Do  this  and  live,”  but,  “  Since  ye  live, 
do  this  “  Since  my  grace  has  redeemed  you, 
and  you  rejoice  in  the  liberty  of  the  children 
of  God,  use  my  Law,  the  reflection  of  my  per¬ 
fections,  as  your  beloved  guide.”  This  is  the 
position  of  the  Decalogue  to  us.  In  its  love 
and  obedience  it  is  only  for  God’s  Israel  ;  for  the 
rest  it  is  simply  a  monument  of  condemnation, 
a  token  that  they  are  unholy  and  cannot  keep 
it.  The  Law  comes  before  the  Gospel  histori¬ 
cally  and  logically,  but  the  Gospel  comes  before 
the  Law  biographically  and  practically.  The 
Law  is  the  token  and  standard  of  holiness,  but 

the  Gospel  is  the  gate  to  that  holiness.  Crosby. 

» 

The  Opming  Wvvds  God's  Covenanting  Words. 

The  Bible  calls  the  two  stone  tables  the 
“  Tables  of  the  Covenard"  and  the  “  Tables  of  the 
Testimony."  The  words  written  on  those  tables 
are  the  record  and  testimony  of  a  twofold  cov¬ 
enant  between  God  and  his  people,  rather  than 
the  mere  record  of  the  commandments  of  God 
for  the  government  of  his  subjects.  God's  cov¬ 
enanting  w  >rds  are  the  open'ng  words  on  the  stone 
tables  of  the  covenant  which  he  delivered  to 
Moses  on  Mount  Sinai  :  ”  lam  JGiovahthy  God, 
lohich  brought  thee  out  of  the  l%nd  <f  Egypt,  out  of  the 
house  of  bondage."  The  very  name  Jehovah  in¬ 
cludes  the  idea  of  a  covenant-making  and  a  cov¬ 
enant-keeping  God.  The  reference  to  a  deliv¬ 
erance  already  wrought  hy  God  for  his  people  is 
in  itself  a  promise  of  an  abiding  readiness  to 
deliver,  at  any  time  and  always,  out  of  any 
bondage  into  which  those  people  may  be 
brought,  or  may  bring  themselves.  This  is  the 
agreement  of  the  party  of  the  first  part,  in  the 
covenant  which  is  here  made  and  recorded.  And 


all  this  rests,  as  an  agreement,  on  the  perform¬ 
ance,  bj’’  the  party  of  the  second  part,  of  the 
duties  hereinafter  specified  and  promised. 
Then  follows  the  record,  or  the  testimony,  of  the 
specific  duties  devolving  on  the  j)eople  of  God 
in  and  under  this  covenant  of  agreement  be¬ 
tween  God  and  his  people.  The  promise  of 
God  is  responded  to  by  the  implied  promise  of 
his  people.  His  terms  of  agreement  are  met  by 
their  terms  of  agreement.  And  the  twofold  cov¬ 
enant  is  complete,  as  recorded  on  the  stone 
tables  of  the  covenant,  or  the  stone  tables  of  the 
testimony  of  the  covenant. 

That  this  was  the  light  in  which  the  tables  of 
the  covenant  were  viewed  by  ancient  Israel,  all 
the  course  of  the  Bible  narrative  would  g>to 
show.  In  the  first  place,  there  was  a  formal 
acceptance  of  the  terms  of  the  covenant  by  the 
people  of  Israel.  When  Moses  came  down  from 
the  mount,  “  and  told  the  people  all  the  words 
of  the  Lord,  and  all  the  judgments,  ...  all  the 
people  answered  with  one  voice,  and  said.  All 
the  words  which  the  Lord  hath  said  [as  a  con¬ 
dition  of  the  covenant]  will  we  do.”  And  when 
the  first  set  of  stone  tables  were  broken,  other 
tables  like  them  were  prepared,  “  and  the  Lord 
said  unto  Moses,  Write  thou  these  words  :  for 
after  the  tenor  of  these  words  I  have  made  a  cov¬ 
enant  with  thee  and  with  Israel.  .  .  .  And  he 
wrote  upon  the  tables  the  words  of  the  cove¬ 
nant,  the  Ten  Words.”  Then  these  two  “  tables 
of  the  covenant,”  or  “  tables  of  the  testimonj^” 
of  agreement,  were  enclosed  in  a  sacred  casket, 
which  was  known  as  the  “  ark  of  the  covenant,” 
or  the  “  ark  of  the  testimonv  which  was 
thenceforward  guarded  as  the  testimony  and 
proof  of  the  formal  union  between  God  and  his 
people  in  their  covenant  relation. 

To  view  the  words  of  the  Decalogue  as  arbi¬ 
trary  commandments  of  God,  is  to  lose  sight  of 
their  true  place  in  the  relation  of  God  and  his 
people.  To  view  them  as  indicating  the  obliga¬ 
tions  of  that  people  under  the  covenant  which 
secures  to  them  the  abiding  presence  and  favor 
and  protection  of  God,  is  to  bring  them  into 
that  light  where  it  is  seen  that  “  love  is  the  ful¬ 
filment  of  the  Law.”  It  is  not  enough  to  call 
the  opening  words  of  the  record  on  the  tables 
of  the  covenant  “  the  preface  to  the  Ten  Com¬ 
mandments,”  nor  yet  to  count  those  words  a 
portion  of  the  first  commandment.  They  are 
the  covenant  promise  of  Jehovah  to  his  people, 
and  there  is  in  them  the  promise  of  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ— in  Jehovah’s  covenant  assur¬ 
ance  of  redemption  from  spiritual  bondage. 
8.  8.  T. 

Engraved  by  the  special  exertion  of  Omnipo- 


IGO 


SECTION  106.  MORAL  LAW. 


tence  on  slabs  of  rock,  these  “  ten  words”  were 
designed  to  be  imperishable.  Placed  by  Divine 
command  in  the  centre  of  the  most  sacred  of  all 
symbolic  objects,  in  the  most  reverent  and  aw¬ 
ful  situation  within  the  purview  of  Divine  wor¬ 
ship,  beneath  the  mercy-seat,  wdthin  the  ark, 
in  the  Holy  of  Holies,  they  were  thus  certified 
by  God,  through  his  ritual  and  sj’^mbolism,  as 
the  very  centre  and  foundation  of  all  that  re¬ 
lates  to  that  bond  between  man  and  his  Maker, 
which  we  call  religion.  In  the  light  of  all  these 
facts,  the  titles  given  to  the  Decalogue  by  God 
in  the  various  passages  in  which  reference  is 
made  to  it  in  the  general  legislation  are  very 
important.  Taken  together,  they  also  are  unique. 
Nothing  else  in  all  the  circle  of  symbol  or  ser¬ 
vice  or  prophecy  bears  two  titles.  They  are 
“  covenant  ”  and  ”  testimony,”  Both  words  are 
not  uncommon.  But  to  only  one  thing  are  both 
applied  in  common.  The  Decalogue  alone  is 
both  covenant  and  testimony. 

These  two  names  for  the  Decalogue  must  be 
taken  to  illustrate  and  explain  each  other.  The 
testimony  was  a  declaration  from  God  of  some¬ 
thing  on  which  his  covenant  must  rest.  The 
covenant  was  an  assurance  from  God  to  that 
which  answered  his  testimony.  The  substance 
or  matter  of  the  Decalogue,  as  between  God  and 
mankind,  was  God’s  testimony— -his  most  em¬ 
phatic,  solemn,  and  unique  declaration.  As 
between  God  and  those  who  reciprocate  his  dec¬ 
laration  and  conform  to  its  substance,  it  was 
his  covenant.  What,  then,  does  the  testimony 
testify?  What  does  the  covenant  pledge?  It 
testifies  the  Divine  ideal  of  perfect  human  liv¬ 
ing.  It  pledges  Divine  communion  with  such 
an  ideal  in  practice — “  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God.” 
The  administrative  and  ritual  Law  was  added 
because  of  transgression.  There  were  none 
among  mankind  who  answered  to  that  ideal. 
Hence  the  testimony,  by  itself,  cut  off  every 
man  from  the  covenant.  Imperfect  men  — trans¬ 
gressors — had  to  be  dealt  with.  Therefore  the 
ritual  and  statute  I.aw  was  ordained  as  a  school¬ 
master,  to  teach  a  sinful  people  both  to  expect 
the  advent  of  a  Perfect  One,  and  to  comprehend 
how  he  would  help  them,  transgressors  as  they 
were,  to  reach  God’s  ideal,  to  obtain  his  eternal 
adoption.  Israel  knew  that  those  two  stone 
tables  lay  immediately  under  the  mercy-seat. 
The  Church  also  knows  that  her  justification  is 
through  the  ”  righteousness”  and  “  obedience” 
as  well  as  through  the  sacrificial  “blood”  of 
the  Perfect  One,  Jesus  Christ  But  unlike  that 
ritual  iind  administrative  Law,  the  Decalogue 
corresponded  perfectly  with  the  promise.  It 
was  adapted  to  all  nations.  Not  a  tribe  of  men 


is  known  who  have  not  been  able  to  understand 
the  broad  terms  of  its  testimony,  and  to  apply 
it  to  themselves.  As  a  covenant,  it  pledges 
positive  and  absolute  blessedness  to  those  who 
conform  to  it.  Grey. 

First  Five  Commandments. 

The  first  commandment  enjoins  that  God 
shall  bo  worshipped  and  honored  as  the  only 
God  in  the  universe.  The  second  command¬ 
ment  enjoins  that  God’s  worship  and  honor 
shall  be  a  spiritual  worship  and  honor.  The 
third  commandment  enjoins  that  God  shall  he 
worshipped  and  honored  in  sincerity  and  in 
truth  ;  for  the  whole  j^oint  of  that  command¬ 
ment  is  not  that  God’s  name  shall  not  be  taken, 
but  that  it  shall  not  be  taken  insincerely,  or  as 
an  empty  form.  The  fourth  commandment  en¬ 
joins  that  God  shall  be  worshipped  and  honored 
statedly — one  day  in  seven  especially.  The  fifth 
commandment  enjoins  that  God  shall  be  wor¬ 
shipped,  cr  reverenced  and  honored,  in  his  rep¬ 
resentatives  ;  in  the  person  of  all  those  who 
represent  him  in  places  of  rightful  authority. 
And  so  the  first  five  commandments  point  up¬ 
ward  toward  God,  defining  the  scope  and  limits 
of  his  worship  ;  as  the  worshipping  of  him 
solely,  spiritually,  sincerely,  statedly,  substitu- 
tionally  — or  in  the  persons  of  those  who  stand 
for  him.  S.  S.  T. 

The  first  and  second  commandments  enjoin 
the  adoration  of  the  one  true  God,  who  made 
heaven  and  earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them 
is  ;  who  must,  therefore,  be  infinite  in  power 
and  wisdom  and  goodness  ;  the  object  of  ex¬ 
clusive  adoration  ;  of  gratitude  for  every  bless¬ 
ing  we  enjoy  ;  of  fear,  for  he  is  a  jealous  God  ; 
and  of  hope,  for  he  is  merciful.  They  prohibit 
etery  species  of  idolatry,  whether  by  associat¬ 
ing  false  gods  with  the  true  or  worshipping  the 
true  by  symbols  or  images.  Commanding  not 
to  take  the  name  of  God  in  vain,  the  third  pre 
cept  enjoins  the  observance  of  all  outward  re¬ 
spect  for  the  Divine  authority,  as  well  as  the 
cultivation  of  inward  sentiments  and  feelings, 
suited  to  this  outward  reverence  ;  and  it  estab- 
lishes  the  obligations  of  oaths,  and,  by  conse¬ 
quence,  of  all  compacts  and  deliberate  prom¬ 
ises  ;  a  principle,  without  which  the  adminis¬ 
tration  of  laws  \vould  be  impracticable,  and  the 
bonds  of  society  must  be  dissolved.  By  com¬ 
manding  to  keep  holy  the  Sabbath,  as  the  me¬ 
morial  of  the  creation,  the /ou <"//).  precept  estab¬ 
lishes  the  necessity  of  public  worship,  and  of  a 
stated  and  outward  profession  of  the  truths  of 
religion,  as  well  as  of  the  cultivation  of  suitable 
feelings  ;  and  it  enforces  this  by  a  motive,  which 


THE  FIRST  COMMANDMENT. 


161 


is  equally  applicable  to  all  mankind  ;  and  which 
should  have  taught  the  Jew  that  he  ought  to 
consider  all  nations  as  equally  creatures  of  that 
Jehovah  whom  he  himself  adored  ;  equally  sub¬ 
ject  to  His  government,  and  if  sincerely  obedi" 
ent,  equally  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  His 
favor  could  bestow.  Graves. 

Form  of  the  Commandments,  Personal  and 

Negotive. 

Throughout  the  Decalogue  the  address  is 
made  in  the  singular  number.  This  is  to  render 
the  language  in  the  highest  degree  emphatic. 
Every  individual  to  whom  this  Law  comes  is  as 
directly  and  personally  addressed  as  though  it 

had  been  spoken  to  him  alone.  Bash. - In 

the  form  in  which  most  of  them  are  conveyed, 

Thou  shalt  not,”  we  may  perceive  how  God 
through  the  Law  speaks  to  a  sinful  people, 
which  could  render  submission  to  his  will  only 
by  an  inward  struggle  against  its  own.  We  see 
how  the  main  object  of  the  Law  was  to  lead  to 
the  knowledge  of  sin.  At  the  same  time,  the 
task  is  imposed  on  the  people  of  gathering  from 
everything  which  is  forbidden  that  which  is 
commanded.  Gerl. - Where  any  sin  is  forbid¬ 

den,  the  opposite  duty  is  implicitly  enjoined  ; 
and  where  any  duty  is  enjoined,  the  opposite 
sin  is  implicitly  forbidden.  Where  the  highest 
degree  of  anything  evil  is  prohibited,  whatever 
is  faulty  in  the  same  kind,  though  in  a  lower 
degree,  is  b}''  consequence  prohibited.  And 
where  one  instance  of  virtuous  behavior  is  com¬ 
manded,  every  other  that  hath  the  same  nature 
and  the  same  reason  for  it  is  understood  to  be 
commanded  too.  What  we  are  expected  to  ab¬ 
stain  from,  we  are  expected  to  avoid  as  far  as 
we  can  all  temptations  to  it  and  occasions  of  it  ; 
and  what  we  are  expected  to  practise,  we  are 
expected  to  use  all  tit  means  that  may  better 
enable  us  to  practise  it.  All  that  we  are  bound 
to  do  ourselves,  we  are  bound  on  fitting  occa¬ 
sions  to  exhort  and  assist  others  to  do,  when  it 
belongs  to  them  ;  and  all  that  we  are  bound  not 
to  do,  we  are  to  tempt  nobod}'  else  to  do,  but 
keep  them  back  from  it  as  much  as  we  have 
opportunity,  Abp.  Seeker.  * 

The  First  Commandment. 

Ex.  20  :  3.  De.  5  :  7. 

Man  must  have  a  god  ;  but  he  forms  his  own 
god,  and  he  makes  it  a  god  after  his  own  image. 
Instead  of. forming  his  own  character  after  the 
likeness  of  God,  he  would  fashion  a  god  after 
his  own  likeness.  At  a  very  early  age  in  the 
history  of  the  world  there  was  a  tendency  to 
11 


carnalize  the  Divine  character  b}'  representing 
it  in  symbol,  in  brute  symbol,  as  among  the 
ancient  Egyptians  ;  in  the  more  glorious  of  the 
inanimate  works  of  God,  as  among  the  Per¬ 
sians  ;  and  in  images  of  man’s  own  construction, 
as  among  the  majority  of  nations.  The  very' 
beauty  of  the  works  of  God  stole  away  men’s 
minds  from  the  author,  and  they  lifted  up  an 
eye,  first  of  reverence  and  then  of  worship  to 
the  sun  and  moon  and  host  of  heaven,  consid¬ 
ered  by  the  philosophers  as  emanations  of  Deity, 
and  by  the  multitude  as  the  Deities  themselves. 
Others  were  more  impressed  with  the  heroic 
and  the  ancient,  and  deified  the  heroes  of  by¬ 
gone  ages,  the  renowned  warriors  qf  their  coun¬ 
try,  the  promoters  of  the  arts  and  sciences.  So 
strong  was  this  desire  to  bring  down  celestial 
things  to  the  level  of  terrestrial  things,  that  in 
the  Egyptian  mythology  heaven  was  merely  a 
celestial  Egypt,  watered  by  a  celestial  Nile, 
lightened  by  a  celestial  sun,  and  divided  into 
the  same  number  of  gnomes  as  the  earthly  coun- 
tr}',  and  each  of  these  the  peculiar  residence  of 
the  God  worshipped  in  the  corresponding  dis¬ 
trict  of  the  terrestrial  Egyj)t.  .  .  .  “Manilas 
never  failed  to  make  a  God  of  his  own  image, 
and  his  various  religions  have  never  surjiassed 
himself  ;  for,  if  by  these  he  imposes  on  himself 
acts  and  privations  which  he  would  not  other¬ 
wise  impose,  those  toils  which  are  of  his  own 
choice  do  not  raise  him  above  himself.  Hence 
those  religions  do  not  change  the  principles  of 
his  inner  life  ;  they  subject  him  to  an  external 
sway  only  to  leave  him  free  at  heart.”  {Vinet.) 

- Our  ideas  of  God  thus  originating  in  our 

own  hearts  can  never  be  made  to  rise  higher 
than  the  fountain  from  which  they  have  flowed. 
Hence  the  need  of  a  revelation  from  a  higher 
source  to  make  known  a  God,  not  after  the 
image  of  man,  but  a  God  after  whose  image  of 
heavenly  descent  man  may  remodel  his  charac¬ 
ter,  and  thereby  exalt  it  to  a  heavenly  elevation 
and  brightness.  M'  Cosh. 

Man’s  nature  is  religious.  He  instinctively 
worships  some  being,  whom  he  regards  as  God. 
It  is  the  nature  of  religious  worship  to  assimi¬ 
late  the  character  of  the  worshipper  to  that  of 
the  being  worshipped.  The  objects  of  worship, 
everywhere  throughout  the  ancient  world,  were 
corrupt  and  corrupting.  In  order  to  man’s 
moral  improvement,  he  must  have  a  holy  object 
of  worship.  It  is  obviously  impossible  for  an 
imperfect  and  sinful  man  to  originate  the  idea 
of  a  perfect  and  sinless  god.  The  gods  whom 
men  invented  and  set  up  were  as  imperfect  and 
wicked  as  themselves  ;  and  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  they  could  not  be  otherwise.  Moses, 


162 


SECTION  106.  MORAL  LAW. 


on  the  contrary,  revealed  a  holy  and  a  perfect 
God,  How  pure,  how  amiable,  how  sublime, 
how  transcendently  glorious  the  character  with 
which  this  God  is  invested  by  the  Hebrew  law¬ 
giver  !  How  striking  the  contrast  which  his 
sublime  delineation  of  Jehovah  as  the  Maker, 
Proprietor,  and  Sovereign  of  the  universe,  in¬ 
vested  with  every  conceivable  excellence,  pre¬ 
sents  to  the  grovelling  mythology  of  the  most 
enlightened  portions  of  the  ancient  world,  in 
which  the  objects  of  religious  worship  were 
pictured  with  the  passions  and  vices  of  the  fierce 
and  licentious  chieftains  of  the  primitive  ages  ! 
The  publication  of  such  a  theology  in  such  an 
age,  when  polytheism  had  covered  the  earth 
with  the  temples  and  the  altars  of  its  monster 
gods  cannot  be  satisfactorily  accounted  for 
without  allowing,  and  is  satisfactorily  accounted 
for  by  allowing,  the  truth  of  the  Mosaic  history, 
and  the  establishment  of  the  Mosaic  constitu¬ 
tion  by  Divine  authority,  E,  C,  W, 

Heathenism  was  in  all  its  parts  a  nature- 
religion,  the  deification  of  nature  in  its  entire 
compass.  It  saw  in  the  world  and  nature  not 
merely  a  manifestation  of  Godhead,  but  the 
very  essence  and  being  of  nature  were  regarded 
in  it  as  identical  with  the  essence  and  being  of 
Godhead,  and  as  such  thrown  together  :  the 
ultimate  foundation  of  all  heathenism  is  pan¬ 
theism.  Hence  the  idea  of  the  oneness  of  the 
Divine  Being,  though  not  absolutely  lost,  was 
not  that  of  a  personal  existence,  possessing  self- 
consciousness  and  self-determination,  but  an 
impersonal  One,  the  great  It,  a  neuter  abstract, 
the  product  of  mere  speculation,  which  is  at 
once  everything  and  nothing.  Wherever  the 
Deity  appeared  as  a  person,  it  ceased  to  be  one, 
and  resolved  itself  into  an  infinite  multiplicity. 
But  all  these  gods  were  mere  personifications  of 
the  different  powers  of  nature.  From  a  religion 
which  was  so  j)hysical  in  its  fundamental  char¬ 
acter,  there  could  only  be  developed  an  ethics 
which  should  bear  the  hue  and  form  of  the 
physical.  Above  all  that  is  moral  rose  natural 
necessity — fate,  to  which  gods  and  men  were 
alike  subject  ;  the  highest  moral  aim  for  man 
was  to  yield  an  absolute  submission  to  this 
necessity,  and  generally  to  transfuse  himself 
into  nature  as  being  identified  with  Deity,  to 
represent  in  himself  its  life,  and  especially  that 
characteristic  of  it,  perfect  harmony,  conformity 
to  law  and  rule.  The  Mosaic  religion,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  for  its  first  principle  the  one¬ 
ness  and  absolute  spirituality  of  God.  The 
Godhead  is  no  neuter  abstract,  no  It,  but  I  ;  Je¬ 
hovah  is  altogether  a  personal  God.  The  whole 
world,  with  everything  it  contains,  is  his  work, 


the  offspring  of  his  own  free  act,  his  creation. 
Viewed  as  l)y  itself,  this  world  is  nothing  ;  he 
alone  is— absolute  being.  He  is  in  it,  indeed, 
but  not  as  properly  one  with  it  ;  he  is  infinitely 
above  it,  and  can  clothe  himself  with  it  as  with 
a  garment,  or  fold  it  up  and  lay  it  aside  as  he' 
pleases.  Now  this  God,  who  reveals  and  mani¬ 
fests  himself  through  all  creation,  in  carrying 
into  execution  his  purpose  to  save  and  bless  all 
the  families  of  the  earth,  revealed  and  mani¬ 
fested  himself  in  an  especial  manner  to  one  race 
and  people.  The  centre  of  this  revelation  is 
the  word  which  he  spoke  to  Israel  ;  but  this 
word  is  his  Law,  the  expression  of  his  perfect 
holy  will.  The  essential  character,  therefore, 
of  the  special  revelation  of  God  is  holiness.  Its 
substance  is,  “  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy,”  So 
that  the  Mosaic  religion  is  throughout  ethical  ; 
it  always  addresses  itself  to  the  will  of  man,  and 
deals  with  him  as  a  moral  being.  Everything 
that  God  did  for  Israel,  in  the  manifestations  he 
gave  of  himself,  aims  at  this  as  its  final  end, 
that  Israel  should  sanctify  the  name  of  Jehovah, 
and  thereby  be  himself  sanctified.  Bcihr. 

The  idea  of  God,  so  far  from  calling  forth  in 
the  ancient  world  the  idea  of  worship,  ever 
stood  in  antagonism  with  it.  The  idol  was  wor¬ 
shipped  because  he  was  not  God  ;  God  was  not 
worshipped  because  he  was.  One  small  nation 
alone  of  all  antiquity  worshipped  God,  believed 
the  universal  being  to  be  a  personal  being. 
This  whimsical  fancy  of  that  nation,  as  it  ap¬ 
peared  in  the  eyes  of  the  rest,  was  cherished  by 
it  as  the  most  sacred  deposit.  It  was  the  foun¬ 
dation  of  its  laws  and  polity  ;  and  from  this  nar¬ 
row  stock  this  conception  was  engrafted  upon 
the  human  race.  Mozley. 

Tliou  slialt  have  none  other  g^ods 
before  me.  The  same  reasons  which  prove 
that  God  is  prove  that  there  is  but  one  God. 
And  what  reason  teaches  in  this  matter  Scrip¬ 
ture  everywhere  confirms  :  forbidding  us  to 
worship  or  believe  in  any  other  Deitj^  than  the 
one  Maker  and  Ruler  of  heaven  and  earth,  who 
hath  manifested  himself  to  all  men  by  the  works 
of  his  hands  ;  to  the  Patriarchs  and  Jews  in  the 
revelations  recorded  by  Moses  and  the  proph¬ 
ets  ;  and  to  Christians  by  his  Son  our  Lord, 
who,  in  a  way  and  manner  to  us  inconceivable, 
is  one  with  theT’ather,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  with 
both.  Ahp.  Seeker. 

The  first  commandment,  which  concerns  the 
acknowledgment  of  God,  forbids  the  sin  of 
atheists,  who  acknowledge  no  God  ;  the  sin  of 
such  as  serve  false  gods  ;  the  sin  of  such  as 
serve  not  the  true  God  only,  and  aright.  It  also 
enjoins  that  we  acknowledge  but  one  God  ;  that 


THE  FIRST  COMMANDMENT. 


163 


we  have  the  only  true  God  for  our  God  ;  which 
must  appear  by  our  loving,  fearing,  trusting  in 
and  obeying  Him  above  all  others.  Oxford 
Catechism. 

The  commandment  forbids  them  to  have 
any  other  gods  before"  Jehovah — that  is,  not  in 
preference  to—  such  a  height  of  impiety  is  not 
alluded  to— but  in  presence  of  Jehovah,  or  as  it 
is  afterward  expressed,  with  him.  For  false 
worship  began  not  with  the  positive  rejection 
of  the  true  God,  but  by  associating  with  his 
worship  that  of  other  gods  and  their  images  ; 
nay,  even  images  which  professed  to  represent 
Jehovah  himself.  This  was  the  sin  of  Aaron 
in  the  matter  of  the  golden  calf  ;  we  meet  it 
again  and  again  in  the  history  of  Israel.  P.  S. 

The  form  is  negative  ;  the  intent  is  positive. 
They  are  to  know  none  hut  God,  that  they  may 
concentrate  all  their  strength  on  God.  The 
command  is  equivalent  to  this  :  “  Let  all  your 
personal,  family,  social,  national  life  be  regu¬ 
lated  completely  by  the  commandments  of  your 
God.  And  let  this  be  done  from  love.”  “  Is 
this  practicable  ?  Can  a  man  put  forth  all  his 
strength  for  God  when  his  energy  is  absorbed 
in  trade?”  “  Yes  ;  by  regulating  his  business 
rightly,  as  God  wills.”  “  Can  a  mother  put 
forth  all  her  strength  on  loving  God,  when  the 
care  of  her  family  is  taxing  and  even  straining 
all  her  powers  ?”  “  Yes  ;  by  training  her  chil¬ 

dren  for  God.”  And  so  in  each  one  of  life’s 
tasks.  This  is  set  on  grounds  of  tender  ap¬ 
peal.  God  does  not  say.  “  When  you  love  me 
supremely  I  will  redeem  you  from  Egypt  but 
‘‘  I  have  redeemed  you,  therefore  yield  me  your 
all.”  The  religions  of  man  go  out  to  an  unre¬ 
vealed  being,  if  perchance  he  may  be  propiti¬ 
ated.  Scriptural  religion  is  the  response  of  the 
heart  of  man  to  the  revealed  love  of  the  Infinite 
One.  Hence  the  Gospel  claim  is  in  substance 
like  the  Mosaic,  although  its  form  is  new  and 
the  view  we  get  of  Divine  love  is  larger  (Eom. 
12  : 1).  In  both  duty  is  the  same  :  the  whole 
heart  of  man  is  demanded  for  God.  But  note 
the  advance  in  light,  tenderness,  and  strength 
in  “  the  mercies  of  God  the  “  beseeching” 
tone  ;  the  “  consecration  of  a  living  sacrifice” 
asked  ;  the  reason  given,  “  Your  reasonable  ser¬ 
vice.”  Here  is  the  difference  in  the  method  of 
the  Gospel.  C.  C. 

This  first  precept  is  levelled  against  the  allow¬ 
ing  of  anything  else  to  occupy  the  place  in  the 
heart  which  God  should  occupy.  This  com¬ 
mand  may  be  as  really  broken  mentally  as  by 
setting  up  a  physical  image,  or  by  setting  up  as 
an  idol  something  else,  or  by  the  conception  of 
another  being  as  God.  Nor  is  the  sin  of  idol¬ 


atry  any  less  prevalent  in  our  age  than  in  the 
ages  when  men  formally  worshipped  “  gods 
many  and  lords  many.”  The  chief  difference 
between  the  modern  and  the  ancient  idolaters 
is  merely  in  the  different  phase  of  thought  — 
the  ancients  having  a  greater  propensity^  than 
the  moderns  forgiving  theapjorehensions  of  the 
mind  and  the  creations  of  the  imagination  a 

visible  outward  expression.  S.  E. - The  sin 

against  this  commandment  which  ice  are  most 
in  danger  of,  is  giving  the  glory  and  honor  to 
any  creature  v^hich  are  due  to  God  only'.  Pride 
makes  a  god  of  self,  covetousness  makes  a  god 
of  money,  seosuality  makes  a  god  of  the  body  ; 
whatever  is  esteemed  and  loved,  feared  or  served, 
delighted  in  or  depended  on,  more  than  God, 
that  (whatever  it  is)  we  do  in  effect  make  a  god 
of.  This  prohibition  includes  a  precejit  which 
is  the  foundation  of  the  whole  Law,  that  we  take 
the  Lord  for  our  God,  acknowledge  that  he  is 
God,  accept  him  for  ours,  adore  him  with  admi¬ 
ration  and  humble  reverence,  and  set  our  affec¬ 
tions  entirely  upon  him.  H. - Under  this 

prohibition  was  included  every  pretence  to  su¬ 
pernatural  power  of  commerce  with  supernat¬ 
ural  beings,  except  with  God  himself  in  his  own 
ordinances.  Hence  the  severe  laws  against 
witchcraft  and  divination  [of  which  we  speak 
hereafter].  P.  S. 

This  Precept  is  here  Set  in  the  Forefront  of  Israel's 
National  Laws. 

It  was  the  law  for  each  one’s  life.  It  was 
the  rule  for  all.  In  their  legislation,  the  su¬ 
preme  feature  was  to  be  the  national  recognition 
of  God.  And  even  now,  yea  ever,  so  far  as  the 
legislation  of  any'  people  is  based  on  righteous¬ 
ness,  so  far  as  that  legislation  recognizes  the 
rights  of  the  Great  Supreme,  so  far  as  a  people 
are  loyal  to  God,  to  that  extent  will  there  be  the 
surest  guarantee  for  individual,  family,  social, 
and  national  prosperity.  And  it  is  owing  to  the 
supreme  importance  of  thus  launching  into  the 
w'orld  a  nation  with  God  for  its  Lord  and  right- 
eoushess  for  its  law,  that  the  open  transgression 
of  this  first  commandment  was  so  severely  pun¬ 
ished,  as  being  a  crime  against  the  State  as  well 
as  a  sin  against  God.  C.  C. 

The  first  commandment  bears  in  its  negative 
form  marks  of  the  condition  of  the  world  when 
it  was  spoken,  and  of  the  strong  temptation  to 
polytheism  which  the  Israelites  were  to  resist. 
But  tile  monotheism,  which  was  here  laid  at  the 
very  foundation  of  Israel’s  national  life,  parted 
them  by  a  deep  gulf  from  all  the  world,  and 
determined  their  history.  The  prohibition  has 
little  force  for  us  ;  but  the  positive  command 


164 


SECTION  106.  MORAL  LAW. 


which  underlies  it  is  of  eternal  force.  We 
should  rather  think  of  it  as  a  revelation  and  an 
invitation  than  as  a  mere  command.  For  what 
is  it  but  the  declaration  that  at  the  centre  of 
things  is  throned  not  a  rabble  of  godlings,  nor 
a  stony  impersonal  somewhat,  nor  a  hypotheti¬ 
cal  unknowable  entity,  nor  a  shadowy  abstrac¬ 
tion,  but  a  living  Person,  who  can  say  “  me,” 
and  whom  we  can  call  “  Thou,”  and  be  sure 
that  he  hears  ?  No  accumulation  of  finite  ex¬ 
cellencies,  however  fair,  can  satisfy  the  imagi¬ 
nation,  which  feels  after  one  Being,  the  personal 
ideal  of  all  perfectness.  The  understanding 
needs  one  ultimate  Cause  on  which  it  can  rest 
amid  the  dance  of  fleeting  phenomena  ;  the 
heart  cannot  pour  out  its  love  to  be  shared 
among  many.  Only  when  human  nature  finds 
all  in  one,  and  that  one  a  living  person,  the 
Lover  and  Friend  of  all  souls,  does  it  fold  its 
wings  and  rest  as  a  bird  after  long  flight.  The 
first  commandment  enjoins,  or  rather  blesses, 
us  by  showing  us  that  we  may  cherish  supreme 
affection,  worship,  trust,  self-surrender,  aspi¬ 
ration,  toward  one  God.  After  all,  our  God  is 
that  which  w'e  think  roost  precious,  for  which 
we  are  read^^  to  make  the  greatest  sacrifices, 
which  draws  our  warmest  love  ;  which,  lost, 
vmuld  leave  us  desolate  ;  which,  possessed, 
makes  us  blessed.  If  we  search  our  hearts  with 
this  “  caudle  of  the  Lord,”  we  shall  find  many 
an  idol  set  up  in  their  dark  corners,  and  be 
startled  to  discover  how  much  we  need  to  bring 
ourselves  to  be  judged  and  condemned  by  this 
commandment.  It  is  the  foundation  of  all  hu¬ 
man  duty.  Obedience  to  it  is  the  condition  of 
peace  and  blessedness,  light  and  leading  for 
mind,  heart,  will,  affections,  desires,  hopes, 
fears,  and  all  the  world  within,  that  longs  for 
one  living  person  even  when  it  least  knows  the 
meaning  of  its  longings  and  the  reason  of  its 
unrest.  A.  M. 

Man  can  only  conceive  of  the  Personal  Power 
who  rules  above  by  transferring  to  him  the 
noblest,  and  none  but  the  noblest,  features  of 
man’s  own  nature.  The  spirit  in  man  is  nobler 
than  his  body.  God  is  a  Sjririt  not  represent¬ 
able  under  any  bodily  shape.  The  noblest  facul¬ 
ties  of  the  human  spirit  are  these  :  reason,  or 
the  power  to  perceive  truth  ;  conscience,  or  the 
power  to  prefer  and  choose  good  over  evil  ;  and 
free  will,  or  the  power  to  originate  action. 
These,  therefore,  raised  to  an  ideal  height,  we 
ascribe  to  the  Divine  Being.  We  adore  him  as 
Infallible  Reason,  Faultless  Goodness,  and  Ab¬ 
solute  Sovereign  Will  Better  than  this  we  can¬ 
not  do  ;  higher  than  this  we  cannot  go.  Still 
the  question  remains  ;  Are  we  in  all  this  follow¬ 


ing  a  reliable  or  a  delusive  guide  ?  What  is  it 
we  are  doing?  We  are  virtually  finding  an  im¬ 
age  or  reflection  of  our  Maker  within  ourselves. 
Are  we  justified  in  doing  so?  The  question  is 
one  which  marks  the  limit  beyond  which  spec¬ 
ulation  upon  Deity  cannot  go.  No  answer  to  it 
is  to  be  had  from  nature  or  reason.  From  rev¬ 
elation  it  has  received  two  answers  ;  an  answer 
in  word,  when  God  said,  “  Let  Us  make  man  in 
our  likeness  !”  An  answer  in  fact,  when  the 
Son  of  God  was  made  flesh  and  we  beheld  his 
glory.  In  him  we  do  possess  an  image  of  the 
Invisible  Godhead  ;  an  image  human  and  there¬ 
fore  conceivable  ;  yet  not  an  image  material  or 
visible  to  the  senses.  The  flesh  even  of  Jesus 
profiteth  nothing  as  a  representation  of  the 
Divine  Glory.  But  the  Spirit  of  Jesus,  his  words 
that  are  Spirit,  his  acts  that  discover  character, 
his  self-revelation  as  righteous  love— this  is  the 
likeness  of  the  perfect  Godhead.  Having  thus 
an  image  which  we  maj"  lawfully  and  helpfully 
picture  to  our  own  minds,  it  ought  to  be  an 
easy  thing  for  us  to  keep  ourselves  from  idols. 
We,  when  we  draw  nigh  to  worship,  approach 
the  Invisible  and  Incomprehensible  through  the 
Man  Christ  Jesus.  Such  as  w^e  picture  to  our¬ 
selves  the  gracious,  lowly,  and  pure  Son  of 
Mary,  such  is  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  Let  us  humbly  employ,  to  aid  us  in  our 
acts  of  worship,  the  human  character  of  our 
Lord.  Let  us  strive  toward  an  ever  worthier 
conception  of  Jesus  himself.  Dykes. 

The  Second  Commandment. 

Ex.  20  :  4-6.  De.  5  :  8-10. 

Any  graven  image.  All  representations 
of  God  being  false  and  absolutely  contrary  to 
his  true  likeness,  the  worship  paid  by  their 
help  or  in^rvention  is  a  lie,  consequently  an 
abomination  to  him  ;  and  all  actions,  gestures, 
or  postures  bespeaking  religious  worship,  honor, 
or  reverence  to  such  images  is  the  sin  of  idol¬ 
atry.  Wogan. - A  good  man  is  more  an  image 

of  God  than  any  painter  or  engraver  can  make  ; 
but  if  we  give  Divine  honors  to  a  good  man  it 
were  idolatry  ;  therefore  much  more  if  we  give 
it  to  an  image.  Bp.  Taylor. 

To  prevent  every  evasion,  it  is  added,  nor 
the  likeness  of  any  form.  This  com¬ 
mand  had  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  Israel  from  becoming  a  worship  of 
nature,  which  first  honors  God  under  the  form 
of  some  creature,  and  then  loses  in  nature  the 

idea  of  him,  and  itself  altogether.  Gerl. - 

“  The  heaven  above”  refers  to  the  worship  of  the 
stars  and  the  sun  ;  the  earth  beneath,"  to  that 


THE  SECOND  COMMANDMENT. 


1G5 


of  man  and  the  beasts  of  the  field  ;  “  the  waters 
under  the  earth,"'  to  aquatic  animals— all  of  these 
having  reference  to  what  Israel  had  seen  in 
Egypt.  C.  G.  B. 

]¥or  serve  them.  If  they  were  forbidden 
to  make  or  to  acknowledge  by  the  most  casual 
outward  gesture  any  such  images,  much  less 
were  they  to  serve  them,  or  unite  with  those 
that  did,  either  by  offering  sacrifice,  burning  in¬ 
cense,  pouring  out  libations,  making  vows^  building 
altars,  consecrating  temples,  or  any  other  act  of 
equivalent  import.  The  spirit  of  this  second 
commandment,  like  that  of  the  whole  Decalogue, 
is  plainly  “  exceeding  broad,’'  It  is  undoubt¬ 
edly  implied  that  in  paying  our  devotion  to  the 
true  God  we  are  not  to  employ  any  imago  or 
likeness  for  the  purpose  of  directing,  exciting, 
or  assisting  that  devotion.  Though  it  were  wor¬ 
ship  designed  to  terminate  in  God,  yet  its  being 
offered  through  such  a  medium  would  divest  it 
of  all  acceptableness  in  his  sight.  God  knows 
the  downward  and  deteriorating  tendency  of  our 
nature  even  in  its  best  estate,  and  he  sees  that 
the  employment  of  outward  symbols  of  worshiji 
would  gradually  tend  to  lower  the  standard  of 
devout  feeling  and  finally  to  withdraw  the  mind 
from  the  ultimate  spiritual  object,  and  fix  it 
upon  the  gross  sensible  medium.  We  have 
only  to  look  at  the  history  of  the  Greek  and  Latin 
churches  for  an  abundant  confirmation.  From 
crosses  and  relics  they  proceeded  to  images  and 
pictures,  not  only  of  God  and  Christ  and  the 
Holy  Ghost,  but  of  the  virgin  and  of  saints  and 
martyrs  without  number  ;  until  those  beings, 
and  the  paintings  or  carvings  which  represented 
them,  originally  designed  as  mere  intercessors 
and  aids  to  devotion,  became  to  the  more  igno¬ 
rant  actual  objects  of  worship.  Bush. 

The  first  two  precepts  are  in  substance  : 
Worship  God  only,  and  that  only  spiritually,  in 
the  way  of  his  appointment,  as  befits  the  wor¬ 
ship  of  God,  who  is  a  Spirit.  That  such  is  the 
point  of  the  second  command  is  seen  in  De. 
4  : 12,  in  the  rehearsal  of  the  Sinai  scene  forty 
years  after.  For  there  the  intention  of  the 
command  may  be  gathered  from  the  reason  as¬ 
signed  for  its  propriety,  which  is  in  substance  : 
You  saw  no  manner  of  similitude  even  when 
Jehovah  condescended  to  appear  and  speak 
with  an  audible  voice.  As  he  did  not  appear  to 
you  in  any  shape,  so  h^  ought  not  to  be  repre¬ 
sented  by  any  shape  in  your  mental  conceptions 
of  him,  and  of  course  then  not  in  any  physical 
similitude  of  him. 

The  modern  discoveries  of  the  Egyptologists, 
revealing  so  fully  the  ancient  Egyptian  idolatry 
inder  which  Israel  had  lived  for  centuries,  sug¬ 


gest  a  reason  for  the  specific  details,  both  of  the 
original  command— “  Any  graven  image  or  the 
likeness  of  any  thing”  —and  of  the  repetition  in 
De.  4  : 16,  ”  The  likeness  of  male  or  female,  the 
likeness  of  any  beast,  winged  fowl,  or  fish,  or 
anything  that  creepeth.  ’  ’  The  idolatry  of  Egypt, 
it  appears,  W'as  not  so  much  a  violation  of  the 
first  command,  enjoining  the  idea  of  the  unity 
of  God,  as  of  the  second  command,  prohibiting 
any  representations  of  God.  “  The  fundament¬ 
al  doctrine”  (of  the  ancient  Egyptians),  sa3’s 
Wilkinson,  “  wms  the  unity  of  Deit3^”  But  this 
unity  was  not  represented,  and  he  was  known 
by  a  sentence  or  idea,  being,  as  Jamblichus 
says,  worshipped  in  silence.”  But  i\ie  attri¬ 
butes  of  this  Deity  were  represented  under  posi¬ 
tive  forms,  and  hence  arose  a  multiplicity  of 
gods,  that  engendered  idolatry".  “  In  order  to 
specify  and  convey  an  impression  of  these  ab¬ 
stract  notions  to  the  eyes  of  men,  it  w  as  thought 
necessary  to  distinguish  them  by  some  fixed 
representation,  and  the  figures  of  Pthah,  Osiris, 
Amun,  Maut,  Neith,  and  other  gcvds  and  god¬ 
desses  were  invented  as  various  signs  of  the 
various  attributes  of  the  Deit^".”  Such  was  the 
phase  of  idolatry  under  which  Israel  had  served 
for  centuries — a  worship  of  God  b}^  graven  im¬ 
ages,  as  the  tombs  and  temples  of  the  ancient 
Egypt  of  that  era  show  abundantl^^  and  like¬ 
nesses  of  things  in  heaven  and  things  in  the 
earth  and  things  under  the  earth,  for  there  w^as 
scarce  an  animal,  or  fowl,  or  fish,  or  reptile 
that  did  not  furnish  to  that  idolatr}'^  a  similitude 
under  w'hich  they  worshipped  God.  There 
was  therefore  a  very  special  reason  for  the 
particular  enumeration  in  detail  of  this  com¬ 
mandment. 

A  prevalent  error  on  this  whole  subject  arises 
in  part  from  the  usage  of  our  language  in  applj^- 
ing  the  term  idolatry  — id olo  lairia"- -indis¬ 
criminately  to  the  breach  of  the  first  command¬ 
ment  in  worshipping  false  gods,  and  the  breach 
of  the  second  command  in  the  worship  of  the 
true  God  by  images  and  in  the  use  of  visible 
forms.  Out  of  some  such  error  as  to  the  scope 
and  aim  of  these. two  commands  severallj'  prob¬ 
ably  originated  the  mistake  of  the  Bomish  Church 
in  classifying  these  tw^o  commands  together  as 
but  two  clauses  of  the  first  commandment,  and 
thereby  destroying  the  force  of  both.  In  this 
case  the  meaning  of  both  together  w^ould  be, 
“  thou  shalt  not  worship  any  false  god,  nor  shalt 
thou  worship  any  image  or  likeness.”  Then  by 
the  distinction  made  between  douiia"  and 
‘‘  lafria" — homage  and  w^orship — the  dogma  is 
derived,  “  thou  maj^est  use  the  image  to  aid 
devotion,  but  shalt  not  worship  the  image  itself, 


166 


SECTION  106.  MORAL  LAW. 


but  onl}^  God  through  the  image.”  From  this 
exposition  of  the  scope  and  aim  of  this  great 
jjrecept  of  the  Law  of  God,  you  will  perceive 
that  its  chief  end  is  to  direct  how  God  is  to  be 
worshipped  as  a  spiritual  being  without  the  in 
tervention  of  any  representations  of  him  by 
either  of  the  hands  or  the  imagination.,  S.  R. 

A  jealous  God.  The  passions  of  a  moral  being 
have  their  right  as  well  as  their  wrong  use. 
Hence  anger,  jealousy,  and  hatred  are  ascribed 
to  God,  not  as  passions,  but  as  the  feelings  of  a 
holy  being  in  regard  to  that  wLich  is  evil.  M. 
- Throughout  the  Scriptures,  idolatry  is  rep¬ 
resented  as  spiritual  adultery  ;  hence,  conde¬ 
scending  to  human  modes  of  speech,  the  dis¬ 
pleasure  of  God  is  described  as  jealousy.  Jeal¬ 
ousy  is  quick-sighted,  deep-seated,  swift-footed. 

An. - He  is  a  “jealous”  God.  We  need  not 

be  afraid  of  the  word.  It  means  nothing  but 
what  is  congruous  with  the  loftiest  conception 
of  a  loving  God.  It  means  that  he  allows  of  no 
rival  in  our  hearts’  affection  or  in  our  submis¬ 
sion  for  love’s  sake  to  him.  A  half  trust  in  God 
is  no  trust.  How  can  worship  be  shared  or 
love  be  parted  out  among  a  pantheon?  Our 
poor  hearts  ask  of  one  another  and  get  from  one 
another,  wherever  a  man  and  a  woman  truly 
love,  just  what  God  asks — “  All  in  all,  or  not  at 
all.”  His  jealousy  is  but  infinite  love  seeking  to 
be  known  as  such,  and  asking  for  a  whole  heart. 
A.  M. 

The  force  of  the  phrase  is  perhaps  best  seen 
in  the  words  of  Moses  to  Israel  when  he  gave 
them  his  parting  advice,  “  for  the  Lord  thy  God 
is  a  consuming  tire,  even  a  jealous  God”  (De. 
4  :  24),  a  passage  which  is  quoted  and  used  by 
the  x\poslle  Paul  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
where  he  is  speaking  of  the  future  and  eternal 
judgments  of  the  Almighty.  We  must  free  the 
idea  from  the  attachments  which  we  give  it 
from  our  view  of  human  jealousy.  There  is  no 
selfishness,  no  envy,  no  hatred  in  God’s  jeal¬ 
ousy.  It  is  the  abundant  outflow  of  his  holi¬ 
ness,  W'hich,  bj^  its  own  virtue,  must  either  as¬ 
similate  or  destroy  everything  in  the  universe. 
It  envelops  in  its  grace,  or  it  drives  forth  from 
its  purity  and  from  all  the  blessings  which  ac¬ 
company  its  purity.  When  we  say  that  God  is 
a  jenlous  God,  we  say  that  he  is  no  passive 
Erahm,  like  the  god  of  the  Hindoos,  but  that  he 
glows  with  zeal  for  all  that  is  pure  and  good  and 
holy  and  true,  and  is  ever  engaged  actively  in 
separating  the  holy  and  true  from  the  unholy 
and  false,  striving  to  do  it  first  by  mercy,  but  if 
man  makes  that  fail,  then  by  the  cutting  off  of 
his  judgments.  This  character  of  God  is  espe¬ 
cially  alluded  to  in  this  second  commandment, 


because  this  form  of  sin  appeared  the  most 
seductive  and  the  most  obstinate.  Crosby. 

An  image  degrades  God  and  damages  men. 
By  it  religion  reverses  its  nature,  and  becomes 
another  clog  to  keep  the  soul  among  the  things 
seen,  and  an  ally  of  all  fleshly  inclinations. 
We  know  how  idolatry  seemed  to  cast  a  spell 
over  the  Israelites  from  Eg.vpt  to  Babylon,  and 
how  their  first  relapse  into  it  took  place  almost 
before  the  voice  which  “  spake  all  these  words” 
had  ceased.  In  its  grosser  form,  we  have  no 
temptation  to  it.  But  there  are  other  ways  of 
breaking  the  commandment  than  setting  up  an 
image.  All  sensuous  worship  in  which  the 
treacherous  aid  of  art  is  called  in  to  elevate  the 
soul,  comes  perilously  near  to  contradicting  its 
spirit,  if  not  its  letter.  The  attempt  to  make  of 
the  senses  a  ladder  for  the  soul  to  climb  to  God 
by,  is  a  great  deal  more  likely  to  end  in  the 
soul’s  going  down  the  ladder  than  up  it.  The 
history  of  public  worship  in  the  Christian 
Church  teaches  that  the  less  it  has  to  do  with 
such  slippery  help  the  better.  We  need  to  re¬ 
member  that  the  God  who  is  a  spirit  is  wor- 
shipj^ed  “  in  spirit,”  and  that  outward  forms  may 
easily  choke  and  outward  aids  hinder  that  wor¬ 
ship.  A.  M. - To  picture  Him  forth  by  ma¬ 

terial  images  is  an  impossibility.  The  plausible 
plea  of  human  nature  has  always  been  that  ma¬ 
terial  forms  serve  as  aids  to  worship  the  Unseen, 
But  the  facts  of  human  experience  have  uni- 
formly  disproved  this  hypothesis.  It  may  cost 
us  severe  exertion  of  mind  to  lift  our  souls  up 
to  the  worship  of  the  true  God  ;  yet  this  very 
exertion  is  an  unspeakable  advantage.  Davis. 

Effect  of  the  Use  of  the  Crucifix. 

It  is  impossible  to  preserve  a  sense  of  God’s 
pure  spirituality  when  he  is  always  adored  as 
locally  present  to  the  senses  in  the  form  of  a 
piece  of  matter,  It  is  impossible  to  treat  an 
image  as  a  virtual  representative  of  Deity  with¬ 
out  assuming  that  God  somehow  resembles  his 
representation.  The  progress  of  idolatry  is 
therefore  dowmward.  So  far  as  it  goes,  it  can 
be  nothing  but  degrading.  It  must  obscure  the 
essential  glory  of  the  Divine  nature.  Dykes. 

- It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Image  of  our 

Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  his  dying  agony  may  pro¬ 
duce  a  very  powLerful  impression  on  the  imagi¬ 
nation  and  the  heart.  In  the  strength  of  that 
impression  some  find  a  suflBcient  justification 
for  the  devotional  use  of  the  crucifix.  They 
say  that  the  visible  form  does  but  call  up  the 
emotions  which  should  be  created  by  the  sor¬ 
rows  and  anguish  in  which  the  Divine  love  was 
revealed,  and  by  which  the  sin  of  the  world  was 


SECOND  COMMANDMENT. 


1G7 


atoned  for  ;  and  lliat  it  makes  the  great  sacrifice 
for  human  salvation  more  intensely  real  and 
vivid.  But  inevitably,  by  laws  of  association 
we  cannot  control,  whatever  is  habitually  asso¬ 
ciated  with  the  creation  of  religious  emotion 
comes  to  be  invested  with  an  artificial  sacred¬ 
ness.  The  visible  symbol  is  at  first  a  symbol 
and  nothing  more  ;  it  assists  thought  ;  it  stirs 
passion.  At  length  it  becomes  identified  with 
the  God  whom  it  represents.  If  every  day  I 
bow  before  a  crucifix  in  prayer,  if  I  address  it 
as  though  it  were  Christ,  though  I  know  it  is 
not,  I  shall  come  to  feel  for  it  a  reverence  and 
love  which  are  of  the  very  essence  of  idolatry. 
But  there  is  another  objection  to  this  prostra¬ 
tion  of  the  soul  before  the  image  of  the  d^ing 
Christ.  It  makes  our  worship  and  our  prayer 
unreal.  We  are  adoring  a  Christ  who  does  not 
exist.  He  is  not  now  on  the  cross,  but  upon 
the  throne.  His  agony  is  j)ast  forever.  He  has 
risen  from  the  dead,  and  is  at  the  right  hand  of 
God.  If  we  pray  to  a  dying  Christ,  we  are  pray¬ 
ing  not  to  Christ  himself  but  to  a  mere  remem¬ 
brance  of  him.  The  injury  which  the  crucifix 
has  inflicted  on  the  religious  life  of  Christen¬ 
dom,  in  encouraging  a  morbid  and  unreal  devo¬ 
tion,  is  absolutely  incalculable.'  It  has  given  us 
a  dying  Christ  instead  of  a  living  Christ,  a 
Christ  separated  from  us  by  many  centuries  in¬ 
stead  of  a  Christ  nigh  at  hand.  Dale. 

“  They  that  worship  Him  must  worship  Him 
in  spirit  and  in  truth.”  God  is  jealous  for  truth 
in  his  worship.  He  would  have  us  think  of 
him  as  glorious  in  power,  wisdom,  righteous¬ 
ness,  holiness,  and  love.  Our  thoughts  of  God, 
limited  at  the  best,  need  not  be  untrue.  But 
untrue  and  dishonoring  to  him  they  will  be  if 
we  come  at  them  through  the  means  of  any 
graven  image.  God  is  jealous  for  spirit  in  his 
worship.  The  worship  paid  to  a  spiritual  Being 
is  nothing  if  it  be  not  spiritual  worship.  But 
in  the  endless  bowings  and  prostrations,  genu¬ 
flexions,  cross-markings,  and  waving  of  the 
body  at  the  word  “  Jesus,”  there  is,  at  least  in 
appearance,  a  taking  for  granted  that  bodily 
postures  are  spiritual  attitudes.  Worship  paid 
through  the  body  will  sink  to  merely  bodily 
worship.  When  the  lofty  platform  of  spiritual 
worship  is  quitted,  religious  service  will  inevi¬ 
tably  lose  its  meaning.  Sense  first  comes  as 
“  an  aid  to  faith,”  and  then  is  put  in  the  place 
of  it  !  C.  C. 

Still,  as  at  Sinai,  is  the  Most  High  a  jealous 
God — jealous  for  the  truth  of  his  own  nature  ; 
jealously  concerned,  that  is,  to  be  truly  appre¬ 
hended  by  his  worshipper  and  truly  represented 
by  the  conceptions  which  we  frame  of  him.  As 


he  would  not  be  misrepresented  by  the  pagans’ 
degrading  handiwork,  so  neither  would  he  suffer 
injury  in  our  thoughts.  Be  you  therefore  jeal¬ 
ous  for  the  honor  of  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts. 
Be  careful  to  sanctify’’  him  in  your  hearts.  Be 
scrupulous  to  cherish  the  loftiest  idea  of  his 
grandeur,  holiness,  and  love.  And  let  all  the 
worship  wo  presume  to  offer  at  his  footstool  be 
such  as  becomes  the  revelation  which  he  has 
made  of  his  own  glory  in  the  i)erson  and  in  the 
cross  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour.  Dykes. 

Visiting:  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers 
upon  the  children.  This  statement  is 
often  represented  as  not  only  wanting  in  equity, 
but  opposed  to  an  express  provision  of  the 
Israelitish  law  (De.  24  ;  10  ;  2  Kings  14  :  G  ;  2 
Ch.  25  : 4),  and  especially  to  the  Divine  pro¬ 
cedure  as  declared  in  Ezek.  18.  The  same  i^rin- 
ciple,  however,  is  repeated  in  a  connection 
which  shows  it  to  be  a  feature  of  the  Divine 
character  in  its  most  gracious  aspect  (Ex.  34:7); 
and  even  when  that  character  was  urged  by 
Moses  in  a  plea  for  pardon,  this  feature  is  in¬ 
troduced  in  a  way  that  shows  that  it  was  not 
deemed  to  be  contrary  to  equity,  or  even  hostile 

to  grace  (Nu.  14:18).  D.  M. - The  visiting 

the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  tho  children 
does  not  mean  that  he  punishes  the  innocent 
children  of  ungodly  or  the  converted  children 
of  unbelieving  parents  for  the  sins  of  the  lat¬ 
ter  ;  we  read  the  very  contrary  of  this  (Ezek. 
18  : 20).  The  threatening  lights  only  upon 
those  children  who  walk  in  their  fathers’  foot¬ 
steps,  and  “  hate  the  Lord.”  C.  G.  B. 

If  the  children  of  ungodly  men  forsake  the 
sins  of  their  fathers,  they’’  break  the  chain  of 
transgression  and  punishment.  God  deals  with 
every  man  23ersonally  and  directly,  according  to 
his  own  individual  status  and  relation  to  him 
(Ezek.  18  : 19,  20).  Even  the  hereditary  conse¬ 
quences,  which  by  natural  laws  still  attach  in 
such  cases,  as  poverty  and  disgrace  inherited 
from  drunken  fathers,  have  an  altered  asjject  in 
the  Divine  intention,  and  in  their  real  effect, 
where  the  sufferer  is  a  true  child  of  God  (Rom. 
8  : 18).  VV.  H.  G. - But  where  a  man  is  op¬ 

posed  to  God,  rejecting  his  truth  and  salvation, 
he  endorses  and  sujDports,  and  thus  becomes  re¬ 
sponsible  for  the  guilt  of  his  ancestors.  The 
stream  of  guilt  runs  down  from  father  to  son 
with  accumulating  force  till  it  ends  in  its  apj^ro- 
priate  judgment.  This  judgment,  so  far  as  it  is 
spiritual  and  eternal,  falls  on  each  sinner  in  the 
line,  but  so  far  as  it  is  earthly  and  temporal,  it 
falls  on  him  who  brings  the  sinfulness  to  the 
top  of  the  climax — who  adds  the  last  drop  to  the 
fulness  of  the  cuj).  Crosby. 


168 


SECTION  106.  SECOND  COMMANDMENT. 


It  is  not  meant  for  a  moment  that  the  pious 
son  of  an  idolatrous  father  shall  be  punished  for 
his  father’s  idolatry.  Josiah,  the  devout  son 
of  the  idolatrous  Amon,  was  not  only  exempted 
from  any  punishment  for  his  father's  sin,  but 
on  the  ground  of  his  individual  piety  the  pen¬ 
alty  hanging  over  an  idolatrous  country  was 
suspended  until  Josiah  should  be  safe  beyond 
its  reach  (2  Kings  22  : 16-20).  It  is  only  if  the 
third  and  fourth  generations  continue  haters  of 
God  themselves  that  they  will  be  punished  at 
once  for  their  own  sin  and  the  sin  of  their  God- 

hatiug  or  idolatrous  ancestor.  Ilimillon. - fhe 

thrice-holy  God  can  vever  be  unjust.  The  idol¬ 
atrous  spirit  would  be  entailed  to  children  by 
natural  law  ;  hence  punishment  would  culmi¬ 
nate  in  final  disaster.  The  meaace  was  gracious, 
because,  if  parents  will  not  abstain  from  sin  for 
their  own  sakes,  they  sometimes  will  for  the 
sake  of  their  children.  The  mercy  shall  be  far 
more  ample  than  the  wrath.  The  anger  may 
be  entailed  on  a  few,  and  that  in  proportion  al¬ 
ways  to  the  sin  ;  the  merc}’^  shall  flow,  like  a 
mighty  river,  to  “thousands.”'  Davies. 

We  speak  of  national  judgments  and  of  pun¬ 
ishments  of  whole  i)opulations  as  existing  modes 
of  Divine  action  and  as  what  take  place  now. 
But  this  is  in  the  sense  in  which  we  understand 
the  Law  when  working  as  a  part  of  God’s  nat¬ 
ural  providence.  We  do  not  suppose  that  the 
Law  is  judicial,  as  punishing  the  good  part  of 
these  populations  judicially  for  the  sins  of  the 
bad,  and  as  guilty  of  those  sins  ;  but  only  mean¬ 
ing  that  in  these  signal  calamities  the  order  of 
nature  is  made  subservient  to  moral  purpose. 
[In  this  connection]  the  law  of  visitation  of  sins 
.  is  regarded  as  sufficiently  fulfilled  if  God  does 
so  connect  sin  with  misery  for  any  icise  end,  any 
purpose  which  is  instructive,  though  not  imply¬ 
ing  anything  judicial.  Mozhy. - The  Law  of 

his  providence  sounds  hard,  but  it  is  nothing 
more  than  stating  in  plain  words  the  course  of 
the  world’s  history,  which  cannot  be  otherwise 
if  there  is  to  be  any  bond  of  human  society  at 
all.  We  hear  a  great  deal  in  modern  language 
about  solidarity  and  heredity.  The  teaching  of 
this  commandment  is  simply  a  statement  of  the 
same  facts,  with  the'addition  that  the  Lawgiver 
is  visible  behind  the  Law.  The  consequences 
of  conduct  do  not  lie  vuth  the  doers.  “  The 
evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them.”  The  gen¬ 
erations  are  so  knit  together,  and  the  full  re¬ 
sults  of  deeds  are  often  so  slow  growing,  that 
one  generation  sows  and  another  reaps.  Who 
sowed  the  seed  that  fruited  in  misery,  and  was 
gathered  in  a  bitter  harvest  of  horrors  and 
crimes  in  the  French  Kevolution?  Whojolanted 


the  tree  under  which  the  citizens  of  the  United 
States  sit  ?  Did  not  the  seedling  come  over  in 
the  Mayflower  ?  As  long  as  the  generations  of 
men  are  more  closely  connected  than  those  of 
sheep  or  birds,  this  solemn  word  must  be  true. 
Let  us  see  that  we  sow  no  tares  to  poison  our 
children  when  we  are  in  our  graves.  The  say¬ 
ing  had  immediate  application  to  the  conse¬ 
quences  of  idolatry  in  the  history  of  Israel,  and 
was  a  forecast  of  their  future.  But  it  is  true 
evermore  and  everywhere.  A.  M. 

Tlieifii  tiliat  laafe  me  .  .  ,  tiieiii  tliat 
la>ve  1110.  The  words  of  the  threatening  de¬ 
scribe  the  third  and  fourth  generation,  on  whom 
the  visitation  of  evil  was  to  fall,  as  of  Ikose  ihal 
hale  God  ^  just  as,  on  the  other  hand,  the  mercy 
wdiich  M'as  pledged  to  thousands  was  promised 
as  the  dowry  of  those  that  love  him  Such  chil¬ 
dren  alone  are  here  concerned  who,  in  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  Calvin,  “  imitate  the  impiety  of  their 
progenitors.”  In  short,  the  Lord  contemplates 
the  existence  among  his  professing  worshippers 
of  two  entirely  different  kinds  of  generations  : 
the  one,  haters  of  God,  and  manifesting  their 
hatred  by  depraving  his  worship,  and  pursuing 
courses  of  transgression  ;  the  other,  lovers  of 
God,  and  manifesting  their  love  by  steadfastly 
adhering  in  all  dutiful  obedience  to  the  way  of 
his  holy  commandments.  To  these  last,  though 
they  should  extend  to  thousands  of  generations, 
he  would  show  his  mercy,  causing  it  to  flow  on 
from  age  to  age  in  a  perennial  stream  of  bless¬ 
ing.  But  as  he  is  the  righteous  God,  to  whom 
vengeance  as  well  as  mercy  belongs,  the  free 
outpouring  of  his  beneficence  upon  these  could 
not  prevent  or  prejudice  the  execution  of  his 
justice  upon  that  other  class,  who  were  entirely 
of  a  different  spirit,  and  merited  quite  opposite 
treatment.  If  children  embraced  the  sinful¬ 
ness  of  their  parents,  with  the  manifest  seal  of 
Heaven’s  displeasure  on  it,  as  their  iniquity 
would  be  more  aggravated,  so  its  punishment 
should  become  more  severe  ;  the  descending 
and  entailed  curse  w'ould  deepen  as  it  flowed 
on,  increasing  with  every  increase  of  depravity 
and  corruption,  till,  the  measure  of  iniquity 
being  filled  up,  the  wrath  should  fall  on  them 
to  the  uttermost.  P.  F. 

The  sanction  of  the  Decalogue  is  entirely  Di¬ 
vine.  There  is  no  reference  in  it  to  human  in¬ 
strumentality  for  enforcing  its  observance.  On 
the  contrary,  it  expressly  makes  the  fear  and 
love  of  God  the  foundation  of  obedience.  On 
the  creature’s  relation  to  God  as  Creator  and 
Eedeemer  the  preamble  rests  the  obligation  of 
all  the  commandments  ;  love  to  God  is  declared 
to  be  the  keeping  of  the  Law  ;  while  the  ground 


SECTION  107. 


1G9 


of  transgression  is  stated  to  be  haired  of  him. 
With  this  fully  agrees  the  testimony  of  Christ 
and  of  the  apostles.  And  whatever  may  be 
alleged  to  the  contrary,  the  morality  of  the  Gospel 
is  not  different  from  or  superior  to  UmI  <f  the  Deca¬ 
logue.  D.  M. - The  more  closely  we  examine 

these  precepts  themselves,  the  more  clearly  we 
perceive  their  spiritual  and  comprehensive  char¬ 
acter.  That  they  recognize  love  as  the  root  of 
all  obedience,  and  hatred  as  inseparable  from 
transgression,  is  plainly  intimated  in  this  de¬ 
scription  of  the  transgressors  and  doers  of  the 
Law,  as  “  those  that  hate  God”  and  as  “  those 
that  love  him  and  keep  his  commandments.” 
P.  F. 

iJiito  thousands.  Unto  the  thousandth 
generation.  Jehovah’s  visitations  of  chastise¬ 
ment  extend  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation, 
his  visitations  of  mercy  to  the  thousandth— that 
is,  forever.  Tnat  this  is  the  true  rendering 

seems  to  follow  from  De.  7  ;  9.  Clark. - 

Judgment  is  God’s  strange  work,  while  mercy 
is  his  delight.  Therefore  we  have  here  the 
foroeful  antithesis— the  visiting  of  the  iniquities 
of  fathers  upon  children  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation,  but  the  showing  of  mercy  unto 
thousands  of  generations  of  them  that  love  and 
obey.  To  a  Hebrew  mind  this  last  clause  of 
the  second  command  would  naturally  suggest 
God’s  mercies  to  Abraham,  the  well-known 
friend  of  God.  upon  whose  posterity  God  was 
shedding  forth  his  blessings  to  thousands  of 
generations.  So  richly  does  the  loving  God  re¬ 
ward  his  dutiful  and  trustful  children  !  So  much 
more  grateful  to  his  heart  it  is  to  bless  even  to 
the  thousandth  generation  than  to  visit  in¬ 


iquity  even  so  far  as  to  the  third  and  fourth  ! 

H.  C. 

There  is  an  intense  interest  connected  with 
the  expression  “  them  that  love  me.”  It  plainly 
intimates  that  those  who  have  no  other  God  be¬ 
fore  the  true  God,  and  make  no  other  God 
beside  him,  are  those  who  at  the  same  time  love 
him.  It  proves  that  the  negative  quality  of  not 
forsaking  the  true  God  is  understood  to  imply 
the  positive  quality  of  being  faithful  to  him  and 
loving  him.  This  gives  a  new  character  to  the 
whole  Decalogue.  It  now  becomes  not  a  mere 
negative  law  of  righteousness,  but  a  positive 
law  of  love.  This  principle  applying  to  the 
first  two  precepts  will  extend  to  the  whole.  M. 

- The  very  words  “  love”  and  “hate”  in  their 

connection  here  directly  intimate  that  love  is 
the  principle  at  the  root  of  all  obedience  and 
right  action  ;  and  its  opposite — hate — is  that 
which  lies  at  the  root  of  transgression  and  all 
evil-doing.  And  this  double  fact  is  shown  in 
the  simplest  analysis  of  each  of  the  several  laws 
of  the  second  table.  Love  needs  none  of  these 
prohibitions.  B. — -So  that  the  heart  may^ 
truly  be  called  the  alpha  and  the  omega  of  this 
wonderful  revelation  of  law  :  it  stands  promi¬ 
nently  forth  at  both  ends  ;  and  had  no  inspired 
commentary  been  given  on  the  full  import  of 
the  ten  words,  looking  merely  to  these  words 
themselves,  we  cannot  but  perceive  that  they 
stretch  their  demands  over  the  whole  range  of 
man’s  active  operations,  and  can  only  be  ful¬ 
filled  by  the  constant  and  uninterrupted  exer¬ 
cise  of  love  to  God  and  man,  in  the  various 
regions  of  the  heart,  the  conversation,  and  the 
conduct.  P.  F. 


,  Section  107. 

MOKAL  LAW  :  THIRD  AND  FOURTH  COMMANDMENTS. 
Exodus  20  :  7-11.  De.  5  :  11-15. 


Ex.  ‘20  7  Thou  shalt  not  take  the 
name  of  the  Lord  thy  God 
in  vain  ;  for  the  Lord  will 
not  hold  him  guiltless  that 
taketh  his  name  in  vain. 

8,  9  Remember  the  sabbath 
day,  to  keep  it  holy.  Six 
days  shalt  thou  labour,  and 
10  do  all  thy  work  :  but  the 
seventh  day  is  a  sabbath 


De.  5  11  Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the 

Lord  thy  God  in  vain  :  for  the  Lord  will 
not  hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  his 
name  in  vain. 

12  Observe  the  sabbath  day,  to  keep  it 
holy,  as  the  Lord  thy  God  commanded 

13  thee.  Six  days  shalt  thou  labour,  and  do 

14  all  thy  work  :  but  the  seventh  day  is  a 
sabbath  unto  the  Lord  thy  God  :  in  it 
thou  shalt  not  do  any  worj^,  thou,  nor 


170 


SECTION  107.  MORAL  LAW. 


unto  the  Loed  thy  God  :  in 
it  thou  shalt  not  do  any  work, 
thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy 
daughter,  thy  manservant, 
nor  thy  maidservant,  nor  thy 
cattle,  nor  thy  stranger  that 
is  within  thy  gates  :  for  in  six 
11  days  the  Loed  made  heaven 
and  earth,  the  sea,  and  all 
that  in  them  is,  and  rested 
the  seventh  day  :  wherefore 
the  Loed  blessed  the  sabbath 
day,  and  hallowed  it. 


thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter,  nor  thy  man 
servant,  nor  thy  maidservant,  nor  thine 
ox,  nor  thine 'ass,  nor  any  of  thy  cattle, 
nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates  ; 
that  thy  manservant  and  thy  maidservant 
may  rest  as  well  as  thou.  And  thou 
15  shalt  remember  that  thou  wast  a  ser¬ 
vant  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  the 
Loed  thy  God  brought  thee  out  thence 
by  a  mighty  hand  and  by  a  stretched 
out  arm  :  therefore  the  Loed  thy  God 
commanded  thee  to  keep  the  sabbath 
day. 


The  Thied  Commandment. 


In  the  first  commandment,  the  solitary  object 
of  religious  observance  has  been  declared  in  op¬ 
position  to  false  or  secondary  divinities.  In 
the  second,  the  spirituality  of  true  worship  has 
been  vindicated  against  sensuous  methods  of 
conceiving  and  representing  God.  It  remains 
to  decree  the  true  spirit  of  worship — the  relig¬ 
ious  awe  or  reverence  inspired  by  the  moral  ele¬ 
vation  of  Jehovah — which  lies  at  the  root  of 
genuine  piety.  This  I  take  to  be  the  inner 
sense  and  ultimate  scope  of  the  third  command¬ 
ment.  Dykes. 

The  meaning  of  the  prohibition  is  that  the 
name  of  Jehovah  is  not  to  be  invoked  or  used 
unadvisedly,  lightly,  or  wantonly,  much  less  to 
sanction  untruth.  By  the  last  clause  of  the 
verse  a  connection  is  established  with  the  pre¬ 
vious  commandment,  where  there  is  mention  of 
the  visiting  of  guilt.  The  word  used  is  a  re¬ 
markable  one,  the  root  signifying  purification  by 
sacrifice  :  Jehovah  will  not  i:)urify,  absolve,  reck¬ 
on  as  innocent.  Alf. - If  God  has  been  pleased 

to  discover  to  us  any  venerableness  in  his  nature 
and  attributes,  we  are  guilty  if  we  fail  to  vener- 
•  ate  him  accordingly.  And  the  name  of  God  in 
Scripture  phraseology  is  but  a  compendious  sign 
for  all  that  God  has  made  apparent  in  human 
experience  of  the  hidden  majesty  or  goodness 
of  his  own  nature— in  a  word,  of  what  Scripture 
terms  his  “  glory.”  Before  that  manifest  glory 
of  the  Divine,  man’s  becoming  attitude  is  one  of 
reverential  awe  and  fear.  In  this  fear  or  relig¬ 
ious  veneration  lies  the  indispensable  basis  of 
all  religion.  Destroy  that,  you  destroy  the  very 
capacity  for  worship — nay,  for  spiritual  life  it¬ 
self.  Flippancy  or  contempt  for  the  Divine — 
is  the  death  of  the  soul.  Dykes. 

God  is  to  reign  supreme  in  the  heart,  to  be 
exclusive  in  his  worship,  and  to  be  mentioned 
always  with  reverence  by  the  lips.  The  same 
holy  jealousy  which  burns  against  the  false  wor. 


shipper  for  the  same  reason  burns  against  the 
reckless  speaker,  where  the  subject  of  speech  is 
the  almighty  and  infinite  Jehovah.  Where 
there  is  a  want  of  reverence  there  is  a  want  of 
allegiance.  So  far  forth  as  a  subject  is  disre¬ 
spectful,  he  is  rebellious  ;  and  all  true  govern¬ 
ment,  especially  the  pure  and  holy  government 
of  God,  must  take  cognizance  of  the  rebellion  in 
accordance  with  holiness  and  truth.  Groshy. 

As  the  object  of  worship,  in  this  great  sum¬ 
mary  of  duties  to  God,  is  declared  to  be  God 
only,  and  as  this  God  is  to  be  worshipped  only 
spiritually  in  the  w'ay  of  his  appointment,  and 
not  by  anj^  similitude  of  man’s  choice  or  hu¬ 
manly  devised  aids  to  worship,  so  it  is  further 
declared  that  God  shall  ever  be  regarded  with 
reverence,  and  his  name  used  only  in  solemn 
act  of  worship.  As  God  is  to  be  worshipped  he 
must  be  known,  as  he  cannot  be  known  by  any 
similitude  or  likeness,  but  only  as  he  reveals 
himself  by  names,  titles,  and  declared  attri¬ 
butes  ;  so  these  names,  titles,  and  attributes, 
when  made  known,  are  to  be  regarded  with 
special  reverence,  and  only  used  in  the  way  of 
worship.  And  this  properly  enough,  since  there 
must  naturally  be  something  in  the  mode  by 

I 

which  he  reveals  himself  to  fill  the  mind  with 
reverent  and  awful  conceptions  of  his  character. 
Hence  the  peculiar  significance  of  the  phrase — 
“  the  name  of  the  Lord,”  as  used  in  the  Scrip¬ 
tures  Among  men  the  name  is  that  by  which 
we  distinguish  and  more  or  less  perfectly  de¬ 
scribe  each  other.  In  a  special  sense  we  some¬ 
times  take  the  name  of  a  certain  man  to  repre¬ 
sent  a  scheme  or  policy  or  a  system  of  ideas  ; 
and  men  range  themselves  under  the  name  of 
their  representative  man.  So  in  the  revealed 
word,  the  name  of  God  is  used  to  denote  all 
those  attributes,  signs,  and  acts  whereby  his 
moral  essence  is  made  known  to  us — all  the 
manifestations  of  his  nature  and  purposes 


TUIRD  COMMANDMENT. 


171 


whereby  his  character  is  made  known  to  men. 
Thus  Moses,  when  called  of  God  to  his  high 
mission,  demanded  to  know  by  what  name  he 
should  reveal  God  to  Israel.  Hence,  throughout 
the  Scripture,  the  name  of  God  is  used  in  that 
verj'^  peculiar  manner,  as  by  David,  “  Thou  hast 
magnified  thy  Word  above  all  thy  name.”  “  We 
will  remember  the  name  of  the  Lord,  our  God.” 
The  name  of  God  is  said  to  be  “  holy  and  rev¬ 
erend.”  His  name  is  “  loved,”  is  “  great,”  is 
“glorious,”  is  ‘ ‘  magnified  and  Moses  says, 
“  What  will  become  of  thy  great  name  ?”  God’s 
enemies  are  said  to  “  blaspheme,”  to  “pollute,” 
to  “  despise,”  to  “  dread  ”  his  name.  The 
worship  of  God  is  defined  as  “  calling  upon  the 
name  of  the  Lord.”  The  terms  of  salvation  are 
simply,  “  Whoso  shall  call  upon  the  name  of 
the  Lord  shall  be  saved.”  The  great  initiatory 
ordinance  of  gospel  worship  is  baptism,  “  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the 
Holy  Ghost.”  Thus  the  name  of  God  is  taken 
to  denote  every  means  by  which  he  has  chosen 
specially  to  manifest  himself. 

There  is  no  plainer  indication  of  the  tendency 
to  superficial  reading  of  the  Scriptures  than  the 
notion  that  this  third  great  precept  of  the  Law 
means  simply  to  forbid  profane  swearing.  Such 
a  reading  of  the  command  overlooks  entirely 
the  peculiar  significancy  of  “  the  name  of  the 
Lord  ”  in  Scripture.  Once  we  comprehend  fully 
this  significancy,  we  will  more  fully  appreciate 
the  wonderfully  philosophic  and  comprehensive 
exposition  of  this  third  commandment  in  our 
children’s  catechism — that  this  commandment 
“  requires  the  holy  and  reverent  use  of  God’s 
names,  titles,  attributes,  ordinances,  words,  and 
works,”  and  “  forbids  the  profaning  or  abusing 
of  anything  whereby  God  makes  himself 
known.”  S.  R. 

The  third  commandment  must  be  so  under¬ 
stood  as  to  bring  it  into  line  with  the  two  pre¬ 
ceding,  as  of  equal  breadth,  and  equally  fun¬ 
damental.  It  cannot,  therefore,  be  confined  to 
the  use  of  the  name  of  God  in  oaths,  whether 
false  or  trivial.  No  doubt,  perjury  and  profane 
swearing  are  included  in  the  sweep  of  the  jiro- 
hibition  ;  but  it  reaches  far  beyond  them.  The 
name  of  God  is  the  declaration  of  his  being  and 
character.  We  take  his  name  in  vain  when  we 
speak  of  him  unworthily.  Many  a  glib  and 
formal  prayer,  many  a  mechanical  or  self-glori¬ 
fying  sermon,  many  an  erudite  controversy, 
comes  under  the  lash  of  this  prohibition.  Pro¬ 
fessions  of  devotion  far  more  fervid  than  real, 
confes.sions  in  which  the  conscience  is  not 
stricken,  orthodox  teachings  with  no  throb  of 
life  in  them,  unconscious  hypocrisies  of  wor¬ 


ship,  and  much  besides,  are  gibbeted  here.  The 
most  vain  of  all  words  are  those  which  have 
become  traditional  stock-in-trade  for  religious 
people,  which  once  expressed  deep  convictions, 
and  are  now  a  world  too  wide  for  the  shrivelled 
faith  which  wears  them.  A.  M. - KW  formal¬ 

ism  is  a  sin  against  this  commandment,  and  all 
worship  founded  on  and  ending  only  in  that 
which  is  external  is  formalism.  Ritualism  which 
seeks  not  edification  but  jesthetic  proj)riety  is 
formalism.  Conformity  which  comes  to  church 
once  a  week  not  to  worship  but  to  fulfil  worldly 
propriety  is  formalism.  He  who  has  a  creed 
upon  his  lips  without  any  faith  in  his  heart  is 
taking  God’s  name  in  vain.  He  who,  without 
repentance,  faith,  and  love,  taketh  and  eateth 
the  sacrament,  is  taking  God’s  name  in  vain. 
Tudor. 

It  hardly  needs  noting  that  blasphemy  is  in¬ 
cluded  under  the  ban  of  this  precept.  Whoso¬ 
ever  cursed  God  or  blasphemed  his  name  was 
to  be  stoned.  The  son  of  Shelomith  blas¬ 
phemed,  and  was  stoned  by  the  congregation 
(Lev.  24  : 10-16,  23  ;  Nu.  15  ;  30,  31).  B. 

Nothing  is  more  easy  than  to  create  a  laugh 
by  a  grotesque  association  of  some  frivolity  with 
the  grave  and  solemn  words  of  Holy  Scripture. 
Surely  this  is  profanity  of  the  worst  kind.  By 
this  Book  the  religious  life  of  men  is  quickened 
and  sustained.  It  contains  the  highest  revela¬ 
tions  of  himself  which  God  has  made  to  man. 
It  directly  addresses  the  conscience  and  the 
heart  and  all  the  noblest  faculties  of  our  nature, 
exalting  our  idea  of  duty,  consoling  us  in  sor¬ 
row,  redeeming  us  from  sin  and  despair,  and 
inspiring  us  with  the  hope  of  immortal  blessed¬ 
ness  and  glory.  Listening  to  its  words,  millions 
have  heard  the  very  voice  of  God.  It  is  associ¬ 
ated  with  the  sanctity  of  many  generations  of 
saints.  Such  a  Book  cannot  be  a  fit  material 
for  the  manufacture  of  jests.  Dale. 

This  law  of  the  third  commandment  condemns 
by  implication  a  great  deal  which  falls  very  far 
short  of  either  blasphemy  or  false  oaths.  To 
assume  a  profession  of  piety  for  private  ends 
or  from  unworthy  motives  is  to  break  this  law. 
To  wear  a  sacred  office  without  possessing  the 
spirit  of  it  is  to  break  this  law.  To  affect  zeal 
for  Divine  truth  when  it  is  victory  for  our  own 
party  opinions  we  are  aiming  at  is  to  break 
this  law.  To  discharge  the  offices  of  worship 
in  public  or  private  in  a  careless  mood  with 
wandering  thoughts  is  to  break  the  law.  To 
jest  with  holy  subjects,  to  make  the  Church  of 
God  a  mere  arena  for  faction,  to  discuss  and 
dispute  over  his  saving  Word  as  a  theme  for 
barren  intellectual  display,  these  are  acts  which 


172 


SECTION  107.  MORAL  LAW. 


break  the  law.  To  forget  that  God  rules  the 
world,  that  all  truth  whatever  is  his  truth,  and 
that  all  right  action  is  his  will,  this  would  be  a 
breach  of  this  law.  To  mock  at  sin,  to  sneer  at 
principle,  to  crumble  down  the  edge  of  respon¬ 
sibility,  or  to  empty  of  its  solemnity  either  the 
life  or  the  death  of  meii,  all  that  surely  breaks 
this  law.  To  cherish  toward  God  himself  a 
querulous  or  a  suspicious  temper,  to  affect  with¬ 
out  sincerity  a  needless  scepticism,  to  question 
the  wisdom  or  the  kindness  of  his  allotments, 
to  brood  moodily  over  his  providence,  to  pare 
down  to  a  minimum  the  large  charity  of  his 
Gospel,  to  trust  him  little,  to  dread  him  with¬ 
out  cause,  and  serve  him  in  a  bondman’s  spirit 
— are  not  such  things  as  these  breaches  of  this 
law  ?  It  cannot  be  enough  surely  to  keep  the 
lips  from  idle  oaths  or  the  flippant  speeches  of 
the  scorner,  unless  in  our  heart  of  hearts  we 
honor  as  it  deserves  the  venerableness  of  the 
Father’s  majesty,  trust  as  it  deserves  the  gener¬ 
ous  grace  of  the  Son,  and  welcome  as  it  deserves 
the  holy  influence  of  the  Spirit.  In  brief,  keep 
this  law  according  to  the  inmost  thought  or 
meaning  of  it,  and  3"ou  will  be  found  to  breathe 
over  all  the  movements  of  your  intellectual  and 
social  life  just  such  a  tender,  reverent,  and 
devout  aroma  of  piety  as  befits  the  closet  and 
the  secret  hour  of  prayer.  Dykes. 

The  positive  side  underlying  the  negative  is 
the  requirement  that  our  speech  of  God  shall  fit 
our  thought  of  God,  and  our  thought  of  him 
shall  fit  his  name  ;  that  our  words  shall  mirror 
our  affections,  and  our  affection  be  a  true  re¬ 
flection  of  his  beauty  and  sweetness  ;  that 
cleansed  lips  shall  reverently  utter  the  name 
above  every  name,  which,  after  all  speech,  must 
remain  unspoken  ;  and  that  we  shall  feel  it  to 
be  not  the  least  wonderful  or  merciful  of  his 
condescensions  that  he  “is  extolled  with  our 
tongues.’’  A.  M. 

The  Oath,  Used  Truthfully  or  Falsely. 

The  oath  properlj’^  administered  and  on  proper 
occasion  honors  God,  as  an  acknowledgment  of 
his  presence,  his  truth,  and  his  supreme  author¬ 
ity.  It  avows  him  as  the  object  of  our  worship, 
as  the  Lord  of  our  conscience,  and  the  Judge  of 
our  thoughts.  Hence  the  command  was,  “  Thou 
shalt  fear  the  Lord  thy  God  and  serve  him,  and 
thou  shalt  swear  hy  his  name,"'  “  He  that  suoeareth 
in  the  earth,  shall  swear  by  the  God  of  Truth.” 

S.  K. - An  oath  is,  in  fact,  an  act  of  religious 

worship,  in  which  God  is  solemnly  called  upon 
to  witness  the  truth  of  the  affirmations  made, 
and  to  act  as  punisher  of  the  crime  if  any  per¬ 
jury  is  committed.  It  imports  that  we  acknowl¬ 


edge  him  to  be  the  infallible  searcher  of  hearts, 
and  the  powerful  and  stein  avenger  of  all  false¬ 
hood,  fraud,  and  deceit  in  such  a  solemn  trans¬ 
action  ;  and  no  inference  can  be  plainer  than 
that  it  is  the  height  of  irreligion  and  profanity 
to  interpose  that  awful  name  in  attestation  of 
anything  that  is  false,  fraudulent,  or  hypocritical. 
The  rule  by  which  such  an  act  is  to  be  governed 
is  expressly  given  (Jer.  4  :2),  “  Thou  shalt  swear 
in  truth,  in  judgment,  and  in  lighteousness,” 
and  anv  deviation  from  this  is  an  infraction  of 
the  precept  before  us,  and  though  often  ac¬ 
counted  a  trivial  offence  among  men,  yet  there 
is  scarcely  a  more  atrocious  or  provoking  crime 
in  the  sight  of  the  infinitely  true  and  pure  and 

upright  Jehovah.  Bush. - Perjury  is  not  only 

a  wrong  to  this  or  that  particular  person  who 
suffers  by  it,  but  it  is  treason  against  human 
society,  subverting  at  once  the  foundations  of 
public  peace  and  justice  and  the  private  security 
of  every  man’s  life  and  fortune.  Tdlotson. 

Frofaneness  in  Speech. 

The  authoritj'’  of  God  is  the  source  of  all 
order,  purity,  peace,  and  happiness  in  the  uni¬ 
verse.  Profanity  in  a  community^  tends  to  do 
away  with  a  reverence  for  the  name,  the  worship, 
and  authority  of  the  Deity.  It  is  an  act  of  re¬ 
bellion  against  the  government  of  God,  and  an 
act  of  desolation  upon  every  human  interest 
protected  by  a  sense  of  moral  responsibility.  It 
is  striking  at  every  obligation,  human  and  Di¬ 
vine,  because  it  strikes  at  the  great  source  of  all 
obligation.  That  men  shall  speak  truth  under 
the  sanction  of  an  oath  in  courts  of  justice  ; 
that  they  shall  respect  the  rights  of  property 
and  be  honest  in  traffic  ;  that  parents  shall  sus¬ 
tain  and  educate  their  children,  and  children 
shall  reverence  and  obey  their  parents  ;  that 
solemn  contracts  between  man  shall  bind  the 
conscience  ;  that  the  marriage  vow  shall  be  held 
sacred,  and  female  purity  cherished  ;  that  men 
shall  obey  law,  respect  each  other’s  rights— all 
this  is  essential  to  the  existence  of  endurable 
societ3\  But  all  these  depend  on  a  sense  of  re- 
sponsibilitj",  a  consciousness  of  religious  obliga¬ 
tion.  Now,  as  Ihis  sense  of  obligation  has  its 
origin  in  a  fear  and  reverence  for  the  heart¬ 
searching  God  as  the  final  judge,  it  is  obvious 
that  he  who  teaches  men  by  example  to  trifle 
with  the  name  and  authority  of  God,  does  all 
in  his  power  to  unhinge  and  desolate  society. 
Brainerd. 

This  precept  is  chiefly  violated  by  the  profane 
use  of  the, name  of  God  on  trivial  occasions  ;  in 
familiar  discourses,  whether  it  be  in  mirth  or 
in  anger.  There  are  some  men  who  are  in  the 


THIRD  COMMANDMENT. 


173 


constant  habit  of  interlarding  their  common  dis¬ 
courses  with  the  name  of  God  ;  generally  in  the 
form  of  swearing,  at  other  times  in  the  language 
of  cursing  and  execration,  without  any  assign¬ 
able  motive,  except  it  be  to  give  an  air  of  su¬ 
perior  spirit  and  energy  to  their  language.  The 
mention  of  the  Deity  is  often  so  introduced  as 
evidently  to  appear  a  mere  expletive  ;  nor  is 
anything  more  common  than  to  hear  such  per¬ 
sons  declare  they  absolutely  mean  nothing  by 
it.  The  criminality  of  taking  the  Lord’s  name 
in  vain  is  enhanced  by  the  absence  of  ever}^  rea¬ 
sonable  temptation.  It  is  not,  like  many  other 
vices,  productive  of  either  pleasure  or  emolu¬ 
ment  ;  it  is  neither  adapted  to  gratify  anj^  nat¬ 
ural  appetite  or  passion,  nor  to  facilitate  the 
attainment  of  a  single  end  which  a  reasonable 
creature  can  be  supposed  to  have  in  view.  It 
is  properly  the  “  superfluity  of  naughtiness,” 
and  can  only  be  considered  as  a  sort  of  pepper¬ 
corn  rent,  in  acknowledgment  of  the  devil’s 
right  of  sujteriority.  It  is  a  vice  by  which  no 
man’s  reputation  is  extended,  no  man’s  fortune 
is  increased,  no  man’s  sensual  gratifications  are 
augmented.  If  we  attempt  to  analyze  it,  and 
reduce  it  to  its  real  motive,  we  find  ourselves 
at  a  total  loss  to  discover  any  other  than  irre¬ 
ligious  ostentation,  a  desire  of  convincing  the 
world  that  its  perpetrators  are  not  under  the  re¬ 
straint  of  religious  fear.  But  as  this  motive  is 
most  impious  and  detestable,  so  the  practice 
arising  from  it  is  not  at  all  requisite  for  that 
purpose  ;  since  the  persons  who  persist  in  it  may 
safely  leave  it  to  other  parts  of  their  character 
to  exonerate  them  from  the  suspicion  of  being 
fearers  of  God.  They  are  not  so  near  to  the 
kingdom  of  God  as  to  be  liable  to  be  mistaken 
for  its  subjects.  R.  Hall. 

Profaneness  can  be  of  no  possible  use  to  him 
who  indulges  in  it,  or  to  any  one  else.  If  it 
were  not  wicked  it  would  be  simply  superfluous 
and  ridiculous.  As  it  is,  it  is,  as  Kobert  Hall 
said,  in  allusion  to  feudal  times,  merely  ‘‘  a 
peppercorn  rent  to  show  that  a  man  belongs  to 
the  devil.”  So  far  from  giving,  as  some  sup¬ 
pose.  assurance  of  the  truth  of  what  is  spoken 
in  connection  with  it,  it  is  the  reverse.  All  ob¬ 
servation  shows,  what  might  have  been  inferred 
without  it,  that  he  who  will  swear  will  lie. 
Why  not  ?  The  practice  is  scarcely  less  cfifen- 
sive  to  a  just  taste  than  to  a  sensitive  conscience, 
and  whoever  may  be  guilty  of  it  deserves  to  be 
not  only  condemned  and  abhorred,  but  despised. 
M.  H. 

Some  sins  are  perpetrated  in  secret,  and  wait 
a  final  judgment  for  their  disclosure  ;  but  pro¬ 
fanity  is  always  a  patent,  social  vice  ;  persuad¬ 


ing  to  imitation  by  example.  Some  sins  are 
found  to  be  wrong  by  experience,  by  inference  ; 
but  profanity  is  a  direct,  bold  sin  against  re 
ligion  and  God.  It  says  the  gre'at  God  need 
not  be  reverenced  ;  his  laws  need  not  be  obeyed  ; 
his  threatenings  may  be  safely  spurned  ;  his 
worship  may  be  contemned  ;  all  interests  de¬ 
pendent  on  a  sense  of  right  and  wrong  may'  be 
sacrificed.  Bvainerd. 

The  gross  vice  of  profanity— the  irreverent 
use  of  God's  name  in  ordinary  conversation — in 
the  first  place,  is  a  sin  which  cannot  plead  the 
excuse  of  strong  temptation,  as  most  other  sins  ; 
such  as  drunkenness  or  gaming  ;  or  lust  or  dis¬ 
honesty.  These  may  all  put  in  some  plea  of 
temptation  ;  but  this  sin  has  no  such  plea  ;  it  is 
pure  wickedness  alone.  In  the  second  place, 
nothing  is  accomplished  by  it,  but  it  rather 
works  out  the  reverse  of  what  it  seems  to  be 
used  for — namely',  to  covfirm  what  the  swearer 
says.  It  is  not  the  man  who  swears,  but  notori¬ 
ously'  the  man  whose  “yea  isy'ea  and  nay,  nay,” 
on  whose  word  everybody  most  relies— and  that 
very'  justly' — on  the  principle  that  a  man  must 
first  respect  himself  if  he  would  gain  the  respect 
of  other  men.  The  veiy  use  of  an  oath  to  con¬ 
firm  is  an  implied  want  of  confidence  in  one’s 
own  reputation  for  veracity.  True  self-respect 
should  assume  that.  Nor  has  the  plea  any 
more  force  which  regards  the  profane  oath  as  a 
mere  ornament  or  ”  figure  cf  speech”—  a  sort  of 
rhetorical  intensity'.  Such  plea  the  ignorant 
and  debased  might  urge,  who  have  been  edu¬ 
cated  to  no  refinement  of  taste.  Or  such  plea, 
irerhaps,  some  premature  y'oung  men  might 
urge,  who  are  ambitious  of  precocious  deprav¬ 
ity,  and  utterly  void  of  every'  conception  of  true 
rhetorical  taste.  But  what  a  plea  for  sensible 
men  !  Nor  is  there  any  apology'  in  the  plea  of 
no  bad  intention  or  the  plea  of  ignorance.  For, 
even  according  lo  the  prevalent  notions  of  men, 
this  thoughtless  ignorance  is  a  most  glaring  con¬ 
tempt  of  God.  To  have  one’s  own  nume  bandied 
about  as  a  byword  on  the  streets,  or  to  hear  the 
name  of  one’s  father,  mother,  sister,  brother 
rudely  called  by  the  vulgar  longues  of  men,  is, 
of  all  other  insults,  the  most  harrowing.  Yet 
in  this  case  the  name  of  one  higher  than  all  — 
that  to  every  creature  of  us  deserves  to  be  held 
dearer  ilian  all  from  many  a  kindness— men  thus 
make  light  of.  S,  B. 

To  excuse  the  use  of  oaths  by  custom  is  to 
wash  thyself  with  ink  ;  and  to  accuse  thyself 
deeper,  that  thou  art  long  practised  in  that  sin. 
But  if  thou  wouldest  indeed  be  delivered  from 
it,  seek  for  a  due  knowledge  of  the  majesty  of 
God,  and  thence  a  deep  reverence  of  him  in  thy 


174 


SECTION  107.  MORAL  LAW. 


heart  ;  and  that  will  certainlj^  help  that  habitu¬ 
ated  evil  of  thy  tongue.  It  will  turn  thy  re¬ 
gardless  abuse  of  that  name,  by  vain  oaths  and 
asseverations,  into  a  holy  frequent  use  of  it  in 
prayers  and  praises.  Thou  wilt  not  then  dare 
to  dishonor  that  blessed  name  that  saints  and 
angels  bless  and  adore,  but  will  set  in  with 
them  to  bless  it.  Leighton. 

It  is  enough  to  make  the  blood  curdle  to  think 
of  the  name  of  God  bandied  about  as  a  bauble 
and  plaything  of  fools.  This  otfence  cannot  go 
unpunished.  If  there  be  a  God,  he  must  vin¬ 
dicate  his  own  majesty  and  glory.  Engrave  it 
upon  jmur  minds,  fix  it  in  the  very  depths  of 
yoar  souls,  that  it  is  a  fearful  thing  to  make 
light  of  God.  It  is  the  very  spirit  and  essence 
of  all  evil,  the  very  core  of  iniquity.  If  you 
could  see  it  as  it  is,  in  the  naked  enormity  of 
its  guilt,  you  would  flee  from  it  as  from  the 
very  pestilence  of  death.  You  may  sport  with 
the  whirlwind  and  trifle  with  the  storm,  you 
may  lay  your  hand  upon  the  lion’s  mane  and 
play  with  the  leopard’s  spots,  you  may  go  to  the 
very  crater  of  a  burning  volcano  and  laugh  at 
the  lava  which  it  belches  out  in  thunder,  you 
may  trifle  with  any  and  everything,  but  trifle 
not  with  God.  Let  there  be  one  holy  thing 
upon  which  you  dare  not  lay  a  profane  hand, 
and  let  that  be  the  name  of  God.  Thornwell. 

The  l^orcl  wiBIl  not  hold  him  ^udt- 
lcs§.  There  w'as  a  reason  why  this  threat  of 
punishment  W'as  attached  to  the  third  com¬ 
mandment.  From  crimes  against  reputation, 
property,  and  life,  society  will  protect  itself. 
So  crimes  against  iDhysical  and  social  laws,  like 
intemperance,  idleness,  and  profligacy,  execute 
their  own  penalties,  in  the  sickness,  poverty, 
and  disgrace  which  they  bring  on  the  transgress 
or.  But  profanity  is  a  sin  not  primarily  against 
society,  not  against  natural  laws,  but  directly 
against  God.  Therefore  God  takes  special  cog¬ 
nizance  of  the  profane  swearer,  and  declares 
that  the  offender,  though  tolerated  by  society 
and  unrebuked  by  any  natural  penalties,  shall 
nevertheless  meet  punishment  at  the  hands  of 
God.  Brainerd. 

God’s  authority  is  supreme  over  our  speech.  The 
faculty  of  speech  is  a  noble  endowment,  and 
differentiates  man  from  the  inferior  races.  The 
tongue  is  a  mighty  instrument,  either  for  evil 
cr  for  good.  We  take  God’s  name  in  vain  when¬ 
ever  we  use  it  needlessly,  flippantly,  or  in  jest. 
The  moral  effect  upon  men  is  pernicious,  cor¬ 
rupting,  deadly.  The  penalty  is  set  forth  in 
negative  language,  but  it  is  intended  to  convey 
deep  impression.  Others  may  hold  it  as  a  venial 
sin  ;  not  so  God.  Davies, 


The  Fourth  Commandment. 

Differences  in  the  Records  in  Exodus  and  Deuter¬ 
onomy. 

In  Deuteronomy  (1)  the  reading  is  “  Observe” 
instead  of  “  Remember.” 

(2)  Three  new  clauses  are  inserted  :  “  As  the 
Lord  thy  God  hath  commanded  thee  “  Nor 
thine  ox  nor  thine  ass  “  That  thy  manservant 
and  thy  maidservant  may  rest  as  well  as  thou.” 

(3)  The  reason  given  for  the  commandment 
refers  to  the  deliverance  of  the  Israelites  from 
Egypt,  instead  of  the  rest  of  God  after  the  six 

works  of  creation.  B. - The  only  material 

difference  between  the  Decalogue  as  given  in 
Deuteronomy  and  as  delivered  at  Sinai  is  that 
in  Deuteronomy  the  reason  assigned  for  the 
Sabbath  is  not  the  rest  after  creation,  but  the 
redemption  out  of  Egypt.  This  is  easily  ac¬ 
counted  for.  It  is  in  keeping  with  the  fact  that 
in  Deuteronomy  the  Law  is  given  not  so  much 
as  a  code  for  all  peoples,  as  in  the  form  of  a 
covenant  between  Jehovah  and  the  tribes  of 
Israel.  D.  F. 

In  the  repetition  of  these  Ten  Commandments 
in  De.  5,  this  deliverance  out  of  Egypt  is  par¬ 
ticularly  mentioned  as  a  principal  reason  for 
observing  the  Sabbath.  But  as  that  deliverance 
was  only  typical  of  our  redemption  bj^  Jesus 
Christ,  and  as  the  redemption  from  eternal 
misery.was  of  so  much  greater  concern  to  the 
world  than  any  temporal  deliverance,  or  even 
than  the  creation  itself,  as  well  as  of  greater 
glory  to  God,  this  points  out  and  justifies  the 
reason  wLy  our  Christian  Sabbath  is  kept  upon 
the  day  whereon  that  redemption  w'^as  wrought 
and  finished — namely,  on  the  da}'  of  our  great 
Redeemer’s  Resurrection.  This  was  the  day  of 
his  rest  from  that  noblest  of  all  his  works,  the 
redemi^tion  of  the  world,  and  our  deliverance 
from  death.  Wogan. 

Note. — For  repetitions  of  the  Sabbath  com¬ 
mandment  in  its  special  relations  to  Israel,  see 
Sections  139  and  161.  B. 

The  series  of  commandments  referring  to 
Israel’s  relations  with  God  is  distinctly  progres¬ 
sive  from  the  first  to  the  fourth,  which  deals 
with  the  Sabbath.  The  fact  that  it  appears 
here,  side  by  side  with  these  absolutely  univer¬ 
sal  and  first  principles  of  religion  and  worship, 
clearly  shows  that  the  giver  of  the  code  regarded 

it  as  of  equal  comprehensiveness.  A.  M. - On 

that  ancient  record  of  creation  with  its  account 
of  the  weeklv  rest,  this  fourth  commandment 
expressly  plants  itself.  It  does  not  speak  as  a 
law  would  which  for  the'  first  time  set  up  a 
weekly  festival  before  unheard  of.  It  simply 


FO  URTH  COMMANDMENT. 


175 


calls  to  the  recollection  of  the  people  an  insti-* 
tution  which,  like  circumcision  or  like  sacrifice, 
had  necessarily  slipped  out  of  general  public 
usage  under  the  hard  conditions  of  Egyptian 
slavery.  “  Eemember  the  Sabbath  day,”  it  be¬ 
gins  ;  which  appears  to  me  to  be  impossible 
language  if  no  mortal  had  ever  heard  of  a  Sab¬ 
bath  day  before.  Dykes. 

As  soon  as  God  had  an  organized  people  to 
be  the  depositary  of  his  truth,  and  a  written 
language  for  its  preservation,  he  then  gave  these 
laws  in  a  formal  manner.  When  we  remember 
that  there  was  no  written  record  at  the  first,  no 
regular  system  of  codified  laws  until  the  time  of 
Moses,  the  communications  up  to  that  time 
being  all  verbal  and  traditional,  and  that  the 
early  history  of  the  world  is  exceedingly  com¬ 
pact,  whole  centuries  in  some  instances  being 
put  upon  a  single  page,  w'e  need  not  be  at  all 
astonished  that  there  should  be  the  briefest  al¬ 
lusion  to,  if  not  entire  omission  of,  any  distinct 
mention  of  any  law  concerning  the  Sabbath. 
In  the  first  ages  God  acted  more  the  part  of  a 
Father,  and  in  the  absence  of  a  written  law,  and 
even  of  a  written  language,  the  presumption  is 
that  He  frequently  appeared  at  different  times, 
and  in  different  ways,  and  thus  made  known 
his  will  to  the  Patriarchs  on  all  matters  of  faith 
and  practice.  And  if  He  could  so  communicate 
with  the  Patriarchs  on  other  matters,  as  he  cer¬ 
tainly  did,  why  not  also  on  the  Sabbath  ?  Stacy. 

Ex.  20  :  S.  Remember  the  iSabbatli 
day,  to  keep  it  holy.  The  implied  in¬ 
junction  of  the  words  spoken  in  Eden  was — 
make  it  a  holy  day.  God  blessed  the  seventh 
day  and  made  it  holy  :  now,  therefore,  remember 
that  original  injunction.  To  remember  a  pre¬ 
vious  day  made  holy,  must  surely  imply  a  pre¬ 
cept  setting  it  apart  as  holy  time.  As  given 
here  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  is  expanded  into 
its  legitimate  details.  The  prohibition  of  labor 
is  applied  to  children,  to  servants,  to  cattle,  and 
to  strangers.  Then  the  reason  for  the  corhmand 
essentially  as  given  in  Eden  is  reiterated. 
Noticeably,  the  statement  uses  the  same  Hebrew 
verbs — “  bless”  and  “  sanctify”  [or  “  hallow”]  - 
which  are  used  in  Gen.  2:3.  It  seems  plainly 
implied  that  God  places  before  men  his  own  ex¬ 
ample  of  creative  work  during  six  day-periods 
and  of  rest  from  this  work  on  the  seventh  as  a 
reason  or  motive  for  their  observance  of  the 
Sabbath— one  day  of  rest  after  six  of  toil.  A 
secondary  consideration  is  doubtless  that  by 
this  arrangement  the  Sabbath  would  be  perpet¬ 
ually  suggestive  of  man’s  relation  to  God  as  his 
Infinite  Creator  and  Father.  The  linking  of  the 
Sabbath  to  God’s  creative  work  and  rest  would 


naturally  make  that  work  a  fact  ever  present  to 
human  thought — blending  its  intluence  with 
the  sacredness  and  with  all  the  employments  of 
this  holy  day.  Man  desists  from  labor.  Whj^  ? 
Because  God  did.  After  what  labor  ?  That  of 
making  the  heavens  and  the  earth  and  man. 
Therefore  let  man  remember  God  as  his  Creator 
and  render  him  the  homage  of  obedience  and 
the  homage  of  adoration,  gratitude,  and  praise. 
Thus  the  historic  origin  of  the  precept  becamo 
suggestive  of  the  thoughts,  the  words,  and  the 
Divine  worship  appropriate  to  his  holy  day. 
H.  C. 

That  the  Sabbath  is  for  man  is  shown  :  from 
its  primeval  origin,  from  its  place  in  the  moral 
Law,  from  the  respect  paid  to  it  by  the  prophets, 
from  Christ’s  defence  of  it,  from  its  reappear¬ 
ance  in  the  new  dispensation  in  a  form  adapted 
to  the  genius  and  wants  of  Christianity,  and 
from  its  proved  adaptation  to  the  constitution 

of  man’s  nature.  Orr. - The  Sabbath,  in  its 

origin,  was  also  from  the  first  designed  to  serve 
as  an  emblem  of  spiritual  things— an  emblem 
of  the  blessed  rest  which  man  was  called  to  en¬ 
joy  in  God.  But  in  both  resi)ects  it  stands 
most  nearly  on  a  footing  with  the  ordinance  of 
marriage  :  both  alike  owed  their  institution  to 
the  original  act  and  appointment  of  God  ;  both 
also  took  their  commencement  at  the  birth  of 
time — in  a  world  unfallen,  when,  as  there  was 
no  need  for  the  antitypes  of  redemption,  so  no 
ceremonial  types  or  shadows  of  these  could 
properly  have  a  place  ;  and  both  are  destined 
to  last  till  the  songs  of  the  redeemed  shall  have 
ushered  in  the  glories  of  a  world  restored. 
P.  F. 

De.  5  :  12.  Observe  tlie  §al>l>atli 
day.  In  the  time  of  the  legislator  an  entire 
rest  from  the  work  of  daily  life  was  to  reign 
throughout  the  camp  ;  and  it  may  be  conjec¬ 
tured  that  the  people  assembled  before  the  altar 
at  the  hours  of  the  morning  and  evening  sacri¬ 
fices  for  prayer  and  contemplation,  and  to  listen 
* 

to  the  reading  of  portions  of  the  Divine  Law, 
perhaps  from  the  lips  of  Moses  himself.  Clark. 
- The  Old  Testament  Sabbath  was  in  its  deep¬ 
est  import  not  merely  a  duty,  but  also  a  right 
to  rest  in  the  midst  of  unrest  ;  a  privilege  of 
freedom  in  earthly  bondage.  It  was  not  merely 
a  binding  statute,  but  at  the  same  time  a  gra¬ 
cious  release  from  the  accompanying  and  equally 
binding  command  to  labor  ;  a  memento  of  the 
blessed  rest  of  God  and  the  redemption  of  his 
people  ;  a  gospel,  therefore,  in  the  Law.  Schaff. 

This  is  a  law  both  of  labor  and  of  rest.  “  Six 
days  shall  thou  labor”  is  no  less  imperative  and 
essential  a  portion  of  it  than  the  other  portion  : 


176  SECTION  107. 

“on  the  seventh  thou  shall  not  work.”  Over 
the  greater  i)art  of  mankind  the  j^rimitive  law 
of  toil  asserts  itself  vigorously  enough.  Hun¬ 
ger,  cu^jidity,  and  the  will  of  the  stronger  are 
all  grim  taskmasters,  urging  the  vast  majority 
of  human  beings  only  too  inexorably  to  “  eat 
their  bread  in  the  sweat  of  their  face.”  It  is  in 
the  interest  of  every  son  of  toil  that  the  benefi¬ 
cent  Lawgiver  would  impose  a  limit  upon  this 
law  of  work  by  jolacing  at  the  side  of  it  a  law  of 
rest  no  less  authoritative.  He  fences  off  a  sacred 
space  that  he  may  lay  an  arrest  upon  the  en¬ 
croachments  of  greed.  It  will  always  be  found, 
however,  that  a  reasonable  obedience  to  the  law 
of  labor  is  necessary  to  our  full  enjoyment  of 
this  merciful  law  of  rest  which  limits  it.  Idle 
people,  with  whom  every  day  is  a  daj^of  leisure, 
and  eaJiui  the  chief  of  enemies,  cannot  know 
what  a  Sabbath  means.  Before  they  can  be  in 
a  position  to  observe  the  day  of  repose,  they 
must  learn  to  do  a  week's  work.  To  all  of  us 
who  are  not  incapacitated  by  disease  or  old  age, 
the  Creator  has  ajDjJointed  our  work  on  earth, 
directing  us  to  that  share  in  the  variegated  field 
of  human  activity  which  belongs  to  us,  partly 
by  our  special  aptitudes,  and  partly  by  our  prov¬ 
idential  circumstances.  It  is  no  less  his  will 
than  it  is  for  our  own  interest,  that  we  should 
discharge  our  appointed  task  diligently  and 
faithfully  during  six  days  out  of  seven.  What 
ever  be  the  function  by  which,  under  the  com 
X^licated  arrangements  of  a  highly-civilized 
State,  we  serve  the  community,  and  by  service 
earn  an  honest  living — in  fulfilling  that  func¬ 
tion  we  are  keeping  the  fourth  commandment. 
It  is  a  commandment  which,  like  the  rest,  was 
graven  deep  on  the  constitution  of  the  world 
before  it  was  written  upon  tables  of  stone. 
Dykes. 

A  Sabbath  to  Jehovah  thy  God.  That  is,  the 
Sabbath  appointed  by  and  consecrated  to  the 
Lord  thy  God  ;  the  Sabbath  in  which  God  as¬ 
serts  a  special  interest,  which  he  joeculiarly 
claims  as  his  own,  and  which  we  cannot  refuse 
to  sanctify  to  him  without  being  guilty  of  a 
kind  of  sacrilege,  and  ax^x^ropriatingto  ourselves 
what  properly  belongs  to  another.  In  accord¬ 
ance  with  this  jDhraseology,  we  find  it  said,  “  Ye 
shall  keep  wy  Sabbath.”  Bush. - Unques¬ 

tionably  God  assumed  to  himself  the  seventh 
day,  and  consecrated  it  when  he  finished  the 
creation  of  the  world,  that  he  might  keep  his 
worshippers  entirely  free  from  all  other  cares 
while  they  were  employed  in  meditating  on  the 
beauty,  excellence,  and  splendor  of  his  works 
Cdv. 

The  Sabbath  i.v  God's  day.  He  has  given  it  his 


MODAL  LAW. 

own  holy  name.  “  The  Sabbath  of  the  Lord 
thy  God”  he  calls  it  in  this  commandment  to 
the  human  race,  and  the  Holy  Sj)irit  calls  it 
“  the  Lor d' s  day  ’  in  the  New  Testament.  This 
fact  shows  us  that  its  rightful  observance  must 
have  regard  to  our  right  relation  to  God.  The 
soul  must  be  turned  Godward.  'Worship  be¬ 
comes  most  appropriate,  and  with  it  the  study 
of  God’s  character  and  will  as  given  us  in  the 
Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  No  Sabbath-keeping  is 
a  right  observance  that  does  not  thus  recognize 
the  day  as  God's  day,  that  does  not  bring  the 
soul  into  the  positive  and  active  contemi)lation 
of  God  and  his  Word.  Crosby. 

The  Sabbath  was  to  be  kept  b}^  being  sancti¬ 
fied.  This  means  that  it  was  to  be  consecrated 
to  God  to  be  used  as  he  had  appointed.  The 
sanctification  of  any  object  “  always  goes  back 
to  an  act  of  the  Divine  will,  to  Divine  election 
and  institution.  In  other  words,  it  is  always  a 
state  in  which  the  creature  [or  institute]  is 
bound  to  God  by  the  appointment  of  God  him¬ 
self.”  The  sanctification  of  the  Sabbath,  accord- 
ingl}^  was  the  consecration  of  that  day  to  the 
Lord,  to  be  observed  as  he  had  enjoined  — that 
is,  as  a  day  of  rest  from  all  servile  work  and  or¬ 
dinary  occupations,  Man  had  to  “  release  his 
soul  and  body  from  all  their  burdens,  with  all 
the  professions  and  pursuits  of  ordinary  life, 
only  in  order  to  gather  himself  together  again 
in  God  with  greater  purity  and  fewer  disturb¬ 
ing  elements,  and  renew  in  him  the  might  of 
his  own  better  xrowers. ”  (Ewald.) — In  the 
Sabbath  institute,  therefore,  lies  the  basis  of 
spiritual  worship  and  pious  service  in  Israel. 
W.  L.  A. 

To  sanctify  in  the  first  instance  is  simply  to 
set  apart  from  a  common  to  a  sacred  use.  The 
tithes,  the  first-born,  the  first-fruits,  and  the 
tabernacle,  with  all  its  appurtenances,  were  all 
sanctified  in  this  sense,  that  they  were  set  apart 
for  sacreil  uses.  So  the  peox3le  of  Israel  were 
also  sanctified  in  the  same  sense,  that  they 
were  separated  from  all  the  other  nations  of  the 
earth,  as  the  peculiar  people  of  the  Lord.  It  is 
only  in  this  sense  that  God  can  sanctify  the 
Sabbath.  He  has  sanctified  the  day  8imx3]y  in 
the  sense  that  he  has  separated  it  from  all  the 
rest,  that  men  may  devote  it  to  holy  x^urxjoses. 
This  leads  to  a  second  meaning  of  the  Word, 
which  is  to  treat  as  hol}^  that  which  has  been 
thus  separated  and  consecrated  ;  and  for  the 
reason  that  the  consecration  makes  it  the  x^tcul- 
iar  property  of  the  Lord,  and  as  such  must  be 
reverenced.  Stacy. 

The  Sabbath  is  not  man-made  but  heaven- 
born  ;  an  outgrowth  of  God’s  wisdom  and  love 


FOURTH  COMHAHDMEHT. 


177 


for  his  offspring  man — for  that  one  of  all  his 
creatures  whom  only  God  “  made  in  his  own 
image.”  ‘‘God  blessed  the  seventh  day  and 
sanctified  it  ;  because  that  in  it  he  had  rested 
from  all  his  work  which  God  created  and  made.’  ’ 
‘‘  Blessed  and  sanctified  ” — not  as  to  himself  bnt 
as  to  v\an — i.e.,  noc  to  make  the  day  a  blessing 
to  himself  but  a  blessing  to  man  ;  not  to  make 
the  day  holy  to  himself  but  holy  as  to  man.  It 
was  a  day  for  man  to  keep  holy  and  a  day  laden 
with  blessings  for  man  on  condition  of  his 
sacredly  observing  it  in  its  true  spirit  and  in¬ 
tent.  In  accord  with  this  view  are  our  Saviour’s 
words,  ‘‘The  Sabbath  was  made  for  man” — to 
become  a  blessing  for  man,  one  of  the  great  and 
sure  channels  of  mercy  from  the  Great  Father 
to  his  obedient  children.  Thus  the  Sabbath 
was  instituted  for  man  when  the  race  existed  in 
Adam  and  Eve  alone— one  of  the  institutions 
revealed  from  God  and  enjoined  in  Eden — good 
for  man  before  his  fall,  and  surely  not  less 
needful  to  the  race  fallen  than  to  the  race  sin¬ 
less.  Let  it  be  distinctly  considered  that  this 
Sabbath  vms  instituted  with  no  limitations  of 
time  or  race  or  nation  —not  for  Eden  alone  ;  not 
for  the  race  before  their  fall  only—  to  become 
defunct  when  man  began  to  sin  ;  not  for  the 
Jews  alone  to  be  only  a  Jewish  national  observ¬ 
ance  and  to  become  obsolete  when  the  ceremo¬ 
nials  of  Judaism  ”  waxed  old  and  vanished 
away.”  It  was  indeed  prescribed  anew  to  the 
Hebrew  nation  and  enforced  with  new  sanc¬ 
tions,  especially  by  his  obligations  to  his  cove¬ 
nant-keeping  God  for  national  deliverance  from 
Egyptian  bondage  ;  but  this  weighs  not  a 
feather  against  the  doctrine  that  the  Sabbath 
was  made  for  man.  While  the  Sabbath  obliga¬ 
tion,  thus  heightened  by  new  mercies,  might  be 
said  to  become  more  sacred  and  obligatory  upon 
the  Jewish  nation,  this  fact  could  by  no  means 
make  the  clay  less  sacred  to  the  Gentiles  of 
every  land  and  of  all  time.  As  sustaining  scrip- 
turally  this  argument  for  the  Divine  appoint¬ 
ment  of  the  Sabbath  for  the  race  of  mankind, 
let  it  be  noted  that  the  seven-day  division  of 
time  is  unquestionably  traceable  to  this  primeval 
institution.  Unlike  the  day,  the  month,  and 
thh  year,  it  is  a  division  of  time  wdiich  comes 
not  of  nature,  but  directly  from  God.  H.  C. 

Perpetuity  of  the  Sabbath. 

There  w^ould  be  no  place  for  a  discussion  of 
the  Sabbath  as  merely  a  Jewish  ordinance  but 
for  the  failure  of  man  to  jierceive  the  identity 
of  the  Church  in  all  ages  and  the  true  nature  of 
the  significancy  of  the  Sinai  ordinances  as  a 
covenant  with  the  Church  of  God  in  that  age  as 
12 


representing  the  Church  of  all  ages.  Thus  said 
Moses  to  another  generation  forty  years  after¬ 
ward.  “  The  Lord  our  God  made  a  covenant 
wdth  us  at  Horeb.”  ‘‘The  Lord  made  this 
covenant  not  with  our  fathers  (only),  but  with 
us  ;  even  us  who  are  here  all  alive  this  day."'  And 
the  martyr  Stephen,  fifteen  hundred  years  after, 
declared,  ”  Our  fathers  received  the  lively  oracles 
to  give  unto  tcs.”  And  if  “  the  Church  in  the 
wilderness,”  as  Stephen  calls  it,  and  w^hich,  as 
Paul  declares,  “  tempted  Christ  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,”  w^as  thus  the  same  Church  in  idea  and  in 
fact,  and  represented  thus  the  Church  of  this 
age,  and  all  ages  in  the  covenant  at  Sinai,  where 
is  there  any  place  for  these  elaborate  distinc¬ 
tions  between  what  is  merely  Jewish  and  lim¬ 
ited,  and  what  is  universal  and  moral  in  the 
Law  given  to  the  Church  ?  For  the  puiqjose  of 
the  Law  was  as  a  rule  of  life  to  convince  of  sin, 
that  sinners  may  be  led  to  seek  deliverance 
from  sin  through  the  atoning  sacrifice.  That 
great  purpose  was  in  reference  to  all  ages  alike. 
S.  B. 

The  single  saying  of  our  Saviour  that  “  The 
Sabbath  was  made  for  man’  ’  puts  both  the  in¬ 
stitution  itself  as  originally  given  and  the  mode 
of  its  observance  on  a  new  basis  as  they  are  re¬ 
lated  to  dur  minds.  It  gives  us  the  reason  for 
the  command,  and  so  the  principle  for  the  reg¬ 
ulation  of  its  observance.  The  Sabbath  ceases 
to  stand  before  us  as  a  positive  institution 
merely,  but  bases  its  claims  upon  its  bearing 
upon  human  welfare.  It  is  implied  in  the 
words  of  Christ  that,  if  the  day  itself  rightly 
observed  w'ould  not  promote  the  well-being  of 
man,  then  it  is  to  be  abrogated,  and  that  there 
is  to  be  nothing  in  the  mode  of  its  observance 
that  is  not  subservient  to  the  same  end.  But 
while  this  is  true,  it  is  also  true  that  Christ  said 
no  word  tending  to  abrogate  the  Law  of  the 
Sabbath.  On  the  contrary,  his  words  imply, 
rather  directly  affirm,  that  the  Sabbath  is  fc-r 
the  race — for  man  as  man — and  so  of  universal 
and  perpetual  obligation.  What  he  did  was  to 
give  us  a  principle  for  the  interpretation  and 
application  of  the  Law,  limited  in  its  flexibility 
only  b}’’  the  end  of  the  Law.  He  gave  us  a  prin¬ 
ciple  instead  of  a  rule.  In  this  view  of  it  the 
law  of  the  Sabbath  is  for  man,  just  as  the  law 
of  the  family  or  of  property  is  ;  and  if  the 
fourth  commandment  is  to  hold  its  place  with 
the  others,  it  must  do  it  as  regulating,  as  each 
of  the  others  do,  one  of  the  great  elements  and 
relations  that  are  essential  to  human  well-being. 
And  this  is  precisely  what  it  does.  The  fourth 
commandment  is  God’s  statute  in  regard  to  the 
element  of  itme,  as  the  fifth  is  in  regard  to  t’he 


178 


SECTION  107.  MORAL  LA^Y. 


family,  the  sixth  in  regard  to  life,  the  seventh 
in  regard  to  purity,  the  eighth  in  regard  topiop- 
erty,  and  the  ninth  in  regard  to  truth.  Let 
these  elements  he  rightly  adjusted,  and  give  us 
in  connection  vdth  them  the  worship  of  God 
and  freedom  from  a  covetous  disposition  which 
are  provided  for  in  the  other  four  command¬ 
ments,  and  we  say  that  we  have  everything  re¬ 
quired  for  the  best  condition  of  the  individual 
and  of  society\  “  The  Law  of  the  Lord  is  per¬ 
fect.”  Nothing  can  be  omitted;  nothing  need 
be  added.  M.  H. 

As  the  day  was  once  sanctified  and  once 
blessed — once  set  up  as  a  memorial  of  his  rest¬ 
ing  and  a  symbol  of  his  authority,  and  we  no¬ 
where  find  a  repeal  of  the  act — the  interpreta¬ 
tion  clearly  is,  that  when  he  said  ”  blessed,”  he 
meant  always  blessed,  and  when  he  said  “  hal¬ 
lowed,”  he- meant  always  hallowed,  even  to  the 
end  of  time.  And  if  the  sanctification  and 
blessing  have  never  been  revoked,  and  never 
can  be,  because  the  ground  of  the  same  is  in 
the  Creator  himself  and  not  the  creature,  then 
its  perpetuity  is  established  beyond  all  ques¬ 
tion,  it  being  in  the  very^  nature  of  things  wholly 
ineradicable  from  the  works  of  God  or  hopes  of 
men.  And  furthermore,  that  as  all  this  was 
done  at  the  beginning,  this  rest  was  not  in¬ 
tended  to  be  the  peculiar  property  of  any  one 
nation  or  people,  but  even  as  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars,  and  all  the  other  original  works  of 
the  Creator,  and  his  own  example  also,  designed 
to  be  the  common  inheritance  of  the  race,  and 
.therefore  to  continue  to  the  end  of  time.  Stacy. 

In  the  Book  of  Genesis  the  mention  of  this 
institution  closes  the  history  of  the  creation. 
An  institution  of  this  antiquity  and  importance 
could  derive  no  part  of  its  sanctity  from  the 
authority  of  the  Mosaic  Law  ;  and  the  abroga¬ 
tion  of  that  Law  no  more  releases  the  worship¬ 
pers  of  God  from  a  rational  observation  of  a 
Sabbath  than  it  cancels  the  injunction  of  filial 
pietyq  or  the  prohibitions  of  theft  and  murder, 
adultery,  calumny,  and  avarice.  The  worship 
of  the  Christian  Church  is  properly  to  be  con¬ 
sidered  as  a  restoration  of  the  Patriarchal  in  its 
primitive  simplicity  and  purity  ;  and  of  the 
Patriarchal  worship  the  Sabbath  was  the  noblest, 
and  perhaps  the  simplest  rite.  Bp.  Horsley. 

- There  was  much  of  Jewish  observancy 

swept  away  with  the  ruin  of  the  national  insti¬ 
tutions,  because  there  was  much  designed  for  a 
temporary  purpose,  and  which  fell  into  disuse 
among  the  worshippers  of  God  after  that  pur¬ 
pose  was  accomplished.  These  observances, 
however,  have  no  place  whatever  in  that  great 
record  of  duty  which  was  graven  on  the  tables 


of  stone,  and  placed  within  the  holy  of  holies, 
under  the  mercy-seat.  But  the  Law  of  the  Sab¬ 
bath  stands  within  this  record,  of  which  all  the 
other  duties  are  of  such  general  and  such  im¬ 
perishable  character  ;  consequently^  it  still  re¬ 
tains  all  the  authority  of  a  perpetual  and  im¬ 
mutable  obligation.  Chalmers. 

The  ground  on  which  the  obligation  to  keep 
the  Sabbath  is  based  in  the  command,  is  the 
most  universal  in  its  bearing  that  could  possibly 
be  conceived.  “  Thou  shalt  remember  the 
Sabbath  day,  to  keep  it  holy  ;  for  in  six  days 
the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea,  and 
all  that  in  them  is,  and  rested  on  the  seventh 
day.”  There  is  manifestly’’  nothing  Jewish 
here  ;  nothing  connected  wnth  individual  in¬ 
terests  or  even  national  history.  The  grand  fact 
out  of  which  the  precept  is  made  to  grow,  is  of 
equal  significance  to  the  whole  world  ;  and  why 
should  not  the  precept  be  the  same,  of  which  it 
forms  the  basis?  God’s  method  of  procedure 
in  creating  the  visible  heavens  and  earth,  pro¬ 
duced  as  the  formal  reason  for  instituting  a  dis¬ 
tinctive,  temporary  Jewish  ordinance  !  Could 
it  be  possible  to  conceive  a  more  “  lame  and 
impotent  conclusion”?  And  this,  too,  in  the 
most  compact  piece  of  legislation  in  existence  ! 
It  seems,  indeed,  as  if  God,  in  the  appointment 
of  this  Law,  had  taken  special  precautions 
against  the  attempts  which  he  foresaw  would 
be  made  to  get  rid  of  the  institution,  and  that 
on  this  account  he  laid  its  foundations  first  in 
the  original  framework  and  constitution  of  na¬ 
ture.  The  Law,  as  a  whole,  and  certain  also  of 
its  precepts,  he  was  pleased  to  enforce  by  con¬ 
siderations  drawn  from  his  dealings  toward 
Israel,  and  the  peculiar  relations  which  he  now 
held  to  them.  But  when  he  comes  to  impose 
the  obligation  of  the  Sabbath,  he  rises  far  be¬ 
yond  any  consideration  of  a  special  kind,  or  any 
passing  event  of  history.  He  ascends  to  pri¬ 
meval  time,  and,  standing  as  on  the  platform  of 
the  newly-created  world,  dates  from  thence  the 
commencement  and  the  ordination  of  a  perpet¬ 
ually  recurring  day  of  rest.  Since  the  Lord  has 
thus  honored  the  fourth  commandment  above 
the  others,  by  laying  for  it  a  foundation  so  sin¬ 
gularly^  broad  and  deep,  is  it  yet  to  be  held*  in 
its  obligation  and  import  the  narrowest  of  them 
all  ?  P.  F. 

'Its  Relation  io  the  Family  and  to  Society. 

In  its  adaptability  to  the  necessities  of  the 
family  the  divinity  of  this  institution  clearly 
and  strikingly'  appears.  In  the  economy  of 
God,  the  family  is  made  the  very  foundation 
element  of  all  society,  the  structural  basis  of 


FOURTH  COMMANDMENT. 


Church  and  State,  and  the  fountain- spring  of 
all  government  and  rule.  Whatever,  therefore, 
builds  up  the  interest  of  the  family  is  also 
building  up  all  th^  interests  of  humanity, 
whether  intellectual,  social,  political,  or  re¬ 
ligious,  Now,  there  is  nothing  that  seems  so 
well  adapted  to'  this  purpose,  nothing  so  well 
suited  to  the  wants  of  the  family,  as  this  weekly 
reunion.  It  gives  an  opportunity  for  quiet 
social  communion  and  intercourse  which  no 
other  day  can  so  well  afford.  It  furnishes  a 
time  for  parental  instruction  and  training,  and 
also  si3iritual  improvement  and  heavenly  com¬ 
munion,  which  no  other  can  give.  The  Sabbath 
and  the  family  are  but  the  necessary  comple 
ments  of  each  other.  And  in  the  perfect  adap¬ 
tation  of  the  one  to  the  other  we  very  clearly 
see  the  unmistakable  tracings  of  a  Divine  hand. 
Stacy. 

The  Sabbath  and  the  family  were  instituted 
in  Paradise  -  these  only,  and  thej'’ naturally  sup¬ 
port  each  other.  Where  there  is  no  Sabbath, 
■the  domestic  relations  ate  not  held  sacred,  and 
where  the  domestic  relations  are  not  held  sacred, 
there  is  no  Sabbath,  Let  but  these  two  insti¬ 
tutions,  the  family  and  the  religious  Sabbath, 
be  sustained  in  their  integrity  and  every  inter¬ 
est  of  the  individual  and  of  the  family  will  be 
secured.  ...  As  it  is  through  the  fourth  and 
fifth  commandments  that  there  is  a  connection 
between  the  two  tables  of  the  Divine  Law,  so  it 
is  through  the  Sabbath  that  a  Divine  influence 
passes  into  the  family,  and  through  that  into 
society.  This  is  the  Divine  order— the  Sabbath 
and  the  family  mutually  supporting  each  other  ; 
and  God,  through  them,  working  out  a  perfect 
society.  It  remains  to  the  Christian  and  the 
patriot  to  accept  this  order,  and  work  together 
with  him.  M.  H. 

The  merciful  design  of  the  sabbatical  institu- 
tiorr  is  especially  manifest  in  the  express  refer¬ 
ence  to  manservant  and  maidservant,  to  the 
stranger  and  even  to  the  beast  of  burden,  and 
in  passages  where  the  Sabbath  and  all  the  festi¬ 
val  days  are  represented  as  days  of  joy  and  re¬ 
freshment.  Here  we  discern  the  connection  of 
the  Sabbath  with  the  original  Eden  of  inno¬ 
cence,  as  well  as  with  the  future  Eden  of  re¬ 
demption,  when  the  groaning  creation  shall  be 
freed  from  subjection  to  vanit}^  and  brought 
into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God. 
This  sweet  kernel  of  the  Gospel,  hid  beneath 
the  shell  of  the  Old  Testament  Law,  reached  its 
perfect  growth  in  Christ.  Hence  he  calls  him¬ 
self  also  in  this  sense  the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath, 
as  conversely  Sunday  is  called  his  day.  For 
Christ  hiii^  become  the  end  of  the  Law  by  ful¬ 


179 

filling  it.  He  is  our  peace,  our  rest  from  all  the 
anxious  works  of  the  Law,  the  refreshment  of 
all  the  weary  and  heavy  laden,  Schajf. 

The  Sabbath  may  be  considered  in  its  influ- 
,  ence  on  the  powers  oi  our  nature  exhausted 
through  six  days  of  anxiety  and  toil  ;  in  the 
necessity  which  is  laid  in  our  very  constitution 
by  the  Author  of  our  being  for  periodical  sea¬ 
sons  of  relaxation  and  repose  ;  in  its  influence 
on  the  intellect  of  an  individual  or  a  people  by 
its  directing  the  attention  to  topics  adapted  to 
elevate  and  ex^^and  the  soul  ;  in  the  aid  which 
it  furnishes  to  the  magistrate  in  promoting  the 
observance  of  law  ;  in  its  influence  on  neigh¬ 
borhoods  and  families  in  promoting  social  feel¬ 
ing,  and  refined  intercourse  ;  in  its  bearing  on 
the  civil  liberties  of  a  nation,  and  in  its  indis¬ 
pensable  necessity  in  preparing  for  the  life  to 
come.  Arguments  might  be  accumulated  on 
these  topics  which  would  satisfy  any  reasonable 
mind  of  the  value  and  importance  of  the  Sab¬ 
bath.  .  .  .  Without  a  Sabbath  our  public  insti¬ 
tutions  designed  to  promote  and  perpetuate  re¬ 
ligion  would  cease  ;  our  Sabbath  schools  would 
be  disbanded  ;  family  instruction  would  soon 
come  to  an  end  ;  the  sanctuaries  would  be 
closed  ;  the  ministry  dismissed  and  discarded  ,• 
the  current  of  worldly  affairs  would  be  un¬ 
broken  ;  plans  of  evil  would  meet  with  no  in- 
terruption  ;  and  all  the  means  of  grace  would 
be  at  once  arrested.  Christians  might  meet  at 
irregular  and  distant  intervals  for  prayer  and 
praise  ;  but  the  number  of  such  meetings  would 
rapidly  decrease,  and  soon  the  last  vestige  of 
Christianity  would  disappear.  The  books  con¬ 
taining  its  defence  would  be  forgotten,  and  the 
Bible  cease  to  be  read  with  interest  or  gratitude. 
Barnes. 

Change  from  Seventh  Day  to  the  Fir.st. 

The  resurrection  of  Christ  symbolizes  our  de¬ 
liverance  from  bondage,  and  our  new  creation 
into  a  higher  spiritual  life  ;  and  so  grandly  ex¬ 
pressive  is  this  symbol,  that  the  day  of  the  week 
has  been  changed  to  correspond  with  it.  But 
the  period  of  time  to  be  observed  as  a  Sabbath 
is  altogether  secondary  ;  whether  it  be  the  sev¬ 
enth  day  or  the  first  day  is  of  minor  importance. 
The  essential  point  is  the  setting  apart  for  sacred 
observances  of  a  seventh  portion  of  time  ;  and 
the  prime  reason  is  as  old  as  man,  and  universal 

as  mankind.  J,  P.  T. - The  spirit  of  the 

Law  is  complied  with  no  matter  what  particular 
seventh  is  observed.  The  example  of  God, 
which  is  the  foundation  of  the  Law,  requires 
only  a  seventh,  not  any  particular  seventh  ;  and 
that  example  is  strictly  followed  by  the  inhabi- 


180 


SECTION  107.  MORAL  LAW. 


tants  of  the  Pacific  isles,  though  living  in  sight 
of  each  other,  and  observing  different  days,  the 
one  observing  one  day  and  the  other  the  day 
following.  There  was  a  special  reason  for  the 
change  of  day.  The  sun  of  Judaism  w’as  now 
setting,  and  a  new’  and  more  glorious  era  begin¬ 
ning  to  dawn.  The  shadow  was  about  to  give 
place  to  the  substance— the  type  to  the  anti¬ 
type.  As  everything  peculiarly  Jewish  was 
about  to  be  removed,  it  was  eminently  proper 
that  there  should  be  a  change  of  day  as  well  as 
of  dispensation.  As  the  day  was  first  employed 
to  signalize  the  resting  of  the  Creator  from  his 
first  work  —the  work  of  creation — and  as  he  had 
now  finished  his  second  and  even  greater  work 
of  redemption,  and  had  entered  upon  a  second 
rest,  it  seems  peculiarly  appropriate  that  this 
new  purpose  should  be  engrafted  upon  it,  so 
that,  without  in  the  least  interfering  with  its 
original  purpose  and  design,  it  might  also  ever 
stand  as  a  lasting  memorial  of  the  resurrection 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour. 

The  true  reason  for  the  silence  of  the  New 
Testament  respecting  the  change  is  the  fact, 
that  as  the  Church  w^as  in  its  transition  state 
from  Judaism  to  a  purer  Christianity,  any  un¬ 
necessary  condemnation  of  the  Jewish  Sabbath 
or  emphasizing  of  the  Lord’s  day  w’ould  only 
have  awakened  needless  prejudice,  especially  as 
the  difference  between  the  two  was  so  slight. 
And  that  transition  was  gradual.  Nowhere  in 
actual  fact  can  the  boundary  line  be  distinctly 
drawn  between  the  old  and  new  dispensations. 
At  no  time  was  the  peremptory  order  issued  for 
the  expulsion  of  eludaism.  The  one  dispensa¬ 
tion  imperceptibly  glided  into  the  other,  as  the 
night  into  the  day.  Hence  the  continued  ob¬ 
servance  for  along  time  of  both  the  seventh  and 
first  days  of  the  week.  The  infant  Church  was 
left  in  this,  as  many  other  things,  to  adapt  itself 
to  the  new  order  of  things  as  circumstances  de¬ 
manded.  Anything,  therefore,  like  a  forced 
order  wmuld  have  been  unwise  and  hu-rtful. 
And  further,  the  obedience  was  so  universal  and 
general,  the  reverential  observance  so  continu¬ 
ous,  as  to  render  the  repetition  altogether  unnec¬ 
essary.  If  any  law  was  more  deeply  imbedded 
in  the  mind  of  a  Jew  than  another,  it  was  this 
law  of  the  Sabbath.  Stacy. 

The  change  of  day  from  the  last  to  the  first 
day’  of  the  week  was  necessary  not  merely,  as 
Horsley’  states,  to  distinguish  Christian  from 
Jew',  but  also  to  distinguish  Sabbath  from  Sab¬ 
bath  —a  Sabbath  growing  up  amid  symbolical 
institutions  which  insensibly  imparted  to  it  a 
spirit  of  outward  ritualism,  and  a  Sabbath  much 
more  distinguished  by  spiritual  employment 


and  active  energy,  both  in  doing  and  receiving 
good.  Such  a  change  in  its  character  was  clearly 
indicated  by  our  Lord  in  those  miracles  of  heal¬ 
ing  which  he  purposely  performed  on  the  Sab¬ 
bath,  that  his  followers  might  now  see  their 
calling  to  use  the  opportunities  presented  on 
the  day  of  bodily  rest  to  minister  to  the  tem¬ 
poral  or  spiritual  necessities  of  those  around 
them.  And  in  fitting  correspondence  with  this, 
the  day  chosen  for  the  Christian  Sabbath  was 
the  first  day  of  the  week,  the  day  on  which 
Christ  rose  from  the  dead  that  he  might  enter 
into  the  rest  of  God,  after  having  finished  the 
glorious  work  of  redemption.  But  that  rest, 
how  to  be  employed  ?  Not  in  vacant  repose, 
but  in  an  incessant,  holy  activity,  in  directing 
the  affairs  of  his  mediatorial  kingdom  and  dif¬ 
fusing  the  inestimable  blessings  he  had  pur¬ 
chased  for  men.  P.  F. 

The  religious  side  of  the  Hebrew  Sabbath, 
though  abolished  so  far  as  the  observance  of  Jew¬ 
ish  riles  is  concerned,  was  at  once  taken  up  by 
the  Christian  Church  ;  and  Christians  have,  as 
we  well  know,  by  meeting  for  worship  on  the 
first  day,  recognized  the  principle  of  a  woild's 
rest-day,  and  have  used  it  for  the  higher  purposes 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  And  now  to  us  the 
Lord’s  day  is  our  day  of  rest  from  earthly  toil  ; 
the  day  of  hallowed  calm  ;  of  richest  memory  ; 
of  united  worship  ;  of  mutual  recognition  of 
our  common  relationship  to  one  God  and  Sav¬ 
iour  ;  of  spiritual  training  ;  of  holiest  service  for 
the  Master  ;  of  subiimest  outlook.  C.  C. 

Keeping  of  the  Sabbath. 

How  the  Sabbath  must  be  kept  must  be  de¬ 
termined  in  part  from  its  origin,  but  chiefly 
from  its  end.  As  associated  with  great  and  joy¬ 
ful  events  in  the  past,  the  Sabbath  is  of  the  na¬ 
ture  of  a  festival,  and  should  be  a  day  of  joy. 
As  calling  us  to  cease  from  the  toil  imposed  by 
the  primeval  curse,  and  today  aside  its  soiled 
garments,  the  Sabbath  is  a  day  of  release  and  of 
refreshment.  As  pointing  to  a  rest  of  holy  ac¬ 
tivity,  in  which  the  curse  of  toil  shall  be  wholly 
lifted  from  us,  the  Sabbath  is  a  day  of  delight¬ 
ful  anticipation  and  of  earnest  preparation. 
To  one  acquainted  with  its  origin  and  sympa¬ 
thizing  with  its  end,  the  whole  tone  and  aspect 
of  the  day  must  be  bright,  and  its  spirit  free  ; 
but  the  manner  of  keeping  the  day,  its  duties 
and  employments,  must  be  mainly  determined 
by  its  end.  Is  the  end  of  the  Sabbath  relig¬ 
ious  ?  Then  it  is  to  be  kept  holy.  Then  are  we 
to  bring  ourselves  by  every  method  of  his  ap¬ 
pointment  into  immediate  and  conscious  rela¬ 
tion  to  God  as  a  holy  God,  and  our  end  will  be 


FOURTH  COMMANDMENT. 


181 


the  promotion  of  holiness  in  ourselves  and 
others.  Holiness  is  the  sapreme  end.  So  far 
as  that  "will  be  promoted  by  jibysical  rest  and 
“  bodily  exercise,”  by  study,  or  art,  or  social 
intercourse,  or  communion  with  nature,  these 
will  be  in  place,  hut  no  further.  “  The  Sabbath 
was  made  for  man,”  and  whatever  labor  or  ser¬ 
vice  his  good  may  require  us  to  perform  on 
that  day,  we  are  to  do — all  works  of  necessity 
and  mercy.  But  we  are  to  remember  that  it 
was  made  for  man  especially  as  a  religious 
being,  and  as  his  great  need  is  conformity  to 
God,  if  the  Sabbath  be  not  so  kept  as  to  pro¬ 
mote  that,  it  fails  of  its  chief  end.  It  fails  to 
be  properly  a  Sabbath.  But  let  it  be  kept  so  as 
to  promote  this  end,  and  every  inferior  good 
will  follow.  There  will  be  physical  rest.  There 
will  be  that  study  of  the  Word  of  God  and  that 
meditation  which  give  light  and  depth  to  the 
intellect.  There  will  be  sacred  song,  with  so 
much  of  art  as  higher  ends  may  demand  or  per¬ 
mit.  There  will  be  that  family  worship  which 
hallows  the  home,  and  that  public  and  social 
worship  which  at  once  humbles  and  exalts  men, 
and  brings  them  together  as  one  family  before 
God.  Man  will  have  sympath}’’  with  nature, 
not  merely  as  expressing  the  natural  attributes 
of  God,  but  as  the  basis  and  frame-work,  and 
in  some  of  its  aspects,  the  silent  prophecy  of  a 
higher  moral  and  Christian  system.  All  this  he 
will  have  under  the  law  of  limitation,  and  in 
addition,  the  limitless  good  that  comes  from 
conformity  to  God,  and  direct  communication 
with  him.  Such  a  law  of  the  Sabbath  is  as 
precise  as  can  be  given  and  not  keep  men  chil¬ 
dren,  or  make  them  machines.  M.  H. 

The  only  external  duty  clearly  commanded  by 
God  in  the  universal  commandment  of  the  Sab¬ 
bath  is  abstinence  from  our  usual  occupations. 
Our  labor  and  work  are  to  be  done  in  the  six 
days,  and  abruptly  given  up  on  the  Sabbath. 
That  much  was  an  absolute  necessity  to  a  true 
Sabbath  keeping,  but  beyond  that  the  Bible  tells 
us  nothing.  The  outer  law  of  the  Sabbath  to 
the  Christian  is  simply  to  abstain  from  the 
ordinary  daily  labor  ;  the  inner  law  of  the  Sab¬ 
bath  is  to  keep  it  holy.  Like  all  the  other  com¬ 
mandments,  it  is  solely  and  intensely  personal, 
and  its  keeping  and  breaking  can  only  be  known 
to  one's  own  soul  and  to  God,  who  seeth  the 
heart.  It  has  an  external  and  visible  part,  as 
have  the  convocation  of  saints,  and  baptism, 
and  the  Lord’s  Supper,  and  the  reading  of  the 
Word,  but  it  also  has  its  internal  and  invisible 
part,  which  is  its  heart  and  marrow’  ;  and  here 
the  right  observance  of  the  Sabbath  must  begin. 
Let  us,  then,  give  the  Sabbath  its  full  value  to 


our  souls  by  the  especial  and  assiduous  cultiva¬ 
tion  of  spiritual  knowledge  and  affections.  Let 
us  make  the  Sabbath  a  cltteiful  day,  as  Fkarisee- 
ism  does  not,  and  a  holy  day,  as  voorldliness  does 
not.  Its  observance  is  an  injunction,  most  pre¬ 
cise  and  most  solemn,  of  our  God.  Obedience 
will  enrich  us  with  unspeakable  blessings,  and 
disobedience  will  entaii  upon  us  grievous  woes. 
Crosby. 

Nowhere  undertake  to  draw  a  line  between 
works  of  necessity  and  mercy  and  those  wdiich 
are  not.  In  a  few’  exceptional  cases  there  may 
be  doubt  and  uncertainty,  just  as  in  any  other 
department  of  Christian  ethics  ;  but,  as  a  gen¬ 
eral  thing,  there  is  abundance  of  light  to  guide 
those  who  are  willing  to  be  guided.  Stacy. 

Libert}’,  variety,  spontaneity  in  the  employ¬ 
ments  and  recreations  suitable  to  this  festal  day 
will  prevent  the  listlessness  or  weariness  which 
uniformly  results  from  a  forced  sameness  of  oc¬ 
cupation  or  protracted  strain  of  attention.  Es¬ 
pecially  should,  innocent  tendencies  toward 
variety,  novelty,  and  lightness  be  indulged  to 
the  utmost  bounds  of  propriety.  In  social  con¬ 
verse,  it  is  not  so  much  the  subject  that  is  to  be 
regulated,  as  the  aspect  in  which  it  is  viewed 
and  the  mode  in  w’hich  it  is  discussed.  Almost 
any  topic  of  history  or  science  or  every-day  ex¬ 
perience  may  form  the  ground  of  remark  in 
harmony,  or  not  out  of  harmony,  with  the  truth 
of  God  and  the  day  of  his  rest.  Such  conver¬ 
sation,  on  ordinary  topics  familiar  to  the  mind 
and  level  to  the  capacity  of  the  social  circle,  as 
will  awaken  attention,  and  give  the  thoughts  a 
good  direction  and  a  healthy  impulse,  is  incom¬ 
parably  better  than  poverty  of  thought,  dearth  of 
ideas,  apathy  of  spirit,  and  consciousness  of 
constraint,  all  of  which  are  in  sheer  antagonism 
with  the  notion  and  design  of  the  Sabbath. 
And  there  is  a  special  advantage  in  admitting 
the  themes  of  daily  life  into  the  tissue  of  our 
Sabbath  tal  kings,  as  they  are  thereby  conse¬ 
crated  in  our  minds.  M. 

Let  each  of  us  lay  this  w’ell  to  heart  that  our 
Sabbaths  are  a  gift  from  our  kind  Father  of 
quite  unspeakable  value.  Used  in  the  best  way, 
they  do  make  stepping-stones  for  our  feet  to 
w’alk  to  heaven  by.  They  open  to  us  at  the 
wayside  so  many  oratories  and  Bethel-like  re¬ 
treats  where  we  may  refresh  our  jaded  spiritual 
nature,  cultivate  closer  acquaintance  with  Christ, 
offer  to  God  a  less  hurried  praise,  clear  our¬ 
selves  from  the  dust  of  time,  re-examine  the 
foundations  of  our  confidence,  scrutinize  our 
motives,  repair  our  faults,  and  revive  our  droop¬ 
ing  ardor  in  the  task  of  self-discipline  for  eter¬ 
nal  bliss.  To  make  the  very  best  of  such  costly 


182 


SECTION  107.  MORAL  LAW. 


possibilities  — fifty-two  of  them  in  the  year's 
round— how  infinitely  is  that  to  be  desired  for 
such  Christians  as  we  are,  far  behind  in  grace, 
and  battling  with  conditions  adverse  to  holi¬ 
ness  !  To  lose  our  Sabbaths  and  all  they  might 
bring  to  us  — can  anything  replace  a  loss  like 
that  ?  Dykes. 

Summary  Conclusions. 

If  the  Sabbatic  law  was  a  part  of  the  original 
plan  ;  if  it  was  stamped  upon  the  creation  at 
the  beginning,  and  given  traditionally  and 
orally  to  our  first  parents  and  the  Patriarchs  of 
old  ;  if  not  given  for  the  first  time,  but  simply 
renewed  unto  Israel  in  the  wilderness  in  a  writ¬ 
ten  and  permanent  form  ;  if  it  formed  no  part 
whatever  of  the  Levitical  Law,  and  was  simply 
united  temporarily  with  the  political  code,  en¬ 
tering  into  union  with  it  onlj'  as  the  other  nine, 
or  as  the  principles  of  morality  enter  into  the 
political  constitution  of  any  country,  so  that  the 
after  dissolution  of  the  Jewish  nationality  did 
not  affect  it  any  more  than  the  destruction  of 
any  Christian  government  would  destroy  the 
morality  incorporated  in  its  constitution  ;  if  it 
was  not  only  unrepealed,  but  wholly  unrepeal- 
able  in  its  very  nature,  belonging  to  the  field  of 
morals,  and  not  of  ceremony — being  the  “  Law 
of  the  Lord, ’’and  not“  the  Law  of  Moses” — hav¬ 
ing  for  its  foundation  the  immutable  acts  of  an 
immutable  God,  and  for  its  sanction  the  un¬ 
changing  example  of  that  same  unchanging  God  ; 
if  its  claims  are  everywhere  recognized  in  the 
Scriptures,  and  so  interwreathed  and  inter¬ 
twined  in  its  histor3%  its  laws,  its  prophecy,  its 
l^romises  and  threatenings,  its  blessings  and 
maledictions,  that  to  root  it  out  is  simply  to 
upheave  and  disjoint  the  whole  ;  if  it  was  the 
type  of  nothing  in  Canaan,  and  therefore  not 
fulfilled  there,  nor  yet  the  type  of  anything  in 
the  kingdom  of  Christ,  and  therefore  not  ful¬ 
filled  there  ;  and  if  it  was  not  of  the  nature  of  a 
type  at  all,  but  simply  the  firstfruits  of  the 
heavenly  rest,  and  as  such  must  ever  continue 
to  stand  as  a  prophecy  and  pledge  until  that 
rest  is  entered  ; — if  this  be  its  character  and 
nature,  its  origin  and  destiny,  it  must  be  infi¬ 
nitely  exalted  above  all  the  mutations  of  earth. 
And  if  it  survived  such  a  terrible  upheaval  as 
the  overthrow  of  Judaism,  then  there  can  be 
nothing  else  to  check  its  onward  march  to  the 
end  of  time.  Stacy. 

We  deem  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  to  have 
been  fully  entitled  to  a  place  in  the  standing 
revelation  of  God’s  will  concerning  man’s  duty, 
and  to  have  formed  no  exception  to  the  perfec¬ 
tion  and  completeness  of  the  Law  ;  because. 


first,  there  is  in  such  an  institution,  when  prop¬ 
erly  observed,  a  sublime  act  of  holiness,  The 
whole  rational  creation  standing  still,  as  it  were, 
on  every  seventh  day  as  it  returns,  and  looking 
up  to  its  God  — what  could  more  strikingly  pro¬ 
claim  in  all  men’s  ears  that  they  have  a  com¬ 
mon  Lord  and  Master  in  heaven  ?  Secondly,  be¬ 
cause  it  is  an  institution  of  mercy.  In  perfect 
harmony  with  the  Gospel,  it  breathes  good-will 
and  kindness  to  men.  It  brings,  as  Coleridge 
well  expressed  it,  fifty-two  spring  days  every 
year  to  this  toilsome  world  ;  and  may  justly  be 
regarded  as  a  sweet  remnant  of  paradise,  miti¬ 
gating  the  now  inevitable  burdens  of  life,  and 
connecting  the  region  of  bliss  that  has  been  lost 
with  the  still  brighter  glory  that  is  to  come.  As 
in  the  former  aspect  there  is  love  to  God,  so 
here  there  is  love  to  man.  Lastly,  we  uphold 
its  title  to  a  place  in  the  permanent  revelation 
of  God’s  will  to  man,  because  of  its  eminent 
use  and  absolute  necessity  to  promote  men’s 
higher  interests.  Religion  cannot  properly  ex¬ 
ist  without  it,  and  is  always  found  to  thrive  as 
the  spiritual  duties  of  the  day  of  God  are  at  ¬ 
tended  to  and  discharged.  P.  F. 

I  must  not  only  say,  but  plead  while  I  live 
in  this  world,  and  leave  this  testimony  to  the 
present  and  future  ages,  that  if  ever  I  have  seen 
anything  of  the  ways  and  worship  of  God 
wherein  the  power  of  religion  or  godliness  hath 
been  expressed — anything  that  hath  rej^resented 
the  holiness  of  the  Gospel  and  the  Author  of  it 
— anything  that  looked  like  a  prelude  to  the 
everlasting  Sabbath  and  rest  with  God,  which 
we  aim  through  grace  to  come  unto— it  hath 
been  there  and  with  them,  where  and  among 
whom,  the  Lord’s  day  hath  been  held  in  highest 
esteem  and  a  strict  observation  of  it  attended 
to,  as  an  ordinance  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
The  remembrance  of  their  ministry,  their  w'alk 
and  conversation,  their  faith  and  love,  who  in 
this  nation  have  most  zealously  pleaded  for,  and 
have  been  in  their  persons,  families,  parishes, 
or  churches  the  most  strict  observers  of  this 
day,  will  be  precious  to  them  that  fear  the  Lord 
while  the  sun  and  moon  endure.  Let  these 
things  be  despised  by  those  who  are  otherwise 
minded  ;  to  me  they  are  of  great  weight  and 
importance.  Owen. 

What  an  accumulation  of  testimony  in  favor 
of  the  Sabbath  !  How  immovably  fixed  are  its 
foundations  !  How  indelibly  stamped  its  foot¬ 
prints  ;  stamped  upon  the  original  creation  ; 
stamped  iipon  the  entire  course  of  Jewish  his¬ 
tory  ;  stamped  upon  every  page  of  Scripture,  its 
history,  its  prophecy,  its  legislation,  its  sym¬ 
bolism  ;  stamped  upon  the  traditions  of  the 


SECTION  108. 


183 


■world  ;  stamped  upon  the  nature  and  constitu¬ 
tion  of  man  ;  everywhere  written,  everywhere 
seen,  everywhere  needed,  everywhere  found  ! 
And  surely  he  who  has  undertaken  its  overthrow 
is  engaged  in  a  work  of  the  most  gigantic  pro¬ 
portions,  with  which  the  old  Titanic  war,  or 
the  projected  scheme  of  the  Babel  builders, 
sink  into  utter  insignificance.  It  is  but  an 
effort  to  thwart  the  purpose  of  God,  to  over¬ 
throw  his  counsels,  to  arrest  his  work,  to  abol¬ 
ish  his  example,  to  annul  his  blessing,  to  revoke 
his  sanctification,  and  mar  his  rest,  as  well  as 
ignore  the  constitutional  requirements  and 
necessities  of  man.  It  is  but  to  run  the  plough¬ 
share  through  the  entire  Scriptures,  and  to  up¬ 
turn  all  its  symbolism,  its  morality,  its  proph¬ 
ecy.  It  is  to  tear  up  all  the  associations  and 
precious  memories  of  the  past,  to  root  out  all 
the  accumulated  traditions  of  ages,  and  to  make 


creation  a  problem,  and  life  itself  a  mysterious 
blank  !  As  well  undertake  to  blot  out  the  sun 
from  its  place  in  the  firmament,  or  pluck  some 
one  of  the  stars  from  the  coronal  of  night,  or 
lift  the  ocean  from  its  coral  bed,  or  stay  the 
chariot  wheel  of  time  in  its  onward  march,  as 
the  elimination  of  this  ordinance  from  the 
schemes  of  creation  and  redemption.  An  insti¬ 
tution  so  deeply  and  securely  laid,  so  firmly  and 
immovably  fixed  in  the  purposes,  plans,  and 
works  of  God,  as  well  as  in  the  lives  and  hopes 
of  men,  is  but  a  simple  necessity,  and  must  and 
will  live  forever. 

The  grand  conclusion  is  irresistible,  that  the 
Christian  ISabbath  is  a  Divine  institution,  ordained 
by  the  Creator  himself,  and  intended  alike  for  all 
nations,  kindreds,  tongues,  and  people  that  dwell 
upon  the  earth  to  the  end  of  time,  and  as  such  to  be 
most  scrupulously  guarded  and  defended  /  Stacy. 


Section  108. 

MORAL  LAW  :  FIFTH.  SIXTH.  AND  SEVENTH  COMMANDMENTS. 


Exodus  20  :  12-14. 

Ex.  20  12  Honour  thy  father  and  thy  mother  : 

that  thy  days  may  be  long  upon  the 
land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth 
thee. 

13  Thou  shalt  do  no  murder. 

14  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adul¬ 
tery. 

De.  5  16  Honoux*  thy  father  and  thy  mother. 

The  Last  Five 

What  crime  is  there  against  person  or  prop¬ 
erty,  against  a  man’s  life  or  his  honor,  against 
his  virtue  or  his  good  name,  which  they  do  not 
forbid  ?  What  interest  of  man  leave  unpro¬ 
tected  ?  The  framework  of  laws  in  a  nation  is 
the  work  of  ages,  but  here  the  whole  is  com¬ 
pressed  into  a  space  so  small  that  it  could  be 
written  on  a  man’s  hand.  Different  nations 
have  obtained  their  rights  at  the  price  of  great 
sacrifices— rights  which  are  summed  up  in  cer¬ 
tain  great  charters,  such  as  the  Magna  Charta 
of  England  and  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
of  America.  As  these  contain  the  j)rinciples  of 
universal  liberty,  so  does  this  second  table  of 
the  Law  contain  the  principles  of  universal 


Deut.  5  :  16-18. 

as  the  Lord  thy  God  commanded 
thee  :  that  thy  days  may  be  long, 
and  that  it  may  go  well  with  thee, 
upon  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy 
God  giveth  thee. 

17.  Thou  shalt  do  no  murder. 

18.  Neither  shalt  thou  commit  adul¬ 
tery. 

Commandments. 

justice.  If  it  were  obeyed,  there  is  not  an  act 
of  injustice  which  could  find  a  place  among 
men.  Who  can  measure  the  germinating  power 
of  a  great  principle  of  justice — how  it  multiplies 
itself  in  its  application  to  different  countries 
and  racos,  adapting  itself  to  all  times  and 
climes,  to  all  the  relations  of  men  as  they  may 
change  to  the  end  of  the  world  ?  Whence  had 
Moses  this  wisdom  ?  He  was  “  learned  in  all 
the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptians,”  but  he  did  not 
find  it  there,  for  a  part  of  his  code  is  aimed  di¬ 
rectly  at  the  idolatries  which  were  universal  in 
Egypt.  Where,  then,  did  he  get  his  inspiration? 
This  is  for  those  who  are  fond  of  pointing  out 
the  mistakes  of  Moses  to  answer.  They  seem 


184 


SECTION  lOS.  MOMAL  LAW, 


not  1q  reflect  that  when  they  have  exhausted 
their  small  stock  of  wit  on  the  supernatural 
proofs  of  his  Divine  mission,  and  have  thus  dis¬ 
posed,  as  they  imagine,  of  the  miracles  of 
Moses,  they  leave  the  great  miracle  untouched  : 
it  is  the  Law  itself.  They  have  explained  the 
lightnings  and  the  thunderings  ;  let  them  ex¬ 
plain  the  Law.  That  remains  a  great  fact  in 
history,  harder  and  more  unyielding  than  the 
granite  dome  of  Mount  Sinai  itself.  Wktrt  did 
Moses  (jet  that  Law?  Those  who,  while  they 
disparage  the  Bible,  are  ready  to  do  honor  to  all 
other  religions,  to  their  founders  and  their 
sacred  books,  would  willingly  ascribe  it  to  Bud- 
dlia,  whose  five  commandments  so  nearly  cor¬ 
respond  to  the  second  table  of  the  Law.  Nor 
would  it  daunt  them  in  the  least  that  it  would 
oblige  them  to  follow  those  commandments  of 
Buddha  from  India  across  the  whole  breadth  of 
Asia  ;  but  unfortunately  Moses  lived  and  died 
more  than  eight  hundred  years  before  Buddha 
was  born  I  The  ingenuity  of  unbelief  must  de¬ 
vise  some  other  explanation.  It  is  enough  for 
us,  as  we  come  down  from  the  Mount,  to  accejit 
reverently  the  assurance  that  the  Law  which 
Moses  gave  to  the  Hebrews  was  written  with 
the  finger  of  God  on  tables  of  stone.  Fitld. 

In  all  these  commandments  (this  is  particu¬ 
larly  observable  if  w^e  compare  heathen  laws 
with  them)  every  duty  is  regarded  directly  as 
in  reference  to  God,  and  proceeds  from  the  re¬ 
lationship  toward  him.  Gevl. - Since  these 

commandments  are  the  code  of  essential  moral¬ 
ity  for  all  times  and  for  every  generation — since 
there  is  nothing  in  them  (considered  as  a  rule 
of  life)  which  has  ever  been  abrogated,  or  is 
susceptible  of  abrogation  —since  they  are  not  a 
series  of  arbitrary  rules  made  by  the  discretion 
of  the  Almighty,  but  are  based  upon  the  eternal 
relations  subsisting  between  God  and  man,  be¬ 
tween  man  and  his  brother  ;  it  follows  that 
every  precept  which  they  inculcate  (whether  di¬ 
rectly  or  bj^  implication)  must  be  part  of  the 
essence  of  true  religion — must  have  a  profound 
import,  and  one  which  we  can  only  trifle  with 
at  the  peril  of  our  souls.  E.  M.  G. 

The  Fifth  Commandment. 

Next  to  the  reverence  which  we  owe  to  our 
Maker,  is  that  which  we  owe  to  those  who  are, 
in  another  sense,  the  authors  of  our  being,  and 
so  to  the  command  to  worship  God  follows 
“  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother  ”  This 
consecrates  the  family  relation.  “  Honor”  in¬ 
cludes  love,  reverence,  and  obedience— a  trinity 
of  virtues,  out  of  which  flowers  and  blossoms  all 


that  is  most  beautiful  in  human  character. 
Field. 

The  Word  of  God  always  puts  honor  upon 
the  institution  of  the  family.  Both  the  moral 
and  the  civil  code  given  to  the  Israelites  in  the 
wilderness  guarded  this  sacred  institution. 
Under  the  peculiar  constitution  of  the  Jewish 
nation,  as  a  people  separated  from  otht  r  na¬ 
tions,  their  origin,  their  religion,  and  their  in¬ 
stitutions,  the  interests  of  property,  inheritance 
in  a  tribe,  the  distinction  of  nationality,  pride 
of  ancestry,  and  the  hope  of  an  illustrious  pos¬ 
terity,  combined  to  give  honor  and  sacredness 
to  the  family.  J.  B.  'f. 

The  fifth  commandment  does  not  speak  of 
man’s  relations  to  those  wdio  are  alongside  of 
him,  or  on  the  same  plane  with  himself  ;  but  it 
treats  of  his  proper  altitude  toward  those  who 
are  over  him  as  God’s  representatives — in  the 
family,  in  the  Church,  or  in  the  Slate  ;  for  the 
very  term  ‘‘  father  and  mother”  was,  and  is,  in¬ 
clusive,  in  Oriental  .speech,  of  all  those  who  are 
”  ordained  of  God  ”  as  the  “  powers  that  be” — 
by  birth,  by  civil  or  ecclesiastical  station,  or  by 
attainments  of  age  or  of  wisdom.  Hence  the 
fifth  commandment  points  upward  as  surely  as 
does  the  first  commandment,  and  as  do  the  in¬ 
tervening  three  ;  and  herein  it  differs  from  the 
five  commandments  which  follow  it,  all  of  wdiich 
point  outward,  on  the  common  plane  of  a  com¬ 
mon  manhood.  S.  S.  T. 

The  fifth  commandment  (to  honor  our  parents) 
forms  a  transition  from  the  first  to  the  second 
table — the  first  table  detailing  our  duties  toward 
God  ;  the  second  those  toward  man.  But  our 
duty  to  our  parents  is  higher  than  that  toward 
men  generally  ;  indeed,  in  a  certain  sense  is 
Divine,  just  as  the  relationship  to  an  earthly 
father  symbolizes  that  to  our  Father  in  heaven. 
Hence  the  command  is  to  honor,  whereas  our 
duty  to  men  only  requires  us  to  love  them.  A.  E. 

- Parents,  as  God’s  representatives,  are  here 

invested  with  an  honor  above  all  other  men  ; 
for  while  we  are  to  ”  love”  our  neighbor,  we  are 
commanded  to  “  honor”  our  parents.  They  are 
to  be  regarded  not  as  persons  who  are  for  a  time 
to  nourish  and  foster  their  children,  but  as 
persons  who  administer  an  office  from  God, 
command  in  his  name  — as  persons  from  whom 
children  are  to  receive  the  first  impression  of 
the  governance  of  the  Lord  of  the  world  and 
the  Lather  of  men.  Gerl. 

Of  the  variety  of  elements  gathered  up  -with 
admirable  skill  under  this  single  word  “  honor,” 
three  stand  out  conspicuous  :  respect,  obedience, 
affection.  .  .  .  Filial  obedience  behooves  to  be 
implicit,  prompt,  unquestioning,  and  cheerful. 


FIFTH  COMMANDMENT. 


185 


based  on  confidence  in  the  Lawgiver,  neither 
extorted  by  fear  nor  bribed  by  hope  of  reward. 
Filial  affection  must  be  won  by  parental  affec¬ 
tion,  It  is  the  ijarents  earliest  and  surest  key  to 
the  reverence,  confidence,  and  submission  of 
the  child  -that  instructive  love  which  begins  to 
burn  so  soon  in  speechless  infancy,  utters  itself 
with  touching  unreserve  in  guileless  childhood, 
and  is  often  the  only  way  to  rule  the  wayward 
will  of  boyhood.  It  survives  adolescence.  It 
survives  the  formation  of  new  ties  and  the 
growth  of  y()uuger  loves.  It  survives  life’s 
manifold  storms  and  changes.  It  survives  the 
old  age  of  parents,  their  dotage,  decaj^  and 
death.  Dykes. 

The  relation  of  parent  and  child  carries  with 
it  that  which  no  external  power  can  create  and 
which  no  external  power  can  destro}^  There  is 
iu  the  very  order  of  things  a  subtle  influence, 
which  gives  to  authority  its  responsible  priv¬ 
ilege  and  to  obedience  its  tender  dignity.  And 
this  truth  of  the  eternal  majesty  of  authority, 
of  the  eternal  loveliness  of  reverent  obedience, 
commended  to  us  in  our  childhood,  is  not  the 
least  precious  part  of  our  social  heritage.  It  has 
hitherto  been  hallowed  and  guarded  in  our 
homes,  and  if  we  take  it  into  our  hearts  con¬ 
sciously,  gladly,  thoughtfully,  as  it  is  open  be¬ 
fore  our  eyes,  we  shall  soon  discover  how  it  in¬ 
terprets  other  relations  of  life  which  can  be  re¬ 
garded  in  their  true  aspect  only  in  the  light  of 
Fatherhood.  Westcoit. 

For  a  time  the  parent  stands  in  Vue  place  of 
God  to  the  child.  Before  the  child  knows  who 
God  is,  iti*  whether  there  be  any  God,  the  parent 
is  to  him  a  personal  reality.  Hence  only  as  he 
learns  to  honor  father  and  mother  will  he  be 
prepared  to  honor  God  as  his  Heavenly  Father 
and  transfer  to  him  the  obedience  he  has  learned 

to  render  to  the  earthly  parents.  Piers  m. - 

The  disposition  and  conduct  required  in  us 
toward  our  parents  is  the  same  in  kind  as  that 
required  toward  God,  Filial  reverence  is  the 
first  germ  of  true  religion  Hence  the  j)romises 
of  reward  are  akin.  The  family  institution  is 
the  foundation  of  the  political  fabric.  The 
health  and  well-being  of  home  is  the  fount  of 
national  prosperity.  Davies. 

The  sentiment  of  honor  toward  the  parent, 
expressing  itself  in  outward  act  according  to  the 
changing  relation  of  parent  and  child  in  the 
progress  of  the  child  toward  maturity,  would 
hold  the  parent  and  child  in  perpetual  harmony, 
and  would  secure  to  both  every  end  contem- 
plated  by  the  parental  relation.  The  child  that 
honors  his  father  and  mother  will  render  them 
implicit  obedience  in  his  early  years.  If,  as  his 


power  and  right  of  self-control  are  increased,  it 
should  become  his  dutj’^  to  differ  in  any  respect 
from  the  parent,  or  even  to  disobey  him,  as  in 
rare  and  exceptional  cases  it  may  be,  the  spirit 
of  the  Law  will  still  be  preserved,  and  all  will 
be  done  that  can  be  with  a  good  conscience  to 
meet  not  only  the  commands,  but  the  feelings 
and  the  wishes  of  the  parent.  The  temper  ex- 
[jressed  by  this  word  “  hbnor”  is  precisely  that 
which  is  needed  to  fit  the  child  for  his  duties  tow¬ 
ard  God  and  toward  society  as  represented  b3'’ 
government.  This  spirit,  extending  itself  from 
the  parental  relation  into  all  others,  permeating 
the  character,  becomes  a  fountain  of  courtesy, 
and  makes  the  difference  between  a  people  rev¬ 
erent,  mutually  respectful,  and  capable  of  self- 
control,  and  an  irreverent,  reckless,  profane 
mass  of  individuals  incapable  of  self-govern¬ 
ment,  and  sure  to  inaugurate,  sooner  or  later, 
in  the  name  of  liberty,  a  state  of  society  com- 
jjared  with  which  despotism  would  be  a  bless¬ 
ing.  So  long  as  children  honor  their  parents  in 
the  land,  there  will  be  piety  toward  God  and 
freedom  in  the  State  ;  but  if  these  fountains  be 
cornrpted,  whatever  form  governments  may 
assume,  men  will  fall  off  from  their  allegiance 
to  God,  and  the  spirit  and  benefits  of  freedom 
will  depart.  M.  H. 

The  germ  of  society  is  the  family,  and  the 
family  is  sustained  only  as  the  authority  and 
rule  of  the  heads  of  the  house  are  upheld  and 
respected.  The  command,  then,  to  honor  par¬ 
ents  may  be  justly  regarded  as  asserting  the 
foundation  of  all  social  ordinances  and  arrange¬ 
ments.  Where  parents  are  not  honored,  a  flaw 
lies  at  the  basis,  and  the  stability  of  the  entire 
social  fabric  is  endangered.  W.  L.  A. 

And  t!iy  motlier.  The  didactic  parts  of 
the  Old  Testament,  such  as  the  Book  of  Prov¬ 
erbs,  urge  reverence  for  the  mother  equally  with 
the  father.  No  finer  picture  of  wifely  duty  can 
be  found  in  literature  than  “  the  words  that 
King  Lemuel’s  mother  taught  him.”  Christi¬ 
anity  inherited  this  noble  tradition  of  reverence 
for  woman  from  its  mother,  Judaism  ;  and  the 
Divine  seal  that  has  been  forever  set  upon  the 
uniform  teaching  of  Scripture  on  this  head  is 
this  august  word  of  command  from  Sinai,*  which 
enjoins  upon  ever}'^  man  to  revere  the  mother 
who  bore  him.  Dykes. 

The  “  father”  and  “  mother”  are  distinctly 
specified  to  indicate  that  they  are  equal  in 
authority,  and  therefore  equally  entitled  to 
“honor.”  This  honor  naturally  resolves  itself 
into  reverence  for  the  authors  of  our  being,  grat¬ 
itude  for  the  nameless  blessings  of  home,  docil 
ity  to  the  patient  and  persevering  educators  of 


186 


SECTION  108.  310 UAL  LAW. 


our  infant  minds,  and  obedience  to  the  com¬ 
mands  of  our  natural  superiors.  The  patriarch 
was  father,  priest,  prophet,  and  king  in  his 
household  or  clan.  In  the  more  complex  ar¬ 
rangements  of  nations  and  empires  the  magis¬ 
trate  and  the  priest  came  out  into  prominence 
and  influence  as  distinct  orders,  and  even  the 
teacher  sometimes  asserted  a  standing  and  a 
rank  for  himself  in  the  social  scale.  But  all 
these  subdivisions  of  authority  find  their  origin 
and  standard  in  the  parental  relation  and  the 
fifth  commandment.  This  commandment  en¬ 
forces  all  lawful  authority.  M. 

This  honor  carries  with  it  obedience  as  well 
as  due  respect.  Such  honor  is  vital  to  the  hap- 
jDiness  and  the  value  of  the  family  relation. 
Without  it  no  foundation  can  ever  be  laid  for  a 
useful  and  worthy  after-life.  It  should  not  be 
overlooked  that  the  earliest  training  of  the  in¬ 
fant  mind  Godward  should  begin  with  cultivat¬ 
ing  the  honor  and  obedience  due  to  father  and 
mother.  Through  all  the  earliest  developments 
of  the  infant  and  youthful  mind,  the  parent  is 
to  the  child  in  the  place  of  God.  The  same 
qualities  of  character,  the  same  obedience,  re¬ 
spect,  and  deference,  which  God  requires  tow¬ 
ard  himself  are  to  be  first  implanted  and  devel¬ 
oped  in  the  mind  toward  the  human  parent. 
Failing  of  their  due  development  in  this  ante¬ 
cedent  relation,  they  are  almost  certain  never 
to  be  developed  toward  God  :  a  fatal  defect  in 
character  is  fastened  upon  the  child  ;  a  cast  of 
mind  is  determined  which  but  too  surely  ends 
in  hopeless  ruin.  It  is  noticeable  that  this  very 
association  of  ideas,  uniting  the  homage  due  to 
parentage  and  years  with  the  honor  due  to  God, 
appears  in  the  Mosaic  Law  (Lev.  19  :  32)  :  “  Thou 
shalt  rise  up  before  the  hoary  head  and  honor 
the  face  of  the  old  man  ;  BJidi  fear  ihy  Ood  :  I  am 
the  Lord.”  H.  C. - Obedience,  with  reveren¬ 

tial  regard,  is  the  very  rivet  which  holds  the 
family  together.  Every  other  fault  can  better 
be  tolerated  in  a  child  than  disobedience  or  dis¬ 
respect.  From  this  sin  spring  most  legitimately 
and  fruitfully  all  other  forms  of  filial  iniquity 
and  family  distress,  C  osby. 

Obedience  :  its  nature  and  basis.  So  far  as  con  ■ 
trol  may  be  necessarj^  the  parent  has  a  right  to 
control  the  child  physically  and  by  force.  Such 
control  in  very  early  years  he  is  bound  to  exer¬ 
cise.  Subsequently  he  has  a  right  to  command, 
and  the  child  is  under  obligation  to  obey.  This 
is  properly  government — the  control  of  one  in¬ 
telligent  and  moral  being  by  the  expressed  will 
of  another.  On  the  one  side  there  is  a  com¬ 
mand,  on  the  other  there  is  obedience.  And 
by  obedience  is  not  meant  conformity  to  the 


will  of  the  parent  on  the  ground  of  perceived 
reasons  aside  from  that  will  It  is  one  thing 
to  aj)i)eal  to  the  reason  of  a  child,  showing  him 
the  reasons  why  we  wish  or  command  him  to  do 
a  i)artieular  act,  so  that  he  may  doit  not  on  the 
ground  of  the  command,  but  of  the  reasons  ;  and 
it  is  quite  another  thing  to  give  the  command 
without  reasons,  and  to  be  obeyed  simply  on 
the  ground  of  the  command.  Of  these  only  the 
last  is  obedience.  To  obey  is  to  do  the  will  of 
another,  simply  on  the  ground  that  it  is  his 
will.  Now  it  is  just  this  obedience  to  which 
the  parent  has  a  right,  and  which  the  child  is 
bound  to  yield.  But,  you  will  ask,  is  not  the 
child  a  rational  creature,  and  is  not  his  reason 
to  be  appealed  to  ?'  Yes,  his  reason  is  to  be  ap¬ 
pealed  to  ;  but  in  so  far  as  he  is  under  govern¬ 
ment  in  distinction  from  influence,  that  reason 
is  to  be  exercised,  not  in  an  attempt  to  com¬ 
prehend  the  reasons  by  which  the  will  of  the 
parent  is  determined,  which  would  be  to  put 
himself  upon  an  equality  with  him,  but  in  com¬ 
prehending  the  reasons  for  confidence  or  faith  in 
the  parent.  The  child,  the  subject,  the  being 
governed,  may  not  know  the  reason  of  the  com¬ 
mand,  but  he  knows  that  he  who  gives  it  is  wise 
and  good,  and  he  feels  that  it  is  the  most  ra¬ 
tional  thing  he  can  do  to  believe  a  proposition 
siniplj^  because  he  says  it,  and  to  do  an  act  sim¬ 
ply  because  he  commands  it. 

As  this  rational  faith  is  the  sole  principle  of 
government  aside  from  fear  or  force,  it  becomes 
us  to  examine  it  well  as  needed  in  this  relation 
of  parent  and  child,  where  we  first  find  the 
need  of  it.  In  early  life  children  need  to  be 
controlled  wholly  by  their  parents,  and  they  are 
to  be  so  guided  that  they  may  pass  gradually 
from  that  control  to  a  perfect  independence  of 
them,  and  to  a  wise  course  of  action  under  the 
government  of  God.  In  this  subjection  and 
control  there  is  to  be  no  shade  of  degradation,' 
no  slavish  fear,  but  only  a  control  made  neces¬ 
sary  by  the  condition  of  the  child,  I  will  not 
say  to  the  fulfilment  of  its  destiny,  but  to  the 
attainment  of  its  end.  Such  control  will  be 
reached  by  a  subjection  in  perfect  faith,  both 
of  the  understanding  and  the  will  of  the  child 
to  the  understanding  and  will  of  the  parent, 
and  in  no  other  way.  This  will  be  govern¬ 
ment  ;  it  will  be  subjection  ;  but  it  will  be  gov¬ 
ernment  by  one  qualified  both  by  wdsdom  and 
by  love  to  govern  ;  it  will  be  submitted  to  in 
the  recognition  and  full  faith  of  this  wisdom 
and  love,  and  can  therefore  have  in  it  nothing 
misleading  or  degrading.  If  the  parent  be  what 
he  should  be,  the  end  will  thus  be  reached  per¬ 
fectly.  If  he  be  not  wholly  what  he  should  be> 


FIFTH  COMMANDMENT. 


187 


such  subjection  will  still  be  generally  right  and 
best.  Bat  if  the  parent  become  disqualified  by  vice 
or  imbecility  to  direct  the  child  to  his  end,  then 
the  civil  law  may  interfere,  or  the  child  ma}’’  him¬ 
self  seek  other  protection  and  guidance.  M.  H. 

This  is  the  law  of  subordination  to  legitimate 
authority  ;  a  law  which  guards  the  order  of 
society,  first  in  the  family,  and  next  in  the 
State.  As  Paul  reminds  us  in  one  of  his  epis¬ 
tles,  every  family  upon  earth  derives  its  name 
from  that  one  Father  above,  whose  all-embrac¬ 
ing  fatherhood  is  the  basis  and  the  model  for 
human  paternity.  His  fatherhood  is  the  orig¬ 
inal  and  typical  instance  after  which  the  tie  of 
earthly  parents  to  their  offspring  has  been  mod 
elled,  that  thereby  we  might  more  easily  learn  to 
call  him  “  Abba  !”  “  Our  Father  who  art  in 

heaven  !”  Think  how  closely  your  earthly 
parent  takes  after  that  Divine  Father,  whose 
sacred  title  he  wears.  In  the  mysterious  orig¬ 
ination  of  a  new  life,  derived  yet  separate  ;  in 
the  no  less  mysterious  communication  of  per¬ 
sonal  qualities,  begetting  as  on  in  his  own  like¬ 
ness  ;  in  the  responsibility  that  sits  on  him  to 
nurture,  provide  for,  and  educate  his  child  ;  in 
the  power  and  authority  which  belongs  to  par¬ 
ents  to  legislate  for  their  children,  and  to  en¬ 
force  their  legislation  by  penalty  and  reward  ; 
in  the  peculiarly  strong  love  which  nature  in¬ 
spires  into  parental  bosoms,  and  in  the  unlim¬ 
ited  sacrifices  which  such  love  can  prompt  ;  in 
all  this  consider  how  closely  human  parenthood 
reseoibles  heavenly,  and  you  will  come  to  see 
how  our  early  subjection  to  father  and  mother 
is  God’s  way  of  practically  training  us  into  re¬ 
ligion.  We  learn  our  duties  toward  God  by 
first  learning  to  honor  and  obey  them.  How¬ 
ever  far  afield  society  may  develop  itself  as  it 
grows  away  from  its  base,  it  must  continue  true 
to  the  end  of  time  that  every  community  is  but 
an  aggregate  of  households  ;  that  the  family  is 
the  social  unit  ;  and  that  the  principles  of  social 
order— authority  in  the  ruler,  subordination  in 
the  governed— look  back  forever  to  the  home  as 
their  birthplace  and  their  nursery.  The  magis¬ 
trate  is  a  greater  father  to  his  people,  armed 
with  some  share  of  that  Divine  claim  upon 
obedience  and  respect  which  our  parents  first 
asserted  over  our  infant  minds.  It  is  in  the 
home,  accordingly,  that  insubordination  will 
commence.  Enfeeble  parental  authority,  teach 
the  child  disrespect,  and  what  safeguard  have 
you  for  the  State  ?  When  parents  fail  to  make 
themselves  revered  ;  when  the  marriage  tie  is 
too  easily  dissolved  or  rashly  broken  ;  when 
children  are  humored  into  premature  assertion 
of  their  own  will  ;  when  reverence  for  gray  hairs 


as  such  is  ridiculed  as  weak  or  old-fashioned  ; 
when,  in  short,  by  symptoms  like  these  it  has 
become  apparent  that  the  ancient  conceit  of 
venerable  authority  on  the  one  side  and  of  def¬ 
erential  subordination  on  the  other,  which 
used  to  bind  the  family  home  into  a  stable  and 
sacred  institution,  has  corroded  away  beneath 
the  breath  of  modern  individualism,  w'ho  can 
doubt  that  society  has  lost  its  most  precious 
corner-stone,  and  is  fast  coming  into  danger 
of  disintegration  or  collapse  ?  Dykes. 

Many  are  the  passages  in  the  Word  of  God 
which  speak  of  or  refer  to  the  duty  of  children 
to  their  parents — e.g..  Ex.  21  ;15,  17  ;  Lev. 
19:3;  20:9;  De.  21:18-21;  27  : 16  ;  Ps. 
78  :  5-8  ;  Prov.  10  : 1  ;  13  : 1  ;  20  : 20  ;  23  :  22  ; 
30  : 17  ;  Jer.  35  : 18  ;  Ezek.  22  :  7  ;  Matt.  15  : 4-9  ; 
Col.  3  :  20.  It  is  worthy  of  careful  noting,  that 
when  God  would  launch  forth  into  the  world  a 
new  national  life,  he  lays  great  stress  on  the  rec¬ 
ognition  of  and  regard  to /a7u%  sacredue.ss.  At 
the  outset  of  the  redemption  from  Egypt,  family 
life  was  specially  hallowed  (cf.  Ex.  12  : 24-27  ; 
13  :  8,  9).  The  covenant  of  circumcision  handed 
down  from  Abraham  was  to  be  observed.  Chil¬ 
dren  were  to  be  sealed  as  the  Lord's,  and 
brought  up  in  his  fear.  That  is  here  assumed. 
It  was  the  understood  law.  And  now,  when  a 
moral  code  for  the  nation  and  for  the  world  for 
all  time  is  to  be  laid  down,  the  very  next  pre¬ 
cept  to  those  relating  immediately  to  the  honor 
due  to  God  himself,  is  this— “  Honor  thy  father 
and  thy  mother.”  Not,  indeed,  that  they  were 
to  render  them  a  blind  obedience,  for  see  Ezek. 
20  : 18,  19.  If  the  parents  were  bad,  the  best 
honor  the  children  can  render  them  is  to  become 
better  than  they  were.  So  that  we  may  note  in 
passing,  that  the  commandment  recognizes  it 
as  incumbent  on  parents  to  see  that  their  lives 
and  rules  are  such  as  their  children  can  honor, 
and  that  iheir  precepts  accord  with  those  of  the 
Father  of  spirits.  C.  C. 

Parents  stand  to  their  children  in  the  relation 
of  representatives  of  the  Divine  They  repre¬ 
sent  God  as  the  source  of  their  offspring’s  life  ; 
they  have  a  share  of  God’s  authority,  and  ought 
to  exercise  it  ;  but  much  more  ought  they  to 
represent  God  to  their  children  in  his  unwearied 
beneficence,  his  tender  care,  his  exalted  recti¬ 
tude,  his  forgiving  love.  Orr. - Let  parental 

rule  be  a  copy  from  God’s  own  government — 
kind  without  blindness  ;  merciful  and  gracious, 
forgiving  transgression,  yet  not  clearing  the 
guilty  ;  not  spoiling  by  soft  indulgence,  and  yet 
withholding  no  good  thing  when  there  is  no 
good  reason  ;  insisting  on  obedience,  yet  al¬ 
ways  open  to  the  cry  of  the  repentant.  Where 


188 


SECTION  108. 


MORAL  LAW. 


there  go  hand  in  hand  a  mother's  love,  tender, 
selt-denying,  inextinguishable,  and  a  father’s, 
wise,  hr  in,  and  far-seeing,  the  best  natural  foun¬ 
dation  is  laid  for  piety  ;  and  he  who  has  learned 
to  honor  such  a  father  and  mother  has  many  helps 
and  advantages  for  loving,  trusting,  and  rever¬ 
ing  the  God  whom  he  has  not  seen.  Hamilton. 

Tlie  Promise  of  the  Fflh  Commandment. 

In  Deuteronomy  we  hnd  the  promise  ex¬ 
panded.  It  has  the  additional  words,  ".as  the 
Lord  thy  God  hdh  commanded  thee,"  and  also, 
“  and  that  it  may  go  well  with  thee."  So  that  the 
two  together  read  thus,  “  Honor  thy  father  and 
thy  mother,  as  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  com¬ 
manded  thee,  that  thy  days  may  be  prolonged, 
and  that  it  may  go  well  with  thee,  in  the  land 
which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee.”  The 
former  of  these  tw'O  phrases  adds  to  the  solem¬ 
nity  and  emphasis  of  the  commandment,  the  lat¬ 
ter  to  the  jDoint  and  power  of  the  promise.  It 
is  as  if  God  said,  “  Honor  thy  father  and  thy 
mother— this  is  no  human  expedient,  but  a  Di¬ 
vine  order,  founded  in  eternal  truth  ;  and  in 
the  obedience  of  this  command  thou  shalt  pro¬ 
long  thy  life,  not  in  wretchedness  and  evil,  but 
in  a  true  and  continual  prosperity.”  Crosby. 

Head  as  a  guarantee  of  long  life  to  the  indi¬ 
vidual,  the  reward  of  filial  obedience  may  or  may 
not  be  granted  in  this  world.  But  read  as  a 
promise  addressed  to  the  jreople  of  Israel  in 
their  collective  capacity,  there  is  no  question 
but  it  proclaims  a  political  and  social  fact.  The 
nation  whose  homes  are  godly,  orderly,  and 
happ}'-,  whose  successive  generations  are  linked 
together  by  holy  ligaments  of  love  and  respect 
from  child  to  parent,  that  nation  possesses  the 
surest  safeguard  for  prosperity  and  permanence. 

Hyke-i. - The  reference  of  Moses  is  to  the  weal 

of  the  nation  as  well  as  to  that  of  the  home. 
The  downfall  of  Israel’s  glory  is  attributed  to 
two  evils:  neglect  of  Sabbaths,  ’  and  making 
light  of  father  and  mother.  No  nation  can  pros¬ 
per  without  purity  in  the  home.  C.  C. 

That  this  promise  had  respect  to  the  chosen 
people,  to  whom  God  was  about  to  give  the 
land  of  Canaan,  is  unquestionable  ;  and  to  them 
it  was  doubtless  made  in  a  national  as  well  as 
in  an  individual  character.  It  was  a  pledge  on 
the  part  of  God  that  if  they  evinced  a  strict 
obedience  to  this  command,  he  would  grant 
them,  as  a  people,  a  long  continuance  in  their 
own  land  in  despite  of  all  the  attempts  of  their 
enemies  to  conquer  and  dispossess  them.  This 
seems  to  be  confirmed  by  the  parallel  language 
of  De.  4  : 26,  33,  40,  and  Ch.  32  : 46,  47.  -4nd 
w'hen  God  threatens  the  nation  with  being  car¬ 


ried  captive  out  of  their  own  land  for  their 
sins,  he  mentions  this  among  other  procuring 
causes  of  their  calamities,  the  not  honoring  their 
parents  (Ezek.  22  :  7,  12,  lo).  But  the  apostle 
(Eph.  6  :  2,  3)  cites  this  commandmeni  as  if  the 
[ironiise  still  held  good  under  the  Christian  dis¬ 
pensation,  and  this  fact  is  doubtless  to  be  ac¬ 
counted  for  by  supposing  that  the  spirit,  the  prin¬ 
ciple,  of  the  promise  is  still  acted  upon  under 

the  moral  government  of  Jehovah.  Bush. - 

Obedience  to  God’s  Law  still  secures  the  prom¬ 
ise  of  the  life  that  now  is,  as  well  as  of  that 
which  is  to  come.  Not,  of  course,  that  the 
saints  are  always  prosperous  in  this  world  ;  were 
this  the  case,  saintship  would  be  a  very  mer¬ 
cenary  business.  But  other  things  being  equal, 
the  tendency  of  obedience  is  to  present  as  well 
as  future  well-being.  God  makes  no  promise, 
but  threatening,  to  the  disobedient.  Edgar. 

A  special  blessing  rests  on  the  man  who  shows 
his  parents  due  respect.  There  is  also  a  natural 
connection  between  the  virtue  and  the  promise. 
Kespect  for  parents  is  the  root  at  once  of  rever¬ 
ence  for  God  and  of  respect  for  the  rights  of 
others.  Hence  the  place  of  the  commandment 
in  the  Decalogue.  It  engenders  self-respect, 
and  forms  the  will  to  habits  of  obedience.  It  is 
favorable  to  the  stabilitjq  good  order,  and  gen 
eral  morals  of  society.  It  therefore  conduces  to 
health,  longevity,  and  a  diffusion  of  the  comforts 
of  life,  furnishing  alike  the  outw^ard  and  the  in¬ 
ward  conditions  necessary  for  success.  Orr. - 

The  observance  of  this  rule  is  the  best  possible 
preparation  for  serving  our  generation  according 
to  the  will  of  God.  He  who  is  a  blessing  in  the 
home  will  never  be  a  curse  out  of  it !  The  hab¬ 
its  of  self-restraint,  of  courtesy,  of  respect  to 
superiors,  well  learned  and  practised  at  home, 
will  not  be  thrown  off  wLen  outside  its 
walls.  C.  C. 

It  was  a  comfortable  thing  for  anie  man  to 
beholde  how  two  great  roomes  of  Westminster- 
hall  were  taken  up,  one  with  the  sonne,  the 
other  with  the  father,  which  hath  as  yet  never 
bene  heard  of  before  or  since,  the  sonne.  Sir 
Thomas  More,  to  be  Lord  Chancellor,  and  the 
father.  Sir  John  More,  to  be  one  of  the  ancient- 
est  Judges  of  the  King’s  Bench,  if  not  the  el¬ 
dest  of  all  ;  for  now  he  was  neare  ninety  yeare 
old.  Yea,  what  a  gratefull  spectacle  was  it,  lo 
see  the  sonne  aske  the  father’s  blessing  everie 
day  upon  his  knees,  before  he  sat  in  his  ow^n 
seate,  a  thing  expressing  rare  humilitie,  exem¬ 
plar  obedience,  and  submissive  pietie.  More's 
Life  of  Sir  Thomas  More. 


In  the  enactments  of  the  second  table  there  is 


SIXTH  COMMANDMENT. 


189 


a  progression  from  the  outward  to  the  inward. 
First,  sins  of  deed  are  prohibited,  such  as  mur¬ 
der,  adultery,  and  theft  ;  then  sins  of  word,  such 
as  injury  of  a  neighbor’s  good  name  by  false 
testinion}'^  ;  and  finall3%  sins  of  ihe  heart,  which 
do  not  come  into  open  manifestation,  such  as 

covetousness  and  evil  desire.  W.  L.  A. - Each 

command  not  only  condemns  the  extreme  crime 
which  it  expressly  j^rohibits,  but  every  inferior 
offence  of  the  same  kind  and  evei}’  mode  of 
conduct  leading  to  such  transgression.  It  also 
enjoins  the  opposite  conduct  and  the  cultivation 
of  opposite  dispositions.  This  principle  of  in¬ 
terpretation  is  suggested  in  the  Law  itself,  which 
concludes  with  a  command  touching  the  desires 
and  dispositions  of  the  soul — “  Thou  shalt  not 
covet.”  So  in  the  subsequent  inspired  com¬ 
mentary  on  the  Law,  as  David  :  “  Thy  Law  is 
exceeding  broad,  searching  to  the  thoughts  and 
intents  of  the  heart  ”  the  Law  of  the  Lord  is 
perfect,  converting  the  soul.”  This  principle 
is  settled  beyond  question  by  our  Saviour’s  Di¬ 
vine  commentary  on  this  Law  in  the  Sermon  on  i 
the  Mount.  The  very  aim  of  this  sermon  is  to 
give  us  an  insight  into  the  wide  reach  and  deep 
spiritual  meaning  of  these  Ten  Commandments, 
clearing  them  of  the  crusting  over  which  had 
taken  place  by  the  traditions  of  unspiritual 
teachers.  And  it  must  be  admitted  by  every 
intelligent  student  who  has  no  foregone  conclu¬ 
sion  to  make  good,  that  the  great  aim  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  to  bring  out  distinctly 
the  full  import  of  the  original  Law  of  the  Ten 
Commandments,  rather  than  to  introduce  any 
new  legislation.  How  profound  the  conception  of 
this  Law  of  God  by  the  eloquent  Hooker  :  ”  If 
we  could  say  we  are  not  guilty  of  anything  at 
all  in  our  own  consciences,  should  we  therefore 
plead  not  guilty  in  the  presence  of  our  judge  ? 
If  our  hands  did  never  offer  violence  to  our 
brethren,  a  bloody  thought  doth  prove  us  mur¬ 
derers  before  him  ;  if  we  had  never  opened  our 
mouths  to  utter  any  scandalous,  offensive,  or 
hurtful  word,  the  ciy  of  our  secret  cogitations 
is  heard  in  the  ears  of  God.  If  we  did  not  com¬ 
mit  the  evils  which  we  daily  and  hourly  do 
commit,  either  in  deeds,  words,  or  thoughts, 
yet  in  the  good  things  that  we  do,  how  many 
defects  are  intermingled  !”  S.  R. 

The  Sixth  Commandment. 

The  Hebrew  expression  is  the  appropriate  one 
for  intentional  killing  of  another  with  malicious 
purpose.  The  true  reason  for  this  prohibition 
is  expressed  (Gen,  9  :  G) — viz  ,  because  our 
neighbor  is  the  image  of  God  ;  with  which  must 


be  joined  what  is  there  said — because  our  neigh¬ 
bor  is  our  brother.  And  it  follows  naturally, 
from  the  reason  on  which  this  jirohibition  is 
built,  that  it  is  equally  commanded,  that  ‘‘  the 
preservation  of  our  brother  should  be  to  us  as 
our  own,”  Whatever  assails  his  life,  assails 
ours  ;  his  well-doing  is  ours.  Gerl. 

This  commandment  protects  life,  and  is 
against  all  endeavors  that  endanger  the  life. 
As  there  is  no  object  expressed,  it  prohibits 
suicide  as  w'ell  as  homicide.  It  also  forbids 
violence,  passion,  lust,  intemperance  in  eating 
or  drinking,  or  anything  that  tends  to  shorten 
life.  M. - God  does  not  ask  us  to  kill  our¬ 

selves  in  his  service.  The  sixth  commandment 
refers  to  our  own  lives  as  well  as  to  those  of 
others,  and  if  we  can  carry  out  our  business 
only  by  overdrawing  the  capital  of  our  strength, 
it  is  plain  that  w^e  should  abridge  our  trade  at 
almost  any  sacrifice,  and  seek  a  larger  measure 
of  rest.  Our  bones  are  not  iron,  our  sinews  are 
not  brass,  our  brains  are  not  inexhaustible  ;  we 
need  regular  intervals  of  quiet,  and  we  may  be 
sure  that  we  are  disobeying  God  if  we  overdrive 
ourselves.  It  is  easier  to  ruin  one’s  constitu¬ 
tion  than  it  is  to  build  it  up  again,  and  there  is 
as  real  sin  in  overtasking  our  energies,  as  in 
over-indulgence  in  repose,  W,  M.  T. 

The  sixth  commandment  concerns  our  own 
and  our  neighbor’s  life  ;  “  thou  shalt  not  do 
anything  hurtful  or  injurious  to  the  health, 
ease,  and  life  of  thy  own  body,  or  any  other 
person’s,  unjustly.”  It  does  not  forbid  killing 
in  lawful  war,  or  in  our  own  necessary  defence, 
or  the  magistrates’  putting  offenders  to  death, 
for  those  things  tend  to  the  preserving  of  life  ; 
but  it  forbids  all  malice  and  hatred  to  the  per¬ 
son  of  any  (for  he  that  haieth  his  brother  is  a  mur¬ 
derer),  and  all  personal  revenge  arising  there¬ 
from  ;  also  all  rash  anger  upon  sudden  provo¬ 
cations,  and  hurt  said  or  done,  or  aimed  to  be 
done,  in  passion  ;  of  this  our  Saviour  expounds 
this  commandment  (Matt.  5  :  22).  And,  as  that 
which  is  worst  of  all,  it  forbids  persecution,  lay¬ 
ing  wait  for  the  blood  of  the  innocent  and  ex- 
cellent  ones  of  the  earth.  H. 

Killing  is  not  murder,  not  forbidden  of  God 
when  the  act  occurs  in  the  execution  of  justice 
for  a  suitable  offence,  and  by  a  lawful  magis¬ 
trate  ;  the  killing  of  an  enemy  in  a  just  war  ; 
the  killing  of  another  for  the  necessary  defence 
of  a  man’s  own  life  ;  to  which,  under  the  Law, 
were  added  some  other  cases,  with  which  we  are 
not  concerned  now  under  the  Gospel.  Abp. 
Wake. 

This  command  forbids  the  taking  of  human 
life  from  passionate  vindictiveness  It  forbids 


190 


SECTION  108. 


MORAL  LAW. 


any  carelessness  by  which  the  life  or  weal  of  our 
neighbor  would  be  risked  (Ex.  21  :  28,  29). 
Wherever  human  life  is  risked  by  insufficient 
precaution,  there  is  a  breach  of  the  sixth  com¬ 
mandment.  It  forbids  that  indifference  in  our 
life  to  the  power  of  example  which  would  put  a 
stumbling-block  or  an  occasion  to  fall  in  a 
brother’s  way  (see  Matt.  18  : 1-3  ;  Rom.  15  : 5). 
If  by  careless  living  we  “  destroy”  him  for  whom 
Christ  died,  we  are  breakers  of  this  Law.  It 
forbids  dislike  and  hatred  to  our  brother,  and 
also  a  selfish  isolation  and  neglect  of  him  (1 
John  2  : 9-11  ;  3  : 14,  15).  If  we  even  refrain 
from  helping  our  brother  in  difficulty  or  trial, 
we  are  guilty  (Prov.  24  :  11,  12  ;  Is.  58  :  6,  7). 
We  may  “  kill  ”  by  withholding  the  help  which 
might  save  !  It  requires,  therefore,  the  culti¬ 
vation  of  that  kindly  spirit  of  genial  benevo¬ 
lence,  which  would  seek  in  every  way  to  promote 
the  gladness  and  safety  of  the  society  in  which 
we  move,  and  of  men  at  large.  C.  C. 

The  right  to  life  may  be  so  forfeited  that 
others  may  have  the  right  to  take  it  away.  This 
may  be  done  by  attempting  the  life  of  an¬ 
other.  The  right  to  take  life  in  defending  life  is 
recognized  by  the  laws  of  all  countries  and  by 
all  persons,  except  a  few  extreme  non-resistants. 
The  right  to  life  may  be  forfeited  by  resisting 
the  officers  of  the  law.  If  officers  of  the  law  are 
resisted  in  its  execution,  they  have  a  right,  as  a 
last  resort,  to  take  life.  The  right  to  life  is  for¬ 
feited  by  murder  -that  is,  by  taking  life  with 
malice  aforethought.  The  death  penalty  was 
early  authorized  and  demanded  by  the  Bible, 
not  from  cruelty,  but  on  the  very  ground  of  the 
sacredness  of  human  life.  “  Whoso  sheddeth 
man’s  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed,’ 
for  in  the  image  of  God  made  he  man."  The  esti¬ 
mate  placed  by  a  lawgiver  upon  any  right  can 
be  measured  only  by  the  penalty  by  which  he 
guards  it  ;  and  as  death  is  the  highest  possible 
penalty,  they  who  impose  this  show  the  highest 
possible  estimate  of  the  value  of  life.  That  is 
a  sophism  by  which  those  who  reject  this  pen¬ 
alty  would  persuade  themselves  or  the  com¬ 
munity  that  in  so  doing  they  are  more  humane 
than  others,  or  set  a  higher  value  on  human 
life.  It  is  the  reverse. 

But  the  right  to  take  life  can  depend  upon  no 
estimate  of  its  value  by  us.  It  must  come  either 
directly  or  indirectly  from  God— directly  by 
revelation,  and  indirectly  from  its  necessity  to 
the  ends  of  government.  Government  is  from 
God,  and  has  thus  a  right  to  do  what  is  essen¬ 
tial  to  its  own  being  and  ends  ;  and  if  the  se¬ 
curity  which  is  its  great  end  can  be  attained 
only  by  the  death  of  those  who  would  destroy 


it,  then  society  may  put  them  to  death.  Society 
has  thus  the  right,  and  must  judge  how  far,  in 
the  varying  phases  of  civilization  and  Christi- 
anit}",  it  may  be  necessary  to  use  it.  M.  H. 

Ah,  the  human  heart,  even  in  the  best  of  us, 
is  a  nest  where  scorpions  breed  too  easily  ;  and 
out  of  the  dark  deeps  of  our  unloving  nature 
there  will  rear  themselves  on  provocation  such 
ugly  hell. born  births  as  bitterness,  envy,  wrath, 
malice,  and  revenge.  But  “  whosoever  hateth 
his  brother  is  a  murderer.”  To  give  houseroom 
to  such  hateful  passions,  dally  with  them,  or  let 
them  nestle  in  the  secret  thoughts,  is  to  take 
the  first  step  that  leads  to  malicious  mischief, 
violence,  and  murder.  Surely  love  alone,  love 
like  God’s,  can  be  the  perfect  keeping  of  this 
commandment.  Let  the  love  which  is  prepared 
rather  to  give  life,  if  need  be,  in  order  to  save 
life  (like  Christ),  supplant  the  devil’s  hate,  which 
scruples  not  to  sacrifice  to  one’s  private  ends,  in 
its  monstrous  self-idolatry,  the  welfare  or  the 
very  existence  of  other  men.  Above  that  nega¬ 
tive  commandment  of  Sinai  putting  its  bridle 
hand — a  hand  how  weak  ! — on  the  ebullitions 
of  selfish  passion  and  horrid  spite,  write  this 
noble  lesson  of  Calvary,  which  is  Heaven’s  own 
inversion  of  our  malice,  “  We  ought  rather  to 
lay  down  our  lives  for  the  brethren.”  Dykes. 

The  Seventh  Commandment. 

TIlou  slialt  not  commit  adultery. 

In  this  seventh  commandment,  which  concerns 
man’s  chastity,  are  forbidden  adulterous  or  las¬ 
civious  thoughts,  looks,  attire,  words,  and  acts 
of  adultery  and  fornication,  as  also  unlawful 
marriages.  In  the  same  commandment  are  en¬ 
joined  chastity  and  modesty  in  thoughts,  be¬ 
havior,  and  apparel,  as  also  sobriety  and  vigi¬ 
lance.  Oxf.  Cat. - This  seventh  command  is 

far  broader  in  spirit  than  the  letter  would  indi¬ 
cate.  It  condemns  all  impurity  of  every  kind, 
it  forbids  us  to  let  the  lower  self  run  off  with 
the  higher,  and,  like  the  preceding  commands, 
though  negative  in  form  it  is  positive  in  sub¬ 
stance.  It  bids  us  :  (1)  Let  our  own  nature  be 
duly  honored  and  self-respect  be  diligently  cul¬ 
tivated.  (2)  Observe  toward  others  that  self¬ 
same  respect  which  we  owe  to  ourselves,  on  the 
same  ground,  and  for  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ’s 
sake.  The  art  of  “  bridling  the  whole  body’  ’  is 
one  of  the  most  important  in  a  life  of  godli¬ 
ness.  C.  C. 

We  should  be  as  much  afraid  of  that  which 
defiles  the  body  as  of  that  which  destroys  it. 
This  commandment  forbids  all  acts  of  unclean- 
ness,  with  all  those  fleshly  lusts  which  produce 


SEVENTH  COMMANDMENT. 


191 


those  acts,  and  war  against  the  soul,  and  all 
those  practices  which  cherish  and  excite  those 
fleshly  lusts,  as  looking,  in  order  to  lust,  which 
Curist  tells  us  is  forbidden  in  this  command¬ 
ment  (Matt.  5  : 28).  II. - It  belongs  to  the 

narrowness  of  the  Law  in  the  time  of  nonage  to 
understand  under  adultery  in  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment  only  an  offence  with  a  wife— not  that  of  a 
husband  with  an  unmarried  woman.  In  the 
rude  sensual  view  taken  of  marriage,  the  crime 
of  the  wife  appeared  of  so  much  more  heinous 
character,  as  the  consequences  for  the  family 
were  more  important.  But  Christ  shows  what 
is  to  be  understood  by  adultery,  by  referring  to 
the  original  institution  of  marriage  ;  and  ex¬ 
plaining  that  every  breach  of  the  marriage-con¬ 
tract,  as  well  as  every  unchaste  act,  was  either 
itself  adultery,  or  prepared  the  way  to  adultery. 
In  this  prohibition  also  is  contained  the  com¬ 
mand  to  hold  marriage  as  sacred.  And  the  rea¬ 
son  of  the  prohibition  is  this — that  marriage,  as 
the  creation  of  the  woman  out  of  the  man 
shows,  is  a  union  of  the  whole  life,  for  the 
training  up  of  the  images  of  God,  the  heirs  of 
his  kingdom,  and  shadows  forth  the  union  of 
love  betwixt  God  and  his  creatures.  Hence  all 
that  follows  this  union  is  a  continual  exercise 
of  love,  humility,  patience,  and  hope.  All  this 
the  command  of  marriage  tells  us.  Gerl. 

While  the  sanctity  of  the  marriage  relation  is  the 
first  object  aimed  to  be  secured  by  this  precept, 
it  points  its  prohibition  at  the  same  time  against 
everything  that  is  contrary  to  the  spirit  and 
ends  of  that  institution,  whether  in  thought, 
word,  or  deed.  And  as  marriage  is  the  sole  and 
exclusive  provision  made  by  the  Creator  to  meet 
the  demands  of  that  part  of  our  nature  which 
the  seventh  commandment  contemplates,  every 
species  of  sensual  commerce  between  the  sexes 
except  that  which  comes  under  its  sanction,  is 
doubtless  to  be  viewed  as  a  violation  of  this 
jirecept,  as  also  everything  that  goes  by  legiti¬ 
mate  tendency  to  produce  it.  All  the  arts  and 
blandishments  resorted  to  by  the  seducer  ;  all 
the  looks,  motions,  modes  of  dress,  and  verbal 
insinuations  which  go  to  jjrovoke  the  passions 
and  make  way  for  criminal  indulgence  ;  all 
writing,  reading,  publishing,  vending,  or  circu¬ 
lating  obscene  books  ;  all  exposing  or  lustfully 
contemplating  indecent  pictures  or  statues, 
partake  more  or  less  of  the  guilt  of  violating  the 
seventh  commandment.  We  have  only  to  glance 
at  the  pages  of  the  sacred  volume  to  perceive 
that  sins  against  the  law  of  chastity  are  more 
frequently  forbidden,  more  fearfully  threatened, 
and  marked  by  more  decisive  tokens  of  the  Di¬ 
vine  reprobation  than  perhaps  those  of  any 


other  part  of  the  Decalogue.  Not  only  is  adul¬ 
tery  the  name  under  which  Jehovah  stigmatizes 
the  sin  of  idolatrous  apostasy  from  him,  but 
fornication  and  uncleanness  are  found  in  almost 
every  black  catalogue  of  crime  in  the  Scriptures. 
Bush. 

However  it  may  be  accounted  for,  the  crim¬ 
inal  intercourse  of  the  sexes  corrupts  and  de¬ 
praves  the  mind  and  moral  character  more  than 
any  single  species  of  vice  whatsoever.  That 
ready  perception  of  guilt,  that  prompt  and  de¬ 
cisive  resolution  against  it,  which  constitutes  a 
virtuous  character,  is  seldom  found  in  persons 
addicted  to  these  indulgences.  They  prepare 
an  easy  admission  for  every  sin  that  seeks  it  ; 
are  in  low  life  usually  the  first  stage  in  men’s 
progress  to  the  most  desperate  villainies  :  and 
in  high  life  to  that  lamented  dissoluteness  of 
principle,  which  manifests  itself  in  a  profiigacy 
of  public  conduct  and  a  contempt  of  the  obli¬ 
gations  of  religion  and  of  moral  probity.  Add 
to  this  that  habits  of  libertinism  incapacitate 
and  indisj)ose  the  mind  for  all  intellectual, 
moral,  and  religious  pleasures,  which  is  a  great 
loss  to  any  man’s  happiness.  Foley. 

Obedience  to  the  law  of  chastity  is  a  duty  to 
the  community.  From  the  time  of  Sodom,  sins 
of  licentiousness  have  been  the  chief  cause  of 
the  corruption  and  downfall  of  nations.  There 
is  no  ruin  and  degradation  like  that  which  these 
sins  bring  upon  the  woman,  and  there  is  no 
general  debasement  like  that  of  a  great  city 
deeplj’^  infected  with  this  class  of  vices,  and 
those  that  inevitably  accompany  them.  If  men 
could  be  brought  to  obey  the  laws  of  God  in 
regard  to  chastity  and  marriage,  and  also  in  re¬ 
gard  to  narcotic  and  intoxicating  substances, 
laws  written  not  only  in  his  Word,  but  in  their 
physical  and  moral  nature,  the  great  obstacle  to 
the  intellectual  and  moral  improvement  of  the 
race  would  be  removed.  Abstinence  from  these 
is  not  virtue.  It  may  give  greater  skill  to 
fraud,  or  more  power  to  ambition,  but  it  is  a 
condition  of  virtue.  It  is  in  connection  with 
these  sins  that  man  is  capable  of  degrading 
himself  below  the  brutes  ;  and  through  them 
what  is  called  civilization — that  is,  skill  in  liter¬ 
ature  and  the  arts,  and  in  producing  the  ele¬ 
gancies  and  luxuries  of  life,  may  coexist  with  a 
state  of  society  to  which  the  savage  state  would 
be  infinitely  preferable.  Certainly  every  one 
owes  it  to  society  to  do  what  he  can  to  relieve 
it  from  this  incubus.  In  combating  this  class 
of  sins  in  ourselves  the  proper  point  to  guard  is 
the  imagination  and  the  thoughts.  This  is  the 
citadel.  With  this  sufficiently  guarded,  we  may 
go  anywhere  and  be  subject  to  any  form  of  out- 


192 


SECTION  709. 


MORAL  LAW. 


ward  temptation,  for  to  the  pure  all  things  are 
pure.”  But  few  only  can  go  thus.  Against  no 
class  of  sins  do  we  more  need  to  put  up  the 
petition  ;  “  Lead  us  not  into  temptation.”  We 
need  to  guard  the  senses,  especially  as  tempta¬ 
tion  may  come  through  them  in  the  guise  of  the 
tine  arts,  which  have  often  been  of  great  effi¬ 
ciency  in  corrupting  a  people.  M.  H. 

The  seventh  commandment  sanctifies  wedded 
life,  and  is  the  first  step  in  that  true  reverence 
of  woman  which  marked  the  Jewish  people 
through  all  their  history,  and  was  in  such  con¬ 
trast  to  her  position  in  all  other  ancient  socie¬ 
ties.  Purity  in  all  the  relations  of  the  sexes, 
the  control  of  passion,  the  reverence  for  mar¬ 
riage,  are  subjects  difficult  to  speak  of  in  pub¬ 
lic.  But  modern  society  sorely  needs  some 
plain  speaking  on  these  subjects — abundance  of 
bread  and  idleness,  facilities  for  divorce,  the 
filth  which  newspapers  lay  down  on  every 
breakfast-table,  the  insidious  sensuality  of  much 
fiction  and  art,  the  license  of  the  stage.  The 
opportunities  for  secret  profligacy  in  great  cities 
conspire  to  loosen  the  bonds  of  morality.  A.  M, 

Society  is  sacred  because  the  individual  man 
is  sacred  ;  and  as  there  is  an  image  of  God  in 
every  man,  so  there  is  a  symbol  and  type  of  the 
heavenly  familjGn  human  society,  and  its  bonds 
of  blood,  affinity,  and  friendship  have  a  Divine 
element  in  them.  Society  is  no  more  man-made 
than  is  man  himself  man  made,  and  he  who 
dares  to  set  at  naught  its  holy  bonds  in  act  or 
in  heart  is  an  enemy  to  God  and  truth.  The 
man  who  reads  licentious  novels,  or  indulges  in 
lascivious  dancing,  or  countenances  the  nudities 
of  so-called  art,  in  life,  image,  or  picture,  when 
God  made  and  gave  clothes  to  man  and  woman, 
thus  sets  himself  against  God  and  undermines 
the  structure  of  holiness  which  God  himself  has 
built  for  our  good  and  his  own  glory.  Crosby. 

A  due  reverence  for  the  sacredness  of  human 
nature  will  impart  sanctity  to  the  marriage  lie. 
Marriage  is  God’s  holy  ordinance.  It  is  not  a 
sacrament  in  the  same  sense  in  which  baptism 
and  the  Lord’s  Supper  are.  Neither  is  it  merely 
a  civil  contract,  as  is  sometimes  shockingly 
said.  It  is  a  union  of  two  in  the  closest  ties  of 
nature,  based  on  an  affinity  of  spirit  which 
leads  each  to  see  in  the  other  what  each  most 
admires.  It  is  a  union  of  spirit  in  the  Lord  (if 
it  be  all  that  it  should  be)  ;  each  one  of  the  two 
ceases  to  live  in  and  for  himself  or  herself,  and 
begins  practically  to  unlearn  selfishness  by  liv¬ 
ing  for  the  other,  and  thus  the  reciprocal  out¬ 
going  of  affection  is  a  formative  action  of  spirit, 
and  tends  to  the  very  noblest  culture  of  life. 
C.  C. 


Marriage  is  the  mother  of  the  world,  preserves 
kingdoms,  and  fills  cities  and  churches  and 
heaven  itself.  Divine  in  its  institution,  sacied 
in  its  union,  holy  in  the  mystery,  “  honorable 
among  all  men,”  and  religious  in  its  employ¬ 
ments  and  ends,  it  is  advantage  to  the  societies 
of  men,  and  it  is  ‘‘  holiness  to  the  Lord.” 
Jeremy  Taylor. 

Men  and  wpmen  alike  are  children  of  God, 
created  in  his  image,  heirs  of  glory,  honor,  and 
immortality.  For  both,  the  highest  end  of  ex¬ 
istence  is  not  to  secure  in  this  transient  life 
ease,  reputation,  distinction,  but  to  be  true  to 
the  moral  instincts  of  their  nature,  and  to  that 
Divine  Law  of  which  those  instincts  are  the 
voice  and  the  expression.  Whatever  impairs, 
in  either,  an  incorruptible  fidelity  to  conscience, 
or  obscures  the  fair  vision  of  ideal  perfection, 
can  claim  no  Divine  sanction,  and  is  perilous  to 
the  interests  of  the  race.  Only  let  us  not  forget 
that  our  perfection  is  to  be  sought  not  in  isola¬ 
tion  but  in  fellow'ship,  and  that  we  are  members 
one  of  another.  Whatever  may  be  the  charac¬ 
teristic  perfection  of  man  and  whatever  the 
characteristic  perfection  of  woman,  neither  will 
ever  be  attained  unless  both  man  and  woman 
remember  that  God  made  them  both,  first  for 
himself,  and.  then  for  each  other.  Rale. 

The  idea  of  marriage,  the  basis  of  the  family, 
is  the  typical  completeness  of  our  individual 
incompleteness.  Marriage  is  not  simply  a  re¬ 
lation  of  contract,  established  to  secure  the 
orderly  transmission  of  special  rights  in  due 
succession,  but  the  sacred  fulfilment  of  life. 
Man  or  woman  alone  represents  only  half  of  the 
Ijowers  and  capacities  and  feelings  of  humanity. 
And  no  real  approach  can  be  made  to  the  con¬ 
summation  of  our  common  nature  by  any  at¬ 
tempt  on  the  part  of  woman  to  cultivate  those 
elements  in  it  which  are  characteristic  of  man,  or 
on  the  part  of  man  to  make  his  own  that  which 
is  truly  womanly.  Such  attempts  only  impov¬ 
erish  the  race.  Nothing  less  than  the  union  of 
man  and  woman  in  their  developed  diversity 
gives  us  the  image  of  a  perfect  human  being, 
and  raises  our  thoughts  to  a  higher  existence 
than  that  of  our  divided  personalities.  At  the 
same  time,  each  of  the  natures  thus  joined  to¬ 
gether  strengthens,  elevates,  purifies  the  other, 
not  by  the  assertion  of  its  own  supremacA',  not 
bj^  the  communication  of  its  own  peculiarities, 
but  by  the  rendering  of  its  appropriate  service. 
The  husband  growls  more  manly,  the  wife  grows 
more  womanlj^  as  they  realize  each  in  the  other 
the  possession  of  that  which  they  severally  need 
and  yet  cannot  provide  from  within  themselves. 
Westcoit. 


SEVENTH  COMMANDMENT, 


193 


The  State  at  its  widest  is  no  more  than  a  con¬ 
geries  of  lionseholds  ;  and  the  link  of  the  house¬ 
hold  is  wedlock.  No  community  can  be  more 
orderly,  healthy,  rich,  or  happy  than  the  sum 
of  the  families  which  compose  it.  Besides,  the 
continuity  of  the  State  depends  on  the  influ¬ 
ences  of  the  home,  the  due  education  of  chil¬ 
dren,  the  peaceful  and  legitimate  succession  of 
each  new  generation  to  the  possessions  and  re¬ 
sponsibilities  of  the  last.  For  all  these  things, 
marriage  is  the  sole  security.  It  alone  guaran¬ 
tees  that  each  natural  family  group,  united  by 
kindred,  shall  likewise  constitute  a  well-knit 
social  group — the  unit  of  the  communit3\  It 
alone  provides  that  parental  res]oonsibilities 
shall  be  recognized,  at  least,  if  not  discharged. 
It  alone  secures  the  right  of  woman  to  mainte¬ 
nance,  and  of  offspring  to  their  patrimon3\  It 
alone,  when  loyally  kept,  excludes  the  evils  of 
disputed  succession,  and  the  burden  of  children 
left  ui3on  the  State  without  any  natural  protect¬ 
or.  So  obvious  has  all  this  appeared  to  the 
wisdom  of  the  past,  that  in  every  civilized  com¬ 
munity  over  the  entire  human  family,  breach  of 
wedlock  has  been  treated  either  as  a  civil  crime 
or  a  civil  injury  ;  and  in  the  older  and  simpler 
communities  it  used  to  be  severely,  sometimes 
savagely,  punished.  These  things  deserve  to 
be  weighed  at  a  time  like  this,  when  a  disposi¬ 
tion  is  widely  shown,  both  in  Euroj)e  and 
America,  to  make  the  marriage  tie  more  loose 
than  heretofore,  to  facilitate  divorce,  and  to 
speculate  upon  every  point  connected  with  this 
institution  in  a  doctrinaire  spirit. 

The  union  of  true  husband  and  wife  in  holy 
wedlock  involves  a  crowd  of  complex  elements, 
many  of  which  touch  the  spiritual  nature.  It 
assumes  a  “  marriage  of  true  minds  for  that 
is  not  an  ideal  marriage  which  is  not  first  a 
union  of  soul  before  the  “  twain  become  one 
flesh.”  It  reposes  upon  mutual  esteem.  It 
presupposes  common  tastes  and  establishes  a 
most  perfect  system  of  common  interests.  It 
is,  to  begin  with,  a  friendship,  although  the 
closest  of  all  friendships.  It  leads  to  a  noble 
dependence  of  weakness  upon  strength,  and  a 
chivalrous  guardianship  of  strength  over  weak¬ 
ness.  It  asks  for  a  self-renunciation  on  the 
part  of  each  to  the  welfare  of  the  other,  which 
is  the  very  perfection  of  disinterested  love  It 
engages  principle  and  honor  to  sustain  mere  .in¬ 
clination,  and  raises  what  would  otherwise  be 
tbe  passion  of  an  hour  into  a  permanent  devo¬ 
tion.  By  means  of  all  this,  the  nobler  social 
and  moral  emotions  are  enlisted  in  the  service  of 
“love,’’  so  that  there  emerges  that  lofty  ideal 
of  chaste  wedded  affection  in  which  lies  the 
13 


chief  poetry  of  common  lives.  For  is  it  not  a 
commonplace  that  the  pure  affection  between 
man  and  woman  is  the  one  force  able  to  kindle 
into  romance  the  dullest  of  human  beings,  and 
turn  prosaic  people,  when  the  need  arises,  into 
heroes  and  heroines  ?  Dykes. 

We  are  not  made  to  live  alone.  Even  our 
communion  with  God  must  be  through  the  ful¬ 
ness  of  life.  All  the  anarchy  and  half  the  social 
errors  by  which  we  are  troubled  spring  from 
placing  the  individual,  the  self,  at  the  centre  of 
all  things.  No  view  can  be  more  flagrantly 
false.  It  is  impossible  to  resolve  the  world  into 
a  multitude  of  isolated  men.  It  is  impossible 
to  picture  in  imagination  even  one  isolated 
man.  A  man  who  had  grown  up  alone  would 
not  be  a  man.  When  we  come  into  being  we 
are  sons.  When  we  first  begin  to  act  we  have 
been  necessarily  in  some  degree  disciplined  and 
educated.  To  the  last  what  we  have  inherited 
immeasurably’-  outweighs  what  we  have  acquired. 
Man  in  a  word  is  made  by  and  made  for  fellow¬ 
ship.  The  family  and  not  the  individual  is  the 
unit  of  mankind.  This  fact  is  the  foundation 
of  human  life  to  which  we  must  look  for  the 
broad  lines  of  its  harmonious  structure.  And 
we  shall  not  look  in  vain.  For  the  family  ex¬ 
hibits  in  the  simplest  and  most  unquestionable 
types  the  laws  of  dependence  and  trust,  of  au¬ 
thority  and  obedience,  of  obligation  and  help¬ 
fulness  by  which  every  form  of  true  activity  is 
regulated.  The  family  enables  us  to  feel  that 
the  destination  of  all  our  labors,  the  crown  of 
all  our  joys,  the  lightening  of  all  our  sorrows, 
the  use  of  all  our  endowments  is  social.  In  the 
family  love  makes  service,  as  it  ought  to  be,  its 
own  reward,  and  transforms  suffering  into  glad¬ 
ness.  In  the  family,  as  has  been  nobly  said, 
llmng  for  others  becomes  the  strict  corollary  of 
the  patent  fact  that  we  live  by  others.  In  the 
family  we  learn  to  set  aside  the  conception  of 
right,  and  to  place  in  its  stead  the  conception 
of  duty,  which  alone  can  give  stable  peace  to 
peoples  or  to  men.  The  family,  indeed,  is  not 
only  an  expression  of  Divine  Law.  It  is  under 
the  conditions  of  earth,  in  some  sense  a  reflec¬ 
tion  of  the  Divine  nature.  Every  family,  every 
fatherhood,  derives  that  in  virtue  of  which  it  is 
from  the  One  Father.  We  must  therefore 
strive  with  reverent  patience  to  enter  into  the 
meaning  of  the  family,  if  we  desire  to  under¬ 
stand  the  Divine  conditions  of  our  life.  As  we 
do  this  we  shall  see  that  a  perfect  family  in¬ 
cludes  three  primary  relations  —those  of  husband 
and  wife,  of  parents  and  child,  of  brothers  and 
sisters.  And  these  three  relations  reveal  the  es¬ 
sential  laws  of  human  fellowship.  They  are,  if 


194 


SECTION  109.  MORAL  LAW, 


I  may  be  permitted  to  use  the  phrase,  the  orig¬ 
inal  sacraments  of  society'.  They  reveal  to  us 
the  inberent  incomjileteness  of  the  individual 
life  completed  in  a  typical  union— that  is,  the 
idea  of  marriage.  They  reveal  to  us  the  corre' 


lative  responsibilities  of  government  and  devo¬ 
tion  hallowed  by  love— that  is,  the  idea  of 
fatherhood.  They  reveal  to  us  the  inalienable  ties 
of  a  common  nature  in  the  direct  connection  of 
blood— that  is,  the  idea  o£  brotherhood.  WesicoU. 


Section  109 


MOEAL  LAW  :  EIGHTH,  NINTH, 

Exodus  20  ;  15-1' 

Ex.  20  15  Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

16  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness 
against  thy  neighbour. 

17  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neigh¬ 
bour’s  house,  thou  shalt  not  covet 
thy  neighbour’s  wife,  nor  his  man¬ 
servant,  nor  his  maidservant,  nor 
his  ox,  nor  his  ass,  nor  anything  that 
is  thy  neighbour’s. 


AND  TENTH  COMMANDIVIENTS. 

.  De.  5  :  19-21. 

De.  5  19  Neither  shalt  thou  steal. 

20  Neither  shalt  thou  bear  false  wit¬ 
ness  against  thy  neighbour. 

21  Neither  shalt  thou  covet  thy  neigh¬ 
bour’s  wife  ;  neither  shalt  thou  desire 
thy  neighbour’s  house,  his  field,  or 
his  manservant,  or  his  maidservant, 
his  ox,  or  his  ass,  or  anything  that 
is  thy  neighbour’s. 


The  Eighth  Commandment. 


Tliou  shaft  not  steal.  In  this  eighth 
■commandment,  which  concerns  man’s  goods, 
are  forbidden  these  sins  :  (1)  Covetous  desires. 
(2)  Bribery.  (3)  Withholding  other  men’s  dues. 
.(4)  Defrauding,  or  deceitful  stealth.  (5)  Op¬ 
pression,  or  violent  robbery.  (6)  Sacrilege,  or 
robbing  of  God.  In  the  same  commandment 
are  enjoined  these  duties  :  (1)  To  give  to  all 
their  dues.  (2)  To  live  in  a  lawful  calling.  (3) 
To  be  diligent  in  that  calling.  (4)  To  restore 
that  which  hath  been  stolen.  (5)  To  give  char¬ 
itably  to  the  poor.  (6)  To  avoid  the  company 

of  the  breakers  of  this  law.  Oxf.  Gat. - In 

Lev.  19  : 13  this  commandment  reads  :  ‘‘  Thou 
shalt  not  defraud  thy  neighbor,  nor  rob  him.” 
The  kinds  of  dishonesty  included  in  it  are  :  (1) 
Overreaching  our  neighbor  in  dealing  ;  (2)  de¬ 
frauding  him  of  his  just  due  ;  (3)  purloining, 
or  secretly  and  by  cunning  getting  his  property  ; 
(4)  extortion,  or  wresting  it  from  him  by  tak¬ 
ing  advantage  of  his  ignorance,  weakness,  or 
need.  Tudor. 

The  scope  of  the  commandment  is  to  secure 
the  right  of  property.  It  prescribes  the  mode  in 
which  love  to  our  neighbor  is  to  operate  in  this 
respect.  While  God  is  the  great  Proprietor,  the 
ultimate  Lord  and  Disposer  of  all  things,  he 
has  established  a  constitution  of  things  by  vir- 
tue  of  which  every  man  is  not  only  entitled 


himself  to  the  products  of  his  own  labor,  but 
authorized  also  to  make  it  over  or  bequeath  it 

to  his  posterity  or  heirs.  Bush. - That  which 

a  man  possesses  is  lent  to  him  by  God  ;  all  true 
ownership  is  in  God’s  hands.  It  was  he  who 
promised  and  lent  the  land  of  Canaan  to  Israel  ; 
it  was  he  who  divided  it  among  the  tribes  ;  and 
even  now  it  is  he  who  distributes  to  every  one 
according  as  he  wills  ;  for  this  reason  we  ought 
all  the  more  to  be  satisfied  with  what  God  allots 
to  us,  and  ought  all  the  less  to  seek  to  lay  hold 
of  our  neighbor’s  substance.  By  so  doings  we 
not  only  impair  the  love  and  respect  due  to  a 
neighbor,  but,  what  is  wo^se,  invade  the  rights 
of  God.  C.  G.  B. 

This  command  forbids  us  to  rob  ourselves  of 
what  we  have  by  sinful  spending,  or  of  the  use 
and  comfort  of  it  by  sinful  sparing  ;  and  to  rob 
others  by  removing  the  ancient  landmarks,  in¬ 
vading  our  neighbor’s  rights,  taking  his  goods 
from  his  person,  or  house,  or  field,  forcibly 
or  clandestinely,  overreaching  in  bargains,  not 
restoring  what  is  borrowed  or  found,  withhold¬ 
ing  just  debts,  rents,  or  wages  ;  and  it  forbids 
us  to  rob  the  public  in  the  coin  or  revenue,  or 
that  which  is  dedicated  to  the  service  of  re¬ 
ligion.  H. — — The  essence  of  dishonesty  is  the 
possessing  ourselves  of  that  which  rightfully  be¬ 
longs  to  another.  This  may  be  done  in  an  al- 


EIGHTH  COMMANDMENT. 


195 


most  infinite  variety  of  ways.  Fraudulent  bar¬ 
gains  which,  impose  on  the  ignorant,  the  credu¬ 
lous,  or  the  necessitous  ;  contracting  debts 
which  one  is  unable  to  pay  ;  extortion  and  ex¬ 
orbitant  gain  ;  controlling  the  markets  by  strat¬ 
agem,  and  thus  obtaining  inordinate  prices  for 
one’s  commodities  ;  entering  into  combinations 
unduly  to  raise  or  to  depress  wages  ;  taking  un¬ 
just  advantage  of  insolvent  laws  ;  exacting  usuri¬ 
ous  interest  for  money  ;  unnecessary  subsist¬ 
ence  on  charity  ;  evading  the  duties  and  taxes 
imposed  by  government,  or  in  any  way  defraud¬ 
ing  the  public,  whether  b}’’  embezzling  its  treas¬ 
ures  or  encroaching  upon  its  domain  ;  using 
falso  weights  and  measures  ;  removing  land¬ 
marks  ;  keeping  back  the  wages  of  servants  and 
hirelings  ;  withholding  restitution  for  former 
wrongs  ;  refusing,  when  able,  to  pay  debts  from 
which  we  have  obtained  a  legal  release -all 
these  are  violations  of  the  eighth  command¬ 
ment,  and  as  snch  falling  under  the  special  con¬ 
demnation  of  heaven.  A  slight  consideration 
of  the  spirit  of  this  precept  will  show  that  it 
reaches  also  beyond  outward  acts,  and  prohibits 
inordinate  love  of  the  world,  covetousness,  and 
the  pride  of  life  ;  that  it  requires  industry,  fru¬ 
gality,  sobriety,  submission  to  God’s  provi¬ 
dence — in  a  word,  a  disposition  to  do  to  all 
others,  in  respect  to  worldly  property,  as  we 
would  that  they  should  do  to  us.  Bash. 

Not  only  are  those  thieves  who  secretly  steal 
the  property  of  others,  but  those  also  who  seek 
for  gain  from  the  loss  of  others,  accumulate 
wealth  by  unlawful  practices,  and  are  more  de¬ 
voted  to  their  private  advantage  than  to  equit}'. 
We  know  under  how  many  coverings  men  bury 
their  misdeeds  ;  and  also  how  they  convert 
them  into  praise  by  false  pretexts.  Craft  is 
called  prudence  ;  and  he  is  spoken  of  as  ]3rovi- 
dent  and  circumspect  who  cleverly  overreaches 
others,  takes  in  the  simple,  and  oppresses  the 
poor.  But  though  the  world  boasts  of  vices  as 
if  they  were  virtues,  and  all  freely  excuse  them¬ 
selves  in  sin,  God  wipes  away  all  this  gloss  when 
he  pronounces  all  unjust  means  of  gain  to  be  so 
many  thefts.  An  affirmative  precept  is  con¬ 
nected  with  this  prohibition  ;  because,  even  if 
we  abstain  from  all  wrong-doing,  we  do  not 
therefore  satisfy  God,  who  has  laid  mankind 
under  mutual  obligation  to  each  other,  that  they 
may  seek  to  benefit,  care  for,  and  succor  their 
neighbors.  Wherefore,  in  order  that  we  may 
not  be  condemned  as  thieves  by  God,  we  must 
endeavor,  as  far  as  possible,  that  every  one 
should  safely  keep  what  he  possesses,  and  that 
our  neighbor’s  advantage  should  be  promoted 
no  less  than  our  own.  Cilv. - As  Luther  says, 


“  It  is  the  smallest  part  of  the  thieves  that  are 
hung.  If  we  are  to  hang  them  all,  where  shall 
we  get  rope  enough  ?’’  Theft  is  the  taking  or 
keeping  what  is  not  “  mine.  ”  But  what  do  we 
mean  by  “  mine”  ?  Communists  tell  us  that 
“  property  is  theft.”  But  that  is  the  exaggera¬ 
tion  of  the  scriptural  teaching  that  all  property 
is  trust  property,  that  possessions  are  mine” 
on  conditions  and  for  purposes,  that  I  cannot 
“  do  what  I  will  with  mine  own,”  but  am  a 
steward,  set  to  dispense  it  to  those  who  want. 
The  Christian  doctrine  of  stewardship  extends 
this  commandment  over  much  ground  which  wo 
seldom  think  of  as  affected  by  it.  Besides,  all 
sharp  practice  in  business,  the  shopkeepjer’s 
false  weights  and  the  merchant’s  equivalents  of 
these,  adulterations,  pirating  trade-marks,  imi¬ 
tating  a  rival’s  goods,  infringing  patents,  and 
the  like,  however  disguised  by  fine  names,  are 
neither  more  nor  less  than  stealing.  A.  M. 

The  right  of  a  man  to  his  own  maybe  violated 
in  one  or  other  of  three  ways  :  First,  by  violence  ; 
second,  by  fraud  ;  and  third,  by  wilful  damage, 
interfering  with  the  benefits  or  enjoyment  of 
the  propert}".  It  is  under  the  middle  head,  or 
fraud,  that  modern  violations  of  the  property 
right  have  become  systematic,  widespread,  and 
almost  incurable.  Against  a  simple  act  of  rob¬ 
bery  or  theft,  criminal  law  was  always  a  toler¬ 
able  protection.  But  ingenuity,  inspired  by 
cupidity  and  stimulated  by  competition  in  busi 
ness,  has  let  loose  upon  us  in  these  times  a  pro¬ 
lific  brood  of  frauds,  which,  like  the  Egyptian 
plague,  are  everywhere  about  us,  and  against 
which  neither  the  State  nor  the  citizen  has  yet 
devised  adequate  safeguards.  In  a  commercial 
community  such  crimes  as  peculation,  or  em¬ 
bezzlement,  forgery,  breach  of  trust,  and  the 
like  may  be  expected  to  abound.  It  is  so  obvi¬ 
ously  for  the  interest  of  the  trader  to  guard  him¬ 
self  against  these  forms  of  dishonesty  in  his  em¬ 
ployes,  that  one  may  suppose  them  to  be  usually 
discovered,  as  we  know  them  to  be  severely 
punished.  The  jmung  clerk,  therefore,  or  shop¬ 
man  who  feels  himself  tempted  to  cheat  his  mas¬ 
ter  by  false  entries  or  other  contrivances  for  con¬ 
cealing  a  fraud,  must  be  quite  w^ell  aware  that 
he  is  running  a  grave  risk  of  ruin,  as  well  as 
committing  a  crime.  Unhappily,  the  same  fear 
for  detection  and  its  consequences  does  not 
operate  to  restrain  the  fraudulent  manufacturer 
or  shopkeeper  or  merchant  ;  since  in  their  case 
the  sanction  of  a  trade  usage  has  been  cast  over 
prevalent  forms  of  fraud  ;  and  forms  of  fraud 
which  trade  usage  has  once  sanctioned  not  only 
appear  almost  innocent,  but  even  when  detected 
entail  little  disgrace,  and  rarely  any  criminal 


196 


SECTION  109.  MORAL  LAW. 


jDrosecution,  With  regard  to  all  abuses  of  trade — 
the  false  announcements,  the  misnamed  goods, 
the  short  measure,  the  adulterated  quality,  the 
artificial  concert  to  trade  only  in  the  trader’s 
interest,  and  the  monopoly  to  sustain  prices,  as 
well  as  the  canards  let  loose  to  facilitate  opera¬ 
tions  in  the  monej’^  market — with  regard  to  all 
such  descriptions  of  commercial  fraud,  however 
condoned  by  usage,  it  is  high  time  that  honest 
men  spoke  their  minds  and  called  them  by  their 
jjlain  English  names  ;  because  there  are  thou¬ 
sands  of  men,  upright-minded  and  on  the  whole 
willing  to  deal  fairl}^  who  cloak  from  themselves 
the  real  character  of  such  transactions  by  the 
employment  of  specious  words.  Call  them 
swindles,  frauds,  lies,  or  cheats,  and  men  will 
be  afraid  of  them.  Call  them  “  trade  prac¬ 
tices,”  the  “way  of  business,”  or  the  ”  custom 
of  the  house,’’  and  men  adopt  them  with  an 
easy  conscience.  It  needs  to  be  said  and  re¬ 
peated  in  very  loud  tones  by  all  honest  people, 
that  everjdhing  which  takes  a  penny  out  of  A’s 
jiocket  under  a  false  or  mistaken  impression, 
created  by  B  on  purpose  to  get  the  penny  into 
his  own,  is  a  fraud  and  a  theft  in  morals,  what¬ 
ever  it  maj^  be  in  law.  Surely  a  good  deal  might 
be  done  to  purge  ti’ade  of  its  scandals  and  re¬ 
store  to  it  a  healthier  and  more  upright  charac¬ 
ter,  if  honorable  men  wmuld,  at  least,  set  their 
faces  against  ”  shady”  and  questionable  usages, 
would  band  together  to  discourage  puffing  and 
trickery,  and  would  try,  in  their  own  private 
business,  to  deal  candidly  with  the  buyer  as 
w'ell  as  prudently  for  themselves.  Dykes. 

That  God  has  instituted  the  right  of  private 
property  this  commandment  clearly  show^s. 
Without  this  right  to  use  and  dispose  of  their 
own,  men  could  not  live  together  in  society, 
and  civilization  would  be  impossible  ;  and 
v;ithout  civilization  Christianity  would  be  im¬ 
possible.  Tudor. - Property,  as  men  are  con¬ 

stituted,  is  a  necessity  of  social  'weal.  It  is  the 
social  law  of  the  institution  of  property,  Divine 
yet  natural,  yea,  natural  because  Divine,  the 
existence  of  wdiich  is  here  assumed,  and  the 
recognition  of  which  is  here  enjoined  ;  in  the 
barest  and  most  elementary  form,  it  is  true,  yet 
in  the  very  form  best  according  with  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  under  which  it  was  given  ;  in  a  neg¬ 
ative  form,  too,  like  the  other  commands,  but 
yet  with  a  positive  intent.  C.  C. 

If  property  is  a  Divine  institution  founded  on 
a  Divine  idea,  protected  by  Divine  sanctions, 
then  in  the  use  of  it  God  should  be  remem¬ 
bered,  and  those  whoin  God  has  intrusted  to 
'our  pity  and  our  care.  The  rights  of  property 
were  never  intended  to  carry  the  moral  right  to 


I  refuse  assistance  to  the  miserable  and  destitute. 
It  is  one  of  their  incidental  moral  advantages 
that  they  render  it  possible  to  manifest  in  a 
thousand  beautiful  and  gracious  forms  the 
spirit  of  charity.  Dale. 

The  Ninth  Commandment, 

Tliou  §lialt  not  bear  false  witness 
against  tliy  iiei$;libor.  The  same  probity 
and  uprightness  which  the  former  command  re¬ 
quires  in  all  our  transactions  and  intercourse 
with  our  neighbor,  are  here  required  in  our  lan¬ 
guage  or  testimony  for  or  against  him.  Be 
truthful,  speak  the  truth,  act  truthfullj'  ;  this  is 
the  sum  of  the  eighth  and  ninth  command¬ 
ments.  Every  lie,  however  great  the  tempta¬ 
tion  to  it,  every  intentional  deception  of  our 
neighbor,  is  forbidden,  and  strict  and  thorough 
ingenuousness  inculcated  as  a  duty.  C.  G.  B. 

This  commandment  refers  to  speech,  enjoins 
truth,  and  is'  directed  against  falsehood.  It 
covers  the  same  ground  as  the  preceding  three  ; 
as  falsehood  may  imperil  life,  chastity,  or 
property.  It  assumes  its  darkest  form  when 
the  falsehood  is  uttered  avowedly  in  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  God,  who  searches  the  heart,  and  will 

bring  every  word  into  judgment.  M. - This 

command  is  connected  with  every  one  of  the 
three  which  precede  it.  For  neither  the  lives  of 
men,  nor  their  happiness  in  the  nearest  relation 
of  life,  nor  their  possessions  and  jiroperties 
could  ever  be  secure,  if  they  'were  left  exposed 
to  those  injuries  of  a  licentious  tongue  which 
are  here  prohibited.  This  commandment,  there¬ 
fore,  was  intended  jiartly  to  strengthen  the  fore¬ 
going  ones  ;  and  partly,  also,  to  make  provision 
for  every  person’s  just  character  on  its  own  ac¬ 
count  ;  as  "W'dl  as  for  the  sake  of  consequences. 
Ahp.  Becker. 

This  forbids  (1)  Speaking  falsely  in  any  mat¬ 
ter,  lying,  equivocating,  and  any  way  devising 
and  designing  to  deceive  our  neighbor.  (2) 
Speaking  unjustly  against  our  neighbor,  to  the 
prejudice  of  his  reputation  ;  and  (3) — which  in¬ 
volves  the  guilt  of  both  these  offences— Bearing 
false  witness  against  him,  laying  to  his  charge 
things  that  he  knows  not,  either  judicially,  upon 
oath,  by  which  the  third  commandment  and 
the  sixth  or  eighth,  as  well  as  this,  are  broken  ; 
or  extra-judicially,  in  common  converse,  slan¬ 
dering,  backbiting,  talebearing,  aggravating 
what  is  done  amiss,  and  making  it  worse  than 
it  is,  and  any  way  endeavoring  to  raise  our  own 
reputation  upon  the  ruin  of  our  neighbor’s.  H. 

- The  ninth  commandment  includes  :  (1)  False 

witness  in  a  court  of  justice  or  perjury  ;  (2) 
detraction  and  evil  speaking  in  society  ;  (3) 


NINTH  COMMANDMENT. 


197 


lying  Its  positive  side  demands  absolute 
truthfulness.  Tudor. - In  the  same  command¬ 

ment  are  enjoined  these  duties,  which  maintain 
veracity  and  charity  :  (1)  To  love  and  speak  the 
truth.  (2)  To  preserve  our  own  reputation.  (3) 
Seasonably  to  vindicate  ourselves  and  our  in¬ 
nocent  neighbors.  Oxf.  Catechism. 

This  precept  constitutes  the  law  of  love  as  it 
respects  our  neighbor’s— that  is,  every  other 
man’s,  good  name.  And  as  one  of  the  principal 
ways  in  which  his  interest  in  this  respect  may 
be  injured  is  by  having  false  witness  borne 
against  him  in  courts  of  justice,  this  is  made 
the  leading  and  primary  point  of  the  prohibi¬ 
tion.  Lying  in  this  form  is  denominated  “  per¬ 
jury,”  and  so  far  as  this  sin  is  concerned,  the 
ninth  commandment  is  closely  related  to  the 
third,  which  forbids  the  taking  of  God’s  name 
in  vain,  as  is  alwavs  done  in  a  false  oath.  The 
difference  between  them  lies  in  this,  that  in  the 
third  perjury  is  condemned  as  a  gross  impiety 
toward  God,  irrespective  of  any  wrong  done 
thereby  to  our  neighbor  ;  while  in  this  prohibi¬ 
tion  the  head  and  front  of  the  offending  is  the 
false  and  injurious  charge  preferred  against  our 
neighbor.  This  is  a  more  heinous  crime  than 
common  extra-judicial  falsehood,  inasmuch  as 
it  is  usually  more  deliberate,  and  by  the  sen¬ 
tence  to  which  it  leads  often  involves  in  itself 
the  guilt  of  robbery  and  murder,  as  well  as  that 
of  calumny.  Accordingly,  we  find  the  purport 
of  this  commandment  otherwise,  yet  very  em¬ 
phatically  expressed  (Lev.  19  : 16),  “  Thou  shalt 
not  go  up  and  down  as  a  tale-bearer  among  thy 
people  ;  neither  shalt  thou  stand  against  the  blood 
of  thy  neighbor."  That  is,  thou  art  not  to  stand 
as  a  false  witness  against  thy  neighbor,  whereby 
his  blood,  his  life,  might  be  endangered.  But  if 
we  are  not  permitted  to  injure  our  neighbor  b}' 
bearing  false  witness  against  him,  so  neither  are 
we  to  procure  or  encourage  it  in  others.  Con¬ 
sequently,  the  suborning  false  witnesses  is  hereb}’’ 
condemned  ;  and  it  plainly  behoves  legal  coun¬ 
sel  in  managing  the  causes  of  their  clients  to 
guard  against  a  virtual  perversion  of  the  truth 
that  shall  amount  to  a  bearing  of  false  witness  ; 
nor  should  the  verdict  of  inspiration  be  forgot¬ 
ten,  that  “  he  that  justifieth  the  wicked,  and  he 
that  condemneth  the  just,  are  both  alike  an 
abomination  unto  the  Lord.”  And  not  only 
false  witness  in  a  court,  but  false  statements  in 
common  discourse,  false  promises,  whether  de¬ 
liberate  or  careless,  exaggerations  and  high  col¬ 
orings  of  facts,  equivocation  and  deceit  by  word 
or  sign,  hypocritical  professions  and  compli¬ 
ments,  together  with  slandering,  backbiting, 
tale-bearing,  circulating  malicious  reports,  im¬ 


puting  evil  designs,  or  making  injurious  repre¬ 
sentations  without  sufficient  proof,  are  all  direct 
infractions  of  the  spirit  of  this  command.  These 
are  all  obvious  methods  of  working  ill  to  our 
neighbor,  of  prejudicing  his  reputation,  and  in¬ 
juring  or  destroying  his  usefulness  and  his 
peace,  and  consequently  cannot  consist  with  the 
law  of  love.  Bush. 

False  witness  is  not  only  given  in  court.  The 
sins  of  the  tongue  against  the  law  of  love  are 
more  subtle  and  common  than  those  of  act. 
“  Come,  let  us  enjoy  ourselves,  and  abuse  our 
neighbors,”  is  the  real  meaning  of  many  an  in¬ 
vitation  to  social  intercourse.  If  some  fairy 
could  treat  our  newsx)apers  as  the  Bussian  cen¬ 
sors  do,  and  erase  all  the  lies  about  the  opposite 
side  which  they  report  and  coin,  how  many 
blank  columns  there  would  be  !  If  all  the  words 
of  ill-natured  calumny,  of  uncharitable  con¬ 
struction  of  their  friends,  which  people  speak 
could  be  made  inaudible,  what  stretches  of 
silence  would  open  out  in  much  animated  talk  ! 
“  A  man  that  beareth  false  witness  against  his 
neighbor  is  a  maul,  and  a  sword,  and  a  sharp 

arrow.”  A.  M. - The  office  of  the  tongue  is 

to  bless.  Slander  is  guilty,  because  it  contra¬ 
dicts  this  ;  yet  even  in  slander  itself,  perversion 
as  it  is,  the  interest  of  man  in  man  is  still  dis¬ 
tinguishable.  What  is  it  but  perverted  interest 
which  makes  the  acts,  and  words,  and  thoughts 
of  his  brethren,  even  in  their  evil,  a  matter  of 
such  straoge  delight?  Eemember,  therefore, 
this  contradicts  your  nature  and  destiny  ;  to 
speak  ill  of  others  makes  you  a  monster  in  God’s 
world  ;  get  the  habit  of  slander,  and  then  there 
is  not  a  stream  which  bubbles  fresh  from  the 
heart  of  nature,  there  is  not  a  tree  that  silently 
brings  forth  its  genial  fruit  in  its  appointed  sea¬ 
son,  which  does  not  rebuke  and  proclaim  you 
an  anomaly  in  God’s  world.  F.  W.  B. 

Suppressing  the  truth  when  known,  b^’-  which  a 
person  may  be  defrauded  of  his  properly  or  his 
good  name,  or  lie  under  injuries  or  disabilities 
which  a  discovery  of  the  truth  would  have  pre¬ 
vented,  is  also  a  crime  against  this  law.  He 
who  bears  a  false  testimony  against  or  belies 
even  the  devil  himself  comes  under  the  curse 
of  this  law,  because  his  testimony  is  false.  By 
the  term  neighbor  any  human  being  is  intended, 
whether  he  rank  among  our  enemies  or  friends. 
A.  C. 

We  have  no  right  to  give  our  mere  inferences 
from  what  we  know  about  the  conduct  or  prin¬ 
ciples  of  others  as  though  they  were  facts.  We 
have  no  right  to  spread  an  injurious  report 
merely  because  somebody  brought  it  to  us.  It 
is  a  crime  to  pass  bad  money  as  well  as  to  coin 


198 


SECTION  109.  MORAL  LAW. 


it.  We  shall  have  to  give  account  not  only  of 
the  deeds  done  in  the  body,  but  of  the  words 
which  we  have  spoken,  and  which  are  often 
more  signihcant  than  actions.  Words  spoken 
carelessly,  in  heat  of  temper,  in  envy,  jealousy, 
and  malice — we  shall  some  day  know  what 
hopes  they  have  blighted,  what  evil  passions 
they  have  provoked,  to  what  sin  and  to  what 
enduring  misery  the}'  have  given  the  occasion. 
Life  and  death  are  in  the  power  of  the  tongue. 
By  our  words  we  wound  as  with  a  sword  not  the 
bodies,  but  the  spiritual  nature  of  men  ;  by  our 
words  we  may  bind  up  the  broken-hearted,  and 
soothe  and  quiet  and  charm  to  peace  the  bit¬ 
terest  agony  of  the  soul.  “  By  thy  words  thou 
shalt  be  justified,  and  by  thy  words  thou  shalt 
be  condemned.”  Dale. 

This  law  of  the  ninth  commandment  certainly 
covers  the  right  of  every  person  to  have  the 
truth  told  about  him,  if  we  speak  of  him  at  all  ; 
nor  is  its  spirit  observed  unless  we  tell  even  the 
truth  in  a  kindly,  not  in  a  hostile  temper.  For 
so  fine  are  the  gradations  betwixt  a  fair  and  a 
colored  or  exaggerated  statement,  even  of  facts, 
that  we  cannot  be  trusted  not  to  misrepresent 
our  brother,  unless  we  speak  of  him  uniformly 
in  the  spirit  of  charity.  Morally,  therefore,  this 
offence  of  detraction  or  defamation  covers  a 
wide  region  of  human  speech  and  has  many  de¬ 
grees.  I  defame  my  neighbor,  for  example,  if 
I  repeat  anything  to  his  dispraise  which  is  not 
strictly  true,  or  which  I  do  not  know  to  be 
strictly  true.  I  also  defame  my  neighbor  if  I 
relate  anything  to  his  discredit  which  is  true, 
but  which  it  is  no  business  of  mine  to  relate,  or 
which,  being  told,  can  serve  no  good  purpose. 
I  defame  my  neighbor  if,  when  I  am  called 
upon  to  bear  of  him  an  evil  report,  I  make  the 
w'orst  of  it,  being  angry,  or  dwell  on  it  with  a 
malicious  pleasure,  or  aggravate  without  need 
the  mischief  which  the  recital  of  it  may  pro¬ 
duce.  Nothing  can  be  more  certain  than  that 
every  one  of  these  acts  constitutes  an  injury 
against  my  neighbor  ;  and  yet,  judged  by  this 
standard,  who  of  us  does  not  injure  his  neigh¬ 
bor  continually  ?  For  the  conscience,  even  of 
many  estimable  Christian  people,  is  very  lax  on 
this  side  of  duty.  We  must  learn  to  love  all 
sorts  of  truth  ;  not  merely  truth  of  motive,  but 
truth  in  fact  and  truth  in  opinion  ;  that  in 
nothing  our  word  may  go  beyond  our  thought, 
nor  our  thought  beyond  our  knowledge  of  the 
fact.  I  do  not  desire,  of  course,  to  banish  from 
human  speech  the  language  of  feeling  or  of  im¬ 
agination,  with  its  tinted  lights  as  of  cathedral 
w'indows.  Only  when  we  deal  wdth  grave  ques¬ 
tions  of  truth— of  the  highest  truth  above  all — 


let  it  be  soberly,  eschewing  prejudice  and  pas. 
sion,  courting  the  white  light  of  exactest  purest 
veracity.  Dykes. 

“  Wherefore,”  says  the  apostle,  “  putting 
away  all  lying,  sytak  every  man  the  truth  with  his 
neighbor.”  “Lie  not  one  to  another,  seeing 
that  ye  have  put  oft’  the  old  man  with  his 
deeds.”  Thus,  too.  in  the  Levitical  code,  “  Ye 
shall  not  steal,  neither  deal  falsely,  neither  lie 
one  to  another."  Thus  also,  to  “  walk  uprightly, 
to  w'ork  righteousness,  and  to  speak  the  truth  in 
his  heart,"  are  the  first  lineaments  in  the  good 
man’s  character  as  portrayed  by  the  Psalmist 
(Ps.  15  ;  2).  Now  if  this  requirement  of  universal 
truthfulness  be  not  contained  in  the  ninth  com¬ 
mandment,  it  is  not  embraced  at  all  in  the  Dec¬ 
alogue  ;  and  it  is  scarcely  to  be  supposed  that  a 
sin  which  is  everywhere  spoken  of  with  the 
most  marked  abhorrence,  and  one  of  which  it 
is  said  that  those  who  are  characteristically 
guilty  of  it  “  shall  have  their  part  in  the  lake 
that  burneth  with  fire  and  brimstone,”  and  that 
“  whatsoever  worketh  abomination  or  maketh  a 
lie' '  shall  be  excluded  from  the  hoi}'  city,  is  not 
intended  to  be  expressly  forbidden  in  the  per¬ 
fect  Law  of  God.  Bush. 

As  the  sixth  commandment  throws  a  guard 
around  human  life,  the  seventh  around  purity, 
the  eighth  around  the  rights  of  property  and 
labor,  so  this  ninth  throws  a  shield  over  every 
man’s  reputation.  A  stern  “Thou  shalt  not 
injure  thy  neighbor’s  fair  name’  ’  is  one  of  the 
mandates  of  Sinai,  issued  amid  thunder  and 
fire  !  .  .  .  Truth  is  ever  to  mark  our  speech. 
The  true  in  thought  is  to  be  aimed  at,  in  order 
that  there  may  be  truth,  absolute  truth,  on  the 
tongue.  No  “pious  frauds”  are  allowable. 
Love  is  to  rule.  While  a  supreme  regard  to 
truth  will  guard  us  from  violating  it  consciously, 
a  due  cultivation  of  the  spirit  of  love  will  guard 
us  from  forming  those  harsh  judgments  of 
others  which  might  lead  us  to  violate  truth  un¬ 
consciously  by  misjudging  their  actions.  Where 
truth  and  love  reign,  there  will  be  self-restraint, 
A  check  will  be  put  on  unkind  feeling  of  every 
sort.  “Love  beareth  all  things,  believeth  all 
things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all  things.” 
C.  C. 

The  Tenth  Commandment. 

Tliou  shalt  not  covet.  Deuteronomy 
transposes  “  thy  neighbor’s  house  ”  and  “  thy 
neighbor’s  wife  it  inserts  “  his  field,”  and  it 
makes  the  two  parts  of  the  commandment  more 
distinct  by  the  use  of  a  different  verb  in  the 
imperative  mood  in  each.  The  verb  rendered 
1  desire  is  the  same  that  is  rendered  covet  in  Ex- 


TENTH  COMMANDMENT. 


199 


odns,  but  the  one  here  rendered  covet  is  a  differ¬ 
ent  one.  Clark. 

The  special  objects  here  enumerated  are  not 
exhaustive,  but  only  representative  of  a  large 
class.  The  last  clause  denotes  the  wide  range 
from  which  the  enumerated  objects  are  taken 
as  specimens.  The  house,  the  wife,  the  ser¬ 
vants,  the  cattle,  represent  the  four  principal 
departments  of  a  man’s  earthly  establishment — 
namely,  his  material  possessions,  his  family,  his 
household,  and  his  “  live-stock,”  They  illus¬ 
trate  and  tend  to  define  the  comprehensive 
phrase,  “  anything  that  is  thy  neighbor’s.” 
Crosby. 

This  last  commandment  is  the  guard  and  se¬ 
curity  of  all  the  preceding  ones.  For  our  actions 
will  never  be  right  habitually  till  our  desires 
are  so.  Or  if  they  could,  our  Maker  demands 
the  whole  man,  as  he  surely  well  may  ;  nor  till 
that  is  devoted  to  him  are  we  “  meet  to  be  par¬ 
takers  of  the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light,” 

Abp.  Seeker. - This  commandment  stamps  the 

seal  of  divinity  upon  the  Mosaieal  code,  of 
which  the  Decalogue  is  the  summary.  No  such 
restriction  is  to  be  found  in  the  Ordinances  of 
Lycurgus,  or  Solon,  the  Twelve  Tables,  or  the 
Institutes  of  Justinian  ;  because  the  thoughts 
and  desires  of  the  heart  are  not  cognizable  by 
human  tribunals.  This  was  a  case  reserved  for 
Him  alone,  who  both  can  and  will  “  bring  every 
work  into  judgment,  with  every  secret  thing, 
whether  it  be  good  or  evil  ”  (Eccl.  12  : 14),  be¬ 
cause  he  is  a  discoverer  “  of  the  thoughts  and 
intents  of  the  heart  ”  (1  Sam.  16  :  7  ;  Heb. 
4  : 12).  The  Law,  therefore,  “  was  our  school¬ 
master  to  bring  us  to  Christ  who  has  com¬ 
mented  on  the  tenth  commandment  in  particu¬ 
lar  (Matt  o  :  28,  30),  and  who  inculcates  obedi¬ 
ence  to  all  his  laws  from  an  inward  principle  : 
requiring  us  to  ”  show  the  work  of  the  Law 
written  in  our  hearts”  (Rom.  2  : 15).  Rales, 

This  precept  aims  to  regulate  the  heart,  out  of 
which,  saj’s  our  Saviour,  ‘  ‘  proceed  evil  thoughts, 
murders,  adulteries,  fornications,  thefts,  false 
witness,  blasphemies.”  By  forbidding  the  in¬ 
dulgence  of  all  inordinate  desires,  it  mounts  up 
to  the  fountain-head,  from  whence  flow  the 
manifold  evils  forbidden  in  the  Decalogue. 

Bush. - This  commandment  refers  back  to  all 

the  commandments  of  the  second  table,  and  in¬ 
directly  also  to  those  of  the  first,  in  as  far  as 
these  presuppose  the  others  ;  and  every  sin 
against  our  neighbor  is,  at  the  same  time,  a 
coveting,  or  speaking,  or  acting  against  God, 
the  holy  Lawgiver.  This  commandment  lays 
hold  of  sin  by  the  root,  and  exhibits  even  the 
evil  inclination  as  an  inwardly-perpetrated  act¬ 


ual  sin.  It  shows,  too,  in  how  sjDiritual  a  sense 
the  preceding  commandments  are  to  be  under¬ 
stood,  and  that  not  merely  murder  and  the 
deadly  blow,  but  hatred  and  envy  ;  not  merely 
fornication  and  adultery,  but  even  lewd  desires 
and  thoughts  and  looks  ;  not  merely  robbery 
and  theft,  but  even  avarice  and  covetousness  ; 
not  merely  bold  and  shameless  lying,  but  even 
inward  disingenuousness,  are  a  sin  against  God. 
In  the  heart  lies  the  root  of  all  evil.  C.  G.  B. 

In  this  tenth  article  no  new  department  of 
human  conduct  nor  any  fresh  relationship  ex¬ 
isting  in  society  is  touched  upon.  We  have  had 
laws  vindicating  marriage  rights  and  parental 
authority,  laws  regulating  public  worship,  laws 
protecting  property  and  person  and  reputation. 
Each  added  “word”  opened  up  some  new 
region  of  social  life.  But  the  tenth  annexes  no 
additional  province  of  that  sort.  So  far  as  it 
specifies  your  neighbor’s  wife,  it  overlaps  the 
seventh  commandment.  So  far  as  it  enumer¬ 
ates  his  items  of  property — house,  field,  or  cat¬ 
tle — it  repeats  the  eighth.  What  is  new  about 
it  is  not  the  matter  with  which  it  deals,  but  its 
introspective  and  deeper  handling  of  the  mat¬ 
ter.  It  tells  us  that  he  is  not  a  chaste  man, 
though  he  commit  no  adultery,  who  desires  an¬ 
other  man’s  wife  ;  nor  he  an  honest  man,  though 
he  keep  his  hand  back  from  theft,  who  desires 
another’s  goods.  If  this  be  true  of  the  seventh 
and  eighth  articles  of  the  code,  must  it  not  be 
true  of  them  all  ?  Adding  no  fresh  province  to 
the  area  which  the  Law  covers,  this  profound 
word,  “  Thou  shalt  not  covet,”  has  yet  in  effect 
doubled  the  whole  Law  ;  because  it  has  swept 
within  its  survey  the  hidden  as  well  as  the  outer 
life  —every  movement  of  the  mind  no  less  than 
the  actions  of  the  body.  When  our  Lord,  there¬ 
fore,  in  his  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  would  deepen 
and  spiritualize  the  shallow  rules  of  ethics  cur¬ 
rent  among  his  contemporaries,  he  does  so  by 
applying  to  every  department  of  morals  the 
principle  of  the  tenth  commandment.  The 
truth  is  that  illicit  conduct  always  has  its  root 
in  illicit  desire.  It  is  one  and  the  same  moral 
(or  immoral)  state  which  begins  with  a  secret 
suggestion  of  evil,  burns  on  through  the  stage 
of  indulged  imagination,  of  longing  and  dalli¬ 
ance  with  opportunity,  till  it  consummates  itself 
at  length  in  the  criminal  deed.  As  James  traces 
for  us  in  a  sentence  the  genealogy  of  evil,  when 
he  says,  “The  lust,  when  it  hath  conceived, 
beareth  sin  ;  and  the  sin,  when  it  is  full  grown, 
bringeth  forth  death,”  so  does  James’  Lord  trace 
a  continuity  of  development  betwixt  the  angry 
temper  and  the  murderous  stroke  ;  betwixt  the 
lascivious  glance  and  the  bx’oken  vow  of  wed- 


200 


SECTIOJ\^  109. 


MORAL  LAW. 


lock  ;  betwixt  the  deceit  that  palters  with  the 
phrase  and  the  perjurer’s  oath.  What  is  this 
but  the  teaching  of  the  tenth  commandment 
“writ  large?”  Dykes. 

The  very  end  for  which  Christ  came  into  the 
w’orld  w'as  to  redeem  us  from  selhshness,  to  re¬ 
veal  to  us  the  infinite  love  of  God,  and  to  restore 
us  to  God’s  image.  The  last  of  the  Ten  Com¬ 
mandments,  “  Thou  shalt  not  covet,”  touches 
the  characteristic  precept  of  the  new  Law, 
“  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.” 
This  perfect  love,  the  spring  of  all  individual 
virtue,  is  the  only  sure  and  effective  remedy  for 
all  social  and  political  disorders.  It  is  in  the 
victory  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  in  that  alone, 
that  I  see  any  hope  for  the  rescue  of  mankind 
from  the  sorrows  and  confusion  and  conflicts 
which  make  human  life  so  desolate.  It  is  man 
himself  that  requires  to  be  changed.  No  change 
in  the  mere  external  organization  of  society  will 
redeem  him  from  the  evil  passions  which  are 
the  root  of  all  his  miseries.  The  redemption  is 
to  be  wrought  by  the  supernatural  power  of 
Christ.  Dale. 

This  command  forbids  :  (1)  Desire  after  lower 
good  to  the  neglect  of  the  higher.  (2)  Desire 
after  improper  objects.  (3)  Desire  after  lawful 
objects  carried  to  an  improper  degree.  (4)  De 
sire  to  gain  any  object  in  an  improper  manner. 
(5)  Any  desire  after  what  belongs  to  another, 
which  is  inconsistent  with  the  rule,  “Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thj^self.’’  It  forbids, 
too  :  (6)  Discontent  with  the  allotments  of  Di¬ 
vine  providence.  A  discontented  spirit  is  but 
one  form  of  covetousness,  albeit  it  is  a  very 
unamiable  one.  We  are  not  to  be  envious  of 
another’s  possessions,  nor  for  a  moment  to  allow 
the  wish,  if  our  neighbor  is  rich  and  we  are 
jroor,  that  his  wealth  and  our  poverty  should 
change  hands.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  to  be 
a  thankful  content  with  the  mercies  we  possess, 
and  a  joy  in  our  neighbor's  joy  if  he  has  more 
than  we  have.  So  far  from  wishing  to  gain 
advantage  at  another’s  cost,  we  are  to  rejoice  in 
another’s  good  as  really  as  if  it  were  our  own. 
So  runs  the  precept  (Eom.  12  : 15).  It  is  much 
easier  to  “  weep  with  them  that  weep,”  than  it 
is  to  “  rejoice  with  them  thai  do  rejoice.’’  Our 
obedience  to  this  precept  is  not  complete  till 
Ave  can  “  weep”  or  ”  rejoice”  with  others  with 
equal  readiness.  In  a  word,  the  tenth  com¬ 
mandment  requires  entire  unselfishness.  “  Love 
is  the  fulfilling  of  the  Law.”  C.  C. 

Even  the  other  commandments  cannot  be  ful¬ 
filled  by  an  external  obedience  onlj".  “Thou 
shalt  not  kill”  includes  likewise.  Thou  shalt 
not  be  angry,  shalt  not  hate,  as  the  seed  of  the 


evil  ;  and  so  on  with  the  rest.  But  it  is  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  great  moment  to  observe  that  here  the 
evil  desire  is  itself  expressly  declared  to  be  a 
sin,  not  only  inasmuch  as  it  leads  or  can  lead 
to  an  act,  but  also  simply  in  itself.  Envy, 
which  grudges  another  man  his  life,  the  impure 
desire,  the  greediness  of  gain,  the  inward  insin- 
ceritj" — even  though  they  should  not  be  strong 
enough  to  break  out  into  acts,  or  should  be  hin¬ 
dered  by  circumstances  from  doing  so — are  sins. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  an  involuntary  bad 
thought,  All  such  spring  from  tlie  ground  of  a 
corrupt  heart.  They  jaoceed  from  the  inward 
desire  to  be  free  from  God's  Liws,  and  to  fol¬ 
low  their  own  desire  or  vainghiry.  Even  the 
evil  thoughts  and  desiies  which  are  roused  in 
us  by  outward  circumstances  or  inspired  by 
the  devil,  are  sparks  which  fall  continually  on 
prepared  tinder.  This  l  ist  commandment  is 
really  the  key-stone  of  the  whole  law  of  the  Ten 
Commandments,  and  so  Paul  quotes  it  (Rom. 
7  :  7)  as  the  main  idea  of  all  that  is  prohibited. 

Gerl. - It  does  not  merely  speak  to  the  eye, 

and  say,  thou  shall  not  look  covetously.  It  does 
not  merely  speak  to  the  hand,  and  say,  thou 
shall  not  grasp  covetously  ;  thou  shall  not  steal : 
the  Law  had  said  this  before.  But,  instead  of 
waiting  for  the  eye  and  the  hand  to  do  this,  it 
goes  in  to  the  heart— “  for  out  of  the  heart  pro- 
ceedeth  covetousness” — and  it  says  to  the  heart, 
“  thou  shalt  not  covet.”  And  hence  saith  the 
apostle,  “  I  had  not  known  the  sinfulness  of  in¬ 
ordinate  desire  if  the  Law  had  not  said.  Thou 
shalt  not  covet.”  It  lays  its  fiery  finger  upon 
the  first  movement  of  covetousness,  and  brands 
it  as  a  sin.  Harris. 

The  improper  desire  is  the  root  of  all  evil. 
It  can  seldom  be  reached  by  human  legislation. 
But  it  is  open  to  the  Searcher  of  heK>rts.  The 
intent  is  that  which,  in  the  last  resort,  deter¬ 
mines  the  moral  character  of  the  act.  This  last 
“  word  ”  is,  therefore,  the  interpreting  clause  of 
the  whole  Decalogue.  It  raises  the  code  im¬ 
measurably  above  every  code  of  man  who  look- 
eth  on  the  outward  appearance  of  conduct,  and 
at  once  renders  it  Avorthy  of  the  Lord  who  look- 
eth  on  the  heart.  Covetousness  here  includes 
envy,  malice,  and  every  other  selfish  or  unholy 
state  of  the  feelings.  M. - If  I  allow  evil  de¬ 

sire  a  harbor  in  my  heart,  my  standard  of  moral¬ 
ity  will  be  lowered,  I  shall  grow  reckless,  shall 
care  less  for  what  is  holy  and  just  and  good, 
shall  neglect  duties  generally,  and  in  this  Avay 
conform  my  life  to  the  evil  desire  which,  like 
persistent  leaven,  will  leaven  the  whole  lump. 
Sin  in  the  desire  is  sin  in  the  man — the  entire 
man  ;  so  that  the  harm  done  by  coveting  what 


TENTH  COMMANDMENT, 


201 


is  not  our  own  is  just  the  harm  done  by  ain  ' 
when  welcomed  to  the  heart.  It  is  spiritual 
corruption.  Crosby. 

The  closing  law  of  motive — or  law  against 
evil  desire —plainly  transcends  the  bounds  of 
civil  legislation.  It  could  proceed  only  from 
One  who  was  greater  than  any  earthly  sover¬ 
eign.  By  entering  the  hidden  domain  of  mo¬ 
tive,  it  speaks  not  to  the  citizen  merely,  but  to 
the  man.  Moreover,  it  serves  to  fling  a  sur¬ 
prising  light  backward  uj^on  all  the  preceding 
laws.  It  puts  in  our  hand  a  new  key  by  which 
to  read  them.  It  serves  to  hint  that  underneath 
the  concrete  prohibitions  of  the  rest  there  lay 
deeper  and  more  spiritual  principles  ;  so  that 
the}’’  were  not  really  kept  when  kept  only  in  the 
letter.  In  this  last  statute,  forbidding  not  overt 
act,  but  inward  desire,  we  find  a  basis  laid  for 
that  deeper  theory  of  Mosaism  which  was  long 
afterward  worked  out  from  his  own  experience 
by  Paul.  In  how  many  Hebrews’  bosoms,  as  in 
his,  did  that  law  which  said  “  Thou  shalt  not 
covet,”  fan  to  flame  the  slumbering  ashes  of 
sinful  desire  !  To  how  many  did  it  come,  as  to 
him,  reviving  sin,  and  therefore  slaying  self- 
righteous  conceit  by  laying  bare  the  helplessness 
of  the  carnal  nature  and  its  inherent  antago¬ 
nism  to  the  holy  and  perfect  Law  of  God  ?  Dykes. 

Deed  and  word  will  not  bo  right  unless  the 
heart  be  right  ;  and  the  heart  will  be  wrong  un¬ 
less  it  be  j)urged  of  the  bitter  black  drop  of 
covetousness.  The  desire  to  make  my  neigh¬ 
bor’s  good  mine  is  the  parent  of  all  breaches  of 
neighborly  duty,  even  as  its  converse  “  love”  is 
the  fulfilling  of  it  all  ;  for  such  desire  implies 
that  I  am  ruled  by  selfishness,  and  that  I  would 
willingly  dej)rive  another  of  good,  for  my  own 
gratification.  Such  a  temper,  like  a  wild  boar 
among  vineyards,  will  trample  down  all  the  rich  ! 
clusters  in  order  to  slake  its  own  thirst.  Find 
a  man  who  yields  to  his  desires  after  his  neigh¬ 
bor’s  goods,  and  you  find  a  man  who  will  break 
all  commandments  like  a  hornet  in  a  spider’s 
web.  Nor  is  it  only  the  second  table  which 
covetousness  dashes  to  fragments.  It  serves 
the  first  in  the  same  fashion  ;  for,  as  Paul  puts 
it,  the  covetous  man  “  is  an  idolater,  ’  and  is  as 
incapable  of  loving  God  as  of  loving  his  neigh¬ 
bor.  This  final  commandment,  overleaping  the 
boundary  between  conduct  and  character,  and 
carrying  tlie  light  of  duty  into  the  dark  places 
of  the  heart,  where  deeds  are  fashioned,  sets 
the  whole  flock  of  bats  and  twilight-loving  creat¬ 
ures  in  agitation.  It  does  the  main  work  of  the 
Law,  in  compelling  us  to  search  our  hearts,  and 
in  convincing  of  sin.  It  is  the  converse  of  the 
thought  that  all  the  Law  is  contained  in  love  ; 


I  for  it  closes  the  list  of  sins  with  one  which  be¬ 
gets  them  all,  and  points  us  away  from  actions 
and  words  which  are  its  children  to  selfish  de¬ 
sire,  as  in  itself  the  transgression  of  all  the  Law, 
whether  it  be  that  which  prescribes  our  relations 
to  God,  or  that  which  enjoins  our  duties  to 
man.  A.  M. 

This  last  commandment  brings  us  back  to  the 
first.  \Ve  started  wiih  God  and  we  end  wuth 
God.  We  find  that  if  our  true  relation  with 
God  be  maintained,  then  all  other  relations  will 
adjust  themselves  rightly,  and  that  our  duty  to 
our  neighbor  is  founded  on  our  duty  to  God. 
This  thought,  as  taught  in  God’s  Word,  will 
dissipate  any  hopes  we  may  have  formed  from 
human  schemes  of  philanthropy  and  social  prog¬ 
ress.  Crosby. 

The  tenth  and  last  commandment  is  by  the 
Church  of  Borne  divided  into  two,  to  keep  up 
the  number  after  joining  the  first  and  second 
into  one,  contrary  to  ancient  authority,  Jewish 
and  Christian.  How  the  mistake  was  originally 
made,  is  hard  to  say  ;  but  undoubtedl}^  they  re¬ 
tain  and  defend  it  the  more  earnestly,  in  order 
to  pass  over  the  second  commandment  as  only 
l^art  of  the  first,  without  any  distinct  meaning 
of  its  own.  The  two  commandments  plainlj" 
relate  to  different  things  ;  the  first  appointing 
that  the  object  of  our  worship  be  the  only  true 
God  ;  the  second  that  w^e  worship  not  Him  under 
any  visible  resemblance  or  form.  It  is  plain, 
therefore,  that  these  two  ought  not  to  be  thus 
joined  and  confounded.  And  that  the  tenth 
ought  not  to  be  divided  is  equally  evident  :  for 
it  is  one  single  prohibition  of  all  unjust  desires. 
And  if  reckoning  up  the  several  prohibited  ob¬ 
jects  of  desire  makes  it  more  than  one  com¬ 
mandment,  for  the  same  reason  it  will  be  more 
than  two.  Abp.  Seeker. 


Why  should  I  be  backward  to  vow  my  obedi¬ 
ence  to  the  laws  of  God  ?  Are  they  anything 
else  but  a  method  of  living  well  and  wisely,  free 
from  fears  and  injurj'’?  They  teach  me  to  con¬ 
duct  myself  so  that  I  may  win  the  favor  of  God 
and  good  men,  and  be  safe  in  the  best  and  happy 
in  the  worst  condition.  I  cannot  wish  a  greater 
felicity  than  to  be  meek  and  patient,  grateful 
and  contented,  temperate  and  industrious,  just 
and  bountiful,  to  converse  with  God,  rejoice 
with  angels,  to  imitate  the  saints,  follow  the 
blessed  Jesus,  and  to  seek  everlasting  joy.  God 
requires  nothing  impossible,  unjust,  or  unrea¬ 
sonable.  I  bind  myself  to  that  which  my  judg¬ 
ment  and  my  conscience  tell  me  it  is  fit  and  ex¬ 
pedient  for  me  to  do,  although  it  had  never  been 


202 


SECTION  110.  MORAL  LAW. 


o-ommanded.  It  is  no  more  than  that  which  all 
the  wisest  and  best  men,  the  friends  of  God 
and  the  favorites  of  heaven,  have  done  with  the 
greatest  delight  and  pleasure,  and  therefore  is 
the  proof  of  a  generous  and  noble  sj^irit,  God 
is  the  best  of  all  masters  ;  he  covers  the  infirm¬ 
ities  and  strengthens  the  weaknesses  of  his  ser¬ 
vants.  Can  I  fail  to  please  him  who  excites  the 
desire  and  enables  for  the  performance  ;  who 
makes  the  way  familiar  and  easy,  pleasant  and 
inviting,  and  yet,  where  there  is  a  hearty  en¬ 
deavor,  doth  make  many  abatements  and  accept 
the  will  for  the  deed  ;  who  begins  his  assist¬ 
ances  early,  and  continues  them  till  he  hath 
perfected  this  excellent  work?  Then,  looking 
unto  Jesus,  the  jDurchaser  of  pardon  and  the 
giver  of  all  grace,  and  humbly  invoking  the 
help  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  I  cry,  Lord,  norite  all 
these  laiDS  in  my  heart  f  Comber. 

The  mere  imperative  of  the  Almighty  cannot 
jDurify  a  corrupt  heart  ;  and  all  the  penalties 
of  Sinai,  although  they  may  drive  back  the  over¬ 
flow  of  lawlessness  in  action,  will  never  dry  up 
the  fountain  of  lawless  desire.  I  may  for  various 
reasons  do  so  much  violence  to  myself  as  to 


curb  my  propensities  and  withhold  my  hand 
from  wrong  ;  but  I  cannot  help  secretly  liking 
the  pleasant  naughtiness  which  is  congenial  to 
my  perverted  taste.  For  this  deep,  sore  fault-- 
laid  bare  to  me  by  the  tenth  commandment  — 
there  is  no  radical  cure  save  one.  It  is  the  cure 
prescribed  by  Christ  ;  “  Ye  must  be  born  again 
j)rescribed  by  him,  and  wrought  by  him,  too  : 
“  As  many  as  receive  him,  to  them  gave  he  the 
right  to  become  children  of  God.”  ”  Whoever 
is  begotten  of  God  doeth  no  sin.”  Let  this  law 
of  the  tenth  commandment  do  its  appointed 
work  ujjon  you.  Let  it  convict  you  of  possess¬ 
ing  an  evil  heart  which  cannot  cease  from  sin, 
a  heart  that  will  not  like  what  God  commands. 
Let  it  shut  you  up  to  the  necessity  of  a  new 
birth.  Let  it  force  you  to  accept  of  cleansing 
for  the  past  through  the  blood  of  Christ,  and 
for  the  future  to  depend  for  strength  to  conquer 
lust  upon  the  quickening  and  in  habitation  of 
the  Spirit  of  Holiness,  who  is  also  the  Spirit  of 
Love.  Then,  when  you  abide  in  God,  and  God 
abides  in  you,  you  will  walk  in  love,  and  love 
will  be  the  fulfilment  of  this  and  of  every  law. 
Dykes. 


Section  110. 

MOBAL  LAW  :  TWO  ESSENTIAL  PBINCIPLES  OF  ITS  EEQUIEEMENTS.  FIEST, 
AVITH  EEFEEENCE  TO  CHAEACTEE,  HOLINESS,  OE  LIKENESS  TO  GOD.  SEC¬ 
OND,  WITH  EEFEEENCE  TO  THE  ACTUATING  FOECE  OF  THE  LIFE,  SUPEEME 
LOVE  TO  GOD  AND  UNSELFISH  LOVE  TO  MAN. 

Lev.  19  :  1,  2  ;  20  :  7,  8.  De,  6  :  4,  5.  Lev.  19  :  18  (last  clause). 

Lev.  19  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  all  the  congregation  of  the 

2  children  of  Israel,  and  say  unto  them.  Ye  shall  be  holy  :  for  I  the  Lord  your  God 

am  holy.  / 

20  7  Sanctify  yourselves  therefore,  and  be  ye  holy  :  for  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.  And 

8  ye  shall  keep  my  statutes,  and  do  them  :  I  am  the  Lord  which  sanctify  you. 

De.  G  4  Hear,  O  Israel  :  the  Lord  our  God  is  one  Lord  :  (or,  the  Lord  is  one  God,  the  Lord 

5  alone  :)  and  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy 

soul,  and  with  all  thy  might. 

Lev.  19  18  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself  :  I  am  the  Lord. 

ible,  and  incommunicable.  He  is  the  Absolute 
and  the  Infinite  One,  who  alone  is  to  be  wor¬ 
shipped,  on  whom  all  dej)end,  and  to  whose 
command  all  must  yield  obedience  (cf.  Zech. 
14  :  9).  Not  only  to  polytheism,  but  to  panthe¬ 
ism,  and  to  the  conception  of  a  localized  or  na¬ 
tional  deity,  is  this  declaration  of  the  unity  of 
Jehovah  opposed.  AVith  these  wmrds  the  Jews 
begin  their  daily  liturgj',  morning  and  evening  ; 


The  Basis  or  these  Two  Essential  Principles  : 
The  Absolute  Unity,  Supremacy,  and  Holi¬ 
ness  OF  Jehovah. 

Dc.  O  :  4.  The  Lord  our  Ood  i§  one 
Lord  ;  Ch\  The  Lord  is  one  God,  the  Lord  atone. 

Lev.  19  :  2.  I  the  Lord  your  Ood  uiii 
holy. 

The  God  of  Israel.  Jehovah,  is  one.  indivis- 


UNITY,  SUPREMACY  AND  HOLINESS  OF  JEHOVAH. 


203 


the  sentence  expresses  the  essence  of  their  re-  | 
ligioiis  belief  ;  and  so  familiar  is  it  to  their  j 
thought  and  speech  that,  it  is  said,  they  were 
often,  during  the  persecution  in  Spain,  be¬ 
trayed  to  their  enemies  by  the  involuntary 
utterance  of  it.  W.  L.  A. 

The  most  prominent  and  characteristic  feat¬ 
ure  of  the  religion  of  Israel  as  compared  with 
other  religions  of  the  ancient  world  was  its 
teaching  of  God.  It  taught  in  every  variety  of 
way,  and  with  every  possible  emphasis,  that 
there  is  one  God  only,  from  whom  all  things 
proceed,  who  is  absolutely  alone  in  his  unut¬ 
terable  majesty,  above  and  separate  from  his 
creation  yet  ruling  it  according  to  his  own  holy 
will,  and  requiring  from  his  creatures  worship, 
obedience,  love,  and  the  imitation  of  his  own 
holiness  and  purity.  Whatever  other  features 
may  present  themselves  in  the  Pentateuch,  the 
Psalms,  or  the  Prophets,  at  whatever  time  those 
may  have  been  severally  published,  and  whatever 
may  have  been  the  conduct  of  the  people,  ob¬ 
viously  to  every  reader  in  every  age  this  is  the 
one  foundation  of  the  religion  of  Israel  as  seen 
in  its  sacred  books.  It  is  recognized  that  the 
religion  of  the  Old  Testament  stands,  in  this 
respect,  upon  a  different  and  far  higher  level 
than  that  of  any  other  ancient  nation.  No¬ 
where  else  is  there  the  same  recognition  at  once 
of  the  unity  of  the  Supreme  Being,  of  his  sep¬ 
aration  from  and  yet  constant  government  over 
his  creation,  and  of  the  consequent  relations  of 
duty  and  love  on  the  part  of  man  toward  him. 

In  Israel  the  first  notes  that  are  heard  at  all 
are  of  solitary  supremacy.  The  fundamental 
utterance  alike  of  command,  of  history,  of  pop¬ 
ular  song,  through  all  the  previous  ages,  is  sum- 
med  up  in  the  words  of  Isaiah  (42  : 8),  “I  am 
the  Loan  ;  my  glory  will  I  not  give  to  another.” 
The  Ten  Commandments  form  the  very  gist 
and  kernel  of  the  Hebrew  religion,  and  are  ac¬ 
knowledged  by  all  critics  to  be  a  part  of  its  most 
ancient  statutes.  They  belonged  to  Israel  when 
just  emerging  from  a  servile  condition  and 
when  bent  upon  having  a  golden  calf  for  their 
god  ;  yet  they  open  with  the  absolute  and  un¬ 
compromising  command  :  “  I  am  the  Lord  thy 
God  :  thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods  but  me.” 
Around  these  commandments,  as  a  nucleus  and 
centre,  the  whole  religion  of  Israel  is  grouped, 
and  they  announce  an  absolute  and  exclusive 
monotheism,  with  a  summary  of  the  duty  of 
man  toward  God  and  toward  his  fellows  flowing 
from  this  fundamental  truth.  Gardiner. 

It  is  the  same  God  exhibited  under  the  Patri¬ 
archal,  the  Jewish,  and  the  Christian  dispensa¬ 
tions.  Except  in  the  degree  of  develojDment, 


I  there  is  no  difference  between  God  as  revealed 
j  in  Eden,  on  Sinai,  and  on  Calvary  ;  between 
God  as  exhibited  in  the  books  of  Moses,  and 
God  as  exhibited  so  many  centuries  later  in  the 
writings  of  Paul  and  John.  In  the  garden  we 
have  the  Lawgiver,  and  we  have  indications, 
too,  of  the  Saviour.  On  Mount  Sinai,  there  is 
the  same  combination  of  awful  justice  and  con¬ 
descending  mercy.  In  the  mysterious  transac¬ 
tions  on  Calvary,  there  is  an  awful  forsaking 
and  a  fearful  darkness,  emblematic  of  the  right¬ 
eousness  and  indignation  of  God,  as  there  is 
also  a  melting  tenderness  in  the  words  of  our 
Lord  breathing  forgiveness  and  love,  and  tell¬ 
ing  of  an  opened  paradise.  The  first  book  dis¬ 
closes  to  us,  near  its  commencement,  a  worship¬ 
per  offering  a  lamb  in  sacrifice,  and  the  last 
shows  a  lamb  as  it  had  been  slain  in  the  midst 
of  the  throne  of  God.  To  Moses  he  discloses 
himself  as  the  Jehovah,  the  Lord  God,  ”  merci¬ 
ful  and  gracious,  long-suffering,  and  abundant 
in  goodness,  in  truth,”  and  that  “will  by  no 
means  clear  the  guilty.”  Paul  speaks  of  him 
as  “  just,  and  yet  the  justifier  of  the  ungodly 
and  John,  as  “  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us 
our  sins.”  Whence  this  harmony  or  rather 
unity  in  the  Divine  character  ?  Whence  this 
wonderful  correspondence  in  the  portraits  drawn 
by  so  many  different  hands?  We  can  only  ac¬ 
count  for  it  by  supposing  that  they  all  drew 
from  one  great  original.  The  God  of  revelation 
is  also  the  God  of  nature,  when  nature  is  rightly 
expounded  and  when  all  its  phenomena  are 
contemplated.  An  exalted  view  of  the  spiritual 
nature  of  man  will  at  once  conduct  to  a  belief 
in  the  spiritual  character  of  God.  Enlarged 
conceptions  of  space  and  time  and  of  the  mag¬ 
nitude  of  creation,  will  at  once  suggest  an  om¬ 
nipotent  and  omnipresent  God.  The  provi¬ 
dence  of  God  indicates  wisdom  and  care,  with 
government  the  most  particular  and  minute. 
The  moral  principle  in  man,  pointing  to  an  ex¬ 
cellence  in  God  to  be  admired,  but  to  an  excel¬ 
lence  which  man  does  not  possess,  gives  evi¬ 
dence  of  a  holy  God  governing  a  fallen  raca. 
Leave  out  any  of  these  classes  of  natural  phe¬ 
nomena,  and  we  have  a  God  under  some  one  or 
other  of  the  partial  and  imperfect  forms  in 
which  he  has  been  presented  in  different  ages 
and  nations.  Combine  the  whole,  and  we  have 
a  God  identical  with  the  Jehovah  of  the  Scrip¬ 
tures.  M'Gosh. 

The  God  of  the  Bible,  as  revealed  to  us,  sat¬ 
isfies  the  cravings  of  intellect  and  heart.  In 
Jesus  Christ,  God  is  “manifest”  as  nowhere 
else.  Nor  should  we  leave  out  the  touching 
word,  “  the  Lord  our  God.”  We  have  one  God 


204 


SECTION  no.  MORAL  LAW. 


and  Father  of  all,  to  whom  the  vast  and  the 
miniite  are  equally  distinct,  and  by  whose  hand 
both  are  moved  with  equal  ease  ;  who,  while  he 
rolls  the  stars  along,  can  take  under  his  special 
sheltering  love  the  widow  and  the  fatherless. 
It  is  our  inestimable  privilege  to  know  that  in¬ 
finitely  above  us,  combined  with  an  arm  of 
mighty  power,  there  is  a  heart  of  tt-nderest  love, 
whose  great  concern  it  is  to  heal  the  wounds,  to 
dry  the  tears,  and  obliterate  the  sins  of  a  bleed¬ 
ing,  weeping,  guilt-stained  world  !  What  a 
revelation  is  this  to  our  race  !  Well  might 
Moses  bid  Israel  “  hearken”  !  For  surely  this 
one  message  to  man,  that  there  is  a  redeeming 
God  whom  he  may  call  his  own,  is  our  gospel, 
our  life,  our  joy,  our  crown  !  C.  C. 

Jeiaovali  our  Eloliini  is  one  Je- 
liOVillB.  Here  plurality  and  unit}'^  are  plainly 
ascribed  to  Jehovah  at  the  same  time.  “  The 
only  expressible  idea  suggested  by  such  a  state¬ 
ment  is,  that  while  there  is  but  one  God  and 
while  that  God  is  one  in  substance,  there  is 
nevertheless  a  distinction  of  some  sort  or  other 
co-existing  with  this  unity  and  compatible  with 
it.”  {Akxander.)  Seeing  that  in  the  later  He¬ 
brew  Scriptures  the  doctrine  of  a  plurality  in 
the  Divine  essence  is  unquestionably  taught, 
what  occasion  is  there  for  denying  that  iis  germ 
is  found  in  the  Pentateuch — a  supposition  which 
would  at  once  account  for  the  use  of  the  plural 
term  Elohim  ?  D.  M. 

A  clear  developed  dogma  of  the  Trinity  is  not 
to  be  found  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  that  for 
good  reasons.  It  was  all-important  under  that 
dispensation  that,  in  the  face  of  heathen  poly¬ 
theism,  the  great  fundamental  truth  of  the  Di¬ 
vine  unity  should  be  impressed  on  the  religious 
consciousness  of  God’s  ancient  people.  Too 
plain  an  utterance  of  Trinitarian  doctrine  would 
in  such  times  have  obscured  the  truth  of  the 
Divine  unity,  and  misled  into  Tritheism.  And 
for  the  like  reasons  our  Lord  did  not  at  first  re¬ 
veal  the  triunity  of  the  Divine  nature  to  his  dis¬ 
ciples.  It  was  not  till  they  had  learned  to 
believe  in  his  Divine  Sonship,  and  in  some 
measure  to  apprehend  his  unity  with  the  Father 
and  pre-existence,  that  he  could  speak  to  them 
of  the  Divine  Person  of  the  Second  Comforter  ; 
nay,  it  was  not  till  he  had  proved  himself  to  be 
the  fountain  of  eternal  life  by  his  own  resurrec¬ 
tion.  and  by  his  breathing  on  the  apostles  had 
kindled  in  their  hearts  the  fire  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  that  he  found  them  capable  of  receiving 
the  divinest  of  mysteries,  and  therefore  could 
leave  behind  him  as  a  precious  heirloom  to  his 
Church — as  the  deej)est  revelation  of  the  Divine 


nature,  as  the  one  foundation  of  Christian  faith, 
knowledge,  and  practice,  and  as  the  final  seal 
and  crown  of  all  his  teaching  while  here  on 
eaith — the  great  commission  :  “  Go  into  all  the 
world,  and  make  disciples  of  all  the  nations, 
baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and 
of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost.”  Ohrisllieh. 

- In  the  Old  Testament  three,  and  only  three, 

persons  appear  as  manifestations  of  God  :  ap- 
pearing,  however,  not  absolutely  as  Divine  per¬ 
sons,  but  as  having  each  a  specific  part  in  the 
conduct  of  the  economy  of  providence  and 
grace.  In  the  New  Testament  these  three  per¬ 
sons  have  their  parts  more  distinctly  assigned 
to  them  :  the  Son  is  the  Incarnate  Son,  declar¬ 
ing  himself  sent  by  the  Father  and  yet  co-equal 
with  him,  and  himself  promises  another  self,  a 
self  who  is  vet  another,  the  Holv  Ghost.  After 
the  baptismal  formula  has  been  laid  down,  the 
redemptional  Trinity  is  literally  everywhere  in 
the  New  Testament.  Pope. 

Fiest  Essential  Pkinciple  :  Holiness  of  Chak- 

ACTEK, 

Lev.  19  : 1,  2  ;  20  :  7,  8. 

Lev.  19:1.  TSic  Lord  unto 

Hoses,  sayings,  ^peak  unto  all  tlie 
e<»iig'reg'alion.  Here  is  the  gracious  melhod 
by  which  our  holiness  is  made  possible.  The 
lioly  God  speaks.  The  holy  mt-n  of  God  speak  as 
they  are  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  The  holy 
Word  speaks,  everywhere  and  always.  The  holy 
life  is  maintained  among  the  holy  people.  The 
holiness  of  humanity  will  be  achieved  as  a  fact 
through  a  holy  ministry  of  the  people  of  God  to 
the  world  at  large.  K.  A.  R. 

Lev.  19  :  Ye  shall  be  holy.  This 

is  the  general  principle.  The  reason  follows. 
For  I  the  Lord  your  God  am  holy.  Two  reasons 
at  least  wrapped  up  in  this.  First,  the  Author 
of  your  being  is  holy  ;  and  the  stream  should 
taste  of  the  fountain.  Second,  the  covenant  of 
grace  implied  in  the  terms  “  the  Lord  your 
God  ”  forms  the  most  powerful  motive  to  holi¬ 
ness.  Other  reasons  are  implied.  Reason 
binds  you  to  be  holy  ;  a  sanctified  reason  en¬ 
forces  the  obligation  by  new  motives.  M, - 

The  entire  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament  is  per¬ 
vaded  by  the  command,  ”  Ye  shall  be  holy,  for 
I,  the  Lord  jmurGod,  am  holy  and  the  direc¬ 
tion  [elsewhere  given],  “  the  words  wdiich  I 
command  thee  this  day  shall  he  in  thine  heart," 
shows  plainly  that  this  law  is  for  the  inner  man. 
In  short,  the  principles  of  moral  duty,  set  forth 
here  with  a  solemnity^  suited  to  their  high  pre¬ 
eminence,  were  understood  in  the  ancient 


HOLINESS  OF  CHARACTER. 


205 


church  to  relate  to  the  internal  state  of  the 
heart  ;  enjoining  love  to  God  with  unceasing 
solicitude  and  love  to  our  neighbor  ;  requiring 
heartfelt  piety,  well-regulated  desires  and  active 
benevolence.  The  true  Israelite  always  under¬ 
stood  that  the  Law  of  God  required  the  sincere 
cultivation  of  purity,  mercy,  and  truth.  S.  II. 

- They  should  not  measure  the  service  of  God 

by  their  own  conceits,  but  rather  by  his  nature  ; 
and  they  should  begin  by  studying  to  be  holy. 
Here  they  are  recalled  to  the  imitation  of  God, 
who  in  adopting  them  desired  that  they  should 
bear  his  image,  just  as  good  and  undegenerate 
children  resemble  their  father.  To  this  point 
did  all  the  ceremonies  tend,  whereby  God  exer¬ 
cised  his  ancient  people  unto  holiness.  Calv. 

The  holiness  of  the  people,  as  the  children  of 
God,  his  “saints  who  had  made  a  covenant 
with  him  by  sacrifice,  ”  was  a  principle  as  sacred 
as  the  consecration  of  the  priests.  They,  like 
the  children  of  the  New  Covenant,  were  “  a 
chosen  generation,  a  royal  priesthood,  an  holy 
nation,  a  peculiar  people,”  the  purchased  j)os- 
session  of  Jeho\ali  ;  and  for  both  there  was  the 
same  simple  law  :  “  Be  ye  holy,  foe  I  am 
HOLY.”  This  principle,  from  which  Paul  so 
often  deduces  the  spiritual  law  of  the  complete 
devotion  of  the  whole  nature  to  God’s  service, 
was  enforced  upon  the  Jews  by  ceremonies  and 
restrictions  reaching  to  every  detail  of  their 
daily  lives.  It  is  the  central  subject  of  the 
Book  of  Leviticus,  which  gradually  rises  from 
the  laws  of  sacrifice  to  the  assertion  and  devel¬ 
opment  of  the  holiness  and  puritj^  of  the  peo¬ 
ple,  in  person,  act,  speech,  and  property.  P.  S. 

It  is  characteristic  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
that  they  bring  into  prominence,  into  increas¬ 
ing  prominence,  as  the  most  awful  feature  in 
Jehovah,  his  holiness.  That  they  term  em¬ 
phatically  his  “  glory”  ;  and  on  the  strength  of 
that  thej’’  claim  for  him  our  deepest  veneration 
and  fear.  The  majesty  of  God  as  the  all-power¬ 
ful,  all-wise  Creator  and  Sovereign,  is  far  from 
being  overlooked.  Often  is  it  dwelt  upon  to 
humble  human  pride  and  lay  our  hearts  low  in 
the  dust.  But  the  attributes  of  Jehovah  which, 
far  more  than  his  physical  superiority',  abash 
the  Old  Testament  saints,  and  keep  their  feet 
far  off  from  i:)resumptuous  familiarity  or  a  too 
close  approach,  are  his  moral  attributes  ;  his 
inviolable  purity,  his  righteousness,  his  ter- 
ribleness  against  sin,  his  faithfulness  to  the 
truth,  his  unapproachable  holiness.  Dykes. 

The  moral  attributes  form  the  basis  of  the 
scriptural  revelations  of  God  ;  and  of  these  his 
holiness  occupies  the  first  place.  This  was  the 
fundamental  element  in  the  Theocracy  and  the 


religious  life  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  that 
which  distinguished  it  equally  with,  if  not  even 
more  than,  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  unity  from 
all  other  systems.  The  great  end,  in  fact,  of  the 
Law  was  to  produce  in  the  covenant  people  a 

copy  of  God’s  holiness.  D.  M. - The  mon- 

ai-chy  of  God  is  ever  based  on  righteousness. 
After  the  selection  of  the  Hebrew  family  to  con¬ 
stitute  the  visible  kingdom  of  Jehovah  and  to 
act  as  conservators  of  the  true  religion  in  the 
midst  of  Gentilism,  it  is  continually  proclaimed 
that  they  are  Israelites  indeed  who  labor  to  be 
God-like  ;  that  such  alone  are  properly  the  sub¬ 
jects  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  and  are  entitled  to  ap¬ 
proach  the  seat  of  his  peculiar  presence.  Hard¬ 
wick. 

The  Israelites  were  told  repeatedly  and  in 
most  express  terms  that  they  were  called  be  a 
holy  people  to  their  God.  Again  and  again,  Moses 
was  directed  to  declare  in  God’s  name  to  the 
whole  congregation  :  “  Be  ye  holy,  for  1  the  Lord 
your  God  am  holy/"  To  enforce  this,  and  to 
produce  in  the  people  a  conviction  of  the  holi¬ 
ness  of  the  Divine  character,  a  conviction  indis¬ 
pensable  to  the  realization  of  the  same  holiness 
in  themselves,  was  a  primary  object  of  the  whole 
theocratic  legislation.  Of  the  holiness  of  God 
the  Israelite  must  be  reminded  not  only  in  the 
reading  of  the  Law,  but  also  in  acts  and  ordi¬ 
nances  kept  constantly  before  his  eyes.  And  all 
these  laws  and  institutions,  sacred  and  secular, 
spoke  a  language  intelligible  to  the  lowest  capac¬ 
ity.  Holiness  and  purity,  with  other  disposi¬ 
tions  and  relations  of  like  character,  were  seen 
to  be  realities  acceptable  to  God  and  beneficial 
to  man,  while  the  opposite  qualities  led  to  con¬ 
sequences  directly  the  reverse.  To  exhibit  and 
inculcate  holiness  and  purity  was  the  chief  ob¬ 
ject  in  view  in  all  the  arrangements  and  ordi¬ 
nances  respecting  the  camp  and  the  dwelling, 
as  well  as  those  which  more  directly  concerned 
the  sanctuary  and  its  worship.  Not  only  what 
was  in  itself  impure,  but  what  was  suggestive 
of  impurity,  or  any  way  associated  therewith, 
must  be  carefully  avoided.  D.  M. 

The  faultless  purity,  rigid  separation,  abso¬ 
lute  surrender,  mysterious  reverence,  with 
which  the  Mosaic  Law  invested  everything  or 
person  consecrated  to  God,  trained  the  worship¬ 
per’s  feelings  regarding  God  ;  and  these  feel¬ 
ings  gave  birth  to  ideas  in  their  own  likeness. 
God’s  own  innate  holiness  came  to  be  recog¬ 
nized  as  the  fountain  from  which  the  holiness 
belonging  to  things,  persons,  actions,  times, 
places,  streamed  forth.  Hence  the  central  idea 
of  holiness  in  the  Old  Testament  is  essentially 
moral  or  spiritual.  To  suppose  it  ceremonial, 


206 


SECTION  no.  MORAL  LAW. 


because  largely  taught  by  ceremonies,  is  a  shal¬ 
low  but  fatal  error.  The  smallest  amount  of 
intelligent  reflection  must  have  taught  the  He¬ 
brew  worshipper  that  ceremonial  (or  ritual)  holi¬ 
ness  could  not  belong  to  God.  God’s  holiness 
could  mean  nothing  less  than  that  nature  and 
character  which  make  him  supremely  worthy  of 
worship  and  love  ;  what  in  modern  phrase  we 
express  by  “  supreme  moral  excellence”  or 
“  spiritual  perfection.”  This  fact  lies  at  the 
verj^  heart  of  the  Hebrew  religion.  No  expla¬ 
nation  is  worth  looking  at  that  does  not  account 
for  it.  The  evidence  of  its  reality  must  be 
sought  in  careful  study,  not  only  of  the  books 
of  Moses,  but  of  the  commentary  supplied  by 
later  writings  —especially  the  Psalms,  Proverbs, 
and  prophetic  books— on  the  view  of  Divine 
holiness  actually  held  and  taught  by  the  relig¬ 
ious  authorities  of  the  nation.  At  the  very  out¬ 
set  of  such  study  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that 
the  Ten  Commandments,  the  starting-point  of 
the  whole  legislation,  are  not  ritual  but  moral. 
E.  R.  Conder. - What  an  amazing  help  to  holi¬ 

ness  did  these  ten  words  supply  !  Had  a  man 
been  earnestly  minded  to  conform  himself  to 
God’s  will,  here  was  a  perfect  rule  of  right,  not 
capable  of  being  confused,  distorted,  and  per¬ 
verted,  like  the  moral  sense,  but  explicit,  com¬ 
prehensive  (when  rightl}'-  understood)  of  the 
minutest  details  of  duty,  as  well  as  of  its  loftiest 
principles,  and  resting  upon  an  authority  which 
could  not  be  shaken  or  impeached.  E.  M.  G. 

Holiness  is  wholeness— completeness.  Whole 
was  formerly  written  without  the  lo,  and  in 
early  English  “  whole”  and  “  hale”  were  the 
same  word.  He  who  is  hale  is  whole  ;  and  he 
who  is  holy  is  spiritually  health3^  A  hale  man 
is  a  complete  man  ph3^sically,  as  a  holy  man  is 
a  complete  man  spiritually.  S.  S.  T, - Holi¬ 

ness  is  that  attribute  which  is  the  very  crown 
of  all  the  culture  of  humanity  ;  for  it  carries 
the  soul  up  nearest  to  the  everlasting  Foun¬ 
tain  of  wisdom,  power,  goodness,  from  which  it 
came.  It  enters  in  only  where  repentance  opens 
the  way,  and  spiritual  renewal  puts  the  heart 
into  wholesome  relations  with  the  Divine  will. 
It  is  the  peculiar  gift  for  which  the  world  stands 
indebted  to  revelation,  and  it  is  multiplied  just 
in  proportion  as  the  heart  is  formed  into  the 
likeness  of  Christ’s.  It  is  the  summit  of  man¬ 
hood,  but  no  less  the  grace  of  God.  F.  D.  H. 

God  has  willed  his  people  to  be  hoU%  and 
separate  from  all  contagion  of  unrighteousness 
and  iniquity.  Of  such  a  character  ought  God’s 
worshippers  and  servants  to  be,  gentle,  grave, 
thoughtful,  pious,  blameless,  uncorrupt,  un¬ 
spotted,  that  whosoever  sees  them  should  ad¬ 


mire  them,  saying,  “  Truly  these  are  men  of 
God.”  A  man  of  God  ought  in  such  wdse  to 
exhibit  himself  and  to  act,  that  there  may  be 
no  one  who  does  not  desire  to  see  him  and  long 
to  hear  him  ;  no  one  who,  having  seen  him, 
does  not  believe  him  to  be  a  child  of  God.  For 
this  is  the  sacrifice  which  God  seeks  for  and 
loves  above  all  sacrifices,  that  by  means  of  our 
just  works  his  name  may  everywhere  be  praised, 
and  he  may  be  proved  by  works  and  actions  to 
be  the  true  God  of  his  servants.  They  do  in¬ 
deed  glorify  God  wdio  employ  themselves  on 
that  onl}^  W'herebj"  his  name  may  be  glorified. 
Fastidius. 

“Sanctify  the  Lord  God  in  j^our  hearts,”  is 
the  comprehensive  counsel  of  the  Apostle  Peter. 
It  is  a  wmnderful  time  in  the  soul’s  histor3% 
when  from  w^ords  with  dulled  and  worn  out 
meaning  it  rises  to  a  glimpse,  dim  perhaps,  yet 
certain,  of  what  thm  w^ords  really  mean  ;  rises 
to  think  and  feel  as  we  ought,  how'ever  imper- 
fectlj",  of  him  wLo  is  above  all  time,  of  Almighty 
God  “as  he  is.”  A  new  impulse  is  given,  a 
new  course  begins,  a  new  view  opens  of  all 
things,  of  the  world,  of  life,  of  action,  of  duty  ; 
it  ought  to  be  a  larger  and  deeper  one,  more 
cheerfull}^  and  thorough!}^  practical,  more  kind- 
]}%  more  generous,  more  wise  ;  it  cannot  but  be 
a  more  solemn  one,  and  more  full  of  grave  im¬ 
port.  Under  it,  mind  and  soul  are  enlarged  ; 
and,  in  turn,  their  needs  become  higher.  Then, 
as  the  soul  grows  under  this  high  conscious¬ 
ness,  it  must  reach  after  ever  w'orthier  and  more 
adequate  conceptions  of  all  that  is  involved  when 
it  names  his  name — cf  the  infinite  combination 
of  clearness  and  mysterj^— clearness  as  the  sun, 
and  mystery  unfathomable  ;  of  power,  as  we  see 
it  in  the  law^s  and  wmrks  of  the  universe  ;  of 
righteousness  and  love  and  pitying  help  for 
men,  as  we  see  them  in  “  the  only  begotten  Son 
who  hath  declared  the  Father.”  They  are 
thoughts  which  cannot  be  exhausted.  The  soul 
which  has  once  caught  sight  of  them  needs  them 
always  ;  it  needs  to  have  Him  always  before  it, 
to  live  under  his  presence,  to  be  guided  by  his 
eye.  This  is  what  makes  religion  a  living  force, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  governs,  controls,  calms, 
steadies  it  — this  central  hold  of  the  thought  of 
•  God — when,  beyond  saying  and  thinking  what 
is  true  and  worthy  about  God,  a  man  with  awe, 
and  j^et  with  joy  and  trust  and  love,  meets  him 
in  his  heart,  and  owns  him  there— owns  him  in 
his  incomprehensible  immensity,  and  j’et  also 
in  his  certain  goodness  and  loving-kindness  to 
men.  That  is  what,  I  suppose,  Peter  meant 
when  he  bids  us  “  sanctify  the  Lord  God  [the 
Lord  Christ]  in  our  heart.”  Church. 


LOVE  TO  GOD  AND  MAN. 


207 


Much  of  our  current  religion  errs  through 
want  of  reverence.  We  come  with  unprepared 
minds  to  the  holiest  services.  A  spirit  inwardly 
sensitive  to  the  real  solemnity  of  God’s  pres¬ 
ence,  a  heart  that  secretly  bows  down  in  ear¬ 
nest  awe  before  the  holiness  of  him  who  is  incon¬ 
ceivably  above  ns,  a  silent  shrinking  of  the  soul 
from  any  rash  or  light  familiarity  with  One,  the 
latchet  of  whose  shoes  even  while  he  walked  the 
earth  none  of  us  was  worthy  to  untie,  this  would 
be  a  happy  improvement  on  much  that  offends 
in  modern  Protestantism.  You  cannot  build  a 
strong,  grave,  or  manly  piety  on  anything  else 
than  veneration  ;  and  no  man  can  front  the  ter¬ 
rible  problems  with  which  religion  has  to  deal, 
or  study  long  the  character  of  Jesus  as  the  im¬ 
age  of  the  Divine,  or  live  much  with  God  be¬ 
neath  the  shadow  of  the  cross,  without  being 
aware  of  a  deepening  soberness  of  tone,  a  gath¬ 
ering  awe,  a  solemn  worship  at  his  heart. 
Dykes. 

Second  Essential  Peinciple  :  Supreme  Love  to 
God,  and  Love  to  Man. 

De.  6:5;  Lev.  19  : 18. 

As  it  is  contained  in  two  tables,  so  Moses  re¬ 
duces  it  to  two  heads,  that  we  should  love  God 
with  all  our  heart,  and  our  neighbor  as  our¬ 
selves  ;  for  although  he  does  not  unite  the  two 
in  one  passage,  yet  Christ,  by  whose  Spirit  he 
spoke,  explains  to  us  his  intention  (Matt.  22  ;37). 

Calc. - The  voice  of  God  himself  gave  forth 

the  Law  by  which  his  people  were  to  live  ;  the 
Ten  Commandments,  on  which  all  other  laws 
were  to  be  founded,  and  which  were  themselves 
summed  up  under  the  Old  Covenant  as  well  as 
the  New,  in  two  great  principles  :  “  Thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and 
soul  and  mind  and  strength,  and  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself.”  P.  S. 

The  New  Testament  is  sometimes  put  in  con¬ 
trast  with  the  Old,  as  a  spirit  of  love  and  of  life. 
Bat  love  is  no  less  the  spirit  of  the  Law  than  of 
the  Gospel  ;  and  thongh  the  Law  given  by 
Moses,  both  as  a  national  code  and  a  ritual  of 
worship,  required  many  specific  and  minute  ob¬ 
servances,  yet  its  fundamental  idea  was  spirit¬ 
ual  consecration  to  God,  as  the  spring  of  all 
duty,  the  substance  of  all  devotion.  This  Law 
was  reasonable  in  its  demand,  simple  in  its  rule, 
and  had  in  itself  the  inspiration  of  a  true  life. 
All  its  commandments  were  for  good  ;  all  its  re¬ 
quirements  were  summed  up  in  the  one  word 

love.  J.  P.  T. - As  understood  by  Moses  and 

the  people,  this  Law  was  not  regarded  as  a  series 
of  positive  injunctions  relating  to  overt  acts, 


but  as  inculcating  clearly  and  authoritatively 
the  two  great  principles  which  Jesus  in  the 
Gospel  asserted  to  be  the  sum  and  substance  of 
the  Law.  It  is  the  singular  but  verj^  common 
blunder  of  even  many  expounders  of  the  Gospel 
that  Jesus  for  the  first  time  brought  out  the 
great  principle  of  love  “  as  the  fulfilling  of  the 
Law,”  and  that  it  was  an  original  sentiment  of 
Jesus  that  on  the  two  commands  of  love  to  God 
and  love  to  man  depends  “  the  whole  Law  and 
the  prophets.”  Whereas  it  was  Moses  himself, 
the  lawgiver,  who  declared  (De.  6:4):  “And 
thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
soul,  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
might.  ”  “  And  now,  Israel  (De.  10  : 12),  what 

doth  the  Lord  thy  God  require  of  thee  but  to 
fear  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  walk  in  his  ways,  and 
to  love  him  and  serve  the  Lord  thy  God  with 
all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul.”  So,  again, 
it  was  Moses  who  said  (Lev.  19  : 18),  ”  Thou  shalt 
not  avenge  nor  bear  any  grudge  against  the 
children  of  thy  people,  but  iJwu  shall  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself.  I  am  the  Lord.  ’  ’  And  it  was 
Moses,  the  lawgiver,  who  said  (Lev.  19  ;  33)  :  “  If 
a  stranger  sojourn  with  thee  in  thy  land  ye  shall 
not  vex  him.  But  the  stranger  that  dwelleth 
with  you  shall  be  as  one  born  among  you,  and 
thou  shalt  love  him  as  thyself,  for  ye  were  strangers 
in  the  land  of  Egypt.”  And  yet,  under  a 
strange  infatuation,  men  dare  to  say  and  to 
teach  that  this  Old  Testament  contains  the 
harsher  dispensation,  presenting  the  sterner  at¬ 
tributes  both  of  God  and  man  !  Whereas,  as 
Tayler  Lewis  so  justly  remarks,  “  the  Old  Tes¬ 
tament  is  peculiarly  the  emotional  part  of  Holy 
Scripture,  presenting  everything  in  the  strong¬ 
est  manner  and  in  strongest  contrast,  whether 
it  be  wrath  or  tenderness,  indignation  against 
apostasy  or  love  for  the  ofttimes  apostate  and 
rebellious  people.  It  may  even  be  maintained 
that  the  New  Testament,  though  more  didactic, 
is  less  tender  in  its  language,  less  abounding  in 
pictures  of  melting  compassion  on  the  part  of 
God,  and  devoted  affection  of  one  human  heart 
for  another.”  Is  there  anything  in  the  New 
Testament  theology  more  expressive  of  the  love 
of  God  for  sinners  than  the  theology  of  the  proc¬ 
lamation  of  Moses — “  The  Lord,  the  Lord  God, 
merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering  and  abun¬ 
dant  in  goodness  and  truth,  keeping  mercy  for 
thousands,  forgiving  iniquity,  transgression,  and 
sin”  (Ex.  34  :  6),  or  anything  more  amiable  in 
the  New  Testament  ethics  than  the  ethics  of 
Moses’  summary  of  the  Law?  Nay,  did  not 
Jesus  himself  say  of  that  golden  rule,  so  much 
admired  as  his  teaching,  “  Whatsoever  ye  would 
that  men  should  do  unto  you  do  ye  even  so  unto 


208 


SECTION  no.  MORAL  LAW. 


them  that  instead  of  being  original  in  his 
teachings  — “  ihis  the  Law  and  iJie  prophets'  ’ — 
that  is,  the  spirit  of  the  whole  teachings  of  the 
Old  Testament  ?  On  what  possible  ground, 
then,  can  this  notion  of  some  general  difference 
between  the  Old  and  New  Testament  theology, 
ethics,  and  spirit  rest,  than  upon  some  strange, 
invincible  ignorance  of  the  teaching  and  spirit 
of  the  Old  Testament  Gospel  ?  S.  E,. 

The  prophets  of  the  Old  Testament  were  con¬ 
tinually  striving  to  recall  men  from  mere  out¬ 
ward  observances  to  the  sincere  piety  toward 
God  and  deeds  of  kindness  to  man  required  by 
the  Law  of  the  two  tables  ;  so  that  the  proph¬ 
ets,  as  well  as  the  Law,  were  truly  said  to  hang 
upon  one  and  the  same  commandment  of  love. 
P.  F. - There  was  in  the  Law  of  Moses  a  spir¬ 

itual  lau' — a  law  of  internal  obedience — a  law  of 
love,  which  the  Jews  might  have  discerned,  had 
they  been  willing  ;  and  in  fact,  many  among 
the  Jews  had  discerned  it.  It  is  of  this  spirit¬ 
ual  law  that  the  great  Law-Maker  affirms  that 
not  “  one  jot  or  tittle”  will  be  lost.  Nay,  he, 
Son  of  God  and  Son  of  Man,  perfect  in  truth, 
in  holiness,  and  in  love,  came  to  fulfil  the  Law 
and  to  establish  it  forever  ;  and  this  he  has 
done  not  only  in  his  life  and  death,  but  also  in 
his  instructions  in  which  he  sums  it  up— that 
is,  gathers  together  its  leading  features,  and 
spiritualizes  it — that  is,  acquaints  us  with  its 
inmost  meaning,  its  whole  bearing,  extent,  and 
force.  In  this  respect  the  Gospel  is  a  second 
edition,  perfected  by  a  master-hand,  of  the 
writings  of  the  Old  Testament.  It  is,  if  we  pre¬ 
fer  it,  a  Divine  translation.  The  Law  hence¬ 
forth  is  spiritual  for  all,  even  for  them  who  are 
not  spiritual.  Vinet. 

Nor  is  the  language  too  strong,  if  rightly  un¬ 
derstood,  which  has  often  been  applied  to  this 
law,  that  it  is  a  kind  of  transcript  of  God’s  own 
pure  and  righteous  character — i.e  ,  a  faithful 
and  exact  representation  of  that  spiritual  excel¬ 
lence  which  eternally  belongs  to  himself,  and 
which  he  must  eternall}'-  requi-re  of  his  account¬ 
able  creatures.  The  love  to  God  and  man, 
which  constitutes  its  all-pervading  element,  and 
for  which  the  several  precepts  only  indicate  the 
particular  ways  and  channels  wherein  it  should 
flow — this  love  man  is  indispensably  bound  in 
all  times  and  circumstances  to  cherish  in  his 
heart,  and  manifest  in  his  conduct.  For  the 
God  in  whom  he  lives  and  moves  and  has  his 
being  is  love  ;  and  as  the  duty  and  perfection 
of  the  creature  is  to  bear  the  image  of  the  Cre¬ 
ator,  so  to  love  as  he  loves — himself  first  and 
l  upremely,  and  his  offspring  in  him  and  for  him 
— mu>t  <'V«  r  be  the  bounden  obligation  and 


highest  end  of  those  whom  he  calls  his  chil¬ 
dren.  P.  F. 

The  Law  of  Moses  enjoined  love  to  God  with 
the  most  unceasing  solicitude,  and  love  to  our 
neighbor  as  extensively  and  forcibly  as  the 
peculiar  design  of  the  Jewish  economy  and  the 
peculiar  character  of  the  Jewish  people  would 
permit  ;  it  impressed  the  deepest  conviction  ot 
God’s  requiring  not  mere  external  observances, 
but  heartfelt  piety,  well-regulated  desires,  and 
active  benevolence  ;  it  taught  that  sacrifice 
could  not  obtain  pardon  without  repentance, 
or  repentance  without  reformation  and  restitu¬ 
tion  ;  it  described  circumcision  itself,  and  by 
consequence  every  other  legal  rite,  as  designed 
to  typify  and  inculcate  internal  holiness,  which 
alone  could  render  men  acceptable  to  God  ;  and 
it  represented  the  love  of  God  to  men  as  de¬ 
signed  to  act  as  a  practical  principle  stimulat¬ 
ing  to  the  constant  and  sincere  cultivation  of 
purity,  mercy,  and  truth.  Graves. 

The  kernel  of  the  Law,  given  to  Israel  through 
Moses,  is  love  to  God  and  to  man.  But  this 
genera]  and  central  principle  finds  man  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  a  family,  of  society,  of  a  nation.  It  finds 
him  living  in  this  world  of  seed-time  and  har¬ 
vest,  of  work  and  rest,  of  buying  and  selling,  of 
sickness  and  death.  What  does  the  Law  do  ? 
The  Law  says,  God  loves  you ;  and  God  desires 
that  you  may  have  his  presence  and  blessing 
always.  Therefore  the  Law  takes  cognizance 
of  every  branch  of  human  life.  It  refers  to  our 
food  and  to  our  garment  ;  it  accompanies  us 
from  our  birth  to  our  grave.  It  claims  our  time 
and  our  wealth  ;  it  connects  seed-time  and  har¬ 
vest,  all  natural  life  with  spiritual  truths,  re¬ 
demption-acts,  and  anticipations  of  the  future 
glory.  There  is  nothing  in  our  life  in  which 
God  is  not  interested,  where  he  is  to  be  ab¬ 
sent  ;  there  is  nothing  wherein  we  may  not 
glorify  and  obey  him.  Saphir. 

These  Ten  Commandments  cover  the  whole 
duty  of  man  to  God  and  to  his  fellow.  The 
civil  and  criminal  codes  of  a  State  fill  volumes 
with  endless  definitions  and  specifications  ;  but 
here  all  is  reduced  to  the  single  principle  of 
love,  and  to  a  brief  but  comprehensive  state¬ 
ment  of  the  relations  to  which  that  principle 
must  be  applied.  This  Law  deals  with  man  as 
a  subject  of  the  government  of  God,  as  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  the  family  and  of  society.  Toward  God 
he  is  required  to  observe  the  reverence  and  de¬ 
votion  due  to  the  one  Jehovah,  his  Maker,  Pre¬ 
server,  and  Bedeeraer.  In  the  family,  filial  love 
and  veneration  are  enjoined  as  peculiarly  ac¬ 
ceptable  to  God.  Society  is  protected  by  this 
code  in  all  its  vital  interests — life,  chastity, 


SUPREME  LOVE  TO  GOD. 


209 


property,  and  character  ;  and  as  love  is  made 
the  essence  of  obedience  to  God,  so  here  we  are 
forbidden  to  indulge  a  selfish  desire  with  regard 
to  anything  that  is  our  neighbor’s.  Obedience 
to  this  Law  would  make  a  perfect  human  society, 
and  render  every  individual  secure  in  his  own 
person  and  possessions,  and  happy  in  his  rela¬ 
tions  to  others.  The  Law  manifests  the  love  of 
God  :  love  is  its  spirit  ;  love,  its  rule  ;  and  only 
love  will  be  its  reward.  J.  P.  T. 


The  Mosaic  moral  code  adds  to  the  Egyptian 
ethics  the  love  of  God  and  that  of  man  as  the 
root  of  moral  obedience,  and  thus  gives  that 
obedience  a  sufficient  motive  force,  and  one 
that  we  cannot  trace  in  the  Egy^^tian  doctrine. 
R.  S.  Pooh. 

I,  SuPEEME  Love  to  God  :  "  The  Fiest  and 
Gee  AT  Commandment.” 

I>e.  6:5,  To  the  one  indivisible  Jehovah 
undivided  devotion  and  love  are  due.  Hence 
the  injunction,  Thou  shalt  love  Jehovah  thy  God 
with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and 
vith  all  thy  might.  The  “  heart”  is  the  inner 
nature  of  the  man,  including  his  intellectual, 
emotional,  and  conative  faculties  ;  the  “  soul  ” 
is  the  personality,  the  entire  self-consciousness  ; 
and  the  ”  might”  is  the  sum  of  the  energies, 
bodily  and  mental.  Not  by  profession  merely 
is  Jehovah  to  be  loved  ;  the  whole  man,  body, 
soul,  and  spirit,  is  to  be  yielded  to  Him  in  holy 
and  devout  affection.  W.  L.  A. 

Love  to  God  is  the  source  of  everything  which 
is  good  in  man.  It  is  a  peculiar  excellency  in 
the  Jewish  and  Christian  dispensations  to  have 
formally  and  solemnly  laid  down  this  principle 
so  as  to  make  it  a  governing,  actuating  principle 
of  life.  This  did  Moses,  or  rather  God  by  the 
mouth  of  Moses  ;  expressly,  formally,  solemnly. 
This  did  Christ  ;  adopting,  repeating,  ratifying 
what  the  Law  had  already  declared  ;  and  not 
only  ratif^dng  but  singling  it  out  from  the  body 
of  precepts  which  composed  the  old  institution, 
and  giving  it  a  pre-eminence  to  every  other. 
Paley. 

Supreme  love  to  God  our  Lord  calls  the  first 
and  great  commandment,  because  He  who  is 
the  object  of  it  is  the  first  and  greatest  of  all 
beings,  and  therefore  the  duties  owing  to  him 
must  have  the  precedence  and  pre-eminence  over 
every  other  ;  because  it  is  the  grand  leading 
principle  of  right  conduct,  the  original  source 
and  fountain  from  which  all  Christian  graces 
flow,  from  whence  the  living  waters  of  religion 
take  their  rise,  and  branch  out  into  all  the  vari¬ 
ous  duties  of  human  life  ;  because,  in  fine,  it 
14 


is,  when  fervent  and  sincere,  the  grand  master¬ 
spring  of  human  conduct  ;  the  only  motive  suf¬ 
ficiently  powerful  to  subdue  our  strongest  pas¬ 
sions,  to  carry  us  triumphantly  through  the 
severest  trials,  and  render  us  superior  to  the 
most  formidable  temptations.  Bp.  Porieous. 

It  stands  ujjon  the  surface  of  the  code  that 
the  forms  and  manifestations  of  love  to  God 
occupy  the  first  and  most  prominent  place, 
while  those  which  are  expressive  of  love  to  man 
take  a  secondary  and,  in  a  sense,  dejiendent 
rank.  Eeligion  is  made  the  basis  of  morality — 
j)iety  toward  God  the  living  root  of  good-will 
and  integrity  toward  men  ;  and  on  this  great 
principle,  that  unless  there  w^ere  maintained  a 
dutiful  and  proper  regard  to  the  great  Head  of 
the  human  family,  it  could  not  reasonably  be 
exjoected  that  men  would  feel  and  act  aright  to 
the  different  members  of  the  family.  There 
may  be  a  measure  of  love  and  fair  dealing  be¬ 
tween  man  and  man,  where  there  is  no  spiritual 
acquaintance  with  God,  and  no  principle  of 
dutiful  allegiance  to  him.  Were  it  not  so  society 
in  countries  where  the  true  religion  is  unknown 
would  fall  to  j)ieces.  But  in  such  cases,  the 
love  is  destitute  of  what  might  give  it  either  the 
requisite  stability  or  the  proper  spirit  ;  it  is  not 
sustained  by  adequate  views  of  men  s  relation¬ 
ship  to  God,  nor  animated  by  the  motives  which 
are  supplied  by  a  consideration  of  their  higher 
calling  and  destiny  ;  hence  it  is  necessarily  de¬ 
fective,  partial,  irregular,  in  its  manifestations. 
It  was,  therefore,  in  accordance  with  the  truest 
wisdom,  that  the  things  which  belong  to  God 
were,  in  this  condensed  summary  of  Divine  re¬ 
quirement,  exalted  to  the  first  place  ;  and  in 
further  attestation  of  their  pre-eminent  rank 
and  importance,  it  is  to  the  commands  con¬ 
nected  with  this  branch  of  duty  chiefly,  if  not 
exclusively,  that  special  reasons  have  been  at¬ 
tached  enforcing  the  obedience  required.  In 
all  the  later  precepts  there  is  a  simple  enuncia¬ 
tion  of  the  command.  P.  F. 

Solemn  prayers  and  sacraments,  the  assem¬ 
blies  of  the  faithful  and  acts  of  external  wor¬ 
ship,  are  the  solemnities  and  rites  of  religion  ; 
but  the  religion  of  a  Christian  is  in  the  heart 
and  spirit.  And  this  is  that  by  which  Clemens 
Alexandrinus  defined  the  righteousness  of  a 
Christian,  ”  all  the  parts  and  faculties  that  make 
up  a  man  must  make  up  our  religion  ;”  but  the 
heart  is  “  the  court”  of  the  great  King  ;  and 
he  is  properly  served  with  interior  graces  and 
moral  virtues,  with  a  humble  and  a  good  mind, 
with  a  bountiful  heart  and  a  willing  soul,  and 
these  will  command  the  eye,  and  give  laws  to 
the  hand,  and  make  the  shoulders  stoop  ;  but 


210 


SECTION  no.  MORAL  LAW. 


'‘a  man’s  soul  is  the  man,”  and  so  is  his  re¬ 
ligion  ;  and  so  you  are  bound  to  understand  it. 
riie  sum  is  this  :  no  Christian  does  his  duty  to 
God  but  he  that  serves  him  with  all  his  heart  ; 
and  although  it  becomes  us  to  fulfil  all  right¬ 
eousness,  even  the  external  also,  yet  that  which 
makes  gracious  in  his  eyes  is  not  the  external, 
it  is  the  love  of  the  heart  and  the  real  change 
of  the  mind,  and  obedience  of  the  spirit  ;  that 
is  the  first  great  measure  of  the  righteousness 
evangelical.  Bp.  Taylor. 

When  we  understand  the  whole  structure  of 
man  and  his  relations,  it  is  as  obvious  that  he 
was  made  to  love  God  with  all  his  heart  and  his 
neighbor  as  himself,  as  it  is  that  the  eye  was 
made  to  see  with  or  the  ear  to  hear  with.  This 
is  his  highest  end  as  active — love  itself  as  an 
activity,  and  the  further  activities  that  spring 
from  love.  This  is  what  he  was  made  to  do. 
As  capable  of  enjoyment,  his  highest  end  is  the 
joy  that  comes  from  thus  loving.  These  God 
has  inseparably  united.  The  joy  can  come  only 
from  the  love*;  the  love  cannot  be  without  the 
joy.  M.  H. 

All  the  voices  of  revelation  unite  in  ascribing 
the  supremacy  among  the  virtues  to  love.  The 
Decalogue  of  Moses  and  the  new  commandment 
of  Jesus  ;  the  abstract  reasonings  of  Paul  and 
the  practical  exhortations  of  James  ;  the  vivid 
and  impulsive  rhetoric  of  Peter  and  the  subdued 
and  tender  verses  of  John — all  blend  into  per¬ 
fect  harmony  as  they  touch  the  great  key-note  of 
the  Gospel,  that  love  is  of  God,  and  I  hat  he  that 
ioveth  is  born  of  God.  It  has  been  remarked, 
as  a  striking  evidence  of  the  inspiration  of  the 
biblical  authors  and  of  the  real  unity  of  their 
writings,  that,  with  all  their  variety  of  style  and 
individuality  in  the  type  of  religious  truth 
which  they  present,  they  all  agree  perfectly  in 
defining  the  sum  and  essence  of  the  Gospel  to 
be  love.  So  striking  a  coincidence  cannot  be 
accidental.  There  is  a  rational  unity  in  all 
forms  of  religious  truth.  The  ground  of  that 
unity  is  love,  which  is  the  essence  of  the  Divine 
character,  the  motive  of  revelation  and  redemp¬ 
tion,  and  the  ideal  for  human  life.  Stevens. 

The  religion  of  the  Mosaic  covenant  was  not 
a  ritualistic  religion.  It  had  a  ritual  certainly, 
brimful  of  Messianic  symbol,  but  its  whole  core 
was  spiritual.  The  love  of  God  and  one’s  neigh¬ 
bor  was  the  inward  principle  which  formed  its 
heart.  God,  as  a  merciful  Saviour  providing  a 
Substitute  to  bear  the  sins  of  Israel,  and  calling 
for  their  grateful  love  and  service,  was  con¬ 
stantly  exhibited  to  them  in  every  ceremonial, 
and  the  words  of  exhortation  from  God  to  them 


in  the  Law  w^ere  most  touching  and  tender. 
Crosby. 

If  there  be  any  single  attribute  in  which 
the  moral  character  of  the  Supreme  attains  to 
unity,  that  attribute  is  his  love.  More  truly 
than  any  other  quality  in  him,  wisdom,  power, 
justice,  or  even  pity,  this  may  be  said  to  be  the 
Divine  nature — ”  God  is  love.”  Especially  in 
his  relationship  to  us  as  our  Deliverer  from 
evils,  has  his  love  been  made  conspicuous.  The 
characteristic  attitude  assumed  by  Jehovah  in 
Old  and  New  Testament  revelation,  and  partic¬ 
ularly  in  the  Gospel,  is  this  of  a  Saviour  from 
every  evil.  Well,  let  that  be  the  relationship 
under  which  we  have  learned  to  wmlcome,  em¬ 
brace,  and  confide  in  God  through  Jesus  Christ ; 
and  w'e  shall  find  that  we  have  w^elcomed  to  our 
embrace  mere,  pure,  and  boundless  love.  Trace 
our  redemption  to  its  source  :  love  drew  him 
from  the  sky  ;  love  urged  him  to  the  tree  ;  love 
raised  him  from  the  tomb  ;  love  seated  him  on 
the  throne.  Are  we  associated  with  the  com¬ 
pany  of  God’s  invited  children  within  his  sacred 
house?  Love  spreads  the  table  ;  love  furnishes 
the  feast  ;  love  invites  the  guests.  Kange 
through  the  record  which  memory  keeps  of 
God’s  private  dealings  wdth  you  :  is  it  not  all 
unmingled,  marvellous  love?  Love  bore  with 
your  sin  and  pardoned  it  ;  love  made  you  for 
an  enemy  a  dear  son  ;  love  chastens  and  love 
comforts  ;  you  walk  abroad  with  his  love  en¬ 
vironing  your  steps  like  a  sw'eet  atmosphere. 
What  is  the  Gospel  of  his  grace  but  one  amaz¬ 
ing  forthpouring  for  our  benefit  of  that  affec¬ 
tion  for  the  fallen  sons  of  men  which  lay  deep¬ 
est  within  God’s  heart — “  Herein  is  love,  not 
that  we  loved  God,  but  that  he  loved  us  and 
sent  his  Son  to  bo  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins.”  Dykes. 

God’s  revelation  of  Himself  to  man  is  meant 
to  be  a  redemptive  power  in  man.  Man  has 
heart,  soul,  strength,  understanding,  emotion, 
will,  energy.  God  wmuld  have  no  schism  in  our 
being.  Now  we  have  one  inner  faculty,  even 
that  of  love,  which  is  meant  to  rule,  and  does  in 
fact  rule,  the  man.  According  to  the  love,  so 
intellect  thinks,  emotion  feels,  will  decides,  life 
moves.  Our  text  says,  let  love  be  all  concen¬ 
trated  on  one  grand  object — God  !  Let  him 
have  all.  Not  even  in  the  New  Testament  have 
we  a  greater  commandment  than  this.  “  The 
love  of  God  which  the  Gospel  demands  is  more 
intensive  and  cordial  than  that  which  the  Law 
of  Moses  demands  of  the  Israelites,  according 
to  the  gradual  unfolding  of  the  love  of  God 
himself,  which  was  displayed  in  a  much  grander 
and  more  glorious  form  in  the  gift  of  his  only 


RATIONAL  AND  MORAL  LOVE. 


211 


begotten  Son  for  our  redemption  than  in  the 
redemption  of  Israel  out  of  the  bondage  in 
Egypt.*’  (Keil.)  God  as  revealed  to  us  in 
Christ — that  is  theologj^  ;  our  love  responding 
to  God’s — that  is  religion.  Without  the  first,  in 
what  could  the  religious  faculty  find  a  proper 
object?  Without  the  second,  infinite  love  is 
defrauded  of  its  rights  !  C.  C. 

It  is  in  the  presence  of  God  wo  learn  this  holy 
art  of  loving  him.  When  we  can  realize  him 
near  us,  and  fill  our  minds  with  his  loveliness, 
and  summon  up  to  “  sessions  of  sweet  thought  ” 
what  he  has  done  for  love,  and  sit  down  to  muse 
contritely  at  the  cross-foot,  and  by  patient  acts 
of  confession  and  self  surrender  make  room 
within  these  crowded  hearts  of  ours  for  the 
Dove  of  Purity  and  Peace — it  is  then  the  love  of 
God  is  shed  abroad  in  us.  But  if  quiet  and 
contemplation  be  conducive  to  the  nourishment 
of  Divine  love  within  the  bosom,  activity  and 
struggle  in  the  outward  life  are  needful  to  elicit 
its  force  and  give  it  scope  for  exercise.  Let  us 
retire  within,  that  faith  and  prayer  may  nurture 
a  secret  love  for  God  our  Saviour.  Let  us  go 
forth  abroad,  that  Divine  love  may  approve  it¬ 
self  in  active  service  and  a  holy  life.  Let  us 
ever  aspire  to  a  more  complete,  unreserved,  and 
settled  dedication  of  our  hearts  to  him  who  first 
loved  us  ;  until  love  make  worship  delightfal, 
obedience  easy,  and  trial  light  ;  and  love  pre¬ 
pare  us  for  that  ideal  beatific  state  of  celestial 
preoccupation,  when —all  else  being  swallowed 
up  in  adoring  love — the  pure  soul  shall  find 
eternal  rest  and  joy  ineffable  in  union  to  him 
whose  name  is  Love  !  .  .  .  Submissive,  confi¬ 
dent  dependence  on  our  Father’s  and  our  Sa¬ 
viour’s  grace  makes  our  love  to  God  unpresum¬ 
ing  ;  gratitude  makes  it  ardent.  Gratitude  for 
the  tender  mercy  that  has  washed  us  in  the 
blood  of  God  and  for  all  the  unspeakable  bene¬ 
fits  he  hath  bestowed  on  us,  is  the  fount  whence 
the  stream  of  our  love  is  kept  ever  warm.  And 
when  adoration  and  contrition  and  lowly  trust 
and  fervent  gratitude  have  done  each  its  own 
part,  and  love,  like  a  swollen  tide,  bears  their 
mingled  tribute  along  to  Him  who  loved  us  unto 
death,  in  what  ocean  doth  it  merge  at  last? 
Surely  in  a  glad  blending  of  its  own  with  the 
supreme  and  blessed  will  of  the  Eternal  Lover  ! 
For  the  perfection  of  creature  love  is  to  have 
no  other  will  but  his  who  is  very  Love  Itself  ; 
to  desire  nothing,  choose  nothing,  endeavor 
nothing,  but  what  pleaseth  and  fulfilleth  God. 
In  resignation  and  obedience  is  love  consum¬ 
mated.  On  them  is  her  strength  spent.  .  .  . 
Nothing  should  be  tolerated  within  ourselves, 
in  our  conscious,  personal  life,  that  is  not  in¬ 


spired,  controlled,  or  sweetened  by  the  love  we 
bear  our  God.  If  this  be  gained,  the  rest  must 
follow.  Such  love  will  overflow  through  all  the 
three  main  channels  by  which  our  personal  life 
pours  itself  abroad  ujDon  society.  The  mmcl,  or 
intellectual  activities,  will  obey  it  ;  the  soul,  or 
emotional  and  passionate  nature,  with  its  social 
sympathies  and  earthly  affections,  will  obey  it  ; 
the  strength,  or  forces  of  the  will,  by  which  a  re¬ 
solved  and  energetic  nature  imposes  itself  upon 
others,  and  subdues  circumstances  to  its  pur¬ 
poses — this,  too,  will  do  its  bidding.  In  short, 
the  entire  organism  of' the  individual  life  is  to 
stand  entirely  at  the  service  of  our  love  for 
God  ;  so  that  our  character,  disposition,  be¬ 
havior,  and  work  shall  come  to  be  just  what  a 
supreme  affection  for  our  Saviour  God  deter¬ 
mines  them  to  be.  Less  than  this  is  less  than 
duty  ;  less  than  this  is  less  than  blessedness  ! 
Dykes. 

Kationau  and  Mokal  Love,  and  its  Fruits. 

There  is  an  instinctive  love,  sometimes  called 
natural  affection.  This  is  common  to  animals 
and  to  man.  It  is  from  the  emotive  nature  sim 
ply,  and  so  blind  and  passionate,  not  compre¬ 
hending  itself  or  its  object.  As  instinctive,  it 
is  an  affection  which  leads  to  acts  often  of  great 
apparent  self-denial,  which  tend  to  promote  or 
secure  the  end  of  the  being  loved.  It  tends  to 
secure  that,  and  not  the  end  of  the  being  put¬ 
ting  forth  the  love,  and  is  thus  a  beautiful  type 
of  a  higher  rational  and  disinterested  love.  This 
rational  love  always  has  its  root  in  a  generic 
choice.  It  is  by  having  its  root  in  such  a  choice 
that  rational  and  moral  love,  and  indeed  all  ra¬ 
tional  and  moral  affections,  are  distinguished 
from  those  that  are  natural.  In  accordance  with 
the  above,  rational  love  presupposes  a  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  supreme  end  of  the  being  loved,  and 
involves  the  choice  for  him  of  that  end.  Its  ob¬ 
ject  must  he  a  person.  In  strictness  we  desire 
things,  but  love  only  persons.  It  is  not  prop¬ 
erly  a  disposition,  though  a  disposition  and  a 
habit  of  acting  so  as  to  secure  the  end  chosen 
will  be  generated  by  any  generic  act  of  choice. 
Only  a  rational  being  can  have  a  supreme  end, 
and  the  choice  by  us  of  that  end  for  another  so 
as  to  be  willing  to  put  forth  efforts  and  make 
sacrifices  for  its  attainment  is  rational  love.  In 
the  whole  process  and  formation  of  this  love 
three  things  are  to  be  distinguished.  There  is 
(1)  a  perception  of  worth  as  distinguished  from 
worthiness.  This  is  rather  a  condition  of  love 
than  one  of  its  elements.  There  is  (2)  a  “  pro¬ 
pension”  of  mind,  as  Edwards  calls  it,  toward 
the  being,  and  a  desire  that  he  should  attain  his 


212 


SECTION  no. 


MORAL  LAW. 


end.  This  is  an  indispensable  element  of  love, 
l)ut  not  the  love  itself.  That  it  may  become 
rational  love  there  must  be  (3)  a  choice  for  the 
being  of  his  end,  and  such  a  devotement  of  our¬ 
selves  to  him — that  is,  to  the  attainment  by  him 
of  his  end  and  good — that  we  shall  be  willing  to 
make  sacrifices  for  it  as  we  would  for  our  own. 
It  is  this  last  only  which  constitutes  the  whole 
process,  rational  and  free,  and  brings  it  under 
the  control  of  moral  law.  M.  H. 

Love  is  ihe  foundation  of  all  obedience.  Without 
it,  morality  degenerates  into  mere  casuistry. 
Love  is  the  foundation  of  all  knowledge.  With¬ 
out  it,  religion  degenerates  into  a  chattering 
about  Moses,  and  doctrines,  and  theories  ;  a 
thing  that  will  neither  kill  nor  make  alive,  that 
never  gave  life  to  a  single  soul  or  blessing  to  a 
single  heart,  and  never  put  strength  into  any 
hand  in  the  conflict  and  strife  of  daily  life. 
There  is  no  more  contemptible  and  impotent 
thing  on  the  face  of  the  earth  than  morality 
divorced  from  love,  and  religious  thoughts  di¬ 
vorced  from  a  heart  full  of  the  love  of  God. 
Quick  corruption  or  long  decay,  and  in  either 
case  death  and  putrefaction,  are  the  end  of 
these  !  It  is  of  no  use  for  us  to  condemn  Phar¬ 
isees  that  have  been  dead  and  in  their  graves 
for  eighteen  hundred  years.  The  same  thing 
besets  us  all  ;  we  all  of  us  try  to  get  away  from 
the  centre,  and  dwell  contented  on  the  surface. 
People  may  try  to  cultivate  virtue  without  re¬ 
ligion,  and  to  acquire  correct  notions  of  moral 
and  si^iritual  truth,  and  partially  and  tempo¬ 
rarily  they  may  succeed  ;  but  the  one  will  be  a 
yoke  of  bondage,  and  the  other  a  barren  theory. 
I  repeat,  love  is  the  basis  of  all  knowledge  and 
of  all  right- doing.  If  you  have  got  that  firm 
foundation  laid  in  the  soul,  then  the  knowledge 
and  the  practice  will  be  builded  in  God’s  own 
good  time  ;  and  if  not,  the  higher  you  build  the 
teniiDle,  and  the  more  aspiring  are  its  cloud¬ 
pointing  pinnacles,  the  more  certain  will  be  its 
toppling  some  day,  and  the  more  awful  will  be 
the  ruin  when  it  comes.  A.  M. 

Love  is  an  uncompromising  principle.  He  has 
no  true  love,  no  complacency  in  goodness,  who 
does  not  from  the  soul  condemn  ever^dhing  that 
is  evil.  There  is  no  benevolence  anywhere  in 
any  moral  being  which  is  not  instinctively  op¬ 
posed  to  selfishness  in  all  its  forms.  One  may 
say  with  truth  love  hates  malevolence,  hates  all 
that  is  opi^osed  to  itself  in  the  feelings  or  the 
manifestations  of  the  inner  life.  The  concep¬ 
tion  of  it  as  consisting  in  a  weak  good-nature 
which  is  indifferent  to  character  has  no  founda¬ 
tion  in  the  Word  of  God  or  in  the  lives  of  men 
whom  we  cannot  help  revering.  Love  is  an  ele¬ 


ment  of  a  strong  character  which  views  men  as 
they  are  in  all  their  sins,  which  feels  no  favor 
toward  the  principles  by  which  the  \Vorldly,  the 
selfish,  the  proud  are  governed.  And  thus  as 
it  looks  on  moral  evil  in  all  its  deformity,  it  can 
feel  intense  pity  toward  the  blind  in  sin,  the 
misguided,  the  fallen,  the  unworthy,  and  is  ever 
ready  to  sacrifice  its  own  interests  for  their  good. 
This  is  the  sign  of  love  that  it  is  capable  of  self- 
sacrifice.  But  no  true  self-sacrifice  can  exist 
without  a  sense  of  the  misery  of  sin.  Even  the 
lower  forms  of  love  hardly  deserve  to  be  called 
by  the  name,  when  the  motive  is  mere  compas¬ 
sion,  without  a  sense  of  the  greatest  evil  in  hu¬ 
man  nature.  He  w'ho  can  relieve  misery  but  is 
indifferent  to  the  sin  he  sees  around  him,  who 
only  excuses  it  or  makes  light  of  it,  he  is  not, 
to  say  the  least,  made  perfect  in  love.  The 
possibility  is,  that  he  has  no  true  love  at  all. 
liet  us  remember,  then,  that  the  love  that  dwelt 
in  Christ  is  something  more  than  instinctive 
benevolence,  good-nature,  and  compassion  ;  that 
it  is  a  moral  quality  of  the  highest  order,  imply¬ 
ing  in  the  soul  repugnance  to  sin,  to  selfishness, 
to  malevolence,  to  ungodliness  ;  and  that  it  is 
prompted,  in  the  effort  of  doing  away  with  sin 
and  of  reforming  sinners,  to  all  compassionate, 
self-sacrificing  efforts.  Woolsey. 

Love  is  a  per sonaVr elation.  In  our  common 
usage,  we  have  greatly  extended  the  meaning  of 
the  word  “  love.”  We  often  ajjplj^  it  to  mere 
objects  of  sense  or  matters  of  fancy.  These  are 
degradations  of  that  noblest,  sublimest  word 
which  the  Scriptures  have  consecrated  to  ex¬ 
press  the  highest  perfections  of  the  human  and 
the  Divine  character.  In  the  biblical  sense, 
love  exists  only  between  persons.  It  is  a  moral 
union  of  kindred  beings.  The  outer  world  and 
the  lower  orders  of  creation  are  never  spoken  of 
as  the  objects  of  God’s  love.  He  takes  pleasure 
in  them;  has  a  care  for  them  :  “his  tender 
mercies  are  over  all  his  works  but  he  loves 
only  man,  because  love  is  moral  union  based 
upon  kinship  of  spirit.  All  those  attachments 
and  fancies  which  are  beneath  a  high  and  pure 
moral  union  of  spirits  are  excluded  from  the 
sphere  of  love  in  the  sense  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment.  Love  is  a  real  affinity  and  fellowship  of 
life.  It  is  not  a  mere  feeling.  The  conception 
of  love  as  a  mere  stirring  of  emotion  leads  many 
into  the  dark  as  to  what  is  meant  when  we  are 
commanded  to  love  God  supremely.  Let  us 
put  the  meaning  of  that  “  first  and  great  com¬ 
mandment  ’  ’  before  ourselves  as  simply  as  pos¬ 
sible.  God  is  the  absolutely  perfect  being. 
Love  to  God  is  symiDathy,  affinity,  harmony, 
with  his  perfection.  It  is  the  fixed  choice  and 


RATIONAL  AND  MORAL  LOVE. 


213 


constant  striving  of  our  hearts  toward  the  per¬ 
fect  life.  As  such,  love  is  subject  to  growth  and 
progress.  It  is  a  principle  of  character  which 
is  at  once  the  simplest  and  the  profoundest.  To 
reveal  this  Divine  perfection  to  men  through  a 
life  human  in  its  experiences,  yet  Divine  in  its 
purity,  and  then  to  help  men  to  choose  that  true 
and  perfect  life  and  make  it  the  type  and  law  of 
their  own,  is  the  chief  purpose  of  Christianity. 
Hence  religion  is  not  mere  ethics,  nor  mere 
belief,  but  a  personal  relation  of  sympathy  and 
likeness  to  God  as  revealed  in  Jesus  Christ. 

Love  involves  an  iidtlWjeiii  choice.  Love  is 
not  blind  ;  it  acts  in  the  light  of  reason.  Mere 
sensuous  desire  or  fancy  (often  called  “  love”) 
is  blind,  because  it  does  not  act  from  rational 
motives.  The  union  of  two  human  lives  in  feel¬ 
ing  and  purpose  is  rafliant  with  intelligence. 
Their  love  deepens  only  as  they  understand 
each  other,  and  grow  into  each  other’s  thoughts 
more  and  more.  No  leal  love  is  possible  be¬ 
tween  persons  without  mi  intelligent  choice  of 
each  other.  The  ab-^enire  of  this  element  in 
that  which  is  supposed  to  be  love  is  the  cause  of 
many  unhappy  unions.  The  emotions  are  the 
W'armth  of  love,  but  intelligence  is  its  light. 
This  consideration  helps  us  to  understand  the 
great  commandment.  We  are  to  choose  God  in 
the  light  of  what  we  know  him  to  be  as  the  ob¬ 
ject  of  our  service  and  the  goal  of  our  hopes. 
God  has  revealed  himself  in  Christ  as  perfectly 
as  our  finite  understandings  will  permit  us  to 
know  him.  The  revelation  is  in  the  motives, 
principles,  spirit,  and  teaching  of  Jesus.  We 
are  to  choose  these  for  our  own,  and  make  them 
such  ;  to  live,  as  Paul  says,  “  unto  Christ.”  To 
trust  in  the  divinely  revealed  Saviour,  and  to 
choose  and  exemplify  the  divinely  revealed 
principles  of  life,  is  to  love  God. 

Love  enlists  the  lohole  being.  It  fixes  every 
noble  emotion.  It  kindles  the  life  into  a  calm, 
steady  flame  of  zeal  and  devotion.  Love  longs 
to  give,  to  serve,  to  bless.  The  type  of  all  love 
is  the  love  of  God  for  man,  and  God  is  the  great 
giver.  The  whole  life  of  Christ  is  a  grand  ex¬ 
ample  of  this  giving  impulse  of  love.  All  the 
truest  endearments  of  earth  serve  to  illustrate 
it.  The  love  that  gives  nothing  for  its  object 
may  well  be  doubted.  But  the  gifts  of  sym¬ 
pathy,  time,  kindly  attentions,  and  thoughtful 
care — these  are  the  language  of  love.  Love  to 
God,  then,  is  the  gift  of  our  hearts  to  him. 

Love  is  the  most  comprehensive  virtue.  Paul 
teaches  this  clearly  when,  in  speaking  of  the 
graces  of  the  Christian  life— kindness,  humility, 
forbearance,  and  forgiveness— he  adds  :  “  And 
above  all  these  things  put  on  love,  which  is  the 


bond  of  perfectness’  ’  (Col.  3  : 14).  All  other 
virtues  have  their  unity  in  love.  Hence  the 
same  apostle  teaches  that  the  end  of  Christian 
instruction  is  love  (1  Tim.  1  : 5),  and  that  love 
is  the  fulfilment  of  the  Law”  (Kom.  13  : 10). 
We  can  easily  see  that  every  form  of  goodness 
is  included  in  the  sphere  of  love,  since  love  is 
the  supreme  choice  and  service  of  God,  the  per¬ 
fect  character.  All  truths  concerning  God  find 
their  unit}'  in  the  supreme  truth  that  God  is 
love”  (1  John  4:8,  16).  Love  is  moral  com- 
jjleteness.  God  is  righteous  because  he  is  love, 
since  love  is  eternally  holy.  He  is  kind  and 
merciful  because  he  is  love,  since  love  is  eter¬ 
nally  benevolent.  In  this  grand  truth  all  Chris¬ 
tian  doctrines  are  brought  into  unity  and  har¬ 
mony. 

Love  is  the  only  princijDle  on  which  any  high 
form  of  human  society  is  possible.  If  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  a  communitv  do  not  minister  to  each 

c/ 

other’s  good  ;  if  they  do  not  serve  or  help  one 
another — that  is,  if  they  do  not  act,  in  greater 
or  less  degree,  on  the  principle  of  love,  no  so¬ 
ciety  is  possible.  Selfishness,  which  is  the 
opposite  of  love,  is  isolalion,  and  would  be  the 
destruction  of  social  life.  Love  is  the  only 
bond  that  can  hold  men  together  in  pleasant 
and  helpful  relations.  Christianity,  therefore, 
holds  the  only  principle  on  which  a  true  civili¬ 
zation  can  be  built.  The  law  of  sacrifice  is  the 
law  of  life  for  communities  and  nations  as  well 
as  for  Individuals.  Even  the  other  elements 
which  must  enter  into  all  high  civilizations, 
such  as  wealth,  science,  and  the  arts,  can  be  but 
sparingly  utilized  for  the  good  of  the  commu¬ 
nity  except  under  the  law  of  love.  To  look  not 
only  on  one’s  own  things,  but  also  on  the  things 
of  others,  is  the  essential  condition  of  all  social 
happiness  and  well-being. 

The  law  of  love  is  the  law  of  freedom  from 
sin.  It  is  not  too  strong  language  to  say  that 
love  works  a  moral  impossibility  of  sinning. 
He  that  is  born  of  God  (ho  w'hose  life  is  under 
the  sway  of  the  law  of  love)  cannot  commit  sin, 
because  he  is  born  of  God  d  John  3  : 9).  Sin 
and  love  are  opposite  principles,  and  if  we  sin, 
this  is  proof  that  our  lives  are  not  perfectly 
under  the  sway  of  the  law  of  love.  The  more 
completely  they  shall  become  so,  the  more  com¬ 
plete  will  be  our  deliverance  from  sin  and  our 
harmony  with  the  Divine  life.  In  Je^us  alone, 
among  men,  do  we  see  this  reign  of  love  supreme 
and  perfect,  and  to  him  sin  is  morally  impos¬ 
sible.  A  strength  and  a  freedom  like  his  will 
be  ours  in  proportion  as  we  are  filled  with  his 
spirit.  Stevens. 

This  celestial  principle  of  love  is  really  the 


214 


SECTION  no.  MORAL  LAW. 


only  one  in  which  we  can  perceive  the  possibil¬ 
ity  of  a  reciprocation  between  our  God  and  our¬ 
selves.  If  loe  rest  upon  God  by  faiih,  yet  he 
cannot  rest  upon  us  ;  if  we  pour  ourselves 
upon  him  in  (fiatiiudt,  yet  he  cannot  return  grat¬ 
itude  to  us  ;  if  we  approach  him  in /ear,  yet  he 
cannot  fear  his  creatures — but  in  love  alone  our 
God  and  we  are  fitted  to  combine  !  there  alone 
the  human  and  the  Divine  nature  are  one  ! 
“  We  love  hiiiif  because  he  first  loved  us” — I 

love  them  that  love  me,”  W.  A.  B, - Faith 

works  not  by  the  constraining  force  of  law,  but 
by  the  energizing  force  of  love.  This  is  the  ful¬ 
filling  of  the  Law  :  love  sums  it  up  in  one  sen¬ 
tence,  simple,  comprehensive,  complete.  The 
fruit  of  this  spiritual  obedience  is  seen  in  all 
that  makes  society  endurable,  home  blessed, 
and  life  beautiful — in  all  that  gives  hope  to  the 
world  through  the  coming-in  of  the  kingdom  of 
God.  J.  P.  T. 

How  can  we  Love  God  f 

The  problem  being,  How  is  human  love  to 
such  a  being  as  God  possible  ?  the  simple  an¬ 
swer  is,  we  love  God  by  loving  Christ.  That 
which  we  love  in  Jesus  Christ  is  the  lineaments 
of  his  spiritual  nature,  the  virtues  and  graces 
of  his  inner  life,  as  manifested  by  his  words, 
his  works,  and  his  sufferings.  The  Gospel  nar¬ 
rative  is  a  record  of  them,  and  as  we  read  we 
love.  The  picture  is  formed  in  our  mind,  and 
rises  before  us  ;  but  it  is  a  moral  image,  and 
the  sum  of  the  traits  is  holiness.  Now,  these 
sjuritual  attractions,  though  manifested  to  us 
through  a  human  soul,  are  nevertheless  Divine  ; 
because  divinity  shines  through  that  manhood. 
The  Godhead,  yea,  the  whole  undivided  God¬ 
head,  has  its  union  there  with  human  nature. 
Nowhere  else  in  the  universe  is  so  much  of  God 
presented  for  our  adoration  as  in  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  The  constitution  of  this  adorable  per¬ 
son  was  for  the  very  purpose  of  manifesting 
God.  We  behold  more  of  God  in  the  face  of 
Christ  than  elsewhere  in  all  the  universe.  Is 
not  the  question  answered,  then  ?  When  we 
love  Christ  we  love  God.  We  cannot  in  any 
way  so  intelligently  love  God  as  when  we  love 
Christ.  And  therefore  we  need  not  be  afraid 
to  let  our  thoughts  and  powers  go  out  with  all 
their  fulness  toward  the  Son  ;  we  need  not  be 
apprehensive  lest  we  defraud  the  Father  of  his 
glory.  In  loving  him,  we  are  performing  our 

great  duty  to  God.  J.  W.  A. - Take  Christ  in 

all  his  fulness,  not  as  God  merely,  not  as  man 
merely  ;  not  in  his  life  on  earth  only,  not  in  his 
death  only,  not  in  his  exaltation  at  God’s  right 
hand  only,  but  in  all  his  fulness,  the  Christ  of 


God,  God  and  Man,  our  Prophet,  our  Priest, 
our  King  and  Lord,  redeeming  us  oy  nis  blood, 
sanctifying  us  by  his  Spirit  ;  and  then  worship 
him  and  love  hmi  with  all  the  heart,  and  with 
all  the  soul,  and  with  all  the  strength  ;  and  we 
shall  see  how  ail  evil  will  be  barred,  and  all  good 
will  abound.  Arnold.  . 

Love  an  Unending  Obligation.  God  is  infinitely 
amiable  and  perfect  ;  and  what  does  he  require 
of  his  creatures  but  that  they  should  love  him 
with  all  the  soul,  strength,  and  heart  which  he 
hath  given  them  ?  Can  this  ever  cease  to  be  an 
obligation?  What  should  make  it  cease  ?  Noth¬ 
ing  but  that  God  should  become  less  amiable, 
that  his  perfection  should  fade,  his  goodness  be 
exhausted,  or  his  greatness  impaired.  On  the 
other  hand,  what  is  it  that  he  threatens  to  those 
who  withdraw  their  hearts  from  him  ?  Is  it  not 
the  loss  of  his  favor  and  friendship  ?  Can  either 
the  obligation  or  penalty  be  accused  of  sever¬ 
ity  ?  Surely  in  this  God  does  nothing  unbe¬ 
coming  a  wise  and  righteous  governor.  Nay, 
with  reverence  be  it  said,  he  could  not  do  other¬ 
wise  without  denying  himself.  E.  W. 

Love  to  Man. 

HeT.  10:1§.  Tliou  slialt  love  tliy 
neighbor  as  thyself.  What  every  man’s 
mind  ought  to  be  toward  his  neighbor  could 
not  be  better  expressed  in  many  pages  than  in 
this  one  sentence.  We  are  all  of  us  not  only 
inclined  to  love  ourselves  more  than  we  should, 
but  all  our  powers  hurry  us  away  in  this  direc¬ 
tion.  Naturally,  we  are  blinded  by  our  immod¬ 
erate  self-love  ;  and  God,  in  order  to  turn  us 
away  from  this,  has  substituted  our  neighbors, 
whom  we  are  to  love  no  less  than  ourselves  ; 
nor  will  anyone  ever  perform  what  Paul  teaches 
us  to  be  a  part  of  charity — viz.,  that  she  seek- 
eth  not  her  own,”  until  he  shall  have  renounced 
himself.  Not  only  those  with  whom  we  have 
some  connection  are  called  our  neighbors,  but 
all  without  exception  ;  for  the  whole  human 
race  forms  one  body,  of  which  all  are  members. 
Galv. 

In  our  duties  to  others  the  Law  is  that  we 
shall  love  our  neighbor  as  ourselves.  For  our¬ 
selves,  we  are  to  regard  our  own  rights,  to  sup¬ 
ply  our  wants,  and  to  perfect  and  direct  our 
powers.  If,  then,  we  would  love  our  fellow- 
men  as  we  do  ourselves,  we  must  (1)  Eegard, 
and,  if  necessary,  aid  in  securing  their  rights. 
(2)  Supply  their  wants.  (3)  Do  what  we  can  to 
perfect  and  direct  their  powers.  These  will  in¬ 
clude,  and  in  their  order  as  lower  and  higher, 
all  our  duties  to  our  fellow-men.  M.  H. 

The  love  of  our  neighbor  as  ourselves  regards 


LOVE  TO  MAN. 


215 


each  man  as  possessing  the  same  sacred  charac¬ 
ter  which  we  personally  possess,  and  thus  makes 
us  jealous  for  our  neighbor’s  rights  and  welfare. 
And  this  sacred  character  is  only  found  in  the 
image  of  Ood  which  we  bear,  so  that  the  whole 
of  the  Law  has  one  grand  foundation,  reverence 
for  God.  This  principle,  and  not  any  philosoph¬ 
ical  speculation  about  natural  rights,  is  the 
root  of  the  entire  Ten  Commandments.  So  we 
see  in  fact  that  a  morality  based  on  natural 
rights  is  always  a  failure,  both  from  the  vague 
definitions  of  natural  rights  and  the  ease  with 
which  human  lust  or  ambition  will  resist  and 
overcome  such  a  motive,  while  a  morality  based 
on  regard  for  God,  a  reverential  love  for  his  holy 
name,  is  never  a  failure.  This  is  a  religious  mo¬ 
rality,  the  only  one  to  be  trusted.  The  whole 
formula,  then,  of  the  Law,  as  seen  through  the 
Gospel,  is  this  :  “  Love  God,  and  love  man  for 
God’s  sake,  through  Jesus  Christ,  the  God- 
man.”  Crosby. 

The  neighbor-love  which  can  be  enjoined  as 
a  duty  must  imply  choice.  It  must  be  some¬ 
thing  over  which  conscience  and  the  will  have 
power.  It  can  neither  be  an  instinctive  feeling 
of  delight  in  the  loved  person’s  presence  nor  an 
unreasoning  attachment  based  on  subtle  affini¬ 
ties  of  temperament.  It  needs  to  rest  upon  the 
consciousness  of  a  deeper  unity  than  springs 
from  mere  identity  of  tastes  ;  and  it  expresses 
itself  not  in  terms  or  gestures  of  endearment, 
but  in  a  settled  purpose  to  do  all  the  good  one 
can  to  the  object  loved.  It  implies,  therefore, 
a  moral  resolution  which  will  often  act  contrary 
to  instinct  or  inclination.  It  implies  a  moral 
earnestness  in  seeking  the  welfare  of  its  object 
which  is  not  to  be  turned  aside  even  by  his  un¬ 
loveliness  or  repulsiveness.  In  a  word,  it  is  a 
settled  purpose  to  care  for  and  benefit  man  as 
man,  for  the  sake  of  that  manhood  which  is 
common  to  us  all  ;  not  a  fondness  for  this  or 
that  particular  person  on  account  of  some 
thing  lovable  which  I  find  in  him.  And  this 
neighbor-love,  this  principle  of  a  concern  for 
the  good  of  others  not  second  to  the  care  we 
expend  upon  our  own,  is  one  which  had  its 
birth  on  the  soil  of  God’s  revelation,  and  came 
to  its  maturity  only  within  the  kingdom  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour.  Originally  the  rule  stands 
on  [this]  Old  Testament  page  as  a  revelation 
from  heaven  ;  but  it  stood  there  for  centuries, 
a  revelation  unappreciated,  till  in  the  mission 
of  God’s  Son  to  save  mankind,  it  received  the 
illumination  »of  a  heavenly  example  Then  it 
became  plain  how  God  himself  understood  love 
— neighbor-love— love  for  mankind.  Then  a 
pure  unselfish  devotion  to  the  interests  of  hu¬ 


manity,  apart  from  preference,  sentiment,  in¬ 
stinct,  or  unreasoning  fondness  — such  devotion 
as  prompts  active  compassion  for  misery,  patient 
forbearance  with  evil,  forgiveness  of  wrongs, 
and  self-sacrifice  to  rescue  the  lost  — received  its 
earliest  and  supreme  illustration.  Then  men 
learned  for  the  first  time  what  God  in  his  Law 
had  asked  for  at  men’s  hands,  but  hitherto  had 
asked  for  in  vain.  In  the  strong  words  of  one 
who  drank  as  deep  as  any  of  the  new  wine  from 
heaven,  then  was  “  love”  itself  made  apparent. 
“  Herein  is  love,”  such  love  as  fulfils  the  Law, 
”  that  he  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  propitiation  for 
our  sins.”  If,  therefore,  you  would  know  what 
love  for  your  neighbor  means,  learn  it  here.  If 
you  would  feel  such  love  for  your  neighbor, 
kindle  your  torch  at  this  sun.  “  If  we  love  one 
another,  then  is  God’s  own  love  perfected  in 
us.”  It  is  no  growth  of  nature  ;  no  instinct  of 
the  fallen  heart  ;  no  sentiment  born  of  the 
imagination  in  tender  enthusiasts.  It  is  a  fruit 
of  the  Spirit.  Nay,  it  is  the  fruit  of  the  Spirit, 
the  most  characteristic  of  all  and  the  most  ex¬ 
cellent  of  all  ;  first  of  all  strong  and  abiding 
graces  of  the  Divine  nature,  wrought  in  every 
one  who  is  begotten  of  God,  and  hath  the  strong 
Son  of  God  abiding  in  him,  .  .  .  You  cannot 
dream  yourself  into  tliis  as  into  an  imaginative 
attachment  to  ideal  humanity.  It  is  of  too  mas¬ 
culine  fibre  for  that,  and  asks  for  too  much  un¬ 
demonstrative  and  unattractive  service  at  our 
hands.  Neither  does  it  fly  abroad  for  pictu¬ 
resque  objects  on  which  to  lavish  its  enthusiasm, 
but  finds  its  needy  neighbors  at  its  very  door, 
and  girds  itself  to  serve  them  with  a  girdle  of 
humanit3\  This  genuine  Christian  concern  for 
one’s  neighbors  can  be  shown  everywhere — at 
home,  in  business,  behind  the  counter,  as  well 
as  in  the  mission-room  or  the  hospital  ward,  or 
the  squalid  cellar  of  the  pauper.  It  means 
simply  a  universal  respect  for  every  man’s 
rights,  a  care  for  every  man’s  interest,  a  willing¬ 
ness  to  be  every  man’s  equal,  brother,  and,  if 
need  be,  servant,  for  Christ’s  sake  who  loved  us 
all  and  gave  himself  for  all.  Dykes. 

This  is  the  marvellous  point  about  love,  that 
all  other  good  things  have  evils  yoked  with 
them  ;  but  love  is  free  from  every  such  mis¬ 
chief.  He  who  loves  will  guard  his  soul  from 
envy  and  anger,  from  jealousy  and  arrogance, 
from  vain-glory  and  evil  desire,  from  every  un¬ 
hallowed  love,  and  every  moral  disorder.  He 
will  be  as  far  from  doing  any  evil  to  his  neigh¬ 
bors  as  any  other  man  from  doing  evil  to  him¬ 
self.  Consider  how  vast  a  blessing  is  the  mere 
act  of  loving  ;  how  much  cheerfulness  it  pro¬ 
duces,  in  how  great  grace  it  establishes  the 


216 


SECTION  no.  MORAL  LAW. 


soul.  Yea,  love  changes  the  nature  of  things, 
and  appears  with  all  blessings  in  her  hands, 
gentler  than  any  mother,  wealthier  than  any 
queen,  and  makes  difficult  things  light,  render¬ 
ing  virtue  easy  and  vice  most  bitter.  Hence  it 
is  that  Paul  says  that  love  is  the  mother  of  all 
good  things,  and  prefers  it  to  miracles  and  all 
other  gifts.  We  seek  for  no  other  indication  of 
sovereignty  if  we  see  the  purple  and  the  dia¬ 
dem.  So  when  a  man  wears  the  diadem  of  love, 
that  is  enough  to  point  out  tne  thorough  dis¬ 
ciple  of  Christ,  not  to  us  onljq  but  also  to  the 
unbeliever.  For,  says  he,  “  by  this  shall  all 
men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye  have 
love  one  to  another.”  So  that  this  sign  is  greater 
than  all  signs,  since  by  means  of  it  the  disciple 
is  recognized.  Chrysosfom. 

Christ  said  :  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  Law. 
Christ  found  men  working  their  passage  to 
heaven  by  keeping  the  Divine  commandments, 
and  the  one  hundred  and  ten  others  which  they 
had  manufactured.  Chiist  told  them  that  if 
they  loved  they  would  do  these  things.  If  a 
man  loved  he  would  do  the  thing  which  the  Law 
required.  He  would  not  have  any  desire  to  do 
anything  different.  Paul  had  learned  this,  and 
so  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  1  Cor.  we  have 
the  summum  honum.  Paul  takes  this  up  in  three 
ways  in  the  chapter.  He  contrasts  it,  analyzes 
it,  and  diffuses  it.  It  is  contrasted  with  the 
things  men  loved  in  those  days.  Love  is  greater 
than  faith,  because  the  end  is  greater.  We  have 
faith  in  order  that  we  may  love.  Charity  is  but 
a  part  of  love,  and  the  wffiole  is  greater  than  a 
part.  Love  is  greater  than  sacrifice  and  mar¬ 
tyrdom. 

We  find  by  analysis  that  love  is  a  compound 
thing  like  light.  As  a  man  takes  a  prism  and 
lets  the  light  show’’  through  it  and  the  light  is 
broken  and  separated  into  elements,  so  we  can 
analyze  lovm  and  get  the  spectrum  and  elements 
of  it.  And  by  it  we  get  common  names  repre¬ 
senting  ordinary  virtues  which  can  be  practised 
by  all.  The  nine  names,  colors  of  the  spectrum 
of  love,  are  :  Patience,  kindness,  generosity, 
humility,  courtesy,  unselfishness,  good  temper, 
guilelessness,  and  sincerity.  These  constitute 
the  supreme  gift— the  stature  of  the  perfect 
man.  They  relate  to  man  to-day,  not  to-morrow 
or  in  eternity.  Patience,  ‘  ‘  love  suffereth  long,  ” 
represents  love  as  passive,  waiting  to  begin. 
Kindness  represents  love  as  active.  Christ’s 
time  w’as  largely  taken  up  in  making  people 
happy.  There  is  but  one  greater  thing  than 
happiness,  and  that  is  holiness,  w’hich  is  not  in 
our  keeping,  so  the  greatest  thing  w’e  can  do  is 
kindness.  After  these  things  have  been  done 


w’e  must  go  back  into  the  shade.  Generosity  is 
a  part  of  love.  Love  is  not  puffed  up.  which 
show’s  that  we  must  have  humility.  Love  does 
not  behave  itself  unseemly.  Politeness  has 
been  described  as  love  in  little  things.  “  Love 
seeketh  not  her  ow'n,”  and  therefore  is  uusel- 
fish.  A  man  prides  himself  on  standing  up  for 
his  rights,  but  he  should  give  up  his  ow'n  if 
necessary.  There  is  no  happiness  in  having  or 
in  getting,  but  in  giving  and  in  serving  others. 
He  that  would  be  great,  let  him  serve,  and  he 
that  would  be  happy,  let  him  give.  Love  is  not 
easily  provoked,  and  a  good  temper  is  requisite. 
It  is  commonly  spoken  of  as  if  a  bad  temper  is 
an  infirmity  or  a  misfortune,  but  it  is  not  a 
thing  to  smile  at.  It  is  a  blot  on  our  otherw’ise 
perfect  life.  It  is  the  blackest  sin  and  is  a 
symbol  of  a  w’ant  of  love  at  the  bottom.  It 
shows  that  he  must  go  to  the  root  and  smother 
his  whole  nature.  How  can  a  man  w’ith  this 
lack  of  love  enter  the  kingdom?  Guilelessness 
is  love  W’hich  thinketh  no  evil.  Courtesy  is  love 
in  society,  good  temper  is  love  restraining, 
guilelessness  is  love  believing,  and  sincerity, 
-love  learning.  Guilelessness  is  the  virtue  for 
suspicious  people.  Love  does  not  rejoice  in 
this  or  that  issue,  but  in  the  truth.  The  great 
business  of  all  is  to  fit  these  things  into  charac¬ 
ter.  You  must  learn  to  love.  There  is  a  great 
opportunity  of  loving.  How  does  a  man  be¬ 
come  a  good  artist,  or  a  good  foot-ball  player, 
or  a  good  sculptor — by  practice.  How  does  a 
man  become  a  good  man — by  practice.  We  do 
not  train  the  soul  by  a  different  method  than 
the  body.  Love  is  not  emotion  and  gush  ;  it  is 
robust,  and  robustness  is  only  secured  by  prac¬ 
tice.  Do  not  be  annoyed  at  the  obstacles  that 
you  find  in  your  w’ork.  It  is  God’s  method  of 
training  you,  and  every  stroke  is  making  your 
nature  better.  .  .  .  How  do  you  learn  to  love  ? 
Love  is  governed  by  the  law  of  cause  and  effect. 
If  w’e  fulfil  the  condition  w’e  get  the  results. 
“  We  love  him  because  he  first  loved  us.”  Be¬ 
cause  he  first  loved  us  we  love  all  men.  Stand 
before  him  and  you  will  be  changed  into  his 
image.  Look  at  the  great  sacrifices  of  Christ 
and  his  life  of  love  and  you  must  love.  Drum¬ 
mond. 

Love  is  the  grand  principle  on  which  God  in¬ 
tends  to  bind  all  worlds  in  harmony.  In  his 
government,  God  intends  that  this  principle 
shall  have  the  ascendency  and  shall  rule.  It 
will  bind  the  most  lofty  spirit  of  the  skies  to 
his  throne,  and  the  most  humble  among  the 
saints  on  earth— like  the  mighty  law  which 
binds  planets  in  their  orbits,  and  which  bids 
the  floating  particle  of  dust  to  seek  the  centre. 


SECTION  111. 


217 


Had  this  love  been  always  shown,  there  would 
have  been  no  sin,  no  crime,  no  war,  no  death, 

Barnes. - And  as  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  all 

law,  so  it  is  the  end  of  life  itself.  Whether  in 
the  calm  of  a  quiet  life  or  amid  the  turbulence 
of  trying  scenes,  so  long  as  the  Divine  Law  of 
love  is  obeyed  happiness  is  an  ever-abiding 
guest.  The  heart  filled  with  the  double  love, 
that  of  God  and  one’s  fellow-man,  jjreserves  its 
whiteness  ;  and  he  who  keeps  that  in  this  world 
need  have  no  fear  of  losing  it  in  any  ot  her.  An. 
- When  all  things  have  passed  away  love  re- 


maineth.  Covet  that  and  give  your  life  for  it, 
and  you  have  the  character  which  Paul  de¬ 
scribes,  you  are  created  in  God’s  image.  Why 
do  you  want  to  live  to-morrow  ?  Because  you 
love  some  one.  There  is  no  other  thing  to  live 
for  but  love.  To  live  is  to  love.  If  love  dies  a 
man  has  no  contract  with  life,  no  reason  to  live, 
and  he  dies— by  his  own  hand.  No  greater  mis¬ 
fortune  can  befall  a  man  than  to  grow  old  un¬ 
loving  and  unloved.  The  final  religious  test  at 
the  great  assizes  is  not  how  I  have  lived,  but 
how  I  have  loved.  Prof.  Drummond. 


Section  111. 

MORAL  LAW  :  TO  BE  LAID  UP  IN  THEIR  HE4RTS,  AND  TAUGHT  DILIGENTLY 
TO  THEIR  CHILDREN.  PHYLACTERIES,  INSCRIPTIONS  UPON  DOOR-POSTS, 
AND  FRINGES,  AS  REMINDERS  OF  GOD’S  WORDS. 

Nu.  15  :  37-41.  De.  6  :  6-9,  20-25  ;  11  :  18-21. 

De.  6  6  And  these  words,  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  shall  be  upon  thine  heart  :  and 

7  thou  shalt  teach  them  diligently  unto  thy  children,  and  shalt  talk  of  them  when 
thou  sittest  in  thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest 

8  down,  and  w'hen  thou  risest  up.  And  thou  shalt  bind  them  for  a  sign  upon  thine 

9  hand,  and  they  shall  be  for  frontlets  between  thine  eyes.  And  thou  shalt  write  them 
upon  the  door-posts  of  thy  house,  and  upon  thy  gates. 

De.  11  18  Therefore  shall  ye  lay  up  these  my  words  in  your  heart  and  in  your  soul  ;  and  ye 
shall  bind  them  for  a  sign  upon  your  hand,  and  they  shall  be  for  frontlets  between 

19  your  eyes.  And  ye  shall  teach  them  your  children,  talking  of  them,  when  thou  sit¬ 
test  in  thine  house,  and  when  thou  walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down, 

20  and  when  thou  risest  up.  And  thou  shalt  write  them  upon  the  door-posts  of  thine 

21  house,  and  upon  thy  gates  :  that  your  days  may  be  multiplied,  and  the  days  of  your 
children,  upon  the  land  which  the  Loan  sware  unto  your  fathers  to  give  them,  as 
the  days  of  the  hct. veils  above  the  earth. 

De.  6  20  "When  thy  son  asketh  thee  in  time  to  come,  saying,  What  mean  the  testimonies, 
and  the  statutes,  and  tfie  judgements,  which  the  Lord  our  God  hath  commanded 

21  you?  then  thou  shalt  say  unto  thy  son.  We  were  Pharaoh’s  bondmen  in  Egypt  ;  and 

22  the  Loud  brought  us  out  of  Egypt  with  a  mighty  hand  :  and  the  Loud  shewed  signs 
and  wonders,  great  and  sore,  upon  Egypt,  upon  Pharaoh,  and  upon  all  his  house, 

23  before  our  ej'es  :  and  he  brought  us  out  from  thence,  that  he  might  bring  us  in,  to 

24  give  us  the  land  which  he  sware  unto  our  fathers.  And  the  Loud  commanded  us  to 
do  all  these  statutes,  to  fear  the  Lord  our  God,  for  our  good  always,  that  he  might 

25  preserve  us  alive,  as  at  his  day.  And  it  shall  be  righteousness  unto  us,  if  we 
observe  to  do  all  this  commandment  before  the  Lord  our  God,  as  he  hath  com 
manded  us. 

Nu.  15  37  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and 

38  bid  them  that  they  make  them  fringes  in  the  borders  of  their  garments  throughout 
their  generations,  and  that  they  put  upon  the  fringe  of  each  border  a  cord  of  blue  : 

39  and  it  shall  be  unto  you  for  a  fringe,  that  ye  may  look  upon  it,  and  remember  all 
the  commandments  of  the  Lord,  and  do  them  ;  and  that  ye  go  not  about  after  your 

40  own  heart  and  your  own.  eyes,  after  which  ye  use  to  go  a  whoring  :  that  ye  may 

41  remember  and  do  all  my  commandments,  and  be  holy  unto  your  God.  I  am  the 
Lord  your  God,  which  brought  you  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  to  be  your  God  :  I  am 
the  Lord  your  God. 


218 


SECTION  111.  MORAL  LAW  TO  BE  PONDERED, 


Dc.  6  : 6.  These  words  shall  be 
upon  thine  heart.  l>e.  it  :  IS.  L.ay 
np  these  iny  words  in  your  heart 
and  ill  your  soul.  This  is  the  first  and 
fundamental  requirement  of  this  brief  series.  J3. 

- God's  words  must  be  laid  up  in  our  heart, 

that  our  thoughts  may  be  daily  conversant  with 
them,  and  employed  about  them,  and  thereby 
the  whole  soul  may  be  brought  to  abide  and  act 
under  the  influence  and  impression  of  them. 
This  immediately  follows  upon  the  law  of  loving 
God  with  all  our  heart ;  for  they  that  do  so  will 
lay  up  his  Word  in  their  hearts,  both  as  an  evi¬ 
dence  and  effect  of  that  love,  and  as  a  means  to 
preserve  and  increase  it.  He  that  loves  God 
loves  his  Bible.  H. 

God's  words  are  to  he  received  first  of  all  into  the 
heart.  It  is  when  individuals  receive  God’s 
testimony  into  the  heart,  as  Lydia  did,  that  it 
leads  to  a  fitting  public  profession.  “  With  the 
heart  man  believeth  unto  righteousness,”  and 
then  “  with  the  mouth  confession  is  made  unto 
salvation.”  As  the  ark  received  the  tables  of 
the  Law,  so  the  heart  of  man  is  to  be  the  de¬ 
pository  of  the  Divine  commandments.  Edgar. 

- Truth,  possessing  the  heart,  becomes  the  fount 

of  all  righteous  principle.  As  the  pulverized  soil  is 
the  proper  home  of  seed,  so  the  heart  of  man 
is  the  proper  abode  of  truth.  On  stony  tablets, 
in  books,  or  in  speech,  it  is  only  in  transit  tow¬ 
ard  its  proper  destination.  Received  and  wel¬ 
comed  into  the  soul,  it  begins  a  process  of 
blessed  activity  ;  it  vitalizes,  ennobles,  beauti¬ 
fies  every  part  of  human  nature.  It  is  the  seed 
of  all  virtue  and  goodness — the  root  of  immortal 
blessedness.  Truth  in  the  heart  is  translated 
into  righteousness  in  the  life,  and  righteousness 
makes  heaven.  No  enjoyment  can  be  perfect 
in  which  our  children  do  not  share  ;  and  in 
sharing  our  joys  with  our  children,  we  multiply 
our  joys  beyond  all  arithmetical  measure.  Such 
days  of  consecrated  service  will  be  “  days  of 
heaven  upon  earth.  ”  Davies. 

Where  true  love  to  God  exists  in  the  heart,  it 
will  manifest  itself  in  a  regard  to  his  will  and 
in  the  diligent  keeping  of  his  commandments. 
Hence  his  words  were  to  be  not  only  in  the 
memory  of  the  people,  but  laid  upon  their  heart, 
that  they  might  be  ever  present  to  the  thought 
and  will.  7,  They  were  also  to  be  inculcated 
upon  their  children,  and  to  be  the  subject  of 
conversation  on  all  fitting  occasions  between 
them,  the  members  of  their  household,  and  even 
their  casual  associates.  Thou  shalt  teach  them 
diligently  unto  thy  children  ;  literally.  Thou 
shalt  sharpen  them  to  thy  children,  impress  them 
upon  them,  send  them  into  them  like  a  sharp 


weapon.  W.  L.  A. - “And  shalt  talk  of  them 

when  thou  sittest  in  thy  house,  and  when  thou 
walkest  by  the  way,  and  when  thou  liest  down, 
and  when  thou  risest  up.” 

These  words  were  addressed  not  to  the  official 
representatives,  the  ecclesiastiLal  leaders  of  Is¬ 
rael,  but  to  the  whole  body  of  the  people.  They 
enjoin  on  every  parent  or  head  of  a  household 
the  duty  of  teaching  his  children  the  command¬ 
ments  of  God.  And  this  teaching  is  to  be  dis¬ 
tinctive,  positive,  diligent,  earnest,  oft-repeated, 
constant.  Very  many  directions  of  a  similar 
import  are  to  be  found  throughout  the  Old  Tes¬ 
tament  ;  reappearing  also  in  the  New  ;  where 
parents  are  required  to  bring  up  their  children 
in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord. 
W.  Adams. 

I>e.  11  :  19.  Yc  sball  teach  them 
your  children.  This  is  repeated  very  often. 
The  Jews  do  this  diligently.  As  soon  as  their 
children  are  capable  of  understanding  anything, 
they  make  them  carefully  read  the  holy  books  : 
and  instruct  them,  so  that  before  they  can  be 
called  youths  they  are  acquainted  with  the 
whole  Law  of  God.  In  this  the^^  shame  many 
Christians,  who  scarce  understand  as  much  of 
their  religion  when  they  are  men  and  women, 
as  the  Jews  do  of  theirs  when  they  are  mere 

children.  Bp.  Patrick. - It  is  decreed  in  the 

Law  of  Moses  that  children  shall  be  taught  it  ; 
and  to  this  da}^  the  child’s  first  accents  are  al¬ 
most  formed  by  ‘‘  the  holy  language,”  as  the 
Hebrews  emphatically  distinguish  theirs,  till 
they  acquire  the  holy  language  itself,  at  least  by 
rote.  The  Law  of  Moses  inculcates  that  it 
should  form  the  subject  of  their  conversations, 
walking  or  sitting  ;  and  so  familiar  is  this 
knowledge  to  the  Jewish  ear,  that  whenever 
their  Law  is  quoted  in  conversation,  which  it 
frequently  is,  it  is  usual  with  an  auditor  to 
chime  in  with  the  close  of  the  passage,  like  a 
chant  often  repeated.  The  Rentateuch  is  de¬ 
livered  by  sections  corresponding  with  the  Sab¬ 
baths  of  the  year,  while  each  weeklj^  section  is 
further  subdivided  into  two  portions,  delivered 
on  two  days  weekly.  At  the  close  of  the  year 
the  ”  Holy  Law”  has  been  twice  repeated. 
D' Israeli. 

The  religious  education  of  children  is  God's 
way  of  perpetuating  vital  religion.  No  other 
agency,  of  the  Church  or  Sunday-school,  can 
relieve  the  parent  from  this  duty  or  compensate 
for  his  neglect  of  it.  This  education  is  to  be  car¬ 
ried  on  painstakingly  and  systematically.  “  In 
thine  house,  when  thou  sittest,  when  thou  liest 
down,  when  thou  risest  up,  and  when  thou 
walkest  by  the  way.”  Orr. - Parents  are  em 


TAUGHT  TO  THEIR  CHILDREN. 


219 


phatically  enjoined  to  teach  God’s  truth  to  their 
own  children.  They  cannot  delegate  this  mat¬ 
ter  altogether  to  others.  It  is  to  be  treated  as 
of  paramount  importance.  It  is  a  subject  to  be 
talked  of  at  all  times  as  no  other  subject  should 
be.  The  occasional  services  of  the  preacher, 
the  Sabbath-school  once  in  the  week,  will  never 
suffice.  The  world  has  the  Church  at  a  prodig¬ 
ious  advantage  :  six  days  against  one.  These 
are  things  to  be  taught  not  one  day  in  seven, 
but  every  day,  every  morning  and  every  even¬ 
ing,  at  all  times,  with  utmost  diligence.  An. 

Parental  life  holds  a  great  trust  in  charge,  to 
be  committed  to  those  who  shall  come  after  ; 
that  though  one  generation  passeth  away  and 
another  cometh,  there  may  be  no  break  in  the 
continuity  of  holy  thinking  and  living,  from 
age  to  age.  The  Hebrews  had  their  Law,  which, 
as  a  revelation  from  God,  was  in  advance  of 
aught  possessed  by  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  in 
which  was  couched  the  germ  of  larger  truth  that 
was  to  follow.  There  might  be  more  light 
thrown  upon  it  ;  there  was  never  to  be  a  forfeit¬ 
ure  of  it.  Hence  there  were  special  reasons  why 
parents  should  guard  it  intact  for  all  the  ages 
that  were  to  follow.  The  light  from  the  past  is 
to  be  handed  down  for  the  ages  to  come,  that 
sire  and  son  and  son’s  son  may  rejoice  in  the 
same  God,  and  insure  a  blessed  continuity  of 

holy  faith  and  consecrated  life.  C.  C. - The 

most  sedulous  care  in  instructing  their  children 
in  the  rites  and  ceremonies  of  their  religion, 
and  in  the  reasons  on  which  they  were  founded, 
is  frequently  enjoined  upon  parents  throughout 
the  Mosaic  narrative.  The  Psalmist  also  speaks 
of  it  (Ps.  78  ;  5-8)  as  a  positive  institution 
among  his  people  ;  “  For  he  established  a  testi¬ 
mony  in  Jacob,  and  appointed  a  law  in  Israel, 
which  he  commanded  our  fathers,  that  they 
should  make  them  known  to  their  children  : 
That  the  generation  to  come  might  know  them, 
even  the  children  which  should  be  born  :  who 
should  arise  and  declare  them  to  their  children  : 
that  they  might  set  their  hope  in  God,  and  not 
forget  the  works  of  God,  but  keep  his  command¬ 
ments  :  and  might  not  be  as  their  fathers,  a 
stubborn  and  rebellious  generation  ;  a  genera¬ 
tion  that  set  not  their  heart  aright,  and  whose 

spirit  was  not  steadfast  with  God.”  Bush. - 

In  these  words  of  the  Psalmist  the  duty  is  urged, 
partly  for  their  own  profit  (verse  7),  “  That  they 
might  set  their  hope  in  Qod."  Acquaintance  with 
God’s  favor  will  encourage  their  faith  ;  knowl¬ 
edge  of  his  power  will  help  them  to  believe  his 
promise.  By  teaching  thy  children  God’s  ac¬ 
tions,  thou  wilt  fix  them  the  faster,  and  they 
will  make  the  greater  impression  upon  thy  own 


spirit.  A  frequent  mention  of  things  is  the  best 
art  of  memory  :  what  the  mouth  preacheth  often 
the  mind  will  ponder  much.  Besides,  it  may 
work  for  thy  children’s  weal  ;  the  more  they  be 
acquainted  with  the  goodness,  wisdom,  power, 
and  faithfulness  of  God  which  appear  in  his 
works,  the  more  they  will  fear,  love,  and  trust 
him.  Swinnock. 

He  whose  memory  is  rich  has  a  song  for  every 
day  ;  he  who  recollects  the  past  in  all  its  deliv¬ 
erances,  in  all  its  sudden  brightnesses,  in  all  its 
revelations  and  appearances,  cannot  be  terrified 
or  chased  by  the  spirit  of  fear  :  he  lives  a  quiet 
life,  deep  as  the  peace  of  God.  Can  Moses  sug¬ 
gest  any  way  of  keeping  the  memory  of  God’s 
providences  quick  and  fresh  ?  He  lays  down 
the  time  way  of  accomplishing  this  purpose  : 
Speak  about  them,  dwell  upon  them,  magnify 
them,  be  grateful  for  them.  What  a  reproach 
to  those  Christians  who  are  dumb  !  How  much 
they  lose  who  never  speak  about  God  !  “  Then 
they  that  feared  the  Lord  spake  often  one  to 
another  :  and  the  Lord  hearkened  and  heard  it, 
and  a  book  of  remembrance  was  written.  .  .  . 
And  they  shall  be  mine,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
in  that  day  when  I  make  up  my  jewels.” 

De.  6:  7.  Talk  of  tliem.  The  very  w  ord 
is  suggestive.  The  words  of  God  are  to  be  so 
thoroughly  in  our  hearts  as  to  become  part  of 
our  life  ;  then  we  may  talk  about  them  with  the 
ease  of  conscious  mastery,  with  the  familiarity 
of  the  heart’s  truest  friendship.  Beiigion  is  not 
to  be  introduced  upon  State  occasions,  or  upon 
great  days,  or  even  upon  the  Sabbath  day  as  an 
exclusive  period  of  time.  The  Word  of  God  is 
to  be  talked  about,  is  to  come  into  conversation 
as  if  it  had  a  right  to  be  there,  to  elevate  the 
speech  of  social  man,  to  give  grace  and  dignity 
and  solemnity  to  all  the  transactions  of  the  day. 

J.  P. - God's  words  are  to  he  the  staple  of  home 

training.  The  children  are  to  be  taught  them  at 
home,  when  the  “home  school”  is  gathered 
together.  God’s  words  are  also  to  be  the  staple 
of  conversation  when  parents  and  children  are 
enjoying  their  saunters  together.  And  the  first 
thought  of  the  morning  and  the  last  at  night 
should  be  of  God’s  commandments.  In  this 
way  the  indoctrination  of  the  rising  generation 
is  to  be  secured.  Well  would  it  be  for  us  still 
if  these  old  Jewish  rules  were  practised.  .  .  . 
The  children  are  manifestly  meant  to  be  the 
companions  of  the  parents,  to  have  their  pa¬ 
rents’  society  at  home  and  abroad,  at  morning 
and  night.  The  mistake  made  by  many  parents 
is  not  making  themselves  simply  companion¬ 
able.  It  is  companionship  that  determines  the 
bent  of  children.  Edgar, 


220 


SECTION  111.  GOB’S  LAW  TO  BE  PRACTISED 


De,  6  :  20-25.  Moses  told  Israel  that  ques¬ 
tions  would  be  asked.  The  son  would  ask  of 
the  father  the  meaning  of  institutions,  statutes, 
and  judgments,  and  the  father  was  bound  to 
reply  to  the  son’s  natural  and  rational  inquiry. 
Such  is  our  position  now.  It  is  incumbent  upon 
us  to  be  able  to  give  some  reason  or  explanation 
for  the  faith  and  the  hope  that  are  in  us.  We 
cannot  adopt  a  better  reply  than  the  answer 
suggested  by  Moses.  No  originality  of  answer 
is  required.  The  leader  of  Israel  gave  the  only 
reply  that  wull  stand  the  test  of  reason  and  the 
wear  and  tear  of  time.  We  could  enlarge  the 
answer  which  Israel  was  to  give,  and  ennoble 
it.  We,  too,  were  in  a  house  of  bondage.  That 
must  be  our  first  point.  Human  nature  had 
gone  astray.  The  great  cry  of  the  ages  was, 
“  There  is  none  righteous,  no,  not  one.”  The 
Christian  argument  starts  there.  All  Christian 
doctrine  is  founded  upon  that  one  fact,  or  bears 
direct  and  vital  relation  to  it.  We,  too,  could 
add  with  Israel,  that  human  nature  was  divinely 
delivered,  and  that  the  deliverance  was  attested 
by  many  “  signs  and  wonders.”  We,  too,  had 
a  Deliverer,  the  same  that  Israel  had  ;  the  name 
of  our  Deliverer  is  Jesus  Christ.  He  was  born 
in  Bethlehem  ;  he  proclaimed  himself  the  Son 
of  Man,  the  Son  of  God  ;  he  looked  upon  the 
whole  race  with  ej^es  filled  with  tears  ;  he  tasted 
death  for  every  man  ;  he  died  the  just  for  the 
unjust  that  he  might  bring  us  to  God  ;  he  was 
crucified,  he  died  and  was  buried,  and  on  the 
third  day  he  rose  again,  and  now  he  is  in  heav¬ 
en,  our  Advocate  before  the  throne  ;  his  wounds 
still  upon  him  as  historical  marks,  but  the  pain 
of  the  wounding  is  forever  gone.  That  is  our 
answer,  in  brief  and  imperfect  outline.  We, 
therefore,  stand  upon  this  historical  ground. 
J.  P. 

All  the  more  substantial  part  of  the  lines  of 
thought  here  indicated  is  unchanged  and  un¬ 
changeable.  Christian  parents  are  inheritors 
of  the  truth  of  God  :  they  hold  it  in  trust  for 
their  children  :  they,  as  they  grow  up,  will  in¬ 
quire  concerning  it  :  its  historic  basis  is  the 
great  deliverance  effected  by  the  Lord  Jesus  : 
Christians  are  now  God’s  peculiar  people  :  they 
are  redeemed  that  they  may  be  holy,  and  that 
in  holiness  they  may  train  succeeding  genera¬ 
tions  :  and  just  in  proportion  as  through  them 
loyalty  to  the  truth  and  to  God  is  leavening 
their  posterity,  are  they  bringing  honor  to  the 
cause  they  espouse,  Hebrews  were  to  be  con¬ 
servative.  Christians  are  to  be  also  aggressive. 
We  are  to  be  “  the  light  of  the  world,”  and  ”  the 
salt  of  the  earth,”  By  the  light  of  God’s  love 
we  are  to  scatter  men’s  darkness,  and  by  the 


salt  of  God's  truth  are  we  to  stay  its  corruption. 
And  just  so  far  as  our  nation  is  imbued  with 
righteousness  and  truth,  will  it  have  within  it 
the  guarantee  of  its  own  perpetuation.  C.  C. 

20.  Inquiry  is  the  king’s  highway  to  wisdom, 
and  who  dare  block  it  up  ?  God  loves  to  hear 
honest  inquiry.  To  afford  instruction  is  the 
delight  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  but  what  instruc¬ 
tion  will  be  valued  if  no  spirit  of  inquiry  is 
awake?  Some  questions  which  we  ask  can 
never  be  solved  ;  they  are  beyond  the  range  of 
the  human  mind.  Some  questions  God  will  not 
answer,  because  they  are  vain  and  useless.  But 
honest  questions,  with  a  view  to  practical  obedi¬ 
ence,  God  delights  to  hear.  You  can  do  the 
young  no  better  service  than  encourage  their 
minds  to  inquire  after  religious  facts.  ”  What 
mean  these  things  ?' ’  Davies. 

2fi,  24,  If  they  continued  faithfully  witness¬ 
ing  for  God,  the  land  would  be  continued  to 
them  ;  if  not,  thej^  would  have  to  quit,  and  give 
up  the  possession  thereof  to  strangers.  This  is 
precisely  the  principle  on  which  God  governs 
the  nations  now.  No  nation  can  preserve  itself 
in  being  bj’’  anj^  other  policy  than  that  of  obedi¬ 
ence  to  God.  Disloyalty  to  God  and  the  right 
is  the  surest  possible  policy  of  decomposition. 
C.  C. 

25.  Our  righteousness.  As  contrasted 
with  Pauline  sayings,  the  text  is  an  illustration 
of  the  maxim,  “  On  the  outside  of  things  look 
for  differences,  on  the  inside  for  likenesses.” 

Hare. - The  form  is  that  of  the  Law,  the  spirit 

is  that  of  Christ,  whose  Gospel  is  the  key  to  the 
Law’s  utterances.  Here  is  a  requirement  which 
believers  in  Christ  are  enabled  to  fulfil,  though 
imperfectly,  yet  acceptably.  The  utmost  that 
the  Jew  could  render  was  that  imperfect  but 
sincere  obedience  which  is  still  the  mark  of  the 
true  believer.  The  believer’s  duly  is  to  render 
a  perfect  obedience  ;  his  privilege  is  that,  falling 
short  of  this,  his  sincere  though  faulty  obedi¬ 
ence  will  be  graciously  accepted  for'the  sake  of 
Christ.  In  harmony  with  his  calling,  it  was  to 
be  the  Jew’s  aim  to  realize  the  righteousness 
which  the  Law  set  before  him.  But  in  his  in¬ 
ability  to  do  this  the  weakness  of  the  Law  re¬ 
vealed  itself,  and  in  contrast  with  this  weakness 
(Horn.  8  :  3)  is  the  power  of  the  Gospel,  enabling 
the  believer  to  triumph,  and  to  bring  forth  fruit 
unto  holiness,  the  end  of  which  is  everlasting 
life  (Rom.  6  : 22).  This  also  is  a  ”  righteous¬ 
ness  of  faith,”  as  springing  from  faith,  and  ren¬ 
dered  possible  through  it.  It  is  his  righteous¬ 
ness,  yet  in  a  deeper  sense  not  his,  but  Christ’s, 
for  it  is  the  work  of  Christ  living  in  him  (Gal. 
2  :  20).  It  is  not  the  ground  of  acceptance,  but 


AND  TAUGHT  IN  THE  HOUSEHOLD. 


221 


a  result  of  it  ;  not  a  title  to  heaven,  but  a  meet- 
ness  for  it.  It  is  itself  a  gift  of  grace.  Orr. 

As  to  the  religious  instruction  and  the  wor¬ 
ship  of  the  people,  the  Mosaic  code  recognizes 
and  perpetuates  the  ancient  i^atriarchal  form 
of  family  religion.  The  new  ritual  did  by  no 
means  supersede  that.  Except  in  providing  by 
the  institution  of  a  Sabbath  the  time  needful 
for  religious  instruction,  and  in  distributing  the 
Levites  among  the'  people  everywhere  as  relig¬ 
ious  teachers,  it  is  noteworthy  that  the  laws  of 
religion  given  by  Moses  seem  to  provide  no  sys¬ 
tems  and  methods  of  religious  instruction  ;  but 
left  that  to  the  ancient  custom  of  familj’’ religion 
among  the  patriarchs,  and  to  the  good  sense  of 

the  people.  S,  E. - The  Mosaic  Law  required 

that  the  greatest  pains  should  be  taken  to  mould 
the  minds,  the  principles,  the  habits,  and  man¬ 
ners  of  the  young.  Parents  were  again  and 
again  commanded  to  teach  their  children  from 
infancy  all  the  words  of  the  Law,  and  all  the 
glorious  facts  of  their  national  history.  The 
whole  system  of  legislation  was  crowded  with 
commemorative  rites  and  festivals.  Into  the 
meaning  of  these  it  was  taken  for  granted  that 
the  young  would  inquire,  and  it  was  ordained 
that  their  curiosity  should  be  satisfied  by  the 
explanations  of  their  sires.  The  Passover  re¬ 
minded  them  of  the  wonders  of  the  exode  ;  the 
Pentecost  of  the  terrific  splendors  which  ac 
companied  the  giving  of  the  Law  ,  the  feast  of 
tabernacles  of  the  hardships  and  miraculous 
supplies  of  the  wilderness  ;  and  the  monument¬ 
al  heaj)  of  stones  at  Gilgal  of  the  standing  of 
the  waters  of  Jordan  upon  a  heap  to  afford  a 
passage  to  their  forefathers.  E.  C.  W. 

The  Law  requires  that  a  holy  education  in  the 
fear  and  love  of  God  be  given  to  children. 
There  are  no  special  precepts  in  the  Law  with 
a  view  to  this,  but  it  is  repeated  again  and  again 
with  great  emphasis,  that  the  Divine  deeds  in 
the  redemption  and  guidance  of  Israel,  and  the 
Divine  commands,  are  to  be  impressed  on  the 

children.  O. - The  home  is  here  supposed  to 

be  a  centre  in  which  the  conserving  forces  of 
truth  and  godliness  are  to  be  themselves  con¬ 
served.  What  a  profound  principle  Moses  here 
indicates— viz.,  that  a  nation  will  be  good  or 
bad  according  to  its  home  life  !  Wonderful  ! 
that  an  infant  nation  should,  at  starting,  have 
this  truth  deep  graven  in  its  statutes — our  land 
will  be  as  our  homes  are  !  In  the  home,  our 
God  looks  to  the  parent  to  give  it  its  character, 
tone,  and  influence.  A  child’s  religious  faith 
is,  in  a  high  and  holy  sense,  to  be  chosen  for 
him  by  anticipation,  by  those  who  were  “  in 
Christ  before”  him.  The  truths  are  to  be  in 


the  parents’  heart,  that  they  may  be  poured  out 
anew  from  thence  as  rivers  of  living  water. 
Hence  the  word  in  verse  7,  ”  Thou  shalt  sharpen 
them  coming  fresh  out  of  the  sanctuary  of  a 
living  soul,  they  are  to  be  pointed,  quick,  and 
breathing  truths.  By  a  variety  of  ways,  the 
parent  is  to  see  his  child’s  spirit  early  saturated 
with  the  truths  of  God.  Thus  the  child  is  from 
the  first  to  be  regarded  as  God’s  child,  to  be 
trained  for  him.  He  is  to  receive  God’s  Word 
through  the  avenues  of  eye,  ear,  intellect,  heart. 
Divine  truth  is  to  be  ever  before  him,  night  and 
day,  indoors  and  oht.  Those  who  gave  him 
birth  and  who  love  him  best  are  to  mould  his 
young  life  for  God  ;  he  is  to  grow  up  as  the 
Lord’s  rightful  possession,  with  the  view  of  his 
afterward  saying,  in  the  spirit  of  devout  surren¬ 
der,  “  I  am  the  Lord’s  !”  Whatever  was  essen¬ 
tial  in  the  days  of  Moses,  in  the  training  of 
children  for  God  as  the  means  of  guarding  a 
nation,  is  not  less  needful  now.  The  wider  the 
range  of  human  learning  becomes,  the  more 
needful  it  should  be  rightly  directed  ;  other¬ 
wise  the  greater  the  attainment,  the  greater  the 
peril  !  C.  C. 

The  most  powerful  agency  for  the  promotion 
of  piety  and  for  the  diffusion  of  practical 
righteousness  is  the  household.  If  any  one 
doubts  it,  let  him  study  the  history  of  monas- 
ticism,  or  let  him  look  closely  into  the  life  of 
military  camps.  Eeligion,  of  necessity,  makes 
the  home  its  sanctuarj^  and  training  school. 
For  while  it  is  personal,  it  is  no  less  social.  It 
has  two  great  commandments,  love  to  God  and 
love  to  man.  They  cannot  be  severed.  And  so 
we  find  that  while  atheism  breaks  up  the  home, 
and  remands  the  children  to  the  care  of  the 
State.  Christianity  builds  up  the  home,  invests 
it  with  inviolable  sanctities,  and  makes  the  pa¬ 
rent  a  priest  of  righteousness.  The  Prophet 
Malachi  declares  that  God  ordained  monogamy 
as  the  law  of  the  household,  in  order  that  he 
might  secure  a  godly  seed.  Polygamy  enervates 
and  brutalizes.  It  is  the  monogamous  races 
that  have  seized  the  leadership  of  the  world's 
civilization.  What  the  cell  is  to  the  human 
body,  that  the  family  is  to  society.  Behrends. 

The  standing  of  children  in  the  covenant  entails 
serious  obligations  on  the  parents.  (1)  Eeligious 
instruction.  The  children  had  not  been  person¬ 
ally  at  Horeb.  They  had  not  seen  the  mighty 
works  of  God  in  Egypt  and  the  desert.  It  was 
the  duty  of  parents  to  acquaint  them  with  the 
history,  and  to  instruct  them  in  their  duties. 
(2)  Eeligious  training,  which  is  education  in  act, 
as  instruction  is  education  in  word.  (3)  Eelig¬ 
ious  example.  The  parent  is  to  be  one  who  loves 


222 


SECTION  111.  EXTERNAL  REMINDERS  OF  THE  LAW. 


the  Lord  for  himself.  The  Word  is  to  be  in 
his  own  heart.  Only  thus  will  he  teach  with 
effect.  All  this  has  its  counterpart  in  the  duties 
of  Christian  parents.  The  standing  of  children  in 
the  covenant  entails  serious  obligations  on  the  chil¬ 
dren.  Where  parental  duties  had  been  fulfilled, 
the  Israelitish  child  was  under  the  most  sacred 
obligations  to  choose  and  adhere  to  the  God  of 
his  fathers,  and  to  serve  him  in  the  way  pre¬ 
scribed.  There  was  in  this  no  interference  with 
freedom,  for  when  God  proposes  covenant  rela¬ 
tions  to  a  human  being,  while  it  :s  his  privilege, 
it  can  never  be  aught  else  than  his  duty  to  ac¬ 
cept  them.  In  the  Christian  Church,  a  like 
obligation  rests  on  the  children  of  believers. 
The  baptized  child  is  bound  to  serve  God,  and, 
if  properly  instructed,  it  cannot  evade  the  re¬ 
sponsibilities  thus  laid  upon  it.  Great  is  the 
guilt  of  a  child  brought  up  in  a  Christian  home, 
if  wantonly  it  apostatizes.  Orr. 

Exteknal  Eemembrancees  of  Jehovah’s  Words. 

I>e.  6  :  7-9.  To  help  in  keeping  a  sense  of 
religion  in  their  minds,  it  was  commanded  that 
its  great  principles  should  be  carried  about  with 
them  wherever  they  went,  as  well  as  meet  their 
eyes  every  time  they  entered  their  homes.  It  is 
probable  that  Moses  used  the  phraseology  in  the 
seventh  verse,  merely  in  a  figurative  way,  to 
signify  assiduous,  earnest,  and  frequent  instruc¬ 
tion  ;  and  perhaps  he  meant  the  metaphorical 
language  in  the  eighth  verse  to  be  taken  in  the 
same  sense  also.  But  as  the  Israelites  inter¬ 
preted  it  literall}^,  many  writers  suppose  that  a 
reference  was  made  to  a  superstitious  custom 
borrowed  from  the  Egyptians,  who  wore  jewels 
and  ornamental  trinkets  on  the  forehead  and 
arm,  inscribed  with  certain  words  and  sen¬ 
tences,  as  amulets  to  protect  them  from  danger. 
These,  it  has  been  conjectured,  Moses  intended 
to  supersede  by  substituting  sentences  of  the 
Law  ;  and  so  the  Hebrews  understood  him,  for 
they  have  always  considered  the  wearing  of  the 
Tephilim  or  frontlets  a  permanent  obligation. 
With  regard  to  the  other  usage  supposed  to  be 
alluded  to,  the  ancient  Egyptians  had  the  lintels 
and  imposts  of  their  doors  and  gates  inscribed 
with  sentences  indicative  of  a  favorable  omen 
[Wilkinson]  ;  and  this  is  still  the  case,  for  in 
Egypt  and  other  Mohammedan  countries  the 
front  doors  of  houses — in  Cairo,  for  instance — 
are  painted  red,  white,  and  green,  bearing  con¬ 
spicuously  inscribed  upon  them  such  sentences 
from  the  Koran  as  “  God  is  the  Creator,”  “  God 
is  one,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet.”  Moses 
designed  to  turn  this  ancient  and  favorite  cus. 
tom  to  a  better  account,  and  ordered  that,  in¬ 


stead  of  the  former  superstitious  inscriptions, 
should  be  written  the  words  of  God,  persuading 
and  enjoining  the  people  to  hold  the  laws  in 
perpetual  remembrance.  J rmieson. 

Dc.  <3  :  §  ;  SII  :  18.  I5iiicl  tlieiii  for  a 
sign  iipoti  yoar  haaid,  as  frontlets  be¬ 
tween  your  eyes.  He  desires  bracelets 
and  frontlets  to  be  made  of  the  precepts  of  the 
Law,  contrasting  doubtless  this  spiritual  orna¬ 
ment  with  chains  of  gold,  as  much  as  to  say 
that  they  would  more  properly  take  delight  in 
the  pious  recollection  of  the  Law  than  in  those 
trifling  ornaments  which  attract  men’s  senses. 
The  Jews,  understanding  this  literally,  account¬ 
ed  this  external  ostentation  a  mark  of  holiness, so 
as  to  think  that  they  had  almost  done  all  they 
needed  when  they  wore  the  Law  on  their  arms 
and  foreheads.  C<ilv. 

It  shall  be  for  a  token  or  memorial  of  vLat 
God  did  for  your  forefathers  ;  to  make  thee  as 
sensible  of  God’s  goodness  as  of  that  which 
thou  hast  in  thy  hand,  or  of  a  thing  which  is 
continuallj^  before  thine  eyes.  The  Jewish  super¬ 
stition  of  wearing  what  were  called  “  ph3dac- 
teries”  took  its  rise  from  these  words.  Phjdac- 
tery  is  a  wmrd  derived  from  the  Greek,  and  prop. 
erl}’-  signifies  a  preservative,  such  as  the  Pagans 
carried  about  them  to  preserve  them  from  evils, 
diseases,  or  dangers.  The  Jewish  pbjdacteries 
were  little  boxes,  or  rolls  of  parchment,  in  which 
were  written  certain  words  of  the  Law.  Patrick. 

- The  Jewish  custom  originated  at  a  time 

(probably  after  the  return  from  Babylon)  when 
Israel,  by  its  traditions,  had  perverted  the  com¬ 
mand  of  God  into  doctrines  of  men.  Gerl. - 

The  manner  in  which  the  Jews  understood  and 
kept  these  commands  may  appear  in  their  prac¬ 
tice.  They  wrote  the  following  four  portions  of 
the  Law  upon  slips  of  parchment  or  vellum  : 
Sanctify  unto  me  the  firstborn  (Ex.  13  from  verses 
2-10,  inclusive).  And  it  shall  be  when  the  Lord 
shall  bring  thee  into  the  land  (Ex.  13  from  verses 
11-16,  inclusive).  Hear,  0  Israel,  the  Lord  our 
God  is  one  Lord  (Be.  6  from  verses  4-9,  inclu¬ 
sive).  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  if  ye  shall  hearken 
diligently  (De.  11  from  verses  13-21,  inclusive). 
These  four  portions,  covered  with  leather,  they 
tied  to  the  forehead  and  to  the  hand  or  arm. 
Those  which  were  for  ih.e  head  {Vae  frontlets)  they 
wrote  on  four  slips  of  parchment,  and  rolled  up 
each  by  itself,  and  placed  them  in  four  compart¬ 
ments,  joined  together  in  one  piece  of  skin  or 
leather.  Those  which  were  designed  for  the 
hand  were  formed  of  one  piece  of  parchment, 
the  four  portions  being  written  upon  it  in  four 
columns,  and  rolled  up  from  one  end  to  the 
other.  These  were  all  correct  transcripts  from 


PIITLAGTERIE8  AND  FRINGES. 


223 


the  Mosaic  text,  without  one  redundant  or  de¬ 
ficient  letter,  otherwise  they  were  not  lawful  to 
be  worn.  Those  for  the  head  were  tied  on  so 
as  to  rest  on  the  forehead.  Those  for  the  hand 
or  arm  were  usually  tied  on  the  left  arm  a  little 
above  the  elbow,  on  the  inside,  that  they  might 
be  near  the  heart,  according  to  the  command 
(De.  6  :  6).  These  phylacteries  formed  no  in¬ 
considerable  part  of  a  Jew’s  religion  ;  they  wore 
them  always  when  they  read  the  Law,  or  when 
they  prayed  ;  and  hence  they  called  them  tephil- 
lin,  prayer -ornameuts,  oratories,  or  incitements  to 
prayer.  In  process  of  time,  the  spirit  of  this 
law  was  lost  in  the  letter,  and  when  the  word 
was  not  in  their  mouth  nor  the  Law  in  their 
heart,  they  had  their  phylacteries  on  their  heads 
and  on  their  hands.  And  the  Pharisees,  who  in 
our  Lord’s  time  affected  extraordinary  piety, 
made  their  phylacteries  very  broad,  that  they 
might  have  many  sentences  written  upon  them, 
or  the  ordinary  portions  in  very  large  and  ob¬ 
servable  letters.  A.  C. 

The  words  of  God  were  to  be  bound  for  a  sign 
[a  memorial  or  directory]  upon  thine  hand,  the 
instrument  of  acting,  and  to  be  as  frontlets  [fil¬ 
lets  or  bands]  between  thine  eyes,  the  organs  of 
direction  in  walking  or  moving,  and  so  on  the 
forehead,  the  chamber  of  thought  and  purpose  ; 
and  they  were  to  inscribe  them  on  the  posts  of 
their  houses,  and  on  their  gates.  The  purport 
t'f  this  is  that  they  were  constantly  and  every¬ 
where  to  have  these  commandments  of  the  Lord 
in  view  and  in  mind,  ^so  as  to  undeviatingly 

observe  them.  W.  L.  A. - God's  words  are  to 

he  kept  before  onr  own  tyes  and  the  eyes  of  others. 
This  seems  to  be  the  idea  about  the  frontlets 
between  the  eyes  — in  this  way  others  had  the 
words  displayed  for  their  benefit  ;  whereas  the 
placing  them  upon  the  hand  was  for  the  indi¬ 
vidual’s  own  memor'al  (-f.  Isa.  49  ;  16).  So  the 
person  heai'tily  interested  in  God’s  Word  will 
make  arrangements  to  remind  himself  continu-  | 
ally  of  it,  and  also  to  keep  it  before  the  minds  j 
of  others.  Keligion  thus  becomes  not  only  a 
constant  personal  experience,  but  a  constant 
public  profession.  Edgar. - It  is  also  intimat¬ 

ed  that  we  must  never  be  ashamed  to  own  our 
religion,  nor  to  own  ourselves  under  the  check 
and  government  of  it.  Let  it  be  written  on  our 
gates,  and  let  every  one  that  goes  by  our  door 
read  it.  That  we  believe  Jehovah  to  be  God 
alone,  and  believe  ourselves  bound  to  love  him 
with  all  our  hearts.  H. 

The  Jew  was  to  write  God’s  commandments 
on  the  door-posts  and  on  the  gates  of  his  house. 
The  household  was  thus  to  be  God’s.  House¬ 
holds  need  conversion  just  as  individuals  do. 


There  is  as  much  difference  between  a  religious 
household  and  a  worldly  one  as  there  is  between 
a  converted  and  an  unconverted  individual. 
The  direction  given  consequently  to  the  Jews 
covered  the  household  as  well  as  the  person, 
and  was  thus  perfect.  Edgar. 

It  seems  to  have  been  a  custom  widely  preva¬ 
lent  among  the  ancient  Eastern  peoples  to  carry 
about  their  persons  slips  of  parchment  or  some 
other  material,  on  which  were  written  sentences 
of  moral  or  religious  import  ;  and  such  sentences 
they  were  also  wont  to  inscribe  on  conspicuous 
places  of  their  dwellings  ;  usages  still  to  be 
found  among  the  Moslems,  and  the  latter  of 
which  was  not  altogether  unknown  among  West¬ 
ern  nations,  of  which  traces  may  still  be  seen  in 
Switzerland,  Germany,  and  on  old  houses  in 
both  England  and  Scotland.  This  custom  orig¬ 
inated,  probably,  in  a  desire  to  have  the  senti¬ 
ments  inscribed  alwavs  in  mind  ;  but  for  the 
most  part  these  inscriptions  came  to  be  regarded 
as  amulets  or  charms,  the  i)resence  of  which  on 
the  person  or  the  house  was  a  safeguard  against 
evil  influences,  especially  such  as  were  super¬ 
natural.  W.  L.  A. 

Fringci  in  tlie  l>or(tler§  of  jsarineiits, 
and  upon  the  fringe  a  ribband  of 
bine. 

Nu.  15  : 37-41. 

There  have  been  various  conjectures  as  to  the 
object  of  this  law.  The  most  probable  is  that 
the  “  fringe”  was  intended  as  a  sort  of  badge 
by  which,  as  well  as  by  circumcision  and  by  the 
fashion  of  their  beards  and  by  their  peculiar 
diet,  the  Hebrews  were  to  be  distinguished  from 
other  people.  Be  this  as  it  may,  much  super¬ 
stition  came  in  the  end  to  be  connected  with 
the  use  of  these  fringes.  The  Pharisees  are 
severely  censured  by  our  Saviour  for  the  osten¬ 
tatious  hypocrisy  with  which  they  made  broad 
the  “  borders”  of  their  garments.  Piet.  Com. 

It  is  plain  that  God  had  no  other  object 
but  to  exercise  the  Jews  in  constant  meditation 
upon  the  Law.  There  was  no  religion  contained 
in  the  fringes  themselves,  nor  had  that  material 
texture  any  value  in  itself  ;  but  since  men  are 
forgetful  in  the  cultivation  of  piety,  God  would 
by  this  aid  make  provision  for  their  infirmity. 
When  he  says  that  they  should  “  look  upon  it 
and  remember,”  he  hints  that  they  have  need  of 
these  rudiments,  which  may  strike  their  out¬ 
ward  senses  ;  and  again,  that  unless  their  mem¬ 
ory  was  kept  awake,  forgetfulness  would  steal 
upon  them.  But  it  is  added  that  God  has  no 
satisfaction  in  mere  knowledge,  but  demands 
serious  affections  and  practical  performance. 


( 


SECTION  112.  EFFECT  OF  THE  DIVINE  VOICE. 


224 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  verse  he  requires  not 
only  that  their  sluggishness  should  be  stimu¬ 
lated  but  their  wantonness  restrained.  When 
he  says  ‘  ‘  that  ye  seek  not  after  your  own  heart,’  ’ 
he  intimates  that  unless  God  should  restrain 
their  wandering  senses,  they  would  be  inclined 
to  all  superstitions  and  errors.  Calv. 


40,  41,  Very  plainly  and  impressively  is  the 
full  reason  of  this  peculiar  ordinance  empha¬ 
sized  in  these  two  verses,  “  That  ye  may  re¬ 
member  and  do  all  my  commandments,  and 
he  holy  unto  your  God.”  “i  am  the  Lord  your 
Godr  B. 


Section  112. 


EFFECT  OF  THE  DIVINE  VOICE  UPON  THE  PEOPLE.  APPOINTMENT  OF  MOSES 

AS  MEDIATOR. 

Exodus  20  :  18-21.  De.  5  :  4,  5,  23-31. 

Ex,.  20  18  And  all  the  people  saw  the  thunderings,  and  the  lightnings,  and  the  voice  of  the 
trumpet,  and  the  mountain  smoking  :  and  when  the  people  saw  it,  they  trembled, 

19  and  stood  afar  off.  And  they  said  unto  Moses,  Speak  thou  with  us,  and  we  will 

20  hear  :  but  let  not  God  speak  with  us,  lest  we  die.  And  Moses  said  unto  the  people, 
Fear  not  :  for  God  is  come  to  prove  you,  and  that  his  fear  may  be  before  you,  that 

21  ye  sin  not.  And  the  people  stood  afar  off,  and  Moses  drew  near  unto  the  thick  dark¬ 
ness  where  God  was. 

De.  5  4  The  Lord  spake  with  you  face  to  face  in  the  mount  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire  (I 

5  stood  between  the  Lord  and  you  at  that  time,  to  shew  you  the  word  of  the  Lord  : 
for  ye  were  afraid  because  of  the  fire,  and  went  not  up  into  the  mount  ;) 

23  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  ye  heard  the  voice  out  of  the  midst  of  the  darkness, 
while  the  mountain  did  burn  with  fire,  that  ye  came  near  unto  me,  even  all  the  heads 

24  of  your  tribes,  and  your  elders  ;  and  ye  said.  Behold,  the  Lord  our  God  hath  shewed 
us  his  glory  and  his  greatness,  and  we  have  heard  his  voice  out  of  the  midst  of  the 

25  fire  :  we  have  seen  this  day  that  God  doth  speak  with  man,  and  he  liveth.  Now 
therefore  why  should  we  die  ?  for  this  great  fire  will  consume  us  :  if  we  hear  the 

26  voice  of  the  Lord  our  God  any  more,  then  we  shall  die.  For  who  is  there  of  all  flesh, 
that  hath  heard  the  voice  of  the  living  God  speaking  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire,  as 

27  we  have,  and  lived  ?  Go  thou  near,  and  hear  all  that  the  Lord  our  God  shall  say  : 
and  speak  thou  unto  us  all  that  the  Lord  our  God  shall  speak  unto  thee  ;  and  we  will 

28  hear  it,  and  do  it.  And  the  Lord  heard  the  voice  of  your  words,  when  ye  spake 
unto  me  ;  and  the  Lord  said  unto  me,  I  have  heard  the  voice  of  the  words  of  this 
people,  which  they  have  spoken  unto  thee  :  they  have  well  said  all  that  they  have 

29  spoken.  Oh  that  there  were  such  an  heart  in  them,  that  they  would  fear  me,  and 
keep  all  my  commandments  always,  that  it  might  be  well  with  them,  and  with  their 

30  children  for  ever  !  Go  say  to  them,  Return  ye  to  your  tents.  But  as  for  thee,  stand 

31  thou  here  by  me,  and  I  will  speak  unto  thee  all  the  commandment,  and  the  statutes, 
and  the  judgements,  which  thou  shalt  teach  them,  that  they  may  do  them  in  the 
land  which  I  give  them  to  possess  it. 


Effect  of  the  Divine  Voice  upon  the  People. 

Ex.  20  : 18-21  De.  5  :4,  5,  23-26. 

Ex,  20:  18-21,  This  narrative  is  amplified 
in  De.  5  : 23-31.  The  people  had  realized  the 
terrors  of  the  voice  of  Jehovah  in  the  utterance 
of  the  ter  words  of  the  testimony,  and  they 
feared  for  their  lives.  Though  Moses  encour- 
aged  them,  they  were  permitted  to  withdraw 
and  to  stand  afar  off,  at  their  tent  doors  (see 
De.  5:30).  Clark. - They  were  to  learn  by 


experience  that  however  near  Jehovah  might 
draw  to  them,  they  were  not  in  a  condition  to 
draw  near  to  Jehovah,  but  still  needed  a  medi¬ 
ator  to  act  on  their  behalf.  In  the  terrors  of 
Sinai  there  was  a  representation  of  the  tenv  rs 
which  the  holiness  of  God  always  has  to  an  un¬ 
holy  man  ;  in  other  words,  of  the  terrors  of  the 
Law  toward  the  sinner  by  whom  it  has  been 
transgressed.  But  even  in  the  midst  of  the  ter¬ 
rors  of  Sinai  there  was  a  manifestation  of  mercy 
as  well  ;  for  the  fire  of  holiness  did  not  appear 


MOSES  IS  APPOINTED  MEDIATOR. 


225 


nncovered,  but  hidden  in  a  thick,  black  cloud  ; 
and  even  unholy  Israel  learned  that  day,  “  that 
God  may  talk  with  man,  and  man  remain  alive” 
(De.  5  :  24).  K. 

The  element  of  terror  which  prevailed  in  the 
revelation  given  on  Sinai  was  the  true  type  of 
the  aspect  of  the  Law  to  the  mind  of  sinful  man. 
Pure  and  holy  in  itself,  it  became  ”  death,” 
when  proposed  as  the  condition  of  life  ;  and  its 
great  purpose  was  to  reveal  to  self-righteous 
man  “  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin,”  that  he 
might  be  led  to  receive  the  grace  of  God  in 
Christ.  Thus  the  clouds  of  Sinai  did  not  ex¬ 
hibit,  but  concealed,  the  true  glory  of  Jehovah. 

P.  S. - The  mountain  of  Sinai  shows,  and 

God  through  the  mountain,  w'hat  the  heart  feels 
when  the  Law  is  laid  open  to  it  and  it  is 
touched  by  the  judgment  of  God.  Like  as  the 
Israelites  saw  lightning,  thunder,  smoke,  earth¬ 
quake,  so  that  their  heart  stood  still  as  if  they 
should  now  die — they  had  no  other  image  than 
death  before  their  eyes — so  also  does  a  heart  left 
to  itself  regard  God  as  an  executioner  and  jailer. 
None  other  than  Christ  can  raise  it  up,  whom 
I  must  know  as  a  friend  and  brother,  and  be 
able  to  say  to  God,  “  Lord,  I  know  no  one, 
neither  in  heaven  nor  on  earth,  in  whom  I  may 
have  consolation  and  confidence  than  thyself 
through  Christ.”  Luther. 

Christians  need  no  longer  stand  far  ofi  in  fear, 
like  Israel  at  the  foot  of  Horeb,  there  entreating 
that  he  may  no  longer  speak  to  them,  and  with 
the  secret  fear  within  their  heart  that  he  who 
has  seen  God  shall  die.  We  have  already  seen 
God  in  the  face  of  his  beloved  Son,  yet  our  life 
is  preserved  ;  and  the  voice  of  God,  and  not 
of  man,  is  ever  calling  us,  like  Moses,  to  draw 
near  to  him.  No  tables  of  stone  are  put  into 
our  hands,  but  God  is  still  establishing  his 
covenant  with  us  and  with  our  seed  forever 
more  ;  and  his  Law  is  written  by  the  Holy  Ghost 
upon  the  mind  when  its  regeneration  is  begun. 
No  barrier  prevents  approach  to  his  high  throne  ; 
in  Christ  we  may  draw  near  wnth  confidence,  by 
faith  in  him.  Wherever  there  is  any  supplica¬ 
tion  made,  the  Father  in  Christ  is  there,  as  near 
his  children  as  he  was  to  Moses  while  he  prayed  ; 
yea,  more,  wherever  in  your  heart  you  seek  the 
face  of  the  Infinite,  be  it  in  midst  of  toil  and 
weariness,  or  on  the  bed  of  rest — in  midst  of 
nature’s  calm  repose,  or  in  the  busy  whirl  of 
worldly  things — in  every  place  the  Eternal  One 
himself  is  near,  ready  to  address  kind  words  of 
comfort  to  your  soul.  All  true  believers,  priests  ; 
and  every  priest  called  to  draw  near  with  as 
much  confidence  as  Moses  did  :  such  is  the  joy¬ 
ful  message  which  the  Gospel  brings.  Van  0. 
15 


Once  God  tried  the  expedient  of  speaking  to 
the  children  of  men  immediately,  but  it  was  found 
that  they  could  not  bear  it,  it  rather  drove  men 
from  God  than  brought  them  to  him,  and,  as  it 
proved  in  the  issue,  though  it  terrified  them  it 
did  not  deter  them  from  idolatry,  for  soon  after 
this  they  worshipped  the  golden  calf  ;  let  us 
therefore  rest  satisfied  with  the  instructions 
given  us  by  the  Scriptures  and  the  ministry  ; 
for  if  we  believe  not  them,  neither  should  we 
be  persuaded  though  God  should  speak  to  us  in 
thunder  and  lightning,  as  he  did  from  Mount 
Sinai  ;  here  that  matter  was  determined.  H. 

Upon  the  People’s  Eequest,  Approved  by  God, 
Moses  is  Appointed  Mediator  {De.  5  : 27-31), 

l>e.  5  :  27,  2§.  Moses  calls  attention  to  the 
fact  that  it  was  on  their  own  entreaty  that  he 
had  taken  on  him  to  be  the  channel  of  com¬ 
munication  between  God  and  them.  God  ap¬ 
proved  (verse  28)  the  request  of  the  people,  be¬ 
cause  it  showed  a  feeling  of  their  own  unworthi¬ 
ness  to  enter  into  direct  communion  with  God. 
The  terrors  of  Sinai  had  done  their  work.  They 
had  awakened  the  consciousness  of  sin.  Espin. 

Jehovah  approved  of  the  people's  words  ;  and 
Moses  was  solemnly  appointed  by  both  parties,  and 
recognized  henceforth  as  the  mediator  of  the 
covenant.  In  this  capacity  he  receives  J eho vah ’s 

further  commands.  K. - Moses  stood  between 

God  and  them,  at  the  foot  of  the  mount,  and 
carried  messages  between  them  both  for  the 
settling  of  the  preliminaries,  and  for  the  ex¬ 
changing  of  the  ratifications.  Herein  Moses  was 
a  type  of  Christ,  who  stands  between  God  and  man, 
to  shoio  us  the  Word  of  the  Lord  :  a  blessed  Day’s- 
Man,  that  has  laid  his  hand  upon  us  both,  so 
that  we  may  both  hear  from  God  and  speak  to 
him,  without  trembling.  H. 

The  whole  scope  and  design  of  the  occurrence 
show  that  no  soul  can  possibly  approach  this 
holy  and  terrible  being  but  through  a  mediator ; 
and  this  is  the  use  made  of  this  whole  transact 
tion  by  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He¬ 
brews  (ch.  12  : 18-24).  A.  C. - The  standing 

of  a  redeemed  people  was  shown  even  at  Mount 
Sinai  to  be  not  of  legal  merit,  but  of  grace. 
When  the  tribes  of  Israel  fell  back  in  fear  at  the 
foot  of  the  mount,  Moses  drew  near  in  their 
behalf  as  a  mediator.  When  they  sinned  and 
provoked  the  Lord  to  wrath,  Moses  pleaded  for 
them — significant  type  of  the  mediator  of  the 
New  Covenant,  who  ever  lives  to  make  interces 
sion  for  us.  D.  F. 

In  his  perfect  self-abnegation,  in  his  patience 
and  courage,  in  the  unwearied  fervor  of  his  in¬ 
tercessions,  in  his  unswerving  fidelity,  zeal,  and 


226 


SECTION  112.  MEDIATORSIIIP  OF  MOSES. 


devotion,  Moses  illustrated  the  true  ideal  of  a 

mediator,  B, - Moses  was  to  them  more  than 

ever  man  was  to  a  nation — their  deliverer  from 
the  most  crushing  bondage,  their  leader  through 
the  most  terrible  scenes,  wielding  in  their  be¬ 
half  the  highest  powers  of  nature  and  gifts  of 
the  soul —their  lawgiver,  their  prophet,  their 
advocate  with  God.  In  every  strait  they  fled  to 
Moses  and  found  in  him  sympath}^  and  relief. 
In  all  their  waywardness  and  rebellion  his  heart 
never  turned  from  them.  Long  ere  he  died,  his 
self-devotion  and  magnanimity  had  found  fit¬ 
ting  acknowledgment,  and  he  had  taken  a  place 
never  approached  by  any  other.  Ker. 

Moses  was  the  greatest  servant  of  the  Lord  in 
the  Old  Testament,  both  in  respect  to  his  nearer 
intercourse  with  the  Lord,  to  his  clear  andcom- 
jmehensive  revelation,  and  the  greatness  of  the 
acts  performed  by  him.  The  Founder  of  the 
new  and  eternal  covenant  (of  whom  Moses  was 
a  type)  is  alone  worthy  of  greater  honor  than  he 

(Heb.  3  :  3).  Gerl. - God  knew  him  face  to  face, 

and  so  he  knew  God.  He  saw  more  of  the  glory 
of  God  than  any  (at  least)  of  the  Old  Testament 
saints  ever  did.  He  had  more  free  and  frequent 
access  to  God,  and  was  spoken  to  not  in  dreams 
and  visions  and  slumberings  on  the  bed,  but 
when  he  was  awake  and  standing  before  the 
cherubims.  By  Moses  God  gave  the  Law,  and 
moulded  and  formed  the  Jewish  Church  ;  by 
the  other  prophets  he  only  sent  particular  re¬ 
proofs,  directions,  and  predictions.  The  last 
of  the  prophets  concludes  with  a  charge  to  re¬ 
member  the  Law  of  Moses  (Mai.  4  :  4).  Christ 
himself  often  appealed  to  the  writings  of  Moses, 
and  vouched  him  for  a  witness,  as  one  that  saio 
his  day  at  a  distance  and  spake  of  him.  But  as 
far  as  the  other  prophets  came  short  of  him,  our 
Lord  Jesus  w^ent  beyond  him  ;  his  doctrine 
more  excellent,  his  miracles  more  illustrious, 
and  his  communion  with  his  Father  more  in¬ 
timate,  for  he  had  lain  in  his  bosom  from  eternity, 
,and  by  him  God  does  now  in  these  last  days 
speak  to  us.  The  history  of  Moses  leaves  him 
buried  in  the  plains  of  Moab,  and  concludes 
with  the  period  of  his  government  ;  but  the  his¬ 
tory  of  our  Saviour  leaves  him  sitting  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high,  and  we  are  assured 
that  of  the  increase  of  his  government  and  peace 
there  shall  be  no  end.  The  apostle,  in  his  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  largely  proves  the  pre-eminence 
of  Christ  above  Moses,  as  a  good  reason  why  we 
that  are  Christians  should  be  obedient,  faithful, 
and  constant  to  that  holy  religion  which  we 
make  profession  of.  God,  by  his  grace,  make 
us  all  so  !  H. 

Where  shall  we  find  equal  disinterestedness 


to  that  which  Moses  manifested  ?  Without 
earthly  reward  of  any  sort,  so  far  as  we  can  see, 
he  lived  for  forty  years,  not  to  serve  himself, 
but  to  serve  the  tribes  ;  and  he  did  so  out  of  re¬ 
gard  to  Jehovah.  Even  when  he  had  it  in  his 
offer  to  be  made  himself  the  founder  of  a  great 
nation  if  he  would  give  up  pleading  their  cause, 
he  nobly  refused  to  turn  against  them  ;  and  he 
grounded  his  refusal  on  his  solicitude  for  the 
honor  of  the  Lord  himself.  So  we  find  that  his 
piety  was  the  source  of  his  disinterested  patriot¬ 
ism.  W.  M.  T. - All  that  is  told  of  him  indi¬ 

cates  a  withdrawal  of  himself,  a  preference  of 
the  cause  of  his  nation  to  his  own  interests, 
which  makes  him  the  most  complete  example  of 
Jewish  patriotism.  He  joins  his  countrymen  in 
their  degrading  servitude.  He  forgets  himself 
to  avenge  their  wrongs  He  desires  that  his 
brother  may  take  the  lead  instead  of  himself. 
He  wishes  that  not  he  only,  but  all  the  nation, 
were  gifted  alike  :  “  Enviest  thou  for  my  sake  ?’  ’ 
When  the  offer  is  made  that  the  people  should 
be  destroyed,  and  that  he  should  be  made 
“  a  great  nation,”  he  prays  that  they  may  be  for¬ 
given — “  if  not,  blot  me,  I  pray  thee,  out  of  thy 
book  wdiich  thou  hast  written.”  His  sons  were 
not  raised  to  honor.  The  leadership  of  the 
people  passed,  after  his  death  to  another  tribe. 
In  the  books  which  bear  his  name,  Abraham, 
and  not  himself,  appears  as  the  real  father  of 
the  nation.  In  spite  of  his  great  pre-eminence, 
they  are  never  the  children  of  Moses.”  P.  S. 

What  w^as  the  motive  of  such  a  life?  Who 
can  explain  the  inward  and  all-moving  force  ? 
We  must  wait  for  the  key-word  until  we  come  to 
the  most  eloquent  epistle  in  the  New  Testament. 
How  is  Moses  accounted  for  b}^  the  writer  of  the 

Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  ?  “  By  faith  Moses - .” 

Faith  could  find  a  way  through  the  wdlderness  ; 
faith  could  build  a  sanctuary  in  the  desert  ; 
faith  could  carry  a  great  household  of  rebellious 
children  through  dangerous  places  ;  faith  could 
see  Canaan  with  closed  eyes,  and  awaken  imag¬ 
ination  to  sing  to  adequate  music  the  delights 
of  that  promised  countr3^  J.  P. 

No  one  can  stud}’  the  history  of  Moses  with¬ 
out  learning  that  the  head-spiings  of  true  great¬ 
ness  and  efficiency  lie  far  away  up  out  of  the 
sight  of  one’s  fellows,  and  are  to  be  filled  and 
fed  by  lonely  studyings  and  solitary  musings, 
communings  with  one’s  own  heart,  with  God, 
with  nature,  and  with  all  those  questions  which 
any  education  worthy  of  the  name  suggests. 
The  noblest  life  is  thus  the  outcome  of  that  of 
which  no  biographer  can  take  cognizance.  It 
is  true  of  it,  as  the  Psalmist  says  of  the  body, 
that  it  is  “  made  in  secret  and  the  consola- 


SECTION  ns. 


227 


tion  of  each  earnest  worker  is  that,  though  for 
the  time  he  may  seem  to  himself  to  be  groping 
blindly  like  one  in  the  dark,  God  has  been 
superintending  and  shaping  all,  so  that  at  length 
he  can  say,  “  Thine  eyes  did  see  it,  while  yet 
imperfect  ;  and  in  thy  book  it  was  all  written, 
what  days  it  should  be  fashioned,  while  as  yet 
there  was  none  of  it,” 

How  clearly  does  all  this  appear  in  Moses  ! 
Each  of  the  two  former  sections  of  his  life  gave 
its  own  contribution  to  the  last,  with  its  glori¬ 
ous  time  of  harvest  and  achievement.  His 
eighty  years  of  preparation,  though  little  is  said 
about  them,  were  not  lost  ;  for,  when  he  came 
to  his  life-work,  that  lifted  into  itself  and  util¬ 
ized  everything  that  had  gone  before.  As  the 
eloquent  Bishop  Wilberforce  has  said,  “  The 
sage,  learned  in  all  Egyptian  lore  ;  the  great 
soul,  mighty  in  word  and  deed  ;  the  deep  phil¬ 
osophic  intellect,  furnished  with  all  transmitted 


wisdom,  trained  in  all  school  subtleties,  prac¬ 
tised  by  the  oft-handling  of  State  affairs,  ripened 
into  mellowness  by  solitude,  nature,  and  self¬ 
converse — these  remained  ;  but  on  them  all  had 
passed  a  mighty  change,  .  .  .  transmuting  the 
earthly  into  the  heavenly,  raising  the  intellec¬ 
tual  into  the  spiritual,  making  the  man  of 
power  into  the  man  of  God,  the  noble,  philo¬ 
sophic  patriot  into  the  prophet  of  the  Lord.” 
W.  M.  T. 

This  Moses,  humble  iir  refusing  so  great  a 
service  ;  resigned  in  undertaking,  faithful  in 
discharging,  unwearied  in  fulfilling  it  ;  vigilant 
in  governing  his  people,  resolute  in  correcting 
them  ;  ardent  in  loving  them,  and  patient  in 
bearing  with  them  ;  the  intercessor  for  them 
with  the  God  wLom  they  provoked,  this  Moses 
—  such  and  so  great  a  man— we  love,  and  ad¬ 
mire,  and,  so  far  as  may  be,  imitate.  Augus^ 
tine. 


Section  113. 

THE  BOOK  OF  THE  COVENANT  :  INTRODUCTION  {Ex.  20  :  22-2G  )  ;  THE  JUDGMENTS 
{E.^.  21  :  1  to  23  :  19)  ;  CONCLUSION -PROMISES  AND  WARNINGS  {Ex.  23  :  20-33). 

Ex.  20  22  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Thus  thou  shalt  say  unto  the  children  of  Israel, 

23  Ye  yourselves  have  seen  that  I  have  talked  with  you  from  heaven.  Ye  shall  not  make  other 

24  godfi  with  me  ;  gods  of  silver,  or  gods  of  gold,  ye  shall  not  make  unto  you.  An  altar  of  earth 
thou  shalt  make  unto  me,  and  shalt  sacrifice  tbereon  thy  burnt,  offerings,  and  thy  peace 
offerings,  thy  sheep,  and  thine  oxen  :  in  every  place  where  I  record  my  name  I  will  come  unto 

25  thee  and  I  will  bless  thee.  And  if  thou  make  me  an  altar  of  stone,  thou  shalt  not  build  it  of 

26  hewn  stones  :  for  if  thou  lift  up  thy  tool  upon  it,  thou  hast  polluted  it.  Neither  shalt  thou 
go  up  by  steps  unto  mine  altar,  that  thy  nakedness  be  not  discovered  thereon. 

21  1  Now  these  are  the  judgments  which  thou  shalt  set  before  them. 

[The  “  judgments”  embrace  Ex.  21  :  2—23  : 19.] 

23  20  Behold,  I  send  an  angel  before  thee,  to  keep  thee  by  the  way,  and  to  bring  thee  into 

21  the  place  which  I  have  prepared.  Take  ye  heed  of  him,  and  hearken  unto  his  voice  ;  pro- 

22  voke  him  not  :  for  he  will  not  pardon  your  transgression  ;  for  my  name  is  in  him.  But  if 
thou  shalt  indeed  hearken  unto  his  voice,  and  do  all  that  I  speak  ;  then  1  will  be  an  enemy 

23  unto  thine  enemies,  and  an  adversary  unto  thine  adversaries.  For  mine  angel  shall  go  before 
thee,  and  bring  thee  in  unto  the  Amorite,  and  the  Hittite,  and  the  Perizzite,  and  the  Canaan- 

24  ite,  the  Hivite,  and  the  Jebusite  :  and  I  will  cut  them  off.  Thou  shalt  not  bow  down  to  their 
gods,  nor  serve  them,  nor  do  after  their  works  :  but  thou  shalt  utteily  overthrow  them,  and 

25  break  in  pieces  their  pillars.  And  ye  shall  serve  the  Lord  your  God,  and  he  shall  bless  thy 

26  bread,  and  thy  \vater  ;  and  I  will  take  sickness  away  from  the  midst  of  thee.  There  shall 

27  none  cast  her  young,  nor  be  barren,  in  thy  land  :  the  number  of  thy  days  I  will  fulfil.  I  will 
send  my  terror  before  thee,  and  will  discomfit  all  the  peojDle  to  whom  thou  shalt  come,  and  I 

28  will  make  all  thine  enemies  turn  their  backs  unto  thee.  And  I  will  send  the  hornet  before 

29  thee,  which  shall  drive  out  the  Hivite,  the  Canaanite,  and  the  Hittite,  from  before  thee.  I 
will  not  drive  them  out  from  before  thee  in  one  year  ;  lest  the  land  become  desolate,  and  the 

30  beast  of  the  field  multiply  against  thee.  By  little  and  little  I  will  drive  them  out  from  before 

31  thee,  until  thou  be  increased,  and  inherit  the  land.  And  I  will  set  thy  border  from  the  Red 
Sea  even  unto  the  sea  of  the  Philistines,  and  from  the  wilderness  unto  the  River  ;  for  I  -will 
deliver  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  into  your  hand  ;  and  thou  shalt  drive  them  out  before 

32  thee.  Thou  shalt  make  no  covenant  with  them,  nor  with  their  gods.  They  shall  not  dwell 


228 


SECTION  113.  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


33  in  thy  land,  lest  they  make  thee  sin  against  me  :  for  if  thou  serve  their  gods,  it  'will  surely  be 


a  snare  unto  thee. 

At  the  earnest  cry  of  the  people,  Moses  had  | 
been  appointed  as  mediator  between  Jehovah 
and  Israel.  And  now,  as  the  next  duty  in  order, 
came  the  ratification  of  that  covenant,  whose 
conditions  had  been  proposed  by  God  himself 
to  his  people  in  the  Ten  Commandments.  Bat 
before  the  people  could  intelligently  pledge 
themselves  to  fulfil  these  conditions,  it  was  nec¬ 
essary  that  some  more  siJecific  directions  should 
be  given  respecting  their  worship  of  God  and 
their  conduct  toward  each  other.  Hence,  we 
have  in  these  chapters  (20  ;  22  to.  23  : 33)  an  out¬ 
lined  summary  of  the  more  important  injunc¬ 
tions  and  ordinances,  given  to  Moses  in  “  the 
thick  darkness  where  God  was”  (20  :  21).  These 
“  words  and  judgments”  (21  : 1)  consist  mainly 
of  precepts  respecting  the  true  sjDirit  and  method 
of  worship  and  the  solemn  commemorative 
feasts,  and  laws  bearing  upon  personal  rights 
and  duties  in  various  civil  and  social  relations, 
and  upon  injuries  or  wrongs  incident  to  these 
relations.  These  specific  instructions  and  stat¬ 
utes  were  in  effect  practical  applications  of  the 
Ten  Commandments,  and  so  served  as  a  suffi¬ 
cient  preliminary  exposition  of  those  command¬ 
ments.  In  their  selection  they  fully  and  fairly 
interi:>reted  the  spirit  and  character  of  the  whole 
subsequent  legislation.  Thus  they  w^ere  fitted 
to  their  design  in  furnishing  a  fuller  basis  for 
more  intelligent  action  in  the  solemn  ceremonial 
now  impending,  the  formal  ratification  of  Je¬ 
hovah’s  covenant  with  his  people. 

[Note. — As  the  great  body  of  these  statutes 
(Ex.  21  ;  2  to  23  : 19),  specifically  termed  “  the 
judgments,"  are  subsequently  re  enjoined  with 
greater  fulness,  it  accords  with  our  plan  to  de¬ 
fer  a  detailed  exposition  to  their  orderly  place 
in  the  general  arrangement.]  B. 

The  Book  of  the  Covenant. 

In  Ex,.  24  ;4  is  said,  “  Moses  xoroie  all  the  words 

of  the  Lord  and,  verse  7,  ■'  He  took  the  hook 

of  the  covenant." 

The  book  written  by  Moses  and  called  the 
book  of  the  covenant,  because  the  great  cove¬ 
nant  at  Sinai  was  made  upon  the  basis  of  it 
(24:8),  is  also  called  the  greater  book  of  the 
covenant  in  order  to  distinguish  it  from  the 
little  book  of  the  covenant^ (Ex.  34  : 27).  This 
book  contained  “all  the  words  and  all  the  judg¬ 
ments”  (21  : 1)  which  had  just  been  given  to 
Moses  in  the  mount  (24  : 3).  “  The  words” 

certainly  embrace  Ex.  20  :  22-26  and  23  : 20-33, 
the  Introduction  and  Conclusion  of  the  book. 
Some  have  maintained  that  the  ten  words  of  the 


tables  should  likewise  be  included.  “  The  judg¬ 
ments”  embrace  21-23  :  19,  in  accordance  with 
the  title  21  : 1  :  “These  are  the  judgments 
which  thou  shalt  set  before  them,  ”  Briggs. 

The  context  seems  to  make  it  clear  that  we 
may  identify  this  series  with  what  was  "written 
by  Moses  in  the  book  called  the  book  of  the 
covenant,  and  read  by  him  in  the  audience  of 
the  people  (see  24:4,  7).  There  has  been  a 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  compass  of  mat¬ 
ter  contained  in  this  book.  But  the  weight  of 
authority  is  in  favor  of  its  comprising  the  last 
five  verses  of  ch.  20,  with  ch.  21,  22,  23,  In 
whatever  way  these  laws  may  have  originated, 
as  they  are  here  brought  together,  they  are 
clearly  enforced  by  Jehovah  as  conditions  of 

conduct  for  the  covenanted  people.  Clark. - 

Whether  the  book  of  the  covenant  contained 
the  Decalogue  or  not,  there  can  be  no  question 
that  it  was  understood  to  rest  upon  the  tables 
of  stone  as  its  rock  foundation.  But  “  the  book 
of  the  covenant,”  as  distinguished  from  the 
tables  of  stone,  begins  with  these  words  in  the 
twenty-second  verse  of  the  twentieth  chapter  : 
“  Ye  have  seen  that  I  have  talked  with  you  from 
heaven  and  extends  to  the  close  of  the 
twenty-third  chapter.  J.  M.  G. 

In  the  book  of  the  covenant,  drawn  up  as  the 
preliminary  basis  of  the  union  to  be  cemented 
between  Jehovah  and  Israel,  it  would  have  been 
clearly  out  of  place  to  introduce  in  detail  the 
whole  ceremonial  of  worship  which  was  subse¬ 
quently  established  as  the  outgrowth  and  proper 
expression  of  this  union.  Accordingly  it  com¬ 
prises  first  and  mainly  regulations  regarding 
the  relation  of  man  to  man,  conceived  in  the 
spirit  of  the  religion  of  Jehovah,  and  then  in 
the  briefest  possible  compass  directions  resjiect- 
ing  firstlings  and  first-fruits,  the  Sabbath  and 
the  annual  feasts  —that  to  say,  oblations  and 
sacred  times,  as  the  culminations  of  that  out¬ 
ward  and  formal  service  in  which  the  people’s 
homage  toward  God  was  to  manifest  itself.  W. 

H.  G. - The  difference  between  the  first  group 

of  laws  (which  is  found  in  the  book  of  the  cove¬ 
nant)  and  the  subsequent  groups  which  were 
based  upon  it  is  this  :  the  former  laid  down  the 
conditions  on  which  the  covenant  was  to  be 
concluded,  and  the  basis  of  the  theocratical 
constitution  ;  the  latter  contained  their  further 
development,  especially  in  a  liturgical  point  of 
view.  The  first  group  related  to  such  depart¬ 
ments  of  life  as  embraced  the  most  general  and 
fundamental  features  of  the  theocratical  common¬ 
wealth.  It  contained  laws  that  equally  affected 


mTRODUCTION  OF  THE  BOOK. 


229 


the  whole  nation  and  every  individual  belong¬ 
ing  to  it  ;  whereas  the  following  groups  related 
to  more  special  departments  of  life  and  worship, 
and  contained  commandments,  the  observance 
of  which  depended  upon  the  sanctuary  which 
was  nut  yet  erected,  and  the  existence  of  a 
priesthood  that  had  not  yet  been  instituted.  K. 

Introduction  op  the  Book  of  the  Covenant, 
Ec.  20  : 22-26. 

Nothing  could  be  more  appropriate  as  the 
commencement  of  the  book  of  the  covenant 
than  these  regulations  for  public  worshiji. 

Clark. - They  contain  a  general  outline  of  the 

mode  of  worship,  especially  guarding  its  purity 
and  simplicity.  The  outline  was  afterward  to 
be  filled  up  in  the  elaborate  ritual  of  the  taber¬ 
nacle  and  its  services  ;  but  in  the  book  of  the 
covenant  there  were  only  the  leading  principles 
which  were  to  govern  and  guide  the  people  in 
their  acts  of  worship.  J.  M.  G. 

22.  The  Liord  said  unnto  Moses. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  verse  con¬ 
tains  the  ground  and  reason  of  the  prohibition 
in  the  next  ;  but  the  exact  chain  of  sequence 
which  connects  the  two  together  is  not  perfectly 
obvious  from  the  face  of  the  narrative.  But 
upon  referring  to  the  parallel  passage  (De. 
4  : 14-16),  where  a  more  detailed  account  is 
given,  we  seem  to  be  furnished  with  a  clew  to 
the  connection.  “  And  the  Lord  commanded 
me  at  that  time  to  teach  you  statutes  and  judg¬ 
ments,  that  ye  might  do  them  in  the  land 
whither  ye  go  over  to  possess  it.  Take  ye  there¬ 
fore  good  heed  unto  yourselves  (for  ye  saw  no 
manner  of  similitude  on  the  clay  that  the  Lord 
spake  unto  you  in  Horeb  out  of  the  midst  of  the 
fire)  ;  lest  ye  corrupt  yourselves,  and  make  you 
a  graven  image,  the  similitude  of  any  figure,  the 

likeness  of  male  or  female.”  Bush. - 23.  He 

had  given  them  sufiicieiit  demonstration  of  his 
presence  among  them  ;  thej^’  needed  not  to  make 
images  of  him,  as  if  he  were  absent.  Besides, 
they  had  only  seen  that  he  talked  with  them, 
they  had  seen  no  manner  of  similitude,  so  that 
they  could  not  make  any  image  of  God  ;  and  his 
manifesting  himself  to  them  only  by  a  voice, 
plainly  showed  them  that  they  must  not  make 
any  such  image,  but  keep  up  their  communion 
with  God  by  his  Word.  H, 

24.  All  Altar.  The  prohibition  to  make 
any  image  of  God  is  designed  to  introduce  the 
permission  or  injunction  to  make  an  altar  to 
him.  The  only  outward  thfng  in  the  salvation 
of  the  soul  is  the  atonement.  The  necessity  of 
propitiation  is  accordingly  symbolized  in  the 
altar.  The  mercy  of  God  needs  no  type,  and 


has  its  place  in  the  proclamation  on  Sinai,  The 
propitiation,  which  makes  way  for  his  mercy  to 
the  penitent  sinner  by  satisfying  his  justice, 
has  its  type  in  the  altar  and  the  sacrifice  thereon. 
This  S2Jecial  provision  for  the  salvation  of  sin¬ 
ners,  though  it  would  be  out  of  jilace  in  the  tea 
words,  yet  forms  the  main  substance  of  all  that  is 
shadowed  forth  in  the  whole  ceremonial  Law.  It, 
therefore,  comes  in  here  as  the  necessary  ante¬ 
cedent  of  all  acceptable  aiiproaching  to  God  and 
walking  with  him.  The  word  altar  connects 
Moses  and  the  peojile  of  Israel  with  Noah  and 

his  rescued  family.  M. - III  all  plsiee§ 

where  I  rc^eorcl  my  name.  Wherever  I 
am  worshipped,  whether  in  the  open  wilder¬ 
ness,  at  the  tabernacle,  the  temple,  the  syn¬ 
agogues,  or  elsewhere,  I  will  come  unto  thee,  and 
hltss  thee.  These  words  are  jirecisely  the  same 
in  signification  with  those  of  our  Lord,  For 
where  two  or  three  are  gathered  together  in  my  name, 
there  am  1  in  the  midst  of  them.  And  as  it  was 
Jesus  who  was  the  angel  that  spoke  to  them  in 
the  wilderness  (Acts  7  : 38),  from  the  same  mouth 
this  promise  in  the  Law  and  that  in  the  Gospel 

jproceeded,  A.  C. - So  that  wherever  God’s 

people  meet  in  his  name  to  worshij)  him,  he  will 
be  in  the  midst  (f  them  :  he  will  honor  them  with 
his  jiresence,  and  reward  them  with  the  gifts  of 
his  grace  ;  there  he  will  come  unto  them,  and 
will  bless  them,  and  more  than  this  we  need 
not  desire  for  the  beautifying  of  our  solemn  as¬ 
semblies.  H. 

This  command  prescribes  the  material  out  of 
which  the  Divine  altar  should  be  constructed, 
the  earth,  the  natural  soil  of  the  ground.  It 
mentions  the  two  kinds  of  sacrifices,  bothjirim- 
itive  and  jire  Mosaic,  which  might  be  made 
upon  it  :  whole  burnt-otferings  and  peace- 
offerings.  Many  different  altars  are  contem- 
jilated.  These  places  for  the  erection  of  altars 
were  indicated  by  Divine  selection.  The  record¬ 
ing  of  the  Divine  name  is  such  a  selection.  This 
was  done  in  the  olden  times  by  Theojihanies. 
The  Deuteronomic  expression  12  : 5,  is  “  which 
Jehovah  will  choose  to  put  his  nname  there 
and  12  : 11,  to  cause  his  name  to  dwell  there. 
25.  The  native  rock  or  natural  stones  were  al¬ 
lowed  for  use  in  altar  building  as  well  as  the 
natural  soil  of  the  ground,  only  they  must  re¬ 
main  in  their  natural  condition.  No  tool  could 
be  used  upon  them.  Briggs. 

I  understand  this  of  the  altars,  which  either 
in  the  desert  or  elsewhere  should  be  built,  be¬ 
fore  the  choice  of  the  perpetual  place  had  been 
manifested  to  them,  God  would  have  them 
built  of  earth  that  they  might  fall  down  of  them¬ 
selves,  and  that  no  trace  of  them  might  remain 


230 


SECTION  113.  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


after  the  departure  of  the  people  ;  but  if  stones 
were  used,  he  forbade  their  being  fitted  together 
in  a  permanent  structure,  but  would  have  them 
thrown  rough  and  unpolished  into  a  heap,  lest 
their  ajipearance  should  entice  posterity  to 
superstition,  Calv. - The  heathens,  who  imi¬ 

tated  the  rites  of  the  true  God  in  their  idola¬ 
trous  worship,  made  their  altars  very  high  ; 
whence  they  derived  their  name  altarUi,  aV.ars — 
ie. ,  very  high  or  elevated  places  ;  which  they 
built  thus  parti}"  through  pride  and  vainglory, 
and  partly  that  their  gods  might  the  better  hear 
them.  Hence  also  i\\e  high  places  ov  idolatrous 
altars,  so  often  and  so  severely  condemned  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures.  God  therefore  ordered 
His  altars  to  be  made,  (1)  either  of  simple  turf, 
that  there  might  be  no  unnecessary  expense, 
and  that  they  might  be  no  incentives  to  idolatry 
from  their  costly  or  curious  structure,  or  (2)  of 
unhewn  stone,  that  no  images  of  animals  or  of 
the  celestial  bodies  might  be  sculptured  on 
them,  as  was  the  case  among  the  idolaters,  and 
esj^ecially  among  the  Egyptians,  as  several  of 
their  ancient  altars  which  remain  to  the  present 
day  amply  testify  ;  which  altars  themselves  and 
the  images  carved  on  them  became  in  process 
of  time  incentives  to  idolatry,  and  even  objects 
of  worship.  A.  C. 

The  altar  in  the  fore-court  of  the  tabernacle 
was  made  of  wood,  with  wooden  staves  overlaid 
with  brass,  the  interior  of  the  framework  being 
filled  with  earth.  The  altar  in  Solomon’s  temple 
was  entirely  of  brass  (2  Ch.  4  : 1).  After  the 
captivity,  and  in  the  time  of  the  Maccabees, 
as  we  learn  (1  Mac.  4  :  45,  47),  the  altar  in 
the  temple  was  of  unhewn  stones,  probably  be¬ 
cause,  without  express  Divine  command,  they 
did  not  wish  to  depart  from  the  command  here 
given.  The  same  was  the  case  with  the  altar  in 
Herod’s  temple.  Proiierly  every  altar  ought  to 
have  been  made  of  earth,  and  the  wood  or  brass 
plates  were  only  the  framework  into  which  the 
earth  was  heaped.  If  it  was  made  of  stones, 
these  must  be  unhewn,  that  they  might  resemble 
earth  as  much  as  possible.  Oerl. 

26.  The  sanctity  of  the  altar  was  also  main¬ 
tained  by  the  prohibition  of  any  exposure  of 
the  person  there,  even  such  as  might  arise  in 
the  use  of  stairs.  Briggs. 

The  Judgments  (Ex.  20  :  2  to  Ex.  23  : 19). 

Ex.  21  :  1.  These  are  the  Judge¬ 
ments.  The  next  division  contains  “  the 
judgments,”  as  they  are  called,  regulating  the 
civil  relations  to  each  other  of  the  members 
of  the  Hebrew'  commonw"ealth  (21  : 1-23  : 19). 


These  judgments  stood  related  to  the  second 
table  of  the  Law,  just  as  the  regulations  con¬ 
cerning  the  worship  of  the  altar  stood  related 
to  the  first.  It  is  to  be  remembered  also  that 
these  “  judgments,  ’  and  those  of  the  same 
kind  Mdiich  afterward  v/ere  added  as  occasion 
arose,  are  to  be  distinguished  from  the  moral 
law,  not  only  as  applying  to  the  State  rather 
than  to  the  individual,  but  also  as  local  and 
temporary  in  their  nature,  representing  not 
what  W'as  ideally  best,  but  only  what  w'as  then 
practically  possible  in  the  direction  of  that 
which  was  best.  Some  very  superficial  people 
criticise  them  as  if  they  were  intended  for  the 
nineteenth  century  !  The  Decalogue  was,  and 
is,  intrinsically  perfect  ;  the  “judgments”  were 
adapted  to  the  circumstances  and  wants  of 
Israel  at  the  time.  And  it  would  be  a  good  thing 
if  reformers  of  modern  times  would  always  re¬ 
member  the  same  wise  and  necessary  distinc¬ 
tion,  between  that  which  is  ideally  perfect  and 
that  w^hich  alone  may  be  practically  possible. 
Still  further  it  is  to  be  remembered,  that  these 
judgments  were  suitable  to  “  the  Theocracy”  of 
Israel  ;  and  hence  those  are  entirely  wrong  who 
attempt  to  use  them  as  precedents  for  general 
legislation  in  the  limited  monarchies  and  re¬ 
publican  governments,  and  otherwise  entirely 
altered  circumstances,  of  modern  times.  A’et  if 
we  could  only  compare  these  “  judgments”  with 
the  laws  and  customs  of  the  nations  around, 
we  should  see  by  force  of  contrast  how  exceed¬ 
ingly  pure,  wise,  just,  and  humane  they  are  ; 
and  especially  where  private  relations  are  dealt 
with,  we  have  touches  which  would  not  shame 
the  New  Testament  itself,  however  much  they 
may  in  another  sense  shame  us,  as  for  instance 
(Ex.  23  : 4,  5)  :  “  If  thou  meet  thy  enemy’s  ox 
or  his  ass  going  astray,  thou  shalt  surely  bring 
it  back  to  him  again.  If  thou  see  the  ass  of 
him  that  hateth  thee  lying  under  his  burden, 
and  wouldest  forbear  to  help  him,  thou  shaft 
surely  help  wdth  him.”  The  third  division  of 
the  book  of  the  covenant  has  to  do  with  mat¬ 
ters  which  relate  neither  to  w"orship  exclusively, 
nor  to  civil  relations  exclusively,  but  to  both. 
These  are  the  Sabbath  year,  the  Sabbath  day, 
and  the  yearly  festivals  (23  : 10-19),  As  for  the 
Sabbath  year  and  the  festivals,  they  will  come 
up  again  in  the  fuller  details  w'hich  were  given 
from  the  tabernacle  and  recorded  in  Leviticus. 
And  as  for  the  Sabbath  day,  we  may  simply  re¬ 
mark  the  significance  of  its  presence  herein  the 
book  of  the  covenant,  as  well  as  in  the  Deca¬ 
logue,  indicating  that  while  in  its  principle  it 
belongs  to  universal  and  unchangeable  law,  in 
its  letter  it  formed  part  of  that  national  cove- 


THE  JUDGMENTS  "  -CONGL  USTON. 


231 


i  i 


nant  which  was  merged  in  the  new  and  better 
covenant  of  the  later  age.  J.  M.  G. 

“  The  judgments”  next  communicated  to 
Moses  determined,  first,  ihe  civil  and  social  posi¬ 
tion  of  all  in  Israel  relatively  to  each  other  (Ex. 
21  : 1-23  : 12),  and  then  their  religious  position  rel¬ 
atively  to  the  Lord  (23  : 13-19).  The  Divine 
legislation  begins,  as  assuredly  none  other  ever 
did,  not  at  the  topmost  but  at  the  lowest  rung 
of  society.  It  declares  in  the  first  place  the  per¬ 
sonal  rights  of  such  individuals  as  are  in  a  state  of 
dependence — male  (21  : 2-6)  and  female  slaves 
(verses  7-11).  This  is  done  not  only  with  a 
sacred  regard  for  the  rights  of  the  person,  but 
with  a  delicacy,  kindness,  and  strictness  be^^ond 
any  code  ever  framed  on  this  subject.  If  slavery 
was  still  tolerated,  as  a  thing  existent,  its  real 
principle,  that  of  making  men  chattels  and 
property,  was  struck  at  the  root,  and  the  insti¬ 
tution  became,  by  its  safeguards  and  provisions, 
quite  other  from  what  it  has  been  among  any 
nation,  whether  ancient  or  modern. 

Then  follow  “  judgments”  guarding  life  (verses 
12-14),  with  crimes  against  which,  the  maltreat¬ 
ment  and  the  cursing  of  parents  (verses  15,  17), 
and  man-stealing  (verse  16),  are  put  on  a  level. 
It  is  the  sanctity  of  life,  in  itself,  in  its  origin, 
and  in  its  free  possession,  which  is  here  in  ques 
tion,  and  the  punishment  awarded  to  such 
crimes  is  neither  intended  as  warning  nor  as 
correction,  but  strictly  as  punishment — that  is, 
as  retribution.  From  the  protection  of  Ife  the 
Law  passes  to  that  of  the  body  against  all  injuries, 
whether  by  man  (verses  18-27)  or  by  beast  (verses 
28-32).  The  principle  here  is,  so  far  as  pos¬ 
sible,  compensation,  coupled  with  punishment  in 
grave  offences. 

Next,  the  safety  of  property  is  secured.  But 
before  entering  upon  it,  the  Divine  Law  pro¬ 
tects  also  the  life  of  a  beast.  Property  is  dealt 
with  under  various  aspects.  First  we  have  the 
theft  of  cattle — the  most  important  to  guard 
against  among  an  agricultural  people — a  differ¬ 
ent  kind  of  protection  being  wisely  allowed  to 
owners  by  day  and  by  night  (22  : 1-4).  Then, 
damage  to  fields  or  their  produce  is  considered 
(verses  5,  6).  After  that,  loss  or  damage  of  what 
had  been  intrusted  for  safe  keeping  (verses  7-15), 
and  along  with  it  loss  of  honor  (verses  16,  17)  are 
dealt  with. 

The  statutes  which  follow  (verses  18-30)  are 
quite  different  in  character  from  those  which 
had  preceded.  They  are  beyond  the  province 
of  ordinary  civil  legislation,  and  concern  Israel 
as  being  specially  the  people  of  God.  As  such 
they  express  what  Jehovah  expects  from  his 
own  people,  bound  to  him  by  covenant.  As  be¬ 


fore,  the  series  of  statutes  begins  by  interdicting 
what  is  contrary  to  the  God-consecrated  charac¬ 
ter  of  the  nation.  Thus,  at  the  outset  all  magic 
is  exterminated  (verse  18),  and  with  it  all  unnat¬ 
ural  crimes  (verse  19),  and  idolatrous  practices 
(verse  20).  In  short,  as  before  in  worship,  so 
now  in  life,  heathenism,  its  powers,  its  vile¬ 
ness,  and  its  corruptions  are  swept  aside.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  opjoosition  to  all  national  ex¬ 
clusiveness,  the  stranger  (though  not  the  strange 
god)  is  to  be  kindly  welcomed  (verse  21)  ;  wid¬ 
ows  and  the  fatherless  are  not  to  be  “  humili¬ 
ated  ’  ’  (verses  22-24)  ;  those  in  temporary  need 
not  to  be  vexed  by  usury  (verses  25-27)  ;  God 
as  the  supreme  Lawgiver  is  not  to  be  reviled, 
nor  3'et  are  those  appointed  to  rule  under  him 
to  be  cursed  (verse  28)  ;  the  tribute  due  to  the 
Lord  as  King  is  to  be  cheerfully  given  (verses 
29,  30)  ;  and  the  holy  dignity  of  his  people  not 
to  be  j)rofaned  even  in  their  daily  habits  (verse 
31).  Again,  nothing  that  is  untrue,  unloving, 
or  unjust  is  to  be  said,  done,  or  attempted 
(23  ;  1-3),  and  that  not  merely  in  public  deal¬ 
ings,  but  personal  dislike  is  not  to  influence 
conduct.  On  the  contrary,  all  loving  help  is  to 
be  given  even  to  an  enemy  in  time  of  need 
(verses  4,  5)  ;  the  poor  and  persecuted  are  not 
to  be  unjustly  dealt  with  ;  no  bribe  is  to  be 
taken,  “  for  the  gift  maketh  open  eyes  blind, 
and  perverteth  the  causes  of  the  righteous,”  and 
the  same  rule  is  to  apply  to  the  stranger  as  to 
Israel  (verses  6-9).  Finally  in  this  connection, 
the  seventh  year’s  and  the  seventh  day’s  rest 
are  referred  to,  not  so  much  in  their  religious 
character  as  in  their  bearing  upon  the  poor  and 
the  workers  (verses  10-12). 

Passing  from  the  statutes  fixing  the  civil  and 
social  position  of  all  in  Israel  to  their  religious 
position  relatively  to  Jehovah,  we  have  first  of  all 
an  injunction  of  the  three  great  annual  feasts. 
Although  strictly  religious  festivals,  they  are 
here  viewed,  primarily,  not  in  their  symbolical 
and  typical  meaning  (which  is  universal  and 
eternal),  but  in  their  national  bearing  :  the  Pas¬ 
chal  feast  as  that  of  Israel’s  deliverance  from 
Eg3'pt,  the  feast  of  weeks  as  that  “  of  harvest, 
the  first-fruit  of  thy  labors,”  and  the  feast  of 
tabernacles  as  that  of  final  '‘ingathering” 
(verses  14-17).  Of  the  three  ordinances  which 
now  follow  (verses  18,  19),  the  first  refers  to  the 
Paschal  sacrifice  (comp.  Ex.  12  : 15,  20  ;  13  :  7; 
34  : 25),  and  the  second  to  the  feast  of  first-fruits 
or  of  weeks.  A.  E. 

Conclusion  of  the  Book  of  the  Covenant. 

Promises  and  Warnings  {Ex.  23  :  20-33). 

These  verses  form  the  conclusion  of  the  book 


232 


SECTION  ns.  THE  BOOK  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


of  the  covenant.  They  contain  jDromises  of  the 
constant  presence  and  guidance  of  Jehovah 
(verses  20-22),  of  the  driving  out  of  the  nations 
of  the  Canaanites  by  degrees  (2J-30),  and  of  the 
subsequent  enlargement  of  Hebrew  dominion 
(verse  31).  But  these  promises  are  accompanied 
by  solemn  exhortations  and  threatenings  (cf. 
34  :  iO-17),  where  similar  promises  and  warn¬ 
ings  are  prefixed  to  the  shorter  compendium  of 
Law  which  was  written  down  after  the  renewal 
of  the  tables.  Giark. - The  demands  of  Je¬ 

hovah,  which  are  imposed  u]3on  the  people  in 
the  book  of  the  covenant,  are  followed  by  the 
promises  of  Nkovuh,  or  the  covenant  obligations 

which  Jehovah  imposed  upon  himself.  K. - 

The  closing  division  of  the  book  contains  those 
PEOMisES  which  set  forth  the  Divine  part  in  the 
covenant— promises  of  angelic  guidance,  vic¬ 
tory,  national  jDrosperity,  and  greatness — accom¬ 
panied,  however,  with  cautions  against  disobe¬ 
dience,  and  against  yielding  to  the  temptation 
of  forsaking  the  God  of  Israel  for  other  gods. 
J.  M.  G. 

These  exhortations  and  promises  at  the  con- 
elusion  of  the  book  of  the  covenant  are  to  be 
compared  with  those  brief  ones  in  the  introduc¬ 
tion  to  the  little  book  of  the  covenant  (34  : 11- 
13),  also  with  the  fuller  conclusion  of  the  sec¬ 
tion  of  the  priest’s  code  called  the  code  of  sanc¬ 
tity  (Lev.  26),  and  the  blessings  and  curses  of 
the  Deuteronomic  code  (De.  27  :30).  The  pecu¬ 
liarity  of  this  code  as  distinguished  from  the 
others  is  the  emphasis  here  laid  upon  the 
Malakli,  the  angel  of  the  Divine  presence,  the 
T/ieophanic  angel.  The  priest’s  code  uses  in¬ 
stead  of  the  Theophany  (Lev.  26  : 11  sq.),  ‘‘  And 
I  will  giv-  my  tabernacle  in  your  midst  and  I 
myself  wi  1  not  reject  you,  and  I  will  walkabout 
in  j’-our  midst  and  become  your  God  and  j’e  shall 
become  my  people.”  Brigys. 

20-22,  EScliolcl,  I  §ciicl  an  aag^cll  Hjc- 
fore  tliec.  The  Angel  who  is  meant  in  this 
special  promise  of  grace,  who  was  to  lead  Israel, 
whom  they  are  to  obey  as  if  he  were  God  him¬ 
self,  and  whom  they  cannot  resist  with  impu¬ 
nity,  who  has  power  to  pardon  or  retain  their 
transgressions,  in  whom  is  the  Name  —i.e.,  the 
being  and  majesty — of  God,  cannot  possibly  be 
any  other  than  the  Bevealer  of  the  Godhead,  in 
whom  He  personally  exists  ;  the  Angel  who 
brought  Israel  forth  out  of  Egypt  (Nu.  20  : 16)  ; 
the  Captain  of  the  Lord’s  host  (Josh.  5  : 14)  ;  the 
Presence  of  the  Lord  (Ex.  33  : 14)  ;  the  Angel  of 
his  presence  (Isa.  63  : 9)  ;  the  Messenger  of  the 

covenant  (Mai.  3:1).  C.  G.  B. - He  is  no 

created  angel,  but  a  form  of  the  Divine  pres¬ 
ence,  bearing  the  name  of  Jehovah,  as  in  ch. 


13  : 21,  and  clothed  with  his  attributes,  and  in¬ 
deed  identified  in  action  (verse  22)  with  him  : 
for  it  is  not  said,  “  he  will  be  an  enemy,”  etc., 
but  “i  w'ill  be,”  as  equivalent:  and  (23)  the 
way  in  which  this  will  be  shown  is  by  hi.'i  going 
before  thee,  and  his  cutting  off  the  nations. 
And  (24,  If.)  this  obedience  to  him  will  be  shown 
by  utter  separation  from  those  nations  and  their 
idolatry.  AJj. 

illo  wiJI  i:ot  partloii  j  our  traiis- 
g^re§§iOii§.  Were  he  either  man  or  ahgel,  it 
‘need  not  bo  said.  He  will  not  pardon  your  Irons- 
gressions  ;  for  neither  man  nor  angel  could  do 
it.  My  Eiamc  is  iai  Ssim.  The  Jehovah 
dwells  in  him— in  him  dwelt  all  the  fulness  of 
the  Godhead  bodily  ;  and  because  of  this  he 

could  pardon  cr  punish.  A.  C. - Everywhere 

throughout  this  great  system  of  Law,  we  find 
Jehovah  appealing  to  his  own  name  as  signifi¬ 
cant  of  a  special  and  tender  relation,  and  as 
containing  associations  fitted  to  affect  the  hearts 

of  his  people.  Mxc  Whorler. - God  will  send 

an  Angel  before  the  people  whom  Israel  is  to 
obey  :  he  wfill  be  angry  with  them  if  they  trans¬ 
gress  :  he  has  the  power  of  forgiveness.  All 
this  is  declared  in  the  expression,  ”  M}'^  name 
is  in  him.”  In  the  person  of  this  Angel,  God 
goes  before,  and  with,  his  people.  God  de¬ 
clares  (ch.  33  : 2,  3),  he  will  not  go  up  with  the 
people,  ‘‘lest  he  consume  them  in  the  way;” 
hat  he  will  send  an  angel  before  them.  Between 
these  two  angels,  therefore,  a  great  diftereiice 
must  exist.  In  the  one  is  God’s  name— i.e.,  his 
whole  revealed  being  :  wLoever  displeases  him, 
displeases  God  himself  ;  so  likewise  he  forgives 
in  God's  name,  without  the  mediation  of  any 
other.  The  other,  on  the  contrary,  is  a  subor¬ 
dinate  servant  of  God  :  an  offence  committed  by 
Israel  against  him  is  not  directly  against  God 
himself,  but  against  a  creature.  In  the  place 
before  us.  Scripture  speaks  therefore  of  a  mes¬ 
senger  of  the  Lord  equal  to  the  uncreated  God, 
whose  acts  are  the  acts  of  God  Geil. 

23,  The  nations  here  mentioned  are  those 
only  that  inhabited  the  land  strictly  called  the 
land  of  Canaan,  Iping  between  the  Jordan  and 
the  Great  Sea  (see  Nu.  34  : 2  ;  cf.  Ex.  34  :11). 
I  Avill  cut  tliciil  otr.  It  has  been  too  ab¬ 
solutely  taken  for  granted  that  it  was  the  Divine 
will  that  the  inhabitants  of  Canaan  should  be 
utterly  exterminated.  We  know  that,  as  a  mat¬ 
ter  of  fact,  great  numbers  of  the  Canaanite  fam¬ 
ilies  lived  on,  and  intermarried  with  the  Israel¬ 
ites  (see  Judges  1  :  2,  with  such  cases  as  those 
of  the  Sidonians,  of  Araunah,  of  Uriah,  of  the 
family  of  Bahab,  etc.).  The  national  existence 
of  the  Canaanites  was  indeed  to  be  utterly  do- 


PROMISES  AND  WARNINGS. 


233 


stroyed,  every  trace  of  their  idolatries  was  to  be 
blotted  out,  no  social  intercourse  was  to  be  held 
with  them  while  they  served  other  gods,  nor 
were  alliances  of  any  kind  to  be  formed  with 
them.  These  commands  are  emphatically  re¬ 
located  and  expanded  in  Deuteronomy  (7  ; 
12  :  1-4,  29-31).  Thej'^  were  often  broken  by 
the  Israelites,  who  had  to  suffer  for  their  trans¬ 
gression  (Nu,  33  : 55  ;  Judges  2  ;  3).  But  it  is 
alike  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  the  Divine  Law, 
and  to  the  facts  bearing  on  the  subject  scattered 
in  the  history,  to  suppose  that  any  obstacle  was 
put  irr  the  way  of  well-disposed  individuals  of 
the  denounced  nations  who  left  their  sins  and 
were  willing  to  join  the  service  of  Jehovah. 
The  Law,  as  it  was  addressed  to  the  Israelites, 
never  forgets  the  stranger  (rather,  ihe  foreigner) 
who  had  voluntarily  come  within  their  gates. 
The  spiritual  blessings  of  the  covenant  were 
always  open  to  those  who  sincerely  and  ear¬ 
nestly  desired  to  possess  them.  Clark. 

30.  Though  God  could  easily  have  destroyed 
-the  Canaanites  at  once,  though  he  could  have 
crowned  his  people  with  immediate  and  decisive 
s'ictory,  yet  he  chose  rather  to  do  it,  as  he  in¬ 
forms  them  by  Moses,  “  by  little  and  little.” 
He  adopted  this  method  to  exercise  more  fully 
their  faith  and  patience  “  I  will  not  drive 
them  out  from  before  thee  in  one  year,  lest 
tlie  Lind  become  desolate,  and  the  beasts  of  the 
field  multiply  against  thee.  B\’  little  and  little 
will  I  drive  them  out  from  before  thee,  until 
thou  be  increased,  and  inherit  the  land.”  For 
wise  and  mysterious  ends,  in  like  manner,  he 
permits  his  Church  to  attain  but  a  gradual  vic¬ 
tory.  It  is  by  slow  degrees,  and  by  a  long  suc¬ 
cession  of  conflicts,  that  conquest  is  achieved  : 
the  force  of  the  enemy  is  gradually  weakened, 
and  it  is  long  ere  the  Church  is  permitted  com¬ 
pletely  to  rest  from  its  toils.  R.  Hall. 

31.  And  1  will  set  lliy  bounds.  He 

confirms  here  the  covenant  which  he  had  made 
with  Abraham  in  somewhat  different  words. 
More  briefly  had  it  been  said  to  Abraham, 
“  Uuco  thy  seed  have  I  given  this  land,  from  the 
river  of  Egypt  unto  the  great  river,  the  river 
Euphrates”  (Gen.  15  : 18)  Here  the  four  car¬ 
dinal  points  of  the  compass  are  enumerated, 
and,  instead  of  the  Nile,  the  other  sea  is  men¬ 
tioned.  Calv. - The  boundaries  of  the  prom¬ 

ised  land  are  here  indicated.  The  “  wilder¬ 
ness”  is  that  of  Etham  and  Shur.  The  “  river” 
is  the  Phrat.  The  extent  of  territory  within 


these  bounds  cannot  be  less  than  490  miles  by 
100,  and  therefore  four  or  five  times  the  area  of 
Palestine  proper.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that 
these  promises  are  here  made  conditional  on 
obedience  ;  and  therefore  their  fulfilment  was 
in  some  degree  modified  by  the  subsequent 
conduct  of  the  people  And  ihou  shall  drive  them 
Old  before  thee.  This  is  the  injunction  laid  on 
Israel  as  the  executioner  of  the  judgment  of 
God.  In  verse  32  the  second  injunction  is  to 
make  no  covenant  with  the  people  or  their 
idols.  M. 

31.  In  verse  23  the  limits  of  the  land  of 
Canaan,  strictly  so  called,  are  indicated  ;  to 
this,  when  the  Israelites  were  about  to  take 
possession  of  it,  were  added  the  regions  of  Gil¬ 
ead  and  Bashan  on  the  east  side  of  the  Jordan 
(Nu.  32  : 33-42  ;  Josh.  13  ;  29-321.  These  two 
portions  made  up  the  Holy  Land,  of  which  the 
limits  were  recognized,  with  inconsiderable  vari¬ 
ations,  till  the  final  overthrow  of  the  Jewish 
polity.  But  in  this  verse  the  utmost  extent  of 
Hebrew  dominion,  as  it  existed  in  the  time  of 
David  and  Solomon,  is  set  forth.  The  kingdom 
then  reached  to  Eloth  and  Ezion-geber  on  the 
.Sllanitic  Gulf  of  the  Bed  Sea  (1  Kings  9  : 26), 
and  to  Tiphsah  on  the  “  Kiver” — that  is,  the 
river  Euphrates  (1  Kings  4  ;  24),  having  for  its 
western  boundary  “  the  Sea  of  the  Philistines” 
— that  is,  the  Mediterranean,  and  for  its  south 
ern  boundary  “the  desert”  — that  is,  the  wil¬ 
dernesses  of  Shur  and  Paian  (cf.  Gen.  15  ;  18  ; 

De.  1  :  7  ;  11  :  24  ;  Josh.  1  :  4).  Clark. - From 

the  desert  unto  the  river.  From  the  desert  of 
Arabia  to  the  river  Euphrates.  Thus  1  Kings 
4  :  21,  “  And  Solomon  reigned  over  all  kingdoms 
from  the  river  to  the  land  of  the  Philistines” — 

i.e.,  the  river  Euphrates.  Bush. - /  will  set  thy 

bounds  from  the  Red  Sea — on  the  southeast —ere^ 
unto  the  sea  of  the  Philistines — the  Mediterranean 
on  the  northwest — and  from  tlte  desert  of  Arabia, 
or  the  wilderness  of  Sh.ur,  on  the  west  — the 
river,  the  Euphrates,  on  the  northeast.  Or,  in 
general  terms,  from  the  Euphrates  on  the  east 
to  the  Mediterranean  Sea  on  the  west  ;  and  from 
Mount  Libanus  on  the  north  to  the  Bed  Sea 
and  the  Nile  on  the  south.  This  promise  wms 
not  completely  fulfilled  till  the  days  of  David 
and  Solomon.  The  general  disobedience  of  the 
people  before  this  time  prevented  a  more  speedy 
accomplishment  ;  and  their  disobedience  of- 
tei'ward  caused  them  to  lose  the  possession. 
A.  C. 


234 


SECTION  114.  SOLEMN  RATIFICATION  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


Section  114. 


SOLEMN  RATIFICATION  OF  THE  COVENANT,  BY  SPRINKLING  OF  SACRIFICIAL 
BLOOD  UPON  ALTAR  AND  PEOPLE.  THIS  COVENANT  THE  CENTRAL  POINT 
OF  THE  PENTATEUCH,  AND  BASIS  OF  ITS  INTERNAL  UNITY.  LAW  AND 
PROPHECY  IN  THEIR  RELATION  TO  THE  COVENANTS. 

Exodus  24  :  3-8. 


Kt.  3  And  Moses  came  and  told  the  people  all  the  words  of  the  Lokd,  and  all  the  judge¬ 
ments  :  and  all  the  people  answered  with  one  voice,  and  said.  All  the  words  which  the  Lord 

4  hath  spoken  will  we  do.  And  Moses  wrote  all  the  words  of  the  Lord,  and  rose  up  early  in  the 
morning,  and  builded  an  altar  under  the  mount,  and  twelve  pillars,  according  to  the  twelve 

5  tribes  of  Israel.  And  he  sent  young  men  of  the  children  of  Israel,  which  offered  burnt  offer- 

6  ings,  and  sacrificed  peace  offerings  of  oxen  unto  the  Lord.  And  Moses  took  half  of  the  blood,, 

7  and  put  it  in  basons  ;  and  half  of  the  blood  he  sprinkled  on  the  altar.  And  he  took  the  book 
of  the  covenant,  and  read  in  the  audience  of  the  people  ;  and  they  said,  All  that  the  Lord 

8  hath  spoken  will  we  do,  and  be  obedient.  And  Moses  took  the  blood,  and  sprinkled  it  oix 
the  people,  and  said.  Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  which  the  Lord  hath  made  with  you 
concerning  all  these  words. 


3.  And  Moses  came  [down  from  the 

mount]  and  told  the  people  all  the 
words  of  the  Lord,  and  all  the  Judge¬ 
ments. 

The  first  thing  Moses  did  was  to  make  the 
people  acquainted  with  the  contents  of  the  book 
so  that  they  might  know  certainly  what  obliga 
tions  they  were  about  to  assume.  Whatever 
they  did,  they  must  do  intelligently.  J.  M.  G, 
- This  seems  to  have  been  a  preliminary  re¬ 
cital.  immediately  upon  his  descent  from  the 
interview  with  Jehovah,  of  ‘Ahe  taords  and  ike 
judgments"  referred  to  in  the  previous  section. 
And  all  the  people  answered  wilh 
one  voice  and  said,  All  the  words 
which  the  Lordhatli  spoken  will  we 
do.  This  is  the  first  responsive  expression  of 
acceptance  and  assent  to  the  terms  of  the  cove¬ 
nant,  as  proffered  by  Jehovah.  But  this  was 
only  preliminary  to  the  formal  ceremony  of  rati¬ 
fication,  which  took  place  on  the  folio  uving  day. 

4.  And  Moses  wrote  all  the  words 
of  the  Lord.  This  was  done,  it  would  seem, 
on  the  same  day  of  the  first  recital,  and  imme¬ 
diately  subsequent  to  the  people’s  response  of 
acceptance  and  assent.  He  w^rote  in  what  is 
called  (verse  7)  “  the  book  of  the  covenant."  B. 

- The  art  of  writing  was  certainly  known  in 

the  time  of  Moses.  Monuments  of  Egypt  which 
antedate  the  exodus  exhibit  abundant  speci¬ 
mens  of  writing  on  stone,  and  some  papyrus 
rolls  still  extant  probably  date  from  a  higher 
antiquity  than  this  Book  of  Genesis.  Lepsius 
found  in  Thebes  the  tombs  of  two  librarians — 
“  chiefs  over  the  books” — of  the  fourteenth 
century  before  Christ  ;  and  he  traced  the  ruins 
of  a  library  in  a  temple  of  the  same  era,  upon 


whose  walls  Champollion  had  previously  found 
“  the  representations  of  Thoth,  the  God  of  Wis¬ 
dom,  and  of  Saf,  the  Goddess  of  History  ,  then, 
behind  the  former,  the  God  of  Hearing,  and  be 
hind  the  latter,  the  God  of  Seeing,”  J  P.  T, 

- The  monuments  prove  conclusively  that  in 

no  country  of  the  ancient  world  was  facility  in 
writing  so  great,  in  none  were  the  materials  for 
writing  so  perfect,  and  in  none  was  the  passion 
for  writing  so  incorporated  into  the  habits  and 
business  of  the  people,  as  in  Egypt ;  and  that, 
too,  at  a  period  anterior  to  the  time  of  Moses, 
and  even  of  Joseph.  In  this  opinion  scholars 
best  qualified  to  judge  upon  the  subject  concur 
—  as  Wilkinson,  Rosellini,  Salvolini,  Gesenius. 
Ewald,  and  others.  “  We  must  shut  our  e.yes 
against  the  clearest  light,’  says  Rosellini,  “  if 
we  would  deny  that  the  art  of  reading  and  writ¬ 
ing  was  generally  studied  and  practised  in  an- 
cient  Egypt,  to  as  great  a  degree  at  least  as  it 
now  is  among  us.”  So  that  it  turns  out  that  the 
many  passages  in  the  Pentateuch,  implying  a 
great  extension  of  the  art  of  writing  among  the 
Hebrews  in  the  time  of  Moses,  are  founded  in 
truth.  Instead  of  invalidating,  they  confirm 
the  narrative  ;  witnessing  not  against,  but  for 
its  Mosaic  origin  and  its  entire  trustworthiness. 
E.  C  W. 

Early  in  tlie  morning-  builded  an 
altar  under  the  mount,  and  twelve 
pillar§.  The  altar  represented  the  presence 
of  God.  The  pillars  represented  the  tribes  of 
Israel.  It  is  probable  that  the  altar  would  be  in 
the  centre  and  the  pillars  ranged  round  it  ;  and 
accordingly  w^e  have  here  the  first  outward  rep¬ 
resentation  of  the  Church.  Here  w'e  have  the 
idea  of  the  tabernacle,  afterward  more  fully  de- 


hatification  by  baguifjgial  blood. 


235 


veloped  in  the  temple,  and  realized  spiritually 
in  the  Church  of  Christ,  the  tabernacle  or  tem¬ 
ple  of  the  New  Testament,  The  altar  of  sacri¬ 
fice  was  in  the  centre  then.  It  is  in  the  centre 
still  ;  for  what  else  is  the  cross  around  which 
we  all  as  Christians  gather,  than  the  altar  of  the 
New  Testament,  on  which  “  Christ  our  Passover 
was  sacrificed  for  us.”  J.  M.  G. 

Thk  Ratification  of  the  Covenant  by  Sacbi- 
FiciAL  Blood. 

After  the  people  had  promised  obedience,  and 
so  entered  into  the  bonds  of  the  covenant,  it 
was  necessary  to  preserve  the  memory  of  these 
transactions  and  to  confirm  the  covenant  by 
authentic  and  solemn  ceremonies.  And  this 
Moses  does  :  (1)  As  legislator,  he  reduces  to  writ¬ 
ing  all  the  articles  and  conditions  of  the  agree¬ 
ment,  with  the  people’s  act  of  consent.  (2)  As 
their  mediator  and  the  deputy  of  the  Lord,  he  ac¬ 
cepts  on  his  part  the  resolution  of  the  people  ; 
and  Jehovah  on  his  part  engages  himself  to 
Israel  to  be  their  God,  their  King,  and  Protect¬ 
or,  and  to  fulfil  to  them  all  the  promises  he  had 
made  to  their  fathers.  (3)  To  make  this  the 
more  solemn  and  affecting,  and  to  ratify  the 
covenant,  which  could  not  be  done  without 
shedding  and  sprinkling  of  blood,  Moses  builds 
an  altar,  probably  of  turf,  as  was  commanded, 
ch,  20  : 24,  and  erects  twelve  pillars,  no  doubt 
of  unhewn  stone,  and  probably  set  round  about 
the  altar.  The  altar  itself  represented  the  throne 
of  God  ^  the  twelve  stones,  the  twelve  tribes  of 
I-irael.  These  were  the  two  parties  who  were  to 
contract  or  enter  into  covenant.  No  covenant 
was  considered  to  be  ratified  and  binding  till  a 
sacrifi'ie  had  been  offered  ;  hence  the  necessity 
of  the  sacrifices  mentioned  here.  A.  C. 

5,  There  was  as  yet  no  formally  appointed 
priest  in  Israel.  Moses  himself,  the  [divinely 
appointed]  mediator  of  the  covenant,  until 
special  appointments  were  made,  united  in  his 
own  person  all  the  different  offices.  So  he  em¬ 
ployed  young  men  to  offer  the  sacrifices.  J.  M.  G, 

- The  order  of  the  Levitical  priesthood  was 

not  yet  instituted,  and  hence  the  first-born 
of  each  family,  being  regarded  as  the  most  ex¬ 
cellent  in  that  family,  was  selected  to  be  the 
officiating  priest,  and  to  offer  sacrifices  to  God  ; 
and,  therefore,  he  sent  young  men — the  first¬ 
born — of  the  children  of  Israel,  to  offer  up  these 

burnt-offerings.  J,  C. - They  are  merely  the 

ministers  of  Moses,  and  not  the  representatives 
of  the  people,  who  are  the  seventy  elders,  and 
occupy  a  different  position  in  this  great  trans¬ 
action.  M. 

0.  And  Hosci  took  lialf  of  the 


blood.  The  blood  is  that  which  makes  atone¬ 
ment,  and  thereby  lays  the  foundation  for  a 
covenant  of  peace.  Hence  it  ratifies  the  cove¬ 
nant.  For  this  purpose  it  is  divided  into  two 
equal  parts.  The  one  is  reserved  in  basins— 
the  other  is  sprinkled  on  the  altar.  There  it 
makes  propitiation,  and  in  the  present  instance 
signifies  concurrence  in  the  covenant. 

7.  And  lie  read  tlie  book  of  the 
covenant  in  tlie  audienee  of  tlie 
people :  and  they  said,  All  that  the 
Lord  hath  spoken  will  we  do,  and  be 
obedient.  The  book  of  the  covenant,  w'hich 
he  had  written,  contained  the  “words”  and 
“judgments”  of  the  previous  four  chapteis. 
These  again  he  solemnly  recites.  The  former 
assent  of  the  people  authorized  the  step  of  sol¬ 
emnizing  the  covenant.  This  unanimous  con¬ 
sent,  after  a  second  deliberate  hearing,  is  the 

formal  acceptance  of  the  covenant.  M. - This 

is  the  tenor  of  the  covenant,  ”  That,  if  they 
would  observe  the  foregoing  precepts,  God 
would  perform  the  foregoing  promises.  ‘  Obey, 
and  be  happy.’ ”  Here  is  the  bargain  made.  H. 

§.  And  Moses  Hook  the  blood  and 
sprinkled  it  on  the  people.  With  the 
other  half  of  the  blood,  after  having  again  read 
the  terms  of  the  covenant,  and  obtained  anew 
from  the  people  a  promise  of  obedience— he 
sprinkled  the  people  themselves,  and  said. 

Behold  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  lohich  the  Lord 
hath  made  with  you  concerning  all  these  w  wdsf 

P.  F. - Its  application  to  the  people  makes 

them  parties  to  the  covenant.  It  is  the  one 
blood  that  accomplishes  the  pacification.  Hence 
Moses  sprinkles  the  reserved  portion  of  the 

atoning  blood  on  the  people.  M - Half  of  the 

blood  being  sprinkled  on  the  altar,  and  half  of  it 
sprinkled  on  the  people,  showed  that  both  God 
and  they  were  mutually  bound  by  this  covenant. 
God  was  bound  to  the  people  to  support,  defend, 
and  save  them  :  the  people  were  bound  to  God 
to  fear,  love,  and  serve  him,  A.  C. 

This  sacrifice  was  peculiar  ;  for  God  desired 
the  Jews  to  be  reminded  of  the  one  great  con¬ 
firmation  of  the  covenant  which  he  made  with 
them  ;  as  if  he  had  openly  shown  that  it  would 
then  only  be  ratified  and  effectual,  when  it 
should  be  sealed  with  blood.  The  sum  is,  that 
the  blood  was  the  medium  whereby  the  cove¬ 
nant  was  confirmed  and  established,  since  the 
altar  as  the  sacred  seat  of  God  was  bathed  with 
half  of  it,  and  then  the  residue  was  sprinkled 
over  the  people.  Hence  we  gather  that  the 
covenant  of  gratuitous  adoption  was  made  with 
the  ancient  people  unto  eternal  salvation,  since 
it  was  sealed  with  the  blood  of  Christ  in  type 


SECTION  114.  SOLEMN  RATIFICATION  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


23  G 


and  shadow.  Now,  if  this  doctrine  hold  good 
nnder  the  Law,  much  more  must  it  occupy  a 
jilace  with  us  now  ;  and  hence,  in  order  that 
God's  promises  may  always  maintain  their  power 
and  certainty,  let  this  sealing  be  constantly  kept 
before  us  ;  and  let  us  remember  that  the  blood 
of  Christ  has  therefore  once  been  shed,  that  it 
might  engrave  upon  our  hearts  the  covenant 
whereby  we  are  called  to  the  hope  of  the  king¬ 
dom  of  heaven.  For  this  reason  Christ  in  the 
Holy  Supper  commends  his  blood  as  the  seal 
of  the  New  Covenant.  Calv. 

The  blood  was  sprinkled  upon  the  altar  as  a 
sign  that  God  accepted  the  sacrifice  as  a  vicari¬ 
ous  atonement.  As  soon  as  the  blood  was 
sprinkled  uj)on  the  altar,  the  people  were  re¬ 
garded  as  reconciled,  and  therefore  fit  to  enter 
into  covenant  alliance  with  God.  When  the 
people  had  thus  received  a  negative  consecration 
through  the  removal  of  their  sin,  the  whole  Law 
of  the  covenant  was  laid  before  them  ;  and  when 
they  had  pledged  themselves  to  obedience,  they 
received  a  positive  consecration  as  the  covenant 
people,  by  being  sprinkled  with  the  other  half 
of  the  blood.  The  expiatory  virtue  of  the  blood 
was  derived  from  the  fact,  that  the  life  of  the 
animal  sacrificed  was  in  the  blood.  And  it  was 
from  this  also  that  it  derived  its  virtue  as  a  pos¬ 
itive  consecration.  The  life  was  taken  from  the 
animal  that  the  people  might  have  the  advantage 
of  it.  In  the  place  of  the  sinful  life  of  the  sin¬ 
ful  nation,  the  innocent  life  of  the  animal  was 
given  up  to  death  ;  and  Jehovah  accepted  it  as 
a  valid  atonement.  But  when  the  life  that  had 
been  sacrificed  was  proved  by  God’s  acceptance 
of  it  to  have  power  to  expiate  guilt  which  merited 
death,  it  was  also  proved  as  a  cjiftoi  God  to  have 
power  to  effect  the  restoration  of  life.  The 
former  was  exhibited  in  the  use  that  was  made 
of  the  first  half  of  the  blood,  the  latter,  in  the 
l^urpose  to  which  the  second  was  applied.  For 
the  people  stood  in  need  not  only  of  the  exter¬ 
mination  of  sin,  that  they  might  be  negatively 
prepared  for  entering  into  covenant-fellowship 
with  Jehovah,  but  also  of  the  restoration  of  life, 
that  they  might  be  positively  fitted  for  that  fel¬ 
lowship.  By  being  sprinkled  with  the  blood, 
they  received  the  necessary  consecration.  The 
covenant,  thus  concluded,  had  a  fundamental 
character  ;  it  was  concluded  once  for  all,  and 
every  member  of  the  covenant  nation  had  eo  ipso 
a  part  in  the  covenant  itself.  No  doubt  the 
covenant  relation  might  be  disturbed  by  fresh 
sins,  which  rendered  a  fresh  expiation  neces¬ 
sary  ;  but  the  covenant  consecration  retained  its 
validity  as  long  as  the  covenant  lasted.  It  was 
this  which  constituted  the  difference  between 


the  sacrifices  which  were  offered  within  an  ex^ 
istiiKj  covenant,  and  the  sacrifice  which  accom¬ 
panied  the  first  establishment  of  the  covenant. 
This  will  also  explain  the  fact  that,  while  the 
subsequent  law  of  sacrifice  made  provision  for 
the  continued  offering  of  an  expiatory  sacrifice 
by  the  sprinkling  of  the  sacrificial  altar,  nothing 
more  is  said  about  consecmitow  by  sprinkling  the 
blood  upon  the  people,  or  the  individual,  who 
offered  the  sacrifice.  K. 

This  transaction  was  the  most  important  in 
the  whole  history  of  Israel,  By  this  one  sacri: 
fice,  never  renewed,  Israel  was  formally  set 
apart  as  the  people’  of  God  ;  and  it  lay  at  the 
foundation  of  all  the  sacrificial  worship  which 
followed.  Only  after  it  did  God  institute  the 
tabernacle,  the  priesthood,  and  all  its  services. 
Thus  this  one  sacrifice  prefigured  the  one  sacri¬ 
fice  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  his  Church, 
which  is  the  ground  of  our  access  to  God  and 
the  foundation  of  all  our  worship  and  service. 

A.  E. - The  account  given  of  this  solemn 

transaction  is  referred  to  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  with  an  especial  respect  to  the  use 
then  made  of  the  sacrificial  blood,  and  for  the 
purpose  of  proving,  that  as  the  inferior  and 
temporary  covenant  then  ratified  required  the 
shedding  of  animal  blood,  blood  of  a  far  higher 
and  more  precious  kind  must  have  been  re¬ 
quired  to  seal  the  everlasting  covenant  brought 
in  by  Christ.  P.  F. 

As  soon  as  their  solemn  assent  to  the  cove¬ 
nant  is  given,  as  soon  as  the  people’s  will  is  sur¬ 
rendered  to  the  Lord,  the  blood  of  the  sacrifice 
is  sprinkled,  reconciliation  is  made,  and  the 
covenant  embraces  them  in  its  blessed  bond. 
And  now  we  can  see  very  clearly  what  was  in 
the  Apostle  Peter’s  mind  when  he  speaks  of  be¬ 
lievers  as  “  elect  according  to  the  foreknowledge 
of  God  the  Father  (this  carries  us  back  to  the 
early  promises  before  the  work  of  redemptiqn 
from  bondage  began)  through  sanctification  of 
the  Spirit  (this  leads  us  to  think  of  the  Pente¬ 
costal  day  at  Sinai,  with  its  revelation  of  the 
holy  Lord,  and  his  holy  Law),  unto  obedience  and 
sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  ’  ’  (here  we 
think  of  the  ratification  of  the  covenant,  when 
the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  followed  the  decla¬ 
ration  of  obedience).  It  will  be  observed,  of 
course,  that  the  obedience  is  pot  the  obedience 
of  fact,  which  follows  the  blood  sprinkling,  but 
the  obedience  of  heart  and  will,  which  must 
precede  it.  That  obedience  of  the  heart  and 
will  is  the  necessary  antecedent  even  of  the 
sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ.  When 
the  great  sacrifice  was  oft’ered  up  on  Calvary, 
the  altar  was  sprinkled  once  for  all  ;  but  it  is 


ITS  BREADTH  AND  PERMANENCE. 


237 


necessary  that  we  should  be  sprinkled  with  the  j 
same  blood  that  we  may  become  the  people  of  | 
God  ;  and  all  that  is  required  in  order  to  this  is  | 
just  the  assent  of  the  heart,  the  surrender 
of  the  will  to  him,  the  word  “  0  Lamb  of  God, 

I  come,”  which  carries  with  it  the  old  declara¬ 
tion  of  which  that  altar  and  these  pillars  were 
the  witness  :  “  All  that  the  Lord  hath  said  will 
we  do.”  J.  M.  G. 

Referring  to  this  great  covenant  transaction 
between  Jehovah  and  his  newly  redeemed 
Church,  the  martyr  Stephen  says  :  ”  This  is  he 
that  was  in  the  Church  bt  the  wilderness."  It  was 
a  covenant  with  this  Church  as  a  represe'-'icitive 
body,  standing  for  the  Church  of  all  succeeding 
ages.  Moses,  forty  years  after,  when  this  gen¬ 
eration  that  stood  before  Sinai  had  all  perished, 
expressly  says  to  the  next  generation,  “The 
Lord  made  this  covenant  not  with  our  fathers 
but  with  us,  tvenus  who  are  a'l  here  alive  this  day.'" 
And  under  the  New  Testament  dispensation 
Stephen  expressly  says,  '*  Our  fathers  received 
the  lively  oracles  to  give  unto  us."  That  is,  they 
stood  there  as  representing  us.  It  was  a  cove¬ 
nant  wholly  spiritual  in  its  significancy.  Moses, 
just  as  Jesus  afterward,  sums  up  its  jDrovisions 
in  the  generalization,  “  Love  the  Lord  thy  God 
with  all  thy  mind,  soul,  and  strength.”  S.  R. 

It  was  a  great  event,  the  transaction  of  that 
day,  which  on  the  separate  and  self-contained 
nationality  of  Israel  placed  a  crown  of  glor}^  by 
superadding  Jehovnli  s  sovereignty.  Every  de¬ 
vout  and  believing  soul  through  that  populous 
camp,  looking  at  the  hery-cloudy  column,  as  it 
moved  ahead,  at  once  a  royal  standard  and  an 
aerial  fortress,  could  say  to  himself  with  thrill 
ing  assurance,  “  The  Lord  is  our  defence  ;  the 
Holy  One  of  Israel  is  our  King.”  And  although  ^ 
in  later  centuries  between  the  people  and  their 
King,  immortal  and  invisible,  a  monarch  was  in¬ 
terposed,  both  visible  and  mortal,  faith  and 
affection  always  ascended  to  Jehovah  as  the  true 
King  in  Jeshurun,  and  under  pious  princes  like 
Hezekiah  and  Josiah,  when  the  covenant  was 
renewed,  overlooking  or  at  least  overleaping 
the  earthly  ruler,  the  people  swore  again  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  Sovereign  Supreme, 
the  Divine  and  undying  Head  of  the  Hebrew 
commonwealth,  Hamilton. 

In  the  Mosaic  legislation  God  reigns  and  gov¬ 
erns  by  himself.  It  is  he  who  has  given  his 
laws  to  the  Hebrews.  Moses  has  been,  it  is 
true,  the  medium  between  the  Eternal  and  the 
people,  but  the  people  have  taken  part  in  the 
grand  spectacle  of  the  revelation  of  the  Law  ;  of 
this  the  people,  in  the  exercise  of  its  freedom, 
have  evinced  their  acceptance.  Nicolas. - 


j  The  Mosaic  Theocracy  is  a  fact  unique  in  the 
I  history  of  the  world.  There  is  here  no  para- 
I  mount  priesthood  ;  no  secular  power  playing 
the  part  of  the  oppressor.  God  is  constantly 
present,  and  sole  master.  All  passes  between 
God  and  the  people  ;  all  so  passes  through  the 
agency  of  a  single  man  whom  God  inspires  and 
in  whom  the  people  have  faith,  asking  no  other 
authority  than  that  of  the  revelation  which  he 
receives.  No  sign  here  of  a  fact  of  human 
origin  :  just  as  the  God  of  the  Bible  is  the  true 
God,  the  religion  that  descended,  by  Moses, 
from  Sinai  upon  the  elect  people  of  God  is  the 
true  religion  destined  to  become,  when  Jesus 
Christ  ascends  Calvary,  the  religion  of  the  hu¬ 
man  race.  Guizot. 

The  central  point  of  the  Pentateuch  is  the  cove¬ 
nant,  made  by  the  mediation  of  Moses,  between 
Jehovah  and  his  people.  Everything  in  the  Pen¬ 
tateuch,  before  the  time  of  Moses,  was  prepara¬ 
tory  to  that  covenant  ;  and  everything  during 
this  time  was  a  development  of  it.  By  this  it 
is  not  meant  that  its  development  came  to  a 
close  at  the  death  of  Moses  ;  but  that  the  books 
of  Exodus,  Leviticus,  Numbers,  and  Deuteron¬ 
omy  give  a  history  of  it  up  to  that  time.  The 
national  covenant,  made  at  Sinai,  was  preceded 
by  and  founded  on  the  Abrahamic  covenant  re¬ 
corded  in  Genesis.  This  covenant  finds  its  ex¬ 
planation  in  the  previous  history,  which  is  ac¬ 
cordingly  given  by  the  sacred  historians.  In 
order  to  understand  this  covenant,  and  the 
Mosaic  economy  also,  the  history,  contained  in 
the  Book  of  Genesis,  is  necessary  ;  for  the  his¬ 
tory  of  Israel  begins  with  that  of  the  world. 
“  The  work  of  Creation,  in  its  fundamental 
plan,”  Havernick  remarks,  “  at  once  proclaims 
itself  as  intimately  connected  with  the  Theoc¬ 
racy.  Viewed  from  its  internal  side,  the  funda¬ 
mental  idea  of  the  Theocracy,  to  be  holy  like  to 
the  holy  God,  and  the  consecration  of  the  peo¬ 
ple,  the  priestly  family,  etc.,  arising  thence,  can 
be  apprehended  only  in  their  relation  to  the 
beginning  of  the  human  race,  and  its  relation 
to  God  ;  so  that  the  Theocracy  is  connected 
with  Gen.  1  :  27,  as  the  restoration  of  that  Nvhicli 
formerly  subsisted.”  The  history  of  Abraham 
is  written  in  a  theocratic  spirit  ;  and  from  his 
time  until  the  death  of  Moses,  the  Pentateuch 
is  confined  to  the  history  of  the  theocratic  peo¬ 
ple.  At  Sinai  they  received  the  Law,  by  which 
they  were  constitued  a  theocratic  nation.  God 
proceeded  with  them  on  a  plan  strictly  peda¬ 
gogic.  The  Decalogue,  as  the  fundamental  Law, 
stands  fir.st  ;  and  the  other  laws,  both  civil  and 
ceremonial,  are  framed  to  carry  out  its  prin¬ 
ciples.  The  whole  national  life  was  to  be  im- 


238 


SECTION  114.  SOLEMN  RATIFICATION  OF  THE  COVENANT. 


bued  with  the  spirit  of  the  Law  ;  and  all  the  in¬ 
stitutions  growing  out  of  it  were  intended  to 
remind  the  people  that  they  should  be  holy, 
because  Jehovah,  their  God,  is  holy.  G.  Elliott. 

The  Law  and  Prophecy  in  their  Relation  to 
THE  Covenants. 

Between  the  two  Testaments  there  is  a  differ¬ 
ence,  not  of  kind,  but  merely  of  degree.  They 
fire  both  the  records  of  the  unfolding,  in  time 
and  history,  of  the  plans  of  God  for  the  rcstora- 
lion  of  man  to  the  lost  estate.  Both  give  a  pict¬ 
ure  and  description  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth  in  its  gradual  development  externally 
and  internally.  The  two  Testaments  differ  in 
this,  that  the  Old  describes  this  kingdom  ex¬ 
ternally,  in  its  national  Jewish  form,  in  the 
shape  of  a  closely  circumscribed  politico-relig¬ 
ious  Theocracy,  and  internally  as  being  in  a  pre¬ 
paratory  stage,  before  the  appearance  of  the 
Saviour  and  King,  and  the  full  establishment, 
as  objective  realities,  of  the  great  principles  of 
grace,  faith,  and  free  pardon  of  sins,  that  dis¬ 
tinguish  his  kingdom  in  all  of  its  stages  ;  while 
the  New,  externally,  represents  this  kingdom  as 
no  longer  being  bound  or  bounded  by  national 
and  geographical  limits,  but  as  a  communion  of 
saints  from  all  the  nations  of  the  world,  and  in¬ 
ternally  as  in  the  stage  of  completion  when  the 
King  has  appeared  in  Jesus  Christ,  whose  life 
and  death  formed  the  objective  basis  for  the 
blessings  of  this  kingdom,  which,  though  real  in 
the  Old  Covenant,  were  nevertheless  hidden  in 
the  form  of  promises,  types,  and  symbols  of  the 
work  to  be  done  by  the  Messiah.  Both  Testa¬ 
ments  are  Christo-centric  :  the  one  viewing  and 
trusting  in  him  with  the  eye  of  hope  and  prom¬ 
ise,  the  other  glorying  in  him  as  one  who  has 
actually  accomplished  the  great  work  of  sal¬ 
vation. 

The  Old  Testament  covenant,  then,  represents 
the  preparatory  stage  of  the  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth.  Sin  had  made  a  chasm  between  the  Cre¬ 
ator  and  the  creature,  and  God’s  original  pur¬ 
pose  of  man’s  happiness  to  the  end  of  Divine 
glory  would  have  thus  been  thwarted,  unless  a 
reconciliation  and  restoration  had  taken  place. 
At  the  head  of  .the  whole  biblical  development 
stands  the  dire  fact  of  sin  ;  and  without  a  strong 
conception  of  this  fact  there  can  be  no  thorough 
understanding  of  the  biblical  records,  or  of  the 
great  truths  and  history  of  which  they  bear  tes¬ 
timony.  But  in  the  same  moment  in  which 
God’s  justice  condemns  the  transgressor  on  ac¬ 
count  of  his  sin,  his  mercy  plans  and  promises 
deliverance  from  the  consequences  of  his  sin. 
The  first  gospel  message  is  the  promise  of  the 


proto-evangelism  of  Genesis  3.  Mhile  sin  was 
the  woful  fact  that  must  be  taken  into  account, 
salvation  through  the  seed  of  the  woman  should 
and  would  be  equally  a  fact  in  God’s  own  ap¬ 
pointed  manner  and  hour. 

God  did  not  choose  in  his  wisdom  to  show 
forth  fully  in  revelation  or  fact  these  plans  at 
the  very  beginning,  because  it  was  necessary 
that  salvation  should  be  prepared  for  man,  and 
man  should  be  prepared  for  salvation.  God 
would  not  force  man,  who  had  of  his  own  free 
will  deserted  God  and  entered  the  service  of 
sin,  to  re-enter  upon  the  condition  originally 
designed  for  him,  and  into  which  he  was  cre¬ 
ated.  It  was  necessary  that  through  special 
training  man  should  be  educated  up  to  a  recog¬ 
nition  of  his  true  condition  and  needs,  as  also 
to  the  willingness  to  accept  from  God’s  grace 
the  blessings  lost  through  sin.  God  is  a  God  of 
system  and  order,  not  only  in  the  kingdom  and 
in  the  laws  of  nature,  but  also  in  the  kingdom 
of  grace.  Christ  did  not  appear  in  the  flesh  im- 
mediatelj’’  at  the  beginning  of  the  rule  of  sm,  al¬ 
though  there  was  a  need  of  a  Saviour  then  as 
much  as  there  was  in  the  daj’s  of  Herod,  and  is 
now  ;  but  he  appeared  thus  when,  according  to 
the  providential  wisdom  of  God,  “  the  fulness 
of  time”  had  arrived,  when  Israel’s  remarkable 
history  had  taught  the  positive  lesson  of  man’s 
guilt  and  God’s  grace,  and  the  Gentiles,  who 
had,  in  this  same  providence  ^^f  God,  been  per¬ 
mitted  to  go  their  own  w’ay,  had  taught  elo¬ 
quently  the  negative  lesson  of  man’s  inability"  to 
help  himself,  of  the  vanity  of  human  philosophy 
and  civilization  when  not  based  upon  the  solid 
foundation  of  revelation  and  Divine  guidance. 
When  the  course  of  the  history  of  the  world  had 
reached  such  a  stage  that  the  world  was  ready 
for  his  advent,  Christ  entered  the  flesh,  and  the 
Gospel  he  lived  and  taught  could  go  forth  on  its 
mission  conquering  and  to  conquer. 

This  example  of  method  ahd  order  in  this 
central  scene  of  the  grand  drama  of  the  devel¬ 
opment  of  God’s  kingdom  on  earth  is  typical 
and  representative.  It  characterizes  the  whole 
revelation  of  God,  and  is  especially  ajiparent  in 
the  educational  process  of  Israel,  which  took 
place  chiefly  through  the  Law  and  prophecy  as 
the  chief  means  and  instruments  in  God’shands 
for  the  establishment  of  the  covenant  with  his 
people,  and  of  the  great  principles  which  dis 
tinguish  this  covenant.  This  covenant  was  and 
is  one  of  grace,  one  of  righteousness  through 
faith  (Gen,  15  :  6  ;  Gal.  3:6;  Rom.  4  :  3).  Faith 
and  the  acceptance  of  grace  implies  in  man  a 
recognition  of  sin,  and  implies  in  God  a  will¬ 
ingness  to  pardon  this  sin.  To  demonstrate 


RELATION  OF  LAW  AND  PROPHECY  TO  THE  COVENANT, 


5^39 


the  truth  of  these  two  cardinal  principles  of 
the  covenant  must  of  necessity  be  the  object 
of  the  whole  Old  Testament  development.  In 
order  to  demonstrate  the  one,  God  chose,  in  the 
covenant  relation,  the  Law  ;  to  demonstrate  the 
other,  he  selected  prophecy.  The  two  are  mu¬ 
tually  complementary  and  supplementary  in 
God’s  guidance  of  the  Church  of  the  Old  Cove¬ 
nant,  and  both  conspired  to  bring  about  that 
“  fulness  of  time”  which  marks  the  advent  of 
the  Saviour  into  history. 

The  covenant  with  Israel  at  Mount  Sinai  is 
tiie  same  as  that  between  God  and  the  Patri¬ 
archs  ;  only  that  it  has  now  assumed  a  national 
form,  because  the  family  had  developed  into  a 
nation.  While  it  was  yet  a  special  arrangement 
between  God  and  the  chosen  few,  it  was  pos¬ 
sible  for  him,  through  special  revelation,  to 
teach  and  inculcate  the  great  truths  of  this 
covenant  to  those  who  had  entered  upon  this 
relationship.  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob, 
through  such  intercourse  with  the  Lord  of  the 
covenant,  were  kept  within  the  limits  of  this 
covenant  ;  and  their  lives,  as  we  know  from 
biblical  accounts,  are  examples  of  the  trust  and 
confidence  in  God’s  mercy  and  grace  which  are 
the  leading  features  of  this  covenant.  When 
the  family  expanded  into  a  nation,  it  was,  in 
the  nature  of  the  case,  no  longer  possible,  bj^ 
direct  revelation  and  special  guidance  of  each 
individual  member  of  this  kingdom,  to  awaken 
into  life  the  great  truths  implied  in  the  entrance 
upon  this  relationship  by  Israel.  In  order  to 
effect  in  Israel  and  in  history  what  had  been 
effected  in  the  Patriarchs  through  a  viva  voce 
revelation,  God  chose  the  Law  on  the  one  hand, 
and  added  to  it  prophecy,  to  step  in  when  the 
Law  had  performed  its  mission  The  Mosaic 
legal  code  represented  over  against  Israel,  as 
the  people  of  the  covenant,  the  duties  which 
they  owed  to  Jehovah  as  the  Lord  of  the  cove¬ 
nant,  both  the  duties  based  on  the  moral  nature 
of  man,  and  which  represent  man’s  duty  toward 
God  in  all  stages  and  at  all  times,  and  which  hold 
good  in  our  case  also,  as  also  those  duties  which 
are  based  upon  the  special  relationship  as  the 
Theocratic  nation,  the  ceremonial  and  political 
duties,  whichj  wiih  the  political  and  Theocratic 
Israel,  have  passed  into  history.  The  recogni¬ 
tion  of  these  duties  in  the  covenant  life  brought 
with  it  also  the  recognition  of  the  inability  to 
comply  with  these  duties  in  other  words,  the 
recognition  of  sin.  Such  was  the  aim  and  pur¬ 
pose  of  the  Law  in  the  Old  Testament  dispensa¬ 
tion.  It  was  by  no  means  intended  to  supplant 
righteousness  through  faith  as  the  central  prin¬ 
ciple  of  revelation,  both  of  the  Old  as  also  of 


the  New  Testament,  but  merely  to  be  a  propae¬ 
deutic  means  to  make  this  principle  a  truth  and 
a  fact  in  the  history  of  Israel,  and  the  leading 
lesson  of  that  history.  The  Law  was  to  drive 
man  away  from  himself,  and  to  show  that  for 
salvation  he  must  flee  to  another  ;  in  other 
w'ords,  it  was  to  be  a  “schoolmaster  unto 
Christ  ’  ’  (Gal.  3  : 24).  The  Law  itself  recognizes 
the  important  fact  of  man’s  inability  to  comply 
with  its  commands  (that  is,  his  sinful  condi¬ 
tion),  by  the  very  fact  that  it,  through  the  Le- 
vitical  priesthood,  through  sacrifices,  atone¬ 
ments,  types,  and  symbols,  directs  the  citizen 
under  this  covenant  to  another  and  better  way 
of  final  reconciliation  and  restoration  to  the 
blessings  promised  by  God  to  the  covenant  ad¬ 
herents. 

To  announce  what  is  this  other  and  better 
(or,  rather,  only)  ground  of  hope  before  God  is 
the  special  mission  of  prophecy  :  and  herein 
law  and  prophecy  find  their  inner  connecting 
link  in  the  great  scheme  of  Old  Testament  rev¬ 
elation.  Prophecy  is  the  Gospel  of  the  Old 
Testament  ;  it  is  the  Christianity  before  Christ. 
Life  under  the  Law  could  lead,  on  the  one 
hand,  to  a  formal  and  outward  obedience,  hence 
to  superficiality  and  self-righteousness,  as  really 
proved  to  be  the  fact  in  the  case  of  New  Testa¬ 
ment  Pharisaism  ;  or,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
would  burden  conscientious  souls  with  the 
weight  of  sin,  and  lead  to  despair.  Constantly 
to  direct  the  life  under  the  Law,  and  especially 
to  add  to  the  word  of  command  also  the  word 
of  promise,  the  proclamation  of  pardon  and 
free  grace,  and  hence  also  to  supply  Israel  with 
more  light  on  the  plans  and  ways  of  God  as  this 
kingdom  grew,  was  the  work  of  prophecy  and 
of  the  prophets.  The  legal  code  given  through 
Moses  was  a  rounded  whole  ;  prophecy  was 
given  by  God  just  as  the  needs  of  the  hour  re¬ 
quired  it.  It  was  the  life-producing  power  in 
Israel’s  religion.  While  it  constantly  preached 
the  duty  of  obedience  to  God’s  will,  as  laid 
down  in  the  Law,  the  prophets  were  by  no 
means  Old  Testament  rabbis.  They  preached 
this  obedience  simply  as  a  means  to  an  end, 
simply  to  lead  the  sinning  people  to  repentance 
and  to  a  trust  and  faith  in  the  promises  of  grace 
which  it  was  their  special  mission  to  proclaim. 
Naturallj^  one  of  the  leading  features  of  their 
revelation  would  be,  and  was,  the  Messianic 
promises,  and  the  person  and  work  of  the  Mes¬ 
siah,  because  in  and  on  him  were  based  the  re¬ 
alization  of  the  dearest  hopes  of  all  the  children 
of  God.  But  it  is  certainly  a  grave  mistake,  and 
a  strange  misconception  of  Old  Testament 
prophecy,  to  imagine  the  prophets  to  be  mere 


240 


SECTION  llo. 


foretellers  of  the  future.  They  were  pre-emi¬ 
nently,  and  in  the  first  instance,  preachers  of 
their  own  day  and  date,  and  their  messages  of 
repentance  and  grace  were  intended  first  of  all 
for  their  own  contemporaries.  The  future  and 
the  promises  of  the  future  enter  into  their  proc¬ 
lamations  so  largely  simply  because  the  golden 
age  of  Israel's  hope  was  yet  in  the  future,  and 
Christ,  the  objective  summum  honum  of  Israel’s 
faith,  had  not  yet  ajspeared  in  the  flesh.  Their 
importance  for  us  lies,  not  in  the  fact  that  they 
foretold  the  future,  but  rather  in  this,  that  in 
the  proclamation  of  their  messages  they  p)ro- 
nounced  the  same  great  truths  of  salvation 
which  the  Gospel  also  announced,  only  in  the 
manner  and  ways  of  their  daj^,  and  in  conform¬ 
ity  with  the  stage  which  the  development  of 
God’s  kingdom  on  earth  had  then  reached. 
Their  importance  for  us  is  considerably  higher 
than  the  merely  historical. 

It  is  equally  a  mistake  to  make  the  period  of 
prophecj^  l^ost-legal.  And  as  internally  the  Law 
and  the  prophets  do  not  represent  two  succes¬ 
sive  stages  of  God’s  plan,  but  rather  two  sides 
of  one  stage,  thus  historically  they  are  not,  and 
cannot  be,  separated.  While  it  is  true  that  the 


period  of  literary  prophets  is  much  later  than 
the  period  of  the  giving  of  the  Law,  we  have 
abundant  evidence  to  show  that  prophecy  ex¬ 
ternally  also  went  hand  in  hand  with  the  Law 
to  work  out  the  destinies  of  Israel,  and,  with 
Israel,  of  all  mankind.  Moses  nimself  was  a 
prophet,  and  through  him  God  made  ample 
provision  for  the  establishment  of  prophecy, 
and  plainly  described  the  sphere  of  its  work 
(compare  De.  18:9-22).  And  throughout  the 
early  history  of  Israel  we  everywhere  find  the 
signs  of  their  activity. 

Prophecy  had,  then,  an  all-important  mission 
to  perform  in  the  development  of  Israel’s  relig¬ 
ious  life.  Far  from  being  a  spasmodic  or  spo¬ 
radic  phenomenon,  called  into  activity  merely  to 
predict  this  or  that  special  feature  of  the  future, 
it  was  rather,  in  the  hands  of  God,  a  medium 
through  which  he  directed  and  guided  the  peo¬ 
ple  of  his  choice  in  their  life  under  the  special 
covenant  with  him.  Looked  at  in  this  light, 
and  in  its  bearing  on  the  Old  Covenant  in  gen¬ 
eral,  and  also  on  the  Law  as  a  means  of  making 
the  principles  of  this  covenant  effectual,  it  is 
seen  in  its  full  importance  and  in  its  grand 
mission.  Schodde. 


Section  115. 

CHOSEN  NOBLES  OF  ISRAEL  CALLED  TO  A  VISION  OF  GOD  AND  FELLOWSHIP 
WITH  HIM.  MOSES  ON  THE  MOUNT  WITH  GOD  FORTY  DAYS.  APOSTASY  OF 
THE  GOLDEN  CALF. 

Exodus  24  :  1,  2,  9-18  ;  32  :  1-6.  De.  9  :  9. 

Ex.  *^4  1  And  he  said  unto  Moses,  Come  np  unto  the  Lord,  thou,  and  Aaron,  Nadab,  and 
2  Abihu,  and  seventy  of  the  elders  of  Israel  ;  and  worship  afar  off  :  and  Moses  alone  shall 
come  near  unto  the  Lord  ;  but  they  shall  not  come  near  ;  neither  shall  the  people  go  up  with 
9  him.  Then  went  up  Moses,  and  Aaron,  Nadab,  and  Abihu,  and  seventy  of  the  elders  of  Israel  ' 

10  and  they  saw  the  God  of  Israel  ;  and  there  was  under  his  feet  as  it  were  a  paved  work  of  saj) 

11  phire  stone,  and  as  it  were  the  very  heaven  for  clearness.  And  upon  the  nobles  of  the  childrerx 
of  Israel  he  laid  not  his  hand  :  and  they  beheld  God,  and  did  eat  and  drink. 

12  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Come  up  to  me  into  the  mount,  and  be  there  :  and  I  will  give 
thee  the  tables  of  stone,  and  the  law  and  the  commandment,  which  I  have  written,  that  thou 

13  mayest  teach  them.  And  Moses  rose  up,  and  Joshua  his  minister  :  and  Moses  went  uj)  into 

14  the  mount  of  God.  And  he  said  unto  the  elders,  Tarry  ye  here  for  us,  until  we  come  again 
unto  you  :  and,  behold,  Aaron  and  Hur  are  with  you  :  whosoever  hath  a  cause,  let  him  come 

15  near  unto  them.  And  Moses  went  up  into  the  mount,  and  the  cloud  covered  the  mount.  And 

16  the  glory  of  the  Lord  abode  upon  mount  Sinai,  and  the  cloud  covered  it  six  days  ;  and  the 

17  seventh  clay  he  called  unto  Moses  out  of  the  midst  of  the  cloud.  And  the  appearance  of  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  was  like  devouring  fire  on  the  top  of  the  mount  in  the  eyes  of  the  children 

18  of  Israel,  And  Moses  entered  into  the  midst  of  the  cloud,  and  went  up  into  the  mount  :  and 
Moses  was  in  the  mount  forty  days  and  fortj'  nights, 

De.  9  When  I  was  gone  up  into  the  mount  to  receive  the  tables  of  stone,  even  the  tables  of 
the  covenant  which  the  Lord  made  with  you,  then  I  abode  in  the  mount  forty  days  and  forty 
nights  ;  I  did  neither  eat  bread  nor  drink  water. 


THE  VISION’  OP  GOD, 


241 


Et.  32  1  And  when  the  people  saw  that  Moses  delayed  to  come  down  from  the  mount,  the 
people  gathered  themselves  together  unto  Aaron,  and  said  unto  him.  Up,  make  us  gods  [or,  a 
godj,  which  shall  go  before  us  ;  for  as  for  this  Moses,  the  man  that  brought  us  up  out  of  the  land 

2  of  Egypt,  we  know  not  what  is  become  of  him.  And  Aaron  said  unto  them,  Break  off  the 
golden  rings,  which  are  in  the  ears  of  your  wives,  of  j^our  sons,  and  of  your  daughters,  and 

3  bring  them  unto  me.  And  all  the  people  brake  off  the  golden  rings  which  were  in  their  ears, 

4  and  brought  them  unto  Aaron.  And  he  received  it  at  their  hand,  and  fashioned  it  with  a  grav* 
ing  tool,  and  made  it  a  molten  calf  :  and  they  said.  These  be  thy  gods  [or,  This  is  thy  god],  O 

5  Israel,  which  brought  thee  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  And  when  Aaron  saw  this,  he  built 
an  altar  before  it  ;  and  Aaron  made  proclamation,  and  said,  To-morrow  shall  be  a  feast  to  the 

6  Lokd.  And  they  rose  up  early  on  the  morrow,  and  offered  burnt  offerings,  and  brought  peace 
offerings  ;  and  the  people  sat  down  to  eat  and  to  drink,  and  rose  up  to  play. 


The  Yision  of  God,  and  the  Sacrificial  Meal 
OF  Fellowship, 

24  :  I,  2,  0-11.  As  a  nation  Israel  was  now 
reconciled  and  set  apart  unto  God — both  having 
been  accomplished  by  the  “  blood  of  sprink¬ 
ling.”  Thereby  they  became  j)rej)ared  for  that 
fellowship  with  him  which  was  symbolized  in  the 
sacrificial  meal  that  followed.  There  God,  in 
pledge  of  his  favor,  fed  his  peojile  upon  the 
sacrifices  which  he  had  accepted.  The  sacri¬ 
ficial  meal  meant  the  fellowship  of  acceptance  ; 
its  joy  was  that  of  the  consciousness  of  this 
blessed  fact.  And  now  Moses  and  Aaron,  and 
his  two  sons  (the  future  priests),  along  with  sev¬ 
enty  of  the  elders  of  Israel,  went  up  into  the 
mount,  “  and  did  eat  and  drink”  at  that  sacri¬ 
ficial  meal,  in  the  seen  presence  of  the  God  of 
Israel — not  indeed  under  any  outward  form, 
but  with  heaven’s  own  brightness  underneath 
the  Shekinah.  Thus  “to  see  God,  and  to  eat 
and  drink,’’  was  a  foretaste  and  a  pledge  of  the 
perfect  blessedness  in  beholding  him  hereafter. 
It  was  also  a  symbol  and  a  type  of  what  shall  be 
realized  when,  as  the  Alleluia  of  the  “  great 
multitude’’  proclaims  the  reign  of  the  Lord 
God  omnipotent,’’  the  gladsome,  joyous  bride 
of  the  Lamb  now  made  ready  for  the  marriage, 
and  adorned  with  bridal  garments,  hears  the  wel¬ 
come  sound  summoning  her  to  “  the  marriage 
supper  of  the  Lamb.’’  A.  E. 

9.  Moses  and  Aaron  ascend  as  the  prophet 
and  priest  of  God  ;  Nadab  and  Abihu,  as  the 
elder  sons  of  Aaron,  henceforth  to  be  associated 
with  him  in  the  priesthood  ;  the  seventy  elders 
as  the  representative  heads  of  the  people.  M. 

- In  all  this  narrative  is  manifest  the  wide 

distinction  betwixt  the  Old  and  New  Covenant, 
In  the  New  Testament,  all  believers  are  called 
on  to  enter  with  their  Forerunner  into  the  holi¬ 
est  through  the  veil  (Heb.  10  : 19)  ;  while  in  the 
Old,  merely  the  chosen  representatives  of  the 
people,  and  they  only  to  a  verj’-  limited  extent, 
may  come  into  the  presence  of  God.  Still,  the 
general  priestly  dignity  of  the  whole  people  is 
declared  in  the  fact  that  not  consecrated  priests, 
16 


but  elders  out  of  every  tribe,  enjoy  this  high 

privilege.  Oerl. - ^To  what  point  they  ascended 

would  be  a  very  unprofitable  inquiry.  It  is  in¬ 
comparably  more  important  to  mark  the  fact 
that  now,  when  the  covenant  has  received  its 
solemn  and  final  sanction,  the  people  by  their 
representatives  have  access  to  God.  M. 

10,  And  they  saw  the  €iod  of 
Israel ;  under  his  feet  a  paved  work 
of  sapphire  stone,  as  the  very  heaven 
for  elearness.  All  these  remained  at  a  re¬ 
spectful  distance  ;  yet  it  is  said  they  saw  the 
God  of  Israel  ;  it  should  seem,  the  symbolic  fire 
which  indicated  his  presence,  beneath  which 
was  what  appeared  like  a  pavement  of  lapis- 
lazuli  or  sapphire,  or  the  deep  blue  of  the  clear¬ 
est  and  most  cloudless  heaven.  Milman. - 

The  sapphire  is  a  precious  stone  of  a  sky- colored 
hue,  next  in  value  and  beauty  to  the  diamond, 
and  there  seems  to  be  an  allusion  to  this  vision 
in  the  prophet’s  words  (Is.  54  : 11),  “  I  will  lay 
thy  stones  with  fair  colors,  and  lay  thy  founda¬ 
tions  with  sapphires.”  In  order  to  make  the  im¬ 
pression  of  its  appearance  still  more  distinct,  it 
is  compared  to  “  the  very  heaven  for  clearness.” 
It  had  the  aspect  of  the  azure  vault  of  heaven 
as  seen  in  its  pure  native  splendor,  when  the 

atmosphere  is  serene  and  unclouded.  Bush. - 

A  paved  "work  of  sapphire  is  descriptive  of  a 
scene  of  matchless  splendor,  having  the  quali¬ 
ties  of  adamantine  solidity,  transparence,  and 
brilliancy.  The  substance  of  heaven  for  purity. 
The  substance  of  heaven  is  a  phrase  for  the  very 
heaven  itself.  Nothing  less  than  the  spotless 
purity  and  lustre  of  the  skies  above  is  fit  to  be 
compared  with  the  inexpressible  beauty  and 
grandeur  of  that  which  was  beneath  the  feet  of 

the  God  of  Israel.  M. - This  vision  has  all 

the  indistinctness  of  whatever  is  superhuman, 
when  the  mortal  becomes  a  spectator  of  an  ob 
ject  of  which  he  is  unacquainted  with  a  proto 
type.  The  Deity  appeared,  as  if  his  feet  were 
resting  on  a  paved  way,  inlaid  with  stars,  amid 
the  azure  of  the  sapphire,  the  aerial  substance 
of  the  heavens,  lucid  and  serene.  Aboab. 


I 


SECTION  115.  MOSES  ON  THE  MOUNT  FORTY  BAYS. 


242 

There  is  something  siihlime  and  significant  in 
the  restrained  and  reverent  way  in  which  the 
glory  of  the  Lord  is  referred  to.  No  attempt  to 
describe  the  vision  itself,  nothing  which  conld 
supply  even  to  the  imagination  the  materials 
for  the  construction  of  any  likeness  of  the  Al¬ 
mighty.  Simply  a  suggestion,  chaste  and  yet 
glowing,  of  the  glory  “  under  hU  feel."  Ah  !  that 
is  all  the  eye  of  sinful  man  can  see,  even  under 
the  most  favored  conditions,  here  on  earth.  But 
then  may  we  not  well  argue  that  if  what  is  under 
his  feet  suggests  pavement  of  sapphire  and 
heaven’s  clearest  ethereal  blue — if  all  that  is 
most  rapturously  beautiful  in  nature  be  onlj^  the 
tinting  of  his  footstool— what  shall  be  the  glory 
of  his  face  when  we  “  shall  see  him  as  he  is,” 
and  ”  be  like  him”  too  ;  for  the  time  is  coming 
when,  by  the  side  of  the  “pure  river  of  the 
water  of  life,  clear  as  crystal,  proceeding  out  of 
the  throne  of  God  and  of  the  Lamb,”  they  who 
now  only  serve  and  wait  upon  the  footstool, 
“  shall  see  his  face  ;  and  his  name  shall  be  in 
their  foreheads  ;  and  there  shall  be  no  night 

there  !”  J.  M.  G. - It  is  to  this  future  and 

consummated  glory  of  the  Eedeemer,  made 
again  visible  and  taking  up  its  abode  among 
men,  that  the  symbol  of  the  Shekinah  always 
points.  Its  manifestation  to  Israel  of  old  was 
preintimative  of  its  renewed  appearance  and 
establishment  in  more  sublime  and  glorious 
state  to  the  subjects  of  the  Gospel  economy  in 
its  ulterior  periods,  as  set  forth  in  the  splendid 
predictions  of  Isaiah  and  the  Apocal3’pse.  It  is 
•only  in  the  realization  of  ail  that  was  shadowed 
bj"  the  Shekinah  that  w'e  are  to  look  for  the  ful¬ 
filment  of  the  assurance  ratified  b}’’  “  a  great 
voice  out  of  heaven,  saying.  Behold,  the  iaher- 
netcle  of  God  is  with  men,  and  he  u'ill  dwdl  with 
them,  and  they  shall  be  his  people.”  We  sup¬ 
pose  that  it  was  with  a  view'  to  impart  a  pro¬ 
phetic  intimation  of  this  great  futurit}',  that  the 
present  vision  was  vouchsafed  and  recorded  ; 
and  that  a  similar  end  was  contemplated  in  the 
similar  disclosures  made  to  Isaiah,  to  Ezekiel, 
to  Daniel,  and  to  John.  They  all  point  forward 
to  the  blissful  period  referred  to  in  the  annun¬ 
ciation,  “  the  tabernacle  of  God  shall  be  with 
men”  —  that  is,  his  Shekinah,  his  manifested  pres¬ 
ence,  shall  be  with  men.  Bush. 

II.  They  belictcl  €rodl,  and  did  eat 
and  drink.  No  emblems  of  judgment  were 
seen  by  them  now\  He  w'ho  had  before  covered 
himself  with  clouds,  and  indicated  his  x^resence 
in  tempests,  is  now'  arrajmd  in  light.  The  calm 
serenity  of  the  sky  now  hides  him  in  its  peace¬ 
ful  majestj',  and  nothing  comes  to  create  in 
them  either  terror  or  dismay,  for  “  iuj)on  the 


nobles  of  Israel  he  laid  not  his  hands.”  There¬ 
fore,  with  calm  composure  and  with  grateful 
hearts,  they  sit  dowm  before  him  to  keep  sacra¬ 
mental  feast  :  “  They  saw  God,  and  did  eat  and 
drink.”  Now  that  they  apx^roach  him  as  his 
covenanted  ones,  the  heads  of  the  people  “  find 
his  presence  no  more  a  soirrce  of  disturbance 
and  dread,  but  radiant  in  all  the  bright  loveli¬ 
ness  of  supernal  glory  ;”  and  their  feast  ux3on 
the  mount  maj'  be  regarded  as  a  foretoken  not 
merely  of  the  hax^piness  of  those  who  are  one 
W'ith  God  in  Christ,  but  also  of  the  blessedness 
of  that  celestial  abode,  where,  in  the  highest 
sense  of  which  the  words  are  cax3able,  it  will 
still  be  true  of  its  inhabitants  that  thej'  “  see 

God,  and  do  eat  and  drink.”  W.  M.  T. - 

They  feasted  upon  the  sacrifice,  before  God,  in 
token  of  their  cheerful  consent  to  the  covenant 
now  made,  their  grateful  acceptance  of  the  ben¬ 
efits  of  it,  and  their  communion  with  God  in 
pursuance  of  that  covenant.  Thus  believers  eat 
and  drink  wi'h  Christ  at  his  table  (Luke  22  : 30). 
Blessed  are  they  that  shall  eat  bread  in  the  king¬ 
dom  of  our  Father,  and  drink  of  the  new  wdne 
there.  H. 

Moses  Called  up  to  the  Mount  foe  Fokty  Days. 

Ex.  24  : 12-18. 

A  greater  privilege  than  that  of  seeing  God 
ux3on  the  mountain  is  j'et  in  store.  To  go  up 
and  see  God  on  the  mountain  is  good  ;  but  to 
have  him  come  down  and  dwell  with  us  in  the 
plain  is  better.  To  feast  in  the  Divine  presence, 
on  a  great  and  special  occasion,  was  a  x^rivilege 
indeed  ;  but  it  is  better  still  to  have  the  Divine 
presence  on  all  occasions,  from  daj'  to  da}',  from 
hour  to  hour  continuall}'.  And  it  is  to  jjrepare 
the  waj'  for  this  inestimable  blessing  that  Moses 
is  now  called  up  alone  into  the  immediate  pres¬ 
ence  of  the  Lord,  there  to  abide  for  manj'  days, 
during  which  he  will  receive  the  tabernacle  rev¬ 
elation,  the  substance  of  w'hich  was  this  ;  “  Let 
them  make  me  a  sanctuary,  that  I  may  dwell 
among  them”  (25:8).  The  great  importance 
and  inestimable  value  of  the  new  revelation  is 
betokened  b}'  the  glory  prelude  of  six  days 
which  preceded  it  (24  : 16),  and  the  length  of 
time  that  was  occupied  in  conveying  it,  the 
whole  amounting  to  forty  days  and  fort}'  nights. 
J.  M,  G. 

14.  Before  leaving  them,  Moses  commanded 
.  the  elders  to  await  his  return  where  they  were, 
and  x^ointed  out  Aaron  and  Huras  his  represen¬ 
tatives  to  the  people.  M. - 15-18.  Moses 

and  Joshua  W'ere  now  together,  and  both  en¬ 
shrouded  w'ithin  the  borders  of  the  cloudy  crown 
which  covered  the  brow  of  the  mountain.  On 


APOSTASY  OF  THE  GOLBEN  CALF. 


243 


the  seventh  clay  the  Divine  summons  called 
Moses  up  to  the  utmost  heights  of  the  moun¬ 
tain,  and  then  we  suppose  the  dark  thick  cloud 
was  rent  and  opened  in  the  sight  of  all  Israel, 
and  the  inner  glory  broke  forth  like  devouring 
fire.  The  six  days  mentioned  (verse  IG)  were 
probably  not  a  part  of  the  forty  ;  for  during 
those  six  da3’s  Moses  and  Joshua  were  together, 
and  both  probably  ate  of  manna  as  usual,  and 
drank  of  the  brook  mentioned  (De.  9  :  21)  ;  but 
when  Moses  was  called  into  the  midst  of  the 
cloud,  his  forty  days’  fasting  commenced,  while 
Joshua,  in  the  mean  time,  no  doubt  continued 
to  eat  and  drink  daily  while  waiting  for  IMoses’ 
return.  Bush. 

Moses,  who  was  the  mediator  of  the  Old  Cove¬ 
nant,  is  alone  permitted  to  draw  nigh  to  God  ; 
none  of  the  people  are  suffered  to  come  up  to  the 
Divine  gloiy,  not  even  Aaron,  nor  his  sons,  nor 
the  nobles  of  Israel,  Moses  was  a  type  of 
Christ,  who  is  the  mediator  of  the  Ftw  Cove¬ 
nant  ;  and  he  alone  has  access  to  God  in  behalf 
of  the  huma-n  race,  as  Moses  had  in  behalf  of 
Israel.  A.  C. 

De,  9  :  9.  During  this  period  of  forty  daj^s, 
and  the  second  period  when  the  tables  were  re¬ 
newed,  Moses  neither  ate  bread  nor  drank  water. 
Elijah  in  like  manner  fasted  for  forty  daj^s, 
when  he  visited  the  same  spot  (1  Kings  19  : 8). 
The  two  who  met  our  Saviour  on  the  Mount  of 
Transfiguration,  the  one  as  representing  the 
Law,  the  other  as  representing  the  Prophets, 
thus  shadowed  forth  in  their  own  experience 
the  fast  of  forty  days  in  the  wilderness  of  Judaea. 
Clark. - The  story  of  those  forty  daj^s  is  writ¬ 

ten  in  heaven’s  register  ;  and  if  Moses  were 
himself  still  here  to  give  his  witness  as  to  what 
occurred,  perhaps  he  would  repeat  the  words  of 
Paul  regarding  the  most  blessed  hour  of  his  ex¬ 
perience,  “  Whether  it  took  place  in  the  body, 
or  out  of  the  bodj'’,  I  cannot  tell — God  know- 
eth.”  It  is  enough  for  us  that  there  is  now 
made  known  to  him,  not  merely  the  grand  prin¬ 
ciples  of  law  to  regulate  the  Jevvish  common, 
wealth,  but  God’s  express  appointments  as  to 
everything  relating  to  the  life,  both  civil  and 
religious,  of  the  chosen  nation,  even  to  minute 
details  ;  that  he  is  now  allowed  the  greatest 
privilege  of  all,  to  pray  in  such  a  w^ay  that  he 
most  truly  lives  in  close  communion  with  the 
Infinite.  Van  0. 

Making  and  Wokshipping  the  Golden  Calf. 

Ex.  32  : 1-6. 

Forty  days  Moses  remained  on  the  mountain, 
neither  appearing  nor  holding  any  communica¬ 
tion  with  the  people.  Day  after  day  they  ex¬ 


pected  his  return  :  the  gloom  and  silence  of  the 
mountain  remained  unbroken.  Had  he  per¬ 
ished  ?  Had  he  abandoned  the  people  ?  Aaron 
himself  is  in  the  same  total  ignorance  as  to  the 
designs  and  the  fate  of  his  brother.  Whither 
shall  they  wander  in  the  trackless  desert  ?  Who 
shall  guide  them?  Their  leader  and  their  God 
seem  equally  to  have  deserted  them.  8till 
utterly  at  a  loss  to  comprehend  the  sublime 
notions  of  the  Deit}%  which  their  leader  would 
inculcate,  thej^  sink  back  to  the  superstitions  of 
the  country  which  they  had  left.  Mihnan. 

It  is  yet  less  than  six  w^eeks  since  the  amaz¬ 
ing  scenes  of  the  giving  of  the  I^aw  of  the  com¬ 
mandments,  when  the  voice  of  Jehovah  and  his 
words  seemed  to  overwhelm  the  w’hole  assembly 
of  Israel  with  religious  aw^e.  So  thoroughlj^  to 
all  appearance,  are  they  pervaded  with  the  spirit 
of  piety  and  reverence,  that,  no  sooner  has 
Moses  rehearsed  to  them  the  words  of  Jehovah 
than,  as  with  one  heart,  they  shout,  “  All  that 
Jehovah  hath  said  will  w'e  do  and  be  obedient.” 
But  after  Moses  is  gone  up  into  the  mount,  and 
the  mightj^  pillar  of  cloud  and  fire  that  before 
was  near  to  them  has  risen  to  the  summit  of 
Sinai  and  now  become  stationarj^  there  — after 
the  excitement  has  lulled  somewhat  and  everj^- 
thing  in  the  plain  Rahab  and  about  Mount  Sinai 
has  resumed  its  wonted  appearance,  the  leaven 
of  idolatr}^  and  lust  that  had  been  subdued  by 
the  terrors  of  the  Law  begins  again  to  work. 
First,  secretly  ;  then  more  openly  as  the  return 
of  Moses  is  delayed  day  after  day,  and  as  the 
bolder  spirits  begin  to  give  utterance  to  their 
speculations  concerning  what  has  become  of 
him  ;  till  at  length  the  whole  camp  becomes 
pervaded  with  the  idea  that  Moses  has  perished 
— probablj^  from  rashl}^  venturing  too  near  to 
the  mj^sterious  brightness  within  the  cloud. 
And  the  return  of  Moses,  once  given  up,  the 
next  inquiry  is  what  is  to  be  done  now  ?  And 
Satan,  ever  busy  in  the  souls  of  his  agents, 
suggests  the  idea  of  a  great  religious  festival. 
As  is  ever  the  case  when  men  begin  to  devise 
ordinances  of  religious  observance  which  God 
has  not  commanded,  then  a  suitable  form  of 
worship  for  the  festival  must  be  devised  ;  and 
what  more  suitable  form  than  the  forms  they 
have  been  accustomed  to  see  so  universally  in 
Egypt  ?  They  will,  therefore,  have  an  image  to 
aid  their  devotions.  Of  course  thej’’  do  not 
mean  to  adore  the  image,  or  worship  any  other 
God  than  Jehovah.  They  will  merely  present 
Jehovah  in  visible  form  to  the  eye,  so  that,  as 
they  have  now  something  tangible  to  start  from, 
the  imagination  can  soar  upward  and  lend  to  the 
soul  wings  of  devotion.  While  this  is  the  view 


244 


SECTION  115.  APOSTASY  OF  THE  GOLDEN  CALF. 


of  the  less  sensual  class  of  religionists  among 
them,  the  ignorant  multitude  are  pleased  with 
the  suggestion,  because  such  form  of  worship 
Cnarries  with  it  the  idea  of  revel  and  plays,  and 
indecent  wantonness.  Soon,  therefore,  every¬ 
body  is  in  favor  of  the  new  movement,  and 
Aaron,  who  has  been  left  in  charge  of  affairs  in 
Moses’  absence,  is  surprised  at  the  petition 
backed  by  an  overwhelming  popular  ojiinion  : 
“  Up,  make  us  gods  which  shall  go  before  us, 
for,  as  for  this  Moses,  that  brought  us  here,  we 
know  not  what  is  become  of  him.”  S,  R. 

I.  Make  us  a  god.  So  the  Hebrew  word  is 
often  translated.  The  meaning  is.  Make  us  a 
sacred  symbol  or  sign,  which  may  represent 
God  to  us  in  a  visible  manner.  They  hankered 
after  the  idolatrous  worship  which  they  had 
learned  in  Egyjot.  Stephen  calls  this  a  turning 
back  of  their  hearts  unto  Egypt  (Acts  7  ;  39).  Bp. 

Patrick. - Daily  fed  by  manna  from  heaven  ; 

dail}^  refreshed  by  water  from  the  smitten  rock  ; 
surrounded  by  miracles  of  might  and  benignity 
against  which  it  would  seem  impossible  that 
their  eyes  should  be  closed,  who  could  have 
anticipated  that,  in  utter  defiance  of  the  com¬ 
mandment  to  which  they  had  so  lately  and  so 
solemnly  avowed  obedience,  they  should  have 
ordered  the  fabrication  of  other  gods,  and 
”  changed  their  glory  into  the  likeness  of  an  ox, 
that  eateth  grass’  ’  ?  Bush. 

O  royal  Law,  and  mighty  Lawgiver  !  How 
could  they  think  of  making  any  resemblance  of 
him  whom  they  saw  could  not  be  seen,  and 
whom  they  saw  in  not  being  seen,  infinite  ? 
How  could  they  think  of  daring  to  profane  his 
name,  whom  they  heard  to  name  himself,  with 
that  voice,  Jehovah?  Have  they  so  soon  forgot¬ 
ten  that  fire  and  thunder,  which  they  heard  and 
saw  ?  Is  that  smoke  vanished  out  of  their  mind, 
as  soon  as  out  of  their  sight  ?  Could  their 
hearts  cease  to  tremble  with  the  earth  ?  Can 
they,  in  the  very  sight  cf  Sinai,  call  for  other 
gods  ?  Did  they  so  lately  hear  and  see  him  to 
be  an  infinite  God  ?  Did  they  quake  to  hear 
him  say  out  of  the  midst  of  the  flames,  “  I  am 
Jehovah  thy  God  :  thou  shalt  have  no  Gods  but 
me”?  With  his  pillar  uplifted  before  their 
eyes  and  his  manna  descending  day  by  day,  yet 

they  say,  “  Make  us  a  god.”  Bp.  H. - Had 

they  not  but  the  other  day,  in  this  very  place, 
heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord  God  speaking  to 
them  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire,  Thou  shalt  not 
make  to  thyself  any  graven  image  ?  Had  they  not 
heard  the  thunder,  seen  the  lightnings,  and  felt 
the  earthquake,  with  the  dreadful  pomp  of 
which  this  Law  was  given  ?  Had  they  not  been 
particularly  cautioned  not  to  make  gods  rf  gold 


(ch.  20  : 23)  ?  Nay,  had  they  not  themselves 
solemnly  entered  into  covenant  with  God,  and 
promised  that  all  that  which  he  had  said  unto 
them  they  would  do,  and  would  be  obedient  (ch. 
24  : 7)  ?  And  yet,  before  they  stirred  from  the 
place  where  this  covenant  had  been  solemnly 
ratified,  and  before  the  cloud  was  removed  from 
the  top  of  Mount  Sinai,  thus  to  break  an  express 
command,  in  defiance  of  an  express  threatening 
that  this  inquity  should  be  visited  upon  them  and 
their  children — what  shall  we  think  of  it  ?  It  is 
a  plain  indication  that  the  Law  was  no  more 
able  to  sanctify  than  it  was  to  justify  ;  by  it  is 
the  knowledge  of  sin.  but  not  the  cure  of  it.  This 
is  intimated  in  the  emphasis  laid  upon  the  place 
where  this  sin  was  committed  (Ps.  106  : 19) — 
They  made  a  calf  in  Horeb,  the  very  place  where 
the  Law  was  given.  H.  ^ 

Even  on  that  very  plain,  beneath  that  very 
mount,  they  could  not  bear  to  think  that  they 
were  to  serve  a  God  who  was  invisible  ;  they 
returned  to  Egypt  in  their  hearts.  And  not 
then  only,  but  again  and  again,  both  in  the  his¬ 
tory  of  the  Jewish  and  of  the  Christian  Church, 
has  the  same  temptation  returned.  The  priest 
has  set  up  what  the  prophet  has  destroyed. 
Graven  images  have  been  set  up  in  deed  or  in 
word,  to  make  the  Unseen  visible,  and  the  Eter¬ 
nal  temporal.  But  the  Revelation  of  Sinai  has 
prevailed.  Slowly  and  with  many  reverses  did 
the  great  truth  then  first  imparted  gain  posses¬ 
sion  of  the  hearts  of  Israel,  and,  through  them, 
of  the  whole  world— that  we  are  neither  to  im¬ 
agine  that  we  see  God  when  we  do  not,  nor  that 
because  we  do  not  see  him,  are  we  to  doubt  that 
he  has  been,  and  is,  and  yet  shall  be.  This  was 
the  marvel  which  the  Jewish  worshii3  presented, 
even  to  the  best  and  wusest  heathens  who  were 
perplexed  by  what  seemed  to  them  a  religion 
withopt  a  God.  It  is  to  us  the  declaration  that 
there  must  be  a  void  created  bj^  the  destruction 
of  errors,  by  the  removal  of  false  images  of  God, 
before  we  can  receive  the  true  image  of  the  Truth 
itself.  A.  P.  S. 

Aaron' s  Part  in  the  Apostasy. 

Ex.  32  : 2-5. 

Aaron,  he  that  alone  was  allowed  to  climb  up 
the  flaming  hill  of  Sinai  with  Moses,  who  had 
heard  God  say,  “  Thou  shalt  not  make  to  thy¬ 
self  any  graven  image,  for  I  am  a  jealous  God,” 
within  one  month  calls  for  their  ear-rings,  makes 
the  graven  image  of  a  calf,  erects  an  altar,  conse¬ 
crates  a  day  to  it,  calls  it  their  god,  and  weeps 
not  to  see  them  dance  before  it,  Aaron  might 
have  learned  better  counsel  of  his  brother’s  ex¬ 
ample.  When  they  came  to  him  with  stones  in 
their  hands,  and  said,  “  Give  us  water,”  he  ran 


MAKING  AND  WORSHIPPING  THE  CALF. 


245 


as  roundly  to  God  with  prayers  in  his  mouth  ; 
so  should  Aaron  have  done  when  they  said, 
“  Give  us  gods  but  he  weakly  runs  to  their 
ear-rings,  that  which  should  be  made  their  god  ; 
not  to  the  true  God,  which  they  had  and  for* 
sook.  'Who  can  promise  to  himself  freedom 
from  gross  infirmities,  when  he  that  went  up 
into  the  mount  comes  down  and  doth  that  in 
the  valley  which  he  heard  forbidden  in  the  hill  ? 
I  see  and  wonder  at  the  mercy  of  that  God, 
which  had  justly  called  himself  jealous.  This 
very  Aaron,  whose  infirmity  had  yielded  to  so 
foul  an  idolatry,  is  afterward  chosen  by  God  to 
be  a  priest  to  himself  ;  he  that  had  set  up  an 
altar  to  the  calf  must  serve  at  the  altar  of  God  ; 
he  that  had  melted  and  carved  out  the  calf  for 
a  god  must  sacrifice  calves  and  rams  and  bul¬ 
locks  unto  the  true  God  ;  he  that  consecrated  a 
day  to  the  idol  is  himself  consecrated  to  Him 
who  was  dishonored  by  the  idol.  The  grossest 
of  all  sins  cannot  prejudice  the  calling  of  God  ; 
yea,  as  the  light  is  best  seen  in  darkness,  the 
mercy  of  God  is  most  magnified  in  our  un- 
w'orthiness.  Bp.  H. 

God  left  him  to  himself  to  teach  us  what  the 
best  of  men  are  when  they  are  so  left,  that  we 
may  cease  from  man,  and  that  he  who  thinks  he 
stands  may  take  heed  lest  he  fall.  Aaron  was,  at 
this  time,  destined  by  the  Divine  appointment 
to  the  great  office  of  the  priesthood  ;  though  he 
knew  it  not,  Moses  in  the  mount  did  ;  now,  lest 
he  should  be  lifted  vp  above  measure  with  the 
honors  that  were  to  be  put  upon  him,  a  mes¬ 
senger  of  Satan  was  suffered  to  prevail  over  him, 
that  the  remembrance  thereof  might  kee^D  him 
humble  all  his  days.  He  who  even  shamed 
himself  so  far  as  to  build  an  altar  to  a  golden 
calf  must  own  himself  altogether  unworthy  of 
the  honor  of  attending  at  the  altar  of  God,  and 
purely  indebted  to  free  grace  for  it.  Thus  pride 
and  boasting  were  forever  silenced,  and  a  good 
effect  brought  out  of  a  bad  cause.  By  this  like¬ 
wise  it  was  showed  that  the  Law  made  them  priests 
which  had  infirmity  ;  and  needed  first  to  offer  for 
their  own  sins.  H. 

ii,  3.  Ooldcii  riiig^s.  The  abundant  sup¬ 
ply  of  such  jewelry  is  fully  conformed  to  the 
condition  of  things  among  which  the  Hebrews 
had  so  long  lived,  where  not  only  are  ear-rings 
of  gold,  and  in  some  instances  set  with  pearls, 
abundantly  found,  as  well  as  represented,  but 
where  one  of  the  pictures  at  Thebes  exhibits  the 
ladies  comparing  the  ornaments  in  their  ears. 
The  implied  skill  in  metallurgy  and  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  jewelry,  formerly  questioned,  is  now 
perfectly  established.  The  whole  process  of 
working  gold  is  delineated  in  their  tombs,  while 


various  modern  museums  exhibit  great  numbers 
of  old  Egyptian  ear-rings,  finger-rings  (some  of 
them  very  massive),  bracelets,  anklets,  and  other 
kinds  of  ornaments  elaborately  and  delicately 
wrought.  S.  C.  B. 

I.  Fasliionccl  it  witli  a  $?raviiig: 
tool,  and  made  a  moiteii  calf.  After 
he  had  made  a  rough  cast  of  it,  he  formed  it 
with  a  graving-tool,  so  that  it  became  a  com¬ 
plete  and  elaborated  statue  of  a  bull,  which 
plainly  recalled  the  worship  of  the  bull  in 
Egypt,  where  an  ox  called  Onuphis  (the  ox  Apis), 
at  Memphis,  and  another  ox,  Mnevis,  at  On,  re¬ 
ceived  Divine  honors  (as  emblems  of  the  cre¬ 
ative  and ‘generative  powers  of  nature).  No  sin 
is,  in  after  times,  more  frequently  blamed  on 
the  part  of  God’s  people  than  this.  C.  G.  B, 

5.  To-morrow  is  a  feast  to  llie 
Lord.  Not  to  the  golden  calf,  but  to  the  Cre¬ 
ator  of  the  world,  whom  they  worshipj^ed  in 
this  image.  Notwithstanding  which,  this  was  no 
better  than  an  idol,  and  they  were  gross  idola¬ 
ters  (Ps.  106  : 19,  20  ;  1  Cor.  10  :  7).  Bp.  Patrick. 
- By  Aaron’s  building  an  altar  and  proclaim¬ 
ing  this  feast  to  the  true  God,  it  would  seem 
that  he  still  proposed  within  himself  to  lead  the 
thoughts  of  the  people  through  the  outward 
medium  and  fix  them  upon  Jehovah  himself, 
the  only  proper  object  of  adoration.  But  such 
a  mixture  of  Divine  and  idolatrous  worship  never 
fails  to  mislead  the  mass  of  men,  and  though 
the  priests  of  a  corrupt  religion,  in  imitation  of 
Aaron,  may  plead  that  the  use  of  paintings, 
images,  and  sacrifices,  is,  intended  merely  as  a 
heljD,  by  sensible  media,  to  spiritual  worship, 
yet  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  its  practical 
effects  are  always  the  same  with  those  here  re¬ 
corded,  and  that  it  comes  under  the  same  con¬ 
demnation.  Whatever  were  Aaron’s  private 
views  or  wishes,  the  transaction  is  thus  again 
characterized  by  the  Holy  Ghost  (Acts  7  : 41), 
“  And  they  made  a  calf  in  those  days,  and 
offered  sacrrifices  unto  the  idol,  and  rejoiced  in  the 
work  of  their  hands.”  So  Jehu,  led  away  by 
the  same  delusion,  could  boast  of  his  zeal  for 
the  Lord  of  hosts,  while  yet  he  was  a  worship¬ 
per  of  the  golden  calves  of  Jeroboam  (2  Kings 

10  : 16,  29).  Bush. - In  after  times,  when  the 

kings  of  Israel  set  up  the  same  representation 
of  the  true  God  at  Dan  and  Bethel,  the  Scrip¬ 
ture  constantly  speaks  of  it  as  the  leading  sin, 
from  which  all  the  rest  of  their  idolatries,  and 
at  last  their  utter  destruction,  proceeded.  For 
from  worshipping  the  true  God  by  an  image,  they 
soon  came  to  worship  the  images  of  false  gods 
too  :  and  from  thence  fell  into  all  sorts  of  super¬ 
stition,  and  all  sorts  of  wickedness.  Ahp.  Seeker. 


24G 


SECTION  116.  MOSES  RECEIVES  THE  TWO  TABLES. 


G.  I§at  dowsi  to  cat  and  driii^k  and 
rose  up  to  play.  When  this  idolatry  of 
theirs  is  spoken  of  in  the  New  Testament,  the 
account  of  their  feasts  upon  the  sacrifice  is 
quoted  and  referred  to  (1  Cor.  10  :  7),  Tlcey  sat 
down  to  eat  aatZ  drink  of  the  remainder  or  what 
was  sacrificed,  and  then  rose  up  to  play  ;  to  play 
the  fool,  to  play  the  wanton.  Like  god,  like 

worship  11. - God  was  forgotten  ;  all  true 

sense  of  his  presence  and  indeed  of  his  nature 
was  ruled  out  by  the  very  fact  that  they  had  ex¬ 
alted  a  golden  calf  into  his  place.  By  a  law  of 
human  nature  men  become  like  the  object  they 
w'orship.  Calf  worshippers  go  down  to  the  level 
of  the  calf  they  worship.  Alas  !  would  that 
they  did  not  sink  far  lower  in  passion  and  in 
crime  !  H.  C. 

Superstition  besots  the  minds  of  men  and 
blinds  the  eye  of  reason  ;  and  first  makes  them 
not  men,  ere  it  makes  them  idolaters.  How 
else  could  he,  that  is,  the  image  of  God,  fall 


down  to  the  images  of  creatures  ?  As  the  Syri¬ 
ans  were  hrst  blinded,  and  then  led  ipto  the 
midst  of  Samaria,  so  are  idolaters  first  bereaved 
of  their  wits  and  common-sense,  and  afterward 
are  caned  brutishly  into  all  palpable  impiety. 
Bp.  11 

Idolatry  is  always  accompanied  with  the 
grossest  sensuality.  The  reason  is  clear.  Each 
idol  that  men  have  worshipped  or  now  worship 
is  some  portion  of  nature  deified  ;  some  power 
in  nature  or  some  attribute  of  man,  which  the 
man  worships  as  bis  god.  Now  it  is  the  very 
nature  of  all  such  properties  or  attributes  that 
they  are  monsh’ous  and  mischievous.  For  in¬ 
stance,  love  without  purity  is  appetite  ;  wisdom 
without  truthfulness  is  cunning  ;  courage  with¬ 
out  mercy  is  ferocity  ;  justice  without  compas¬ 
sion  is  horrible  cruelty.  And  so  ever  does  the 
false  faith  lead  to  the  foul  life,  and  the  foul  life 
is  cleansed  by  the  terrible  judgments  of  God. 
W.  C.  Magee. 


Section  116. 

MOSES  KECEIYES  THE  TWO  TABLES.  INFORMED  OF  ISRAEL’S  APOSTASY,  AND 
INTERCEDES  FOR  THEIR  FORGIVENESS.  HE  DESCENDS  FROM  THE  MOUNT, 
BREAKS  THE  TABLES,  DESTROYS  THE  CALF,  AND  INFLICTS  DEATH  UPON 
THE  GUILTIEST  TRANSGRESSORS. 

Exodus  31  :  18  ;  32  ;  7-29.  De.  9  :  10-17,  21. 

Ev.  31  18  And  he  gave  unto  Moses,  when  he  had  made  an  end  of  communing  with  him  upon 
Mount  Sinai,  the  two  tables  of  the  testimony,  tables  of  stone,  written  with  the  finger  of  God. 

Ex.  32  7  And  the  Lokd  spake  unto  Moses,  Go,  get  thee  down  ;  for  thy  people,  which  thou 

8  broughtest  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  have  corrupted  themselves  :  they  have  turned  aside 
quickly  out  of  the  way  which  I  commanded  them  :  they  have  made  them  a  molten  calf,  and 
have  worshipped  it,  and  have  sacrificed  unto  it,  and  said,  These  be  thy  gods,  O  Israel,  which 

9  brought  thee  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  And  the  Loed  said  unto  Moses,  I  have  seen  this 

10  people,  and,  behold,  it  is  a  stiffnecked  people  :  now  therefore  let  me  alone,  that  my  wrath 
may  wax  hot  against  them,  and  that  I  may  consume  them  :  and  I  will  make  of  thee  a  great 

11  nation.  And  Moses  besought  the  Loed  his  God,  and  said,  Loed,  whj’  doth  thy  wrath  w'ax  hot 
against  thy  people,  which  thou  hast  brought  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  with  great  power 

12  and  with  a  mighty  hand  ?  Wherefore  should  the  Egyptians  speak,  saying.  For  evil  did  he 
bring  them  forth,  to  slay  them  in  the  mountains,  and  to  consume  them  from  the  face  of  the 

13  earth  ?  Turn  from  thy  fierce  wrath,  and  repent  of  this  evil  against  thy  people.  Remember 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Israel,  th}^  servants,  to  whom  thou  swarest  by  thine  own  self,  and  saidst 
unto  them,  I  will  multiply  your  seed  as  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  all  this  land  that  I  have  spoken 

14  of  will  I  give  unto  your  seed,  and  they  shall  inherit  it  for  ever.  And  the  Loed  repented  of 
the  evil  which  he  said  he  would  do  unto  his  people. 

15  And  Moses  turned,  and  went  down  from  the  inount,  with  the  two  tables  of  the  testimony  in 
his  hand  ;  tables  that  were  written  on  both  their  sides  ;  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other  were 

16  they  written.  And  the  tables  were  the  work  of  God,  and  the  writing  was  the  waiting  of  God, 

17  graven  upon  the. tables.  And  when  Joshua  heard  the  noise  of  the  people  as  they  shouted, 

18  he  said  unto  Moses,  There  is  a  noise  of  war  in  the  camp.  And  he  said.  It  is  not  the  voice  of 
them  that  shout  for  mastery,  neither  is  it  the  voice  of  them  that  cry  for  being  overcome  :  but 

19  the  noise  of  them  that  sing  do  I  hear.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  soon  as  he  came  nigh  unto  the 


MOSES  BECEIVES  THE  TWO  TABLES. 


247 


camp,  that  he  saw  the  calf  and  the  dancing  ;  and  Moses’  anger  w^axed  hot,  and  he  cast  the 

20  tables  out  of  his  hands,  and  brake  them  beneath  the  mount.  And  he  took  the  calf  which  they 
had  ’made,  and  burnt  it  with  fire,  and  ground  it  to  powder,  and  strewed  it  upon  the  w'ater, 

21  and  made  the  children  of  Israel  drink  of  it.  And  Moses  said  unto  Aaron,  What  did  this  people 

22  unto  thee,  that  thou  hast  brought  a  great  sin  upon  them  ?  And  Aaron  said.  Let  not  the  anger 

23  of  my  lord  w'ax  hot  :  thou  knowest  the  people,  that  they  are  set  on  evil.  For  they  said  unto 
me.  Make  us  gods,  which  shall  go  before  us  :  for  as  for  this  Moses,  the  man  that  brought  us 

24  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egj'pt,  VA^e  know  not  what  is  become  of  him.  And  I  said  unto  them, 
Whosoever  hath  any  gold,  let  them  break  it  off  ;  so  they  gave  it  me  :  and  I  cast  it  into  the  fire, 

25  and  there  came  out  this  calf.  And  when  Moses  saw  that  the  people  were  broken  loose  ;  for 

26  Aaron  had  let  them  loose  for  a  derision  among  their  enemies  :  then  Moses  stood  in  the  gate  of 
the  camp,  and  said.  Whoso  is  on  the  Loan’s  side,  let  him  come  unto  me.  And  all  the  sons  of 

27  Levi  gathered  themselves  together  unto  him.  And  he  said  unto  them.  Thus  saith  the  Loan, 
the  God  of  Israel,  Put  ye  every  man  his  sword  upon  his  thigh,  and  go  to  and  fro  from  gate  to 
gate  throughout  the  camp,  and  slay  every  man  his  brother,  and  every  man  his  companion, 

28  and  every  man  his  neighbour.  And  the  sons  of  Levi  did  according  to  the  word  of  Moses  ;  and 

29  there  fell  of  the  people  that  day  about  three  thousand  men.  And  Moses  said,  Consecrate 
jmurselves  to-day  to  the  Loan,  yea,  every  man  against  his  son,  and  against  his  brother  ;  that 
he  may  bestow  upon  you  a  blessing  this  day. 


Repetition  in  Deuterohwmy. 

Be.  9  10  And  the  Loan  delivered  unto  me  the  two  tables  of  stone  written  with  the  finger  of 
God  ;  and  on  them  was  written  according  to  all  the  words,  which  the  Loan  spake  with  you  in 

11  the  mount  out  of  the  midst  of  the.  fire  in  the  day  of  the  assembly.  And  it  came  to  pass  at  the 
end  of  forty  days  and  forty  nights,  that  the  Loan  gave  me  the  two  tables  of  stone,  even  the 

12  tables  of  the  covenant.  And  the  Loan  said  unto  me,  Arise,  get  thee  down  quickly  from  hence  ; 
for  thy  people  which  thou  hast  brought  forth  out  of  Egypt  have  corrupted  themselves  ;  they 
are  quickly  turned  aside  out  of  the  way  which  I  commanded  them  ;  they  have  made  them  a 

13  molten  image.  Furthermore  the  Loan  spake  unto  me,  saying,  I  have  seen  this  people,  and, 

14  behold,  it  is  a  stiffnecked  people  ;  let  me  alone,  that  I  may  destroj^  them,  and  blot  out  their 
name  from  under  heaven  :  and  I  will  make  of  thee  a  nation  mightier  and  greater  than  they. 

15  So  I  turned  and  came  down  from  the  mount,  and  the  mount  burned  with  fire  :  and  the  two 

16  tables  of  the  covenant  were  in  my  two  hands.  And  I  looked,  and,  behold,  ye  had  sinned 
against  the  Loan  your  God  ;  ye  had  made  you  a  molten  calf  :  ye  had  turned  aside  quickly 

17  out  of  the  way  which  the  Loan  had  commanded  you.  And  I  took  hold  of  the  two  tables,  and 
21  cast  them  out  of  my  two  hands,  and  brake  them  before  your  eyes.  And  I  took  your  sin,  the 

calf  which  ye  had  made,  and  burnt  it  with  fire,  and  stamped  it,  grinding  it  very  small,  until  it 
M'as  as  fine  as  dust  :  and  I  cast  the  dust  thereof  into  the  brook  that  descended  out  of  the  mount. 


31  :  1§.  Communiiig^  with  him 

on  MIoiiiit  Sinni.  There  Jehovah  showed 
him  (in  a  vision)  a  representation  of  the  dwelling 
which  he  required,  and  of  all  the  articles  of 
furniture  which  were  to  be  placed  in  it,  and 
gave  him  the  necessary  instructions  for  its  erec¬ 
tion.  When  he  had  completed  his  directions, 
he  gave  him  two  tables  of  stone,  on  which  the  ten 
words  of  the  fundamental  Law  had  been  in¬ 
scribed  by  the  finger  of  God.  K. 

Written  with  the  finger  of  God. 
As  the  ten  words  were  proclaimed  by  the 
voice,  so  they  are  here  said  to  be  written  by 
the  finger  of  God.  But  as  they  heard  on  that 
dread  occasion  “  the  voice  of  words,  but  saw  no 
similitude,”  so  the  engraving  on  stone  implies 
no  visible  finger  of  God,  but  only  the  putting 
forth  of  his  power  for  the  production  of  an  au¬ 
thentic  and  permanent  copy  of  the  moral  Law. 


M. - We  must  understand  this  to  mean  that 

the  characters  were  formed  by  the  secret  virtue 
of  God  ;  nor  is  it  a  matter  of  wonder  that  a 
writing  should  have  suddenly  been  brought  into 
existence  at  the  same  will  of  God,  whereby  the 
waste  and  shapeless  materials  of  the  Avorld, 
which  they  call  chaos,  were  changed  so  as  to  be 
resplendent  with  elegance  and  beauty.  Calr. 

Informed  by  Jehovah  of  Israel's  Apostasy,  Moses 
Intercedes  for  their  Forgiveness. 

Ex.  32  :  7-14.  Be.  9  : 12-15. 

At  first  view,  this  gross  apostasy,  so  soon 
after  the  wonders  in  Egypt  and  the  terrors  of 
Sinai,  and  in  the  very  face  of  the  mountain 
from  which  the  law  forbidding  idolatr}'  had 
been  proclaimed,  seems  utterly  confounding. 
But  though  there  is  no  excuse  for  it,  this  much 
may  be  said  by  way  of  accounting  for  it  :  In 


248 


SECTION  116.  MOSES  INTERCEDES  FOR  ISRAEL. 


Egypt,  the  Israelites  had  lost  much  of  the  life 
of  their  faith,  and  had  become  familiar  witn  the 
worship  of  idols.  A  law  of  spiritual  ideas  had 
now  been  promulgated  ;  but,  as  yet,  no  forms 
of  worship  were  set  up.  The  wonders  which 
had  so  i^owerfully  imjyressed  their  senses  had 
ceased.  Moses,  the  visible  organ  of  Jehovah, 
had  disappeared  ;  and,  in  his  prolonged  ab¬ 
sence,  time  hung  heavj  in  the  camp.  A  chief 
object  of  worship  in  Egj'pt  was  Apis,  the  sacred 
bull,  wJiich  was  kept  in  royal  state  at  Memphis, 
and  honored  as  a  source  of  national  life  and 
power.  Hence,  when  they  craved  some  visible 
representative  of  the  Divinity,  the  golden  calf 
would  naturally  sug;;gest  itself,  and  their  feast 
would  take  the  form  of  such  orgies  as  they  had 
witnessed  in  Egypt.  With  a  self-sacrifice  that 
marks  the  sublimest  heroism,  Moses  assumed 
the  task  of  mediation.  The  power  and  glory  of 
Jehovah  as  commited  to  the  salvation  of  Israel, 
the  effect  of  any  failure  upon  his  enemies,  and, 
above  all,  his  own  covenant  of  grace  with  Abra¬ 
ham — these  are  the  arguments  by  which  Moses 
pleads  with  the  Lord  ;  and  his  earnest,  unsel¬ 
fish  faith  prevails.  J.  P.  T. 

Nowhere  is  a  sharper  contrast  brought  before 
us  than  that  which  this  history  presents.  In 
the  valley  the  multitude,  as  if  infected  by  some 
epidemic  insanity,  are  preparing  for  their  idola¬ 
trous  orgies  ;  on  the  mountain,  within  the 
cloud-veil  that  shrouds  its  summit,  Moses  is 
communing  with  Jehovah.  Below,  all  is  noise 
and  tumult  and  passion  ;  above,  all  is  jjeace 
and  contemplation  and  fellowship  of  sj^iritwith 
spirit  :  below  are  sin  and  shame  ;  above  are 
intercession  and  forgiveness.  W.  M.  T. 

How  dreadful  the  shock  to  Moses,  as  the  con¬ 
ference  between  himself  and  Jehovah  concern¬ 
ing  all  the  scheme  for  erecting  a  palace,  and 
preparing  a  service  of  worship  at  his  immediate 
dwelling-place — is  suddenly  interrupted  with 
the  announcement,  “Go,  get  thee  down,  for 
thy  people  (they  have  broken  the  covenant  and 
are  no  longer  mine),  which  thou  broughtest  out 
of  the  land  of  Egypt,  have  corrupted  them¬ 
selves.”  “  I  have  seen  this  people,  and  behold 
it  is  a  stiffnecked  people.  Now,  therefore,  let 
me  alone  that  my  wrath  may  wax  hot  against 
them,  and  that  I  may  consume  them  r  and  I  will 
make  of  thee  a  great  nation.”  This  scene  is 
among  the  most  remarkable  in  the  Bible  his¬ 
tory,  as  illustrating  to  finite  human  minds  the 
nature  of  intercessory  prayer.  Representing 
Jehovah  after  the  manner  of  a  covenanted  ruler, 
justly  incensed  at  the  faithlessness  and  treason 
of  his  subjects,  threatening  to  cast  off  and  de¬ 
stroy  them,  and  to  make  Moses  the  centre  of  a 


New  Covenant,  it  shows  how,  by  Divine  in¬ 
tercession,  first  a  respite  was  gained  and  subse¬ 
quently  how  by  further  intercession  the  culprits 
were  fully  restored  and  the  covenant  renewed. 
To  us  who  cannot  comprehend  the  Divine  side 
of  this  great  question  of  the  relation  of  human 
intercession  to  the  purposes  of  God,  this  account 
is  all-sufficient.  Instead  of  speculating  about 
the  unknowable  and  framing  theories  of  what 
our  minds  must  necessarily  be  incompetent  to 
grasj),  we  have  only  to  accept  God’s  assurance 
that  somehow  in  the  manner  here  illustrated  he 
may  be  led  to  hear  the  intercessions  of  his  crea¬ 
tures,  after  the  manner  of  human  rulers  who 
may  be  prevailed  upon  by  argumeots.  The 
threefold  argument  of  Moses — wherefore  shall 
He  seem  to  cast  a  reflection  on  his  own  wisdom 
by  so  soon  destroying  what  he  had  expended  so 
much  power  to  preserve — wherefore  expose  his 
own  great  name  to  the  scorn  and  derision  of 
Egypt  and  thereby  confirm  them  and  the  whole 
world  in  their  unbelief — wherefore  seem  to  fail 
to  keep  the  covenant  with  Abraham  and  thereby 
seem  to  disregard  his  obligation — is  all  inspired 
you  wdll  perceive  by  his  holy  loyalty  to  Jehovah 
and  his  intense  concern  for  his  honor  among 
men.  The  ultimate  end  we  seek  in  all  genuine 
petition  or  intercession  is  the  honor  of  our 
Father — as  illustrated  by  this  intercession  of 
Moses.  Seeing  that  the  eyes  and  tongues  of  not 
only  all  the  vast  empire  of  Egypt,  but  all  sur¬ 
rounding  nations,  are  intent  on  finding  matter 
of  malicious  triumph,  both  over  the  people  so 
signally  delivered  and  the  God  who  so  signally 
delivered  them,  he  would,  at  all  hazards,  pre¬ 
clude  all  disparagements  of  the  Divine  glory 
by  its  being  blemished  by  his  enemies.  His  in¬ 
tercession  prevailed,  as  all  such  intercessions 
must.  “  The  Lord  repented  of  (or,  in  the  He¬ 
brew,  was  propitiated  concerning)  the  evil  which 
he  thought  to  do  unto  his  people.”  S.  R. 

Ex.  3*2  : 10.  Ect  me  alone.  Moses  had 
not  yet  opened  his  mouth,  but  God  foresaw  the 
holy  violence  with  which  his  importunity  w’ould 
besiege  his  throne,  and  apparently  desires  him 
not  to  intercede  for  them.  What  greater  or 
more  significant  proof  could  be  given  of  the 
Divine  condescension  to  the  petitions  of  a  mor¬ 
tal  ?  Rush. - God  is  fain  to  bespeak  his  ow'n 

freedom  ;  as  if  Moses’s  devotion  were  stronger 
than  Gk)d’s  indignation.  Great  is  the  power  of 
prayer  ;  able,  after  a  sort,  to  transfuse  a  dead 
palsy  into  the  hand  of  Omnipotence.  Ti'app. 

- Moses  should  not  need  to  solicit  God  for 

revenge  ;  God  solicits  him,  in  a  sort,  for  leave 
to  revenge.  Who  would  look  for  such  a  word 
from  God  to  man,  “  Let  me  alone  V”  As  yet. 


HIS  INTERCESSION  PREVAILS, 


249 


Moses  had  said  nothing  ;  before  he  opens  his 
mouth  God  prevents  his  importunity,  as  fore¬ 
seeing  that  holy  violence  which  the  requests  of 
Moses  would  otfer  to  him.  Moses  stood  trem¬ 
bling  before  the  majesty  of  his  Maker  ;  and  yet 
hears  him  say,  “  Let  me  alone,”  The  mercy  of 
our  God  hath,  as  it  were,  obliged  his  power  to 
the  faith  of  men  :  the  fervent  prayers  of  the 
faithful  hold  the  hands  of  the  Almighty.  As  I 
find  it  said  afterward  of  Christ,  That  “  he  could 
do  no  miracles  there,  because  of  their  unbelief 
so  now,  I  hear  God,  as  if  he  could  not  do  ex¬ 
ecution  upon  Israel  because  of  Moses’s  faith, 
say,  “  Let  me  alone,  that  I  may  consume  them.” 
Bp.  II 

1  will  iiiiike  of  tliee  a  great  nation. 

If  Moses  had  accepted  the  proposal,  God’s  prom¬ 
ises  to  the  patriarchs  had  still  been  fulfilled  ; 
for  Moses  was  a  son  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac,  and 
of  Jacob,  and  in  him  and  his  the  promises 

might  have  been  fulfilled.  Kit. - What  a 

temptation  lay  for  Moses  here  !  But  in  his 
praj^er  he  sj)eaks  as  if  Jehovah  had  not  used 
these  words  at  all  ;  he  scarcely  pays  regard  to 
them  ;  he  makes  no  use  of  them  in  his  own  in¬ 
terest  ;  he  is  far  more  concerned  about  the  honor 
of  Jehovah  than  for  a  numerous  posterity.  By 
all  means,  then,  destroy  his  trunk,  stripped  as 
it  is  already  of  its  leaves,  provided  that  the 
forest  trees  of  Israel  be  not  cut  down  ;  for  he 
already  sees  the  axe  laid  to  their  roots.  In  the 
full  strength  of  interceding  love  he  can  be 
quite  oblivious  of  everything  except  the  sinful 
Israel  ;  nor  does  he  leave  the  mountain-top  till 
he  brings  down  with  him  the  promise  that  the 
sentence,  merited  even  though  it  is,  shall  be  de¬ 
layed  at  least,  if  not  repealed.  Yet  this  our 
prayer  is  but  the  first  of  hundreds  more  ;  or 
rather,  it  is  the  key-note  of  a  life  of  faith  and 
prayer  and  love  on  Moses’s  part  through  forty 
years — a  life  that  dies  not,  even  when  he  gives 
up  the  ghost.  “Now,  therefore,  forgive  their 
sins  how  frequently,  and  in  how  many  ways, 
the  man  of  God  presented  this  same  prayer  ! 
It  is  this  very  perseverance  in  entreaty  for  the 
good  of  Israel — when,  almost  at  every  moment, 
they  have  turned  anew  to  corrupt  practices — 
that  gives  to  Moses’s  intercession  a  great  meas¬ 
ure  of  the  unselfish,  the  pathetic,  the  sublime  ; 
and  thus,  just  like  the  man  himself,  we  find  it 
standing  in  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  al¬ 
most  alone,  unparalleled.  But  it  is  also  just  this 
feature  in  the  prayer  of  Moses  that  shows  us 
professing  Christians  how  we  should  conduct 
ourselves  in  secret  intercourse  with  God.  Come 
hither,  ye  who  seek  to  understand  what  true 
prayer  is— what  kind  of  prayer  it  is  that  pleases 


God  ;  behold  that  man  who  wrestles  like  an¬ 
other  Jacob,  not  for  his  own  life  but  for  Israel’s, 
and  who  like  Israel  earned  for  himself  the  meed 
of  praise  that  as  a  prince  he  had  power  with 
God  ?  It  is  not  enough  that  you  should  cry  to 
God  for  help  whenever  your  own  want  and  mis¬ 
ery  oppress  your  soul  ;  Moses  calls  loudly, 
“  Pray  for  others  too,”  and  the  more  earnestly 
for  them  as  they  are  more  unfortunate,  more 
sinful  than  yourselves,  and  more  unthankful 
and  unkind  to  you  !  Neither  is  it  enough  that 
you  present  to  him  your  own  and  others’  mis¬ 
eries  ;  for  Moses  says  again,  “  God’s  honor  must 
be  made  the  one  great  object  in  your  prayer 
woe  to  the  man  whose  prayer  is  but  self-seek¬ 
ing,  who  does  not  endeavor  to  extol  God’s  maj¬ 
esty  !  Nor  yet,  again,  is  it  enough  that  you 
should  raise  your  heart  at  special  times  in 
prayer,  but  soon  abate  your  zeal  ;  Moses  cries 
out  to  every  one  who  strives  on  earth,  “  Con¬ 
tinue,  persevere  in  prayer  ;  the  faithful  friends 
of  God  are  the  best  friends  of  men  !”  Happy, 
thrice  happy,  is  the  nation,  church,  or  family 
that  counts  among  its  members  those  who  strive 
like  Moses  in  their  prayers.  Eternity  shall  one 
day  show  how  much  earth  owes  to  those  who 
have  thus  learned  to  live  in  constant  intercourse 
with  heaven  !  Van  0. 

If  ever  a  man  inherited  the  earth  by  meek¬ 
ness,  that  man  was  Moses.  His  was  a  grand, 
unselfish  life  made  to  wait  upon  the  lives  of 
Others.  Endurance  was,  indeed,  the  very  key¬ 
note  of  his  destiny.  His  life  was  to  be  one  long 
waiting  in  the  hope  of  humanity.  It  never  be¬ 
came  to  him  a  fruition  ;  he  never  reached  the 
promised  land.  He  received  not  the  treasures 
of  Canaan  any  more  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt ; 
he  bore  the  toil  and  Joshua  entered  in.  He  had 
for  long  years  to  bear  on  his  heart  the  interests 
of  that  motley  multitude  with  no  other  encour¬ 
agement  than  faith.  G.  Matlieson. 

11.  The  Lord  said  to  Moses  when  this  took 
place,  “  Go,  get  thee  down  ;  for  thy  people.” 
The  language  is  most  suggestive  ;  God  says, 
“  They  are  not  my  people  now  ;  they  have  for¬ 
saken  me.”  Observe  how  Moses,  with  exquisite 
skill,  changes  the  pronoun,  and  does  not  say  my 
people,  but  he  says,  they  are  thy  people  ;  bad 
as  they  are,  they  are  yet  that,  and  therefore  I 
beseech  thee  to  have  mercy  upon  them.  And 

then  Moses  pleads  God’s  glory.  J.  C. - He 

did  not  lei  God  alone  ;  on  the  contrary,  he  held 
up  before  him  his  own  purpose  and  promises 
of  salvation,  as  well  as  his  own  glory.  With 
Jacob  he  said,  ‘  ‘  I  will  not  let  thee  go  except 
thou  bless  me  and,  like  Jacob,  he  also  gained 
the  victory.  K. 


250 


SECTION  116.  THE  PLEA  OF  MOSES  ANSWERED. 


11-14.  Moses,  in  liis  intercession,  pleaded 
the  argument  with  which  God  had  turnished 
him.  Most  earnestly  did  he  insist  that  Israel 
was  God's  people,  since  their  deliverance  from 
Egypt  had  been  wholly  God-wrought.  Three 
special  arguments  did  he  use  with  God,  and 
th‘'se  Utree  may  to  all  lime  serve  as  models  in  our 
pleading  for  forgiveness  and  restoration  after 
weaknesses  and  falls.  These  arguments  were  ; 
First,  that  Israel  was  God’s  property,  and  that 
his  past  dealings  had  proved  this  (verse  11)  ; 
secondly,  that  God’s  own  glory  was  involved  in 
the  deliverance  of  Israel  in  the  face  of  the  enemy 
(verse  12)  ;  and,  thirdly,  that  God’s  gracious 
promises  were  pledged  for  their  salvation  (verse 
13).  And  such  pleas  God  never  refuses  to  ac¬ 
cept  (verse  14).  A.  E. - Moses  reminds  God 

of  the  triumph  of  his  enemies,  who  would  be¬ 
lieve  their  gods  had  taken  revenge  on  the  peo¬ 
ple  of  Israel  ;  and  he  appeals  to  the  covenant 
of  grace  with  their  fathers,  which  had  promised 
a  free  gift  on  the  part  of  God  without  any  con¬ 
ditions.  First,  His  glory,  next.  His  promise  ! 
Gerl. 

So  tender  is  he  over  the  name  of  God,  that  he 
would  rather  have  Israel  escape  with  a  sin,  than 
God’s  glory  should  be  blemished  in  the  opin¬ 
ions  of  men  by  a  just  judgment.  He  saw  that 
the  eyes  and  tongues  of  all  the  w'orld  were  in¬ 
tent  upon  Israel  ;  a  people  so  miraculously 
fetched  from  Egypt,  whom  the  sea  gave  way  to, 
whom  heaven  fed,  whom  the  rock  watered, 
w'hom  the  fire  and  cloud  guarded,  which  heard 
the  audible  voice  of  God.  He  knew  withal  how 
ready  the  world  would  be  to  misconstrue,  and 
how  the  heathens  would  be  ready  to  cast  impu¬ 
tations  of  levity  or  impotence  upon  God  ;  and 
therefore  says,  “  What  will  the  Egyptians  say?” 

Bp.  H. - God  had  already  redeemed  them  from 

Egyptian  bondage.  He  had  taken  great  pains 
with  them  hitherto,  and  had  expended  great 
powder  on  their  behalf.  And  He  had  not  done 
this  in  ignorance.  The  latent  evil  in  their 
hearts  He  had -perceived.  The  future  of  their 
lives  He  had  foreseen.  Hence  it  would  be  con¬ 
sistent  with  his  past  favors  to  dispense  fresh 
mercy.  He  had  engaged  to  bring  this  people  to 
the  land  of  promise,  not  for  their  sakes,  how¬ 
ever  obedient  they  might  be,  but  for  their 
fathers’  sakes.  Hence  their  rebelliousness  did 
not  vitiate  the  original  engagement  ;  and  al¬ 
though  individuals  might  justly  be  destroyed — 
yea,  that  whole  generation — still  the  posterity 
of  Abraham  must  eventually  enter  the  land. 
Davies. 

The  intercession  of  Moses  proceeds  entirely 
on  a  regard  for  the  honor  of  Jehovah,  and  the 


noble  man  does  not  permit  himself  even  to  refer 
to  the  proposal  that  he  should  be  made  the 
head  of  a  covenant  nation  in  room  of  the  re¬ 
jected  tribes.  Thus  triumphantly  does  he  stand 
the  test  to  which  Jehovah  subjected  him,  and 
we  do  not  wonder  that  his  pleading  was  success¬ 
ful,  for  “  the  Lord  repented  of  the  evil  which 
he  thought  to  do  unto  his  people,”  W.  M.  T. 

- Words  fail  in  attempting  to  describe  his 

true  nobility  of  soul,  which  comes  out  in  his 
pra3'ers  and  jjleadings  here.  Head  in  this  and 
other  passages  the  words  by  which  he  seeks  to 
influence  Jehovah  to  withdraw  the  dread  death- 
sentence  ;  and  then  tell  me  if  there  has  at  any 
time  been  offered  a  prayer  more  beautiful  and 
touching  than  this.  Does  it  not  seem  as  if  love 
were  exhausting  all  its  energies  in  trying  to  find 
out,  not  some  slight  palliations  of  the  shameful 
conduct  which  must  be  pronounced  quite  inex¬ 
cusable,  but  some  good  grounds  for  not  requir¬ 
ing  full  satisfaction  for  the  vast  amount  of  guilt 
incurred  ?  Van.  0. 

How  absolutely  disinterested  Moses's  interces¬ 
sion!  He  sets  aside,  without  even  taking  notice 
of  it,  the  most  glorious  offer  ever  made  to  mortal 
man.  How  intensely  earnest  !  Moses  had  a  most 
overwhelming  sense  of  the  reality  of  the  wrath 
he  sought  to  avert.  But  his  heart  was  agonizing 
to  save  his  nation,  and  he  seemed  to  clasp  the 
feet  of  God  in  the  spirit  of  one  who  would  not, 
could  not  leave,  till  he  obtained  what  he  sought. 
How  perseveringly  prolonged !  He  prajmd  by 
his  silence  as  well  as  by  his  speech.  The  whole 
scene  is  a  striking  illustration  of  the  intercession 
of  the  Saviour.  Orr. - In  every  time  of  emer¬ 

gency  his  immediate  resort  was  to  Jehovah. 
His  cry  was  the  appeal  of  one  who  knew  that  ho 
was  speaking  to  a  real,  living,  loving  person, 
omnipotent!}’’  able  to  help,  and  pledged  also  to 
render  assistance.  And  true  prayer  is  ever  that 
which,  as  in  the  case  of  ,  Moses,  springs  out  of 
faith  in  God — not  that  which  is  offered  by  one 
who  would  make  the  receiving  or  not  receiving 
of  an  answer  a  test  whether  there  be  any  God 
or  not  ;  and  those  supplications  which  are 
offered  by  men  who,  like  Abraham  or  Moses, 
are  the  friends  of  God,  and  appeal  to  him  as 
their  friend,  never  come  back  unacknowledged. 
W.  M.  T. 

14.  Was  ever  mortal  more  bold  and  more  per¬ 
sistent,  despite  of  all  the  Lord  had  said  which 
seemed  to  shut  the  door  and  bar  off  all  en¬ 
treaty  ?  Yet  Moses  prevailed,  and  it  does  not 
appear  that  the  Lord  rebuked  him  for  his  per¬ 
sistence  or  for  his  boldness.  It  is  simply  said 
— “  The  Lord  repented  of  the  evil  which  he 
thought  to  do  unto  his  people.”  H.  C. - In 


TABLES  BROKEN,  AND  JUDGMENT  EXECUTED. 


251 


the  sense  of  changing  his  ultimate  purpose,  God 
does  not  repent  ;  but  in  the  sense  of  altering  his 
procedure,  in  consequence  of  reasons  that  he 
foresaw  and  took  into  his  estimate,  God  is  said 
to  have  repented.  J.  C. 

Thus  did  the  mediator  address  Jehovah,  when 
he  interceded  for  the  salvation  of  the  people. 
Bat  a  mediator  is  not  a  mediator  of  one.  He 
had  also  to  defend  the  holiness  of  Jehovah  in 
the  presence  of  the  people  ;  and  this  he  now 
prepared  to  do.  K. - The  Lord  does  not  con¬ 

sume  the  people  according  to  his  threat,  but 
forgave  them,  ‘‘though  he  took  vengeance  of 
their  inventions”  (Ps.  99  : 8),  as  a  warning  and 
example.  Mercy  and  justice  were  here  revealed, 
as  the  issue  shows.  An  atonement  for  this  guilt, 
however,  was  absolutely  necessary.  C.  G.  B. 

Moses  Descends,  Breaks  the  Tables,  Destroys  the 

Idol,  and  Executes  Judgment  upon  3000  Chief 

Transgressors. 

Ex.  32  : 15-29.  De.  9  : 15-17,  21. 

The  intercession  of  Moses  in  the  mount  had 
already  secured  a  momentary  respite  for  Israel, 
but  not  a  joardon.  To  bring  them  to  reflection 
upon  their  dreadful  crime,  he  dashed  to  pieces 
the  holy  stones  containing  the  words  of  the 
covenant,  by  way  of  showing  by  symbol  that 
having  forsaken  Jehovah,  Jehovah  had  forsaken 
them.  A  covenant  broken  on  the  one  side  is 
broken  on  the  other  also  ;  and  he  would  show 
them  that  now  they  occupy  the  position  of  un¬ 
covenanted  outcasts.  He  next  proceeds  to  the 
work  of  judgment,  first  destroying  the  idol, 
then  at  his  bidding,  the  sons  of  Levi  becoming 
his  executioners,  three  thousand  of  the  most 
pronounced  apostates  are  slain.  The  execu¬ 
tioners  passed  from  gate  to  gate,  cutting  down, 
as  that  would  seem  to  imply,  only  those  still 
standing  out  in  the  public  places,  instead  of 
hiding  themselves  in  shame  in  their  tents.  Onlj’’ 
a  small  number  of  the  grovelling  souls -perhaps 
chiefly  of  the  mixed  multitude  that  came  with 
Israel  out  of  Egypt — were  made  an  example  of 
and  smitten  down.  S.  B. 

17.  Joihua.  While  Moses  was  in  the 
cloud,  as  in  the  presence-chamber,  Joshua  con¬ 
tinued  as  near  as  he  might  in  the  antechamber 
(as  it  were),  waiting  till  Moses  came,  that  he 
might  be  ready  to  attend  him  ;  and  though 
he  was  all  alone  for  forty  days  (fed,  it  is  likely, 
with  manna),  yet  he  was  not  weary  of  waiting, 
as  the  people  were,  but  when  Moses  came  down 

he  came  with  him,  and  not  till  then.  H. - 

His  calm  and  quiet  waiting  during  all  the  time 
of  Moses’s  absence  stands  in  very  strong  contrast 


with  the  impatient  and  unbelieving  temper  of  the 
people  during  the  same  period.  Bush. 

A  noise  of  Avar.  To  the  soldier’s  ear, 
quick  to  receive  the  sound  of  the  battle-field, 
the  clamor  is  full  of  alarm.  ”  He  said  unto 
Moses,  There  is  a  noise  of  war  in  the  camp.” 
”  Had  the  Amalekites  taken  advantage  of  the 
absence  of  the  leader  of  the  host  and  the  cap¬ 
tain  of  the  army,  to  make  another  attempt  on 
Israel  ?’  ’  The  keener  and  more  chastened  ear 
of  Moses  discerns  the  true  nature  of  the  wild 
uproar.  As  he  had  been  already  apprised  on 
the  mount,  “  the  people  he  had  brought  out  of 
Egypt  had  corrupted  themselves,”  had  “  made 
a  molten  calf,”  had  “  worshipped  it  and  sacri¬ 
ficed  thereunto.”  The  din  was  not  that  of  com¬ 
batants,  but  -  of  revellers.  E.  V. - Often  in 

descending  this  mountain  close  by  the  spot 
whence  the  Law  was  given,  while  the  jorecipi- 
tous  sides  of  the  ravine  hid  the  tents  from  my 
gaze,  have  I  heard  the  sound  of  voices  from  be¬ 
low,  and  thought  how  Joshua  had  said  unto 
Moses  as /le  came  down  from  the  mount,  “  There 
is  a  noise  of  war  in  the  camp.”  Palmer. 

19.  Moses  is  described  as  descending  the 
mountain  without  seeing  the  people,  the  shout 
strikes  the  ear  of  his  companion  before  they 
ascertain  the  cause  ;  the  view  breaks  on  him 
suddenly  as  he  draws  nigh  to  the  camp,  and  he 
throws  down  the  tables  and  dashes  them  in 
pieces  “  beneath  the  mount :”  now  any  one  de¬ 
scending  the  mountain  path  by  which  Ras  Suf- 
safeh  is  accessible  (according  to  Captain  Wilson 
.in  three  quarters  of  an  hour  to  a  practised 
mountaineer)  through  the  oblique  gullies  which 
flank  it,  would  hear  the  sounds  borne  through 
the  silence  of  the  plain,  but  would  not  see  the 
plain  itself  until  he  emerged  from  the  lateral 
wady  ;  and  when  he  did  so  he  would  be  immedi¬ 
ately  under  the  precipitous  cliff  of  Sufsafeh. 
Clark. 

As  the  disgraceful  scene  burst  upon  him,  in 
righteous  anger  he  dashed  the  tables  out  of  his 
hands,  and  broke  them  in  pieces  at  the  foot  of 
the  mount  ;  giving  at  once  a  terrible  significance 
for  all  future  time  to  the  phrase,  a  broken  law, 
and  a  sign  of  man’s  inabilit}’  to  keep  the  Law 
given  on  Sinai.  For  both  Moses  and  the  peo¬ 
ple,  though  in  different  ways,  were  showing,  by 
their  acts,  that  the  first  use  to  which  man  puts 
God’s  Law  is  to  break  it.  Both  tables  were 
broken,  for  idolatry  had  been  followed  bj'  licen¬ 
tiousness.  P.  S. - It  was  not  the  ebullition 

of  ordinary  passion  giving  vent  to  its  rage  by 
breaking  the  glorious  stones.  It  was  the  act  of 
holy  judgment  at  a  moment  when  judgment 
must  not  slumber.  Suddenly  there  bursts  upon 


252 


SECTION  116.  MOSES  BREAKS  THE  TWO  TABLES, 


his  view  the  covenant  people  of  God  in  baccha¬ 
nalian  revelry,  dancing,  and  shouting  around 
the  idol.  What  sight  could  be  more  awful  to 
the  reverent  and  loving  spirit  of  Moses,  so  in¬ 
tensely  concerned  for  the  name  and  honor  of 
Jehovah  ?  Here  are  the  people  whom  he  him¬ 
self  had  sworn  into  holy  covenant  with  Jehovah 
just  before  he  had  parted  with  them — Jehovah 
to  be  their  king  and  they  to  be  his  loving -and 
obedient  subjects.  And  now,  just  as  he  brings 
them  the  holy  covenant,  gloriously  engrossed 
for  them  on  the  beautiful  stones  which  God’s 
own  hand  has  fashioned,  and  on  which  God’s 
own  finger  has  written  in  enduring  characters 
the  terms  of  the  covenant,  alas  !  they  are  al¬ 
ready  fallen  into  apostasy,  and  that,  too,  so 
low,  grovelling,  degrading  an  apostasy.  S.  R. 

There  was  never  so  precious  a  monument  as 
the  tables  written  with  God’s  own  hand.  Proph¬ 
ecies  and  evangelical  discourses  He  hath  writ¬ 
ten  by  others  ;  never  did  He  write  anything 
himself  but  these  tables  of  the  Law  :  neither 
did  He  ever  speak  anything  audibly  to  the 
whole  of  mankind  but  it  ;  the  hand,  the  stone, 
the  Law  were  all  his.  Yet  that  God,  which  so 
sharply  revenged  the  breach  of  one  law  upon 
the  Israelites,  checks  not  Moses  for  breaking 

both  the  tables  of  the  Law,  Bp.  II. - They 

had  broken  the  covenant  itself,  and  Moses  as  a 
sensible  sign  of  the  awful  fact  breaks  the  monu¬ 
mental  tables  in  which  it  was  inscribed.  Noth¬ 
ing  could  more  solemnly  indicate  that  their 
covenant  standing  was  wrecked,  and  that  they 
now  lay  exposed  to  the  severest  vengeance  of  an 
angry  God.  It  is  doubtless  in  this  view  of  the 
transaction  that  we  find  no  censure  passed  upon 
Moses,  nor  does  he  afterward  (He.  9  : 17)  speak 

of  it  with  any  regret.  Bush. - Those  are  angry, 

and  sin  not,  that  are  angry  at  sin  only,  not  as 
against  themselves,  but  as  against  God.  It  be¬ 
comes  us  to  be  cool  in  our  own  cause,  but  warm 
in  God’s.  Moses  showed  himself  very  angry, 
both  by  breaking  the  tables  and  burning  the 
calf,  that  he  might  by  these  expressions  of 
strong  indignation  awaken  the  people  to  a  sense 
of  the  greatness  of  the.  sin  they  had  been  guilty 
of,  which  they  would  have  been  ready  to  make 
light  of  if  he  had  not  thus  shown  his  resent¬ 
ments,  as  one  in  earnest  for  their  convictions.  H. 

20,  Consider  well  the  moral  courage  of  Moses. 
He  was  but  one  man.  Yet  he  ventured  to  con¬ 
front  that  inebriate  host,  armed  only  with  the 
terrors  of  holy  wrath — and  the  conscience- 
stricken  crowd  shrunk  before  him  ;  and  not  a 
hand  was  lifted  up  in  resistance,  when  he  cast 

their  idol  to  the  ground.  Kit. - He  burned  it  in 

the  fire,  ground  it  to  powder,  and  made  the 


children  of  Israel  drink  of  the  dust  The  man¬ 
ner  in  which  this  was  done  is  a  proof  of  the  ex¬ 
traordinary  skill  in  the  metallurgic  arts  pos¬ 
sessed  by  the  Egyptians  ;  and,  through  their 
instruction,  by  the  Hebrews.  Modern  chem¬ 
istry  employs  tartaric  acid,  and  reduces  gold  to 
powder.  Stahl,  one  of  the  ablest  chemists,  in¬ 
forms  us  that  natron,  which  is  very  common  in 
the  East,  will  produce  the  same  effect  ;  and,  if 
the  metal  be  previously  heated,  the  effect  is 
sooner  produced.  Hence  Moses,  in  the  first 
instance,  cast  the  image  into  the  fire,  and  then 
made  it  potable.  Now  one  of  two  consequences 
must  follow  :  either  he  performed  a  miracle,  or 
he  possessed  very  extensive  scientific  attain¬ 
ments.  There  is  no  account  of  any  miraculous 
intervention  of  Providence  in  the  story  ;  it  then 
was  the  result  of  natural  means,  but  such  as 
none  but  a  well-informed  chemist  could  have 
known  or  used.  No  alternative,  then,  is  left 
us  but  a  positive  denial  of  the  facts  or  an  ad¬ 
mission  of  the  knowledge  of  Moses.  Hawks. 

21-24.  Aaron  deserved  to  have  been  cut  off 
for  this  sin,  and  had  been  so  if  Moses  had  not 
interceded  particularly  for  him,  as  appears  (He. 
9  :  20).  And  having  prevailed  with  God  for  him 
to  save  him  from  ruin,  he  here  expostulates  with 
him  to  bring  him  to  repentance,  Aaron  lays  all 
the  fault  upon  the  people  ;  They  are  set  on  mis¬ 
chief,  and  they  said,  Make  us  gods.  It  is  natural 
to  us  to  endeavor  thus  to  transfer  our  guilt  ;  we 
have  it  in  our  kind,  Adam  and  Eve  did  so  :  sin 
is  a  brat  that  nobody  is  willing  to  own.  Aaron 
was  now  the  chief  magistrate,  and  had  power 
over  the  people,  and  yet  pleads  that  the  people 
overpowered  him  :  he  that  had  authority  to  re¬ 
strain  them  yet  had  so  little  resolution  as  to 
yield  to  them.  He  extenuates  and  conceals  his 
own  share  in  the  sin,  as  if  he  had  only  bid  them 
break  off  their  gold  that  they  had  about  them,  in¬ 
tending  to  make  a  hasty  assay  for  the  present 
and  to  try  what  he  could  make  of  the  gold  that 
was  next  at  hand  ;  and  childishly  insinuates 
that  when  he  cast  the  gold  into  the  fire  it  came 
out,  either  by  accident  or  by  the  magic  art  of 
some  of  the  mixed  multitude  (as  the  Jewish 
writers  dream),  in  this  shape  ;  but  not  a  word 
of  his  graving  and  fashioning  it.  But  Moses 
relates  to  all  ages  what  he  did  (verse  4),  though 
he  himself  here  would  not  own  it.  He  that  cov¬ 
ers  his  sins  shall  not  prosper,  for  sooner  or  later  it 
will  be  discovered.  This  was  all  Aaron  had  to 
say  for  himself  ;  and  he  had  better  have  said 
nothing,  for  his  defence  did  but  aggravate  his 
offence  ;  and  yet  he  is  not  only  spared  but  pre¬ 
ferred  ;  as  sin  did  abound,  grace  did  much  more 
abound.  H. 


AND  EXECUTES  JUDGMENT  UPON  THE  GUILTIEST 


253 


26.  Whoever  (is)  for  the  Lord—io  me  /  The 
words  “  let  him  come”  are  omitted  through  the 
impassioned  earnestness  of  the  speaker.  The 
offence  was  one  of  the  most  aggravated  charac¬ 
ter  ;  one  by  which  the  honor  of  God’s  great 
name  had  been  sadly  tarnished  ;  and  in  order  to 
a  more  effectual  vindication  of  it,  judgment  was 
to  be  executed  with  terrible  severity.  in 

and  out  from  g^ate  to  gate  tlirougliout 
tlie  camp.  This  is  no  doubt  to  be  understood 
as  a  commission  to  slay  every  one  whom  they 
should  meet  in  the  open  places  of  the  camp,  let 
him  be  relation,  friend,  or  neighbor,  while  they 
were  not  required  to  enter  into  any  of  the  tents. 

Bush - A  number  of  men,  fresh  from  their 

orgies,  whom  even  his  appearance  and  words 
had  not  yet  sobered  into  shame  and  repentance, 
still  thronged  the  open  roadway  of  the  camp. 
These  were  met  by  the  avenging  Levites,  as, 
sword  in  hand,  they  passed  from  gate  to  gate  ; 
and  these  were  the  three  thousand  which  fell  on 
that  day,  while  the  vast  multitude  had  retired 
to  their  tents  in  tardy  repentance  and  fear,  in 
view  of  him  whose  presence  among  them  be¬ 
tokened  the  nearness  of  that  holy  and  jealous 
God,  whose  terrible  judgments  they  had  so 
much  cause  to  dread.  A.  E. 

By  his  untimely  and  ungodly  zeal  for  the 
honor  of  his  own  house^  the  forefather  of  the 
tribe  of  Levi  had  brought  a  curse  upon  himself, 
which  still  rested  upon  his  tribe  (Gen.  34  : 25)  ; 
by  their  well-timed  and  holy  zeal  for  the  honor 
of  the  house  of  God,  his  descendants  now  ex¬ 
tinguished  the  curse  and  changed  it  into  a  bless¬ 
ing.  If  their  ancestor  had  violated  truth,  fidel¬ 
ity,  and  justice,  by  the  vengeance  which  he  took 
upon  the  Shechemites  from  a  mistaken  regard 
to  blood-relationship,  his  descendants  had  now 
rescued  truth,  justice,  and  the  covenant,  by  ex¬ 
ecuting  the  vengeance  of  Jehovah  upon  their 
own  blood-relations.  Hence  Moses  referred  to 
this  tribe  in  the  following  words  (De.  33  :  9)  : 
“  Who  says  of  his  father  and  mother,  I  saw 
them  not  ;  who  is  ignorant  of  his  brother,  and 
knows  nothing  of  his  own  sons.”  The  dispo¬ 
sition  manifested  by  the  sons  of  Levi  on  this 
occasion,  and  their  readiness  to  esteem  friend 
and  brother  but  lightly  in  comparison  with  Je¬ 
hovah,  was  that  which  qualified  the  tribe  of 
Levi  above  every  other  to  serve  in  the  house  of 
Jehovah,  and  rendered  it  worthy  to  be  chosen 
as  the  lot  and  inheritance  of  Jehovah.  Penitent 
Israel  was  called  upon  to  inflict  punishment 
upon  impenitent  Israel,  that  their  own  guilt, 
which  had  been  forgiven,  and  the  mercy  which 
had  been  shown  them  on  account  of  their  peni¬ 
tence,  might  be  impressed  upon  their  minds  in 


its  fullest  extent  as  a  warning  for  future  times. 
Before  such  considerations  and  designs  all  con¬ 
siderations  of  a  sentimental  character  must  give 
way,  as,  in  fact,  sentimentality  of  every  kind  is 
out  of  place  in  matters  concerning  the  judgment 
of  God  on  the  impenitent  sinner.  .  .  .  The 
punishment  inflicted  by  the  command  of  Moses 
has  often  been  described  as  an  act  of  inhuman 
cruelty.  If  there  is  any  ground  for  such  a 
charge,  it  not  only  applies  to  this  particular 
case,  but  to  the  spirit  and  essence  of  the  W'hole 
code  of  laws,  and  to  the  entire  course  of  history 
of  which  they  formed  the  guiding  principle. 
The  Law  represents  every  act  of  apostasy  from 
Jehovah,  every  kind  of  idolatry,  and  every 
species  of  heathen  superstition,  as  a  capital 
crime.  If,  then,  the  Law  itself  is  not  to  be 
condemned  for  such  stringency  as  this,  the 
command  of  Moses,  which  merely  carried  out  the 
spirit  of  the  Law,  is  perfectly  justifiable.  Such 
stringency  was  perfectly  justifiable  on  the  part 
of  the  Law  ;  it  was  demanded  as  well  as  dictated 
by  the  peculiar  position  and  character  of  the 
Old  Testament  Theocracy.  It  was  first  of  all 
demanded  by  the  fact  that  the  God  of  Israel 
was  also  the  King  of  Israel.  Every  sinful  dis¬ 
regard  or  violation  of  the  dignity  of  Jehovah, 
the  one  God  in  Israel,  was  also  a  crime  against 
the  sole  monarchy  of  the  King  Jehovah  ;  every 
religious  crime  was  a  State  crime  as  well.  K. 

The  spirit  of  the  narrative  forbids  us  to  con¬ 
ceive  that  the  act  of  the  Levites  was  anything 
like  an  indiscriminate  massacre.  An  amnesty 
had  first  been  offered  to  all  in  the  words,  “  Who 
is  on  the  Loan’s  side  ?”  Those  who  were  for¬ 
ward  to  draw  the  sword  were  directed  not  to 
spare  their  closest  relations  or  friends,  Clark. 

- None  were  executed  but  those  who  openly 

and  boldly  stood  forth.  Bush. 

We  are  not  nearly  enough  in  the  habit  of 
treating  religion  as  a  cause,  and  ourselves  as 
soldiers,  whose  honor  is  bound  up  in  it,  our  all 
at  stake  in  it.  Who  is  on  the  Lord’s  side  ?  is  a 
question  that  rings  up  and  down  our  streets 
eternally.  It  is  of  the  utmost  consequence  to 
every  young  man’s  singleness  of  heart,  sajung 
nothing  of  his  future  welfare,  to  have  this 
choice  settled.  To  be  uncommitted  is  to  be  on 
the  side  that  is  not  God’s.  F.  D.  H, 

Let  no  one  say  that  Moses  is  most  powerful 
in  prayer,  but  weak  when  courage,  energy,  and 
promptitude  in  punishment  should  be  dis¬ 
played.  Not  merely  is  the  order  given  to  single 
out  the  guiltiest,  he  does  not  spare  the  strong¬ 
est  nor  the  dearest  when  he  has  to  wield  the 
chastising  rod.  He  shows  that  he  esteems  sin 
not  more  lightly  than  the  Holy  One  of  Israel 


254 


SECTION  117.  UNBIDDEN,  MOSES  ASCENDS  THE  MOUNT. 


himself,  even  though  he  has  made  such  earnest 
intercession  in  behalf  of  those  who  sinned. 

Van  0. - Moses,  who  is  described  as  “  very 

meek,’'  and  who  shrank  back  in  evident  agony 
from  that  leadership  of  Israel  to  which  he  was 
called  by  Providence,  yet  sternly  vindicated  his 
mission  against  the  rebellious  Korah,  as  he  now 
indicts  a  sharp  vengeance  upon  these  guilty  idol¬ 
aters.  H.  P.  L. 


All  the  main  features  in  the  historical  episode 
of  the  worship  of  the  golden  calf  reappear  in 
Deuteronomy.  But  in  the  lips  of  the  aged  Law¬ 
giver  just  before  his  death  they  assume  a  whollj’’ 
different  form,  and  are  the  ground  of  an  earnest 
call  to  humility,  in  the  prospect  of  new  and 


greater  mercies  from  God.  The  facts  recalled 
to  their  memory  are  the  idolatry  of  the  whole 
congregation,  the  share  of  Aaron  in  their  sin, 
its  disclosure  to  Moses  by  God  himself,  the  pro¬ 
posal  to  make  of  him  a  greater  nation,  his  de¬ 
scent  with  the  tables  in  his  hands,  their  de¬ 
struction  in  his  anger,  the  destruction  of  the 
golden  calf,  and  the  mingling  of  its  powder 
with  the  brook,  the  consecration  of  the  whole 
tribe  of  Levi,  the  intercession  of  Moses,  his  fear 
of  the  total  rejection  of  the  people,  the  prepa¬ 
ration  of  the  second  pair  of  tables,  the  second 
forty  days  on  the  mount,  the  writing  of  God 
on  the  second  tables,  the  renewal  of  the  cove¬ 
nant.  All  these  are  set  before  them  in  tones  of 
earnest  and  holy  love,  to  stir  them  up  to  grati¬ 
tude  to  the  God  of  Israel.  Birks. 


Section  117. 

UNBIDDEN,  MOSES  ASCENDS  THE  MOUNT  TO  PLEAD  AGAIN  FOE  ISRAEL’S  FOR¬ 
GIVENESS.  PENITENCE  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  THE  CLOUD-PILLAR  DESCENDS 
TO  THE  TENT  OF  MEETING,  AND  THERE  GOD  SPEAKS  WITH  MOSES  FACE 
TO  FACE.  THIRD  PLEADING  OF  MOSES  IN  BEHALF  OF  ISRAEL. 

Exodus  32  :  30-35  ;  33  :  1-18. 

E.X,.  32  30  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  morrow,  that  Moses  said  unto  the  people.  Ye  have  sin¬ 
ned  a  great  sin  :  and  now  I  will  go  uji  unto  the  Lokd  ;  peradventur#  I  shall  make  atonement 

31  for  your  sin.  And  Moses  returned  unto  the  Loed,  and  said,  Oh,  this  people  have  sinned 

32  a  great  sin,  and  have  made  them  gods  of  gold.  Yet  now,  if  thou  wilt  forgive  their  sin —  ;  and 

33  if  not,  blot  me,  I  pray  thee,  out  of  thy  book  which  thou  hast  written.  And  the  Lokd  said  unto 

34  Moses,  Whosoever  hath  sinned  against  me,  him  will  I  blot  out  of  my  book.  And  now^  go,  lead 
the  people  unto  ihe  place  ot  which  I  have  spoken  unto  thee  :  behold,  mine  angel  shall  go  before 

35  thee  :  nevertheless  in  the  day  when  I  visit,  I  will  visit  their  sin  upon  them.  And  the  Lokd 
smote  the  people,  because  they  made  the  calf,  which  Aaron  made. 

33  1  And  the  Lokd  spake  unto  Moses,  Depart,  go  up  hence,  thou  and  the  people  which  thou 
hast  brought  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  unto  the  land  of  which  I  sware  unto  Abraham,  to 

2  Isaac,  and  to  Jacob,  saying,  Unto  thy  seed  will  I  give  it  :  and  I  will  send  an  angel  before  thee  ; 
and  I  will  drive  out  the  Canaanite,  the  Amorite,  and  the  Hittite,  and  the  Perizzite,  the  Hivite, 

3  and  the  Jebusite  :  unto  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey  :  for  I  wilPnot  go  up  in  the  midst 

4  of  thee  ;  for  thou  art  a  stiffnecked  people  :  lest  I  consume  thee  in  the  way.  And  when  the 
people  heard  these  evil  tidings,  they  mourned  :  and  no  man  did  put  on  him  his  ornaments. 

5  And  the  Lokd  said  unto  Moses,  Say  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  Ye  are  a  stiffnecked  people  : 
if  I  go  up  into  the  midst  of  thee  for  one  moment,  I  shall  consume  thee  :  therefore  now  put 

6  oft’  thy  ornaments  from  thee,  that  I  may  know  what  to  do  unto  thee.  And  the  children  of 
Israel  stripped  themselves  of  their  ornaments  from  mount  Horeb  onward. 

7  Now  Moses  used  to  take  the  tent  and  to  pitch  it  without  the  camp,  afar  off  from  the  camp  ;  and 
he  called  it.  The  tent  of  meeting.  And  it  came  to  pass,  that  every  one  which  sought  the  Lord 

8  went  out  unto  the  tent  of  meeting,  which  was  without  the  camp.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when 
Moses  went  out  unto  the  Tent,  that  all  the  people  rose  up,  and  stood,  every  man  at  his  tent  door, 

9  and  looked  after  Moses,  until  he  was  gone  into  the  Tent.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Moses  en¬ 
tered  into  the  Tent,  the  pillar  of  cloud  descended,  and  stood  at  the  door  of  the  Tent  :  and  the  Lord 

10  spake  with  Moses.  And  all  the  people  saw  the  pillar  of  cloud  stand  at  the  door  of  the  Tent  : 

11  and  all  the  people  rose  up  and  worshipped,  every  man  at  his  tent  door.  And  the  Lord  spake 
unto  Moses  face  to  face,  as  a  man  speaketh  unto  his  friend.  And  he  turned  again  into  the 
camp  :  but  his  minister  Joshua,  the  son  of  Nun,  a  young  man,  departed  not  out  of  the  Tent. 


SECOND  INTERCESSION  OF  HOSES. 


255 


12  And  Moses  said  unto  the  Loud,  See,  thou  sayest  unto  me,  Bring  up  this  people  :  and  thou 
hast  not  let  me  know  whom  thou  wilt  send  with  me.  Yet  thou  hast  said,  1  know  thee  by 

13  name  and  thou  hast  also  found  grace  in  my  sight.  Now  therefore,  I  pray  thee,  if  I  have  found 
grace  in  thy  sight,  shew  me  now  thy  ways,  that  I  may  know  thee,  to  the  end  that  I  may  find 

14  grace  in  thy  sight  :  and  consider  that  this  nation  is  thy  people.  And  he  said,  My  presence 

15  shall  go  with  ihee,  and  I  will  give  thee  rest.  And  he  said  unto  him.  If  thy  presence  go  not 

16  with  mp,  carry  us  not  up  hence.  For  wherein  now  shall  it  be  known  that  I  have  found  grace 
in  th}-  sight,  I  and  thy  people  ?  is  it  not  in  that  thou  goest  with  us,  so  that  we  be  separated, 

17  I  and  thy  people,  from  all  the  people  that  are  upon  the  face  of  the  earth?  And  the  Lord  said 

18  unto  Moses,  I  will  do  this  thing  also  that  thou  hast  spoken  :  for  thou  hast  found  grace  in  my 
sight,  and  I  know  thee  by  name. 


Second  Intercession  of  Moses  for  the  People. 

Ev.  32  : 30-35. 

30.  On  the  morrow  after  the  destruction  of 
the  calf,  without  any  call  from  Jehovah,  simply 
under  the  impulse  of  devoted  affection  for  his 
people,  Moses  went  up  into  the  mount  to  plead 
a  second  time  for  guilty  Israel.  Before  leaving 
he  announced  his  purpose  to  the  people  in  terms 
that  might  lead  them  to  a  deeper  thoughtfulness 
and  conviction  respecting  their  great  apostasy, 
to  awaken  and  to  temper  their  fear  by  indicat¬ 
ing  his  own  hope  that  the  Lord  might  yet  be 
merciful  and  receive  them  again  into  covenant 

with  him.  B, - “  Ye  have  sinned  a  great  sin," 

he  declares,  so  great  that  there  is  a  mere  possi¬ 
bility  that  it  may  be  consistent  with  the  honor 
of  God  to  pardon  it,  yet  ho  will  venture  upon 
that  possibility  to  intercede  for  them.  He  knew 
that  the  only  hope  for  them  was  deep  penitence 
for  their  sin,  and,  therefore,  aimed  first  to  bring 
deep  conviction  to  their  souls.  He  therefore 
returns  to  the  mount.  Understand,  this  was 
not  the  return  for  another  forty  days  which  is 
afterward  referred  to,  but  on  this  special  errand 
or  intercession.  He  was  in  haste.  For  though 
instant  perdition  was  stayed,  yet  he  knew  not 
what  moment  the  wrath  of  Jehovah  might  burst 
forth  upon  them.  S.  E. 

31.  This  people  liavc  sinned  a  g:reat 
sin,  God  had  first  told  him  of  it,  and  now  he 
tells  God  of  it,  by  way  of  lamentation.  He  does 
not  call  them  God's  people,  he  knew  they  were 
unworthy  to  be  called  so  ;  but  this  people,  this 
treacherous,  ungrateful  people,  they  have  mode 
them  godi  of  gold.  He  does  not  go  about  to  ex¬ 
cuse  or  extenuate  the  sin  ;  but  what  he  had  said 
to  them,  by  way  of  conviction,  he  says  to  God, 
by  way  of  confession  ;  They  have  sinned  a  great 

sm.  H. - He  is  evidently  agitated,  his  soul 

stretched  to  its  utmost  power  of  tension,  as  the 
excited  manner  of  his  prayer  shows  :  “  Oh,  this 
people  have  sinned  a  great  sin,  yet  now  if  thou 
wilt  forgive  their  sin  ;  if  not,  blot  me,  I  pray 
thee,  out  of  thy  book.”  It  is  a  beautiful  illus¬ 
tration  of  impassioned  pleading,  “  If  thou  wilt 


forgive”  is  all  he  can  utter — leaving  the  conse¬ 
quences  unuttcred  in  the  urgency  and  the  inex¬ 
pressible  earnestness  of  desire — as  if  afraid  to 
hope  for  an  answer.  We  may  probably  supply 
the  unspoken  issue  in  the  break  with  “then 
would  I  count  life  a  blessing.”  But,  as  in  deep 
despair,  he  adds,  ”  If  not,  then  blot  me  out  of 
thy  book.  Let  me  die,  for  life  will  be  unsup- 
portable.”  S.  E. 

32.  If  tliou  wilt  forgive  tlieir  sin. 

What  a  glorious  abruption  is  this  !  How  grand  ! 
Overpowered  with  emotion  at  the  mere  idea  of 
the  sin  of  Israel  remaining  unforgiven,  he  can¬ 
not  finish  the  sentence  ;  and  after  a  pause  of 
overwhelming  feeling,  he  declares  that  in  that 
case  it  were  better  for  him  to  die  than  to  live, 
and  prays  that  it  maybe  so.  Kit. - The  ex¬ 

pression  of  “  blotting  out  of  the  book  of  life”  is 
of  the  same  import  with  those  phrases  so  fre¬ 
quently  used  in  the  Old  Testament,  of  ”  blot¬ 
ting  out  from  the  face  of  the  earth,”  and  “blot¬ 
ting  out  one’s  name  from  under  heaven  and 
the  desire  of  Moses  signifies  that  he  was  willing 
to  submit  to  a  temporal  death  that  his  nation 
might  be  saved  from  a  temporal  ruin.  Abp.  Til- 

lotson. - So  in  Nu.  11  : 15,  it  is  “  Kill  me,  I 

pray  thee,  out  of  hand,”  The  expression  is  an 
allusion  to  the  custom  of  registering  the  people, 
as  in  Numbers,  ch.  1,  and  as  more  at  large  in 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah  afterward  ;  and  blotting  out 

every  one’s  name  when  he  died.  Pyle. - Such 

a  book  is  attributed  to  God  in  Ps,  139  :  16,  and 
the  blotting  out  of  Moses  from  God's  book  is  a 
figurative  expression  for  depriving  him  of  life. 
Richard  Warner. 

Moses  could  not  survive  the  destruction  cf 
his  people  by  the  neighboring  nations,  nor  their 
exclusion  from  the  promised  land  ;  and  Paul, 
seeing  the  Jews  about  to  be  cut  off  by  the  Eo- 
man  sword  for  their  rejection  of  the  Gospel,  was 
willing  to  be  deprived  of  every  earthly  bless¬ 
ing,  and  even  to  become  a  sacrifice  for  them,  if 
this  might  contribute  to  the  preservation  and 
salvation  of  the  Jewish  state.  Both  those  men, 
engaged  in  the  same  work  and  influenced  by 
the  same  spirit,  were  willing  to  forfeit  every 


256 


SECTION  117.  AGAIN  MOSES  PREVAILS  WITH  GOD, 


blessing  of  a  secular  kind,  and  even  die  for  the 
welfare  of  the  people.  A.  C. 

33.  Most  truly  has  it  been  said  that  there  is 
nothing  in  all  the  Scriptures  more  calmly  ma¬ 
jestic  than  the  Divine  reply  :  “  Whosoever  hath 
sinned  against  me,  him  will  I  blot  out  of  my 
book.”  E.  C.  W.- — God  would  not,  in  his  com¬ 
pliance  with  Moses’s  prayer,  violate  the  equity  of 
making  each  man  responsible  for  himself,  and  not 
for  another.  He  does  not  thus  transfer  his  se¬ 
verity  from  the  guilty  to  the  innocent  ;  yet  in 
the  exercise  of  mercy,  his  darling  attribute,  he 
remits  of  the  severity  and  punishes  in  measure. 
Still  he  punishes  ;  and  even  though  the  angel 
of  his  presence  has  been  set  forth  evidently  be¬ 
fore  us,  we  must  still  expect  that  in  the  admin¬ 
istration  of  his  holy  discipline  he  will  correct 
the  errors  and  iniquities  even  of  his  own  chil¬ 
dren.  T.  C. 

34.  A  further  point  is  gained  by  the  perse¬ 
vering  intercessor — ”  Go  lead  the  people  (ob¬ 
serve  not  yet  called  my  peoj^le,  but  neither,  on 
the  other  hand,  thy  people  which  thou  brought- 
est  up— lead  the  people  unto  the  place  of  which 
I  have  spoken  to  thee.  Behold,  mine  angel 
shall  go  before  thee.  Nevertheless  in  the  day 
that  I  visit  I  will  visit  their  sin  upon  them.” 
The  response  shows  that  the  intercessor  is  gain¬ 
ing  ground  step  by  step.  At  the  commence¬ 
ment  of  the  idolatry,  the  threat  was — “  Let  me 
alone” — to  utterly  destroy,  which  Moses  had  met 
with  the  argument,  “  What  will  become  of  this 
^reat  name  ?’  ’  Then,  after  the  first  cry  of  in¬ 
terceding  anguish  on  his  return  to  the  mount, 
the  threat  is,  Whosoever  sinneth  shall  be 
blotted  out.”  I  will  not  destroy  all,  thereby 
confounding  the  innocent  with  the  guilty. 
Here  the  sentence  is,  Go  lead  them  up,  and  I 
will  remember  their  sin  when  I  shall  have  occa¬ 
sion  to  punish  in  future.  It  is  a  great  advance 
toward  pardon  and  reconciliation.  But  the  in¬ 
tercessor  is  not  yet  satisfied  ;  his  soul  longs  for 
the  complete  restoration  of  his  people  to  the 
Divine  favor.  S.  K. 

35.  The  I^ord  sjiiole  the  people. 

Every  time  they  transgressed  afterward  Divine 
justice  seems  to  have  remembered  this  trans¬ 
gression  against  them.  The  Jews  have  a  meta¬ 
phorical  saying,  apparently  founded  on  this  text: 
“No  affliction  has  ever  happened  to  Israel  in 
which  there  w’as  not  some  particle  of  the  dust  of 
the  golden  calf.”  A.  C. - It  is  the  grand  peculi¬ 

arity  of  the  Gospel  scheme,  that  while  by  it  God 
hath  come  forth  in  love  and  tenderness  to  our 
world,  be  hath  at  the  same  time  made  full  reser¬ 
vation  of  his  dignity  ;  and.  along  with  the  freest 
overtures  of  peace  to  the  rebellious,  there  is  the 


fullest  reparation  for  every  outrage  which  they 
have  inflicted  upon  his  government.  On  this 
footing  he  welcomes  you,  but  on  no  other.  He 
will  not  pass  over  your  transgressions  of  his 
Law  but  in  such  a  way  as  shall  compel  your 
recognition  of  the  Law’s  inviolable  right  to  all 
your  obedience.  He  will  not  lavish  upon  you 
of  his  attribute  of  mercy  but  in  such  a  way  as 
shall  constrain  your  homage  to  all  the  other 
lofty  and  unchangeable  attributes  of  his  nature. 
He  will\not  let  you  off  for  your  violation  of  his 
commandments  but  in  such  a  way  as  shall 
stamj)  indelibly  the  lesson  of  the  command¬ 
ments’  inviolable  sanctity.  This  is  that  way  of 
exquisite  skilfulness  by  which  the  economy  of 
grace  is  characterized,  and  whereby  at  once  the 
deepest  stigma  is  affixed  upon  sin  and  the  guilt 
of  the  sinner  is  wiped  away.  Chalmers. 

Ex.  33  :  1  -Q.  Deliberate  reflection  upon  the 
Scripture  text  itself,  always  of  the  first  importance, 
is  essential  to  the  full  apprehension  of  this  en¬ 
tire  portion  of  the  history.  The  transitions  of 
the  oarrative  are  frequent,  and  need  to  be  care¬ 
fully  noted  at  every  step.  This  paragraph  pre¬ 
sents  an  example.  Jehovah  had  already  bidden 
Moses  to  lead  the  people  to  the  jdace  previously 
indicated.  Now  he  repeats  the  charge  more 
fully.  “  Go,  thou  and  the  people  which  thou  hast 
brought  out  of  Egypt,  to  the  land  which  I  sware  to 
give  unto  Abraham.”  No  longer  my  people,. 
“  for  I  will  not  go  up  with  them.”  I  will  send 
not  an  angel  in  whom  is  my  name,  but  an 
angel,  who  will  execute  my  purposes  against  the 
Canaanite.  And  this  will  I  do  to  fulfil  my 
23rom,ises.  But  with  this  “  stiffnecked  people” 
I  will  deal  according  to  their  behavior.  B. 

3.  The  covenant  on  which  the  promise  was 
based  had  been  broken  by  the  people.  Jehovah 
now  therefore  declared  that  though  an  angel - 
should  go  before  Moses  and  should  drive  out 
the  heathen  from  the  land,  he  would  withhold 
his  own  favoring  presence,  lest  be  should  consume 
them  in  the  way.  Thus  were  the  i.)eople  forcibly 
warned  that  his  jDresence  could  prove  a  blessing 
to  them  only  on  condition  of  their  keeping  their 
part  of  the  covenant.  If  they  failed  in  this,  his 
presence  would  be  to  them  “  a  consuming  fire.” 
Clark. 

Penitence  of  the  People. 

4,  5.  When  the  people  heard  the§e 
evil  tidiii^§,  they  iiioiiriied.  The  effect 
produced  showed  that  they  were  deeply  sensible 
of  the  value  of  the  blessing  which  they  were 
likely  to  lose.  They  were  at  once  filled  with 
grief,  which  expressed  itself  by  the  usual  ex¬ 
ternal  badges  of  “  mourning” — viz.,  divesting 
themselves  of  their  ornaments,  although  it  ap- 


THE  TEMPORAnr  TENT  OE  MEETING. 


^57 


jiears  from  verse  5  that  this  was  at  the  same 
time  in  obedience  to  an  express  command  of 
Jehovah.  This  was  not  only  in  order  that  they 
might  evince  the  appropriate  tokens  of  sorrow 
and  humiliation,  but  also  that  they  could  make 
sacrifices  to  God.  While  thus  disrobed  of  their 
festive  garments  and  jjrecious  jewels,  and  clad 
in  the  habit  of  jsenitents,  God  represents  him¬ 
self  as  deliberating  how  to  act  toward  them. 
When  God  speaks  of  himself  in  this  language, 
while  it  is  intimated  that  so  long  as  impenitence 
continues  ht  knows  not  hoia  to  exercise  mercy  to 
the  sinner,  it  is  at  the  same  time  implied  tbat 
when  once  humbled  for  their  iniquities  he  is  at 
no  loss  how  to  act  toward  them  ;  he  can  then 
give  free  scope  to  the  merciful  and  ompassion- 
ate  disposition  of  his  own  heart.  So  it  is  clear 
that  the  language  in  the  present  case  implied 
a  design  of  mercy,  provided  the}’’  showed  signs 
of  repentance.  Bash. 

God  says,  “  Put  thyself  into  the  posture  of  a 
penitent,  that  the  dispute  may  be  determined 
in  thy  favor,  and  mercy  may  rejoice  against 
judgment.”  Calls  to  repentance  are  plain  indi¬ 
cations  of  mercy  designed.  If  the  Lord  were 
pleased  to  kill  us,  justice  knows  what  to  do  with 
a  stiffnecked  people  ;  but  God  has  no  pleasure 
in  the  death  of  them  that  die  ;  let  them  return 
and  repent,  and  then  mercy,  which  otherwise  is 
at  a  loss,  knows  what  to  do.  H. 

The  Tempobaey  Tent  of  Meeting, 

7-11. 

7,  The  original  word  signifies  the  Tent.  The 
only  word  in  the  Old  Testament  which  ought  to 
be  rendered  tabernacle  {mishkan)  does  not  occur 
once  in  this  narrative.  What  is  here  called  the 
Tent  was  a  tent  appointed  for  this  temporary 
purpose  by  Moses.  This  tent  was  to  be  a  place 
for  meeting  with  Jehovah.  That  the  people 
might  feel  that  they  had  forfeited  the  Divine 
presence,  it  was  now  pitched  “  afar  off  from 
the  camp.”  Clark. 

A  provisional  tent  was  used,  not  improperly 
called  by  the  name  subsequently  given  to  the 
tabernacle,  ”  tent  of  meeting  since  it,  too, 
actually  served  as  the  meeting-place  of  the  con¬ 
gregation.  It  is  pitched  at  a  short  remove  from 
the  encampment,  in  order,  as  the  historian  is 
careful  to  inform  us,  to  manifest  the  Divine  dis¬ 
pleasure  at  Israel’s  receqt  sin.  It  is  sometimes 
called  the  tabernacle,  indeed,  but  only  by  a  well- 
known  usage  of  the  definite  article  in  Hebrew 
whereby  a  certain  definite  conception  of  an  ob¬ 
ject  by  the  writer  and  his  readers  is  indicated. 
This  very  tent  had  probably  been  known  before 
as  the  tent  of  Moses.  Here  God  made  special 
17 


communications  with  his  servant.  Joshua,  as 
temporary  leader  in  Moses’s  absence,  occupies  it 
(verse  11)  There  is  no  impropriety  in  his  doing 
so  previous  to  the  establishment  of  the  Levitical 
system.  For  the  same  reason  God  without  the 
mediation  of  sacrifice  makes  revelations  of  him* 
self  here  (verses  7,  9,  11  ;  cf.  13  : 21).  It  is  be¬ 
fore  their  legal  institution  and  the  introduction 
of  the  ritual.  Now,  when  so  much  has  been 
admitted,  all  the  principal  difficulties  involved 
in  the  narrative  have  disajipeared.  Bissell. 

9.  Tlie  pillar  of  eloiid  descended, 
and  stood  at  the  door  of  the  Tent. 
It  descended  from  the  summit  to  the  less  ele¬ 
vated  part  of  the  mountain  where  the  Tent  stood. 
As  the  sublime  object  had  probably  remained 
stationary  for  at  least  forty  days,  we  can  easily 
imagine  that  it  must  have  produced  a  deep  sen¬ 
sation  among  the  people  to  see  it  now  again 
majestically  moving  from  its  p)lace,  and  trans¬ 
ferring  itself  down  the  mountain  to  the  spot 
where  the  Tent  was  fixed,  and  where  Moses  had 
now  repaired.  This  would  indeed  verify  the 
claim  of  the  sacred  structure  to  the  title  of 
“  tent  of  meeting,”  when  Jehovah  by  his  sym¬ 
bol  was  thus  pleased  to  meet  with  his  servant  in 
this  open  and  honorary  manner,  in  the  sight  of 
the  awe  struck  host.  The  effect  would  naturally 
be  to  inspire  additional  reverence  for  the  person 
and  authority  of  Moses,  as  one  whom  God  saw 
fit  to  distinguish  by  the  indubitable  seal  of  his 
own  selection,  and  to  endow  with  the  highest 
prerogatives  of  a  human  mediator.  The  descent 
of  the  cloudy  pillar  at  the  door  of  the  Tent 
would  also  tend  to  assure  them  that  the  rupture 
between  God  and  his  people  was  not  utterly  past 
healing.  Though  withdrawn,  in  the  withdraw¬ 
ing  of  the  Tent,  from  the  midst  of  them.  He  was 
still  accessible.  Bush. 

to,  II.  The  Tent  is  pitched  afar  off  as  a  sign 
of  the  Divine  alienation  of  the  Jehovah  who  had 
promised  to  dwelfi  in  the  midst  of  them.  This, 
while  it  spoke  of  Jehovah  withdrawn  from  them, 
indicated  that  he  is  not  totally  and  finally  with¬ 
drawn.  The  Most  High  is  willing  to  be  sought 
unto.  Thus  intimations  of  mercy  were  mingled 
with  the  signs  of  his  displeasure  lest  the  spirit 
should  faint  before  him  and  the  souls  which  he 
had  made.  As  Moses  was  seen  leaving  his  resi¬ 
dence  in  the  camp,  and  with  solemn  air  taking 
his  way  far  across  the  plain  toward  that  mysteri¬ 
ous  tent,  and  thereupon  the  cloud  pillar  began 
to  descend  from  Sinai  to  meet  him,  you  may 
well  suppose  the  people,  troubled  and  anxious 
about  their  great  offence  against  God,  would 
gaze  with  solemn  awe  and  dread,  eager  to  know 
their  doom.  “  All  the  people  saw  the  cloudy 


258 


SECTION  117.  THIRD  INTERCESSION  OF  MOSES. 


pillar  stand  at  tlie  tabernacle  door  ;  and  all  the 
people  rose  up  and  worshipped  every  man  at 
his  tent  door.”  As  they  stood  gazing  upon  the 
visible  symbol  of  Jehovah — far  off,  indeed,  but 
not  wholly  removed,  condescending  to  hear 
their  intercession — the  goodness,  the  unde¬ 
served  goodness  of  God,  causes  their  repentings 
to  be  kindled  together  and  their  hearts  to  be 
broken  into  contrition.  S.  R. 

And  now  as  the  people  stood  and  worship¬ 
ped,  repentant  in  spirit  and  hushed  in  reverent 
awe  as  in  the  presence  of  the  God  against  whom 
they  had  sinned,  Moses  pleads,  and  the  Lord 
speaks  to  him  face  to  face  as  a  man  with  his 
friend.  Notice  here,  in  passing,  the  wisdom  of 
Moses  and  the  mercy  of  the  Lord  in  shifting  the 
scene  of  the  conference  from  the  mount,  where 
all  was  wrapped  in  clouds,  to  the  Tent,  where 
the  people  could  foTow  Moses  with  their  eyes 
to  the  Tent  door,  and  see  him  from  time  to  time 
as  he  went  out  and  in.  J,  M.  G. 

That  the  communications  made  by  God  to 
Moses  were  not  by  visions,  dreams,  inward  in- 
spiraiions,  or  the  mediation  (f  angels,  is  suffi¬ 
ciently  evident  :  we  may  therefore  consider  the 
passage  as  implying  that  familiarity  and  confi¬ 
dence  with  which  the  Divine  Being  treated  his 
servant  ;  and  that  he  spake  with  him  by  articu- 
Jate  sounds  in  his  own  language,  though  no 
shape  or  similitude  was  then  to  be  seen.  A.  C. 

- God  talked  with  Moses  (verse  9),  spake  to  him 

face  to  face,  as  a,  man  speaks  to  his  friend  (verse 
11),  which  intimates  that  God  revealed  himself 
fo  Moses  not  only  with  greater  clearness  and 
evidence  of  Divine  light  than  to  any  other  of 
the  prophets,  but  also  with  greater  expressions 
of  particular  kindness  and  grace.  He  spake 
•not  as  a  prince  to  a  subject,  but  as  a  man  to  his 
friend,  whom  he  loves  and  with  whom  he  takes 

, sweet  counsel.  H. - The  Lord  spake  unto 

Moses  face  to  face” — not  in  vision,  dream,  or 
dark  oracle,  as  is  declared  in  Nu,  12  :  G-8  :  “  If 
there  be  a  prophet  among  you  I  will  make  my¬ 
self  known  unto  him  in  a  dream,  and  will  speak 
unto  him  in  a  dream.  My  servant  Moses  is  not 
.so,  who  is  faithful  in  all  his  house.  With  him 
will  I  speak  mouth  to  mouth,  not  in  dark 
speeches,  and  the  similitude  of  the  Lord  shall 
he  behold,”  This  is  all  consistent  enough  with 
the  other  Scripture,  “No  man  can  see  my  face 
and  live;”  “No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any 
time,”  What  Moses  saw  and  held  communion 
with  was  not  the  Divine  Essence,  but  Jehovah 
in  his  sensible  symbol,  the  Shekinah,  which  is 
called  the  “Face”  and  the  “Presence”  of  Je¬ 
hovah.  S.  R. 

His  minister  Joshua,  the  son  of 


^Uii.  This,  like  previous  and  subsequent  ref¬ 
erences  to  Joshua,  reveals  distinctly  the  close¬ 
ness  and  constancy  of  the  relation  existing  be¬ 
tween  the  great  leader  and  his  successor  from 
the  very  outset  of  Israel’s  wandering.  B. 

Third  Intercession,  within  the  Tent  of 

Meeting. 

Verses  12-18. 

This  was  perhaps  the  period  of  greatest  heart¬ 
softening  during  Israel's  wanderings  in  the  wil¬ 
derness.  And  God  graciously  had  respect  to  it. 
He  had  already  assured  Moses  that  he  stood  in 
special  relationship  to  him  (“  I  know  thee  by 
name”),  and  that  his  prayer  for  Israel  had  been 
heard  (“  thou  hast  also  found  grace  in  my  sight”). 
But  as  yet  the  former  sentence  stood  to  the 
effect  that  an  angel,  not  Jehovah  himself,  was 
to  be  Israel’s  future  guide.  Under  these  cir¬ 
cumstances  Moses  now  entreated  Jehovah  to 
show  him  His  way — that  is.  His  present  pur¬ 
pose  in  regard  to  Israel,  adding,  that  if  God 
would  bring  them  into  the  land  of  promise,  he 
would  “  consider  that  this  is  thy  people,”  and 
hence  he  their  God  and  King.  This  plea  also 
prevailed,  and  the  Lord  once  more  jiromised 
that  his  own  presence  would  go  with  them,  and 
that  he  himself  would  give  them  the  rest  of 
Canaan.  A.  E. 

The  faith  of  Moses,  strengthened  by  this  in¬ 
timate  communion,  is  emboldened  to  venture 
further  and  ask  concerning  what  has  much  per¬ 
plexed  him.  “  Behold  thou  sayest  unto  me, 
Bring  up  this  people,  and  thou  hast  not  let  me 
know  whom  thou  wilt  send.”  The  substance  of 
his  plea  is,  this  is  a  matter  of  intense  interest  to 
me.  Thou  hast  laid  upon  me  the  responsibil¬ 
ity  ;  and  I  feel  the  weight  of  the  charge  more 
than  ev^  because  of  this  speedy  breach  of  the 
covenant  which  has  interrupted  the  relation  in 
which  the  people  stand  to  thee.  I  do  not  yet 
comprehend  this  relation.  There  is  nothing 
said  of  any  renewal  of  the  covenant  and  resto¬ 
ration  of  the  people  to  be  thy  people.  Thou 
speakest  of  an  angel  to  go  before  us,  but  hast 
not  let  me  know  who  he  is  and  how  he  stands 
relative  to  us.  "Who  is  this  angel  ?  Let  me,  I 
beseech  thee,  have  some  personal  knowledge  of 
him.  Is  this  asking  too  much  ?  Seeing  thou 
hast  said  to  me,  “I  know  thee  by  name,  and 
thou  hast  found  grace  in  my  sight.”  If,  then, 
I  have  found  grace,  show  me  thy  way.  Tell  me 
how  this  angel  is  to  stand  toward  the  people. 
And  show  me  how  this  people  are  to  be  dealt 
with.  The.y  have  been  heedless  and  perverse. 
They  may  be  so  again.  Show  me  thy  way  of 
salvation — the  principle  upon  which  the  certain- 


RENEWED  PROMISE  OF  JEHOVAH'S  PRESENCE. 


259 


ty  of  their  salvation  is  secured,  notwithstanding 
the  uncertainty  of  their  poor,  fickle  will.  O 
Jehovah,  if  indeed  I  have  found  grace  in  thy 
sight ,  remove  this  perplexity  and  darkness  from 
my  mind.  I  beseech  thee,  acknowledge  this  peo¬ 
ple  !  Thus  faith  wrestles,  step  by  step,  and  grows 
stronger  and  stronger,  with  the  exercise!  How 
wonderful  the  power  of  this  prayer  !  And  it  is 
wonderfully  victorious.  In  response  come  the 
words  of  glorious  assurance  that  clear  up  all  per¬ 
plexity,  ‘  ‘  My  presence  shall  go  with  thee,  and  I 
will  give  thee  rest.”  Joyously  the  saint  seizes  up¬ 
on  the  word.  It  is  thy  presence,  not  the  presence 
of  aoy  mere  angel,  but  of  the  angel  of  the  cove¬ 
nant  that  he  desires  to  have  with  him.  It  is, 
therefore,  manifest  that  the  people  have  found 
favor  through  his  intercession.  And,  therefore, 
transported  with  joy,  he  reasons  :  Then  I  and 
thy  people — associating  himself  with  the  people 
and  both  with  God — must  of  course  have  found 
favor  and  are  again  to  be  in  covenant  with  Je¬ 
hovah,  and  sej3arated  thereby  from  all  nations. 
S.  R. 

The  main  burden  of  the  prayer  of  Moses  was 
for  the  renewal  of  the  Tabernacle  promise,  for 
the  restoration  of  the  crowning  blessing  of  the 
presence  of  the  Lord  in  the  midst  of  them.  And 
his  pleading  is  not  in  vain,  for  the  Lord  says  : 
“  My  presence  shall  go  with  thee.”  But  let  us 
not  fail  to  observe  the  ground  on  w'hich  it  is 
given  :  “  The  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  I  will  do 
this  thing  also  that  thou  hast  spoken  :  for  thou 
hast  found  grace  in  my  sight,  and  I  know  thee 
by  name."  It  is  for  the  sake  of  the  mediator 
that  the  full  pardon  is  given,  and  the  full  bless¬ 
ing  restored.  And  so  is  it  in  the  New  Covenant. 
It  is  because  the  Lord  Jesus  has  found  grace  in 
the  Father’s  sight  that  we  are  pardoned.  It  is 
because  he  knows  him  by  name  that  we  are  ac¬ 
cepted.  “  There  is  no  other  name  given  under 
heaven  among  men  by  which  we  can  be  saved  ” 
than  the  name  of  him  who  is  the  “  Mediator  be¬ 
tween  God  and  man,  the  Man  Christ  Jesus,”  of 
whom  Moses  throughout  all  these  wonderful 
scenes  is  so  instructive  a  type.  J.  M.  G. 

14.  And  lie  §aid.  Illy  pre§ence  shall 
go  with  tliec.  Heb.  panai  yeleku,  my  face  shall 
go.  Chal.  “  My  Majesty  (shekinti,  my  Shekinah) 
shall  go.”  Arab.  “  My  Light  (or  Splendor) 
shall  walk  w'ith  thee  until  I  cause  thee  to  rest.” 
Jehovah  vouchsafes  to  him  a  definite  assurance 
that  the  same  visible  symbol  of  the  Divine  Pres¬ 
ence  which  they  had  hitherto  enjoyed  should 
be  granted  to  accompany  the  host  in  their  on¬ 
ward  march  to  Canaan.  More  than  this  they 
did  not  need,  and  less  than  this  could  never 
satisfy  one  who  had  thus  experienced  the  Divine 


guidance  and  protection.  This  Presence  was 
in  truth  no  other  than  what  is  called  (Is.  63  : 9), 
“  the  angel  of  God’s  presence,”  who  saved,  sus¬ 
tained,  and  guided  the  chosen  people  all  the 

days  of  old.  Bush. - The  “  presence  of  the 

Lord  ”  is  not  a  general  term  for  his  being  j)res- 
ent  with  them,  but  it  is  his  presence  by  means 
of  a  Mediator  of  the  covenant,  co-equal  and  of 
one  nature  with  himself  —by  means  of  the 
”  angel  of  the  Lord,”  who  is  called,  “  the  angel 
of  his  i^resence,”  and  (Mai.  3:1)“  The  angel  of 
the  covenant”  in  whom  is  God’s  name  (ch. 
23  :  21).  And  so  Moses  afterward  speaks  in  like 
terms  of  him,  ‘‘  Thou  goest  with  us.”  Thus 
clearly  and  distinctly  is  expressed,  in  the  oldest 
books  of  Holy  Scripture,  the  thought  that  the  re¬ 
deemed  joeople  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord  is 
guided  by  a  Mediator  who  is  equal  with  God, 
and  that  the  mediation  which  this  peoi^le  re¬ 
quires  is  an  immediate  Divine  revelation  of  this 
co-equal  Mediator.  Gerl. 

“  My  Presence  shall  go  with  thee,  and  I  wnll 
give  thee  rest.”  What  needed  Moses  more  than 
that  ?  In  all  his  walk  and  travel  God  would  be 
everpresent  with  him,  to  guide  all  his  steps — 
the  light  before  him,  the  shade  at  his  right 
hand.  This  was  enough  for  Moses  ;  and  it  is 
enough  for  us  in  our  no  less  perilous  journey 
through  the  wilderness.  If  we  walk  with  God, 
if  we  enjoy  his  presence  in  all  our  way,  it  is 
well  with  us — we  are  safe,  we  have  rest. 
Kit. 

85,  16,  Observe  how  earnest  Moses  is  in  this 
matter  ;  he  begs  as  one  that  would  take  no  de¬ 
nial.  “  Here  we  will  stay  till  we  obtain  thy 
favor  ;  like  Jacob,  I  will  not  let  thee  go  except  thou 
bless  me."  And  observe  how  he  grows  upon 
God’s  concessions  ;  kind  intimations  given  him 
make  him  yet  more  importunate.  Thus  God’s 
gracious  promises  and  the  advances  of  mercy 
toward  us  should  not  only  encourage  our  faith, 
but  excite  our  fervenc}^  in  prayer.  H. - Com¬ 

munion  with  God  still  exists  between  the  soul 
and  God  as  closely,  as  really,  as  truly,  as  it  ex¬ 
isted  between  God  and  Moses.  God  speaks  to 
Moses  as  knowing  him  bj^  name  ;  and  Moses, 
encouraged  by  God’s  condescending  approach 
to  him,  begins  instantly  to  pray  for  more  than 
he  had.  The  more  a  believer  has,  the  more 
he  asks.  It  is  not  the  man — strange  enough — 
that  needs  most  that  prays  most  ;  but  it  is  the 
man  that  has  got  most  that  prays  the  more,  seeks 
for  more  ;  because  the  more  we  have,  the  deeper 
we  feel  the  wants  that  still  remain  to  be  sup¬ 
plied  ;  the  more  precious  we  feel  what  we  have, 
and  live  in  the  enjoyment  of  blessedness  that 
W'e  felt  not  before  ;  like  Moses,  we  make  one 


2G0 


SECTION  118.  GREAT  PETITION  OF  MOSES. 


grant  the  pretext  for  asking  another,  and  one 
blessing  a  reason  for  seeking  more.  J.  C. 

17.  1  will  do  tliii^  thing  al§o  that 
thou  hast  spoken.  Moses  is  not  checked 
as  an  unreasonable  beggar  whom  no  saying 
would  serve,  but  he  is  encouraged  :  God  grants 
as  long  as  he  asks  ;  gives  liberally,  and  does  not 
upbraid  him.  See  the  power  of  prayer,  and  be 
quickened  hereby  to  ask,  and  seek,  and  knock, 
and  to  continue  instant  in  prayer ;  to  pray  alwayi, 
and  not  to  faint.  See  the  riches  of  God’s  good¬ 
ness  :  when  he  has  done  much,  yet  he  is  will¬ 
ing  to  do  more  ;  I  will  do  this  also — above  what 
we  are  able  to  ask  or  think.  See,  in  type,  the 
prevalency  of  Christ’s  intercession,  which  he 
ever  lives  to  make  for  all  those  that  come  to  God 
by  him,  and  .the  ground  of  that  prevalency  ;  it 
is  purely  his  own  merit,  not  anything  in  those 
for  whom  he  intercedes  ;  it  is  because  thou  hast 


found  grace  in  my  sight.  And  now  the  matter  is 
settled,  God  is  perfectly  reconciled  to  them,  his 
f)resence  in  the  pillar  of  cloud  returns  to  them 
and  shall  continue  with  them,  all  is  well  again, 
and  henceforth  we  hear  no  more  of  the  golden 
calf.  Lord,  who  is  a  God  like  unto  thee,  pardon¬ 
ing  iniquity  ?  H. 

1  will  do  this  thing  also.  My  presence  shall  go 
with  thee,  and  I  will  keep  thee  separate  from  all 
the  people  of  the  earth.  Both  these  promises 
have  been  remarkably  fulfilled.  God  continued 
miraculously  with  them,  till  he  brought  them 
into  the  promised  land  ;  and  from  the  day  in 
which  he  brought  them  out  of  Egypt  to  the 
present  day  he  has  kept  them  a  distinct,  unmixed 
people  !  Who  can  account  for  this  on  any  prin¬ 
ciple  but  that  of  a  continual  especial  Provi¬ 
dence  and  a  constant  Divine  interference  ? 
A.  C. 


- — 

Section  118. 

THE  GKEAT  PETITION  OF  MOSES  (IN  THE  TENT)  AND  PROMISE  OF  AN  ANSWER 
THE  NEXT  DAY  UPON  THE  MOUNT.  TWO  STONE  TABLES  AND  AN  ARK  PRE¬ 
PARED  BY  MOSES.  ASCENDS  THE  MOUNT  WITH  THE  TABLES.  ANSWER  OF 
JEHOVAH  IN  THE  PROCLAMATION  OF  HIS  NAME  SECOND  FORTY  DAYS  UPON 
SINAI,  WHERE  HIS  FERVENT  PLEADING  FOR  ISRAEL  FINALLY  PREVAILS. 

Exodus  33  :  19-23  ;  34  :  1-9.  De.  9  :  18-20,  25-29  ;  10  :  1-3,  10. 

Ex.  33  19  And  he  said,  Shew  me,  I  pray  thee,  thy  glory.  And  he  said,  I  will  make  all  my 
goodness  pass  before  thee,  and  will  proclaim  the  name  of  the  Lord  before  thee  ;  and  I  will  be 

20  gracious  to  whom  I  will  be  gracious,  and  will  shew  mercy  on  whom  I  will  shew  mercy.  And 

21  he  said.  Thou  canst  not  see  my  face  ;  for  man  shall  not  see  me  and  live.  And  the  Lord  said, 

22  Behold,  there  is  a  place  bj’  me,  and  thou  shalt  stand  upon  the  rock  :  and  it  shall  come  to  pass, 
while  my  glory  passeth  by,  that  I  will  put  thee  in  a  cleft  of  the  rock,  and  will  cover  thee  with 

23  my  hand  until  I  have  passed  by  :  and  I  will  take  away  mine  hand,  and  thou  shalt  see  my  back  : 
but  my  face  shall  not  be  seen. 

Ex.  34  1  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses, 

Hew  thee  two  tables  of  stone  like  unto  the 
first  :  and  I  will  write  upon  the  tables  the 
words  that  were  on  the  first  tables,  which 

2  thou  brakest.  And  be  ready  by  the  morning, 
and  come  up  in  the  morning  unto  mount 
Sinai,  and  present  thyself  there  to  me  on  the 

3  top  of  the  mount.  And  no  man  shall  come 
up  with  thee,  neither  let  any  man  be  seen 
throughout  all  the  mount  ;  neither  let  the 

4  flocks  nor  herds  feed  before  that  mount.  And 
he  hewed  two  tables  of  stone  like  unto  the 
first  ;  and  Moses  rose  up  early  in  the  morn¬ 
ing,  and  went  up  unto  mount  Sinai,  as  the 

Ex.  31  5  And  the  Lord  descended  in  the  cloud,  and  stood  with  him  there,  and  proclaimed 

6  the  name  of  the  Lord.  And  the  Lord  passed  by  before  him,  and  proclaimed.  The  Lord,  the 
Lord,  a  God  full  of  compassion  and  gracious,  slow  to  anger,  and  plenteous  in  mercy  and  truth  ; 


Lord  had  commanded  him,  and  took  in  his 
hand  two  tables  of  stone.  ' 

Re.  10  1  At  that  time  the  Lord  said  unto 
me.  Hew  thee  two  tables  of  stone  like  unto 
the  first,  and  come  up  unto  me  into  the 

2  mount,  and  make  thee  an  ark  of  wood.  And 
I  will  write  on  the  tables  the  words  that  were 
on  the  first  tables  which  thou  brakest,  and 

3  thou  shalt  put  them-in  the  ark.  So  I  made 
an  ark  of  acacia  wood,  and  hewed  two  tables 
of  stone  like  unto  the  first,  and  went  up  into 
the  mount,  having  the  two  tables  in  mine 
hand. 


ME  THT  GLORY!’' 


261 


7  keeping  mercy  for  thousands,  forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression  and  sin  :  and  that  will  by 
no  means  clear  the  gaWy  ;  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  and  upon  the 

8  children’s  children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the  fourth  generation.  And  Moses  made  haste. 

9  and  bowed  his  head  toward  the  earth,  and  worshipped.  And  he  said.  If  now  I  have  found 
grace  in  thy  sight,  0  Lord,  let  the  Lord,  I  pray  thee,  go  in  the  midst  of  us  ;  for  it  is  a  stiffnecked 
people  ;  and  pardon  our  iniquity  and  our  sin,  and  take  us  for  thine  inheritance. 

De.  9  18  And  I  fell  down  before  the  Lokd,  as  at  the  first,  forty  da3’s  and  forty  nights  ;  I  did 
neither  eat  bread  nor  drink  water  ;  because  of  all  your  sin  which  ye  sinned,  in  doing  that  which 

19  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  to  provoke  him  to  anger.  For  I  was  afraid  of  the  anger  and 

20  hot  displeasure,  wherewith  the  Lord  was  wroth  against  you  to  destroj^  you.  But  the  Lord 
hearkened  unto  me  that  time  also.  And  the  Lord  was  very  angry  with  Aaron  to  have  destroj^ed 
him  :  and  I  prayed  for  Aaron  also  the  same  time. 

25  So  I  fell  down  before  the  Lord  the  forty  days  and  forty  nights  that  I  fell  down  ;  because  the 

26  Lord  had  said  he  would  destroy  you.  And  I  prayed  unto  the  Lord,  and  said,  O  Lord  God, 
destroy  not  thy  people  and  thine  inheritance,  which  thou  hast  redeemed  through  thy  greatness, 

27  which  thou  hast  brought  forth  out  of  Eg3'pt  with  a  mighty  hand.  Kemember  thy  servants, 
Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  ;  look  not  unto  the  stubbornness  of  this  people,  nor  to  their  wicked- 

28  ness,  nor  to  their  sin  :  lest  the  land  whence  thou  broughtest  us  out  say,  Because  the  Ijord  was 
not  able  to  bring  them  into  the  land  which  he  promised  unto  them,  and  because  he  hated  them, 

29  he  hath  brought  them  out  to  slay  them  in  the  wilderness.  Yet  they  are  thy  people  and  thine 
inheritance,  which  thou  broughtest  out  by  thy  great  power  and  by  thy  stretched  out  arm. 

Le.  10  10  And  I  stayed  in  the  mount,  as  at  the  first  time,  forty  days  and  forty  nights  :  and 

the  Lord  would  not  destroy  thee. 

were  past  since  this  Sinai  smoked,  and  while 
the  glory  of  the  Lord,  like  devouring  fire,  en¬ 
circled  the  mountain-top,  the  voice  of  the  Eter¬ 
nal  filled  the  surrounding  solitudes  with  words 
which  echo  still  and  shall  never  pass  away.  But 
all  this  did  not  suffice,  and  in  the  mind  of 
Moses  there  was  only  enkindled  a  longing  for 
some  manifestation  more  intimate  and  soul-con¬ 
tenting.  Jehovah’s  answer  shows  in  what  di¬ 
rection  the  heart  of  Moses  pointed.  “  I  beseech 
thee,  show  me  th3'’  glor3%”  says  Moses.  “  I 
will,”  answers  Jehovah,  “  I  will  show  thee  my 
goodness,  my  kindness,  and  my  grace.”  Of 
majesty  and  grandeur  he  had  alread3"  seen  as 
much  as  heart  could  wish,  as  much  as  the  frail 
body  could  endure.  The  personality,  the  might, 
the  holiness  of  the  Most  High,  were  never  likely 
to  be  effaced  from  his  awe-struck  spirit  as  long  as 
he  had  an3’'  being  ;  but  still  amid  all  its  con¬ 
descension,  what  wonder  if  the  terrible  majesty 
still  left  an  impression  of  something  far  off  and 
formidable?  But  just  at  this  very  instant  in 
the  devouring  fire  had  opened  an  inlet  mild  and 
merciful,  and  Israel’s  intercessor  glinqised  a 
glory  still  interior — the  heart  of  Jehovah,  rich 
in  forgiveness,  and  radiating  forth  its  ceaseless 
loving  kindness.  Not  only  had  he  pardoned  a 
most  scandalous  insult  to  his  supremacy,  and 
in  answer  to  Moses’s  bold  entreat3’'  consented 
still  to  abide  by  the  ungrateful  people — “My 
presence  shall  go  with  thee,  and  I  will  give  thee 
rest  ” — but  with  overflowing  tenderness  he  had 
spoken  most  friendly  words  to  the  intercessor 
himself — “  I  will  do  as  thou  hast  spoken,  for  thou 


the  Lord  hearkened  unto  me  that  time  also  ; 

The  Crowning  Petition  of  Moses  and  the  Promise 
of  God  in  the  Tent  of  Meeting. 

Ex.  33  : 19-23 

19,  Moses  makes  a  ver3^  grand  prayer,  “  I  be¬ 
seech  THEE,  SHOW  ME  THY  GLORY.”  What,  had 
he  not  seen  it  m  the  burning  mount,  when  the 
earth  shook,  and  Israel  trembled,  and  the  mount 
was  crowned  with  a  coronal  of  the  intensest 
glory?  Had  he  not  seen  God’s  glory  when  they 
marched  through  the  channels  of  the  deep  dr3^- 
shod  r  Had  he  not  seen  it  in  the  rock  in  the 
wilderness  ?  Had  he  not  seen  it  in  the  pillar  of 

fire  by  night  ?  J.  C. - He  had  seen  much 

more  of  God's  glor3'^  than  all  other  men.  The 
bush  that  burned,  and  yet  was  not  consumed  ; 
the  Bed  Sea  moved  out  from  its  bed  ;  the  manna 
rained  down  from  above  ;  the  arid  rock  changed 
to  a  source  of  living  streams  !  Alone,  upon  the 
top  of  Sinai,  and  amidst  most  dreadful  signs,  he 
had  received  the  Law  of  God  ;  moreover,  with 
the  elders  of  the  Israelites,  he  had  beheld  the 
pavement  which  the  King  of  Israel  laid  for  the 
palace  where  he  sits  enthroned — what  seemed 
transparent  sapphire-stone.  Yet  more  this  in¬ 
satiable,  this  high-minded  servant  of  the  Lord 
desires.  Van  0. 

The  “  God  of  glory”  had  appeared  to  Moses 
at  the  Bush,  and  had  spoken  to  him  the  incom¬ 
municable  Name.  He  had  seen  the  glory  of 
God  on  that  night,  so  much  to  be  remembered, 
when  Jehovah’s  royal  ensign  fired  the  firma¬ 
ment,  and  under  Heaven’s  immediate  guidance 
the  glorious  march  began.  And  but  a  few  da3's 


2G2 


SECTION  118.  GREAT  PETITION  OF  MOSES. 


hast  found  grace  in  my  sight,  and  I  know  thee 
by  name.”  Grasping  at  that  gracious  word, 
l^ressing  up  into  the  exalted  intimacy  of  which 
he  had  obtained  an  earnest  so  encouraging, 
Moses  replied,  “  I  beseech  thee,  show  me  thy 
glory.”  “  Let  me  come  still  nearer.  Prolong 
this  blessed  moment,  and  admit  me  still  further 
into  thy  presence.”  Ilamilion. 

The  high  spiritual  state  to  which  the  man 
Moses  had  been  brought,  and  which  irrepressibly 
prompted  this  lofty  yet  heart-yearning  cry,  was 
not  reached  at  once.  It  was  wrought  within 
him  as  an  ultimate  effect,  after  successive  exer¬ 
cises  of  faith  working  mightily  through  prayer. 
With  a  faith  that  had  gathered  boldness  and 
courage  by  success,  turning  from  Israel  to  him¬ 
self,  partly  perhaps  from  a  deep  consciousness 
of  his  own  need  as  Israel's  leader,  and  partly 
from  an  intense  spiritual  craving  after  a  larger, 
more  satisfying  knowledge  of  God  and  closer 
approach  to  him,  now  it  is,  as  the  ultimate  highest 
effect  of  living,  jDleading,  expanding  faith,  that 
he  throws  all  his  soul  into  the  fervent  entreaty, 
“  1  beseech  thee,  show  me  thy  glory  I'  For  some¬ 
thing  other  ;  something  more  than  a  visible  glory  ; 
something  that  neither  miracle  nor  portent  could 
disclose.  For  something  spiritual  assuredly : 
something  that  could  reach  and  penetrate  his 
soul  with  soothing  and  support,  with  restfulness 
and  j)eace.  Here  spake  out  the  consciously  dis¬ 
quieted,  unsatisfied  man.  In  this  fervid  en¬ 
treaty  is  the  expressed  conviction  of  a  felt  igno¬ 
rance  of  God,  more  than  all,  the  outbreak  of  a 
feeling  of  deep  spiritual  want  ;  a  want  of  closer, 
more  endearing  fellowship  with  God.  “  Show 
me  thyself!  Reveal  thine  inmost  heart  to  me,  thy 
holy,  loving,  gracious  nature,  which  maketh 
thee  most  truly  glorious  !’  ’  The  instant  answer 
shows  that  this  was  what  he  craved.  Meeting 
exactly,  fully,  the  want  of  the  suppliant’s  soul, 
Jehovah  Jesus  unveiled  to  him  with  far  greater 
distinctness  than  had  been  unveiled  to  man  be¬ 
fore  the  very  heart  of  the  Godhead.  To  the  fervid 
entreaty  of  his  servant  he  answered,  “  1  will 
make  all  my  goodness  pass  before  iliee,  and  I  will 
PROCL^viM  THE  NAME  OF  THE  LoKD  before  thee  I”  B. 

The  nearer  he  came  to  God,  the  swifter  was 
the  course  of  his  soul,  and  the  more  burning  its 
ardor  toward  him.  Thus  it  is  and  ever  must 
be  that  the  idea  of  God,  just  in  proportion  as 
it  opens  on  the  soul,  absorbs  the  whole  being, 
entrances  all  the  faculties,  and  fills  and  satisfies 
the  holy  mind  and  heart  with  bliss  ineffable, 
inconceivable.  And  thus  are  the  desires  of  holy 
souls  described  in  God’s  own  vmrd,  as  drawn 
•out  after  him,  and  only  after  him,  everything 
else  passing  into  forgetfulness  and  nothingness 


in  the  comparison  :  “  Whom  have  I  in  heaven 
but  thee  ?  and  there  is  none  upon  the  earth  that 

I  desire  besides  thee.”  Glteever. - A  humble 

heart  cannot  be  satisfied  with  so  much  grace  as 
will  bring  it  to  glory,  with  so  much  of  heaven 
as  will  keep  it  from  dropping  into  hell  ;  it  is 
still  crying  cut,  ”  Give,  Lord,  give  ;  give  me 
more  of  thj^self,  more  of  thy  Bon,  more  of  thy 
Spirit  ;  give  me  more  light,  more  life,  more 

love.  ”  Brooks. - All  that  are  effectually  called 

to  the  knowledge  of  God  and  fellowship  with 
him,  though  they  desire  nothing  more  than 
God,  yet  they  are  still  coveting  more  and  more 
of  him,  till  they  come  to  see  as  they  are  seen.  H. 

God  will  cause  “His  goodness  to  pass  before 
him  and  will  “  proclaim  His  Name,”  or  His 
glorious  attributes  before  him  :  hereby  intimat¬ 
ing  that  to  know  God  in  His  glorious  attributes 
or  moral  perfections  was  of  much  greater  im¬ 
portance  than  to  be  admitted  to  the  immediate 
sight  of  that  outward  Divine  Glory,  even  though 
he  had  been  able  to  behold  it  in  all  its  unutter¬ 
able  splendor.  Leland. - How  precious  is  the 

thought  that  when  God  is  seen  to  be  most  good 
to  his  creatures,  he  is  then  seen  to  be  most  glori¬ 
ous  in  the  universe  ;  that  the  glory  and  the 
goodness  of  God  are  so  connected  together  that 
where  the  one  is  most  revealed,  the  other  shines 
in  its  richest  splendor.  Not  power  in  creating, 
not  justice  in  punishing,  but  goodness  in  sav¬ 
ing  sets  forth  most  the  glory  of  God.  Creation 
is  the  mirror  of  his  power  ;  Sinai  is  the  pedestal 
of  his  justice  ;  but  Calvary  is  the  scene  of  his 
goodness  and  therefore  of  his  great  glory.  Not 
the  manifestation  of  power,  not  the  manifesta¬ 
tion  of  justice,  but  the  manifestation  of  good¬ 
ness,  is  the  most  impressive  on  the  heart.  God 
adds  also,  “I  will  proclaim  the  name  of  the 
Lord.  ’  ’  Thus  we  see  that  God’s  goodness,  God’s 
glory,  and  God’s  name  are  one-  and  the  same 
thing.  J.  C. 

21-23.  Into  a  rocky  recess  in  some  part  of 
the  mount  near  where  the  cloud  w’as  abiding 
Moses  should  enter,  and  after  being  still  further 
overshadowed  by  the  Divine  hand  (Arab.  “  I  will 
overshadow  thee  with  my  cloud  ”),  should  be 
permitted  to  behold  a  transient  glimpse  of  the 
overpowering  brightness  of  Jehovah.  But  even 
this  was  not  to  be  a  view  of  his  face.  The  in¬ 
terposing  medium  was  to  screen  the  vision  from 
his  sight  till  it  had  jDassed  b}^  and  then  he  was 
to  look  upon  it  and  behold  his  back  parts,  as 
one  might  behold  the  back  i.f  a  royal  personage 
as  he  moved  along  in  majestic  state  in  front  of 

his  train.  Bush. - 1  will  take  RAvay 

mine  hand.  When  the  full  splendor  of  my 
majesty  is  passed  I  will  remove  that  cloud 


PROCLAMATION  OF  JEHOVAWS  NAME. 


263 


which  covered  thee  ;  and  thou  shalt  have  a 
shaded  and  imperfect  view  of  the  symbol  of  my 
presence  ;  but  thou  shalt  not  see  my  glory  in  its 

fullest  lustre.  Lp.  Patrick. - The  bright  side 

of  the  glorious  light,  where  it  shone  with  its 
full  unveiled  lustre,  is  called  the  fore  part,  or 
“  face  and  the  dark  side,  where  there  was  a 
lower  degree  of  brightness,  is  called  its  “  back 
part.  ’  ’  There  is  no  danger  that  any  one  who 
reads  the  Scriptures  should  think  that  the  Di¬ 
vine  Essence  consists  of  any  bodily  form  or 
parts  ;  since  he  is  described  as  “  filling  the 
heaven  of  heavens”  (1  Kings  8  : 27),  as  “a 
spirit  ”  (John  4  :  24),  “  whom  no  man  hath  seen, 
nor  can  see”  (1  Tim.  6  : 16),  Leland. 

The  revelation  asked  for  was  reserved  until 
Moses  should  prepare  two  other  tables  of  stone 
all  ready  for  the  final  restoration  and  renewal 

of  the  covenant.  S.  R. - The  promise  here 

given  was  to  be  fulfilled  on  the  morrow,  when 
the  mediator  was  to  receive  the  twofold  reward 
of  his  spiritual  \vrestling  ;  the  covenant  was  to 
be  renewed  with  the  nation  according  to  its 
original  terms,  and  he  himself  was  to  be  permit¬ 
ted  to  penetrate  more  deeply  into  the  myste¬ 
ries  of  the  Divine  nature  than  had  ever  before 
been  granted  to  mortal  man.  Clark. 

At  Jehovah's  Bidding,  Moses  Hews  Two  Stone 
Tables,  Makes  an  Ark,  Ascends  Sinai,  and 

Presents  Himself  before  God. 

Ex.  34  : 1-5  ;  De.  10  : 1-3. 

[Note  explanatory  of  De.  10:1-3.]  When 
Moses  interceded,  God  commanded  him  to  pre¬ 
pare  two  new  tables  of  stone,  and  to  construct 
an  ark  in  which  to  keep  them  (cf.  Ex.  34  : 1). 
Directions  had  been  given  for  the  construction 
of  the  ark  before  the  apostasy  of  the  people, 
and  it  was  not  made  till  after  the  tabernacle  had 
been  erected,  nor  were  the  tables  placed  in  it 
till  the  tabernacle  had  been  consecrated.  But 
as  the  things  themselves  were  closely  connected, 
Moses  mentions  them  here  together,  without  re¬ 
gard  to  chronological  order.  W.  L,  A. 

Ex.  34  :  3-3.  Moses  must  attend  again  on  the 
top  of  Mount  Sinai,  and  present  himself  to  God 
there.  Though  the  absence  of  Moses,  and  his 
continuing  so  long  on  the  mount,  had  lately  oc¬ 
casioned  their  making  the  golden  calf,  yet  God 
did  not  therefore  alter  his  measures,  but  he  shall 
come  up  and  tarry  as  long  as  he  had  done,  to 
try  whether  they  had  learned  to  wait.  To  strike 
an  awe  upon  the  people,  they  are  bid  to  keep 
their  distance,  none  must  come  up  with  him. 
They  had  said  (ch.  32  : 1),  We  know  not  what  is 
become  of  him,  and  God  will  not  let  them  know. 

4.  Moses  did,  accordingly,  hew  out  the 


tables  of  stone,  or  slate,  for  they  were  so  slight 
and  thin  that  Moses  carried  them  both  in  his 
hand  ;  and  their  dimensions  must  have  been 
somewhat  less  than  the  ark  in  which  they  were 
deposited,  which  was  a  yard  and  a  quarter  long, 
and  three  quarters  broad.  It  should  seem  there 
was  nothing  particularly  curious  in  the  framing 
of  them,  for  there  was  no  great  time  taken  : 
Moses  had  them  ready  presently  to  take  up  with 
him  next  morning.  They  were  to  receive  their 
beauty  not  from  the  art  of  man,  but  from  the 
finger  of  God.  H. 

There  may  be  no  literal  mountain  which  man 
ascends  ;  there  may  be  no  outward  manifesta¬ 
tions  which  strike  the  senses  of  beholders  ;  but 
there  is  a  communion  between  God  and  the 
soul,  a  conscious  sense  of  the  Divine  Presence, 
as  real  and  as  effective  now  as  that  which  be¬ 
longed  to  Moses,  when,  at  the  bidding  of  God. 
he  went  up  into  the  mountain.  To  deny  it,  is 
to  rob  the  religion  of  the  Gospel  of  all  its  spir¬ 
ituality  ;  to  be  ignorant  of  it,  is  to  be  destitute 
of  the  very  first  elements  of  Christian  experi¬ 
ence.  Mason. 

Moses,  in  obedience  to  the  command  of  God, 
went  up  to  Mount  Sinai,  and  presented  himself 
before  God.  He  only  could  do  so  ;  he  was  a 
typical  mediator,  a  representative,  a  figurative 
symbol  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  only  mediator,  who 
has  passed  into  the  true  holy  place,  and  appears 
in  the  presence  of  God  for  us.  But  it  is  very 
beautiful  to  see  that  on  that  very  mount  w'hich 
burned  with  fire,  and  was  shrouded  with  black¬ 
ness,  that  very  mount  whose  antecedents  had 
been  so  dark  and  terrific,  God  revealed  the  most 
beautiful  and  comforting  descrij)tion  of  himself 
recorded  in  the  whole  Bible  ;  to  show  that  Israel 
was  not  to  be  under  mere  law  ;  but  while  they 
saw  and  learned  what  the  Law  was,  they  were 
also  to  have  a  foretaste  of  what  the  Gospel  was 
also.  We  associate  with  Sinai  everything  that 
is  terrific  ;  the  contact  and  the  presence  of  a  sov  - 
ereign,  a  legislator,  a  judge.  But  we  should 
not  forget  that  on  Sinai  also  was  revealed  this 
beautiful  portrait  of  Deity.  J.  C. 

Peoclamation  of  the  Name  of  Jehovah. 

Ex.  34  : 5-9. 

5.  Now  that  God  is  about  to  publish  a  second 
edition  of  the  Law,  he  prefaces  it  with  this  proc¬ 
lamation  ;  for  it  is  God’s  grace  and  goodness 
that  gives  the  Law,  especially  the  remedial  law. 
The  pardon  of  Israel’s  sin,  in  worshipping  the 
calf,  was  now  to  pass  the  seals  ;  and  God,  by 
this  declaration,  would  let  them  know  that  he 
pardoned  merely  out  of  his  own  good  pleasure,  not 
for  their  merit’s  sake,  but  from  his  own  incli- 


264 


SECTION  118,  THE  NAME  OF  JEHOVAH. 


nation  to  forgive.  The  proclaiming  of  it  denotes 
the  universal  extent  of  God’s  mercy  ;  he  is  not 
only  good  to  lurael,  but  good  to  alt  ;  let  all  take 
notice  of  it.  H. 

Moses  had  asked  to  look  with  his  bodily  eyes 
upon  the  unveiled  face  of  God  ;  but  it  is  only 
in  the  mirror  of  the  Word,  with  the  inward 
spiritual  eye  of  faith,  that  a  man  can  look  upon 
the  Divine  Being,  whose  features,  as  manifested 
outw’^ardly,  are  called  his  face.  In  the  word ^ 
therefore,  Jehovah  permitted  him  to  behold  his 
essence  ;  but  it  was  in  a  wmrd  of.  such  compre¬ 
hensiveness,  such  depth  and  fulness,  as  had 
never  fallen  upon  human  ears  before.  As  he 
passed  by  Moses,  he  proclaimed  to  him  who  and 
what  he  was.  What  was  here  declared  to  Moses 
was  a  far  deeper,  fuller,  and  more  comprehen¬ 
sive  explanation  of  the  name  Jehovah,  a  com¬ 
mentary  on  the  words  “  I  am  that  I  am”'  (Ex. 
3  : 14),  by  which  he  had  previously  given  to  his 
servant,  and  through  him  to  his  people,  a 
deeper  insight  into  the  meaning  of  his  name. 
It  was  quite  in  its  right  place  here  ;  for  what  it 
expressed  in  words  was  immediately  afterward 
confirmed  in  a  gracious  deed— viz.,  in  the  re¬ 
newal  of  the  covenant.  K. 

What  he  saio  is  now'here  told  us  ;  only  what 
he  heard,  when  Jehovah  “  proclaimed  ”  before 
him  what  Luther  aptly  designates  as  ‘‘  the  ser¬ 
mon  about  the  name  of  God.”  It  unfolded  his 
inmost  being,  as  that  of  love  unspeakable — the 
cumulation  of  terms  being  intended  to  present 
that  love  in  all  its  aspects.  And,  in  the  words 
of  a  recent  German  writer  :  ‘  ‘  Buch  as  Jehovah 
here  proclaimed,  he  also  manifested  it  among 
Israel  at  all  times,  from  Mount  Sinai  till  he 
brought  them  into  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  and 
thence  till  he  cast  them  out  among  the  heathen. 
Nay,  even  now  in  their  banishment,  he  is  ‘  keep¬ 
ing  mercy  for  thousands,  w’ho  turn  to  the  Ee- 
deemer  that  has  come  out  of  Zion.’  ”  A.  E. 

6^  7.  And  tile  i..nrd  pai^sed  by,  and 
proclaimed.  It  is  a  wonderful  proclama¬ 
tion.  You  can  apprehend  its  beauty  and  sig- 
nificancj",  as  an  exposition  of  what  Moses  wanted 
to  know,  by  observing  how  each  successive  title 
and  description  rises  in  beautiful  gradation  to 
the  climax — each  strengthening  and  making 
more  wonderful  what  has  preceded.  First  are 
declared  the  natural  attributes  as  the  ground 
and  guarantee  to  man  for  his  infinite  moral  at¬ 
tributes.  “  Jehovah,  Jehovah  God.”  S.  E. 

- The  proper  reading  is  the  following,  “  And 

the  Lord  passed  by  before  him  and  proclaimed 
Jehovah,  Jehovah  :  God,  merciful  and  gracious,” 
etc.  The  august  title  “Jehovah”  is  redupli¬ 
cated  by  way  of  emphasis,  as  that  pre-eminent 


designation  which  was  designed  to  come  home 
to  the  soul  with  the  utmost  fulness  of  import. 
To  this  the  name  “  God  ”  IJl)  is  subjoined,  of 
which  the  leading  idea  is  that  of  strength,  might, 
potency,  and  which  in  this  connection  would 
convey  the  idea  of  all-sitfficienl  protection  to  all 
his  people  and  ot  formidableness  to  all  their  ene¬ 
mies.  This  proclamation  of  his  name  as  almighty 
would  serve  as  a  suitable  preface  to  the  an- 
’  nouncement  of  his  tnoral  atinbiites  just  about  to 
follow  ;for  his  mercies  are  the  mercies  of  a  God  of 
infinite  resources ,  and  they  are  on  this  account 
unspeakably  endeared  to  the  subjects  of  them. 

Bush. - His  greatness  and  goodness  illustrate 

and  set  off  each  other.  That  the  terror  of  his 
greatness  may  not  make  us  afraid,  we  are  told 
how  good  he  is  ;  and  that  w^e  may  not  presume 
upon  hi» goodness,  we  are  told  how^  great  he  is.  H. 

The  Divine  attributes  here  proclaimed  consti¬ 
tute  the  Divine  nature,  and  so  the  preaching  of 
mercy  and  forgiveness  already  resounds  on 
Sinai,  the  place  from  which  emanates  the  Law, 
and  thence  runs  through  the  W'hole  Bible,  until 
it  reaches  its  fulfilment  and  perfect  realization 

in  Christ.  C.  G.  B. - The  properties  here 

mentioned,  as  his  mercy,  his  grace,  his  long- 
suffering,  his  abundance  in  goodness  or  bounty, 
and  truth,  his  keeping  mercy  for  thousands, 
his  forgiving  iniquities,  transgression,  aud  sin, 
have  all  respect  to  mankind  in  a  particular  man¬ 
ner.  And  by  the  last — namely,  his  “  forgiv¬ 
ing,”  or,  as  the  word  signifies,  his  taking  away 
‘‘iniquity,  transgression,  and  sin,”  he  inti¬ 
mates  his  special  love  to  them,  in  sending  his 
Son,  “  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the 

sin  of  the  world,”  Bp.  Beveridge. - In  the 

most  solemn  moment  of  the  highest  revelation, 
the  mediator  of  the  Old  Testament  beholds  God 
as  Love,  who,  without  having  first  received  any¬ 
thing,  is  full  of  the  desire  to  communicate  his 
holy  and  blessed  nature  to  sinners,  in  order  to 
make  them  partakers  of  his  perfections  :  he  is 
not  only  ready  to  forgive,  but  he  also  waits  for 
their  repentance  and  remits  the  punishment. 
At  this  moment  he  wishes  especially  to  show 
how  and  w'hy  he  will  again  turn  his  grace  to  the 
stiffnecked  people.  Gerl. 

Full  of  coiiipasi^ion.  This  is  that  per¬ 
fection  of  Jehovah’s  nature  with  which  we  as 
sinners  have  the  most  immediate  and  , intimate 
concern,  and  therefore  it  stands  first  in  this 
enumeration.  It  is  this  that  constitutes  the  mov¬ 
ing  spring  in  the  great  .scheme  of  redemption. 
GrRCious.  From  the  root  hanan,  signifying  to 
he  kindly  or  graciously  affectioned  toward  a  person. 
In  Scripture  usage  this  term  as  applied  to  God 
aud  ats  denoting  his  dispositions  and  dealings 


GOD,  IIERCIFUL  AND  GRACIOUS. 


265 


toward  men,  carries  with  it  the  leading  import 
of  uninerited  favor  or  kindness.  ^low  lo 
The  first-fruit  of  His  grace.  He  bears 
long  with  sinners  ;  he  delay's  the  execution  of 
justice  ;  he  waits  to  be  gracious  in  despite  of 
their  iniquities.  Nothing  is  more  wonderful 
than  the  patience  of  God  when  we  consider  the 
provocations  which  he  continually  receives  at 
the  hands  of  the  ungodly.  PleilteOilHi  in 
mercy  aticl  trutli.  Much  in  goodness,  or 
benignity,  and  truth.  The  idea  is  that  of  exuber¬ 
ant  benevolence.  And  not  only  does  his  goodness 
abound  above  our  deserts  and  above  our  powers 
of  acknowledgment,  but  being  a  God  of  truth, 
who  will  not  and  cannot  deceive,  we  are  assured 
that  every  promise  of  further  and  future  good 
will  be  strictly  fulfilled,  and  that  nothing  will 
prevent  the  realization  of  those  eternal  bless¬ 
ings  which  he  has  reserved  for  them  that  put 
their  trust  in  him.  Keeping  mercy  for 
tliousaiicis.  The  original  term  mercy  is  pre¬ 
cisely  the  same  with  that  in  the  preceding 
clause.  In  the  former  passage  reference  is  had 
to  the  plenitude  of  the  Divine  mercy,  in  the  pres¬ 
ent  to  its  perpetuity.  Chal.  “  Keeping  goodness 
to  a  thousand  generations.”  God  keeps  ox  pre¬ 
serves  mercy  bj^  continually  showing  it  in  all  its 
various  exercises  to  thousands  of  sinners  in  all 
ages  and  to  the  end  of  time.  He  keeps  it  not¬ 
withstanding  the  crsing  provocations  which 
might  move  him  to  cast  it  away.  He  reserves  it 
for  his  chosen  people  through  all  the  days  of 
their  unregenerac3\  Bush. 

And  now,  as  the  moral  nature  in  man  asks  in 
amazement,  how  can  all  this  be  true  and  Je¬ 
hovah  still  be  holy  and  of  purer  eyes  than  to 
behold  iniquity?  This  revelation  proceeds  a 
step  further  to  explain  and  justify  all  the  fore 
going  :  “  F  rg'ving"  (Heb.) — “  Taking  away 

INIQUITY  and  TRANSGEESSioN  and  SIN  !  All  this 
boundless  exercise  of  mercy  shall  be  without 
violence  to  the  sense  of  truth  and  right  in  the 
soul  I  do  all — not  by  passing  over  sin,  or  being 
blind  to  sin,  or  by  pardon  without  a  reason.  I 
take  away  the  iniquity.  I  arrange  for  the  mercy 
to  flow  as  though  no  sin  had  been  done  by  the 
sinner.  And  now  more  wonderful  than  all,  and 
the  fitting  capstone  to  this  glorious  manifesta¬ 
tion,  all  shall  be  done  without  the  least  shadow 
of  stain  upon  my  eternal  and  infinite  justice. 
For  I  WILL  BY  NO  MEANS  CLEAR  THE  GUILTY.  This 
overflow  of  the  infinite  mercy  and  grace  shall 
never  sweep  awaj^  the  throne  of  justice,  or  efface 
or  mar  or  blur  for  a  moment,  in  the  mind  of  any 
intelligent  creature  in  the  universe,  the  eternal 
distinction  between  truth  and  falsehood,  right 
and  wrong.  For  the  grace  and  mercy  shall  flow 


out  to  man  for  a  reason  that  shall  satisfy  the 
highest  justice  and  render  Jehovah  just  in  the 
ver^'  act  of  justifying  the  sinner.  Such  is  this 
wonderful  evangel  to  Moses  of  the  mercy  of 
God.  It  needs  nothing  more  than  this  simple 
analysis  to  make  it  plain  to  the  apprehension, 
and  then  it  carries  with  it  its  own  argument  and 
demonstration  to  the  conscience.  Here  the 
teachings  of  Nature  in  all  her  works  of  his  good¬ 
ness,  and  of  Providence  in  all  its  mysterious 
signs,  and  of  human  consciousness,  and  of 
“  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,”  and  of  God  mani¬ 
fest  in  human  consciousness,  all  have  their 
clear  and  distinct  utterance.  S.  K. 

Here,  in  these  hopeful,  inspiriting,  soul  satis¬ 
fying  words,  words  whose  scope  and  substance 
anticipate  as  they  most  fully  express  the  very 
pith  and  marrow  of  the  Gospel — words  uttered, 
too,  be  it  remembered,  by  the  very  Being  whose 
after  life  and  suffering  in  the  flesh  make  up  that 
Gospel — in  these  words  which  unveil  that  which 
neither  the  heavens  nor  the  earth  could  declare 
— the  inner  nature  of  the  Godhead,  the  loftier 
moral  elements  of  the  Divine  character,  his 
holiness  and  love,  his  justice  and  his  grace — here, 
in  these  sublimely  attractive  and  comforting 
words,  have  we  God’s  own  declaration  of  that 
in  which  consists  his  chiefest  glory.  Here 
himself  distinctlj’’  avers  that  he  is  supremely 
adorable,  he  is  supremely  to  be  magnified  and 
loved,  not  for  his  stupendous  visible  creations 
of  sphered  systems  and  firmaments,  nor  for  his 
equally  wondrous  demonstrations  of  limitless 
energy  in  the  continuous  upholding  and  onwaid 
harmonious  march  of  these  unnumbered  worlds, 
nor  yet  for  his  ample  beneficent  providences, 
everywhere  and  at  every  instant  calling  for  the 
gratitude  of  man,  but  for  his  vaster,  more  wonder¬ 
ful,  infinitely  more  beneficent  grace  in  man's  for¬ 
giveness  and  redemption.  In  this  disclosure  of 
the  very  heart  of  God,  his  ineffable  compassion, 
tenderness,  love  blending  with  high  regard  to 
that  Law  of  Holiness  exactly  responded  to  by 
himself  and  demanded  of  his  intelligent  creat¬ 
ures — in  this  disclosure  made  by  Jehovah  Jesus, 
foreshadowing  the  great  transaction  which 
should  prove  its  truth  by  his  own  after  deed  of 
inconceivable  sacrifice,  in  this  disclosure  which 
met  and  satisfied  the  spiritual  longing  of  Moses, 
may  we  too  behold  the  most  excellent  glory  of 
the  living  God.  And  this  vision  of  his  highest 
glory,  as  a  just  God  and  yet  a  Saviour,  this  sim¬ 
ple,  full,  explicit  proclamation  of  his  name,  that 
by  which  he  delights  to  be  chiefl}^  known — 
“  Merciful  and  Gracious” — this  revelation  to 
Moses,  amplified,  illustrated,  convincingly  im¬ 
pressed  by  the  whole  incarnate  life  and  death 


266 


SECTION  118.  THE  NAME  OF  JEHOVAH. 


of  Jesus,  this  it  is  which  every  darkened,  sin¬ 
ning,  disquieted  human  soul  supremely  needs. 
This  inshining  of  God  into  our  hearts  to  give 
the  light  of  the  glorj^  of  God  in  the  person  and 
sacrifice  of  Christ,  as  Paul  expansively  enunci¬ 
ates  the  desire  of  Moses,  this  vision  of  God  in 
Christ,  as  merciful  and  gracious,  long-suffering, 
forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression,  is  that 
which  every  human  soul  imperatively  needs, 
which  each  must  desire,  must  seek  and  receive  • 
for  himself,  if  he  would  find  peace  and  rest  of 
spirit.  B, 

Even  though  every  other  voice  were  hushed, 
surely  each  follower  of  Christ  must  sing  aloud, 
repeating  from  his  heart  the  words,  ‘  ‘  Merciful, 
gracious,  long-suffering  !”  How  well  has  God 
dealt  with  each  one  of  us — ineffably  beyond 
what  we  can  ask  or  think  !  There  is  no  heart 
without  its  sore,  but  neither  is  there  any  sore 
without  its  heavenly  cure.  There  is  no  life 
without  its  doubts  and  its  unanswered  ques¬ 
tionings,  but  neither  is  there  any  doubt  that 
does  not  sometime  yield  to  grateful  astonish¬ 
ment.  Tlb  God  of  everlasting  mercy  ever  finds 
out  ways  of  showing  his  comj)assion  for  us  men. 
The  God  of  boundless  patience  bears  with  im¬ 
perfection  in  his  serT’ants.  How  clear  becomes 
the  dark  life-path,  when  with  a  Moses’s  eye  we 
everywhere  behold  the  rays  fall  from  the  revela¬ 
tion  of  God’s  glory,  and  with  a  Moses’s  ear  hear 
from  each  dark,  impenetrable  cloud  above  our 
path  the  voice  from  heaven  repeated  constantly, 
“Merciful,  gracious,  abundant  in  goodness!” 
And  this  revelation  of  God’s  holy  love  is  des¬ 
tined  to  be  ever  going  on,  ever  becoming  clearer, 
and  never  adequately  praised.  What  matters  it 
although  you  do  not  in  the  body  stand  next 
Moses  on  Mount  Sinai  ?  Is  not  the  voice  out 
of  the  cloud  sealed  hy  the  voice  from  your  heart  ? 
Van  0. 

The  character  of  God  was  known,  in  all  its 
important  features,  by  the  Old  Testament 
saints.  They  knew  and  adored  his  infinite  holi¬ 
ness,  his  unalterable  truth,  his  unbending  jus¬ 
tice,  his  immeasurable  compassions.  So  God 
revealed  himself  here  to  Moses.  This  is  clearly 
God’s  glory  (a  just  God  and  a  Saviour),  as  it  is 
revealed  in  Christ,  who  on  this  occasion  made 
himself  known  to  Moses.  If  we  would  see  these 
glorious  attributes  of  God  in  all  their  heights 
and  depths,  and  length  and  breadth,  we  must 
contemplate  them  as  they  are  revealed  at  Cal¬ 
vary.  They  who  never  witnessed  that  amazing 
spectacle — God-Man  crucified  for  sinners — 
know  comparatively  nothing  of  God.  Upon  the 
cross  of  Jesus  is  inscribed,  “  They  shall  know 


me.”  Goode. - In  the  person  of  his  Son  Jesus 

Christ  God  has  so  revealed  himself,  that,  with¬ 
out  at  all  lowering  his  dignity  or  lessening  his 
glory,  he  may  yet  be  steadily  gazed  ujjon. 
“  We  beheld  his  glory,”  said  his  disciples,  “  the 
glory  as  of  the  only-begotten  of  the  Father,  full 
of  grace  and  truth.”  Who  could  have  supposed 
that  “  the  blessed  and  only  Potentate,  the  King 
of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,”  would  ever  have 
been  seen  by  mortal  eye  ?  Who  could  ever  have 
hoped  that  the  source  and  centre  of  all  excel¬ 
lence  and  perfection  would  ever  stoop  to  exhibit 
himself  to  his  creatures  ?  But  that  which  we 
could  not  have  supj)osed,  and  which  it  would 
have  been  presumption  to  have  desired,  has  act¬ 
ually  taken  place  !  ‘  ‘  The  Word  was  made  flesh, 
and  did  dwell  among  men.”  E.  Hall. 

The  scheme  of  redemption,  in  its  conception 
and  evolution,  is  a  sublime  commentary  upon 
the  sacredness  and  supremacy  of  right,  which, 
while  it  reveals  the  ineffable  enormity  of  sin, 
presents  the  character  of  God  in  such  an  aspect 
of  venerable  grandeur  that  Holiness  becomes 
awful  and  majestic,  and  we  insensibly  adore 
under  the  moral  impression  which  it  makes. 
He  that  stands  beneath  the  cross  and  under¬ 
stands  the  scene  dares  not  sin  ;  not  because 
there  is  a  hell  beneath  him  or  an  angry  God 
above  him,  but  because  Holiness  is  felt  to  reign 
there — the  ground  on  which  he  treads  is  sacred, 
the  glory  of  the  Lord  encircles  him.  God  never 
appears  to  be  so  truly  great,  so  intensely  holy, 
as  when,  from  the  pure  energy  of  principle,  he 
gives  himself,  in  the  person  of  his  Son,  to  die, 
rather  than  that  his  character  should  be  im- 
pugned.  Who,  at  the  foot  of  Cavalry,  can  pro¬ 
nounce  sin  to  be  a  slight  matter  ?  Here,  then, 
lies  the  most  impressive  sanction  of  revelation. 
Not  content  to  promulgate  the  Law  with  abso¬ 
lute  certainty,  to  put  under  tribute  the  whole 
resources  of  the  invisible  world,  to  lay  its  hand 
upon  eternity  and  make  heaven  and  hell  its 
ministers,  it  rises  3"et  higher  and  seeks  to  im¬ 
press  us  with  a  subduing  sense  of  the  sacred- 
iiess  of  right — to  make  us  feel  how  awful  good¬ 
ness  is  ;it  reveals  its  inherent  greatness,  unveils 
its  ineffable  glory.  It  does  not  describe  it,  but 
shows  it  ;  and  we  return  from  the  cross  with 
emotions  similar  to  those  of  Moses  when  the 
name  of  the  Lord  was  proclaimed,  and  the  good¬ 
ness  of  the  Lord  passed  before  him  in  the  cleft 
of  the  rock.  It  is  the  scheme  of  redemption 
which  crowns  the  ethical  teachings  of  the  Bible. 
The  lesson  is  sealed  at  the  cross  ;  there,  and 
there  only,  do  we  shudder  at  sin  for  its  own 
sake,  and  reverence  right  for  itself.  Thornwell 


i 


FINAL  INTERCESSION.  ISRAEL  RESTORED  TO  FAVOR. 


2G7 


Moses  Pleads  for  hraeV  s  Pardon  and  Restoration 

to  Favor  {Ex.  34  : 9  ;  De.  9  : 18-20,  25-29). 

And  Jehovah  Hearkens  unto  him  {De.  10  : 10). 

When  Moses  thus  fully  understood  the  char¬ 
acter  of  Jehovah,  he  could  once  more  plead 
for  Israel,  now  converting  into  a  plea  for  for 
giveness  even  the  reason  which  had  seemed  to 
make  the  presence  of  Jehovah  among  Israel 
dangerous — that  they  were  a  stiffnecked  people. 
In  the  same  manner  had  the  Lord,  in  speaking 
to  Noah,  made  the  sin  of  man,  which  had  erst 
provoked  judgment,  the  ground  for  future  for¬ 
bearance.  A.  E. - It  is  a  strange  plea  he 

urges  ;  for  it  is  a  stiffnecked  people.  God  had 
given  this  as  a  reason  why  he  would  not  go  along 
with  them  (ch.  33:3);  “Yea,”  says  Moses, 
“the  rather  go  along  with  us  ;  for  the  worse 
they  are,  the  more  need  they  have  of  thy  pres¬ 
ence  and  grace  to  make  them  better.”  Moses 
sees  them  so  stiffnecked,  that,  for  his  part,  he 
has  neither  patience  nor  power  enough  to  deal 
with  them  ;  “  Therefore,  Lord,  do  thou  go 
among  us,  else  they  will  never  be  kept  in  awe. 
Thou  wilt  spare,  and  bear  with  them,  for  thou 
art  Qod,  and  not  man' '  (Hos.  11  ;  9).  H. 

Now  Moses  is  relieved  of  his  perplexities,  at 
least  so  far  as  to  see  that  mercy  will  be  secured 
to  some  in  all  generations  though  others  may 
reject  it  and  perish.  He  may  rest  in  tranquil 
confidence  upon  the  purpose  of  him  who  keeps 
mercy  for  thousands.  He  does  not  tell  us.  for 
he  could  not,  what  he  saw  when  the  Lord  passed 
by.  Filled  with  wonder  and  solemn  awe,  he 
made  haste  to  bow  his  head  and  prostrate  him¬ 
self  in  profound  reverence.  But  still  true  to 
his  work  as  intercessor,  his  first  cry  after  this 
amazing  exhibition,  is  the  same  long-urged  pe 
tition  :  “  Let  my  Lord  I  pray  thee  go  among  us 
and  pardon  our  iniquity  and  our  sin,  and  take 
us  for  thine  inheritance.”  And  Moses  is  vie 
torious.  For  Jehovah  said,  “  Behold,  I  make  a 
covenant."  The  sinners  are  saved  and  restored 
to  God  as  his  people.  S.  R. 

De,  9  ;  25-29.  On  a  comparison  of  this  pas¬ 
sage  with  Nu.  14  : 5,  the  subject  and  language  of 
this  prayer  show  that  only  the  second  act  of 
intercession  (verse  18)  is  now  described  in  fuller 
detail.  Jamieson. 

De.  10  ;  BO,  Moses  here  sums  up  the  gen¬ 
eral  result  of  his  intercession.  As  at  the  first, 
he  was  on  the  mount  tlje  second  time  forty  days 
and  forty  nights  ;  and  in  response  to  his  plead 
ing  the  Lord  willed  not  to  destroy  Israel,  and 
commanded  him  to  resume  his  place  as  leader 
of  the  people,  and  conduct  them  to  the  promised 
land.  “  This  commandment  and  promise  was 


a  testimony  that  God  now  was  reconciled  unto 
them  by  the  intercession  of  Moses.”  W.  L.  A. 


On  Sinai,  at  the  Bush,  Moses  was  taught  to 
view  Jehovah  as  the  Infinite  ;  at  the  giving  of 
the  Law,  as  the  God  of  spotless  holiness  ;  but 
here,  as  the  God  of  everlasting  mercy.  What 
he  now  hears  is  the  grandest  revelation  ever 
made  by  God  under  the  Old  Economy  ;  the  only 
scene  we  can  compare  with  that  before  us  now 
— viz.,  the  revelation  granted  to  Elijah  on  this 
very  Horeb,  only  showed  that  man  of  God,  in 
sacred  symbols,  the  same  truths  here  audibly 
proclaimed  to  Moses  by  the  voice  of  God. 
Van  0. 


Among  the  greatest  lessons  of  this  history  are 
those  that  relate  to  prayer.  The  whole  charac¬ 
ter  of  Moses  as  seen  in  this  transaction  is  won¬ 
derfully  pure  and  true.  How  unselfi.shly  he 
casts  away,  as  not  to  be  thought  of,  the  Divine 
suggestion— “  I  will  make  of  thee  a  great  na¬ 
tion  !”  With  what  solid  grasp  and  singular 
tenacity  did  he  hold  fast  to  the  great  ideas  of 
God’s  covenant  with  Abraham— to  make  this 
nation  his  own  peculiar  people  ;  to  abide  among 
them  ;  to  manifest  himself  in  works  of  power 
and  grace,  and  get  himself  a  great  name  in  all 
the  earth  !  Shall  God  forget  this  covenant  ; 
abandon  this  people  ;  drop  them  midway  from 
Egypt  to  Canaan,  and  leave  all  the  nations  to 
exult  in  their  ruin  and  to  put  it  to  the  caprice 
or  the  impotence  of  Israel’s  God?  Never!  It 
is  wonderful  how  Moses  holds  on  upon  these 
strong  points  in  his  case  and  the  case  of  Israel  . 
how  thoroughly  he  proves  himself  to  have  been 
raised  up  of  God  for  the  great  mission  of  Israel’s 
leader  and  advocate  with  God.  With  what 
boldness  does  he  debate  the  case  before  the 
Lord  and  set  forth  his  strong  reasons — reasons, 
not  of  selfish  sort,  not  looking  so  much  to  the 
human  side  as  to  the  Divine  ;  reasons  that  en¬ 
tered  deeply  into  the  greatest  of  all  considera¬ 
tions— the  honor  of  God  before  all  the  nations, 
and  the  success  of  his  plans  in  making  Israel  his 
chosen  people.  As  we  search  the  annals  of  hu¬ 
man  history  in  vain  to  find  a  stronger  case  of 
power  with  God  in  prayer,  so  we  must  look  far 
to  find  a  case  more  instructive  in  regard  to  the 
proper  attitude  for  praying  souls  before  God, 
and  the  proper  arguments  to  use  in  prayer. 
Moses  seemed  not  so  much  pleading  for  himself 
or  for  his  people,  as  for  God.  Therefore  it  was 
that  his  pleas,  based  on  the  revealed  counsels 
of  the  Almighty  and  fully  in  sympathy  with  his 
designs  and  with  his  glory,  took  hold  of  the 
heart  of  Jehovah  and  could  not  be  denied.  H.  C. 


i^ECTlON  119.  JEHOVAH  RENEWS  THE  COVENANT. 


2C8 

Ye  who  are  much  concerned  about  your  sins, 
l^ray,  “  Show  me  thy  glory  !”  until  the  Lord 
make  you  understand  that  everything  is  finished 
that  concerns  your  good.  Ye  who  are  feeble  in 
the  fight  of  faith,  repeat  each  day  the  prayer, 
“  Show  me  thy  glory !”  that  ye  may  be 


“  strengthened  with  might  in  the  inner  man.” 
Ye  w'ho  are  bent  beneath  the  weight  of  life’s 
burdens  and  crosses,  ask  that  God  may  show  his 
glory  unto  you,  whether  by  the  removal  of  the 
burden  you  bear,  or  by  its  continuance,  or,  if 
it  must  be  so,  by  even  increasing  it.  Van  0. 


Section  119. 

JEHOVAH  RENEWS  THE  COVENANT  WITH  ISRAEL.  BRIEF  SUMMARY  OF  ORDI¬ 
NANCES  PREVIOUSLY  GIVEN.  SECOND  WRITING  UPON  THE  TABLES  OF  STONE 
OF  THE  TEN  WORDS.  TRANSFIGURATION  OF  MOSES’S  FACE. 

Exodus  34  ;  10-35.  De.  10  ;  4,  5. 

Ex.  34  10  And  he  said,  Behold,  I  make  a  covenant  ;  before  all  thy  people  I  will  do  marvels, 
such  as  have  not  been  wrought  in  all  the  earth,  nor  in  any  nation  :  and  all  the  people  among 
which  thou  art  shall  see  the  work  of  the  Lokd,  for  it  is  a  terrible  thing  that  I  do  with  thee. 

11  Observe  thou  that  which  I  command  thee  this  day  :  behold,  I  drive  out  before  thee  the  Amorite, 

12  aud  the  Canaanite,  and  the  Hittite,  and  the  Perizzite,  and  the  Hivite,  and  the  Jebusite.  Take 
heed  to  thyself,  lest  thou  make  a  covenant  with  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  whither  thou  goest, 

13  lest  it  be  for  a  snare  in  the  midst  of  thee  :  but  ye  snail  break  down  their  altars,  and  dash  in 

14  pieces  their  pillars,  and  ye  shall  cut  down  their  Asherim  :  for  thou  shalt  worship  no  other  god  ; 

15  for  the  Lord,  whose  name  is  Jealous,  is  a  jealous  God  :  lest  thou  make  a  covenant  with  the  in¬ 
habitants  of  the  land,  and  they  go  a  whoring  after  their  gods,  and  do  sacrifice  unto  their  gods, 

16  and  one  call  thee  and  thou  eat  of  his  sacrifice  ;  and  thou  take  of  their  daughters  unto  thy 
sons,  and  their  daughters  go  a  whoring  after  their  gods,  and  make  thy  sons  go  a  whoring  after 

17  their  gods.  Thou  shalt  make  thee  no  molten  gods.  The  feast  of  unleavened  bread  shalt  thou 

18  keep.  Seven  days  thou  shalt  eat  unleavened  bread,  as  I  commanded  thee,  at  the  time  appointed 

19  in  the  month  Abib  ;  for  in  the  month  Abib  thou  earnest  out  from  Egypt.  All  that  openeth  the 

20  womb  is  mine  ;  and  all  thy  cattle  that  is  male,  the  firstlings  of  ox  and  sheep.  And  the  first¬ 
ling  of  an  ass  thou  shalt  redeem  with  a  lamb  :  and  if  thou  wilt  not  redeem  it,  then  thou  shalt 
break  its  neck.  All  the  firstborn  of  thy  sons  thou  shalt  redeem.  And  none  shall  appear  before 

21  me  empty.  Six  daj^s  thou  shalt  work,  but  on  the  seventh  day  thou  shalt  rest  :  in  plowing  time 

22  and  in  harvest  thou  shalt  rest.  And  thou  shalt  observe  the  feast  of  weeks,  even  of  the  firstfruits 

23  of  wheat  harvest,  and  the  feast  of  ingathering  at  the  year’s  end.  Three  times  in  the  year  shall 

24  all  thy  males  appear  before  the  Lord  God,  the  God  of  Israel.  For  I  will  cast  out  nations  before 
thee,  and  enlarge  thy  borders  ;  neither  shall  any  man  desire  thy  land,  when  thou  goest  up  to 

25  appear  before  the  Lord  thy  God  three  times  in  the  year.  Thou  shalt  not  offer  the  blood  of  my  ’ 
sacrifice  with  leavened  bread  ;  neither  shall  the  sacrifice  of  the  feast  of  the  passover  be  left 

26  unto  the  morning.  The  first  of  the  firstfruits  of  thy  ground  thou  shalt  bring  unto  the  house 

27  of  the  Lord  thy  God.  Thou  shalt  not  seethe  a  kid  in  its  mother’s  milk.  And  the  Lord  said 
unto  Moses,  Write  thou  these  words  ;  for  after  the  tenor  of  these  words  I  have  made  a  covenant 

28  with  thee  and  with  Israel.  And  he  was  there  with  the  Lord  forty  days  and  forty  nights  ;  he 
did  neither  eat  bread,  nor  drink  water.  And  he  wrote  upon  the  tables  the  words  of  the  cov¬ 
enant,  the  ten  commandments. 

De.  10  4  And  he  wrote  on  the  tables,  according  to  the  first  writing,  the  ten  commandments, 
which  the  Lord  spake  unto  you  in  the  mount  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire  in  the  day  of  the 
5  assembly  :  and  the  Lord  gave  them  unto  me.  And  I  turned  and  came  down  from  the  mount, 
and  put  the  tables  in  the  ark  which  I  had  made  ;  and  there  they  be,  as  the  Lord  com¬ 
manded  me. 

Ex.  34  29  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Moses  came  down  from  mount  Sinai  with  the  two  tables 
of  the  testimony  in  Moses’  hand,  when  he  came  down  from  the  mount,  that  Moses  wist  not 

30  that  the  skin  of  his  face  shone  by  reason  of  his  speaking  with  him.  And  when  Aaron  and  all 
the  children  of  Israel  saw  Moses,  behold,  the  skin  of  his  face  shone  ;  and  they  were  afraid  to 

31  come  nigh  him.  And  Moses  called  unto  them  ;  and  Aaron  and  all  the  rulers  of  the  congregation 

32  returned  unto  him  ;  and  Moses  spake  to  them.  And  aftei:ward  all  the  children  of  Israel  came 


SECOND  BOOK  OF  THE  COVi^NANT. 


269 


nigh  :  and  he  gave  them  in  commandment  all  that  the  Loan  had  spoken  with  him  in  mount 

33  Sinai.  And  when  Moses  had  done  speaking  with  them,  he  put  a  veil  on  his  face.  But  when 

34  Moses  went  in  btrfore  the  Loan  to  speak  with  him,  he  took  the  veil  ofl:,  until  he  came  out  ; 

35  and  he  came  out,  and  spake  unto  the  children  of  Israel  that  which  he  was  commanded  ;  and 
the  children  of  Israel  saw  the  face  of  Moses,  that  the  skin  of  Moses’  face  shone  :  and  Moses 
put  the  veil  upon  his  face  again,  until  he  went  in  to  speak  with  him. 


This  section  contains  :  First,  the  announce¬ 
ment  by  Jehovah  of  the  re-establishment  of  his 
covenant  with  Israel,  with  a  general  declaration 
of  his  purposed  intervention  in  their  behalf 
(verse  10).  Stcond,  an  abridged  repetition  and 
still  briefer  compendium  of  “  the  words  and 
judgments”  recited  (Ex  20  ;  22-23  :  19)  in  con 
nection  with  the  previously  ratified  covenant. 
This  is  comprised  in  verses  11-26.  Third,  the 
instruction  to  Moses  to  “  write  these  words"  also 
as  a  permanent  record  of  the  conditions  “  after 
the  tenor  of  which,”  God  says,  “  I  have  made  a 
covenant  with  thee  and  with  Israel  ”  (verse  27). 
Then  follow  the  second  forty  days  with  Je¬ 
hovah,  the  second  Divine  writing  of  “  the  Ten 
Commandments,”  and  Israel’s  fear  because  of 
the  transfiguration  of  Moses’s  face.  B. 

The  Lord  now  graciously  confirmed  once  more 
his  covenant  vdth  Israel.  In  so  doing  he  re¬ 
minded  them  of  its  two  conditions,  the  one 
negative,  the  other  positive,  but  both  strictly 
connected,  and  both  applying  to  the  time  when 
Moses  should  be  no  more,  and  Israel  had  entered 
on  possession  of  the  promised  land.  These  two 
conditions  were  always  to  be  observed,  if  the 
covenant  was  to  be  maintained.  The  one  was 
avoidance  of  all  contact  with  the  Canaanites  and 
their  idolatry  (verses  11-16)  ;  the  other,  observ 
ance  of  the  service  of  Jehovah  in  the  manner 
prescribed  by  him  (verses  17-26).  A,  E, 

10.  Bcliold,  1  make  a  covenant. 
When  the  covenant  was  broken,  it  was  Israel 
that  brake  it  ;  now  that  it  comes  to  be  renewed, 
it  is  God  that  makes  it.  If  there  be  quarrels, 
we  must  bear  all  the  blame  ;  if  there  be  peace, 

God  must  have  all  the  glory.  ,H. - 1  will 

do  wonders.  Before  reciting  the  conditions 
of  the  covenant  on  the  part  of  the  people,  God 
briefly  repeats  the  substance  of  his  own  engage 
ment  (verse  10)  as  a  motive  to  stimulate  them 
to  the  performance  of  theirs,  to  wit,  that  he 
would  drive  out  before  them  the  devoted  na¬ 
tions  and  put  them  in  triumphant  possession  of 
the  promised  land.  As  if  he  should  say,  “  You 
see  what  I  have  pledged  myself  to  do  ;  now  let 
me  see  that  you  will  not  be  wanting  in  what  I 
require  of  you.”  Bash. 

Second  Book  of  the  Covenant. 

Verses  11-26. 

As  Jehovah  now  renews  the  covenant,  he 


again  rehearses  in  still  briefer  compass  the 
summary  of  ordinances  previously  given  (Ex. 
20  :  22-23  : 19).  He  thus,  a  second  time,  out¬ 
lines  the  essential  conditions  upon  whose  fulfil¬ 
ment  by  them  depends  his  fulfilment  of  the 
promises  contained  in  the  covenant  now  re¬ 
newed.  B. 

The  book  which  Moses  was  commanded  (in 
verse  27)  to  write  as  the  basis  of  the  covenant, 
is  called  the  little  book  of  the  covenant,  to  dis¬ 
tinguish  it  from  the  book  which  Moses  wrote  as 
the  basis  of  the  original  covenant  at  Sinai  (Ex. 
24  ;  4),  which  is  called  the  greater  book  of  the 
covenant,  on  account  of  its  much  greater  ex¬ 
tent.  This  little  book  of  the  covenant  is  in¬ 
cluded  in  verses  11-26,  and  is  scarcely  larger  than 
the  tables  of  the  covenant  (Ex.  20  : 1-17),  It  is 
now  the  common  opinion  of  critics  that  w^e  have 
here  another  Decalogue.  In  the  arrangement 
of  the  commands  (verses  14-26)  we  present  the 
following  scheme  as  the  one  most  satisfactory. 
First  command,  verses  14-16.  Second,  verse 
17,  Third,  verses  18-20.  Fourth,  verse  21. 
Fifth,  verse  22.  Sixth,  verses  22-24.  Seventh 
and  Eighth,  verse  25.  Ninth  and  Tenth,  verse 
26.  These  commands  may  be  divided  into 
three  groups  :  (1)  The  two  laws  of  worship  in 
general  (verses  14-17).  (2)  The  laws  of  holy 

days  (verses  18  -24).  (3)  The  law's  of  offerings. 

It  is  therefore  a  Decalogue  of  worship  as  com¬ 
pared  with  the  Decalogue  of  the  tables,  W'hich 
is  a  Decalogue  of  holy  conduct.  They  may 
well  have  been  each  in  its  way  at  the  root  of  the 
covenant  of  Jehovah  with  Israel.  The  one  was 
written  by  Jehovah  himself  upon  two  tables  as 
the  tables  of  the  covenant,  the  other  was  writ¬ 
ten  by  Moses  in  a  writing  as  a  book  of  the 
covenant. 

The  Introduction  {verses  11-13). 

“  Keep  thou  that  which  I  am  commanding 
thee  to-day.  Behold,  I  am  about  to  drive  out 
before  thee  the  Amorite,  and  the  Canaanite,  and 
the  Hittite,  and  the  Perizzite,  and  the  Hivite,  and 
the  Jebusite.  Take  heed  to  thyself  lest  thou 
conclude  a  covenant  with  the  inhabitants  of 
the  land  upon  which  thou  art  about  to  come, 
lest  it  become  a  snare  in  thy  midst.  Nay  their 
altars  ye  shall  tear  down  and  their  Mazzehoth  ye 
shall  break  dowm  and  their  Asherim  ye  shall  cut 
in  pieces.”  This  introduction  mentions  the  six 


270 


SECTION  119.  JEHOVAH  RENEWS  THE  COVENANT. 


chief  nations  of  Canaan,  the  same  as  those 
given  in  the  larger  book  of  the  covenant 
(23  :  23),  and  also  in  the  Deuteronomic  code 
(De.  20  : 17),  but  in  each  case  they  are  in  a  dif¬ 
ferent  order.  The  altars  were  the  places  of  sac¬ 
rifice  to  other  gods.  They  were  unfit  for  the 
sacrifices  to  Jehovah.  The  Mazzehoth  (verse  13) 
were  stone  pillars  used  in  the  worship  of  Baal, 
the  Sun  god.  The  Asherim  were  evergreens, 
or  pillars  of  evergreen  wood,  used  in  the  wor¬ 
ship  of  Ashera,  the  goddess  of  life  and  fertility. 
These  were  to  be  destroyed  by  tearing  down, 
breaking  down,  cutting  in  pieces.  Briggs. 

11.  Behold,  1  drive  out  the  Caiiaan- 
ile,  etc.  When  God  drove  out  those  nations, 
he  acted  as  a  judge.  They  were  criminals, 
proved  criminals.  Their  sins  had  risen  to 
heaven  ;  they  indulged  in  the  most  abomi¬ 
nable,  the  most  depraved  and  revolting  prac¬ 
tices  ;  and  when  God  drove  them  out,  it  was 
not  simply  to  make  room  for  the  Israelites,  but 
it  was  punishing  justly  and  righteously  a  guilty 
race,  and  giving  their  empty  land  to  a  people 
not  innocent,  for  they  were  a  stiffnecked  people, 
but  a  people  that  he  had  chosen  to  make  by  his 
grace  what  they  should  be — kings  and  priests 
unto  God  and  unto  his  Christ,  There  was 
nothing  unjust  in  this  expulsion  of  these  na¬ 
tions,  in  order  to  make  room  for  the  children 
of  Israel,  The  expression  “  God  is  a  jealous 
God,”  and  the  warning  to  Moses  not  to  make 
any  covenant  with  the  Canaanites,  but  to  de¬ 
stroy  their  altars,  must  suggest  itself  the  reason 
for  it.  J.  C. 

1 3,  The  ashera  was  a  s3mibol  of  the  god¬ 
dess,  probably  in  some  one  of  her  characters, 
wrought  in  wood  in  some  conventional  form. 
If  we  suppose  it  to  have  symbolized  her  as  a 
goddess  of  nature,  its  form  may  have  resembled 
that  of  the  sacred  tree  of  the  Assyrians,  with 
which  we  have  become  familiar  from  the  monu¬ 
ments  of  Nineveh.  It  has  been  conjectured 
from  the  sculptured  figures  that  this  was  an  up 
right  stock  which  was  adorned  at  festive  sea¬ 
sons  with  boughs,  flowers,  and  ribbons.  Such 
might  have  been  the  ashera.  Clark. 

14.  For  the  Liorcl,  wlio§c  name  i§ 

Jealous,  is  a  jealous  God.  That  is, 
whose  nature  is  jealous  ;  who  can  bear  no  rival. 
The  covenant  made  with  Israel  was  virtually  a 
marriage-covenant,  and  consequently  idolatry 
was  adultery.  Every  approach  to  this  sin, 
therefore,  would  be  sure  to  provoke  him  to  jeal¬ 
ousy.  Bush. - 15,  16.  The  Scriptures  fre¬ 

quently  speak  of  idolatrous  worship  as  unclean¬ 
ness— partly  in  compliance  with  the  Jewish 
idiom,  which  calls  anything  that  is  detestable 


filthy  and  unclean  :  the  persons  of  that  people 
being  rendered  unholy  by  bodiW  pollutions — 
partly  by  reason  of  the  very  unchaste  actions 
and  rites  by  which  many  of  the  heathen  idols 
were  served  ;  but  especially,  because  it  was  an 
alienation  of  the  hearts  and  bodies  of  his  chosen 
people  from  him.  Patrick. 

17.  TEiou  slialt  make  thee  no  mol¬ 
ten  g^ods.  This  corresponds  with  the  second 
command  of  the  tables,  but  without  the  reasons 
which  are  hero  associated  with  the  previous 
command.  There  we  have  the  specification  of 
the  graven  or  carved  image  of  wood,  here  we 
have  the  molten  image  of  metal.  Neither  men¬ 
tion  the  image  of  stone.  But  in  neither  case 
are  we  to  conclude  that  other  images  were  al¬ 
lowed  than  those  specified.  It  is  in  accordance 
with  the  concrete  character  of  these  early  laws, 
that  the}'^  mention  a  specimen  of  a  class  and  do 
not  generalize,  Briggs. 

16.  All  tSiat  openetli  ttic  womb  is 
mine.  They  should  redeem  their  children  as 
well  as  the  unclean  animals  at  a  price  ;  but  they 
should  bring  into  the  tabernacle  whatsoever 
could  be  offered  in  sacrifice.  20.  God  would 
not  have  their  own  sons  consecrated  to  him, 
because  he  had  chosen  the  tribe  of  Levi  ;  they 
were  therefore  to  remain  free  after  a  pecuniary 
compensation.  In  the  same  way,  unclean  ani- 
mals  might  be  applied  to  domestic  purposes 
after  God’s  price  had  been  paid,  since  to  him 
they  belonged,  and  he  claimed  them  for  himself. 
But  if  any  should  not  put  so  high  a  value  on  an 
ass  or  other  unclean  animal,  the  Law  com¬ 
manded  that  its  neck  should  be  broken  :  for  it 
would  have  been  sacrilege  to  reap  profit  from 
God’s  property  or  to  transfer  to  their  private 
use  what  God  had  adjudged  to  himself.  Calv. 

21.  This  command  gives  an  additional  feat¬ 
ure  in  the  last  sentence  “  In  ploughing  and  reap¬ 
ing''— thoi  is,  in  the  busiest  seasons  of  the  year 
when  the  temptation  to  work  would  be  strong¬ 
est,  they  were  j^et  to  observe  the  Sabbath. 

Briggs. - No  necessity  must  interrupt  this 

sacred  observance.  Else  it  might  have  seemed 
a  just  pretext,  if,  on  account  of  continued  rains 
or  other  ungenial  weather,  ploughing  should  be 
difficult,  husbandmen  were  to  be  released  from 
the  obligation  of  the  Law.  God  allows  of  no 
dispensation  :  the  Sabbath  is  to  be  observed 
though  at  the  risk  of  loss.  Calv. 

23,  24.  God  wonderfully  preserved  that 
people  when  all  the  males  went  up  three  times 
in  the  year  to  the  place  where  God’s  ark  was. 
The  people  of  Israel  were  generally  surrounded 
with  enemies  that  sought  all  opportunities  to 
destroy  them  and  dispossess  them  of  their 


PROMISES  AND  CONDITIONS  REPEATED. 


271 


land  ;  and  till  David’s  time  there  were  great 
numbers  in  the  land  of  the  Canaanites  and 
other  former  inhabitants  that  were  bitter  ene¬ 
mies  to  the  people  of  Israel  :  and  these  had 
from  year  to  year,  three  times  in  the  year,  a  fair 
opportunity  of  overrunning  their  country  and 
getting  possession  of  their  cities  when  all  the 
males  were  gone,  and  only  the  women  and  those 
who  were  not  able  to  go  up  were  left  behind. 
And  yet  they  were  remarkably  preserved 
throughout  all  generations  at  such  seasons, 
agreeable  to  the  promise  that  God  here  made. 

Elwards. - Thrice  every  year  did  God  work  an 

especial  miracle  for  the  protection  of  his  peo¬ 
ple  ;  controlling  even  the  very  desires  of  their 
enemies,  that  they  might  not  so  much  as  medi¬ 
tate  evil  against  them.  They  who  have  God  for 
their  protector  have  a  sure  refuge  ;  and  how 
tnte  is  the  proverb,  The  path  of  duty  is  the  way 
of  safety.  While  these  people  went  up  to  Je¬ 
rusalem  to  keep  the  Lord’s  ordinances,  he  kept 
their  families  in  peace  and  their  land  in  safety. 

A.  C. - We  read  in  the  after  history  of  no 

instance  where  the  enemies  of  the  Israelites 
made  use  of  these  feasts  as  a  time  for  assailing 
them.  It  was  only  when  the  people  was  des¬ 
tined  by  the  Lord  to  destruction,  when  the  Ro¬ 
mans  had  got  possession  of  a  large  portion  of 
their  country,  that  the  occurrence  of  the  feast 
of  the  Passover  served  to  heighten  the  famine 
of  the  besieged  in  Jerusalem.  Gerl. 

•J6.  “  Thou  shalt  not  seethe  a  kid  (which  is 
still)  with  its  mother’s  milk.”  This  last  com¬ 
mand  is  most  difficult  of  all.  The  older  Prot¬ 
estant  interpreters,  Luther,  Calvin,  Piscator, 
et  al.,  thought  of  a  limitation  of  the  age  of  an 
animal  for  purpose  of  sacrifice.  This  is  most 
suited  to  the  context,  for  we  have  had  three 
laws  of  offerings  prior  to  it.  We  follow  this  in¬ 
terpretation  and  class  this  law  with  the  three 
preceding  as  laws  of  offerings.  Briggs. 

27,  Write  tliou  tDie§c  Avords.  Moses 
was  commanded  to  write  the  summary  of  judicial 
and  ceremonial  precepts  comprised  in  the  pre¬ 
ceding  fourteen  verses,  which  were  an  append¬ 
age  to  the  moral  Law  and  the  conditions  of  the 
national  covenant  on  the  part  of  the  nation. 
Moses  had  before  written  in  a  book  the  pre¬ 
cepts  contained  in  ch.  21-23.  As  by  their  re¬ 
cent  transgressions  they  had  broken  both  the 
Law  on  the  tables  of  stone  and  the  Law  in  the 
book,  Jehovah  may  have  commanded  this  re¬ 
writing  of  the  substance  of  the  previous  cove¬ 
nant,  together  with  his  own  writing  on  the 
stones,  to  betoken  to  the  people  that  the  former 
covenant  was  now  fully  restored.  S.  R. 

After  the  tenor  of  these  Avords  I 


haA^e  made  a  covenant  Avilh  tlice 

and  AVitll  Israel,  This  is  a  covenant  trans¬ 
action,  and  this  law,  so-called,  constitutes  sim¬ 
ply  the  stipulations  of  that  covenant.  So  it  is  ex¬ 
pressly  declared  of  it,  “  The  Lord  our  God  made 
a  covenant  with  us  at  Horeb.”  It  was  ratified 
formally  as  a  covenant,  when  first  received,  the 
people  being  called  upon  solemnly  to  swear  to 
it,  after  it  had  been  written  down  in  a  book. 
To  give  it  still  more  solemn  and  venerable  form 
the  fundamental  truths  of  it  were  engrossed 
upon  stone  by  the  hand  of  Jehovah  himself. 
When,  after  this,  the  people  violated  all  its  sol¬ 
emn  stipulations,  by  the  idolatry  of  the  golden 
calf.  Moses  understood  the  covenant  to  be  an¬ 
nulled,  and  therefore  destroyed  the  Divine  auto¬ 
graph  of  it.  When  they  were  pardoned  and 
their  relations  to  Jehovah  were  restored,  it  was 
again  divinely  written  and  deposited  in  the 
chest  or  ark,  upon  the  cover  of  which  the 
throne  of  Jehovah’s  visible  presence  was  placed, 
hence  called  the  ark  of  the  covenant  ;  and  thus 
it  was  preserved  to  after  generations  as  the  per¬ 
petual  reminder  that  they  were  in  covenant 
with  Jehovah. 

It  was  a  covenant  with  this  body  of  people  as 
a  church,  the  body  organized  by  the  covenant 
with  Abraham,  and  its  redemption  guaranteed 
in  the  passover  covenant.  In  speaking  of  the 
body  as  the  Church  we  are  but  repeating  the 
words  of  the  martj’r  Stephen  in  Acts  7  : 38, 
“  This  is  he  that  was  in  the  Church  in  the  wil¬ 
derness,  with  the  angel  that  spake  to  him  in 
Mount  Sinai  with  our  fathers  who  received  the 
lively  oracles  to  give  unto  us.”  And  that  this 
is  no  mere  figure  of  speech  is  plain  enough  from 
the  reference  of  this  covenant  back  to  the  cove¬ 
nants  with  Abraham  and  the  passover  covenant, 
as  fulfilled  and  further  carried  out  by  this  cove¬ 
nant.  It  was  a  covenant  with  this  church  as  a 
representative  body,  standing  for  the  Church  of 
all  succeeding  ages.  Moses,  forty  years  after, 
when  this  generation  that  stood  before  Sinai  had 
all  perished,  expressly  says  to  the  next  genera¬ 
tion,  ”  The  Lord  made  this  covenant  not  with 
our  fathers  but  with  us,  even  us  who  are  all 
here  alive  this  day.”  By  i^arity  of  reasoning 
the  Church  that  stood  at  Sinai,  thus  represent¬ 
ing  one,  represented  all  succeeding  genera¬ 
tions.  And  accordingly  thenceforth  in  the  suc¬ 
ceeding  ages,  including  that  of  the  apostles,  the 
inspired  teachers  regarded  the  Church  as  still 
under  this  covenant.  And  you  will  observe 
how,  under  the  New  Testament  dispensation, 
Stephen  expressly  says,  “  Our  fathers  received 
the  lively  oracles  to  give  unto  us.”  That  is, 
they  stood  there  as  representing  us.  It  was  a 


272 


SECTION  119,  JEHOVAH  RENEWS  THE  COVENANT. 


covenant  wholly  spiritual  in  its  signihcancy. 
Moses,  just  ns  Jesus  afterward,  sums  up  its  pro¬ 
visions  in  the  generalization,  “  Love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  mind,  soul,  and  strength.” 
And  the  apostle  expressly  argues  that,  so  far 
from  disannulling  the  previous  covenant  of 
spiritual  blessings  with  Abraham,  as  the  repre¬ 
sentative  father  of  all  who  believe  and  who  thus 
constitute  the  true  circumcision,  it  is  intended 
to  include  that  covenant,  and  both  confirm  and 
develop  more  fully  its  provisions  of  spiritual 
blessing. 

As  to  the  end  and  purpose  of  this  Sinai  Law 
covenant,  the  Apostle  Paul  not  only  leaves  no 
room  for  uncertainty  or  further  need  of  exposi¬ 
tion  after  his  clear  and  elaborate  exposition  in 
the  epistles  to  the  Komans,  the  Galatians,  and 
the  Hebrews,  but  expressly  answers  the  ques¬ 
tion,  “  Wherefore  then  serveth  the  Law  ?’  ’  in 
these  explicit  terms — “  It  was  added  because  of 
transgression  until  the  seed  (promised  in  the 
Eden  and  Abrahamic  covenants)  should  come. 
Wherefore  the  Law  was  our  school-master  to 
bring  us  to  Christ  — that  we  might  be  justified 
by  faith.  ’  The  substance  of  the  whole  matter, 
therefore,  is  this  :  that  as  the  covenant  with 
Adam,  for  the  blessing  of  a  Divine-human  Ee- 
deemer  to  restore  a  part  of  the  race  through 
vicarious  atonement,  was  more  distinctly  devel¬ 
oped  in  the  covenant  with  Noah,  establishing 
the  blessing  in  the  line  of  Shem  ;  and  both 
these,  again,  more  fully  developed  in  the  cove¬ 
nant  with  Abraham  establishing  the  blessing  in 
the  line  of  Isaac,  and  organizing  the  redeemed 
body  as  a  church  settled  in  a  promised  inheri¬ 
tance  ;  and  all  three  of  these,  again,  more  fully 
developed  in  the  passover  covenant,  bringing 
out  more  distinctly  the  engagement  to  redeem 
this  Church  by  faith  in  atoning  blood  ;  so  now 
this  Sinai  covenant  is  a  still  further  develop¬ 
ment,  in  detail,  of  all  the  preceding  covenants, 
intended  to  teach  and  produce  a  conscious  con¬ 
viction  of  the  need  of  a  vicarious  atonement  ; 
the  method  of  applying  its  benefits  by  faith  for 
the  pardon  of  sin  and  purification  of  the  na¬ 
ture  ;  and  the  relation  of  the  believers  to  their 
Eedeemer,  as  king  and  head  of  an  organized 
commonwealth.  S.  E. 

!:2§,  Asad  lie  was  t3ierc  with  the 
JLord  flirty  days.  The  number  of  forty 
days  is  repeated  that  the  second  tables  might 
have  no  less  credit  than  the  first.  If  he  had 
only  been  kept  a  few  daj^s  in  the  mount,  his  au¬ 
thority  would  not  have  been  ratified  by  so  con¬ 
spicuous  a  miracle  ;  but  the  forty  days  obtained 
fall  cierlit  for  his  mission,  so  that  the  people 
mig'.it  know  that  he  was  sent  hy  God.  And  that 


the  majesty  of  the  Law  might  be  indubitable, 
its  minister  was  invested  with  angelic  glory  •, 
and  hence  he  expressly  records  that  ‘‘  he  did 
neither  eat  bread,  nor  drink  water,”  since  it 
was  requisite  that  he  should  be  distinguished 
from  other  mortals.  This  instance  of  abstinence 
was  never  alleged  as  an  example  by  the  proph¬ 
ets,  nor  did  any  one  attempt  to  imitate  it  except 
Elijah,  who  being  sent  to  reyive  the  Law  when 
it  was  almost  lost,  like  a  second  Moses,  ab¬ 
stained  also  from  eating  and  drinking  for  forty 

days.  Calv. - In  De.  9  : 18  this  second  sojourn 

is  thus  alluded  to:  “And  I  fell  down  before 
the  Lord,  as  at  the  first,  forty  days  and  forty 
nights  :  I  did  neither  eat  bread,  nor  drink 
water,  because  of  all  your  sins  which  ye  sinned, 
in  doing  wickedly  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  to 
provoke  him  to  anger.”  If  we  inquire  into  the 
design  of  this  second  forty  days’  withdrawment 
and  seclusion,  the  passage  now  cited  seems  to 
disclose  one  at  least  of  the  grand  ends  which 
were  to  be  answered  by  it —viz.,  to  convey  to 
the  people  a  deeper  impression  of  their  recent 

iniquity.  Bush. - 1  see  Moses  the  receiver  of 

the  Law,  Elias  the  restorer  of  the  Law,  Christ 
the  fulfiller  of  the  old  Law  and  author  of  the 
new,  all  fasting  forty  days  ;  and  these  three 
great  tasters  I  find  together  glorious  in  the  holy 
mount.  Bp.  H. 

£x.  31  :  2$.  And  lie  wrote  upon  the 
tahle§  the  wordi  of  the  covenant, 
the  Ten  Cominandinenli.  That  the 
l^ronoun  he  refers  to  the  Lord,  and  not  to 
Moses,  is  sufficiently  proved  by  De.  10  : 1-3.  At 
'hat  time  the  Lord  said  unto  me,  Hew  thee  two  tables 
of  stone  like  unto  the  first— and  I  will  write  on  the 
tables  the  words  that  were  in  the  first  tables— and 
I  hewed  two  tables  of  stone,  as  at  the  first— And  HE 
wrote  on  the  tables  according  to  the  first  writing. 
This  proves  that  God  wrote  the  second  as  well 
as  the  first  tables.  A.  C. 

The  Ten  Commandments  were  twice  wrVten  by 
.the  finger  of  the  Lord  himself,  and  upon  enduring 
tables  of  stone,  to  show  how  deeply  and  per¬ 
manently  they  were  to  be  engraved  upon  the 
heart  of  man.  Twice  written,  once  upon  a 
broken  and  once  upon  in  unbroken  tablet,  sym¬ 
bolically  setting  forth  the  truth  that  they  were 
once  written  upon  the  nature  before  the  fall, 
and  are  to  be  inscribed  a  second  time  upon  that 
nature,  which  inscription  is  made  at  his  regen¬ 
eration,  Also,  as  they  were  once  written  upon 
stone,  they  were  to  be  engraved  a  second  time 
upon  the  heart,  as  the  Prophet  Jeremiah  pre¬ 
dicted  would  be,  and  as  the  apostle  asserted  had 
been  done  (Fleb.  8  : 10).  Then  by  special  com¬ 
mand  they  were  afterward  deposited  for  safe  keep- 


TUE  SEINING  FACE  OF  MOSES. 


273 


ing  in  ike  ark  of  the  covenant,  upon  which  rested 
the  Shekiiiah  of  the  Lord,  the  most  inviolably 
sacred  j)lace  outside  the  courts  of  heaven,  and 
by  special  designation  were  ever  afterward 
known  as  the  “  Tables  of  the  Testimony.” 
S^acy.  • 

Dc.  10  :  5.  These  two  tables,  thus  en¬ 
graven,  were  faithfully  laid  up  in  the  ark.  And 
there  they  he,  said  Moses,  pointing,  it  is  prob¬ 
able,  toward  the  sanctuary  (verse  5).  That  good 
thing  which  was  committed  to  him  he  trans¬ 
mitted  to  them,  and  left  it  pure  and  entire  in 
their  hands  ;  now  let  them  look  to  it  at  their 
peril.  Thus  we  may  say  to  the  living  genera¬ 
tion,  “  God  has  intrusted  us  with  Bibles,  Sab¬ 
baths,  sacraments,  as  tokens  of  his  presence 

and  favor,  and  there  they  be.  ’  H. - There 

they  he,  as  the  Lord  commanded  me.  Here  is 
another  minute  but  important  circumstance, 
the  public  mention  of  which  at  the  time  attests 
the  veracity  of  the  sacred  historian.  Jamieson. 

The  Law,  if  written  on  stone,  was  written  by 
a  hand  of  love,  if  set  forth  in  letters  that  seem 
to  burn  in  the  intensity  of  their  purity,  yet  do 
those  very  letters  light  us  into  inner  meanings, 
into  the  very  hidden  sanctuary  of  God.  The 
Christian  position  is  that  the  whole  scheme  of 
righteousness  is  revealed  :  whatever  is  right, 
true,  pure,  good,  lovely,  honest,  and  of  heavenly 
savor  has  been  given  by  God.  One  who  knows 
the  universe  because  he  made  it,  and  all  eter¬ 
nity  because  he  inhabits  it,  has  condescended  to 
tell  us  what  is  good,  what  is  true,  what  is  pure, 
what  is  right.  Let  us  ask  that  we  may  have  eyes 
to  see  the  innermost  meaning  of  the  Law,  and 
hearts  trained,  disciplined,  and  sanctified  to  ac¬ 
cept  and  obey  it,  and  express  it  in  noble  be¬ 
havior.  J.  P. 

The  Shining  Face  of  Moses  {Ex,.  34  :  29-35). 

29.  IIi§  face  sBione.  This  was  an  honor 
never  vouchsafed  to  mortal  before  ;  nor  after¬ 
ward  till  Chri.st,  the  Prophet  like  Moses,  in  his 
transfiguration  also  :  when  Moses  again  beheld 
the  glory  of  the  Lord,  ministering  thereto  in  a 
glorified  form  himself.  Hales. - A  double  sig¬ 

nification  was  conveyed  by  this  :  In  the  first 
place,  it  was  signified  that  the  Law  proceeded 
from  a  higher  world  of  light  (of  knowledge  and 
of  holiness),  since  its  very  gleams  were  to  be 
seen  outwardly  on  the  minister  of  the  Law  ;  in 
the  next  place,  since  the  people  could  not  bear 
the  shining  of  light,  it  represented  how  fearful, 
condemnatory,  and  fatal  the  Law  was  for  a  sin¬ 
ful  people.  For  this  cause  Moses  was  obliged 
to  put  a  veil  over  the  lustre  of  light  (a  type  of 
the  veil  which  in  the  Old  Testament  lies  over 
18 


the  full  revelation  of  the  Divine  truths  of  salva¬ 
tion),  until  the  light  again  gradually  vanished 
(2  Cor.  3).  Gerl. 

From  this  circumstance,  almost  all  the  nations 
of  the  world  who  have  heard  of  this  transaction 
have  agreed  in  representing  those  men  to  whom 
they  attributed  extraordinary  sanctity,  and  whom 
they  supposed  to  have  had  familiar  intercourse 
with  the  Deity,  with  a  lucid  nimhus  or  glory  round 
their  heads.  This  has  prevailed  both  in  the 
East  and  in  the  West.  A.  C. 

Wist  not.  They  who  have  grown  most  in 
grace,  have  gained  most  richly  of  the  glory  and 
the  goodness  of  God  by  contact  and  communion 
with  him,  will  themselves  least  be  exalted  by 
the  knowledge  of  what  they  have.  And  there¬ 
fore  it  is  beautifully  said  that  Moses  wist  not. 

J.  C. - Nor  is  it  ever  found  that  those  who 

bear  much  of  the  Divine  image  are  conscious  of 
the  moral  glory  which  has  passed  upon  them. 
Their  minds  are  so  fixed  upon  their  own  de¬ 
fects  ;  they  are  so  deeply  convinced  of  the  cor¬ 
ruption  of  their  nature  ;  they  are  so  profoundly 
penetrated  with  the  sense  of  their  ill-desert, 
that  instead  of  realizing  the  possession  of  dis¬ 
tinguished  graces,  they  still  count  themselves  as 
“  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints.”  Bush. 

The  face  of  Moses  shone  when  he  came  down 
from  the  mount  ;  the  reflected  rays  of  the  Di¬ 
vine  Majesty  lingered  on  it  ;  the  people  saw 
that  he  had  been  with  God.  It  is  ever  thus. 
No  man  leaves  the  presence  of  Christ  without 
carrying  with  him  that  which  will  distinguish 
him  from  other  men  ;  a  mind  less  preyed  on  by 
worldl}^  cares  ;  affections  elevated  above  worldly 
vanities  ;  a  holy  abhorrence  of  all  that  is  pol¬ 
luting  and  base  ;  a  soaring  of  the  thoughts  and 
desires  to  heaven  ;  an  humble  professing  and 
sustaining  of  this  character— a  pilgrim  and  a 
stranger  on  the  earth,  a  native  of  heaven  in  a 
foreign  land.  The  world  around  him  will  “  take 
knowledge  of  him  that  he  has  been  with  Jesus 
for  “  the  Spirit  of  glory  and  of  God  resteth  upon 

him.”  Bradley. - Moses  was  full  of  the  Holy 

Ghost.  The  lustre  without  was  but  the  index 
of  the  light  within.  He  had  gone  in  unto  God 
to  plead  for  others,  and  he  was  rewarded  openly, 
by  bringing  down  from  the  mount  a  radiance 
that  told  with  whom  he  had  been  !  If  our  faces 
were  oftener  directed  toward  God  in  interces¬ 
sory  prayer,  they  would  certainly  beam  with 
new  light,  and  men  would  take  knowledge  of  us 
that  we  had  been  with  Jesus.  The  Apostle  Paul 
understood  the  blessedness  of  intercessory 
prayer.  He  himself  rose  to  a  glorious  height  in 
this  sublime  act,  and  yet  he  declares  his  own 
dependence  on  and  appreciation  of  the  prayers 


274 


SECTION  119.  THE  VEIL  UPON  THE  FACE  OF  MOSES. 


of  the  saints.  Nor  do  we  at  all  understand  thp 
priesthood  of  helirvers,  till  we  regard  this  as  one 
of  its  special  privileges,  functions,  and  duties. 
Let  those  who  “  profess  and  call  themselves 
Christians”  rise  to  this  high  and  holy  service. 
C.  C. 

The  Christian  favored  with  near  approaches 
to  God  in  prayer,  as  he  comes  down  from  the 
mount  will  show  the  brightness  that  his  soul 
has  borrowed  from  the  light  of  God’s  counte¬ 
nance  shining  upon  him.  His  verj^  counte¬ 
nance  will  show  the  effects  of  his  communion 
in  the  serenity  of  his  look,  the  benignity  of 
his  eye,  in  the  gentleness  of  his  speech,  and 
the  grace  of  his  dejDortment.  S.  E. - Con¬ 

sciously  and  unconsciously,  by  direct  efforts 
and  by  insensible  influences  on  our  lives,  the 
true  secret  of  our  being  ought  to  come,  and  will 
come  forth  to  light.  The  convictions  which  wm 
hold,  the  emotions  that  are  dominant  in  our 
hearts,  will  mould  and  shape  our  being.  If  we 
have  any  deep  living  percei)tion  of  Christ,  by¬ 
standers,  looking  into  our  faces,  will  be  able  to 
tell  what  it  is  that  up  yonder  is  making  them 
like  the  faces  of  the  ancrels—  even  the  vision  of 

v_ 

the  oj)ened  heavens  and  of  the  exalted  Lord. 
And  we  may  be  (Juite  sure  that  if  little  light 
comes  from  a  Christian  character,  little  light 
comes  into  it  ;  and  if  it  be  swathed  in  thick 
veils  from  men,  there  wall  be  no  less  thick  veils 
between  it  and  God.  A.  M. 

30.  Aaron  and  all!  tlic  children  of 
I§racl  were  afraid  to  come  nigh 
him.  The  awe- struck  multitude  had  here  a 
conspicuous  sign  before  their  eyes  that  Moses 
w^as  the  veritable  servant  of  the  Most  High  God, 
the  prime-minister  of  the  Old  Covenant.  M. 

- They  that  did  but  stand  still  to  see  anger 

in  his  face,  ran  away  to  see  glory  in  it  ;  before, 
they  had  desired  that  God  wmuld  not  speak  to 
them  any  more  but  by  Moses  ;  and  now'  that 
God  doth  but  look  upon  them  in  Moses,  they 
are  afraid.  Yea,  Aaron  himself,  that  before 
went  up  into  the  mount  to  see  and  speak  with 
God,  now  is  afraid  to  see  him  that  had  seen 
God  :  such  a  fear  there  is  in  guiltiness,  such 
confidence  in  innocency.  Bp.  II. 

33.  When  Mo§e§  had  done  §peak- 
ing  with  them,  he  put  a  veil  on  his 
face.  Verses  34  and  35  describe  syntactically 
a  general  practice  in  harmony  with  the  special 
case  described  in  verse  33,  thus  :  “  On  Moses’s 
entering  in  before  Jehovah  to  speak  with  him, 
he  removes  the  veil  (and  keeps  it  off)  until  his 
going  forth  ;  and  he  goes  forth  and  speaks  to 
the  children  of  Israel  whatsoever  is  com¬ 
manded  ;  and  the  children  of  Israel  see  the  face 


I  of  Moses,  that  the  skin  of  Moses’s  face  is  shin- 
j  ing  ;  and  Moses  returns  the  veil  over  his  face 
I  until  his  entering  in  to  speak  wdth  God.”  Thus 
the  order  of  occurrences  is  each  time  as  lol- 

I  t 

1  low's  :  (1)  Moses  enters  the  presence  of  God  ; 
I  (2)  Moses  removes  the  veil  ;  (3)  Moses  goes  forth 
j  and  reports  ;  (4)  At  the  conclusion  of  the  re- 
I  i^ort,  he  returns  the  veil  to  his  face  ;  (5)  He  re- 
mov^es  it  again  enlywhen  he  enters  Jehovah’s 
presence  again.  At  first  the  people  were  afraid, 
j  But  Moses  succeeded  in  reassuring  them,  so  that 
;  thereafter  they  looked  fearlessly  upon  his  shin- 
!  ing  face  (verse  35).  The  veil  was  drawn  over 
his  face  after  his  report  of  the  messages  of  the 
Lord,  in  order  that  the  people  might  not  see  the 
vanishing  away  of  that  glory  (see  2  Cor.  3  : 13). 
Paul  uses  that  circumstance  to  show  how'  Israel 
missed  the  transition  from  the  Old  Covenant 
into  the  New.  The  fact  that  the  Old  had  van¬ 
ished  was  concealed  from  them  by  that  veil. 
S.  S.  T. 

35.  Paul,  in  the  New  Testament,  makes  large 
use  of  this  narrative  of  the  glory  that  shone  on 
Moses’s  face  as  he  came  downw'ith  the  renewed 
covenant.  Thus  he  employs  it  as  in  a  typical 
sense  an  emblem  of  the  relative  glories  of  the 
old  legal  and  the  new  evangelical  dispensation 
(2  Cor,  3  : 16,  18),  Even  as  a  rhetorical  figure, 
how  beautiful  is  this  application  of  the  narra¬ 
tive  of  Moses  to  the  purpose  of  setting  before 
Jewish  Christians  the  relation  of  the  new"  to  the 
old  dispensation.  Moses,  w'ith  his  veil,  stands 
as  a  symbol  of  his  own  dispensation,  w'hich 
w’as,  in  fact,  the  Gospel  under  a  veil.  And  the 
symbol  is  represented  as  having  a  threefold  sig- 
nificancy,  wLen  contemplated  in  its  different 
IDarts.  First,  the  symbol  points  out  the  intrin¬ 
sic  excellence  and  glory  of  the  old  dispensation, 
even  though  far  less  glorious  than  the  new. 
But  as  the  glory  of  Moses’s  face  was  absorbed 
and  lost  when  he  entered  “  the  tent  of  meet¬ 
ing”  to  commune  with  God,  so  the  brightness 
of  the  old  dispensation  of  Moses  is  eclipsed  in 
the  transcendent  brightness  of  the  Gospel. 
Again,  the  narration  of  the  veiled  Moses,  in  the 
apostle’s  view,  symbolizes  the  comparative  ob¬ 
scurity  of  the  old  exhibition  of  the  w"ay  of  sal¬ 
vation.  The  veil  represents  the  indistinct  view 
w"hich  the  Israelites  had  through  the  ritual 
teachings  of  the  Law  ;  the  brightness  of  the 
Gospel  light  was  covered  up  by  rites  that  their 
minds  did  not  penetrate.  Nor  W'ill  many  of 
them  now  lift  the  veil,  as  the  new  dispensation 
invites  them  to  do.  Hence,  again,  this  veil 
typified  the  blindness  and  ignorance  under 
which  the  Jewish  mind  labored,  even  in  the 
time  of  the  apostle.  They  had  so  long  looked 


SIGNIFICANCE  OF  THE  VEIL. 


275 


at  Moses  veiled  that  they  now  seemed  to  think 
the  very  veil  an  essential  part  of  the  system  of 
salvation.  S.  R. 

Age  after  age  the  inveterate  prejudice  of  the 
Jewish  heart  has  prevented  them  from  discern¬ 
ing  the  true  sense  of  their  own  law,  of  its  fig¬ 
ures,  types,  and  institutions,  just  as  effectually 
as  the  veil  on  the  face  of  Moses  prevented  them 
from  beholding  the  beauty  of  his  countenance. 
They  read  the  books  of  their  lawgiver,  but  in 
the  sacrifices  and  services  there  prescribed  they 
see  no  intimation  of  that  Lamb  of  richer  blood 
and  that  Priest  of  higher  name,  whom  loe  are 
taught  to  recognize  as  foreshadowed  by  them. 
They  read  the  predictions  of  the  prophets,  but 
they  do  not  see  them  pointing  to  the  Saviour 
Christ,  the  true  Messiah,  in  rvhom  all  their 
oracles  are  fulfilled.  The  thick  veil  of  error 
and  unbelief  is  upon  their  minds,  and  until  that 
is  taken  away,  as  we  learn  it  eventually  shall 
be,  the  light  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the  Gospel 
of  his  Son  will  not  shine  into  them.  Bush. 

The  apostle  says  in  his  just  and  beautiful 
commentary  upon  the  whole  of  this  incident, 
that  the  Jews  still  see  Christ  through  a  veil — 
that  is,  the  whole  Old  Testament  dispensation 
of  the  Gospel  is  seen  by  the  Jews  dimly,  darkly, 
and  obscurely,  as  through  a  veil.  Every  doc¬ 
trine  is  seen  through  a  type  ;  every  sacrifice  is 
revealed  under  a  symbol,  as  a  mirror  of  the 
sanctuar}'’  ;  every  hope  is  embosomed  in  a 
promise  ;  every  restoration  nestles  in  the  midst 
of  a  prophecy.  The  Jew— the  spiritual  Jew, 
for  he  is  not  a  Jew  who  is  one  outwardly— sees 
the  veil,  catches  some  stray  beams  of  the  inner 
glor}’’  that  are  stricken  through,  but  he  cannot 
behold  in  all  his  naked  splendor  Him  who  is  the 
end  and  the  substance  of  all — Jesus  Christ,  the 
brightness  of  the  Father’s  glory  and  the  ex¬ 
press  image  of  his  person.  The  Jew,  in  the 
synagogue,  sees  the  high  priest  still  stand  in 
the  holy  of  holies  and  gaze  upon  the  glory  be¬ 
tween  the  cherubim,  and  bear  upon  his  breast¬ 
plate,  engraved  on  sparkling  gems,  the  names 
of  the  tribes  of  Jacob  ;  but  he  cannot  see  the 
True  High-Priest  who  has  entered  into  the  true 
holy  place,  and  amid  the  glory  of  the  inner 
sanctuary  is  making  intercession  for  his  peo¬ 
ple.  The  Jew  can  see  the  passover  lamb  ;  he 
can  read  its  history  ;  he  can  regret  that  he  is 
not  restored  to  the  only  place  where  he  can 
offer  it — Jerusalem  and  its  temple  ;  but  he  can¬ 
not  sec  through  the  veil  the  true  and  the  only 
Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the 
world.  They  have  not  the  light  of  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness  shining  on  them.  And  when 
one  evening  I  went  into  their  synagogue,  and 


worshipped  with  them — for  they  sang  some 
precious  Psalms,  and  there  was  something 
beautiful  in  joining  with  a  child  of  Israel  iu 
those  Divine  hymns  which,  alas  !  to  his  ear  are 
only  prophecies  -it  was  melancholy  to  see  in¬ 
scribed  over  the  porch  of  that  synagogue  a 
prayer,  that  God  would  send  the  Messiah  to 
Israel,  J.  C. 

While  the  apostle’s  words  throw  light  on  the 
rejection  of  Jesus  by  the  Jews,  they  also  remind 
us  that  the  time  is  coming  when  Israel  shall 
turn  unto  the  Lord,  and  the  veil  shall  be  taken 
awa}".  One  cannot  study  this  old  Hebrew  liter¬ 
ature  and  discover  how  much  the  world  has 
learned  from  it.  without  having  his  heart  drawn 
toward  the  Jewish  race.  That  religion  which 
is  at  the  root  of  our  prosperity  as  a  people, 
which  is  the  source  of  our  individual  happiness 
in  time,  and  the  inspiration  of  our  hope  for 
eternity,  is  the  outcome  and  development  of 
theirs.  The  Lord  we  love  and  trust  and  wor¬ 
ship  was  “  made  of  the  seed  of  Abraham  and 
it  is  unutterably  sad  to  think  that  as  a  race  the 
Jews  have  turned  against  him  to  whom  all  their 
prophets  gave  witness,  and  in  wdiom  all  the 
shadows  of  their  Law  had  their  true  substance. 
Truly,  to  this  day,  when  Moses  is  read  among 
them,  the  veil  is  upon  their  heart.  But  it  shall 
not  always  be  thus  ;  for  when  the  fulness  of  the 
Gentiles  is  come  in,  then  the  Jews  shall  return 
to  their  allegiance  ;  and  their  conversion  will 
be  as  a  new  Pentecost  to  the  Christian  Church. 
W.  M.  T. 

And  let  us  remember  that  this  veil  of  dark¬ 
ness  and  unbelief  is  not  confined  to  the  apos¬ 
tolic  age  or  to  the  Jewish  people.  With  many 
— in  our  time — the  veil  over  the  dispensation  of 
Moses  seems  to  have  become  the  natural  coun¬ 
tenance  of  Moses  ;  they  see  not  nor  conceive  of 
the  Gospel  glory  that  is  hid  behind  the  veil. 
To  them  Moses  is  no  longer  a  part  of  the  Gos¬ 
pel,  Others,  again,  under  the  prevailing  power 
of  a  worldly  spirit,  find  not  only  the  glorj^  of 
Moses’s  face  hid  by  the  veil,  but  the  veil  unlifted 
even  in  the  Gospel.  The  Gospel  is  hid  to 
them  ;  and  the  reason  is,  saith  the  apostle, 
“  The  God  of  this  world  hath  blinded  their 
minds  lest  the  light  of  the  glorious  Gospel  of 
Christ  should  shine  into  them.”  The  effect  of 
a  worldly  spirit  is  ever  thus  to  Judafee  the 
minds  of  men.  Thus  we  may  see  from  the 
apostle’s  reasoning  how  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New  mutually  explain  each  other.  What  is 
dark  in  one  is  made  luminous  by  the  other.  It 
is  the  same  dispensation  of  grace  in  both — only 
the  people  in  the  old  dispensation  could  not  yet 
gaze  upon  the  full  glory  of  the  plan.  A  veil 


276 


SECTION  120.  THE  CEREMONIAL  LAW. 


had  to  be  hung  over  it.  The  Gospel  of  Jesns 
lifts  the  veil  and  shows  the  glory  that  all  the 
while  belonged  intrinsicallj"  to  the  Gospel  ac¬ 
cording  to  Moses.  Hence,  no  sentiment  can  be 
more  injurious  to  Gospel  truth  than  that  the  Old 
Testament  is  superseded  by  the  New,  and  that 
it  is  not  the  Gospel,  nor  any  important  part  of 

the  rule  of  faith  for  a  Christian  life.  S.  R. - 

The  Old  and  the  New  Testament  form  one  con¬ 
tinuous  system  of  revelation,  the  latter  being 
merely  the  development  of  the  interior  sense, 
and  the  substantiation  of  the  typical  shadows, 
of  the  former.  Bush. 

If  the  flesh  of  Moses  so  shined  by  conversing 
with  God  forty  days  in  Sinai,  what  shall  our 
glory  be,  when,  clothed  with  incorruptible 
bodies,  we  shall  converse  with  him  forever  in 
the  highest  heaven  !  Now  his  face  only  shone  ; 
afterward  the  three  disciples  saw  all  his  body 
shining.  The  nature  of  a  glorified  body,  the 
clearer  vision,  the  immediate  presence  of  that 
fountain  of  glory,  challenge  a  far  greater  re¬ 
splendence  to  our  faces  than  his.  Bp.  II. - 

If  we  belong  to  the  true  Israel  of  God  we  shall 
not  always  see  through  a  glass  darkly.  The 
glimpses  of  the  heavenly  glory  which  we  catch 
here  below  from  time  to  time  are  indeed  re¬ 
freshing  and  precious  to  the  soul.  But  the  time 
is  at  hand  when  the  beatific  vision  will  be  at 
once  perfect  and  perpetual.  In  what  lustre  and 
glory  will  the  children  of  the  kingdom  shine 
forth,  when  they  shall  each  of  them  appear  in  a 
splendor  not  like  that  which  invested  Moses  at 
I'.Iount  Sinai,  but  like  that  which  enrobed 
(Christ  as  a  garment  of  light  at  the  transfigura- 
1  ion-scene  of  Mount  Tabor  !  What  then  will  be 
their  glory,  who  shall  enjoy  a  communion  with 
the  Jehovah  of  Sinai  as  uninterrupted  as  the 
flowings  of  his  love,  as  endless  as  the  days  of 

eternity  !  Bush. - And  what  do  we  think  of 

the  ravishing  aspects  of  his  love  when  it  shall 
be  open-faced  and  have  laid  aside  its  veil  ; 
M'lien  goodness,  which  is  love  issuing  into  ben¬ 
efaction  or  doing  good  ;  grace,  which  adds  free¬ 


ness  unto  goodness  ;  merej",  which  is  grace  tow¬ 
ard  the  miserable,  shall  conspire  in  their  dis¬ 
tinct  and  variegated  appearances  to  set  off  each 
other,  and  enhance  the  pleasure  of  the  admiring 
soul  ;  when  doubts  shall  all  cease,  and  the  diffi¬ 
culty  vanish  of  reconciling  fatherly  severity 
with  love  ;  when  the  full  sense  shall  be  un¬ 
folded  to  the  life  of  that  description  of  the  Di¬ 
vine  nature,  “God  is  love,”  and  the  soul  be 
no  longer  put  to  read  the  love  of  God  in  his 
name  (as  Moses  was  when  the  sight  of  his  face 
could  not  yet  be  obtained),  shall  not  need  to 
spell  it  by  letters  and  syllables,  but  behold  it 
in  his  very  nature  itself,  and  see  how  ultimately 
essential  it  is  to  the  Divine  Being  !  How  glori¬ 
ous  will  this  appearance  of  God  be  (we  now 
hear  something  of  the  glory  of  his  grace,  Eph. 
1  ;  G),  and  how  satisfying  the  tuition  of  that 
glory  i  He  hath  got  the  prospect  at  last  of  that 
heart  where  the  great  thoughts  of  love  were 
lodged  from  everlasting,  and  where  all  its  coun¬ 
sels  and  designs  were  formed.  He  sees  what 
made  God  become  a  man  ;  what  clothed  a  Deity 
with  human  flesh  ;  what  made  eternity  become 
the  birth  of  time  ;  what  moved  the  heart  of  the 
Son  of  God  to  pitch  his  tabernacle  among  men  ; 
what  engaged  him  to  the  enterprise  of  redeem¬ 
ing  sinners  ;  what  moved  him  so  earnestly  to 
contest  with  a  perishing  world,  led  him  at  last 
to  the  cross,  made  him  content  to  become  a  sac¬ 
rifice  to  God,  a  spectacle  to  angels  and  men,  in 
a  bitter  reproachful  death,  inflicted  by  the  sac¬ 
rilegious  hands  of  those  whom  he  was  all  this 
while  designing  to  save.  Howe. 


Thus  ends  this  sudden  outbreak  of  idolatry 
and  sad  interruption  of  spiritual  prosperity  in 
a  new  and  unexpected  display  of  the  Divine 
mercy  vouchsafed  on  the  intercession  of  Moses 
to  the  chastened  and  repentant  people.  The 
breach  being  healed,  and' the  covenant  restored 
with  even  additional  splendor,  the  construction 
of  the  tabernacle  will  now  proceed.  M. 


Section  120. 

THE  CEREMONIAL  LAW,  ITS  DESIGN  AND  USE.  CLASSIFICATION  OF  ITS  INSTI¬ 
TUTES  OFFERINGS  FOR  THE  SANCTUARY  :  MATERIALS  ;  SPIRIT  DESIRED 
AND  REALIZED  IN  THE  OFFERERS  ;  THE  WORKMEN  QUALIFIED  AND  CHOSEN  ; 
LIBERALITY  RESTRAINED  ;  SUM  CONTRIBUTED. 

Exodus  25  : 1-9  ;  31  : 1-11  ;  35  : 4-35  ;  36  : 1-7  ;  38  : 21-31. 

Ex,.  25  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that 
2  they  take  for  me  an  offering  :  of  every  man  whose  heart  maketh  him  willing  ye  shall  take  my 


OFFERINGS  FOR  THE  TABERNACLE. 


277 


3  offering.  And  this  is  the  offering  which  ye  shall  take  of  them  ;  gold,  and  silver,  and  brass  ; 

4  and  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  fine  linen,  and  goats’  /lair;  and  rams’  skins  dyed  red, 

5  and  sealskins,  and  acacia  wood  ;  oil  for  the  light,  spices  for  the  anointing  oil,  and  for  the 

6  sweet  incense  ;  onyx  stones,  and  stones  to  be  set,  for  the  ephod,  and  for  the  breastplate. 

7  And  let  them  make  me  a  sanctuary  ;  that  I  may  dwell  among  them.  According  to  all  that  I 
9  shew  thee,  the  pattern  of  the  tabernacle,  and  the  pattern  of  all  the  furniture  thereof,  even  so 

shall  ye  make  it. 

35  4  And  Moses  spake  unto  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel,  saying,  This  is 
5  the  thing  which  the  Loed  commanded,  saying,  Take  ye  from  among  yon  an  offering  unto  the 
G  Loed  :  whosoever  is  of  a  \villing  heart,  let  him  bring  it,  the  Loed’s  offering  ;  gold,  and  silver, 

7  and  brass  ;  and  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  fine  linen,  and  goats’  hair ;  and  rams’  skins 

8  dyed  red,  and  sealskins,  and  acacia  wood  ;  and  oil  for  the  light,  and  spices  for  the  anointing 

9  oil,  and  for  the  sweet  incense  ;  and  onyx  stones,  and  stones  to  be  set,  for  the  ephod,  and  for 

10  the  breastplate.  And  let  every  wise  hearted  man  among  you  come,  and  make  all  that  the 

11  Loed  hath  commanded  ;  the  tabernacle,  its  tent,  and  its  covering,  its  clasps,  and  its  boards, 

12  its  bars,  its  pillars,  and  its  sockets,  the  ark,  and  the  staves  thereof,  the  mercy-seat,  and  the 

13  veil  of  the  screen  ;  the  table,  and  its  staves,  and  all  its  vessels,  and  the  shewhread  ;  the 

14  candlestick  also  for  the  light,  and  its  vessels,  and  its  lamps,  and  the  oil  for  the  light  ;  and  the 

15  altar  of  incense,  and  its  staves,  and  the  anointing  oil,  and  the  sweet  incense,  and  the  screen 

16  for  the  door,  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  ;  the  altar  of  burnt  offering,  with  its  grating  of 

17  brass,  its  staves,  and  all  its  vessels,  the  laver  and  its  base  ;  the  hangings  of  the  court,  the 

18  pillars  thereof,  and  their  sockets,  and  the  screen  for  the  gate  of  the  court  ;  the  jjins  of  the 

19  tabernacle,  and  the  pins  of  the  court,  and  their  cords  ;  the  finely  wrought  garments,  for  min¬ 
istering  in  the  holy  place,  the  holy  garments  for  Aaron  the  jjriest,  and  the  garments  of  his 
sons,  to  minister  in  the  priest’s  office. 

20  And  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel  departed  from  the  presence  of  Moses. 

21  And  they  came,  every  one  whose  heart  stirred  him  up,  and  every  one  whom  his  spirit  made 
willing,  and  brought  the  Loed’s  offering,  for  the  work  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  for  all  the 

22  service  thereof,  and  for  the  holy  garments.  And  they  came,  both  men  and  women,  as  many 
as  were  willing  hearted,  and  brought  brooches,  and  earrings,  and  signet-rings,  and  armlets,  all 

23  jewels  of  gold  ;  even  every  man  that  offered  an  offering  of  gold  unto  the  Loed.  And  every 
man,  with  whom  was  found  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  fine  linen,  and  goats’  Aair, 

24  and  rams’  skins  dj^ed  red,  and  sealskins,  brought  them.  Every  one  that  did  offer  an  offering 
of  silver  and  brass  brought  the  Loed’s  offering  ;  and  every  man,  with  whom  was  found  acacia 

25  wood  for  any  work  of  the  service,  brought  it.  And  all  the  women  that  were  wise  hearted  did 
spin  with  their  hands,  and  brought  that  which  thej’-  had  spun,  the  blue,  and  the  purple,  the 

26  scarlet,  and  the  fine  linen.  And  all  the  women  whose  heart  stirred  them  up  in  wisdom  spun 

27  the  goats’  hair.  And  the  rulers  brought  the  onyx  stones,  and  the  stones  to  be  set,  for  the 

28  ephod,  and  for  the  breastplate  ;  and  the  spice,  and  the  oil  ;  for  the  light,  and  for  the  anoint- 

29  ing  oil,  and  for  the  sweet  incense.  The  children  of  Israel  brought  a  freewill  offering  unto  the 
Loed  ;  every  man  and  woman,  whose  heart  made  them  willing  to  bring  for  all  the  work,  which 
the  Loed  had  commanded  to  be  made  by  the  hand  of  Moses. 

311  And  the  Loed  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  See,  I  have  called  by  name  Bezalel  the  son 

2  of  Uri,  the  son  of  Hur,  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  ;  and  I  have  filled  him  with  the  spirit  of  God,  in 

3  wisdom,  and  in  understanding,  and  in  knowledge,  and  in  all  manner  of  workmanship,  to 

4  devise  cunning  works,  to  work  in  gold,  and  in  silver,  and  in  brass,  and  in  cutting  of  stones 

5  for  setting,  and  in  carving  of  wood,  to  work  in  all  manner  of  workmanship.  And  I,  behold, 

6  I  have  appointed  with*  him  Oholiab,  the  son  of  Ahisamach,  of  the  tribe  of  Dan  ;  and  in  the 
hearts  of  all  that  are  wise  hearted  I  have  put  wisdom,  that  they  may  make  all  that  I  have  com- 

7  manded  thee  :  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  the  ark  of  the  testimony,  and  the  mercy-seat  that  is 

8  thereupon,  and  all  the  furniture  of  the  Tent  ;  and  the  table  and  its  vessels,  and  the  pure 

9  candlestick  with  all  its  vessels,  and  the  altar  of  incense  ;  and  the  altar  of  burnt  offering  with 

10  all  its  vessels,  and  the  laver  and  its  base  ;  and  the  finely  wrought  garments,  and  the  holy 
garments  for  Aaron  the  priest,  and  the  garments  of  his  sons,  to  minister  in  the  priest’s  office  ; 

11  and  the  anointing  oil,  and  the  incense  of  sweet  spices  for  the  holy  place  :  according  to  all  that 
I  have  commanded  thee  shall  they  do. 

35  30  And  Moses  said  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  See,  the  Loed  hath  called  by  name 


278 


SECTION  120.  THE  CEREMONIAL  LAW. 


31  Bezalel  the  son  of  Uri,  the  son  of  Hur,  of  the  tribe  of  Judah  ;  and  he  hath  filled  him  with  the 
bpirit  of  God,  in  wisdom,  in  understanding,  and  in  knowledge,  and  in  all  manner  of  work- 

32  manship  ;  and  to  devise  cunning  works,  to  work  in  gold,  and  in  silver,  and  in  brass,  and  in 

33  cutting  of  stones  for  setting,  and  in  carving  of  wood,  to  work  in  all  manner  of  cunning  work- 

34  manship.  And  he  hath  put  in  his  heart  that  he  ma}'  teach,  both  he,  and  Oholiab,  the  son  of 

35  Ahisamach,  of  the  tribe  of  Dan.  Then  hath  he  filled  with  wisdom  of  heart,  to  work  all  man¬ 
ner  of  workmanship,  of  the  engraver,  and  of  the  cunning  workman,  and  of  the  embroiderer,  in 
blue,  and  in  purple,  in  scarlet,  and  in  line  linen,  and  of  the  weaver,  even  of  them  that  do  any 

36  workmanship,  and  of  those  that  devise  cunning  works.  And  Bezalel  and  Ohr.liab  shall  work, 
and  every  wise  hearted  man,  in  whom  the  Loan  hath  put  wisdom  and  understanding  to  know 
how  to  work  all  the  "work  for  the  service  of  the  sanctuary,  according  to  all  that  the  Loan  hath 
commanded. 

2  And  Moses  called  Bezalel  and  Oholiab,  and  every  wise  hearted  man,  in  w'hose  heart  the 
Loan  had  put  wdsdom,  even  every  one  whose  heart  stirred  him  up  to  come’  unto  the  work  to 

3  do  it  :  and  they  received  of  Moses  all  the  offering,  which  the  children  of  Israel  had  brought  for 
the  work  of  the  service  of  the  sanctuary,  to  make  it  withal. 

4  And  they  brought  yet  unto  him  freewill  offerings  every  morning.  And  all  the  wise  men, 
that  wrought  all  the  work  of  the  sanctuary,  came  every  man  from  his  work  which  they 

5  w'rought  ;  and  they  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  The  fieople  bring  much  more  than  enough  for 

6  the  service  of  the  work,  which  the  Loan  commanded  to  make.  And  Moses  gave  command¬ 
ment,  and  they  caused  it  to  be  proclaimed  throughout  the  camp,  saying,  Let  neither  man  nor 
woman  make  any  more  work  for  the  offering  of  the  sanctuary.  So  the  people  were  restrained 

7  from  bringing.  For  the  stuff  they  had  was  sufficient  for  all  the  work  to  make  it,  and  too  much. 

3§  21  This  is  the  sum  of  ihe  things  for  the  tabernacle,  even  the  tabernacle  of  the  testimony, 
as  they  were  counted,  according  to  the  commandment  of  Moses,  for  the  service  of  the  Levites, 

22  by  the  hand  of  Ithamar,  the  son  of  Aaron  the  priest.  And  Bezalel  the  son  of  Uri,  the  son  of 

23  Hur,  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  made  all  that  the  Loed  commanded  Moses  And  with  him  was 
Oholiab,  the  son  of  Ahisamach,  of  the  tribe  of  Dan,  an  engraver,  and  a  cunning  workman,  and 
an  embroiderer  in  blue,  and  in  purple,  and  in  scarlet,  and  fine  linen. 

24  All  the  g  dd  that  was  used  for  the  work  in  all  the  work  of  the  sanctuary,  even  the  gold  of 
the  offering,  was  twenty  and  nine  talents,  and  seven  hundred  and  thirty  shekels,  after  the 

25  shekel  of  the  sanctuary.  And  the  silver  of  them  that  were  numbered  of  the  congregation  was 
an  hundred  talents,  and  a  thousand  seven  hundred  and  threescore  and  fifteen  shekels,  after 

26  the  shekel  of  the  sanctuary  :  a  beka  a  head,  that  is,  half  a  shekel,  after  the  shekel  of  the  sanc- 
tuarj’^,  for  every  one  that  passed  over  to  them  that  were  numbered,  from  twenty  years  old  and 

27  upward,  for  six  hundred  thousand  and  three  thousand  and  five  hundred  and  fifty  men.  And 
the  hundred  talents  of  silver  were  for  casting  the  sockets  of  the  sanctuary,  and  the  sockets  of 

28  the  veil  ;  an  hundred  sockets  for  the  hundred  talents,  a  talent  for  a  socket.  And  of  the  thou¬ 
sand  seven  hundred  seventy  and  five  shekels  he  made  hooks  for  the  pillars,  and  overlaid  their 

29  chapiters,  and  made  fillets  for  them.  And  the  brass  of  the  offering  was  seventy  talents,  and 

30  two  thousand  and  four  hundred  shekels.  And  therewith  he  made  the  sockets  to  the  door  of 

31  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  the  brasen  altar,  and  the  brasen  grating  for  it,  and  all  the  vessels  of 
the  altar,  and  the  sockets  of  the  court  round  about,  and  the  sockets  of  the  gate  of  the  court, 
and  all  the  pins  of  the  tabernacle,  and  all  the  pins  of  the  court  round  about. 


Sections  120-153  comprise  the  body  of  cekemonial  laws,  and  include  all  the  ordinances  pertaining  to 
Worship  and  Ritual.  For  the  outline  of  these  ordinances  and  the  order  of  arrangement,  study  carefully  the 
Index  following  ihe  title-page. 


In  this  and  each  of  several  folloicing  sections  relating  to  the  Tabernacle,  Us  Gouri,  and  their  furniture, 
and  to  the  sacred  things  pertaining  to  the  Ritual  service,  the  double  text  of  the  record  is  included :  cover- 
ing,  first,  the  command  to  Moses  in  the  mount  ;  second,  the  execution  of  the  command.  The  history  is 
thus  unified  and  made  more  simple  and  intelligible,  while  the  exact  corresjX)ndence  between  the  direction 
and  its  fulfilment  continually  repeats  its  impressive  lesson.  B. 

set  of  laws  forming  a  complete  ecclesiastical  and 
civil  code  ;  the  other,  an  historical  detail  of  the 


Preliminary  Facts  and  Considerations. 


Two  distinct  elements  are  observable  in  the 
remaining  portion  of  the  Pentateuch  :  one,  a 


principal  events,  connected  with  the  promulga¬ 
tion  of  the  laws.  The  two  elements  are  com 


CEREMONIAL  LAW. 


279 


bined  in  a  manner  quite  extraordinary.  The 
laws  do  not  stand  insulated  by  themselves, 
neither  are  they  embodied  in  a  systematic  form. 
But,  paradoxical  as  the  assertion  may  seem, 
they  are  both  separated  and  connected  by  the 
historical  narrative.  “It  is  a  code  of  laws  in 
a  frame  of  history.”  There  are  continual  transi¬ 
tions  from  history  to  law,  and  from  law  to  his¬ 
tory.  They  are  everywhere  grafted,  the  one 
into  the  other  :  and  there  is  such  a  mutual  con¬ 
nection  and  dependence,  that  the  two  parts 
seem  to  grow  together,  like  the  several  branches 
of  a  tree.  E.  C.  W. 

Ceremonial  Law,  the  Second  or  Three  Divi¬ 
sions  Comprising  the  Legislation  of  Moses. 

Its  Design  and  Use. 

The  best  apology  of  the  ceremonial  law  lies 
in  pointing  out  its  objects,  and  these  refute  the 
charges  brought  against  it  :  First,  it  served  to 
cherish  the  religious  sentiment.  The  Israelite 
was  reminded  by  it  in  all  his  relations,  even  the 
most  insignificant  and  external,  of  God  ;  the 
thought  of  God  was  introduced  into  the  very 
midst  of  the  popular  life.  Secondly,  it  required 
the  recognition  of  sin,  and  thus  called  forth  the 
first  thing  essential  for  the  reception  of  redemj)- 
tion,  a  sense  of  the  need  of  redemption.  The 
Law  was,  and  was  intended  to  be,  a  heavy  yoke, 
and  therefore  would  awaken  a  longing  after  the 
lledeemer.  Thirdly,  it  served  to  sejiarate  Israel 
from  the  heathen  ;  it  erected  between  the  two 
a  wall  of  separation,  by  which  communication 
was  prevented.  Fourthly,  many  things  in  the 
ceremonial  law  served,  by  impressions  on  the 
senses,  to  awaken  reverence  for  holy  things 
among  a  sensual  people.  Fifih’y,  one  principal 
object  of  the  ceremonial  law  lay  in  its  symbolic 
meaning.  The  people,  enthralled  in  visible  ob¬ 
jects,  were  not  yet  capable  of  vitally  appropriat¬ 
ing  supersensual  truth  in  words,  the  form  most 
suited  to  their  nature.  It  was  needful  for  the 
truth  to  condescend,  to  come  down  to  their 
power  of  apprehension,  to  prepare  itself  a  bod}^ 
from  visible  things,  in  order  to  free  the  iieople 
from  the  bondage  of  the  visible.  Would  we 
rather  not  speak  at  all  to  the  dumb  than  make 
use  of  signs  ?  The  ceremonial  law  was  not  the 
opposite  to  the  worship  of  God  in  spirit  and  in 
truth,  but  only  an  imperfect  form  ot  the  same, 
a  necessary  preparation  for  it.  The  accommo¬ 
dation  was  only  formal,  one  which  did  not  alter 
the  essence,  but  only  presented  it  in  large  capi¬ 
tal  letters  to  children  who  could  not  yet  read  a 
small  running-hand.  Ilengstenberg. 

The  purpose  of  the  Levitieil  law  as  a  scheme  of 
Divine  tuition  for  the  Jews,  is  perhaps  largely 


explained  by  its  tendency  to  cultivate  in  the 
Hebrew  mind  theistic  and  monotheistic  ideas. 
That  law  was  of  course  a  device  of  elaborate 
prefigurement  to  forerun  the  Coming  of  Christ. 
But,  co-ordinate  with  this  meaning  as  type  and 
prophecy,  the  ritual  of  the  Mosaic  economy  sub¬ 
served  another  purpose.  It  educated  the  Jews 
into  the  faith  of  a  living  and  jiersonal  God. 
The  Law  was  a  school-master  until  Christ.  The 
problem  for  the  providential  administration  of 
Jewish  history  was,  to  prepare  one  race  of  men 
for  the  earthly  advent  of  Christ  incarnate  among 
them.  For  this  end,  it  was  necessary  to  take  a 
people  abjectly  ignorant,  and  from  amid  an 
environment  of  heathenism  raise  them  to  the 
height  of  a  pure  monotheistic  faith.  The 
method  was,  to  announce  a  law  under  sanctions 
the  most  awful  and  sublime.  This  Law  was  ac¬ 
companied  with  a  system  of  precepts  that  in¬ 
vaded  Jewish  life  at  every  conceivable  point. 
Not  a  day  in  the  year,  not  an  hour  in  the  day, 
but  some  imperative  of  the  Divine  will  met  the 
Israelite,  demanding  obedience.  Every  such 
imperative  brought  into  the  consciousness  of 
the  Jew  a  fresh  recollection  of  the  being  of 
God,  and  of  his  living  personality.  It  is  hardly 
too  much  to  say  that  this  perpetual  encounter 
of  commands  to  be  obeyed  was  chiefly  what 
wrought  at  last  into  the  Jewish  nation  that 
connection  of  the  unity  and  personality  of  God 
which  has  created  so  remarkable,  so  unique  a 
characteristic  of  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  With 
almost  infinite  pains  on  the  part  of  the  teacher, 
and  at  what  terrible  cost  to  the  learner,  the  les¬ 
son  was  effectively  taught  and  definitely  learned. 
The  Jews  became  believers  in  one  God  and  that 
a  personal  God.  Of  this  God,  nature  to  them 
was  full.  If  it  thundered,  Jehovah  uttered  his 
voice.  If  the  winds  blew,  Jehovah  made  them 
his  chariot.  It  was  his  lightning  that  enlight¬ 
ened  the  world.  If  a  volcanic  eruption  occurred, 
it  was  the  hills  melting  like  wax  at  the  presence 
of  the  Lord.  Jewish  theism  became  so  intense 
that  it  might  look  like  pantheism.  God  was 
nature  to  them.  But  God  was  nature  in  a  sense 
vividly  antithetic  to  nature’s  being  God. 

What  God  thus,  with  an  awful  magnificence 
of  revelation,  had,  after  many  ages  of  history, 
succeeded  at  length  in  teaching  to  the  Jews,  to 
such  effect  that  they  wrote  it  inseparably  into 
all  their  literature,  many  modern  interpreters, 
forsooth,  of  that  literature,  are  at  fatuous,  but 
futile  pains  to  eliminate  thence.  They  tell 
us  that  expressions  such  as  those  just  recalled 
from  Hebrew  Scripture  were  idiosyncratic  ways 
which  that  peculiar  nation  had,  of  representing 
in  language  the  processes  of  nature !  Nay, 


280 


SECTION'  120.  THE  CEREMONIAL  LAW. 


verily.  Bat  it  was  of  tuition,  and  not  of  intui¬ 
tion,  that  those  forms  of  speech  were  born. 
The  inveterate  bent  of  the  Jews  to  relapse  and 
become  polytheists  and  idolaters  again,  that 
bent  so  frequently  and  so  tragically  illustrated 
in  their  history,  this  is  proof  sufficient  that  the 
idea  of  God,  as  one  and  personal,  was  not  an 
idea  peculiarly  natural  to  the  Jewish  stock. 
The  Jews  had  the  same  natuiul  tendenc}'  in  re¬ 
ligion  as  did  the  neighboring  nations  around 
them.  That  tendency  was  all  to  idolatry.  The 
Jews  were  disciplinetl  to  be  monotheists,  and 
disciplined  to  believe  in  their  God  as  a  personal 
being.  And  a  large  part  of  the  discipline  by 
which  they  were  trained  to  these  convictions 
consisted  in  the  vast  and  elaborate  scheme  of 
requirements  that  brought  them  incessantly  in¬ 
to  contact,  through  obedience  rendered,  with  a 
living,  invisible,  authoritative,  absolute,  jier- 
sonal  will.  WiUcinson. 

The  mind  of  Israel  was  governed  by  two 
dominant  convictions,  unknown  to  any  other 
ancient  people,  God  was  the  first  thought  in 
the  mind  of  Israel.  The  existence,  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  One  Supreme,  Living,  Personal  Being, 
who  alone  exists  necessarily  and  of  himself  ; 
who  sustains  the  life  of  all  besides  himself  :  be¬ 
fore  whom  all  that  is  not  himself  is  but  a  shadow 
and  vanity  ;  from  whose  sanctity  there  streams 
forth  on  the  conscience  of  man  that  moral  law 
which  is  the  light  of  human  life  ;  and  in  whose 
mercy  all  men,  especially  the  afflicted,  the  suf¬ 
fering,  the  poor,  may,  if  they  will,  find  a  gra¬ 
cious  and  long-suffering  Patron— this  was  the 
substance  of  the  first  great  conviction  of  the 
people  of  Israel,  Dependent  on  that  conviction 
was  another,  Israel  was  conscious  of  the  pres¬ 
ence  and  power  of  sin.  The  Jew  knew  that  sin 
was  the  secret  of  human  sorrow.  He  could  not 
forget  sin  if  he  would  ;  for  before  his  eyes  the 
importunate  existence  and  destructive  force  of 
sin  were  inexorably  pictured  in  the  ritual.  Ho 
witnessed  daily  sacrifices  for  sin,  and  the  sac¬ 
rifice  of  sacrifices  which  was  offered  on  the  Day 
of  Atonement,  Then  the  moral  law  sounded  in 
his  ears  ;  he  knew  that  he  had  not  obeyed  it. 
The  ritual,  interpreted  as  it  was  by  the  Deca¬ 
logue,  created  yearnings  within  him  which  it 
could  not  satisfy,  and  deepened  a  sense  of 
pollution  which  of  itself  it  could  not  relieve, 
H,  P.  L. 

The  religious  worship  divinely  instituted  in 
the  desert  fulfilled  several  minor  purposes.  It 
tended  to  divert  the  attention  from  the  sensu¬ 
ous  attractions  of  the  idolatry  with  which  the 
people  had  been  associated  in  Egypt  ;  it  had  a 
considerable  influence  in  preserving  the  sense 


of  national  unity  \  it  constituted  an  invaluable 
code  of  sanitary  regulations  ;  it  even  fostered 
the  preservation  of  genealogies.  But  none  of 
these  were  its  primary  aim  ;  they  were  second¬ 
ary  effects  of  causes,  the  primary  purpose  of 
which  was  the  culture  of  the  religious  life. 
“  &>eek  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and  his  right¬ 
eousness  ;  and  all  these  things”  (civil  and 
social)  “  shall  be  added  unto  you,”  might  have 
been  taken  as  the  motto  of  Judaism,  Church 
a.nd  State  were  so  united  that  the  very  jourposes 
of  government  were  best  furthered  by  attention 
to  the  duties  of  religion.  Cave. 

The  elaborate  system  of  worship  established 
by  Moses  was  never  meant  to  be  an  end  in  it¬ 
self,  Its  offerings  and  sacrifices,  its  jirayers 
and  songs,  its  priestly  mediations  and  absolu¬ 
tions,  assumed  an  inner  spirit  of  penitence, 
faith,  thanksgiving,  love,  devotion.  The  ritual 
was  an  appropriate  expression  in  outward  signs 
of  the  emotions  of  the  heart  in  view  of  its  sins 
and  sorrows,  and  of  the  goodness  and  mercy  of 
the  Lord,  It  was  also  a  help  to  the  understand¬ 
ing  of  promises  to  come,  and  to  faith  in  their 
fulfilment.  In  believing  hearts  it  nursed  the 
expectation  of  the  Messiah,  and  set  forth  the 
great  doctrine  of  atonement  through  the  daily 
sacrifice — a  type  of  the  Lamb  slain  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world.  This  was  the  real  im¬ 
port  of  the  covenant  that  God  made  with  Israel 
at  Sinai,  When,  however,  from  being  an  ex¬ 
ponent  of  feeling  and  an  educator  of  faith,  the 
Jews  perverted  their  worship  to  an  end  in  it¬ 
self,  and  a  meritorious  act,  both  the  prophets 
of  the  Lord  and  his  Providence  taught  them 
that  the  ritual  could  neither  save  them  nor  pre¬ 
serve  itself.  Yet  the  mercy  of  God  prevailed, 
even  over  the  abuse  of  mercy.  There  always 
was  a  spiritual  Israel  ;  and  it  was  promised, 
that,  bj^  the  coming  of  Christ,  the  covenant  of 
an  inner  spiritual  life— of  knowledge,  obedi¬ 
ence,  grace,  righteousness,  salvation — should  be 
renewed,  enlarged,  and  made  perpetual.  Christ 
was  not  only  a  greater  and  more  perfect  priest 
than  any  other  ;  he  superseded  all  others  as 
priest  in  his  own  right,  and  priest  forever  :  and 
therefore,  to  put  a  priesthood  or  ritual  in  his 
place  is  to  usurp  his  sole  prerogative,  and  to 
forfeit  his  atoning  and  saving  grace.  J.  P.  T. 

The  Ceremonial  Rites  not  Prophetic  Types,  hut 
Boctrinal  Symbols. 

All  confusion  and  uncertainty  arises  from  as¬ 
suming  that  the  significant  rites  of  the  cere¬ 
monial  law  must  of  necessity  be  types — that  is 
to  say,  prophetic  symbols,  and  that  they  must 
necessarily  be  types  of  Christ.  All  these  rites 


CLASSIFICATION  OF  CEREMONIAL  LAWS. 


281 


were  symbols,  as  distinguished  from  prophetic 
types,  and  as  such  suited  to  prepare  the  way 
for  the  Christian  system,  without  confounding 
the  two  dispensations  by  an  anticipation  of  the 
Gospel  light  amid  the  shadows  of  the  Law.  As 
soon  as  we  admit  that  it  is  equally  consistent 
with  the  honor  of  the  Saviour,  and  still  more 
consistent  with  the  general  purpose  of  the  old 
economy  as  a  ^preparatory  dispensation,  to  ex¬ 
plain  a  large  portion  of  its  forms  as  doctrinal 
symbols,  teaching  general  truths  of  great  im¬ 
portance,  suited  to  the  actual  condition  of  the 
people,  and  tending  to  ^prepare  them  for  '"a 
clearer  revelation,  several  obvious  interpreta¬ 
tions  spontaneously  suggest  themselves.  J.  A.  A. 

This  elaborate  religious  constitution  was  a 
ritual  of  the  symbolic  class.  Whatever  truth  it 
had  to  convey  was  conveyed  under  material 
forms  ;  adjuncts  of  gold  and  color  were  em¬ 
ployed  to  speak  of  God  ;  gorgeous  vestments 
and  precious  stones  proclaimed  the  sanctity  of 
a  priesthood  ;  washing  with  water  betokened 
the  cleansing  of  the  heart  ;  the  fire  that  con¬ 
sumed  the  sacrifice  told  its  tale  of  Divine  ac¬ 
ceptance.  This  symbolism,  so  mysteriously 
selected  and  permitted  for  spiritual  ends,  ful¬ 
filled  a  double  purpose.  It  taught  religious 
truths  which  constituted  a  Divine  revelation  ; 
at  the  same  time  it  prepared  the  way  for  a 
further  revelation  in  which  the  same  truths 
could  be  conveyed  in  a  clearer,  more  direct  and 
convincing  manner.  Gave. 

The  main  peculiarity  of  God’s  method  of  in¬ 
struction  and  discipline  in  respect  to  the  Old 
Testament  Church  consisted  in  the  use  of  sym¬ 
bol  and  action.  It  was  chiefly  by  means  of  his¬ 
torical  transactions  and  symbolical  rites  that  the 
ancient  believers  were  taught  what  they  knew 
of  the  truths  and  mysteries  of  grace.  For  the 
practical  guidance  and  direction  of  their  con¬ 
duct  they  were  furnished  with  means  of  infor¬ 
mation  the  most  literal  and  express  ;  but  in  re¬ 
gard  to  the  spiritual  concerns  and  objects  of  the 
Messiah’s  kingdom,  all  was  couched  under  veil 
and  figure.  The  instruction  came  intermingled 
with  the  things  they  saw  and  handled  ;  and 
while  it  made  them  familiar  with  the  elements 
of  Gospel  truth,  it  left  them  in  comparative  ig- 
noiance  as  to  the  particular  events  and  opera¬ 
tions  in  which  the  truth  was  to  find  its  ultimate 
and  proper  realization.  How  entirely  analogous 
was  the  course  pursued  by  our  Lord  with  his 
immediate  disciples  during  the  period  of  his 
earthly  ministry  !  The  direct  instruction  he 
imparted  to  them  was,  with  few  exceptions, 
confined  to  lessons  of  moral  truth  and  duty — 
treeing  the  Law  of  God  from  the  false  glosses 


of  a  carnal  and  corrupt  priesthood,  which  had 
entirely  overlaid  its  meaning,  and  disclosing  the 
pure  and  elevated  principles  on  which  his  king¬ 
dom  was  to  be  founded.  But  in  regard  to  what 
might  be  called  the  mj'steries  of  the  kingdom — 
the  constitution  of  Christ’s  person,  the  peculiar 
character  of  his  work  as  the  Redeemer  of  a  sin¬ 
ful  and  fallen  world,  and  the  connection  of  all 
with  a  higher  and  future  world— little  instruc¬ 
tion  of  a  direct  kind  was  imparted  up  to  the 
very  close  of  Christ’s  earthly  ministrj’.  .  .  . 
The  facts  of  Christianity  are  the  basis  of  its 
doctrines ;  and  until  those  facts  had  become 
matter  of  history,  the  doctrines  could  neither 
be  explicitly  taught  nor  clearly  understood. 
They  could  only  be  obscurely  represented  to  the 
mind  through  the  medium  of  typical  actions, 
symbolical  rites,  or  parabolical  narratives.  And 
it  results  as  much  from  the  essential  nature  of 
things  as  from  the  choice  of  its  Divine  Author, 
that  the  mode  of  instruction,  which  was  con¬ 
tinued  through  the  lengthened  probation  of  the 
Old  Testament  Church,  should  have  found  its 
parallel  in  “  the  beginning  of  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ.”  P.  F. 

The  great  mass  of  evangelical  interpreters, 
especially  in  former  times,  have  made  it  a  main 
object  in  their  expositions  of  the  ceremonial 
law  to  shun  the  error  of  excluding  Christ  and 
gospel  times  from  the  signification  of  the  legal 
shadows.  In  attempting  this,  ft  is  not,  per¬ 
haps,  surprising,  that  their  zeal  has  sometimes 
led  them  toward  the  opposite  extreme.  The 
exaggeration  both  of  this  and  of  the  contrary 
hypothesis  has  led  to  the  same  general  result, 
but  in  ways  directly  opposite.  Both  have  de¬ 
prived  the  ceremonial  law  of  its  preparatory 
character,  the  one  by  reducing  its  significancy 
too  low,  and  the  other  by  exalting  it  too  high. 
If  the  ceremonies  of  the  Law  meant  nothing, 
they  could  not  be  preparatory  to  the  Gospel. 
If  they  meant  everything,  and  made  known 
everything  which  needed  to  be  known,  they 
were  not  so  much  a  preparation  as  an  antici¬ 
pation  of  the  Gospel  itself.  J.  A.  A. 

Glassification  of  Geremonial  Institutes. 

A  fourfold  distribution  of  the  Sacred  Institu¬ 
tions  of  the  Hebrews  has  been  adopted  by  the 
older  and  later  writers  :  Sacred  Places,  Sacred 
Persons,  Sacred  Rites,  and  Sacred  Times  ;  or  to 
use  a  more  laconic  terminology,  the  Sanctuary, 
the  Priesthood,  the  Ritual,  and  the  Calendar. 

J.  A.  A. - The  altar  was  the  basis  of  the  sacred 

places,  the  priesthood  was  the  basis  of  the 
sacred  persons,  the  burnt-offerings  was  the  basis 
of  the  sacred  rites,  and  the  Sabbath  was  the 


282 


SECTION  120.  OFFERINGS  FOR  THE  SANCTUARY. 


basis  of  the  sa'jred  times.  Here  we  discover 
the  links  that  connect  the  ceremonial  laws  given 
by  Moses  with  the  primeval  ordinances  of  re¬ 
ligion.  In  the  altar  set  uj)  in  the  family  of 
Adam  we  have  the  genesis  of  the  tabernacle  and 
temple.  At  the  beginning  the  minister  of  sac¬ 
rifice  was  the  patriarch  of  the  existing  famil}^ 
and  his  sacred  office  passed  over  to  the  Mosaic 
priesthood.  In  the  offering  of  blood  by  Abel 
and  the  offering  by  fire  of  Noah  we  discover  the 
germs  of  the  Jewish  ritual.  The  Sabbath  or¬ 
dained  in  paradise  became  the  central  institute 
in  the  sacred  times  appointed  by  Moses. 
Humphrey. 

Perhaps  a  fuller  and  more  accurate  classifica¬ 
tion  is  the  following,  in  the  main  adopted  in 
our  arrangement  : 

I.  Positive  Institutes,  relating  directly  to 
Worship. 

1.  Its  Place  and  external  media. 

2.  Its  Ministers — Priests  and  Levites. 

3.  Its  Rites — Sacrificial  and  other  offer¬ 
ings. 

4.  Its  Times — Sabbatic  Periods  and  Fes¬ 
tivals. 

II.  Minor  Ceremonial  Adjuncts  of  a  pre¬ 
ceptive  character;  Remedial,  Corrective, 
and  Prohibitory.  B. 


Offerings  for  the  Sanctuary. 

Ex.  25  : 1-9  ;  35  : 4-29. 

The  first  ordinances  given  to  Moses,  after  the 
proclamation  of  the  outline  of  the  Law  from 
Sinai,  related  to  the  ordering  of  the  tabernacle, 
its  furniture  and  its  service,  as  the  type  which 
was  to  be  followed  when  the  people  came  to 
their  own  home  and  ‘‘  found  a  place”  for  the 
abode  of  God.  During  the  forty  days  of  Moses’s 
first  retirement  with  God  in  Sinai,  an  exact  pat¬ 
tern  of  the  whole  was  shown  him,  and  all  was 
made  according  to  it.  P.  S. 

Pure  and  abstract  notions  of  the  Divinity 
were  beyond  the  age  and  the  people  of  Moses. 
No  religious  impressions  would  be  lasting  which 
were  not  addressed  to  the  senses.  With  this 
view  is  commenced  the  sacred  tabernacle  or 
pavilion-temple.  The  whole  nation  is  called 
upon  to  contribute  to  its  construction  and  orna¬ 
ment.  The  riches  which  they  brought  from 
Egypt,  and  the  arts  which  some  of  them  had 
learned,  now  come  into  request.  From  all 
quarters  offerings  pour  in  ;  brass,  silver,  gold, 
jewels,  fine  linen,  embroidered  stuffs  of  all  col- 


j  ors,  valuable  skins,  spices,  oils,  and  incense,  in 
i  such  profusion  that  they  cannot  all  be  brought 
into  use.  The  high  district  immediately  around 
Sinai,  extending  about  thirty  miles  in  diameter, 
is  by  no  means  barren,  the  vegetation  is  richer 
than  in  other  parts  of  the  desert,  streams  of 
water  flow  in  the  valleys,  date  and  other  trees 
abound,  and  groves,  chiefly  of  the  black  acacia 
(the  shittim).  These  latter  were  speedily  felled, 
all  the  artificers  set  to  work,  the  women  were 
employed  in  weaving  and  spinning,  and  the 
whole  camp  assumed  a  busy  appearance.  The 
construction  of  the  tabernacle  was  intrusted  to 
the  sujierintendence  of  two  skilful  workmen, 
Bezalel  and  Oholiab.  Milinan. 

25  :  1-8.  The  tabernacle  revelation  was  in 
substance  a  revelation  of  God’s  willingness  to 
dwell  with  his  jieople,  and  of  the  conditions  on 
which  this  great  blessing  could  be  realized  b^' 
them.  The  first  condition  is  their  willingness 
to  welcome  him  when  he  comes.  And  accord¬ 
ingly  the  first  step  is  to  give  the  people  an  oji- 
portunity  of  showing  this  willingness.  “  Speak 
unto  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  bring  me 
an  offering  :  of  every  man  that  giveth  it  will¬ 
ingly  with  his  heart  ye  shall  take  my  offering  .  .  . 
and  let  them  make  me  a  sanctuary.”  The  giv¬ 
ing  of  the  revelation  shows  the  willingness  on 
God’s  part  ;  the  offerings  of  the  people  the  will¬ 
ingness  on  theirs.  J.  M.  G. 

9.  Aceordiiig(  to  tlie  pattern  .  .  . 
shall  ye  make  it.  An  ideal  of  the  finished 
'tabernacle,  with  its  hangings  and  its  furniture, 
with  its  sacred  enclosures  of  the  Holy  Place, 
and  of  the  Holy  of  Holies,  with  its  cherubim- 
guarded  ark  of  the  covenant,  and  its  Shekinah- 
revealing  of  the  Divine  presence,  was  seen  by 
Moses  when  he  was  on  the  mountain-top  with 
God.  That  ideal  Moses  could  not  transfer  to 
another’s  mental  vision  ;  but,  under  its  influ¬ 
ence,  he  could  give  the  directions,  step  by  step, 
for  the  making  of  hangings  and  of  furniture 
and  of  adornings  that  should  correspond  with 
its  details.  S.  S.  T. - Moses  saw  on  the  moun¬ 

tain  a  pattern  of  all  the  things  which  he  after¬ 
ward  caused  to  be  made.  In  his  intercourse 
with  God,  he  attained  to  a  deep  view  into  the 
spiritual,  eternal  relations  which  existed  be¬ 
tween  God  and  his  people  ;  but  these  relations 
were  revealed  to  him  under  the  veil  of  type  and 
emblem,  which  veil  neither  he  nor  any  Israelite 
could  altogether  take  away.  Many  thousands 
were  kept  by  such  outward  service,  with  its 
minute  details,  in  a  certain  external  discipline 
and  reverence  toward  sacred  things,  without 
entering  into  their  meaning  (the  Jews,  Philo 
and  Josephus,  in  the  time  of  the  apostles,  had 


THE  MATERIALS  INDICATED. 


283 


altogether  lost  the  key  to  it)  ;  while  the  really 
spiritually-minded  found  a  continually  elevating 
employment  for  heart  and  spirit  in  the  beauti¬ 
ful  and  appropriate  symbols,  which  so  harmo¬ 
nized  with  the  doctrinal  teaching  of  the  Word. 
Gerl. 

From  the  twofold  relation  of  Jehovah  (as  their 
God  and  their  King)  to  the  chosen  people,  it 
follows  that  there  must  be  found  in  their  laws 
and  institutions  both  permanent  and  transient 
elements.  Their  duties  toward  him  as  their 
God,  which  found  chief  expression  in  their  rites 
of  worship,  were  permanent.  The  whole  ritual, 
the  kinds  and  orders  of  sacrifice,  the  priesthood 
in  its  several  ranks,  duties,  and  offices,  the 
sevenfold  division  of  times,  the  feasts— all  this 
was  unchangeable.  As  typical  of  higher  things 
to  come,  they  must  remain  till  the  antitj^pes 
came.  And  thus  it  was  that  Moses  was  directed 
to  make  all  these  things  after  the  pattern  showed 
him  in  the  mount,  a  Divine  order  which  man 
might  not  change.  Andrews. 

T7ie  Lord’s  Offering  ^  AI derials  Indicated  :3-7  ; 

35  : 6-10). 

The  materials  were  :  Metals  :  gold,  silver,  and 
brass.  Textile  fabrics  ;  blue,  purple,  scarlet,  apd 
fine  {white)  linen,  for  the  production  of  which 
Egypt  was  celebrated  ;  also  a  fabric  of  goats' 
hair,  the  produce  of  their  own  flocks.  Skins  : 
of  the  ram,  dyed  red,  and  of  the  badger.  %Vood  : 
the  shittim  wood,  the  timber  of  the  wild  acacia 
of  the  desert  itself,  the  tree  of  the  “  burning 
bush.”  Oil,  spices,  and  incense,  for  anointing 
the  priests,  and  burning  in  the  tabernacle. 
Gems  :  onyx  stones,  and  the  precious  stones  for 
the  breastplate  of  the  high-priest.  The  people 
gave  jewels,  and  plates  of  gold  and  silver,  and 
brass  ;  wood,  skins,  hair,  and  linen  ;  the  women 
wove  ;  the  rulers  offered  precious  stones,  oil, 
spices,  and  incense.  P.  S. 

B1  lie,  purple,  and  scarlet.  There 
does  not  seem  much  ground  to  doubt  that  these 
names  of  the  colors  of  the  woven  and  embroi¬ 
dered  work  of  the  sanctuary  express  the  most 
probable  conclusions.  The  three  colors,  blue, 
scarlet,  and  purple,  have  been  recognized  all 
but  universally  as  royal  colors,  such  as  were  best 
suited  for  the  decoration  of  a  palace.  This  fact 
appears  to  furnish  sufficient  ground  for  their 
having  been  appointed  as  the  colors  for  the  em¬ 
broidery  which  was  to  adorn  the  dwelling-place 
of  Jehovah.  Clark. 

Some  of  the  materials  of  the  tabernacle  were 
exquisitelj'  adapted  for  sj^mbolical  representa¬ 
tion.  The  acacia  is  the  lignum  impvtrabile  of 
the  Orientals,  incorruptibility  itself,  the  facile 


defier  of  putrefaction.  Gold,  from  its  pre-emi¬ 
nence  among  even  the  noble  metals,  must  ever 
be  the  emblem  of  all  that  is  glorious  and  beauti¬ 
ful,  the  fitting  ornament  of  kingly  palaces,  the 
appropriate  adornment  of  a  Divine  residence. 
Silver  will  always  the  wide  world  over  be  elo¬ 
quent  of  purity  (Is.  1  :  22),  And  when  we 
come  to  the  richly  woven  tapestry  hangings,  did 
not  its  white  speak  of  holiness,  its  blue  of  the 
vault  of  heaven,  the  footstool  of  the  Almighty, 
its  purple  of  regal  splendor,  and  its  scarlet  of  a 
full,  free,  joyous  life,  such  as  is  the  attribute  of 
God  ?  Cave. 

So  far  as  the  materials  required  for  the  build¬ 
ing  are  concerned,  it  can  be  proved  that  the 
Israelites  were  either  in  possession  of  all  that 
was  wanted,  or,  if  not,  could  easily  have  pro¬ 
cured  them.  The  most  important  article  of  all, 
the  shittim  (acacia)  wood,  could  be  felled  in  the 
desert.  Gold,  silver,  and  precious  stones  they 
had  brought  with  them  in  great  abundance  from 
Egypt.  The  tachash  skins  were  to  be  found  in 
the  Arabian  Gulf.  The  raw  materials  for  the 
cloths,  the  necessary  spices,  etc.,  could  be  pur¬ 
chased  from  the  caravans.  There  is  no  reason 
for  astonishment  at  the  quantity  of  gold  and 
silver  that  was  used.  In  comparison  with  the 
almost  incredible  wealth  in  the  precious  metals 
which  presents  itself  on  every  hand  in  ancient 
times,  the  quantity  used  in  connection  with  the 
tabernacle  furnishes  no  occasion  for  surprise.  K. 

In  erecting  the  tabernacle  in  the  wilderness, 
the  Israelites  were  called  upon  to  work  in  pre¬ 
cious  stones  ;  in  refining  and  working  metals  ;  in 
carving  wood  and  preparing  leather  ;  in  spin¬ 
ning,  weaving,  embroidery,  and  the  preparation 
of  oils.  These  arts  they  must  have  learned  in 
Egypt  ;  and  all  these  arts  are  represented  upon 
contemporaneous  history.  Not  more  certainly 
do  the  physical  features  of  Palestine  testify  that 
the  Bible  was  mainly  written  in  that  country, 
than  do  the  tombs  of  Egypt  witness  that  the 
author  of  the  Pentateuch  was  skilled  in  all  the 
arts  and  manners  of  the  Egyptians,  J.  P.  T. 

We  read  of  the  Temple,  the  more  jrerfect  form 
of  the  Divine  habitation,  that  it  was  to  be  made 
“  so  exceeding  magnificat  as  to  be  of  fame  and 
glory  throughout  all  countries  and  that 
among  other  things  employed  by  Solomon  for 
this  purpose,  “  the  house  was  garnished  with 
precious  stones  for  beaut}",”  Such  materials, 
therefore,  were  used  in  the  construction  of  the 
tabernacle  as  were  best  fitted  for  conveying 
suitable  impressions  of  the  greatness  and  glory 
of  the  Being  for  whose  peculiar  habitation  it 
w"as  erected.  And  as  in  this  we  are  furnished 
with  a  sufficient  reason  for  their  employment, 


284 


SECTION  120.  THE  WOUKMEN  QUALIFIED  AND  CHOSEN 


to  search  for  others  were  only  to  wander  into 
the  regions  of  uncertainty  and  conjecture.  P.  F. 

25  :  1 ;  35  :  4.  Take  for  me  aai 

offering'.  The  tabernacle  was  to  be  dedicated 
to  the  honor  of  God,  and  used  in  his  service  ; 
and  therefore  what  was  brought  for  the  setting 
up  and  furnishing  of  that  was  an  offering  to  the 
Lord.  Our  goodness  extends  not  to  God,  but 
what  is  laid  out  for  the  support  of  his  kingdom 
and  interest  among  men,  he  is  pleased  to  accept 
as  an  offering  to  himself  ;  and  he  requires  such 
acknowledgments  of  our  receiving  our  all  from 
him,  and  such  instances  of  our  dedicating  our 

all  to  him.  H. - What  the  Lord  commanded 

was  that  such  and  such  work  should  be  done, 
not  that  such  and  such  contributions  should  be 
rendered  to  it.  These  he  left  free  ;  and  accord¬ 
ingly  they  were  brought  in  the  form  of  free 
offerings.  The  commandment  was  upon  Moses, 
however,  to  proclaim  and  receive  these  offerings 
and  then  turn  them  to  the  use  which  had  been 
.appointed.  T.  C. 

Spirit  Desired  and  Bealized  in  the  Offerers  (35  :  5, 

20-29). 

35  :  5.  Whosoever  is  of  a  willing 
heart,  let  him  bring  the  Lord’s  offer¬ 
ing.  2t.  And  they  eaine,  every  oaie 
wliose  heart  stirred  liiiii  up,  and 
every  one  whom  his  spirit  made  will¬ 
ing,  and  brought  the  Lord’s  offering. 
The  very  mode  of  providing  his  materials  im¬ 
plied  that  the  structure  for  which  they  were 
given  was  altogether  of  a  sacred  character,  being 
made  of  things  consecrated  to  the  Lord.  The 
special  call  for  only  that  which  was  given  “  with 
the  heart  ”  implied  that  in  all  that  concerns  the 
worship  and  work  of  God  there  must  be  the 
concurrence  of  the  sanctified  will  with  the  grace 

and  condescension  of  God.  S.  K. - They  were 

willing,  and  it  was  not  any  external  inducement 
that  made  them  so,  but  their  spirits.  It  was 
from  a  principle  of  love  to  God  and  his  service  ; 
a  desire  of  his  presence  with  them  in  his  ordi¬ 
nances  ;  a  gratitude  for  the  great  things  he  had 
done  for  them  ;  faith  in  his  promise  of  what  he 
would  further  do  ;  or,  at  least,  from  the  present 
consideration  of  these  things,  that  they  were 
willing  to  offer.  What  we  give  and  do  for  God 
is  then  acceptable  when  it  comes  from  a  good 
principle  in  the  heart  and  spirit.  H. 

Better  have  the  little  that  comes  from  the 
■willing  heart  than  the  large  suras  which  are 
given  by  constraint  or  from  any  earthly  or 
worldly  motive.  In  this  chapter  this  is  strongly 
insisted  upon  ;  they  that  gave,  gave  with  will¬ 
ing  hearts — “the  children  of  Israel  brought  a 


willing  offering  to  the  Lord,  every  man  and 
woitcan”  (verse  29).  Some  had  gold,  and  they 
gave  that  ;  some  had  silver  and  some  had  brass, 
and  they  gave  that  ;  some  had  linen,  and  they 
gave  that  ;  some  skins  of  rams,  some  badgers’ 
skins,  some  goats’,  and  some  could  carve  wood, 
and  cut  stones,  and  do  all  manner  of  cunning 
work,  and  they  gave  that.  There  w^as  no  rei^- 
resentative  currency.  As  they  had  no  monej’, 
they  gave  that  which  money  represents  ; 
each  gave  the  substance  that  he  had  and  could 
give.  J.  C. 

Should  not  the  establishment  of  God’s  king, 
dom  in  the  world  call  forth  our  zeal  as  much  as 
the  erection  of  that  fabric  in  the  wilderness  did 
the  zeal  of  the  Israelites  ?  The  material  taber¬ 
nacle  was  only  a  shadow  of  that  better  habita¬ 
tion  wherein  God  delights  to  dwell.  To  the 
erection  of  this  spiritual  house  every  true  Chris¬ 
tian  Israelite  is  called  to  contribute  according 
as  God  hath  given  him  ability.  And  let  it  be 
ever  remembered  that  the  blessing  will  go  with 
contributions  according  to  the  free,  cordial, 
generous  spirit  with  which  they  are  made.  It 
is  not  the  amount  given,  but  the  motive  of  the 
giver,  which  is  of  account  in  God’s  sight. 
Even  the  poor  widow  who  casts  in  her  tv'o 
mites  will  receive  an  equal  plaudit  with  Arau- 
nah,  of  whom  it  is  said,  “  All  these  things  did 
Araunah,  as  a  king,  give  unto  the  king.”  They 
who  do  what  they  can  show  evidently  that  they 
would  do  more  if  they  could.  Bush. 

The  Workmen  Qualffed  and  Chosen  by  the  Loed. 

31  :  1.  ‘‘Tlie  Lord  §pake  unto 
JTIoses.”  The  frequent  repetition  of  these 
words  seems  to  intimate  that  the  successive 
disclosures  of  Jehovah  to  Moses  were  made  at 
intervals,  so  as  to  allow  the  careful  considera¬ 
tion  and  writing  down  of  each.  B. 

31  :  1,  2,  6;  35:30,  31,  34,  36.  I 
have  called  b^^  name  Bezalel,  and 
bave  filled  lism  with  tlie  Spirit  of 
God.  And  1  have  appointed  Avilli 
liim  Oholiab.  Tlaat  lie  may  teaeli, 
botb  lie  and  Oboliab.  And  Bezalel 
and  Oholiab  shall  work,  and  every 
wise-hearted  man  In  whom  the  Lord 
hath  put  wisdom  and  understand¬ 
ings  to  know  hoAv  to  work,  all  the 
work  for  the  service  of  the  sanc¬ 
tuary. 

A  thoughtful  reading  of  these  words  shows 
that  not  only  the  two  superintendents,  Bezalel 
and  Oholiab,  but  as  well  the  entire  body  of 
workmen,  were  specially  qualified  and  chosen 
for  the  various  branches  of  work  connected 


BEZALEL  qUALIFIEB  BY  GOB. 


285 


with  the  tabernacle  and  its  service.  B. - 

Skill  in  common  arts  and  employments  is  the 
gift  of  God  ;  from  Him  are  both  the  faculty 
and  the  improvement  of  tlie  faculty.  It  is  He 
that  puts  even  this  wisdoin  into  the  inward  parts 
(Job  38  :  36),  He  teaches  the  husbandman  discre¬ 
tion  (Is.  28  :  26),  and  the  tradesman,  too  ;  and  He 
must  have  the  praise  of  it.  God  dispenses  his 
gifts  variously,  one  gift  to  one,  another  to  an¬ 
other,  and  all  for  the  good  of  the  whole  bodj^ 
both  of  mankind  and  of  the  Church.  Moses 
was  fittest  of  all  to  govern  Israel,  but  Bezalel 
was  fitter  than  he  to  build  the  tabernacle.  The 
common  benefit  is  very  much  supported  by  the 
variety  of  men’s  faculties  and  inclinations  ;  the 
genius  of  some  leads  them  to  be  serviceable 
one  way,  of  others  another  way,  and  all  these 
icorketh  that  one  and  the  self-same  Spirit  (1  Cor. 
12:11).  This  forbids  pride,  envy,  contempt, 
and  carnal  emulation,  and  strengthens  the 
bond  of  mutual  love.  Those  whom  God  calls 
to  any  service,  he  will  either  find  or  make  fit 
for  it.  If  God  give  the  commission,  he  will  in 
some  measure  give  the  qualifications,  according 
as  the  service  is.  The  wmrk  that  was  to  be 
done  here,  was  to  make  the  tabernacle,  and 
the  utensils  of  it,  which  are  here  particularly 
reckoned  up.  And  for  this  the  persons  em¬ 
ployed  were  enabled  to  work  in  gold,  and  silver, 
and  hrns-i.  When  Christ  sent  his  apostles  to 
rear  the  Gospel  tabernacle,  he  poured  out  his 
Spirit  upon  them,  to  enable  them  to  speak  with 
tongues  the  wonderful  works  of  God  :  not  to 
work  upon  metal,  but  to  work  upon  men  ;  so 
much  more  excellent  were  the  gifts,  as  the  tab¬ 
ernacle  to  be  pitched  was  a  greater  and  more  per¬ 
fect  tahernacle,  as  the  apostle  calls  it  (Heb. 
9  : 11).  H. 

God  gave  the  plan  clearly,  graphically,  to 
Moses  ;  but  it  needed  men  raised  up  specially 
by  the  Spirit  of  God  to  execute  the  jjlan  and 
give  it  practical  development.  And  we  learn 
from  this  fact  that  a  gifted  intellect  is  as  much 
the  creation  of  the  Spirit  of  God  as  a  regenerate 
heart.  Gifts  are  from  God  as  truly  as  graces  : 
it  needs  the  guidance  of  God’s  good  Spirit  to 
enable  a  man  “  to  work  in  gold,  and  in  silver, 
and  in  brass,  and  in  cutting  of  stones,  to  set 
them  ;  and  in  carving  of  timber,  to  work  in  all 
manner  of  workmanship  just  as  it  does  to 
do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  hum¬ 
bly  with  God.  A  great  intellect  is  as  much  the 
gift  of  God  as  a  holy  and  sanctified  heart  is 
from  the  grace  of  God  ;  only  we  must  always 
remember  that  the  two  are  not  necessarily  com¬ 
bined  ;  that  the  latter — the  sanctified  heart — is 
saving  ;  but  that  the  former— the  gifted  intel¬ 


lect  —may  be  an  element  of  ruin,  not  of  ever¬ 
lasting  blessedness  in  the  sight  of  God.  Many 
men  have  transcendent  gifts  that  shed  new  light 
upon  the  world  by  their  splendor,  who  at  the 
same  time  have  hearts  sunk  in  depravity  and 
sin.  They  have  been  raised  to  heaven  by  the 
greatness  of  their  gifts  ;  they  sink  themselves 
to  ruin  by  the  degeneracy  of  their  lives.  Far 
better  have  a  holy  heart  and  a  very  ungifted  in¬ 
tellect  than  have  the  most  gigantic  mind  but  a 
depraved  heart  to  wield  and  to  make  use  of  it. 
J.  C. 

God  has  a  particular  kind  of  inspiration  for 
every  man,  just  according  to  w^hat  he  is  and 
the  uses  he  will  make  of  him  ;  for  the  trades¬ 
men  Bezalel  as  truly  as  for  Moses.  He  will  dig¬ 
nify  every  right  calling  by  being  joined  to  us  in 
it  ;  for  there  is  nothing  given  us  to  do  which 
he  will  not  help  us  to  do  rightly  and  wisely, 
filling  us  with  a  lofty  and  fortified  conscious¬ 
ness  of  his  presence  with  us  in  it.  It  is  not  for 
us  to  say  beforehand  what  gifts  or  what  kind 
of  inspiration  God  will  bestow.  Enough  that 
he  will  take  us  into  his  own  care,  and  work  his 
own  counsel  in  us.  Only  let  us  set  no  limits  to 
the  Holy  One  of  Israel,  and  be  ready  to  admit 
his  guidance,  and  wmit  to  be  his  qualified  in¬ 
struments,  whether  in  work  or  suffering.  Bush- 
nell. 

Bezalel,  the  son  of  Uri,  was  called  of  God  to 
do  what  to  many  seems  a  very  inferior  sort  of 
work.  See,  says  the  Divine  Spirit,  I  have  called 
him — not  to  do  the  services  of  the  priestly  office 
— I  have  called  him  to  devise  cunning  works,  to 
work  in  gold,  and  in  silver,  and  in  brass.  In 
order  to  do  this  labor  I  have  filled  him  with  the 
Spirit  of  God,  in  wdsdom,  and  in  understand¬ 
ing,  and  in  knowledge.  In  a  word,  Bezalel  was 
divinely  called  to  be  a  smith.  He  was  set  apart 
just  as  certainly  and  just  as  divinely  to  work  at 
that  trade,  as  were  Aaron  and  his  sons  to  attend 
to  the  services  at  the  altar.  Bezalel’s  handicraft 
was  essential  to  the  carrying  out  of  God’s  pur¬ 
poses  in  the  building  of  the  tabernacle,  and  his 
life  was  just  as  much  of  a  heavenly  ordination 
as  though  he  had  been  clad  in  priestly  robes, 
and  had  it  appointed  him  to  stand  at  the  side 
of  the  altar  of  sacrifice,  or  walk  with  bare  feet 
into  the  awful,  cherubic,  overshadowed  Holy  of 
Holies.  And  so  Bezalel  could  feel,  as  he 
wrought  out  into  beautiful  forms  the  candle¬ 
sticks,  the  altars,  the  tables,  which  v^ere  to  be 
used  in  the  worship  of  Jehovah,  that  he  was  a 
chosen  servant  of  God  no  less  than  the  priestly 
orders,  who  were  to  use  the  products  of  his  toil  ; 
that  God  had  ordained  him  to  do  the  very  work 
upon  which  his  life  was  being  spent,  and  that. 


286 


SECTION  120.  LIBERALITY  RESTRAINED. 


therefore,  he  must  be  in  the  line  of  his  highest 
dut3^  But  the  case  of  Bezalel  was  not  a  peculiar 
and  distinct  one.  God  has  an  infinite  diversity 
of  callings  in  which  he  wishes  men,  according 
to  their  natural  fitness,  to  feel  themselves 
placed.  There  are  not  only  called  preachers, 
but  called  merchants,  called  teachers,  called 
farmers,  called  jihj^sicians,  called  smiths  and 
carpenters,  called  housekeepers,  called  states¬ 
men,  called  lawj^ers,  it  may  be,  called  soldiers 
and  politicians.  Every  life  then  which  occu¬ 
pies  itself  with  anj’’  part  of  God’s  work  is  of 
Divine  ordination,  and  every  soul  that  honestly 
and  faithfully  devotes  itself  to  that  pursuit, 
toward  which  natural  fitness  points  it  or  into 
which  circumstances  force  it,  may  feel  that  it 
is  in  the  line  of  a  Divine  appointment.  No 
man  need  murmur  then  that  so  much  of  his 
time  must  necessarily  be  squandered,  and  so 
much  of  his  ability  be  wasted  upon  things 
which  have  no  heavenly  bearing  or  result.  Najq 
we  may  oftentimes  feel  that  God  has  thrust 
some  form  of  life  upon  us  that  we  may  teach 
the  world  some  grand  lesson  of  endurance,  or 
patience,  or  fortitude,  which  could  not  have 
been  disclosed  had  we  been  allowed  to  take  any 
other  place.  Rowland. 

When  Tychicus  is  caring  for  Paul’s  comfort, 
and  looking  after  common  things  for  him,  he  is 
serving  Christ,  and  his  work  is  “in  the  Lord.” 
That  is  equivalent  to  saying  that  the  distinction 
between  sacred  and  secular,  religious  and  non¬ 
religious,  like  that  of  great  and  small,  disap¬ 
pears  from  work  done  for  and  in  Jesus.  When¬ 
ever  there  is  organization  there  must  be  much 
work  concerned  with  purely  material  things  ; 
and  the  most  spiritual  forces  must  have  some 
organization.  There  must  be  men  for  “  the 
outward  business  of  the  house  of  God,”  as 
well  as  the  white-robed  priests  at  the  altar  and 
the  rapt  gazer  in  the  secret  place  of  the  Most 
High.  There  are  a  hundred  matters  of  detail 
and  of  purel}'  outward  and  mechanical  nature 
which  must  be  seen  to  by  somebody.  The  al¬ 
ternative  is  to  do  them  in  a  purely  mechanical 
and  secular  manner,  and  so  to  make  the  work 
utterly  dreary  and  contemptible,  or  in  a  devout 
and  earnest  manner,  and  so  to  hallow  them  all, 
and  make  worship  of  them  all.  The  difference 
between  two  lives  is  not  in  the  material  on 
which,  but  in  the  motive  from  which,  and  in 
the  end  for  which  they  are  respectively  lived. 
All  work  done  in  obedience  to  the  same  Lord 
is  the  same  in  essence,  for  it  is  all  obedience  ; 
and  all  work  done  for  the  same  God  is  the  same 
in  essence,  for  it  is  all  worship.  The  distinc¬ 
tion  between  secular  and  sacred  ought  never  to 


have  found  its  waj^  into  Christian  morals,  and 
ought  forevermore  to  be  expelled  from  Chris¬ 
tian  life.  A.  M. 

One  place  may  be  as  holy  as  another  ;  and  all 
action  done  under  the  leading  of  the  Spirit  is 
equally  accepted  of  God.  There  is  no  neces¬ 
sary'  part  of  life  which  may  not  be  inspired  by 
the  Divine  Spirit,  whether  it  be  work  or  play', 
social  converse  or  public  worship.  As  God  has 
planned  out  our  lives  in  the  circumstances  in 
which  we  act,  with  the  existing  demands  for 
labor,  social  intercourse,  and  recreation,  as  well 
as  for  worshij)  and  religious  instruction,  his 
Spirit,  if  duly  sought,  will  be  with  us  equally 
in  the  whole  round  of  life’s  activities.  As  w'e 
need  him  in  all,  he  w'ill  fail  us  in  none.  To  be 
true  to  God  always,  and  to  find  him  every'where  ; 
to  live  ever  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  to  be  sim¬ 
ple,  innocent,  natural,  and  loving  in  all  rela¬ 
tionships  ;  to  be  filled  with  the  Holy  Ghost  ; 
to  rise  easily'  and  spontaneously'  from  fact  to 
truth,  from  nature  to  God,  from  the  human  to 
the  Divine  ;  to  accept  with  the  same  spirit  of 
consecration  and  obedience  w'hatever  seems  to 
lie  in  the  order  of  Providence  for  us  to  do, 
whether  it  be  private  or  public,  little  or  great, 
secular  or  ecclesiastical,  work  or  play — is  what 
we  mean  by'  sj)irituality.  W.  W.  Patton. 

God  i^ut  it  into  the  hearts  of  Bezalel  and 
Oholiab  to  tea,ch  others,  w'ho  received  their  skill, 
therefore,  proximately  from  them,  but  primarily' 
and  efficiently  from  God.  This  is  an  example 
by  which  what  takes  i:)lace  in  spiritual  matters 
might  also  be  illustrated.  God  endows  and 
qualifies  men  to  be  the  teachers  of  Christian¬ 
ity  ;  and  he  is  also  to  every  Christian  the  author 
of  all  the  spiritual  w'isdom  which  he  possesses. 
Yet  though  taught  by  him  this  does  not  super 
sede  the  work  of  human  instructors,  for  it  is 
generally  through  them  that  he  teaches  the 
knowledge  of  himself,  and  of  Jesus  Christ  whom 
to  know  is  life  everlasting.  While  depending 
then  on  the  Spirit  of  God  for  a  right  under¬ 
standing  of  the  things  of  God,  let  us  avail  our¬ 
selves  of  all  the  human  helps  which  he  has  so 
often  sanctioned  both  by  the  examples  and  the 
exhortations  of  his  Word.  T.  C. 

Liberality  Excessive  and  Restrained. 

“And  Moses  gave  commandment,  and  they 
caused  it  to  be  proclaimed  throughout  the 
camp,  saying  :  Let  neither  man  nor  w'oman 
make  any  more  w'ork  for  the  offering  of  the 
sanctuary'.  So  the  people  were  restrained  from 
bringing.”  There  is  something  striking  in  this 
account  in  the  way  of  evidence  of  the  high  state 
of  revival  of  religious  feeling  among  the  people 


SECTION  121. 


287 


after  their  scandalous  fall.  It  is  analogous  to 
tli3  evidence  recorded  of  the  holy  zeal  of  the 
Christians  in  the  revival  at  Pentecost  in  the 
New  Testament.  The  artificers  or  artisans  who 
took  charge  of  the  work — though  their  work  was 
not  yet  done  and  they  could  only  determine 
that  according  to  their  best  judgment  a  suffi¬ 
ciency  of  materials  had  been  furnished — seem  to 
have  been  so  very  honest  and  of  so  strict  integ¬ 
rity  as  not  to  have  desired  any  overplus,  which 
they  might  appropriate  as  perquisites.  S.  K. 

Where  do  we  now  find  men  acting  so  fully  on 
the  voluntary  principle  ?  How  small  a  propor¬ 
tion  of  the  benevolent  offerings  of  Christians  are 
broughl  to  the  Lord’s  treasury  ?  Instead  of  this 
they  must  be  se7it  or  called  for.  How  different 
from  the  full-souled  and  spontaneous  prompt¬ 
ings  of  the  Israelitish  donors  on  this  occasion  ! 
They  needed  simply  to  have  a  want  stated,  and 
then  without  waiting  for  duty  to  be  inculcated, 
appeals  urged,  a  precise  amount  prescribed, 
or  a  messenger  sent,  they  become  the  carriers 
of  their  own  gifts  and  pour  them  in  without 
stint  till  checked  by  a  public  proclamation  ! 

Sum  of  Gold,  Silver,  and  Copper  Contributed. 

The  gold  weighed  29  talents  and  730  shekels, 
if  we  allow  3000  shekels  to  the  talent  of  125 
pounds  ;  and  this  at  £4  the  ounce  would  be 
equal  to  £175,000  sterling,  or  nearly  $877,000. 
The  silver  was  100  talents  and  1775  shekels, 
being  a  half  shekel  from  all  the  males  above 
twenty  years  of  age  when  the^^  came  out  of 
Egypt,  whose  number  was  603,550  ;  the  whole 
value  of  this  would,  at  5s.  the  ounce,  be  £39,- 
721,  or  nearly  $188,605.  The  brass,  or  rather 
copper,  was  70  talents  and  24,000  shekels,  which 
if  valued  at  Is.  3d  the  pound  avoirdupois 
would  be  worth  £138,  or  $690.  The  amount  of 
these  several  sums  would  not  be  less  than  £213,- 
320,  or  $1,066,600.  Rut  this  amount  does  not 
include  the  curtains  of  the  enclosure,  the  cover¬ 
ings  of  the  tabernacle,  the  dress  of  the  high- 
priest  and  its  jewels,  the  dresses  of  the  common 
priests,  or  the  value  of  the  skill  and  labor  em- 
plo,\ed  in  the  work,  the  whole  of  which  may  be 
fairly  taken  to  have  raised  its  value  to  the  im¬ 
mense  sum  of  £250,000,  or  $1,250,000  ! 

The  grand  reason  for  employing  so  great  an 
amount  of  riches  in  the  construction  of  the 


tabernacle  and  its  furniture  was  undoubtedly 
twofold  :  (1)  To  impress  the  minds  of  the  chosen 
people  with  the  glory  and  dignity  of  the  Divine 
Majesty,  and  the  importance  of  his  service  ;  and 
(2)  To  convey  through  the  gorgeousness  and 
splendor  of  the  external  ritual  an  intimation  of 
the  essential  and  transcendent  beauty,  excel¬ 
lence,  and  glory  of  the  spiritual  things  that 
were  shadowed  out  by  it.  It  was  only  by  means 
of  such  a  sensuous  apparatus  of  worship  that 
they  could  receive  the  inner  essential  truths 
which  it  involved.  Bush. 

The  Israelites  had  left  Egypt  the  year  in 
which  they  made  this  contribution  for  the  con¬ 
struction  of  the  tabernacle.  Though  many  of 
them  were  employed  in  servile  labors,  yet  the 
people  as  a  whole  must  have  been  possessed  of 
considerable  wealth.  To  this  the  Egyptians 
made  a  considerable  accession  at  their  depart¬ 
ure.  The  sum  here  contributed  is  moderate 
in  comparison  with  the  enormous  treasures 
amassed  by  the  Assyrians,  the  Babylonians,  the 
Arabians,  and  the  Egyptians  themselves.  M. 


Thus,  on  the  jDart  of  the  people,  there  were 
abundant  tokens  of  thorough  repentance.  One 
of  these  was  their  alacrity  to  set  about  the  work 
of  erecting  the  tabernacle.  All  was  enthusiasm 
in  the  camp.  Men  and  women  vied  with  each 
other  in  thoughtful  and  diligent  endeavor.  An¬ 
other  was  the  abounding  liberality.  So  profuse 
was  it  that  the  receivers  of  the  jDeople’s  contri¬ 
butions  had  more  than  they  knew  what  to  do 
with,  so  that  the  people  had  actually  to  be  re¬ 
strained  from  giving.  If  the  Church  of  Christ 
only  realized  the  exceeding  grace  of  God,  and 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  as  these  people  real¬ 
ized  the  grace  of  Jehovah  and  his  servant  Moses 
on  this  occasion,  all  our  mission  treasuries 
would  overflow,  and  instead  of  ever-renewed 
appeals  for  more,  the  difficulty  would  be  to  re¬ 
strain  the  people  from  giving.  Finally,  there 
was  the  minutest  and  most  careful  obedience  to 
all  the  instructions  which  had  been  given  for 
the  building  of  the  tabernacle  and  its  furniture, 
so  that  when  all  the  work  was  completed,  we 
are  told  that  “  Moses  did  look  upon  all  the 
work,  and,  behold,  they  had  done  it  as  the  Lord 
had,  commanded,  even  so  had  they  done  it.” 
J.  M.  G. 


Section  121. 

THE  TABERNACLE  :  NAMES  ;  STRUCTURE  AND  APPEARANCE  ;  INNER  VEIL  AND 
OUTER  SCREEN  ;  WANING  AND  DESIGN  ;  SYMBOLISM  AND  TYPES. 

Exodus  26  :  1-33,  36,  37  ;  36  :  8-38. 


288 


SECTION  121.  THE  TABERNACLE. 


26  1  Moeeover  tliou  shalt  make  the  tabernacle  with  ten  curtains  ;  of  fine  twined  linen, 
and  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  with  cherubim  the  work  of  the  cunning  workman  shalt  thou 

2  make  them,  The.  length  of  each  curtain  shall  be  eight  and  tw'enty  cubits,  and  the  breadth  of 

3  each  curtain  four  cubits  :  all  the  curtains  shall  have  one  measure.  Five  curtains  shall  be 
coupled  together  one  to  another  ;  and  the  other'  five  curtains  shall  be  coupled  one  to  another. 

4  And  thou  shalt  make  loops  of  blue  upon  the  edge  of  the  one  curtain  from  the  selvedge  in  the 
coupling  ;  and  likewise  shalt  thou  make  in  the  edge  of  the  curtain  that  is  outmost  in  the  sec- 

5  ond  coupling.  Fifty  loops  shalt  thou  make  in  the  one  curtain,  and  fifty  loops  shalt  thou 
make  in  the  edge  of  the  curtain  that  is  in  the  second  coupling  ;  the  loops  shall  be  opposite 

G  one  to  another.  And  thou  shalt  make  fifty  clasps  of  gold,  and  couple  the  curtains  one  to 

7  another  w'ith  the  clasps  :  and  the  tabernacle  shall  be  one.  And  thou  shalt  make  curtains  of 

8  goats’  hair  for  a  tent  over  the  tabernacle  :  eleven  curtains  shalt  thou  make  them.  The  length 
of  each  curtain  shall  be  thirty  cubits,  and  the  breadth  of  each  curtain  four  cubits  :  the  eleven 

9  curtains  shall  ho.ve  one  measure.  And  thou  shalt  coujrle  five  curtains  by  themselves,  and  six 
curtains  by  themselves,  and  shalt  double  over  the  sixth  curtain  in  the  forefront  of  the  tent. 

10  And  thou  shalt  make  fifty  loops  on  the  edge  of  the  one  curtain  that  is  outmost  in  the  coup¬ 
ling,  and  fifty  loops  upon  the  edge  of  the  curtain  which  is  oidwost  in  the  second  coupling. 

11  And  thou  shalt  make  fifty  clasps  of  brass,  and  put  the  clasps  into  the  loops,  and  couple  the 

12  tent  together,  that  it  may  be  one.  And  the  overhanging  part  that  remaineth  of  the  curtains 

13  of  the  tent,  the  half  curtain  that  remaineth,  shall  hang  over  the  back  of  the  tabernacle.  And 
the  cubit  on  the  one  side,  and  the  cubit  on  the  other  side,  of  that  which  remaineth  in  the 
length  of  the  curtains  of  the  tent,  shall  hang  over  the  sides  of  the  tabernacle  on  this  side  and 

14  on  that  side,  to  cover  it  And  thou  shalt  make  a  covering  for  the  tent  of  rams’  skins  dyed 
red,  and  a  covering  of  sealskins  above, 

15  And  thou  shalt  make  the  boards  for  the  tabernacle  of  acacia  wood,  standing  up.  Ten  cubits 

16  shall  be  the  length  of  a  board,  and  a  cubit  and  a  half  the  breadth  of  each  board.  Two  tenons 

17  shall  there  be  in  each  board,  joined  one  to  another  :  thus  shalt  thou  make  for  all  the  boards 

18  of  the  tabernacle.  And  thou  shalt  make  the  boards  for  the  tabernacle,  twenty  boards  for  the 

19  south  side  southward.  And  thou  shalt  make  forty  sockets  of  silver  under  the  twenty  boards  ; 
two  sockets  under  one  board  for  its  two  tenons,  and  two  sockets  under  another  board  for  its 

20  tw^o  tenons  :  and  for  the  second  side  of  the  tabernacle,  on  the  north  side,  twenty  boards  :  and 

21  their  forty  sockets  of  silver  ;  two  sockets  under  one  board,  and  two  sockets  under  another 

22  board.  And  for  the  hinder  part  of  the  tabernacle  w'estward  thou  shalt  make  six  boards. 

23  And  two  boards  shalt  thou  make  for  the  corners  of  the  tabernacle  in  the  hinder  part.  And 

24  they  shall  be  double  beneath,  and  in  like  manner  they  shall  be  entire  unto  the  top  thereof 

25  unto  one  ring  :  thus  shall  it  be  for  them  both  ;  they  shall  be  for  the  two  corners.  And  there 

shall  be  eight  boards,  and  their  sockets  of  silver,  sixteen  sockets  ;  two  sockets  under  one 

26  board,  and  two  sockets  under  another  board.  And  thou  shalt  make  bars  of  acacia  wood  ;  five 

27  for  the  boards  of  the  one  side  of  the  tabernacle,  and  five  bars  for  the  boards  of  the  other  side 
of  the  tabernacle,  and  five  bars  for  the  boards  of  the  side  of  the  tabernacle,  for  the  hinder  joart 

28  westsvard.  And  the  middle  bar  in  the  midst  of  the  boards  shall  pass  through  from  end  to 

29  end.  And  thou  shalt  overlay  the  boards  with  gold,  and  make  their  rings  of  gold  for  places 

30  for  the  bars  :  and  thou  shalt  overlay  the  bars  with  gold.  And  thou  shalt  rear  up  the  taber¬ 

nacle  according  to  the  fashion  thereof  which  hath  been  shew'ed  thee  in  the  mount. 

31  And  thou  shalt  make  a  veil  of  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  fine  twined  linen  :  with 

32  cherubim  the  w^ork  of  tlie  cunning  workman  shall  it  be  made  :  and  thou  shalt  hang  it  upon 
four  pillars  of  acacia  overlaid  with  gold,  their  hooks  shall  he  of  gold,  upon  four  sockets  of 

33  silver.  And  thou  shalt  hang  up  the  veil  under  the  clasps,  and  shalt  bring  in  thither  within 
the  veil  the  ark  of  the  testimony  ;  and  the  veil  shall  divide  unto  you  between  the  holy  place 

36  and  the  most  holy.  And  thou  shalt  make  a  screen  for  the  door  of  the  Tent,  of  blue,  and 

37  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  fine  twined  linen,  the  work  of  the  embroiderer.  And  thou  shalt 
make  for  the  screen  five  pillars  of  acacia,  and  overlay  them  with  gold  ;  their  hooks  shall  be  of 
gold  ;  and  thou  shalt  cast  five  sockets  of  brass  for  them. 


Note. — The  text  of  the  36th  chapter  does  not 
contain  verses  12,  13,  and  30  of  the  above,  and 
lliere  is  a  slight  and  unimportant  difference  in 
the  first  and  the  last  verses  of  the  two  chapters. 


Otherwise  the  substance  of  the  two  is  identical, 
one  containing  the  command  and  the  other  its 
execution.  The  latter  text  is  therefore  omitted. 
The  several  parts  of  the  structure  are  as  fol- 


ITS  CHARACTER  AND  NAMES, 


^89 


lows  :  Ten  curtains  with  cherubim  for  the  in¬ 
terior  (26  : 1-6  ;  36  :  8-13).  Eleven  curtains  for 
covering  and  exterior  (26  :  7-14  ;  36  :  14-19). 
Boards  for  framework  (26  ;  15-25  ;  36  :  20-30). 
Bars  for  holding  the  boards  together  (26  :  26-29). 
The  veil  dividing  “  the  Holy  place  and  the  Most 
Holy”  (26  : 31-33  ;  36  :  35,  36).  The  “  screen 
for  the  door  of  the  Tent  ”  and  its  pillars 
(26:36,37).  B. 

So  accurate  is  the  counterpart  between  the 
order  and  the  execution,  that  the  one  may  in 
most  instances  be  translated  into  the  other  by  a 
mere  change  of  tense.  What  is  told  to  Moses 
in  the  earlier  chapter  as  the  thing  he  shall 
make,  is  in  the  later  chapter  told  by  him  as 

that  which  was  made.  T.  C. - In  the  com 

mand  of  God,  the  ark,  the  table,  the  candlestick, 
are  first  described,  because  they  are  of  the  most 
importance  ;  and  the  tabernacle  is  built  for 
their  sake  ;  but  naturally,  in  the  account  of  the 
preparation  and  construction,  the  building  must 

precede  the  furniture  thereof.  Gerl. - The 

narrative  begins  with  the  tabernacle  itself,  which 
is  the  largest  piece  of  the  work.  But  we  may 
suppose  that  other  sets  of  workmen  were  en¬ 
gaged  on  the  furniture,  the  court,  and  the 
priestly  dresses.  It  was  necessary  also  that  the 
tabernacle  should  be  ready  for  the  sacred  uten¬ 
sils  as  soon  as  they  were  prepared.  M. 

Nothing  would  be  less  in  accordance  with  the 
natural  order  of  a  history  written  at  a  later  period 
than  this  double  account.  It  has  been  repre¬ 
sented  as  an  argument  for  a  double  authorshij^, 
as  though  two  sets  of  documents  had  been  care¬ 
lessly  or  surreptitiously  adopted  by  a  compiler. 
It  is,  however,  fully  accounted  for  by  the  obvi¬ 
ous  hj^pothesis  that  each  part  of  the  narrative 
was  written  at  the  time  and  on  the  occasion  to 
which  it  immediately  refers.  Wlien  Moses  re¬ 
ceived  these  instructions,  he  wrote  a  full  ac¬ 
count  of  them  for  the  information  of  the  people. 
When,  again,  Moses  had  executed  his  task,  it 
was  equally  appropriate,  and'  doubtless  also  in 
accordance  with  the  habits  of  a  people  keen 
and  jealous  in  the  management  of  their  affairs, 
and  at  no  time  free  from  tendencies  to  sus¬ 
picion,  that  he  should  give  a  formal  account  of 
every  detail  in  its  execution  ;  a  proof  to  such  as 
might  call  for  proof  that  all  their  precious  offer¬ 
ings  had  been  devoted  to  the  purpose,  and  what 
was  of  far  more  importance,  that  the  Divine  in¬ 
structions  had  been  completely  and  literally 
obeyed. 

In  form,  structure,  and  materials,  the  taber¬ 
nacle  belongs  altogether  to  the  wilderness.  The 
wood  used  in  the  structure  is  found  there  in 
abundance.  The  skins  and  other  native  ma- 
19 


terials  belong  equally  to  the  locality.  One  ma¬ 
terial  which  entered  largely  into  the  construc¬ 
tion,  the  skin  of  the  tachasch,  was  in  all  i^roba- 
bility  derived  from  the  Bed  Sea.  The  metals, 
bronze,  silver,  and  gold,  were  those  which  the 
Israelites  knew  and  doubtless  brought  with 
them  from  Egypt.  It  is  also  certain  that  the 
arts  required  for  the  construction  of  the  taber¬ 
nacle,  and  for  all  its  accessories,  were  precisely 
those  for  which  the  Egyptians  had  been  remark¬ 
able  for  ages,  and  such  as  artisans  who  had  lived 
under  the  influence  of  Eg5'ptian  civilization 
would  naturally  have  learned.  Cook. 

The  tabernacle  w^as  a  portable  temple,  as  no 
other  kind  of  structure  would  have  suited  a 
nomad  people  ;  and  among  a  tent-dwelling 
people,  that  temple  would  naturally  be  a  tent, 
or  a  movable  fabric  of  wood.  Until  the  Israel¬ 
ites  were  settled  in  the  land  of  promise,  their 
sacred  edifice  must  necessarily  be  such  as  they 
could  easilj’’  take  to  pieces  and  transfer  from 
place  to  place.  It  was  intended  as  a  habitation 
of  the  visible  symbol  of  Jehovah,  who  is  em¬ 
phatically  designated  “  the  God  of  Israel.”  .  .  . 
In  order  that  the  Hebrews  might  have  their  re¬ 
lation  to  God  kept  constantly  before  their  eyes, 
the  Most  High,  as  their  King,  caused  a  royal 
tent  to  be  erected  in  the  centre  of  the  encamj)- 
ment,  where  the  pavilions  of  all  kings  and 
chiefs  were  usually  erected,  and  to  be  fitted  up 
with  all  the  splendor  of  ro3^a]ty,  as  a  movable 
palace. 

The  tabernacle  possessed  the  twofold  charac¬ 
ter  of  a  sanctuary,  or  place  of  worship,  and  of  a 
royal  'palace  where  Jehovah  would  keep  the 
state  of  a  court,  as  supreme  civil  magistrate  and 
King  of  Israel  ;  from  whence  he  would  issue  his 
laws  and  commandments  as  from  an  oracle,  and 
where  he  was  to  receive  the  homage  and  tribute 
of  his  subjects.  This  idea  of  the  tabernacle,  as 
in  part  that  of  a  palace  for  a  king,  will  seem 
perfectly  clear  to  every  one  who  notes  carefully 
the  terms  in  which  this  building,  and  also  the 
temple,  are  spoken  of  and  referred  to  through¬ 
out  the  Scriptures  ;  and  we  doubt  not  it  is  a 
view  essential  to  the  right  understanding  of 
these  structures  and  the  things  which  belong 
to  them.  It  is  a  view  also  which  is  held  by  the 
Jews  themselves,  who  carry  out  the  analogy, 
and  regard  the  utensils  of  the  tabernacle  as  pal¬ 
ace  furniture,  and  the  priests  as  its  ministers  of 
state  and  officers.  Bush. 

Names  of  the  Tabernacle. 

The  names  of  this  Tabernacle  are  full  of  sig¬ 
nificance  ;  it  is  called  the  “House”  or  “  Dwell¬ 
ing-place  of  God,”  the  “Tent  of  meeting  or 


290 


SECTION  121.  THE  TABERNACLE. 


assembl3%”  as  tlie  place  where  God  himself 
dwells  among  his  people,  and  through  which  he 
enters  into  communion  with  them — “  the  Tent 
of  testimony”  (Nu.  9  :  15),  as  the  place  where  the 
Law  was  kept the  Sanctuar}’,”  as  the  place 
which  belonged  exclusively  to  God,  the  Holy 
One,  being  severed  from  all  that  is  earthlj",  hu¬ 
man,  sinful.  The  place  where  the  Holy  One  of 
Israel  revealed  himself,  and  entered  into  com¬ 
munication  with  his  people,  consisted  of  two 
parts  :  (1)  The  Holiest  of  all,  God’s  especial 
dwelling-place,  which,  both  in  this  tabernacle 
and  in  the  temple  afterward,  was  completely 
dark.  Into  this  the  high-priest  only,  on  the 
day  of  expiation,  might  enter,  veiled  in  a  cloud 
of  incense.  (2)  The  Holy  place,  where  the  peo¬ 
ple,  through  their  consecrated  mediators  and 
intercessors,  the  priests,  might  draw  near  to 
their  King.  Therefore  the  whole  people  is  rep¬ 
resented,  if  righteous,  as  dwelling  on  the  holy 
hill  in  the  tabernacle  of  the  Lord  (Ps.  15  : 1  ; 
23  :  6  ;  27  ;  4).  Gerl. 

Most  commonly,  when  a  single  name  is  used, 
it  is  that  which  answers  to  our  word  dwelling  or 
hahitaHon.  Sometimes  we  find  the  more  definite 
term  house,  the  house  of  God,  or  the  Lord’s 
house,  or  tent.  The  dwelling  in  its  original 
form  was  a  tent,  because  the  people  among 
whom  God  came  to  reside  and  hold  converse 
v/ere  then  dwelling  in  tents,  and  had  not  yet 
come  to  their  settled  habitation.  But  afterward 
this  tent  was  supplanted  by  the  temple  in  Je¬ 
rusalem,  which  bore  the  same  relation  to  the 
ceiled  houses  in  the  land  of  Israel  that  the  orig¬ 
inal  tabernacle  held  to  the  tents  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness.  And  coming,  as  the  Temple  thus  did,  in 
the  room  of  the  Tabernacle,  and  holding  the 
same  relative  position,  it  was  sometimes  spoken 
of  as  the  Tent  of  God,  though  more  commonly 
it  received  the  appellation  of  the  house  of  God, 
or  his  hahitation.  Besides  these  names,  certain 
descriptive  epithets  were  applied  to  the  taber¬ 
nacle.  It  was  called  the  Tent  of  meeting,  for 
which  our  version  has  unhappily  substituted 
the  tent  of  the  congregation.  The  expression  is 
intended  to  designate  this  tent  or  dwelling  as 
the  place  in  which  God  was  to  meet  and  con¬ 
verse  with  his  people  ;  not,  as  is  too  commonly 
supposed,  the  place  where  the  children  of  Israel 
were  to  assemble,  and  in  which  they  had  a  com¬ 
mon  interest.  It  was  this  certainly  ;  but  merely 
because  it  was  another  and  higher  thing— be¬ 
cause  it  formed  for  all  of  them  the  one  point  of 
contact  and  channel  of  intercourse  between 
heaven  and  earth.  The  tabernacle  is  again  de¬ 
scribed  as  the  Tabernacle  of  the  Testimony,  or 
Tent  of  witness.  It  received  this  designation 


from  the  law  of  the  two  tables,  which  were 
placed  in  the  ark  or  chest  that  stood  in  the 
innermost  sanctuary.  These  tables  were  called 
“  the  Testimony,”  and  the  ark  which  contained’ 
them  “  the  Ark  of  the  Testimony.”  whence, 
also,  the  whole  tabernacle  was  called  the  taber¬ 
nacle  or  tent  of  the  testimony.  For  God  dwells 
in  his  Law,  which  makes  known  what  he  him¬ 
self  is,  and  on  what  terms  he  will  hold  fellow-  * 
ship  with  men.  P.  F. 

The  essential  significance  of  the  tabernacle 
may  be  inferred  from  the  names  customarily 
given  to  it.  1st.  Those  which,  like  house,  tent, 
abode,  abode  of  the  testimony,  convey  the  general 
idea  of  a  place  of  Divine  residence  ;  2d.  Those 
which,  like  tent  of  assembly,  or  tenl-house  of  as¬ 
sembly,  express  the  idea  of  a  meeting-place  for 
God  and  man  ;  and  3d.  Those  which,  like  sanc¬ 
tuary,  draw  attention  to  holiness  as  an  attribute 
of  the  place  itself.  As  examples  ot  the  first  class, 
Ex.  23  :  19  :  25  :  9  ;  26  : 36  ;  38  :  21  ;  of  the 
second  class.  Ex.  27  : 21  ;  39  :  32  ;  of  the  third 
class,  Ex.  25  :  8.  Now,  a  house  where  God  was 
or  was  supposed  to  be  must  be  a  place  for  wor¬ 
ship,  and  a  place  for  Divine  worship  must  of 
necessity  be  holy  ground  ;  thus  one  fundamental 
idea  lay  at  the  root  of  all  these  appellations — 
viz.,  that  the  tabernacle  was  a  meeting-place 
between  Jehovah  and  his  covenant  people. 
There  Jehovah  was  to  be  thought  peculiarly 
present,  and  therefore  peculiarly  approachable. 
There  I  will  meet,  is  the  Lord’s  declaration  to 
Moses  (Ex.  29  : 42,  43),  with  the  children  of  Israel, 
and  the  habitation  shall  be  sanctified  by  my  glory. 
And  I  will  dwell  among  them,  and  will  be  their 
God.  Gave.  < 

Stkuctuee  and  Appeakance. 

The  tabernacle  had  an  outer  and  an  inner 
compartment,  a  Holy  and  a  Most  Holy  Place, 
or,  as  they  are  sometimes  called,  the  Sanctuarj" 
and  the  Holy  of  Holies.  The  innermost  com¬ 
partment  was  the  smaller  in  compass,  but  the 
more  perfect  in  its  proportions,  being  an  exact 
cube  of  ten  cubits,  the  length,  height,  and  breadth 
being  equal.  From  the  modes  of  thought  prev¬ 
alent  in  ancient  times  respecting  number,  this 
would  quite  readily  convey  the  idea  of  com¬ 
pleteness.  The  cube  form  alone,  with  whatever 
number  associated,  might  have  suggested  this 
—  as  in  the  case  of  the  New  Jerusalem  seen  in 
the  apocalyptic  vision,  where  attention  is  spe¬ 
cially  called  to  the  circumstance  that  “  the  length, 
and  the  breadth,  and  the  height  were  equal 
but  the  cube  being  formed  of  ten,  itself  a  sym¬ 
bol  of  perfection,  would  naturally  serve  to 
strengthen  the  impression.  This  region  of 


STRUG  TUBE  AND  APPEARANCE. 


291 


innermost  sacredness  and  perfection  was  sep¬ 
arated  from  the  other  part  of  the  tabernacle  by 
a  curtain  or  veil,  which  was  formed  of  the  same 
kind  of  material,  and  inwrought  with  the  same 
figures  as  the  curtain  which  formed  the  interior 
of  the  roof,  and  probably  also  of  the  walls  of 
the  structure.  The  curtain  was  suspended  from 
four  pillars,  overlaid  with  gold.  Then  from 
this  to  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  was  a  space  of 
twenty  cubits  in  length  by  ten  in  breadth  and 
height— the  proportions,  though  larger,  being 
nianifestl}’’  less  perfect  ;  while  also  the  curtain 
which  hung  over  the  doorway  or  entrance  was 
without  the  cherubic  figures  inwoven,  and  was 
suspended  by  golden  hooks  upon  five  pillars. 
But  there  was  a  sacred  region  without,  as  well 
as  these  two  hallowed  compartments  within,  the 
tabernacle  ;  an  outer  court,  surrounding  the 
tabernacle  on  every  side,  one  hundred  cubits 
long  and  fifty  cubits  broad,  enclosed  by  a  screen 
of  linen. 

Looking  now  to  the  structure  and  appearance 
of  ihe  Tabernacle,  we  might  certainly  expect  the 
following  characteristics  :  that,  being  a  tent  or 
movable  habitation,  it  would  be  constructed  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  present  somewhat  of  the 
general  aspect  of  such  tenements,  and  be  adapted 
for  removals  from  place  to  place  ;  and  that, 
being  the  Tent  of  God,  it  would  be  fashioned 
within  and  without  so  as  to  manifest  the  pecul¬ 
iar  sacredness  and  grandeur  of  its  destination. 
This  is  precisely  what  wm  find  to  have  been  the 
case.  Like  tents  generally,  it  was  longer  than 
broad — thirty  cubits  long  by  ten  broad  ;  and 
while  on  three  of  the  sides  possessing  wooden 
walls,  which  assimilated  it  in  a  measure  to  a 
house,  yet  these  were  composed  of  separate 
gilded  boards  or  planks,  rising  perpendicularly 
from  silver  sockets,  kept  together  by  means  of 
golden  rings,  through  which  transverse  bars 
were  passed,  and  hence  easily  taken  asunder 
when  a  removal  was  made.  But  neither  within 
nor  without  must  the  wooden  walls  be  seen, 
otherwise  the  appearance  of  a  tent  would  not  be 
preserved.  Hence  a  series  of  curtains  was  pro¬ 
vided,  the  innermost  of  which  was  formed  of 
fine  linen — ten  breadths,  five  of  which  were 
joined  together  to  make  each  one  curtain,  and 
the  two  curtains  were  again  united  together  by 
means  of  fifty  loops.  This  innermost  curtain 
or  covering  was  not  only  made  of  the  finest 
material,  but  was  also  variegated  with  diverse 
colors  and  cherubic  figures  inwrought.  Hence 
it  is  probably  to  be  regarded  as  the  tent  in  its 
interior  aspect,  consequently  not  merely  form¬ 
ing  the  roof  (where  there  were  no  wooden 
boards),  but  also  attached  by  some  means  to  the 


pillars  so  as  to  hang  down  inside  to  near  the 
floor  of  the  dwelling.  In  this  way,  at  least,  one 
can  more  easily  understand  why  it  should  be 
called  simplj’'  the  tabernacle  or  dwelling  {mish- 
kan)  both  at  Ex.  26  : 1,  where  the  direction  is 
given  for  making  the  curtains,  and  again  at 
verse  8,  where,  when  joined  together,  they  are 
represented  as  forming  one  dwelling  {mishkan). 
Then  over  this  another  set  of  curtains,  made  of 
goats’  hair,  was  thrown,  certainly  forming  an 
external  covering,  and,  being  two  cubits  longer 
than  the  other,  reaching  to  well-nigh  the  bottom 
of  the  boards.  To  this  day,  the  usual  texture  of 
Arabian  tents  is  of  goats’  hair  ;  and  this  being 
the  tent  proper  as  to  its  external  aspect,  it  was 
designated  the  tent,  as  the  other,  which  ap¬ 
peared  from  within,  was  called  the  habitation 
or  dwelling.  And  above  both  these  sets  of  cur¬ 
tains  a  double  coating  of  skins  was  thrown,  but 
merely  for  the  purpose  of  protection  from  the 
elements. 

These  parts  and  properties,  or  things  some¬ 
what  similar,  were  essential  to  this  sacred  erec¬ 
tion  as  a  tent  ;  it  could  not  have  possessed  its 
tent-like  appearance  without  them,  or  been 
adapted  for  moving  from  place  to  jilace.  There¬ 
fore,  to  seek  for  some  deeper  and  spiritual  rea¬ 
sons  for  such  things  as  the  boards  and  bars,  the 
rings  and  staves,  the  different  sorts  of  cover¬ 
ings,  the  loops  and  taches,  etc.,  is  to  go  entirely 
into  the  region  of  conjecture,  and  give  un¬ 
bounded  scope  to  the  exercise  of  fancy.  A  plain 
and  palpable  reason  existed  for  them  in  the 
very  nature  and  design  of  the  erection  ;  and 
why  should  this  not  suffice  ?  But  other  things, 
again,  were  necessary,  on  account  of  the  taber¬ 
nacle  being  not  simpl}^  a  tent,  but  the  tent  of 
the  Most  High  God,  for  purposes  of  fellowship 
between  him  and  his  people  — such  as  the  orna¬ 
mental  work  on  the  tapestry,  the  division  of  the 
tabernacle  into  more  than  one  apartment,  and 
the  encompassiug  it  with  a  fore  court  by  means 
of  an  enclosure  of  fine  linen,  which  in  a  manner 
proclaimed  to  the  approaching  worshippers, 
Procul  profani  1  That  the  apartments  should 
have  consisted  of  no  more  than  an  outer  and 
inner  sanctuary,  or  that  the  figures  wrought 
into  the  tapestry  should  have  been  precisely 
those  of  the  cherubim— in  these  we  may  well 
feel  ourselves  justified  in  searching  for  some 
more  special  instruction  ;  for  they  might  obvi¬ 
ously  have  been  ordered  otherwise,  and  were 
doubtless  ordered  thus  for  important  purposes. 
On  which  account,  both  characteristics  reappear 
in  the  temple  as  being  of  essential  and  abiding 
significance.  P.  F. 

The  tabernacle  was  to  comprise  three  main 


SECTION  121.  THE  TABERNACLE. 


292 


STRUCTURE  OF  THE  TABERN’ACLE,  ACCORUIN'G  TO  J.  FERGUSSOE". 


parts,  the  Tabeenacle,  more  strictly  so-called, 
its  Tent,  and  its  Covebing.  These  parts  are 
very  clearly  distinguished  in  the  Hebrew,  but 
they  are  confounded  in  many  places  of  the  Eng¬ 
lish  version.  The  Tabeknacle  itself  was  to  con¬ 
sist  of  curtains  of  fine  linen  woven  with  colored 
figures  of  cherubim,  and  a  structure  of  hoards 
which  was  to  contain  the  Holy  Place  and  the 
Most  Holy  Place  ;  the  Tent  was  to  be  a  true 
tent  of  goats’  hair  cloth  to  contain  and  shelter 
the  tabernacle  :  the  Coveking  was  to  be  of  red 
rams’  skins  and  tachash  skins,  and  was  spread 
over  the  goats’  hair  tent  as  an  additional  pro¬ 
tection  against  the  weather. 

1.  The  Tabeenacle.  ,  The  Hebrew  is  mishkan 
— i.e.,  dwelling-place.  When  it  denotes  the 
dwelling-place  of  Jehovah,  it  is  accompanied  by 
the  definite  article.  The  materials  for  the 
Mishkan  were  a  great  cloth  of  woven  work  fig¬ 
ured  with  cherubim  measuring  forty  cubits  by 
twentj’-eight  cubits,  and  a  quadrangular  en¬ 
closure  of  wood,  open  at  one  end,  ten  cubits  in 
height,  ten  cubits  in  width,  and  thirty  cubits  in 
length.  The  size  of  the  tabernacle  cloth  is  in¬ 
dicated  beyond  the  reach  of  doubt  by  the  num- 
ber  and  dimensions  of  the  ten  breadths  (or 

“  curtains”)  of  which  it  consisted.  Clark. - 

It  was  a  splendid  fabric  of  linen,  embroidered 
with  figures  of  cherubim,  in  blue,  purple,  and 
scarlet,  and  looped  together  by  golden  fasten¬ 
ings.  It  seems  probable  that  the  ends  of  this 
set  of  curtains  hung  down  within  the  tabernacle, 
forming  a  sumptuous  tapestry.  P.  S. 

The  boards  were  set  upright,  each  of  them 
being  furnished  at  its  lower  extremity  with  two 
tenons  which  fitted  into  mortises  in  two  heav}" 


bases  of  silver.  The  whole  of  these  bases. placed 
side  by  side  probably  formed  a  continuous  wall- 
plinth.  The  boards  were  furnished  with  rings 
or  loops  of  gold  so  fixed  as  to  form  rows,  when 
the  boards  were  set  up.  and  through  these  rings 
bars  were  thrust.  The  veil  which  separated  the 
Most  Holy  Place  from  the  Holy  Place  was  sus¬ 
pended  from  golden  hooks  attached  to  four  pil¬ 
lars  overlaid  with  gold,  standing  upon  silver 
bases.  Clark. 

The  front  of  the  sanctuary  was  closed  by  a 
hanging  of  fine  linen,  embroidered  in  blue, 
purple,  and  scarlet,  and  supported  by  golden 
hooks,  on  five  pillars  of  shittim  wood  overlaid 
with  gold,  and  standing  in  brass  sockets  ;  and 
the  covering  of  goats’  hair  was  so  made  as  to  fall 
down  over  this  when  required.  P.  S. 

2.  The  Tent  is  described  as  consisting  of  a 
great  tent  cloth  of  goats’  hair,  which,  according 
to  the  number  and  dimensions  of  its  breadths, 
was  forty-four  cubits  by  thirty,  and  five  pillars 
overlaid  with  gold  standing  on  bases  of  bronze, 
and  furnished  with  golden  hooks  from  which 
was  suspended  the  curtain  that  served  to  close 
the  entrance  of  the  Tent. 

3.  Of  the  CovEEiNGof  rams’  skins  and  tachash 
skins,  nothing  whatever  is  said  except  as  regards 
the  materials  of  which  it  was  composed.  Mr. 
Fergusson  suggests  what  may  be  regarded  as  a 
satisfactory  reconstruction  of  the  sanctuary  in 
all  its  main  particulars.  He  holds  that  what 
sheltered  the  Mishkan  Avas  actually  a  tent  of 
ordinary  form,  such  as  common-sense  and  prac 
tical  experience  would  suggest  as  best  suited  for 
the  purpose. 

According  to  this  view,  the  five  pillars  at  the 


sm  UCTURE.  VEILS. 


203 


entrance  of  the  tent  were  graduated  as  they 
would  naturally  be  at  the  entrance  of  any  large 
tent  of  the  best  form,  the  tallest  one  being  in 
the  middle  to  support  one  end  of  a  ridge-pole. 
Clark. 

The  Holy  of  Holies  was  divided  from  the  Holy 
Place  by  a  screen  otfour  pillars  supporting  cur¬ 
tains  which  no  one  was  allowed  to  pass.  But 
in  the  entrance  there  were  jive  pillars  in  a  similar 
space.  Now,  no  one  would  put  a  j^iHar  in  the 
centre  of  an  entrance  without  a  motive  ;  but  the 
moment  a  ridge  is  assumed  it  becomes  indis¬ 
pensable.  By  the  hypothesis  here  adopted  the 
pillars  in  front  would,  like  everything  else,  be 
spaced  exactly  five  cubits  ajiart.  Die.  B 

The  descriptions  in  Exodus  appear  to  pass 
over  all  particulars  of  the  construction  excejot 
those  which  formed  visible  features  in  the 
fabric.  On  this  ground  we  may^  be  allow^ed  to 
suppose  that  there  w'as  not  only  a  ridge-joole, 
but  a  series  of  pillars  at  the  back  of  the  tent 
corresponding  in  height  with  those  at  the  front. 
Such  a  ridge-pole,  which  must  have  been  sixty^ 
feet  in  length,  would  have  required  supjiort, 
and  this  might  have  been  afforded,  ia  accord-  j 
ance  with  the  usage  of  tent  architecture,  by  a 
plain  pole  in  the  middle  of  the  structure.  Over 
this  framing  of  wood- work  the  tent-cloth  of 
goats’  hair  was  strained  with  its  cords  and  tent- 
pins  in  the  usual  way.  There  must  also  have 
been  a  back-cloth  suspended  from  the  pillars 
at  the  back.  The  heads  of  the  pillars  appear  to 
have  been  united  by  connecting  rods  (in  our 
version  “  fillets”)  overlaid  with  gold. 

It  is  evident  that  the  relation  in  which  the 
measurement  of  the  tabernacle-cloth  stood  to 
that  of  the  tent-cloth  had  an  important  bearing 
on  the  place  of  each  of  them  in  the  structure. 
The  tent-cloth  is  said  to  have  extended  a  cubit 
on  each  side  beyond  the  tabernacle-cloth,  and 
it  appears  to  have  extended  two  cubits  at  the 
back  and  front.  It  would  appear  then  that  the 
tent-cloth  was  laid  over  the  tabernacle-cloth  so 
as  to  allow  the  excess  of  the  dimensions  of  the 
former  to  be  equally  divided  between  the  two 
sides  and  between  the  back  and  front.  We 
may  from  these  particulars  infer  that  the  taber¬ 
nacle-cloth  served  as  a  lining  to  the  other,  and 
that  they  were  both  extended  over  the  ridge¬ 
pole.  In  this  way,  the  effect  would  have  been 
produced  of  an  ornamented  open  roof  extend¬ 
ing  the  length  of  the  tent.  Mr.  Fergusson  has 
pointed  out  the  very  remarkable  consistency  of 
the  measurements  of  the  different  parts,  if  we 
accept  this  mode  of  putting  them  together.  He 
assumes  the  angle  formed  by  the  roof  to  have 
been  a  right  angle,  as  a  reasonable  and  usual 


I  angle  for  such  a  roof,  and  this  brings  the  only 
I  measurements  which  appear  at  first  sight  to  be 
abnormal  into  harmony.  Every  measurement 
given  in  the  text  is  a  multiple  of  five  cubits,  ex¬ 
cept  the  width  of  the  tabernacle-cloth,  which  ia 


twenty-eight  cubits,  and  the  length  of  the  tent- 
cloth,  which  is  forty-four  cubits.  With  a  right 
angle  at  the  ridge,  each  side  of  the  slope  as 
shown  in  this  section  would  be  within  a  frac¬ 
tion  of  fourteen  cubits  (14.08),  half  the  width  of 
the  tabernacle  cloth.  The  slope  is  here  carried 
just  five  cubits  beyond  the  wooden  walls  and  to 
within  just  five  cubits  of  the  ground.  The  tent- 
cl  )th  would  hang  down  in  a  valance  on  each 
side,  one  cubit  in  depth.  If  we  allow  the  taber¬ 
nacle  cloth,  according  to  this  arrangement,  to 
determine  the  length  of  the  tent  as  well  as  its 
width,  we  obtain  an  area  for  the  structure  of 
forty  cubits  by  twenty.  The  tent-cloth  would 
of  course  overhang  this  at  the  back  and  front 
by  two  cubits— that  is,  half  a  breadth.  The 
wooden  structure  being  placed  within  the  tent, 
there  would  be  a  space  allround  it  of  five  cubits 
in  width.  Clark. 

The  tabernacle  seems  to  have  had  no  floor  but 
the  naked  ground — a  singular  contrast  to  its 
embroidered  curtains  and  golden  vessels.  It 
pleased  the  Lord  to  take  the  dust  of  the  earth 
for  the  pavement  of  an  earthly  sanctuary.” 
D.  F. 

The  Inner  Veil  and  the  Outer  Screen. 

The  inner  shrine  or  recess  was  covered  by  a 
veil ;  the  sanctuary  w^as  divided  from  the  court 
by  a  screen.  By  both  the  people  were  admon¬ 
ished  how  reverently  God’s  majesty  must  be  re¬ 
garded,  and  with  what  seriousness  holy  things 
are  to  be  engaged  in.  The  veil  intimated  to  the 
Israelites  that  the  spiritual  worship  of  God  was 
as  yet  enshrouded  in  a  veil  ;  and  thus  might 
extend  their  faith  to  their  promised  Messiah,  at 
whose  coming  the  truth  would  be  discovered 
and  laid  bare.  Wherefore,  when  Christ  rose 
again  from  the  dead,  the  veil  of  the  temple 
was  rent  in  twain  from  the  top  to  the  bottom” 
(Matt.  27  : 51),  and  an  end  was  put  to  the  cere- 


294 


SECTION  121.  THE  TABERNACLE. 


monies  of  the  Law,  because  God  then  presented 
Himself,  in  His  living  and  express  image,  and 
the  perfect  reality  of  all  the  ceremonies  was 
manifested.  Now,  therefore,  in  the  light  of  the 
Gospel  we  behold  “  face  to  face”  what  was  then 
shown  afar  off  to  the  ancient  people  under 
coverings.  Galv. 

There  was  the  outer  court  for  the  laity  ;  there 
was  the  Holy  place  for  the  priests  ;  and  there 
was  the  Most  Holy  place  into  which  the  high- 
priest  went,  not  without  blood,  once  a  year. 
Before  the  Holy  of  Holies  there  hung  a  magnifi¬ 
cent  curtain  or  veil  ;  and  when  Jesus  said.  “  It 
is  finished  !”  this  veil,  which  was  in  the  taber¬ 
nacle  and  afterward  in  the  temple,  was  rent  in 
twain,  signifying  that  from  that  time  all  Levitical 
sacredness  was  gone  ;  that  all  distinction  be¬ 
tween  the  outer  and  the  inner  court,  the  holy 
of  holies  and  the  holy  place — all  was  gone. 
The  sacredness  now  is  made  by  the  work  in 
which  we  are  engaged.  “  Wherever  two  or 
three  are  met  in  my  name,  ”  says  the  Saviour, 
‘Uhere  am  I  in  the  midst  of  them” — tint  i  , 
there  is  a  true  Church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
But  while  the  ancient  economy  existed  this  dis¬ 
tinction  was  kept  up,  and  ever  taught  and  im¬ 
pressed  a  great  and  precious  truth — that  Christ 
must  come  an  I  die  and  enter  into  the  true  holy 
place,  before  there  could  be  access  from  grace 
to  glory,  from  the  outer  to  the  inner  court. 
J.  C. 

The  writer  to  the  Hebrews  says  (10  : 19,  20), 
“  Having  boldness  to  enter  into  the  holiest  by 
the  blood  of  Jesus,  by  a  new  and  living  way, 
Avhich  he  hath  consecrated  for  us,  through  the 
veil — that  is  to  say,  his  flesh,  let  us  draw  near.” 
Here  it  is  clear  that  the  veil  is  represented  as  in 
some  %vay  shadowing  forth  the  Jlesh  or  body  of 
Christ.  A  right  view  of  the  constitution  of 
Christ’s  person  as  God-Man  Mediator,  and  of 
the  prominent  place  which  he  holds  as  the  soul 
and  centre  and  substance  of  nearly  every  part  of 
the  typical  economy,  will  afford  a  clew  to  the 
solution  of  the  problem.  As  the  folds  of  the 
guiding  cloud  in  the  wilderness  enshrouded  the 
glory  of  Jehovah,  so  the  human  nature  or  body 
of  Christ,  while  he  tabernacled  on  earth,  served 
as  a  kind  of  temporary  envelope  or  veil  of  the 
Divine  nature  which  dwelt  within.  It  was  only 
at  his  death,  when  his  “  body  was  broken”  for 
the  sins  of  the  world,  that  this  intervening  cloud 
or  veil  was  entirely  rent  and  done  away,  and  a 
way  thus  opened  for  the  free  manifestation  of 
his  glory  and  maje.sty  to  all  believers,  whether 
Jews  or  Gentiles.  As  the  veil  of  the  tabernacle 
was  to  the  inner  abiding  glory  what  the  Saviour’s 
flesh  was  to  his  indwelling  Divinity,  it  was 


■  ordered  that  at  the  same  time  that  the  veil  of 
his  flesh  was  rent  upon  the  cross,  the  corre¬ 
sponding  veil  of  the  temple  was  “  rent  in  twain 
from  the  top  to  the  bottom,”  implying  that  a 
blessed  way  of  access  was  now  provided  into  the 
interior  of  the  heavenly  sanctuary,  of  which  the 
grand  characteristic  is,  that  it  is  to  have  “  the 
glory  of  God,”  and  from  thence  to  receive  its 
denomination,  “  Jehovah-Shammah,”  ike  Lord 
is  there.  Who  can  doubt  that  in  the  priestly 
service  the  High  Priest  himself,  the  sacrifice, 
and  the  altar,  all  found  their  substance  in 
Christ  ?  In  like  manner  may  the  veil  and  the 
inner  presence  both  point  also  to  him  ?  Bush. 

Meaning  and  Design  of  the  Tabernacle. 

Its  immediate  object  and  design  was  the 
bringing  of  God  near  to  the  Israelites  in  his  true 
character,  and  keeping  up  an  intercourse  be¬ 
tween  him  and  them.  It  was  intended  to  pro¬ 
vide,  by  means  of  a  local  habitation,  with  its 
appropriate  services,  for  the  attainment  of  a 
livelier  apprehension  of  God’s  character,  and 
the  maintenance  of  a  closer  and  more  assured 
fellowship  with  him.  So  also,  a  visible  pattern 
of  Divine  things  was  required  to  help  out  in 
men’s  minds  the  imperfection  of  the  spiritual 
idea  ;  a  habitation  was  needed  for  the  more 
peculiar  manifestations  of  God’s  presence,  such 
as  could  be  scanned  and  measured  by  the  bod¬ 
ily  eye,  and  by  serving  itself  of  which  the  eye 
of  the  mind  might  rise  to  a  clearer  apprehen¬ 
sion  both  of  his  abiding  nearness  to  his  people, 
and  of  the  more  essential  attributes  of  his  char¬ 
acter  and  glory.  P.  F. 

It  was  an  act  of  special  grace  that  Jehovah — • 
in  accord  with  the  natural  tendency  of  the  hu¬ 
man  mind  to  seek  the  assistance  of  a  visible 
holy  place  for  communing  with  God — should 
condescend  to  j^rovide  a  local  habitation  for 
himself  among  his  covenant  people.  As  this 
tabernacle  — and,  after  it,  the  temple — was  the 
great  central  idea  in  the  forms  of  worship  in 
Israel,  it  was  fit  that  it  be  constructed  out  of 
such  costly  materials  and  set  apart  by  special 
consecration.  It  was  the  grand  symbol  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  It  was  to  be  the  one 
symbol  ;  for  Jehovah  being  the  one  living  God, 
and  condescending  to  exhibit  in  an  outward- 
and  material  form  the  things  concerning  his 
character  and  glory,  it  was  needful  to  guard 
against  the  idea  of  a  divided  personality',  to 
which  the  world  was  so  prone.  For  this  reason 
there  was  but  one  tabernacle  and  temple  as  a 
direct  testimony  against  the  idolatries  of  all 
countries,  under  which  every  neighborhood  had 
its  god,  and  every  hill  and  grove  its  separate 


MEANING,  DESIGN,  SYMBOLISM. 


295 


solemnities  of  worship.  The  true  worshippers 
must  come  to  the  one  place  where  he  who 
“  filleth  heaven  and  earth  with  his  presence,” 
and  “whom  the  heaven  of  heavens  cannot  con¬ 
tain,”  condescended  to  meet  with  them.  And 
it  was  a  remarkable  peculiarity  of  this  worshijD, 
that  as  any  one  who  presented  the  sacrifices  else¬ 
where  which  were  appointed  for  his  house  was 
guilty  of  violating  the  order  of  his  kingdom,  so 
on  the  other  hand,  to  have  free  access  to  this 
chosen  residence  of  Deity  w^as  esteemed  so  high 
a  privilege  that  to  be  debarred  from  it,  “  cut 
off  from  the  congregation  of  his  people,”  was  to 
be  regarded  as  the  extremest  penalty  for  sin. 
The  ideas  embodied  in  the  symbols  of  the  Old 
Testament  worship  are  in  the  New  Testament 
seen  embodied  in  great  and  abiding  realities. 
This  tabernacle  and  temple — earthly  houses 
made  glorious  by  the  indwelling  of  God  — are 
now  seen  to  be  t3'pes  of  the  great  fact  :  “  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,”  when  “the  Word  was 
made  flesh,  and  tabernacled  among  us,  and  we 
beheld  his  glory  as  of  the  onlj'  begotten  of  the 
Father,  full  of  grace  and  truth.”  And  this  was 
but  the  first  stage  in  the  development  of  “  the 
great  mystery  of  Godliness.”  For  this  flesh  of 
Christ’s  humanity  stood  as  the  representative 
of  all  flesh  as  redeemed,  and  in  him,  as  its  liv¬ 
ing  head,  stands  the  whole  elect  humanity,  and 
in  him  finds  its  bond  of  connection  with  God 
and  a  channel  of  real  and  blessed  fellowship 
with  heaven.  The  idea  symbolized  in  the  taber¬ 
nacle  has  its  realization  not  merel.y  in  the  in¬ 
carnation  of  Christ  personally,  but  in  the  incar¬ 
nate  Christ  as  the  head  of  a  redeemed  offspring. 
These  great  ideas  are  interwoven  with  all  the 
teachings  of  the  New  Testament.  We  see  now 
the  force  of  Jesus’  saying,  “  Destroy  this  temple 
and  in  three  days  I  will  raise  it  up,”  by  which 
he  evidentl}’^  means  that  his  body  had  now  be¬ 
come  what  the  temple  and  the  tabernacle  had 
hitherto  been,  and  that  the  great  idea  symbol¬ 
ized  in  the  tabernacle  and  temple  was  actually 
embodied  in  His  Person,  in  which  Godhead  had 
taken  up  its  dwelling  in  humanity  that  men 
might  draw  near  and  have  fellowship  with  it. 
So  his  body  was  raised  up  again  to  be  the  jrer- 
petual  seat  and  centre  of  the  worship  of  the 
eternal  kingdom.  God  in  Christ  is  now  the' 
conception  of  every  true  worshipper.  In  the 
great  ideas  of  the  apostles  of  the  New  Testament 
of  the  inhabitation  of  God  in  the  man  Christ 
Jesus  as  the  medium  of  intercourse  and  com¬ 
munion  between  God  and  his  Church — so  that 
the  Church  has  become  “  the  house  of  God,” 
his  habitation  through  the  spirit,  so  that  each 
believer  is  “  a  temple  of  the  living  God, ”“a 


temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost” — we  find  the  true 
typical  sense  of  the  tabernacle  and  its  true  re¬ 
lation  to  Christ  and  his  kingdom.  S.  E. 

The  Symbolism  and  Types  of  the  Tabernacle. 

The  symbolism  of  the  tabernacle  was  signifi¬ 
cant  of  truth  which  belonged  to  the  time  then 
present  ;  its  types  were  significant  of  truth 
which  belonged  to  time  then  future,  to  the  times 
of  fulfilment.  By  its  s^^mbols  the  tabernacle 
and  its  services  were  a  sermon,  or  rather  a  col¬ 
lection  of  sermons  ;  in  its  types,  a  prophecy  or 
bundle  of  prophecies.  Inasmuch  as  we  live  in 
the  times  of  fulfilment,  the  typical  significance 
of  the  tabernacle  has  the  most  practical  value 
tor  us.  And  we  who  live  in  the  later  days  of 
the  great  j^ear  of  the  Lord  are  better  able  than 
the  Jewish  fathers  themselves  to  recognize  the 
prophetic  aspect  of  the  old  and  ever  valuable 
s}  mbols  of  the  tabernacle.  The}’’  could  under¬ 
stand  the  symbolic  meaning  more  easily"  than 
we,  but  we  can  understand  the  prophetic  mean¬ 
ing  better  than  they.  J.  M.  G. 

The  Hebrews  belonged  to  an  age  in  which 
symbolism  was  everywhere  employed.  The 
nations  then,  as  the  recently-discovered  monu¬ 
ments  attest,  were  in  the  habit  of  putting  all 
religious  truths  into  external  emblems.  That 
form,  therefore,  as  being  the  existing  and  recog¬ 
nized  medium  for  the  communication  of  such 
things  at  the  time,  was  employed  by  Jehovah. 
He  chose  it  just  as,  in  giving  us  a  revelation  of 
his  will,  he  chose  language,  because  he  found  it 
already  in  use.  But  he  did  with  it  as  in  his 
revelation  he  has  done  with  human  language  — 
he  elevated  it  and  refined  it,  and  put  such  new 
significance  into  it,  that  men,  looking  at  it,  can 
see  as  marked  a  difference  between  the  taber¬ 
nacle  of  the  Hebrews  and  the  temples  of  the 
heathen  as  there  is  between  the  Bible  and  the 
so-called  sacred  books  of  India  and  China.  The 
Hebrews  of  Moses’s  daj'  craved  something  ex¬ 
ternal.  That  eager  desire  for  an  embodiment 
of  Deity  which ’among  the  heathen  tried  to  sat¬ 
isfy  itself  in  idolatry,  and  which  has  now  been 
met  for  all  men  in  the  Incarnation  of  God  in 
Christ,  was  as  strong  in  them  as  in  others. 
Their  lapse  into  image-worship  at  the  very  base 
of  Sinai  proves  this  ;  and,  therefore,  it  became 
necessary  to  give  them  an  outward  symbolism 
— which  should  meet  the  craving  of  their  hearts, 
and  jmt  not  minister  to  materialism  because  it 
had  no  visible  representation  of  God.  Such  a 
symbolism  was  set  before  them  in  the  taber¬ 
nacle.  It  was,  from  first  to  last,  an  external 
emblem  of  spiritual  truth.  W.  M.  T. 

Nothing  here  was  intended  as  a  mere  orna- 


296 


8ECTI02f  122.  FURNITURE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 


ment  or  ceremony  ;  all  was  symbol  and  type.  As 
symbol,  it  indicated  a  present  truth  ;  as  type, 
it  pointed  forward  (a  prophecy  by  deed)  to 
future  spiritual  realities,  while,  at  the  same 
time,  it  already  conveyed  to  the  worshipper  the 
first-fruits,  and  the  earnest  of  their  final  accom¬ 
plishment  in  “  the  fulness  of  time.’’  All  pro¬ 
claimed  the  same  spiritual  truth,  and  pointed 
forward  to  the  same  spiritual  reality — viz.,  God 
ill  Christ  in  the  midst  of  his  Church.  The  tab¬ 
ernacle  was  “  the  Tent  of  meeting"’  where  God 
held  intercourse  with  his  people,  and  whence 
he  dispensed  blessing  unto  them.  The  priest¬ 
hood,  culminating  in  the  high-priest,  was  the 
God  -  appointed  mediatorial  agency  through 
which  God  was  approached  and  by  which  he 
bestowed  his  gifts  ;  the  sacrifices  were  the 
means  of  such  approach  to  God,  and  either  in¬ 
tended  to  restore  fellowship  with  God  when  it 
had  been  dimmed  or  interrupted,  or  else  to  ex- 
jiress  and  manifest  that  fellowship.  But  alike 
the  priesthood,  the  sacrifices,  and  the  altar 
pointed  to  the  person  and  the  work  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  So  far  as  the  tabernacle  itself  was 
concerned,  the  court  with  the  altar  of  burnt- 
offering  was  the  place  by  which  Israel  ap¬ 
proached  God  ;  the  Holy  Place  that  in  which 
they  held  communion  with  God  ;  and  the  Most 
Holy  Place  that  in  which  the  Lord  himself  vis¬ 
ibly  dwelt  among  them  in  the  Shechinah,  as 
the  covenant-God,  his  presence  resting  on  the 
mercy-seat  which  covered  the  ark.  A.  E. 

It  is  abundantly  evident  that  the  tabernacle, 
and  after  it  the  temple,  was  intended  to  stand 
as  conveying  by  symbols  great  ideas  in  the 
scheme  of  redemption  to  the  minds  of  the  peo¬ 
ple.  For  we  find  it  interwoven  with  all  the 
ideas  and  language  of  the  Church  in  after  times. 
Yet  it  is  plainly  a  mistake  to  attempt  to  find 
some  typical  or  allegorical  meaning  in  every 


separate  part  of  it — many  of  the  things  being 
ordered  for  convenience  as  in  every  other  struc¬ 
ture.  S.  it. - No  one  acquainted  with  the  his¬ 

tory  of  interpretation  can  doubt  that  vast  injury 
has  been  done  by  a.  fanciful  mode  of  explaining 
the  Old  Testament,  by  making  every  pin  and  pil¬ 
lar  a  type,  and  every  fact  in  its  history  an  alle¬ 
gory.  Nothing  is  better  fitted  to  bring  the  sci¬ 
ence  of  interpretation  into  contempt,  nothing 
more  dishonors  the  Bible  than  to  make  it  a 
book  of  enigmas.  The  Bible  is  a  book  of  sense. 

Barnes. - A  system  of  types,  extending  to 

minute  jairticulars,  and  to  bad  men  as  well  as 
to  good,  has  been  forced  into  the  interpretation 
of  the  Old  Testament,  to  the  detriment  of  all 
sound  philology,  and  often  of  common-sense. 
Men  of  eminent  learning,  in  our  own  days,  have 
found  in  the  Mosaic  ritual  all  varieties  of  alle¬ 
gory  and  hidden  sense,  so  that,  almost  literally^ 
every  cord  has  cried  out  of  the  tabernacle,  and 
every  pin  from  its  timber  has  answered.  In 
fact,  every  text  distorted,  ever}"  interpretation 
far-fetched  or  unnatural,  does  something  toward 
subverting  the  authority  of  the  entire  Scrip¬ 
tures,  as  it  becomes  a  source  of  doubt  and 
incredulity  which  extends  far  beyond  itself. 
B.  B.  E. 


The  close  connection  between  the  symbolic 
language  of  the  tabernacle  and  the  symbolism 
of  Egypt  under  the  Pharaohs  shows  that  the 
tabernacle  revelation  must  have  been  given  im¬ 
mediately  after  the  exodus,  and  could  not  have 
come  through  more  likely  hands  than  his,  “  who 
was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the  Egyp¬ 
tians.”  It  is,  in  fact,  an  evidence  of  date  of  the 
same  kind  as  the  use  of  Hellenistic  Greek  in 
the  New  Testament.  So  that  herein  we  have 
another  evidence  of  the  genuineness  and  an¬ 
tiquity  of  the  Pentateuch.  J.  M.  G. 


Section  122. 

FUENITURE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE  :  ARK  AND  MERCY-SEAT  ;  TABLE  ;  CANDLE- 

STICK  ;  ALTAR  OF  INCENSE  ;  (SILVER  TRUMPETS.) 

Exodus  25  :  10-40  ;  26  ;  34,  35  ;  30  :  1-10  ;  37  :  1-28.  Nu.  8:1-4;  10  :  1-10. 

Ex.  25  10  And  they  shall  make  an  ark  of  acacia  wood  :  two  cubits  and  a  half  shall  be  the 
length  thereof,  and  a  cubit  and  a  half  the  breadth  thereof,  and  a  cubit  and  a  half  the  height 

11  thereof.  And  thou  shalt  overlay  it  with  pure  gold,  within  and  without  shalt  thou  overlay  it, 

12  and  shalt  make  upon  it  a  crown  of  gold  round  about.  And  thou  shalt  cast  tour  rings  of  gold 
for  it,  and  put  them  in  the  four  feet  thereof  ;  and  two  rings  shall  be  on  the  one  side  of  it,  and 

13  two  rings  on  the  other  side  of  it.  And  thou  shalt  make  staves  of  acacia  wood,  and  overlay 

14  them  with  gold.  And  thou  shalt  put  the  staves  into  the  rings  on  the  sides  of  the  ark,  to  bear 

15  the  ark  withal.  The  staves  shall  be  in  the  rings  of  the  ark  :  they  shall  not  be  taken  from  it. 

16  And  thou  shalt  put  into  the  ark  the  testimony  which  I  shall  give  thee.  And  thou  shalt  make 


ARK,  TABLE,  CANDLESTICK,  ALTAR. 


29? 


17  a  mercy-seat  of  pure  gold  :  two  cubits  and  a  half  shdl  he  the  length  thereof,  and  a  cubit  and  a 

18  half  the  breadth  thereof.  And  thou  shalt  make  two  cherubim  of  gold  ;  of  beaten  work  shalt 

19  thou  make  them,  at  the  two  ends  of  the  mercy-seat.  And  make  one  cherub  at  the  one  end, 
and  one  cherub  at  the  other  end  :  of  one  piece  with  the  mercy-seat  shall  ye  make  the  cher- 

20  ubim  on  the  two  ends  thereof.  And  the  cherubim  shall  spread  out  their  wings  on  high,  cov¬ 
ering  the  mercy-seat  with  their  wings,  with  their  faces  one  to  another  ;  toward  the  mercy-seat 

21  shall  the  faces  of  the  cherubim  be.  And  thou  shalt  put  the  mercy-seat  above  upon  the  ark  ; 

22  and  in  the  ark  thou  shalt  put  the  testimony  that  I  shall  give  thee.  And  there  I  will  meet  with 
thee,  and  I  will  commune  with  thee  from  above  the  mercy-seat,  from  between  the  two  cher¬ 
ubim  which  are  upon  the  ark  of  the  testimony,  of  all  things  which  I  will  give  thee  in  com¬ 
mandment  unto  the  children  of  Israel. 

23  And  thou  shalt  make  a  table  of  acacia  wood  ;  two  cubits  shall  he  the  length  thereof,  and  a 

24  cubit  the  breadth  thereof,  and  a  cubit  and  a  half  the  height  thereof.  And  thou  shalt  overlay 

25  it  with  pure  gold,  and  make  thereto  a  crown  of  gold  round  about.  And  thou  shalt  make  unto 
it  a  border  of  an  handbreadth  round  about,  and  thou  shalt  make  a  golden  crown  to  the  border 

26  thereof  round  about.  And  thou  shalt  make  for  it  four  rings  of  gold,  and  put  the  rings  in  the 

27  four  corners  that  are  on  the  four  feet  thereof.  Close  by  the  border  shall  the  rings  be,  for 

28  places  for  the  staves  to  bear  the  table.  And  thou  shalt  make  the  staves  of  acacia  wood,  and 

29  overlaj’^  them  with  gold,  that  the  table  may  be  borne  with  them.  And  thou  shalt  make  the 
dishes  thereof,  and  the  spoons  thereof,  and  the  flagons  thereof,  and  the  bowls  thereof,  to 

30  pour  out  withal  :  of  pure  gold  shalt  thou  make  them.  And  thou  shalt  set  upon  the  table  shew- 
bread  before  me  alway. 

31  And  thou  shalt  make  a  candlestick  of  pure  gold  :  of  beaten  work  shall  the  candlestick  be 
made,  even  its  base,  and  its  shaft  ;  its  cups,  its  knops,  and  its  flowers,  shall  be  of  one  piece 

32  with  it  :  and  there  shall  be  six  branches  going  out  of  the  sides  thereof  ;  three  branches  of  the 
candlestick  out  of  the  one  side  thereof,  and  three  branches  of  the  candlestick  out  of  the  other 

33  side  thereof  :  three  cups  made  like  almond-blossoms  in  one  branch,  a  knop  and  a  flower  ;  and 
three  cups  made  like  almond-blossoms  in  the  other  branch,  a  knop  and  a  flower  :  so  for  the 

34  six  branches  going  out  of  the  candlestick  :  and  in  the  candlestick  four  cups  made  like  almond- 

35  blossoms,  the  knops  thereof,  and  the  flowers  thereof  :  and  a  knop  under  two  branches  of  one 
piece  with  it,  and  a  knop  under  two  branches  of  one  piece  with  it,  and  a  knop  under  two 

36  branches  of  one  piece  with  it,  for  the  six  branches  going  out  of  the  candlestick.  Their  knops 
and  their  branches  shall  be  of  one  piece  with  it  :  the  whole  of  it  one  beaten  work  of  pure 

37  gold.  And  thou  shalt  make  the  lamps  thereof,  seven  :  and  they  shall  light  the  lamps  thereof, 

38  to  give  light  over  against  it.  And  the  tongs  thereof,  and  the  snuffdishes  thereof,  shall  be  of 

39  pure  gold.  Of  a  talent  of  pure  gold  shall  it  be  made,  with  all  these  vessels.  And  see  that 

40  thou  make  them  after  their  pattern,  which  hath  been  shewed  thee  in  the  mount. 

Xu.  §  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  Aaron,  and  say  unto  him, 

2  When  thou  lightest  the  lamps,  the  seven  lamps  shall  give  light  in  front  of  the  candlestick. 

3  And  Aaron  did  so  ;  he  lighted  the  lamps  thereof  so  as  to  give  light  in  front  of  the  candlestick, 

4  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses.  And  this  was  the  work  of  the  candlestick,  beaten  work  of 
gold  ;  unto  the  base  thereof,  and  unto  the  flowers  thereof,  it  was  beaten  work  :  according  unto 
the  pattern  which  the  Lord  had  shewed  Moses,  so  he  made  the  candlestick. 

Ex.  26  34  And  thou  shalt  put  the  mercy-seat  upon  the  ark  of  the  testimony  in  the  most 

35  holy  place.  And  thou  shalt  set  the  table  without  the  veil,  and  the  candlestick  over  against 
the  table  on  the  side  of  the  tabernacle  toward  the  south  ;  and  thou  shalt  put  the  table  on  the 
north  side. 

JIO  1  And  thou  shalt  make  an  altar  to  burn  incense  upon  :  of  acacia  wood  shalt  thou  make 

2  it.  A  cubit  shall  be  the  length  thereof,  and  a  cubit  the  breadth  thereof  ;  foursquare  shall  it 
be  :  and  two  cubits  shall  be  the  height  thereof  :  the  horns  thereof  shall  be  of  one  piece  with  it. 

3  And  thou  shalt  overlay  it  with  pure  gold,  the  top  thereof,  and  the  sides  thereof  round  about, 

4  and  the  horns  thereof  ;  and  thou  shalt  make  unto  it  a  crown  of  gold  round  about.  And  two 
gohlen  rings  sh  dt  thou  make  for  it  under  the  crown  thereof,  upon  the  two  ribs  thereof,  upon 
the  two  sides  of  it  shalt  thou  make  them  ;  and  they  shall  be  for  places  for  staves  to  bear  it 

5  withal.  And  thou  shalt  make  the  staves  of  acacia  wood,  and  overlay  them  with  gold.  And 

6  thou  shalt  put  it  before  the  veil  that  is  by  the  ark  of  the  testimony,  before  the  mercy-seat  that 

7  is  over  the  testimony,  where  I  will  meet  with  thee.  And  Aaron  shall  burn  thereon  incense  of 

8  sweet  spices  :  every  morning,  when  he  dresseth  the  lamps,  he  shall  burn  it.  And  when  Aaron 


298 


SECTION'  l22.  FURNITURE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 


lighteth  the  lamps  at  even,  he  shall  burn  it,  a  perpetual  incense  before  the  Loed  throughout 

9  your  generalions  Ye  shall  offer  no  strange  incense  thereon,  nor  burnt  offering,  nor  meal 
10  offering  ;  and  ye  shall  j>our  no  drink  offering  thereon.  And  Aaron  shall  make  atonement 
upon  the  horns  of  U  once  in  the  year  :  "with  the  blood  of  the  sin  uifering  of  atonement  once  in 
the  year  shall  he  make  atonement  for  it  throughout  your  generations  :  it  is  most  holy  unto  the 
Loed. 

Nu.  3®  1  And  the  Loed  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Make  thee  two  trumpets  of  silver  ;  cf 

2  beaten  work  shalt  thou  make  them  ;  and  thou  shalt  use  them  for  the  calling  of  the  congre^a- 

3  tion,  and  for  the  journeying  of  the  camps.  And  when  they  shall  blow  with  them,  all  the 

4  congregation  shall  gather  themselves  unto  thee  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting.  And  if 
they  blow  but  with  one,  then  the  jirinces,  the  heads  of  the  thousands  of  Israel,  shall  gather 

5  themselves  unto  thee.  And  when  ye  blow  an  alarm,  the  camps  that  lie  on  the  east  side  shall 

6  take  their  journey.  And  when  ye  blow  an  alarm  the  second  time,  the  camps  that  lie  on  the 

7  south  side  shall  take  their  journey  :  they  shall  blow  an  alarm  for  their  journeys.  But  when 

8  the  assembly  is  to  be  gathered  together,  ye  shall  blow,  but  ye  shall  not  sound  an  alarm.  And 
the  sons  of  Aaron,  the  priests,  shall  blow  with  the  trumpets  ;  and  they  shall  be  to  you  for  a 

9  statute  for  ever  throughout  your  generations.  And  when  ye  go  to  war  in  your  land  against 
the  adversary  that  oppresseth  you,  then  ye  shall  sound  an  alarm  with  the  trumpets  ;  and  ye 
shall  be  remembered  before  the  Loed  your  God,  and  ye  shall  be  saved  from  your  enemies. 

10  Also  in  the  day  of  your  gladness,  and  in  your  set  feasts,  and  in  the  beginnings  of  your 
months,  ye  shall  blow  with  the  trumpets  over  your  burnt  offerings,  and  over  the  sacrifices  of 
your  peace  offerings  ;  and  they  shall  be  to  you  for  a  memorial  before  your  God  :  I  am  the 
Loed  your  God. 


Ex.  37  1-28.  0 milted  because  identical  in  its  corresponding  statements. 


II^TERIOR  OF  TABERN'ACLE  :  VEILS  REMOVED  ;  CANDLESTICK,  TABLE,  ALTAR, 

ARK,  AND  SHEKINAH. 


AUK  AND  MERCY -SEAT. 


2C9 


Having  established  liis  covenant  God  will  | 
take  up  his  abode  among  them  and  enter  into 
all  the  intercourse  of  sacred  fellowship  with 
them.  For  this  purpose  an  abode  is  prepared 
for  him  and  is  now  provided  with  the  needful 
furniture.  The  simple  idea  of  a  home,  w'here 
God  dwells  wuth  his  redeemed  and  reconciled 
people,  is  the  generic  conception  of  the  taber¬ 
nacle.  Yet  the  whole  service  of  the  sanctuary 
is  typical  of  the  higher  blessings  of  salvation, 
of  the  true  high-priest,  of  the  really  atoning 
sacrifice,  of  the  heaven  of  redemption,  and  of 
that  spiritual  fellowship  w'hich  the  saints  will 
have  with  the  Lord  in  glory.  Hence  we  can 
understand  the  place  and  space  given  to  the 
tabernacle  in  this  book  of  the  exodus.  The 
tabernacle  expands  and  completes  what  w^as 
represented  in  brief  by  the  lamb  of  the  pass- 
over.  It  sets  forth  the  blessings  which  flow 
from  reconciliation.  It  is  the  glorious  end  to 
w'hich  all  the  preliminary  steps  of  the  deliver¬ 
ance  and  the  covenant  lead.  M. - Stephen 

and  the  writer  to  the  Hebrews  are  our  best  ex¬ 
positors,  that  the  Tabernacle,  the  Altar,  the 
Table,  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  were  of  no  im¬ 
portance  except  in  so  far  as  they  referred  to  the 
heavenly  pattern,  of  wLich  they  w'ere  the  shad¬ 
ows  and  images.  Their  entire  utility,  and  even 
their  legitimate  use,  depended  on  the  truth 
wLich  they  represented.  Calv. 

The  ark  and  mercy-seat,  the  table,  the  candle¬ 
stick,  and  the  altar  of  incense  comprise  the 
furniture  of  the  tabernacle.  The  silver  trum- 
l)ets  were  kept  in  its  outer  compartment.  B. 

The  Akk  and  the  Mebcy-seat  in  the  Most 
Holy  Place. 

Ev.  25  : 10-22  ;  37  : 1-9. 

Though  the  tabernacle,  as  a  w'hole,  was  God’s 
house  or  dw'elling-place  among  his  people,  yet 
the  innermost  of  its  two  apartments  alone  was 
appropriated  for  his  peculiar  place  of  abode — 
the  seat  and  throne  of  his  kingdom.  It  W'as  in 
that  hallowed  recess,  wdiere  the  awful  symbol  of 
his  presence  occasionally  appeared,  and  from 
w^hich,  as  from  his  very  presence-chamber,  the 
high-priest  was  to  receive  the  communications 
of  his  grace  and  wfill,  to  be  through  him  made 
know'n  to  others.  The  things  therefore  which 
belong  to  it  most  immediately  and  directly  re¬ 
spect  God  :  we  have  here  in  symbol  the  more 
special  revelation  of  what  God  himself  is  in  re¬ 
lation  to  his  people.  The  apartment  itself  was 
a  jierfect  cube  of  ten  cubits,  thus  bearing  on  all 
its  dimensions  the  symbol  of  completeness — an 
image  of  the  all-perfect  character  of  the  Being 
who  condescended  to  occupy  it  as  the  region  cf 


his  manifested  presence  and  glory.  The  ark  of 
the  covenant  with  the  tables  of  the  testimon}', 
and  the  mercy-seat  with  the  two  cherubim  at 
each  end,  formed  originally  and  properly  its 
whole  furniture.  P.  F. 

^2^  ;  10,  All  ark.  Aron  signifies  chest  or 
coffer.  It  is  used  particularly  to  designate  that 
chest  or  coffer  in  which  lha  iesiiino)iy,  or  two 
tables  of  the  covenant,  w^ere  laid  up  ;  on  the  top  of 
wdiich  was  the  propitiaU  ry  or  mercy  seat,  and  at 
the  end  of  which  were  the  cherubim  of  gold,  be¬ 
tween  whom  the  visible  sign  of  the  presence  of 
the  supreme  God  appeared  as  seated  upon  his 
throne.  The  ark  was  the  most  excellent  of  all 
the  holy  things  which  belonged  to  the  Mosaic 
economy  ;  and  for  its  sake  the  tabernacle  and 
the  temple  W'ere  built.  Tt  was  considered  as 
conferring  a  sanctity  wherever  it  w'as  fixed  (2 
Ch.  8  :11  ;  2*Sam.  6  :12).  A.  C. 

The  special  mark  of  his  presence  within  the 
tent  was  to  be  the  ark  or  chest  containing  the 
Ten  Commandments  on  two  tables  of  stone, 
symbolizing  the  Divine  Law  of  holiness,  covered 
by  the  mercy-seat,  the  type  of  reconciliation. 
The  significance  of  the  whole  sanctuary  may 
be  said  to  be  concentrated  in  the  tables  of  the 
Law,  and  the  mercy-seat.  The  other  holy 
things,  w'ith  every  external  arrangement,  were 
subordinated  to  them.  And  hence  the  place  in 
which  they  were  deposited  was  the  holy  of 
holies,  closely  shut  off  by  the  veil,  entered  by 
no  one  but  the  high-priest,  and  by  him  only 

once  in  the  year.  Clark. - The  two  tables,  on 

which  are  traced  in  plain  and  literal  characters 
the  great  principles  of  eternal  rectitude,  are 
placed  here  not  as  an  object  of  worship,  but  as 
the  basis  of  all  moral  dealing  in  the  intercourse 
between  God  and  man.  There  is  a  significance 
in  the  very  order  in  which  the  portions  of  this 
symbolical  structure  are  specified.  The  moral 
law  is  the  very  centre  of  the  whole  system  of 
moral  things  ;  and  accordingly  this  is  first  de¬ 
fined  and  located.  The  ark  in  which  it  is  to  be 
deposited  is  the  first  article  provided  for  the 
house  of  God.  M. 

10-116,  It  appears  from  this  description  that 
the  ark  was  simply  a  box  of  acacia  w'ood  about 
four  feet  in  length  by  two  in  breadth  and  depth, 
that  both  within  and  without  it  w’as  overlaid 
with  gold,  and  that  it  was  surrounded  with  a 
crown  or  w^reath  of  gold  toward  the  top.  It 
stood  on  four  feet,  and  was  borne,  when  moved 
from  place  to  place,  by  staves  pushed  through 
rings  fastened  in  such  a  way  to  the  feet  that,  as 
is  generally  inferred  from  1  Kings  8  : 8,  the 
staves  stretched  along  the  shorter  sides.  From 
these  rings  the  staves  were  never  to  be  with- 


300 


SECTION  122.  FURNITURE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 


drawn,  that  it  might  be  more  easily  kept  from 
being  touched  by  the  hand  of  man.  Milligan. 

11.  JUake  upon  it  a  crown  of  g^old 
roniicl  about.  Heb.  a  golden  border  rontid 
about.  This  “  crown”  was  an  ornamental  cor¬ 
nice,  which  went  round  the  top,  as  a  kind  of 
enclosure  serving  to  make  firm  the  propitiatory 
in  its  place,  and  called  a  “  crown”  from  its  en¬ 
compassing  the  whole  outer  extremities  of  the 
upper  side  of  the  ark.  The  term  is  only  em¬ 
ployed  in  reference  to  the  rinia  or  crowns  of 
gold  made  round  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  the 
table  of  shew-bread,  and  the  altar  of  incense. 
Bush. 

The  Mercy-seat. 

17,  A  mercy-seat.  The  plate  of  solid 
gold  laid  upon  the  top  of  the  ark  and  known  as 
the  kapporeih,  or  mercy. seat,  was  not,  strictly 
speaking,  a  part  of  the  ark.  It  was  made  of 
pure  gold,  not,  like  the  ark,  of  acacia  wood 
overlaid  with  gold,  a  circumstance  at  once  re¬ 
vealing  to  us  its  great  importance.  Milligan. 

- This  cover  of  reconciliation  (kapporeth) 

over  the  ark  of  the  covenant  was  the  most  im¬ 
portant  and  sacred  of  all  that  Avas  in  the  sanc¬ 
tuary — the  centre  of  the  whole  kingdom  of  God 
in  the  Old  Testament.  The  more  prominent 
we  observe  this  to  be,  the  more  significant  ap¬ 
pears  the  circumstance  that  in  his  chief  revela¬ 
tion  of  himself  in  the  Old  Testament  God  ap¬ 
pears  as  requiring  atonement  and  as  reconciled. 
Gerl. 

The  mercy-seat  is  never  mentioned  as  the  lid 
of  the  ark,  or  as  simply  designed  to  cover  and 
conceal  what  lay  within.  It  appears  as  occupy¬ 
ing  a  place  of  its  own,  though  connected  with 
the  ark  yet  by  no  means  a  mere  appendage  to 
it  ;  and  hence,  both  in  the  descriptions  and  the 
enumerations  given  of  the  holy  things  in  the 
tabernacle,  it  is  mentioned  separately.  It  some¬ 
times  stands  more  prominently  out  than  the  ark 
itself,  as  peculiarly  that  for  which  the  most  holy 
place  was  set  apart  ;  as  in  Lev.  16  : 2,  where 
this  place  is  described  by  its  being  “  within  the 
veil  before  the  mercy-seat,  ”  and  in  1  Ch. 
28:11,  where  it  is  simply  designated  “the 
house  of  the  kapporeth,”  or  mercy-seat.  It 
was  for  a  covering,  but  only  in  the  sense  of 
atonement.  The  word  is  never  used  for  a  cov¬ 
ering  in  the  ordinary  sense  ;  the  covering  ex¬ 
pressed  by  it  is  covering  only  in  the  spiritual 
sense  —  atonement.  The  covering  required 
must  be  a  propitiator}',  a  place  on  which  the 
holy  eye  of  God  may  ever  see  the  blood  of  rec¬ 
onciliation  ;  and  the  most  holy  place,  as  des 
ignated  from  it  and  deriving  thence  its  most 
essential  characteristic,  might  fitly  be  called 


“  the  house  of  the  propitiatory,”  or  the  “‘atone¬ 
ment-house.”  P.  F. 

The  mercy-seat  is  thus  the  place  w'here  sin  is 
covered  or  forgiven,  the  place  on  which  atone¬ 
ment  is  made  for  it,  so  that  it  shall  be  no  longer 
remembered  against  the  sinner.  In  conformity 
wdth  this,  on  the  great  Day  of  Atonement,  that 
day  which  concentrated  in  itself  all  the  atone  ■ 
ments  of  the  year  in  their  highest  potency,  the 
mercy-seat,  though  the  very  throne  of  God,  was 
sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  the  sin-offering  then 
presented  on  behalf  of  the  whole  nation,  both 
priests  and  people.  It  proclaimed  that  notwith¬ 
standing  the  Law’s  accusing  and  condemning 
power  there  was  mercy  with  God  that  he  might 
be  feared,  and  plenteous  redemption  ;  that, 
hoi}'  himself  and  requiring  holiness  of  those 
who  would  be  in  covenant  with  him,  he  yet  was 
both  able  and  willing  to  redeem  Israel  from  all 
his  iniquities.  The  ark  and  the  mercy-seat,  in 
short,  were  an  utterance  of  the  Psalmist’s  words, 
“  Justice  and  judgment  are  the  habitation 
(rather,  the  foundation)  of  thy  throne  ;  mercy 
and  truth  go  before  thy  face,”  Mdligan. 

The  two  tables  of  the  Law  were  placed  inside 
the  ark,  over  them  was  the  mercy-seat  and  the 
glory  between  the  cherubim,  to  show  that  in  the 
Gospel  the  Law  is  not  passed  away,  but  remains 
with  all  its  exactions  ;  and  before  a  single  soul 
can  get  to  heaven  it  must  have  a  perfect  right¬ 
eousness.  It  is  just  as  true  to-day  as  it  was  on 
Sinai — as  it  was  in  Paradise — that  without  a 
perfect  righteousness,  there  is  no  admission  into 
heaven.  This  law  remains  in  all  its  perfection 
now  just  as  it  subsisted  in  the  ark  then  ;  only 
its  thunders  are  hushed,  its  lightnings  are  laid  ; 
it  is  no  more  an  enemy,  it  is  in  Christ  with  us  ; 
and  therefore  there  is  no  condemnation  from 
the  Law  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus  ;  for 
what  the  Law  could  not  do  in  that  it  was  weak 
through  the  flesh,  God  hath  done  by  sending 
Jesus  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh,  to  be  the 
propitiatory  or  the  mercy  seat-  for  us.  J.  C. 
- In  him  God  reconciles  the  world  unto  him¬ 
self,  not  imputing  unto  men  their  trespasses 
His  blood  sprinkled  there— for  just  as  he  is  at 
once  high-priest  and  victim,  he  is  at  once  mercy- 
seat  and  victim — procures  the  free  and  full  par¬ 
don  of  all  sin  ;  in  his  offering  made  once  for  all 
we  are  complete  ;  the  throne  of  judgment  be¬ 
comes  a  throne  of  grace  ;  and  no  longer  kept  at 
a  distance  from  him  w'Jio  occupies  it,  w'e  are  ad¬ 
mitted  to  a  Divine  communion  with  him,  and 
he  speaks  with  us  “  as  a  man  speaketh  unto  his 
friend.’’  All  this  takes  place  while  the  Law  is 
neither  concealed  nor  modified.  It  is,  on  the 
contrary,  magnified  and  made  honorable.  But 


THE  MERCY-SEAT  AND  CHERUBIM. 


301 


for  the  imperative  nature  of  its  demands  no 
mercy-seat  would  have  been  necessary  ;  and 
that  mercy-seat,  not  covering  the  Law  but  rest¬ 
ing  upon  it,  tells  us  with  a  voice  not  less  power¬ 
ful  than  its  own  that  no  jot  or  tittle  of  it  shall 
pass  away  until  all  be  fulfilled,  Milligan. 

The  central  position  given  to  the  Law  clearly 
shows  that  while  one  cannot  draw  near  to  God 
except  through  mercy  which  forgives  the  trans¬ 
gression  of  the  Law,  yet  he  may  and  inust  come 
with  an  earnest  desire  and  purpose  to  keep  the 
Law.  He  may  come  without  any  righteousness 
of  his  ow'n,  but  not  without  “  hunger  and 
thirst  ”  after  righteousness,  not  without  that 
spirit  which  wall  lead  him  to  put  the  Law  of 
God  in  the  most  sacred  place,  and  surround  it 
with  proofs  of  highest  appreciation.  Observe 
carefully  that  the  tables  of  stone  are  not  at  the 
threshold  ;  they  are  in  the  inmost  shrine.  If 
they  had  been  at  the  threshold,  the  thought 
w'ould  have  been  :  “  keep  the  Law,  and  you  will 
•have  the  privilege  of  meeting  with  God.”  Hut 
being  in  the  inmost  shrine,  the  thought  is  not, 
“  keep  the  Law  and  God  will  let  you  in  ;  ’  but, 
“  come  in  and  God  will  give  you  grace  to  keep 
the  Law.”  Grace  first,  goodness  afterward,  al- 
w^ays.  And  yet,  though  last  in  one  sense,  it  is 
first  in  another,  for  it  is  the  goal  toward  which 
every  step  of  the  worshipper  is  directed  ;  and 
the  first  thing  a  runner  must  do  is  to  fix  his  eye 
upon  the  goal.  Thus  the  Law  is  the  first  for 
the  eyes  and  the  last  for  the  feet  ;  the  first  as 
an  object  of  desire,  the  last  as  an  object  of  at¬ 
tainment.  Even  a  sinner  may  make  a  gold 
casket  and  a  golden  crown  for  the  Law  (how 
many  are  there,  for  instance,  that  can  crown 
with  their  admiration  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
who  are  very  far  from  keeping  it)  ;  but  if  he 
would  learn  to  keep  it  perfectly,  he  must  betake 
himself  to  the  mercy-seat  in  the  appointed  way, 
and  avail  himself  of  the  rich  provision  which 
God  has  for  him  in  his  house.  Thus  we  reach 
the  second  leading  thought  of  the  tabernacle 
revelation  :  the  rich  provision  God  has  for  those 
who  come  before  him,  hungering  and  thirsting 
after  righteousness.  J.  M,  G, 

22.  Notice  another  feature  in  the  mercy-seat. 
God  always  gave  answers  from  the  mercy-seat. 
Thus  we  read  (Nu.  7  : 89)  that  “  Moses  heard 
the  voice  of  one  speaking  unto  him  from  off  the 
mercy-seat  that  was  upon  the  ark  of  testimony, 
from  between  the  two  cherubim  :  and  the  Lord 
spake  unto  Moses.”  Here  then  we  have  the 
mercy-seat,  the  place  from  which  God  speaks  to 
us,  where  God  hears  us  speak  to  him  ;  it  is  the 

place  where  God  still  speaks  to  us.  J.  C, - 

Eespecting  this  seat  or  throne^  God  says  to 


Moses  (verse  22),  “  There  will  I  meet  with  thee, 
and  coviniune  with  thee  from  above  the  mercy- 
seat,  and  from  between  the  two. cherubim  which 
are  upon  the  ark  of  the  testimony.”  The  place 
of  the  mercy-seat  being  intended  for  oral  com¬ 
munication,  it  receives  a  name  answerable  to 
this  in  1  Kings  6  and  8  and  in  2  Ch.  5, 
where  it  is  called  debir,  word-place^  spenking- 
plact',  oracle,  which  term  in  1  Kings  8  : 6  is 
jrlainly  put  in  apposition  with  the  holy  of  holies, 
the  name  given  to  the  inner  apartment  of  the 
sanctuary.  Bash. 

Tlie  Two  Cherubim  {verses  18-20). 

At  the  two  ends  of  the  mercy-seat,  and  rising 
as  it  were  out  of  it— a  part  of  the  same  piece 
and  constantly  adhering  to  it — there  were  two 
cherubim,  made  of  beaten  gold,  with  out¬ 
stretched  wings  overarching  the  mercy-seat, 
and  looking  inward  toward  each  other  and  tow¬ 
ard  the  mercy-seat,  with  an  appearance  of  holy 
wonder  and  veneration.  That  forms  of  created 
beings  were  made  to  surround  this  throne  of 
Deity,  and  impart  to  it  an  appearance  of  be¬ 
coming  grandeur  and  majesty— this  was  simply 
an  outward  embodiment  of  the  fact  that  God 
ever  makes  himself  known  as  the  God  of  the 
living,  of  whom  not  only  have  countless  myriads 
been  formed  by  his  hand,  but  attendant  hosts 
also  continually  minister  around  him  and  cele¬ 
brate  his  praise.  And  that  the  particular  forms 
here  used  were  compound  figures,  representa¬ 
tions  of  ideal  beings,  and  beings  whose  com¬ 
ponent  parts  consisted  of  the  highest  kinds  of 
life  on  earth  in  its  different  spheres— man  first 
and  chiefly,  and  with  him  the  ox,  the  lion,  and 
the  eagle — this,  again,  denoted  that  the  forms 
and  manifestations  of  creature-life,  among  whom 
and  for  whom  God  there  revealed  himself,  were 
not  of  heaven,  but  of  earth.  Primarily  and 
chiefly  they  had  to  do  with  man,  who,  when 
the  work  of  redemption  is  complete  and  he  is 
fitted  to  dwell  in  (he  most  excellent  glory  of  the 
Divine  jDresence,  shall  be  invested  with  the 
properties  of  what  is  to  him  now  but  an  ideal 
perfection,  be  made  possessor  of  a  yet  higher 
nature,  and  stand  in  yet  nearer  fellowship  with 
God  than  he  did  in  the  paradise  that  was  lost. 
But  these  new  hopes  of  fallen  humanity  all 
centre  in  the  work  of  reconciliation  and  love 
shadowed  forth  upon  the  mercy-seat  :  thither 
therefore  must  the  faces  of  these  ideal  heirs  of 
salvation  ever  look,  and  with  outstretched  wing 
hang  around  the  glorious  scene,  as  in  wondering 
expectatidn  of  the  things  now  proceeding  in 
connection  with  it  and  hereafter  to  be  revealed. 
So  that  God  sitting  between  the  cherubim  is 


302 


SECTION  122.  FURNITURE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 


God  revealing  himself  as  on  a  throne  of  grace, 
in  mingled,  majesty  and  love,  for  the  recovery 
of  his  fallen  family  on  earth,  and  their  final  ele¬ 
vation  to  the  highest  region  of  life  and  blessed¬ 
ness  and  glory.  This  explanation  applies  sub¬ 
stantially  to  the  curtains,  which  appear  to  have 
formed  the  whole  interior  of  the  tabernacle,  and 
which  were  throughout  inwrought  with  figures 
of  cherubim.  Not  the  throne  merely,  but  the 
entire  dwelling  of  God,  was  in  the  midst  of 
these  representatives  of  redeemed  and  glorified 
humanity.  P.  F.  (See  Vol.  I.,  p.  201.) 

In  the  ornamented  ark,  with  its  golden 
mercy-seat  and  overshadowing  golden  cherubim, 
what  a  fund  of  mysterious  allusion  !  In  the 
holy  of  holies  the  Almighty  had  his  audience- 
chamber,  and  this  plate  of  gold  was  his  throne. 
Over  it  hovered  the  shechinah,  the  visible  sym¬ 
bol  of  the  Divine  presence  in  the  times  of  its 
revelation  ;  when  blood  was  sprinkled  before  it, 
it  was  sprinkled,  as  it  were,  before  the  very 
eyes  of  God.  That  throne,  too,  was  established 
in  righteousness  :  for  the  Decalogue  was  its 
foundation.  Ctve. 

The  articles  now  described  formed  properly 
the  whole  furniture  of  the  most  holy  place,  being 
all  that  was  required  to  give  a  suitable  repre- 
sentation  of  the  character  and  purposes  of  God 
in  relation  to  his  people.  But  three  other  things 
were  afterward  added,  and  placed,  as  it  is  said, 
before  the  Lord,  or  before  the  testimony — the 
pot  of  manna,  the  rod  of  Aaron,  and  the  entire 
book  of  the  Law.  These  were  all  lodged  there 
in  the  immediate  presence  of  God,  as  in  a  safe 
and  appropriate  depository —lodged  partly  as 
memorials  of  the  past,,  and  partly  as  signs  and 
witnesses  for  the  future.  P.  F. 

After  the  Israelites  had  passed  the  Jordan, 
the  ark  generally  occupied  its  proper  place  in 
the  tabernacle,  and  was  afterward  i^laced  in  the 
temple  built  by  Solomon.  It  seems  that  the 
ark,  with  the  other  precious  things  of  the  tem¬ 
ple,  became  the  spoil  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  and 
was  taken  to  Babylon  ;  and  it  does  not  appear 
that  it  was  restored  at  the  end  of  the  captivity, 
or  that  any  new  one  was  made.  What  became 
of  the  ark  after  the  captivity  cannot  be  ascer¬ 
tained.  The  Talmud  and  some  of  the  Jewish 
writers  confess  that  the  want  of  the  ark  was 
one  of  the  points  in  which  the  second  temple 
was  inferior  to  that  of  Solomon  :  to  which  we 
may  add  that  neither  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  the  Mac¬ 
cabees,  nor  Josephus  mention  the  ark  as  extant 
in  the  second  temple,  and  the  last  authority  ex¬ 
pressly  says  that  there  was  nothing  in'^the  sanc¬ 
tuary  when  the  temple  was  taken  by  Titus. 
Bush. 


The  Table  of  Shew- bread. 

Verses  23-30. 

Th.e  Table  of  Shew-bread  whs  an  oblong  table, 
2  cubits  long,  1  broad,  and  1^  high.  It  was  of 
shittim  wood,  covered  with  gold,  and  finished, 
like  the  altar,  with  a  golden  rim,  and  four  rings 
and  staves.  It  was  furnished  with  dishes, 
spoons,  covers,  and  bowls  of  pure  gold.  It 
stood  on  the  north,  or  right  side  of  the  altar  of 
incense.  Upon  this  table  were  placed  twelve 
cakes  of  fine  flour,  in  two  rows  of  six  each,  with 

frankincense  upon  each  row.  P.  S. - Its  dishes 

were  bread-plates,  of  which  two  were  j)laced  on 
the  table,  containing  six  cakes  each.  Its  bowls 
were  smaller  vessels  for  holding  pure  frankin¬ 
cense,  which  were  placed  upon  the  two  piles  of 
cakes.  Its  flagons  were  large  cans  or  decanters, 
in  which  a  supplj’’  of  wine  was  kept  for  pouring 
into  the  cups  or  smaller  vessels  used  for  making 
libations  or  drink-offerings.  The  dishes  were 
constantly  replenished  with  bread,  and  the 
flagons  and  cups  filled  with  wine,  which  was 
the  drink-offering  accompanying  every  sacri¬ 
fice.  Bread  and  wine  are  the  bloodless  feast 
after  the  sacrifice,  and  are  emblematical  of  all 
the  blessings  of  those  who  are  pardoned  and  ac¬ 
cepted  as  righteous  through  the  atoning  sacri¬ 
fice  on  the  altar  of  propitiation.  M, 

The  striking  name  of  the  shew-bread  or  face- 
bread  was  derived  from  the  command,  “  Thou 
shalt  lay  upon  the  table  face-bread  before  my 

face  continuall3\'’  Cave. - On  the  return  of 

every  Sabbath  morning  the  old  materials  were 
to  be  withdrawn  and  a  new  supply  furnished. 
For  the  peculiar  designation  “  bread  of  pres¬ 
ence”  a  special  reason  can  easily  be  discovered 
— viz.,  to  prevent  the  Israelites  from  supposing 
that  this,  like  other  bread,  was  for  being  eaten  ; 
to  instruct  them  that  it  was  for  being  looked  on 
with  complacency  by  the.  holy  and  ever-watch- 
ful  eye  of  God.  They  would  thus  rise  more 
easily  from  the  natural  to  the  spiritual  use,  from 
the  symbol  to  the  reality.  The  bread  was,  in¬ 
deed,  eaten  by  the  officiating  priests  each  Sab¬ 
bath  ;  but  only  after  having  been  removed  from 
the  table,  and  simply  because  being  most  holy 


THE  TABLE  AND  THE  CANDLESTICK. 


303 


it  might  not  be  turned  to  a  profane  use,  but 
must  be  consumed  by  God’s  representatives  in 
his  own  house.  As  connected  with  the  table  its 
design  was  served  by  being  exhibited  and  seen, 
for  the  well-pleased  satisfaction  and  favorable 
regard  of  a  righteous  God  ;  so  that  it  is  not  pos¬ 
sible  to  conceive  a  fitter  designation  than  the  one 
given  to  it,  of  shew-bread  or  bread  of  presence. 
In  Lev.  21  : 8  we  learn  that  this  bread  was  laid 
upon  the  table  as  “  an  offering  from  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel  by  a  perpetual  covenant  a  por¬ 
tion,  therefore,  of  their  substance,  and  conse¬ 
crated  to  the  honor  of  God.  It  was,  conse¬ 
quently,  a  kind  of  sacrifice  ;  and  as  the  altar  of 
God  was  in  a  sense  his  table,  so  this  table  of  his 
in  turn  possessed  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  an 
altar  :  the  provision  laid  on  it  had  the  character 
of  an  offering.  Hence,  also,  there  was  placed 
upon  the  top  of  each  of  the  two  rows  a  vessel 
with  pure  frankincense,  which  was  manifestly 
designed  to  connect  the  offering  on  the  table 
with  the  offering  on  the  altar  of  incense.  Now, 
the  offering  of  incense  was  simply  an  embodied 
prayer  ;  and  the  placing  of  a  vessel  of  incense 
upon  this  bread  was  like  sending  it  up  to  God 
on  the  wings  of  devotion.  It  implied  that  the 
spiritual  offering  symbolized  by  the  bread  was 
to  be  ever  presented  with  supplication,  and  only 
when  so  presented  could  it  meet  with  the  favor 
and  blessing  of  heaven.  Thus  hallowed  and 
thus  presented,  the  bread  became  a  most  sacred 
thing,  and  could  only  be  eaten  by  the  priests  in 
the  sanctuarj^  :  “  for  it  is  most  holy  (a  holy  of 
holies)  unto  him,  of  the  offerings  of  the  Lord, 
made  by  fire  by  a  perpetual  statute.”  P.  P. 

These  types  represented  under  the  Old  Cove¬ 
nant  the  same  truths  which  are  sec  forth  by  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord’s  Supper  under  the  New. 
In  both  cases  we  have  a  iahle,  not  an  altar  ;  for 
in  the  tabernacle  the  altar  was  distinct,  and  in 
the  Christian  Church  it  is  superseded,  as  the 
one  sacrifice  of  Christ  has  been  offered  once  for 
all.  In  the  tabernacle,  moreover,  as  in  the 
Church,  it  was  the  Lori s  Table.  Both  tables 
are  supplied  with  the  same  simple  elements  of 
necessary  food,  bread  and  wine,  with  the  same 
reference  to  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ, 
though  this  was  still  a  mystery  under  the  Old 
Covenant.  Nor  does  the  parallel  fail  in  the 
point  that  the  shew-bread  might  only  be  eaten 
by  the  priests  ;  for  now  the  people  of  Christ  are 

all  priests  to  him.  P.  S. - God  is  a  good 

Householder,  that  always  keeps  a  plentiful  table. 
Is  the  world  his  tabernacle  ?  His  Providence 
in  it  spreads  a  table  for  all  the  creatures  ;  he 
provides  food  for  all  flesh.  Is  the  Church  his 
tabernacle  ?  His  grace  in  it  spreads  a  table  for 


all  believers,  furnished  with  the  bread  of  life. 
But  observe  how  much  the  dispensation  of  the 
Gospel  exceeds  that  of  the  Law.  Though  here 
was  a  table  furnished  it  was  only  with  shew- 
bread,  bread  to  be  looked  upon  while  it  was  on 
this  table,  and  afterward  only  to  be  fed  upon  by 
the  priests  ;  but  to  the  table  which  Christ  has 
spread  in  the  New  Covenant  all  real  Christians 
are  invited  guests  ;  and  to  them  it  is  said,  Eat^ 
0  friends',  drink,  0  beloved  !  H. 


The  Candlestick  of  Puke  Gold. 

Verses  31-39. 

The  Golden  Candlestick  was  placed  on  the  left 
or  south  side  of  the  altar  of  incense.  It  was 
made  of  pure  beaten  gold.  It  had  an  upright 
stem,  from  which  branched  out  three  pairs  of 
arms,  each  pair  forming  a  semicircle,  and  their 
tops ‘coming  to  the  same  level  as  the  top  of  the 
stem,  so  as  to  form  with  it  supports  for  seven 
lamps.  It  was  relieved  by  ornamental  knobs 
and  flowers  along  the  branches  and  at  their 
junction  with  the  stem.  There  were  oil-vessels 
and  lamp-tongs,  or  snuffers,  for  trimming  the 
seven  lamps,  and  dishes  for  carrying  away  the 
snuff  ;  an  office  performed  by  the  priest  when 
he  went  into  the  sanctuary  every  morning  to 
offer  incense.  All  these  utensils  were  of  pure 
gold.  The  lamps  were  lighted  at  the  time  of 
the  evening  oblation.  They  are  directed  to  be 
kept  burning  perpetually  ;  but  from  their  being 
lighted  in  the  evening,  this  seems  to  mean  only 
during  the  night.  In  the  house  of  Jehovah,  the 
candlestick  symbolized  the  spiritual  light  of  life, 
which  he  gives  to  his  servants  with  the  words 
by  which  they  live.  In  the  vision  of  the  heav¬ 
enly  temple  in  the  apocalypse,  the  seven  lights 
of  the  sanctuary  before  the  holiest  of  all  are 
identified  with  “  the  seven  spirits  that  are  before 
the  throne  of  God.”  the  one  perfect  Spirit. 
P.  S. - That  is,  the  Holy  Spirit  in  all  the  ful¬ 

ness  alike  of  what  he  is  and  of  what  he  bestows. 
So  when  John  turned  to  see  the  voice  that  spake 
with  him,  ”  being  turned  he  saw  seven  golden 
candlesticks  ”  and  an  explanation  was  given  in 
,  the  words,  “  the  seven  candlesticks  which  thou 


304 


SECTION  122.  FURNITURE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 


sawest  are  the  seven  churches.”  Thus  we  have 
in  the  ajjocalypsj  a  twofold  application  of  the 
emblem  before  us— to  the  Holy  Spirit  and  to  the 
Church.  ...  It  is  interesting  to  observe  that 
the  candlestick  was  to  be  fashioned  after  the 
form  of  a  tree,  and  that  tree  the  almond.  The 
almond  tree  is  the  fiist  tree  to  awaken  from  the 
sleep  of  winter  and  to  send  forth  its  leases  and 
buds  in  spring,  a  circumstance  indeed  from 
which  it  received  its  name  in  Hebrew  ;  and 
none,  therefore,  could  be  better  fitted  to  express 
the  vigor  and  activity  of  that  life  which  “  has¬ 
tens”  to  shed  abroad  the  light  represented  b^^  the 
light  of  the  golden  candlestick.  Milligan. 

The  candlestick  was  covered  with  golden  flow¬ 
ers  and  golden  fruit.  This  intimated  that  God’s 
people  were  to  be  a  flower -decked,  fruit-hearing 
people.  They  are  distinguished  by  the  beauti¬ 
fying  graces  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  fitly  represented 
by  flowers,  and  by  the  substantial  fruits  of  holy 
living.  R.  Newlon. 

Light,  in  its  most  genuine  usage  as  a  symbol, 
stands  for  knowledge,  or  rather  that  kind  of 
sacred  intelligence  or  moral  illumination  which  has 
for  its  object  the  things  of  Ood,  and  for  its  author 
the  Holy  Spirit,  the  great  fountain  of  all  spiritual 

light.  Bush. - The  pure  oil  olive  that  fed  the 

lamps  is  indisputably  a  type  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  burning  of  the  lamp  represents  that  Divine, 
infinite,  pure  energy  and  ardor  wherein  the 
Holy  Spirit  consists.  The  light  of  the  lamps 
filling  the  tabernacle  with  light  represents  the 
blessed  communication  and  influence  of  the 
Spirit  of  God,  replenishing  the  Church  with  the 
light  of  Divine  knowledge  in  opposition  to  the 
darkness  of  ignorance  and  delusion,  with  the 
light  of  holiness  in  opposition  to  the  darkness 
of  sin,  and  with  the  light  of  comfort  and  joy  in 
opposition  to  the  darkness  of  sorrow  and  mis¬ 
ery.  Edwards. 

The  Prophet  Zechariah  represents  the  exer¬ 
cise  of  the  Spirit’s  gracious  working  and  victori¬ 
ous  energy  in  behalf  of  the  Church,  under  the 
image  of  two  olive-trees  pouring  oil  into  the 
golden  candlestick— the  Church  being  mani¬ 
festly  imaged  in  the  candlestick,  and  the  Spirit’s 
assisting  grace  in  the  perpetual  current  of  oil 
with  which  it  was  supplied.  Clearly,  therefore, 
what  we  see  in  the  candlestick  of  the  tabernacle 
is  the  Church’s  relation  to  God  as  the  possessor 
and  reflector  of  the  holy  light  that  is  in  him, 

V  lii(;h  she  is  i)rivileged  to  receive,  and  bound 
again  to  give  forth  to  others,  so  that  where  she 
is  lh^■l■ri  must  be  no  darkness,  even  though  all 
around  should  be  enveloped  in  the  shades  of 
night.  It  is  her  high  distinction  to  dwell  in  a 
region  of  light,  and  to  act  under  God  as  the  [ 


bountiful  dispenser  of  its  grace  and  truth. 
P.  P. 

]\iii,  §  ;  1-4.  These  verses  enjoin  the  actual 
lighting  of  the  lamps  on  the  golden  candlestick. 
This  was  to  be  done  to  set  forth  symbolically 
the  peculiar  presence  which  God  actually  estab 

lished  among  his  people.  Espin. - In  the 

lamps  on  this  candlestick  Aaron  was  ordered  to 
burn  pure  olive  oil  ;  but  only,  it  would  seem, 
during  the  night.  For  in  Ex.  27  :  21  he  is  com¬ 
manded  to  cause  the  lamps  to  burn  “  from  even¬ 
ing  to  morning  before  the  Lord  and  in  ch. 
30  :  7,  8,  his  “  dressing  the  lamps  in  the  morn¬ 
ing”  is  set  in  opposition  to  his  “  lighting  them 
in  the  evening.”  The  same  order  is  again  re¬ 
peated  in  Lev  24  :  3.  And  in  accordance  with 
this  we  read  in  1  Sam.  3  : 3  of  the  Lord’s  ap¬ 
pearing  to  Samuel  “  before  the  lamp  of  God 
went  out  in  the  temple  of  the  Lord” — which 
can  only  mean  early  in  the  morning,  before 
sunrise,  P.  F. 


The  Altar  or  Incense. 
Ex.  30  : 1-10. 


Within  the  tabernacle,  in  the  holy  place,  and 
immediately  before  the  veil  which  concealed  the 
most  holy,  was  i3laced  the  Altar  of  Incense.  It 
was  one  cubit  both  in  length  and  breadth  and 
two  cubits  in  height,  and  like  all  other  altars 
had  horns.  It  was  made  of  shittim  wood,  and 
wholly  overlaid  with  gold,  and  there  was  a 
golden  wreath  around  the  top,  and  golden  rings 
at  the  sides  “  for  the  staves  to  bear  it  withal.” 
On  this  altar  Aaron  was  to  burn  incense  in  the 
morning  and  in  the  evening,  when  he  dressed 
the  lamps.  The  incense  was  of  a  peculiar  mix¬ 
ture  and  preparation,  consisting  chiefly  of  fra¬ 
grant  spices.  At  ch.  39:38  it  is  called  the 
“golden”  altar,  because  it  was  overlaid  with 
gold  ;  and  the  “  inner”  altar,  because  it  was 
within  the  sanctuary.  C  G.  B. 

The  altar  of  incense  stood  in  a  much  closer 
relation  to  the  holy  of  holies  than  either  the 
golden  candlestick  or  the  table  with  the  shew- 
bread.  It  was  placed  “  before  the  veil  that  is  by 


THE  ALTAR  OF  mCENSE. 


305 


the  ark  of  the  testimony,  before  the  mercy-seat 
that  is  over  the  testimony,”  language  not  used 
in  regard  to  any  other  part  of  the  furniture  of 
the  holy  place  ;  and  both  in  the  visions  of 
Isaiah  and  of  John  an  altar  which  can  hardly 
be  any  other  than  the  altar  of  incense — which 
in  John  indeed  certainly  is  so  — has  its  place  as¬ 
signed  to  it  in  heaven,  “  before  the  throne,” 
and  ”  before  God.”  Although,  therefore,  the 
altar  of  incense  stood  outside  the  second  veil,  it 
is  in  thought  at  least  fully  as  much  within  it  as 
without  it.  Milligan. 

The  incense  was  offered  every  morning  and 
evening,  at  first  by  Aaron  and  his  sons,  and 
afterward  by  the  priests  officiating  in  weekly 
course,  and  by  the  high-priest  on  great  occa¬ 
sions,  The  priest  took  some  of  the  sacred  fire 
off  the  altar  of  burnt-offering  in  his  censer,  and 
threw  the  incense  upon  it  :  then,  entering  the 
holy  place,  he  emptied  the  censer  upon  the  altar, 
prayed,  and  performed  the  other  duties  of  his 
ofi&ce.  Meanwhile  the  people  praj^ed  outside  ; 
and  thus  was  typified  the  intercession  of  Christ 
ill  heaven,  making  his  people’s  prayers  on  earth 
acceptable.  P.  S. 

Incense  is  an  emblem  of  prayer  ;  because  as 
incense  when  kindled  sends  its  smoke  upward, 
so  true  prayer  always  mounts  to  God’s  ear  ;  and 
because  as  incense  is  fragrant,  so  true  prayer  is 
always  acceptable  to  God  ;  and  again  because  as 
incense  needs  fire  to  kindle  it,  so  true  prayer 
cannot  be  kindled  upon  the  heart’s  altar  except 
by  the  power  of  God’s  Spirit,  who  at  Pentecost 
came  down  in  the  shape  of  tongues  of  fire.  So 
the  Psalmist  cries,  “  Let  my  prayer  be  set  forth 
before  thee  as  incense  ;  and  the  lifting  up  of 
my  hands  as  the  evening  sacrifice.”  The  in¬ 
cense  altar,  then,  was  a  figure  of  those  prayers 
which  are  ever  ascending  to  God  from  his  true 

Church.  E.  M.  G. - All  reconciliation  with 

God  by  means  of  sacrifice,  all  light  of  knowl¬ 
edge,  all  surrender  of  the  earthly  active  life  to 
the  Lord,  would  still  leave  a  sensible  void  in 
the  life  and  service  of  the  people  of  God,  with¬ 
out  the  incense  of  prayer  rising  out  of  the  sanc¬ 
tuary — out  of  the  hearts  of  the  congregation  of 
God.  While  the  priest  offered  the  sacrifice  of 
incense  in  the  sanctuary,  the  smoke  ascended 
toward  heaven  through  the  curtain  (as  there  was 
no  opening)  before  the  eyes  of  the  people,  who 
were  praying  in  the  fore-court.  Its  ascent  was 
both  an  exhortation  to  them  to  pray,  and  an  as¬ 
surance  their  prayers  would  be  heard.  Oerl 

The  lamps  were  dressed  or  lighted  at  the  same 
time  that  the  incense  was  burned,  to  teach  us 
that  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  (which  are 
our  light  and  lamp)  is  a  part  of  our  daily  work, 
20 


and  should  ordinarily  accompany  our  prayers 
and  praises.  When  we  speak  to  God  we  must 
hear  what  God  says  to  us,  and  thus  the  com¬ 
munion  is  complete.  The  devotions  of  sancti¬ 
fied  souls  are  well-pleasing  to  God,  of  a  sweet¬ 
smelling  savor  ;  the  prayers  of  saints  are  com¬ 
pared  to  sweet  odors  (llev.  5  ;  8),  but  it  is  the 
incense  which  Christ  adds  to  them  that  makes 
them  acceptable  (Rev.  8  : 3),  and  his  blood  that 
atones  for  the  guilt  which  cleaves  to  our  best 
services  And  if  the  heart  and  life  be  not  holy, 
even  incense  is  an  abomination  (Is.  1  ;13),  and 
he  that  offers  it  is  as  if  he  blessed  an  ulA  (Is. 
66  : 3).  H. 

It  is  the  diffusion  of  sweet  odors  that  is  char¬ 
acteristic  of  incense  ;  and  when  it  was  burned 
upon  the  golden  altar  the  object  was  to  fill  the 
whole  apartment  with  its  fragrance.  Bahr  has 
shown  that  the  words  used  to  signify'  a  savor  all 
connect  themselves  with  the  idea  of  breath  or 
spirit,  and  that  among  Oriental  nations  the 
leading  conception  of  a  sweet  smell  is  the  breath¬ 
ing  forth  of  the  inmost  soul  or  life  of  that  by 
which  it  is  produced.  Proceeding  on  this  hint, 
we  are  guided  to  a  larger  view  of  the  symbolism 
of  incense  than  that  which  limits  it  to  prayer. 
It  is  the  breathing  forth  of  the  life  of  the  true 
Israelite,  taken  as  a  whole — that  breathing  forth 
of  it  which  diffuses  fragrance  on  every  side, 
which  passes  even  toward  the  veil  and  the  im¬ 
mediate  presence  of  God,  and  which  is  grateful 
to  him  of  whose  enlightening  and  qxiickening 
Spirit  it  is  the  fruit.  When,  therefore,  the 
sanctuary  of  God  was  kept  continually  filled 
with  fragrance,  Israel  beheld  in  this  the  sweet 
savor  not  of  prayer  and  praise  alone,  but  of  that 
godly  life  to  w'hich  as  a  priestly  nation  they 
were  called.  .Milligan. 

The  brazen  Altar  in  the  court  was  a  t3'^pe  of 
Christ  dying  on  earth  ;  the  golden  Altar  in  the 
Sanctuary  was  a  tyj^e  of  Christ  interceding  in 
heaven,  in  virtue  of  his  satisfaction.  This  altar 
w^as  before  the  mercj’^-seat  ;  for  Christ  alwaj'^s 
appears  in  the  presence  of  God  for  us  ;  he  is 
our  Advocate  wVh  the  Father,  and  his  intercession 
is  unto  God  of  a  sweet-smelling  savor.  This 
altar  had  a  crown  fixed  to  it  ;  for  Christ  inter¬ 
cedes  as  a  King,  Father,  1  will  (John  17  :  24).  H. 

- The  coals  on  which  the  incense  was  burned 

on  the  golden  altar  were  to  be  taken  from  the 
brazen  altar.  This  taught  the  Israelite  from 
whence  the  efficacy  and  acceptableness  of  their 
prayers  and  praises  was  derived.  Bush. 

That  the  altar  of  incense  from  its  position 
stood  in  a  close  relation  to  the  mercj’^-seat  or  pro¬ 
pitiatory  on  the  one  hand,  and  by  the  live  coals 
that  ever  burned  in  its  golden  vials  stood  in  an 


30G 


SECTION  122.  FURNITURE  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 


equally  close  relation  to  the  altar  of  burnt-offer¬ 
ing  on  the  other,  tells  us  that  all  acceptable 
prayer  must  have  its  foundation  in  the 'mani¬ 
fested  grace  of  a  redeeming  God,  must  draw  its 
breath  of  life  from  that  work  of  propitiation 
which  he  has  in  his  own  person  accomplished 
for  the  sinful.  And  since  injunctions  so  strict 
were  given  tor  having  the  earthly  sanctuary 
made  peculiarly  to  bear  the  character  of  a  house 
of  prayer,  most  culpably  deaf  must  we  be  to  the 
voice  of  instruction  that  issues  from  it,  if  we  do 
not  hear  Jit  speaking  to  us  with  such  a  voice  as 
this  :  Pray  without  ceasing  ;  the  spirit  of  devo¬ 
tion  is  the  element  of  your  spiritual  being,  the 
indispensable  condition  of  health  and  fruitful¬ 
ness  ;  all  from  first  to  last  must  be  sanctified  by 
prayer  ;  and  if  this  be  neglected,  nothing  in  the 
work  and  service  of  God  can  be  expected  to  go 
well  with  you.  P.  F. 

30 :  10.  Aaron  sSiall  make  atone¬ 
ment  upon  tlie  liorns  of  It  onee  in  a 
year.  This  was  to  be  upon  what  was  called 
the  great  Day  of  Atonement,  of  which  a  full  ac¬ 
count  is  given  (Lev.  16  : 1-28).  The  ordinance 
was  peculiarly  striking,  as  it  intimated  that  all 
the  services  performed  at  it  were  imperfect,  that 
the  altar  itself  had  contracted  a  degree  of  im¬ 
purity  from  the  sinfulness  of  those  who  minis¬ 
tered  there,  and  that  even  the  very  odors  of  the 
daily  incense  needed  to  be  sweetened  by  afresh 
infusion  of  the  savor  of  the  blood  of  sprinkling. 

Bash. - Even  the  prayer  of  the  children  of 

God  is  not  in  itself  pure  and  acceptable  in  his 
sight  ;  but  this  their  service  needed  to  rest  on 
the  atonement  of  the  Mediator  of  the  New  Tes¬ 
tament.  The  more  any  one  lives  an  inner  life, 
the  more  dees  he  perceive  how  sin  defiles  and 
corrupts  the  most  religious  acts.  He  would, 
therefore,  have  no  confidence  in  the  acceptable¬ 
ness  of  his  prayers  without  an  ever  fresh  appro¬ 
priation  to  himself  of  the  merits  of  the  atone¬ 
ment.  Cerl. 

Ex,  25  :  40.  From  this  solemn  and  very 
particular  charge  to  Moses— Zoo/r  that  ihou  make 
them  after  their  pattern,  which  was  shewed  thee  in 
ithe  mount,  it  appears  plainly  that  to  receive  in¬ 
structions  relative  to  the  tabernacle  and  all  its 
furniture  was  one  part  of  his  emplojmient  while 
on  the  mount  forty  days  with  God.  As  God 
designed  that  this  building  and  all  that  belonged 
to  it  should  be  patterns  or  representations  of 
good  things  to  come,  it  was  necessary  that 
Moses  should  receive  a  specification  of  the 
whole,  according  to  which  he  might  direct  the 
different  artificers  in  their  constructing  the 

wotk.  A.  C. - The  reason  why  so  minute  and 

elaborate  details  are  given  in  these  chapters 


seems  to  be  to  show  to  us  that  Moses  carried 
out  exactly,  rigidly,  and  minutely  every  order 

that  he  received.  J.  C. - Moses  Avould  thus 

show  the  great  care  winch  he  and  his  workmen 
took  to  make  everything  exactly  according  to 
the  pattern  showed’ him  in  the  moiint.  Having 
before  given  us  the  original,  he  here  gives  us 
the  copy,  that  we  may  compare  them,  and  ob¬ 
serve  how  exactly  they  agree.  Thus  he  teaches 
us  to  have  respect  to  all  God’s  commandments, 
even  to  every  iota  and  tittle  of  them.  H. 

The  tabernacle  service  was  throughout  a  sys¬ 
tem  of  instituted  worship,  which  derived  all  its 
authority  from  the  express  appointment  of  Je¬ 
hovah.  On  this  account  it  was  manifestly 
proper  that  every  item  of  the  apparatus  should 
be  fashioned  according  to  the  model  set  before 
Moses  on  the  mount.  It  is  to  be  observed, 
therefore,  that  this  order  was  given  to  him  re¬ 
peatedly,  and  with  very  peculiar  force  and  em¬ 
phasis  ;  and  his  strict  adherence  to  it  is  in  the 
last  chaj)ter  in  this  book  noticed  no  leas  than 
eight  times,  once  after  the  mention  of  every 
separate  piece  of  furniture  that  was  made.  In 
the  New  Testament  also  his  compliance  with 
the  command  is  repeatedly  adverted  to,  and  the 
very  order  itself  expressly  quoted  (Acts  7:4; 
Heb.  8  :  5).  "What  then  was  the  reason  of  such 
minute  particularity?  Undoubtedly  because 
the  whole  was  intended  to  be  of  a  typical  char¬ 
acter,  shadowing  the  leading  features  of  the  Gos¬ 
pel  dispensation.  Bush. 

The  true  symbol  must  be  divinely  framed  and 
constituted.  Even  Moses  was  not  left  to  his 
own  taste  and  discretion,  in  fashioning  a  single 
cord  or  loop  or  tassel  of  the  tabernacle  and  its 
furniture — the  symbolic  palace  of  Jehovah,  and 
typical  at  once  of  Christ  the  Prophet,  Priest  and 
King,  present  and  ruling  in  his  spiritual  king¬ 
dom.  The  authority  of  God  alone  can  consti¬ 
tute  a  Gospel  symbol.  And  the  claim  to  set  up 
a  symbol  in  gospel  worship  which  Jehovah  has 
not  set  up  in  his  word,  is  really  a  claim  to  speak 
as  the  messenger  of  Jehovah,  and  to  come  with 
authority  to  actualize  a  Divine  pattern  revealed 
to  him  who  sets  it  up.  S.  R. 

The  Silver  Trumpets. 

Nu.  10  : 1-10. 

[Note. — These  Trumpets,  although  not  a  j)art 
of  the  furniture  of  the  tabernacle,  were  kept 
in  the  holy  place.  The  command  respecting 
their  construction  and  use  is  therefore  appro- 
jiriately  recorded  in  this  section.] 

The  Lord  himself  appoints  the  preparation  of 
the  trumpets  by  which  the  different  signals  for 
the  people  were  to  be  given,  that  in  all  which 


SECTION  123. 


307 


they  did  as  a  people  they  might  have  the  cer¬ 
tainty  they  stood  under  God  s  immediate  guid¬ 
ance.  Every  assembling  of  the  people  or  of  the 
council,  every  exi^editioii  in  war,  was  thereby 

marked  as  holy.  Gerl. - The  silver  trumpets 

gave  the  gathering-signal,  so  that  the  people 
should  always  be  attentive  to  the  voice  and  will 
of  God.  For  God  would  have  the  Israelites  set 
in  motion  by  their  sound,  so  that  they  should 
commence  everything  either  in  war  or  in  peace 
under  his  guidance  and  auspices.  Their  use 
was  threefold — viz.,  to  gather  the  people  or  the 
rulers  to  public  assemblies  ;  to  move  them 
against  their  enemies  ;  and,  thirdl}^  to  announce 
the  sacrifices  and  festivals.  G dv. 

The  signals  which  regulated  the  breaking  up 
of  the  camp  and  the  march  itself  were  of  tw'o 
kinds — those  which  proceeded  from  Jehovah, 
and  those  which  were  given  by  Moses  or  the 
priests.  The  former  were  made^bj'’  means  of 
the  different  positions  assumed  by  the  pillar  of 
cloud  and  fire.  It  had  come  down  upon  the  sanc¬ 
tuary  on  the  occasion  of  its  consecration. 
When  it  rose  up  from  the  tent,  this  was  the 
signal  on  the  joartof  Jehovah  that  the  camp  was 
to  be  broken  up  ;  and  whenever  it  came  down 
upon  any  spot,  the  Israelites  saw  in  this  a  sign 
that  they  were  to  encamp  upon  that  spot.  But 
as  this  signal  only  presented  itself  to  the  eye, 
and  could  therefore  be  easily  overlooked  by 
many,  another  signal  was  added  which  appealed 
to  the  ear  as  well.  For  this  purpose  Moses  pro¬ 
vided,  at  the  command  of  Jehovah,  two  silver 
trumpets.  When  both  trumpets  w'ere  blown, 
this  was  a  sign  for  the  whole  congregation  to 
assemble  at  the  tabernacle.  If  only  one  was 
blown,  it  was  a  summons  to  the  princes  of  the 
congregation  to  come  to  the  tabernacle.  When 
a  blast  w^as  blown  with  both  the  trumpets,  this 
was  the  signal  for  the  whole  congregation  to 
break  uj)  the  encampment.  At  the  first  blast 
the  tents  on  the  eastern  side  were  struck  ;  at 
the  second  those  on  the  south  side,  and  so 
forth.  K. 


Titus,  after  the  overthrow  of  Jerusalem,  a.d. 


70,  had  the  golden  candleslick  and  the  golden 
table  of  the  shew-bread,  the  silver  tr-wnpeis,  and 
the  book  of  the  Law  taken  out  of  the  temple, 
and  carried  in  triumph  to  Borne  ;  and  Vespasian 
lodged  them  in  the  temple  whic-h  he  had  conse¬ 
crated  to  the  goddess  of  Peace  !  At  the  foot  of 
Mount  Palatine  there  are  the  ruins  of  an  arch, 
on  wdiich  the  triumph  of  Titus  for  his  conquest 
of  the  Jews  is  represented,  and  on  which  the 
several  monuments  which  were  carried  in  the 
procession  are  sculptured,  particularly  the  golden 
candlestick,  the  table  of  the  shew-bread,  and  the 
two  silver  trumpets.  [For  cut  of  these,  see  New 
Testament,  Vol.  I.,  p.  G51.] 

These  things  had  accomplished  the  end  for 
which  they  w'ere  instituted,  and  were  now  of 
no  further  use.  The  glorious  Personage  typified 
by  all  this  ancient  apparatus  had  about  seventy 
years  before  this  made  his  appearance.  The 
true  lighl  was  come  and  the  Holy  Spirit  poured 
out  from  on  high  ;  and  therefore  the  golden 
candlestick  by  wdiich  they  w^ere  typified  was 
given  uji  ;  the  ever-during  bread  had  been  sent 
from  heaven,  and  therefore  the  golden  table,  wdiich 
bore  its  representative,  the  shew-bread,  w’as  now 
no  longer  needful  :  the  joyful  so^ind  of  the  ever¬ 
lasting  gospel  was  then  published  in  the  w'orld  ; 
and  therefore  the  silver  trumpets  that  typified 
this  were  carried  into  captivity,  and  their  sound 
was  no  more  to  be  heard.  Strange  Providence 
but  unutterable  mercy  of  God  !  the  Jews  lost 
both  the  .sigfn  and  the  things  signified;  and  that 
very  people  who  destroyed  the  hol}'^  city  and 
carried  away  the  spoils  of  the  temple  w'ere  the 
first  to  receive  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  the 
light  of  salvation,  and  the  bread  of  life  !  The 
Jews  had  these  significant  emblems  to  lead  them 
to  and  prejiare  them  for  the  things  signified. 
They  trusted  in  the  former,  and  rejected  the  lat¬ 
ter  !  God  therefore  deprived  them  of  both,  and 
gave  up  their  temple  to  the  spoilers,  their  land 
to  desolation,  and  themselves  to  captivity  and 
the  sword.  The  herdhens  then  carried  aw^ay  the 
emblems  of  their  salvation,  and  God  shortly  gave 
unto  those  heathens  that  very  salvation  of  which 
these  things  were  the  emblems  !  A.  C. 


Section  123. 

JFFEBINGS  FOB  THE  SEBVICE  OF  THE  SANCTUABY  :  BEATEN  OIL  ;  BANSOM  OB 
ATONEMENT  MONEY  ;  INCENSE  ;  ANOINTING  OIL  ;  SHEW  OB  FACE  BBEAD. 

Exodus  27  :  20,  21  ;  30  :  11-16,  22-38  ;  37  :  29.  Lev.  24  :  1-9. 

Ex,.  27  20  And  thou  shalt  command  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  bring  unto  thee  pure 
21  olive  oil  beaten  for  the  light,  to  cause  a  lamp  to  burn  continually.  In  the  tent  of  meeting, 


308  SECTION  123.  OFFERINGS  FOR  THE  SERVICE  OF  THE  SANCTUARY. 


without  the  veil  which  is  before  the  testimony,  Aaron  and  his  sons  shall  order  it  from  evening 
to  morning  before  the  Lord  :  it  shall  be  a  statute  for  ever  throughout  their  generations  on  the 
behalf  of  the  children  of  Israel. 

Lev.  ‘24  4  He  shall  order  the  lamps  upon  the  pure  candlestick  before  the  Lord  continually. 

Ex.  30  11  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  When  thou  takest  the  sum  of  the  chil- 

12  dren  of  Israel,  according  to  those  that  are  numbered  of  them,  then  shall  they  give  every  man 
a  ransom  for  his  soul  unto  the  Lord,  when  thou  numberest  them  ;  that  there  be  no  plague 

13  among  them,  when  thou  numberest  them.  This  they  shall  give,  every  one  that  passeth  over 
unto  them  that  are  numbered,  half  a  shekel  after  the  shekel  of  the  sanctuary  :  (the  shekel  is 

14  twentj"  gerahs  :)  half  a  shekel  for  an  offering  to  the  Lord,  Every  one  that  passeth  over  unto 
them  that  are  numbered,  from  tvventy  jmars  old  and  upward,  shall  give  the  offering  of  the 

15  Lord,  The  rich  shall  not  give  more,  and  the  poor  shall  not  give  less,  than  the  half  shekel, 

16  when  they  give  the  offering  of  the  Lord,  to  make  atonement  for  your  souls.  And  thow  shalt 
take  the  atonement  money  from  the  children  of  Israel,  and  shalt  appoint  it  for  the  service  of 
the  tent  of  meeting  ;  that  it  may  be  a  memorial  for  the  children  of  Israel  before  the  Lord,  to 
make  atonement  for  your  souls. 

22  Moreover  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Take  thou  also  unto  thee  the  chief  spices, 

23  of  flowing  myrrh  five  hundred  shekels,  and  of  sweet  cinnamon  half  so  much,  even  two  hundred 

24  and  fifty,  and  of  sweet  calamus  two  hundred  and  fifty,  and  of  cassia  five  hundred,  after  the 

25  shekel  of  the  sanctuary,  and  of  olive  oil  ah  hin  :  and  thou  shalt  make  it  an  holy  anointing  oil, 

26  a  perfume  compounded  after  the  art  of  the  perfumer  :  it  shall  be  an  hol}^  anointing  oil.  And 

27  thou  shalt  anoint  therewith  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  the  ark  of  the  testimony,  and  the  table 

28  and  all  the  vessels  thereof,  and  the  candlestick  and  the  vessels  thereof,  and  the  altar  of  in¬ 
cense,  and  the  altar  of  burnt  offering  with  all  the  vessels  thereof,  and  the  laver  and  the  base 

29  thereof.  And  thou  shalt  sanctify  them,  that  they  may  be  most  holy  :  whatsoever  toucheth 

30  them  shall  be  holy.  And  thou  shalt  anoint  Aaron  and  his  sons,  and  sanctify  them,  that  they 

31  may  minister  unto  me  in  the  priest’s  office.  And  thou  shalt  speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel, 

32  saying,  This  shall  be  an  holy  anointing  oil  unto  me  throughout  your  generations.  Upon  the 
flesh  of  man  shall  it  not  be  poured,  neither  shall  ye  make  any  like  it,  according  to  the  compo- 

33  sition  thereof  :  it  is  holy,  and  it  shall  be  holy  unto  you.  Whosoever  compoundeth  any  like  it, 
or  whosoever  putteth  any  of  it  upon  a  stranger,  he  shall  be  cut  off  from  his  people. 

34  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Take  unto  thee  sweet  spices,  stacte,  and  onycha,  and  gal- 

35  banum  ;  sweet  spices  with  pure  frankincense  :  of  each  shall  there  be  a  like  weight  ;  and  thou 
shalt  make  of  it  incense,  a  perfume  after  the  art  of  the  perfumer,  seasoned  with  salt,  pure  and 

36  holy  :  and  thou  shalt  beat  some  of  it  very  small,  and  put  of  it  before  the  testimony  in  the  tent 

37  of  meeting,  where  I  wdll  meet  with  thee  :  it  shall  be  unto  you  most  holy.  And  the  incense 
which  thou  shalt  make,  according  to  the  composition  thereof  ye  shall  not  make  for  yourselves  : 

38  it  shall  be  unto  thee  holy  for  the  Lord.  Whosoever  shall  make  like  unto  that,  to  smell 
thereto,  he  shall  be  cut  off  from  his  people. 

Ex.  37  29  And  he  made  the  holy  anointing  oil,  and  the  pure  incense  of  sweet  spices,  after 
the  art  of  the  perfumer. 

Lev.  24  5  And  thou  shalt  take  fine  flour,  and  bake  twelve  cakes  thereof  :  two  tenth  parts 

Q  of  an  ephah  shall  be  in  one  cake.  And  thou  shalt  set  them  in  two  rows,  six  on  a  row,  upon  the 

7  pure  table  before  the  Lord.  And  thou  shalt  put  pure  frankincense  upon  each  row,  that  it 

8  may  be  to  the  bread  for  a  memorial,  even  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord.  Every 
sabbath  day  he  shall  set  it  in  order  before  the  Lord  continually,  it  is  on  the  behalf  of  the 

9  children  of  Israel,  an  everlasting  covenant.  And  it  shall  be  for  Aaron  and  his  sons  ;  and  they 
shall  eat  it  in  a  holy  place  :  for  it  is  most  holy  unto  him  of  the  offerings  of  the  Lord  made  by 
fire  by  a  peri^etual  statute. 

/ 


The  offt'rings  for  the  service  of  the  holy  place  con¬ 
sisted  of  the  holy  oil  for  the  daily  replenishing 
of  the  lamps  of  the  golden  candlestick  ;  of  the 
ransom  or  atonement  money  for  the  expenses 
of  the  sanctuary  service  ;  of  the  incense  daily 
burned  upon  the  golden  altar  ;  of  the  holy 
anointing  oil  ;  and  of  the  twelve  loaves,  arranged 


in  rows,  with  frankincense  and  libations  of 
wine,  for  the  table  of  shew-bread.  B. 

Pure  Olive  Oil  Beaten,  for  the  Lamps. 
Ex.  27  : 20,  21  ;  Lev.  24  : 1-4. 

Olive  oil.  This  is  uniformly  employed  for 
lights  in  the -sanctuary  and  for  anointing.  It  is 


BEATEN  OIL.  HANSOM  MONEY. 


309 


a  vegetable  oil  and  fit  for  the  purpose  of  signi¬ 
fying  illumination  and  sanctification.  The  fat 
of  beasts  was  employed  to  rejjresent  propitia¬ 
tion.  The  oil  was  pare,  taken  from  the  olive 

alone.  M. - It  is  called  beaten,  because  it  was 

obtained  by  merely  bruising  the  olives  in  a 
mortar  or  mill,  without  the  application  of  heat. 
The  finest  oil  is  now  thus  obtained  from  young 
fruit  fleshly  gathered.  Clark. 

Oil,  which  gives  light  and  refreshes  and  in¬ 
vigorates  the  body,  is  an  oft-recurring  emblem 
for  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  source  of  life  and  light, 
with  whom  God  anoints  his  servants  in  the  Old 
Testament,  all  his  children  in  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment.  With  this  emblematic  oil  were  the  seven 
lamps  on  the  holy  candlestick  to  be  continually 
supplied.  Gerl. 

20.  Continually.  Heb.  iamid.  That  is, 
from  night  to  night  ;  not  without  intermission. 
That  is  said,  according  to  Scripture  usage,  to 
be  continually  done,  which  never  fails  to  be 
done  at  the  appointed  season.  Thus  a  “  con¬ 
tinual  burnt-offering”  is  one  which  is  continu¬ 
ally  offered  at  the  staled  time.  Bush. - 2S.  A 

statute  forever.  This  ordering  of  the 
lamps  night  and  morning  was  a  statute  that  was 
to  be  in  full  force  while  the  tabernacle  and 
temple  stood  ;  and  should  have  its  spiritual  ac¬ 
complishment  in  the  Christian  Church  to  the 
end  of  time.  The  seven  golden  candlesdcks  were 
typical  of  this  Church  and  the  glorious  light  it 
possesses  (Rev.  1  ;  12-20)  ;  and  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Fountain  and  Dispenser  of  this  true  light,  walks 

in  the  midst  of  them.  A.  C. - The  priests 

were  to  light  the  lamps,  and  to  tend  them  ;  thus 
it  is  the  work  of  ministers,  by  the  preaching 
and  expounding  of  the  Scriptures  (which  are  as 
a  lamp),  to  enlighten  the  Church,  God’s  taber¬ 
nacle  upon  earth.  This  is  to  be  a  statute  forever, 
that  the  lamps  of  the  Word  be  lighted  as  duly 
as  the  incense  of  prayer  and  praise  is  offered.  H. 

The  Ransom  of  Souls,  or  Atonement  Money. 
Ejt.  30  : 11-16. 

Some  observe  that  the  repetition  of  those 
words.  The  Lord  spake  un'o  Moses,  here  and 
afterward,  intimates  that  God  did  not  deliver 
these  precepts  to  Moses  in  the  mount  in  a  con¬ 
tinued  discourse,  but  with  many  intermissions, 
giving  him  time  either  to  write  what  w^as  said 
to  him,  or,  at  least,  to  charge  his  memory  with 
it.  He  is  here  ordered  to  levy  money  upon  the 
people  by  way  of  poll,  so  much  a  head,  for  the 
service  of  the  tabernacle.  H. 

The  materials  for  the  textile  work,  the  wood, 
the  gold,  and  the  bronze,  were  to  be  the  free¬ 
will  offerings  of  those  who  could  contribute 


them.  But  the  silver  was  to  be  obtained  by  an 
enforced  capitation  on  every  adult  male  Israel¬ 
ite,  the  poor  and  the  rich  having  to  pay  the 
same  (verse  15).  Hence,  in  the  estimate  of  the 
metals  collected  for  the  W'ork  the  gold  and  the 
bronze  are  termed  offerings,  while  the  silver  is 
spoken  of  as  “  the  silver  of  them  that  were 
numbered.”  But  this  paj^ment  is  brought  into 
its  highest  relation  in  being  here  accounted  a 
spiritual  obligation  laid  on  each  individual,  a 
tribute  expressly  exacted  by  Jehovah.  Every 
man  of  Israel  who  would  escape  a  curse  (verse 
12)  had  in  this  way  to  make  a  practical  acknowl¬ 
edgment  that  he  had  a  share  in  the  sanctuary, 
on  the  occasion  of  his  being  recognized  as  one 
of  the  covenanted  people  (verse  16).  Silver  was 
the  metal  commonly  used  for  current  coin. 
Cl  ark. 

12.  The  term  “  soul  ”  in  this  connection  is 
equivalent  to  “life,”  “person,”  “self.”  It 
was  therefore  a  ransom  for  their  lives,  or  in 
other  words  a  tribute  paid  to  God  by  way  of 
acknowledgment  that  they  had  received  their 
lives  from  him  ;  that  consequent!}^  he  might 
claim  from  them  whatever  he  might  demand  for 
the  sujjport  of  institutions  of  which  they  them¬ 
selves  at  the  same  time  were  to  reap  the  great 

advantage.  Bush. - The  rich  were  not  to  give 

more,  the  poor  not  to  give  less  ;  to  signify  that 
all  souls  were  equally  i)recious  in  the  sight  of 
God,  that  he  is  no  respecter  of  persons,  and  that 
no  difference  of  outward  circumstances  could 
affect  the  state  of  the  soul.  All  had  sinned, 
and  all  must  be  redeemed  by  the  same  price. 
This  was  to  be  a  memorial  unto  the  children  of 
Israel,  to  bring  to  their  remembrance  their  past 
ddiverance  and  to  keep  in  view  their  future  re¬ 
demption.  A.  G. 

This  was  that  tribute-money  vvhich  Christ 
paid  for  fear  of  offending  his  adversaries,  when 
yet  he  showed  good  reason  why  he  should  have 
been  excused.  In  other  offerings  men  were  to 
give  according  to  their  ability,  but  this,  which 
was  the  ransom  <f  the  soul,  must  be  alike  for  all  ; 
for  the  rich  have  as  much  need  of  Clirist  as  the 
poor,  and  the  poor  are  as  welcome  to  him  as 
the  rich.  They  both  alike  contributed  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  temple  service,  because  both 
were  to  have  a  like  interest  in  it,  and  benefit  by 
it.  In  Christ  and  his  ordinances,  rich  and  poor 
meet  together^  the  Lord  is  the  Maker,  the  Lord 
Christ  is  the  Redeemer  of  them  both  (Prov. 
22  :  2).  H. 

The  half  shekel,  which  was  first  levied  of  all 
grown  males  at  the  institution  of  the  tabernacle, 
and  called  their  ransom  money,  though  origi¬ 
nally  applied  to  the  construction  of  the  taber- 


310  SECTION  123.  OFFERINGS  FOR  THE  SERVICE  OF  THE  SANCTUARY. 


nacle,  was  afterward,  according  to  the  manifest 
design  of  the  ordinance,  regularly  levied,  and 
was  the  memorial-offering  from  the  children  of 
Israel  “  to  make  atonement  for  their  souls,” 
that  which  served  as  a  connecting  link  between 
the  members  of  the  congregation  and  the  atone¬ 
ment  services  of  the  sanctuary.  Through  this, 
which  ministered  the  supplies,  they  gave  formal 
expression  to  their  desire  to  have  an  interest  in 
all  the  expiatory  rites  of  the  daily  service  ;  and 
there  were  also  occasional  offerings  which  had 
the  same  end  in  view.  P.  F. 

The  Holy  Anointing  Oil. 

Ex.  30  ;  22-33. 

Directions  are  here  given  for  the  composition 
of  the  holy  anointing  oil  and  the  incense  that 
were  to  be  used  in  the  service  of  the  tabernacle  ; 
with  these  God  was  to  be  honored,  and  there¬ 
fore  he  would  appoint  the  making  of  them  :  for 
nothing  comes  to  God  but  what  comes  from 
him.  H. 

The  holy  anointing  oil  was  pure  olive  oil,  mixed 
with  fragrant  herbs,  myrrh,  cinnamon,  sweet 
calamus,  and  cassia.  With  this  the  ark,  the 
tabernacle,  the  table  and  candlestick,  the  two 
altars  and  their  furniture,  were  to  be  anointed 
to  make  them  holy.  With  this  Aaron  and  his 
sons  were  anointed.  It  was  not  to  be  imitated, 
nor  was  it  to  be  used  in  anointing  any  one  else, 

on  pain  of  excommunication.  C.  G.  B. - In 

its  composition  it  is  exquisite  both  in  expensive¬ 
ness  and  odor  ;  bv  its  verv  excellence  and  cost- 
liness  the  Israelites  may  learn  that  no  ordinary 
thing  is  represented  by  it.  There  was  set  be¬ 
fore  this  rude  people  a  splendor  in  sacred  sym¬ 
bols  which  might  affect  their  senses,  so  as  to 
uplift  them  by  steps  to  the  knowledge  of  spirit¬ 
ual  things.  Without  controversy  this  oil  mixed 
with  precious  perfumes  was  a  type  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  ;  for  the  metaphor  of  anointing  is  every¬ 
where  met  with  when  the  prophets  would  com¬ 
mend  the  power,  the  effects,  and  the  gifts  of  the 
Spirit.  God,  by  anointing  kings,  testified  that 
he  would  endow  them  with  the  spirit  of  pru¬ 
dence,  fortitude,  clemency,  and  justice.  The 
tabernacle  was  sprinkled  with  oil,  that  the 
Israelites  might  learn  that  all  the  exercises  of 
piety  profited  nothing  without  the  secret  oper- 
atiun  of  the  Spirit.  Nay,  something  more  was 
shown  forth  — viz.,  that  the  efificacy  and  grace  of 
the  Spirit  existed  and  reigned  in  the  truth  of 
the  shadows  itself  ;  and  that  whatever  good  was 
derived  from  them  was  applied  by  the  gift  of 
the  same  Spirit  for  the  use  of  believers.  Calv. 

- And  what  is  to  be  compared  with  the  pre- 

oiousness  of  these  Divine  influences?  Upon 


whomsoever  they  are  poured  forth  they  impart 
light  to  the  understanding,  pliancy  to  the  will, 
purity  to  the  affections,  tenderness  to  the  con¬ 
science,  and  holiness  to  the  entire  man.  They 
are  the  true  riches  of  the  soul,  and  the  sealing 
title  to  an  eternal  inheritance.  Wherever  en- 
joj^ed  they  constitute  the  subject  of  them,  ‘‘  a 
new  creature,”  and  so  far  sanctify  every  offering 
M^hich  he  presents,  that  “  God  smells  a  sweet 
savor  from  it,”  and  is  well  pleased.  And  not 
only  so.  As  every  vessel  that  was  anointed  with 
the  holy  ointment  imparted  a  sanctity  to  every¬ 
thing  with  which  it  came  in  contact,  so  every 
true  Christian  communicates  to  others,  as  far  as 
his  influence  extends,  the  same  Divine  prin¬ 
ciples  which  he  has  imbibed.  Bush. - The 

holy  anointing  oil,  compounded  of  its  rare, 
costly,  and  fragrant  ingredients,  evidently  rep¬ 
resents  the  positive  graces  ot  the  Christian  char¬ 
acter,  which  will  exhale  from  the  renewed  life 
of  those  who  have  come  to  God  by  the  way  of 
the  altar  and  the  laver  without,  and  the  golden 
altar  within.  Its  composition  was  such  as  to 
indicate  most  expressively  the  variety  and  ex¬ 
cellence  of  the  Holy  Spirit’s  working.  While 
separation  and  cleansing  signified  putting  off 
the  old  investiture  and  putting  on  the  new, 
anointing  meant  the  consecration  of  the  new 
man  by  the  effusion  of  the  Holy  Spirit’s  grace. 
J.  M.  G. 

The  Incense. 

Ex.  30  : 34-38. 

The  Incense,  like  the  anointing  oil,  was  com¬ 
pounded  of  four  aromatic  ingredients.  Both 

were  kept  in  the  Sanctuary.  B. - 37  :  39. 

The  preparing  of  the  incense,  and  with  it  the 
holy  anointing  oil,  God  taught  Bezalel  also  ; 
so  that  though  he  was  not  before  acquainted 
with  it,  yet  he  made  up  these  things  according 
to  the  work  of  the  apothecarj^  as  dexterously 
and  exactly  as  if  he  had  been  bred  up  to  the 
trade.  Where  God  gives  wisdom  and  grace,  it 
will  make  the  man  of  God  perfect,  thoroughly 
furnished  to  every  good  work.  H, 

The  incense  for  the  altar  was  formed  of  four 
kinds  of  sw'eet  spices — stacte,  omcha,  gal- 
banum,  and  pure  frankincense — of  which  the 
latter  alone  is  known  with  certainty.  The  com¬ 
position  was  made  with  the  view  of  yielding  the 
most  fragrant  and  refreshing  odor.  The  people 
were  expressly  forbidden  to  use  it  on  any  occa¬ 
sion,  and  the  priests  were  restricted  to  it  alone 
for  burning  on  the  altar,  that  there  might  be 
associated  with  it  a  feeling  of  the  deepest  sacred¬ 
ness.  It  possessed  the  threefold  characteristic 
of  “  salted,  pure,  holy  that  is,  having  in  it  a 


ANOINTING  OIL.  INCENSE.  SIIEW-BREAD. 


311 


mixture  of  salt,  the  symbol  of  uncorruptness, 
but  otherwise  unmixed  or  unadulterated,  and 
set  apart  to  a  sacred  use.  And  the  ordinance 
connected  with  it  was,  that  when  the  officiating 
priest  went  in  to  light  the  lamps  in  the  evening 
and  again  when  he  dressed  the  lamps  in  the 
morning,  he  was  to  place  on  this  golden  altar  a 
pot  of  the  prescribed  incense  with  live  coals 
taken  from  the  altar  without,  that  there  might 
be  “  a  perpetual  incense”  ascending  before  the 
Lord  in  this  apartment  of  his  house.  P.  F. 

The  Shew-bread,  or  Face-bread. 

Ex.,  Lev.  24  :5-9, 

This  bread  consisted  of  twelve  loaves  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  number  of  the  tribes,  which  were  laid 
on  the  table  in  the  holy  place  on  a  Sabbath  and 
renewed  the  following  Sabbath,  those  which 
were  removed  being  assigned  to  the  priests  who 
w’^ere  required  to  eat  them  in  a  holy  place. 
Cave. - The  loaves  had  their  peculiar  table  op¬ 

posite  the  candlestick  on  the  north  side  in  the 
holy  place.  This  was  no  ordinary  symbol  of 
God’s  favor,  when  he  descended  familiarly  to 


the  people,  as  if  he  were  their  messmate.  The 
loaves  were  called  “the  bread  of  faces,”  or 
“  bread  of  the  presence,”  because  they  were 
placed  before  the  e3'e8  of  God  ;  and  thus  he 
made  known  his  special  favor,  as  if  coming  to 
banquet  with  them.  He  commanded  them  to 
be  twelve  in  number  with  reference  to  the  twelve 
tribes,  as  if  he  would  admit  to  his  table  the  food 
offered  by  each  of  them.  Calv. 

7.  To  tlic  bread  for  a  memorial. 
When  the  bread  was  removed,  and  given  to  the 
priests,  this  frankincense  was  burned  upon  the 
golden  altar  ;  and  this  was  for  a  memorial  in¬ 
stead  of  the  bread,  an  offering  made  by  fire.  As 
the  handful  of  the  meal-offering  which  M’as 
burned  upon  the  altar  is  called  the  memorial 
thereof,  thus  a  little  was  accepted  as  an  humble 
acknowledgment,  and  all  the  loaves  were  con¬ 
signed  to  the  priests.  All  God’s  spiritual  Israel, 
typified  by  the  twelve  loaves,  are  made  through 
Christ  a  sweet  savor  to  him,  and  their  prayers 
are  said  to  come  up  before  God  for  a  memorial 
(Acts  10  : 4).  The  word  is  borrowed  from  the 
ceremonial  law.  H. 


Section  124. 

THE  ALTAR  OF  BURNT  OFFERING,  THE  LAVER,  AND  THE  COURT. 

Exodus  27  :  1-19  ;  30  ;  17-21  ;  38  :  1-20. 

Ex.  *27  1  And  thou  shalt  make  the  altar  of  acacia  wood,  five  cubits  long,  and  five  cubits 

2  broad  ;  the  altar  shall  be  foursquare  ;  and  the  height  thereof  shall  be  three  cubits.  And  thou 
shalt  make  the  horns  of  it  upon  the  four  corners  thereof  :  the  horns  thereof  shall  be  of  one 

3  piece  with  it  ;  and  thou  shalt  overlaj^  it  with  brass.  And  thou  shalt  make  its  pots  to  take 
away  its  ashes,  and  its  shovels,  and  its  basons,  and  its  fleshhook.s,  and  its  firepans  :  all  the 

4  vessels  thereof  thou  shalt  make  of  brass.  And  thou  shalt  make  for  it  a  grating  of  network  of 

5  brass  ;  and  upon  the  net  shalt  thou  make  four  brazen  rings  in  the  four  corners  thereof.  And 
thou  shalt  put  it  under  the  ledge  round  the  altar  beneath,  that  the  net  may  reach  halfway  up 

6  the  altar.  And  thou  shalt  make  staves  for  the  altar,  staves  of  acacia  wood,  and  overlay  them 

7  with  brass.  And  the  staves  thereof  shall  be  put  into  the  rings,  and  the  staves  shall  be  upon  the 

8  two  sides  of  the  altar,  in  bearing  it.  Hollow  with  planks  shalt  thou  make  it  :  as  it  hath  been 
shew'ed  thee  in  the  mount,  so  shall  they  make  it. 

30  17  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Thou  shalt  also  make  a  laver  of  brass,  and 

18  the  base  thereof  of  brass,  to  wash  withal  :  and  thou  shalt  put  it  between  the  tent  of  meeting 

19  and  the  altar,  and  thou  shalt  put  water  therein.  And  Aaron  and  his  sons  shall  wash  their  hands 

20  and  their  feet  thereat  :  when  they  go  into  the  tent  of  meeting,  they  shall  wash  with  water, 
that  they  die  not  ;  or  when  they  come  near  to  the  altar  to  minister,  to  burn  an  offering  made 

21  by  fire  unto  the  Lord  :  so  they  shall  wash  their  hands  and  their  feet,  that  they  die  not  :  and 
it  shall  be  a  statute  for  ever  to  them,  even  to  him  and  to  his  seed  throughout  their  generations. 

38  8  And  he  made  the  laver  of  brass,  and  the  base  thereof  of  brass,  of  the  mirrors  of  the 
serving  women  which  served  [or,  the  women  which  assembled  to  minister]  at  the  door  of  the 
tent  of  meeting. 

27  9  And  thou  shalt  make  the  court  of  the  tabernacle  :  for  the  south  side  southward  there 

10  shall  be  hangings  for  the  court  of  fine  twined  linen  an  hundred  cubits  long  for  one  side  :  and 
the  pillars  thereof  shall  be  twenty,  and  their  sockets  twenty,  of  brass  ;  the  hooks  of  the  pillars 


312 


SECTION  124.  THE  ALTAR  CF  BURNT  OFFERING. 


11  and  their  tillels  shall  be  of  silver.  And  likewise  for  the  north  side  in  length  there  shall  be 
hangings  an  hundred  cubits  long,  and  the  pillars  thereof  twenty,  and  their  sockets  twenty,  of 

12  brass  ^  the  hooks  of  the  pillars  and  their  fillets  of  silver.  And  for  the  breadth  of  the  court  on 

13  the  west  side  shall  be  hangings  of  fifty  cubits  :  their  pillars  ten,  and  their  sockets  ten.  And 

14  the  breadth  of  the  court  on  the  east  side  eastward  shall  be  fifty  cubits.  The  hangings  for  the 

15  one  side  <f  the  fjale  shall  be  fifteen  cubits  :  their  pillars  three,  and  their  sockets  three.  And 
for  the  other  side  shall  be  hangings  of  fifteen  cubits  :  their  pillars  three,  and  their  sockets 

16  three.  And  for  the  gate  of  the  court  shall  be  a  screen  of  twentj’^  cubits,  of  blue,  and  purple, 
and  scarlet,  and  fine  twined  linen,  the  work  of  the  embroiderer  :  their  pillars  four,  and  their 

17  sockets  four.  All  the  pillars  of  the  court  round  about  shall  be  filleted  with  silver  ;  their 

18  hooks  of  silver,  and  their  sockets  of  brass.  Tiie  length  of  the  court  shall  be  an  hundred 
cubits,  and  the  breadth  fifty  every  wdrere,  and  the  height  five  cubits,  of  fine  twined  linen,  and 

19  their  sockets  of  brass.  All  the  instruments  of  the  tabernacle  in  all  the  service  thereof,  and  all 
the  pins  thereof,  and  all  the  pins  of  the  court,  shall  be  of  brass. 

Ee.  SS  1-20.  Oinitledy  except  verse  8,  because  identical  wilh  above  text. 


The  religious  system  of  the  Hebrews  contemplates 
as  its  ultimate  end  the  obedience,  homage,  and 
worship  due  from  men  to  God  As  a  prime 
means  toward  this  end,  it  prescribes  modes  and 
forms  of  worship.  It  proposes  to  bring  God 
near  to  men  and  men  near  to  God  ;  and  for  this 
purpose  would  cultivate  in  men  the  spirit  of 
penitence  and  of  faith— impressing  them  with  a 
sense  of  their  sins  and  suggesting  to  them  how 
sin  may  be  forgiven  ;  and  how,  on  the  basis  of 
God’s  own  provision  for  pardon,  he  can  accept 
the  humble,  reverent  worship  of  his  people. 
These  fundamental  ideas  respecting  the  sin¬ 
ner’s  acceptance  with  God,  the  system  now  be¬ 
fore  us  sought  especially  to  develop  by  means 
of  visible  symbols — these  symbols  constituting 
the  very  elaborate  and  minutely  described  re- 
ligious  system  of  the  Hebrews.  This  system,  hav¬ 
ing  long  since  “  waxed  old  and  vanished  away,” 
is  yet  useful  for  the  light  it  throws  on  the  great 
and  fundamental  questions — How  shall  man — a 
sinner — become  just  before  God  ?  Is  an  atone¬ 
ment  necessary?  What  are  the  fundamental 
ideas  of  “  atonement”  ?  How  were  they  devel¬ 
oped  in  the  Mosaic  system,  and  what  light  does 
this  development  bring  to  the  atonement  pre¬ 
sented  to  view  in  the  New  Testament  ?  With 
superlative  wisdom  God  began  to  give  lessons 
on  this  great  subject  very  early  in  the  history 
of  our  race.  It  was  wise  to  give  such  lessons 
long  and  carefully  before  the  great  atoning  sac¬ 
rifice  came  in  human  flesh.  It  was  also  wise  to 
give  them  largely  by  visible  illustrations —by 
the  aid  of  a  system  having  so  much  of  the  ex¬ 
ternal  and  the  visible  that  minds  not  disciplined 
to  abstract  thought  might  see  the  truth  and  feel 
its  power  by  means  of  sensible  manifestations. 
H.  C. 

%  • 

Many  of  the  most  precious  Gospel  declarations 
of  Christ  and  the  apostles  would  be  unintelli¬ 
gible  hieroglyphics  without  the  key  of  Moses. 
It  is  the  manner  of  these  great  teachers  to  ex- 


Ijress  spiritual,  gracious,  and  eternal  things  in 
terms  of  the  temple  and  the  altar  ;  and  this  in 
conformity  with  a  system,  planned  from  the  be¬ 
ginning,  in  which  all  the  type  and  symbol  of 
the  Mosaic  economy  is  a  preparation  for  the 
clear  light  of  the  latter  day.  Those,  therefore, 
are  the  most  deeply  taught  and  richly  experi¬ 
enced  believers  who,  after  having  learned  the 
simple  principles  of  evangelical  truth  in  the 
New  Testament,  go  back  with  them  to  the  Old 
Testamenr,  and  behold  a  hundredfold  more 
beauty  and  majesty  in  the  same  truths  as  ar¬ 
rayed  in  the  forms  and  laws  of  the  Jewish  ser¬ 
vice.  And  in  our  endeavor  to  find  the  cross  in 
the  Holy  of  Holies,  and  the  Gospel  in  those 
smoking  altars,  we  have  our  best  aid  in  the  Epis¬ 
tle  to  the  Hebrews,  which  might  be  named  a  Key 
to  the  Tabernacle,  or  the  Old  Testament  ex¬ 
plained  by  the  New.  J.  W.  A. 


Ex.  27  : 1-8  ;  38  : 1-7. 

The  great  altar  which  stood  in  the  court  in 
front  of  the  tabernacle  was  commonly  called  the 
Altar  or  Burnt- Offering,  because  on  it  were 


ALTAR  OF  BURNT-OFFERING, 


313 


burned  the  whole  burnt-offerings,  and  all  those 
parts  of  the  other  animal  sacrifices  which  w'ere 
offered  to  the  Lord.  It  was  also  called  the 
Brazen  Altar,  because  it  was  covered  with 
bronze,  in  distinction  from  the  golden  altar,  or 
altar  of  incense.  As  sacrificial  worship  was  no 
new  thing,  there  is  nothing  said  or  intimated  as 
to  the  purpose  of  the  altar,  either  in  the  in¬ 
structions  for  the  sanctuary  or  in  the  record  of 
its  completion.  It  was  a  hollow  casing,  formed 
of  stout  acacia  planks  covered  wdth  plates  of 
bronze,  seven  feet  six  in  length  and  width  and 
four  feet  six  in  height.  The  shelf  round  the 
sides  w’as  required  as  a  stage  for  the  priests  to 
enable  them  to  carry  on  their  work  conveniently 
on  the  top  of  the  altar.  Clark. 

The  altar  of  burnt-offering  formed  the  central 
point  of  the  outer  services,  in  which  the  people 
had  a  part.  On  it  all  sacrifices  and  oblations 
were  presented,  except  the  sin-offerings,  which 
were  burned  without  the  camp.  It  was  overlaid 
with  plates  of  brass,  and  had  a  grating  of  brass 
in  the  middle  to  place  the  wood  upon,  and  rings 
to  lift  the  grating.  Like  the  ark,  the  altar  of 
incense,  and  the  table  of  shew-bread,  it  was  fur¬ 
nished  with  rings,  through  which  were  passed 
bars  to  carrj'  it  when  the  people  were  on  the 
march.  P.  S. 

This  altar  was  emjjhatically  the  meeting-place 
betw’een  God  and  men — the  one  as  infinitely 
holy  and  good,  the  other  as  sinful— that  they 
might  transact  together  respecting  sin  and  sal¬ 
vation,  that  the  fallen  might  be  again  restored, 
or  if  already  restored,  might  be  enabled  to  grow 
in  the  fellowship  and  blessing  of  heaven.  The 
distinctive  name  for  it  was  misheach,  the  slaugh¬ 
tering-place,  or  the  place  where  slaughtered 
victims  were  to  be  brought. and  laid  as  it  were 
on  the  table  of  God.  This  denoted  how  pre¬ 
eminently  the  communion  between  God  and 
sinful  men  must  be  through  an  avenue  of  blood, 
and  the  sentence  of  death  must  ever  be  found 
lying  across  the  threshold  of  life.  It  was  fur¬ 
nished  with  projecting  horns  at  each  corner, 
which  were  to  have  the  appearance  of  coming 
out  of  it.  These  horns  were  undoubtedly  to  be 
regarded  as  shaped  like  those  of  oxen,  and,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  emblematic  sense  ever  ascribed 
in  Scripture,  were  intended  to  symbolize  that 
Divine  strength  which  necessarily  distinguishes 
the  place  of  God’s  manifested  grace  and  love, 
and  which  forms,  in  a  manner,  its  crowning  ele¬ 
vation.  Hence  to  lay  hold  of  the  horns  of  the 
altar,  if  only  it  were  warrantably  done,  was  to 
grasp  the  almighty  and  protecting  arm  of  Je¬ 
hovah.  P.  F. - The  horns  of  the  brazen  altar 

were  an  expression  in  the  first  place  of  the  Di¬ 


vine  majesty  and  strength,  and  then  of  the 
communication  of  these  to  the  true  worshipper. 
It  is  in  harmony  with  this  interpretation  that 
the  blood  of  the  sin  offering  had  to  be  sprinkled 
upon  them,  and  that,  as  in  the  cases  of  Adoni- 
jah  and  Joab,  those  who  fled  from  the  ven¬ 
geance  of  their  enemies  to  the  sanctuary 
“  caught  hold  on  the  horns  of  the  altar.”  Mil¬ 
ligan. - It  is  probably  in  real,  though  latent 

allusion  to  the  horned  altar  and  its  pacifying 
character  that  God  says  through  the  prophet 
(Is.  27  : 5),  “  Let  him  take  hold  of  my  strength, 
that  he  may  make  peace  with  me  ;  and  he  shall 
make  peace  with  me.”  Bush. 

This  altar  was  the  foundation  of  all  the  tab¬ 
ernacle  worship.  The  priests  could  not  enter 
into  the  Holy  place  except  on  the  ground  of  sac¬ 
rifice  presented  on  the  brazen  altar.  Nor  could 
the  high-priest  on  the  great  atonement  day  enter 
the  holy  of  holies  without  having  first  offered 
not  only  the  ordinary  sacrifice,  but  an  additional 
sin-offering  on  the  altar  in  the  court.  Not  only 
was  the  Shechinah  glory  within  the  veil  impossi¬ 
ble  of  access  ;  but  the  bread  of  the  presence, 
the  light  of  the  lamps,  the  privileges  of  the  altar 
of  incense,  were  all  closed  until  a  sacrifice  had 
been  offered  upon  the  altar.  Thus  were  the 
children  of  Israel  taught  and  thus  too  are  we 
taught,  that  the  first  thing  for  the  sinner  to  do, 
before  he  can  taste  the  heavenly  bread,  before 
he  can  see  the  heavenly  light,  before  he  can 
even  pray  with  acceptance,  is  to  avail  himself 
of  the  atonement  which  God  has  provided.  The 
altar  was  the  people’s  place  of  meeting  with 
God.  Only  the  priests  could  enter  the  Holy 
place.  Only  the  High- priest  could  enter  the 
Holy  of  Holies.  But  the  altar  was  free  to  all. 
The  call  was  addressed  to  every  child  of  Israel  : 
“  Come  into  his  courts  and  bring  an  offering 
with  you.”  The  atonement  which  God  provides 
is  free  to  all  without  exception  and  without  dis¬ 
tinction.  J.  M.  G. 

No  function  of  the  officiating  priest  could  be 
discharged,  no  act  of  worship  on  the  part  of  the 
waiting  people  could  be  accepted,  till  there  had 
first  been  the  intervention  of  the  blood  from 
this  altar.  And  it  is  precisely  so  with  that 
which  this  significant  shadow  typified.  “  Ac¬ 
cepted  in  the  beloved,”  is  the  great  underlying 
doctrine  of  the  Gospel.  Our  prayers,  our 
praises,  our  tears,  our  repentance,  our  faith, 
our  words,  our  actions,  our  labors,  our  suffer¬ 
ings,  our  vows,  our  alms-givings,  our  sermons, 
our  sacraments — all  things  that  may  be  crowded 
into  the  entire  circle  of  our  services  — have 
worth  or  merit  not  in  themselves,  but  onlv  as 
they  stand  connected  with  the  sacrifice  which 


314 


SECTION  124. 


THE  LAVER. 


Jesus  offered  on  the  cross,  and  are  sprinkled 
with  his  atoning  blood  in  all  its  prevailing  effi¬ 
cacy.  This  lesson  is  taught  us  by  the  relation 
which  the  brazen  altar  bore  to  every  other  part 
of  the  tabernacle.  R.  Newton. 

Such  was  the  altar  of  burnt-offering,  the  pe¬ 
culiarly  chosen  and  consecrated  place  where 
Jehovah  condescended  to  reveal  his  grace  to 
sinners,  and  accept  the  offerings  thej'-  brought 
in  token  of  their  self-dedication  to  him.  These 
offerings  were  to  be  consumed  there,  in  part  by 
his  appointed  representatives,  and  in  part  by 
fire.  Thus  consumed  the  sacrifices  were  owned 
to  be  in  accordance  with  God’s  holiness  (which 
the  fire  symbolized)  and  stamped  with  his  ap¬ 
proval.  Hence  the  expression  so  commonly 
used  of  those  offerings  by  fire,  that  they  were  a 
sweet-smelling  savor,  ascending  up  to  the  region 
of  his  presence  like  a  grateful  and  refreshing 
odor.  P.  F. 

The  Laver. 

Ex.  30  ;  17-21  ;  38  : 8. 

The  second  article  of  furniture  in  the  coirrt 
of  the  tabernacle  was  the  laver,  always  spoken 
of  in  connection  with  its  foot.  It  stood  bej'ond 
the  brazen  altar,  and  between  it  and  the  taber¬ 
nacle.  No  mention  is  made  of  the  shape  or  size 
of  the  laver,  but  passages  where  it  is  spoken  of 
attach  such  importance  to  the  “  foot  ”  (or  base) 
as  to  make  it  probable  that  the  water  with  which 
the  feet  and  hands  were  washed  was  contained 

in  a  hollow  at  the  base.  Milligan. - 3§  :  §, 

Mirrors  of  the  serving-women  wlio 
served  at  tlie  door  of  tlie  tent  of 
meeting.  The  expression  in  the  original  is 
used  of  the  stated  services  of  the  priests  in  their 
sacred  vocation,  and  is  here  transferred  to  a 
class  of  females  who  appear  from  early  times  to 
have  devoted  themselves  to  regular  attendance 
on  the  worship  of  God.  Latterly,  and  probably 
not  till  the  post-Babylonian  times,  the  service 
of  the  women  in  question  appears  to  have  con¬ 
sisted  much  in  exercises  of  fasting  and  prayer. 
Such  a  woman  in  the  Gospel  age  was  Anna 
(Luke  2  : 37),  and  it  is  interesting  to  know  that 
she  had  her  prototypes  at  the  very  commence¬ 
ment  of  the  tabernacle- worship,  in  the  women 
who  gave  a  becoming  example  of  devotedness  in 
the  consecration  of  their  metallic  mirrors  to  the 
higher  ends  of  God’s  worship,  There  can  be 
no  reasonable  doubt  that  it  was  of  ox  from  the 
metal  of  these  glasses  that  the  laver  was  formed. 
P.  F. 

30  :  19-21.  Washing  is  frequently  referred 
to  in  the  Old  Testament  as  expressive  of  that 
higher  moral  purification  which,  as  time  went 


on,  was  more  and  more  felt  to  be  the  true  prep¬ 
aration  for  appearing  before  God.  The  wash¬ 
ing  was  to  enable  the  priests  to  obtain  that 
symbolical  purity,  without  which  it  was  impos¬ 
sible  for  any  one  to  make  a  near  approach  to  a 
holy  God,  and  which,  therefore,  could  not  but 
be  especially  demanded  of  those  priests  who 
were  to  enter  his  sanctuary  or  to  minister  at  his 

altar.  Milligan. - This  was  an  emblematical 

washing  ;  and  as  the  hands  and  the  feet  are  par¬ 
ticularly  mentioned,  it  must  refer  to  the  purity 
of  their  whole  conduct.  Their  hands,  all  their 
works  ;  their  feel,  all  their  goings,  must  be 
washed,  must  be  holiness  unto  the  Lord.  A.  C. 

- And  this  washing  was  designed  to  teach 

them  purity  in  all  their  ministrations,  and  to 
possess  them  with  a  reverence  of  God’s  holiness 
and  a  dread  of  the  pollutions  of  sin.  They  must 
not  only  wash  and  be  made  clean  when  they 
were  first  consecrated,  but  they  must  wash  and 
be  kept  clean  whenever  they  went  in  to  minister. 
He  only  shall  stand  in  God's  holy  place  that  has 
clean  hands  and  a  pure  heart  (Ps:  24  :  3,  4).  And 
it  was  to  teach  us  who  are  daily  to  attend  upon 
God,  daily  to  renew  our  repentance  for  sin  and 
our  believing  application  of  the  blood  of  Christ 
to  our  souls  for  remissiou  ;  for  in  many  things 
we  daily  offend  and  contract  pollution.  H. 

That  merely  the  hands  and  the  feet  were  to 
be  washed  at  the  laver,  arose  simply  from  these 
being  the  organs  immediately  employed  in  the 
service  ;  the  hands  being  engaged  in  presenting 
the  sacred  oblations,  and  the  feet  in  treading 
ground  that  was  hallowed.  The  action,  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  the  whole  spirit  of  the  Mosaic 
institutions,  was  symbolical  of  inward  purity  ; 
it  besj^oke  the  freedom  from  pollution  which 
should  characterize  those  who  would  present  an 
acceptable  service  to  Jehovah.  The  Psalmi^t 
clearly  indicates  the  meaning  of  the  rite,  and 
shows  also  how,  according  to  the  spirit  of  the 
ordinance,  he  held  it  to  be  not  less  applicable 
to  himself  than  to  the  priests,  when  he  says, 
“  I  will  wash  mine  hands  in  innocency  ;  so  will 
I  compass  thine  altar,  O  Lord.”  In  like  man¬ 
ner,  when  describing  the  true  worshipper  in 
Ps.  24,  he  says.  “  He  that  hath  clean  hands  and 
a  pure  heart.”  Such  an  one  is  the  true  priest 
in  God’s  house,  whether  he  have  the  outward 
calling  of  a  priest  or  not  ;  he  alone  serves  Him 
in  spirit  and  in  truth.  P.  F. 

Thus,  too,  there  is  no  entering  into  the  upper 
sanctuary  without  a  previous  washing  in  the 
laver  of  regeneration.  The  renewing  and  purify¬ 
ing  influences  of  the  Holy  Spirit  not  only  at 
the  outset  but  through  the  w'hole  course  of  the 
Christian  life,  are  most  significantly  shadowed 


THE  COURT  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 


315 


forth  by  this  feature  of  the  ancient  economy. 
As  the  altar  on  which  the  victims  were  offered 
w^as  a  symbol  of  justification,  so  the  laver,  with 
its  cleansing  fountain,  was  a  symbol  of  sanctifi¬ 
cation  ;  and  among  the  moral  truths  so  impres¬ 
sively  taught  by  the  sensible  emblems  of  the 
Mosaic  ritual,  none  was  perhaps  more  perti¬ 
nently  or  palpably  set  forth  than  the  strict  con¬ 
nection  between  the  atoning  blood  of  Christ  and 
the  sanctifying  efficacy  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  this 
mutual  relation  of  these  articles  standing  in  the 
outer  court.  The  same  truth  is  taught  in  the 
New  Testament,  where  we  are  told  that  Christ 
came  both  by  water  and  by  blood,  the  one  to 
atone  and  the  other  to  purify.  Bush. 

The  position  of  the  laver  shows  that  regener¬ 
ation  follows  pardon.  First  we  come  to  the 
altar  of  sacrifice,  the  blood  of  Christ  for  forgive¬ 
ness,  then  to  the  washing  of  regeneration  by 
the  Holy  Ghost.  This  is  the  Divine  order. 
The  natural  desire  is  to  reverse  this  order,  to 
be  made  “  good  ”  or  clean  before  we  come  to 

Christ.  B. - The  altar  stands  nearer  to  the 

sinner  than  the  laver.  The  Spirit  leads  him 
with  heart  unrenewed  to  the  cross  of  Christ. 
There  he  receives  forgiveness.  There  he  is 
clothed  in  the  spotless  righteousness  of  Christ. 
And  then,  but  not  till  then,  the  Spirit  sprinkles 
him  with  the  water  of  regeneration.  So  writes 
Paul,  “  Ye  are  all  the  children  of  God  through 
faith  in  Christ  Jesus.”  And  so  John  declares, 
“  As  many  as  received  him  to  them  gave  he  power 
to  become  the  sons  of  God.”  Christ  is ’made  of 
God  unto  the  believer  first  righteousness  and 
then  sanctification.  “  Say  not,  ”  observes  Leigh¬ 
ton,  “  Unless  I  find  some  measure  of  sanctifica¬ 
tion  what  right  have  I  to  apply  him  as  my 
righteousness  ?  This  inverts  the  order  and  dis¬ 
appoints  thee  of  both.  Thou  must  first,  with¬ 
out  finding  yea  or  seeking  anything  in  thyself 
but  misery  and  guiltiness,  lay  hold  on  him  as 
thy  righteousness  ;  or  else  thou  shalt  never  find 
him  thy  sanctification.  Simply  as  a  guilty  sin¬ 
ner  thou  must  flee  to  him  for  shelter  ;  and  then, 
being  come  in,  thou  shalt  be  furnished  out  of 
his  fulness  with  grace  for  grace.” 

Those  who  washed  in  the  water  of  the  laver 
were  priests.  But  this  laver  with  its  cleansing 
water  symbolized  the  Spirit  and  the  truth  of 
God  in  all  their  sanctifying  influences  as  con¬ 
nected  with  the  Christian  Church.  In  this 
Church  God’s  Spirit  is  given,  and  God’s  truth 
revealed  to  every  true  member.  They  all  have 
access  to  this  spiritual  laver  for  the  cleansing  of 
their  souls,  for  in  the  Christian  Church  all  the 
Lord’ s  people  are  prie.sts.  And  to  them  the  way 
of  access  into  the  holy  place—  the  place  of  God’s 


immediate  presence — lies  open  at  all  times. 
To  them  Divine  illumination  is  vouchsafed. 
They  eat  of  the  bread  which  cometh  down  from 
heaven,  and  never  hunger.  ”  They  are  abun¬ 
dantly  satisfied  with  the  plenteousness  of  God’s 
house.”  R.  Newton. 

In  concluding  our  consideration  of  the  laver, 
it  may  be  added  that  the  symbol  is  of  so  natural 
a  kind  and  so  fitly  adapted  for  purposes  of  spir¬ 
itual  instruction,  that  it  has  been  in  a  sense  re¬ 
tained  and  raised  to  still  higher  significance  in 
the  Christian  Church.  For  in  the  rite  of  bap¬ 
tism,  whatever  may  be  the  precise  mode  of  ad¬ 
ministration  adopted,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  cleansing  nature  of  the  element  is  the 
natural  basis  of  the  ordinance,  and  that  from 
which  it  derives  its  appropriate  character  as  the 
formal  initiation  into  a  Christian  state.  P.  F. 

The  Court  of  the  Tabernacle. 

Ex.  27  ;  9-19  ;  38  :  9-20. 

The  court,  or  open  enclosure,  in  which  the 
tabernacle  stood,  was  of  an  oblong  figure  of  a 
hundred  cubits  (about  one  hundred  and  fifty 
feet)  long,  by  fifty  cubits  (about  seventy-five 
feet)  broad  ;  and  the  height  of  the  enclosing 
curtain  was  five  cubits,  or  seven  feet  and  a  half, 
being  half  the  height  of  the  tabernacle.  The 
enclosure  was  formed  by  a  plain  hanging  of  fine 
twined  linen  yarn,  which  seems  to  have  been 
worked  in  an  open  texture  so  that  the  people 
without  might  freely  see  the  interior.  The  door 
curtain  was  of  “  fine  twined  linen,”  embroid¬ 
ered  with  blue,  purple,  and  scarlet.  It  was 
furnished  with  cords,  by  w’hich  it  might  be 
drawn  up  or  aside  when  the  priests  had  occa¬ 
sion  to  enter.  The  curtains  of  this  whole  en¬ 
closure  were  hung  upon  sixty  pillars  of  brass, 
standing  on  bases  of  the  same  metal,  but  with 
capitals  and  fillets  of  silver.  The  hooks,  also, 
to  w^hich  the  curtains  were  attached,  were  of 
silver.  The  entrance  of  the  court  was  at  the 
east  end,  opposite  that  to  the  tabernacle  ;  and 
between  them  stood  the  altar  of  burnt-offering 
and  the  brazen  laver.  J.  C. 

The  place  of  the  tabernacle  w'e  hold  to  be  not 
exactly  in  the  middle  of  the  court,  as  Josephus 
may  be  construed  to  mean,  but  as  Philo  ex¬ 
plains,  twenty  cubits  from  the  w^est,  north,  and 
south  sides  of  the  court.  In  this  way  a  perfect 
square  of  fifty  cubits  is  left  in  front  to  be  occu¬ 
pied  by  the  great  altar  and  the  laver  with  the 

company  of  officials  and  worshippers.  M. - 

The  tabernacle,  with  its  surrounding  court,  was 
appointed  to  stand  with  the  entrance  fronting 
the  east  ;  so  that  the  two  sides  looked,  the  one 
toward  the  north,  the  other  toward  the  south, 


316 


SECTIOJY  125.  THE  COURT. 


S oitLh  Side  .150  ft. 


THE  COURT,  INCLUDING  THE  TABERNACLE  AND  ITS  FURNITURE,  THE  LAVER 

AND  THE  ALTAR  OF  SACRIFICE.  (GROUND  PLAN.) 


and  the  end,  containing  the  most  holy  place, 
toward  the  west.  That  in  the  general  position 
a  respect  was  had  to  the  four  quarters  of  the 
earth,  as  emblems  of  universality,  may  readily 
be  conceived  :  the  sacred  structure,  however 
limited  in  dimensions,  was  still  the  habitation 
of  him  to  whom  the  earth  and  all  its  fulness  be¬ 
longs,  and  whose  kingdom,  spiritually  as  well 
as  naturally,  must  rule  over  all.  P.  F. 

The  walls  of  the  court  were  like  the  rest,  cur¬ 
tains  or  hangings,  made  according  to  the  ap¬ 
pointment.  This  represented  the  state  of  the 
Old  Testament  Church  ;  it  was  a  garden  en¬ 
closed  ;  the  worshippers  were  then  confined  to 
a  little  compass.  But  the  enclosure  being  of 
curtains  only,  intimated  that  the  confinement 
of  the  Church  in  one  particular  nation  was  not 
to  be  perpetual.  The  dispensation  itself  was  a 


tabernacle  dispensation,  movable  and  mutable, 
and  in  due  time  to  be  taken  down  and  folded 
up  when  the  place  of  the  tent  should  be  enlarged 
and  its  cords  lengthened  to  make  room  for  the 
Gentile  world,  as  is  foretold  (Is.  54  :  2,  3).  The 
Church  here  on  earth  is  but  the  court  of  God’s 
house,  and  happy  they  who  tread  these  courts 
and  flourish  in  them  ;  but  through  these  courts 
we  are  passing  to  the  holy  place  above  ;  Blessed 
are  they  that  dwell  in  that  house  of  God,  they  will 
be  still  praising  him.  H. 

The  tabernacle  is  the  type  of  heaven  (Heb. 
9  :  24),  the  court  is  the  figurative  semblance  of 
the  earth.  And  the  manifold  connections  be¬ 
tween  them,  as  well  as  the  presence  of  the  altar 
in  the  court,  indicate  the  design  that  the  earth 
should  eventually  become  a  constituent  part  of 
the  kingdom  of  heaven..  M. 


Section  125. 

THE  PRIESTLY  GARMENTS. 

Exodus  28  :  1-43  ;  39  :  1-31. 

Ex.  28  1  And  bring  thou  near  unto  thee  Aaron  thy  brother,  and  his  sons  with  him,  from 
among  the  children  of  Israel,  that  he  may  minister  unto  me  in  the  priest’s  office,  even  Aaron, 

2  Nadab  and  Abihu,  Eleazar  and  Ithamar,  Aaron’s  sons.  And  thou  shalt  make  holy  garments 

3  for  Aaron  thy  brother,  for  glory  and  for  beauty.  And  thou  shalt  speak  unto  all  that  are  wise 
hearted,  whom  I  have  filled  with  the  spirit  of  wisdom,  that  they  make  Aaron’s  garments  to 

4  sanctify  him,  that  he  may  minister  unto  me  in  the  priest’s  office.  And  these  are  the  garments 
which  they  shall  make  ;  a  breastplate,  and  an  ephod,  and  a  robe,  and  a  coat  of  chequer  work, 
a  mitre,  and  a  girdle  :  and  they  shall  make  holy  garments  for  Aaron  tby  brother,  and  his  sons. 


THE  PRIESTLY  GARMENTS. 


317 


5  that  he  may  minister  unto  me  in  the  priest’s  office.  And  they  shall  take  the  gold,  and  the 
blue,  and  the  purj^le,  and  the  scarlet,  and  the  fine  linen. 

6  And  they  shall  make  the  ephod  of  gold,  of  blue,  and  purple,  scarlet,  and  fine  twined  linen, 

7  the  work  of  the  cunning  w'orkman.  It  shall  have  two  shoulderpieces  joined  to  the  two  ends 

8  thereof  ;  that  it  may  be  joined  together.  And  the  cunningly  woven  band,  which  is  upon  it, 
to  gird  it  on  withal,  shall  be  like  the  work  thereof  and  of  the  same  piece  ;  of  gold,  of  blue, 

9  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  fine  twined  linen.  And  thou  shalt  take  two  onyx  stones,  and 

10  grave  on  them  the  names  of  the  children  of  Israel  :  six  of  their  names  on  the  one  stone,  and 

11  the  names  of  the  six  that  remain  on  the  other  stone,  according  to  their  birth.  With  the  work 
of  an  engraver  in  stone,  like  the  engravings  of  a  signet,  shalt  thou  engrave  the  two  stones, 
according  to  the  names  of  the  children  of  Israel  :  thou  shalt  make  them  to  be  inclosed  in 

12  ouches  of  gold.  And  thou  shalt  put  the  two  stones  upon  the  shoulderpieces  of  the  ephod,  to 
be  stones  of  memorial  for  the  children  of  Israel  :  and  Aaron  shall  bear  their  names  before  the 

13  Lord  upon  his  two  shoulders  for  a  memorial.  And  thou  shalt  make  ouches  of  gold  :  and  two 

14  chains  of  pure  gold  ;  like  cords  shalt  thou  make  them,  of  wreathen  work  :  and  thou  shalt  put 
the  wreathen  chains  on  the  ouches. 

15  And  thou  shalt  make  a  breastplate  of  judgement,  the  worl  of  the  cunning  workman  ;  like  the 
work  of  the  ephod  thou  shalt.  make  it  ;  of  gold,  of  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  fine 

IG  twined  linen,  shalt  thou  make  it.  Foursquare  it  shall  be  and  double  ;  a  span  shall  be  the 

17  length  thereof,  and  a  span  the  breadth  thereof.  And  thou  shalt  set  in  it  settings  of  stones, 

18  four  rows  of  stones  :  a  row  of  sardius,  topaz,  and  carbuncle  shall  be  the  first  row  ;  and  the 

19  second  row  an  emorald,  a  sapphire,  and  a  diamond  ;  and  the  third  row  a  jacinth,  an  agate,  and 

20  an  ameth3^st  ;  and  the  fourth  row  a  beryl,  and  an  onyx,  and  a  jasper  :  the}’^  shall  be  inclosed 

21  in  gold  in  their  settings.  And  the  stones  shall  be  according  to  the  names  of  the  children  of 
Israel,  twelve,  according  to  their  names  ;  like  the  engravings  of  a  signet,  ever}'  one  according 

22  to  his  name,  they  shall  be  for  the  twmlve  tribes.  And  thou  shalt  make  upon  the  breastplate 

23  chains  like  cords,  of  wreathen  work  of  pure  gold  And  thou  shalt  make  upon  the  breastplate 

24  two  rings  of  gold,  and  shalt  put  the  two  rings  on  the  two  ends  of  the  breastplate.  And  thou 
shalt  put  the  two  wreathen  chains  of  gold  on  the  two  rings  at  the  ends  of  the  breastplate. 

25  And  the  oiher  two  ends  of  the  two  wreathen  chains  thou  shalt  put  on  the  two  ouches,  and  put 

26  them  on  the  shoulderpieces  of  the  ephod,  in  the  forepart  thereof.  And  thou  shalt  make  two 
rings  of  gold,  and  thou  shalt  put  them  upon  the  two  ends  of  the  breastplate,  upon  the  edge. 

27  thereof,  which  is  toward  the  side  of  the  ephod  inward.  And  thou  shalt  make  tvo  rings  of 

gold,  and  shalt  put  them  on  the  two  shoulderpieces  of  the  ephod  underneath,  in  the  forepart 

28  thereof,  clo.se  by  the  coupling  thereof,  above  the  cunningl}’’  -woven  band  of  the  ephod.  And 
they  shall  bind  the  breastplate  by  the  rings  thereof  unto  the  rings  of  the  ephod  -with  a  lace  of 
blue,  that  it  may  be  upon  the  cunningl}'^  woven  band  of  the  ephod,  and  that  the  breastplate 

29  be  not  loosed  from  the  ephod.  And  Aaron  shall  bear  the  names  of  the  children  of  Israel  in 

the  breastplate  of  judgement  upon  his  heart,  when  he  goeth  in  unto  the  holy  place,  for  a 

30  memorial  before  the  Lord  continually.  And  thou  shalt  put  in  the  breastplate  of  judgement 
theUrim  and  the  Thummim  ;  [that  is,  the  Lights  and  the  Perfections  ;]  and  the}'  shall  be  upon 
Aaron’s  heart,  when  he  goeth  in  before  the  Lord  :  and  Aaron  shall  bear  the  judgement  of  the 
children  of  Israel  upon  his  heart  before  the  Lord  continuall3\ 

31  And  thou  shalt  make  the  robe  of  tl>e  ephod  all  of  bhie.  And  it  shall  have  a  hole  for  the 

32  head  in  the  midst  thereof  :  it  shall  have  a  binding  of  woven  work  round  about  the  hole  of  it, 

33  as  it  w'ere  the  hole  of  a  coat  of  mail,  that  it  be  not  rent.  And  upon  the  skirts  of  it  thou  shalt 
make  pomegranates  of  blue,  and  of  jDurple,  and  of  scarlet,  round  about  the  skirts  thereof  ; 

34  and  bells  of  gold  between  them  round  about  :  a  golden  bell  and  a  pomegranate,  a  golden  bell 

35  and  a  pomegranate,  upon  the  skirts  of  the  robe  round  about.  And  it  shall  be  upon  Aaron  to 
minister  :  and  the  sound  thereof  shall  be  heard  when  he  goeth  in  unto  the  holy  place  before 
the  Lord,  and  when  he  cometh  out,  that  he  die  not. 

36  And  thou  shalt  make  a  plate  of  pure  gold,  and  grave  upon  it,  like  the  engravings  of  a  signet, 

37  HOLY  TO  THE  LORD.  And  thou  shalt  put  it  on  a  lace  of  blue,  and  it  shall  be  upon  the  mitre  ; 

38  upon  the  forefront  of  the  mitre  it  shall  be.  And  it  shall  be  upon  Aaron’s  forehead,  and  Aaron 
shall  bear  the  iriiquitj’’  of  the  holy  things,  which  the  children  of  Israel  shall  hallow  in  all  their 
holy  gifts  ;  and  it  shall  be  alwaj^s  upon  his  forehead,  that  the\'  may  be  accepted  before  the 

S9  Lord.  And  thou  shalt  weave  the  coat  in  chequer  -vmrk  of  fine  linen,  and  thou  shalt  make  a 


318 


SECTION  125.  THE  PRIESTLY  GARMENTS. 


40  mitre  of  fine  linen,  and  thou  shalt  make  a  girdle,  the  work  of  the  embroiderer.  And  for 
Aaron’s  sons  thou  shalt  make  coats,  and  thou  shalt  make  for  them  girdles,  and  headtires  shalt 

41  thou  make  for  them,  for  glory  and  for  beauty.  And  thou  shalt  put  them  upon  Aaron  thy 
brother,  and  upon  his  sons  with  him  ;  and  shalt  anoint  them,  and  consecrate  them,  and  sanc- 

42  tif}''  them,  that  they  may  minister  unto  me  in  the  priest’s  office.  And  thou  shalt  make  them 
linen  breeches  to  cover  the  flesh  of  their  nakedness  ;  from  the  loins  even  unto  the  thighs  they 

43  shall  reach  :  and  they  shall  be  upon  Aaron,  and  upon  his  sons,  when  they  go  in  unto  the  tent 
of  meeting,  or  when  they  come  near  unto  the  altar  to  minister  in  the  holy  place  ;  that  they 
bear  not  iniquity,  and  die  :  it  shall  be  a  statute  for  ever  unto  him  and  unto  his  seed  after  him. 

Ex,.  1-31  The  holy  garments  made,  “  as  ike  Lord  commanded  Moses.'" 


The  Jews  were  in  the  midst  of  the  vast  masses 
of  heathendom  ;  they  were  set  apart  to  be  a 
people  to  reflect  the  character  and  holiness  and 
to  maintain  the  worship  of  the  living  and  the 
true  God.  Their  tendency,  as  their  whole  his¬ 
tory  shows,  was  to  borrow  from  surrounding 
nations,  and  so  they  came  by  and  by  to  fall  into 
the  practices  of  the  heathen.  God,  therefore, 
in  order  to  leave  no  opening  by  which  .there 
could  be  the  admission  of  anything  extrinsic, 
foreign,  or  heathen,  laid  down  these  excessively 
minute  specifications,  that  the  people  might  in 
all  things  have  a  law,  a  rule,  and  a  guide  to. act 
by.  No  one  can  read  the  whole  of  these  arrange¬ 
ments  about  the  high-priest,  and  these  regula¬ 
tions  about  the  tabernacle  econom.v,  and  then 
compare  wdth  them  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews, 
without  seeing  that  no  chance  could  have  made 
Christ  in  all  things  so  minutely  to  correspond 
to  them  ;  and  that  nothing  but  a  preconcerted 
arrangement  on  God’s  part,  to  set  forth  the 
Saviour,  under  tj’pes  and  figures  and  shadows, 
to  the  Jews,  could  have  made  the  harmony  be¬ 
tween  Christ,  the  end  of  the  Law,  and  the 
shadows  that  prefigured  him.  J.  C. 

The  Jewish  religion  was,  in  its  several  partic¬ 
ular  institutions,  intended  to  typify  and  prefig¬ 
ure  the  more  perfect  dispensation  of  the  Gospel. 
That  the  Jewish  high-priest  was  a  manifest  ty^pe 
of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  the  author  of  the 
Ei^istle  to  the  Hebrews  has  frequently  declared. 
So  the  tabernacle  itself  was  a  type  of  our  Ee- 
deemer  dwelling  in  our  nature  (John  1  : 14),  as 
was  the  ark  in  the  holy  of  holies,  with  its  mercy- 
seat,  an  emblem  of  Him  from  whose  mouth  we 
have  received  the  Law,  and  whose  satisfaction 
to  Divine  justice  is  our  true  'propitiatory  or  mercy- 
sf'at.  In  like  manner  the  several  altars  ap¬ 
pointed  in  the  tabernacle  and  the  sacrifices  ap¬ 
pointed  to  be  performed  upon  them  equally 
lead  us  to  Christ  and  his  dispensation.  Since 
the  chief  end  of  the  several  institutions  relating 
to  the  ceremonial  part  of  the  Jewish  worship 
was  to  prefigure  the  person  and  transactions  of 
our  blessed  Saviour,  so  the  ceremonies  appointed 
under  it  could  never  be  of  any  esteem  in  the 
bight  of  God  except  as  they  tended  to  j)romote 


this  end,  and  to  prepare  men’s  minds  for  the 
reception  of  a  more  perfect  institution  of  re¬ 
ligion.  Stackhouse. 

Previous  to  this  time  there  was  jorobably  no 
separate  order  of  priesthood  in  the  Church  of 
God  ;  but  every^  father  was  the  priest  of  his 
familyq  as  in  killing  the  lamb  of  the  passover 
and  sprinkling  the  blood,  or  each  worshipj^er 
had  been  at  liberty  to  transact  the  business  of 
sacrifice  as  he  pleased.  So  far,  in  the  history 
of  Israel  as  redeemed  from  Egypt,  Mdses  seems 
to  have  officiated  occasionally  as  priest,  as  in 
the  case  of  offering  the  sacriflce  and  sprinkling 
the  blood  of  the  covenant  ;  or  he  selected  young 
men  as  temporary  priests.  But  the  erection  of 
a  special  place  of  worship  most  notably  carried 
with  it  the  setting  up  of  an  order  of  priesthood, 
with  ritual  of  worship.  The  very'-  name  “  cohen, " 
which  we  translate  “jjriest,  ”  is  supposed  by 
the  critics  to  denote  the  idea  of  a  familiar  friend 
of  God.  The  distinctive  function  of  the  office 
was  to  receive  and  present  to  God,  as  his  near¬ 
est  friend  and  associate,  that  which  belonged  to 
him.  The  three  great  elements  entering  into 
the  idea  of  their  position  and  oflfice  were  :  That 
they  are  chosen  by  Jehovah  himself  to  be  his. 
That  they  are  officially  holy  in  a  pre-eminent 
sense.  That  they'^  have,  by  reason  of  their 
election  and  holiness,  the  priviLge  of  drawing 
near  to  God,  as  holding  a  position  intermediate 
between  man  and  God,  and  therefore  of  medi¬ 
ators.  The  apostle  defines  their  position  as 
thus  “  ordained  for  men  in  things  pertaining  to 
God."  They  were,  therefore,  in  a  certain  sense 
charged  with  the  interests  of  both  parties,  hav¬ 
ing  to  transact  unto  God  in  behalf  of  those 
whose  sins  have  separated  them  from  him.  S,  R. 

As  chosen  and  set  apart  for  God.  Israel  was 
his  heritage  among  the  nations  ;  and  as  sim¬ 
ilarly  chosen  and  set  apart  for  the  special  work 
of  the  priesthood,  the  family  of  Aaron  was  his 
heritage  in  Israel.  The  privilege  was  to  be 
theirs  of  drawing  peculiarly  near  to  God,  and 
their  first  qualification  for  using  it  was  that  they 
were  the  objects  of  his  choice.  Their  designa¬ 
tion  and  appointment  must  be  from  above  — not 
derived  from  the  choice  of  their  fellow-men — • 


THE  PRIESTLY  GARMENTS. 


319 


“  for  no  man  taketh  this  honor  unto  himself, 
but  he  that  is  called  of  God,  as  was  Aaron.” 
The  grounds  of  the  Divine  choice  in  the  case  of 
Aaron  are  nowhere  given.  P.  F. 

1.  Briiig^  tliou  near  Aaron  and  liis 
fions.  Moses  is  directed  to  consecrate  Aaron, 
although  he  was  never  himself  dedicated  by 
anointing  and  investiture  to  the  service  of  God  ; 
whence  we  perceive  that  Ihe  sacraments  have 
their  power  and  effect  not  from  the  virtue  of 
the  minister,  but  only  from  the  commandment 
of  God.  Calv. 

Eleazar  and  Ithamar  are  here  mentioned  for 
the  first  time,  except  in  the  genealogy  (6  : 23). 
Eleazar  succeeded  his  father  in  the  high-priest¬ 
hood,  and  was  himself  succeeded  by  his  son 
Phinehas.  But  Eli,  the  next  high-priest  named 
in  the  history,  was  of  the  line  of  Ithamar.  The 
representatives  of  both  families  held  office  at 
once  in  the  time  of  David.  Cla’k. 

2.  Holy  g^armciits.  Like  the  priestly 
class  of  contemporaneous  peoples,  the  priest¬ 
hood  of  Israel,  also,  was  to  be  distinguished  by 
a  peculiar  ofificial  dress.  An  entire  chapter  is 
devoted  to  its  details,  With  a  strong  Egyptian 
caste  throughout,  it  shows,  perhap.s,  an  equal 
acquaintance  with  the  customs  of  a  Shemitic 
ancestry.  Linen  was  the  fabric  uniformly  em¬ 
ployed  for  clothing  by  the  priests  of  Egypt  ; 
while,  if  we  may  trust  the  frescos  of  Egyptian 
dwellings,  delight  in  colors  was  a  marked  She- 
raitic  trait.  Hence  it  may  be  seen  that  the  di¬ 
rections  for  clothing  the  Jewish  priests  are 
everywhere  stamped  with  marks  of  the  Mosaic 
age.  What  is  characteristic  in  them  charac¬ 
terizes  as  well  Oriental  antiquities  in  general. 
E.  C.  B. 

For  glory  and  for  toeauty.  These  ex 
ternal  ornaments  denoted  the  want  of  those 
which  are  true  and  spiritual  ;  for  if  the  priest 
had  been  absolutely  and  entirely  perfect,  these 
typical  accessories  would  have  been  superfluous. 
In  order  that  Aaron  might  be  a  fit  peacemaker 
between  God  and  man,  he  put  off  his  ordinary 
garments,  and  stood  forth  as  a  new  man.  Hence 
the  holy  garments  were  supposed  to  conceal  his 
faults  ;  and  also  to  represent  the  incomparable 

adornment  of  all  virtues.  Calv. - So  also  the 

fiue  quality  of  the  stuffs  and  the  gold  and  diver¬ 
sified  colors  and  rich  embroidery  appearing  in 
the  garments  of  the  priesthood  were  designed 
to  express  the  elevated  rank  and  dignity  of  those 
who  are  recognized  by  God  as  sons  in  his  house, 
permitted  to  draw  near  with  confidence  to  his 
presence,  and  to  go  in  and  out  before  him. 
P.  F. - These  glorious  garments  were  ap¬ 

pointed  :  (1)  That  the  priests  themselves  might 


be  reminded  of  the  dignity  of  their  office,  and 
behave  themselves  with  due  decorum.  (2)  That 
the  people  might  be  possessed  with  a  holy  rev¬ 
erence  of  that  God  whose  ministers  appeared  in 
such  grandeur.  (3)  That  the  priests  might  be 
types  of  Christ,  who  should  offer  himself  with¬ 
out  spot  to  God,  and  of  all  Christians  who  have 
the  beauty  of  holiness  put  upon  them,  in  which 
they  are  consecrated  to  God.  Our  adorning 
under  the  Gospel,  both  that  of  ministers  and 
Christians,  is  not  to  be  of  gold  and  pearl  and 
costly  array,  but  the  garments  of  salvation,  and 
the  robe  of  righteousness  (Is.  G1  •  10  ;  Ps.  132  : 9, 
16).  H. 

The  garments  appointed  to  be  worn  by  the 
priesthood  in  their  sacred  ministrations  were 
strikingly  expressive  of  the  holiness  required  in 
their  personal  state,  while  in  certain  parts  of  the 
high-priest's  dress  other  ideas  besides  were 
symbolized,  .The  stuff  of  all  of  them  was  linen, 
and,  with  the  exception  of  the  more  ornament 
al  parts  of  the  high-priest's  dress,  must  be 
understood  to  have  been  white.  They  are  not 
expressly  so  called  in  the  Pentateuch,  but  are 
incidentally  described  as  white  in  2  Ch. 
5  : 12.  The  coolness  and  comparative  freedom 
from  perspiration  attending  the  use  of  linen 
garments  had  led  men  to  associate  with  them, 
especially  in  the  burning  clime  of  Egypt,  the 
idea  of  cleanliness.  Their  symbolical  use  in 
an  ethical  religion  like  the  Mosaic  must  have 
been  expressive  of  inward  purity  ;  and  hence  in 
the  symbolical  language  of  Kevelation  we  read 
so  often  of  the  white  and  clean  garments  of  the 
heavenly  inhabitants,  which  are  expressly  de¬ 
clared  to  mean  “  the  righteousness  of  saints.” 
P.  F. 

3.  Wi§e  hearted.  As  with  the  gifts  of 
the  Spirit  in  the  New  Testament,  so  we  find  in 
the  Old  Testament  all  njitural  gifts  employed  in 
the  service  of  the  kingdom  of  God  ascribed  to 

the  Spirit  of  God.  Oerl. - Whom  I  have 

tilled  with  ihe  spirit  of  wisdom.  So 
we  find  that  ingenuity  in  arts  and  sciences 
comes  from  God.  It  is  not  intimated  here  that 
these  persons  w^ere  filled  with  the  spirit  of  wis¬ 
dom  for  this  purpose  only  ;  for  the  direction  to 
Moses  is  to  select  those  whom  he  found  to  be 
expert  artists  ;  and  those  who  were  such,  God 
shows  by  these  wmrds,  had  derived  their  knowl¬ 
edge  from  Himself.  No  man  by  course  of  read¬ 
ing  or  study  ever  acquired  a  genius  of  this  kind  ; 
we  call  it  natural  and  say  it  was  born  with  the 
man  :  Moses  teaches  us  to  consider  it  as  Divine. 
When  I  see  Copernicus  and  Kepler  contribut¬ 
ing  to  pull  down  the  false  systems  of  the  uni¬ 
verse,  and  Newton  demonstrating  the  true  one  ; 


320 


SECTION  125.  THE  HIGH-PRIEST’S  GARMENTS. 


and  when  I  see  the  long  list  of  useful  invent¬ 
ors,  by  whose  genius,  industry,  and  skill  long 
and  tedious  processes  in  the  necessary  arts  of 
life  have  been  shortened,  labor  greatly  lessened, 
and  much  time  and  expense  saved,  I  then  see 
with  Moses  men  who  are  wise-hearted,  whom  God 
has  filled  with  the  spirit  of  loisdom  for  these  very 
purposes  ;  that  he  might  help  man  by  man,  and 
that  as  time  rolls  on  he  might  give  to  his  intel¬ 
ligent  creatures  such  proofs  of  his  Being,  infi- 
nitelj’’  varied  wisdom,  and  gracious  Providence, 
as  should  cause  them  to  depend  on  Him  and 
give  Him  that  glory  which  is  due  to  his  name. 
How  pointedly  does  the  Prophet  Isaiah  refer  to 
this  sort  of  teaching  as  coming  from  God,  even 
in  the  most  common  and  less  difficult  arts  of 
life.  The  whole  passage  is  w'orthy  of  serious 
attention  (28  :  24-29).  A.  C. 


Of  the  garments  appointed  to  be  made  “/or 
glory  and  for  beauty,"  out  of  the  richest  materials, 
four  were  common  to  the  high-priests  and  to 
the  ordinary  priests  — viz  ,  the  linen  drawers, 
the  linen  coat,  the  linen  girdle,  and  tlie  bonnet 
— the  bonnet  or  turban  of  the  high-priest  being 
termed  a  mitre.  The  other  four  were  pecnliar 
to  the  high-priest —viz  ,  the  ephod,  with  its  re¬ 
markable  girrile,  the  breast-f)late,  the  long  robe, 
with  its  bells  and  pomegram'fps,  and  the  golden 
plate  on  his  forehead.  Ihe  ephod  seems  to 
have  bei-n  a  short,  (hmble  apron,  suspended  by 
shoulder-straps  before  attd  behind  the  person, 
the  two  being  connected  together  by  clasps 
under  two  pr.  cions  onyx  stones  on  the  top  of 


the  shoulders,  engraved  with  the  names  of  the 
tribes,  and  the  whole  bound  close  around  the 
person  by  a  “  curious  girdle,”  which  formed  a 
part  of  the  ephod  itself.  All  parts  of  the  ephod 
were  “  of  gold,  of  blue,  of  jDurple,  of  scarlet,  and 
tine  twined  linen  work.”  Next  was  the  breast¬ 
plate.  It  was  ordered  to  be  “  set  in  settings  of 
stones,  even  four  rows  of  stones  and  each  of 
the  stones  was  to  be  of  different  sort.  “  And 
the  stones  shall  be  with  the  names  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel,  twelve.”  In  addition  to  this 
breast-plate  upon  the  ephod,  it  was  ordered  : 
“  Thou  shalt  put  into  the  breast  plate  of  judg¬ 
ment  the  Urim  and  the  Thummim  (‘  the  lights 
and  the  perfections  ’),  and  they  shall  be  upon 
Aaron’s  heart  when  he  goeth  in  before  the 
Lord  ;  and  Aaron  shall  bear  the  judgment  of 
the  children  of  Israel  upon  his  heart  continu¬ 
ally.”  The  third  article  peculiar  to  the  dress 
of  the  high-priest  was  the  “  robe  of  the  ephod, 
all  of  blue.”  “  And  beneath,  upon  the  hem  of 
it,  thou  shalt  make  pomegranates  of  blue  and 
of  purple  and  of  scarlet  round  about  the  hem 
thereof  ;  and  bells  of  gold  between  them  round 
about.  And  it  shall  be  upon  Aaron  to  minister, 
and  his  sound  shall  be  heard  when  he  goeth  in 
unto  the  holy  place  before  the  Lord,  and  when 
he  cometh  out  that  he  die  not.”  The  fourth 
article  peculiar  to  the  high-priest’s  dress  was 
the  golden  plate  and  mitre.  “  And  thou  shalt 
make  a  plate  of  pure  gold  and  grave  upon  it  like 
the  engravings  of  a  signet.  Holiness  to  the 
Loud.  And  upon  the  forefront  of  the  mitre 
shall  it  be.  And  it  shall  be  upon  Aaron’s  fore¬ 
head,  that  Aaron  m^  bear  the  iniquity  of  the 
holy  things  which  the  children  of  Israel  shall 
hallow  in  their  holy  gifts  ;  and  it  shall  be  al¬ 
ways  upon  his  forehead,  that  they  may  be  ac¬ 
cepted  before  the  Lord.”  Such  were  the  por¬ 
tions  of  dress  peculiar  to  the  high-priest.  The 
other  form  common  to  the  high-priests  and 
other  priests  — the  coat  or  tunic  of  fine  linen 
“embroidered,”  the  girdles  and  bonnets  “for 
glory  and  for  beauty,”  and  the  drawers  of  linen 
— need  no  other  descrijition  than  their  names. 
S.  R. 


The  Ephod  and  the  Onyx  Stones. 

Ex.  28  :  6-14  ;  39  : 2-7. 

Carefully  note'  the  distinction  between  the 
ephod  itself  (“a  double  apron  suspended  by 
shoulder-straps  before  and  liehind  the  iJerson’’  , 
and  the  two  onyx  stones  ntJached  to  the  ephod wpoa 
the  shoulders.  The  names  of  the  tribes  were  en¬ 
graven  upon  the  onyx  stones .{Aifi  on  each  stone)' 
as  well  as  upon  the  hrenst-plate.  which  also  was 
fastened  by  chains  and  rings  to  the  ephod.  So 


THE  EPHOD  AND  BREAST-PLATE, 


321 


that  Aaron  bore  the  names  of  the  children  of 
Israel  ^‘upon  his  shoulders”  and  also  “  upon  his 
heart,”  “for  a  memorial  before  the  Loed  con¬ 
tinually.”  “  Upon  his  shoulders,  the  seat  of 
strength,  and  upon  his  heart,  the  seat  of  love” 
{Gibson).  B. 

Tlie  ephod,  with  its  “  curious  girdle”  and  the 
onyx  stones  upon  its  shoulder-pieces,  was  the 
distinctive  priestlj’’  garment.  It  hung  upon  the 
shoulders  down  to  the  waist,  and  was  formed 
of  the  most  costly  and  beautiful  materials,  cor- 
res^jonding  exactly  to  those  employed  in  the  in¬ 
terior  decoration  of  the  holy  place.  The  girdle 
was  made  of  the  same  materials,  with  the  same 
combination  of  colors.  As  garments  were  as¬ 
sociated  in  the  Hebrew  mind  with  character, 
and  the  girdle  with  energy  in  work,  we  find  in 
the  correspondence  of  both  with  the  interior  of 
the  holy  place,  a  memorial  of  the  necessity  that 
those  who  enter  the  house  of  the  Lord  must  be 
themselves  holy  and  beautiful  in  character,  and 
be  engaged  in  high  and  holy  service.  But  the 
most  important  part  of  the  ephod  were  the 
shoulder-pieces,  on  which  were  set  two  onyx 
stones,  with  the  names  of  the  tribes  engraven 
on  them,  six  on  the  one  and  six  on  the  other  ; 
and  (verse  12)  “  Aaron  shall  bear  their  names 
before  the  Lord  upon  his  two  shoulders  for  a 
memorial.’  ’  Here  we  have  the  idea  of  repre¬ 
sentation  clearly  and  beautifully  symbolized. 
The  shoulders,  to  a  Hebrew  mind,  were  the 
symbol  of  strength  ;  and  the  idea  was,  that 
when  the  high-priest  entered  the  holy  place  he 
did  not  go  alone,  but  carried  with  him  on  his 
strong  shoulders  the  children  of  Israel,  wdiom  he 
represented  ;  and  the  estimation  in  which  the 
people  were  held  was  expressed  in  the  value  of 
the  precious  stones  on  which  the  names  v^ere 
engraved,  and  the  setting  of  pure  gold  with 
which  they  were  surrounded.  J.  M  G. 

9.  Two  onyx  §toiliC§.  That  the  connec¬ 
tion  between  the  priest  and  the  people  might  be 
made  more  plain,  God  not  only  placed  on  his 
breast  the  memorials  of  the  twelve  tribes,  but 
also  engraved  their  names  on  his  shoulders. 
I’hns  the  people  would  understand  that  this 
one  man  was  not  separated  from  the  others  for 
Ihe  sake  of  private  advantage,  but  that  in  his 
one  person  they  were  all  a  kingdom  of  priests, 
which  Peter  teaches  to  have  been  at  length 
really  fulfilled  in  Christ  (1  Pet.  2:5);  as  Isaiah 
had  foretold  that  there  should  be  priests  of  God 
and  Levites  brought  from  the  Gentiles  (66  :  21)  ; 
to  which  John  makes  allusion  in  the  apocalypse, 
where  he  says  that  we  are  all  priests  in  Christ 
(Rev,  1:6).  Hence  arises  (  ur  confidence  of 
ascendins  to  heaven  because  Christ  raises  us  up 
21 


with  him  ;  as  Paul  says,  we  sit  together  in 
heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus  however  weak 
we  may  be  in  ourselves,  herein  is  all  our  strength 

that  we  are  his  burden.  Colo. - These  two 

precious  stones,  on  which  the  names  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel  were  engraved,  were  put  upon 
the  high-priest’s  shoulders,  and  he  was  to  bear 
them  before  the  Lord  upon  his  shoulders.  How 
plainly  does  this  point  out  the  care  that  the 
great  Redeemer  takes  of  all  that  are  his  own  ! 
They  are  precious  in  his  sight — they  are  his 
jewels  ;  and  “  they  shall  be  mine,  saith  the 
Lord  of  hosts,  in  that  day  when  I  make  up  my 
3  ewels.  ”  M'  Cheyne. 


The  Beeast-plate  of  Judgment. 


Ex.  28  : 15-29  ;  39  : 8-21. 

Make  il  of  gold,  of  K>Uie,  and  paar- 
pie,  aiad  scarlet,  aiad  Siaie  twined 
liaieia.  Set  in  it  four  rows  of  stones, 
twelve,  according  to  tlie  naanes  of 
tlie  elaildren  of  Israel. 

The  ephod  and  the  hoshen,  or  breast -plate, 
which  signified  the  kingly  dignity,  do  not  stand 
in  subordinate  relation  the  one  to  the  other. 
They  are  both  treated  in  the  original  as  inde¬ 
pendent  articles,  yet  at  the  same  time  making 
together  one  whole.  The  dignity  also  which 
they  represent  must  in  some  way  exhibit  itself 
under  a  double  aspect  ;  and  thus  in  fact  was  the 
kingly  dignity,  both  among  the  Hebrews  and 
all  Oriental  antiquity  conceived  of — viz.,  as 
uniting  in  itself  the  two  grand  prerogatives  of 
lordship  and  judgment.  Thus  1  Sam  8  : 5,  6  ;  2 
Sam.  15  : 4  ;  1  Kings  3:9.  So  Artemidorus  re¬ 
marks,  “the  ancients  said  that  reigning  was 
judging.”  Now  the  “reigning  dignity”  is 
plainly  indicated  by  the  ephod,  inasmuch  as  its 
distinguishing  feature  was  the  “  shoulder- 
piece,”  and  the  “  shoulder”  both  in  sacred  and 
profane  antiquity  is  considered  as  the  “  seat  of 
sovereignty.  ”  Thus  Isaiah  says  of  the  Messiah 


322 


SECTION  125.  THE  BREAST-PLATE. 


(ch.  9:5),  “And  the  government  shall  be 
■upon  his  shoulder.”  The  same  idea  was 
familiar  among  the  Romans  in  India  and  in 
Egypt.  As  to  what  relates  to  the  “  judicial 
prerogative,’’  we  need  not  go  beyond  the  des¬ 
ignation  gi^ien  in  the  original  to  the  breast¬ 
plate— viz.,  breast-iDlate  of  judgment  to  show 
its  symbolical  bearing.  Bahr. 

That  the  Jewish  High-Priest  did  indeed  per¬ 
sonify  the  whole  body  of  the  Israelites  not  only 
appears  from  this,  that  he  bore  the  names  of  all 
the  tribes  on  his  breast  and  his  shoulders — 
which  unquestionably  imported  that  he  drew’ 
near  to  God  in  the  name  and  stead  of  all — but 
also  from  the  circumstance  that  w’hen  he  com¬ 
mitted  any  heinous  sin,  his  guilt  W’as  imputed 
to  the  people.  Thus  in  Lev.  4:3,  “if  the 
priest  that  is  anointed  sin  to  the  trespass  or 
guilt  of  the  peojrle.’’  When  he  sinned  the  peo¬ 
ple  sinned,  because  he  represented  the  W’hole 
people.  And  on  this  account  it  w’as  that  the 
sacrifice  for  a  sin  committed  by  him  had  to  be 
offered  as  the  public  sacrifices  were,  wdiich  were 
presented  for  sin  committed  by  the  people  at 
large  ;  the  blood  must  be  brought  into  the  holy 
place  and  the  bodj^  burned  without  the  camp. 
Viiringa. 

We  see  the  representative  character  of  Christ’s 
priesthood  and  all  its  functions  imaged  in  that 
of  the  High-Priest,  possessing  as  he  did  the 
names  of  the  twelve  tribes  upon  his  breast  when 
he  entered  the  tabernacle  and  having  their  cause 
and  interest  ever  before  him.  Christ,  in  like 
manner,  does  nothing  for  himself,  but  only  as 
the  Shepherd  and  Saviour  of  his  people.  “  Por 
their  sakes,  he  sanctified  himself,”  by  laying 
down  his  life  to  purchase  their  redemption. 
All  the  real  Israel  whom  the  Father  has  given 
to  him  are  borne  upon  his  bosom  within  the 
veil,  and  shall  assuredly  reap  the  fruits  of  his 

successful  mediation,  P.  F. - The  priesthood 

of  Aaron  shadow’ed  forth  the  infinitely  greater 
and  more  glorious  priesthood  of  Christ.  In  the 
execution  of  his  office  as  the  great  high-priest 
of  the  Church,  he  w’as  ordained  to  enter  into 
the  holy  place,  there  to  appear  in  the  presence 
of  God  for  us.  This  he  has  done.  He  ascended 
to  heaven  after  his  resurrection,  that  he  might 
there  complete  the  work  he  had  begun  on  earth. 
On  his  heart  are  engraven  the  names  of  all  his 
people,  and  not  one  of  them  is  overlooked  or 
forgotten.  He  presents  them  all  before  his 
Father,  as  the  objects  of  his  owm  kind  and  solic¬ 
itous  sympathy  and  care,  and  they  are  dear  to 
the  Father,  because  they  are  dear  to  the  Son. 
Bush. 

There  still  remains  the  wonderful  truth  of  his 


continuous  intercession  for  us.  In  its  widest 
meaning  that  word  expresses  the  whole  of  the 
manifold  ways  by  wLich  Christ  undertakes  and 
maintains  our  cause.  But  the  narrow'er  signifi¬ 
cation  of  prayer  on  our  behalf  is  applicable,  and 
is  in  Scripture  applied,  to  our  Lord.  As  on 
earth,  the  climax  of  all  his  intercourse  with  his 
disciples  was  that  deep  yet  simple  prayer  w’hich 
forms  the  hol}^  of  holies  of  John’s  gospel,  so  in 
heaven  his  loftiest  office  for  us  is  set  forth  under 
the  figure  of  his  intercession.  Before  the 
throne  stands  the  slain  Lamb,  and  therefore  do 
the  elders  in  the  outer  circle  bring  acceptable 
praises.  Within  the  veil  stands  the  priest,  wuth 
the  names  of  the  tribes  blazing  on  the  breast¬ 
plate  and  on  the  shoulders  of  his  robes,  near 
the  seat  of  love,  near  the  arm  of  power.  And 
w’hatever  difficulty  may  surround  that  idea  of 
Christ's  priestly  intercession,  this  at  all  events 
is  implied  in  it,  that  the  mighty  work  which  he 
accomplished  on  earth  is  ever  present  to  the 
Divine  mind  as  the  ground  of  our  acceptance 
and  the  channel  of  our  blessings  ;  and  this 
further,  that  the  utterance  of  Christ’s  will  is 
ever  in  harmony  with  the  Divine  purpose. 

A.  M. - In  the  high-priestly  prayer  of  our 

Lord,  we  find  him  commencing  this  office  of 
intercession.  “  I  pray  for  them,’’  says  he  of 
his  disciples.  The  intercession  then  com¬ 
menced  ;  but  it  has  been  continuing  ever  since  ; 
it  is  prolonged  through  all  time  ;  it  embraces 
not  the  apostles  only,  but  every  soul  of  the  re¬ 
deemed.  The  names  upon  the  high-priest’s 
breast-plate  betoken  the  individuality  of  Christ’s 
intercession  for  his  people.  Not  a  single  want 
or  woe  of  a  single  soul  is  forgotten  by  the  God- 
Man,  when  he  intercedes.  E.  M.  G. 

The  Ueim  and  Thummim. 

Ex.  28  : 30. 

The  probable  opinion  relative  to  the  Urim 
and  Thummim  is,  that  they  were  in  fact  identi¬ 
cal  with  the  stones  of  the  breast-plate,  but  called 
by  this  name  from  the  ins'rumerdal  uses  which 
they  were  made  to  subserve  in  the  symbolical 
economy  of  the  priesthood.  This  opinion, 
which  is  held  by  Josephus,  Philo,  and  most  of 
the  ancient  Jewish  doctors,  and  has  been  gen¬ 
erally  adopted  by  the  moderns,  is  supported  by 
the  following  considerations  :  (1)  If  the  words 
Urim  and  Thummim  be  regarded  as  epithets, 
rather  than  names,  applied  to  the  stones,  noth¬ 
ing  could  be  more  appropriate.  From  their  in¬ 
trinsic  properties  of  splendor,  brilliancy,  and 
luminousness,  they  might  very  properly  be  termed 
Lights  and  Perfections,  an  expression  supposed 
by  many  to  be  grammatically  equivalent  to  most 


THE  URIM  AND  THUMMIM. 


323 


perfect  lights.  This  is  the  view  of  Brauniiis, 
who  says  that  not  only  were  precious  stones  to 
he  employed,  but  they  were  to  be  the  most  shin¬ 
ing  and  perfect  of  the  kind.  (2)  If  the  Urim  and 
Thummim  were  not  the  same  with  the  gems  of 
the  breast  plate,  it  is  wholly  inexplicable  that 
the  sacred  narrative  gives  us  no  account  of 
them.  While  every  other  part  of  the  ritual  is 
described  with  scrupulous  minuteness,  how 
comes  it  that  nothing  is  said  of  an  article  which, 
in  obtaining  responses  from  God,  was  abso¬ 
lutely  indispensable  and  which  was  in  every  re¬ 
spect  among  the  most  important  items  of  the 
whole  apparatus  ?  The  silence  of  the  historian, 
therefore,  on  this  point  must  be  regarded  as 
strong  evidence  that  the  Urim  and  Thummim 
were  identical  with  the  stones.  (3)  It  will  be 
observed  upon  comparing  Ex.  39  :  8-21  with 
Lev.  8  : 8,  that  in  the  description  of  the  breast¬ 
plate,  given  in  the  former,  while  the  rows  of 
stones  are  mentioned,  nothing  is  said  of  the 
Urim  and  Thummim  ;  while  in  the  latter,  which 
speaks  of  the  investiture  of  Aaron  with  the 
pontifical  habit,  the  Urim  and  Thummim  are 
mentioned,  but  the  stones  are  passed  over  in 
silence.  What  inference  more  obvious  than 
that  these  objects  were  in  fact  one  and  the 
same  ?  Bush. 

There  was  a  congregation  of  all  Israel,  or  as¬ 
sembly  of  the  people,  that  all  things  might  be 
clone  with  general  consent.  There  was  a  senate 
of  wise  and  able  persons  to  prepare  things  by 
23revious  deliberation  and  consultation  that  they 
might  not  be  concluded  rashly  in  a  j^opular  as¬ 
sembly,  before  thej^  were  maturely  considered 
and  examined  by  men  of  wisdom  and  experi¬ 
ence.  There  was  a  judge  to  assemble  the  states- 
general  on  joroper  occasions,  to  preside  in  their 
assemblies,  to  command  the  armies  of  the 
united  provinces,  and  to  see  the  national  reso¬ 
lutions  duly  executed.  And  finally,  here  was  an 
oracle  which  was  to  be  consulted  by  the  high- 
priest  on  great  occasions,  that  no  rash  resolu¬ 
tions  of  the  people,  senate,  or  judge  might  be 
brought  into  execution  in  cases  of  moment  and 
difficulty  ;  but  they  were  to  ask  counsel  of  God, 
or  to  obtain  the  roval  assent  of  Jehovah  as  king 
of  Israel,  by  his  oracle.  This  was  a  wise  pro¬ 
vision  to  preserve  a  continual  sense  in  the  He¬ 
brew  nation  of  the  principal  design  of  their 
constitution,  to  keep  them  from  idolatry  and  to 
the  worshijD  of  the  one  true  God  as  their  imme¬ 
diate  jDrotector  ;  and  that  their  security  and 
prosi:)erity  depended  upon  adhering  to  his  coun¬ 
sels  and  commands.  Loicman. 

Between  the  time  of  Moses  and  the  period 
when  the  prophetic  office  became  recognized  as 


the  authoritative  and  inspired  exponent  of  the 
Divine  will,  “  the  Urim  and  the  Thummim”  in 
the  breast-plate  of  the  high-priest  was  the  me¬ 
dium  through  which  God  communicated  his 
guidance  in  matters  of  great  national  imi^oitance 
and  perplexity.  This  title  first  appears,  with¬ 
out  the  least  explanation,  as  if  it  was  ijerfectly 
familiar  in  the  times  when  the  Book  of  Exodus 
was  written.  If  familiar  then  they  have  not 
been  so  in  modern  days.  As  to  the  mere  mean¬ 
ing  of  the  words  there  is  little  conflict  of  opin¬ 
ion.  But  there  is  nothing  in  the  mere  meaning 
of  the  terms  to  determine  their  usage  and  sig¬ 
nificance,  and  almost  as  little  in  the  historic 
narrative  concerning  the  thing  itself.  Various 
theories  have  been  held  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
Urim  and  the  Thummim,  and  as  to  the  method 
by  which  God  made  known  his  will  thereby. 

Deane. - Whatever  was  the  irrecise  method 

through  which  the  response  was  conveyed,  the 
mode  in  which  the  priest  acted  is  ^sufficiently 
plain.  When  any  national  emergency  arose  for 
which  the  Law  had  made  no  j)rovision,  the 
high-priest  arrayed  himself  in  his  breast-plate 
find  j)ontifical  vestments,  and  went  into  the 
holy  place,  and  standing  close  before  the  veil, 
but  not  entering  within  it,  stated  the  question 
or  difficulty,  and  received  an  answt^r.  Several 
instances  will  occur'of  this  manner  of  consult¬ 
ing  the  Lord.  Pic.  B. - During  the  transition 

jDeriod  between  the  great  Lawgiver  and  the  full 
establishment  of  the  i^rophetic  office  occurred 
the  transfer  of  the  true  Theocracy  of  Jehovah  to 
the  mediate  Theocracy  of  the  Jewish  king  and 
the  Jewish  prophet.  When  the  people  in  their 
haste  and  political  ambition  demanded  a  king, 
the  power  of  the  Urim  and  the  Thummim  began 
to  decline.  When  Saul,  the  chosen  king  of  the 
people,  refused  the  i^rophetic  teaching  of  Sam¬ 
uel  and  violated  his  allegiance  to  God,  he  lost 
this  Divine  decision  ;  while  David,  through 
Abiathar  (1  Sam.  23  :  6,  9-12),  retained  it  in  a 
modified  form.  And  when  at  length  the  God- 
chosen  king  ascended  the  throne,  and  Jehovah 
established  his  house  forever,  the  previous 
Theocracy  became  embodietl  in  the  kingly  office, 
and  the  Urim  and  the  Thummim  gave  place  to 
the  grand  succession  of  Jewish  jDrophets.  The 
Urim  and  Thummim  derive  their  significance, 
therefore,  from  the  direct  government  of  the 
Israelites  by  Jehovah.  By  means  of  these  mys¬ 
terious  symbols  he  guided  the  destinies  of  the 
nation  in  matters  of  great  public  importance 
and  perplexity.  And  when  at  length  a  visible 
king  reigned  by  Divine  appointment,  the  coun¬ 
sel  of  the  Urim  and  the  Thummim  passed  into 
the  public  ministry  of  the  prophets,  which 


324 


SECTION'  125.  THE  ROBE  OF  THE  EPHOB. 


modified  and  controlled  the  political  organiza-  ' 
tions  of  the  kings. 

But  if  the  office  of  the  Urim  and  the  Thum- 
mim  departed  with  the  establishment  of  the 
Jewish  monarchy  and  prophets,  their  influence 
and  symbolic  teaching  still  survive.  That  which 
in  the  olden  Jewish  times  was  the  prerogative 
of  the  few,  becomes  in  Christian  days  the  priv¬ 
ilege  of  the  many.  Christ  makes  all  his  faith¬ 
ful  followers  “  kings  and  j^riests  unto  God.” 
And  much  of  the  sacred  symbolism  that  gath¬ 
ered  around  the  ancient  priesthood  now  gath  ¬ 
ers  in  another  form  around  the  believer  in 
Christ.  Mere  symbols  have  given  place  to  true 
spiritual  power.  The  whole  history  of  religious 
feeling,  from  the  first  dawn  of  light  upon  Abra- 
ham’s  mind  till  the  consummation  of  the  prom¬ 
ises  in  Christ,  has  been  one  long  struggle  of  the 
spiritual  reality  against  its  material  surround¬ 
ings.  Symbols  had  their  effect  in  leading  the 
mind  up  to  the  underlying  essence  ;  but  when 
at  length,  in  the  full  light  of  Gospel  truth,  we 
have  the  Spirit  of  God  made  manifest  in  the 
hearts  and  consciences  of  Christians,  the  sym¬ 
bols  have  done  their  duty  and  pass  away  as  ob¬ 
solete  memorials  of  an  imperfect  past.  The 
Spirit  of  God  which  once  underlay  the  symbols 
and  spake  through  them  to  the  devout  mind 
now  communicates  directlj^  with  the  heart,  and 
needs  no  material  intervention.  0.  Deane. 

The  Robe  of  the  Ephod. 

Ex.  28  : 31-35  ;  39  :  22-26. 

It  is  called  the  “  robe  of  the  ephod  ”  simply 
because  it  was  Avorn  immediately  under  it.  Its 
Hebrew  name  is  meil,  rendered  in  the  Greek  an 
under-garment  reaching  down  to  the  feel.  The 
meil  was  a  distinguishing  priestly  vestment,  and 
therefore  Christ  apjrears  (Rev.  1  : 13)  “  clothed 
with  a  garment  down  to  the  feet,"  to  show  himself 
the  great  high  priest  of  the  Church.  It  was  a 
long  linen  gown,  all  of  one  piece,  and  so  formed 
as  to  be  put  on  over  the  head,  and  with  open¬ 
ings  or  arm-holes  in  the  sides  in  place  of  sleeves. 
Round  its  lower  border  were  tassels  made  of 
blue,  purple,  and  scarlet,  in  the  form  of  pome¬ 
granates,  interspersed  with  small  gold  bells,  in 
order  to  make  a  noise  when  the  high-priest  went 
into  or  came  out  from  the  holy  place.  Bush. 

The  robe  of  the  ephod  was  a  long  robe,  worn 
under  the  ephod  and  appearing  below  it.  It 
Avas  all  of  blue,  the  heavenly  color,  as  was  the 
cloth  which  covered  the  ark  Avhen  it  was  carried 
on  the  priests’  shoulders  in  sight  of  the  people 
(Nu.  4  : 5,  6).  Chief  attention  is  directed  to  its 
hem,  which  consisted  of  a  fringe  adorned  with 
bells  and  pomegranates  alternately,  the  bells  be¬ 


ing  of  gold,  and  the  pomegranates  of  the  other 
characteristic  colors  of  the  interior  of  the  holy 
place.  The  pomegranate  was  the  queen  fruit  of 
Palestine.  It  Avas  large  and  full  of  innumerable 
seeds,  and  Avas  therefore  the  best  emblem  of 
that  fruitfulness  which  is  expected  of  those  who 
are  privileged  to  live  in  communion  with  God. 
The  bells  are  significant  of  joy,  and  of  that  com¬ 
munication  of  blessing  to  others  Avhich  is  char¬ 
acteristic  of  the  priestly  office.  It  is  jorobably 
to  the  ringing  of  the  golden  bells  on  the  hem  of 
the  high  priest’s  robe  that  reference  is  made  in 
such  a  passage  as  Ps.  89  : 15  :  “  Blessed  are  the 
people  that  know  the  joyful  sound.”  J.  M.  G. 

By  the  sound  of  the  bells  the  people  could  be 
admonished  of  the  high-priest’s  entrance  into 
the  holy  place,  and  so  unite  their  prayers  with 
his  incense  offering.  An  everlasting  covenant 
he  made  with  him  (Aaron),  and  gave  him  the 
priesthood  among  the  people  ;  he  beautified 
him  with  comely  ornaments,  and  clothed  him 
with  a  robe  of  glory.  He  put  upon  him  perfect 
glory  ;  and  strengthened  him  with  rich  gar¬ 
ments,  and  the  ephod.  And  he  compassed  him 
Avith  pomegranates,  and  Avith  many  golden  bells 
round  about,  that  as  he  went  there  might  be  a 
sound,  and  a  noise  made  that  might  be  heard  in 
the  temple,  for  a  memorial  to  the  children  of 

his  people”  (Ecclus)  Bush. - The  golden  bells 

on  the  ephod,  by  their  precious  matter  and 
pleasant  sound,  do  Avell  represent  the  good  pro¬ 
fession  that  the  saints  make  ;  and  the  pome¬ 
granates  the  fruit  they  bring  forth.  And  as  in 
the  hem  of  the  robe  of  the  ephod  bells  and 
pomegranates  were  constantly  connected,  so  it 
is  in  the  true  saints.  Their  good  pro/c-sswn  and 
their  good  fruit  do  constantly  accompany  one 
another.  The  fruit  they  bring  in  life  answers 
the  pleasant  sound  of  their  profession.  Ed- 

icards. - Christians  are  priests.  Wherever 

you  go  carry  a  savor  of  Christ.  His  name  is 
like  ointment  poured  forth  ;  it  is  like  the  vine 
flourishing  and  the  pomegranate  budding. 
Carry  a  sound  of  Christ  Avherever  you  go.  Not 
a  step  without  the  sound  of  the  Gospel  bell  ! 
Even  in  smallest  things  be  spreading  the  glad 
sound.  Edwards  says  wherever  a  godly  person 
enters,  he  is  a  greater  blessing  than  if  the  great¬ 
est  monarch  Avere  entering.  So  be  it  with  you. 
31’  Cheyne. 

The  Mitre  and  its  Plate  of  Pure  Gold. 

Ex.  28  : 36-38  ;  39  : 30,  31. 

The  plate  was  the  principal  part  of  the  mitre, 
and  the  badges  of  the  priestly  are  closely  inter- 
Avoven  with  those  of  the  kingly  dignity  in  the 
appointed  vesture  of  the  Jewish  pontiff.  For 


TUE  MITItE  WITH  ITS  GOLDEN  PLATE. 


325 


this  fact  a  twofold  reason  may  be  assigned.  In 
the  first  place,  this  favored  people  was  chosen 
as  a  “  royal  i^riesthood,”  a  “  kingdom  of  priests,” 
and  the  unity  of  the  nation  in  this  exalted  char¬ 
acter  was  made  visible  in  the  person  of  him  who 
was  ordained  as  their  supreme  representative. 
Nothing  therefore  would  be  more  appropriate 
than  that  corresponding  symbols  of  this  twofold 
distinction  should  appear  on  the  head-dress  of 
the  high-priest,  as  we  here  learn  to  have  been 
the  fact.  Indeed  the  Jewish  tradition  amplifies 
this  idea  somewhat,  and  affirms  a  tliretfuld  dig¬ 
nity  of  their  race,  which  they  say  was  indicated 
by  a  triplet  of  crowns — viz.,  the  crown  of  the 
priesthood,  the  crown  of  the  kingdom,  and  the 
crown  of  the  Law.  Secondly,  this  conjunction 
of  sacerdotal  and  royal  symbols  in  the  mitre  ^^^as 
intended  to  serve  as  a  typical  intimation  of  the 
union  of  these  two  offices  in  the  person  of 
Christ,  who  was  to  sit  as  “  a  priest  upon  his 
throne,"  being  made  a  priest  after  the  order  of 
Melchizedek,  king  of  righteousness.  Bush. 

Upon  its  plate  of  pure  geld  was  inscribed, 
“  Holiness  to  the  Lord,”  In  the  high -priest’s 
garments,  as  in  the  tabernacle  itself,  the  culmi¬ 
nation  of  all  is  in  ”  Holiness  to  the  Lord.” 
‘‘  Holiness  to  the  Lord  ”  was  the  sum  of  the 
Ten  Commandments  graven  on  stone  anddepos 
ited  in  the  ark  of  the  covenant  ;  and  now  it 
must  also  be  graven  in  gold,  set  in  a  setting  of 
heaven’s  purest  azure,  and  displajmd  uiion  the 
forehead  of  the  High  priest  ;  and  here  again  the 
representative  character  of  Aaron  is  distinctly 
brought  out  :  “  it  shall  be  always  on  his  fore¬ 
head  that  they  may  be  accepted  before  the  Lord.” 

J.  M.  G. - Aaron  must  hereby  be  reminded 

that  God  is  holy,  and  that  his  priests  must  be 
holy  ;  holiness  becomes  his  house  and  household. 
The  high-priest  must  be  consecrated  to  God, 
and  so  must  all  his  ministrations  be.  All  that  at¬ 
tend  in  God’s  house  must  have  Holiness  to  the  Lord 
engraven  upon  their  foreheads— that  is,  they 
must  be  hol}^  devoted  to  the  Lord,  and  design¬ 
ing  his  glory  in  all  they  do.  This  must  appear 
in  their  forehead,  in  an  open  profession  of  their 
relation  to  God  as  those  that  are  not  ashamed  to 
own  it,  and  in  a  conversation  in  the  world  an¬ 
swerable  to  it.  H. 

The  Holiness,  or  sanc'ijication,  of  (he  Lord.  This 
inscription  became  as  a  bright  memorial,  inces¬ 
santly  though  silently  proclaiming  to  the  eye, 
to  the  heart,  to  the  conscience,  “  a  holy  God,  a 
holy  service,  a  holy  minister,  a  holy  people,  and 
a  holy  covenant.”  The  children  of  Israel  could 
not  look  upon  it  without  being  reminded  of  the 
great  principle  which  flehovah  would  have  to 
pervade  all  his  worship,  and  which  is  elsewhere 


so  solemnl}^  announced,  ”  I  will  be  sanctified  in 
all  them  that  draw  nigh  unto  me.”  And  to  the 
saints  in  all  ages  it  should  serve  as  a  remem¬ 
brancer  of  the  equivalent  intimation,  that  as 
“  he  which  hath  called  us  is  holy,  so  are  we  to 
be  holy  in  all  manner  of  conversation.’  ’  Bush. 

Holiness  to  the  Lord  !  where  is  that  inscrip¬ 
tion  to  be  stamped  now?  The  Jewish  taber¬ 
nacle  has  expanded  into  that  world-wide  broth¬ 
erhood,  where  whosoever  doeth  righteousness  is 
accepted.  Morning  has  risen  into  day.  The 
ministry  of  Aaron  is  ended.  All  the  outward 
glory  and  beauty  of  that  Hebrew  worship  which 
the  Lord  commanded  Moses  has  vanished  into 
the  eternal  splendors  of  the  Gospel,  and  been 
fulfilled  in  Christ.  What  teaching  has  it  left^? 
What  other  than  this  ? — that  we  are  to  engrave 
o^(r  “  Holiness  to  the  Lord”  first  on  the  heart, 
and  then  on  all  that  the  heart  goes  out  into, 
through  the  brain  and  the  hand  :  on  the  plates 
of  gold  our  age  of  enterprise  is  drawing  up  from 
mines  and  beating  into  currency  ;  on  bales  of 
merchandise  and  books  of  account  ;  on  the  tools 
and  bench  of  every  handicraft ;  on  your  w'eights 
and  measures  ;  on  pen  and  plough  and  pulpit  ; 
on  the  door-posts  of  your  houses,  and  the  uten¬ 
sils  of  your  table,  and  the  walls  of  your  cham¬ 
bers  ;  on  cradle  and  jilaythings  and  school¬ 
books  ;  on  the  locomotives  of  enterprise,  and 
the  bells  of  the  horses,  and  the  ships  of  naviga¬ 
tion  ;  on  music-halls  and  libraries  ;  on  galleries 
of  art,  and  the  lyceum  desk  ;  on  all  of  man’s  in¬ 
venting  and  building,  all  of  his  using  and  en- 
jojfing  ;  for  all  these  are  trusts  in  a  stewardship, 
for  which  the  Lord  of  the  servants  reckoneth. 
F.  D.  H. 

Vestments  op  the  Priesthood. 

Ex.  28  : 40-43  ;  39  :  27-29. 

The  dress  of  white  linen  was  the  strictly  sac¬ 
erdotal  dress  common  to  the  whole  body  of 
priests.  These  were  “  for  glory  and  for  beauty” 
not  less  than  the  golden  garments  (as  they  were 
called  by  the  Jew^s)  which  formed  the  high- 

priest’s  dress  of  state.  Clark. - Only  in  the 

glor'y  of  grace  and  the  beauty  of  holiness  which 
they  shadowed  forth,  do  we  behold  the  true 
glory  and  beauty  of  these  sacred  robes.  In  con¬ 
cluding  this  account  of  the  priestly  robes,  it 
may  be  useful  to  repeat  that  the  robes  common 
to  all  were  the  drawers,  the  embroidered  coat, 
the  girdle,  and  the  turban  ;  but  besides  this  the 
high-priest  wore  the  ephod,  the  robe  of  the 
ephod  with  its  bells  and  pomegranates,  the 
breast-plate  over  the  ephod,  the  shoulder  pieces 
of  onyx  stone,  and  the  engraved  ornament  of 
pure  gold  in  front  of  his  turban.  Bush. 


326 


SECTION  126.  THE  WORK  APPROVED. 


39  :  1-31.  In  this  chapter  all  the  six  para¬ 
graphs  which  give  a  distinct  account  of  the 
making  of  these  holy  garments  conclude  with 
those  words,  as  ilte  Lord  commanded  Moses 
(verses  5,  7,  21,  26,  29,  31).  It  is  an  intimation 
to  all  the  Lord’s  ministers  to  make  the  Word 
of  God  their  rule  in  all  their  ministrations,  and 
to  act  in  observance  of  and  obedience  to  the 
command  of  God.  H. 

And  now  let  us  enumerate  the  main  ideas 
which  are  symbolized  in  the  vestments  of  the 
High-priest.  The  ephod  with  its  girdle  signi¬ 
fied  the  beautif  ul  char'acter  and  the  exalted  service 
which  are  becoming  to  the  holy  place  ;  and  the 
shoulder-pieces  and  the  breast-plate,  with  the 
precious  stones  and  the  engraving  on  them,  sig¬ 
nified  that  the  children  of  Israel  as  a  whole  and 
each  child  individually  was  borne  on  the  strong 
shoulders  and  carried  in  the  warm  heart  of 
their  representative  in  the  presence  of  the  Lord, 
giving  the  conceptions  of  strength  to  sustain  and 
love  to  cherish  ;  the  Urim  and  Thummim  added 
the  thought  of  heavenly  guidance  along  a  path 
that  “  shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect 
day  the  pomegranates  and  bells  on  the  blue 
robe  of  the  ephod  symbolized  heavenly /rwiZ/wZ- 
ness  and  joy  ,•  while  the  climax  of  all  was  reached 
in  the  golden  graving  of  holiness  unto  the  Lord. 
You  see  how  rich  was  the  symbolism  of  the 
high-priestly  vestments.  And  how  expressive 
as  types  of  the  glory  and  the  grace  of  our  great 
high-priest.  The  Lord  Jesus  needed  no  priestly 
vestments  ;  for  he  had  the  great  realities,  of 
which  these  w^ere  only  the  symbols.  His 
strength  to  save  and  his  love  for  lost  sinners 
were  so  conspicuous  all  through  his  strong  and 
loving  life  that  onyx  stones  upon  his  shoulders 
or  precious  stones  upon  his  breast  would  have 


been  superfluous.  And  no  symbol  of  Urim  and 
Thummim  was  needful  for  one  who  could  say, 
“  I  am  the  light  of  the  world.” 


The  priestly  garments  of  the  Old  Testament 
were  prophetic.  They  set  forth  in  symbol  im¬ 
portant  truths  concerning  the  jierson  and  work 
of  the  great  High-Priest  who  was  to  come.  But 
now  that  he  has  come  and  fulfilled  all  the  types 
and  symbols,  it  is  manifest  that  to  revive  them 
is  only  to  obscure  the  glory  of  him  in  whom 
they  are  fulfilled.  It  was  all  very  well  for  those 
who  had  not  the  reality  to  prize  the  shadows  ; 
but  for  those  who  have  the  substance  to  grasp 
the  shadows  is  childish  and  foolish  in  the  ex¬ 
treme.  And  it  is  all  the  less  excusable  that  the 
apostles  were  so  careful  to  warn  us  against  this 
very  childishness.  It  was  for  this  purpose  that 
the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians  was  written. 
J.  M.  G. 


As  to  the  supposed  significance  of  minor 
points,  such  as  the  minutiae  of  the  high -priest’s 
dress,  much  must  be  left  to  individual  taste  and 
judgment.  One  man  may  derive  edification 
from  a  mode  of  viewing  these  things  which  to 
another  seems  absurd.  The  grand  error  of  the 
earlier  typologists  consisted  in  forcing  every 
possible  analogy  of  this  sort  on  the  text,  not  as 
an  allowable  subjective  use  or  application,  but 
as  a  part  of  its  essential  meaning.  Let  us  see 
to  it,  however,  that  in  shunning  this  extreme, 
we  do  not  rush  into  the  opposite,  and  let  go  the 
principle  of  typical  significancy  altogether, 
though  so  natural  and  reasonable  in  itself,  and 
so  expressly  recognized  in  the  New  Testament. 
J.  A.  A. 


Section  126. 

THE  WORK  APPROVED  AND  THE  WORKMEN  BLESSED.  THE  TABERNACLE  REARED 
AND  FURNISHED.  THE  COURT  ENCLOSED.  THE  GLORY  FILLS  THE  SANCTU¬ 
ARY.  OFFERINGS  OF  THE  PRINCES. 

Exodus  39  :  32  -43  ;  40  :  1-11,  16-35.  Nu.  7  :  1-89  ;  9  :  15,  16. 

Ex.  39  32  Thus  was  finished  all  the  work  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  tent  of  meeting  ;  and  the 
children  of  Israel  did  according  to  all  that  the  Lord  commanded  Moses,  so  did  they. 

33  And  they  brought  the  tabernacle  unto  Moses,  the  Tent,  and  all  its  furniture,  its  clasps,  its 

34  boards,  its  bars,  and  its  pillars,  and  its  sockets  ;  and  the  covering  of  larns’  skins  dyed  red, 

35  and  the  covering  of  sealskins,  and  the  veil  of  the  screen  ;  the  ark  of  the  testimony,  and  the 

36  staves  thereof,  and  the  raercy-spat  ;  the  table,  all  the  vessels  thereof,  and  the  shewbread  ;  the 

37  pure  candlestick,  the  lamps  thereof,  even  the  lamps  to  be  set  in  order,  and  all  the  vessels 

38  thereof,  and  the  oil  for  the  light  ;  and  the  golden  altar,  and  the  anointing  oil.  and  the  sweet 

39  incense,  and  the  screen  for  the  door  of  the  Tent  ;  the  brasen  altar,  and  its  grating  of  brass 


THE  TABERNACLE  ERECTED. 


327 


40  its  staves,  and  all  its  vessels,  the  laver  and  its  base  ;  the  hangings  of  the  court,  its  pillars, 
and  its  sockets,  and  the  screen  for  the  gate  of  the  court,  the  cords  thereof,  and  the  pins 

41  thereof,  and  all  the  instruments  of  the  service  of  the  tabernacle,  for  the  tent  of  meeting  ;  the 
finely  wrought  garments  for  ministering  in  the  holy  place,  and  the  holy  garments  for  Aaron 

42  the  priest,  and  the  garments  of  his  sons,  to  minister  in  the  priest’s  office.  According  to  all 

43  that  the  Loed  commanded  Moses,  so  the  children  of  Israel  did  all  the  work.  And  Moses  saw 
all  the  work,  and,  behold,  they  had  done  it  ;  as  the  Loed  had  commanded,  even  so  had  they 
done  it  :  and  Moses  blessed  them. 

40  1  And  the  Loed  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  On  the  first  day  of  the  first  month  shalt  thou 

2  rear  up  the  tabernacle  of  the  tent  of  met-ting.  And  thou  shalt  put  therein  the  ark  of  the  tes- 

3  timony,  and  thou  shalt  screen  the  aiK  vvuli  the  veil.  And  thou  shalt  bring  in  the  table,  and 

4  set  in  order  the  things  that  are  upon  it  ;  and  thou  shalt  bring  in  the  candlestick,  and  light  the 

5  lamps  thereof.  And  thou  shalt  set  the  golden  altar  for  incense  before  the  ark  of  the  testi- 

6  mony,  and  j)ut  the  screen  of  the  door  to  the  tabernacle.  And  thou  shalt  set  the  altar  of  burnt 

7  offering  before  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  tent  of  meeting.  And  thou  shalt  set  the  laver 

8  between  the  tent  of  meeting  and  the  altar,  and  shalt  put  water  therein.  And  thou  shalt  set 

9  up  the  court  round  about,  and  hang  up  the  screen  of  the  gate  of  the  court.  And  thou  shalt 
take  the  anointing  oil,  and  anoint  the  tabernacle,  and  all  that  is  therein,  and  shalt  hallow  it, 

10  and  all  the  furniture  thereof  ;  and  it  shall  be  holy.  And  thou  shalt  anoint  the  altar  of  burnt 

11  offering,  and  all  its  vessels,  and  sanctify  the  altar  :  and  the  altar  shall  be  most  holy.  And 
thou  shalt  anoint  the  laver  and  its  base,  and  sanctify  it. 

16  Thus  did  Moses  ;  according  to  all  that  the  Loed  commanded  him,  so  did  he. 

17  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  first  month  in  the  second  year,  on  the  first  day  of  the  month, 

18  that  the  tabernacle  was  reared  up.  And  Moses  reared  up  the  tabernacle,  and  laid  its  sockets, 

19  and  set  up  the  boards  thereof,  and  put  in  the  bars  thereof,  and  reared  up  its  pillars.  And  he 
spread  the  tent  over  the  tabernacle,  and  put  the  covering  of  the  tent  above  upon  it  ;  as  the 

20  Lord  commanded  Moses.  And  he  took  and  put  the  testimony  into  the  ark,  and  set  the  staves 

21  on  the  ark,  and  put  the  mercy-seat  above  upon  the  ark  :  and  he  brought  the  ark  into  the  tab¬ 
ernacle,  and  set  up  the  veil  of  the  screen,  and  screened  the  ark  of  the  testimony  ;  as  the  Loed 

22  commanded  Moses.  And  he  j)ut  the  table  in  the  tent  of  meeting,  upon  the  side  of  the  taber- 

23  nacle  northward,  without  the  veil.  And  he  set  the  bread  in  order  upon  it  before  the  Loed  ; 

24  as  the  Loed  commanded  Moses.  And  he  put  the  candlestick  in  the  tent  of  meeting,  over 

25  against  the  table,  on  the  side  of  the  tabernacle  southward.  And  he  lighted  the  lamps  before 

26  the  Loed  ;  as  the  Loed  commanded  Moses.  And  he  put  the  golden  altar  in  the  tent  of  meet- 

27  ing  before  the  veil  :  and  he  burnt  thereon  incense  of  sweet  spices  ;  as  the  Loed  commanded 

28  Moses.  And  he  put  the  screen  of  the  door  to  the  tabernacle.  And  he  set  the  altar  of  burnt 

29  offering  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  offered  upon  it  the  burnt 

30  offering  and  the  meal  offering  ;  as  the  Loed  commanded  Moses.  And  he  set  the  laver  be- 

31  tween  the  tent  of  meeting  and  the  altar,  and  put  water  therein,  to  wash  withal.  And  Moses 

32  and  Aaron  and  his  sons  washed  their  hands  and  their  feet  thereat  ;  when  they  went  into  the 
tent  of  meeting,  and  when  they  came  near  unto  the  altar,  they  washed  ;  as  the  Loed  com- 

33  manded  Moses.  And  he  reared  up  the  court  round  about  the  tabernacle  and  the  altar,  and 
set  up  the  screen  of  the  gate  of  the  court.  So  Moses  finished  the  work. 

34  Then  the  cloud  covered  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  the  glory  of  the  Loed  filled  the  tabernacle. 

85  And  Moses  was  not  able  to  enter  into  the  tent  of  meeting,  because  the  cloud  abode  thereon, 

and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  filled  the  tabernacle. 

Nu.  D  15  And  on  the  day  that  the  tabernacle  was  reared  up  the  cloud  covered  the  tabernacle, 
even  the  tent  of  the  testimony  ;  and  at  even  it  was  upon  the  tabernacle  as  it  were  the  appear- 

16  ance  of  fire,  until  morning.  So  it  was  alway  :  the  cloud  covered  it,  and  the  appearance  of  fire 
by  night. 

Nil.  7  1  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  day  that  Moses  had  made  an  end  of  setting  up  the  taber¬ 
nacle,  and  had  anointed  it  and  sanctified  it,  and  all  the  furniture  thereof,  and  the  altar  and 

2  all  the  vessels  thereof,  and  had  anointed  them  and  sanctified  them  ;  that  the  princes  of  Israel, 
the  heads  of  their  fathers’  houses,  offered  ;  these  were  the  princes  of  the  tribes,  these  are  they 

3  that  were  over  them  that  were  numbered  :  and  they  brought  their  oblation  before  the  Lord, 
six  covered  wagons,  and  twelve  oxen  ;  a  wagon  for  every  two  of  the  princes,  and  for  each 

4  one  an  ox  :  and  they  jiresented  them  before  the  tabernacle.  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses, 


328 


SECTION  126.  THE  WORK  APPROVED. 


5  saying,  Teiike  it  of  them,  that  they  may  be  to  do  the  service  of  the  tent  of  meeting  ;  and  thon 

6  shalt  give  them  unto  the  Levites,  to  every  man  according  to  his  service.  And  Moses  took  the 

7  wagons  and  the  oxen,  and  gave  them  unto  the  Levites,  Two  wagons  and  four  oxen  he  gave 

8  unto  the  sons  of  Gershon,  according  to  their  service  :  and  four  wagons  and  eight  oxen  he 
gave  unto  the  sons  of  Merari,  according  unto  their  service,  under  the  hand  of  Ithamar  the  son 

9  of  Aaron  the  priest.  But  unto  the  sons  of  Kohath  he  gave  none  :  because  the  service  of  the 

10  sanctuary  belonged  unto  them  ;  they  bare  it  upon  their  shoulders.  And  the  princes  ofi'ered 
for  the  dedication  of  the  altar  in  the  day  that  it  was  anointed,  even  the  princes  ottered  their 

11  oblation  before  the  altar.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  They  shall  offer  their  oblation, 
each  prince  on  his  day,  for  the  dedication  of  the  altar. 

12  And  he  that  offered  his  oblation  the  first  day  was  Nahshon  the  son  of  Amminadab,  of  the 

13  tribe  of  Judah  :  and  his  oblation  was  one  silver  charger,  the  weight  thereof  Avas  an  hundred 
and  thirty  shekels,  one  silver  bowl  of  seventy  shekels,  after  the  shekel  of  the  sanctuary  ;  both 

14  of  them  full  of  fine  flour  mingled  with  oil  for  a  meal  offering  ;  one  golden  spoon  of  ten  shekels, 

15  full  of  incense  ;  one  young  bullock,  one  ram,  one  he-lamb  of  the  first  year,  for  a  burnt  offer- 

16  ing  ;  one  male  of  the  goats  for  a  sin  offering  :  and  for  the  sacrifice  of  peace  offerings,  two 

17  oxen,  five  rams,  five  he-goats,  five  he-lambs  of  the  first  year  :  this  was  the  oblation  of  Nahshon 
the  son  of  Amminadab. 

18  On  the  second  day  Nethanel  the  son  of  Zuar,  prince  of  Issachar,  did  offer, 

[As*  the  offerings  of  the  other  eleven  princes  are  identical  with  the  first,  the  text  is  omittedfi 

84  This  was  the  dedication  of  the  altar,  in  the  day  when  it  was  anointed,  by  the  princes  of 

85  Israel  :  twelve  silver  chargers,  twelve  silver  bov/ls,  twelve  golden  spoons  :  each  silver  charger 
weighing  an  hundred  and  thirty  shekels,  and  each  bowl  seventy  :  all  the  silver  of  the  vessels 

86  two  thousand  and  four  hundred  shekels,  after  the  shekel  of  the  sanctuary  ;  the  twelve  golden 
spoons,  full  of  incense,  iceighing  ten  shekels  apiece,  after  the  shekel  of  the  sanctuary  :  all  the 

87  gold  of  the  spoons  an  hundred  and  twenty  shekels  :  all  the  oxen  for  the  burnt  offering  twelve 
bullocks,  the  rams  twelve,  the  he-lambs  of  the  first  year  twelve,  and  their  meal  offering  ;  and 

88  the  males  of  the  goats  for  a  sin  offering  twelve  :  and  all  the  oxen  for  the  sacrifice  of  peace 
offerings  twenty  and  four  bullocks,  the  rams  sixty,  the  he-goats  sixty,  the  he-lambs  of  the  first 

89  year  sixty.  This  was  the  dedication  of  the  altar,  after  that  it  was  anointed.  And  when  Moses 
went  into  the  tent  of  meeting  to  speak  with  him,  then  he  heard  the  Voice  speaking  unto  him 
from  above  the  mercy-seat  that  was  upon  the  ark  of  the  testimony,  from  between  the  two 
cherubim  :  and  he  spake  unto  him. 


One-third  part  of  the  entire  Book  of  Exodus 
is  taken  up  with  the  tabernacle  ;  and  it  occupies 
more  than  two  thirds  of  the  portion  devoted  to 
Mount  Sinai.  All  of  Leviticus  is  occupied  with 
it,  and  a  considerable  portion  of  Numbers. 
Minute  instructions  and  full  details  are  given, 
the  most  important  of  which  are  repeated  again 
and  again.  All  this  goes  to  show  the  impor¬ 
tance  attached  to  the  tabernacle  and  its  signifi¬ 
cance.  J.  M.  G. 

The  Entire  Work  Completed.  Brought  to  Moses, 
and  Approved  {Ex.  39  : 32-43). 

:  33.  TStey  fjroiagSit  Oie  tafoer- 
liacle  to  Moses.  They  submitted  it  to  his 
in.spection.  He  knew  what  he  had  ordered 
them  to  make  ;  and  now  the  particulars  were 
called  over  and  all  produced,  that  Moses  might 
see  both  that  they  had  made  all,  omitting  noth¬ 
ing,  that  they  had  made  all  according  to  the 
instructions  given  them,  and  that,  if  they  had 
made  a  mistake  in  anything,  it  might  be  forth¬ 
with  rectified.  H. 

43.  As  tlie  I.iOrcl  liad  oomiiisiiscleci. 


This  is  the  tenth  time  that  Moses,  in  this  one 
chapter,  says  all  this  was  done,  “  as  the  Lord 
had  conrmanded,”  to  show  how  scrupulously 
exact  they  were  in  their  obedience.  Pub'ick. 

- AikI  Moses  blessed  them.  This 

blessing  seems  to  have  been  given  not  only  to 
the  workmen  but  to  all  the  people.  The  people 
contributed  liberality,  and  the  workmen  wrought 
faithfulh^  and  the  blessing  of  God  was  pro¬ 
nounced  upon  ALL.  A.  C. 

Command  to  Set  up  the  Tabernacle  and  its  Court  and 
their  Eirniture,  and  to  Anobit  th.em  {Ex.  40  ;  1-11). 

In  the  erection  of  the  tabernacle  the  order 
was  from  the  holy  of  holies  within  outward  to 
the  court.  In  the  directions  for  worsbi[)  the 
order  is  reversed.  Each  order  is  appropriate  in 
its  place.  In  the  setting  up  of  the  tabernacle, 
the  prominent  thought  was  the  coming  down  of 
God  to  dwell  with  his  people.  Hence  the 
throne,  the  mercy-seat,  comes  first,  and  after, 
in  succession,  the  veils  and  barriers  whic-h 
guarded  the  shrine  from  unhallowed  intrusion. 
In  the  directions  for  worship  the  prominent 


THE  TABERNACLE  ERECTED. 


329 


thought  is  the  access  of  the  people  to  God,  and 
accordingly  the  beginning  is  made  from  the 
court,  through  which  alone  there  can  be  access 
to  the  inner  shrine.  J.  M.  G. 

9,  10.  Thou  §lialt  anoint  and  hal¬ 
low  it,  and  it  diall  he  holy.  Enlight¬ 
ened  worshippers  understood  that  the  enjoy¬ 
ment  of  God's  presence  and  blessing  was  by  no 
means  confined  to  that  outward  habitation,  and 
that  the  relations  there  unfolded  were  proper  to 
the  whole  Church  of  God.  Hence  the  Psalmist 
represents  it  as  the  common  privilege  of  an 
Israelite  to  dwell  in  the  house  of  God,  and  abide 
in  his  tabernacle,  though  in  the  literal  sense 
not  even  the  priests  could  be  said  to  do  so.  Of 
himself  he  speaks  as  desiring  to  dwell  in  the 
house  of  the  Lord  all  the  days  of  his  life,  by 
which  he  could  only  mean,  that  he  earnestly 
wished  continually  to  realize  and  abide  in  that 
connection  and  fellowship  with  God  which  he 
saw  so  clearly  symbolized  in  the  form  and  ser¬ 
vices  of  the  tabernacle.  And  this  symbolical 
import  of  the  tabernacle  was  plainly  indicated 
by  the  Lord  himself  to  Moses,  in  the  words, 
“  And  I  will  set  my  tabernacle  among  you,  and 
I  will  walk  among  you,  and  will  be  your  God, 
and  ye  shall  be  my  people.”  The  least  in  spir¬ 
itual  discernment  could  scarcely  fail  to  learn 
here  that  what  was  outwardly  exhibited  in  the 
tabernacle  of  God’s  nearness  and  familiarity 
with  his  people  was  designed  to  be  the  image 
of  what  should  always  and  everywhere  be  realiz¬ 
ing  itself  among  the  members  of  his  covenant  ; 
that  the  tabernacle  was  the  visible  symbol  of 
the  Church  or  kingdom  of  God.  Before  it 
could  be  used  as  the  Lord’s  tabernacle,  it  had 
to  be  consecrated  by  the  application  to  all  its 
pfirts  and  furniture  of  the  holy  anointing  oil, 
for  the  preparation  of  which  special  instructions 
were  given.  “  And  thou  shalt  sanctify  them,” 
was  the  word  to  Moses  regarding  this  anointing 
oil,  “  that  they  may  be  most  holy  ;  whatsoever 
toucheth  them  shall  be  holy.”  The  tabernacle 
and  its  furniture  being  a  symbol  of  the  true 
Church  as  the  jreculiarly  consecrated,  God- 
inhabited  region,  the  anointing  with  the  sacred 
oil  was  a  sensible  representation  of  the  effusion 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  whose  part  it  is  to  sanctify 
the  unclean,  and  draw  them  within  the  sphere 
of  God's  habitation,  as  well  as  to  fit  them  for 
occupying  it.  And  as  the*  anointing  not  only 
rendered  the  tabernacle  and  its  vessels  holy,  but 
made  them  also  the  impart ers  of  holiness  to 
others — “  whatsoever  toucheth  tliem  shall  be 
holy” — the  important  lesson  was  thereby  taught, 
that  they  who  really  come  into  a  living  connec¬ 
tion  with  the  Church  or  kingdom  of  God  are 


brought  into  communion  with  his  spiritual  na¬ 
ture,  and  made  partakers  of  his  holiness.  It  is 
only  within  the  sphere  of  that  kingdom  that 
true  purification  and  righteousness  proceed. 

And  as  everything  in  the  original  tabernacle 
required  to  be  sprinkled  with  the  holy  anoint¬ 
ing  oil  to  fit  it  for  its  sacred  destination  and 
use,  so  in  the  higher  and  ultimate  realities  of 
the  Divine  kingdom  all  is  pervaded  and  conse¬ 
crated  by  the  living  fSpirit  of  God.  The  ordi¬ 
nances  of  the  Church  are  made  fruitful  of  good 
because  they  are  the  ordained  channels  of  the 
Spirit’s  communications.  He  who  has  become 
really  united  to  the  one  spiritual  body  has  done 
so  by  being  baptized  into  it  by  the  one  Spirit. 
He  who,  through  the  word  of  the  Gospel,  has 
been  convinced  of  sin,  righteousness,  and  judg¬ 
ment,  is  a  monument  in  what  he  has  experi¬ 
enced  of  the  powerful  and  blessed  agency  of  that 
Spirit.  And  of  every  grace  he  exhibits,  and 
ever}^  work  of  acceptable  service  he  performs,  it 
may  be  said  that  the  will  and  the  powder  to  per¬ 
form  it  have  been  wrought  by  the  self-same 
Spirit.  P.  F. 

Note. — The  actual  anointing  of  the  Taber¬ 
nacle  and  its  Furniture,  and  of  the  Altar  of 
Burnt-offering  and  the  Laver,  took  place  in  con¬ 
nection  with  the  Consecration  of  Aaron  and  his 
sons  to  the  Priesthood.  The  record  is  found  in 
the  next  following  section  (Lev.  8  : 10,  11).  B. 

The  Tabernacle  Reared  and  the  Holy  Ihings  Put 

in  Place. 

Ex.  40  : 16-33. 

17,  From  an  attentive  survey  of  all  the  inci¬ 
dents  recorded  to  have  happened  after  the  ex¬ 
odus  from  Egypt,  it  appears  that  about  six 
months  intervened  between  that  event  and  the 
commencement  of  the  work  of  the  tabernacle. 
Consequently  the}’’  were  about  six  months  em¬ 
ployed  in  the  work  itself  ;  for  the  tabernacle 
was  set  uj)  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  3'ear 
after  they  had  left  Egj’pt.  Considering  the  vast 
amount  of  curious  and  costly  workmanship  that 
was  requisite,  the  undertaking  w’as  carried 
through  with  great  expedition.  Bush. 

20.  The  testimony.  The  tables  of  stone 
with  the  Ten  Commandments  engraved  on  them. 
Nothing  else  is  said  to  have  been  put  into  the 
ark.  These  were  found  there  by  themselves  in 
the  time  of  Solomon.  The  pot  of  manna  was 
”  laid  up  before  the  testimony”  (Ex.  16  :  34)  ; 
Aaron’s  rod  was  also  })laced  “  before  the  testi¬ 
mony”  (Nu.  17  : 10)  ;  and  the  book  of  the  Law 
was  put  at  “  the  side  of  the  ark”  (De.  31  :  26). 
The  expression  “before  the  testimony”  appears 
to  mean  the  space  immediately  in  front  of  the  ark. 


330 


SECTION  126.  THE  CLOUD  ABOVE  THE  TENT. 


20-30.  The  tabernacle  owed  its  charac¬ 
ter  and  significance  to  the  ark  with  its  sacred 
contents  and  the  mercy-seat  that  covered  it. 
Above  the  mercy- seat,  in  a  concentrated  sense, 
was  the  sjDot  where  Jehovah  communed  with  his 
people.  The  furniture  of  the  holy  place  held  a 
subordinate  position,  and  all  its  symbolism 
pointed  to  the  truth  which  had  its  deepest  and 
fullest  expression  in  the  ark.  In  the  form  and 
materials  of  the  tabernacle  itself  there  appears 
to  Lave  been  nothing,  either  in  its  word-work 
or  its  curtains,  but  what  was  most  convenient 
for  the  arrangement  and  protection  of  the  holy 
things  and  most  becoming  for  beauty.  It  was 
in  fact  a  regal  tent,  in  which  the  ark  symbolized 
the  constant  presence  of  Jehovah,  who  now  con¬ 
descended  to  dwell  among  the  people  whom  he 
had  redeemed.  Clark. 

Every  square  inch  of  the  sacred  enclosure  was 
a  place  of  meeting  between  Jehovah  and  his 
people,  according  to  the  terms  of  the  Divine 
revelation  ;  but  it  was  at  the  altar  of  burnt- 
offering  in  the  court  that  the  non -priestly  wor¬ 
shippers  approached  most  nearly  to  their  God  ; 
it  was  at  the  golden  altar  in  the  holy  place  that 
the  priests  were  admitted  to  closest  access  ;  and 
it  was  as  the  high  priest  approached  most  nearly 
the  space  beneath  the  outstretched  wings  of  the 
cherubim  that  he  drew  nearest  to  the  throne  of 
intercession.  Cave. 

In  the  holy  of  holies  was  the  throne  of  God. 
That  iliroiie  was  a  “  mercy  seat.”  Under  the 
mercy  seat  was  “  the  testimony,”  the  holy  Law 
in  its  ark  of  gold.  The  throne,  then,  was  a 
throne  of  grace,  founded  on  holiness.  Here  we 
have  the  two  leading  thoughts  of  God  which  the 
tabernacle  symbolizes  :  his  holiness  and  his 
MERCY.  As  in  every  revelation  of  himself  which 
God  has  given  us,  “  mercy  and  truth  meet  to 
gether,  righteousness  and  peace  embrace  each 
other.”  That  which  is  prominent,  that  which 
is  uppermost,  that  which  apiiears,  is  the  mercy  ; 
blit  the  mercy  is  ever  founded  on  justice.  His 
throne  is  a  throne  of  mercy  ;  but  in  order  to 
obtain  the  mercy  we  must  approach  it  in  the 
way  of  holiness.  In  the  outer  apartment  was 
the  shew-bread,  literally  ”  bread  of  the  pres¬ 
ence,”  the  seven-branched  candlestick,  all 
lighted  up,  and  the  golden  altar  with  sweet  in¬ 
cense  rising  from  it.  Though  the  presence  of 
the  Lord  cannot  be  seen  on  this  side  of  the  veil, 
there  is  bread  of  the  presence  for  those  who 
come  into  his  sanctuary.  There  is  also  light, 
not  like  the  glory  within  the  veil,  but  light  as 
of  a  lamp,  fed  perpetually  with  oil,  the  well- 
known  symbol  of  Divine  grace.  And  then  right 
in  front  of  the  curtain  is  the  golden  altar,  with 


the  incense  rising  from  it  and  wafted  within, 
teaching  that,  though  there  is  a  veil  between 
man  and  God,  yet  by  prayer  we  can  penetrate 
within  it  and  reach  the  mercy-seat,  the  throne 
of  God.  And  in  the  court  without  was  the  altar 
of  burnt-offering,  with  the  laver  between.  The 
only  way  by  which  sinful  men  can  enter  into 
the  apartment,  where  are  to  be  found  the  bread 
of  the  presence,  the  light  of  the  lamps,  and  the 
incense  altar  of  devotion,  is  by  the  altar  of 
burnt-offering  and  the  laver — i.e.,  by  atonement 
and  by  washing.  J.  M.  G. 

31,  32.  IVfoses  and  Aaron  and  liis 
sons.  The  things  had  been  made  expressly 
for  the  service  of  Jehovah,  by  his  command,  and 
in  this  fact  lay  their  essential  sanctity,  of  which 
the  anointing  was  only  the  seal  and  symbol. 
Aaron  and  his  sons,  on  similar  ground,  having 
had  the  Divine  call,  took  part  in  the  service  of 
the  sanctuarj"  as  soon  as  the  work  was  com¬ 
pleted.  But  Moses  took  the  lead  until  they  were 
consecrated  and  invested  and  publicly  set  apart 
for  the  office.  Clark. 

The  Cloud  Covers  the  Tent,  and  the  Glory  Ellis  ihe 

Tahernacle  {Ex.  40  : 34,  35.  Nu,  9  : 15,  IG). 

The  covering  cloud  revealed  the  constant,  vis¬ 
ible,  and  guiding  presence  of  Jehovah  among  his 
professing  people,  resting  above  the  outer  tent 
that  covered  the  tabernacle.  But  within  that 
tabernacle  itself  there  was  yet  another  and  un¬ 
approachable  presence.  For  “  the  glory  of  Je 
hovah  filled  the  tabernacle.  And  Moses  was 
not  able  to  enter  into  the  tent  of  the  congrega 
tion,  because  the  cloud  abode  thereon,  and  the 
glory  of  Jehovah  filled  the  tabernacle.”  A.  E. 

- The  tabernacle  was  God’s  dwelling  place 

among  his  people  ;  “  Let  them  make  me  a  sane 
tuary,  that  I  may  dwell  among  them  “  And 
I  will  sanctify  the  tabernacle  of  the  congrega¬ 
tion.  And  I  will  dwell  among  the  children  of 
Israel,  and  will  be  their  God  ‘‘I  will  set  my 
tabernacle  among  3'ou  :  and  my  soul  shall  not 
abhor  you.  And  I  will  walk  among  3’ou,  and 
will  be  yowv  God,  and  ye  shall  be  my  people  ’ 
(Ex.  25  : 8  ;  29  :  45  ;  Lev.  26  ;11,  12).  No  words 
could  more  clearly  express  the  object  of  the 
structure  ;  and  it  was  in  conformit3'  with  this 
that,  while  “  a  cloud  covered  the  Tent  of  rneet- 
in(;,  the  glor3^of  the  Lord  filled  the  tabernacle.” 
Milligan, - By  the  visible  tokens  of  God’s  com¬ 

ing  among  them  to  take  possession  of  the  tab 
ernacle,  he  owned  them,  showed  himself  well 
pleased  with  what  they  had  done,  and  abun- 
dantl3’’  rewarded  them.  God  will  dwell  with 
those  that  prepare  him  a  habitation.  Where 
God  has  a  throne  and  an  altar  in  the  soul,  there 


THE  GLORY  FILLS  THE  TABERNACLE. 


331 


is  a  living  temple.  And  God  will  be  sure  to 
own  and  crown  the  operations  of  his  own  grace, 
and  the  observance  of  his  own  appointments.  H. 

The  tabernacle  could  not  now  be  entered  even 
by  Moses,  without  a  special  summons  to  that 
effect  from  Jehovah  himself.  The  same  thing 
happened  at  the  dedication  of  the  temple  of 
Solomon,  when,  we  are  told  (1  Kings  8  : 10,  11) 
“  The  cloud  filled  the  house  of  the  Lord  ;  so 
that  the  priests  could  not  stand  to  minister 
because  of  the  cloud,  for  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
had  filled  the  house  of  the  Lord,  .  .”  It  was 

the  Great  Jehovah  who  appeared  in  the  She- 
kinah,  and  who  through  that  medium  mani¬ 
fested  his  presence  and  communicated  his  wull 
to  the  chosen  people.  Besides  “  Shekinah,”  the 
title  which  the  Chaldee  paraphrases  very  fre¬ 
quently  give  to  the  appearances  of  the  Divine 
Being  spoken  of  in  the  Hebrew  records,  is  memra 
da-Yehovah,  which  as  the  Greek  language  pre 
vailed  and  acquired  a  fixed  predominance  was 
translated  “  the  Logos,  or  Word  of  the  Lord.” 
Words,  either  written  or  spoken,  are  the  estab¬ 
lished  vehicle  for  conveying  the  thoughts  and 
feelings  of  one  human  being  to  another.  The 
Shekinah,  in  like  manner,  by  addressing  the 
senses  communicated  the  designs  and  will  of 
God  to  men.  How  natural,  therefore,  and  how 
proper  to  call  the  Shekinah  “  the  Word  of  the 
Lord”?  Accordingly  the  evidence  is  super¬ 
abundant  that  this  appellation  in  reference  to 
the  Shekinah  was  perfectly  familiar  to  the  Jews 
at  and  before  the  time  of  our  Saviour  ;  and  as 
used  by  their  writers,  it  is  impossible  to  ques¬ 
tion  that  the  term  “  Logos”  or  “  Word  ”  is  re¬ 
peatedly  employed  as  equivalent  to  the  She¬ 
kinah.  But  Jesus  Christ  is  called  by  John  the 
“  Logos”  or  ”  Word.”  And  have  we  not  now 
obtained  an  adequate  solution  to  this  title  as 
applied  to  him,  without  going  out  of  the  bounds 
of  the  established  Jewish  usus  loquendif  He 
was  “  the  Word  ”  in  the  most  emphatic  and  pre¬ 
eminent  sense.  He  was  the  great  organ  of  com¬ 
munication  between  heaven  and  earth.  He  was 
the  Divine  Declarer  of  his  Father’s  purposes  of 
grace  and  redemption  to  lost  men.  There  can 
be  no  doubt  that  all  previous  Divine  communi¬ 
cations  and  appearances  were  prospective,  pre¬ 
parative,  and  preintimative  in  their  scope, 
pointing  to  him  who  was  subsequently  to  come 
forth  from  the  bosom  of  the  Godhead  and  taber¬ 
nacle  or  shekinize  in  our  nature  as  the  incarnate 
“  Word.”  Accordingly  we  are  told  by  the  apos¬ 
tle  (Heb.  1  ;  1)  that  “  God,  who  at  sundry  times 
and  in  divers  manners  spake  in  times  past  unto 
the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath,  in  those  last 
days,  spoken  unto  us  by  his  Son.”  So  truly 


then  as  the  Shekinah  of  the  earlier  economy  is 
identified  with  the  Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment,  and  the  Shekinah  is  the  same  as  “  the 
Word  ”  that  was  made  flesh,  so  truly  is  Jesus 
Christ  also  the  Jehovah  of  the  inspired  Scrip¬ 
tures,  “  God  over  all  and  blessed  forever.” 
Bush. 

The  tabernacle,  as  a  whole,  is  a  finger-post 
directing  me  to  that  mystic  person  in  whom 
”  God  in  very  deed  dwelt  with  man  upon  the 
earth.”  Its  white-robed  priest  is  the  shadow 
of  him  who  was  “holy,  harmless,  undefiled,” 
and  whom  I  recognize  as  my  true  high-priest. 
Its  bleeding  lamb  laid  upon  the  altar  is  the  like¬ 
ness  of  that  Lamb  of  God  by  whose  precious 
blood  I  liave  been  redeemed  from  all  iniquity  ; 
its  innermost  sanctuary  is  the  type  of  that 
heaven  into  which  he  has  entered  to  make 
atonement  for  my  sin,  and  its  outer  apartment 
is  the  analogue  of  the  present  world,  in  which 
we  are  to  serve  him  with  the  incense  of  our  de¬ 
votions,  the  light  of  our  characters,  and  the 
fruit  of  our  lives.  The  incarnation  in  the  per¬ 
son  of  Christ,  the  mediation  and  expiation  of 
his  priestly  work,  and  the  consequent  obliga¬ 
tion  under  which  his  redeemed  people  lie  to 
honor  him  with  unceasing  service  and  shining 
holiness — or,  putting  it  all  into  four  words,  in- 

CABNATION,  MEDIATION,  EXPIATION,  CONSECRATION 

— these  are  the  things  of  which  the  tabernacle, 
with  its  furniture,  services,  and  attendants, 
were  the  special  types  ;  and  as  thus  we  con¬ 
dense  its  teachings  into  their  essence,  we  come 
to  a  larger  and  more  comprehensive  view  of  the 
doctrines  of  the  Gospel  itself,  and  discover  that 
we  have  been  studying  the  same  truths,  only 
under  a  different  form.  W.  M.  T. 

It  was  a  tabernacle,  beautiful  and  complete 
when  Moses  finished  it  ;  it  became  a  choice 
palace  and  a  holy  sanctuary  the  instant  that  the 
glory  entered  into  it.  It  is  so  still.  A  church 
is  not  a  building,  neither  cathedral,  chapel,  nor 
meeting-house  ;  but  it  is  the  company  of  God’s 
people.  What  makes  a  church  is  a  people  met 
in  Christ’s  name  with  Christ  the  Shekinah  dwell¬ 
ing  in  the  midst  of  them.  And  if  Christ  in  the 
midst  of  his  people  be  to  us  what  the  glory  was 
in  the  tabernacle,  then  in  the  house  of  God 
Christ’s  name  should  be  above  every  name  ; 
Christ’s  glory  should  supersede  all  glory  ; 
Christ’s  presence  should  fill  the  hearts  of  his 
people.  J.  C. 

”  Christ  all  and  in  all"  is  the  grand  central 
truth  in  which  the  many  trains  of  thought 
springing  from  the  tabernacle-architecture  con¬ 
verge  and  terminate.  The  sanctuary  and  the 
vessels  of  the  sanctuary  all  speak  this  one  voice. 


SECTION  126.  AFTER  HISTORY  OF  THE  TABERNACLE. 


332 

The  altar  tells  of  Christ  as  the  sacrifice  for  sin  ; 
the  laver  of  Christ  as  the  giver  of  the  Spirit  ; 
the  candlestick  shines  on  the  shew-bread  and 
reveals  Christ  :  the  censer  is  fall  of  Christ  in 
his  intercession,  and  the  mercy-seat  is  Christ 
the  great  Mediator.  All  speak  of  Christ,  for 
Christ  is  all.  Christ  is  the  hope  of  the  world. 
In  him,  in  him  alone,  there  is  mercy  for  the  re¬ 
bellious.  He  is  the  hope  of  salvation  for  each 
individual  sinner,  and  for  a  sinful  world.  No 
Christ,  no  hope.  Christ  is  the  joy  of  the 
Church.  Every  blessing  which  believers  enjoy 
flows  from  Christ.  He  is  the  support  and 
strength  of  his  people.  He  enlightens  and 
warms  them  with  his  Spirit.  He  kindles  in 
their  breast  the  fire  of  devotion,  and  presents 
their  prayers  and  praises  before  the  throne. 
Christ  is  the  believer’s  joy,  his  delight,  his 
song.  Christ  is  the  glory  of  heaven.  His  pres¬ 
ence  makes  it  what  it  is.  Without  him,  as  the 
mercy-seat  and  the  high-priest,  heaven  would 
be  no  heaven  to  us.  He  prepares  it  for  us,  and 
prepares  us  for  it.  Yes,  the  words  from  the 
New  Testament  which  might  have  been  in¬ 
scribed  all  over  the  tabernacle  are  Christ  is 
all,  and  in  all.”  An. 


The  tabernacle  served  its  purpose.  -  At  the 
time  it  was  set  up  the  worship  of  the  one  living 
and  true  God  had  become  almost  extinct  ; 
but  the  tabernacle,  with  its  successor,  the  tem¬ 
ple,  was  a  perpetual  protest  against  idolatry — 
a  centre  and  rallying-point  to  monotheistic  wor¬ 
ship.  And  the  doctrine  of  the  Divine  unity 
and  spirituality  has  triumphed.  Monotheists, 
or  believers  in  one  God,  supreme,  self-existent, 
and  distinct  from  the  universe  he  has  created, 
are  not  only  counted  by  hundreds  of  millions, 
but  thev  include  all  that  is  worth  naming  of  the 
world’s  intelligence  and  civilization.  All  the 
inhabitants  of  Europe  are  monotheists.  Every 
Christian  is  a  monotheist,  so  is  every  Jew,  so  is 
every  Mussulman.  But  the  tabernacle  had  a 
purpose  still  more  practical  and  home-coming. 
So  to  speak,  it  brought  God  again  into  the  midst 
of  men.  He  who  in  the  bowers  of  Eden  had 
been  so  friendly  and  familiar,  but  who  at  man’s 
sin  withdrew,  and  who  from  that  time  had 
rarely  broken  the  silence,  this  God  it  again 
brought  into  our  midst,  and  recording  his  name 
in  his  appointed  place,  he  declared  it  to  be  his 
fixed  abode  and  chosen  dwelling.  Hamilton. 

After  IHslory  of  the  Tabernacle. 

The  tabernacle,  after  it  had  accompanied  the 
Israelites  in  their  wanderings  in  the  wilderness, 
was  most  probabl}"  first  set  up  in  the  holy  land 


at  Gilgal.  But  before  the  death  of  Joshua,  it 
was  erected  at  Shiloh.  Here  it  remained  as  the 
national  sanctuary  throughout  the  time  of  the 
Judges.  But  its  external  construction  was  at 
this  time  somewhat  changed,  and  doors,  strictly 
so-called,  had  taken  the  place  of  the  entrance 
curtain  ;  hence  it  seems  to  have  been  some¬ 
times  called  ike  temple  (1  Sol.  1  :  9  ;  3  :  3), 
the  name  by  which  the  structure  of  Solomon 

was  afterward  commonly  known.  Clark. - It 

was  far,  however,  from  being  what  it  was  in¬ 
tended  to  be,  the  one  national  sanctuary,  the 
witness  against  a  localized  and  divided  worship. 
The  old  religion  of  the  high  places  kept  its 
ground.  Altars  were  erected,  at  first  with  re¬ 
serve,  as  being  not  for  sacrifice  (Josh.  22  ;  26), 
afterward  freely,  and  without  scruple  (Judges 
6  :  24  ;  13  : 19).  When  the  ark  of  God  was  taken, 
the  Sanctuary  lost  its  glory  ;  and  the  tabernacle, 
though  it  did  not  perish,  never  again  recovered 
it.  Samuel  treated  it  as  an  abandoned  shrine, 
and  sacrificed  elsewhere,  at  Mizpeh,  at  Bamah, 
at  Gilgal.  It  probably  became  once  again  a 

movable  sanctuary.  P.  S. - For  a  time  it 

seems,  under  Saul,  to  have  been  settled  at  Nob 
in  Benjamin,  not  far  from  Jerusalem.  From 
thence,  in  the  time  of  David,  it  was  removed 
to  Gibeon.  It  was  brought  from  Gibeon  to 
Jerusalem  by  Solomon.  After  this  it  disap¬ 
pears  in  the  narrative  of  Scripture.  When  the 
temple  of  Solomon  was  built,  “the  tabernacle 
of  the  tent  ’’  had  entirely  performed  its  work  ; 
it  had  protected  the  ark  of  the  covenant  during 
the  migrations  of  the  people  until  they  were* 
settled  in  the  land,  and  the  promise  was  ful¬ 
filled,  that  the  Lord  would  choose  out  a  place 
for  himself  in  which  his  name  should  be  pre¬ 
served  and  his  service  should  be  maintained 
(De.  12  : 14,  21  ;  14  :  24).  In  accordance  with 
its  dignity  as  the  most  sacred  object  in  the  sanc¬ 
tuary,  the  original  ark  of  the  covenant  con¬ 
structed  by  Moses  was  preserved  and  transferred 
from  the  tabernacle  to  the  temple.  The  golden 
altar,  the  candlestick,  and  the  shew-bread  table 
were  renewed  by  Solomon.  They  were  subse¬ 
quently  renewed  by  Zerubbabel,  and  lastly  by 
the  Maccabees.  But  the  ark  was  preserved  in 
the  temple  until  Jerusalem  was  taken  by  the 
forces  of  Nebuchadnezzar  (2  Ch.  33:3;  Jer. 
3  : 16).  It  was  never  replaced  in  the  second 
temple.  According  to  a  rabbinical  tradition, 
its  place  was  occupied  by  a  block  of  stone. 
Clark. 

Offerings  of  the  Twelve  Tribes  by  their  Princes. 

Na.  7  : 1-89. 

Two  distinct  classes  of  offerings  were  made 


OFFEHINGS  OF  THE  TRIBES. 


333 


by  the  tribes  through  their  princes  or  chiefs. 
The  first  comprised  the  six  wagons  and  twelve 
oxen  to  be  used  in  the  transportation  of  the 
fabric  of  the  tabernacle,  the  court,  and  all  the 
holy  things  pertaining  thereto.  These  were 
probably  presented  on  the  same  day  that  the 
tabernacle  and  coirrt  were  reared.  The  second 
comprised  the  costly  vessels  needed  for  the  two 
altars  and  the  special  sacrifices  to  be  first  offered 
for  a  formal  dedication  of  the  altar  of  burnt- 
offering.  B. 

The  remarkable  thing  about  this  record  is 
that  though  each  prince  gave  precisely  the 
same,  all  the  details  are  repeated  for  each  one, 
so  that  there  appears  at  first  sight  to  be  a  very 
needless  waste  of  words.  The  ver}’  same  reason 
which  made  it  desirable  that  the  separate  gifts 
should  be  brought  on  separate  days,  made  it 
proper  that  the  record  of  them  should  be  kept 
separate,  and  brought  as  near  in  impressive¬ 
ness  as  possible  to  the  original  ceremony.  And 
then  though  the  gift  be  the  same,  the  giver  is 
different  ;  therefore  let  him  by  all  means  have 
his  iDlace  in  the  Divine  notice  and  remembrance, 
exactly  as  if  he  had  been  the  only  man  that 
brought  it.  It  is  also  worthy  of  note  that  we 
have  in  this  record  a  very  obvious  indication  of 
contemporaneousness  with  the  event.  No  later 
writer  would  have  thought  of  making  such  en¬ 
tries  as  these.  J.  M.  G. 

Offering  nf  W'agons  and  Oxen. 

Nu.  7  :  1-11. 

2.  The  I>riiice§  offered.  These  offer¬ 
ings  came  equally  from  all  the  tribes,  though  it 
is  probable  that  neither  the  princes  nor  the 
tribes  were  all  alike  rich  ;  but  thus  it  was  inti¬ 
mated  that  all  the  tribes  of  Israel  had  an  equal 
share  in  the  altar,  and  an  equal  interest  in  the 
sacrifices  that  were  offered  upon  it.  H. 

0-9.  The  wagons  and  oxen  were  made  over 
to  the  Levites  for  their  respective  services,  in 
the  transportation  of  the  tabernacle.  The  Ger- 
slionites  had  chiefly  to  do  with  the  lighter  up¬ 
holstery  of  the  tabernacle,  which  could  be  put 
up  in  wrappings  and  made  to  occupy  little 
room  ;  whereas  the  Merarites  had  to  do  with  its 
mire  unmanageable  carpentry,  its  boards  and 
bars  and  pillars.  The  Kohathites  had  no  wag¬ 
ons  or  oxen  assigned  to  them — they  having  to 
do  with  the  furniture  of  the  sanctuary,  or  holy 
of  holies,  which  had  the  special  honor  put  upon 
them  of  being  borne  on  men’s  shoulders.  The 
different  parts  of  Scripture  will  be  found  to 
hang  well  together,  and  the  more  we  examinedt 
the  more  shall  we  discover  of  that  consistency 
which  is  the  index  of  truth.  T.  C. - “Two 


wagons  and  four  oxen  he  gave  unto  the  sons  of 
Gershon  according  to  their  service,  and  four 
wagons  and  eight  ox^n  he  gave  unto  the  sons  of 
Merari  according  to  their  service.”  Why  twice 
as  many  wagons  and  oxen  to  Merari  as  to  Ger¬ 
shon  ?  No  reason  is  avowed.  Yet  Nu.  4  shows 
that  the  sons  of  Gershon  had  to  bear  all  the 
lighter  part  of  the  furniture  of  the  tabernacle. 
But  the  s  ms  of  Merari  had  to  bear  all  the  cum¬ 
brous  and  heavy  part  of  the  materials  of  which 
the  framework  of  the  tabernacle  was  con¬ 
structed.  And  hence  it  is  easy  to  see  why  more 
oxen  and  wagons  were  assigned  to  the  one 
family  than  to  the  other.  Is  chance  at  the  bot 
tom  of  all  this,  or  cunning  contrivance,  or 
truth  and  only  truth  ?  Blunt. 

Offerings  of  Utensils  for  the  Altars,  and  of  Animals 

for  Sacrifice  at  the  Dedication  of  the  Altar  of 

Burnt -off'emng  {Nu.  7  : 12-88). 

In  the  order  assigned,  the  tribes  themselves 
presented  these  gifts  through  their  chiefs. 
The  twelve  offerings  are  strictly  alike,  and 
had  been  arranged  and  prepared  previously. 
They  were  offered,  however,  on  twelve  separate 
days,  and  the  narrative  describing  each  sever¬ 
ally  at  length  with  unaltered  language  reflects 
somewhat  of  the  stately  solemnity  which  marked 
the  repetition  of  the  same  ceremonial  day  by 
day.  The  sacrifices  brought  by  each  prince 
were  offered  on  the  day  on  which  they  were 
presented  ;  the  chargers,  bowls,  and  spoons 
being  preserved  for  the  future  use  of  the  sanc¬ 
tuary.  Etpin. 

The  offerings  of  all  the  princes  were  the  same 
in  kind,  number,  and  value,  to  prevent  emula¬ 
tion  among  the  tribes,  and  to  show  that  they 
were  all  equally  interested  in  the  altar  and  ac¬ 
ceptable  to  the  Divine  Miijesty.  The  offering 
of  each  consisted  of  one  silver  basin,  for  receiv¬ 
ing  the  parts  of  the  several  sacrifices,  weighing 
one  hundred  and  thiity  shekels  or  about  sixty- 
five  ounces  ;  one  silver  howl,  to  hold  the  blood, 
wine,  or  Hour,  of  seventy  shekels  or  about 
thirty-five  ounces  weight  -  both  of  these  being 
full  of  flour  and  oil  ;  one  gold  spoon  to  take  up 
the  incense,  full  of  incense,  weighing  ten  shekels 
or  about  five  ounces  ;  a  burnt-' ffWing  consisting 
nf  a  bullock,  a  ram,  and  a  lamb  ;  a  sin  offering 
of  a  goat  ;  and  an  eucharistic  or  peace-offering 
consisting  of  two  oxen,  five  rams,  five  he-goats, 
and  five  lambs,  with  meal-offerings  of  bread  and 
cakes  annexed  to  them  :  the  priests,  princes, 
and  as  many  of  the  people  as  were  invited  being 
to  feast  on  their  share  of  the  last-named  sacri¬ 
fice.  Thus  magnificently  did  the  tribes  of  Israel, 
in  a  religious  festival  of  twelve  days’  continu- 


334 


SECTION  127.  CONSECRATION  OF  AARON  AND  HIS  SONS. 


ance,  declare  their  reverence  toward  God,  and 
an  exemplary  liberality  in  providing  for  his 
ministry  and  worship,  Pyle. 

89,  ]?losc§  heard  the  Voice  §peak- 
iiigr  to  liiai  from  above  the  mercy- 
seat.  Thus  was  the  promise  of  Ex.  25  : 20-22 
fulfilled  ;  and  that  as  an  immediate  response  on 
the  part  of  God  to  the  cheerful  readiness  with 
which  the  tribes  had  made  their  offerings,  and 
supplied  everything  needful  for  the  holy  place 
and  its  service.  All  being  now  complete  as  God 
had  appointed,  aad  the  camp  purified  from 
defilements,  God  meets  Moses  tfie  mediator  oE 
the  people,  not  as  before  on  the  peak  of  Sinai 
far  away,  but  in  their  very  midst,  in  the  dwell¬ 
ing-place  which  he  henceforth  vouchsafed  to 


tenant.  Kspin. - From  henceforward  God 

delivered  His  will  to  Moses  in  an  audible  voice 
from  the  mercy-seat,  and  conversed  with  him 
in  the  most  clear  and  familiar  manner  upon  all 

necessary  and  important  occasions.  Pyle. - - 

As  God  gave  oracalar  answers  from  this  place, 
and  spoke  to  Moses  face  to  face,  hence  the  place 
was  called  the  oeacle,  or  speaking  place.  And 
as  this  mercy-sent  represented  our  blessed  ."Re¬ 
deemer,  so  the  apostle  says  that  God  who  had  at 
sundry  times  and  in  divers  manners  spoken  in 
time  past  to  the  fathers  by  the  prophets,  hath  in  these 
last  days  spoken  unto  us  by  his  Son.  Hence  the 
incarnated  Christ  is  the  true  oracle  in  and  by 
whom  God  speaks  unto  man.  A.  0. 


Section  127. 

CONSECRATION  OF  AARON  AND  HIS  SONS  :  WASHING  AND  ROBING,  ANOINTING 
WITH  OIL  AND  SPRINKLING  WITH  SACRIFICIAL  BLOOD.  TABERNACLE  AND 
FURNITURE,  ALTAR  AND  LAVER  ANOINTED  WITH  OIL.  THE  ALTAR  SPRINKLED 
WITH  BLOOD.  JEHOVAH’S  PROMISE  TO  SANCTIFY  TABERNACLE,  ALTAR,  AND 
PRIEST. 

Exodus  29  :  1-37,  44-46  ;  40  ;  12-15.  Lev.  6  :  19-23  ;  8  :  1-36. 

[Note.  —Ex.  40  : 12-15  ;  29  : 1-34  omitted  because  repetitions  of  other  text  ;  and  Lev. 

6  :  19-23,  because  containing  only  special  instructions  as  to  the  meal  offering.] 

Ex.  29  35  And  thus  shalt  thou  do  unto  Aaron,  and  to  his  sons,  according  to  all  that  I  have 

36  commanded  thee  :  seven  days  shalt  thou  consecrate  them.  And  everj^  day  shalt  thou  offer  the 
bullock  of  sin  offering  for  atonement  :  and  thou  shalt  cleanse  the  altar,  when  thou  makest 

37  atonement  for  it  ;  and  thou  shalt  anoint  it,  to  sanctify  it.  Seven  days  thou  shalt  make  atone¬ 
ment  for  the  altar,  and  sanctify  it  :  and  the  altar  shall  be  most  holy  ;  whatsoever  toucheth  the 
altar  shall  be  holy. 

Hv.  8  1  And  the  Loed  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Take  Aaron  and  his  sons  with  him,  and 

2  the  garments,  and  the  anointing  oil,  and  the  bullock  of  the  sin  offering,  and  the  two  rams, 

3  and  the  basket  of  unleavened  bread  ;  and  assemble  thou  all  the  congregation  at  the  door  of 

4  the  tent  of  meeting  And  Moses  did  as  the  Loed  commanded  him  ;  and  the  congregation  was 

5  assembled  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting.  And  Moses  said  unto  the  congregation.  This  is 

6  the  thing  which  the  Loed  hath  commanded  to  be  done.  And  Moses  brought  Aaron  and  his 

7  sons,  and  washed  them  with  water.  And  he  put  upon  him  the  coat,  and  girded  him  with  the 
girdle,  and  clothed  him  with  the  robe,  and  put  the  ephod  upon  him,  and  he  girded  him  with 

8  the  cunningly  woven  band  of  the  ephod,  and  bound  it  unto  him  therewith.  And  he  placed 

9  the  breastplate  upon  him  :  and  in  the  breastplate  he  put  the  Urim  and  the  Thummim.  And 
he  set  the  mitre  Tipon  his  head  ;  and  upon  the  mitre,  in  front,  did  he  set  the  golden  plate,  the 

10  holy  crown  ;  as  the  Loed  commanded  Moses.  And  Moses  took  the  anointing  oil,  and  anointed 

11  the  tabernacle  and  ail  that  was  therein,  and  sanctified  them.  And  he  sprinkled  thereof  upon 
the  altar  seven  times,  and  anointed  the  altar  and  all  its  vessels,  and  the  laver  and  its  base,  to 

12  sanctify  them.  And  he  poured  of  the  anointing  oil  upon  Aaron’s  head,  and  anointed  him,  to 

13  sanctify  him.  And  Moses  brought  Aaron’s  sons,  and  clothed  them  with  coats,  and  girded 

14  them  with  girdles,  and  bound  headtires  upon  them  ;  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses.  And  he 
brought  the  bullock  of  the  sin  offering  :  and  Aaron  and  his  sons  laid  their  hands  upon  the 

15  head  of  the  bullock  of  the  sin  offering.  And  he  slew  it  ;  and  Moses  took  the  blood,  and  put 
it  upon  the  horns  of  the  altar  round  about  with  his  finger,  and  purified  the  altar,  and  poured 

16  out  the  blood  at  the  base  of  the  altar,  and  sanctified  it,  to  make  atonement  for  it.  And  he 
took  all  the  fat  that  was  upon  the  inwards,  and  the  caul  of  the  liver,  and  the  two  kidneys,  and 


ANOINTING  OF  THE  TABERNACLE  AND  THE  PRIESTS. 


335 


17  their  fat,  and  Moses  burned  it  upon  the  altar.  But  the  bullock,  and  its  skin,  and  its  flesh, 

18  and  its  dung,  he  burut  with  fire  without  the  camp  :  as  the  Lokd  commanded  Moses.  And  he 
presented  the  ram  of  the  burnt  offering  :  and  Aaron  and  his  sons  laid  their  hands  upon  the 

19  head  of  the  ram.  And  he  killed  it  :  and  Moses  sprinkled  the  blood  upon  the  altar  round 

20  about.  And  he  cut  the  ram  into  its  pieces  ;  and  Moses  burnt  the  head,  and  the  pieces,  and 

21  the  fat.  And  he  washed  the  inwards  and  the  legs  with  water  ;  and  Moses  burnt  the  whole 
ram  upon  the  altar  :  it  was  a  burnt  offering  for  a  sweet  savour  :  it  was  an  offering  made  by 

22  fire  unto  the  Lord  ;  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses.  And  he  presented  the  other  ram,  the 

23  ram  of  consecration  :  and  Aaron  and  his  sons  laid  their  hands  upon  the  head  of  the  ram.  And 
he  slew  it  ;  and  Moses  took  of  the  blood  thereof,  and  put  it  upon  the  tip  of  Aaron’s  right  ear, 

24  and  upon  the  thumb  of  his  right  hand,  and  upon  the  great  toe  of  his  right  foot.  And  he 
brought  Aaron’s  sons,  and  Moses  put  of  the  blood  upon  the  tip  of  their  right  ear,  and  upon 
the  thumb  of  their  right  hand,  and  upon  the  great  toe  of  their  right  foot :  and  Moses  sprinkled 

25  the  blood  upon  the  altar  round  about.  And  he  took  the  fat,  and  the  fat  tail,  and  all  the  fat 
that  was  upon  the  inwards,  and  the  caul  of  the  liver,  and  the  two  kidneys,  and  their  fat,  and 

26  the  right  thigh  :  and  out  of  the  basket  of  unleavened  bread,  that  was  before  the  Lord,  he  took 
one  unleavened  cake,  and  one  cake  of  oiled  bread,  and  one  wafer,  and  placed  them  on  the  fat, 

27  and  upon  the  right  thigh  :  and  he  put  the  whole  upon  the  hands  of  Aaron,  and  upon  the 

28  hands  of  his  sons,  and  waved  them  for  a  wave  offering  before  the  Lord.  And  Moses  took 
them  from  off  their  hands,  and  burnt  them  on  the  altar  upon  the  burnt  offering  :  they  were  a 

29  consecration  for  a  sweet  savour  :  it  was  an  offering  made  by  five  unto  the  Lord.  And  Moses 
took  the  breast,  and  waved  it  for  a  wave  offering  before  the  Lord  ;  it  was  Moses’  portion  of 

30  the  ram  of  consecration  ;  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses.  And  Moses  took  of  the  anointing 
oil,  and  of  the  blood  which  was  upon  the  altar,  and  sprinkled  it  upon  Aaron,  upon  his  gar¬ 
ments,  and  upon  his  sons,  and  upon  his  sons’  garments  with  him  ;  and  sanctified  Aaron,  his 

31  garments,  and  his  sons,  and  his  sons’  garments  with  him.  And  Moses  said  unto  Aaron  and 
to  his  sons,  Boil  the  flesh  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting  ;  and  there  eat  it  and  the  bread 
that  is  in  the  basket  of  consecration,  as  I  commanded,  saying,  Aaron  and  his  sons  shall  eat  it. 

32  And  that  which  remaineth  of  the  flesh  and  of  the  bread  shall  ye  burn  with  fire.  And  ye  shall 

33  not  go  out  from  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting  seven  days,  until  the  days  of  your  consecra- 

34  tion  be  fulfilled  :  for  he  shall  consecrate  you  seven  days.  As  hath  been  done  this  day  so  the 

35  Lord  hath  commanded  to  do,  to  make  atonement  for  you.  And  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of 
meeting  shall  ye  abide  day  and  night  seven  days,  and  keep  the  charge  of  the  Lord,  that  ye  die 

36  not  :  for  so  I  am  commanded.  And  Aaron  and  his  sons  did  all  the  things  which  the  Lord 
commanded  by  the  hand  of  Moses 

Ec.  29  43  And  there  I  will  meet  with  the  children  of  Israel  ;  and  the  Tent  shall  be  sanctified 

44  by  my  glory.  And  I  will  sanctify  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  the  altar  :  Aaron  also  and  his  sons 

45  will  I  sanctify,  to  minister  to  mo  in  the  priest’s  office.  And  I  will  dwell  among  the  children 

46  of  Israel,  and  will  be  their  God.  And  they  shall  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  their  God,  that 
brought  them  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  that  I  may  dwell  among  them  :  I  am  the  Lord 
their  God. 


Note. — Various  schemes  have  been  suggested 
for  harmonizing  statements  of  the  record  re¬ 
specting  the  setting  up  and  anointing  the  taber¬ 
nacle,  occupying  seven  days,  and  fully  completed 
on  the  first  day  of  the  second  year  ;  the  offer¬ 
ings  of  the  princes,  beginning  on  the  same  day 
and  continuing  twelve  days  besides  ;  the  conse¬ 
cration  of  Aaron  and  his  sons  to  the  priesthood, 
requiring  seven  days  ;  the  dedication  of  the  Le- 
vites  ;  and  the  inauguration  of  ihe  sanctuary 
service  by  Aaron.  As  best  agreeing  with  the 
many  references  in  Exodus,  Leviticus,  and  Num¬ 
bers,  and  as  itself  the  most  natural,  we  cite  the 
view  of  Dr.  Murphy  :  “  The  order  of  events 
may  have  been  the  following  :  In  the  process  of 
setting  up  the  tabernacle,  which  is  carried  on 


for  seven  days,  and  consummated  on  the  first 
day  of  the  second  year,  the  (ionsecration  of  the 
priests  takes  place  as  an  essential  and  concur¬ 
rent  part  of  the  whole  ceremony.  On  the  day 
of  its  consummation  the  princes  appear  prepared 
with  their  offerings.  The  wagons  and  oxen 
may  have  been  accepted  then  and  there,  and 
the  arrangement  made  for  the  successive  pres¬ 
entation  of  their  sacrifices  on  the  twelve  fol¬ 
lowing  days.  Hence  their  offerings  will  have 
been  completed  on  the  f'<urteenth  day  of  the 
month,  when  the  first  passover  took  place.  The 
dedication  of  the  Levites,  narrated  after  the 
offerings  of  the  princes,  and  before  the  account 
of  the  passover,  may  have  taken  place  on  the 
third  of  the  first  month,  so  that  they  wouhl  as 


336 


SECTION  127.  CONSECEATION  OF  AAEON  AND  IIIS  SONS. 


soon  as  possible  be  regularly  qualified  to  assist 
the  priests  in  the  extraordinary  duties  they 
were  now  called  on  to  perform.  Thus  every¬ 
thing  would  be  duly  arranged  for  the  orderly 
celebration  of  the  passover  on  the  j)roper  day.’' 
A  single  difficulty  remains  without  solution,  but 
as  it  is  of  no  practical  moment,  we  forbear  to 
state  it.  B. 

We  now  arrive  at  the  second  part  of  the  legal 
worship — i.e.,  the  priesthood.  All  the  splendor 
of  the  tabernacle  would  have  been  an  empty 
parade  wit  hout  the  priest,  who  so  mediated  as 
an  intercessor  that  he  reconciled  men  to  God, 
and  in  a  manner  united  heaven  to  earth.  In 
this  it  is  unquestionable  that  the  Levitical 
priests  were  the  representatives  of  Christ.  Calv. 

In  order  that  the  reader  may  keep  in  mind  a 
clear  and  intelligent  impression  of  the  connec¬ 
tion  subsisting  betv/een  the  several  divisions  of 
the  ceremonial  laws,  we  repeat  here  the  sub¬ 
stance  of  the  note  presented  in  Section  120.  A 
full  and  accurate  classification  of  these  laws  is 
as  follows  :  First.  Positive  institutes  relating  to 
worship.  These  are  (1)  Its  appointed  place, 
and  accompanying  external  media — viz.,  the 
tabernacle  and  court,  with  their  furniture  ;  (2) 
Its  ai)pointed  ministry —viz.,  priests  and  Le- 
vites  ;  (3)  Its  ajjpointed  rites— viz,,  sacrificial 
and  other  offerings  ;  and  (4)  Its  appointed  times 
— viz..  Sabbatic  periods  and  festivals.  Second. 
The  minor  ceremonial  adjuncts  of  a  preceptive 
character,  remedial,  corrective,  and  prohibitory. 
In  this  section  we  enter  upon  the  consideration 
of  the  second  of  the  jjositive  institutes  relating 
to  worship — namely,  Vs  appointed  ministry.  B, 

The  Separation  (f  Aaron  and  his  Sons. 

We  are  already  familiar  wTtli  the  use  that  has 
been  made  of  sep  iration  to  inculcate  the  abso¬ 
lute  necessity  of  holiness  in  order  to  intercourse 
with  God.  Abraham  was  separated  from  an 
idolatrous  and  wicked  world,  to  be  the  head  of 
a  family  and  a  nation  that  should  be  holy  to  the 
Lord  ;  and  accordingly^  in  comparison  with  the 
heathen  world  Israel  as  a  whole  was  a  priest¬ 
hood,  as  is  set  forth  in  Ex.  19  :  G  :  “  Ye  shall  be 
unto  me  a  kingdom  of  priests  and  a  holy  na¬ 
tion.”  Now  the  same  principle  is  further  car. 
ried  out.  From  the  entire  nation  one  tribe,  the 
tribe  of  Levi,  is  set  apart  to  be,  above  all  the 
others,  holy  unto  the  Lord  From  the  tribe  of 
Levi,  one  family,  that  of  Aaron,  is  set  apart  to 
be,  above  all  the  other  families  of  the  tribe, 
holy  unto  the  Lord.  And  finally,  from  the 
family  of  Aaron  a  single  individual,  the  high- 
priest,  is  set  apart  to  be,  above  all  the  other 
lutMiibers  of  the  family,  holy  unto  the  Lord. 


J.  M.  G. - The  special  distinction  belonging  to 

the  priesthood  was  their  right  to  draw  near  to 
God  — a  right  which  grew  out  of  their  election 
of  God,  and  their  eminent  holiness,  as  the  end 
and  consummation  to  which  these  pointed. 
The  question  in  the  rebellion  of  Korahwas,  Who 
were  in  such  a  sense  chosen  by  God,  and  holy, 
as  to  be  privileged  to  draw  near  to  him  ?  And 
the  decision  of  God  was  given  in  the  words  : 
“  And  him  whom  he  chooses  will  he  make  to 
draw  near  to  himself,”  P.  F. 

The  Consecration  of  the  Priests,  of  the 

Sanctuary,  the  Altar,  and  Other  Sacred 

Things. 

L<ev,  8  :  4.  The  spot  designated  was  the 
portion  of  the  court  in  front  of  the  tabernacle. 
Toward  this  space  the  people  were  commanded 
to  assemble  to  v/itness  the  great  national  cere 
mony  of  the  consecration  of  the  priesthood,  the 
solemn  setting  apart  of  one  of  their  families, 
the  members  of  which  were  henceforth  to  stand 
as  mediators  between  them  and  Jehovah  in 
carrying  out  the  precepts  of  the  ceremonial  law. 

I  Those  w'ho  could  do  so  may  have  come  into  the 
i  court,  and  a  great  number  of  others  may  have 
j  occupied  the  heights  which  overlooked  the  en¬ 
closure  of  the  court.  As  the  series  of  ceremonies 
was  repeated  every  day  during  a  week  (verse 
33),  it  is  natural  to  suppose  that  some  of  the 
people  attended  on  one  day  and  some  on  an¬ 
other.  Clark. 

The  consecration  of  Aaron  and  his  sons  to 
their  high  functions  in  the  service  of  the  taber¬ 
nacle  was  not  to  be  a  matter  of  the  conclave — it 
was  not  to  be  an  affair  that  should  be  enacted 
with  closed  doors.  On  the  contrary,  “  the  con¬ 
gregation  was  assembled  at  the  door  of  the  tent 
of  meeting.”  In  what  mode  and  order  this  was 
done  we  are  not  informed.  The  chiefs  of  the 
people  and  their  subalterns  knew  well  vhat  they 
were  about  ;  and  the  people  under  their  guid¬ 
ance  knew  in  what  way  they  should  answer  to 
the  call,  and  how  they  should  follow  the  banner 
of  their  tribe.  The  substantial  purpose  was 
effected  -  the  consecration  of  the  Aaronic  family 
was  participated  in  by  the  Great  Ecclesia.  All 
was  therefore  Aalid  and  authentic  ;  and  a  record 
of  this  transaction- oa  entry,  accordingly,  is 
made  in  the  very  heart  of  the  ordinance  thereto 
relating  I.  T. 

The  commission  read  (verse  5).  Moses,  who 
was  God’s  representative  in  this  solemnity,  juo- 
duced  his  orders  before  the  congregation,  '!  hs 
is  the  thing  whv-h  the  Lord  comminnhd  taled'-ne. 
Though  God  had  crowned  him  king  in  Jeshninn, 
when  he  made  his  face  to  shine  in  the  sight  of 


ANOINTING  OF  THE  TABERNACLE  AND  THE  PRIESTS. 


337 


all  Israel ;  yet  he  did  not  institute  or  appoint 
anything  in  God’s  worship  but  what  God  him¬ 
self  had  commanded.  The  priesthood  he  de¬ 
livered  to  them  was  that  which  he  had  received 
jrom  the  Lord.  All  that  minister  about  holy 
things  must  be  able  to  say,  in  all  acts  of  relig¬ 
ious  worship,  This  is  the  thing  whidi  the  Lord 
commanded  to  he  done.  H. - Moses  on  this  oc¬ 

casion,  by  an  extraordinary  commission  from 
God,  executed  himself  the  office  of  high-priest 
on  this  and  the  six  following  days.  The  various 
ceremonies  by  which  the  procedure  was  to  be 
marked  were  calculated  to  affect  the  incumbents 
with  the  greatness  and  sacredness  of  the  work  to 
which  they  were  called,  and  also  to  lead  the 
people  to  magnify  and  reverence  an  office  in 
which  their  interests  were  so  deeply  involved. 
The  whole  transaction  was  to  be  so  conducted 
that  there  should  be  ample  evidence  that  Aaron 
and  his  sons  did  not  glorify  themselves  to  be 
made  priests,”  but  that  they  were  “  called  of 
God  ”  to  exercise  the  sacerdotal  functions. 

Bush. - It  is  intimated  that  Gosj^el  ministers 

are  to  be  solemnly  set  apart  to  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  with  great  deliberation  and  serious¬ 
ness  both  in  the  ordainers  and  in  the  ordained, 
as  those  that  are  to  be  employed  in  a  great  work, 

and  intrusted  with  a  great  charge.  H. - Aaron 

and  his  sons  were  originally  sanctified,  exter¬ 
nally,  by  a  series  of  most  solemn  offerings  and 
ceremonies.  Hence  no  absurdity  can  be  more 
obvious  or  more  gross  than  an  unhol}"  character 
in  a  man  whose  professional  business  it  is  to 
minister  to  God.  The  very  heathen  were  so 
sensible  of  this  that  their  priests  claimed  gen¬ 
erally  and  labored  to  preserve  that  character 

which  they  esteemed  sanctity.  Dwight. - 

Every  sin  which  .is  committed  by  a  minister  of 
religion  is  more  than  one  :  and  it  is  as  soon 
espied  too  ;  for  men  look  more  upon  the  sun  in 
an  eclipse  than  when  he  is  in  his  beauty  ;  but 
every  spot  in  a  minister  is  greater,  every  mote 
is  a  beam  ;  it  is  not  only  made  so,  but  it  is  so  ; 
it  hath  not  the  excuses  of  the  people,  and  is 
not  pitiaV)le  by  the  measures  of  their  infirmity. 
Bp.  Taylor'. 

If  we  picture  to  ourselves 
Ihe  view  of  the  Aaronic  high-priest  standing 
now  arrayed  complete  in  his  spotless  robes, 
”  hearing  upon  his  breast  ”  the  names  of  the 
twelve  tribes  of  Israel,  and  bearing  upon  his 
fiirehead  the  gleaming  golden  band  inscribed 
'■  Holiness  to  the  Lord,”  then  may  we  get  some 
conception  of  the  office  which  Christ,  our  High 
Priest,  is  still  discharging  for  us.  And  in  that 
mysterious  “  Urim  and  Thummim,”  which  he 
bore  also  with  the  breast-plate,  may  we  catch  a 
22 


faint  glimpse  of  the  functions  of  our  prophet 
priest.  8.  K. 

The  essential  significance  of  the  priesthood 
lay  not  in  the  native  holiness  or  super-eminent 
fitness  of  its  members  for  their  exalted  position, 
but  in  four  attributes — its  Divine  election,  its 
attributed  holiness,  its  nearer  access,  and  its 
official  service.  A  most  minute  and  varied  sym¬ 
bolism  had  been  invented  by  which  to  convey 
to  the  dullest  mind  the  high  regard  in  which 
the  entire  order  of  the  priesthood  was  divinely 
held,  and  by  which  to  impress  upon  the  coarsest 
nature  within  the  hierarchy  itself  the  purity  of 
character  and  act  divinely  demanded  of  the 
priest.  Exactly  the  same  attributes  were  visible 
in  the  high-priest  in  an  intensified  form.  His 
Divine  call  was  consequent  upon  his  birth. 
“Holiness  to  the  Lord  ”  was  conspicuous  upon 
his  mitre.  His  dedication  to  the  Lord  was  ap¬ 
parent  in  every  official  act.  His  privilege  of 
Divine  access,  ordinarily  seen  in  his  daily  min¬ 
istrations  at  the  altar  of  incense,  was  most 
plainly  witnessed  in  the  solemn  ritual  of  the 
Day  of  Atonement.  And  what  could  more  con¬ 
clusively  bespeak  his  exceptional  mediation  than 
his  daily  passage,  with  the  breast  plate  and  its 
twelve  representative  stones  glittering  in  the 
light,  within  the  curtain  of  the  holy  place  ? 
Cave. 

10-S2.  Moses  first  anointed  with  the  holy 
oil  the  tabernacle  and  all  that  was  therein —  that 
is,  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  the  table  of  shew- 
bread,  the  candlestick,  and  the  golden  altar, 
w'ith  all  the  articles  that  belonged  to  them  ;  he 
then  sprinkled  the  altar  of  burnt-offering  wdlh 
the  oil  seven  times  and  anointed  it,  with  all  its 
utensils,  and  the  laver  with  its  foot  ;  last  of  all, 
he  poured  some  of  the  oil  on  the  head  of  Aaron, 
and  conferred  on  him  “  the  crown  of  the  an¬ 
ointing  oil  of  his  God  ”  (Lev.  21  :  12).  As  in¬ 
vesting  the  priest  with  official  garments  was  a 
recognition  before  men  of  the  official  position 
of  the  person,  the  anointing  him  with  oil  was 
an  acknowiedgment  that  all  fitness  for  his  office, 
all  the  powers  with  wffiich  he  w'ould  rightly  ful¬ 
fil  its  duties,  must  come  from  the  Lord.  In  the 
anointing  of  the  sanctuary  with  its  contents 
and  of  the  altar  with  its  utensils  the  same  idea 
evidently  held  its  place.  As  Aaron  w^as  sancti¬ 
fied  by  the  act,  so  were  they  sanctified  (verses 
10,  11,  12),  The  pouring  the  oil  on  the  head  of 
Aaron  stands  in  the  narrative  as  the  culmina¬ 
tion  of  the  ceremony  of  anointing.  All  the  holy 
things  had  been  made  after  the  heavenly  pat¬ 
terns  shown  to  Moses  in  the  mount,  and  each  of 
them  w’as  intended  by  Divine  wisdom  to  convey 
a  spiritual  meaning  to  the  mind  of  man.  They 


338 


tiEGTlon  127.  aO^''8EVIiArIa27  OF  AAROF  AND  IIIS  SONS. 


were  means  of  grace  to  the  devout  worshipper. 
The  oil  i^onred  upon  them  was  a  recognition  of 
this  fact,  and  at  the  same  time  it  made  them 
holy  and  set  them  apart  from  all  ordinary  uses. 
Clark. — —This  sacred  anointing  seems  to  have 
been  considered  as  investing  with  a  i^eculiar 
sanctity  the  person  on  whom  it  had  been  con¬ 
ferred.  We  see  this  in  the  reverence  with 
which  “the  Lord’s  anointed”  is  on  all  occa¬ 
sions  mentioned  in  Scripture.  Bash. 

Tlie  rites  of  consecration  proclaimed  the 
necessity  of  holiness— a  holiness  not  their  own, 
but  bestowed  on  them  by  the  grace  of  God  ;  and 
following  upon  this  and  flowing  from  the  same 
source,  a  plentiful  endowment  of  gifts  for  their 
sacred  olBce,  with  the  manifest  seal  of  Heaven’s 
fellowship  and  approval.  They  were  first 
brought  to  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  and 
washed.  The  body  being  thus  purified,  the 
garments  were  put  on  ;  and  on  the  high-priest 
first,  afterward  on  the  other  priests,  was  poured 
the  holy  anointing  oil.  In  the  case  of  the  sons 
the  anointing  is  declared  to  have  constituted 
them  an  everlasting  priesthood  through  all 
their  generations”— meaning,  as  has  been  com¬ 
monly  understood,  that  the  act  did  not  need  to 
be  renewed  in  respect  to  the  ordinary  members 
of  the  priesthood.  This  was  the  peculiar  act  of 
consecration,  and  symbolized  the  bestowal  upon 
those  who  received  it  of  the  Spirit’s  grace,  so  as 
to  malce  them  fit  and  active  instruments  in  dis¬ 
charging  the  duties  of  God’s  service.  As  such 
anointing  had  already  stamped  the  tabernacle 
as  God's  hallowed  abode,  so  now  did  it  hallow 
them  to  be  his  proper  agents  and  servitors 
within  its  courts.  P.  F. 

It  appears  from  Isa.  61  : 1  that  anointing  w’th 
oil,  in  consecrating  a  person  to  anj’’  important 
office,  was  considered  as  an  emblem  of  the  com¬ 
munication  of  the  gifts  and  graces  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  This  ceremony  was  used  on  the  instal¬ 
lation  ot  prophets,  priests,  and  kings  into  their  re- 
sjjective  offices  ;  to  signify  their  being  divinely 
appointed  and  qualified  for  the  due  perform¬ 
ance  of  their  several  functions.  As  no  man  was 
ever  dignified  by  holding  the  three  offices,  so  no 
person  ever  had  the  title  mashiah.  the  anointed 
one,^but  Jesus  the  Christ,  He  alone  is  the  King 
who  governs  the  universe  and  rules  in  the  hearts 
of  his  followers  ;  the  Prophet,  to  instruct  men 
in  the  way  wherein  they  should  go  ;  and  the 
great  High- Priest,  to  make  atonement  for  their 
sins.  Hence  he  is  called  the  Messiah,  T:nn'an- 
ointed  one,  in  Hebrew  ;  which  gave  birth  to  ho 
Christos,  which  has  the  same  signification  in 
Greek  ;  of  Him  Melchisedech,  Abraham,  Aaron, 
David,  and  others  were  illustrious  types.  But 


none  of  these  had  the  title  of  the  Messiah,  or 
THE  Anointed  of  God.  This  does  and  ever  will 
belong  exclusively  to  Jesus  the  Christ.  A.  C. 

- In  the  anointing  of  the  high-priest,  we 

plainly  read  the  connection  between  the  work 
of  Christ  and  the  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
As  the  oil  there  sanctified  all,  so  the  Spirit  here 
seals  and  works  in  all.  By  the  power  of  the 
Spirit  was  the  flesh  of  Christ  conceived  ;  with  the 
fulness  of  the  Spirit  he  was  endowed  at  his  bap¬ 
tism  ;  all  his  works  were  wrought  in  the  Spirit, 
and  by  the  Spirit  he  at  last  offered  himself  with¬ 
out  spot  to  God.  P.  F. 

The  writer  to  the  Hebrews  shows  us  at  great 
length  the  immeasurable  superiority  of  the  dis¬ 
pensation  of  Christ  to  the  typical  dispensation 
of  Aaron  and  his  descendants.  He  shows  us 
that  the  covenant  of  Christ  is  better,  for  it  is  a 
covenant  of  grace  ;  tbe  consecration  of  Christ 
better,  for  it  was  attested  with  the  solemnity  of 
a  Divine  oath  ;  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  better,  for 
it  alone  can  truly  take  away  sins  ;  the  priest¬ 
hood  of  Christ  better,  for  it  is  everlasting.  He 
establishes  the  pre-eminence  of  the  sacrifice  and 
the  priesthood,  by  insisting  on  tbe  singleness  of 
the  sacrifice,  and  the  perpetuity  of  the  priest¬ 
hood.  On  the  one  hand  he  declares,  that 
“  Christ  was  once  offered  to  bear  the  sins  of 
many,”  that  “  by  one  offering  he  hath  perfected 
forever  them  that  are  sanctified,”  that  “  there 
is  no  more  offering  for  sin.”  On  the  other  hand 
he  affirms  that  the  Divine  priest  of  this  sacrifice 
is  constituted  priest  “  after  the  power  of  an  end¬ 
less  life  that  he  is  a  “  priest /orener  that  he 
is,  in  this  priestly  office,  ‘  ‘  able  to  save  them  to 
the  uttermost  that  come  unto  God  by  him,  see¬ 
ing  he  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for 
them.”  This  priesthood  of  Christ,  then,  being 
perpetual,  yet  employing  but  a  single  sacrificial 
act,  it  must  consist  in  a  constant  reference  to 
that  sacrifice,  of  which  his  own  blessed  person 
stands  in  heaven  us  the  undying  memorial 
W.  A.  B. 

Thus  far  Moses,  in  the  presence  of  the  people, 
has  invested  Aaron  with  the  high  priestly  robes 
and  insignia,  and  anointed  him  in  connection 
with  the  anointing  of  the  sanctuary  and  its  holy 
things.  Next  (verse  13)  he  proceeds  to  the  in¬ 
vestiture  of  Aaron’s  sons  with  a  simpler  attire, 
consisting  of  coat  and  girdle  and  head-tire.  B. 

- Then  followed  (verses  14-29)  sacrifices  for 

Aaron  and  his  sons  ;  a  sin-offering,  a  burnt - 
offering,  and  a  peace-offering.  The  sin-offer¬ 
ing,  which  here  consisted  of  a  bullock,  was  a 
kind  of  expiation  by  which  they  were  first  of 
all  to  be  purified.  By  the  ceremony  of  putting 
their  hands  upon  the  head  of  the  victim  was 


THE  THREE  OFFERINGS. 


339 


signified  that  the  offerer  had  need  of  a  sacrifice 
to  atone  for  his  sins  ;  that  he  symbolically  trans¬ 
ferred  his  sins  to  the  victim  ;  that  he  trusted 
that  altliough  he  deserved  himself  to  die,  yet 
the  death  of  the  animal  which  he  thus  devoted 
to  God  would  be  accepted  as  an  expiation  for 
liis  sins,  so  as  to  avert  from  him  punishment. 
The  same  ceremony  of  imposition  of  hands  was 
enjoined  upon  every  one  who  brought  a  sacri¬ 
fice  for  his  sins  (Lev.  4  :  24,  29).  And  what  could 
more  strikingly  represent  the  fact  that,  in  the 
economy  of  redemption,  the  sins  of  men  are  im¬ 
puted  to  Christ,  “  upon  whom  the  Lord  hath 
laid  the  iniquity  of  us  all.”  Bush. 

The  Bullock  for  a  Sin-offering  (verses  14-17). 

Moses  as  the  merliator  of  the  covenant  of  the 
Law  (Gal.  3  :  19  ;  Heb.  8  :  G)  was  called  to  per¬ 
form  the  priestly  functions,  in  consecrating 
those  on  whom  henceforth  those  functions  were 
to  devolve,  and  in  inaugurating  the  legal  order 
of  sacrifices.  In  the  same  capacity  he  had  per¬ 
formed  the  daily  service  of  the  sanctuary  from 
the  day  of  the  setting  up  of  the  tabernacle  and 
the  altar.  The  sin-offering  was  now  offered  for 
the  first  time.  The  succession  in  which  the 
sacrifices  followed  each  other  on  this  occasion, 
first  the  sin-offering,  then  the  burnt-offering, 
and  lastly  the  peace-offering,  has  its  ground  in 
the  meaning  of  each  sacrifice,  and  became  the 
established  custom  in  later  ages.  Clark. 

We  begin  to  see  the  verification  of  the  apos¬ 
tle’s  saying,  that  almost  all  things  are  by  the 
Law  purged  “  with  blood.”  The  allusions  in 
the  Book  of  Hebrews  to  the  observances  of  the 
Mosaic  ritual  are  most  valuable,  and  prove  that 
they  are  both  buttresses  and  illustrations  of 
evangelical  truth.  T.  C. 

15.  The  altar  of  burnt-offering  had  been 
sanctified  by  the  anointing  oil  (verse  11)  like 
the  priests  who  were  to  officiate  at  it  ;  it  was 
now,  like  them,  sanctified  by  blood.  The  an¬ 
ointing  with  oil  consecrated  it  for  its  special 
purpose  in  the  service  of  Jehovah,  but  it  was 
now  anointed  with  blood  as  an  acknowledgment 
of  the  alienation  of  all  nature,  in  itself,  from 
God,  and  the  need  of  a  reconciliation  to  him  of 
all  things  by  blood.  The  purpose  of  the  formal 
consecration  of  the  sanctuary  and  of  the  priests 
who  served  in  it  was  that  the  whole  nation 
which  Jehovah  had  set  free  from  its  bondage  in 
Egypt  might  be  consecrated  in  its  daily  life, 
and  dwell  continually  in  his  presence  as  “  a 
kingdom  of  priests  and  an  holy  nation.”  Clark. 

And  sanctified  it  to  alone  for  it.  We  are  to 
notice  the  distinction  between  this  sentence 
and  “  anointed  to  sanctify”  (verse  12).  The 


latter  points  to  sanctification  as  the  end,  the 
former  to  propitiation.  Sanctification  and  pro¬ 
pitiation,  though  perfectl.y  distinct,  go  hand  in 
hand.  The  application  of  the  blood  implies 
sanctification,  because  in  this  application  the 
sinner  lays  his  hand  on  the  victim,  which  act 
involves  a  change  of  mind.  The  blood  itself 
effects  the  atonement.  M. 

The  Ram  for  a  Burnt-offering  (verses  18-21). 

Atonement  having  been  made,  Aaron  and  his 
sons  were  now  permitted,  by  the  la3dng  o'n  of 
their  hands,  to  make  themselves  one  with  the 
victim,  which  was  to  be  sent  up  to  Jehovah  as 
“  a  burnt  sacrifice  for  a  sweet  savor,  an  offering 
made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord  ”  There  was  no 
peculiarity  in  the  mode  of  offering  this  sacri¬ 
fice.  All  was  done  strictl}^  according  to  the 
ritual,  except  that  Moses  performed  the  duties 

of  the  priest.  Clark. - A  Jewish  writer  says  : 

“  It  is  proper  to  notice  the  order  in  which  these 
sacrifices  were  offered.  First  an  atonement  for 
sins  was  made  by  the  sin-offering,  of  which 
nothing  but  the  fat  was  offered  to  God  ;  because 
the  offerers  were  not  jmt  worth}’ of  God’s  accept¬ 
ance  of  a  gift  from  them.  But  after  they  had 
been  purified,  to  indicate  their  being  devoted 
to  the  sacred  office,  they  immolated  to  God  a 
holocaust,  which  was  entirely  consumed  upon 
the  altar.  And  after  the  holocaust,  or  burnt- 
offering,  they  offered  a  peace-offering,  of  which 
part  used  to  be  given  to  God,  part  to  the  priests, 
and  part  to  the  offerers,  and  which  was  to  indi¬ 
cate  their  being  now  received  into  favor  with 
God,  so  as  to  use  one  common  table  with  him,” 
To  this  we  may  add,  that  the  ram  was  wholly 
burned  to  the  honor  of  God,  in  token  of  the  dedi¬ 
cation  of  themselves  wholly  to  God  and  to  his 
service  as  living  sacrifices,  kindled  with  the  fire 
and  ascending  in  the  flame  of  holy  love.  Bush. 

The  Ram  of  Consecration  for  a  Peace-offering 
(verses  22-29). 

That  the  ram  now  offered  and  called  “  the 
ram  of  consecration”  was  truly  a  peace-'ffering 
will  be  obvious  from  what  is  said  in  verses  28, 
32.  It  is  called  the  ram  ef  consecration,  because 
there  was  more  in  this  sacrifice  that  was  pecul¬ 
iar  to  the  present  occasion  than  in  either  of  the 
others.  The  blood  instead  of  being  merely 
sprinkled  on  the  horns  of  the  altar  or  effused 
round  about  it,  was  shared,  as  it  were,  between 
God  and  them  ;  part  of  it  being  sprinkled  and 
part  put  upon  their  bodies  and  their  garments. 
It  was  intended  to  imply  that  they  ought  to  de¬ 
vote  diligently  their  ears,  their  hands,  and  their 
feet,  all  their  faculties  of  mind  and  body  to  the 
discharge  of  their  ministerial  office.  Bush. - - 


340 


SECTION  127.  CONSECRATION  OF  AARON  AND  HIS  SONS. 


B}’’  the  hands  and  feet  the  whole  life  and  actions 
ot  men  are  designated.  In  which  view  the 
cleanness  of  the  heart  and  the  purity  of  the 
hands  comprehend  all  that  is  internal  and  ex¬ 
ternal  in  man,  as  the  root  and  the  fruit.  As  to 
the  feet  tlie  metaphor  of  walkiaj  is  notorious  ; 
and  the  feet  are  said  to  run  to  evil  and  to  be 
swift  to  shed  blood,  when  the  wdcked  betake 
themselves  to  evil  deeds.  Since  this  consecra¬ 
tion  was  not  to  the  office  of  teaching  but  to  that 
of  intercession,  the  ear  rather  than  the  tongue 
is  stained  with  blood  ;  bectiuse  the  chief  virtue 
which  obtains  grace  in  the  sacrifices  is  obedi¬ 
ence.  Calv. 

The  renderings  of  the  Targums,  the  Syriac, 
and  Saadia  all  mean  “  the  ram  of  completion.” 
This  offering  was  in  the  highest  sense  the  sacri¬ 
fice  of  completion  or  fulfilling,  as  being  the  cen¬ 
tral  point  of  the  consecrating  rite.  The  final 
perfection  of  the  creature  is  consecration  to  the 
Loan.  Clark. 

iSS.  Moses  was  now  to  Aaron  and  his 
sons  what  they  were  afterward  to  the  children 
of  Israel  ;  and  as  the  minister  of  God,  he  now 
consecrates  them  to  the  sacred  office,  and  pre¬ 
sents  their  offerings  to  Jehovah.  Although 
Moses  himself  had  no  consecration  to  the  sacer¬ 
dotal  office,  yet  he  acts  here  as  high-priest,  con¬ 
secrates  a  high-priest,  and  receives  the  breast 
and  the  shoulder,  which  were  the  priests'  por¬ 
tion  !  But  Moses  was  an  extraordinary  messen¬ 
ger,  and  derived  his  authority  immediately  from 
God  himself  It  does  not  appear  that  Christ 
either  baptized  the  twelve  apostles  or  ordained 
them  by  imposition  of  hands  ;  yet  from  his 
own  infinite  sufficiency  he  gave  them  authority 
both  to  baptize  and  to  lay  on  hands  in  apjDoint- 
ing  others  to  the  work  of  the  sacred  ministry. 
A.  C 

;{0.  Moses  had  jiut  this  holy  life-giving  blood 
upon  Aaron  (verse  23)  ;  upon  his  right  ear,  to 
sanctify  it  to  a  ready  and  attentive  listening  to 
the  Law  of  God  ;  upon  his  right  hand  and  his 
right  foot,  that  the  one  might  be  hallowed  for 
the  presentation  of  sacred  gifts  to  God,  and  the 
other  for  treading  his  courts  and  running  the 
way  of  his  commandments.  And  now,  to  com¬ 
plete  the  ceremony,  Aaron  receives  on  his  per¬ 
son  and  his  garments  a  second  anointing  with 
the  oil  and  this  blood  of  consecration  mingled 
together  -symbolizing  the  new  life  of  God,  in 
wdiich  he  is  henceforth  to  live  in  conjunction 
with  the  Spirit.  So  that'  the  Levitical  priest¬ 
hood  appeared  emphatically  as  one  coming  “  by 
water  and  by  blood.”  It  spoke  aloud,  in  all 
its  rites  of  consecration,  of  sin  on  man’s  part, 
and  holiness  on  God’s.  P.  F. - The  union  of 


the  two  symbols  of  the  atoning  blood  and  the 
inspiring  unction  appears  to  be  a  fit  conclusion 
of  the  entire  rite.  Clark. 

Se%  eii  days  sliall  lie  consecrate 
yon.  That  is,  Moses  shall  consecrate  you. 
The  number  seven  among  the  Hebrews  was  tho 
number  of  perfection,  and  the  seven  days  of  con<. 
secration  implied  a/aW  and  penfect  consecration 
to  the  sacerdotal  office,  and  intimated  that  their 
ichole  lives  were  to  be  devoted  to  this  solemn 

service.  Bush. - The  whole  was  repeated 

seven  times,  on  as  many  successive  days — be¬ 
cause  seven  was  the  symbol  of  the  oath  or  cove¬ 
nant,  and  indicated  here  that  the  consecration 
to  the  priestly  office  was  a  strictly  covenant 
transaction.  P.  F. 

Ex,  ;  36,  37,  Here  it  appears  that  the 
seven  days  of  consecration  were  at  the  same 
time  seven  daj^s  of  hallo wment  or  dedication  of 
the  altar.  They  apply  not  only  to  the  priests, 
but  to  the  tabernacle  and  its  sacred  furni¬ 
ture.  M. 

Ex,  *29  :45,  I  xvill  dwell  ainong^  tlie 
eliildreil  of  B§rael.  This  is  the  great  char¬ 
ter  of  the  people  of  God,  both  under  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments.  God  dwells  among  them 
—  He  is  ever  to  be  found  in  his  Church,  to  en¬ 
lighten,  quicken,  comfort,  and  support  it  — to 
dispense  the  light  of  life  by  the  preaching  of  his 
Word  and  the  influences  of  his  Spirit.  And 
He  dwells  in  those  who  believe  ;  and  this  is  the 
very  tenor  of  the  New  Covenant  which  God 
promised  to  make  with  the  house  of  Israel  (see 
Jer,  31  :  31-34  ;  Ezek.  37  : 24-28  ;  Heb.  8  :  7-12  ; 
2  Cor.  6  : 16).  And  because  God  had  promised 
to  dwell  in  all  his  genuine  followers,  hence  the 
frequent  reference  to  this  covenant  and  its  priv¬ 
ileges  in  the  New  Testament.  And  hence  it  is 
so  frequently  and  strongly  asserted  that  every 
believer  is  a  habitation  of  God  through  the 
Siiirit  ;  that  the  Spirit  of  God  witnesses  with 
their  spirits  that  they  are  the  children  of  God, 
and  that  the  Spirit  of  Christ  in  their  hearts  en¬ 
ables  them  to  call  God  their  Father.  A.  C. 

In  the  Hebrew  ritual  there  was  a  real  priest¬ 
hood — real  offerings  and  sacrifices — real  purifi¬ 
cations — real  cleansings  and  expiations — real 
blessings  obtained  and  bestowed  on  those  who 
worshipped  before  the  Presence  according  to 
the  ritual.  To  answer  the  true  meaning  of  this 
ritual,  the  Christ  w’as  to  be  a  real  High-Priest  — 
to  offer  areal  sacrifice — to  obtain  real  blessings, 
and  to  bestow  them  on  those  who  shall  receive 
him,  the  Messiah,  by  believing  in  his  name  ; 
for  the  Messiah  was  to  be  in  truth  what  the  rit¬ 
ual  represented  in  figure.  Lawman. 

The  particular  manner  in  which  Christ  inter- 


SECTION  128.  CHRIST  THE  TRUE  III  Oil- PRIEST. 


341 


posed  in  the  redemption  of  the  world,  or  his 
office  as  Mediator  in  the  largest  sense  between 
God  and  man,  is  thus  represented  to  us  in  the 
Scriptiire  :  “  He  is  the  light  of  tne  world  the 
revealer  of  the  will  of  God  in  the  most  eminent 
sense  :  he  is  a  propitiatory  sacrifice  ;  “  the 
Lamb  of  God;’'  nnr1  ns  he  voluntarily  offered 
himself  up,  he  is  staled  our  High-Priest.  And, 
which  seems  of  peculiar  weight,  he  is  described 
beforehand  in  the  Old  Testament  under  the 
same  characters  of  a  priest  and  expiatory  vic¬ 
tim,  The  doctrine  of  the  Epistle  to  the  He¬ 
brews  plainly  is,  that  the  legal  sacrifices  were 
allusions  to  the  great  and  final  atonement  to  be 
made  by  the  blood  of  Christ  ;  and  not  that  this 
was  an  allusion  to  those.  Nor  can  anything  be 
more  express  and  determinate  than  the  follow¬ 
ing  passage  ;  It  is  not  possible  that  the  blood 
of  bulls  and  of  goats  should  take  away  sin, 
Wherefore,  when  he  cometh  into  the  world,  he 
saith.  Sacrifice  and  offering”  —  ie.,  O'f  bulls  and 
of  goats,  “  thou  wouldst  not,  but  a  body  hast 
thou  prepared  me — Lo,  I  come  to  do  thy  will. 
O  God.  By  which  will  we  are  sanctified, 
through  the  offering  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ 

once  for  all.”  Bp.  Biiiler. - ”  While  the  old 

priesthood,  by  reason  of  death,  could  not  con¬ 
tinue,  our  priest  having,  once  for  all,  offered  up 
himself  our  sacrifice  for  sins,  forever  sat  down 
on  the  right  hand  of  God  by  one  offering 
he  hath  perfected  forever  them  that  are  sancti¬ 
fied.’'  “  Wherefore  we  have  boldness  to  enter 
into  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  by  the 
new  and  living  way  which  he  hath  consecrated 
for  us  through  the  veil— that  is  to  say,  his  fiesh, 
and  we  may  draw  near  in  full  assurance  of 
faith.”  Such  being  the  case,  there  is  no  longer 
any  place  for  a  priest  and  altar  in  the  earthly 
Church.  For,  chosen  in  Christ  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world  and  consecrated  by  the 
sprinkling  of  his  blood  on  their  consciences  and 
anointed  with  the  unction  of  the  Holy  Ghost, 
Christ’s  people  are  “  a  holy  priesthood  to  offer 


up  spiritual  sacrifices,  acceptable  to  God  through 
Jesus  Christ.”  The  humblest  of  iliem  all  is 
privileged  to  draw  near  through  Christ  even  into 
the  holiest  of  all.  The^^  have  freedom  of  access 
for  themselves  and  their  offerings  to  God.  S.  li. 


The  priesthood  was  originally  appointed  to 
remain  in  Aaron’s  family  through  all  succeed¬ 
ing  generations,  and  no  one  who  was  not  of  that 
lineage  might  intrude  into  the  sacred  office. 
Aaron  was  succeeded  by  Eleazar,  his  eldest  sur¬ 
viving  son,  and  it  continued  in  his  family 
through  seven  generations,  till  the  time  of  Eli. 
On  his  death  it  was  removed  from  that  branch 
for  the  wickedness  of  Eli’s  sons,  and  given  to 
the  descendants  of  Ithamar,  Aaron’s  other  son. 
In  the  time  of  Solomon  it  returned  again  into 
the  line  of  Eleazar,  in  which  it  continued  till 
the  Babylonish  captivity.  Jeshua,  the  first  high- 
priest  after  the  return  of  the  Jews,  was  of  the 
same  family  ;  but  after  his  time  the  appoint¬ 
ment  became  very  uncertain  and  irregular  ; 
and  after  Judea  became  a  Euman  province,  no 
regard  whatever  was  paid  to  this  part  of  the 
original  Divine  institution.  The  office  was  in 
fact  in  process  of  time  so  far  desecrated  in  the 
general  corruption  that  it  was  often  sold  to  the 
highest  bidder,  whether  of  the  family  or  not  ; 
and  so  things  continued  till  final!}"  the  nation 
had  filled  up  the  measure  of  its  iniquities,  and 
priest,  altar,  and  temple  were  all  swept  away  in 
the  abolition  of  the  Jewish  economy  and  the 
dispersion  of  the  race.  Busk. 

The  Jewish  high-priest  was  a  type  of  him 
who  is  called  the  high-priest  over  the  house  of  God 
(Heb.  10  : 21),  and  when  He  came,  the  functions 
of  the  other  necessarily  ceased.  The  Jewish 
sacrifices  were  never  resumed  after  the  destruc¬ 
tion  of  their  city  and  temple  ;  for  they  hold  it  un¬ 
lawful  to  sacrifice  anywhere  out  of  Jcrusaimi  :  and 
the  unction  of  their  high-priests  ceased  from 
that  period  also  ;  because  the  true  Priest  and 
the  true  Sacrifice  were  come.  A.  C. 


Section  128. 

INAUGUEATION  OF  THE  SANCTUABY  SERVICE,  THE  FIRST  MINISTRY  OF  AARON. 

Leviticus  9  :  1-24.  Nu.  6  :  22-27. 

Lev.  9  1  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  eighth  day,  that  Moses  called  Aaron  and  his  sons,  and 

2  the  elders  of  Israel  ;  and  he  said  unto  Aaron,  Take  thee  a  bull  calf  for  a  sin  offering,  and  a  ram 

3  for  a  burnt  offering,  without  blemish,  and  offer  them  before  the  Loud.  And  unto  the  children 
of  Israel  thou  shalt  speak,  saying,  Take  ye  a  he-goat  for  a  sin  offering  ;  and  a  calf  and  a  lamb, 

4  both  of  the  first  year,  without  blemish,  for  a  burnt  offering  ;  and  an  ox  and  a  ra7n  for  peace 
offerings,  to  sacrifice  before  the  Loed  ;  and  a  meal  offering  mingled  with  oil  :  for  to-day  the 


342 


SECTION  128.  INA  UG  URA  TION  OF  THE  8ANGTUAR  Y  SEE  VICE. 


5  Lokd  appearetli  unto  you.  And  they  brought  that  which  Moses  commanded  before  the  tent 

6  of  meeting  :  and  all  the  congregation  drew  near  and  stood  before  the  Lord.  And  Moses  said. 
This  is  the  thing  which  the  Lord  commanded  that  ye  should  do  :  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord 

7  shall  appear  unto  you.  And  Moses  said  unto  Aaron,  Draw  near  unto  the  altar,  and  offer  thy 
sin  offering,  and  thy  burnt  offering,  and  make  atonement  for  thyself,  and  for  the  people  ;  and 

8  offer  the  oblation  of  the  people,  and  make  atonement  for  them  ;  as  the  Lord  commanded.  So 
Aaron  drew  near  unto  the  altar,  and  slew  the  calf  of  the  sin  offering,  w'hich  was  for  himself. 

9  And  the  sons  of  Aarcn  presented  the  blood  unto  him  :  and  he  dipped  his  finger  in  the  blood, 

10  and  put  it  upon  the  horns  of  the  altar,  and  poured  out  the  blood  at  the  base  of  the  altar  :  but 
the  fat,  and  the  kidneys,  and  the  caul  from  the  liver  of  the  sin  offering,  he  burnt  upon  the 

11  altar  ;  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses.  And  the  flesh  and  the  skin  he  burnt  with  fire  without 

12  the  camp.  And  he  slew  the  burnt  offering  ;  and  Aaron’s  sons  delivered  unto  him  the  blood, 

13  and  he  sprinkled  it  upon  the  altar  round  about.  And  they  delivered  the  burnt  offering  unto 

14  him,  piece  by  piece,  and  the  head  ;  and  he  burnt  them  irponthe  altar.  And  he  washed  the  in- 

15  wards  and  the  legs,  and  burnt’  them  upon  the  burnt  offering  on  the  altar.  And  he  presented 
the  people’s  oblation,  and  took  the  goat  of  the  sin  offering  which  was  for  the  people,  and  slew 

16  it,  and  offered  it  for  sin,  as  the  first.  And  he  presented  the  burnt  offering,  and  offered  it 

17  according  to  the  ordinance.  And  he  j)resented  the  meal  offering,  and  filled  his  hand  there- 

18  from,  and  burnt  it  upon  the  altar,  besides  the  burnt  offering  of  the  morning.  He  slew  also 
the  ox  and  the  ram,  the  sacrifice  of  peace  offerings,  which  was  for  the  people  ;  and  Aaron’s 
sons  delivered  unto  him  the  blood,  and  he  sprinkled  it  upon  the  altar  round  about,  and  the 

19  fat  of  the  ox  ;  and  of  the  ram,  the  fat  tail,  and  that  which  covereth  the  inwirds,  and  the  kid- 

20  neys,  and  the  caul  of  the  liver  :  and  they  put  the  fat  upon  the  breasts,  and  he  burnt  the  fat 

21  upon  the  altar  :  and  the  breasts  and  the  right  thigh  Aaron  waved  for  a  wave  offering  before 
the  Lord  ;  as  Moses  commanded. 

Xa.  6  22  And  the  Lord  spake  -unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  Aaron  and  unto  his  sons, 

23  saying,  On  this  wise  ye  shall  bless  the  children  of  Israel  ;  ye  shall  say  unto  them, 

24  The  Lord  bless  thee,  and  keep  thee  ; 

25  The  Lord  make  his  face  to  shine  upon  thee,  and  be  gracious  unto  thee  : 

26  The  Lord  lift  up  his  countenance  upon  thee,  and  give  thee  peace. 

27  So  shall  they  put  my  name  upon  the  children  of  Israel  :  and  I  will  bless  them. 

Lev.  9  22  And  Aaron  lifted  up  his  hands  toward  the  people,  and  blessed  them  ;  and  he  came 

23  down  from  offering  the  sin  offering,  and  the  burnt  offering,  and  the  peace  offerings.  And 
Moses  and  Aaron  went  into  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  came  out,  and  blessed  the  people  :  and 

24  the  glor}^  of  the  Lord  appeared  unto  all  the  people.  And  there  came  forth  fire  from  before 
the  Lord,  and  consumed  upon  the  altar  the  burnt  offering  and  the  fat*:  and  when  all  the  peo¬ 
ple  saw  it,  they  shouted,  and  fell  on  their  faces. 


Before  the  conceptions  of  redemption  and  sal¬ 
vation— ot  atonement,  expiation,  pardon,  adop 
tion,  and  regeneration— could  be  presented  in 
the  fulness  and  maturity  of  the  Christian  sys¬ 
tem,  there  was  needed  the  culture  and  educa¬ 
tion  of  the  ages  of  Mosaic  ritualism,  with  its 
sacrificial  system,  its  rites  of  purification,  its 
priestly  absolution,  and  its  family  of  God.  Be- 
demption  itself,  as  an  economy,  is  a  develop¬ 
ment,  and  has  consequently  a  history —  a  history 
wLich  had  its  commencement  in  the  first  Eden, 
and  which  shall  have  its  consummation  in  the 
second  Eden  of  a  regenerated  world.  It  was 
germinal ly  unfolded  in  the  first  promise,  grad¬ 
ually  unfolded  in  successive  types,  prophecies, 
more  fttlly  developed  in  the  life  and  sayings 
and  sufferings  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  its  ripen¬ 
ed  fruit  is  presented  to  the  eye  of  faith  in  the 
closing  scenic  representations  of  the  grand 
Apocalypse  of  John.  Judaism  was  not  given  as 


a  perfect  religion.  Whatever  may  have  been 
its  siqDeriority  over  surrounding  forms  of  wor¬ 
ship,  it  was,  notwithstanding,  a  provisional  one 
only.  The  consciousness  that  it  was  a  prepar¬ 
atory,  and  not  a  definite  dispensation,  is  evi¬ 
dent  throughout.  It  points  to  an  end  beyond 
itself,  suggests  a  grander  thought  than  any  in 
itself  ;  its  gloiy  precisely  consists  in  its  con¬ 
stant  looking  forward  to  a  glorious  future  des¬ 
tined  to  surpass  it.  Cocker. 

At  the  beginning  of  Exodus  we  found  the  de¬ 
scendants  of  Jacob  a  multitude  of  ill-treated  and 
idolatrous  slaves  ;  they  are  now  a  free  nation, 
the  guardians  of  eternal  truth,  the  witnesses  of 
overwhelming  miracles.  Released  from  the 
vain  and  busy  worldliness  of  Egypt,  they  en¬ 
camp  in  the  silent  desert,  in  isolated  and  solemn 
solitude,  holding  converse  only  with  their 
thoughts  and  with  their  God.  Before  them 
stood  the  visible  habitation  of  him  whom  they 


FIIiST  MINISTET  OF  AARON. 


343 


acknowledged  and  adored  as  their  rescuer  from 
Egyptian  thraldom  ;  the  mysterious  structure 
disclosed  to  them  many  profound  ideas  of  their 
new  religion  ;  and  they  respected  the  priests  as 
their  representatives  and  their  mediators.  Be¬ 
tween  God  and  his  people  communion  was 
opened  ;  life  had  its  aim,  and  virtue  its  guide. 
Kalisch. 

To  the  Israelite  of  the  Theocracy,  the  taber¬ 
nacle  of  his  God  stood  in  the  palace  of  his  sov¬ 
ereign  ;  the  altar  was  the  throne,  and  on  the 
altar  of  the  covenant  lay  the  code  of  inspira¬ 
tion,  the  great  charter  of  Israel.  The  first  min¬ 
ister  of  the  Deity  announced,  by  the  amazing 
splendor  of  the  j^ontifical  robes  and  the  mysti¬ 
cal  pectoral,  his  exalted  station.  The  furuiture 
and  the  utensils  display^ed  the  rich  and  bsauti- 
ful  ornaments  in  which  earthly  monarchs  and 
their  subjects  equally  delight — the  embroidered 
tapestry,  the  draperies  of  fine  linen,  the  varie¬ 
gated  needlework,  the  transparent  curtains  to 
mark  out  the  divisions,  the  golden  branched 
lights,  the  altar  fuming  with  incense,  and  the 
columns  raised  on  brazen  bases.  There,  too, 
w^ere  viewed  the  dedicated  loaves,  arranged  on  a 
table  of  gold  ;  the  golden  vases  holding  “  the 
strong  wine  to  be  poured  unto  the  Lord  the 
ewers  “  to  wash  with  water  that  they  die  not 
and  the  flesh  daily  provided  bn  the  sacrificial 
altar.  All  these  seemed  to  indicate  the  banquet 
of  a  mortal  monarch,  but  they  beheld  the  ban¬ 
quet  inviolable,  forever  renewed,  and  forever 
untouched.  The  veil  which  never  was  to  be 
lifted,  the  cherubim  spreading  their  mystical 
wings,  the  propitiatory  where  the  cloud  of  glory 
hung  over  “the  holy  of  holies;’’  everj’’  object 
around  combined  the  perpetual  recollection 
that  the  Israelite  found  the  palace  of  his  sover¬ 
eign  to  be  the  temple  of  his  God.  D' Israeli. 

The  Seevice  of  the  Saxctuxet  Inaugueated. 

This  section  comprises  :  (1)  The  instructions 
of  Moses  to  Aaron,  his  sons,  and  the  elders  of 
Israel  to  prepare  the  several  kinds  of  sacrifice, 
and  bring  them  to  the  court  of  the  tabernacle, 
to  offer  them  before  Jehovah  in  the  presence  of 
the  whole  congregation  (9  ;  1-7).  (2)  The  offer¬ 

ings  presented  by  Aaron  for  himself  (verses 
8-14).  (3)  The  offerings  made  in  behalf  of  the 

people  (verses  15-21).  (4)  The  form  of  bene¬ 
diction  prescribed  (Nu  6  ;  22-27).  (5)  The 

blessing  of  the  people,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
appearing  after  the  benediction  (Lev.  9  : 22- 
24).  B. 

1.  And  the  elders  «f  Israel.  Greek, 
the  eldership  or  senate  of  Israel.  These,  together 
with  a  large  body  of  the  people,  were  assembled 


in  the  Court,  where  it  was  the  duty  of  the  elders 
to  impose  their  hands  upon  the  sin  offering  of 

the  congregation.  Bush. - 2-4.  All  kinds  of 

sacrifices  were  on  this  solemn  occasion  made 
together.  First  comes  the  sin-offering,  which 
removes  all  hindrances  to  access  to  the  Lord  ; 
then  follows  the  burnt  offering,  the  expression 
of  entire  surrender  of  all  to  the  Lord  ;  upon 
this  the  thank-  offering,  which  does  not  here 
refer  so  much  to  benefits  received  as  to  those 
which  are  yet  to  be  sought  and  expected  from 
God  ;  and  as  additional  offeriugs  to  the  two  last 
comes  in  the  meal-offering,  the  offering  of  a  life 
well-pleasing  to  God.  All  these  offerings  are  to 
be  made  “  because  the  Lord  will  appear’  ’-—they 
are  to  be  offered  for  dedication  and  confirma¬ 
tion.  Gerl. 

1.  To-day  the  Lord  appcarcth  auto 
you.  6.  The  glory  of  the  Lord  shall 
appear  unto  you. 

That  is,  the  visible  glory  of  the  Lord  will  ap¬ 
pear  in  the  increased  effulgence  of  the  cloudy 
pillar  resting  over  the  tabernacle,  and  also  in 
sending  forth  from  the  midst  of  the  cloud  a  fire 
to  consume  the  offerings  upon  the  altar.  Chal., 
“  The  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be  revealed.” 

Bush. - -•-This  is  evidentl^^  the  greatest  of  all 

da^^s  since  the  proclamation  of  the  Moral  Law  on 
Mount  Sinai.  The  Lord  is  about  to  follow  up 
the  established  service  with  a  visible  manifes¬ 
tation  of  his  acceptance  with  his  people  and 
their  worship.  The  visible  sign  of  his  presence 
will  be  miraculous  and  glorious.  But  the  out¬ 
ward  and  sensible  glory  will  only  be  a  faint 
shadow  of  the  inward  and  sjDiritual  glory  which 
it  signifies.  The  glory  of  God  is  his  spiritual 
nature,  his  power,  wisdom,  holiness,  justice, 
goodness,  and  truth.  But  the  glory  that  excel- 
leth  is  his  mercy.  In  keeping  with  this  the 
glory  of  his  justice  is  the  propitiation  for  sin, 
foreshadowed  in  this  ceremonial  observance. 
The  glory  of  his  power  is  the  regeneration  of 
the  soul  by  his  Word  and  Sj^irit.  All  this  glory 
is  to  shine  forth  in  the  deep  meaning  of  this 
day’s  service.  The  Lord  is  the  God  not  merely 
of  eternity  and  omnipotence,  but  of  the  prom¬ 
ise  and  covenant  of  mercy.  M. 

Aaron  Offers  the  Sacrifices  for  the  People. 

Verses  15-=-21. 

In  this  first  complete  series  of  offerings  made 
by  the  high-priest,  the  sacrifices  take  their  ap¬ 
pointed  order  ;  the  sin-offering  to  make  atone¬ 
ment,  the  burnt-offering  to  signify  the  surrender 
of  the  body,  soul,  and  spirit  to  Jehovah  in  heav¬ 
en  ;  and  lastly  the  peace-offering,  to  show  forth 


344  SECTION  128.  INA  UGNIiATION  OF  THE  SANCTUARY  SERVICE. 


the  communion  vouchsaEed  to  those  who  are 
justified  and  sauctihed.  Clark. 

The  Priestly  Benediction. 

Nil  G  :  22-27. 

The  solemnity  of  blessing  the  people  in  the 
name  o£  the  Lord  appertained  especially  to  the 
prie.stly  otfice  (De.  10  :  8),  “  The  Lord  separated 
the  tribe  of  Levi  to  bear  the  ark  of  the  covenant 
of  the  Lord,  to  stand  before  the  Lord  to  minis¬ 
ter  unto  him,  and  to  hie, •at  in  his  name  unto  this 
day.”  Bush. 

Milo  The  Lord  bless  Ihee  and  ktep 

thee  f  The  Lord  make  his  face  shine  'upon  ihee, 
and  he  gmcious  unto  ihee  !  The  Lard  lift  up  his 
countenance  upcm  ihee,  and  give  ihee  peace!  In 
this  form  of  benediction  the  I'rinity  in  Unity  of 
the  Divine  nature,  which  appears  so  visibly  in  ^ 
the  New  Testament,  is  for  the  fir.st  time  dis-  i 
closed  in  the  Old.  We  behold  God  as  the  Giver 
of  all  that  is  good  and  the  Pi'otector  from  all 
that  is  evil— as  the  Dispenser  of  grace^  exter¬ 
nally  in  the  manifestation  of  his  Son,  whose 
glory  was  visibly  seen  fall  of  grace  and  truth, 
and  inwardly  by  his  Spirit,  who  knits  us  into 
fellowship  wdth  him  and  gives  us  his  jieace. 

C.  G.  B. - The  repetition  of  the  name  Jehovah 

three  times  in  these  three  verses,  and  that  with 
a  different  accent  in  each  of  them,  hath  made 
the  Jews  themselves  think  that  there  is  some 
mystery  in  it.  It  may  well  be  looked  upon  as  j 
having  respect  to  the  f/iree Persons  in  the  blessed  j 
Trinity,  who  are  one  God  from  whom  all  bless¬ 
ings  flow  unto  us  (2  Cor.  13  : 14),  This  mystery, 
as  Luther  wisely  expresses  it,  is  here  suggested, 
though  not  plainly  revealed.  And  it  is  not  hard 
to  show  how  properly  God  the  Father  may  be 
.said  to  bless  and  keep  us;  and  God  the  Son  to 
be  gracunis  unto  us;  and  Groi>  the  Holj’  Ghost  to 

give  us  peace.  Bp.  Patrick. - The  three  articles 

of  this  benediction  will  be  found  to  agree  re¬ 
spectively  to  the  three  Persons  taken  in  the 
usual  order  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the 
Holy  Ghost.  The  Father  is  the  Author  of  Itless- 
ing  and  pre.servaiion.  Grace  and  illumination  are 
from  the  Son,  by  whom  w’e  have  “  the  lifjhl  of 
the  knowledge  of  the  glory  of  God  in  the /ace  of 
Jesus  Christ”  (2  Cor.  4:6).  Of  the  Spirit, 
whose  name  is  the  Comforter,  the  first  and  best 
fruit  is  peace.  Jones  of  Nayland. 

The  favor  of  God  is  all  in  all  in  this  blessing, 
for  that  is  the  fountain  of  all  good.  The  Lord 
bless  thee  /  Our  blessing  God  is  only  our  speak¬ 
ing  well  of  him,  his  blessing  us  is  doing  w^ell 
for  us  ;  those  whom  he  blesses  are  blessed  in¬ 
deed.  The  Lard  m.ake  his  face  shine  upon  th<"  / 
Alluding  to  the  shining  of  the  sun  upon  the 


I  earth,  to  enlighten  and  comfort  it,  and  to-  renew 
I  the  face  of  it.  “  The  Lord  love  thee,  and  make 
thee  to  know  that  he  loves  thee.”  The  Lor<l 
lift  up  his  countenance  upon  ihee/  This  is  to  the 
same  purport  wdth  the  former,,  and  it  seems  to 
allude  to  the  smites  of  a  father  upon  his  child, 
or  of  a  man  upon  his  friend  whom  he  takes 
pleasure  in.  If  God  give  us  the  assurances  of 
bis  special  favor  and  his  acceptance  of  us,  that 
will  pat  gladness  into  the  heart  (Ps.  4  ;  7,  8).  The 
fruits  of  favor  conveyed  by  tbis  blessing  are 
protection,  pardon,  and  peace  ;  including  all 
that  good  which  goes  to  make  up  a  complete 

happiness.  H. - Here  is  a  benediction  that 

can  go  all  the  world  over  and  can  give  all  the 
time  without  being  itself  impoverished.  Every 
heart  may  utter  it.  This  is  the  speech  of  God  ; 
every  letter  may  conclude  with  it  ;  every  day 
may  begin  with  it  ;  every  night  may  be  sancti¬ 
fied  by  it  Here  is-  “  blessing,”  “keeping,” 
“  sbining”~the  uplifting  upon  our  poor  life  of 
all  heaven’s  glad  morning.  It  is  the  Lord  him¬ 
self  who  brings  this  bar  of  music  from  heaven’s 
infinite  anthem.  J,  P. 

Sy,  God  here  promises  to  ratify  and  confirm 
the  blessing,  77/ e?/  .shall  put  m'g  name  upon  the 
children  of  Israel.  God’s  name  upon  them  wa.s 
their  honor,  their  comfort,  their  safety,  their 
plea  ;  we  are  called  hi/  thy  name,  leave  us  not.  It 
is  added,  And  1  will  hless  them.  What  Christ 
says  of  the  jjeace  is  true  of  the  blessing  ;  when 
God’s  ministers  pronounce  the  blessing,  “Peace 
be  to  this  congregation,”  if  the  sons  of  peace 
and  heirs  of  blessing  be  there,  the  peace,  the 
blessing  shall  rest  upon  them  (Luke  10  :5,  6). 
For  in  every  pkice  lehere  Cod  records  his  name  he 

will  meet  his  people  and  hles.s  Ikem,.  H. - All 

differences  disappear,  all  tribal  names  pass  out 
of  view  ;  and  the  name  of  Jehovah  is  all  and 
upon  all.  “  They  shall  put  my  name  upon 
them” — uponKeuben  and  Simeon  and  Levi  and 
Judah  ;  upon  Kohatb  and  Gershon  and  Merari  ; 
upon  priests  and  Levites  ;  upon  worker  and 
MTirrior  and  worshipper  ;  upon  each  of  them, 
and  all  of  them,  they  shall  put  my  name  ;  “  and 
I  will  bless  them.”  And  in  the  same  way  we 
may  have  our  different  names  and  different 
standards,  and  yet  all  belong  to  the  same  great 
army.  Those  only  who  refuse  to  acknowledge 
their  brethren  of  other  denominations  mar  the 
unity  of  the  Church  and  are  guilty  of  schism. 
We  do  not  need  to  surrender  our  distinctive 
names,  indicative  of  differences  of  little  mo¬ 
ment,  so  long  as  we  all  gather  round  the  taber¬ 
nacle  of  the  Lord,  worshipping  him  as  he  has 
revealed  himself  in  Jesus  Christ  and  by  his  Holy 
Spirit,  and  glorying  above  all,  far  above  all 


SECTION  129.  THE  BENEDICTION  AND  THE  APPEARING  GLORY.  345 


part}'  or  tribal  designations  in  that  one  “  Name 
which  is  above  every  name” — Jehovah  Jesus. 

J.  M.  G. 

Eirst  Utterance  of  ike  Benediction,  and  Appearance 

of  the  Gtory. 

Lev.  9  : 22-24. 

When  Aaron  had  done  all  that  on  his 
part  was  to  be  done  about  the  sacrifices,  he 
lifted  up  his  hand  toward  the  people,  and  blessed  them. 
This  was  one  part  of  the  priest's  work  in  which 
he  was  a  type  of  Christ,  who  came  into  the  world 
to  bless  us  ;  and  when  he  was  parted  from  his 
disciples  at  his  ascension,  lifted  up  his  hands  and 
blessed  thnn,  and  in  them  his  whole  Church,  of 
which  they  were  the  elders  and  representatives, 
as  the  great  high-priest  of  our  profession.  Aaron 
lifted  up  his  hands  in  blessing  them,  to  intimate 
whence  he  desired  and  expected  the  blessing  to 
come,  even  from  heaven  which  is  God’s  throne  ; 
Aaron  could  but  crave  a  blessing,  it  is  God’s 
prerogative  to  command  it.  Aaron,  when  he  had 
blessed,  came  down  ;  Christ,  when  he  blessed, 
went  up.  H. 

23,  24.  To  show  that  everything  was  done 
according  to  the  Divine  mind,  the  glory  of  Je¬ 
hovah  appears  unto  all  the  people,  and  a  fire 
came  out  from  before  the  Lord  and  consumed 
the  burnt-offering.  This  was  the  proof  which 
God  gave,  upon  extraordinary  occasions,  of  his 
acceptance  of  the  sacrifice.  This  was  done 
probably  in  the  case  of  Abel,  of  Aaron,  of  Gid¬ 
eon,  of  Manoah  and  his  wife,  of  David  dedicat¬ 
ing  the  threshing  floor  of  Oman,  of  Solomon 

dedicating  the  temple,  and  of  Elijah.  A.  C. - 

Now,  when  a  new  period  in  the  service  of  sacri¬ 
fice  began,  when  for  the  first  time  sacrifice  was 
regulated  even  in  its  minutest  jiarticular  by  a 
Divine  messenger,  this  centre  of  all  worship  of 
God  required  a  solemn  attestation.  The  fire  on 
the  great  altar  of  burnt-sacrifice  was  kindled  by 
a  stroke  of  lightning,  and  burnt  as  a  holy  Divine 
fire  on  it  perpetually,  Oerl. - This  fire  con¬ 

sumes  the  burnt-sacrifices  and  the  fat  of  the 
other  sacrifices  and  the  handful  of  the  oblation 
of  flour  and  oil  which  had  been  all  laid  upon 


the  altar.  This  is  a  conspicuous  sign  of  accept¬ 
ance,  miraculously  given  by  God  himself.  The 
people  take  cognizance  of  the  presence  and  power 
and  grace  of  the  Lord,  shout  with  joy  and 
thanksgiving,  and  fall  down  on  their  faces  in 
trembling  adoration.  They  had  been,  deserv¬ 
edly  as  they  felt,  rejected  on  account  of  the 
worship  of  the  golden  calf.  But  now  the  new 
tent  of  meeting  has  been  erected  in  the  midst 
of  them  once  more,  and  the  appointed  sacrifices 
have  been  offered  for  the  first  time  by  the  newly- 
instituted  priesthood.  These  sacrifices  have 
now  been  manifestly  accepted  by  a  miraculous 
sign  from  the  Lord  ;  and  the}"  themselves  are 
thus  fully  restored  to  the  Divine  favor.  M. 

Observe  that  it  was  only  through  their  repre¬ 
sentative  priest  that  the  holy  place  was  open  to 
the  people.  So  is  it  still.  It  is  only  through 
Christ  that  we  can  draw  near  to  God.  only 
through  Him  that  we  can  feast  on  the  bread 
of  life,  walk  in  the  light  of  life,  and  join  in  those 
devotions  which  were  symbolized  in  the  sweet 
incense  that  ascended  from  the  golden  altar. 
But  through  him  we  may  come  with  all  holy 
boldness.  For  our  high-priest  is  not  one  ”  that 
cannot  be  touched  with  a  feeling  of  our  infirm¬ 
ities  and  if  only  we  come  with  true  hearts, 
we  are  sure  of  a  welcome  in  the  holy  place  of 
communion  with  God.  Let  us,  like  the  priests 
of  old,  be  found  day  by  day  in  our  holy  place, 
feasting  on  the  bread  of  life,  walking  in  the  light 
of  God,  and  offering  up  continually  the  sweet 
incense  of  a  holy  devotion  ;  and,  like  the 
priests,  too,  let  us  week  by  week  renew  “  the 
bread  of  the  presence,”  availing  ourselves  of  the 
precious  opportunities  of  replenishing  the  store 
which  the  first  day  of  the  week  affords  ;  and 
though  there  still  is  a  veil  between  us  and  ‘‘  the 
holiest  of  all,”  “  whither  our  Forerunner  has 
for  us  entered,”  and  whither  so  man}"  dear  ones 
have  already  gone,  it  is  only  a  veil,  through 
which  there  seem  to  shine  the  beautiful  colors 
of  heaven  and  the  forms  of  angels  ;  and  pres¬ 
ently  it  shall  be  drawn  aside,  and  he  shall  ap¬ 
pear,  and  we  also  shall  “  appear  with  him  in 
glory.”  J.  M.  G. 


Section  129. 

THE  PRIESTHOOD -DUTIES  AND  MAINTENANCE:  CHARGED  WITH  TBE  SERVICE 
OP  THE  ALTAR  AND  SANCTUARY  ;  APPOINTED  TEACHERS  OF  THE  PEOPLE  ; 
THEIR  PERSONAL  QUALITIES  AND  RELATIONS  ;  VARIOUS  PROVISIONS  FOR 
THEIR  MAINTENANCE. 

Leviticus  7  :  7-10,  31-38  ;  21  : 1-24  ;  22  : 1-16.  Nu.  5  :  9, 10  ;  18  : 1-5,  7-20,  25-32.  De.  18  :  3-5. 
Nu.  18  1  And  the  Loed  said  unto  Aaron,  Thou  and  thy  sons  and  thy  fathers’  house  with 


34G  SECTION  129.  THE  PBIESTHOOD— DUTIES  AND  MAINTENANCE. 


thee  shall  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  sanctuary  :  and  thou  and  thy  sons  with  thee  shall  bear  the 

2  iniquity  of  your  priesthood.  And  thy  brethren  also,  the  tribe  of  Levi,  the  tribe  of  thy  father, 
bring  thou  near  with  thee,  that  they  may  be  joined  unto  thee,  and  minister  unto  thee  :  but 

3  thou  and  thy  sons  with  thee  shall  be  before  the  tent  of  the  testimony.  And  they  shall  keep 
thy  charge,  and  the  charge  of  all  the  Tent  :  only  they  shall  not  come  nigh  unto  the  vessels  of 

4  the  sanctuary  and  unto  the  altar,  that  they  die  not,  neither  they,  nor  ye.  And  they  shall  be 
joiued  unto  thee,  and  keej)  the  charge  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  for  all  the  service  of  the  Tent  : 

5  and  a  stranger  shall  not  come  nigh  unto  you.  And  j’e  shall  keep  the  charge  of  the  sanctuary, 
and  the  charge  of  the  altar  :  that  there  be  wrath  no  more  upon  the  children  of  Israel.  And 

7  thou  and  thy  sons  with  thee  shall  keep  ^mur  priesthood  for  everj^  thing  of  the  altar,  and  for 
that  within  the  veil  ;  and  ye  shall  serve  :  I  give  you  the  priesthood  as  a  service  of  gift  :  and 
the  stranger  that  cometh  nigh  shall  bo  put  to  death. 

Lev.  22  1  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Speak  tinto  the  priests  the  sons  of  Aaron,  and  say 

2  unto  them.  There  shall  none  defile  himself  for  the  dead  among  his  people  ;  except  for  his  kin, 
that  is  near  unto  him,  for  his  mother,  and  for  his  father,  and  for  his  son,  and  for  his  daughter, 

3  and  for  his  brother  ;  and  for  his  sister  a  virgin,  that  is  near  unto  him,  which  hath  had  no 

4  husband,  for  her  may  he  defile  himself.  He  shall  not  defile  himself,  being  a  chief  man  among 

5  his  people,  to  profane  himself.  They  shall  not  make  baldness  upon  their  head,  neither  shall 

6  they  shave  off  the  corner  of  their  beard,  nor  make  any  cuttings  in  their  flesh.  They  shall  be 
holy  unto  their  God,  and  not  profane  the  name  of  their  God  :  for  the  offerings  of  the  Lord 

7  made  by  fire,  the  bread  of  their  God,  they  do  offer  :  therefore  they  shall  be  holy.  They  shall 
not  take  a  woman  that  is  a  harlot,  or  profane  ;  neither  shall  they  take  a  woman  put  away  from 

8  her  husband  :  for  he  is  holy  unto  his  God.  Thou  shalt  sanctify  him  therefore  ;  for  he  offereth 
the  bread  of  thy  God  ;  he  shall  be  holy  unto  thee  :  for  I  the  Lord,  which  sanctify  you,  am 

9  holy.  And  the  daughter  of  any  priest,  if  she  profane  herself  by  playing  the  harlot,  she  pro¬ 
fane!  h  her  father  ;  she  shall  be  burnt  with  fire. 

10  And  he  that  is  the  high  priest  among  his  brethren,  upon  whose  head  the  anointing  oil  is 
poured,  and  that  is  consecrated  to  put  on  the  garments,  shall  not  let  the  hair  of  his  head  go 

11  loose,  nor  rend  his  clothes  ;  neither  shall  he  go  m  to  any  dead  body,  nor  defile  himself  for  his 

12  father,  or  for  his  mother  ;  neither  shall  he  go  out  of  the  sanctuarj^  nor  profane  the  sanctuary 

13  of  his  God  ;  for  the  crown  of  the  anointing  oil  of  his  God  is  upon  him  ;  I  am  the  Lord.  And 

14  he  shall  take  a  wife  in  her  virginity.  A  widow,  or  one  divorced,  or  a  profane  woman,  an 

15  harlot,  these  shall  he  not  take  :  but  a  virgin  of  his  own  people  shall  he  take  to  wife.  And  he 
shall  not  profane  his  seed  among  his  jDeople  :  for  I  am  the  Lord  which  sanctify  him. 

16  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  Aaron,  saying,  Whosoever  he  be  of  thy 

17  seed  throughout  their  generations  that  hath  a  blemish,  let  him  not  approach  to  offer  the  bread 

18  of  his  God.  For  whatsoever  man  he  be  that  hath  a  blemish,  he  shall  not  approach  :  a  blind 

19  man,  or  a  lame,  or  he  that  hath  a  flat  nose,  or  any  thing  superfluous,  or  a  man  that  is  broken- 

20  footed,  or  brokenhanded,  or  crookbackt,  or  a  dwarf,  or  that  hath  a  blemish  in  his  eye,  or  is 

21  scurvy,  or  scabbed,  or  hath  his  stones  broken  ;  no  man  of  the  seed  of  xiaron  the  priest,  that 
hath  a  blemish,  shall  come  nigh  to  offer  the  offerings  of  the  Lord  made  by  fire  :  he  hath  a 

22  blemish  ;  he  shall  not  come  nigh  to  offer  the  bread  of  his  God.  He  shall  eat  the  bread  of  his 

23  God,  both  of  the  most  holj%  aod  of  the  holy.  Only  he  sball  not  go  in  unto  the  veil,  nor  come 
nigh  unto  the  altar,  because  he  hath  a  blemish  ;  that  he  profane  not  my  sanctuaries  :  for  I  am 

24  the  Lord  which  sanctify  them.  So  Moses  spake  unto  Aaron,  and  to  his  sons,  and  unto  all  the 
children  of  Israel. 

Lev.  22  1  x4nd  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  Aaron  and  to  his  sons,  that 

2  they  separate  themselves  from  the  holy  things  of  the  children  of  Israel,  which  they  hallow 

3  unto  me,  and  that  they  profane  not  my  holy  name  :  I  am  the  Lord.  Say  unto  them.  Whoso¬ 
ever  he  be  of  all  your  seed  throughout  your  generations,  that  approacheth  unto  the  holy 
things,  which  the  children  of  Israel  hallow  unto  the  Lord,  having  his  uncleanness  upon  him, 

4  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from  before  me  :  I  am  the  Lord.  What  man  soever  of  the  seed  of 
Aaron  is  a  leper,  or  hath  an  issue  ;  he  shall  not  eat  of  the  holy  things,  until  he  be  clean.  And 
whoso  toucheth  any  thing  that  is  unclean  by  the  dead,  or  a  man  whose  seed  goeth  from  him  ; 

5  or  whosoever  toucheth  any  creeping  thing,  whereby  he  may  be  made  unclean,  or  a  man  of 

6  whom  he  may  take  uncleanness,  whatsoever  uncleanness  he  hath  ;  the  soul  which  toucheth 
any  such  shall  be  unclean  until  the  even,  and  shall  not  eat  of  the  holy  things,  unless  he  bathe 


PERSONAL  QUALITIES  AND  RELATIONS. 


347 


7  liis  flesh  in  water.  And  when  the  sun  is  down,  he  shall  be  clean;  and  afterward  he  shall  eat 

8  of  the  holy  things,  because  it  is  his  bread.  That  which  dieth  of  itself,  or  is  torn  of  beasts,  he 

9  shall  not  eat  to  deflle  himself  therewith  :  I  am  the  Lokd.  They  shall  therefore  keep  my 
charge,  lest  they  bear  sin  for  it,  and  die  therein,  if  they  profane  it  :  I  am  the  Lord  which 

10  sanctify  them.  There  shall  no  stranger  eat  of  the  holy  thing  :  a  sojourner  of  the  priest’s,  or 

11  an  hired  servant,  shall  not  eat  of  the  holy  thing.  But  if  a  priest  buy  any  soul,  the  purchase 
of  his  money,  he  shall  eat  of  it  ;  and  such  as  are  born  in  his  house,  they  shall  eat  of  his  bread. 

12  And  if  a  priest’s  daughter  be  married  unto  a  stranger,  she  shall  not  eat  of  the  heave  offering 

13  of  the  holy  things.  But  if  a  priest’s  daughter  be  a  widow,  or  divorced,  and  have  no  child, 
and  is  returned  unto  her  father’s  house,  as  in  her  youth,  she  shall  eat  of  her  father’s  bread  : 

14  but  there  shall  no  stranger  eat  thereof.  And  if  a  man  eat  of  the  holy  thing  unwittingly,  then 

15  he  shall  j^ut  the  fifth  j)art  thereof  unto  it,  and  shall  give  unto  the  priest  the  holy  thing.  And 
they  shall  not  profane  the  holy  things  of  the  children  of  Israel,  which  they  offer  unto  the 

16  Lord  ;  and  so  cause  them  to  bear  the  iniquity  that  bringeth  guilt,  when  they  eat  their  holy 
things  :  for  I  am  the  Lord  which  sanctify  them. 

Nu.  1§  8  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Aaron,  And  I,  behold,  I  have  given  thee  the  charge  of 
mine  heave  offerings,  even  ail  the  hallowed  things  of  the  children  of  Israel,  unto  thee  have  I 

9  given  them  by  reason  of  the  anointing,  and  to  thy  sons,  as  a  due  forever.  This  shall  be  thine 
of  the  most  holy  things,  rtserved  from  the  fire  :  ever^^  oblation  of  theirs,  even  every  meal  offer¬ 
ing  of  theirs,  and  every  sin  offering  of  theirs,  and  every  guilt  offering  of  theirs,  which  they 

10  shall  render  unto  me,  shall  be  most  holy  for  thee  and  for  thy  sons.  As  the  most  holy  things 

11  shalt  thou  eat  thereof  :  every  male  shall  eat  thereof  ;  it  shall  be  holy  unto  thee.  And  this  is 
thine  ;  the  heave  offering  of  their  gift,  even  all  the  wave  offerings  of  the  children  of  Israel  :  I 
have  given  them  unto  thee,  and  to  thy  sons  and  to  thy  daughters  with  thee,  as  a  due  for  ever  : 

12  every  one  that  is  clean  in  thy  house  shall  eat  thereof.  All  the  best  of  the  oil,  and  all  the  best 
of  the  vintage,  and  of  the  corn,  the  firstfruits  of  them  which  they  give  unto  the  Lord,  to  thee 

13  have  I  given  them.  The  first  ripe  fruits  of  all  that  is  in  their  land,  which  they  bring  unto  the 

14  Lord,  shall  be  thine  ;  every  one  that  is  clean  in  thy  house  shall  eat  thereof.  Every  thing 

15  devoted  in  Israel  shall  be  thine.  Every  thing  that  openeth  the  womb,  of  all  flesh  which  they 
offer  unto  the  Lord,  both  of  man  and  beast,  shall  be  thine  :  nevertheless  the  firstborn  of  man 

16  shalt  thou  surely  redeem,  and  the  firstling  of  unclean  beasts  shalt  thou  redeem.  And  those 
that  are  to  be  redeemed  of  them  from  a  month  old  shalt  thou  redeem,  according  to  thine  esti¬ 
mation,  for  the  money  of  five  shekels,  after  the  shekel  of  the  sanctuary  (the  same  is  twenty 

17  gerahs).  But  the  firstling  of  an  ox,  or  the  firstling  of  a  sheep,  or  the  firstling  of  a  goat,  thou 
shalt  not  redeem  ;  they  are  holy  :  thou  shalt  sprinkle  their  blood  upon  the  altar,  and  shalt 

18  burn  their  fat  for  an  offering  made  by  fire,  for  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord.  And  the  flesh 

19  of  them  shall  be  thine,  as  the  wave  breast  and  as  the  right  thigh,  it  shall  be  thine.  All  the 
heave  offerings  of  the  holy  things,  which  the  children  of  Israel  offer  unto  the  Lord,  have  I 
given  thee,  and  thy  sons  and  thy  daughters  with  thee,  as  a  due  for  ever  :  it  is  a  covenant  of 

20  salt  for  ever  before  the  Lord  unto  thee  and  to  thy  seed  with  thee.  And  the  Lord  said  unto 
Aaron,  Thou  shalt  have  no  inheritance  in  their  land,  neither  shalt  thou  have  any  portion 
among  them  :  I  am  thy  portion  and  thine  inheritance  among  the  children  of  Israel. 

[Nu.  5  : 9,  10,  Be.  18  : 3-5,  and  Lev.  7  :  7-10,  31-38  omitted  as  repetitions.] 

Nu.  0§  25  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Moreover  thou  shalt  speak  unto  the 

26  Levites,  and  say  unto  them.  When  ye  take  of  the  children  of  Israel  the  tithe  which  I  have 
given  you  from  them  for  your  inheritance,  then  ye  shall  offer  up  an  heave  offering  of  it  for  the 

27  Lord,  a  tithe  of  the  tithe.  And  your  heave  offering  shall  be  reckoned  unto  you,  as  though  it 

28  were  the  corn  of  the  threshing  floor,  and  as  the  fulness  of  the  winepress.  Thus  je  also  shall 
offer  an  heave  offering  unto  the  Lord  of  all  your  tithes,  which  ye  receive  of  the  children  of 

29  Israel  ;  and  thereof  ye  shall  give  the  Lord’s  heave  offering  to  Aaron  the  priest.  Out  of  all 
your  gifts  ye  shall  offer  every  heave  offering  of  the  Lord,  of  all  the  best  thereof,  even  the  hal- 

30  lowed  part  thereof  out  of  it.  Therefore  thou  shalt  say  unto  them,  When  ye  heave  the  best 
thereof  from  it,  then  it  shall  be  counted  unto  the  Levites  as  the  increase  of  the  threshing- 

31  floor,  and  as  the  increase  of  the  winepress.  And  ye  shall  eat  it  in  every  place,  ye  and  your 

32  households  ;  fnr  it  is  your  reward  in  return  for  your  service  in  the  tent  of  meeting.  And  ye 
shall  boar  no  sin  by  reason  of  it,  when  ye  have  heaved  from  it  the  best  thereof  :  and  ye  shall 
not  profane  the  holy  things  of  the  children  of  Israel,  that  ye  die  not. 


348 


SECTION  129.  THE  PRIESTHOOD— DUTIES. 


The  Prie.sihnod  Charged  ici  h  the  Sirvice  <!'  the 
Sanctuary  and  Altar. 

Nu.  18  : 1,  5,  7. 

All  the  sous  of  Aaron  formed  the  order  of  the 
Priests.  They  stood  between  the  high  priest 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  Levites  on  the  other. 
The  dress  wnich  they  wore  during  their  minis 
trations  consisted  of  linen  drawers,  with  a  close- 
fitting  cassock,  also  of  linen,  white.  This  came 
neatly  to  the  feet,  and  was  to  be  worn  in  its 
garment  shape.  The  white  cassock  was  gath¬ 
ered  round  the  body  with  a  girdle  of  needle¬ 
work,  into  which,  as  in  the  more  gorgeous  belt 
of  the  high  priest,  blue,  purple,  and  scarlet 
were  intermingled  with  white,  and  worked  in 
the  form  of  flowers.  Upon  their  heads  they 
were  to  wear  caps  or  bonnets  in  the  form  of  a 
cup-shaped  flower,  also  of  fine  linen.  In  all 
their  acts  of  ministration  they  were  to  be  bare¬ 
footed.  P.  S. - Their’ s  was  the  business  of 

sacrificing,  in  all  its  rites,  in  all  offerings  upon 
the  altar  of  burnt-offerings.  The  government 
and  ordering  of  the  sanctuarj?-  lay  upon  them. 
They  kept  the  table  of  shew-bread  properly  sup¬ 
plied  ;  they  attended  to  the  lamps  of  the  golden 
candelabrum  every  morning  ;  at  the  same  time 
they  burned  the  daily  incense.  It  was  their  duty 
to  keep  up  the  fire  upon  the  brazen  altar,  that 
the  fire  originally  kindled  from  heaven  might 
never  be  extinguished.  It  was  their  office  to 
make  the  holy  anointing  oil  ;  and  theirs  to  blow 
the  silver  trumpets  at  the  solemn  feasts  and  be¬ 
fore  the  ark  at  its  removals.  Bush. 

The  priests  were  middle-men  ;  they  had  an 
exceptional  privilege  of  Divine  approach  ;  they 
represented  God  to  man,  and  man  to  God. 
Every  sacrifice  presented  through  the  jiriest  was 
presented  to  Jehovah  by  the  appointed  medium 
of  legal  access.  Cave. - When  the  priest  re¬ 

ceived  the  sacrifice  for  the  altar  at  the  hand  of 
the  worshipper  in  the  court,  he  acted  as  the 
representative  of  God  ;  but  when  he  entered 
the  holy  place,  it  was  as  the  representative  of 
the  people.  Personally,  the  priests  were  in  no 
better  position  in  things  pertaining  to  God  than 
the  rest  of  the  people  ;  only  in  their  official 
capacity  as  representatives  of  the  entire  congre  ¬ 
gation  they  entered  the  tabernacle.  And  ac¬ 
cordingly  they  dare  not  enter  it  except  in  cer¬ 
tain  vestments  and  after  certain  ceremonies, 
which  were  all  intended  to  invest  with  a  sym¬ 
bolic  holiness  those  who  should  as  representa¬ 
tives  of  Israel  enter  the  holy  place.  So  that, 
when  the  congregation  of  Israel  saw  a  priest, 
clothed  in  white  robes,  after  offering  a  sacrifice 
on  the  altar  and  washing  hands  and  feet  at  the 


laver  before  the  door,  entering  the  holy  place, 
where  were  the  table  and  the  candlestick  and 
the  golden  altar,  they  were  taugbt  the  precious 
truth  tliut  there  was  a  way  open  for  them, 
through  .sacrifice  and  by  washing,  of  entering 
with  the  white  robes  of  holiness  into  the  pres 
ence  of  the  Most  High,  there  to  sit  at  his  table, 
rejoice  in  his  light,  and  worship  at  his  altar. 
J.  M.  G. 

When,  conscious  of  some  trespass,  a  Hebrew 
took  his  offering  to  the  altar,  the  priest  could 
not  refuse  to  present  it.  That  prie.-^t  was  “  or¬ 
dained  for  men  in  things  pertaining  to  God,”  and 
on  very  purpose  to  offer  gifts  and  sacrifices  for 
sins.  Nor  was  it  a  reason  for  declining  to  inter  - 
jiose  that  the  man  was  poor,  or  unacquainted 
with  the  ritual,  or  that  he  was  a  great  trans¬ 
gressor.  The  worse  he  was  and  the  more  igno¬ 
rant,  the  greater  his  need  of  the  iiriest’s  minis¬ 
try.  So  our  groat  High  Priest  knows  not  any 
kind  of  guilt  for  which  an  expiation  was  not 
rendered  when  once  for  all  he  offered  up  him¬ 
self,  and  there  is  no  sinner  of  Adam’s  family 
whom  he  does  not  deem  entitled  to  plead  the 
power  of  that  atonement,  and  whom  he  does 
not  make  welcome  to  all  the  services  which  his 
mediatorial  enthronement  can  render  and  his 
irresistible  intercession  can  procure.  Ilanullon. 

- He  who  is  the  Mediator  is  also  the  High 

Priest  of  his  people  ;  and  while  partaker  of  flesh 
and  blood  like  the  brethren,  yet  being  the  Holy 
One  of  God,  He  needed  no  offerings  and  ablu¬ 
tions  to  consecrate  him  to  the  office  of  priest¬ 
hood.  He  had,  in  the  constitution  of  his  per¬ 
son,  everything  that  could  be  desired  to  render 
him  the  proper  Head  and  High  Priest  of  his 
people.  As  the  beloved  Son  of  God,  he  has  at 
all  times  free  access  to  the  presence  of  the 
Father,  and  in  whatever  he  asks  must  also  have 
power  as  a  prince  to  prevail.  As  the  represen¬ 
tative  of  his  people,  and  one  in  nature  with 
themselves,  they  can  at  all  times  make  known 
with  confidence  to  him  the  sins  and  sorrows  of 
their  condition,  and  recognizing  what  is  his  as 
also  theirs  can  rise  with  filial  boldness  to  realize 
their  near  relationshiii  to  God,  and  their  full 
participation  in  the  favor  an  d  blessing  of  heaven. 

The  Priesthood  the  Appointed  Teachers  of  the  People 
{Lev.  10  : 11). 

It  was  not  the  sole  end  of  the  appointment  of 
the  priesthood  to  represent  the  people  in  the 
sanctuary,  and  mediate  between  them  and  God 
in  holy  things.  It  belonged  also  to  their  office 
to  secure  the  diffusion  among  the  people  of 
sound  knowledge  and  instruction  ;  so  that  there 
might  be  a  right  understanding  among  the  peo- 


CHARGES  RESPECrmO  DEFILEMENT. 


349 


pie  of  the  nature  of  God’s  service,  and  a  fitness 
for  entering  in  spirit  into  its  duties,  while  the 
priests  were  personally  employed  in  discharging 
them.  A  certain  amount  of  such  knowledge 
was  necessary,  in  order  that  the  people  might 
be  disposed  to  bring  their  gifts  and  offerings  at 
suitable  times  ;  and  a  still  greater,  that,  in  the 
presentation  of  these  by  the  hand  of  the  priests, 
they  might  be  blessed  as  acceptable  worship¬ 
pers.  With  the  oversight  of  this,  therefore,  so 
nearlj"  connected  with  their  sacred  employments 
about  the  tabernacle,  the  priesthood  were 
charged  :  “  And  that  ye  may  teach  the  children 
of  Israel  all  the  statutes  which  the  Lord  hath 
spoken  unto  them  by  the  hand  of  Moses”  (Lev. 
10:11).  So  again  in  De,  33  : 10,  “They  shall 
teach  Jacob  thy  judgments,  and  Israel  thy  Law.’' 
The  words  of  Malachi  (2  :  7)  also  are  express  on 
this  point  :  For  the  priest’s  lips  should  keep 
knowledge,  and  they  should  seek  the  Law  at  his 
mouth  ;  for  he  is  the  messenger  of  the  Lord  of 
Hosts.”  P.  F. 

1!^  :  I.  TSiou  and  tSiy  sons  §liaEI 
bear  tBie  iniquity  of  tiie  sanctuary. 

They  must  be  answerable  for  its  legal  pollu¬ 
tions,  and  make  the  necessary  aUmements  and 
expiaiiohs.  Though  they  had  a  high  office,  yet  it 
was  a  i^lace  of  the  highest  responsibHHy ;  and 
they  must  not  be  high-minded,  but  fear.  A.  C. 

- God  would  have  the  sanctuary  kept  clear 

from  every  stain  and  defect.  The  priests  were 
set  over  the  holy  things  as  guardians.  If  any¬ 
thing  were  done  amiss  they  were  to  be  exposed 
to  punishment,  because  the  blame  rested  on 
them.  This  may  be  properly  applied  to  all 
pastors,  to  whom  blame  is  justly  imputed  if  re¬ 
ligion  and  the  holiness  of  God’s  worship  be 
corrupted,  if  purity  of  doctrine  impaired,  if  the 
welfare  of  the  people  endangered,  since  the 
care  of  all  these  things  is  intrusted  to  them. 

•  C<iJv. 

C/iar  jes  Respecting  Ceremonial  Defilement , Bodily  Un¬ 
fitness,  and  Cleansing  {Lev.  21  :  1-24  ;  22  :  1-9). 

Chapter  twenty-one  contains  two  brief  com¬ 
munications  addressed  to  Moses  for  Aaron  and 
his  sons.  The  first  refers  to  the  sanctity  to  be 
maintained  by  the  priests  in  their  personal  re¬ 
lations  to  others,  and  consists  of  two  parts  ;  the 
first  applying  to  the  priests  in  general  (1-9)  ; 
the  second  to  the  high-priest  in  particular 
(10-15),  The  second  communication  refers  to 
the  personal  qualities  of  the  priests  (16-24), 
M. 

1-15.  Certain  restrictions  of  an  external  kind 
were  laid  upon  the  jiriests,  as  to  avoiding  occa¬ 
sions  of  bodily  defilement  ;  such  as  contact 


with  the  dead,  excepting  in  cases  of  nearest  re¬ 
lationship  ;  cutting  and  disfiguring  the  hair  of 
the  beard,  as  in  times  of  mourning  ;  marrying 
a  person  of  bad  fame,  or  one  that  had  been  di 
vorced.  And  the  high-priest,  as  being  in  his 
own  person  the  most  sacred,  was  still  further 
restricted,  so  that  he  was  not  to  defile  himself 
even  for  his  father  or  mother,  and  should  marry 
only  a  virgin.  These  observances  were  enjoined 
as  palpable  symbols  of  the  holiness  in  social  life, 
which  became  those  who  stood  so  near  to  the 

Holy  One  of  Israel.  P.  F. - Special  purity 

became  those  wdio  represented  the  person  of 
Christ.  It  seems  as  if  God  here  gave  precepts 
respecting  small  and  unimportant  things  ;  but 
the  legal  rites  were  steps  by  which  the  Israelites 
might  ascend  to  the  study  of  true  holiness. 
The  use  of  the  ancient  shadows  under  the  Law 

must  be  estimated  by  their  end.  Calv. - 

These  regulations  have  for  their  object  to  keep 
inviolate  the  sacredness  and  respectability  of 
the  priesthood.  And  their  obvious  moral  is  that 
still  the  ministers  of  religion  should  study  to 
signalize  themselves  by  the  superior  virtue  and 
holiness  of  their  lives.  T.  C. 

As  the  whole  people — in  bodily  piirity,  in  the 
avoiding  of  all  pollution,  in  the  sexual  relations, 
or  through  touching  the  dead — were  continually 
reminded  of  sin  and  exhorted  to  inward  holi 
ness  ;  so  was  the  priestly  order,  and  among  them 
the  high-priest,  to  be  distinguished  from  all  the 
people  by  higher  requirements,  to  a  more  per¬ 
fect  separation  from  all  that  was  defiling,  either 
actually  or  figuratively,  and  also  by  outward 
faultlessness.  The  requirement  of  bodily  clean¬ 
ness  from  the  priest  was  not  simply  out  of  a 
sense  of  propriety,  but  contained  likewise,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  sacrifices,  a  deeper  symbolical 
meaning.  There  was  to  be  nothing  of  a  bodily 
kind  in  the  servants  of  the  Lord,  which  by  its 
unseemliness  could  remind  them  of  the  king¬ 
dom  of  sin,  from  which  all  evil,  as  well  as  death, 

had  its  origin.  Gerl. - The  special  ministers 

of  the  Most  High  were  to  keep  themselves  at  a 
distance  from  everything  that  savored  in  the 
least  of  uncleanness  in  the  estimation  of  the 
people,  lest  they  should  countenance  that  which 
they  were  set  apart  to  jrrevent.  Bush. 

God  requires  cheerfulness  in  his  service, 
especially  under  the  Gospel,  where  he  sits 
upon  a  throne  of  grace,  and  acts  the  cove¬ 
nant  of  grace  and  the  sweet  relation  of  a  Father. 
The  priests  of  old  were  not  to  sully  themselves 
with  any  sorrow  when  they  were  in  the  exercise 
of  their  functions.  Indeed,  there  is  no  Chris¬ 
tian  duty  but  is  to  be  set  off  and  seasoned  with 
cheerfulness.  Charnock. 


350 


SECTION  129.  THE  PRIESTHOOD -MAINTENANCE. 


2.  IBut  Tor  fiii§  ki»  tliat  is  near  unto 

llilll.  Defilement  was  contracted  by  coming 
into  a  tent  or  house  where  a  dead  body  lay,  or 
by  touching  or  bearing  the  dead.  The  rule 
here  laid  down  constitutes  an  exception  to  the 
general  statute.  It  w^ouldhave  been  an  extreme 
privation  for  one  of  the  priestly  order  to  have 
been  prohibited  from  paying  tbe  last  offices  of 
affection  to  a  parent,  a  child,  a  brother,  or  sis¬ 
ter.  It  is  a  beautiful  exemplification  of  the 
great  principle  that  God  would  “  have  mercy 
and  not  sacrifice,”  where  the  claims  of  both 
came  in  competition. 

6.  They  shall  not  make  baldness.  This  was 
enacted  that  they  might  not  adopt  the  customs 
of  the  heathen.  In  Lev.  19  :  28  this  is  made  a 
general  law,  not  peculiar  to  the  priests.  6.  Heb. 
The  fire-  (offerings)  of  Jehovah,  (even)  the  food  of 
their  God.  Thus  by  a  bold  figure  are  the  sacri¬ 
ficial  offerings  denominated  which  were  de¬ 
voured  by  fire  to  the  honor  of  God  ;  and  noth¬ 
ing  could  be  said  tending  to  give  a  higher  idea 
of  their  office,  or  consequently  to  impose  upon 
them  more  solemnly  the  duty  of  an  exemplary 
sanctity  in  all  their  deportment. 

8,  Tfliou  sBiaH  sanctify  liini  there¬ 
fore.  That  is,  thou,  Israel,  shalt  hold  and  re  ¬ 
pute  him  as  holy,  and  shalt  do  all  in  thj'^  power 
to  keep  up  the  sacred  estimation  in  which  for 
his  office  s  sake  he  is  held.  Bash. 

9.  87(6  shall  he  burned  with  fire.  It  seems  very 
doubtful  whether  this  and  other  texts  of  the 
same  import  in  the  early  books  of  the  Old  Tes 
tament  express  the  punishment  of  burning  a/ine, 
or  of  the  ignominious  burning  of  the  body  after 
execution.  In  Josh.  7  : 15  it  is  declared  that 
the  unknown  person  who  had  taken  of  the  ac¬ 
cursed  thing  should  be  “  burned  with  fire  and 
when  the  man  was  discovered,  we  find  this  in¬ 
tention  executed  not  by  burning  him  alive,  but 
by  stoning  him  first  and  then  burning  his  re¬ 
mains.  Kit. 

13,  As  the  high-priest  was  a  type  of  Christ, 
his  wife,  who  was  to  be  a  virgin,  was  a  type  of 
the  Church  ;  wherefore  the  apostle  says  (2  Cor 
11  : 2),  “I  have  espoused  you  to  one  husband, 
that  I  may  present  you  a  chaste  virgin  to  Christ.” 
15.  He-  shall  not  render  his  sons  unfit  for  tbe 
priesthood  by  marrying  contrary  to  the  rules 
above  laid  down.  For  I  the  Lord  do  sanctify  him — 
that  is,  have  separated  him  to  my  service.  Bush. 

Bodily  Defects  Disqualifying  for  the  Priesthood. 

Verses  16-24. 

There  were  personal  marks  and  distinctions 
of  a  bodily  kind,  the  possession  of  which  was 
necessary  to  qualify  any  one  for  the  priesthood. 


and  the  absence  of  which  was  to  prove  an  utter 
disqualification.  These,  when  not  possessed, 
bespoke  his  rejection  of  God  in  the  iieculiar 
sense  required  for  the  priestly  office.  Such  were 
all  kinds  of  bodily  defects  ;  it  was  declared  a 
profanation  of  the  altar  or  the  sanctuary  for 
any  one  to  draw  near  in  whom  they  appeared. 
For  completeness  of  bodily  parts  is  to  ihe  body 
what  holiness  is  to  the  soul.  To  the  acquire¬ 
ment  or  the  i:)romotion  of  this  holiness  as  the 
perfection  of  man’s  spiritual  nature,  the  whole 
of  the  Mosaic  institutions  were  bent.  And  as 
signs  and  witnesses  to  Israel  concerning  it, 
those  who  occupied  the  high  position  of  being 
at  once  God's  and  the  people’s  representatives 
must  bear  upon  their  persons  that  external 
symbol  of  the  spiritual  perfection  required  of 

them.  P.  F. - A  further  reason  is  to  be  found 

in  the  fact,  that  the  priests,  both  in  their  per¬ 
sons  and  their  work,  were  types  of  him  who 
was  the  “  Lamb  without  blemish  and  without 
spot,”  holy,  harmless,  undefiled,  and  separate 
from  sinners.  Bush. 

Further  Directions  Respecting  the  Ministrations  of 
the  Priests  {Lee.  22  :  1-9). 

2.  The  precept  has  respect  to  such  of  the 
priests  as  were  ceremonially  unclean.  During 
the  time  that  this  uncleanness  was  upon  them 
they  were  to  abstain  from  eating  the  holy  things 
which  ordinarily  belonged  to  the  i^riests. 

3-9.  The  priest  thus  rendered  unclean  w'as 
to  remain  like  other  Israelites  in  a  state  of  sep¬ 
aration  for  a  day — i.e. ,  till  sunset,  and  be  inca¬ 
pable  of  all  priestlj^  offices  and  privileges  till  he 
had  washed  his  clothes  and  his  body,  and  this 
under  the  penalty  of  “  bearing  sin,  ’  or  suffer¬ 
ing  condign  punishment  by  being  cut  off  by  the 
immediate  hand  of  God,  as  a  bold  jjrofaner  of 
his  service.  Bush. 

Strangers,  Sojourners,  and  Hired  Servants  Interdict¬ 
ed  from  Eating  the  Holy  Things  {Lev.  22  :  10-16). 

Vabious  Pbovisions  fob  Maintenance  or  the 

Pbiests. 

Nu.  5:9,  10  ;  18  : 8-20,  25-32.  Lev.  7  : 7-10, 
31-38.  De.  18  :  3-5. 

The  functions  of  the  priests  were  clearly  in¬ 
compatible  with  the  common  activities  of  men. 
On  these  grounds  therefore  a  distinct  provision 
was  made  for  them.  This  consisted  .•  (1)  Of  one 
tenth  of  the  tithes  which  the  people  paid  to  the 
Levites-~i.6.,  one  per  cent,  on  the  whole  pro¬ 
duce  of  the  country.  (2)  Of  a  special  tithe 
every  third  year.  (3)  Of  the  redemption-mone3% 
paid  at  the  fixed  rate  of  five  shekels  a  head,  for 
the  first-born  of  man  or  beast.  (4)  Of  the  re- 


VARIOUS  PROVISIONS. 


351 


demption-money  paid  in  like  manner  for  men 
or  things  specially’’  dedicated  to  the  Lord.  (5) 
Of  spoil,  captives,  cattle,  and  the  like  taken  in 
war.  (6)  Of  the  shew-bread,  the  flesh  of  the 
burnt-otferings,  peace-offerings,  trespass-offer¬ 
ings,  and,  in  particular,  the  heave-shoulder  and 
the  wave-breast.  (7)  Of  an  undefined  amount 
of  the  first-fruits  of  corn,  wine,  and  oil.  Of 
some  of  these,  as  “  most  hol}^”  none  but  the 
priests  were  to  jiartake.  It  was  lawful  for  their 
S'. ns  and  daughters,  and  even  in  some  cases  for 
their  home-born  slaves,  to  eat  of  others.  The 
stranger  and  the  hired  servant  were  in  all  cases 
excluded.  (8)  On  their  settlement  in  Canaan 
the  priestly  families  had  thirteen  cities  assigned 
them,  with  “  suburbs”  or  pasture-grounds  for 
their  flocks.  These  provisions  were  obviously 
intended  to  secure  the  religion  of  Israel  against 
the  dangers  of  a  caste  of  pauper-priests,  needy 
and  dependent,  and  unable  to  bear  their  wit¬ 
ness  to  the  true  faith.  They  were,  on  the  other 
hand,  as  far  as  possible  removed  from  the  con¬ 
dition  of  a  wealthy  order.  The  standard  of  a 
irriest’s  income,  even  in  the  earliest  days  after 
the  settlement  in  Canaan,  was  miserabl}^  low. 
The  earliest  historical  trace  of  any  division  of 
the  priesthood,  and  corresponding  cycle  c.i.  ser¬ 
vices,  belongs  to  the  time  of  David.  The  priest¬ 
hood  was  then  divided  into  the  four  and  twenty 
“  courses”  or  orders,  each  of  which  was  to  serve 
in  rotation  for  one  week,  wdiile  the  further  as¬ 
signment  of  special  services  during  the  week 
was  determined  by  lot.  P.  S. - After  the  cap¬ 

tivity  only  four  of  these  classes  returned,  but 
they  were  again  divided  into  twenty-four,  each 
of  which  class  or  course  had  a  chief  or  head, 
which  are  supposed  to  be  the  chief  jiriests  of 
the  New  Testament.  J.  T.  W. 

The  parts  of  the  victims  which  regularly  fell 
to  the  jiriests  were  : 

Of  the  burnt-offerings,  only  the  hide,  the 
whole  of  the  flesh  being  consigned  to  the  altar. 
Of  the  peace-offerings,  the  breast  and  the  right 
shoulder  (or  leg),  which  might  be  eaten  by  the 
priests  and  their  families  in  any  unpolluted 
place.  Of  the  sin-offerings  and  the  trespass- 
offerings,  the  whole  of  the  flesh  (except  the  fat 
portions  burned  on  the  altar),  and  probably  the 
hide.  The  flesh  could  only  be  eaten  within  the 
precinct  of  the  tabernacle.  Clark. 

1§  :  59.  A  covenant  of  salt. 
Everything  was  done  to  make  and  keep  the 
priesthood  separate,  and  prevent  those  who  had 
it  from  being  tempted  into  the  ordinary  busi¬ 
ness  of  life  by  lack  of  sufficient  support.  To 


emphasize  the  solemnity  of  the  pledge,  God 
adds  this  peculiar  and  suggestive  expression  : 
“  It  is  a  covenant  of  salt  forever.”  It  is  a  habit 
still  common  among  the  Eedawin  for  host  and 
guest  to  eat  together.  This  is  said  to  be  bread 
and  salt  between  them,  and  constitutes  a  pledge 
of  protection,  support,  and  fidelity  even  to 
death.  Thus  we  may  understand  God  saying 
to  Aaron,  and  through  him  to  the  long  succes¬ 
sion  of  priests,  ”  There  is  bread  and  salt  be 
tween  us.”  All  the  meat  offerings  jrresented  to 
God  were  to  be  seasoned  with  salt.  When  pre¬ 
sented,  a  part  was  burned — as.it  were,  eaten  by 
God  himself —  and  the  remainder  he  returns  to 
the  priest  for  his  own  use.  Thus  there  are 
mutual  pledges  of  fidelity'.  God  is  the  guest  of 
the  priest,  and  the  priest  in  turn  the  guest  of 
God.  In  this  way  God  lifted  a  social  custom  to 
a  holy  use.  Salt  will  not  bring  back  life,  but  it 
will  hinder  putrefaction.  Under  the  Old  Cove¬ 
nant  God  did  not  give  life,  though  he  was  pre¬ 
paring  to  give  it  ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  did 
much  to  preserve  the  world,  dead  in  tiespasses 
and  sins,  from  corpse  decays  while  he  made 
ready  in  the  fulness  of  time  to  bring  back  the 
dead  to  life.  Thus  the  covenant  with  men 
through  ty'pes  an.,  shadows  was  emphatically  a 
covenant  of  s<dt.  Young. 

25-S2,  The  priests' til he  from  Levites.  A  larger 
portion  was  given  to  the  priests  that  they  might 
meet  many  peculiar  burdens.  The  tithe  of  the 
tithes  which  the  Levites  are  commanded  to 
2)ay' should  be  as  if  they  paid  it  from  the  thresh¬ 
ing-floor  and  the  wine-jjress.  Sincere  liberality 
is  inculcated  upon  them  ;  they  should  not  lay 
aside  as  the  priests’  portion  anything  that  was 
out  of  condition  or  in  any  respect  of  inferior 
quality,  but  they  should  rather  offer  whatever 
was  most  choice.  Calv. 

Neither  the  priests  nor  the  Levites  were  to 
possess  any  allotments  of  land,  but  to  depend 
entirely  upon  Him  who  liberally  provided  for 
them  out  of  his  own  portion  ;  and  this  law  was 
subservient  to  many  important  jDurposes,  such 
as  that,  being  exempted  from  the  cares  and 
labors  of  worldly  business,  they'  might  be  exclu¬ 
sively  devoted  to  his  service  ;  that  a  bond  of 
mutual  love  and  attachment  might  be  formed 
between  the  people  and  the  Levites,  who,  as 
performing  religious  services  for  the  people, 
derived  their  subsistence  from  them  ;  and 
further,  that  being  the  more  easily  dispersed 
among  the  different  tribes,  they  might  be  more 
useful  in  instructing  and  directing  the  people. 
Jamieson. 


352 


SECTION  130.  THE  TRIBE  OF  LEVI  SET  APART. 


Section  130. 

THE  TKIBE  OF  LEVI  SET  APAKT  FOR  SUBORDINATE  MINISTRY  :  PURIFICATION 
(OR  ORDINATION)  OF  THE  LEVITES  ;  THEIR  MAINTENANCE  FROM  TITHES  ; 
THEIR  POSITION,  OFFICE,  AND  WORK.  THE  SACERDOTAli  (OR  LEVITICAL) 
ORDER  ;  ITS  PLACE  AND  INFLUENCE  IN  THE  HEBREW  POLITY. 

Numbers  3  : 5-13  ;  8  : 5-26  ;  18  :  6,  21-24.  De.  10  : 8,  9  ;  18  : 1,  2,  6-8. 

Nu.  3  5  And  the  Lord  spahe  unto  Moses,  saying.  Bring  the  tribe  of  Levi  near,  and  set 

6  them  bt-fore  Aaron  the  jjriest,  that  they  may  minister  Unto  him.  And  they  shall  heep  his 

7  charge,  ami  the  charge  of  the  whole  congregation  before  the  tent  of  meeting,  to  do  the  service 

8  of  the  tabernacle.  And  they  shall  keep  all  the  furniture  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  the  charge 

9  of  the  children  of  Israel,  to  do  the  service  of  the  tabernacle.  And  thou  shalt  give  the  Levites 
unto  Aaron  and  to  his  sons  :  they  are  whollj'  given  unto  him  on  the  behalf  of  the  children  of 

10  Israel.  And  thou  shalt  appoint  Aaron  and  bis  sons,  and  they  shall  keep  their  priesthood  : 
and  the  stranger  that  cometh  nigh  shall  be  j)ut  to  death. 

Nil.  8  5  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Take  the  Levites  from  among  the  children 

6  of  Israel,  and  cleanse  them.  And  thus  shalt  thou  do  unto  them,  to  cleanse  them  :  sprinkle 

7  the  water  of  expiation  upon  them,  and  let  them  cause  a  razor  to  pass  over  all  their  flesh,  and 

8  let  them  wash  their  clothes,  and  cleanse  themselves.  Then  let  them  take  a  young  bullock, 
and  its  meal  offering,  fine  flour  mingled  with  oil,  and  another  young  bullock  shalt  thou  take 

9  for  a  sin  offering.  And  thou  shalt  present  the  Levites  before  the  tent  of  meeting  :  and  thou 

10  shalt  assemble  the  whole  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel  :  and  thou  shalt  present  the 
Levites  before  the  Lord  ;  and  the  children  of  Israel  shall  lay  their  hands  upon  the  Levites  : 

11  and  Aaron  shall  offer  the  Levites  before  the  Lord  for  a  wave  offering,  on  the  behalf  of  the 

12  children  of  Israel,  that  the}’^  may  be  to  do  the  service  of  the  Lord.  And  the  Levites  shall  lay 
their  hands  upon  the  heads  of  the  bullocks  ;  and  offer  thou  the  one  for  a  sin  offering,  and  the 

13  other  for  a  burnt  offering,  unto  the  Lord,  to  make  atonement  for  the  Levites.  And  thou  shalt 
set  the  Levites  before  Aaron,  and  before  his  sons,  and  offer  them  for  a  wave  offering  unto  the 

14  Lord.  Thus  shalt  thou  separate  the  Levites  from  among  the  children  of  Israel  :  and  the 

15  Levites  shall  be  mine.  And  after  that  shall  the  Levites  go  in  to  do  the  service  of  the  tent  of 

16  meeting  :  and  thou  shalt  cleanse  them,  and  offer  them  for  a  wave  offering.  For  they  are 
wholly  given  unto  me  from  among  the  children  of  Israel  instead  of  all  that  openeth  the 

17  womb,  even  the  firstborn  of  all  the  children  of  Israel,  have  I  taken  them  unto  me.  For  all 
the  firstborn  among  the  children  of  Israel  are  mine,  both  man  and  beast  :  on  the  day  that  I 

18  smote  all  the  firstborn  in  the  land  of  Egypt  I  sanctified  them  for  myself.  And  I  have  taken 

19  the  Levites  instead  of  all  the  firstborn  among  the  children  of  Israel.  And  I  have  given  the 
Levites  as  a  gift  to  Aaron  and  to  his  sons  from  among  the  children  of  Israel,  to  do  the  service 
of  the  children  cf  Israel  in  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  to  make  atonement  for  the  children  of 
Israel  ;  that  there  be  no  plague  among  the  children  of  Israel,  when  the  children  of  Israel  come 

20  nigh  unto  the  sanctuary.  Thus  did  Moses,  and  Aaron,  and  all  the  congregation  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel,  unto  the  Levites  :  according  unto  all  that  the  Lord  commanded  Moses  touch- 

21  ing  the  Levites,  so  did  the  children  of  Israel  unto  them.  And  the  Levites  purified  themselves 
from  sin,  and  they  washed  their  clothes  ;  and  Aaron  offered  them  for  a  wave  offering  before 

22  the  Lord  ;  and  Aaron  made  atonement  for  them  to  cleanse  them.  And  after  that  went  the 
Levites  in  to  do  their  service  in  the  tent  of  meeting  before  Aaron,  and  before  his  sons  ;  as  the 
Lord  had  commanded  Moses  concerning  the  Levites,  so  did  they  unto  them. 

23  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  This  is  that  which  belongeth  unto  the  Levites  : 

24  from  twenty  and  five  years  old  and  upward  they  shall  go  in  to  wait  upon  the  service  in  the 

25  work  of  the  tent  of  meeting  :  and  from  the  age  of  fifty  years  they  shall  cease  waiting  upon  the 

26  work,  and  shall  serve  no  more  ;  but  shall  minister  with  their  brethren  in  the  tent  of  meeting, 
to  keep  the  charge,  and  shall  do  no  service.  Thus  shalt  thou  do  unto  the  Levites  touching 
their  charges. 

Nn.  2  8  21  And  unto  the  children  of  Levi,  behold,  I  have  given  all  the  tithe  in  Israel  for  an 
’iilierifance,  in  return  for  their  service  which  they  serve,  even  the  service  of  the  tent  of  meet- 

22  ing  And  henceforth  the  children  of  Israel  shall  not  come  nigh  the  tent  of  meeting,  lest  they 


ORDmATION  OF  THE  LEVITES. 


353 


23  bear  sin  and  die.  But  the  Levites  shall  do  the  service  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  they  shall 
bear  their  iniquity  :  it  shall  be  a  statute  for  ever  throughout  your  generations,  and  among  the 

24  children  of  Israel  they  shall  have  no  inheritance.  For  the  tithe  of  the  children  of  Israel, 
which  they  offer  as  an  heave  offering  unto  the  Loan,  I  have  given  to  the  Levites  for  an  in¬ 
heritance  ;  therefore  I  have  said  unto  them.  Among  the  children  of  Israel  they  shall  have  no 
inheritance. 

De.  18  1  The  priests  the  Levites,  even  (or,  and)  all  the  tribe  of  Levi,  shall  have  no  portion 
nor  inheritance  with  Israel  :  they  shall  eat  the  offerings  of  the  Loan  made  by  fire,  and  his  in- 
2  heritance.  And  they  shall  have  no  inheritance  among  their  brethren  :  the  Lokd  is  their  in¬ 
heritance,  as  he  hath  spoken  unto  them. 

6  And  if  a  Levite  come  from  any  of  thy  gates  out  of  all  Israel,  where  he  sojourneth,  and  come 

7  with  all  the  desire  of  his  soul  unto  the  place  which  the  Lord  shall  choose  ;  then  he  shall  min¬ 
ister  in  the  name  of  the  Lord  his  God,  as  all  his  brethren  the  Levites  do,  which  stand  there 

8  before  the  Lord.  They  shall  have  like  portions  to  eat,  beside  that  which  cometh  of  the  sale 
of  his  patrimony. 

[Nu.  3  ;  11-13  ;  18  :  6  and  De.  10  ;  8,  9  omitted  as  repetitions.] 

in  Lev.  8  (Section  127).  The  distinction  between 
that  ceremony  and  the  less  solemn  “  purifica¬ 
tion”  of  the  Levites  is  marked.  The  Levites 
are  simply  sprinkled  with  water,  have  to  wash 
their  clothes,  and  to  shave  their  flesh  ;  and 
then  are  offered  to  God  on  behalf  of  the  people. 
There  is  no  “  washing”  with  water,  anointing, 
or  sprinkling  with  the  blood  of  a  consecrating 

sacrifice.  Espin. - Although  the  Levites  were 

not  allowed  to  go  into  the  sanctuary,  but  were 
only  the  jiriests’  ministers,  yet  as  they  carried 
the  tabernacle  and  the  sacred  vessels  and  pre¬ 
pared  the  sacrifices,  God  would  have  them  set 
apart  to  himself  b}^  a  solemn  rite.  Since  they 
were  only  purified  by  water  and  sacrifice  and 
without  the  addition  of  anointing,  the  differ¬ 
ence  in  the  external  rite  reminded  them  that 
their  degree  of  honor  was  not  the  same  as  the 
priests.  Tliu§  did  ]IIose§.  The  Levites 
are  now  inaugurated  for  the  performance  of  their 
duties.  Here  it  deserves  note  that  the  sons  of 
Moses  and  their  descendants  were  placed  in  this 
lower  rank,  and  excluded  from  all  expectation 
of  the  priesthood.  It  was  then  no  ordinary  act 
of  obedience  in  Moses  to  execute  what  God  had 
appointed  respecting  the  Levites.  Calv. 

The  Levites'  Maintenance  from  Tithes. 

Nu.  18  : 21-24.  De.  18  : 1,  2,  6-8. 

]Vu.  18  ;  21.  All  the  teiitli  in  Israel. 

The  dedication  of  the  tithe  had  been  handed 
down  from  patriarchal  times.  Abraham  paid 
tithes  to  Melchizedek  :  Jacob  had  promised  the 
tithe  of  all  wherewith  God  blessed  him  if  he 
should  return  in  peace  to  his  father’s  house. 
But  now  first  the  Lord’s  tithes  are  assigned  to 

the  Levites  for  their  support.  Espin. - God 

would  have  them  receive  tithes  from  the  rest  of 
the  people,  because  they  had  no  part  in  Israel, 
and  because  they  were  engaged  in  the  service  of 
23 


Tue  Levites  Set  apart  from  the  Tribes  by  Jehovah, 
and  Assigned  to  Aaron  “  to  do  Service." 

Nu.  8  :  5,  6,  19  ;  3  : 5-10  ;  18  :  6.  De.  10  :  8,  9. 

In  the  circumstances  of  the  Levites  we  have 
a  strong  proof  that  the  institutions  of  Moses 
date  from  the  conquest  of  Canaan.  At  no 
subsequent  period  could  the  Levites  have 
been  so  separated  from  the  rest.  And  at  no 
subsequent  time  could  the  Pentateuch  have 
been  written.  Not  under  the  Kings,  or  it  would 
have  put  more  favorably  the  merits  of  a  form  of 
government  which  had  rescued  Israel  from  the 
depths  of  internal  weakness  and  deca3%  and 
given  it  strength  and  empire.  Not  by  Samuel, 
or  it  would  have  been  more  suited  to  his  times. 
Not  under  the  anarchy  of  the  Judges.  For  the 
ideal  state  contemplated  in  the  Pentateuch,  of 
a  peojile  strong  in  faith,  pure  in  morality,  and 
living  under  the  direct  protection  of  Jehovah, 
was  the  very  reverse  of  the  reality.  B.  P.  S. 

The  Levites  Taken  Instead  of  First-born. 

Nu.  3  : 11-13  ;  8  ;  16-18. 

8:17.  When  the  destroying  angel  smote  the 
first-born  of  the  Egyptian  families,  the  symbolic 
blood  on  the  lintel  of  every  Hebrew  house  pro¬ 
tected  the  eldest  born  from  the  plague  of  death. 
In  consequence,  every  eldest  son  was  reckoned 
as  a  thing  devoted  to  the  Lord— redeemed,  and 
therefore  set  apart.  The  word  here  and  else¬ 
where  used  to  express  this  devotion  is  sanctify. 
.By  this  subsequent  arrangement  these  first-born 
were  exchanged  for  the  Levites.  Instead  of  the 
eldest  son  in  each  family,  a  whole  tribe  was 
taken,  and  reckoned  as  set  apart  and  devoted 
to  Jehovah,  F.  W.  R. 

“  Purification”  or  Ordination  (f  the  Levites. 

Nu.  8  :  7-15,  20,  21. 

The  “  consecration”  of  the  priests  is  recorded 


354 


8ECTI0N  130.  MAIETEKAIiCE  OF  THE  LEVITE8, 


the  lahernacle.  God,  who  as  their  King  laid 
claim  to  the  tithes  as  his  own  right,  resigns 
them  to  the  Levites  and  appoints  them  to  be 
his  representatives.  To  this  the  words,  “  1  am 
thine  inheritance,”  refer.  Calo. 

Their  maintenance  was  such  as  left  them  al¬ 
together  d  sentangkd  from  the  affairs  of  ih>s  life  ; 
they  had  no  grounds  to  occup3%  no  land  to  till, 
no  vineyards  to  dress,  no  cattle  to  tend,  no  vis¬ 
ible  estate  to  take  care  of,  and  3  et  had  a  plenti¬ 
ful  income.  Thus  God  ordered  it.  That  they 
might  be  the  more  entirely  addicted  to  their 
ministry,  and  not  diverted  from  it  by  any 
worldly  care  or  business  ;  the  ministry  requires 
a  whole  man.  That  they  might  be  examples  of 
living  by  faith,  not  only  in  God's  Providence 
but  in  his  ordinance.  They  lived  from  hand  to 
mouth  that  they  might  learn  to  take  no  thought 
for  the  morrow  ;  and  they  had  no  estates  to 
leave  their  children  that  they  might  by  faith 
leave  them  to  the  care  of  that  God  who  had/ed 
them  all,  their  lives  long.  H. 

I>c.  a,  2.  TJic  8>rie§ts  l!#e  Le¬ 
vites,  tind  all  tlic  triB>e  of  Levi.  It  is 
here  made  apparent  that  the  difference  between 
the  priests  and  Levites  was  quite  understood  by 

the  wniter  of  Deuteronomy.  Espin. - That, 

moreover,  such  distinction  was  actually  designed 
here  is  proven  b3^  the  context.  In  verses  3-5, 
where  the  maintenance  of  the  priests  is  under 
consideration,  they  are  spoken  of  apart  from 
their  tribal  brethren,  the  Levites.  Subsequently 
(verses  G-8)  the  case  is  exactly  reversed,  the  Le¬ 
vites  being  spoken  of  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
priests.  The  passage,  so  far  from  helping  the 
hypothesis  of  Kuenen,  when  correctly  quoted 
offers  a  fatal  objection  to  it.  E.  C.  B. 

IVo  portiosi  nor  iiilicritaiiee  with 
I§rael.  God  shows  that  there  was  no  reason 
'why  the  Israelites  should  be  aggrieved  at  paying 
tithes  to  the  Levites,  and  at  remitting  the  first- 
fruits  and  other  oblations  to  the  priests,  since 
this  tribe  was  deprived  of  their  inheritance. 
C'dv. - Three  considerations  the  Levites  ren¬ 

dered  to  the  rest  of  the  Israelites  for  whatever 
they  received  from  them.  (1)  The  tribe  of  Levi 
gave  up  to  the  other  tribes  their  whole  share  of 
the  promised  land,  except  so  much  as  was  suffi¬ 
cient  to  afford  them  a  place  of  habitation.  (2) 
They  parted  with  the  right  of  an  independent 
government  such  as  the  other  tribes  enjoyed, 
and  completely  sunk  their  political  existence. 
(3)  They  gave  up  themselves  to  the  national  ser¬ 
vice,  as  ministers  of  religion,  ministers  of  State, 
magistrates,  teachers  of  the  people,  and  literati 
of  all  the  faculties  ;  services  the  most  laborious, 
responsible,  and  useful  to  the  commonwealth. 


For  all  this  they  received  a  simple  annuit3",  lib¬ 
eral  it  ma3’’  be  but  depending  solely  upon  the 
national  faith  for  its  payment,  while  the}^  di¬ 
vested  themselves  of  all  power  of  re-entry  in 
case  of  non-payment.  Let  the  benefits  surren¬ 
dered  and  the  services  performed  be  weighed  in 
just  balances,  and  the  rent-roll  of  the  tribe  of 
Levi  will  appear  rather  below  than  above  the 
demands  of  reason  and  justice.  E  C.  W, 

Mas.  1§  :  2G.  This  law,  it  js  alleged,  differs 
so  both  in  content  and  character  from  De, 
14  : 22-29  that  it  cannot  bo  supposed  that  Moses 
could  have  enacted  both  ;  and  as  the  enactment 
in  Numbers  is  undoubtedl3'  the  original,  that  in 
Deuteronomy  must  belong  to  a  later  age  (Bleek). 
That  these  two  laws  differ  from  each  other  is  in¬ 
disputable,  and  the  difference  is  such  that,  sup¬ 
posing  them  to  relate  to  the  same  object,  there 
is  no  possibility  of  harmonizing  them  ;  the  one 
must  exclude  the  other.  But  it  is  conceivable 
that  Moses,  after  enacting  the  general  law  of 
tithes  as  a  provision  for  the  Levites,  should,  in 
the  prospect  of  the  people  settling  in  a  rich  and 
fertile  land  where  the  produce  of  their  posses¬ 
sions  would  be  great,  prescribe  the  giving  of  an 
additional  tithe,  to  be  devoted  to  sacred  festiv¬ 
ity  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor  and  needy, 
in  which  benefit  the  Levite  w’as  to  share.  That 
•such  an  additional  tithe  w’as  actually  made  and, 
rendered  by  the  Israelites  in  Palestine,  appears 
certain  from  the  testimony  of  the  Talmudists 
and  Josephus.  There  seems  no  doubt  as  to  the 
existence  of  a  second  tithe  among  the  Jews. 
What  is  called  the  “  third  tithe”  [Josephus)  was 
only  “  this  second  tithe  converted  into  the  poor 
tithe,  to  be  given  to  and  consumed  b3"  the  poor 
at  home”  (Ginshurg).  This  being  the  case,  we 
are  justified  in  regarding  the  Law  in  Deuteron¬ 
omy  as  an  additional  prescription  for  the  benefit 
of  the  Levites,  who  as  a  tribe  were  without  pos¬ 
sessions  in  the  land,  as  well  as  for  the  poor  and 
destitute.  As  both  laws  were  apparently  in 
operation  at  a  late  |)eriod,  the  one  obviously 
does  not  abrogate  or  exclude  the  other,  and 
therefore  there  is  no  reason  why  both  should 
not  have  been  appointed  by  Moses.  W.  L.  A. 

Position,  Office,  and  Work  of  the  Levites. 

Nu.  8  :  22-20  ;  18  :  24. 

They  were  not  priests.  Their  exclusion  from' 
the  mediatorial  office  was  very  emphatic.  They 
were  particularly  charged  wdth  caring  for  the 
support  and  maintenance  both  of  the  ritual 

and  of  the  legal  administration.  Grey. - In 

the  wilderness  the  office  of  the  Levites  wms  to 
carry  the  tabernacle  and  its  utensils  and  furni¬ 
ture  from  place  to  place,  after  they  had  been 


THEIR  POSITION,  OFFICE  AND  WORK. 


o55 


packed  up  by  the  priests.  But  when  they 
entered  the  land  of  Canaan,  the  range  of.  their 
service  was  considerably  altered.  While  part 
attended  at  the  tabernacle,  the  rest  were  dis¬ 
tributed  through  the  country  in  the  several 
cities  which  were  allotted  to  them.  In  the  time 
of  David  a  third  and  very  important  alteration 
was  effected.  While  the  priests  were  divided 
into  twenty-four  courses,  that  they  might  attend 
the  temple  in  rotation  weeklj^,  and  only  officiate 
about  two  weeks  in  the  year,  the  Levites  were 
also  divided  into  twenty. four  courses  of  porters 
and  servitors,  and  twent3’^-four  of  musicians. 
Besides  acting  as  porters  and  servants  during 
the  da}%  they  were  also  guards  of  the  Temple. 
Kit. 

fl>c,  1 S  :  C—S.  Onl}'-  a  portion  of  the  Levites 
were  engaged  in  the  service  of  the  sanctnarj"  ; 
the  rest  lived  in  their  towns  throughout  the 
countrj’’.  It  might  happen,  however,  that  a 
Levite,  moved  by  pious  feeling,  would  come  to 
the  place  of  the  sanctuary  to  worship  there  ; 
and  it  is  prescribed  that  such  a  one  should  fare 
as  his  brethren  the  Levites  engaged  in  the  ser¬ 
vice  of  the  sanctuary  fared  ;  he  should  minister 
along  with  them,  and  share  with  them  in  the 
gifts  of  the  Avorshippers  ;  and  this  in  addition 
to  any  private  means  he  might  have  from  the  sale 
of  his  patrimony.  Where  he  sojourned. 
The  Levite,  though  not  homeless,  was  regarded 
as  only  a  sojourner  in  the  land,  inasmuch  as 
the  tribe  had  no  inheritance  there.  W.  L.  A. 

The  charge  to  the  priests  was  that  “  je  may 
teach  the  children  of  Israel  all  the  statutes 
which  the  Lord  had  spoken  unto  them  by  the 
hand  of  Moses.”  It  is  plain,  however,  that 
even  if  the  priests  had  been  faithful  to  this  part 
of  their  calling,  the}’’  were  quite  inadequate, 
from  their  limited  number,  to  be  personally  in 
any  proper  sense  the  teachers  of  all  Israel.  On 
this  account  were  the  Levites  associated  with 
the  priesthood,  and  planted  at  proper  distances 
in  certain  cities  throughout  the  tribes  of  Israel. 
Separated  as  the  Levites  were  from  secular  em¬ 
ployments,  without  lands  to  cultivate,  and 
“  wholly  given  to  the  service  of  the  Lord,”  it 
was  obviously  but  a  small  number  of  them  who 
could  be  regularly  occupied  wdth  ministrations 
about  the  sanctuary  ;  and  as  both  their  abun¬ 
dant  leisure  and  their  dispersion  through  the 
land  gave  them  many  opportunities  of  acting  as 
the  spiritual  instructors  of  the  people,  it  must 
have  been  chiefly  through  their  instrumentality 
that  the  priests  were  to  keep  the  people  ac¬ 
quainted  with  the  statutes  and  judgments  of  the 
Lord.  This  is  clearly  implied  in  those  passages 
which  speak  most  distinctly  of  the  obligation 


laid  upon  the  priesthood  to  diffuse  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  Law,  and  which  refer  equally  to  the 
priests  and  the  Levites.  Thus  their  common 
calling  to  ”  teach  Jacob  God’s  judgments,  and 
Israel  his  Law,”  is  announced  in  the  blessing 
of  Moses  upon  the  whole  tribe  (De.  33  :8-ll). 
P.  F. 

The  tribe  of  Levi  comprehended  the  learned 
of  all  names  :  the  sages  and  professors  of  law 
and  jurisprudence  ;  of  medicine  and  physiol¬ 
ogy  ;  of  the  physical  and  mathematical  sciences  ; 
in  short,  of  all  the  so-called  liberal  arts  and  sci¬ 
ences,  the  possession  and  application  of  which 
constitute  the  civilization  of  a  country.  It  was 
to  be  the  chief  instrument  of  a  continuing  and 
progressive  mental,  moral,  and  religious  culture 
of  the  people.  Its  business  was  to  produce, 
preserve,  and  perfect  all  the  necessary  sources 
and  conditions  of  national  civilization  ;  to  form 
and  train  uj)  the  people  of  the  countr}-  to  be 
obedient,  free,  useful  citizens  and  patriots,  liv¬ 
ing  to  the  benefit  of  the  State,  and  prepared  to 
die  for  its  defence.  E.  C.  W. 

The  first  and  certainly  the  most  successful 
legislator  of  antiquity,  who  assumed  the  welfare 
of  the  whole  community  as  the  end  of  his  con¬ 
stitution,  Moses  annihilated  at  once  the  arti- 
•  ficial  and  tyrannical  distinction  of  castes,  and 
established  political  equality  as  the  fundamental 
principle  of  the  State.  The  whole  nation  was 
one  great  caste,  that  of  husbandmen  cultivat¬ 
ing  their  own  property.  Even  the  single  priv¬ 
ileged  class,  that  of  Levi,  stood  on  a  totally  dif¬ 
ferent  footing  from  the  sacerdotal  aristocracy  of 
Egypt,  MTth  a  wise  originality  Moses  retained 
all  that  was  really  useful,  and  indeed,  under  the 
circumstances  of  the  age  and  people,  absolutely 
necessary  in  a  priestly  order,  and  rejected  all 
that  might  endanger  the  liberties  of  the  people, 
through  their  exorbitant  wealth  or  y)ower.  In 
a  constitution  founded  on  a  religious  basis, 
sacred  functionaries  set  apart  from  the  mass  of 
the  people  were  indispensable  ;  where  the  State 
was  governed  by  a  written  law,  minute  and 
multifarious  in  its  provisions,  conservators  and 
occasional  expositors  of  the  Law  were  equally 
requisite  ;  a  people  at  first  engaged  in  ferocious 
w’arfare,  afterward  engrossed  by  agricultural 
labors,  without  an  exempt  order  which  should 
devote  itself  to  higher  and  more  intellectual 
studies,  would  soon  have  degenerated  into  igno¬ 
rance  and  barbarism.  Besides  the  officiating 
priesthood,  the  Levitical  class  furnished  the 
greater  number  of  the  judges,  the  scribes,  the 
genealogists  and  registers  of  the  tribes,  the 
keepers  of  the  records,  the  geometricians,  the 
superintendents  of  weights  and  measures  ;  and 


356 


SECTION  130.  THE  SACERDOTAL  SYSTEM. 


Michaelis  thinks,  from  the  judgment  in  cases  of 
leprosy  being  assigned  to  them,  the  physicians. 
Their  influence  depended  rather  on  their  civil 
than  their  ecclesiastical  functions.  They  were 
bound  to  read  the  whole  Law  once  in  seven  years 
before  the  people  ;  but  in  other  respects  their 
'priestly  duties  consisted  only  in  attendance  in 
the  tabernacle  or  the  temple  in  their  appointed 
courses.  Milman. 

It  has  been  repeatedly  charged  against  the  in¬ 
stitutes  of  Moses  that  they  were  purposely  con¬ 
trived  to  draw  all  the  wealth  and  power  of  the 
nation  into  the  hands  of  the  Levites  ;  and  that 
the  chief  danger  to  the  popular  liberty  arose  out 
of  the  constitution  of  that  tribe.  Never  was  so 
malignant  an  accusation  raised  upon  so  slender 
a  foundation.  On  the  contrary,  the  organiza¬ 
tion  and  disposition  of  the  tribe  of  Levi  was 
contrived  with  consummate  wisdom,  both  to 
impart  a  vital  action  to  the  whole  system,  and, 
at  the  same  time,  to  act  as  a  balance  wheel  to 
regulate  its  motions.  It  is  undeniable  that  the 
Levites  were  the  scholars  of  the  nation  ;  and  if 
to  this  advantage  they  had  united  an  indepen¬ 
dent  government  such  as  the  other  tribes  en¬ 
joyed,  and  an  equal  possession  of  territory, 
there  would  have  been  a  continual  and  danger¬ 
ous  tendency  to  the  accumulation  of  property 
and  power  in  their  hands.  But  the  Levites 
were  deprived  of  a  united  and  independent  gov¬ 
ernment,  and  rendered  incapable  of  holding 
landed  property.  They  were  distributed  into 
cities,  allotted  to  them  throughout  the  territo¬ 
ries  of  all  the  otlier  twelve  tribes.  By  this  ar¬ 
rangement  both  the  estates  and  the  persons  of 
the  Levites  were  given  into  the  hands  of  the 
remaining  tribes,  as  so  many  hostages  for  their 
good  behavior.  They  were  so  separated  from 
each  other  that  it  was  impossible  for  them  to 
form  any  dangerous  combinations  among  them¬ 
selves,  or  to  afford  mutual  assistance  in  the  ex¬ 
ecution  of  any  ambitious  projects.  Hence, 
whatever  influence  the  constitution  conferred 
upon  the  Levites  to  do  good,  the  same  consti¬ 
tution  took  away  from  them  all  power  to  en¬ 
danger  the  peace  or  the  liberties  of  their  coun¬ 
try.  Never  did  any  other  constitution  preserve 
the  people  from  the  dangers  of  ill-balanced 
power,  or  guard  the  public  liberty  with  so  many 
and  so  admirably  contrived  defences  against  the 
projects  of  factious  and  restless  ambition. 
Most  justly  does  Lowman  take  notice  how  much 
these  provisions  of  the  Hebrew  government  to 
prevent  the  occasions  of  faction  excel  all  the 
(institutions  of  the  famed  Spartan  lawgiver  for 
the  same  puipose.  so  much  celebrated  by  Gre- 
cian  authors.  The  State  had  but  one  master 


under  the  constitution  of  Moses,  and  that  was 
the  Law.  To  this  the  sons  of  Levi  were  as 
much  bound  to  submit  as  the  other  citizens. 
“  Lex  major  sacerdotio” — the  Law  is  greater 
than  the  priesthood — was  the  principle  of  the 
Hebrew  polity.  How  vast,  how  radical,  herein, 
the  difference  between  the  priesthood  of  Egypt 
and  the  priesthood  of  Israel  !  The  former  made 
the  laws  themselves,  changed  them  at  will,  and 
concealed  the  books  in  which  they  were  written 
from  all  profane  eyes.  The  latter  were  simply 
charged  with  preserving  the  laws  intact,  with 
keeping  them  constantly  exposed  to  the  eyes  of 
the  people,  and  with  teaching  them  all  to  all 
exactly.  Moses  took  from  the  priesthood  the 
power  derived  from  propert}^  from  military 
command,  and  from  illusions.  He  left  them 
nothing  but  the  power  of  the  Law  ;  a  Law 
which  they  did  not  make,  which  they  could  not 
change,  and  which  they  were  themselves  bound 
to  obey.  Here,  surely,  is  no  foothold  for  des¬ 
potism,  no  germ  or  aliment  of  ecclesiastical  op¬ 
pression.  E.  C.  W. 

The  Sacerdotal  System  no  Basis  fob  Spiritual 

Despotism. 

The  sacerdotal  institute  had  altogether  a  be¬ 
nign  aspect  toward  the  people.  The  priests, 
themselves  secured  of  competency  and  curtailed 
of  no  natural  enjoyment,  had  no  motive  either 
for  grudging  the  happiness  of  others  or  for 
trenching  upon  the  common  liberties  ;  on  the 
contrary,  their  own  wealth  and  ease  expressed 
and  flowed  from  the  prosperity  of  the  State. 
The  nation  did  not  exist  for  the  priests  ;  nor 
were  the  priests  the  obsequious  dependents 
either  of  the  monarch  or  the  people.  The  char¬ 
acter  of  the  religion  intrusted  to  the  sacerdotal 
order  afforded  fewer  means  of  sustaining  ghostly 
power  than  perhaps  any  other  system,  ancient 
or  modern.  No  scheme  of  belief  and  worship 
has  drawn  so  little  upon  the  undefined  terrors 
I  of  the  invisible  world  ;  none  has  said  less  of 
j  futurity  —  an  extra-mundane  futurity.  The 
views  it  opens,  the  motives  it  urges,  the  hopes 
it  awakens,  the  fears  it  instils,  are  all  terrestrial 
and  temporarjL  The  sacerdotal  class  possessed 
no  immeasurable  superiority  of  knowledge  over 
the  laity  :  what  the  priests  knew,  the  people 
might  know,  and  ought  to  know  from  the  priest. 
The  one  party  did  not  grasp  the  immortal  des¬ 
tinies  of  the  other.  The  priest  might  adjudge 
to  death,  but  not  to  perdition  ;  and  to  leath 
only  in  cases  well  defined.  Further,  in  the  the¬ 
ology  of  Moses  everything  was  marked  out,  cir¬ 
cumscribed,  and  fixed  ;  and  therefore  it  was  an 
unfit  material  of  spiritual  despotism.  Never 


ins  WISE  ADAPTATIONS  AND  BENIGN  EFFECTS. 


357 


has  there  been  a  religion,  ancient* or  modern, 
nnder  which  a  man  might  on  easier  terms  live 
piously  and  hajjpily.  No  religion  has  afforded 
so  few  excitements  to  vague  despondency.  We 
doubt  if  ever  an  instance  of  religious  despair 
occurred  under  primitive  Judaism.  It  was  only 
•when  he  entertained  the  horror-fraught  demo- 
nolog}’’  of  the  Canaanitish  tribes  that  the  son  of 
Abraham  could  become  the  victim  of  moody  ter¬ 
rors.  Judaism  then  was  not  the  system  on  which 
to  build  spiritual  despotism. 

Nor  did'  the  national  temperament  favor  any 
such  usurpations.  In  reading  the  historical 
books  of  the  Old  Testament  commencing  with 
the  Book  of  Judges,  one  gathers  from  the  whole 
an  impression  of  a  people  high  spirited  and  im¬ 
passioned  3^et  sedate  and  firm  ;  dignified  in 
manners,  vigorous  in  action,  steady  in  purpose, 
rich  in  axiomatic  good  sense,  and  terse  in  ex¬ 
pression  ;  especially  warm  and  true  in  domestic 
sentiment,  and  keen  in  eyexy  feeling  of  honor. 
They  took  to  themselves  a  monarchical  govern¬ 
ment,  but  their  usages  were  democratic  ;  they 
bore  the  burden  of  kingly  rule  till  it  reached  a 
galling  weight,  and  then  the  cry  was  always, 
“To  jmur  tents,  0  Israe’.’’  The  ante-Babjdon- 
ish  Jews  were  not  the  plastic  stuff  an  ambitious 
hierarch  would  have  chosen  to  work  upon. 

Again,  the  priests  and  Levites  were  not  merely 
ministers  of  religion  and  teachers  of  the  people. 
Upon  them  also,  or  upon  them  chieflj^  devolved 
the  administration  and  interpretation  of  civil 

and  criminal  law  and  the  business  of  courts  of 

% 

justice.  The  priests,  too,  were  the  only  depos¬ 
itaries  of  general  learning,  and  the  copiers  of 
books.  If  the  exercise  of  so  many  functions 
might  appear  to  place  vast  power  in  the  hands 
of  a  single  order,  it  will  be  found  in  the  actual 
working  of  the  social  machine  that  this  very 
multiplicity  of  labors,  and  this  intimate  blend¬ 
ing  of  the  priests  with  the  people  in  all  the  oc¬ 
casions  of  common  life,  operates  much  more  to 
break  down  and  moderate  than  to  build  up  and 
aggravate  ghostly  tyranny'.  The  common  peo¬ 
ple  have  never  been  so  thoroughly  enslaved  b}’ 
anj’^  priests  as  b}'  those  who  affected  an  utter 
ignorance  of  all  mundane  affairs,  and  who  spent 
or  professed  to  spend  their  days  and  nights  in 
seraphic  abstraction. 

Another  circumstance  is  of  so  much  impor¬ 
tance  as  to  demand  explicit  mention  :  we  mean 
that  counterpoise  of  Church  infiuence  which 
sprung  from  the  operation  of  the  prophetic 
function.  It  is  the  exclusive  possession  and 
the  irresponsible  control  of  all  kinds  of  spiritual 
power  which  enables  a  hierarchy  to  digest  its 
plans  of  encroachment,  and  to  achieve  gradual 


usurpations,  No  such  exclusive  domination 
was  ijermitted  to  the  Jewish  clergy.  An  unfail¬ 
ing  succession  of  inspired  men,  sometimes 
members  of  the  Aaronic  house  but  more  often 
not,  stood  up  as  the  immediate  ministers  of  Je¬ 
hovah,  dealing  rebuke,  with  high  intrepidity', 
on  all  sides  ;  and  assailing  the  vices  or  the  re¬ 
missness  as  well  of  the  j^riests  as  of  the  princes 
or  the  sovereign.  The  high-priest  could  never 
call  himself  the  vicab  of  God,  or  the  ultimate 
authority  from  whose  decisions  there  could  be 
no  appeal.  Whatever  scheme  of  aggrandize¬ 
ment  for  his  order  an  ambitious  hierarch  might 
meditate,  he  could  never  for  a  moment  secure 
himself  against  the  thundering  reproof  of  some 
extra-sacerdotal  voice,  the  pealing  of  which 
must  have  shattered  his  devices.  This  coun¬ 
terpoise,  or  rather  corrective,  forming  as  it  did 
a  permanent  provision  in  the  Jewish  Church 
polity,  deserves  to  be  especially  noticed  in  its 
relation,  to  the  hereditary  tenure  of  the  pontifi¬ 
cal  dignity.  Into  what  condition,  short  of  an 
intolerable  spiritual  despotism,  could  any  com¬ 
munity'  fall,  among  whom  there  existed  an  he¬ 
reditary  pontificate  not  checked  in  some  very 
efficacious  manner  ?  Or  how  much  power  would 
be  left  to  the  civil  magistrate  who  should  sway 
his  sceptre  under  the  shade  of  an  inherited 
prelacy?  A  pope,  the  lineal  descendant  of 
popes  and  the  progenitor  of  popes,  would  be  a 
despot  such  as  the  world  has  never  seen.  In 
this  sense  it  was  well  for  Europe  that  the  Kom- 
ish  clergy  condemned  themselves  to  celibacy. 
It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  soon  after  the  pro¬ 
phetic  function  failed  among  the  Jews,  the  pon¬ 
tifical  dignity'  ceased  to  descend  from  father  to 
son  ;  or  even  to  be  held  for  life. 

Lastly,  we  have  to  take  account  of  that  bal¬ 
ance  of  power,  and  that  reciprocal  corrective 
influence,  which  subsisted  between  the  priest¬ 
hood  and  the  monarchy  in  the  Jewish  State  ; 
each  exerting  over  the  other  a  control  bene¬ 
ficial  to  each  and  to  the  community.  Beside 
their  proper  spiritual  authority  with  the  people, 
which  naturally  tempered  the  civil  and  military 
power,  the  priests  and  Levites  had  an  interest 
in  the  institutions  of  the  country'  of  a  definite 
sort,  which  compelled  them  to  resist  innovations 
and  encroachments,  whether  attempted  by  the 
people  or  the  monarch.  A  privileged  order  ac¬ 
customed  to  meet  in  convocation  becomes  inev¬ 
itably',  whatever  its  particular  functions  may  be, 
the  guardian  of  the  State  and  the  vigilant  ob¬ 
server  of  all  changes.  Several  actual  instances 
are  recorded,  and  others  no  doubt  occurred,  in 
which  the  constancy  and  patriotism  of  the 
priests  saved  the  State  and  barred  fhe  way  of  a 


358 


SECTION  131.  THE  SACRIFICIAL  kYSTEM. 


tyrant.  On  the  other  hand,  the  sacerdotal 
order  itself  stood  in  awe  of  the  monarch  ;  and 
on  many  remarkable  occasions  received  from 
his  hand  a  vigorous  treatment,  necessary  and 
highly  beneficial.  The  lapse  of  time  never  fails 
to  break  down  the  purity  and  integrity  of  a  sacer¬ 
dotal  body.  Secular  motives  insensibly  sup¬ 
plant  high  principles  ;  the  earthly  prevails  over 
the  heavenly  element.  But  a  hierarchy  never 
reforms  itself  ; — no  corporation  regenerates  by 
spontaneous  energy  ;  it  must  be  brought  back 
to  duty  and  virtue  by  a  hand  from  without.  No 
provision  of  the  Mosaic  Law  had  authorized  this 


sort  of  reform  ;  yet  it  had  become  the  salutary 
usage  of  the  State  for  strong-minded  and  pious 
sovereigns  to  do  for  the  Church  what  the  Church 
will  not  do  for  herself,  and  what  the  people 
either  do  not  care  to  attempt  or  have  no  means 
of  effecting.  A  main  characteristic  of  Jewish 
history  is  Church  Beform,  again  and  again 
brought  about  bj^  the  civil  power.  Except  for 
the  piety  and  zeal  of  several  kingly  reformers, 
the  Mosaic  institutions,  and  with  them  the 
knowledge  and  worship  of  Jehovah,  would  in 
an  early  age  have  utterly  disappeared.  Isaac 
Taylor. 


Section  131. 

THE  SACRIFICIAL  SYSTEM  :  NECESSITY  AND  SPIRITUAL  IMPORT  OF  THE  SYS¬ 
TEM  ;  DEFINITION  OF  “SACRIFICE;”  CLASSES  OF  SACRIFICES;  ORDER  AND 
SIGNIFICANCE  OF  ACTS  IN  THE  BLOOD  SACRIFICES.  THE  ALTAR  AN  ORACLE 
OF  GRACE,  AND  HENCE  THE  PLACE  OF  WORSHIP.  RELATION  OF  THE  LE- 
VITICAL  TO  THE  CHRISTIAN  SACRIFICES  ;  TO  THE  LORD’S  SUPPER. 


From  sacred  persons  we  come  next  to  sacred 
rites,  of  which  animal  sacrifice  is  the  first  and 
most  essential  element  of  worship.  B. - Ani¬ 

mal  sacrifice  was  the  peculiar  main  point  and 
essence  of  all  worship  both  in  the  Old  Covenant 
religion  and  in  all  heathen  services.  We  find 
that  sacrifice  was  brought  out  of  paradise  in  the 
family  of  Adam,  But  as  Israel  became  a  people 
oaly  under  Moses,  the  whole  service  of  sacrifice 
did  not  receive  before  his  time  its  full  and  com 
plete  form.  Geri. 

There  is  not  a  single  umrd,  recorded  or  re¬ 
vealed,  about  the  origin  and  insiiiuiion  of  sacri¬ 
fices,  We  see  a  most  solemn  and  important 
rite  of  Divine  worship  in  established  use,  with¬ 
out  having  any  account  of  its  introduction. 
The  idea  of  taking  away  the  life  of  innocent 
creatures,  in  typical  atonement  for  man’s  sin, 
could  never  have  originated  in  the  mind  of 
man.  And  it  never  could  have  been  accepted 
of  God,  or  continued  in  connection  with  the 
worship  offered  to  him,  if  it  had  been  a  mere 
h  uman  invention.  This  argument  is  conclusive. 
li.  Newton. - The  institution  of  animal  sacri¬ 

fice  had  continued  until  the  giving  of  the  Law, 
no  other  offering  but  that  of  an  animal  being 
recorded  in  Scripture  down  to  this  period,  ex- 
ce^it  in  the  case  of  Cain,  when  the  offering  was 
rejected.  But  when  we  come  to  the  promulga¬ 
tion  of  the  Law,  we  find  the,  connection  between 
animal  sacrifice  and  atonement  or  reconciliation 
with  God  clearly  and  distinctly  announced.  It 
is  here  declared  that  sacrifices  for  sin  should, 
on  conforming  to  certain  prescribed  modes  of 


offering,  be  accepted  as  the  means  of  deliver¬ 
ance  from  the  penal  consequences  of  transgres¬ 
sion.  Magee. 

Necessity  and  Spiritual  Import  of  the  Sacrificial 

System. 

If  there  had  been  no  fall,  a  ritual  of  worship 
would  have  been  unnecessary.  The  knowledge 
of  God  would  have  remained  unclouded.  The 
way  of  approaching  him  would  have  been  obvi¬ 
ous  and  familiar.  Every  word  would  have  been 
a  note  in  the  psalm  of  life,  every  deed  a  step  in 
the  path  of  rectitude,  and  every  thought  a  link 
in  the  never-ending  chain  of  truth  ;  and  all  to¬ 
gether  would  have  been  the  unbidden  presenta¬ 
tion  of  a  reverent  homage  to  the  Father  of  all. 
But  with  a  fallen  being  all  is  changed.  Guilt  is 
upon  his  conscience,  and  doom  is  before  his 
eyes.  Of  the  mercy  of  God,  or  of  the  mode  in 
which  it  may  be  exercised,  he  can  form  no  an¬ 
ticipation.  Only  a  positive  revelation  from  God 
can  afford  any  ground  of  certainty  or  comfort 
on  these  points.  The  main  fact,  that  there  is 
mercy  with  God  for  the  returning  penitent,  had 
been  communicated  to  the  family  of  man  imme¬ 
diately  after  the  fall.  And  some  hints  had  been 
given  of  the  mode  in  which  it  could  alone  be 
conveyed.  But  now  that  a  peculiar  people  has 
been  selected  to  receive  the  Divine  favor,  and 
keep  up  the  knowledge  of  God  and  his  mercy 
on  the  earth,  it  is  full  time  that  a  more  com¬ 
plete  and  definite  account  should  be  given  of 
the  way  in  which  the  returning  penitent  may 
draw  near  to  God  with  acceptance.  M 


KINDS  OF  SACRIFICES. 


359 


The  whole  sacrificial  system  of  the  Hebrew 
Law  was  intended  for  a  people  alread}'-  brought 
into  covenant  with  the  living  God,  and  every 
sacrifice  was  assumed  to  have  a  vital  connec¬ 
tion  with  the  spirit  of  the  worshipper,  A  He¬ 
brew  sacrifice,  like  a  Christian  sacrament,  pos¬ 
sessed  the  inward  and  spiritual  grace,  as  well  as 
the  outward  and  visible  sign.  The  mere  empty 
form  wms  as  alien  to  the  mind  of  an  enlight¬ 
ened  Israelite  who  brought  his  gift  to  the  altar, 
as  it  is  to  the  well-instructed  Christian  who 
comes  to  the  table  of  the  Lord.  This  fact  will 
be  found  not  obscurely  intimated  in  the  words 
of  the  Law'  itself.  But  it  is  most  clearly  ex¬ 
pressed  by  the  sacred  wuiters  in  later  ages,  when 
it  became  necessary  that  they  should  remind 
their  backsliding  countrymen  of  the  truth. 

Clark. - There  cannot  be  produced  out  of  the 

whole  Old  Testament  a  single  passage  in  which 
the  notion  that  sacrifices  of  themselves,  apart 
from  the  state  of  mind  in  the  offerers,  are  well¬ 
pleasing  to  God,  is  referred  to  except  for  the 
purpose  of  vigorously  opposing  it.  When,  for 
example,  in  Lev.  26  :  31,  it  is  said  in  reference 
to  the  ungodly  “  I  wall  not  smell  the  savor  of 
your  sw'eet  odors  and  when,  in  Gen.  4:4,  5, 
we  find  that,  along  with  an  outward  similarity', 
the  offerings  of  Cain  and  Abel  met  with  such  a 
different  reception  from  God,  and  that  this  dif¬ 
ference  is  represented  as  being  based  on  some¬ 
thing  to  the  individuals,  it  is  all  but  ex¬ 

pressly  asserted  that  sacrifices  were  regarded 
only^  as  expressive  of  the  inner  sentiment.  That 
the  Law',  w'ith  all  its  appearance  of  outward¬ 
ness,  still  possessed  throughout  an  internal, 
spiritual  character,  is  manifest  from  the  fact 
that  the  two  internal  commands  of  love  to  God 
and  one’s  neighbor  are  in  the  Law  itself  repre¬ 
sented  as  those  in  which  all  the  rest  lie  enclosed, 
the  fulfilment  of  which  carried  along  with  it 
the  fulfilment  of  all  individual  precepts,  and 
W'ithout  which  no  obedience  was  practicable. 
If  everything  in  the  Law  is  made  to  turn  upon 
love,  it  is  self-evident  that  a  dead  bodily  service 
could  not  be  what  wms  properly  required. 

llengs. - To  what  extent  the  spiritual  import 

of  these  rites  was  actually  understood  by  the 
Jews  themselves,  it  may  not  be  easy  to  deter¬ 
mine  ;  but  that  something  vastly  more  impor¬ 
tant  than  the  simple  act  of  slaying  and  offering 
the  animal  victim  was  required  by  the  spirit  of 
the  Law',  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  the  obe¬ 
dience  of  the  chosen  people  is  frequently  rep¬ 
resented  as  faulty,  notwithstanding  their  scru¬ 
pulous  observance  of  the  outw'ard  rite.  Thus 
Isa.  1  : 11,  12,  “To  what  purpose  is  the  multi¬ 
tude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  me  ?  saith  the 


Lord  :  I  am  full  of  the  burnt-offerings  of  rams, 
and  the  fat  of  fed  beasts  ;  and  I  delight  not  in 
the  blood  of  bullocks,  or  of  lambs,  or  of  he- 
goats.”  Bush. 

Defiiiiiion  of  Sacrifice. 

According  to  the  usage  of  the  Old  Testament, 
the  most  general  term  for  sacrifice  is  k>rhan. 
This  w’ord  was  employed  in  the  Law  to  describe 
the  genus  of  which  sacrifices  of  all  kinds  w'ere 
species.  It  is  expressly  predicated  of  the  burnt- 
offering,  the  peace-offering,  the  thank-offering 
and  the  votive-offering,  the  sin-offering,  the 
trespass-offering,  the  passover,  the  sacrifice  of 
the  Nazarite  on  the  expiry  or  breach  of  his  vow, 
the  whole  range  of  national  sacrifices,  the  first- 
fruits,  and  even  offerings  made  to  Jehovah  of 
the  spoils  of  battle.  Eoi-han  is  manifestly  the 
generic  Hebrew  term,  equivalent  to  our  English 
term  sacrifice.  This  Hebrew  word  is  expressly 
used  and  translated  by  an  unequivocal  Greek 
word  in  Mark  7  : 11.  “  Korhan — that  is  to  say, 

a  gift."  Korban,  the  equivalent  of  the  English 
word  sacrifice,  in  general,  is  a  gift  to  God.  A 
sacrifice  in  the  Levitical  sense  was  a  gift,  or 
oft’ering,  or  presentation  made  to  Jehovah. 

Classes  {or  Kinds)  of  Sacrifices. 

Defining  sacrifice,  in  accordance  with  both 
usage  and  etymology,  as  a  gift,  a  presentation 
to  God,  a  surrender  to  God  of  what  has  cost  the 
offerer  something,  and  remembering  that  in  the 
large  majority  of  cases  at  least  these  sacrifices 
were  associated  with  the  holy  places  — the  sev¬ 
eral  ordinances  of  the  Mosaic  Law  in  reference 
thereto  will  arrange  themselves  under  the  fol¬ 
lowing  classes.  There  were  the  national  sacri¬ 
fices,  or  those  presented  in  the  name  of  the  en¬ 
tire  Jewish  people  by  their  representatives. 
There  were  the  ofiicial  sacrifices,  or  the  specific 
acts  of  worship  by  presentation  prescribed  for 
the  ecclesiastical  and  political  orders.  And 
there  were  the  personal  sacrifices,  w'hich  were 
made  by  individuals. 

1.  The  National  offekings  consisted  of  the 
serial  offerings,  or  those  daily,  week!}',  and 
monthly  sacrifices  ordered  to  be  presented  in 
the  nation’s  behalf;  the/es^/Z  offerings,  or  the 
ceremonial  appropriate  to  the  several  excep¬ 
tional  days  of  sacrificial  observance  ;  and  some 
exiraordinai'y  offerings  instituted  in  response  to 
a  widely  felt  need  for  worship  or  humiliation  at 
extraordinary  seasons  ;  as  at  the  erection  of  the 
tabernacle,  the  consecration  of  Aaron,  etc.  The 
serial  offerings  :  Every  day,  morning  and  even¬ 
ing,  the  priests  were  bidden  to  present,  in  the 
name  of  the  congregation,  the  burnt-offering  of 
a  lamb  of  a  year  old,  with  its  appropriate  meal- 


360 


SECTION  131.  ORDER  AND  S1GN[FIUANCE  OF  THE  ACTS 


offering  anti  tlrink  offering.  The  presentation 
was  made  according  to  the  customary  ritual  for 
burnt-offering.  From  the  regularity  of  its  suc¬ 
cession  this  daily  burnt-offering  is  also  called 
the  “  continual  ”  or  “  continuous”  burnt-offer¬ 
ing.  Ecej'y  S ibbatfi  the  daily  burnt-offering  was 
doubled  night  and  morning.  On  the  first  day 
of  every  month,  or  on  the  new  moon  as  it  was 
called^  two  young  bullocks,  a  ram,  and  seven 
lambs,  with  the  prescribed  meal  and  drink  offer¬ 
ings  were  ordered  to  be  offered,  in  addition  to 
the  continuous  burnt-offering  ;  a  kid  was  also 
to  be  killed  for  a  sin-offering.  The  festal  offer¬ 
ings:  Following  the  order  of  the  Levitieal  cal¬ 
endar,  the  several  festal  or  solemn  seasons  were 
Passover,  the  Paschal  Feast,  and  Pentecost,  and 
the  Day  of  Atonement,  followed  by  the  Feast  of 
Tabernacles. 

2.  The  official  saceifices.  There  were  sacri¬ 
ficial  rites  administered  by  the  priests  and  rulers 
purely  as  officials. 

3.  The  peksonal  offebings.  These  are  divis¬ 
ible  into  the  blood  and  the  bloodless  sacrifices, 
the  former  including  the  burnt-offerings,  the 
peace-offerings,  the  sin  and  the  trespass-offer¬ 
ings  ;  and  the  latter  including  the  meal-offer- 
ings,  the  libations,  the  offerings  of  oil  and  in¬ 
cense,  and  a  variety  of  oblations,  such  as  the 
redemption  moneys  for  every  Israelite,  the 
tithes,  the  firstlings,  and  the  vows.  The  blood- 
less  offerings  always  consisted  of  the  products 
of  labor,  and  were  presentations  simply  ;  thej^ 
were  gifts  made  to  Jehovah  upon  approach  to 
him  in  worship  ;  they  were  this  and  nothing 
more.  The  blood  sacrifices  were  this  and  some¬ 
thing  more  ;  they  were  boHi  presentations  and  in- 
.strumenls  of  atonement ;  in  addition  to  being  the 
gifts  of  the  offerer  to  Jehovah,  they  possessed 
the  all-important  blood  which  testified  to  the 
substituted  life.  Cave. 

The  significant  rites  of  the  Mosaic  Law  may 
be  reduced  to  two  great  classes— offerings  and 
purifications.  Of  these  the  former  is  more  im¬ 
portant,  the  other  being  really  supplementary' 
to  it  and  dependent  on  it.  The  offerings  them  • 
selves  may  again  be  divided  into  animal  and 
vegetable,  or,  as  some  prefer  to  call  them, 
bloody  and  bloodless.  The  latter  had  no  sub¬ 
stantive  or  separate  value,  but  were  primarily 
used  as  appendages  to  the  otner.  The  elements 
or  materials  of  the  sacrifices  were  essentially 
the  same  in  every  case.  It  was  their  different 
combinations  and  the  different  occasions  upon 
which  they  were  presented  that  afforded  the 
■ground  of  their  classification,  under  the  names 
of  the  burnt-offering,  the  sin-offering,  the  tres¬ 
pass-offering,  and  the  peace-  (or  requital)  offer¬ 


ing.  with  its  subdivisions,  thanksgiving,  vow, 
and  free-will  offerings.  In  all  these  the  ma¬ 
terial  of  the  animal  sacrifice  consisted  of  the 
larger  and  smaller  cattle,  the  latter  including 
sheep  and  goats,  with  a  substitution,  in  the 
case  of  poverty,  of  doves  or  pigeons  for  the 
more  costly  victims  otherwise  required.  The 
materials  of  the  vegetable-offering  weie  the 
three  great  staples  of  subsistence— corn,  wine, 
and  oil.  To  both  may  be  added,  as  subsidiary 
substances,  frankincense  and  salt,  which  last 
was  an  indispensable  addition  to  all  animal  ob¬ 
lations,  while  honey  and  leaven  were  expressly 
excluded.  J.  A.  A. 

Order  and  Significance  of  the  Acts  Connected  with 
the  Blood  Sacrifices. 

These  acts  consisted  in  the  presentation,  the 
imposition  of  the  hand,  the  act  of  slaughter,  the 
sprinkling  of  the  blood,  and  sometimes  the 
heaving  and  waving  of  the  offering.  No  pre¬ 
scribed  act  was  meaningless,  and  each  had  its 
own  message  to  convey.  The  first  stage  in  every 
act  of  sacrifice  was  the  delibei'ate  presentation  of 
the  offerer  and  his  gift  at  the  appropriate  altar. 
The  offerer  presented  himself  and  his  offering 
solemnly  before  the  priest.  The  presentation 
was  itself  a  thoughtful  religious  act.  To  come 
to  the  altar  was  to  come  to  the  Lord  ;  to  come 
with  a  willing  and  obedient  mind,  fulfilling  the 
conditions  of  the  Law,  was  to  ask  for  a  share 
in  the  promises  thereto  attached. 

Next  came  the  imposition  of  the  hand.  The 
victim  having  been  solemnly  presented,  the 
offerer  forcibly  laid  his  hand  upon  its  head  ;  his 
hand,  whoever  he  might  be,  priest  or  layman, 
king  or  elder.  This  act  was  a  dedication  of  the 
victim  to  the  purpose  for  which  it  was  brought. 

Cave. - It  is  impossible  to  separate  in  any 

case  the  imposition  of  hands  on  the  head  of  the 
victim  from  the  expression  and  transference  of 
guilt.  The  specific  service  the  blood  had  to 
render  in  all  the  sacrifices  was  to  be  an  atone¬ 
ment  for  the  sinner’s  guilt  upon  the  altar  ;  and 
the  imposition  of  the  offerer’s  hands  was  the 
expression  of  his  desire,  through  the  offering, 
to  find  deliverance  from  his  burden  of  iniquity', 
and  acceptance  with  God.  We  learn  from  Jew¬ 
ish  sources  that  the  imposition  of  hands  was 
alway's  accompanied  with  confession  of  sin. 
And  in  the  only  explanation  which  Moses  him¬ 
self  has  given  of  the  meaning  of  the  rite — as 
connected  with  the  services  of  the  day'  of  atone¬ 
ment — it  is  represented  as  being  accompanied 
not  only  with  confession  of  sin,  but  also  with 
the  transference  of  its  guilt  to  the  body  of  the 
victim  :  ‘  Aaron  shall  lay  both  his  hands  upon 


PERTAINING  TO  BLOOD  SACRIFICES. 


3G1 


the  head  of  the  live  goat,  and  confess  over  him 
all  the  iniquities  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and 
all  their  transgressions  in  all  their  sins,  pidiing 
them  upon  the  head  of  the  goat."  P.  F. 

Then  followed  the  act  of  slaughter' .  This  was  al¬ 
ways  performed  by  the  offerer  (possibly  assisted 
or  guided  by  the  Levites),  and  hence  its  signifi¬ 
cance,  In  offering  an  animal,  he  was  bringing 
before  God  an  atonement  as  v^ell  as  a  presenta¬ 
tion.  But  atonement  was  by  the  blood,  not  by 
the  living  animal.  In  the  act  of  slaughter  by 
his  own  hand,  the  offerer  obediently  brought  be¬ 
fore  God  the  blood  of  atonement.  There  the 
duties  of  the  offerer  ended.  A  priest  then  col¬ 
lected  the  blood  of  the  animal  in  a  basin,  and 
applied  it  to  the  altar  wholly  or  partially  ;  after¬ 
ward  he  flayed,  dismembered,  cleansed,  and 
burned  the  carcase  wholly  or  partially. 

Hie  sprinkling  of  the  blood,  varied  with 
the  sacrifice,  %yas  always  a  bringing  of  blood 
in  contact  with  the  altar,  and  thus  before  Je¬ 
hovah.  The  significance  of  this  proceeding 
is  given  in  the  passage  so  often  quoted  (Lev. 
17  :  11),  concerning  which  interpreters  are 
agreed  that  it  defines  the  use  of  blood  in 
the  Law.  “  For  the  soul  of  the  flesh  is  in 
the  blood  :  and  I  (the  Lord)  have  given  it 
you  upon  the  altar  to  be  an  atonement  for 
your  souls.”  In  other  words,  the  blood  of 
the  animal  legally  presented  has  been  ap¬ 
pointed  by  God  as  a  means  of  atonement  for 
human  life  because  that  blood  is  really  the  life 
of  the  animal  sacrificed,  or,  in  other  words,  the 
blood  or  life  of  an  animal  has  been  graciously 
accepted  by  Jehovah  as  a  valid  substitute  for 
the  life  or  blood  of  the  sinful  offerer.  As  Kahnis 
i:)uts  it,  blood  is  life  in  compendio.  By  the  blood 
manipulation  one  part  of  the  twofold  aim  of 
animal  sacrifice  was  completed,  and  a  legal  atone¬ 
ment  was  made  for  human  sin.  Cave. - The 

cardinal  act  of  sacrifice  was  not  that  of  slaying  the 
animal,  nor  even  that  of  burning  on  Ihealtar.  but 
the  offering  of  the  blood,  the  various  modes  of 
doing  which  were  not  necessarily  significant,  but 
all  alike  expressive  of  the  forfeiture  of  life.  The 
doctrine  taught  therefore  by  this  class  of  sacri¬ 
ficial  rites  was  the  necessity  of  expiation  by  the 
offering  of  life,  and  more  specifically  still,  by  the 
offering  of  life  for  life.  The  solemn  rite  of  im¬ 
position  could  mean  nothing,  if  it  did  not  mean 
the  transfer  of  the  offerer’s  guilt  to  a  substituted 
victim.  The'  sacrifices,  then,  continually  kept 
before  the  minds  of  the  people  the  necessity  of 
expiation,  and  the  only  way  in  which  it  could  be 
wrought  by  the  sacrifice  of  life  for  life.  But  they 
did  not  necessarily,  and  by  a  natural  association, 
suggest  to  all  who  saw  them  who  or  what  was  the 


true  victim  thus  prefigured.  This  was  a  New 
Testament  doctrine,  and  so  far  as  it  was  inti¬ 
mated  at  all,  it  was  by  special  types  the  exist¬ 
ence  and  meaning  of  which  must  be  determined 
by  New  Testament  authority.  J.  A.  A. 

The  significance  of  the.  combustion  upon  the  altar. 
In  the  blood  manij)ulation  the  atoning  aspect 
of  animal  sacrifices  was  complete  ;  the  two  re¬ 
maining  rites  were  connected  with  the  offerings 
as  gifts  to  God.  There  was  in  every  case  a 
burning  of  the  carcase,  wholly  or  in  part  ;  this 
was  the  first  of  the  remaining  acts.  The  sj^m- 
bolism  of  this  combustion  is  manifest.  It  was 
a  sending  of  the  gift  to  God.  After  arranging 
the  divided  or  the  selected  portions  of  the  car¬ 
case  in  the  heaven-born  fire,  they  were  burned  — 
that  is  to  say,  they  were  etherealized,  and  they 
rose  to  heaven  as  “  a  sweet  savor,”  The  rite 
bore  a  similar  interpretation  when  it  had  refer¬ 
ence  to  any  of  the  bloodless  offerings.  To  burn 
w'as  to  effectually  present. 

Waving  and  heaving.  Sometimes  a  peculiar 
swinging  of  the  offering  was  appended  to  the 
other  acts  of  presentation,  called  “  heaving"  and 
^‘waving."  This  detail  was  enjoined  in  the 
consecration  of  the  Levites  and  priests,  in  the 
vow  of  the  Nazarite,  in  the  offering  of  jealousy, 
in  the  cleansing  of  the  leprous,  in  the  thank- 
offerings  and  the  tithes.  This  significant  act  of 
the  ofificiator  wmuld  seem  to  be  a  more  emphatic 
presentation.  The  swinging  forward  was  mani¬ 
festly  a  symbolic  presentation  to  God,  a  decla¬ 
ration  by  outward  sign  that  the  object  waved  be¬ 
longed  to  him  ;  the  movement  backward  was  as 
manifestly  a  declaration  that  the  Almighty  re¬ 
turned  as  a  gift  to  his  priest  what  actually  be¬ 
longed  to  himself.  The  heaving  was  very  sim¬ 
ilar,  taking  place  upward  and  downward,  as 
if  toward  the  Divine  dwelling-place  in  the 
heavens. 

The  last  feature  of  the  general  ritual  is  that 
of  the  concluding  meal,  b}^  the  priesthood  in  the 
more  common  cases,  or  by  the  offerers,  as  in 
the  peace-offerings.  The  restoration  of  part  of 
the  gift  to  priest  or  people  was  the  Divine  pro¬ 
vision  in  mercy  for  human  rejoicing  in  the  act 
of  worship.  This  feast  was  a  call  to  fellowship 
and  friendship.  It  is  Jehovah  taking  the  sin¬ 
ner  to  His  house,  preparing  him  a  feast  and 
eating  with  him  at  his  table.  As  has  well  been 
said  :  “  As  the  sprinkling  blood  betokened  justi¬ 
fication,  and  combustion  sanctification,  so  the 
sacrificial  meal  told  its  tale  of  the  unio  myslica." 

Cave. - This  feasting  upon  the  flesh  of  the 

slain  animal  is  in  germ  what  the  Gospel  gives 
us  in  full  development — viz.,  that  the  same 
Lamb  of  Calvary  who  “  washed  us  from  our 


3G2 


SECTION  131.  THE  ALTAR  AN  ORACLE  OF  GRACE. 


sins  in  his  own  blood  ”  “  gave  us  his  flesh  to 
eat”  as  “  the  bread  of  life.”  The  memorial 
supper  carries  in  it  the  same  double  symbol— 
hh>oil  and  hrcdd  -  i\\e.  blood  looking  toward  par¬ 
don  ;  the  bread  toward  sustenance  for  the  spir 
itual  life.  So  the  pious.  Israelite  might  on  the 
one  hand  see  the  blood  of  his  sacrifice  gurgling 
forth,  caught,  sprinkled  toward  the  mercy-seat 
and  upon  his  own  person  ;  and  on  the  other 
hand,  might  lake  of  the  flesh  of  his  slain  lamb 
and  sit  down,  not  merely  in  peace  but  in  joyful 
thanksgiving  that  death  brings  life — that  sacri¬ 
ficial  blood  brings  after  it  the  new  life  of  the 
redeemed,  restored  sinner,  and  sustenance 
therefor  from  the  very  animal  whose  body  and 
blood  became  symbols  of  his  pardon.  H.  C. 

The  Altar  an  Oracle  or  Grace,  and  There¬ 
fore  THE  Place  of  Worship. 

Had  sacrifice  not  been  essentially  of  God  ; 
had  it  not  required  the  humble  and  child-like 
heart  of  faith  to  present  it  aright  ;  had  it  not 
carried  along  with  it,  when  so  presented,  the 
blessing  of  forgiveness  and  grace  from  heaven, 
we  cannot  understand  how  such  singular  im¬ 
portance  should  have  been  attached  to  it.  Like 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ  now,  it  has  all  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  having  then. been  the  great  touchstone 
of  an  accepted  and  blessed,  or  a  guilty  and  re¬ 
jected  condition  ;  not  one  of  many,  as  it  would 
have  been  if  devised  by  man,  but  standing 
comparatively  alone  as  an  all-important  ordi¬ 
nance  of  God.  P.  F. 

Through  all  the  details  of  Leviticus  there  runs 
the  emphasis  that  everything  is  by  Gid’s  order¬ 
ing,  as  if  he  had  done  it  himself.  This  book 
becomes  an  illuminated  missal  on  the  freeness 
and  amplitude  of  God’s  grace.  There  is  not  a 
trace  of  wall- worship.  Everything  is  done  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  Divine  pattern.  The  entire  rit¬ 
ual  was  a  Divine  parable.  The  blood  was  not 
given  by  man  to  God,  but  by  God  to  man  ;  and 
in  this  Divine  gift  upon  the  altar  depended  its 
prophetic  and  ritual  atoning  efficacy.  And 
readiitgthe  parable  in  this  W'ay,  a  new  and  celes¬ 
tial  radiance  invests  the  cross,  the  one  altar  that 
shall  never  crumble.  It  is  not  the  symbol  of 
wrath  apjieased,  but  of  love  triumphant.  It  is 
the  journey  ended,  by  which  God  has  come  to 
mau.  “  It  is  finished.”  The  debt  paid,  but  by 
him  to  whom  we  owed  it.  The  t.^want  over¬ 
thrown,  but  by  God’s  hand,  hiding  behind  the 
pierced  palms.  The  penalty  endured,  but  by 
him  who  pronounced  it.  The  Law  vindicated, 
but  by  him  wffiose  bosom  is  its  eternal  source 
and  seat.  Salvation  by  sacrifice,  and  sacrifice 
so  great  and  painful  that  it  awes  the  angels  ; 


but  sacrifice  as  representing  what  God  endures 
for  those  whom  his  love  would  save  ! 

Of  course,  where  God  meets  man  there  man 
should  hasten  to  meet  his  God.  If  the  altar  is 
an  oracle  of  grace  it  will  also  be  the  place  of 
wor.ship.  But  it  is  the  place  of  true  worship 
only  because  it  is  vocal  with  God’s  compassion¬ 
ate  thought.  God  and  man  meet  at  the  altar  ; 
but  the  sacrifice  does  not  represent  man’s  pait 
in  the  great  dialogue.  .  .  .  What  gives  to  the 
atonement  its  value  ?  Is  it  the  offering  of  man 
or  of  God?  If  of  man,  paying  a  debt,  or  dis¬ 
charging  a  legal  liability,  wffiat  need  of  an  in¬ 
carnation  ?  However  intimate  the  union  be¬ 
tween  the  Divine  and  the  human  in  the  person 
of  our  Lord,  it  must  be  the  Eternal  Son  of  God 
by  whom  properly  the  atonement  was  made.  It 
was  made  in  human  nature,  but  not  by  human 
nature.  It  was  human  in  the  field  of  its  trans¬ 
action  ;  it  was  Divine  in  its  oiigin,  essence,  and 
import.  It  was  human  in  its  form.  Divine  in 
its  substance.  It  was  human  in  its  utterance. 
Divine  in  its  logic.  The  cross,  like  the  altar 
which  it  forever  displaced,  is  an  oracle  of  Di¬ 
vine  grace,  showing  at  what  cost  God  secures 
the  eternal  redemption  of  man  from  sin.  The 
descriptive  history  of  redemption,  the  picture 
of  the  cross,  remains  unaltered.  The  suffering 
and  shame,  the  agony  and  abandonment  and 
death  of  our  Lord,  are  not  toned  down,  nor  ex¬ 
plained  away.  But  we  read  the  story  from  the 
angle  of  God’s  thought,  and  that  makes  it  lu¬ 
minous.  Long  enough  have  we  studied  the  cross 
from  the  human  angle,  as  if  its  main  signifi¬ 
cance  lay  in  the  offering  which  man’s  represent¬ 
ative  makes  to  God.  as  if  its  design  was  to  make 
the  forgiveness  of  sin  compatible  with  the  claims 
of  justice  ;  let  us  take  the  one  bold  leap,  and 
read  it  with  the  eyes  of  God,  whose  love  is  from 
everlasting,  and  interpret  it  as  one  great  offer 
ing  which  he  freely  makes  in  Christ  for  the  re¬ 
demption  of  all  who  repent  and  believe  !  Its 
mighty  secret  is  not  in  the  energy  which  it  im¬ 
parts  to  man’s  prayer  and  plea  for  pardon,  but 
in  the  solemn  oath  which  it  affi.'ces  to  the  free 
proclamation  of  mercy  as  witnessed  in  the  re- 
dejnption  accomplished  in  human  nature  by 
the  obedience,  suffering,  death,  resurrection, 
and  eternal  ascension  into  glory,  of  the  Eternal 
Word  who  became  flesh.  Bekrends. 

Satisfaction  is  made  to  absolute  justice,  to  the 
truth  of  God  ;  and  it  is  made  not  onl}’  by  the 
sufferings,  but  by  the  perfect  life  of  Jesus,  as 
the  jierfect  man,  in  obedience  to  the  Law.  Jus¬ 
tice — not  retaliation — demands  that  what  a  man 
sows,  that  shall  he  reap.  Man  sows  sin,  and 
reaps  the  necessary  results — death,  the  forfeit 


LEViriCAL  AND  CHRISTIAN  SACRIFICES. 


303 


lire  of  God’s  presence.  The  picture  of  atone¬ 
ment  in  the  Old  Testament  is  that  of  a  covering 
of  sins,  and  in  the  New  Testament  is  reconcilia¬ 
tion  of  man  to  God.  In  the  English  version  of 
the  New  Testament  the  word  “  atonement  ” 
occurs  once,  and  translates  the  word  which  is 
elsewhere  translated  “reconciliation”  {kalal- 
lage).  The  satisfaction  on  which  this  covering 
of  sins  and  reconciliation  of  man  to  God  is  based 
embraces  the  life,  death,  resurrection,  ascen¬ 
sion,  and  mediation  of  the  Saviour  God-Man. 
The  oliject  in  view  of  the  life,  death,  and  resur 
rection  of  Jesus  was  not  one,  but  manifold.  It 
was  to  manifest  God  (“  God  manifest  in  the 
flesh  ”)  ;  to  reconcile  man’s  heart  (“  You,  that 
were  sometimes  alienated  and  enemies  in  your 
mind  by  wicked  works,  yet  now  hath  he  recon¬ 
ciled  in  the  body  of  his  flesh  through  death,  to 
present  you  holy  and  unblamable  and  unre- 
provable  in  his  sight”)  ;  to  show  man  that  he 
has  a  Mediator  (“the  one  Mediator  between 
God  and  man,  the  man  Christ  Jesus”)  ;  to  prove 
his  love  (”  Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this, 
that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends”)  ; 
to  enter  death  that  he  might  show  man  that  he 
is  the  victor  over  it,  as  the  first-fruits  from  the 
dead  (‘‘If  Christ  be  not  raised,  then  is  our  hope 
in  vain”)  ;  to  read  a  lesson  to  other  spheres 
(“  To  the  intent  that  now  unto  the  ]jrincipali 
ties  and  powers  in  heavenly  j)laces  might  be 
known  by  the  Church  the  manifold  wisdom  of 
God,  according  to  the  eternal  purjiose  which  he 
purposed  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord  ”).  In  all 
this  he  stood  in  man’s  place  to  suffer  ;  the 
”  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  him  ;  and 
with  his  stripes  we  are  healed  ’  “  he  redeemed 
us  from  the  curse  of  the  Law,  being  made  a 
curse  for  us.”  His  merits  were  so  perfect  that 
they  outweighed  all  man’s  demerits,  so  that  for 
his  sake  man  can  be  justified  and  accepted  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  covenant  of  grace.  But  to  intro¬ 
duce  the  spirit  of  vindictiveness,  or  retaliation, 
on  the  part  of  the  Jehovah  of  the  sacred  Scrip¬ 
tures,  as  thirsting  for  the  blood  of  the  sinner, 
and  demanding  the  sufferings  of  Christ  from 
any  principle  analogous  to  the  human  principle 
of  retaliation,  is  one  of  the  gr(«,test  insults  ever 
offered  to  the  Christian  religion,  which  declares 
that  the  whole  motive  power  toward  salvation 
was  love.  “  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he 
gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  be- 
lieveth  in  him  should  not  perish,  but  have  ever¬ 
lasting  life.”  R.  Collins. 

Belation  of  the  Levitical  to  the  Chbistian 

Sacrifices. 

Judging  solely  bj'  the  facts  presented  by  the 


sacrificial  conceptions  of  the  two  dispensations, 
they  are  manifestly  connected,  and  that  as  the 
higher  and  the  lower  in  a  prearranged  system 
of  development.  There  is  in  Christianity  an 
evident  growth  in  reasonableness  and  freedom. 
In  Christianity  the  fetters  of  Judaism  are  snap¬ 
ped,  and  its  unintelligible  features  are  explained. 
As  Augustine  said,  “In  the  epoch  of  the  Old 
Covenant  the  New  lay  latent,  as  a  fruit  does  in 
a  root,”  or,  in  the  language  of  more  modern 
times,  we  may  say,  the  New  Testament  sacrifices 
are  antitypes  of  those  of  the  Old.  In  a  word, 
judged  by  the  definition  of  final  cause,  Christi¬ 
anity  is  the  final  cause  of  Judaism.  Cave. 

The  Mosaic  ritual  had  at  once  a  shell,  and  a 
kernel — its  shell,  the  outward  rites  and  observ¬ 
ances  it  enjoined  ;  its  kernel,  the  spiritual  rela¬ 
tions  which  these  indicated,  and  the  spiritual 
truths  which  they  embodied  and  expressed. 
Substantially  these  truths  and  relations  were, 
and  must  have  been,  the  same  for  the  Old  that 
they  are  for  the  New  Testament  worshippers, 
having  in  each  the  same  wants  and  necessities 
to  meet,  and  the  same  God  condescending  to 
meet  them.  In  that  fundamental  agreement  we 
are  to  find  the  bond  of  union  between  the  sym¬ 
bolical  institutions  of  Judaism  and  the  perma¬ 
nent  realities  of  Messiah’s  kingdom.  One  truth 
in  both— but  that  truth  existing  first  in  a  lower, 
then  in  a  higher  stage  of  development.  That 
the  rite  of  expiatory  sacrifice  was  typically  or 
prophetically  symbolical  of  the  death  of  Christ, 
is  testified  with  much  plainness  and  frequency 
in  New  Testament  Scripture.  Yet,  indepen¬ 
dently  of  this  connection  with  Christ  s  death,  it 
had  a  meaning  of  its  own,  which  it  was  possible 
for  the  ancient  worshipper  to  understand,  and, 
so  understanding,  to  present  through  it  an  ac¬ 
ceptable  service  to  God,  whether  he  might  per¬ 
ceive  or  not  the  further  respect  it  bore  to  a 
dying  Saviour.  It  was  in  its  own  nature  a  sym¬ 
bolical  transaction,  embodying  a  threefold  idea  : 
first,  that  the  worshipper,  having  been  guilty 
of  sin,  had  forfeited  his  life  to  God  ;  then,  that 
the  life  so  forfeited  must  be  surrendered  to  Di¬ 
vine  justice  ;  and  finally  that  being  surrendered 
in  the  way  appointed,  it  was  given  back  to  him 
again  by  God,  or  he  became  re-established  as  a 
justified  person  in  the  Divine  favor  and  fellow¬ 
ship.  The  complex  capital  idea  which  the  trans¬ 
action  so  impressively  symbolized,  finds  its  only 
true  realization  in  the  work  of  salvation  by  Jesus 
Christ.  For  in  him  alone  was  there  a  real  trans¬ 
ference  of  man’s  guilt  to  one  able  and  willing 
to  bear  it  ;  in  his  desth  alone,  the  surrender  of 
a  life  to  God,  such  as  could  fitly  stand  in  the 
room  of  that  forfeited  by  the  sinner  ;  and  in 


3G4 


SECTION  131.  THE  SACLILFICIAL  SYSTEM. 


f<iith  alone  on  lliat  death,  a  full  and  conscious 
appropriation  of  the  life  of  peace  and  blessing 
obtained  by  him  for  the  justifted.  8o  that  here 
only  it  IS  we  perceive  the  idea  of  a  true,  suffi¬ 
cient.  and  perfect  sacrifice  converted  into  a  liv¬ 
ing  reality — such  as  the  holy  eye  of  God,  and 
the  troubled  conscience  of  man,  can  alike  repose 
in  with  unmingled  satisfaction,  yind  while 
there  appear  precisely  the  same  elements  of 
truth  in  the  ever  recurring  sacrifices  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  in  the  one  perfect  sacrifice  cf 
the  New,  it  is  seen,  at  the  same  time,  that  what 
the  one  symbolically  represented,  the  other  act¬ 
ually  possessed  ;  what  the  one  could  only  ex¬ 
hibit  as  a  kind  of  acted  lesson  for  the  present 
relief  of  guilty  consciences,  the  other  makes 
known  to  us,  as  a  work  finallj'-  and  forever  ac¬ 
complished  for  all  who  believe  in  the  propitia¬ 
tion  of  the  cross.  P.  F. 

That  these  sacrifices  were  “  shadows  of  good 
things  to  come,”  pointing  more  orless  distinctly 
to  “the  body  which  is  of  Christ,”  the  whole 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  a  continued  proof. 
The  imposition  of  hands  upon  the  head  of  the 
victim,  the  shedding  of  its  blood,  and  the  con¬ 
sumption  of  its  members  upon  the  altar,  were 
prefigurative  acts  setting  forth  by  a  kind  of 
dramatic  representation  the  future  offering  of 
the  “  Lamb  of  God  slain  from  the  foundation  of 
the  world.”  The  requisite  qualities  of  these 
sacrificial  victims  were  emblematic  of  Christ’s 
immaculate  character,  and  the  law  of  their  ob¬ 
lation  was  a  practical  hieroglyphic  of  the  great 
Gospel  truth  of  the  atonement.  So  also  were 
the  outw’ard  w'ashings  and  purifications  enjoined 
by  the  Mosaic  Law  designed  to  intimate  the 
necessity  of  inward  purity.  If  these  institu¬ 
tions  be  severed  from  their  New  Testament  re¬ 
lations,  we  have  no  key  to  unlock  the  hidden 
meaning  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  the  whole  rit¬ 
ual  contained  in  it  dwindles  dowm  to  a  burden¬ 
some  round  of  unmeaning  ceremonies.  But 
when  regarded  in  the  light  now  suggested,  the 
w'hole  service,  like  the  veil  on  the  face  of  Moses, 
conceals  a  spiritual  radiance  under  an  outward 
covering,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  various  ap¬ 
pointments  appears  at  once  worthy  of  its  Divine 

Author.  Bush. - Scarcely  a  page  of  the  New^ 

Testament  dealing  with  events  coming  after  the 
crucifixion  fails  to  set  them  forth  in  their  sac¬ 
rificial  character  and  under  an  array  of  sacer¬ 
dotal  symbols.  The  apostles  preached  it,  wrote 
it,  reasoned  it,  exulted  in  it,  put  it  into  their 
ascriptions  and  thanksgivings.  It  was  the  fire 
and  ecsta'^y  of  their  apostleship.  Every  place 
and  utensil  of  the  old  altar  service  came  in  to 
help  the  redemptive  impression.  All  that  long, 


w'onderful,  providential  Hebrew  economy  had 
prepared  the  moulds  of  thought  and  images  of 
speech  which  are  now  taken  up,  spiritualized, 
and  filled  out.  And  the  last  voices  we  hear,  as 
the  sublime  story  of  Bevelation  ends,  and  the 
apocalyptic  visions  of  ages  sweep  away  before 
us,  are  the  voices  of  the  mighty  multitude,  say¬ 
ing,  “  Worthy  is  the  Lamb  that  wars  slain  to 
receive  power,  and  riches,  and  wisdom,  and 
strength,  and  honor,  and  glory,  and  blessing.” 
F.  D.  H. 

As  bearing  upon  the  fact  and  the  nature  of 
the  atonement,  this  bloody  ritual  has  a  most 
vital  and  impressive  significance.  No  questions 
of  deeper  and  more  vital  import  can  ever  arise 
than  such  as  these  :  Was  the  death  of  Christ  ex¬ 
piatory?  Was  his  blood  shed  for  the  sins  of 
men?  Did  he  lay  down  his  life,  an  innocent 
victim,  that  the  guilty  sinners  who  place  their 
hands  upon  his  sacred  head  and  there  confess 
their  sms  may  live  and  never  die  ?  In  a  word, 
was  his  death  foreshadow^ed  and  its  true  signifi¬ 
cance  pre- inti  mated  by  the  bloody  offerings  en¬ 
joined  in  this  Hebrew^  system  ? 

Argumentatively,  it  would  seem  thot  these 
great  questions  are  decided  forever  bj'  the  fol¬ 
lowing  considerations  :  (1)  If  the  bloody  sacri¬ 
fices  of  this  ancient  system  do  not  set  forth  the 
atoning  death  of  Christ,  they  mean  nothing  ; 
this,  or  nothing  at  all.  (2)  The  writer  to  the 
Hebrew  Christians  testifies  that  they  mean 
this.  To  give  the  proof  of  this  statement  in 
full  would  repeat  entire  the  seventh,  eighth, 
ninth,  and  tenth  chapters  of  this  epistle.  (3) 
All  the  New  Testament  writers  were  Jews  ;  men 
of  Jewish  education,  men  of  life-long  training 
in  religious  ideas  based  on  this  Hebrew^  sacri¬ 
ficial  S5'stem.  They  never  speak  of  the  purpose 
or  results  of  Christ’s  death  save  in  terms  and 
phrases  taken  from  this  system  given  through 
Moses.  Jesus  never  sj^eaks  of  his  own  death 
save  in  these  same  w'ords  and  phrases.  When 
he  speaks  of  “  giving  his  life  a  ransom  for 
many”  (Matt.  20  ;  28)  ;  when  he  said,  “  This  is 
my  blood  of  the  New  Testament  which  is  shed 
for  many  for  the  remission  of  sins  when  his 
great  forerunner  speaks  of  him  as  “  the  Lamb 
of  God  who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world  ;  ’ 
or  Peter  as  ”  bearing  our  sins  in  his  own  body 
on  the  tree  or  Paul  as  being  ”  made  a  sin- 
offering  for  us  that  we  might  be  made  the  right¬ 
eousness  of  God  in  him,”  it  is  simply  impos¬ 
sible  to  disprove  the  reference  of  these  terms 
and  phrases  to  the  Mosaic  system — impossible 
to  give  them  any  other  sense  than  that  which  is 
illustrated  in  the  bloody  death  of  the  sin-offer¬ 
ings  and  burnt-offerings  of  that  ancient  law. 


ANALOGUE  TO  THE  LORD' 8  SUPPER. 


3G5 


Thus  with  bands  which  no  sophistry  can  sever,  | 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  are  bound  to-  j 
gether,  and  the  atonement  prefigured  in  the 
former  is  embodied  and  made  perfect  in  the  lat¬ 
ter,  The  almost  ceaseless  blood-sheddings  and 
blood-sprinklings  of  the  former  culminate  in 
the  latter  in  the  one  great  scene  of  death-agony 
and  blood  on  Calvary.  The  grand  idea  of  expi¬ 
atory  suffering— of  the  vicarious  death  of  the 
innocent  in  place  of  the  guilty,  which  ages  of 
ceremonial  sacrifice  had  been  setting  forth  and 
working  into  the  minds  of  all  reverent  worship¬ 
pers,  had  prepared  the  way  for  Christ’s  disciples 
to  understand  the  mystery  of  his  bloody  death 
and  to  teach  the  Christian  world  in  the  writings 
of  the  New  Testament  how  the  blood  of  Jesus 
“  takes  away  sin."  H.  C. 

The  Sys'eni  of  Sacrifice  the  Analogue  to  the  Lord's 

Supper. 

The  world-sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ  was  a  self- 
sacrifice  of  the  highest  conceivable  import. 
And  that  one  sacrifice,  coupled  with  the  life, 
resurrection,  and  ascension  of  Jesus  Christ, 
was  in  all  its  bearings  the  most  significant  event 
that  ever  hajDi^ened  in  the  history  of  the  human 
race.  Should  not,  then,  the  world  of  all  time 
be  educated  for  that  one  great  central  “mystery  I 
of  godliness,”  the  reconciliation  of  the  world 
by  ‘  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,”  the  outward 
circumstance  of  which  was  the  life-shedding  of 
Jesus  on  Calvarj' ?  But  how  was  the  world  to 
be  educated  in  prospect  of  that  sacrifice  ?  The 
great  central  fact  to  be  taught  was — the  shed¬ 
ding  of  a  life  the  salvation  and  life  of  the  world. 
We  are  taught  now  to  look  ujjon  that  sacrifice 
at  a  meal,  because  the  atoning  power  must  al¬ 
ways  be  connected  with  the  life-giving  power. 
The  eating  of  bread  and  the  drinking  of  wine 
are  signs  distinct  enough  to  keep  the  world  in 
memory  of  the  fact  and  character  of  the  death 
of  Christ,  the  Life  of  the  woild.  The  Lord’s 
Supper  is,  moreover,  a  bridge  of  history,  taking 
us  back  by  unerj-ing  steps  to  the  hour  of  its  in¬ 
stitution,  and  the  hour  of  Christ's  agony.  We 
find  under  the  Mosaic  dispensation  the  great 
analogue  to  the  Lord’s  Supper  in  the  system  of 
sacrifice.  Then  also  the  symbol  was  connected 
with  a  meal  ;  or  had  in  every  case  at  least  some 
reference  to  food.  Except  in  the  case  of  the 
whole  burnt-offering,  either  the  priests  and  the 
offerers  of  the  sacrifice,  or  the  priests  alone, 
solemnly  ate  the  offering,  and  that  for  the  most 
part,  in  “  the  holy  place.”  Nor  was. the  animal 
sacrifice  the  only  sacrifice  :  the  ”  meal-offer¬ 
ing”  (minchah)  was  as  truly  a  sacrifice  as  the 
lamb,  part  being  also  consumed  in  the  holy  fire, 


I  and  jiart  eaten  by  the  priest.  Every  animal 
j  sacrifice  was  an  animal  or  bird  used  for  food. 
But  to  the  ritual  of  the  animal  sacrificial  meal 
was  added  a  most  elaborate  ritual  as  to  the  pre¬ 
vious  slaying  of  the  animal  itself,  and  the 
sprinkling  of  its  blood,  the  offerer  putting  his 
hand  on  the  head  of  the  victim,  and  being 
taught  to  regard  the  sacrifice  as  a  picture  of 
atonement,  the  Hebrew  idea  of  which  was  a 
covering,  or  a  hiding  of  sin  ;  and  the  blood  was 
called  the  blood  of  the  covenant.  Thus,  while 
the  lesson  of  life  by  food  is  the  same  in  the 
Lord’s  Supper  and  the  sacrificial  feast,  the  sym¬ 
bol  of  breaking  of  bread  in  token  of  the  death 
of  the  Lord’s  body  is  replaced  by  a  much  more 
powerful  symbol  in  the  slaying  of  the  animal 
that  supplies  the  feast,  and  the  solemn  sprink¬ 
ling  of  its  blood.  The  two  ordinances  are  from 
the  same  hand  ;  and  while  we  see  the  exquisite 
beauty  of  the  symbolism  in  the  commemorative 
Supper  of  the  Lord,  we  cannot  fail  to  see  the 
beauty  of  power  in  the  parallel  symbolism  of 
the  shedding  of  blood  in  the  prospective  Old 
Testament  dispensation,  the  great  sacrament  of 
the  Old  World. 

The  error  that  has  grown  up  about  the  words 
“  sacrifice,”  “  priest,”  and  “  altar,”  is  idohdry  ; 
I  that  is,  making  the  picture  more  than  a  picture. 
When  the  Jew  believed  that  the  blood  of  bulls 
and  of  goats  could  take  away  sin,  he  perverted 
the  truth  and  the  ordinance  of  God  ;  and  when 
the  Christian  holds  that  there  is  in  ihe  Lord’s 
Supper  a  jDropitiatory  sacrifice  for  the  quick  and 
the  dead  for  the  remission  of  sins,  he  eqttally 
abuses  the  truth  of  God  and  the  beauty  of  the 
ordinance.  It  is  the  confounding  of  the  inward 
spiritual  grace  in  the  sacraments  with  the  rite 
itself  that  has  been  at  the  root  of  the  chief  of 
the  religious  errors  of  mankind.  The  inward 
spiritual  grace  is  the  apprehension  and  appro¬ 
priation  by  the  intelligence  and  the  affections 
of  that  which  the  outward  observance  typifies, 
and  therefore  to  the  faithful  the  actual  recep¬ 
tion  of  its  benefit  ;  and  the  observance  itself, 
when  rightly  understood,  becomes  an  instru¬ 
ment  in  arousing  that  apprehension,  as  well  as 
a  pi  edge  .and  means,  by  virtue  of  its  institution, 
of  our  receiving  that  grace.  But  to  make  a  sac¬ 
rament  an  opus  operatum,  to  convert  the  image 
into  that  which  it  represents,  is  idolatry.  It  is 
this  astounding,  though  truly  human,  error  that 
plunged  the  ancient  world  into  heathenism,  the 
Jewish  world  into  Pharisaism,  and  the  Chris¬ 
tian  world  into  what  is  now  commonly  called 
Popery.  The  fall  of  the  intelligence  when  the 
floods  of  superstition  are  let  in  upon  the  soul 
is  great  indeed  ;  so  that  a  man  can  even  hold 


3GG 


SECTIOJY  132.  DETAILS  RESPECTING  ANIMAL  SACRIFICE. 


the  blasphemous  doctrine  that  the  blessed  Re¬ 
deemer  can  become  incarnate  in  the  sacrament¬ 
al  elements  of  bread  and  wine  in  the  hands  of 
the  priest,  and  that  it  is  necessary  for  salvation 
that  the  body,  soul,  and  divinity  of  Jesus  Christ 
should  be  digested  in  the  human  stomach. 
This  is  a  fall  sorer  th9,n  any  fall  on  record  of  the 


Jews;  however  much  we  may  pity  their  un¬ 
belief,  we  have  no  evidence  that  any  Jew  ever 
taught  that  every  Passover  lamb  and  every  vic¬ 
tim  brought  to  the  altar  was  God  incarnate  ;  and 
yet,  if  it  be  true  of  the  Christian  element  of  sac¬ 
rifice,  it  must  have  been  true  of  the  Jewish. 
R.  Collins. 


Section  132. 

DETAILS  RESPECTING  ANIMAL  SACRIFICE  ;  ANIMALS  OFFERED  ;  UNBLEMISHED  ; 
AGE  ;  TO  BE  VOLUNTARY  ;  PLACE  OF  OFFERING.  THE  LIFE  BLOOD  THE 
ESSENTIAL  FEATURE. 

Leviticus  17  :  1-16  ;  22  : 17-33.  De.  17  : 1. 

Lev.  22  17  And  the  Lobd  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  Aaron,  and  to  his  sons, 

18  and  unto  all  the  children  of  Israel,  and  say  unto  them.  Whosoever  he  be  of  the  house  of  Israel, 
or  of  the  strangers  in  Israel,  that  offereth  his  oblation,  whether  it  be  any  of  their  vows,  or  any 

19  of  their  freewill  offerings,  which  they  offer  unto  the  Lord  for  a  burnt  offering  ;  that  ye  may 
V)e  accepted,  ye  shall  offer  a  male  without  blemish,  of  the  beeves,  of  the  sheep,  or  of  the  goats. 

20  But  whatsoever  hath  a  blemish,  that  shall  ye  not  offer  :  for  it  shall  not  be  acceptable  for  you. 

21  And  whosoever  offereth  a  sacrifice  of  peace  offerings  unto  the  Lord  to  accomplish  a  vow,  or 
for  a  freewill  offering,  of  the  herd  or  of  the  flock,  it  shall  be  perfect  to  be  accepted  ;  there 

22  shall  be  no  blemish  therein.  Blind,  or  broken,  or  maimed,  or  having  a  wen,  or  scurvy,  or 
scabbed,  ye  shall  not  offer  these  unto  the  Lord,  nor  make  an  offering  by  fire  of  them  ujion  the 

23  altar  unto  the  Lord.  Either  a  bullock  or  a  lamb  that  hath  any  thing  superfluous  or  lacking 
in  his  parts,  that  mayest  thou  offer  for  a  freewill  offering  ;  but  for  a  vow  it  shall  not  bo 

24  accepted.  That  which  hath  its  stones  bruised,  or  crushed,  or  broken,  or  cut,  ye  shall  not 

25  offer  unto  the  Lord  ;  neither  shall  ye  do  ihus  in  ymur  land.  Neither  from  the  hand  of  a  for¬ 
eigner  shall  ye  offer  the  bread  of  your  God  of  any  of  these  ;  because  their  corruption  is  in 
them,  there  is  a  blemish  in  them  :  they  shall  not  be  accepted  for  you. 

De.  8  7  1  Thou  shalt  not  sacrifice  unto  the  Lord  thy  God  an  ox,  or  a  sheep,  wherein  is  a 
blemish,  or  any  evil-favouredness  :  for  that  is  an  abomination  unto  the  Lord  thy  God. 

Lev.  22  26  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  When  a  bullock,  or  a  sheep,  or  a  goat, 

27  is  brought  forth,  then  it  shall  be  seven  days  under  the  dam  ;  and  from  the  eighth  day  and 
thenceforth  it  shall  be  accepted  for  the  oblation  of  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord. 

28  And  whether  it  be  cow  or  ewe,  ye  shall  not  kill  it  and  her  young  both  in  one  day.  And  when 

29  ye  sacrifice  a  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  unto  the  Lord,  ye  shall  sacrifice  it  that  ye  may  be  ac- 

30  cepted.  On  the  same  day  it  shall  be  eaten  ;  ye  shall  leave  none  of  it  until  the  morning  ;  I  am 

31  the  Lord.  Therefore  shall  ye  keep  my  commandments,  and  do  them  f  I  am  the  Lord.  And 

32  ye  shall  not  profane  my  holy  name  ;  but  I  will  be  hallowed  among  the  children  of  Israel  :  I 

33  am  the  Lord  which  hallow  you,  that  brought  jmu  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  to  be  your  God  : 
I  am  the  Lord. 

Lev.  17  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  Aaron,  and  unto  his  sons, 

2  and  unto  all  the  children  of  Israel,  and  say  unto  them  ;  This  is  the  thing  which  the  Lord  hath 

3  commanded,  saying.  What  man  soever  there  be  of  the  house  of  Israel,  that  killeth  an  ox,  or 

4  lamb,  or  goat,  in  the  camp,  or  that  killeth  it  without  the  camp,  and  hath  not  brought  it  unto 
the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  to  offer  it  as  an  oblation  unto  the  Lord  before  the  tabernacle 
of  the  Lord  :  blood  shall  be  imputed  unto  that  man  ;  he  hath  shed  blood  ;  and  that  man 

5  shall  be  cut  off  from  among  his  people  :  to  the  end  that  the  children  of  Israel  may  bring  their 
sacrifices,  which  they  sacrifice  in  the  open  field,  even  that  they  may  bring  them  unto  the 
Lord,  unto  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  unto  the  priest,  and  sacrifice  them  for  sacrifices 

6  of  pexce  offerings  unto  the  I.iORD.  And  the  priest  shall  sprinkle  the  blood  upon  the  altar  of 
the  Lord  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  burn  the  fat  for  a  sweet  savour  unto  the 

7  Lord.  And  they  shall  no  more  sacrifice  their  sacrifices  unto  the  he-goats,  after  whom  they  go 
a  whoring.  This  shall  be  a  statute  for  ever  unto  them  throughout  their  generations, 


ANIMALS  OFFERED ;  UNBLEiJISIlED. 


367 


8  And  thou  shalt  say  unto  them,  AVliatsoever  man  there  be  of  the  house  of  Israel,  or  of  the 

9  strangers  that  sojourn  among  them,  that  ofEereth  a  burnt  offering  or  sacrifice,  and  bringeth  it 
not  unto  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  to  sacrifice  it  unto  the  Lobd  ;  even  that  man  shall 
be  cut  off  from  his  people. 

10  And  whatsoever  man  there  be  of  the  house  of  Israel,  or  of  the  strangers  that  sojourn  among 
them,  that  eateth  any  manner  of  blood  ;  I  will  set  my  face  against  that  soul  that  eateth  blood, 

11  and  will  cut  him  off  from  among  his  people.  For  the  life  of  the  flesh  is  in  the  blood  :  and  I 
have  given  it  to  you  upon  the  altar  to  make  atonement  for  your  souls  ;  for  it  is  the  blood  that 

12  maketh  atonement  by  reason  of  the  life.  Therefore  I  said  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  No  soul 
of  you  shall  eat  blood,  neither  shall  any  stranger  that  sojourneth  among  you  eat  blood. 

13  And  whatsoever  man  there  be  of  the  children  of  Israel,  or  of  tbe  strangers  that  sojourn 
among  them,  which  taketh  in  hunting  any  beast  or  fowl  that  may  be  eaten  ;  he  shall  pour  out 

14  the  blood  thereof,  and  cover  it  with  dust.  For  as  to  the  life  of  all  flesh,  the  blood  thereof  is 
all  one  with  the  life  thereof  :  therefore  I  said  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  Ye  shall  eat  the  blood 
of  no  manner  of  flesh  :,for  the  life  of  all  flesh  is  the  blood  thereof  :  whosoever  eateth  it  shall 

15  be  cut  off.  And  every  soul  that  eateth  that  which  dieth  of  itself,  or  that  which  is  torn  of 
beasts,  whether  he  be  homeborn  or  a  stranger,  he  shall  wash  his  clothes,  and  bathe  himself  in 

16  M^ater,  and  be  unclean  until  the  even  :  then  shall  he  be  clean.  But  if  he  wash  them  not,  nor 
bathe  his  flesh,  then  he  shall  bear  his  iniquitj^ 


XoTE.^ — In  accordance  with  our  plan  of  ar¬ 
rangement,  we  set  the  distinctive!}''  Ritual  Legisla- 
iion  in  a  natural  and  orderly  way,  avoiding  any 
refinement  of  classification  that  might  seem 
artificial.  Our  selected  comment  (as  through¬ 
out  the  work)  touches  only  such  facts  and  truths 
as  are  intrinsically  valuable,  because  essentially 
helpful  to  a  more  thorough  and  impressive  ap¬ 
prehension  of  the  Old  Testament  teaching.  B. 

Animals  io  he  Offered  {Lev.  22  : 17-19,  29-33). 

Of  living  creatures,  the  Hebrews  offered  only 
these  five  kinds  :  bullocks,  goats,  sheep,  turtles, 

pigeons.  B.- - Of  the  herd,  a  young  bullock, 

of  not  less  than  one  nor  more  than  three  years, 
generallv  of  the  third  vear.  Of  the  flock,  a  lamb 
or  kid,  a  male  of  the  like  age,  but  generally  of 
the  first  year.  Of  birds,  turtle-doves  or  young 

pigeons,  without  distinction  of  sex.  P.  S. - 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  these  were  all  offered 
by  Abraham  in  the  great  sacrifice  of  the  cove¬ 
nant.  The  Divine  command  was,  “  Take  me  an 
heifer  of  three  years  old,  and  a  she-goat  of 
three  years  old,  and  a  ram  of  three  years  old, 
and  a  turtle-dove  and  a  }oung  pigeon.”  Clark. 

In  cases  of  extreme  poverty,  when  the  wor¬ 
shipper  could  not  afford  a  proper  sacrifice,  the 
Law  permitted  him  to  bring  pigeons  or  turtle¬ 
doves,  the  blood  of  which  was  to  be  brought  to 
the  altar  as  that  of  the  animal  victim.  These 
doves  were  with  them  the  tame,  domesticated 
fowls,  and  in  the  feathered  tribe  corresponded 
to  sheep  and  oxen  among  animals.  No  men¬ 
tion  whatever  is  made  of  home-bred  fowls  or 
chickens  in  Old  Testament  Scripture.  P.  F. 

- The  Jews  say  this  sacrifice  of  birds  was  one 

of  the  most  difficult  services  the  priests  had  to 
do.  The  priest  would  need  to  take  as  much 


care  in  offering  this  sacrifice  as  in  any  of  the 
others  ;  to  teach  those  that  minister  in  holy 
things  to  be  as  solicitous  for  the  salvation  of  the 
souls  of  the  poor  as  of  the  rich.  The  poor 
man’s  turtle-doves  or  young  pigeons  are  here 
said  to  be  an  offering  of  a  sweet  savor,  as  much 
as  those  of  an  ox  or  a  bullock,  that  hath  horns 

and  hoofs.  H. - It  is  observable  that  the 

eagle  and  the  lion  were  not  offered  in  sacrifice 
unto  God,  but  the  lamb  and  dove,  to  denote 
that  God  regards  not  high  and  lofty  spirits  ; 
but  meek,  poor  spirits  God  will  accept.  Brooks. 

“  The  Offering  shall  he  Perfect  to  he  Accepted" 
{Lev.  22  :  20-25.  De.  15  :  21  ;  17  : 1). 

These  enactments  had  respect  to  the  quality 
of  the  sacrifices  which  were  to  be  offered  by  the 
congregation.  All  sacrifices  by  way  of  free-will 
offering  to  God,  made  either  by  Israelite  or 
proselyte,  for  thanksgiving  for  former  mercies 
or  by  way  of  vow  for  procuring  blessings  de¬ 
sired,  should  be  perfect  in  their  kind.  No  beast 
that  was  marked  by  any  apjrarent  defect,  su¬ 
perfluity,  excrescence,  deformity,  or  disease 
was  permitted  to  come  upon  the  altar.  Bush. 

All  defective  sacrifices  were  rejected,  that  the 
Israelites  might  learn  to  consecrate  themselves 
entirely  to  God.  Two  things  are  required  for 
legitimate  worship  first,  that  he  who  approaches 
God  should  be  purged  from  every  stain,  and 
secondly,  that  he  should  offer  nothing  except 
what  is  pure  and  free  from  all  imperfection. 

Calv. - God  is  to  be  served  with  our  best.  He 

rejects  the  blemished  for  his  service.  He  is  en¬ 
titled  to  our  best.  Ho  requires  it  of  us.  With¬ 
holding  it  argues  unworthy  views  of  God  and  of 
what  is  due  to  him.  It  usually  implies  con¬ 
tempt  of  God  and  hypocrisy  in  his  service  (Mai. 


368 


/SECTION  132.  DETAILS  RESPECTING  ANIMAL  SACRIFICE. 


1  : 12,  13),  Orr. - We  must  not  offer  to  God 

except  of  our  best.  It  must  be  the  noblest,  as 
for  him  who  is  noble  beyond  word  or  thought  ; 
and  it  must  be  the  noblest,  as  ennobling  us  who 
serve  him  and  making  us  more  like  himself. 
F.  \V.  Faber. 

Age  of  the  Offering  {Lev.  22  :  26-28.  De.  15  : 19). 

Three  particulars  are  here  noted  :  (1)  That 
“  from  the  eighth  day  and  thenceforth  it  shall 
be  accepted  for  an  offering,”  (2)  That  the 
mother  and  offspring  shall  not  be  offered  the 
same  day.  (3)  That  “  all  firstling  males  of  the 
herd  and  the  flock”  should  be  offered  to  Je¬ 
hovah.  B. 

19-23.  The  first  for  God.  The  first  day  of 
the  week  he  claims  and  hallows  ;  the  first-fruits 
of  the  soil  he  claims  for  religious  offering  ;  the 
first  place  in  our  affections  he  asks  as  his  due  ; 
the  first-born,  both  of  man  and  of  beast,  he 
marks  as  his  own.  This  is  his  royalty.  D.  D. 

- The  firstlings  which  were  males  were  not 

to  be  reared  for  work,  but  were  to  constitute, 
if  perfect,  a  peace-offering  before  God.  Just  as 
in  the  first-fruits  God  claimed  the  first  share  ; 
so  in  the  case  of  the  firstlings  of  the  herd  or  flock, 
and  the  first-born  among  men.  The  dedication 
of  the  perfect  firstling  pointed  to  the  conse¬ 
crated  first-born,  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  indeed 
the  first-born  of  every  creature.  To  him  the 
firstlings  and  first  born  pointed.  He  became  the 
great  peace-offering  which  makes  God  and  man 
one.  Edgar. 

27,  2S.  Before  the  eighth  day  they  were  not 
fit  for  food,  and  therefore  not  for  sacrifice, 
which  was  the  bread  or  food  of  God,  as  it  is  fre¬ 
quently  termed.  Busk. - The  dam  and  the 

young  are  not  to  be  slain  in  one  day.  Even 
the  natural  affection  of  a  brute  was  not  to  be 
wounded.  Much  less  is  our  own  sense  of  pro¬ 
priety  and  good  feeling  to  be  blunted.  This 
was  a  striking  lesson  in  much  higher  things. 
M. - This  precept  seems  to  be  confined  to  sac¬ 

rifices,  which  were  to  be  devoid  of  all  appear¬ 
ance  of  cruelty.  The  Jews  in  general  under¬ 
stand  it  as  inculcating  mercy.  The  Targum  of 
Jonathan  beautifully  ini,roduce8  the  verse  with 
this  paraphrase  :  ‘‘And  my  people,  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel,  as  our  Father  is  merciful  in 
heaven,  so  be  ye  merciful  on  earth.”  Bush. 

- All  cruelty  was  prohibited  in  the  sacrifices, 

and  in  them  the  rule  was  laid  down  that  God 
would  not  have  the  exercises  of  religion  discon¬ 
nected  from  the  duties  of  humanity.  G<dv. 

Offerings  to  he  Voluntary,  in  the  Spirit  of  Loyal 
Obed  enne  and  Revet  ent  Worship  {Lev.  22  :  29-33). 

These  solemn  injunctions,  with  the  sublime 


appeal,  “  /  am  Jehoxmhf'  are  in  substance  re¬ 
peated  again  and  again  throughout  the  entire 
ritual  legislation.  At  every  point  they  empha¬ 
size  the  great  fact  that  the  true  use  and  worth 
of  the  rite  lay  in  the  spirit  of  devotion  which 
prompted  the  external  act.  B. 

32,  33,  Ye  are  to  hallow  me  in  all  your  offer¬ 
ings  and  proceedings.  And  ye  have  the  most 
powerful  motives  as  well  as  the  most  cheering 
encouragements  to  aim  at  this  object,  “  I  am 
the  Lord,”  the  God  of  covenant  and  of  salva¬ 
tion.  This  is  an  all-powerful  motive.  ”  Who 
brought  you  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  to  be  your 
God  ”  Here  is  another  overwhelming  motive, 
I  have  delivered  you  from  bondage  ;  I  am  your 
God.  “  Who  hallow  you.”  Here  is  both  motive 
and  encouragement  ;  encouragement,  because 
he  who  is  hallowed  of  God  is  thereby  endowed 
with  a  new  life  and  enabled  to  glorify  God  in 
all  things.  The  appeal  is  closed  with  the  ani¬ 
mating  watchword,  ”  I  am  the  Lord.”  M, 

All  Sacrifices  to  be  Offered  in  the  Court  of  the  Tab¬ 
ernacle  {Lev.  17  : 1-9). 

It  is  an  emphatic  declaration  of  the  Divine 
will  as  to  the  place  where  all  sacrificial  offerings 
should  be  made.  As  God  designed  there  should 
bo  one  altar,  one  high-priest,  one  sanctuary, 
and  one  commonwealth  of  Israel,  this  unity  of 
the  nation  and  the  religion  would  be  destroyed 
if  various  altars  and  priests,  and  various  places 

of  offerings,  were  allowed.  Bush. - It  was  of 

the  greatest  consequence  for  a  people  just  re¬ 
leased  from  heathen  bondage,  like  the  Isi'aelites, 
that  it  should  possess  only  one  sacred  place. 
There  was  nothing  so  likely  to  promote  the 
pol3dheism  of  nature-worship  as  that  every 
place  should  be  regarded  as  holy,  according  to 
its  natural  peculiarities,  its  situation,  its  his¬ 
torical  associations,  the  customs  of  its  inhabi¬ 
tants,  nay,  even  according  to  the  prevailing 
different  notions  of  the  Divine  Being.  By  these 
means  a  multitude  of  deities  would  be  pro¬ 
duced.  Without  unity  of  worship  the  people, 
so  long  as  without  a  king,  could  not  be  kept  to¬ 
gether  as  one  State.  And  so  in  after  times  this 
“sacrificing  on  high  places”  always  was  the 
beginning  of  apostasy  to  false  worship.  Gerl. 

- This  precaution  was  the  more  reasonable, 

because  in  ancient  times  it  was  common  to  make 
an  offering  of  the  flesh  it  was  intended  to  eat. 
And  hence  arose  a  suspicion  that  whoever  killed 
animals,  usually  devoted  to  the  altar,  offered 
them  of  course  ;  and  therefore  Moses  enjoined 
them  not  to  kill  such  animals  otherwise  than  in 
public,  and  to  offer  them  all  to  the  true  God  ; 
that  so  it  might  be  out  of  their  power  to  make 


THE  LIFE  BLOOD  THE  ESSENTIAL  FEATURE. 


369 


them  offerings  to  idols  by  slaughtering  them 
jjrivately,  and  under  the  pretence  of  using  them 
for  food  Mabnonides. 

The  Jewish  writers  say,  “  Before  the  taber¬ 
nacle  was  set  up,  the  high  places  were  lawful  ; 
and  the  service  was  bv  the  first-born  ;  after  the 
tabernacle  was  erected,  the  high  places  were 
unlawful,  and  the  service  was  performed  by  the 
priests,”  This  limitation  as  to  the  place  of 
worship  is  graciously  done  away  under  the  Gos¬ 
pel  (Mai.  1  : 11),  “  My  name  shall  be  great  among 
the  Gentiles,  and  in  every  place  incense  shall 
be  offered  unto  my  name,  and  a  pure  offering.” 

Bush. - Note. — For  the  modification  of  this 

law  by  Moses  just  before  the  entrance  of  the 
nation  into  the  promised  land,  see  De.  12.  B. 

The  Life  Blood  the  Essential  Feature  of 
Animal  Sacrifice. 

Lev.  17  : 10-16. 

This  central  truth  of  the  sacrificial  ritual  is 
here  disclosed  in  connection  with  a  prohibition 
of  blood  as  food  (verse  10).  Two  reasons  are 
given  for  the  prohibition  :  First,  that  the  blood 
is  the  vital  element,  “the  life  of  all  flesh 
secondly,  that  “it  is  the  blood  that  maketh 
atonement  for  the  soul  ”  (verse  11).  The  pro¬ 
hibition  is  repeated  (verses  12,  13),  and  the  first 
reason  is  twice  stated  (verse  14),  with  threaten¬ 
ing  of  penalty.  To  this  is  added  an  injunction 
against  eating  that  which  died  naturally  or  by 
violence  (verses  15,  16).  And  the  prohibition 
of  blood  as  food  is  strongly  emphasized  in  the 
parting  address  of  Moses  (De.  12  ;  16,  23-26  ; 
15  : 23).  B. 

Licv.  17  :  II.  ILife  i§  in  tlic  blood. 

There  are  three  words  relating  to  the  constitu¬ 
tion  of  man  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  three 
corresponding  ones  in  the  New  Testament  :  (1) 
chay,  vVa,  denoting  life,  as  opposed  to 

death  ;  (2)  nephesh,  ipvxv,  anima,  the  soul,  as  dis¬ 
tinguished  from  the  body  ;  the  individual  life 
either  in  man  or  beast,  whether  united  to  the 
body  during  life  (chny),  or  separated  from  the 
body  after  death  ;  observe  the  expression  “  liv¬ 
ing  soul’’  (Gen.  2:7);  (3)  ruach,  Trvevfia,  spir- 
itus,  the  spirit,  that  which  is  opposed  to  the 
flesh,  and  is  distinguished  from  the  life  of  the 
flesh  ;  the  highest  element  in  man,  that  which, 
in  its  true  condition,  holds  communion  with 
God  (Bom.  8  : 4,  5,  6).  The  soul  (nephf'sh)  has 
its  abode  in  the  blood  as  long  as  life  lasts.  In 
verse  14  the  soul  is  identified  with  the  blood,  as 
it  is  in  Gen.  9:4;  De.  12  : 23.  That  the  blood 
is  rightly  thus  distinguished  from  all  other  con¬ 
stituents  of  the  body  is  acknowledged  by  the 
highest  authorities  in  physiology.  “It  is  the 
24 


fountain  of  life  (says  Harvey),  the  first  to  live, 
and  the  last  to  die,  and  the  primary  seat  of  the 
animal  soul  ;  it  lives  and  is  nourished  of  itself, 
and  by  no  other  part  of  the  human  body.’’ 
John  Hunter  inferred  that  it  is  the  seat  of  life, 
because  all  the  parts  of  the  frame  are  formed 
and  nourished  from  it.  “  And  if  (says  he)  it 
has  not  life  previous  to  this  operation,  it  must 
then  acquire  it  in  the  act  of  forming  ;  for  we 
all  give  our  assent  to  the  existence  of  life  in  the 
parts  when  once  formed.”  Milne  Edwards  ob¬ 
serves  that,  “if  an  animal  be  bled  till  it  falls 
into  a  state  of  syncope,  and  the  further  loss  of 
blood  is  not  prevented,  all  muscular  motion 
quickly  ceases,  respiration  is  suspended,  the 
heart  pauses  from  its  action,  life  is  no  longer 
manifested  by  any  outward  sign,  and  death  soon 
becomes  inevitable  ;  but  if,  in  this  state,  the 
blood  of  another  animal  of  the  same  species  be 
injected  into  the  veins  of  the  one  to  all  appear¬ 
ance  dead,  we  see  with  amazement  this  inani¬ 
mate  body’^  return  to  life,  gaining  accessions  of 
vitality  with  each  new  quantity’’  of  blood  that 
is  introduced,  by  and  by'^  beginning  to  breathe 
freely,  moving  with  ease,  and  finally  walking  as 
it  was  wont  to  do,  and  recovering  completely.” 
The  knowledge  of  the  ancients  on  the  subject 
may  indeed  have  been  based  on  the  mere  ob¬ 
servation  that  an  animal  loses  its  life  when  it 
loses  its  blood.  But  it  may  deepen  our  sense 
of  the  wisdom  and  significance  of  the  Law  of 
Moses  to  know  that  the  fact  which  it  sets  forth 
so  distinctly  and  consistently,  and  in  such 
pregnant  connection,  is  so  clearly  recognized  by 

modern  scientific  research.  Clark. - It  was  a. 

fundamental  axiom  :  “  The  life  of  the  flesh  is 
in  the  blood  ;”  or,  “  The  blood  is  the  soul 
soul  and  blood  were  correlative  notions. 
Hence  dying  was  expressed  by’^  “  pouring  out 
the  soul  ;”  to  ‘‘shed  blood’’  meant  to  destroy 
life  ;  the  blood  and  the  soul  of  the  murdered 
were  said  alike  to  cry^  to  heaven  for  vengeance  ; 
“  pure  blood  ”  became  synonymous  with  “  a 
pure  soul,’’  and  even  the  combination,  “  the 
soul  of  pure  blood,”  was  formed  to  denote  a 
guiltless  person.  Kalisch. ' 

I  have  ^iven  U  la  yoa  upon  the 
altar.  These  words  preclude  any  supersti¬ 
tious  notion  that  there  was  atoning  virtue  in  the 
blood  itself.  It  had  a  natural  fitness  to  express 
a  truth  and  was  therefore  the  symbol  chosen  by 
Divine  wisdom  for  use  upon  the  altar.  Clark. 

- In  this  declaration,  first,  God  appears  as 

the  Author  of  the  atoning  ordinance.  If  there 
be  not  in  this  statement  an  express  intimation 
of  the  Divine  origin  of  sacrifice,  there  is  at 
least  a  full  confirmation  of  the  arguments  de- 


370 


SECTION  132.  THE  LIFE  BLOOD  THE  ESSENTIAL  FEATURE. 


ducible  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  which 
would  preclude  any  other  supposition.  The 
words,  “  I  have  given  it  to  you,”  are  parallel  as 
far  as  the  Divine  ordination  is  concerned  with 
the  first  promise  of  redemption  (Gen.  3),  onl}^ 
that  now  there  is  a  fuller  disclosure  of  the  plan 
by  which  that  purpose  shall  be  accomplished. 
D.  M. 

It  i§  tlic  ll>loocl  tliat  maketli  atone¬ 
ment  l)y  reason  of  tke  life.  The  grand 
rehson  of  the  singular  jDlace  which,  in  the  hand¬ 
writing  of  Moses,  is  assigned  to  sacrifice  by 
blood,  is  that  expressed  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  where  it  is  said,  that  “  without  shed¬ 
ding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission  of  sins,” 
consequently  no  jieace  or  fellowship  with  God 
for  the  sinner.  It  is  not  the  matter  of  the  blood 
that  atones,  but  the  soul  or  life  which  resides  ! 
in  it  ;  so  that  the  soul  of  the  offered  victim 
atones  for  the  soul  of  the  man  who  offers  it. 
This  passage  is  intended  simply  to  pi o vide  an 
answer  to  two  questions  :  Why  they  should  not 
eat  blood?— viz.,  because  the  blood  w^as  ap¬ 
pointed  by  God  for  making  an  atonement. 
And,  why  should  blood  have  been  apjiointed 
for  this  purpose  ? — viz.,  because  the  soul  or  life 
is  there,  and  hence  is  most  suitably  taken  for 
the  soul  or  life  of  man  forfeited  by  sin.  This 
is  also  the  only  sense  of  the  passage  that  can  be 
grammatically  justified.  In  the  institution  of 
sacrifice,  God  mercifully  appoints  a  substitute 
-  the  soul  or  life  of  a  beast,  for  the  soul  or  life 
of  the  transgressor  ;  and  as  the  seat  of  life  is  in 
the  blood,  so  the  blood  of  the  beast,  its  life¬ 
blood,  was  given  to  be  shed  in  death,  and  served 
up  on  the  altar  of  God,  in  the  room  of  that  other 
and  higher  but  guilty  life,  wdrich  had  become 
due  to  Divine  justice.  AVhen  this  w^as  done, 
when  the  blood  of  the  slain  victim  was  poured 
out  or  sprinkled  upon  the  altar,  and  thereby 
given  up  to  God,  the  sinner’s  guilt  was  atoned 
(covered)  ;  a  screen,  as  it  were,  was  thrown  be- 
tw^een  the  eye  of  God  and  his  guilt,  or  between 
his  own  soul  and  the  penalty  due  to- his  trans¬ 
gression.  In  other  wmrds,  a  life  that  had  not 
been  forfeited  was  accepted  in  the  room  of  the 
sinner’s  that  teas  forfeited  ;  and  this  was  yield¬ 
ed  back  to  him  as  now  again  a  life  in  peace 
and  fellowship  with  God— a  life  out  of  death. 
P.  F. 

If  we  represent  to  ourselves  the  whole  work 
of  redemption,  in  allusion  to  this  rite,  it  will  be 
as  follows  :  The  expiation  of  one  and  of  all  sin, 
the  propitiation,  was  accomplished  when  Christ 
offered  his  blood  to  God  on  the  altar  of  the  ac¬ 
cursed  tree.  That  done,  he  went  with  his  blood 
into  the  most  holy  place.  Whosoever  looks  in 


faith  to  his  blood  has  part  in  the  atonement 
(Rom.  3  : 25)  ;  that  is,  he  is  justified  on  account 
of  it,  receiving  the  full  pardon  of  all  his  sins 
(Rom  5:9).  Thenceforth  he  can  appear  with 
the  whole  community  of  believers  (1  John  1  :  7j, 
full  of  boldness  and  confidence  before  the 
throne  of  grace  (Heb.  4  ;  16),  in  order  that  he 
may  be  purified  by  Christ,  as  high-priest,  from 
every  evil  lust.  Steiger. 

In  what  conceivable  light  can  we  view  this 
institution  of  sacrifice,  but  in  relation  to  that 
great  sacrifice  which  was  to  make  atonement  for 
sins  ;  to  that  “  blood  of  sprinkling”  which  was 
to  speak  “  better  things  than  that  of  Abel,” 
or  that  of  the  Law  ?  The  offering  up  of  an  animal 
cannot  be  imagined  to  have  had  any  intrinsic 
efficacy  in  procuring  pardon  for  the  transgression 
!  of  the  offerer.  Still  less  intelligible  is  the  ap¬ 
plication  of  the  blood  of  the  victim  to  the  purify¬ 
ing  of  the  parts  of  the  tabernacle,  and  the  appara¬ 
tus  of  ceremonial  worship.  All  this  can  have  had 
no  other  than  an  instituted  meaning  ;  and  can  he 
understood  only  in  reference  to  some  blood- 
shedding,  which  in  an  eminent  degree  possess¬ 
ed  the  power  of  purifying  from  pollution.  In 
short,  admit  the  sacrifice  of  Christ  to  be  held  in 
view  in  the  institutions  of  the  Law,  and  every 
part  is  jDlain  and  intelligible  ;  reject  that  notion, 
and  every  theory  devised  by  the  ingenuity  of 
man  to  explain  the  nature  of  the  ceremonial 
worship  becomes  trifling  and  inconsistent. 
Magee. 

We  associate  blood  wuth  death.  But  the  Jews 
associated  it  with  life.  The  idea  of  death  was 
in  the  killing  of  the  animal  ;  and  the  sprinkling 
of  the  blood  upon  the  altar  meant  the  dedica¬ 
tion  to  God  of  a  life  which  had  been  reached 
through  death.  “  Dead  unto  sin  such  was 
the  idea  connected  with  the  slain  animal. 
“Alive  unto  God:”  such  was  the  idea  con¬ 
nected  with  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  upon 
the  altar.  Thus,  while  penitence  is  the  prom¬ 
inent  feature  of  the  presentation  and  the  kill¬ 
ing,  faith  is  prominent  in  the  sprinkling  of  the 

blood.  J.  M.  G. - No  heathen  nation  had 

such  ideas  about  human  sin  and  Divine  grace 
as  had  the  people  of  Israel,  so  that  it  was  only 
in  this  nation  that  the  blood  assumed  this 
unique  and  exalted  significance,  and  only  there 
that  it  became  the  centre  of  the  whole  sacrificial 
procedure.  Ewald. 

At  this  point  we  encounter  an  objection  which 
appears  very  strong  to  modern  “  culture.”  We 
admit  that  there  was  much  connected  with  the 
ritual  of  the  altar  of  a  revolting  nature  ;  hut 
why  ?  Do  we  not  need  to  be  taught  that  sin  is 


/ 


SECTIOKf  183.  BOOK  OF  LEVITICUS. 


a  revolting  thing?  Greece  had  abundance  of 
the  finest  culture.  There  was  everything  to 
please  the  eye  in  her  temples  and  monuments  ; 
but  think  of  the  corruption  in  Greek  heaits, 
think  of  the  abominations  of  Greek  society  ! 
In  the  Jewi.sh  worship  there  were  plain  truths 
plainly  and  even  roughly  taught  ;  and  what  was 
the  consequence  ?  A  nation,  as  Matthew  Arnold 
so  fully  brings  out,  that  stood  alone  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth  as  a  witness  for  righteous¬ 
ness  and  purity  in  personal  and  social  life.  In¬ 
tellectual  and  aesthetic  culture,  without  the 
stern  foundation  of  good  morals,  hatred  of  sin 
and  love  of  holiness,  jeroduces  mere  “  whited 
sepulchres,  beautiful  without,  while  within 


o  rvi 
O  i  1 

they  are  full  of  dead  men’,s  bones  and  all  un¬ 
cleanness.”  The  true  answer  to  the  objection 
which  a  superficially  refintd  taste  luings against 
the  barbarity  of  the  Hebrew  worshi]!,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  outcome  of  it,  first,  in  the  Hebrew 
character  for  morality  and  puritv,  in  contrast 
with  the  heathen  nations  of  the  lime  ;  and  next 
in  the  whole  tone  and  tenor  of  the  Hebrew  lit¬ 
erature,  which  we  can  with  all  appropriateness 
call  “  the  holy  writings."  J.  M.  G - Never¬ 

more  shall  we  get  rid  of  blood.  There  was  a 
mystery  about  its  being  sprinkled  on  the  door¬ 
posts  in  Egypt — a  mystery  about  the  paschal 
lamb — that  mystery  will  follow  us  to  the  end, 
and  reappear  in  a  heavenly  anthem.  J.  P. 


Section  133. 

THE  BOOK  OF  LEVITICUS.  NAMES  AND  OKDEK  OP  THE  CHIEF  OFFERINGS.  THE 

BURNT -OFFERING. 

Leviticus  1  : 1-17  ;  6  : 8-13. 

Lev.  1  1  And  the  Loed  called  unto  Moses,  and  spake  unto  him  out  of  the  tent  of  meeting, 

2  saying.  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and  say  unto  them,  When  any  man  of  you  offereth 
an  oblation  unto  the  Loed,  ye  shall  offer  your  oblation  of  the  cattle,  even  of  the  herd  and  of 
the  flock. 

3  If  his  oblation  be  a  burnt  offering  of  the  herd,  he  shall  offer  it  a  male  without  blemish  :  he 
shall  offer  it  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  that  he  may  be  accepted  before  the  Loed. 

4  And  he  shall  lay  his  hand  upon  the  head  of  the  burnt  offering  ;  and  it  shall  be  accepted  for 

5  him  to  make  atonement  for  him.  And  he  shall  kill  the  bullock  before  the  Loed  :  and  Aaron’s 
sons,  the  priests,  shall  present  the  blood,  and  sprinkle  the  blood  round  about  upon  the  altar 

G  that  is  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting.  And  he  shall  flay  the  burnt  offering,  and  cut  it 

7  into  its  pieces.  And  the  sons  of  Aaron  the  priest  shall  put  fire  upon  the  altar,  and  la}^  wood 

8  in  order  upon  the  fire  ;  and  Aaron’s  sons,  the  priests,  shall  lay  the  pieces,  the  head,  and  the 

9  fat,  in  order  upon  the  wood  that  is  on  the  fire  which  is  upon  the  altar  :  but  its  inwards  and 
its  legs  shall  he  wash  with  water  :  and  the  priest  shall  burn  the  whole  on  the  altar,  for  a  burnt 
offering,  an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Loed. 

10  And  if  his  oblation  be  of  the  flock,  of  the  sheep,  or  of  the  goats,  for  a  burnt  offering  ;  he 

11  shall  offer  it  a  male  without  blemish.  And  he  shall  kill  it  on  the  side  of  the  altar  northward 
before  the  Loed  :  and  Aaron’s  sons,  the  priests,  shall  sprinkle  its  blood  upon  the  altar  round 

12  about.  And  he  shall  cut  it  into  its  pieces,  with  its  head  and  its  fat  ;  and.  the  priest  shall  lay 

13  them  in  order  on  the  wood  that  is  on  the  lire  which  is  upon  the  altar  :  but  the  inwards  and  * 
the  legs  shall  he  wash  with  water  ;  and  the  priest  shall  offer  the  whole,  and  burn  it  upon  the 
altar  :  it  is  a  burnt  offering,  an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Loed. 

14  And  if  his  oblation  to  the  Loed  be  a  burnt  offering  of  fowls,  then  he  shall  offer  his  oblation 

15  of  turtledoves,  or  of  young  pigeons.  And  the  priest  shall  bring  it  unto  the  altar,  and  wring 
off  its  head,  and  burn  it  on  the  altar  ;  and  the  blood  thereof  shall  be  drained  out  on  the  side 

IG  of  the  altar  ;  and  he  shall  take  away  its  crop  with  the  filth  thereof,  and  cast  it  beside  the  altar 

17  on  the  east  part,  in  the  place  of  the  ashes  :  and  he  shall  rend  it  by  the  winds  thereof,  hut  shall 
not  divide  it  asunder  ;  and  the  priest  shall  burn  it  upon  the  altar,  upon  the  wood  that  is  upon 
the  fire  :  it  is  a  burnt  offering,  an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Loed. 

0  8  And  the  Loed  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Command  Aaron  and  his  sons,  saying.  This  is 

9  the  law  of  the  burnt  offering  :  the  burnt  offering  shall  be  on  the  hearth  upon  the  altar  all 

10  night  unto  the  morning  ;  and  the  fire  of  the  altar  shall  bo  kept  burning  thereon.  And  the 
priest  shall  put  on  his  linen  garment,  and  his  linen  breeches  shall  he  put  upon  his  flesh  ;  and 


372 


SECTION  138.  THE  BOOK  OF  LEVITICUS. 


he  shall  take  tip  the  ashes  whereto  the  fire  hath  consumed  the  burnt  offering  on  the  altar,  and 

11  he  shall  put  them  beside  the  altar.  And  he  shall  put  off  his  garments,  and  put  on  other  gar- 

12  ments,  and  carry  forth  the  ashes  without  the  camp  unto  a  clean  jtlace.  And  the  fire  upon  the 
altar  shall  be  kept  burning  thereon,  it  shall  not  go  out  ;  and  the  priest  shall  burn  wood  on  it 
every  morning  :  and  he  shall  lay  the  burnt  offering  in  order  upon  it,  and  shall  burn  thereon 

13  the  fat  of  the  peace  offerings.  Fire  shall  be  kept  burning  upon  the  altar  continually  ;  it  shall 
not  go  out. 


The  Book  oe  Leviticus. 

The  Greek  version  of  the  Septuagint,  and 
the  Vulgate  Latin,  have  given  the  title  of  Le¬ 
viticus  to  the  third  book  of  the  Pentateuch  ; 
and  the  name  has  been  retained  in  almost  all 
the  modern  versions.  The  book  was  thus 
called,  because  it  treats  principally  of  the  laws 
and  regulations  of  the  Levites,  and  priests  in 
general.  In  Hebrew  it  is  termed  VayiJcra, 
“  And  he  called,”  which  is  the  first  word  in  the 
book  ;  and  which,  as  in  preceding  cases,  be¬ 
came  ihe  running  title  to  the  whole.  It  con¬ 
tains  an  account  of  the  ceremonies  to  be  ob¬ 
served  in  the  offering  of  burnt  sacrifices  ;  meal, 
peace,  and  sin  offerings  ;  the  consecration  of 
priests,  together  with  the  institution  of  the 
grand  national  festivals  of  the  Jews,  Passovee, 
Pentecost,  and  Tabeenacles  ;  with  a  great 
variety  of  other  ecclesiastical  matters.  A,  C. 

Leviticus  has  no  pretension  to  systematic  ar¬ 
rangement  as  a  whole,  nor  does  it  apjiear  to 
have  been  oiiginally  written  all  at  one  time. 
Kepetitions  occur  in  it  ;  and  in  many  instances 
certain  particulars  are  separated  from  others 
with  which,  by  the  subject-matter,  they  are  im¬ 
mediately  connected.  The  fragmentary  w^ay  in 
which  the  Law  has  been  recorded,  regarded  in 
connection  wdth  the  perfect  harmony  of  its 
spirit  and  details,  maj^  tend  to  confirm  both  the 
unity  of  the  authorship  of  the  books  in  which 
it  is  contained,  and  the  true  inspiration  of  the 
Lawgiver,  Clark. 

Leviticus  is  the  book  of  Old  Testament  wor¬ 
ship,  In  Exodus  there  were  two  grand  themes  : 
first,  Israel  brought  out  of  Egypt  to  meet  with 
God  ;  and  then,  God  descending  from  his  holy 
heaven  to  meet  with  them  (on  Sinai)  and  to 
dwell  with  them  (in  the  tabernacle).  And  now 
that  God  dwells  among  his  people,  it  is  neces¬ 
sary  that  they  should  be  well  informed  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  they  may  with  acceptance 
draw  near  to  him.  Such  is  the  object  and  in¬ 
tent  of  the  Book  of  Leviticus.  Think  how  much 
labor  is  spent  in  the  study  of  the  classical  my¬ 
thology  at  our  schools  and  universities,  not  for 
any  value  there  is  in  itself,  but  for  the  light  it 
throws  upon  classical  literature  ;  and  yet  how 
little  do  Christian  people  realize  the  importance 
of  studying  the  modes  of  worship  among  the 


Jews,  in  order  to  understand  their  literature, 
which  is  our  Bible.  And  besides,  not  only  is 
the  knowledge  of  the  tabernacle  worship  neces¬ 
sary  in  order  to  understand  the  sacred  litera¬ 
ture,  but  it  is  of  real  value  in  itself  ;  not  merely 
of  antiquarian  and  psj’chological  value,  like  the 
ancient  mythologies,  but  of  present  practical 
value,  as  throwing  light  upon  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  and  illustrating  that  Gospel  on  which  our 
hopes  are  founded.  J.  M.  G. 

Names  and  Oedee  of  the  Chief  Offeeings. 

The  various  forms  of  offering  ;  The  burnt- 
offering,  self-dedicatory.  The  meal-oft’ering 
(unbloody).  The  peace  offering  (bloody),  eucha- 
ristic.  The  sin-offering  and  the  trespassing-offer- 
ing,  expiatory.  In  the  consecration  of  Aaron 
and  his  sons  we  find  these  offered  in  what  be¬ 
came  ever  afterward  the  appointed  order  :  first 
came  the  sin-offering,  to  prepare  access  to  God  ; 
next,  the  burnt-offering,  to  mark  their  dedica¬ 
tion  to  his  service  ;  and  thirdly,  the  meal-offer¬ 
ing  of  thanksgiving.  Henceforth,  the  sacrifi¬ 
cial  system  was  fixed  in  all  its  parts,  until  He 
should  come  whom  it  typified.  It  is  to  be 
noticed  that  the  Law  of  Leviticus  takes  the  rite 
of  sacrifice  for  granted,  and  is  directed  chiefly 
to  guide  and  limit  its  exercise.  Die.  B. 

The  natural  order  of  victims  in  the  sacrificial 
service  of  the  Law  was»  first  the  sin-offering, 
then  the  burnt-offering,  and  last  the  peace-offer¬ 
ing.  This  answers  to  the  spiritual  process 
through  which  the  worshipper  had  to  pass.  He 
had  transgressed  the  Law,  and  he  needed  the 
atonement  signified  by  the  sin-offering  ;  if  his 
offering  had  been  made  in  truth  and  sincerity, 
he  could  then  offer  himself  to  the  Lord  as  an 
accepted  person,  as  a  sweet  savor,  in  the  burnt- 
offering  ;  and  in  virtue  of  this  acceptance,  he 
could  enjoy  communion  with  the  Lord  and  with 

his  brethren  in  the  peace-offering.  Clark. - - 

Of  the  order  observed  when  the  offerings  were 
presented  in  series  we  have  a  good  example  in 
Lev,  9  ;  15-18  :  “And  he  brought  the  people’s 
offering,  and  took  the  goat,  which  was  the  sin- 
offering  for  the  people,  and  slew  it,  and  offered 
it  for  sin,  as  the  first.  And  he  brought  the 
hurnt-qffering,  and  offered  it  according  to  the 
manner.  And  he  brought  the  meal-offering,  and 


THE  BURNT-OFFERING. 


3;3 


filled  his  hand  out  o£  it,  and  burnt  it  upon  the 
altar,  beside  the  burnt  sacrifice  of  the  morning. 
He  slew  also  the  bullock  and  the  ram  for  a  sac¬ 
rifice  of  peuce-<i(ferin(js."  Here  we  have  the 
logical,  as  the  order  in  Lev.  (ch.  1  to  7)  was 
the  historical  order.  The  sin-offering  (or  tres¬ 
pass-offering,  as  the  case  might  be)  came  first  ; 
then  the  burnt-offering  w  ith  its  associated  meal¬ 
offering  ;  and  finally  the  peace-offering.  This 
gives  us  three  main  sacrifices  :  the  sin-offering, 
the  biirnt-offeiing,  the  peace  offering.  The 
burnt-off'ering  occupied  the  central  position,  hav¬ 
ing  as  its  antecedent  the  sin-offering,  and  as  its 
consequent  the  peace-offering.  The  essential 
significance  of  the  burnt-offering  is  dedication 
on  the  part  of  man  and  acceptance  on  the  part 
of  God.  The  antecedent  of  this  dedication  and 
acceptance  is  atonement.  Hence  the  sin-offer¬ 
ing  preceded  the  burnt-offering.  What  is  the 
consequence  of  this  dedication  and  acceptance? 
Peace  with  God  and  joy  in  his  salvation.  Hence 
the  peace-offering  follow’ed  the  burnt-offering. 
Here  we  have  a  complete  and  orderly  system  of 
saving  truth,  beginning  with  the  exceeding  evil 
of  sin,  and  ending  with  the  surpassing  joys  of 
fellowship  with  God.  Verily,  there  was  far 
more  of  true  value  for  the  world  in  the  Hebrew 
ritual  of  the  altar  than  in  all  Greek  philosophy 
or  classic  art.  There  was  in  it,  there  is  in  it 
still,  when  read  not  in  “  the  letter  which  kill- 
eth,”  but  according  to  “  the  spirit  which  giveth 
life,”  a  mighty  power  that  makes  for  righteous¬ 
ness.  J.  M.  G. 

The  Buent-Offeeing. 

Lev.  1  : 1-17  ;  6  : 8-13. 

Lev.  1:1.  And  tlie  Lord  called 
unto  ]tlose§,  and  §pake  unto  liiiii  out 
of  tlie  tent  of  ineetin^.  God  could  have 
spoken  these  laws  to  the  children  of  Israel  him¬ 
self,  as  he  did  the  Ten  Commandments  ;  but 
he  chose  to  deliver  them  by  Moses,  because 
they  had  desired  he  w'ould  no  more  speak  to 
them  himself,  and  he  had  designed  that  Moses 
should,  above  all  the  prophets,  be  a  tjpe  of 
Christ,  by  whom  God  would  in  these  last  days 
speak  to  us  (Heb.  1  : 1).  By  other  prophets 
God  sent  messages  to  his  people,  but  by  Moses 
he  gave  them  laws  ;  and  therefore  he  was  fit  to 
typify  Him  to  whom  the  Father  has  given  all 
judgment.  H. - The  tent  of  meeting  here  re¬ 

ferred  to  was  the  earlier  tent  spoken  of  in  Ex. 
33  :  7.  It  could  not  have  been  the  tabernacle,  as 
that  was  erected  but  a  short  time  before  the 
march  from  Sinai  began.  The  disclosures  in 
this  book  must  have  reasonably  required  the 
long  period  of  six  months,  during  which  the  tab¬ 


ernacle  and  its  furniture  were  being  prepared, 
for  their  reception  and  record  b}^  Moses.  B. 

2.  Any  man  olferetli.  The  owner  must 
offer  it  of  ids  voluntary  will.  What  is  done  in 
religion  so  as  to  please  God,  must  be  done  by 
no  other  constraint  than  that  of  love.  God  ac¬ 
cepts  the  willing  people  and  the  cheerful  giver. 
Ainsworth  and  others  read  it,  not  as  the  prin¬ 
ciple  but  as  the  end  of  offering  ;  “  Let  him 
offer  it  for  his  favorable  acceptation  before  the 
Lord.  Let  him  propose  this  to  himself  as  his 
end  in  bringing  his  sacrifice,  and  let  his  eye  be 
fixed  steadily  upon  that  end— that  he  may  be 
accepted  of  the  Lord.”  Those  only  shall  find 
acceptance  who  sincerely  desire  and  design  it 
in  all  their  religious  services  (2  Cor.  5  :  9).  H. 

Your  oblation  of  the  cattle  (even), 
of  the  herd  and  of  the  floek.  The 
term  “  cattle”  here  is  generic,  including  the 
“  herd  ”  and  the  “  flock  ”  mentioned  in  connec¬ 
tion.  The  Heb.  term  Izon,  flock,  comprehends 
both  sheep  and  goats,  as  is  evident  from  verse 
10.  Bush. - This  was  the  first  rule  of  obedi¬ 

ence,  that  men  should  not  offer  promiscuously 
this  or  that  victim,  but  bulls  or  bull-calves  of 
their  herds,  and  male  lambs  or  kids  of  their 
flocks.  Calv. 

3.  Burnt-oft'ering’.  ’  The  original  term 
for  burnt-qfering,  oldh,  comes  from  the  root, 
dldh,  to  ascend.  It  is  so  called  because  it  was 
laid  whole  on  the  altar,  and  then  being  con¬ 
sumed  by  fire,  the  greatest  part  of  it  ascended 
toward  heaven.  Its  equivalents  in  other  Ian 
guages  all  convey  the  idea  of  a  fire- offering  wh'illy 
consumed,  which  is  also  clearly  intimated  b}'  the 
Latin  word  “  holocaustum,”  holocaust.  The 
sacrifice  consisted  in  the  immolating  of  a  male 
animal  victim,  which  was  sometimes  a  bull  of 
three  years  old,  sometimes  a  sheep  or  goat  of 
one  year  old,  and  sometimes,  but  more  rarely, 
a  turtle-dove,  or  young  pigeon.  But  wheth¬ 
er  it  were  bullock,  ram,  or  goat,  one  thing  was 
indispensable — it  was  to  be  perfect  in  its 
kind,  “  a  male  without  blemish.”  The  animal 
was  to  be  the  most  excellent  of  its  kind,  in  order 
the  more  fitly  to  shadow  forth  the  excellencies 
of  Him  who  was  to  be  the  great  substance  of 
this  type,  the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world,  and  who  alone  of  a’l  that  ever  par¬ 
took  of  our  nature  was  truly  without  sin.  As 
he  was  a  spotless  Saviour,  so  his  representing 
type  was  to  be  a  spotless  victim.  Bush. 

The  burnt-offering  is  first  named  in  Gen. 
8  :  20,  as  offered  after  the  Flood.  Throughout 
•the  whole  of  Genesis  it  appears  to  be  the  only 
sacrifice  referred  to  ;  afterward  it  became  dis¬ 
tinguished  as  one  of  the  regular  classes  of  sacri- 


o74 


SECTION  133.  THE  BUENT-OFFERING. 


fice  under  the  Mosaic  Law.  The  meaning  of 
the  whole  burnt-otfering  was  that  which  is  the 
original  idea  of  all  sacrifice,  the  offering  by  the 
sacrificer  of  himself,  soul  and  body,  to  God,  the 
submission  of  his  will  to  the  will  of  the  Lord. 
It  typified  our  Lord’s  offering  the  perfect  sacri¬ 
fice  of  his  human  wdll  to  the  will  of  his  Father. 

Die.  B. - The  burnt- offering  had  a  regard  to 

the  offering  of  Christ  in  a  human  body.  It  is 
so  stated  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  ;  “  When 
he  cometh  into  the  world  he  sailh.  Sacrifice  and 
offering  thou  wouldst  not,  but  a  body  hast  thou 
jirepared  mo  ;  in  burnt-offerings  and  sacrifices 
for  sin  thou  hast  no  pleasure.  Then  said  I, 
Lo,  I  come  (in  the  volume  of  the  book  it  is  writ¬ 
ten  of  me),  to  do  thy  wdll,  O  God.”  Bush. 

As  the  entire  burning  of  the  victim  was  the 
main  thing,  it  clearly  follows  that  the  utter 
surrender  to  the  Lord  which  belonged  to  every 
sacrifice  was  in  an  especial  manner  represented 
in  the  burnt-offering  On  this  account  this  was 
the  dailp  sacrifice,  as  well  as  the  general  sacri¬ 
fice  on  all  solemn  occasions,  Thus  in  every 
sacrifice  of  the  people  of  God  a  self-offering 
to  God  by  a  figurative  act  took  place,  which 
embodied  as  it  were  the  inward  act  between 
God  and  man.  But  as  an  animal  could  not 
really  take  on  itself*  sin  and  expiate  it,  as  the 
sprinkling  of  its  blood  did  not  really  wash  away 
sin,  therefore  these  typical  sacrifices  pointed  to 
the  true  perfect  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God,  the 
holy  and  spotless  Lamb,  who  truly  bore  the 
punishment  of  the  sinner  in  his  stead  and  took 
it  away.  The  sacrifice  of  the  New  Testament 
is  a  sacrifice  so  living,  so  eternally  efficacious, 
so  continually  present,  that  every  Christian 
ought  to  have  it  before  him  in  spirit  and  in 
faith,  as  if  it  had  even  now  been  offered  for 
himself.  Then  he  experiences  the  blood-sprink¬ 
ling— i.e.,  God-acceptance  of  this  sacrifice — in 
his  justification  before  God.  To  this  every 
sacrifice  of  the  Old  Testament  more  cr  less 
pointed.  But  of  all  the  sacrifices  the  burnt- 
offering  especially  places  us  in  die  position  and 
the  act  cf  faith  of  the  Christian,  when  he  is  con¬ 
scious  of  standing  in  communion  with  God,  and 
yet  needs  to  seek  full  forgiveness  ;  when  ho 
desires,  indeed,  to  give  up  his  heart  entirely  to 
God,  but  requires  the  flame  of  Divine  love  to 
consume  the  sacrifice  ;  and  when  he  consecrates 
himself  to  God  continually  to  do  that  which  is 
well  pleasing  in  his  sight.  This  burnt  sacrifice 
of  the  Christian  is  the  general  offering  of  his 
whole  life  which  is  made  every  day,  which  in¬ 
cludes  and  sanctifies  all  other  offerings.  Thb 
fire  of  this  can  never  be  extinguished.  Geri. 

Its  name,  'olah,  “  an  ascending,”  shows  that 


its  main  idea  was  not  so  much  that  of  the  de¬ 
struction  of  the  victim,  on  the  head  of  which 
the  offerer  had  pressed  his  hands,  as  the  entire 
dedication  of  the  believer — body,  soul,  and 
spirit — to  God.  He  was  to  mount  upward  to 
God,  to  surrender  himself  to  him,  and  endeavor 
to  do  his  will.  And  it  was  this  devotion  of  the 
soul  to  God,  of  the  creature  to  the  Creator, 
which  made  the  burnt-offering  a  “  sweet  savor” 
to  him.  Man  rising  above  the  earth  and  mount¬ 
ing  heavenwards  is,  in  all  ages,  the  fulfilling  of 
our  Heavenly  Father’s  will,  and  was  the  lesson 
of  this  the  earliest  form  of  sacrifice.  B.  P.  S. 

Give  to  God  ourselves,  or  nothing  ;  and  to 
give  ourselves  to  him  is  not  his  advantage  but 
ours.  The  philosopher  said  to  his  poor  scholar, 
who  told  him  he  had  nothing  but  himself  to 
give  :  It  is  well,  said  he,  and  I  will  endeavor  to 
give  thee  back  to  thyself  better  than  I  received 
thee.  Thus  doth  God  with  us,  and  a  Christian 
makes  himself  his  daily  sacrifice  ;  he  renews 
this  gift  of  himself  every  day  to  God,  and  re¬ 
ceiving  it  every  day  bettered  again,  still  he  hath 
the  more  delight  to  give  it,  as  being  fitter  for 
God  the  more  it  is  sanctified  by  former  sacrific¬ 
ing.  Now  that  whereby  we  offer  all  other  spir¬ 
itual  sacrifices,  and  even  ourselves,  is  love. 
That  is  the  holy  fire  that  burns  up  all,  sends  up 
our  prayers,  and  our  hearts,  and  our  whole 
selves  a  whole  burnt  offering  to  God.  Leujhion. 

3.  It  must  be  offered  at  the  door  of  the  taber¬ 
nacle,  where  the  brazen  altar  of  burnt-offerings 
stood,  which  sanctified  the  gift,  and  not  else¬ 
where  ;  he  must  offer  it  at  the  door,  as  one  un¬ 
worthy  to  enter,  and  acknowledging  that  there 
is  no  admission  for  a  sinner  into  covenant  and 
communion  with  God,  but  by  sacrifice  ;  but  he 
must  offer  it  at  the  tabernacle  of  the  congr egation, 
in  token  of  his  communion  with  the  whole 
church  of  Israel,  even  m  this  personal  ser¬ 
vice.  H. 

4.  Whosoever  presented  a  burnt-offering 
should  lag  his  hand  on  its  head,  after  he  had  come 
near  the  door  of  the  tabernacle.  This  ceremony 
was  not  only  a  sign  of  consecration,  but  also  of 
its  being  an  atonement,  since  it  was  substituted 
for  the  man,  as  is  expressed  in  the  words  of 
Moses,  “  And  it  shall  be  accepted  for  him  to 

make  atonement  for  him.”  Calv. - He  who 

brought  the  victim  was  commanded  to  lay  his 
hand  upon  the  head  of  the  animal  ;  which 
action  was  esteemed  an  acknowledgment  of  his 
own  guilt,  and  a  prayer  that  it  might  be  pun¬ 
ished  in  the  victim  upon  which  his  hand  was 
laid.  And  we  find  in  the  Eabbinical  waiters  a 
set  form  of  prayer,  which  was  always  used  on 
this  occasion.  In  this  form  the  delinquent  ao- 


THE  BURNT-OFFERING. 


375 


knowledges  liis  offence  and  professes  his  repent¬ 
ance  ;  and  concludes  with  a  petition  that  the 
victim  upon  which  he  laid  his  hand  might  be 
his  expiation.  By  which  last  expression  he 
was,  as  the  Jews  inform  us,  understood  to  mean 
that  the  victim  might  be  substituted  in  his 
room,  and  that  the  punishment  which  himself 
had  merited  might  fall  on  the  head  of  his  offer¬ 
ing.  Veysie. 

To  make  atoiiciiiciit  for  him.  The 

idea  expressed  by  the  Hebrew  original  of  the 
word  translated  alone  was  cocer  and  covering. 
To  atone  sin  in  the  Hebrew  conception  was  so  to 
cover  it  over  that  God  could  neg'ect  it.  “  To  alone 
does  not  mean  to  cause  a  sin  not  to  have  been 
committed,  for  that  is  impossible  ;  nor  to  repre¬ 
sent  it  as  non-existent,  for  that  w  ould  be  op¬ 
posed  to  the  earnest  spirit  of  the  Law  ;  nor  to 
pay  and  compensate  it  by  any  act  ;  but  to  cover 
it  before  (rod— that  is,  to  deprive  it  of  its  power 
to  come  between  us  and  God  ”  (Kahnis),  Gave. 

- “  To  atone”  is,  in  the  Hebrew,  “  to  cover,” 

Sin  is  covered,  so  that  God  from  that  time  forth 
does  not  see  it — i.e  ,  he  treats  man  as  though 
he  had  no  sin  in  his  sight,  God  cannot  hold 
the  same  relation  to  the  sinner  when  his  sin 
still  remains  upon  him,  and  when  it  is  atoned 
for.  When,  therefore,  the  sin  is  covered,  the 
wrath  of  God  toward  the  sinner  ceases,  and  his 
good  pleasure,  as  was  just  said  (verse  3,  Heb., 
“to  his  well-pleasing  before  the  Lord”— ie., 
that  he  thereby  is  made  acceptable  to  the  Lord), 
is  turned  toward  the  reconciled  one.  Gerl 

There  are  four  parts  in  the  great  work  of 
atonement  :  the  righteousness  and  the  death  of 
the  victim,  and  the  presentation  and  the  accept¬ 
ance  of  these  by  which  they  become  a  propiti¬ 
ation.  Righteousness  can  only  be  rendered  and 
penal  death  can  only  be  suffered  by  a  moral 
agent,  and  for  a  man  by  a  man.  Hence  the 
true  victim  can  only  be  a  person.  This  same 
person  it  is  who  intervenes  to  present  satisfac¬ 
tion  from  himself  to  God,  and  receive  acceptance 
from  God  to  himself  for  the  penitent,  believing 
offerer.  With  equal  certainty  it  may  be  affirmed 
that  the  latter  tw'o  parts  can  only  be  performed 
by  a  Divine  person.  M. 

5,  The  sacrifice  was  to  be  killed  before  the 
Lord — that  is,  in  a  devout  manner,  and  with  an 
eye  to  God  and  his  honor.  The  priests  were  to 
sprinkle  the  blood  upon  the  altar,  for  the  blood 
being  the  life,  that  was  it  that  made  atonement 
for  the  soul.  This  signified  the  direct  and  act¬ 
ual  regard  which  our  Lord  Jesus  had  to  the 
satisfaction  of  his  Father’s  justice,  and  the  se¬ 
curing  of  his  injured  honor,  in  the  shedding  of 
his  blood  ;  he  offered  himself  without  spot  to  God. 


It  also  signified  the  pacifying  and  purifying  of 
our  consciences  by  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of 
Jesus  Christ  upon  them  by  faith  (1  Pet.  1:2; 

Heb.  10  ;  22).  H - The  altar  was  sprinkled 

with  the  blood,  that  the  23eople  might  know  that 
the  blood  jjoured  from  the  victim  did  not  fall 
on  the  ground,  but  was  consecrated  to  God  ; 
just  as  now  the  blood  of  Christ  appears  before 

his  face.  Calv. - The  act  of  sprinkling  the 

blood  was,  during  every  period  of  the  Mosaic 
economy,  exclusively  the  prerogative  of  the 
priesthood.  It  w^as  in  the  effusion  of  blood, 
which  is  the  life,  that  the  virtue  of  the  sacrifice 
consisted,  it  being  always  understood  that  life 
went  to  redeem  life.  Every  reader  of  the  New 
Testament  knows  how  much  our  salvation  is 
attributed  to  the  blood  of  Christ  ;  and  this 
great  evangelical  truth  was  abundantly  taught 
to  the  Israelites  under  the  Law.  They  were  by 
this  rite  most  impressively  shown  that  without 
the  shedding  of  blood  there  was  no  remission 
of  sins  Bush. 

9,  A  sweet  savor  unto  the  Lord,  In 

Rom.  12  : 1  we  have  not  only  a  commentary  on 
the  old  burnt  offering,  but  a  suggestive  presen¬ 
tation  of  the  difference  between  the  Old  one 
and  that  which  is  required  in  the  New  Cove¬ 
nant,  “  Present  your  bodies”  (as  distinguished 
from  the  bodies  of  bulls  or  of  goats),  “  a  living 
sacrifice”  (as  distinguished  from  the  slain  sac¬ 
rifice  of  the  Old  Covenant),  “  holy”  (there  we 
have  the  significance  of  the  separation  of  the 
parts,  and  the  cleansing  of  the  inwards),  “  ac¬ 
ceptable  unto  God”  (the  sweet  savor  of  Lev, 
1  :  9),  “  which  is  your  reasonable  service”  (as 
distinguished  from  the  symbolical  service  of  the 
old  economy).  No  other  exposition  of  the  sym¬ 
bolism  of  the  burnt-offering  is  needed  than 
these  striking  words.  J.  M.  G. 

When  we  think  of  these  offerings  all  the  year 
round,  never  ending,  or  ending  only  to  begin 
again  ;  the  smoke  always  ascending,  the  fire 
always  alight,  we  say,  ‘‘Thank  God  we  are 
Christians.  ’  What  do  we  mean  ?  Had  the  Jew 
more  to  do  than  we  have  to  do  ?  Only  so  in  a 
very  limited  and  mechanical  sense.  The  Jew 
gave  his  bullock  or  his  goat,  his  turtle  dove  or 
his  young  pigeon  ;  but  now  each  man  has  to 
give  himsef.  As  Christians,  we  have  nothing 
that  is  our  own  ;  not  a  moment  of  time  is  ours  ; 
not  a  pulse  that  throbs  in  us,  not  a  hair  of  our 
head,  not  a  coin  in  the  coffer  belongs  to  us. 
This  is  the  severe  demand  of  love.  Who  can 
rise  to  the  pitch  of  that  self  sacrifice  ?  The  Jew 
gives  his  tenth,  and  another  tenth,  and  another 
tenth,  and  another  tenth,  even  unto  five  tenths, 
or  one  half,  and  we  say,  “  All  that  is  done  for 


376 


SECTION  134.  THE  MEAL-OFFERING. 


ever  ;  it  has  passed  away  with  the  obsolete  rit¬ 
ual,  and  now  we  are  under  the  law  of  love,”  as 
if  God  had  brought  us  into  something  less  raiher 
than  into  something  more,  J.  P. 

14.  Oblation  of  turtle-doves^,  or  of 
youngs  |>igeoilS.  In  the  Divine  recpiirement 
of  the  various  oblations,  the  circumstances  of  the 
offerers  were  consulted  Those  who  could  not 
afford  to  offer  a  bullock  would  bring  a  sheep  or 
A  goat  ;  and  those  who  were  not  able  t  >  do  that 
•were  exjoected  to  bring  a  turtle-dove  or  a  young 
pigeon.  The  parents  of  our  Lord  brought  this 
latter  kind  of  offering  upon  the  purification  of 
lilary.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  directions 
respecting  the  i^oor  man  s  offering  are  as  minute 
and  particular  as  any  ;  intimating  that  God  is 
no  respecter  of  persons,  and  that  his  ministers 
are  to  be  anxious  for  the  welfare  and  attentive 
to  the  interests  of  the  poorest  of  their  flock. 

LiCv.  6:9.  Tfliis  is  the  law  of  the 
burnt-offeriiig'.  That  is,  this  is  the  daily 
burnt-offering  or  perpetual  sacrifice,  consisting 
•of  two  lambs  offered  upon  the  altar  of  burnt- 
offering,  one  in  the  morning  and  the  other  in 
the  evening.  That  of  the  morning  was  offered 
about  sunrise,  after  the  incense  was  burnt  upon 
the  golden  altar,  and  before  any  other  sacrifice. 
That  of  the  evening  was  offered  in  the  decline 
of  day,  before  the  night  began.  They  were  both 
wholly  consumed  on  the  altar,  after  the  same 
manner  as  the  free-Mull  burnt-offering,  but  by  a 
slow  fire,  that  they  might  continue  the  longer 
burning.  Bush. 

13.  Fire  shall  be  kept  buriiiiijj. 

This  was  a  symbol  of  the  never-ceasing  worship 
vyhich  Jehovah  required  of  his  people.  It  was 
essentially  connected  with  their  acts  of  sacrifice. 


Clark. - By  this  law  we  are  taught  to  keep  up 

iji  our  minds  a  constant  disposition  to  all  acts 
of  piety  and  devotion,  and  habitual  affection  to 
Divine  things,  so  as  to  be  always  ready  to  eveiy 
good  word  and  work.  Though  we  be  not  always 
sacrificing,  yet  we  must  keep  the  fire  of  holy 
love  always  burning  ;  and  thus  we  must  pray 
always.  H. 

We  may  have  an  altar,  but  no  fire.  We  need 
the  fire  as  well  as  the  altar.  Magnificent  altais 
we  have  built  :  we  have  brought  stone  from 
afar  ;  we  have  set  it  up  and  made  oursehes 
proud  in  the  contemplation  of  the  skilful  build¬ 
ing.  It  is  the  sign  of  self-idolatry  ;  we  have 
mistaken  the  means  for  the  end,  the  process  for 
the  result.  We  may  have  fire  and  no  altar. 
This  is  also  a  mistake.  We  ought  to  have  re¬ 
ligious  places  and  Christian  observances.  There 
is  a  deadly  sophism  lurking  in  the  supposition 
that  men  can  have  the  fire  without  the  altar, 
and  are  independent  of  institutions,  churches, 
families,  and  all  that  is  known  bv  Chri.stian 
arrangement  for  common  worship.  We  are  not 
meant  to  be  solitary  worshippers.  Forsake  not 
the  assembling  of  yourselves  together  :  there  is 
a  touch  that  helps  life  to  gather  itself  up  into 
its  full  force  ;  there  is  a  contagion  which  makes 
the  heart  feel  strong.  It  is  not  enough  to  kindle 
a  fire  :  we  miist  renew  it.  “  The  fire  shall  ever 
be  burning  upon  the  altar  ;  it  shall  never  go 
out.”  Did  not  some  men  burn  once  who  are 
cold  now?  Have  not  some  men  allowed  the 
holy  flame  to  perish  ?  and  is  not  their  life  now 
like  a  deserted  altar  laden  with  cold,  white 
ashes?  Be  it  ours  to  escape  the  fate  of  people 
who  have  lamps  but  no  fire,  beliefs  but  no  faith, 
a  bound  book  but  no  revelation.  J 


Section  134. 

THE  MEAL-OFFEKING,  AND  ACCOMPANATNG  DKINK-OFFERING. 

Leviticus  2  :  1-16  ;  6  : 14-18.  Nu.  15  : 1-16. 

Lev.  2  1  And  when  any  one  offeretb  an  oblation  of  a  meal  offering  unto  the  Lokd,  his  obla- 

2  tion  shall  be  of  fine  flour  ;  and  he  shall  pour  oil  upon  it,  and  put  frankincense  thereon  :  and 
he  shall  bring  it  to  Aaron’s  sons  the  priests  :  and  he  shall  take  thereout  his  handful  of  the 
fine  flour  thereof,  and  of  the  oil  thereof,  with  all  the  frankincense  thereof  ;  and  the  priest 
shall  burn  it  as  the  memorial  thereof  upon  the  altar,  an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet 

3  savour  unto  the  Lord  :  and  that  which  is  left  of  the  meal  offering  shall  be  Aaron’s  and  his 
sons’  ;  it  is  a  thing  most  holy  of  the  offerings  of  the  Lord  made  by  fire. 

4  And  when  thou  offerest  an  oblation  of  a  meal  offering  baken  in  the  oven,  it  shall  be  un- 

5  leavened  cakes  of  fine  flour  mingled  with  oil,  or  unleavened  wafers  anointed  with  oil.  And  if 
thy  oblation  be  a  meal  offering  of  the  baking  pan,  it  shall  be  of  fine  flour  unleavened,  mingled 

6  with  oil.  Thou  shalt  part  it  in  pieces,  and  pour  oil  thereon  :  it  is  a  mpal  offering.  .And  ii! 

7  thy  oblation  be  a  meal  offering  of  the  frying  pan,  it  shall  be  made  of  fine  flour  with  oil. 


THE  ME  A  L-OFFERING. 


377 


8  And  thou  sbalt  bring  the  meal  offering  that  is  made  of  these  things  unto  the  Lord  :  and  it 

9  shall  1)6  presented  unto  the  priest,  and  he  shall  bring  it  unto  the  altar.  And  the  priest  shall 
take  up  from  the  meal  offering  the  memorial  thereof,  and  shall  burn  it  upon  the  altar  :  an 

10  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord,  And  that  which  is  left  of  the  meal 
'offering  shall  be  Aaron’s  and  his  sons’  :  it  is  a  thing  most  holy  of  the  offerings  of  the  Lord 

11  made  by  fire.  No  meal  offering,  which  ye  shall  offer  unto  the  Lord,  shall  be  made  with 
leaven  :  for  ye  shall  burn  no  leaven,  nor  any  honey,  as  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord. 

12  As  an  oblation  of  first/mi/.s*  ye  shall  offer  them  unto  the  Lord  :  but  they  shall  not  come  up  for 

13  a  sweet  savour  on  the  altar.  And  every  oblation  of  thy  meal  offering  shalt  thou  season  with 
salt  ;  neither  shalt  thou  suffer  the  salt  of  the  covenant  of  thy  God  to  be  lacking  from  thy  meal 
offering  :  with  all  thine  oblations  thou  shalt  offer  salt. 

14  And  if  thou  offer  a  meal  offering  of  firstfruits  unto  the  Lord,  thou  shalt  offer  for  the  meal 

15  offering  of  thy  firstfruits  corn  in  the  ear  parched  with  fire,  bruised  corn  of  the  fresh  ear.  And 

16  thou  shalt  put  oil  upon  it,  and  lay  frankincense  thereon  :  it  is  a  meal  offering.  And  the 
priest  shall  bum  the  memorial  of  it,  part  of  the  bruised  corn  thereof,  and  part  of  the  oil 
thereof,  with  all  the  frankincense  thereof  :  it  is  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord. 

Le>K  6  14  And  this  is  the  law  of  the  _meal  offering  :  the  sons  of  Aaron  shall  offer  it  before 

15  the  Lord,  before  the  altar.  And  he  shall  take  up  therefrom  his  handful,  of  the  fine  flour  of 
the  meal  offering,  and  of  the  oil  thereof,  and  all  the  frankincense  which  is  upon  the  meal 
offering,  and  shall  burn  it  upon  the  altar  for  a  sweet  savour,  as  the  memorial  thereof,  unto 

16  the  Lord.  And  that  which  is  left  thereof  shall  Aaron  and  his  sons  eat  :  it  shall  be  eaten 

17  without  leaven  in  a  holy  place  ;  in  the  court  of  the  tent  of  meeting  they  shall  eat  it.  It  shall 
not  be  baken  with  leaven.  I  have  given  it  as  their  portion  of  my  offerings  made  by  fire  ;  it  is 

18  most  holy,  as  the  sin  offering,  and  as  the  guilt  offering.  Every  male  among  the  children  of 
Aaron  shall  eat  of  it,  as  a  due  for  ever  throughout  your  generations,  from  the  offerings  of  the 
Lord  made  by  fire  :  whosoever  toucheth  them  shall  be  holy. 

Nu.  15  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and 

2  saj’’  unto  them.  When  ye  be  come  into  the  land  of  your  habitations,  which  I  give  unto  you, 

3  and  will  make  an  offering  by  fire  unto  the  Lord,  a  burnt  offering,  or  a  sacrifice,  to  accomplish 
a  vow,  or  as  a  freewill  offering,  or  in  your  set  feasts,  to  make  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord, 

4  of  the  herd,  or  of  the  flock  :  then  shall  he  that  offereth  his  oblation  offer  unto  the  Lord  a  meal 
offering  of  a  tenth  part  of  an  ephah  of  fine  flour  mingled  with  the  fourth  part  of  an  hin  of  oil  : 

5  and  wine  for  the  drink  offering,  the  fourth  part  of  an  hin,  shalt  thou  prepare  with  the  burnt 

6  offering  or  for  the  sacrifice,  for  each  lamb.  Or  for  a  ram,  thou  shalt  prepare  for  a  meal  offer- 

7  ing  two  tenth  parts  of  on  ephah  of  fine  flour  mingled  with  the  third  part  of  an  hin  of  oil  :  and 
for  the  drink  offering  thou  shalt  offer  the  third  part  of  an  hin  of  wine,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto 

8  the  Lord.  And  when  thou  preparest  a  bullock  for  a  burnt  offering,  or  for  «  sacrifice,  to 

9  accomplish  a  vow,  or  for  peace  offerings  unto  the  Lord  :  then  shall  he  offer  with  the  bullock 
a  meal  offering  of  three  tenth  parts  of  an  ephah  of  fine  flour  mingled  with  half  an  hin  of  oil. 

10  And  thou  shalt  offer  for  the  drink  offering  half  an  him  of  wine,  for  an  offering  made  by  fire, 

11  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord.  Thus  shall  it  be  done  for  each  bullock,  or  for  each  ram,  or 

12  tor  each  of  the  he-lambs,  or  of  the  kids.  According  to  the  number  that  ye  shall  jirepare,  so 

13  shall  ye  do  to  every  one  according  to  their  number.  All  that  are  Immeborn  shall  do  these 
things  after  this  manner,  in  offering  an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord. 

14  And  if  a  stranger  sojourn  with  you,  or  whosoever  be  among  you  throughout  your  generations, 
and  will  offer  an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord  ;  as  ye  do,  so  he  shall 

15  do.  For  the  assembly,  there  shall  be  one  statute  for  you,  and  for  the  stranger  that  sojourneth 
wdh  you,  a  statute  for  ever  throughout  your  generations  :  as  ye  are,  so  shall  the  stranger  be 

16  before  the  Lord.  One  law  and  one  ordinance  shall  be  for  you,  and  for  the  stranger  that 
sojourneth  with  you. 


The  Meal  Offering  {Lev.  2  : 1-16  ;  6  : 14-18). 

The  Heb.  miiihdh  or  minchdh  originally  is  a 
GIFT  of  any  kind  ;  and  appears  to  be  used  gen¬ 
erally  as  a  gift  from  an  inferior  to  a  superior, 
whether  God  or  man.  Afterward  this  general 
sense  became  attached  to  “  Corban  and  min- 


hdh  or  minchdh  was  restricted  to  an  unbloody 
offering.  It  was  composed  of  fine  flour,  sea¬ 
soned  with  salt,  and  mixed  with  oil  and  frankin¬ 
cense,  but  without  leaven  ;  and  generall}’’  ac¬ 
companied  by  a  drink-ofl'ering  of  wine.  A  por¬ 
tion  of  it,  including  all  the  frankincense,  was  to 
be  burned  on  the  altar  as  a  “  memorial  the 


378 


SECTION  134  THE  MEAL-OFFERING. 


rest  belonged  to  the  priest  ;  but  the  meal-offer¬ 
ings  offered  by  the  priests  themselves  were  to 
be  wholly  burned.  Its  meaning  appears  to  be 
exacth"  expressed  in  the  words  of  David  (1  Ch, 
29  : 10-14),  “  Of  thine  own  have  we  given  thee.’  ’ 
It  recognized  the  sovereignly  of  the  Lord  and 
his  bounty  in  giving  all  earthly  blessings,  by 
dedicating  to  him  the  best  of  his  gifts.  This 
meaning  involves  neither  of  the  two  main  ideas 
of  sacrifice  —the  atonement  for  sin  and  self¬ 
dedication  to  God.  It  takes  them  for  granted, 
and  is  based  on  them.  Accordingly,  the  meal¬ 
offering,  properly  so  called,  seems  always  to 
have  been  a  subsidiary  offering,  needing  to  be 
introduced  by  the  sin-offering,  which  repre¬ 
sented  the  one  idea,  and  forming  an  appendage 
to  the  burnt-offering,  which  represented  the 
other.  The  unbloody  offerings  offered  alone 
did  not  jDroperly  belong  to  the  regular  meal¬ 
offering.  They  were  usually  substitutes  for 
other  offerings  (compare  Lev.  5:11;  Nil.  5  : 15.) 
Die.  B. 

As  the  burnt-offering  symbolized  the  dedica¬ 
tion  of  the  man  himself  to  God.  with  all  his 
powers  and  faculties,  the  bread-offering  signi¬ 
fied  the  dedication  to  God  of  the  fruit  of  his 
labors,  the  produce  of  his  industry.  In  its  full¬ 
est  sense  it  symbolized  the  dedication  of  his 
life-energy  to  God  in  holy  obedience.  J  M.  G. 
- As  the  Israelite  added  to  his  animal  offer¬ 
ings  at  the  altar  in  the  court  those  of  meal  and 
wine,  be  would  see  visibly  expressed  the  giving 
of  his  substance  as  well  as  himself  to  the  Lord  ; 
and  as  those  offerings  rose  in  smoke  he  would 
know — now  that  atonement  had  been  previously 
made  by  the  aspersed  blood— that,  free  as  they 
were  from  the  old  leaven  of  sin  and  wickedness, 
sanctioned  as  they  were  by  the  salt  of  the  cove¬ 
nant  (2  : 13),  accompanied  as  they  were  by  the 
oil  of  consecration  and  the  incense  of  prayer 
(verse  15),  these  products  of  steady  human  toil 
were  acceptable  to  God.  Cave. 

2:1.  Siiall  pour  oil  upon  it.  There 
were  three  principal  uses  of  oil  familiar  to  the 
Hebrews.  It  was  employed  to  anoint  the  sur¬ 
face  of  the  body  in  order  to  mollify  the  skin,  to 
heal  injuries,  and  to  strengthen  the  muscles  ;  it 
was  largely  used  as  an  ingredient  of  food  ;  and 
it  was  commonly  burned  in  lamps.  In  each  of 
these  uses  it  may  be  taken  as  a  fit  symbol  of 
Divine  grace.  It  might  figure  it  as  conferring 
on  each  believer  the  strength  and  faculties  re¬ 
quired  to  carry  on  his  work  (1  Cor.  12  : 4)  ;  as 
supporting  and  renewing  him  day  by  day  with 
fresh  supplies  of  life  (1  Cor.  3  :  16)  ;  and  as  giv¬ 
ing  light,  comfort,  and  guidance  into  all  truth 
(John  14  : 16).  The  offering  of  oil  on  the  altar 


involved  an  acknowledgment  on  the  part  of  the 
worshipper  that  his  spiritual  gifts  were  from 
Jehovah  and  belonged  to  him.  It  was  in  this 
that  it  became  specially  connected  with  the 
minchah.  Clark. 

And  put  frail  kin  ecu  §e  Ihercoii. 

The  frankincense,  like  the  oil,  had  a  symbolical 
allusion.  It  represented  that  Divine  interces¬ 
sion  of  Christ,  by  which  he  perfumes  all  the 
prayers,  praises,  good  works,  and  holj^  affec¬ 
tions,  of  his  servants.  That  the  frankincense  is 
applicable  primarily  and  mainly  to  Christ  is  evi¬ 
dent  from  its  being  wholly  consumed  by  fire. 
No  part  of  his  work  is  borne  by  any  but  him¬ 
self  ;  nothing  renders  our  services  acceptable 
but  his  atoning,  justifjung,  interceding  grace. 
But  when  this  fact  is  cordially  admitted  by  us, 
and  all  the  favor  with  which  we  meet  attributed 
to  the  merit  and  mediation  of  Christ,  then  our 
services  for  his  glory,  our  oblations  to  his 
priests  or  his  poor,  our  works  of  beneficence 
and  kindness  wrought  for  his  sake,  “  come  up 
as  an  odor  of  a  sweet  smell,  a  sacrifice  accept¬ 
able,  well-pleasing  to  God.”  As  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  himself  was  most  pleasing  unto  God,  so 
are  the  services  of  all  his  people  for  Christ’s 
sake.  Bush. 

It  is  manifest  that  the  oil  is  the  emblem  of 
the  spirit’s  influence,  as  the  incense  is  the  sym¬ 
bol  of  the  Kedeemer’s  work.  The  bread  also 
bears  a  relation  to  the  Father,  who  giveth  bread 
to  his  children.  It  is  obvious,  also,  that  the 
Messiah,  as  a  prophet  gives  light  to  the  mind, 
as  a  priest  makes  intercession  for  the  soul,  and  as 
a  king  bestows  the  bread  of  life  on  his  people.  M. 

2.  Memorial,  “  remembrance,”  means  geneiv 
ally  the  part  of  every  sacrifice  which  was  burned  ; 
because  (to  speak  after  the  manner  of  men) 
God,  smelling  the  sweet  savor,  w^as  moved  to 
think  graciously  of  the  sacrificer.  The  mean¬ 
ing  therefore  is  :  the  offering  of  man  to  God  in 
a  rrew  obedience,  sanctified  by  the  Holy  Gbosf. 
supported  by  prayer,  makes  him  partaker  of  all 
the  promises  of  grace  of  the  covenant  of  God. 
It  is  well  to  consider  that  these  gifts  were  an 
addition  to  other  sacrifice.s,  and  never  stood  bv 
themselves.  This  therefore  excludes  the  rrmion 

of  men’s  own  righteousness.  Gerl. - The  part 

of  the  offering  which  the  priest  took  out  with 
his  hand  is  called  the  “  memorial  ”  of  tbe  meal 
or  bread-offering,  because  it  was  a  r' m&nhronar 
of  God’s  supreme  dominion,  a  grateful  acknowl¬ 
edgment  that  they  held  and  enjoyed  everjdhing 
of  him  as  sovereign  Proprietor,  and  by  this  act 
supplicated  the  continuance  of  it.  It  was  de 
signed  to  put  him  in  mind  of  his  covenant 
promise  to  accept  the  services  of  his  people 


DRINK-0FFERINO8. 


379 


rendered  to  him  according  to  his  command¬ 
ment  ;  in  allusion  to  which  it  is  said  bj'  the 
Psalmist  (Ps.  20  : 4),  “  The  Lord  reinembtr  all 
thine  otferings,  and  accept  thy  burnt  sacri¬ 
fices.”  Acts  14:4,  “Thy  prayers  and  thine 
alms  come  up  for  a  memorial  before  God.”  The 
sin  and  jealou.sy-offerings,  on  the  other  hand, 
had  no  oil  cr  incense  mixed  with  them,  be¬ 
cause  they  were  no  offerings  of  gracious  me¬ 
morial,  but  such  as  brought  iniquity  to  remem¬ 
brance,  and  were  therefore  devoid  of  those  ele¬ 
ments  which  made  them  come  up  as  a  sweet¬ 
smelling  savor  before  the  Lord.  Bush. 

3.  A  tiling  most  Iioiy .  Literally,  a  holy 
of  hoties.  As  there  was  a  distinction  between 
the  places  dedicated  to  the  Divine  service  into 
holy  and  most  holy,  so  was  there  a  similar  dis¬ 
tinction  in  what  was  offered  to  Jehovah.  All 
offerings  were  holy,  including  the  portions  of 
the  peace-offerings  which  were  eaten  by  the 
laity  ;  but  that  was  most,  holy  of  which  every 
part  was  devoted  either  to  the  altar  or  to  the 
use  of  the  priests.  Such  were  the  minchahs, 
the  shew-bread,  the  incense,  and  the  flesh  of  the 
sin  and  trespass  offerings.  Clark. 

11.  Biio  leaven  nor  any  honey.  Here 
also  we  trace  a  moral  meaning.  Leaven  is  a 
well-known  emblem  of  pride  and  hypocrisy. 
These  swell  the  heart,  and  puff  it  up  with  self 
importance  and  self-deceit.  Leaven  is  also 
used  as  an  emblem  of  malice  and  wickedness, 
as  we  learn  from  1  Cor.  5  :  8.  Honey  may  well 
be  considered  as  the  emblem  of  the  unwhole 
some  sweetness  of  sensual  indulgence  and 
worldly  pleasure.  And  these  we  are  well  assured 
are  perfectly  inconsistent  with  the  acceptance 
of  any  offering  which  we  may  profess  to  bring 
to  God.  Bush. 

The  prohibition  of  leaven  and  honey  was 
only  for  the  usual  meal- offering,  and  did  not 
apply  to  the  first-fruits,  as  the  first-fruits  of 
everything  had  to  be  presented  to  the  Lord. 
Hence  the  wave-loaves  were  leavened  (Lev. 
23  : 17)  ;  and  honey  is  mentioned  among  the  first- 
fruits  presented  in  2  Ch.  31  : 5.  These,  how¬ 
ever,  did  not  come  upon  the  altar,  but  were 
only  presented  to  the  Lord  and  given  to  the 
priests.  P.  F. 

13.  Saltofthc  eovenant  oftliy  Ood. 

Eating  salt  together  is  in  the  East  a  pledge  of 
amity  and  friendship.  Hence  the  ”  covenant 
of  salt  ”  was  an  indissoluble  pact  ;  and  “  salted 
with  the  salt  of  the  palace”  (Ezra  4  : 14)  meant 
not  maintenance,  but  the  sign  of  faithfulness  to 
the  king.  Salt  was  used  in  the  sacrifices  and 
offerings  of  the  Israelites,  probably  with  the 
same  idea  of  honor  and  fidelity.  Deane. 


Witli  all  tliinc  oblations  thou  slialt 
offer  salt.  Not  only  every  minchah,  but 
every  animal  offeriug  was  to  be  accompanied 
by  salt.  Considering  the  emphatic  form  of  thi.s 
command,  and  the  importance  subsequently 
ascribed  to  it,  it  is  remarkable  that  this  appears 
to  be  the  only  reference  to  salt  in  the  ceremonial 
law.  The  significance  of  it,  as  a  sacrificial  sym¬ 
bol,  is  set  forth  in  the  expression  “  the  salt  of 
the  covenant  of  thy  God”  (cf.  Nu.  18  ;  19  ;  2 
Ch,  13  ;  5).  It  was  the  one  sjunbol  which  was 
never  absent  from  the  altar  of  burnt-oft’ering, 
showing  the  imperishableness  of  the  love  of  Je¬ 
hovah  for  his  people.  In  its  unalterable  nature, 

it  is  the  contrary  of  leaven,  Clark. - Salt  is 

the  great  preservative  of  animal  nature.  opj)os- 
ing  the  tendency  to  putrefaction  and  decay.  It 
was  therefore  well  fitted  to  serve  as  a  symbol  of 
that  moral  and  religious  purity  which  is  essen¬ 
tial  to  the  true  worship  of  God,  and  on  which 
all  stability  and  order  ultimately  depend. 
Hence,  also,  it  is  called  “  the  salt  of  the  cove¬ 
nant  of  God,”  being  an  emblem  at  once  of  the 
perpetuity  of  this  and  of  the  principles  of  holj’’ 
rectitude,  the  true  elements  of  incorruption  for 
the  maintenance  of  which  it  was  established 

P.  F. - On  the  other  hand,  all  leaven  was  as 

expressly  excluded  from  the  offerings  to  the 
Lord,  because  containing  an  element  of  corrup¬ 
tion,  and  so  was  utterly  alien  to  the  pure  wor 

ship  established  in  Israel.  D.  M. - Especial 

care  is  to  be  taken  not  only  that  our  religious 
services  be  cleansed  from  the  leaven  of  hypoc¬ 
risy,  but  that  they  be  thoroughly  pervaded  by* 
the  “salt”  of  grace.  Col.  4:6,  “Let  your 
speech  be  always  with  salt,  seasoned  with 
grace.”  Bush. 

The  oil,  symbol  of  the  grace  of  God’s  Spirit, 
with  which  the  meal-offering  was  to  be  inter¬ 
mingled,  implied  that  every  good  work  must  be 
inwrought  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  And  thac 
frankincense  was  to  be  put  upon  it  bespoke  the 
connection  between  good  works  and  prayer, 
and  that  all  righteous  action  should  be  present¬ 
ed  to  God  in  the  spirit  of  devotion.  So  that 
“  the  good  works  of  the  faithful  are  lepresented 
by  the  oil,  as  prompted,  quickened,  and  ma¬ 
tured  by  the  Holy  Spirit  —by  the  frankincense, 
as  made  acceptable  and  borne  heavenward  in 
prayer — and  by  the  salt,  as  incorruptible,  per¬ 
petually  abiding  signs  and  fruits  of  God’s  cove¬ 
nant  of  grace”  {Kurtz).  P.  F. 

Drink-Offeetngs  {Nu.  15  : 1-16). 

5,  7,  10.  With  the  meal-offering  there  was 
always  connected  a  suitable  quantity  of  wine 


380 


SECTION  135.  THE  PEACE-OFFERING. 


for  a  drink  offering.  The  latter  is  not  men-  1 
tioned  in  Lev.  *2,  which  expressly  treats  of  the  | 
meal-offering,  but  is  here  spoken  of  as  a  usutil  | 
accompaniment,  and  was  probably  omitted  in 
the  second  chapter  of  Leviticus  tor  the  same 
reason  that  it  is  also  noticed  only  by  implication 
with  the  shew  bread — viz  ,  that  it  formed  quite 
a  subordinate  part  of  the  offering,  and  was 
merely  a  sort  of  accessory.  P.  F. 

35.  One  ordinance  for  you  and  for 
the  strangler.  Natives  and  strangers  are 
here  set  upon  a  level,  in  this  as  in  other  mat 
ters  (verses  13-16),  “  One  law  shall  be  for  you  and 
for  the  stranger  that  is  proselyted  to  the  Jewish 
religion,”  This  was  an  invitation  to  the  Gen- 


I  tiles  to  become  proselytes,  God  declares  that 
I  the  sons  of  the  stranger  were  as  welcome  to  him 
I  as  the  sons  of  Jacob;  no  man’s  birth  or  parentage 
shall  turn  either  to  his  advantage  or  his  preju¬ 
dice  in  his  acceptance  with  God.  This  likewi.se 
intimated,  that  as  believing  strangers  should  be 
accounted  Israelites,  so  unbelieving  Israelites 
should  be  accounted  strangers.  It  was  a  happy 
presage  of  the  calling  of  the  Gentiles  and  of 
their  admission  into  the  Church.  If  the  Law 
made  so  little  difference  between  Jew  and  Gen¬ 
tile,  much  less  would  the  Gospel  make,  M'hicli 
broke  down  the  partition  wall  and  reconciled 
both  to  God  in  one  sacrifice,  without  the  ob¬ 
servance  of  the  legal  ceremonies.  H. 


Section  135. 

THE  PEACE-OFFERING, 

Leviticus  3  : 1-17  ;  7  : 11-21,  28-30  ;  19  : 5-8. 

Lev.  3  1  And  if  his  oblation  be  a  sacrifice  of  peace  offerings  ;  if  he  offer  of  the  herd, 

2  whether  male  or  female,  he  shall  offer  it  without  blemish  before  the  Lord.  And  he  shall  lay 
his  hand  upon  the  head  of  his  oblation,  and  kill  it  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting  :  and 

3  Aaron’s  sons  the  priests  shall  sprinkle  the  blood  upon  the  altar  round  about.  And  he  shall 
offer  of  the  sacrifice  of  peace  offerings  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord  ;  the  fat  that 

4  covereth  the  inwards,  and  all  the  fat  that  is  upon  the  inwards,  and  the  two  kidneys,  and  the 
fat  that  is  on  them,  which  is  by, the  loins,  and  the  caul  upon  the  liver,  with  the  kidneys,  shall 

5  he  take  away.  And  Aaron’s  sons  shall  burn  it  on  the  altar  upon  the  burnt  offering,  which  is 
upon  the  wood  that  is  on  the  fire  :  it  is  an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the 
Lord. 

6  And  if  his  oblation  for  a  sacrifice  of  peace  offerings  unto  the  Lord  be  of  the  flock  ;  male  or 

7  female,  ho  shall  offer  it  without  blemish.  If  he  offer  a  lamb  for  his  oblation,  then  shall  he 

12  oft’er  it  before  the  Lord.  And  if  his  oblation  be  a  goat,  then  he  shall  offer  it  before  the  Lord 

17  It  shall  be  a  perpetual  statute  throughout  your  generations  in  all  your  dwellings,  that  ye  shall 

eat  neither  fat  nor  blood. 

Lev.  7  11  And  this  is  the  law  of  the  sacrifice  of  peace  offerings,  w^hich  one  shall  offer  unto 

12  the  Lord.  If  he  offer  it  for  a  thanksgiving,  then  he  shall  offer  with  the  sacrifice  of  thanks¬ 
giving  unleavened  cakes  mingled  with  oil,-  and  unleavened  wafers  anointed  with  oil,  and  cakes 

13  mingled  with  oil,  of  fine  flour  soaked.  With  cakes  of  leavened  bread  he  shall  offer  his  obla- 

14  tion  with  the  sacrifice  of  his  peace  offerings  for  thanksgiving.  And  of  it  he  shall  offer  one 
out  of  each  oblation  for  an  heave  offering  unto  the  Lord  ;  it  shall  be  the  priest’s  that  sprink 

15  leth  the  blood  of  the  peace  offerings.  And  the  flesh  of  the  sacrifice  of  his  peace  offerings  for 
thanksgiving  shall  bo  eaten  on  the  day  of  his  oblation  ;  he  shall  not  leave  any  of  it  until  the 

16  morning.  But  if  the  sacrifice  of  his  oblation  be  a  vow,  or  a  freewill  offering,  it  shall  be  eaten 
on  the  day  that  he  offereth  his  sacrifice  :  and  on  tbe  morrow  that  which  remaineth  of  it  shall 

17  bo  eaten  :  but  that  which  remaineth  of  the  flesh  of  the  sacrifice  on  the  third  day  shall  be 

18  burnt  with  fire.  And  if  any  of  the  flesh  of  the  sacrifice  of  his  joeaco  offerings  be  eaten  on  the 
third  day,  it  shall  not  be  accepted,  neither  shall  it  be  imputed  unto  him  that  offereth  it  ;  it 

19  shall  be  an  abomination,  and  the  soul  that  eateth  of  it  shall  bear  his  iniquitj’.  And  the  flesh 
that  toucheth  any  unclean  thing  shall  not  be  eaten  ;  it  shall  be  burnt  with  fire.  And  as  for 

20  the  flesh,  every  one  that  is  clean  shall  eat  thereof  :  but  the  soul  that  eateth  of  the  flesh  of  the 
sacrifice  of  peace  offerings,  that  pertain  unto  the  Lord,  having  his  uncleanness  upon  him, 

21  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from  his  people.  And  when  any  one  shall  touch  any  unclean  thing, 
the  uncleanness  of  man,  or  an  unclean  beast,  or  any  unclean  abomination,  and  eat  of  the  flesh 


THE  PEACE-OFFERING. 


381 


of  the  sacrifice  of  peace  offerings,  which  pertain  nnto  the  Lord,  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from 
his  people. 

28  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  saying,  He 

29  that  offereth  the  sacrifice  of  his  peace  offerings  unto  the  Lord  shall  bring  his  oblation  unto 

30  the  Lord  out  of  the  sacrifice  of  his  peace  offerings  :  his  own  hands  shall  bring  the  offerings 
of  the  Lord  made  by  fire  ;  the  fat  with  the  breast  shall  he  bring,  that  the  breast  may  be 
waved  for  a  wave  offering  before  the  Lord, 

Lev.  19  0  And  when  ye  offer  a  sacrifice  of  peace  offerings  unto  the  Lord,  ye  shall  offer  it 

6  that  ye  may  be  accepted.  It  shall  be  eaten  the  same  day  ye  off'er  it,  and  on  the  morrow  :  and 

7  if  aught  remain  until  the  third  da}',  it  shall  be  burnt  with  fire.  And  if  it  be  eaten  at  all  on 

8  the  third  day,  it  is  an  abomination  ;  it  shall  not  be  accepted  ;  but  every  one  that  eateth  it 
shall  bear  his  iniquity,  because  he  hath  profaned  the  holy  thing  of  the  Lord  :  and  that  soul 
shall  be  cut  off  from  his  people. 

[The  verses  omitted  above  are  mainly  repetitions  of  verses  2-5.] 


The  peace-offering  was  a  sacrifice  offered  as  a 
testimonial  of  seeking  peace  and  favor  with 
God.  Peace-offerings  were  of  three  kinds  :  (1) 
of  thanksgiving  or  praise  ;  (2)  votive,  or  for  a 
vow  ;  (3)  voluntary  or  free-will  offerings. 

Peace  offerings  were  eucharistic  and  bloody, 
and  were  voluntarily  off'ered  from  the  herd  or 
flock,  male  or  female.  With  them  were  off'ered 
“  unleavened  cakes  mingled  with  oil,  and  un¬ 
leavened  wafers  anointed  with  oil,  and  cakes 
mingled  with  oil,  of  fine  flour,  fried,”  and 
“  leavened  bread.”  From  the  peace-offering  the 
fat  was  burned  upon  the  altar  ;  but  the  breast 
as  a  wave-offering  before  the  Lord,  and  the 
right  shoulder  as  a  heave-offering,  were  given 
to  the  priest  ;  but  the  rest  of  the  flesh  was  to 
be  eaten  by  the  offerer— on  the  same  day,  if  of 
the  first  kind  above — on  that  day  and  the  next, 
if  of  the  second  or  third  kind — before  the  Lord. 
This  meal  was  the  distinctive  feature  of  this 
sacrifice,  and  indicated  a  state  of  peace  and 
friendship  with  God.  Die.  B. 

The  peace-offering  was  not  an  atoning  sacri¬ 
fice  to  make  peace  with  God,  but  a  joyful  cele¬ 
bration  of  peace  made  through  the  covenant.  In 
this  part  of  the  ritual,  more  than  in  any  other, 
we  see  Jehovah  present  in  his  house  inviting  the 
worshipper  to  feast  with  ILm.  Peace-offerings 
were  slain  with  the  same  ceremonies  as  the 
burnt-offering  ;but  only  a  part  was  burned  upon 
the  altar — namely,  all  the  fat,  the  kidneys,  the 
caul  or  midriff',  and,  in  the  case  of  a  lamb,  the 
rump.  These  parts  formed,  according  to  Ori¬ 
ental  tastes,  the  delicacies  of  the  feast,  and 
therefore  they  were  offered  to  Jehovah  ;  and 
they  are  emphatically  called  his  bread.  The 
breast  and  the  shoulder  were  the  portion  of  the 
priests,  who  might  eat  them  in  any  clean  place 
with  their  sons  and  daughters.  The}'’  were 
called  the  wave-breast&nd.  the  heave-shoulder,  from 
the  motions  made  in  offering  them  before  Je¬ 
hovah.  The  priest  also  took  one  of  the  unleav¬ 
ened  cakes  or  leavened  loaves,  which  were 


offered  as  a  meal-offering  with  the  peace-offei- 
ing,  having  first  heaved  it  before  God.  P.  S, 

The  general  name  for  this  species  of  offering 
is  she'andm  :  it  comes  from  a  root  which  signi¬ 
fies  to  supply  what  is  wanting  or  deficient,  to 
pay  or  recompense  ;  and  hence  it  very  naturally 
came  to  express  a  state  in  which,  all  misunder¬ 
standings  having  been  removed  and  good  ex¬ 
perienced,  there  was  room  for  friendship,  joy, 
and  thankfulness.  And  the  sacrifice  which 
went  by  this  name  might  be  employed  in  ref¬ 
erence  to  any  occasion  on  which  such  ideas  be¬ 
came  strikingly  displayed.  In  regard  to  the 
offerings  themselves,  they  were  all  to  be  accom¬ 
panied  with  imposition  of  hands  and  the  sprink¬ 
ling  of  the  blood  round  about  the  altar,  which 
implied  that  they  had  to  some  extent  to  do  with 
sin,  and,  like  all  the  other  offerings  of  blood, 
brought  this  to  remembrance.  It  fitly  served 
to  remind  the  worshipper  of  his  unworthiness 
of  the  boon,  and  his  unfitness  in  himself  to 
stand  before  God  in  peace  when  God  should  bo 
drawing  near.  P.  F. 

7  :  39.  When  the  sacrifice  was  killed,  the 
offerer  himself  must,  with  his  own  hands,  pre¬ 
sent  God’s  part  of  it,  that  he  might  signify 
thereby  his  cheerful  giving  it  up  to  God,  and 
his  desire  that  it  might  be  accepted.  He  was 
with  his  own  hands  to  Uft  it  up,  in  token  of  his 
regard  to  God  as  the  God  of  heaven  ;  and  then 
to  wave  il  to  and  fro,  in  token  of  his  regard  to 
God  as  the  Lord  of  the  whole  earth  ;  to  whom 
thus  he  offered  it,  showing  his  readiness  and 

wish  to  do  Him  honor.  H. - In  regard  to  the 

peace-offerings  the  waving  was  peculiarly  con¬ 
nected  with  the  breast — which  is  thence  called 
the  wave-breast— and  the  heaving  with  the  shoul 
der,  for  this  reason  called  the  heave-shoulder. 
When  th  ise  parts  were  thus  presented  to  God 
and  set  apart  to  the  priesthood,  the  rest  of  the 
flesh  was  given  up  to  the  offerer  to  be  partaken  of 
by  himself  and  those  he  might  call  to  share  and 
rejoice  with  him.  Among  these  he  was  instruct- 


382 


SECTION  185.  THE  PEACE-OFFERING. 


edto  invite,  beside  his  own  friends,  the  Levite, 
the  widow,  and  the  fatherless.  This  participa¬ 
tion  by  the  offerer  and  his  friends,  this  family 
feast  upon  the  sacrifice,  may  be  regarded  as  the 
most  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  peace- 
offerings.  It  denot#"d  that  the  offerer  was  ad¬ 
mitted  to  a  state  of  near  fellowship  and  enjoy¬ 
ment  with  God,  shared  part  and  part  with  Je¬ 
hovah  and  his  priests,  had  a  standing  in  his 
house,  and  a  seat  at  his  table.  It  was  therefore 
the  symbol  of  established  friendshijo  with  God, 
and  near  communion  with  him  in  the  blessings 
of  his  kingdom  ;  and  was  associated  in  the 
minds  of  the  worshippers  with  feelings  of  pecul¬ 
iar  joy  and  gladness — but  these  always  of  a 
sacred  character.  And  in  the  way  by  which  the 
worshipper  attained  to  a  fitness  for  enjoying 
these  privileges — namely,  through  the  life-blood 
of  atonement — how  impressive  a  testimony  was 
borne  to  the  necessity  of  seeking  the  road  to 
all  dignity  and  blessing  in  the  kingdom  of  God 
through  faith  in  a  crucified  Redeemer.  By 
Him  has  the  provision  been  made,  and  the  door 
oiieiied,  and  the  invitation  issued  lo  go  in  and 
partake.  Such  only  as  have  attained  to  faith  in 
his  blood  can  be  admitted  to  taste,  or  be  pre¬ 
pared  to  relish,  the  feast  of  fat  things  he  sets 
before  them.  The  unbelieving  and  unholy  must 
of  necessity  be  aliens  from  God’s  household, 
and  strangers  at  his  table.  P.  F. 

The  peace-offerings  had  regard  to  God  as  a 
Benefactor  to  his  creatures  and  the  giver  of  all 
good  things  to  us  ;  and  therefore  these  were  di¬ 
vided  between  the  altar,  the  joriest,  and  the 
owner.  Peace  signifies  (1)  reconciliation,  con¬ 
cord,  and  communion.  And  so  these  were 
called  peace-offey'ings,  because  in  them  God  and 
his  people  did,  as  it  were,  feast  together  in 
token  of  friendship.  The  priest,  who  was  or¬ 
dained  for  men  in  things  pertaining  to  God, 
gave  part  of  this  peace-offering  to  God  (that 
part  which  He  required,  and  it  was  fit  He 
should  be  first  served),  burning  it  upon  God’s 
altar  ;  part  he  gave  to  the  offerer,  to  be  eaten 
by  him  with  his  family  and  friends  ;  and  part 
he  took  to  himself  as  the  days-man  that  laid  his 
hand  upon  them  both.  They  could  not  thus  eat 
together  unless  they  were  agreed  ;  so  that  it 
was  a  symbol  of  friendship  and  fellowship  be¬ 
tween  God  and  man  and  a  confirmation  of  the 
covenant  of  peace.  (2)  It  signifies  prosperity 
and  all  happiness  :  Peace  he  io  you  was  as  much 
as  All  good  be  to  you  ;  and  so  the  peace-offerings 
were  offered  either  (1)  by  way  of  supplication 
or  request  for  some  good  that  was  wanted  and 
desired.  If  a  man  were  in  the  pursuit  or  ex¬ 
pectation  of  any  mercy,  he  would  back  his 


prayer  for  it  with  a  peace-offering,  and  probably 
put  up  the  prayer  when  he  laid  his  hand  upon 
the  head  of  his  offering.  Christ  is  our  Peace, 
our  Peace-offering  ;  for  through  him  alone  it  is 
that  we  can  expect  to  obtain  mercy  and  an  an¬ 
swer  of  jDeace  to  our  prayers  ;  and  in  him  an 
upright  prayer  shall  be  acceptable  and  success¬ 
ful  though  we  bring  not  a  peace-offering.  Or 
(2)  b}’’  way  of  thanksgiving  for  some  particular 
mercy  received  ;  it  is  called  a  peace-off’cring  of 

thanksgiving,  for  so  it  was  sometimes.  H. - - 

The  peace  ottering  regarded  as  an  act  of  thanks¬ 
giving  for  mercies  received  is  referred  to  by 
David  (Ps.  107  :  22),  “  Let  them  sacrifice  the  sac¬ 
rifices  oj  thanksgiving.''  In  allusion  to  this  kind 
of  offering  the  apostle  says  (Heb.  13  : 15),  By 
him,  therefore,  let  us  offer  the  sacrifice  of  praise 
to  God  continually.”  Bush. 

As  the  name  implies,  the  prominent  thought 
in  these  sacrifices  was  the  blessed  result  of 
drawing  near  to  God  in  the  way  of  his  appoint¬ 
ment.  “Justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with 
God.”  In  the  sin-offering  there  was  forgive¬ 
ness,  in  the  burnt-offering  acceptance,  in  the 
meal -offering  consecration,  and  now  in  the 
peace  offering  there  is  peace  and  joy,  peace  with 
God  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  supreme 
satisfaction  of  the  soul  in  that  communion  with 
God  which  has  been  established  through  the 
appointed  sacrifices.  Here,  as  always,  there  is 
the  idea  of  atonement  underlying  all.  It  was 
essentially  a  festal  sacrifice,  the  idea  of  joyful 
communion  shining  out  in  it.  J.  M.  G. 

Jesus  Christ  is  the  great  peace-offering.  We 
have  peace  with  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.  It  is  by  the  blood  of  Christ  that  we  are 
made  nigh  unto  God — for  he  is  our  peace,  hav¬ 
ing  broken  down  the  middle  wall  of  partition, 
having  abolished  in  his  flesh  the  enmity,  hav¬ 
ing  reconciled  us  unto  God  by  the  cross,  and  so 
as  to  make  peace  and ''furnish  a  sure  warrant  to 
the  heralds  of  salvation,  when  in  the  fulfilment 
of  their  commission  they  proclaim  peace  on 
earth,  or  preach  peace  both  to  them  who  are 
afar  off  and  to  them  w'ho  are  nigh  (Eph.  2  : 13- 

17).  T.  C. - The  instant  a  sinner  believes  — 

though  he  may  have  been  the  chief  of  sinners  a 
moment  before— he  is  united  to  the  Saviour  ; 
he  is  in  Jesus  ;  he  is  accepted  in  the  Beloved. 
This  is  no  inchoate  or  half-finished  justifica¬ 
tion.  All  God’s  anger  is  turned  away.  The 
sufficiency  of  Christ  covers  all.  Millions  of 
sins,  each  aggravated  and  intensified  by  accu¬ 
mulated  turpitudes,  are  as  easily  blotted  away 
and  sunken  in  the  deep,  as  a  single  infant  fault. 
It  is  not  they,  it  is  the  substitute,  at  whom  God 
is  looking.  No  progress  in  justification  can  be 


SECTION  186. 


383 


conceived  of.  Each  soul,  at  each  moment,  is 
either  acquitted  or  condemned  ;  either  rejected 
as  an  alien,  or  accepted  in  the  Beloved.  Though 
tUere  are  degrees  in  the  manifestation  of  this 
acceptance— for  example,  to  the  believer’s  own 
consciousness  ;  to  the  recognition  of  brethren  ; 


or,  at  the  last  day,  to  the  assembled  universe — 
yet  the  justification  is  complete  at  the  moment 
of  believing.  The  believer  needs  no  further 
justification.  In  Christ  —  he  can  no  more 
come  into  condemnation  than  Christ  himself. 
J.  W.  A. 


Section  136. 

THE  SIN-OFFERING  :  SIN,  AS  PRESENTED  IN  THE  HEBREW  SCRIPTURES  ;  MEAN¬ 
ING  AND  PLACE  OF  THIS  OFFERING;  DIVERSITY  OF  VICTIMS;  TREATMENT 
OF  THE  BLOOD  AND  OF  THE  VICTIM  ;  OTHER  DETAILS  OF  TEXT. 
CONCLUDING  THOUGHTS. 

Leviticus  4  : 1-35  ;  5  : 1-13  ;  6  :  24-30.  Nu.  15  :  22-31. 

Lev.  4  1  And  the  Loed  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  say- 

2  ing,  If  any  one  shall  sin  unwittingly,  in  any  of  the  things  which  the  Loed  hath  commanded 

3  not  to  be  done,  and  shall  do  any  one  of  them  :  if  the  anointed  priest  shall  sin  so  as  to  bring 
guilt  on  the  people  ;  then  let  him  offer  for  his  sin,  which  he  hath  sinned,  a  young  bullock 

1  without  blemish  unto  the  Loed  for  a  sin  offering.  And  he  shall  bring  the  bullock  unto  the 
door  of  the  tent  of  meeting  before  the  Loed  ;  and  he  shall  lay  his  hand  upon  the  head  of  the 

5  bullock,  and  kill  the  bullock  before  the  Loed.  And  the  anointed  priest  shall  take  of  the  blood 

6  of  the  bullock,  and  bring  it  to  the  tent  of  meeting  :  and  the  priest  shall  dip  his  finger  in  the 
blood,  and  sprinkle  of  the  blood  seven  times  before  the  Loed,  before  the  veil  of  the  sanctuary. 

7  And  the  priest  shall  put  of  the  blood  upon  the  horns  of  the  altar  of  sweet  incense  before  the 
Loed,  which  is  in  the  tent  of  meeting  ;  and  all  the  blood  of  the  bullock  shall  he  pour  out  at 

8  the  base  of  the  altar  of  burnt  offering,  which  is  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting.  And  all 
the  fat  of  the  bullock  of  the  sin  offering  he  shall  take  off  from  it  :  the  fat  that  covereth  the 

9  inwards,  and  all  the  fat  that  is  upon  the  inwards,  and  the  two  kidneys,  and  the  fat  that  is 
upon  them,  which  is  by  the  loins,  and  the  caul  upon  the  liver,  with  the  kidneys,  shall  he  take 

10  away,  as  it  is  taken  off  from  the  ox  of  the  sacrifice  of  j)eace  offerings  :  and  the  priest  shall 

11  burn  them  upon  the  altar  of  burnt  offering.  And  the  skin  of  the  bullock,  and  all  its  flesh, 

12  with  its  head,  and  with  its  legs,  and  its  inwards,  and  its  dung,  even  the  whole  bullock  shall 
he  carry  forth  without  the  camp  unto  a  clean  place,  where  the  ashes  are  poured  out,  and  burn 
it  on  wood  with  fire  :  where  the  ashes  are  poured  out  shall  it  be  burnt. 

13  And  if  the  whole  congregation  of  Israel  shall  err,  and  the  thing  be  hid  from  the  eyes  of  the 
assembly,  and  they  have  done  any  of  the  things  which  the  Loed  hath  commanded  not  to  be 

14  done  and  are  guilty  ;  when  the  sin  wherein  they  have  sinned  is  known,  then  the  assembly 

15  shall  offer  a  young  bullock  for  a  sin  offering,  and  bring  it  before  the  tent  of  meeting.  And 
the  elders  of  the  congregation  shall  lay  their  hands  upon  the  head  of  the  bullock  before  the 

20  Loed  :  and  the  bullock  shall  be  killed  before  the  Loed.  Thus  shall  he  do  with  the  bullock  ; 
as  he  did  with  the  bullock  of  the  sin  offering,  so  shall  he  do  with  this  ;  and  the  priest  shall 

21  make  atonement  for  them,  and  they  shall  be  forgiven.  And  he  shall  carry  forth  the  bullock 
without  the  camp,  and  burn  it  as  he  burned  the  first  bullock  ;  it  is  the  sin  offering  for  the 
assembly. 

22  When  a  ruler  sinneth,  and  doeth  unwittingly  any  one  of  all  the  things  which  the  Loed  his 

23  God  hath  commanded  not  to  be  done,  and  is  guilty  :  if  his  sin,  wherein  he  hath  sinned,  be 

24  made  known  to  him,  he  shall  bring  for  his  oblation  a  goat,  a  male  without  blemish  ;  and  he 
shall  lay  his  hand  upon  the  head  of  the  goat,  and  kill  it  in  the  place  where  they  kill  the  burnt 
offering  before  the  Loed  :  it  is  a  sin  offering. 

27  And  if  any  one  of  the  common  people  sin  unwittingly,  in  doing  any  of  the  things  which  the 

28  Loed  hath  commanded  not  to  be  done,  and  be  guilty  ;  if  his  sin,  which  he  hath  tinned,  be 
made  known  to  him,  then  he  shall  bring  for  his  oblation  a  goat,  a  female  without  blemish,  for 

29  his  sin  which  he  hath  sinned.  And  he  shall  lay  his  hand  upon  the  head  of  the  sin  offering, 
and  kill  the  sin  offering  in  the  place  of  burnt  offering. 


384 


SECTION  136.  THE  SIN-OFFERING. 


32  And  if  he  bring  a  lamb  as  his  oblation  for  a  sin  offering,  he  shall  bring  it  a  female  without 
blemish. 

5  1  And  if  any  one  sin,  in  that  he  heareth  the  voice  of  adjuration,  Jie  being  a  witness, 

2  whether  he  hath  seen  or  known,  if  he  do  not  utter  it,  then  he  shall  bear  his  iniquity  :  or  if 
any  one  touch  any  unclean  thing,  whether  it  be  the  carcase  of  an  unclean  beast,  or  the  carcase 
of  unclean  cattle,  or  the  carcase  of  unclean  creeping  things,  and  it  be  hidden  from  him,  and 

3  he  be  unclean,  then  he  shall  be  guilty  :  or  if  he  touch  the  uncleanness  of  man,  whatsoever  his 
uncleanness  be  wherewith  he  is  unclean,  and  it  be  hid  from  him  ;  when  he  knoweth  of  it, 

4  then  he  shall  be  guilty  :  or  if  any  one  swear  rasL'ly  with  his  lips  to  do  evil,  or  to  do  good, 
whatsoever  it  be  that  a  man  shall  utter  rashly  with  an  oath,  and  it  be  hid  from  him  ;  when  he 

5  knoweth  of  it,  then  he  shall  be  guilty  in  one  of  these  things :  and  it  shall  be,  when  he  shall  be 

6  guilty  in  one  of  these  things,  that  he  shall  confess  that  wherein  he  hath  sinned  :  and  he  shall 
bring  his  guilt  offering  unto  the  Lord  for  his  sin  which  he  hath  sinned,  a  female  from  the 
flock,  a  lamb  or  a  goat,  for  a  sin  offering  ;  and  the  priest  shall  make  atonement  for  him  as 

7  concerning  his  sin.  And  if  his  means  suffice  not  for  a  lamb,  then  he  shall  bring  his  guilt 
offering  for  that  wherein  he  hath  sinned,  two  turtledoves,  or  two  young  pigeons,  unto  the 

8  Lord  ;  one  for  a  sin  offering,  and  the  other  for  a  burnt  offering.  And  he  shall  bring  them 
unto  the  priest,  who  shall  offer  that  which  is  for  the  sin  offering  first,  and  wring  off  its  head 

9  from  its  neck,  but  shall  not  divide  it  asunder  :  and  he  shall  sprinkle  of  the  blood  of  the  sin 
offering  upon  the  side  of  the  altar  ;  and  the  rest  of  the  blood  shall  be  drained  out  at  the  base 

10  of  the  altar  •  it  is  a  sin  offering.  And  he  shall  offer  the  second  for  a  burnt  offering,  according 
to  the  ordinance  :  and  the  priest  shall  make  atonement  for  him  as  concerning  his  sin  which 
he  hath  sinned,  and  he  shall  be  forgiven. 

11  But  if  his  means  suffice  not  for  two  turtledoves,  or  two  young  pigeons,  then  he  shall  bring 
his  oblation  for  that  wherein  he  hath  sinned,  the  tenth  part  of  an  ephah  of  fine  flour  for  a  sin 
offering  ;  he  shall  put  no  oil  upon  it,  neither  shall  he  put  any  frankincense  thereon  :  for  it  is 

12  a  sin  offering.  And  he  shall  bring  it  to  the  priest,  and  the  priest  shall  take  his  handful  of  it 
as  the  memorial  thereof,  and  burn  it  on  the  altar,  upon  the  offerings  of  the  Lord  made  by 

13  fire  :  it  is  a  sin  offering.  And  the  priest  shall  make  atonement  for  him  as  touching  his  sin 
that  he  hath  sinned  in  any  of  these  things,  and  he  shall  be  forgiven  :  and  the  remnant  shall  be 
the  priest’s,  as  the  meal  offering. 

6  24  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  Aaron  and  to  his  sons,  saying, 

25  This  is  the  law  of  the  sin  offering  ;  in  the  place  where  the  burnt  offering  is  killed  shall  the 

26  sin  offering  be  killed  before  the  Lord  :  it  is  most  holy.  The  priest  that  oft'ereth  it  for  sin 

27  shall  eat  it  :  in  a  holy  place  shall  it  be  eaten,  in  the  court  of  the  tent  of  meeting.  Whatsoever 
shall  touch  the  flesh  thereof  shall  be  holy  :  Bind  when  there  is  sprinkled  of  the  blood  thereof 

28  upon  any  garment,  thou  shalt  wash  that  whereon  it  was  sprinkled  in  a  holy  place.  But  the 
earthen  vessel  wherein  it  is  sodden  shall  be  broken  :  and  if  it  be  sodden  in  a  brazen  vessel,  it 

29  shall  be  scoured,  and  rinsed  in  water.  Every  male  among  the  priests  shall  eat  thereof  ;  it  is 

30  most  holy.  And  no  sin  offering,  whereof  any  of  the  blood  is  brought  into  the  tent  of  meeting 
to  make  atonement  in  the  holy  place,  shall  be  eaten  :  it  shall  be  burnt  with  fire. 

Nu.  15  22  And  when  ye  shall  err,  and  not  observe  all  these  commandments,  which  the 

23  Lord  hath  spoken  unto  Moses,  eyen  all  that  the  Lord  hath  commanded  you  by  the  hand  ot 
Moses,  from  the  day  that  the  Lord  gave  commandment,  and  onward  throughout  jmur  geneia- 

24  tions  ;  then  it  shall  be,  if  it  be  done  unwittingly,  without  the  knowledge  of  the  congregation, 
that  all  the  congregation  shall  offer  one  young  bullock  for  a  burnt  offering,  for  a  sweet  savour 
unto  the  Lord,  with  the  meal  offering  thereof,  and  the  drink  offering  thereof,  according  to  the 

25  ordinance,  and  one  he-goat  for  a  sin  offering.  And  the  priest  shall  make  atonement  for  all 
the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  they  shall  be  forgiven  ;  for  it  was  an  error,  and 
they  have  brought  their  oblation,  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord,  and  their  sin  offer 

26  ing  before  the  Lord,  for  their  error  :  and  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel  shall 
be  forgiven,  and  the  stranger  that  sojourneth  among  them  ;  for  in  respect  of  all  the  people  it 

27  was  done  unwittingly.  And  if  one  person  sin  unwittingly,  then  he  shall  offer  a  she-goat  of 

28  the  first  year  for  a  sin  offering.  And  the  priest  shall  make  atonement  fer  the  soul  that  erreth, 
when  he  sinneth  unwittingly,  before  the  Lord,  to  make  atonement  for  him  ;  and  he  shall  be 

29  forgiven.  Ye  shall  have  one  law  for  him  that  doeth  aught  unwittingly,  for  him  that  is  home- 

39  burn  among  the  children  of  Israel,  and  for  the  stranger  that  sojourneth  among  them.  But 


sm,  m  THE  HEBREW  SCRIPTURES. 


385 


tlie  soul  that  doeth  aught  with  an  high  hand,  whether  he  be  homeborn  or  a  stranger,  the  same 
31  blasphemetli  the  Lord  ;  and  that  soul  shall  be  cut  oft:  from  among  his  people.  Because  he 
hath  despised  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  hath  broken  his  commandment ;  that  soul  shall 
utterly  be  cut  off,  his  iniquity  shall  be  upon  him. 

[Verses  omitted  above,  mainly  repetitions.] 


The  Idea  of  Sin  Presented  in  the  Hebrew 

Scriptures. 

Generali^’-  it  was  true  among  the  heathen  that 
sin  was  looked  upon  rather  as  a  mere  transgres¬ 
sion  of  the  laws  of  nature — a  mistake,  a  folly — 
but  with  little  of  moral  quality  ;  or  else  a  dis¬ 
pleasure  to  the  magnified  men,  with  the  passions 
and  caprices  of  men,  whom  they  worshipped  as 
gods,  and  ill-advised,  so  far  as  it  was  likely  to 
a^\aken  their  animosity.  In  contrast  with  all 
this,  sin  stands  out  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
as  something  opposed  to  the  will  and  character 
of  One  infinite  in  holiness  and  purity,  and  for¬ 
ever  unchangeable  in  purpose.  Between  these 
extremes  there  was  every  variety  of  conception 
of  sin,  determined  by  the  varying  conception  of 
God,  and  of  man’s  relation  to  him  ;  but  as  the 
Hebrew  idea  of  God  was  higher  than  any  other, 
so  was  its  view  of  sin  as  a  moral  offence  far 
deeper.  Gardiner. 

Over  against  the  conceptions  of  Divine  right- 
eousnes-i,  holiness,  and  purity,  the  Hebrew  Scrip¬ 
tures  set  that  of  their  dark  opposite  — human 
sin.  The  one  cannot  be  understood  apart  from 
the  other.  No  theory  of  the  origin  of  the  He¬ 
brew  religion  merits  serious  attention  which 
cannot  give  an  honest  and  satisfactory  reply  to 
the  question.  Whence  was  the  idea  of  sin  which 
pervades  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  derived  ? 
Not  even  the  poetic  and  historic  literature,  far 
less  the  sacred  books,  of  all  other  ancient  na¬ 
tions  can  stand  comparison  with  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  in  human  interest.  No  phase  of  hu¬ 
man  life  is  unreflected  in  that  wondrous  mirror  ; 
no  note  is  left  untouched  throughout  the  dia¬ 
pason  of  human  emotion.  Every  vicissitude  of 
human  fortune  finds  a  place  in  these  pages, 
from  the  throne  to  the  dungeon,  from  the  cradle 
to  the  grave.  Every  type  of  human  character 
is  represented,  from  the  most  heroic  greatness 
or  saintliest  purity  to  the  most  unbridled  and 
revolting  wickedness.  A  procession  of  empires 
passes  across  that  narrow  stage.  We  hear  the 
jubilant  songs  of  harvest  and  vintage,  the  music 
of  feasts,  the  stern  hymn  of  warriors,  the  plan 
of  victory,  the  choral  chant  of  temple  worship, 
the  wail  of  the  dirge.  Yet  with  this  unrivalled 
fulness  and  all  but  endless  variety  of  human 
interest,  national  tradition,  and  individual  por¬ 
traiture  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  one 
dominant  character  pervades  the  whole  delin- 
25 


eation  ;  one  thought  underlies  the  whole,  even 
where  it  does  not  appear  on  the  surface  ;  one 
deep  sorrowful  note  rings  like  a  knell  through 
all  the  music.  It  is  that  which  Paul  utters 
when,  quotiirg  from  the  Old  Testament,  he  says 
that  “  all  have  sinned,  and  come  short  of  the 
glory  of  God.”  E.  R.  Conder. 

Sin — the  choice  of  evil  instead  of  good,  the 
perversion  of  the  desires,  the  slavery  of  the 
will,  the  darkening  of  the  mind,  the  deadly 
sickness  of  the  whole  heart — this  is  the  foun¬ 
tain  of  all  trouble,  the  cause  of  all  disorder  and 
wretchedness.  This  is  the  curse  which  de¬ 
stroys  life’s  harmony  and  beaut}'.  This  is  the 
obstacle  which  separates  the  soul,  in  darkness 
and  sorrow,  from  God.  The  forms  of  every  re¬ 
ligion,  the  voice  of  unceasing  prayers,  the  smoke 
of  endless  burnt-otferings,  the  blood  of  bulls 
and  goats,  the  oblations  of  all  that  is  most  pre¬ 
cious — gifts,  projiitiations,  pleadings,  sacrifices, 
without  stint  and  without  number — bear  wit¬ 
ness  to  the  deep  and  awful  sense  of  sin  which 
rests  upon  the  heart  of  the  world.  II.  Van 
Dyke. 

It  is  indispensable  that  attention  be  given  to 
the  terms  under  which  the  conception  of  sin  is 
presented  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  Hebrew 
language  is  rich  in  moral  synonyms.  Nine 
principal  words  may  be  noted  :  (1)  Ghattath. 

Sin  ;  f)erhaps  originally  ”  error,”  “missing  the 
mark.”  (2)  Peslvi' .  Transgression  ;  perhaps 
“breach.”  {3)  Resha' .  Unrighteousness;  wick¬ 
edness.  (4)  Ashayn.  Guilt  ;  the  word  rendered 
“  trespass”  in  the  law  concerning  “  trespass- 
offerings.”  (5)  Avon.  Perversity  ;  crime.  (6) 
Aven.  Vanity  ;  iniipiity.  (7)  'Evel.  Wicked¬ 
ness  ;  depravity  ;  properly  “  twisting  aside.” 
(8)  Ala'al.  Trespass.  (9)  Ra'.  Ill  ;  evil.  One 
fact  of  immense  interest  comes  out  from  this 
list  of  words,  that  the  Hebrew  conception  of  sin 
was  moral,  not  ceremonial.  This  is  as  true  of 
the  Law  as  of  the  historical  and  prophetic  writ¬ 
ings.  The  Hebrew  language  itself  bears  irre¬ 
fragable  witness  that  the  pollutions  and  purifi¬ 
cations  ordained  by  the  cerernoniiil  law  were 
but  symbols  of  a  stain  they  could  not  reach  and 
a  purity  they  could  not  bestow  ;  the  pollution 
of  the  heart  and  the  conscience  by  inward  sin, 
and  the  purification  of  Divine  forgiveness  and 
restoration  to  Clod’s  image.  If  the  penitent 
exclaimed,  “  Thou  desirest  not  sacrifice,  else  woidd 
I  give  it,'*  he  spoke  in  perfect  accord  with  the 


”  V 


SECTION  186.  THE  8IN0FFERING. 


386 

Law  whicli  ordained  for  such  crimes  as  murder 
and  adultery  not  sacrifice,  but  “  death  without 
mercy.”  And  if  he  prayed,  “  Hide  ihy  face  from 
my  sins  ;  and  blot  out  ad  mine  iniquities  ;  create  in 
me  a  dean  heart,  and  renew  a  righ  tspirit  in  me," 
he  but  interpreted  the  deepest  lessons  of  the 
Law,  which  shone  through  thb  ritual  as  through 
a  transparent  veil  ;  lessons  which  the  great 
Lawgiver  himself  declared  that  God’s  own  voice 
had  proclaimed  in  his  ears  (Ex.  33  ;  10  ;  34  : 6). 
E.  li.  Conder. 

The  Sin-Offekhstg,  Its  Meaning  and  Place, 

It  is  significant  that  in  the  order  of  narration 
the  Sin  offering  follows  those  before  mentioned, 
although  as  a  matter  of  ritual  it  ordinarily  pre¬ 
ceded  them  when  all  were  presented  at  the  same 
time.  The  others  had  been  in  use  before  the 
days  of  Moses.  This,  at  least  in  its  present 
form,  had  not.  The  immediate  object  of  the 
Sin-offering  was  expiation,  as  that  of  the  Tres¬ 
pass-offering  [guilt-offering]  was  satisfaction  or 

restitution.  E.  C.  B. - The  sin-offering  among 

the  Jews  was  the  sacrifice  in  which  the  ideas  of 
propitiation  and  of  a'onem.ent  for  sin  were  most 
distinctly  marked.  It  is  first  directly  enjoined  in 
Lev.  4,  whereas  in  ch.  1-3  the  burnt-offering, 
meal-offering,  and  peace-offering  are  taken  for 
•granted,  and  the  object  of  the  Law  is  to  regu¬ 
late,  not  to  enjoin,  the  presentation  of  them  to 
the  Lord.  Nor  is  the  word  ajDplied  to  any  sac¬ 
rifice  in  ante-Mosaic  times.  It  is,  therefore, 
peculiarly  a  sacrifice  of  the  Law.  The  idea  of 
propitiation  was  no  doubt  latent  in  earlier  sac¬ 
rifices,  but  it  wms  taught  clearly  and  distinctly 
in  the  Levitical  sin-offering.  By  the  order  of 
sacrifice  in  its  perfect  form  it  is  clear  that  the 
.sin-offering  occupies  the  most  important  place, 
the  burnt-offering  comes  next,  and  the  meal- 
nffering  or  peace-offering  last  of  all.  The  sec¬ 
ond  could  only  be  offered  after  the  first  had 
been  accepted  ;  the  third  was  only  a  subsidiary 
part  of  the  second.  Yet,  in  actual  order  of 
time,  the  patriarchal  sacrifices  partook  much 
more  of  the  nature  of  the  peace-offering  and 
hurnt-offering  ;  and  under  the  Law,  by  which 
was  “the  knowledge  of  sin”  (Rom,  3  : 20),  the 
'.sin-offering  was  for  the  first  time  explicitly  set 
forth.  This  is  but  natural,  that  the  deepest 
ideas  should  be  the  last  in  order  of  develop¬ 
ment. 

The  nature  and  meaning  of  the  various  kinds 
of  sacrifice  is  partly  gathered  from  the  form  of 
their  institution  and  ceremonial,  partly  from 
the  teaching  of  the  prophets,  and  partly  from 
the  New  Testament,  especially  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews.  All  had  relation,  under  different  as¬ 


pects,  to  a  covenant  between  God  and  man. 
The  sin-offering  represented  that  covenant  as 
broken  by  man,  and  as  knit  together  again,  by 
God’s  appointment,  through  the  “  shedding  of 
blood.”  Its  characteristic  ceremony  was  the 
sprinkling  of  the  blood  before  the  veil  of  the 
sanctuary,  the  putting  some  of  it  on  the  horns 
of  the  altar  of  incense,  and  the  pouring  out  of 
all  the  rest  at  the  foot  of  the  altar  of  burnt-offer¬ 
ing.  The  shedding  of  the  blood,  the  sj^mbol  of 
life,  signified  that  the  death  of  the  offender  was 
deserved  for  sin,  but  that  the  death  of  the  vic¬ 
tim  wms  accepted  for  his  death  by  the  ordinance 
of  God’s  mercy.  Beyond  all  doubt  the  sin-offer¬ 
ing  distinctly  witnessed  that  sin  existed  in  man, 
that  the  “  wages  of  that  sin  was  death,”  and 
that  God  had  provided  an  atonement  by  the 
vicarious  suffering  of  an  appointed  victim. 
The  ceremonial  and  meaning  of  the  burnt-offer¬ 
ing  were  very  different.  The  idea  of  expiation 
seems  not  to  have  been  absent  from  it,  for  the 
blood  was  sprinkled  round  about  the  altar  of 
sacrifice  ;  but  the  main  idea  is  the  offering  of 
the  whole  victim  to  God,  representing  the  de¬ 
votion  of  the  sacrificer,  body  and  soul,  to  him. 
The  meal-offering,  the  peace  or  thank-offering,  the 
first-fruits,  etc.,  were  simply  offerings  to  God 
of  his  own  best  gifts,  as  a  sign  of  thankful  hom¬ 
age,  and  as  a  means  of  maintaining  his  service 
and  his  servants.  It  is  clear  from  this  that  the 
idea  of  sacrifice  is  a  complex  idea,  involving  the 
propitiatory,  the  dedicatory,  and  the  eucharistic 
elements.  Any  one  of  these  taken  by  itself 
would  lead  to  error  and  superstition.  All  three, 
probably,  were  more  or  less  implied  in  each 
sacrifice,  each  element  predominating  in  its 
turn.  Die,  B. 

Lev.  4:2.  If  any  one  sin.  The 

sin-offering  was  a  new  thing,  instituted  bj"  the 
Law.  It  was  plainly  commanded  that  he  who 
was  conscious  that  he  had  committed  a  sin 

should  bring  his  sin-offering.  Clark. - The 

Law  being  now  added  because  of  transgressions 
(Gal.  3  : 19),  and  having  entered,  that  eventually 
the  offence  might  abound  (Rom.  5  :  20),  they  were 
put  into  a  way  of  making  atonement  for  sin 
more  particularly  by  sacrifice,  which  was  a 
shadow  of  good  things  to  come,  but  the  substance 
is  Christ,  and  that  one  offering  of  himself,  by 
which  he  put  away  sin  and  perfected  forever  them 
which  are  sanctified.  Sin  is  here  described  to  be 
against  any  of  the  commandments  of  the  Lord;  for 
sin  is  the  transgression  of  the  Law,  the  Divine 
Law.  The  wits  or  wills  of  men,  their  inven¬ 
tions  or  their  injunctions,  cannot  make  that  to 
be  sin  which  the  Law  of  God  has  not  made  to 
be  so.  It  is  said  likewise,  if  a  soul  sin,  for  it  is 


DISTINCTIVE  TREATMENT  OF  THE  BLOOD. 


387 


not  sin  if  it  be  not  some  way  or  other  the  soul' s 
act  ;  hence  it  is  called  the  sin  of  ihe  soul  (Mic. 
6  :  7),  and  it  is  the  soul  that  is  injured  by  it.  H. 

^J-4.  The  benefits  of  Christ’s  atonement,  in 
order  to  be  available,  must  be  personally  appre¬ 
hended.  However  intrinsically  sufficient  for 
the  salvation  of  all  men,  none  will  be  the  better 
for  it  wdio  do  not  for  themselves  make  use  of  it. 
The  offending  priest,  or  ruler,  or  common  per¬ 
son  must  himself  bring  his  sin-offering,  must 
lay  /iis  hands  upon  its  head,  must  thus  show 
how  nearly  he  felt  himsef  to  be  concerned  in 
the  ceremon}^  ;  and  every  sinner  now  must  in¬ 
dividually  bring  this  sacrifice  of  Christ,  in  faith, 
as  the  atonement  for  his  own  sin.  Bush. 

4:2.  Sin  iiiiwittiiigly.  The  sinning  is 
qualified  by  the  term  hishgayah,  not  strictly  in 
i<j)v>rartce,  as  the  English  Bible  puts  it,  but  by 
e  ri.ng,  by  mistake,  or  oversight.  The  expression 
is  partly  explained  by  an  additional  clause,  as 
at  verse  13,  wdiere  the  thing  said  to  have  been 
done  bishgagah  is  represented  as  “  hid  from  the 
eyes  of  the  congregation,”  and  only  afterward 
becomes  known  to  them  ;  and  again  at  verses 
23,  28,  wdiere  the  discovery  of  the  sin  is  spoken 
of  as  the  occasion  of  offering  the  sacrifice. 
Then  we  have  sins  of  this  description  contrasted 
wdth  “  sins  with  a  high  hand  ” — that  is,  sins 
committed  in  deliberate  defiance  of  the  author¬ 
ity  of  heaven.  For  sins  of  this  description  no 
sin  offering  was  to  be  allowed,  while  it  would 
be  accepted  for  the  others.  But  wdiile  uncon¬ 
scious  and  unintentional  sins  were  primarily 
meant,  yet  they  include  manj’-  that  w'ere  done 
knowinglj'’  and  intentionally — sins  of  infirmity, 
committed  in  the  violence  of  passion,  under 
some  powerful  temptation,  or  from  some  motive 
appealing  to  the  weaker  part  of  the  soul,  as  dis¬ 
tinguished  from  deliberate  and  settled  malice 
Some  of  the  cases  specified  at  the  beginning  of 
ch.  5,  as  among  those  for  which  sin-offerings 
might  be  presented,  put  it  beyond  a  doubt  that 
sins  of  that  description  were  to  be  understood. 
These  were  plainly  things  which  could  not  have 
happened  without  knowledge  of  the  transgress¬ 
or  ;  but  they  betrayed  hastiness  of  spirit,  or 
the  moral  weakness  which  could  not  resist  a 
present  temptation.  Viewed  in  this  light,  too, 
they  cannot  be  regarded  otherwise  than  as  speci¬ 
mens  of  a  class. 

Diversity  of  Appomted  Victims  {Lev.  4  :  5). 

In  respect  to  the  choice  of  victims  we  meet  with 
a  striking  diversity,  according  to  the  position  of 
the  party  for  whom  the  offering  was  to  be  made. 
There  was  thus,  by  means  of  a  graduated  scale 
in  the  offerings,  brought  out  the  iTnj)ortant  les¬ 


son  that  while  all  sin  is  offensive  in  the  sight  of 
God,  so  as  by  whomsoever  committed  to  deserve 
a  penalty,  which  can  only  be  averted  by  the 
blood  of  atonement,  it  grows  in  offensiveness 
with  the  position  and  number  of  tiansgressors  ; 
and  the  higher  in  privileges,  the  nearer  to  God, 
so  much  greater  is  the  guilt  to  be  atoned.  P.  F. 

The  Treatment  of  the  Blood,  and  of  the  Victim. 

In  sacrificing  the  burnt-offerings,  the  peace- 
offerings,  and  the  trespass-offerings,  we  read 
that  the  priests  were  to  “  bring  the  blood  and 
S23rinkle  the  blood  round  about  upon  the  altar.” 
In  the  sin-offerings,  the  priest  had  to  take  some 
of  the  blood  with  his  finger  and  put  it  u^jon  the 
horns  of  the  altar  of  burnt-offering,  and  to  pour 
out  what  remained  at  the  bottom  of  the  altar. 
This  was  all  that  was  required  for  the  blood  of 
the  sin-offering  for  one  of  the  common  people, 
or  for  a  ruler.  But  in  the  sin-offering  for  the 
congregation  and  that  for  the  high-j^riest,  in 
addition  to  these  two  processes,  the  high-iDriest 
himself  had  to  bring  a  portion  of  the  blood  into 
the  sanctuary,  to  S2)rinkle  it  with  his  finger 
seven  times  before  the  veil,  and  to  2)ut  some  of 
it  upon  the  horns  of  the  altar  of  incense.  Clark. 

- The  chief  and  most  distinctive  peculiarity 

in  the  sin-offering  was  the  action  with  the  blood, 
which  though  variously  emploj^ed  was  alwa3^s 
used  so  as  to  give  a  relatively  strong  and  intense 
expression  to  the  ideas  of  sin  and  atonement. 
The  highest  expression  whicli  could  be  given 
by  means  of  the  blood  was  presented  when  the 
high-priest,  on  the  Da^’-  of  Atonement,  went  wdth 
the  blood  of  his  own  and  the  i^eople’s  sin-offer¬ 
ing  into  the  most  holy  place,  and  sjjrmkled  the 
mercy-seat— the  very  place  of  Jehovah’s  throne. 
In  this  action  the  sin  apiieared,  on  the  one 
hand,  rising  to  its  most  dreadful  form  of  a  con¬ 
demning  witness  in  the  joresence  chamber  of 
God,  and,  on  the  other,  the  atonement  assumed 
the  appearance  of  so  perfect  and  comjjlete  a  sat¬ 
isfaction  that  the  sinner  could  come  nigh  to  the 
seat  of  God,  and  return  again  not  only  unscathed 
but  with  an  assurance  that  the  entire  mass  of 
guilt  was  cast  into  the  gulf  of  oblivion.  P.  F. 

L<ev.  4 :  ti.  If  ilic  priest 

shall  sin.  He  begins  with  the  high qjriest, 
who  alone  bore  the  high  distinction  of  the  holy 
unction.  The  more  illustrious  his  dignity,  the 
more  diligently  and  zealously  ought  his  life  to 
be  confirmed  to  the  model  of  holiness  ;  there¬ 
fore  the  infirmity  which  was  tolerable  in  others 
was  exceedingly  reprehensible  in  him.  For 
this  reason  itw'as  required  that  he  should  atone 
for  himself  with  a  greater  victim.  Calv. 


388 


SECTION  136.  THE  8IN-0FFEB1NQ. 


l!2,  Tlic  whole  bullock.  It  was  to  be 

carried  out  of  the  caiup,  and  there  to  be  burned 
in  a  tire  on  the  ground.  This  was  to  signify 
that  the  offerer  was  in  a  perfect  state  of  guilt, 
unfit  to  communicate  with  God  ;  and  that,  like 
the  offering  itself,  he  deserved  to  be  excluded 
from  the  society  of  bis  people  till  he  was  recon¬ 
ciled  by  this  sacrifice  made  in  his  stead  :  and 
thus  Christ,  who  was  made  a  sin-offering  for  us, 
suffered  “  without  the  camp” — that  is,  “  with¬ 
out  the  gate”  of  Jerusalem,  of  whose  expiation 
for  us  this  offering  was  a  type  and  figure  (Heb. 

13  : 11,  12).  Pyle. - In  the  sin-offering,  the 

animal  was  carried  outside  the  camp  and  con¬ 
sumed  there.  The  Hebrew  word  used  for  burn¬ 
ing  ui^on  the  altar  is  the  same  that  is  used  for 
the  burning  of  incense  in  the  holy  place,  with 
which  the  ha]3piest  and  most  delightful  thoughts 
are  always  connected.  But  the  word  applied 
to  the  burning  of  the  sin-offering  without  the 
camp  is  an  entirely  different  word,  meaning  to 
burn  up,  to  destroy.  The  body  of  death  was 
carried  far  out  to  a  clean  place  without  the 
camp,  and  there  burned  and  destroyed.  Is  not 
the  symbolism  very  instructive?  “As  far  as 
the  East  is  from  the  West,  so  far  bath  he  re¬ 
moved  our  transgressions  from  us.”  Our  sins, 
where  are  they  ?  Away,  without  the  camp,  out 
of  sight,  destroyed,  forgotten.  Ourselves, 
where  are  we  ?  Our  life  is  now  not  only  on  the 
altar,  but  carried  into  the  holy  place,  there  hid 
in  the  secret  of  his  presence.  Or  to  give  it  in 
New  Testament  form  :  '  ‘  we  are  dead,  and  our 
life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God”  (Col.  3:3). 
And  what  is  the  foundation  of  all  this?  Behold 
the  altar  ;  at  its  base  the  blood  of  atonement 
plentifully  poured  out  ;  on  its  summit  the  fat 
of  the  sacrifice  arising  with  acceptance  before 
God.  J.  M.  G. 

3,  13,  22,  27.  Thus  we  have — If  a  priest  do 
sin  -  If  a  ruler  sin — If  the  whole  congregation 
sin— If  any  one  of  the  common  people  sin. 
God  will  not  have  any  man  permitted  to  sin 
with  impunity.  He  does  not  release  a  priest 
from  the  obligations  which  he  imposes  upon 
the  common  people,  nor  will  he  excuse  the 
common  people  because  they  are  not  priests. 
Now  what  says  the  New  Testament  about  priest, 
ruler,  congregation,  common  people? — “If  we 
confess  our  sins,  he  is  faithful  and  just  to  for¬ 
give  Tis  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  un¬ 
righteousness.”  “The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ, 
God’s  Son,  cleanseth  us  from  all  sin.”  It  is 
still  the  way  of  blood.  Blood  means  life,  real¬ 
ity,  Divine  agony,  an  outpouring  of  the  soul. 
Sin  has  not  changed  its  character,  nor  can  the 
method  of  sin’s  redemption  be  changed  as  to 


its  highest  expression  and  meaning.  “  With¬ 
out  shedding  of  blood  is  no  remission.”  J.  P. 

Lev.  4  :  26,  31,  35.  Tlie  priest  shall 
make  atonement  for  him,  and  he 
shall  he  forgiven.  The  sin  thus  covered 
had  in  fact  no  longer  any  existence.  As  regards 
the  sinner,  it  had  been  transferred  to  the  head 
of  the  sacrifice  ;  as  regards  God  and  the  claims 
of  Divine  justice,  it  had  met  its  deserts  in  the 
death  of  the  vicarious  oblation.  So  that  the 
sinner  was  thus  “  covered  upon  from  his  sin,” 
which  henceforth  occupied  a  separate  sphere  of 
existence  ;  a  truth  which  found  its  fullest  ex¬ 
pression  in  the  dismissal  of  the  live  goat  of  the 
sin-offering  on  the  Day  of  Atonement  with  the 
expiated  or  covered  sins  of  the  congregation. 
The  ground  of  offence  had  been  taken  out  of 
the  way  ;  and  on  this  reconciliation  ensued. 
With  regard  to  the  transgressor  it  is  intimated, 
“  It  is  forgiven  to  him.”  D.  M. 

Lev.  5:1.  If  a  person  be  adjured  in  the 
name  of  God  to  speak  the  truth  when  he  is 
called  to  be  a  witness  in  anj^  cause,  “  whether 
he  hath  seen  or  known  of  it  ” — that  is,  whether 
he  can  speak  to  the  matter  either  from  his  own 
knowledge  or  from  the  information  of  credible 
witnesses,  and  do  not  “  utter  it,”  then  he  shall 
“  bear  his  iniquity,”  or  be  deemed  guilty  and 

liable  to  punishment.  Bp  Kidder. - 4.  Or 

if  any  one  swear.  That  is,  if  a  person 
swear  rashly  and  inconsiderately  in  the  com¬ 
mon  affairs  of  life  that  he  will  or  will  not  do 
something,  whether  good  or  evil,  and  if  “  it  be 
hid  from  him” — that  is,  if  he  have  not  rightly 
considered  the  thing  before  whether  it  was  in 
his  power  or  not  ;  whether  it  were  lawful  or 
not  ;  or  if  through  forgetfulness  he  omit  to  do 
what  he  might  have  done  when  he  kiioweth  it, 
“  he  shall  be  guilty.”  Bp.  Patrick. 

]¥u.  15  :  30,  31.  The  presumptuous  sinner, 
literally  he  who  sinned  “  with  a  high  hand,” 
might  or  might  not  have  committed  such  a 
crime  as  to  incur  punishment  from  the  civil 
law  :  it  was  enough  that  he  had  with  deliberate 
purpose  rebelled  against  God,  and  ipso  facto 
was  “  cut  off  from  among  his  people”  and  alien¬ 
ated  from  the  Divine  covenant.  Clark. - He 

who,  when  his  iniquity  comes  to  his  knowledge, 
refuses  to  offer  such  a  sacrifice,  sins  obstinately 
and  wilfally,  and  to  him  there  remains  no  other 
sacrifice  for  sin,  no  other  mode  by  which  he  can 
be  reconciled  to  God  ;  and  this  seems  the  case 
to  which  the  apostle  alludes  (Heb.  10  : 26). 
A.  C. 

Men  attempt  to  reform  what  is  amiss  ;  they 
subject  themselves  to  stricter  regulations  ;  they 
multiply  the  rules  of  watchfulness  and  sobriety  ; 


SECTION  187. 


389 


but  still  the  sense  of  guilt  returns.  They  then 
have  recourse  to  resolutions  of  future  time, 
hoping  they  shall  be  able  to  make  some  atone¬ 
ment  by  a  more  correct  deportment  ;  but  when 
the  Law  comes  in  its  purity  and  extent,  they 
had  all  this  is  vain  ;  that  it  demands  nothing 
short  of  perfect  obedience  ;  that  the  penalty 
has  been  incurred  ;  that  they  are  already  con 
demned,  and  are  only  waiting  for  the  season  of 
retribution  ;  that  they  are  shut  up,  they  cannot 
escape,  But  no  sooner  are  they  enabled,  in  con¬ 
sequence  of  the  despair  of  any  other  remedy, 
ami  as  they  find  no  other  resource,  to  look  to 
the  blood  of  Christ  as  cleansing  from  all  sin, 
than  there  they  find  a  solid  ground  of  hope  ; 
there  the  conflict  is  at  an  end  ;  and  they  see 
that  they  have  nothing  to  do  but  humblj^  to  re¬ 
ceive  reconciliation.  Peace  with  God  has  been 
made,  justice  has  been  satisfied,  and  only  waits 
to  see  the  sinner  confessing  his  sins  over  the 
head  of  that  victim  and  asking  for  mercy  in  that 
name.  R.  Hall. 

Here  is  an  offender,  standing  pensive  and 
awe- struck  before  the  altar  of  burnt-offering. 
He  has  jiresented  his  victim  ;  he  has  laid  on  it 
the  hand  of  confession  and  imputation  ;  he  has 
seen  it  deprived  of  life  and  laid  upon  the  blaz¬ 
ing  altar  ;  he  has  gazed  upon  the  series  of  sym¬ 
bolical  actions  expressive  of  the  atoning  work 
and  satisfaction  to  God.  But  one  thing  is  yet 
wanting  to  assure  him  of  his  individual  par¬ 
ticipation  in  this  justifying  righteousness  ;  he 
receives  from  the  hyssop -branch  the  sacred 
drops  uiron  his  vestment  and  his  person.  His 
pardon  is  sealed.  He  says,  with  a  new  con¬ 
sciousness,  “  I  am  free  !  This  oblation  avails 
for  me  !  God  remits  my  guilt  for  the  sake  of 
sacrifice  !”  Now  all  this  takes  place  in  a  New 
Testament  sense.  The  convinced  sinner  has  a 
clear  view  of  the  plan  of  remedy  provided  in 
the  Gospel,  and  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  one  aton¬ 


ing  sacrifice.  At  the  cross  he  confesses  his 
sius.  He  beholds  there  a  propitiation  airqjly 
adequate  for  the  pardon  of  a  world.  He  ap¬ 
proves  the  method,  and  honors  its  wisdom  and 
love.  He  perceives  the  Law  exalted  and  God’s 
anger  turned  away.  This,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is 
faith  ;  but  peace  is  in  abe^'ance.  He  knows 
Christ  to  be  a  Saviour,  but  he  falters  in  claim¬ 
ing  Christ  a  Saviour  for  him,  until,  O  blessed 
moment !  the  veil  is  rent,  the  j^riest  returns 
from  the  most  holy  place,  and  sprinkles  him 
with  the  peace-speaking  blood.  Now  he  can 
cry.  “I  know  whom  I  have  believed  “  Christ 
Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save  sinners,  of 
whom  I  am  chief  “  My  beloved  is  mine, 
and  I  am  his;”  “My  Lord  and  my  God!’’ 
J.  W.  A. 

There  is  no  sin-offering  required  of  us  now. 
“It  is  finished.”  “By  one  offering  he  hath 
perfected  forever  them  that  are  sanctified.’’ 
But  thank-offerings  we  should  present  continu¬ 
ally,  and  votive  offerings,  in  the  spirit  of  the 
116th  Psalm.  And  not  only  so,  but  we  should 
present  ourselves  as  a  whole  burnt -offering. 
“  Ye  are  not  jmur  own  :  ye  are  bought  with  a 
price,  therefore  glorify  God  with  your  bodies 
and  with  your  spirits,  which  are  his.’’  No 
more  appropriate  close  to  this  great  subject 
could  be  imagined  than  that  grand  benediction 
with  which  the  subject  is  closed  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  :  “  Now  may  the  God  of  peace, 
that  brought  again  from  the  dead  onr  Lord 
Jesus,  that  great  Shepherd  of  theshee[),  through 
the  blood  of  the  everlasting  covenant,  make  you 
perfect  [there  is  the  ark,  there  is  the  Law,  there 
is  the  goal  of  holiness  which  must  ever  be  tull 
in  the  view  of  the  W'orshipper  at  the  altar]  in 
every  good  work  to  do  his  will,  working  in  you 
that  which  is  well-pleasing  in  his  sight,  through 
Jesus  Christ  ;  to  whom  be  glory  forever  and 
ever.  Amen.”  J.  M.  G. 


Section  137. 

THE  TRESPASS  OR  GUILT  OFFERING. 

Leviticus  5  : 14-19  ;  6  : 1-7  ;  7  : 1-6.  Nu.  5  :  5-8. 

Lev.  5  14  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  If  any  one  commit  a  trespass,  and  sin 

15  unwittingly,  in  the  holy  things  of  the  Lord  ;  then  he  shall  bring  his  guilt  offering  unto  the 
Lord,  a  ram  without  blemish  out  of  the  flock,  according  to  th}^  estimation  in  silver  by  shekels, 

16  after  the  shekel  of  the  sanctuary,  for  a  guilt  offering  :  and  he  shall  make  restitution  for  that 
which  he  hath  done  amiss  in  the  holy  thing,  and  shall  add  the  fifth  part  thereto,  and  give  it 
unto  the  priest  :  and  the  priest  shall  make  atonement  for  him  with  the  ram  of  the  guilt  offer¬ 
ing,  and  he  shall  be  forgiven. 

17  And  if  any  one  sin,  and  do  any  of  the  things  which  the  Lord  hath  commanded  not  to  be 


390 


SECTION  137.  THE  TRESPASS  OR  GUILT  OFFERING. 


18  clone  ;  though  he  knew  it  not,  yet  is  he  guilty,  and  shall  bear  his  iniquity.  And  he  shall 
bring  a  ram  without  blemish  out  of  the  flock,  according  to  thy  estimation,  for  a  guilt  offering, 
unto  the  priest  :  and  the  priest  shall  make  atonement  for  him  concerning  the  thing  wherein 

19  he  erred  unwittingly  and  knew  it  not,  and  he  shall  be  forgiven.  It  is  a  guilt  offering  :  he  is 
certainly  guilty  before  the  Loan. 

(»  1  And  the  Loan  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  If  any  one  sin,  and  commit  a  trespass 

2  against  the  Loan,  and  dtal  falsely  with  his  neighbour  in  a  matter  of  deposit,  or  of  bargain,  or 

3  of  robbery,  or  have  oppressed  his  neighbour  ;  or  have  found  that  which  was  lost,  and  deal 

4  falsely  therein,  and  swear  to  a  lie  ;  in  any  of  all  these  that  a  man  doeth,  sinning  therein  ;  then 
it  shall  be,  if  he  hath  sinned,  and  is  guilty,  that  he  shall  restore  that  which  he  took  by  rob¬ 
bery,  or  the  thing  which  he  hath  gotten  by  oppression,  or  the  deposit  which  was  committed  to 

5  him,  or  the  lost  thing  which  he  found,  or  any  thing  about  which  he  hath  sworn  falsely  ;  he 
shall  even  restore  it  in  full,  and  shall  add  the  fifth  part  more  thereto  ;  unto  him  to  whom  it 

6  appertaineth  shall  he  give  it,  in  the  day  of  his  being  found  guilty.  And  he  shall  bring  his 
guilt  offering  unto  the  Lord,  a  ram  without  blemish  out  of  the  flock,  according  to  thy  estima- 

7  tion,  for  a  guilt  offering,  unto  the  j^riest  :  and  the  priest  shall  make  atonement  for  him  before 
the  Lord,  and  he  shall  be  forgiven  ;  concerning  whatsoever  he  doeth  so  as  to-be  guilty  thereby. 

7  1  And  this  is  the  law  of  the  guilt  offering  :  it  is  most  holy.  In  the  place  where  they  kill 

2  the  burnt  offering  shall  they  kill  the  guilt  offering  :  and  the  blood  thereof  shall  he  sprinkle 

3  upon  the  altar  round  about.  And  he  shall  offer  of  it  all  the  fat  thereof  :  the  fat  tail,  and  the 

4  fat  that  covereth  the  inwards,  and  the  two  kidneys,  and  the  fat  that  is  on  them,  which  is  by 

5  the  loins,  and  the  caul  upon  the  liver,  with  the  kidneys,  shall  he  take  away  :  and  the  priest 
shall  burn  them  upon  the  altar  for  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord  :  it  is  a  guilt  offer- 

6  ing.  Every  male  among  the  priests  shall  eat  thereof  :  it  shall  be  eaten  in  a  holy  place  :  it  is 
most  holy. 

Nu.  5  5  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel, 

6  When  a  man  or  woman  shall  commit  any  sin  that  men  commit,  to  do  a  trespass  against  the 

7  Lord,  and  that  soul  be  guilty  ;  then  they  shall  confess  their  sin  which  they  have  done  :  and 
he  shall  make  restitution  for  his  guilt  in  full,  and  add  unto  it  the  fifth  part  thereof,  and  give 

8  it  unto  him  in  respect  of  whom  he  hath  been  guilty.  But  if  the  man  have  no  kinsman  to 
whom  restitution  may  be  made  for  the  guilt,  the  restitution  for  guilt  which  is  made  unto  the 
Lord  shall  be  the  priest’s  ;  besides  the  ram  of  the  atonement,  whereby  atonement  shall  be 
made  for  him. 


The  sin-offering  was  atonement  proper,  and 
is  fulfilled  in  Jesus,  who  knew  no  sin,  made  sin 
for  us — Jesus  who  did  no  sin,  his  own  self  bear¬ 
ing  our  sins  in  his  own  body  on  the  tree.  The 
blood  of  the  sin-offering  was  the  type  of  the 
blood  of  Christ,  which  cleanses  us  from  all  sin  ; 
and  the  body  of  the  sin-off'ering,  being  burned 
without  tlie  camp,  was  the  type  of  the  body  of 
Christ  suffering  for  us  without  the  gate.  The 
trespass- offering  adds  the  ideas  of  redemption 
and  remedy.  Our  trespasses  are  our  debts — i.e., 
definite  acts  of  wrong  or  evil,  which  may  be 
estimated.  In  the  case  of  trespasses  against 
God,  sacrifice  was  required  first,  then  repara¬ 
tion.  In  the  case  of  trespasses  against  men 
(which  are  also  counted  as  against  the  Lord, 
ch.  6  : 1),  restitution  was  required  first,  then 
sacrifice.  Evidently  we  are  to  see  in  the  tres¬ 
pass-offering  redemption  and  ransom  by  the 
precious  blood  of  Christ.  D.  F. 

THE  TRESPASS  OR  GUILT  OFFERING. 

The  original  word  for  Irespass-offerinq  is 
usham,  from  a  root  of  the  same  letters  asham,  to 


fail  in  duty,  to  transgress,  to  he  guilty,  or.  as  it  is 
for  the  most  rendered  in  our  version,  to 
trespass.  The  leading  idea  is  p’ainly  that  of 
guilt.  Bush. 

The  trespass -offering  (Heb.  asham)  is  closely 
connected  with  the  sin-offering  in  Leviticus, 
but  clearly  distinguished  from  it,  being  in  some 
cases  offered  with  it  as  a  distinct  part  of  the 
same  sacrifice — e.g.,  in  the  cleansing  of  the  leper 
(Lev.  14).  At  the  time  of  offering,  in  all  cases 
of  damage  to  any  holy  thing  or  to  any  man,  res¬ 
titution  was  made  with  the  addition  of  one  fifth 
to  the  principal  ;  the  blood  was  sprinkled  round 
about  on  the  altar,  as  in  the  burnt-off'ering  ;  the 
fat  burned,  and  flesh  disposed  of  as  in  the  sin- 
offering.  The  Sin-offerings  were — (A.)  Regular: 
For  the  whole  people,  at  the  New  Moon,  Passover, 
Pentecost,  Feast  of  Trumpets,  and  Feast  of 
Tabernacles  :  besides  the  solemn  offering  of  the 
two  goats  on  the  great  Day  of  Atonement.  For 
the  priests  and  Lt'vites  at  their  consecration  ;  be¬ 
sides  the  yearly  sin-offering  (a  bullock)  for  the 
high-priest  on  the  great  Day  of  Atonement. 
(B.)  Special:  For  any  sin  of  “ignorance.”  For 


THE  GUILT  OR  DEBT  OFFERING. 


391 


rrfusal  io  bear  witness.  For  cei'emonial  defilement 
not  wilfully  contracted.  For  the  breach  of  a  ra.sh 
oath.  The  Trespass-offerings  were  always  special, 
as— (1)  For  sacrilege  “  in  ignorance.”  (2)  For 
ignorant  transgression.  (3)  For  fraud,  suppres¬ 
sion  of  the  truth,  or  perjury.  (4)  For  rape  of  a  be¬ 
trothed  slave.  (5)  At  the  purification  of  the  leper, 
and  the  polluted  Nazarite,  offered  with  the  sin- 
offering.  From  this  enumeration  it  will  be 
clear  that  the  two  classes  of  sacrifices,  although 
distinct,  touch  closely  upon  each  other,  as  espe¬ 
cially  the  special  sin  offerings  and  the  trespass- 
offerings.  Mr.  Barry,  original  author  of  this 
article,  draws  the  following  conclusions  :  (a) 
That  the  sin-offering  was  far  the  more  solemn 
and  comprehensive  of  the  two  sacrifices.  (6) 
That  the  sin-offering  looked  more  to  the  guilt 
of  the  sin  done,  irrespective  of  its  consequences, 
while  the  trespass-offering  looked  to  the  evil 
consequences  of  sin,  either  against  the  service 
of  God,  or  against  man,  and  to  the  duty  of 
atonement  as  far  as  atonement  was  possible, 
(c)  That  in  the  sin-offering  especially  we  find 
symbolized  the  acknowledgment  of  sinfulness 
as  inherent  in  man,  and  of  the  need  of  expia¬ 
tion  by  sacrifice  to  renew  the  broken  covenant 
between  man  and  God.  Bev.  I.  Jennings  (in 
Kitto)  says  :  “  The  sin-offering  holds  up  sin  as 
guilt  needing  expiation  ;  the  trespass  offering  as 
robbery  demanding  compensatidn.”  Die.  B. 

The  trespass,  or  as  it  should  rather  be  called 
the  guilt  or  debt-offering  {asham),  stood  in  a  very 
near  relation  to  the  sin-offering.  But  what 
were  distinctively  called  by  the  name  of  asham 
were  offerings  for  sins  in  which  the  offence 
given  or  the  debt  incurred  by  the  misdeed  ad¬ 
mitted  of  some  sort  of  estimation  and  recom¬ 
pense  ;  so  that,  in  addition  to  the  atonement 
required  for  the  iniquity,  there  might  be  the 
exaction  and  payment  of  a  restitution.  That 
this  is  the  real  import  of  the  asham,  as  distin¬ 
guished  from  the  hatlath  or  sin,  is  clear  from 
the  passage  (Nu.  o  :  5-8),  where  the  former  is 
marked  as  a  consequence  of  the  latter,  and  such 
a  consequence  as  admitted  and  demanded  a 
material  recompense.  It  was  a  reckoning  for 
sin  with  a  predominant  respect  to  the  social 
and  economical  evils  growing  out  of  it,  or  to 
the  violation  of  rights  involved  in  its  commis¬ 
sion.  P.  F. 

Lev.  :  1-7.  This  is  the  latter  part  of  the 
Law  of  the  trespass-offering  :  the  former  part, 
which  concerned  trespasses  about  holy  things, 
we  had  in  the  close  of  the  foregoing  chapter  ; 
this  concerns  trespasses  in  common  things. 
2,  3.  Though  all  the  instances  relate  to  our 
neighbor,  yet  it  is  called  a  trespass  against  the 


Lord;  because,  though  the  injury  be  done  im¬ 
mediately  to  our  neighbor,  yet  it  reflects  upon 
that  God  who  has  made  the  command  of  loving 
our  neighbor  second  to  that  of  loving  himself. 
The  trespasses  instanced  are  (1)  Denying  a 
trust  ;  If  a  man  lie  unto  his  neighbor  in  that  which 
was  delivered  him  to  keep ;  or,  which  is  worse, 
which  was  lent  him  for  his  use.  If  we  claim 
that  as  our  own  which  is  only  borrowed,  left  in 
our  custody,  or  committed  to  our  care,  this  is  a 
trespass  against  the  Lord,  who,  for  the  benefit  of 
human  society,  will  have  property  and  truth 
maintained.  (2)  Defrauding  a  partner  ;  If  a  man 
lie  in  fellowship,  claiming  a  sole  interest  in  that 
wherein  he  has  but  a  joint -interest.  (3)  Dis¬ 
owning  a  manifest  wrong  ;  If  a  man  has  the 
front  to  lie  in  a  thing  taken  away  by  violence, 
which  ordinarily  cannot  be  hid.  (4)  Deceiving 
in  commerce  ;  or,  as  some  think,  by  false  accu¬ 
sation  ;  if  a  man  have  deceitfully  oppressed  his 
neighbor,  as  some  read  it,  either  withholding 
what  is  due,  or  extorting  what  is  not.  (5)  De¬ 
taining  what  is  found,  and  denying  it  (verse  3)  ; 
if  a  man  have  found  that  which  was  lost,  he  must 
not  call  it  his  own  presently,  but  endeavor  to 
find  out  the  owner,  to  whom  it  must  be  re¬ 
turned  ;  this  is  doing  as  we  would  be  done  by  : 
but  he  that  lies  concerning  it,  that  says  he  knows 
nothing  of  it,  when  he  does,  especially  if  he 
back  that  lie  with  a  false  oath,  he  trespasseth 
against  the  Lord,  who  to  everything  that  is  said 
is  a  witness,  but  in  an  oath  he  is  the  party  ap¬ 
pealed  to,  and  highly  affronted  when  he  is  called 
to  witness  to  a  lie.  H. 

4-7.  The  trespass-offering  appointed.  In 
the  day  of  his  trespass-offering  he  must  make  sat¬ 
isfaction  to  his  brother.  This  must  be  first 
done  ;  if  thy  brother  hath  aught  agaimt  thee  (verses 
4,  5).  Because  he  hath  sinned  and  is  guilty — that 
is,  is  convicted  of  his  guilt  by  his  own  con¬ 
science,  and  is  touched  with  remorse  for  it  ; 
seeing  himself  guilty  before  God,  let  him  faith¬ 
fully  restore  all  that  he  has  got  by  fraud  or  op¬ 
pression,  with  a  fifth  part  added,  to  make  amends 
to  the  owner  for  the  loss  and  trouble  he  had 
sustained  in  the  mean  time  ;  let  him  account 
both  for  debt  and  damages.  Where  wrong  has 
been  done,  restitution  must  be  made  ;  and  till 
it  is  made  to  the  utmost  of  our  power,  or  an 
equivalent  accepted  by  the  person  wronged,  we 
cannot  have  the  comfort  of  the  forgiveness  cf 
the  sin  ;  for  the  keeping  of  what  is  unjustly  got 
avows  the  taking,  and  both  together  make  but 
one  continued  act  of  unrighteousness.  To  re¬ 
pent  is  to  undo  what  we  have  done  amiss,  which 
(whatever  we  pretend)  we  cannot  be  said  to  do, 
till  we  restore  what  has  been  got  by  it,  as  Zac- 


392 


SECTION  137.  THE  TRESPASS  OR  GUILT  OEEERING. 


cheus  (Luke  19  : 8),  and  make  satisfaction  for 
the  wrong  done.  He  must  Xhm  come  and  offer 
his  gift,  must  h7ing  his  trespass-offering  to  ihe 
Lord  whom  he  had  offended  ;  and  the  priest 
must  make  an  aioneme)it  for  him  (verses  G,  7). 
The  trespasses  here  mentioned  are  trespasses 
still  against  the  Law  of  Christ,  which  insists  as 
much  upon  justice  and  truth  as  ever  the  law  of 
naturu  or  the  law  of  Moses  did  ;  and  though 
now  we  may  have  them  pardoned  without  a 
trespass- offering,  yet  not  without  true  repent¬ 
ance,  restitution,  reformation,  and  an  humble 
faith  in  the  righteousness  of  Chiist  ;  and  if  any 
make  the  more  bold  with  their  sins,  because 
they  are  not  now  put  to  the  expense  of  a  tres¬ 
pass-offering  for  them,  they  tarn  the  grace  of  God 
into  to  intonness,  and  so  bring  upon  ihemselv^s  a 
swift  destruction.  The  Lord  is  ihe  avemjer  of  all 
such  (1  Thes.  4  : 6).  H. 

After  restoration  and  the  addition  of  the  fifth 
part  thereto,  then  the  man  was  to  go  and  see 
the  pontiff  of  Israel  and  arrange  about  the  offer¬ 
ing  of  the  ram.  The  process  was  not  complete 
until  the  ram  had  been  offered.  Every  social 
offence  has  a  religious  bearing  ;  every  wrong 
done  in  the  market-place  reports  itself  in  heaven. 
Thus  life  is  solemn  :  actions  have  rebounds  and 
throbs  and  issues,  often  incalculable,  often  in¬ 
finite.  Nothing  is  settled  until  the  root  is  made 
right,  the  fountain  is  purified,  restoration  is 
completed,  compensation  is  effected,  and  praj^er 
is  said  over  the  blood  that  atones.  J.  P. 


The  bimit-offering,  the  most  ancient  and  ex¬ 
tensive  in  its  import  of  all,  consumed  wholly 
upon  the  altar,  represented  the  general  convic¬ 
tion  of  sinfulness,  and  the  felt  duty  of  a  com¬ 
plete  surrender  of  all  the  powers  and  faculties 
to  God.  In  the  peace  or  thank-offering,  under 
its  various  forms,  the  feeling  of  sin  is  expressed 
in  connection  with  jrarticular  mercies  vouch¬ 
safed  b}",  or  expected  from,  God  ;  in  accordance 
with  a  deep  and  true  sentiment  pervading  both 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  that  the  loving¬ 
kindness  of  God  awakens  in  the  true  Israelite  a 
sense  of  his  own  unworthiness.  In  this  species 
of  sacrifice,  after  atonement  is  made  man  is 
seen  in  the  enjoyment  of  perfect  fellowship 
with  God.  The  sin  and  trespass-offerings  had 
reference  to  particular  sins  by  which,  though 
committed  inadverently  (for  wilful  transgression 
no  atonement  was  provided),  fellowship  with 
God  had  been  interrupted,  and  by  sacrificial 
cleansing  must  be  restored.  To  all  the  atoning 
property  belongs  :  in  all  the  victim  is  .slain,  the 
blood  is  sprinkled  by  the  priest  :  and  onl_y  after 
this  preliminary  process,  by  which  the  person 


of  the  offerer  w’as  rendered  acceptable,  is  com¬ 
munion  with  God  enjoyed  or  recovered.  Litton. 


You  will  DOW  perceive  the  reason  for  Ihe 
great  variety  of  the  ancient  sacrificial  ritual. 
While  the  fundamental  idea  was  the  sub.^titu- 
tion  of  the  life  of  the  innocent  victim  fi>r  the 
forfeited  life  of  the  sinner,  it  was  needful  to 
provide  many  things  of  a  collateral  kind  to  \)ring 
out  all  the  great  truths  that  encircle  the  one 
central  truth — the  truths  that  are  connected 
with  the  sinner’s  reconciliation  and  restored 
fellowship  with  God.  So  also  it  was  needful  to 
give  expression  to  the  diversified  phases  of  feel 
ing  which  a  sinner  must  embody  in  his  worship. 
In  the  New  Testament  it  was  needful  that  the 
evangelists  and  apostles  must  set  forth  not  only 
the  great  truth  of  the  sacr)ficial  death  of  Christ, 
but  also  develop  something  of  the  vast  subjec¬ 
tive  theology  that  stands  related  to  that  great 
central  truth  — as,  for  instance,  the  actings  of 
penitence  and  faith  in  the  soul  moved  upon  by 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  the  new  ties  and  relations 
that  grow'  out  of  the  connection  with  Christ  as 
a  Saviour.  So  this  ancient  wmrship  by  litual 
must,  besides  holding  forth  the  atoning  Christ 
in  the  burnt-offering,  represent  in  a  variety  of 
offerings,  purifications,  and  ritual  provi.sions 
not  only  the  various  phases  of  the  sinner’s 
view's  in  relation  to  the  great  sacrifice,  the  dif¬ 
ferent  degrees  of  his  guilt,  the  sense  entertained 
by  him  of  his  sinfulness  and  his  own  relation 
to  God,  but  also  of  his  obligations  to  the  merev 
of  God  for  restored  peace,  and  all  the  gloimins 
results  flowing  from  his  justification  and  bis 
acceptable  approach  to  God.  Now  this  could 
not  be  done  except  by  the  institution  of  this 
great  variety  of  sacrifices  and  purifications, 
suited  to  the  ever-var^ung  circumstances  of  the 
w'orshipper  ;  or  by  the  kinds  of  victims  em¬ 
ployed  in  the  same  sacrifice,  and  the  particular 
ceremonies  connected  wuth  the  several  parts  of 
the  offering.  Bj'  this  means  opportunity  was 
given  to  represent  by  symbols  a  great  variety 
of  states  of  soul  and  phases  of  feeling.  Instead, 
therefore,  of  wondering  at  this  variety  of  detail 
we  should  wonder  at  and  adore  the  infinite  wis¬ 
dom  and  love  which  provided  thus  for  teacdiing 
by  symbols  the  w'ay  of  salvation,  adapted  to 
the  w'ants  of  every  soul  and  to  all  classes  and 
conditions  of  men.  Just  as  rationally  may  we 
find  fault  W'ith  the  details  of  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment,  wdiich  not  only  presents  Christ  crucified 
as  the  great  objective  truth,  but  brings  out  so 
fully  every  variety  of  views  and  feelings  that 
arise  in  the  soul  viewing  Christ  crucified,  as  find 


SECTION  133.  SACEEI)  SEASONS. 


393 


fault  with  the  details  of  the  old  ritual.  The 
Gospel  accoidiug  to  Moscs  ditteis  from  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  evangelists  and  the 
apostles  not  in  theology,  either  objective  or 
subjective,  but  only  in  presenting  pictorially 
in  its  symbols  and  by  type  instead  of  histori¬ 
cally  the  same  great  truth  of  salvation  by  a 


mediator  and  substitute,  and  the  same  phases 
of  human  need  and  experience  in  }elation  to 
this  mediator,  s6  that  the  exulting  disciple, 
Philip,  might  well  say  to  Nathaniel,  “  We  have 
found  him  of  whom  Moses  in  the  Law  and  the 
prophets  did  write,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  son 
of  Joseph.”  S.  R. 


Section  138. 

APPOINTED  TIMES  FOR  WORSHIP,  A  COMPLETE  AND  SYMMETRICAL  SCHEME. 
FEASTS  AND  HOLY  CONVOCATIONS.  THREE  HISTORICAL  FESTIVALS  :  THEIR 
DESIGN,  EFFECTS,  CHARACTERISTICS,  AND  SPIRITUAL  TEACHINGS.  EIGHTH- 
DAY  SERIES.  FOUR  MARKS  OF  AUTHENTICITY. 

Leviticus  23  : 1,  2,  4.  Ex.  23  : 14-17.  De.  16  ;  16,  17. 

Lev.  ‘23  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and 
2  say  unto  them,  The  set  feasts  of  the  Lord,  which  ye  shall  proclaim  to  be  holy  convocations, 
even  these  are  my^  set  feasts. 

4  These  are  the  set  feasts  of  the  Lord,  even  holy  convocations,  which  y^e  shall  proclaim  in  their 
appointed  season. 

jKr.  tJ3  14  Three  times  thou  shalt  keep  a  feast  unto  me  in  the  year.  The  feast  of  unleav- 

15  ened  bread  shalt  thou  keep  ;  seven  day\s  thou  shalt  eat  unleavened  bread,  as  I  commanded 
thee,  at  the  time  appointed  in  the  month  Abib  (for  in  it  thou  earnest  out  from  Egypt)  ;  and 

16  none  shall  appear  before  me  empty  :  and  the  feast  of  harvest,  the  firstfruits  of  thy  labours, 
which  thou  sowest  in  the  field  :  and  the  feast  of  ingathering,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  when 

17  thou  gatherest  in  thy  labours  out  of  the  field.  Three  times  in  the  year  all  thy  males  shall 
appear  before  the  Lord  God. 

De.  8  6  16  Three  times  in  a  year  shall  all  thy  males  appear  before  the  Lord  thy  God  in  the 
place  which  he  shall  choose  ;  in  the  feast  of  unleavened  bread,  and  in  the  feast  of  weeks,  and 

17  in  the  feast  of  tabernacles  :  and  they  shall  not  appear  before  the  Lord  empty  ;  every  man  shall 
give  as  he  is  able,  according  to  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  thy  God  which  he  hath  given  thee. 


We  pas.s  from  the  sacred  rites  to  the  sacred 
times,  the  fourth  and  last  division  of  the  wain 
body  of  ceremonial  laws,  or  those  jiertaining  di- 
rejtly  to  public  worship.  The  place,  the  min- 
istiy,  and  the  media  (sacrifices)  of  worship  have 
been  considered.  The  appointed  times  and 
feasts  will  occupy  Sections  138  to  143,  inclusive. 

Then  wdll  follow  certain  adjuncts  to  the  cere¬ 
monial  legislation.  B. 

Scheme  of  the  Sacred  Seasons,  Complete  and  Sym¬ 
metrical. 

The  passages  relating  to  the  annual  feasts  are 
the  following  :  Ex.  12  : 13  :  Narrative  of  the 
original  institution  of  the  Passover  and  of  the 
feast  of  Unleavened  Bread,  and  the  regulations 
respectiug  them  given  before  leaving  Egypt. 
Ex.  23  : 14-19  :  Summary^  account  of  the  three 
annual  feasts,  in  which  pilgrimages  were  re¬ 
quired,  as  prescribed  in  the  book  of  the  covenant 
ratified  at  Mount  Sinai.  Ex.  34  : 18-26  :  Sub¬ 
stantial  repetition  of  the  preceding  upon  the  re¬ 


newal  of  the  covenant  after  the  sin  of  the  golden 
calf.  Lev.  23  :  Enumeration  of  the  feasts  and 
holy  convocations  to  be  observed  in  the  course 
of  the  year,  with  the  special  ceremonies  con¬ 
nected  with  them.  De.  16  : 1-17  :  Admonition 
to  observe  the  three  annual  feasts  and  to  cele¬ 
brate  them  at  the  sanctuary^  about  to  be  divinely 
chosen. 

The  scheme  of  the  sacred  seasons  set  forth  in 
these  laws  is  consistent  and  complete.  It  is 
based  on  the  primitive  institution  of  the  weekly^ 
Sabbath.  This  patriarchal  institution  was  in 
the  Mosaic  Law  expanded  into  a  Sabbatical  sys¬ 
tem  by  applying  the  septenary^  division  in  suc¬ 
cession  to  every  denomination  of  time.  The 
seventh  month  was  a  sacred  month,  marked  by 
an  accumulation  of  holy^  days,  its  first  day^  being 
observed  as  a  Sabbath,  including  which  there 
were  four  festive  Sabbaths  and  six  additional 
feast  days  in  the  month.  The  seventh  y'ear  Avas 
a  Sabbatical  y  ear,  during  which  the  land  was  to 
rest  and  lie  untilled.  The  fiftieth  year,  or  the 


I 


SECTION  138.  APPOINTED  TIMES  FOR  WORSHIP. 


394 

year  succeeding  seven  times  seven  years,  was 
the  year  of  jubilee,  which  gave  release  from  the 
burdens  of  impoverishment  and  servitude  ;  in 
it  the  Israelite  who  had  sold  himself  for  debt 
was  set  free,  and  projjerty  that  had  been  alien¬ 
ated  reverted  to  its  original  owners  ;  and  all 
was  thus  restored  to  its  primitive  status.  The 
sense  of  obligation  to  the  Creator,  and  rest  from 
worldly  toil,  were  thus  provided  for.  Gratitude 
for  the  gifts  which  he  bestows,  both  individual 
and  national,  and  the  expression  of  thankful 
joy  in  them  was  next  to  be  added.  This  was 
the  specific  purpose  of  the  feasts,  which  were 
accordingly  appointed  at  those  seasons  when 
God’s  bounty  is  so  richl}"  manifested  in  the  pro¬ 
ductions  of  the  earth — viz.,  at  the  harvest  and 
the  vintage.  These  feasts  were  linked  with  the 
Sabbatical  series  by  being  governed  throughout 
by  the  number  seven. 

The  sacred  seasons  form  thus  a  complete 
and  symmetrical  scheme,  giving  proper  and 
balanced  expression  to  the  leading  ideas  of 
Israel’s  religion,  and  especially  adjusted  to  their 
relation  to  God  as  their  Creator,  Benefactor,  and 
Sanctifier.  It  is  not  a  body  of  laws  and  usages 
aggregated  in  the  course  of  time  under  varying 
and  contingent  circumstances.  It  is  just  the 
consistent  unfolding  of  one  definite  scheme  of 
thought,  and  as  such  bears  the  stamp  of  one  re 
ilecting  and  constructive  mind,  by  which  it  has 
been  carefully  elaborated  and  adjusted  into  cor¬ 
respondence  with  certain  dominant  ideas. 
Ewald  only  referred  to  Moses  “  such  of  the 
ancient  institutions  of  the  Hebrews  as  are  of  so 
unusual  and  remarkable  a  character  that  they 
must  have  proceeded  from  the  exalted  genius  of 
one  man.”  But  this  test  of  itself  convinced 
him  that  the  sacred  seasons  of  the  Jews  origi¬ 
nated  with  Moses.  “  You  behold,”  he  says,  ”  a 
structure  simple,  lofty,  perfect.  All  proceeds 
as  it  were  from  one  spirit,  and  represents  one 
idea,  and  is  carried  into  effect  by  what  resembles 
counters  exactly  matched  strung  upon  one  cord. 
And  while  other  ancient  nations  have  a  multi¬ 
tude  of  festivals  with  no  obvious  connection, 
these  are  few,  but  linked  together,  illumined 
with  one  light,  and  relating  to  one  supreme 
end  (every  one  a  Sabbath  of  Jehovah).  Who¬ 
ever  has  a  thorough  knowledge  of  these  festi¬ 
vals  will  be  persuaded  that  they  have  not  arisen 
by  slow  degrees  from  the  blind  impulse  of  ex¬ 
ternal  nature,  nor  from  the  history  of  the  peo¬ 
ple,  but  are  the  product  of  a  lofty  genius.” 
W.  H.  G. 

Feasts — Holy  Convocations  {Lev.  23  : 1,  2,  4). 

The  specified  times  for  public  worship  accord¬ 


ing  to  the  Law  were  :  (1)  The  daily  morning 
and  evening  sacrifices,  sometimes  called  “the 
continual  burnt-offering.  ”  (2)  The  weekly  Sab¬ 
bath.  (3)  The  day  of  the  New  Moon.  (4)  The 
”  set  feasts’  or  appointed  times  of  annual  ob¬ 
servance,  of  which  there  were  five,  the  Pass- 
over,  the  Day  of  Pentecost,  the  feast  of  Trum¬ 
pets,  the  Day  of  Atonement,  and  the  feast  of 
Tabernacles.  For  each  of  these  occasions 
special  sacrifices  were  appointed.  The  weekly 
Sabbaths,  and  certain  days  in  the  appointed 
times  of  annual  observance,  were  distinguished 

as  “  days  of  holy  convocation.”  Claik. - The 

various  holy  days  of  the  Jewish  calendar  were 
opportunities  specially  arranged  for  a  more  reg¬ 
ular  and  continuous  attendance  upon  the  means 
of  grace  provided  by  the  tabernacle  and  its  ser¬ 
vices.  This  very  chapter  (Lev.  23),  which  de¬ 
tails  the  various  Sabbaths  and  feast-days,  again 
and  again  reiterates  that  these  festal  days  weie 
“  holy  convocations.”  Cave. 

Lev.  23  :  2.  Ye  stiall  proelaliii  to 
be  tioly  eonvoea(ioti§.  The  Hebrew 
may  be  rendered  more  literally,  “  which  ye  shall 
call  (as)  callings  of  holiness” — i.e.,  assemblages 
of  the  people  which  should  be  convened  for 
holy  or  sacred  purposes  at  set  times  by  j^nblic 
proclamation,  and  generally  by  the  sound  of  a 
trumpet  (Nu.  10  : 8-10)  These  are  my 
feasts.  The  term  feasts  is  apt  to  suggest  mis¬ 
taken  ideas.  It  is  the  common  rendering  of 
two  Hebrew  words  which  differ  considerably  in 
regard  to  their  exact  shade  and  compass  of 
meaning.  The  one  is  hag,  the  root  meaning  of 
which  is  to  move  in  a  circle,  or  dance,  and  was 
doubtless  applied  to  certain  of  the  greater  so¬ 
lemnities  on  account  of  the  joyful  processional 
movements  with  which  they  were  celebrated. 
The  word  is  very  rarely  applied  except  to  the 
Passover  and  feast  of  Tabernacles,  which  w'ere 
both  occasions  for  ^special  manifestations  of 
gladness  ;  and  in  later  times  the  term  became 
almost  appropriated  to  the  feast  of  Tabernacles, 
which  w'as  called  emphatically  the  hag,  on  ac¬ 
count  of  the  greater  hilarity  attending  its  pro¬ 
cessions  and  services.  The  name  which  is  em¬ 
ployed  to  denote  the  entire  series  of  the  staled 
solemnities  connected  with  particular  seasons, 
in  the  passage  (Lev.  23)  which  treats  of  these  in 
order,  is  rnoadtern.  While  the  word  undoubt¬ 
edly  sometimes  bears  the  sense  of  places  of 
meeting,  the  manner  in  which  it  is  used  in  this 
passage  points  distinctly  to  the  meetings  them¬ 
selves.  In  verse  2  it  is  said,  “  The  moad.eer)t  of 
Jehovah,  on  which  ye  shall  call  holy  convoca¬ 
tions,  these  are  the  moadeem."  Their  prom¬ 
inent  characteristic  is  here  plainly  declared  to 


THE  THREE  GREAT  FESTIVALS. 


395 


be  one  that  should  express  itself  in  convocations 

or  meetings  for  holy  purposes,  P.  F. - The 

people  were  not  simply  to  meet  as  among  them¬ 
selves,  but  with  Jehovah,  and  to  present  them¬ 
selves  before  him  as  one  body.  The  meeting 
together  was  in  its  very  nature  a  binding  of 
themselves  in  fellowship  with  Jehovah  ;  so  that 
it  was  not  politics  and  commerce  that  had  here 
to  do,  but  the  soul  of  the  Mosaic  dispensation, 
the  foundation  of  the  religious  and  political  ex¬ 
istence  of  Israel,  the  covenant  of  Jehovah.  To 
keep  the  people’s  consciousness  alive  to  this  ; 
to  revive,  strengthen,  and  perpetuate  it,  noth¬ 
ing  could  be  so  well  adapted  as  such  meetings 
together.  Bahr. 

The  Three  Great  Festivals  ;  Their  Design 
AND  Effects. 

23:14-17.  De.  16  : 16,  17. 

The  three  feasts  were  :  The  feast  of  the  Pass- 
over  ;  the  feast  of  Pentecost  ;  the  feast  of  Tab¬ 
ernacles.  The  feast  of  the  Passover  was  cele¬ 
brated  to  keep  in  remembrance  the  wonderful 
deliverance  of  the  Hebrews  from  Egypt.  The 
feast  of  Pentecost,  called  also  the  feast  of  harvest 
-and  the  feast  of  weeks,  was  celebrated  fifty  days 
after  the  Passover,  and  hence  called  by  the 
Greeks  Pentecost.  The  feast  of  Tabernacles, 
called  also  the  feast  of  the  ingathering,  was  cele¬ 
brated  about  the  fifteenth  of  the  month  Tisri,  to 
commemorate  the  Israelites  dwelling  in  tents 
for  forty  years  in  the  wilderness.  A.  C. 

Upon  these  tl^ree  great  festivals  all  the  males 
of  Israel  were  required  to  appear  before  the 
Lord  at  the  one  place  of  his  choice — the  taber¬ 
nacle  or  the  temple — ultimately  in  Jerusalem 
whither  the  tribes  go  up.”  The  women  of 
Israel  manifestly  went  when  they  chose  and 
could.  According  to  Oriental  usage,  they  trav¬ 
elled  in  groups —little  caravans— several  ad¬ 
jacent  families,  or  as  the  case  might  be  by 
households,  the  patriarch  with  his  children  and 
children’s  children  together,  moving  on  with 
many  a  song  of  social  cheer  and  grateful  praise 
till  at  length  the}’’  lifted  up  their  eyes  to  the 
hills  of  the  goodly  city.  The  so-called  “  songs 
of  degrees’  ’  (Ps.  120-134) — more  strictly  songs 
of  the  stages  ur  upsoings — are  specimens  of  this 
.  free  and  outflowing  worship  of  the  travelling 
companies,  bound  upward  to  Jerusalem.  H.  C. 

These  festivals  not  only  commemorated  great 
events  in  the  histor}"  of  Israel,  but  they  had 
each  its  significance  in  reference  to  God’s  gifts 
at  the  seasons  of  the  year.  The  Passover 
marked  the  beginning  of  the  harvest,  the  Pen¬ 
tecost  its  completion,  and  the  feast  of  Taber¬ 
nacles  the  vintage  and  the  ingathering  of  all  the 


fruits  of  the  year.  We  have  here  a  striking  ex¬ 
ample  of  the  foresight  of  the  Mosaic  Law  in 
providing  for  a  pastoral  people  festivals  suited 
to  their  settled  condition  as  agriculturists  ;  and 
they  were  wisely  arranged,  so  as  not  to  interfere 
with  the  labors  of  the  field.  They  are  con¬ 
nected  with  one  another,  so  as  to  form  one  great 
cycle.  The  Passover  is  in  the  first  month  of  the 
sacred  year,  followed  by  Pentecost  at  an  inter¬ 
val  of  seven  complete  weeks  ;  and  the  feast  of 
Tabernacles  in  the  seventh  month.  The  days 
of  holy  convocation,  including  the  feast  of 
Trumpets  and  the  Day  of  Atonement,  were 
seven  :  two  at  the  Passover,  one  at  the  Pente¬ 
cost,  and  two  at  the  feast  of  Tabernacles.  P.  S. 

God  appointed  several  festivals  among  the 
Jews,  for  many  reasons  :  (1)  To  j)erpetuate  the 
memory  of  those  great  events,  and  the  wonders 
he  had  wrought  for  the  people  ;  for  example, 
the  Sabbath  brought  to  remembrance  the  creation 
of  the  world  ;  the  Passover,  the  departure  out 
of  Egypt  ;  the  Pentecost,  the  giving  of  the  Law  ; 
the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  the  sojourning  of  their 
fathers  in  the  wilderness.  (2)  To  keep  them 
faithful  to  their  religion,  by  appropriate  cere¬ 
monies  and  the  splendor  of  the  Divine  service. 
(3)  To  procure  them  lawful  pleasures  and  neces¬ 
sary  rest.  (4)  To  give  them  instruction,  for  in 
their  religious  assemblies  the  Law  of  God  was 
read  and  explained.  (5)  To  consolidate  their 
social  union  by  renewing  the  acquaintance  of 
their  tribes  and  families  ;  for  on  these  occasions 
they  came  together  from  different  parts  of  the 

land.  Cahnet. - By  being  thus  brought  fre- 

quentl}’  into  contact  they  were  reminded  of 
their  common  origin  and  objects  ;  that  they 
were  sons  of  the  same  father,  worshippers  of 
the  same  God,  and  heirs  of  the  same  promises. 
Persons  of  distant  towns  and  different  tribes 
met  together  on  terms  of  brotherhood  and  fel¬ 
lowship  ;  old  relations  were  renewed  and  new 
ones  formed.  Thus  the  twelve  petty  States 
would  become  more  and  more  closely  connected, 
and  united  into  one  great  people.  E.  C.  W. 

It  might  seem  at  first  view  that  there  was  sig¬ 
nal  impolicy  in  leaving  the  land  defenceless, 
while  all  the  adult  male  population  were  con¬ 
gregated  at  a  distance  from  their  families  and 
homes  Unless  the  Scriptures  had  given  a  solu¬ 
tion,  the  matter  would  have  been  deemed  inex¬ 
plicable  ;  but  thus  runs  the  j^^omise  in  Ex. 
34  : 23,  24,  “  Thrice  in  the  year  shall  all  your 
men-children  appear  before  the  Lord  God,  the 
God  of  Israel  ;  neither  shall  any  man  desire  thy 
land,  when  thou  shalt  go  up  to  appear  before 
the  Lord  thy  God,  thrice  in  the  year.”  During 
the  whole  period  between  Moses  and  Christ,  we 


396 


SECTION  138.  THE  THREE  GREAT  FESTIVALS. 


never  read  of  an  enemy  iuvadhip;  the  land  at  the 
time  of  tJie  three  festivals  ;  the  tirsL  that  occars 
was  thirty -three  years  after  they  h.td  withdrawn 
from  themselves  the  Divine  protection  by  em- 
brniiig  their  hands  in  the  Saviour's  blood,  when 
Cestius  the  lioman  general  slew  fifty  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  of  L^’^dda,  while  all  the  rest  were  gone  np  to 
the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  a.d.  66.  .Bash. 

Two  Features  Emphasized. 

B>c.  116  :i6,  17.  Iki®  g>lace  wliicli 
Hie  §]iall  caoose;  a  id  tliey  §2iali 
appear  E>er«rc  me  empty;  every 
mail  sSiali  giive  as  lie  is  alble.  The  Law 

is  repeated  here  with  the  additional  clause,  “  at 
the  place  which  the  Lord  shall  choose  and 
the  words,  “  not  empty,”  are  explained  to  mean 
with  gifts  according  to  the  blessing  of  Jehovah 
their  God,  which  he  had  given  them,  W,  L.  A. 

In  the  place  which  he  shall  choose  A  principal 
reason  for  which  these  festivals  were  appointed, 
was  to  keep  up  peace,  and  friendship,  and 
unity,  both  in  Church  and  State.  As  the  nation 
was  divided  into  tribes,  each  of  which  was  in 
some  respects  a  little  commonwealth,  there  was 
cause  to  fear  that  they  should  fall  out  and  sep¬ 
arate  in  themselves  into  independent  govern¬ 
ments,  and  have  a  religion  and  ruler  of  their 
own.  And  in  fact  this  befell  them  in  after 
times  :  they  became  two  kingdoms,  and  idolatry 
and  frequent  wars  ensued.  For  the  prevention 
of  these  evils  the  Israelites  were  enjoined  to  as¬ 
semble  together  to  serve  the  Lord  in  one  place, 
wh’ch  he  should  appoint, 

Taey  shall  not  appear  before  the  Lord  empty. 
The  Jews  were  commanded  to  bring  a  present  ; 
not  a  burnt-offering  or  a  sacrifice  by  fire  ;  for 
these,  though  also  required,  were  of  another 
nature  and  for  another  end  ;  but  a  heave-offer¬ 
ing  a  freewill-offering,  which  was  a  tribute  of 
thankfulness  to  God  and  likewise  an  acknowl¬ 
edgment  of  his  supreme  lordship  and  dominion 
over  all.  Therefore  this  particular  is  added, 
”  They  shall  not  appear  before  the  Lord 
empty  :  every  man  shall  give  as  he  is  able,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  thy  God 

which  he  hath  given  thee.”  Jorlin. - As  the 

great  principle  of  love  to  Christ  will  not  allow 
the  more  opulent  to  give  scantily,  so  neither 
will  it  permit  the  poorest  to  come  before  him 
empty.  It  was  one  of  the  Divine  enactments 
even  of  the  legal  dispensation — None  slvdl  come 
before  me  emp'y.  But  that  which  was  matter  of 
law  with  the  Israelite,  the  Christian  will  seize 
as  a  golden  opportunity  for  evincing  his  love  to 
Christ  ;  and  will  bring,  though  it  be  only  a 
grain  of  incense  for  an  offering,  or  a  leaf  for 


that  wreath  of  praise  and  honor  which  the 
Church  delights  to  lay  at  the  feet  of  Christ. 
Harris. 

0  7.  As  lie  is  This  is  the  law  of 

giving  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the  New 
Testament.  It  is  a  just  and  equitable  law.  It 
makes  the  giver  an  accountant  in  the  sight  of 
God.  He  has  to  add  up  his  resources  and  dili¬ 
gently  to  consider  their  sum,  and  then  to  give 
as  he  may  be  able.  This  law  does  not  relate 
to  monej"  only,  but  to  time,  influence,  and  sjmi- 
patliy.  Nothing  would  be  so  ea.sy  for  many 
men  as  to  buy  themselves  off,  by  the  gifts  of 
money,  from  all  further  service.  Simply  be¬ 
cause  of  the  abundance  of  their  wealth,  money 
is  as  nothing  to  them,  and  the  giving  of  it  is  not 
felt.  It  is  only  when  the  giving  is  touched  with 
the  pain  of  sacrifice  that  it  becomes  of  any  value 
in  the  sanctuary.  There  is  no  niggardliness  in 
the  promises  of  God  in  relation  to  the  true 
giver,  of  whatever  nature  his  gifts  may  be. 
“Every  man  according  as  he  purposeth  in  his 
heart,  so  let  him  give  ;  not  grudgingly,  or  of 
necessity  :  for  God  loveth  a  cheerful  giver.” 
“  He  which  soweth  sparingly  shall  reap  also 
sparingly  ;  and  he  which  soweth  bountifully 
shall  reap  also  bountifully.”  J.  P. 

Chabacteeistics  and  Spikitual  Teachings. 

In  an  historical  resjiect,  the  Passover  recalled 
the  deliverance  from  the  land  of  Egypt,  which 
gave  birth  to  their  national  existence  ;  the  feast 
of  first-fruits  pointed  to  the  miraculous  preser¬ 
vation  of  the  first-born,  and  the  consecration 
practically  grounding  itself  therein  of  all  their 
increase  to  the  Lord  ;  while  the  feast  of  Taber¬ 
nacles  reminded  them  of  their  long  sojourn  in 
the  wilderness,  and  of  the  lessons  this  was  in¬ 
tended  to  render  perpetual  in  their  experience 
as  to  faith  and  holiness.  In  beautiful  accord 
ance  with  these  historical  grounds  for  the  dif¬ 
ferent  ordinances,  were  the  seasons  appropriate 
to  each  :  the  Passover  being  assigned  to  Abib 
(the  ear-month),  when  the  fresh  hopes  of  spring 
began  to  take  distinct  shape  ;  the  first-fruits  to 
summer,  when  the  harvest  field  had  already 
yielded  its  produce  ;  and  Tabernacles  to  the 
period  of  late  autumn,  when,  all  the  year’s  fruits 
being  gathered,  the  experience  of  another  sea¬ 
son’s  heritage  of  good  brought  anew  the  call  to 
rejoice  before  the  Lord,  beiglitened  by  the  imm- 
parison  of  what  they  now  possessed  with  what 
they  had  wanted  in  the  earlier  period  of  their 
existence.  Thus  nature  and  grace,  the  ordinary 
providences  of  the  present,  and  the  more  special 
providences  of  the  past,  were  marvellously  com- 


CHARACTERISTICS  AND  TEACHINGS. 


397 


bined  together  in  the  general  arrangements 
which  were  made  respecting  the  feasts.  P.  F. 

They  all  shadowed  forth  certain  great  truths 
respecting  the  covenant  life  with  God.  Un¬ 
leavened  Bread  was  a  call  to  repentance  and  a 
demand  for  holiness.  Leaven,  the  symbol  of 
sin,  was  to  be  put  away.  The  “  unleavened 
bread  of  sincerity  and  truth  ”  was  alone  to  be 
found  in  the  heart,  in  the  family,  in  the  nation. 
Pentecost  told  of  the  gift  and  appropriation  of 
the  Spirit  ;  of  that  Spirit  in  whose  strength  we 
walk  with  God.  Lastly,  Tabernacles  spoke  of 
the  ditTusion  of  the  Spirit  ;  that  they  who  truly 
walk  with  God  live  not  for  themselves  but  for 
others,  that  having  freely  received  they  freely 
give.  Translated  into  New  Testament  lan¬ 
guage,  the  three  feasts  thus  gave  utterance  to 
the  three  great  truths  of  all  religious  life  :  “  Be- 
pent,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand 
“  Behold,  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  you 
“  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the 
Gospel  to  every  creature.”  Another  character¬ 
istic  of  the  feasts  of  Israel  is  to  be  traced  in  the 
piyful  emotions  by  which  they  were  all  per 
vaded.  “  Thou  shalt  rejoice  before  the  Lord 
thy  God,”  “  Thou  shalt  rejoice  in  thy  feast,’’ 
“  Therefore  thou  shalt  surel}'-  rejoice,”  are  the 
commandments  expressly  given  in  connection 
with  them.  All  the  arrangements  connected 
with  them  were  calculated  to  promote  joy.  They 
all  took  place  in  the  summer  half  of  the  year. 
They  were  all  associated  with  the  abundance 
and  the  joy  of  harvest.  In  so  far  as  they  com¬ 
memorated  historical  events  they  brought  to 
view  truths  of  the  most  elevated  and  inspiring 
character.  At  the  great  Passover  in  Hezekiah’s 
time  “  the  children  of  Israel  that  were  present 
at  Jerusalem  kept  the  feast  of  Unleavened  Bread 
seven  daj’s  with  great  gladness  ;  and  the  Levites 
and  the  priests  praised  the  Lord  day  by  day, 
singing  with  loud  instruments  unto  the  Lord.” 
It  was  the  same  at  the  feast  of  Tabernacles  in 
Nehemiah’s  time.  A  deep  interest  attaches  to 
this  characteristic  of  these  festivals.  For  their 
highest  solemnities  spoke  of  the  light  and  free¬ 
dom  of  redemption.  The  “  joy  of  the  Ijord  ” 
was  their  strength.  And  their  joy  was  not  a 
worldly  but  a  sacred  and  sanctified  joy.  As 
the  annual  feasts  of  Israel  were  seasons  of  the 
liveliest  joy,  so  is  that  Christian  life  in  which 
they  are  fulfilled  to  be  marked  by  a  joy  that  is 
abiding.  In  that  life,  too,  all  things  are  sancti¬ 
fied.  To  the  Christian,  joy  and  sorrow,  earth 
and  sky,  solitary  hours  and  the  social  table,  all 
are  sacred,  because  in  the  deep  recesses  of  his 
heart  he  is  keeping  his  festival  and  singing  its 
songs.  Finally,  in  the  fulfilled  Christian  life 


all  the  followers  of  Christ  are  one.  Redeemed 
by  one  sacrifice,  called  to  the  same  holiness,  en¬ 
joying  the  same  Divine  protection,  partakers  of 
the  same  Spirit  wherewith  to  renew  themselves 
and  to  convert  the  world,  they  ought  to  be  in 
constant  unity  with  one  another.  In  Christ 
they  are  one.  Their  unity  is  a  “  unity  of  the 
Spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.”  Never  until  these 
characteristics  of  the  old  feasts  of  Israel  are 
thus  fulfilled  in  Christian  men  are  they  taking 
into  their  lives  the  influences  of  the  blessed  dis¬ 
pensation  under  which  they  live,  as  the  devout 
Israelite  took  into  his  the  influences  of  the  Pass- 
over,  followed  by  thefeasts  of  Unleavened  Bread, 
of  Pentecost,  and  of  Tabernacles.  But  when 
they  are  fulfilled,  then  we  shall  see  the  fulfil¬ 
ment  of  all  that  brought  up  the  people  of  God 
under  the  earlier  dispensation  three  times  in 
the  year  to  Jerusalem.  Then  shall  the  follow¬ 
ers  of  Jesus  be  always  in  the  sacred  city  and  at 
the  joyful  feast.  They  shall  not  only  be  the 
chosen  generation,  the  royal  priesthood,  the 
hoi}*  nation,  the  peculiar  people,”  but  they  sh  ill 
be*  that  people  in  the  moment  of  their  highest 
and  most  heart-stirring  solemnities.  The}*  shall 
sing  a  constant  hallelujah.  Their  palms  and 
myrtles  shall  be  ever  green.  They  shall  reap 
and  dedicate  a  constant  harvest,  where  they 
shall  have  not  only  all  that  is  needed  to  sustain 
life  but  all  that  can  elevate  and  cheer  and 
brighten  it,  W'orld  without  end.  Mill'xjan. 

The  Eighth-Day  Sekies.  SVhile  seven  is  the 
ever-recurring  number,  there  come  in  some  very 
significant  eighth, ft.  The  eighth  day  is  treated 
as  an  extra  day  beyond  the  seven.  The  first 
was  on  the  Wave-sheaf  moi'ii  {Lev.  23  ;  11).  Com¬ 
pare  this  with  Matthew’s  account  of  the  Resur¬ 
rection,  which  took  place  on  Wave-sheaf  morn  ; 
thus  beginning  a  new  year,  not  embraced  wdth- 
in  the  compass  of  the  old  Jewish  sacred  times, 
but  opening  out  indefinitely  to  the  great  spirit 
ual  harvest,  of  which  the  eighth  day  celebra¬ 
tions  were  the  recognized  types  (see  John  4  :  35>). 
The  next  significant  eighth  was  Pentecost.  The 
Sabbath  of  w'eeks  had  been  completed,  seven 
times  seven  days,  after  which  came  Pentecost, 
not  on  the  forty-ninth  day,  not  on  the  seventh 
of  the  last  cycle  of  seven,  but  on  the  eighth,  the 
morrow  following  the  Sabbath.  As  the  Wave- 
sheaf  day  was  the  morrow  after  the  Sabbath  at 
the  beginning,  Pentecost  was  the  morrow  after 
the  Sabbath  at  the  end  of  the  seven  weeks.  In 
the  same  way,  the  spiritual  Pentecost  was  the 
fiftieth  day  from  the  Resurrection,  and  accord¬ 
ingly  fell  also  on  the  first  day  of  the  week.  On 
that  day  the  first-fruits  of  results,  correspond¬ 
ing  to  the  first  loaves  from  the  harvest,  were 


398 


SECTION  188.-  APPOINTED  TIMES  FOR  WORSHIP, 


presented  to  the  Lord.  The  third  significant 
eighth  was  the  Jubilee  Year.  It  too  fell,  not  on 
the  forty-ninth,  but  on  the  fiftieth.  Like  the 
Wave-sheaf  morn  and  like  Pentecost,  the  Jubilee 
was  evidently  an  eighth. 

And  now,  when  we  consider  how  these  eighth 
days  spring  out  of  the  bosom  of  the  cycles  of 
seven  with  their  Sabbatic  sevenths,  and  when 
we  remember  that  these  eighth  days  had  also 
the  Sfibbatical  characteristics,  we  can  see  very 
clearly  how  natural  it  was  that  the  seventh  day 
of  the  Mosaic  economy  should,  without  any 
legislative  interference,  merge  into  the  eighth 
day,  or  first  day  of  the  week  of  the  Christian 
dispensation.  Not  only  was  the  change  a  nat¬ 
ural  one  from  the  standpoint  of  the  early  dis¬ 
ciples,  but  the  way  is  prepared  for  it  in  the  very 
structure  of  the  Sabbatical  cycles  of  ancient 
Israel.  And  this  becomes  all  the  more  striking, 
when  we  observe  that,  though  the  feast  of  Tab¬ 
ernacles  was  always  spoken  of  as  a  seven  days’ 
feast,  there  was  an  eighth  day  celebration 
grafted  on  it  :  “  On  the  eighth  day  shall  be  a 
holy  convocation  unto  you  ;  and  ye  shall  offer 
an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord  :  it  is  a 
solemn  assembly.”  This  day  had  evidently  all 
the  characteristics  of  a  Sabbath  day  ;  and  yet, 
coming  in  as  it  does  after  the  close  of  the  last 
feast  of  the  sacred  year  of  Israel,  it  gives  a  hint 
of  the  Sabbath  of  the  coming  era,  which  shall 
no  longer  be  the  seventh  with  a  backward  ref¬ 
erence  to  the  memories  of  the  past,  but  the  first 
day  of  the  week  with  a  forward  reference  to  the 
glories  of  an  age  whose  sun  arose  never  more 
to  set,  on  the  morrow  after  the  Sabbath  which 
followed  the  last  Passover  of  tne  Old  Covenant. 
On  the  very  day  following  the  Sabbath  of  the 
Passover,  “  being  the  first  day  of  the  week,” 
Christ  rose  from  the  dead,  and  became  “  the 
first-fruits  of  them  that  sleep.”  And  on  the 
very  day,  the  fiftieth  or  Pentecostal  day,  when 
the  first  loaves  of  the  harvest  were  presented  to 
the  Lord,  the  fiftieth  or  Pentecostal  day,  after 
Christ’s  resurrection,  there  were  presented  to 
the  Lord  the  first-fruits  of  the  results  of  his 
great  redeeming  work,  in  the  first  three  thou¬ 
sand  converts.  The  ingathering  week  will  find 
its  antitype  in  the  great  gathering  of  the  redeemed 
of  all  nations  which  shall  close  the  sacred  year 
of  the  Lord.  The  days  in  which  we  live  come 
in  between  Pentecost  and  the  ingathering.  By 
faith  we  look  backward  and  grasp  the  great  facts 
of  the  death  and  resurrection  of  our  Lord  (Pass- 
over  eve  and  Wave-sheaf  morn),  and  the  descent 
of  the  Comforter  (Pentecost).  In  hope  we  look 
forward  to  the  coming  day  of  the  Lord,  and  re¬ 
joice  in  the  anticipated  glories  of  the  great  week 


of  ingathering  which  that  day  shall  usher  in. 
Meantime  we  are  called  in  the  devotion  of  lov¬ 
ing  service  to  work  as  well  as  wait  for  his  com¬ 
ing,  blowing  the  Gospel  trumpet,  and  proclaim¬ 
ing  the  full  atonement  which  prepares  the  way 
for  the  glorious  consummation.  J.  M.  G. 


The  Divine  origin  of  their  laws,  their  immu¬ 
tability,  their  duration,  and  their  supernatural 
infiuence  imbued  the  spirit  of  this  sacerdotal 
people.  Everywhere,  and  at  all  hours,  was 
their  Law  or  some  symbol  of  their  Law,  like  the 
works  of  the  Deity,  kept  in  their  sight  It  was 
variously  worn  on  their  persons;  it  was  nailed 
to  the  door-posts  of  their  habitations  ;  it  formed 
their  daily  occupations  in  the  morning,  the 
noon,  and  the  evening  sacrifice.  All  nature 
was  consecrated  to  religion  ;  for  the  first-fruits, 
a  portion  of  the  harvests  and  certain  animals 
were  dedicated  to  its  service.  Theii  great  fes¬ 
tivals  were  connected  with  the  productions  of 
every  season.  The  Passover  could  not  be  kept 
till  their  flocks  furnished  the  paschal  lamb  ;  the 
Pentecost  till  the  wheat  had  rijicned  for  the 
fresh  loaves  of  propitiation  ;  and  the  thick 
boughs  and  branches  could  not  cover  their  tab¬ 
ernacles  till  they  had  gathered  in  their  vineyards 
and  their  olive  grounds.  The  Israelites  were 
reminded  of  their  religious  festivals  b}^  the  liv¬ 
ing  commemorations  of  nature.  The  whole 
earth  became  one  vast  synagogue.  Such  they 
were  in  their  holy  land,  and  such  they  remain. 
The  Hebrews  are  still  accustomed  to  mark  the 
seasons  of  the  year  and  the  dates  of  events  by 
religious  feasts  and  fasts.  Still  they  are  watch¬ 
ing  the  sunset  which  brings  their  own  Sabbath 
to  all  their  habitations  ;  the  new  moon  to  hold 
its  solemn  celebration,  and  the  earliest  star,  that 
calls  them  back  to  life,  to  break  their  peniten¬ 
tial  fast.  D'  Israeli. 


Dr,  Leslie  proves  the  truth  of  the  events  of 
the  Pentateuch  by  applying  to  them  four  rules, 
which,  whenever  they  can  be  truly  applied  to 
any  matters  of  fact,  exclude  every  rational 
doubt  of  their  reality.  The  first  is  that  the 
facts  be  such  that  men’s  senses  can  judge  of 
them.  The  second,  that  they  be  performed  pub¬ 
licly  in  the  presence  of  witnesses.  The  third, 
that  public  monuments  be  set  up  and  public 
actions  bo  appointed  to  be  performed  in  mem¬ 
ory  of  them.  And  the  fourth,  that  these  monu¬ 
ments  and  actions  be  established  and  instituted 
at  the  time  of  the  facts  and  thenceforward  con¬ 
tinued  without  interruption.  These  four  marks 
of  authenticity  apply  to  these  commemorative 


SECTION  139. 


399 


festivals  in  the  most  exact  and  wonderful  man¬ 
ner.  So  long,  therefore,  as  the  Passover,  the 
Pentecost,  and  the  Day  of  Atonement  continue 
to  be  celebrated  by  the  scattered  remnant  of 
Jacob’s  sons  ;  so  long,  indeed,  as  there  shall 
remain  historical  evidence  of  the  past  existence 
of  these  and  other  Jewish  festivals  and  monu¬ 
ments  ; — so  long  may  we  be  sure  of  the  reality 
of  the  events  which  they  commemorate.  So 
long  may  we  be  sure  that  the  Israelites  were 
slaves  in  Egypt  and  that  they  were  delivered  by 
the  miraculous  exertion  of  an  almighty  power. 
So  long  may  we  be  sure  that  God  divided  the 
Ked  Sea  for  their  accommodation  ;  that  He 
spake  the  Law  in  thunder  from  Sinai  ;  that  for 
forty  years  He  led  the  people  by  a  cloudy  and 


fiery  pillar,  the  never-failing  symbol  of  his  pres¬ 
ence  ;  that  He  satisfied  their  hunger  with  bread 
that  nightly  fell  around  their  camp,  the  product 
of  his  creative  energy  ;  that  He  preserved  from 
decay  the  garments  that  covered  their  naked¬ 
ness  ;  that  He  parted  the  waters  of  Jordan  and 
led  them  dry-shod  over  its  pebbly  bottom  ;  and 
that  He  finally  planted  them  secure!}^  on  the 
territories  of  their  enemies  and  His,  in  the  land 
that  He  had  promised  to  their  fathers.  On  the 
national  monuments  and  festivals  of  commem¬ 
oration  Ave  may  plant  our  faith  in  the  truth  and 
authority  of  the  Pentateuch  as  upon  an  impreg¬ 
nable  fortress  ;  and  the  storms  of  an  infidel 
philosophy  will  spend  their  rage  upon  it  in 
vain.  E.  C.  W. 


Section  139. 

THE  DAILY,  WEEKLY,  AND  MONTHLY  SACKIFICIAL  WORSHIP. 

Exodus  23  : 12  ;  29  : 38-43  ;  31  : 12-17  ;  35  : 1-3.  Lev.  23  :  3.  Nu.  28  : 1-15. 

Ex.  29  38  Now  this  is  that  which  thou  shalt  offer  upon  the  altar  ;  two  lambs  of  the  first 

39  year  day  by  day  continually.  The  one  lamb  thou  shalt  offer  in  the  morning  ;  and  the  other 

40  lamb  thou  shalt  offer  at  even  :  and  with  the  one  lamb  a  tenth  part  of  an  ephah  of  fine  flour 
mingled  with  the  fourth  part  of  an  hin  of  beaten  oil  ;  and  the  fourth  part  of  an  bin  of  wine 

41  for  a  drink  offering.  And  the  other  lamb  thou  shalt  offer  at  even,  and  shalt  do  thereto  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  meal  offering  of  the  morning,  and  according  to  the  drink  offering  thereof,  for  a 

42  sweet  savour,  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lokd.  It  shall  be  a  continual  burnt  offering 
throughout  your  generations  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting  before  the  Loed  :  where  I  w’ill 

43  meet  with  you,  to  speak  there  unto  thee.  And  there  I  will  meet  with  the  children  of  Israel  ; 
and  the  Tent  shall  be  sanctified  by  my  glory. 

Nu.  2§  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Command  the  children  of  Israel,  and 

2  say  unto  them,  My  oblation,  my  food  for  my  offerings  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto 

3  me,  shall  ye  observe  to  offer  unto  me  in  their  due  season.  And  thou  shalt  say  unto  them, 
This  is  the  offering  made  by  fire  which  ye  shall  offer  unto  the  Lord  ;  he-lambs  of  the  first 

4  year  without  blemish,  two  day  by  day,  for  a  continual  burnt  offering.  The  one  lamb  shalt 

5  thou  offer  in  the  morning,  and  the  other  lamb  shalt  thou  offer  at  even  ;  and  the  tenth  j)art  of 
an  ephah  of  fine  flour  for  a  meal  offering,  mingled  with  the  fourth  part  of  an  hin  of  beaten  oil. 

6  It  is  a  continual  burnt  offering,  which  was  ordained  in  mount  Sinai  for  a  sw’^eet  savour,  an 

7  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord.  And  the  drink  offering  thereof  shall  be  the  fourth  part 
of  an  hin  for  the  one  lamb  :  in  the  holy  place  shalt  thou  pour  out  a  drink  offering  of  strong 

8  drink  unto  the  Lord.  And  the  other  lamb  shalt  thou  offer  at  even  :  as  the  meal  offering  of 
the  morning,  and  as  the  drink  offering  thereof,  thou  shalt  offer  it,  an  offering  made  by  fire,  of 
a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord. 

Ex.  35  1  And  Moses  assembled  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  said  unto 

2  them.  These  are  the  words  which  the  Lord  hath  commanded,  that  ye  should  do  them.  Six 
days  shall  work  be  done,  but  on  the  seventh  day  there  shall  be  to  you  an  holy  day,  a  sabbath 

3  of  solemn  rest  to  the  Lord  :  whosoever  doeth  any  work  therein  shall  be  put  to  death.  Ye 
shall  kindle  no  fire  throughout  your  habitations  upon  the  sabbath  da3\ 

Lev.  23  3  Six  days  shall  work  be  done  :  but  on  the  seventh  day  is  a  sabbath  of  solemn 
rest,  an  holy  convocation  ;  ye  shall  do  no  manner  of  work  :  it  is  a  sabbath  unto  the  Lord  in 
all  your  dwellings. 

Ex.  23  12  Six  days  thou  shalt  do  thy  work,  and  on  the  seventh  day  thou  shalt  rest  :  that 
thine  ox  and  thine  ass  may  have  rest,  and  the  son  of  thy  handmaid,  and  the  stranger,  may  be 
refreshed, 


400 


SECTION  139.  THE  DAILY  SACRIFICE. 


Ex.  31  12  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  thou  also  unto  the  children  of 

13  Israel,  saying.  Verily  ye  shall  keep  my  sabbaths  :  for  it  is  a  sign  between  me  and  you  through- 

14  out  your  generations  ;  that  ye  may  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  which  sanctify  you.  Ye  shall 
keep  the  sabbath  therefore  ;  for  it  is  holy  unto  you  :  every  one  that  profaneth  it  shall  surely 
be  i^ut  to  death  ;  for  whosoever  doeth  any  work  therein,  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from 

15  among  his  people.  Six  days  shall  work  be  done  ;  but  on  the  seventh  day  is  a  sabbath  of 
solemn  rest,  holy  to  the  Lor])  :  whosoever  doeth  any  work  in  the  sabbath  day,  he  shall  surely 

16  be  ijut  to  death.  Wherefore  the  children  of  Israel  shall  keep  the  sabbath,  to  observe  the  sab- 

17  bath  throughout  their  generations,  for  a  perpetual  covenant.  It  is  a  sign  between  me  and  the 
children  of  Israel  for  evef  :  for  in  six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  and  on  the  sev¬ 
enth  day  he  rested,  and  was  refreshed. 

.  Nu.  28  9  And  on  the  sabbath  day  two  he-lambs  of  the  first  year  without  blemish,  and  two 
tenth  jDarts  of  an  ephah  of  fine  flour  for  a  meal  offering,  mingled  with  oil,  and  the  drink  offer- 

10  ing  thereof  ;  this  is  the  burnt  offering  of  every  sabbath,  beside  the  continual  burnt  offering, 
and  the  drink  offering  thereof. 

11  And  in  the  beginnings  of  j^our  months  ye  shall  offer  a  burnt  offering  unto  the  Lord  ;  two 

12  young  bullocks,  and  one  ram,  seven  he-lambs  of  the  first  year  without  blemish  ;  and  three 
tenth  parts  of  an  cphan  of  One  flour  for  a  meal  offering,  mingled  with  oil,  for  each  bullock  ; 

13  and  two  tenth  parts  of  fine  flour  for  a  meal  offering,  mingled  with  oil,  for  the  one  ram  ;  and  a 
several  tenth  part  of  fine  flour  mingled  with  oil  for  a  meal  offering  unto  every  lamb  ;  for  a 

14  burnt  offering  of  a  sweet  savour,  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord.  And  their  drink 
offerings  shall  be  half  an  hin  of  wine  for  a  bullock,  and  the  third  part  of  an  hin  for  the  ram, 
and  the  fourth  part  of  an  hin  for  a  lamb  :  this  is  the  burnt  offering  of  every  month  through- 

15  out  the  months  of  the  year.  And  one  he-goat  for  a  sin  offering  unto  the  Lord  ;  it  shall  be 
offered  beside  the  continual  burnt  offering,  and  the  drink  offering  thereof. 


As  the  Hebrew  calendar  ran  its  course,  it  was 
as  if  one  long  bleat,  one  incessant  lowing,  filled 
the  air  ;  it  was  as  if  one  continuous  stream  of 
sacrificial  blood  choked  the  runnels  of  the  court. 
The  year  opened  with  the  evening  sacrifice  and 
the  new-moon  celebration,  the  expiring  flames 
of  which  were  fed  next  day  by  the  ordinary 
morning  sacrifice  and  by  a  round  of  individual 
presentations,  which  must  sometimes  have 
known  no  interruption  until  the  smoke  of  the 
evening  sacrifice  again  rose  into  the  air  and  an¬ 
other  day  began.  Day  after  day  the  customary 
ceremonial  was  repeated,  till  the  Sabbath  twi¬ 
light  fell  and  double  sacrifices  were  slaughtered. 
On  the  tenth  day  of  the  first  month  came  the 
solemn  celebration  of  the  Passover,  when  in 
every  home,  with  devout  recollections  and  en¬ 
thusiastic  hopes,  a  paschal  lamb  was  spread  upon 
the  board.  Then  followed  the  seven  days  of 
Unleavened  Bread,  with  their  customary  and 
holy-day  ritual,  bringing  at  length,  after  the  re¬ 
peated  diurnal.  Sabbatic  and  lunar  formalities, 
the  fuller  slaughter  of  Pentecost.  Day  after 
day.  Sabbath  after  Sabbath,  new  moon  after 
new  moon,  the  authorized  worship  was  again 
continued,  until  there  came  a  break  to  the 
monotony  on  the  first  day  of  the  seventh  month 
in  the  feast  of  Trumpets.  On  the  tenth  day  of 
the  same  month  came  the  awful  and  grave  pro¬ 
cedure  of  the  Day  of  Atonement,  followed  after 
five  days’  interval  by  the  singular  and  more 
grateful  woiship  of  the  feast  of  Tabernacles. 


Afterward  the  year  was  brought  to  a  close  by  the 
common  series  of  daily,  weekly,  and  monthly 
effusions  of  blood.  Gave. 

The  Daily  Morning  and  Evening  Sacrifice. 

Ex.  29  :  38-43.  Nu.  28  : 1-8. 

Ex.  29  :  38.  Day  by  clay  eoiitiiiiially. 
Mu.  28:3.  A  continual  bnrnt-olfcr- 
ing.  Two  lambs  of  the  first  year  were  to  be 
ottered  daily,  the  one  in  the  morning,  the  other 
j  in  the  afternoon,  for  a  burnt-offering.  These 
were  generally  termed  the  morning  and  evening 
daily  sacrifice,  and  were  never  on  anj'  account  to 
be  intermitted.  Other  additional  sacrifices 
were  appointed  for  Sabbaths  and  festivals  on 
various  occasions,  but  they  were  never  to  be 
allowed  to  displace,  supersede,  or  interfere  with 
this  stated  and  constant  offering,  which  was 
binding  in  its  observance  inasmuch  as  it  typi¬ 
fied  the  never-ceasing  necessity  and  efficacy  of 
the  atonement  made  by  the  “  Lamb  of  God 
which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world.”  It  con 
veyed  also  to  the  people  of  God  of  that  age  and 
of  every  age  a  significant  intimation  of  the  duty 
of  daily  morning  and  evening  worship.  Bush. 

- Whether  there  were  any  other  sacrifices  to 

be  offered  or  not,  these  were  sure  to  be  offered, 
to  make  atonement  for  their  daily  sins,  and  to 
be  an  acknowledgment  to  God  of  their  daily 
mercies.  This  was  that  which  the  daty  of  every 
day  requirfd.  This  teaches  us  to  offer  up  to 
God  the  spiritual  sacrifices  of  prayer  and  praise 


THE  WE  EEL  Y  SEE  VICE. 


401 


every  day,  morning  and  evening,  in  humble  ac¬ 
knowledgment  of  our  dependence  upon  him, 
and  our  obligations  to  him.  H. 

This  was  the  most  familiar  feature  of  the 
whole  service.  As  the  altar  stood  in  the  court, 
all  the  people  could  see  it ;  and  it  was  alwa)/s 
to  be  seen.  The  morning  lamb  had  scarcely 
disappeared  when  the  evening  lamb  was  brought, 
and  again  the  evening  lamb  remained  on  the  - 
altar  till  the  morning  lamb  was  offered  in  its  ; 
place,  so  that  practically  the  sacrificial  lamb  was 
always  there,  night  and  day  continually.  As 
the  devout  Israelite  looked  at  this  sacrifice  upon 
the  altar,  he  had  these  w'ords  of  the  Law  to  help 
him;  “This  shall  be  a  continual  burnt-offer¬ 
ing  throughout  your  generations  at  the  door  of 
the  tent  of  meeting  before  Jehovah,  where  I 
will  meet  you  to  speak  there  unto  thee’’  (Ex. 
29  :  42).  He  had  also  those  very  numerous  pas¬ 
sages  which  connected  the  slaying  of  the  animal 
with  his  sin,  and  the  offering  of  the  blood  upon 
the  altar  with  an  atonement  for  it.  How,  then, 
could  he  fail  to  see  in  that  smoking  sacrifice  a 
most  impressive  sermon  on  the  exceeding  sin¬ 
fulness  and  fatal  consequences  of  sin,  on  the 
need  of  an  atonement  to  take  away  that  sin  be¬ 
fore  there  could  be  a  meeting  between  him  and 
God  ;  and  above  all,  an  assurance  of  the  fact 
that  there  was  forgiveness  for  him,  and  a  way 
opened  by  which  notwithstanding  his  sinfulness 
he  might  draw  near  to  God.  You  have  only  to 
read  the  Psalms  to  have  evidence  of  the  impres¬ 
siveness  with  which  these  great  lessons  were 
\vrought  into  the  hearts  and  lives  of  those  who 
were  Israelites  indeed.  J.  M.  G. 

Thej’’  called  it  the  “  continual  ’’  sacrifice,  be¬ 
cause  God  commanded  it  to  be  offered  through 
all  generations  ;  but  it  appears  from  Daniel  that 
it  ceased  at  the  coming  of  Christ  ;  for  so  speaks 
the  angel  :  Christ  “  shall  confirm  the  covenant 
with  many  for  one  w'eek  :  and  in  the  midst  of 
ihe  week  he  shall  cause  the  continual  sacrifice, 
and  the  oblation  to  cease”  (Dan.  9  :  27).  Hence 
we  assuredly  gather  that  by  this  sacrifice  the 
minds  of  the  people  were  directed  to  Christ. 

G’dv. - Every  day,  therefore,  a  kind  of  gospel 

was  proclaimed  of  Divine  mercy,  forgiveness, 
and  reconciliation,  with  its  invariable  postulates 
of  human  sin  and  decadence,  death  and  guilt. 
Give. 

The  Weekly  Service  of  the  Sabbath. 

Lev.  23:3.  Hu.  28:9,  10.  Ex.  31:12-17; 

35  : 1-3. 

In  Lev.  23  : 2,  3,  w'e  read  :  “  Concerning  the. 
feasts  of  the  Lord,  which  ye  shall  proclaim  to 
be  holy  convocations,  even  these  are  my  feasts. 

26 


Six  days  shall  work  be  done  :  but  the  seventh 
day  is  the  Sabbath  of  rest.”  The  Sabbath,  then, 
was  a  Jead  day.  The  first  object  was  resi. 
“  That  the  stranger  may  be  r^rtshed,''  is  the 
way  the  Law  of  Moses  looked  at  it.  The  idea 
that  is  prominent  is  rest  and  ref  reshment.  Then 
there  is  the  additional  idea  of  holiness:  “re¬ 
member  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy.”  To 
crown  all,  there  is  the  thought  of  joy,  which  ap¬ 
pears  all  through  the  Old  Testament  references  to 
the  Sabbath.  E-est,  refreshment,  holiness,  joy— 
these  are  the  ideas  \#hich  are  connected  with 
the  Sabbath.  The  Lord's  intention  was  to  fill 
the  week,  the  month,  the  year,  with  joy.  It  w'as 
for  this  ijurpose  that  all  the  feasts  were  ap¬ 
pointed,  and  specially  the  first  and  most  fre¬ 
quently  recurring,  and  therefore  the  most  blessed 
of  all,  the  holy,  joyous  Sabbath.  J.  M.  G. 

The  weekly  Sabbath,  which  is  the  basis  of  the 
whole  system,  was  symbolical  of  rest,  rest  from 
labor,  rest  from  suffering,  rest  from  sin.  As  a 
historical  symbol,  it  commemorated  God's  rest 
after  the  creation  and  Israel’s  rest  after  the 
Egyptian  bondage.  As  a  prophetic  symbol,  it 
prefigured  rest  in  the  promised  land,  the  rest  of 
the  soul  in  Christ  and  God,  the  rest  of  the 
Church  in  the  new  dispensation,  and  the  rest 
both  of  the  Church  and  individuals  in  heaven. 
The  Sabbatical  year  symbolized  besides  the  rest 
of  the  land  from  cultivation  and  the  rest  of  the 
debtor  from  his  creditor’s  exactions.  The  great 
Sabbath  of  the  Jubilee  suggested  the  ideas  both 
of  rest  and  restoration  :  the  restoration  of  the 
land  to  its  former  possessors  and  the  restora¬ 
tion  of  the  slave  to  freedom.  J.  A.  A. 

L.CV.  23:3.  A  lioly  eoiivoeatioii. 
The  Sabbath  was  a  set  day  of  meeting  together 
for  social  worship.  This  was  its  chief  distinc¬ 
tion  for  the  people.  Speaking  to  the  congrega¬ 
tion  and  addressing  God  were  the  essential  con¬ 
stituents  of  this  simple  worship.  The  former 
branched  into  reading  the  Book  of  Eevelation 
and  adding  the  word  of  instruction  and  exhorta¬ 
tion  ;  the  latter  into  the  song  of  praise  and  the 
voice  of  prayer.  Ye  isliall  no  work. 
In  truth,  the  prohibition  of  work  is  only  sub¬ 
sidiary  to  the  positive  idea  of  joyful  rest  and  rec¬ 
reation,  ill  communion  with  Jehovah,  who  him¬ 
self  “  rested  and  was  refreshed."  A  considera¬ 
tion  of  the  spirit  of  the  Law  and  of  Christ’s 
comments  on  it  will  show  that  it  is  work  for 
worldly  gain  that  w'as  to  be  suspended;  and 
hence  the  restrictive  clause  is  prefaced  with  the 
positive  command  :  “  Six  days  shall  thou  labor, 
and  do  all  thy  work  ;”  for  so  only  could  the 
Sabbatic  rest  be  fairly  earned.  Hence,  too,  the 
stress  constantly  laid  on  permitting  the  servant 


402 


SECTION  189.  THE  SABBATH  A  SIGN 


and  beast  of  burden  to  share  the  rest,  which 
selfishness  would  grudge  to  them.  Thus  the 
spirit  of  the  Sabbath  was  joy,  refreshm.ent,  and 
mercy,  arising  from  remembrance  of  God’s 
goodness  as  the  Creator,  and  as  the  Deliverer 
from  bondage.  Juy  was  the  key-note  of  their 
service.  Moses  declared  ;  *’  Ye  shall  rejoice, 
ye  and  your  households  ”  The  Psalmists  echo 
back  the  same  spirit  :  “  This  is  the  day  which 
Jehovah  hath  made  ;  we  will  rejoice,  and  be 
glad  in  it.”  P.  S. 

]\'M.  i®,  Tl^  special  services  ap¬ 

pointed  for  the  Sabbath  r.t  the  sanctuary  con¬ 
sisted  first  in  the  doubling  of  the  daily  burnt- 
offering — two  lambs  instead  of  one,  with  a  cor¬ 
responding  increase  in  the  meal-offering  — 
stamping  the  Sabbath,  to  use  the  expression  of 
Bahr,  as  the  day  of  days,  the  most  important  of 
all  the  days  of  the  week  in  its  bearing  on  the 
people’s  calling  to  dedicate  themselves,  soul 
and  body%  to  the  Lord’s  service.  The  other 
service,  which  consisted  in  presenting  the  fresh 
loaves  of  shew-bread  on  the  Lord’s  table,  was 
of  quite  similar  import  ;  for  this  bread,  like  the 
meal. offering  generally,  was  a  symbol  of  the 
fruitful  and  holy  lives  v/hich  the  members  of 
the  covenant  were  to  be  ever  rendering  to  the 
Lord.  And  that  the  Sabbath  should  have  been 
■chosen  as  the  day  for  the  j)erpetual  renewal  of 
this  offering,  clearly  indicated  the  place  it  was 
intended  to  hold  then,  and  which  the  Lord’s 
■day  must  hold  still,  in  disjjosing  and  enabling 
■the  people  to  abound  in  such  fruitfulness.  It 
virtually  declared,  that  ”  while  diligence  in 
good  wooks  should  pervade  the  whole  life,  yet 
this  would  soon  flag  did  it  not  receive  fresh  in- 
vigoration  on  the  day  of  rest  and  meeting  to- 
.gether  before  the  Lord.  Such  also  is  the  in¬ 
struction  conveyed  on  the  subject  by  that  psalm 
which  is  entitled  a  Psalm-song  for  the  Sabbath 
day,  the  main  theme  of  which  is  the  characteristic 
of  the  true  Israelite  as  called  to  the  meditation 
of  God’s  work,  and  finding  therein  an  incite¬ 
ment  to  perseverance  in  the  duties  of  an  up¬ 
right  and  godly  life  P.  F. 

Ex.  31  :  IT.  It  is  ti  sign  toctwecn  me 
and  tlic  cliiSdren  of  IsraeJ  forever. 
Then  in  Ezek.  20  : 12  :  “  Moreover  I  gave  them 
my  Sabbaths,  to  be  a  sign  between  me  and 
them,  that  they  might  know  that  I  am  the  Lord 
that  sanctify  them.”  Again  in  the  twentieth 
verse  :  ”  And  hallow  my  Sabbaths,  and  they 
shall  be  a  sign  between  me  and  ymu,  that  ye 
may  know  that  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.”  Here 
it  is  distinctly  asserted  that  the  Sabbath  was 
given,  not  as  the  seal  of  any  special  covenant 
that  He  had  made  with  them,  but  simply  as  a 


sign  that  He  it  was  who  had  sanctified  or  deliver 
ed  them  from  Egypt,  and  who  was  the  Lord  their 
God  ;  and  the  observance  of  it  would  on  their 
part  be  an  open  recognition  of  the  same.  Stacy. 

In  the  fourth  command  God  does  not  say,  “  I 
appoint  each  seventh  day  for  a  sign  between 
me  and  thee  and  a  memorial  of  your  national 
deliverance  from  Egyptian  bondage,”  as  many 
have  maintained — to  make  out  that  the  Sabbath 
was  nothing  but  a  Jewish  institution.  These 
points,  a  “  sign”  between  the  Lord  and  Israel 
I  and  a  memorial  of  deliverance  from  Egypt,  came 
j  in  fitly  afterward  as  a  supplement  or  appendix 
to  this  fourth  command  in  Us  special  relations  to 
the  children  of  Israel.  But  these  special  and 
superadded  relations  of  the  Sabbath  to  the  He¬ 
brews  cannot  possibly  in  reason  diminish  the 
obligation  of  the  original  Sabbath  ordained  for 
man  as  a  race  in  Eden.  H.  C. 

The  institution  of  the  Sabbath  was  declared 
to  be  a  sign  between  God  and  the  Israelites, 
that  they  might  know  that  he  was  the  Lord  who 
sanctified  them.  He  wished  them  simply  to 
regard  it  as  one  of  the  chosen  means  by  which 
he  intended  them  to  become  not  only  a  well- 
conditioned  and  blessed,  but  also  an  holy  na¬ 
tion.  There  can  be  no  question  that  holiness 
in  heart  and  conduct  was  the  grand  sign  of  their 
being  his  chosen  people.  And  the  proper  ob¬ 
servance  of  the  Sabbatical  rest  being  so  specially 
designated  a  sign  in  this  respect,  was  a  proof 
of  its  singular  importance  to  the  interests  of 
religion  and  morality.  These,  it  was  virtually 
said,  would  thrive  and  flourish  if  the  Sabbath 
was  duly  observed,  but  would  languish  and  die 

if  it  fell  into  desuetude.  P.  F. - And  is  not 

the  same  sign  as  decisive  as  ever?  Tell  me  how 
a  Christian  spends  the  first  day  of  the  week, 
and  I  will  tell  you  what  kind  of  a  Christian 
he  is.  If  any  man  really  remembers  God’s  day 
to  keep  it  holy,  he  is  not  likely  to  forget  the 
need  of  the  altar,  the  priest,  and  the  sacrifice, 
or  any  of  the  important  elements  of  a  Christian 
life.  But  if  you  disregard  the  Lord’s  daj^  and 
allow  its  sacred  opportunities  to  pass  without 
improvement,  it  is  too  evident  that  you  are  let¬ 
ting  all  these  things  slip  from  you.  The  keep¬ 
ing  of  the  Lord’s  day  is  a  sign  between  you  and 
Him.  J.  M.  G. 

The  Sabbath  a  Jewish  Institution. 

An  entire  cessation  from  all  the  affairs  of  life 
on  each  seventh  day  is  a  Jewish  institution, 
and  is  not  prescribed  by  the  laws  of  anj’^  other 
people.  To  the  ancient  Polytheists,  nothing 
seemed  so  joyless  as  the  austerity  of  a  Jewish 
Sabbath.  It  was  a  strange  abandonment  of  all 


SECTION  140.  THE  MONTHLY  SERVICE. 


403 


the  avocations  of  life.  They  saw  the  fields  of 
the  Hebrew  forsaken  by  the  laborer  ;  the  ass 
unsaddled  ;  the  oar  laid  by  in  the  boat  ;  they 
marked  a  dead  stillness  pervading  the  habita¬ 
tion  of  the  Israelite  ;  the  fire  extinguished,  the 
meat  unprepared,  the  man-servant  and  the 
maiden  leave  their  work,  and  the  trafficker,  at 
least  one  day  of  the  week,  refusing  the  offered 
coin.  D'Israeli. 

Everything  else  pertaining  to  their  national 
administration  corresponded  to  something 
which  the  heathen  had  as  well  as  they.  Sacri¬ 
fices,  priesthood,  oracles  of  some  kind,  were 
found  everywhere.  They  shared  blood  and  lan¬ 
guage  with  other  tribes.  But  their  Sabbath, 
the  weeklj’-  day  of  rest  enforced  by  public  au¬ 
thority,  was  their  very  own.  Nothing  like  it, 
nothing  to  compare  with  it,  was  to  be  found 
anywhere  else.  It  embodied  their  national  sep¬ 
arateness  and  their  national  unity.  Eeturning 
so  frequently  with  its  rigid  absoluteness  and  its 
grave  sanctions,  it  brought  the  executive  au¬ 
thority  of  their  Divine  King  to  their  perception 
more  impressively  and  more  continuous!}^  than 
the  rule  of  an  ordinary  king  could  be  brought 
home  to  his  subjects.  Gi'ey. 

Other  more  extended  references  to  the  Sab¬ 
bath  may  be  found  in  Sections  107  and  145.  B. 

The  Monthly  Service  oe  Sacrifice. 

Nu.  28  : 11-15. 

The  first  day  of  the  lunar  month  was  observed 


as  a  holy  day.  In  addition  to  the  daily  sacrifice 
there  were  offered  two  young  bullocks,  a  ram, 
and  seven  lambs  of  the  first  }ear  as  a  burnt- 
offering,  with  the  proper  meal-offerings  and 
drink-offerings,  and  a  kid  as  a  sin-offering  (Nu. 
28  : 11-15).  As  on  the  Sabbath,  trade  and  liandi- 
craftwork  were  stopped  (Am.  8  ;  5),  the  temple 
was  opened  for  public  worship  (Ez.  46  : 3  ;  Is. 
66  :  23).  The  trumpets  were  blown  at  the  offer¬ 
ing  of  the  special  sacrifices  for  the  day,  as  on 
the  solemn  festivals  (Nu.  10  ;  10  ;  Ps.  81  : 3). 
The  new  moons  are  generally  mentioned  so  as 
to  show  that  they  were  regarded  as  a  peculiar 
class  of  holy  days,  distinguished  from  the  sol¬ 
emn  feasts  and  the  Sabbaths.  The  religious  ob¬ 
servance  of  the  day  of  the  new  moon  may  plainly 
be  regarded  as  the  consecration  of  a  natural  di- 
vision  of  time.  Die.  B. 

The  new-moon  feast,  depending  upon  no  cal¬ 
endar  but  that  of  the  sky,  and  more  clearly 
marked  in  that  than  any  other  recurring  period, 
was  certain  to  fix  itself  deeply  in  the  social  and 
religious  habits  of  a  simple  pastoral  or  agricul¬ 
tural  people.  Accordingly  we  find  it  incident¬ 
ally  mentioned  as  a  day  of  social  gathering  (1 
Sam.,  20  ;  5),  and  as  a  day  for  religious  instruc¬ 
tion  (2  Kings  4  :  23).  From  the  latter  passage, 
and  from  passages  [cited  above],  it  is  evident 
that  the  feast  of  the  New  Moon  became  to 
the  month  exactly  what  the  Sabbath  was  to 
the  week — a  day  of  rest  and  of  worship.  Pul. 
Com. 


Section  140. 

THE  PASSOVER  AND  FEAST  OF  UNLEAVENED  BREAD. 

Exodus  12  : 15-20,  43-49  ;  13  :  5-10  ;  23  : 18.  Lev.  23  :  5-14.  Nu.  28  : 16-25.  De.  16  : 1-8. 

Lev.  23  5  In  the  first  month,  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  month  at  even,  is  the  Lord’s 

6  passover.  And  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  same  month  is' the  feast  of  unleavened  bread  unto 

7  the  Lord  :  seven  days  ye  shall  eat  unleavened  bread.  In  the  first  day  ye  shall  have  an  holy 

8  convocation  :  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work.  But  ye  shall  offer  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto 
the  Lord  seven  days  :  in  the  seventh  day  is  an  holy  convocation  ;  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work, 

Nu.  28  19  Ye  shall  offer  an  offering  made  by  fire,  a  burnt  offering  unto  the  Lord  ;  two 
young  bullocks,  and  one  ram,  and  seven  he-lambs  of  the  first  year  :  they  shall  be  unto  you 

20  without  blemish  :  and  their  meal  offering,  fine  flour  mingled  with  oil  :  three  tenth  parts  shall 

21  ye  offer  for  a  bullock,  and  two  tenth  parts  for  the  ram  ;  a  several  tenth  part  shalt  thou  offer 

22  for  every  lamb  of  the  seven  lambs  ;  and  one  he-goat  for  a  sin  offering,  to  make  atonement  for 

23  you.  Ye  shall  offer  these  beside  the  burnt  offering  of  the  morning,  which  is  for  a  continual 

24  burnt  offering.  After  this  manner  ye  shall  offer  daily,  for  seven  days,  the  food  of  the  offering 
made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord  :  it  shall  be  offered  beside  the  continual  burnt 

25  offering,  and  the  drink  offering  thereof.  And  on  the  seventh  day  ye  shall  have  an  holy  con¬ 
vocation  ;  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work. 

Lev.  23  9  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and 
10  say  unto  them,  When  ye  be  come  into  the  land  which  I  give  unto  you,  and  shall  reap  the 


404 


SECTION'  140.  THE  PASSOVER. 


Harvest  thereof,  then  ye  shall  bring  the  sheaf  of  the  firstfruits  of  your  harvest  unto  the  priest : 

11  and  he  shall  wave  the  sheaf  before  the  Lord,  to  be  accepted  for  you  :  on  the  morrow  after  the 

12  sabbath  the  priest  shall  wave  it.  And  in  the  day  when  ye  wave  the  sheaf,  ye  shall  offer  a  he- 

13  lamb  without  blemish  of  the  first  year  for  a  burnt  offering  unto  the  Lord.  And  the  meal 
offering  thereof  shall  be  two  tenth  parts  of  an  ephah  of  fine  flour  mingled  with  oil,  an  offering 
made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord  for  a  sweet  savour  :  and  the  drink  offering  thereof  shall  be  of 

14  wine,  the  fourth  part  of  an  hin.  And  ye  shall  eat  neither  bread,  nor  parched  corn,  nor  fresh 
ears,  until  this  selfsame  day,  until  ye  have  brought  the  oblation  of  your  God  :  it  is  a  statute 
for  ever  throughout  your  generations  in  all  your  dwellings. 

12  43  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses  and  Aaron,  This  is  the  ordinance  of  the  passover  : 

44  there  shall  no  alien  eat  thereof  :  but  every  man’s  servant  that  is  bought  for  money,  when 

45  thou  hast  circumcised  him,  then  shall  he  eat  thereof.  A  sojourner  and  an  hired  servant  shall 

46  not  eat  thereof.  In  one  house  shall  it  be  eaten  ;  thou  shalt  not  carry  forth  aught  of  the  flesh 

47  abroad  out  of  the  house  ;  neither  shall  ye  break  a  bone  thereof.  All  the  congregation  of 

48  Israel  shall  keep  it.  And  when  a  stranger  shall  sojourn  with  thee,  and  will  keep  the  passover 
to  the  Lord,  let  all  his  males  be  circumcised,  and  then  let  him  come  near  and  keep  it  ;  and  he 

49  shall  be  as  one  that  is  born  in  the  land  :  but  no  uncircumcised  person  shall  eat  thereof.  One 
law  shall  be  to  him  that  is  homeborn  ;  and  unto  the  stranger  that  sojourneth  among  you. 

13  5  And  it  shall  be  when  the  Lord  shall  bring  thee  into  the  land  of  the  Canaanite,  and 
the  Hittite,  and  the  Amorite,  and  the  Ilivite,  and  the  Jebusite,  which  he  sware  unto  thy 
fathers  to  give  thee,  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  that  thou  shalt  keep  this  service  in 

6  this  month.  Seven  days  thou  shalt  eat  unleavened  bread,  and  in  the  seventh  day  shall  be  a 

7  feast  to  the  Lord.  Unleavened  bread  shall  be  eaten  throughout  the  seven  days  ;  and  there 
shall  no  leavened  bread  be  seen  with  thee,  neither  shall  there  be  leaven  seen  with  thee,  in 

8  all  thy  borders.  And  thou  shalt  tell  thy  son  in  that  day,  saying'  It  is  because  of  that  which 

9  the  Lord  did  for  me  when  I  came  forth  out  of  Egypt.  And  it  shall  be  for  a  sign  unto  thee 
upon  thine  hand,  and  for  a  memorial  between  thine  eyes,  that  the  law  of  the  Lord  may  be  in 

10  thy  mouth  :  for  with  a  strong  hand  hath  the  Lord  brought  thee  out  of  Egypt.  Thou  shalt 
therefore  keep  this  ordinance  in  its  season  from  year  to  year. 

De.  16  1  Observe  the  month  of  Abib,  and  keep  the  passover  unto  the  Lord  thy  God  :  for 

2  in  the  month  of  Abib  the  Lord  thy  God  brought  thee  forth  out  of  Egypt  by  night.  And  thou 
shalt  sacrifice  the  passover  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  of  the  flock  and  the  herd,  in  the  place 

3  which  the  Lord  shall  choose  to  cause  his  name  to  dwell  there.  Thou  shalt  eat  no  leavened 
bread  with  -it  ;  seven  days  shalt  thou  eat  unleavened  bread  therewith,  even  the  bread  of  afflic¬ 
tion  ;  for  thou  earnest  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  in  haste  :  that  thou  mayest  remember 

4  the  day  when  thou  earnest  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  all  the  days  of  thy  life.  And  there 
shall  be  no  leaven  seen  with  thee  in  all  thy  borders  seven  days  ;  neither  shall  any  of  the  flesh, 

5  which  thou  saerificest  the  first  day  at  even,  remain  all  night  until  the  morning.  Thou  mayest 

6  not  sacrifice  the  passover  within  any  of  thy  gates,  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee  :  but 
at  the  place  which  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  choose  to  cause  his  name  to  dwell  in,  there  thou 
shalt  sacrifice  the  passover  at  even,  at  the  going  down  of  the  sun,  lat  the  season  that  thou 

7  earnest  forth  out  qf  Egypt.  And  thou  shalt  roast  and  eat  it  in  the  place  which  the  Lord  thy 

8  God  shall  choose  :  and  thou  shalt  turn  in  the  morning,  and  go  unto  thy  tents.  Six  days  thou 
shalt  eat  unleavened  bread  :  and  on  the  seventh  day  shall  be  a  solemn  assembly  to  the  Lord 
thy  God  ;  thou  shalt  do  no  work  therein. 

[All  omitted  verses  are  repetitions.] 


Uxodiis,  ch.  12tli,  13tli,  contain  a 
record  of  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
Passover  was  instituted,  and  of  the  events  after¬ 
ward  commemorated  in  its  subsequent  annual 
celebration.  No  good  reason  can  be  given  why 
the  Passover  alone  of  the  three  annual  feasts 
should  have  been  represented  to  have  been  the 
only  one  instituted  in  Egypt,  unless  this  was 
really  the  case.  In  all  subsequent  laws  the 
three  feasts  are  mentioned  together  as  of  com¬ 
mon  obligation.  All  the  subsequent  laws  relat¬ 


ing  to  the  feasts  directly  connect  the  Passover 
and  the  feast  of  Unleavened  Bread  with  the  ex¬ 
odus.  All  the  later  laws  are  built  upon  the  law 
in  Ex.  12  : 13  ;  and  presuppose  it  ;  the  connec¬ 
tion  of  the  Passover  with  the  exodus  is  explic¬ 
itly  declared,  and  that  in  laws  which  are  dis¬ 
tinctly  said  to  have  been  written  by  Moses  him¬ 
self.  W.  H.  G. 

Lev.  23  :  5  -8.  In  these  verses  the  Passover 
or  Paschal  Supper  and  the  feast  of  Unleavened 
Bread  are  plainly  spoken  of  as  distinct  feasts. 


FEAST  OF  UNLEA  VENED  BREAD. 


405 


The  two  days  of  holy  convocation  strictly  be¬ 
longed  to  the  latter.  But  the  two  names,  in 
common  usage,  became  convertible.  Clark. 

- The  Passover  was  immediaiely  followed  by 

the  feast  of  Unlea^^ened  Bread,  which  lasted 
seven  days,  so  that  tlie  twi)  together  seemed  to 
make  one  feast  of  eight  days,  and  were  in  fact 
popularly  so  considered,  the  names  being  often 
interchanged,  so  that  the  Passover  day  was 
sometimes  considered  as  the  first  day  of  the 
feast  of  Unleavened  Bread,  and  the  whole  was 
often  called  the  Passover  Feast  The  first  and 
last  days  of  these  seven  were  to  be  kept  as  Sab¬ 
baths,  save  that  only  servile  labor  was  inter¬ 
dicted  which  allowed  food  to  be  cooked.  But 
no  suspension  of  labor  was  required  on  the  in¬ 
termediate  five  days,  which  were  distinguished 
chiefiy  by  the  abstinence  from  leavened  bread, 
and  by  the  unusual  number  of  offerings  at  the 
tabernacle  or  temple,  and  of  sacrifices  tor  sin. 
The  sixteenth  of  Abib,  or  the  second  day  of  Un¬ 
leavened  Bread,  was  distinguished  by  the  offer¬ 
ing  of  a  barley  sheaf  as  an  introduction  to  the 
barle^'^-harvest,  accompanied  by  a  particular 
sacrifice.  This  observance  took  place  after  they 

had  occupied  the  land  of  Canaan.  Bush. - 

At  this  feast,  in  addition  to  the  abstention  from 
leaven — itself  of  sacrificial  significance — a  pecul¬ 
iar  ritual  was  ordered  to  be  observed.  Every 
day,  after  the  offering  of  the  customary  burnt- 
offering,  a  further  offering  by  fire  was  made. 
Two  bullocks,  a  ram,  and  seven  lambs,  with 
their  accompanying  meal  and  drink-offerings, 
were  to  constitute  the  festal  burnt-offering,  and 
one  goat  the  sin-offering  ;  these  offerings  being 
repeated  every  day  of  the  feast.  Cave. 

The  reason  why  seven  days  were  spent  in  com¬ 
memorating  the  historical  events  of  one  day  is 
to  be  found  in  the  solemn  character  of  the  fes¬ 
tival  which  was  observed  in  honor  of  this  one 
day.  Seven  days  were  required  for  a  full  reali¬ 
zation  of  the  character  of  the  festival,  a  perfect 
exhibition  of  the  idea  which  it  embodied.  But 
as  the  eating  of  the  Paschal  Lamb  was  the  one 
indivisible  basis  of  the  whole  festival,  and  did 
not  admit  of  repetition,  while  the  festival  itself 
was  to  last  for  seven  days  ;  this  could  only  be 
accomplished  by  continuing  for  seven  days  the 
other  essential  element  of  the  Paschal  meal — 
viz.,  the  eating  of  unleavened  bread.  This  was 
the  sole  reason  why  unleavened  bread  was  eaten 
for  seven  days,  at  the  subsequent  commemora¬ 
tion  of  the  festival.  K. 

At  the  original  institution  the  Israelites  were 
commanded  to  eat  the  Passover  with  their  loins 
girt,  their  shoes  on  their  feet,  and  their  staff  in 
their  hand  ;  but  this  appears  to  have  been  en¬ 


joined  only  in  consideration  of  the  circum¬ 
stances  in  which  they  were  then  placed,  and 
like  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  on  the  door¬ 
posts  seems  afterward  to  have  been  discon¬ 
tinued.  The  only  jjermanent  accompaniments 
of  the  feast  appear  to  have  been  the  unleavened 
bread  and  the  bitter  herbs  with  which  the  lamb 
was  to  be  eaten.  So  strict  was  the  prohibition 
regarding  leaven,  that  they  were  ordered  to 
make  the  most  careful  search  for  it  in  their  sev¬ 
eral  dwellings  before  the  slaying  of  the  Paschal 
Lamb  ;  so  that  it  might  not  be  killed  upon  leaven 
(as  the  expression  literally  is  in  the  passage  Ex. 
34  :  25),  that  there  might  be  nothing  of  this 
about  them  at  the  time  of  the  sacrifice.  And- the 
prohibition  extended  throughout  the  whole  of  the 
seven  da^^s  during  which  the  feast  lasted.  P.  F. 

Ex,  13:7.  Xo  leaveiJ  seen.  Not  only 
no  leaven  must  be  eaten,  but  none  must  be  seen 
in  all  their  quarters.  Accordingly  the  Jews’ 
usage  was,  before  the  feast  of  the  Passover,  to 
cast  all  the  leavened  bread  out  of  their  houses  : 
they  either  burned  it,  or  buried  it,  or  broke  it 
small  and  scattered  it  in  the  wind  ;  they 
searched  diligently  with  lighted  candles  in  all 
the  corners  of  their  houses  lest  any  leaven 
should  remain.  The  care  and  strictness  en¬ 
joined  in  this  matter  were  designed  (1)  To 
make  the  feast  the  more  solemn,  and  conse¬ 
quently  the  more  taken  notice  of  by  their  chil¬ 
dren,  who  would  ask,  “  Wh^^  is  so  much  ado 
made?”  (2)  To  teach  us  how  solicitous  we 
should  be  to  put  away  from  us  all  sin  (1  Cor- 

5  :  7).  H. - In  the  absence  of  leaven,  there  was 

a  symbolical  meaning.  Whether  the  taste  of 
the  bread  was  thereby  improved  or  injured  is 
not  taken  into  consideration.  Leaven  is  dough 
in  the  course  of  fermentation.  But  fermenta¬ 
tion  is  corruption,  the  destruction  of  the  natural 
condition.  Hence  from  a  synilrolical  point  of 
view  all  fermentation,  being  an  alteration  of  the 
form  given  to  the  material  b}"  the  creative  hand 
of  God,  is  a  representation  of  moral  corruption 
and  depravity.  K. 

In  the  arrangements  of  the  Mosaic  economy 
leaven  was  always  the  symbol  of  corruption,  and 
its  use  in  any  offering  laid  upon  the  altar  of 
God  was  prohibited  with  the  utmost  strictness. 
The  unleavened  bread  eaten  for  seven  days  rep¬ 
resented  the  separation  of  Israel  as  God’s  elect 
people  from  worldliness  and  sin.  Thej^  realized 
the  holiness  of  their  calling,  and  devoting  them¬ 
selves,  to  it  they  began  the  year.  Such  was  the 
leading  import  of  the  feast  of  Unleavened  Bread, 
and  such  the  main  lesson  which  from  genera¬ 
tion  to  generation  it  was  intended  to  convey  to 
Israel.  Milligan. 


406 


SECTION  140.  THE  PASSOVER. 


Ex.  :  46.  Xeitlicr  yc  break 

a  bane  lliereof.  Of  course  this  did  not 
mean  that  it  was  not  to  be  cut  up  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  eating.  The  lamb  was  to  be  put  upon 
the  table  whole.  The  unity,  of  which  the  un¬ 
divided  lamb  was  a  representation,  was  com¬ 
municated  in  a  certain  sense  to  those  who  ate 
of  it.  VVhile  eating  of  the  one  perfect  lamb  as 
of  a  provision  made  by  God,  eaten  at  the  table 
of  God  by  intimate  associates  of  God,  they  were 
thereby  linked  together  as  one  body,  being  all 
partakers  of  ecjual  fellowship  with  God.  K. 

- What  God  commanded  as  to  the  lamb  w'as 

fulfilled  in  the  person  of  his  only-begotten  Son  ; 
that  the  truth  corresponding  with  its  type  and 
the  substance  with  its  shadow,  might  show  that 
God  would  be  reconciled  to  his  people  by  no 
other  blood  than  Christ’s.  When  the  evangel¬ 
ist  quotes  it  (John  19  : 33),  he  takes  it  for 
granted  that  thus  w^as  typically  shown  what 
God  would  bestow  by  his  Son.  Hence  it  came 
to  pass  that  He  was  distinguished  by  this  visible 
mark,  which  proved  Him  to  be  the  true  Pass- 
over.  But,  in  order  that  no  bone  of  Christ’s 
should  be  broken,  God's  providence  wonder¬ 
fully  interfered.  Ca.lv. - A  special  providence 

secured  that  his  body,  after  it  had  received  the 
stroke  of  death,  should  be  dealt  with  as  a  sacred 
thing,  and  be  jDreserved  free  from  mutilation  or 
violence — the  sign  and  token  of  its  preciousness 
in  the  sight  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  complete¬ 
ness  of  the  redemption  it  had  been  given  to  pro¬ 
vide.  But  this  Saviour,  even  in  death  whole 
and  undivided,  must  also  be  received  as  such 
by  his  people.  No  more  in  their  experience 
than  in  his  own  person  can  he  be  divided.  He 
is  in  the  fulness  of  his  perfected  redemption  the 
one  bread  of  life  ;  and  by  partaking  of  this  in  a 
simple  and  confiding  faith — thus  but  no  other¬ 
wise— do  sinners  become  in  him  one  bread  and 
one  bod}^ — possessors  of  his  life  and  fellow- 
heirs  of  his  glory.  P.  F. 

The  Wave-sheaf  {Lev.  23 

The  second  day  of  the  feast  was  also  charac¬ 
terized  by  an  additional  act,  not  a  little  curious. 
Being  the  time  of  early  harvest,  a  sheaf  of  the 
first-fruits  was  brought  to  the  priest,  who 
“  waved  ”  it  before  the  Lord,  presenting  at  the 
same  time  a  lamb  for  a  burnt-offering  together 

with  a  portion  of  meal  and  wine.  Gave. - 

The  presentation  to  the  Lord  ot  a  sheaf  of  barley, 
which  took  place  on  the  second  day  of  the  feast, 
and  was  done  by  waving  it  befoie  the  Lord,  ac¬ 
companied  by  a  burnt-offering  with  its  meal¬ 
offering,  was  expressive  of  that  sense  of  sin  and 
renewed  dedication  of  heart  and  life  to  God, 


which  was  proper  to  such  a  season.  P.  F. - 

From  this  day.  ‘‘  Wave-sheaf  day”  we  may  call 
it,  the  seven  weeks  of  Pentecost  were  counted. 

J.  M.  G. 

Israel  was  an  agricultural  nation.  An  abun¬ 
dant  harvest  was  the  highest  token  of  God’s 
watchful  love  ;  and  more  than  an}'  other  offer¬ 
ing  did  the  presentation  of  the  first  sheaf  ex¬ 
press  the  nation’s  conviction  that  it  owed  to 
God  all  its  worldly  substance,  and  that  it  was 
bound  to  dedicate  the  first  and  the  best  of  that 
substance  to  him  again.  The  first  week  of  the 
new  year  was  the  first-fruits  of  the  whole  j'ear 
to  follow  ;  the  first  sheaf  of  barley  the  first- 
fruits,  not  of  the  barley  only,  but  of  the  whole 
corn  harvest  about  to  be  cut  down.  The  offer¬ 
ing  of  the  first  sheaf  thus  stood  in  a  close  and 
beautiful  relation  to  the  whole  services  of  which 
it  formed  part.  It  expressed  the  thankful  dedi¬ 
cation  to  the  Almighty  of  all  gifts  related  to  the 
sustenance  of  life,  which  he  had  bestowed  on 
Israel.  By  eating  the  unleavened  bread  they 
said,  “We  are  not  our  own  and  now  they 
added  the  declaration,  “  We  have  nothing  that 
we  can  call  our  own.”  So  the  followers  of  Jesus, 
with  themselves,  also  yield  all  that  belongs  to 
them  to  that  Bedeemer  who  has  purchased  them 
with  his  own  precious  blood.  They  dedicate  to 
him  what  they  have  as  well  as  what  they  are. 
“What  shall  we  render  unto  the  Lord  for  all 
his  benefits?”  is  the  constant  language  of  their 
souls  Such  is,  or  ought  to  be,  the  fulfilment 
in  the  followers  of  Jesus  of  Israel’s  Pa.ssover 
and  first  great  annual  feast.  Milligan. 

Who  Gould  not  and  Who  Gould  Eat  the  Passover. 

Ex.  12  : 43-49. 

Neither  alien,  sojourner,  nor  hired  servant 
could  participate  in  the  feast.  “All  the  congre¬ 
gation  of  Israel  shall  keep  it.”  But  the  so¬ 
journer  and  the  servant  who  were  joined  to 
Israel  by  circumcision  shared  this  privilege  in 
common  with  all  others.  “  One  law”  is  the 
strikiug  declaration,  emphasized  by  frequent 
repetition,  “  shall  be  to  him  that  is  home-horn  omd 
nnio  the  stranger"  that  is  circumcised  and  abid- 
eth  among  you.  B. - The  enlarged  and  lib¬ 

eral  spirit  of  the  Hebrew  system  appears  very 
strikingly  in  these  regulations.  Any  stranger 
might  be  incorporated  into  the  nation  by  con¬ 
forming  to  the  rites  of  their  religion,  and 
thereby  become  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of 
the  native-born  Jew.  In  order  to  this,  it  was 
proper  that  they  should  make  themselves  debt¬ 
ors  to  the  Law  in  its  burdens,  for  in  God’s 
economy  privileges  and  duties  always  go  together. 
The  provision  was  calculated  at  the  same  time 


ESSEN'riAL  TllUTIIS  OF  THE  PASSOVER. 


407 


to  afford  hope  to  the  Gentile  and  to  moderate 
the  self-complacency  of  the  Israelite.  Bush. 

Injunction  to  Teach  their  Sons  the  Origin  and  Mean¬ 
ing  of  the  Passover  {Ex.  13  :  8,  9). 

Here  is  an  ancient  law  for  catechising.  It  is 
particularly  of  great  use  to  acquaint  children 
betimes  with  the  stories  of  the  Scripture,  and 
to  make  them  familiar  to  them.  It  is  a  debt  we 
owe  to  the  honor  of  God,  and  to  the  benefit  of 
our  children’s  souls,  to  tell  them  of  the  great 

works  God  has  done  for  his  Church.  H. - 

No  wonder  that  this  great  event  of  their  deliver¬ 
ance  from  Egypt  was  the  one  selected  for  a 
special  and  perpetual  commemoration.  There 
could  not  have  been  a  better  security  devised 
for  a  safe  and  firm  pathway  of  tradition  than 
that  which  was  established  from  the  outset  in 
the  directions  given  by  God  to  Moses,  whereby 
it  is  laid  on  all  parents  as  a  religious  duty  that 
they  should  tell  their  children  the  origin  and 
meaning  of  this  ordinance.  We  of  the  present 
day  can  trace  backward  by  means  of  this  annual 
festival  a  series  of  testimonies,  to  be  accounted 
for  in  no  other  possible  way  than  by  the  truth 
of  the  narrative  presented  to  us  in  Scripture — 
so  as  to  make  the  Passover  a  monumental  evi¬ 
dence  for  the  authenticity  of  one  of  the  most 
stupendous  miracles  ever  recorded.  T.  C. 

Essential  Teuths  Connected  with  the  Pass- 

OVEE. 

Israel,  atoned  for  by  the  sacrifice  of  the  Pass- 
over  and  freed  from  the  leaven  of  Egypt  and 
feeding  upon  pure  bread,  was  consecrated  as  a 
holy  people  in  communion  with  a  holy  God. 

W.  H.  G. - The  Passover  was  a  sacrifice  which 

spoke  of  the  adoption  of  the  Jewish  nation  into 
the  closest  relationship  with  God,  that  relation¬ 
ship  being  primarily  evinced  by  the  forgiveness 
of  sins.  The  first  Passover  was  the  commence¬ 
ment  of  the  special  privileges  of  the  chosen  na 
tion  ;  and  every  subsequent  Passover  became  a 
pledge  of  the  continuance  of  these  privileges. 
Gave. 

The  Passover  ritual  divides  itself  into  two 
main  parts — the  sprinkling  of  the  sacrificial 
blood  on  the  door-posts  and  lintels,  and  the 
feast  on  the  sacrifice.  These  were  separated  in 
the  later  form  of  the  ritual  ;  for  when  there 
was  a  central  sanctuary,  the  lambs  were  slain 
there,  and  the  blood  sprinkled  on  the  altar, 
while  the  domestic  feast  remained  unaltered. 
The  former  was  more  especially  meant  to  pre¬ 
serve  the  Israelites  from  the  destruction  of  their 
first-born  ;  the  latter  as  a  permanent  memorial 
of  their  deliverance.  But  both  have  perpetual 


fitness  as  prophetic  of  varying  aspects  of  the 
Christian  redemption.  A.  M. 

The  Passover  a  Sacrifice  and  Expiation. 

The  Paschal  Lamb  was  a  sacrifice.  The  chief' 
characteristics  of  a  sacrifice  are  all  distinctly 
ascribed  to  it.  It  was  offered  in  the  holy  place 
(De.  16  ;  5,  6)  ;  the  blood  was  sprinkled  on  the 
altar,  and  the  fat  was  burned  (2  Ch.  30  ;  16). 
The  language  of  Ex.  12  : 27  ;  23  : 18  ;  Nu.  9:7; 
De.  16  ;2,  5,  together  with  1  Cor.  5  :  7,  would 
seem  to  decide  the  question  beyond  the  reach 
of  doubt.  The  lamb,  the  gentlest  of  all  crea¬ 
tures,  must  be  without  blemish,  to  teach  not  only 
the  general  principle  of  offering  our  best  to 
God,  but  also  the  special  doctrine,  that  an  ex- 
piatoiy  sacrifice  must  be  that  of  the  innocent  for 
the  guilty. 

The  Passover  a  Feast. 

The  Paschal  Lamb  was  also  a  feast.  Even 
amid  the  confusion  of  that  awful  night,  they  ate 

it  with  joy  for  their  deliverance.  Bush. - The 

Passover  as  a  feast  is  a  prophecy  of  the  great 
Sacrifice,  by  virtue  of  whose  sprinkled  blood  w'e 
all  may  be  sheltered  from  the  sweep  of  the  Di¬ 
vine  judgment,  and  on  which  we  all  have  to  feed 
if  there  is  to  be  any  life  in  us,  Our  propitia¬ 
tion  is  our  food  “  Christ  for  us”  must  become 
“  Christ  in  us,”  received  and  approjiriated  by 
our  faith  as  the  strength  of  our  lives.  The 
Christian  life  is  meant  to  be  a  joyful  feast  on 
the  sacrifice,  and  communion  with  God  based 
upon  it.  We  feast  on  Christ  w'hen  the  mind 
feeds  on  him  as  truth,  when  the  heart  is  filled 
and  satisfied  with  his  love,  when  the  conscience 
clings  to  him  as  its  peace,  when  the  will  esteems 
the  “  words  of  his  mouth  more  than”  its  ”  nec¬ 
essary  food.”  when  all  desires,  hopes,  and  in¬ 
ward  powers  draw  their  supplies  from  him,  and 
find  their  object  in  his  sweet  sufficiency.  Nor 
will  the  accompaniments  of  the  first  Passover 
be  wanting.  Here  we  feast  in  the  night  ;  the 
dawn  will  bring  freedom  and  escape.  Here  we 
eat  the  glad  bread  of  God,  not  unseasoned  with 
bitter  herbs  of  sorrow  and  memories  of  the 
bondage,  whose  chains  are  dropping  from  our 
uplifted  hands.  Here  we  should  partake  of  that 
hidden  nourishment,  so  that  it  hinders  not  our 
readiness  for  outward  service.  It  is  not  yet 
time  to  sit  at  his  table  but  with  loins  girt,  and 
feet  shod,  and  hands  grasping  the  pilgrim  staff. 
Hero  we  are  to  eat  for  strength,  and  to  blend 
with  our  secret  hours  of  meditation  the  holy 
activities  of  the  pilgrim  life.  A.  M. 

The  Passover  a  Memorial. 

De.  16  : 1,  3. 

The  feast  was  intended  to  keep  in  everlasting 


408 


SECTION  140.  THE  PASSOVEE. 


remembrance  Ibe  execution  of  judgment  upon 
Egypt  by  the  slaying  of  the  first-born,  and  the 
ecnseqnent  liberation  of  Israel  from  the  house 
of  bondage.  That  was  the  birth-season  of  their 
existence  as  a  people.  By  mighty  acts  the  Lord 
then  did  what  he  afterward  expressed  when  he 
said,  “  I  have  formed  thee,  O  Jacob  ;  I  have  re¬ 
deemed  tht-e,  O  Israel  :  tLou  ait  mine.”  Above 
all  others,  then,  this  event  deserved  to  be  em¬ 
balmed  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  and  held  m 
everlasting  remembrance.  P.  F. 

It  stood  as  an  historical  monument,  testifying 
to  the  reality  of  the  events  of  the  exodus.  No 
criticism  of  documents  can  impair  its  witness. 
No  one  has  yet  succeeded  in  showing  how  a  fes¬ 
tival  like  the  Passover  could  have  been  intro¬ 
duced  at  any  period  later  than  that  to  which  it 
historically  refers.  It  has,  so  far  as  we  can 
make  out  anything  in  history,  been  observed  by 
the  Jews  from  the  very  beginning  of  their  na¬ 
tional  existence.  The  festival  has  thus  ail  the 
value  of  a  contemporary  wdtness,  and  fully  cor¬ 
roborates  the  Scripture  history.  The  Lord’s 
Supper  in  like  manner  is  an  historical  wdtness 
not  to  be  got  rid  of,  testifying  to  acts  and  words 
of  our  Lord  on  the  night  of  his  betrayal,  and 
furnishing  clear  evidence  as  to  the  light  in 
which  his  death  was  regarded  bv  himself.  Orr. 

The  Passover  was  appointed  with  a  view  to 
its  future  use  as  a  memorial.  It  w'as  held  be¬ 
fore  the  deliverance  which  it  commemorated 
had  been  accomplished.  A  new'  era  wus  to  be 
reckoned  from  it.  The  memorial  purpose  of 
the  rite  has  been  accomplished.  All  over  the 
world  it  is  still  observed,  more  than  thirty-two 
hundred  years  after  its  institution,  being  thus, 
probably,  the  oldest  religious  ceremonial  in  ex¬ 
istence.  Christ’s  deliberate  intention  to  repre¬ 
sent  his  death  as  expiation,  and  to  fix  the  rever¬ 
ential,  grateful  gaze  of  all  future  ages  on  his 
cross,  cannot  be  eliminated  from  his  founding 
of  that  memorial  rite  in  substitution  for  the 
God-appointed  ceremonial,  so  h<^ary  with  age 
and  sacred  in  its  significance.  Like  the  Pass- 
over,  the  Lord’s  Supper  w'as  established  before 
the  deliverance  was  accomplished.  It  remains 
a  witness  at  once  of  the  historical  fact  of  the 
death  of  Jesus,  and  of  the  meaning  and  power 
which  Jesus  himself  bade  us  to  see  in  that 
death.  For  us,  redeemed  hy  his  blood,  the  past 
should  be  filled  with  his  sacrifice.  For  us,  fed 
on  himself,  all  the  present  should  be  communion 
with  him,  baaed  upon  his  death  for  us.  For 
us,  freed  bond-men,  the  memorial  of  deliverance 
begun  by  his  cross  should  be  the  prophecy  of 
deliverance  to  be  completed  at  the  side  of  his 
throne,  and  the  hasty  meal,  eaten  with  bitter 


herbs,  the  adumbration  of  the  feast  when  all 
the  pilgrims  shall  sit  with  him  at  his  table  in 
his  kingdom.  Past,  present,  and  future  should 
all  be  to  us  sjiturated  with  Jesus  Chiist.  j\Iem- 
(iry  should  furnish  hope  with  colors,  canvas,  and 
subjects  for  her  fair  pictures,  and  buth  be  fixed 
on  Christ  our  Passover,  sacrificed  for  us.  A.  M. 

The  Passover  in  its  Perpetual  Spiritual  Sig¬ 
nificance  ;  Christ  OUR  Passover  is  Sacrificid 

FOR  Us  (1  Cor.  5  :  7). 

The  blood  of  the  first  paschal  lambs  sprinkled 

on  the  doorwavs  of  the  houses  has  ever  been  re- 

•/ 

garded  as  the  best  defined  foreshadowing  of 
that  blood  which  has  redeemed,  saved,  and  sanc¬ 
tified  us  (Heb.  11  :  28).  Tire  lamb  itself,  sacri¬ 
ficed  by  the  worshipper  without  the  interven¬ 
tion  of  a  priest,  and  its  flesh  being  eaten  wdth- 
'  out  reserve  as  a  meal,  exhibits  the  most  perfect 
;  of  peace-offerings,  the  closest  type  of  the  aton¬ 
ing  Sacrifice  who  died  for  us  and  has  made  our 

peace  with  God.  Bush. - The  Passover  is  a 

gospel  before  the  Gospel.  The  wdiole  sacrificial 
sj'stem  of  Judaism  had  for  its  highest  purpose 
to  shadow  forth  the  coming  redemption.  Christ 
is  not  spoken  of  as  “  our  Passover”  because  the 
Mosaic  ritual  had  happened  to  have  that  cere¬ 
monial  ;  but  the  Mosaic  ritual  had  that  cere¬ 
monial  mainly  because  Christ  is  our  Passover, 
and,  by  his  blood  shed  on  the  cross  and 
sprinkled  on  our  consciences,  does  in  spiritual 
reality  that  which  the  Jewdsh  Passover  only  did 
in  outward  form.  The  Evangelist  John  finds  a 
fulfilment  of  the  paschal  injunction  that  not  a 
bone  should  be  broken  ;  and  so,  by  one  passing 
allusion,  show's  that  he  recognized  Christ  as  the 
true  Passover.  John  the  Baptist’s  rapturous 
exclamation,  “  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  !’’ 
blends  allusions  to  the  Passover,  the  daily  sac¬ 
rifice,  and  Isaiah’s  great  prophecy.  The  day  of 
the  crucifixion,  regarded  as  fixed  by  Divine 
Providence,  may  be  taken  as  God’s  own  finger 
pointing  to  the  lamb  whom  he  has  provided. 
Paul’s  language  attests  the  same  truth.  And 
even  the  last  lofty  visions  of  the  Apocalypse, 
where  the  old  man  in  Patmos  so  touchiugly  re¬ 
curs  to  the  earliest  words  w'hich  brought  him  to 
Jesus,  echo  the  same  conviction,  and  disclose, 
amid  the  glories  of  the  throne,  “  a  lamb  as  it 
had  been  slain.”  A.  M. 

The  Passover  was  designed  to  eommemorute  a 
great  deliverance,  fhat  of  Israel  from  the  cap¬ 
tivity  and  slavery  of  Egypt  ;  and  it  was  designed 
to  prefigure  a  deliverance  far  greater— that  of 
mankind  from  a  tyranny  far  more  abominable, 
a  depression  far  more  miserable  ;  from  the  cap¬ 
tivity  of  Satan,  the  slavery  of  sin,  the  dread  of 


SECTION  141. 


400 


wrath  to  come  ;  that  the  subjects  of  this  Divine 
redemption  may  be  placed  under  the  conduct 
of  Providence  and  grace  in  their  passage  through 
the  wilderness  of  this  world,  until  they  shall  be 
settled  in  the  laud  of  promise  and  eternal  rest. 
The  Passover  commemoratOd  a  deliverance  from 
a  destruction  otherwise  in.tv liable :  it  was  the 
only  appointed  means  of  safety  ;  there  was  no 
other  possibility  of  escape  from  the  angel  of  Di¬ 
vine  wrath.  Thus  the  redemption  which  is  in 
Christ  Jesus  is  the  only  refuge  of  hope  set  be¬ 
fore  us — the  only  appointed  means  of  escape 
from  that  wrath  which  will  come  upon  ail  that 
neglect  this  great  salvation.  Farther,  the  slay¬ 
ing  of  the  Paschal  Lamb  did  not  avail  unless  its 
hlood  were  sprinkled.  The  blood  was  shed  in 
order  that  it  might  be  sprinkled  ;  the  sprink¬ 
ling  was  necessary  to  preserve  the  Israelites. 
Neither  will  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  prove  of 
saving  efficacy  unless  it  be  applied.  When  wrath 
shall  overwhelm  the  unbelieving  in  the  judg¬ 
ment  of  the  last  day,  it  will  be  of  no  avail  to 
jDlead  the  merit  of  this  great  sacrifice  unless  we 
have  approached  it  for  ourselves.  “Having 
boldness  to  enter  into  the  holiest  by  the  hlood  of 
Jesus,  we  must  draw  near  with  a  heart  sprinkled 
from  an  evil  (or  an  accusing)  conscience.”  The 
merit  of  the  Redeemer’s  blood  is  infinite,  but 
its  efficacy  is  confined  to  its  application  In 
his  own  words,  “  except  ye  eat  my  flesh,  and 


drink  my  blood,  ye  have  no  life  in  you.”  R. 
Hall. 

The  Passover  and  the  L'trd's  Supper. 

The  Lord’s  table  is  a  standing  historical  dec¬ 
laration  of  the  offering  of  God  s  one  great  suc- 
rifice  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  ”  Ye  do 
show  the  Lord’s  death.”  It  also  seals  a  fellow¬ 
ship — a  fellowship  of  redeemed  souls,  who  have 
been  bought  with  a  price,  and  transferred  from 
the  kingdom  of  Satan  to  that  of  God’s  dear 
Son  ;  having  here  below  a  union  of  hearts  which 
will  be  perfected  in  an  unseen  state.  This  fel¬ 
lowship  is  openly  sealed  by  their  taking  of  one 
bread  and  drinking  one  cup.  It  is  a  joint 
pledge  of  loyalty  to  the  Church’s  Head  and 
Lord  ;  in  renewing  their  remembrance  of  his 
love  to  them  they  seal  afresh  their  pledge  of 
love  and  allegiance  to  him.  Hence  the  Lord’s 
Supper  came  to  be  called  sacr amentum,  the 
Church’s  military  oath  of  obedience  to  her 
Great  Commander.  It  is  a  service  of  thanks¬ 
giving.  Hence  it  came  to  be  called  the  Eucharist. 
The  Passover  Feast  was  a  grateful  recall  of  a 
mighty  deliverance.  So  is  the  Christian  feast. 
And  it  is  a  declaration  of  hope  and  expectancy. 
“Ye  do  show  the  Lord’s  death  till  he  come." 
Believers  in  Israel  were  expecting  Canaan.  We 
are  waiting  for  the  Son  of  God  from  heaven  to 
bring  us  to  our  heavenly  rest  (Heb.  4).  C.  C. 


Section  141. 

PENTECOST,  OR  FEAST  OF  WEEKS.  FEAST  OF  TRUMPETS. 

Leviticus  23  : 15-21,  23-25.  Nu.  28  :  26-31  ;  29  ;  1-6.  De.  16  ;  9-12. 

Lev.  23  15  And  ye  shall  count  unto  you  from  the  morrow  after  the  sabbath,  from  the  day 

16  that  ye  brought  the  sheaf  of  the  wave  offering  ;  seven  sabbaths  shall  there  be  complete  :  even 
unto  the  morrow  after  the  seventh  sabbath  shall  ye  number  fifty  days  ;  and  ye  shall  offer  a 

17  new  meal  offering  unto  the  Lord.  Ye  shall  bring  out  of  your  habitations  two  wave  loaves  of 
two  tenth  parts  of  an  ephah  :  they  shall  be  of  fine  flour,  they  shall  be  baken  with  leaven,  for 

18  firstfruits  unto  the  Lord.  And  ye  shall  present  with  the  bread  seven  lambs  without  blemish 
of  the  first  year,  and  one  young  bullock,  and  two  rams  :  they  shall  be  a  burnt  offering  unto 
the  Lord,  with  their  meal  offering,  and  their  drink  offerings,  even  an  offering  made  by  fire,  of 

19  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord.  And  ve  shall  offer  one  he-uoat  for  a  sin  offering,  and  two  he- 

20  lambs  of  the  first  year  for  a  sacrifice  of  peace  offerings.  And  the  priest  shall  wave  them  with 
the  bread  of  the  firstfruits  for  a  wave  offering  before  the  Lord,  with  the  two  lambs  :  thev  shall 

21  be  holy  to  the  Lord  for  the  priest.  And  ye  shall  make  proclamation  on  the  selfsame  day  ; 
there  shall  be  an  holy  convocation  unto  you  :  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work  :  it  is  a  statute  for 
ever  in  all  your  dwellings  throughout  your  generations. 

Xu.  28  26  Also  in  the  day  of  the  firstfruits.  when  ye  offer  a  new  meal  offering  unto  the 
Lord  in  your  feast  of  weeks,  ye  shall  have  an  holy  convocation  ;  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work  : 

27  but  ye  shall  offer  a  burnt  offering  for  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord  ;  two  young  bullocks,  one 

28  ram,  seven  he-lambs  of  the  first  year,  and  their  meal  offering,  fine  flour  mingled  with  oil, 

29  three  tenth  parts  for  each  bullock,  two  tenth  parts  for  the  one  ram,  a  several  tenth  part  for 


410 


SECTION  141.  PENTECOST,  OR  FEAST  OF  WEEKS. 


30  every  lamb  of  the  seven  lambs  ;  one  he-goat,  to  make  atonement  for  you.  Beside  the  con- 

31  tinual  burnt  offering,  and  the  meal  offering  thereof,  ye  shall  offer  them  (they  shall  be  unto 
you  without  blemish),  and  their  drink  offerings. 

De.  16  0  Seven  weeks  shalt  thou  number  unto  thee  :  from  the  time  thou  beginnest  to  put 

10  the  sickle  to  the  standing  corn  shalt  thou  begin  to  number  seven  weeks.  And  thou  shalt  keep 
the  feast  of  weeks  unto  the  Loed  thy  God  with  a  tribute  of  a  freewill  offering  of  thine  hand, 

11  which  thou  shalt  give,  according  as  the  Lokd  thy  God  blesseth  thee  :  and  thou  shalt  rejoice 
befoi’e  the  Lord  thy  God,  thou,  and  thy  son,  and  thy  daughter,  and  thy  manservant,  and  thy 
maidservant,  and  the  Levite  that  is  within  thy  gates,  and  the  stranger,  and  the  fatherless,  and 
the  widow,  that  are  in  the  midst  of  thee,  in  the  jjlace  which  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  choose  to 

12  cause  his  name  to  dwell  there.  And  thou  shalt  remember  that  thou  wast  a  bondman  in 
Egypt  :  and  thou  shalt  observe  and  do  these  statutes. 

Nu.  29  1  And  in  the  seventh  month,  on  the  first  da}"  of  the  month,  ye  shall  have  an  holy 

2  convocation  ;  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work  :  it  is  a  diiy  of  blowing  of  trumpets  unto  you.  And 
ye  shall  offer  a  burnt  offering  for  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord  ;  one  young  builoek,  one 

3  ram,  seven  he-lambs  of  the  first  year  without  blemish  :  and  their  meal  offering,  fine  flour 

4  mingled  with  oil,  three  tenth  parts  for  the  bullock,  two  tenth  parts  for  the  ram,  and  one  tenth 

5  part  for  every  lamb  of  the  seven  lambs  :  and  one  he-goat  for  a  sin  offering,  to  make  atone- 

G  ment  for  you  :  beside  the  burnt  offering  of  the  new  moon,  and  the  meal  offering  thereof,  and 

the  continual  burnt  offering  and  the  meal  offering  thereof,  and  their  drink  offerings,  accord¬ 
ing  unto  their  ordinance,  for  a  sweet  savour,  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord. 

Lev.  23  23  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel, 

24  saying.  In  the  seventh  month,  in  the  first  day  of  the  month,  shall  be  a  solemn  rest  unto  you, 

25  a  memorial  of  blowing  of  trumpets,  an  holy  convocation.  Ye  shall  do  no  servile  work  :  and 
ye  shall  offer  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord. 


Feast  of  Weeks,  or  Pentecost. 

This  feast  w"as  held  at  the  distance  of  seven 
complete  weeks,  a  week  of  weeks,  from  the  sec¬ 
ond  day  of  the  Passover,  when  the  first  ripe 
barley  sheaf  w’as  presented— therefore  on  the 
fiftieth  day  after  the  former.  The  males  w"ere 
then  again  to  repair  to  the  house  of  God.  And 
from  the  Greek  word  for  fifty  being  Penlecosie, 
the  feast  itself  in  the  New  Testament  came  to 
be  designated  Pentecost.  But  its  Bible  name 
is  rather  that  of  Weeks,  being  determined  by 
the  complete  cycle  of  weeks  that  followed  the 
waving  of  the  barlej’  sheaf  at  the  time  of  the 
Passover.  There  are  two  other  names  applied 
to  it  in  the  Pentateuch.  In  Ex.  23  : 18  it  is 
called  “  the  Feast  of  Harvest,”  because  it  was 
kept  at  the  close  of  the  whole  harvest,  wheat  as 
well  as  barley — the  intervening  weeks  between 
it  and  the  Passover  forming  the  season  of  har¬ 
vest.  And  in  the  same  passage,  as  again  in  Nu. 
28  :  26,  it  is  also  called  "  the  Feast  of  the  First- 
fruits,”  because  it  was  the  occasion  on  which 
the  Israelites  were  to  present  to  God  the  first- 
fruits  of  their  crop,  as  now  laid  up  for  use. 
This  was  done  by  the  high-priest  waving  two 
loaves  in  the  name  of  the  whole  congregation. 
In  later  times  the  feast  is  understood  to  have 
been  heM  for  an  entire  week,  like  the  Passover 
But  no  time  is  sjjecified  in  Scripture  for  its  con¬ 
tinuance,  and  as  a  holy  solemnity  it  appears  to 
have  been  limited  to  one  day,  when  the  same 
number  and  kind  of  offerings  were  presented  as 


on  each  day  of  the  Paschal  Feast.  But  as  the 
people  were  specially  required  at  this  feast  to 
invite  not  only  their  servants  but  also  the 
widow,  the  orphan,  the  stranger,  and  the  Le¬ 
vite,  to  share  with  them  in  the  goodness  which 
the  Lord  had  bestowed  on  them,  it  is  obvious 
that  a  succession  of  days  must  have  been  re¬ 
quired  for  its  due  celebration.  P.  F. 

The  day  was  one  of  “  holy  convocation” — in 
this  respect  resembling  the  first  and  last  days 
of  the  feasts  of  Unleavened  Bread  and  Taber¬ 
nacles  ;  and  the  distinguishing  feature  of  its 
services  was  the  presenting  to  the  Almighty  of 
two  loaves  of  fine  flour  baked  with  leaven 
These  loaves  were  not  laid  upon  the  altar,  but 
were  waved  before  the  Lord  in  token  of  dedica¬ 
tion  to  his  service,  and  were  then  given  to  the 
priests  to  eat.  Like  the  first  sheaf  of  barley, 
the}"  were  a  national,  and  not  an  individual  or 
a  family  offering.  Two  loaves  only  were  offered, 
but  for  all  the  families  of  Israel  considered  as 
one  whole.  With  these  loaves  were  associated 
as  a  part  of  the  same  festal  offering  seven  lambs 
without  blemish  of  the  first  year,  one  young 
bullock,  and  two  rams  for  a  burnt-offering,  with 
their  appropriate  meal  and  drink  offerings,  one 
kid  of  the  goats  for  a  sin-offering,  and  two 
lambs  of  the  first  year  for  a  sacrifice  of  peace- 
offerings  (Lev.  23  : 17-19).  Other  offerings  also 
Were  presented.  As  in  the  case  of  the  other 
great  feasts,  the  feast  of  Pentecost  was  attended 
by  innumerable  crowds.  Milligan. 


FEAST  OF  PENTECOST. 


411 


Till  tlie  Pentecostal  loaves  were  offered,  the 
produce  of  the  harvest  might  not  be  eaten,  nor 
could  any  other  first-fruits  be  offered.  The 
whole  ceremony  was  the  completion  of  that 
dedication  of  the  harvest  to  God  as  its  giver, 
which  was  begun  by  the  offering  of  the  wave- 
sheaf  at  the  Passover.  The  interval  is  still  re¬ 
garded  as  a  religious  season.  P.  S. - While 

the  immediate  design  of  this  institution  seems 
to  have  been  that  they  might  thankfully  ac¬ 
knowledge  the  goodness  of  God  in  giving  them 
the  fruits  of  the  earth,  and  implore  his  further 
blessing  by  offering  to  him  the  first-fruits  of 
their  harvest,  it  doubtless  had  a  tj^pical  refer¬ 
ence  to  the  first-fruits  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  of 
converts  to  Christ  after  Peter’s  preaching  on 

the  day  of  Pentecost.  Jennings. - The  period 

and  perfection  of  this  feast  was  the  pouring  out 
of  the  Spirit  upon  the  apostles  on  the  day  of  this 
feast  (Acts  2  : 1),  in  which  the  law  of  faith  was 
given,  fifty  days  after  Christ  our  Piissover  was 
sacrificed  for  us.  And  on  that  day  the  apostles, 
having  themselves  received  the  first-fruits  of  { he 
Spirit,  begat  three  thousand  souls  through  the 
word  of  truth,  and  presented  them  as  the  first- 
•fruits  of  the  Christian  Church  to  God  and  the 
Lamb.  H. 

As  a  feast  of  joyful  thanksgiving  over  the 
first  fruits  of  their  principal  grain  harvest,  it 
was  eminently  the  appropriate  occasion  for  the 
Pentecostal  scene  of  the  first  great  Christian  in¬ 
gathering.  How  suggestive  of  the  gratitude  due 
to  God  for  the  shedding  forth  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  the  glorious  fruitage  from  this  Gospel 

power!  H.  C. - The  Passover  represents 

death  ;  the  wave-sheaf  and  the  wave-loaves  sym¬ 
bolize  life.  The  Messiah  is  priest,  king,  and 
prophet.  As  priest  he  is  the  Lamb  of  God  that 
taketh  away  the  sm  of  the  world.  As  king,  he 
is  the  wave  sheaf,  the  first-fruits  from  the  dead. 
This  has  peculiar  force  when  we  remember  that* 
he  rose  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  and  the  ver3^ 
day  of  the  wave-sheaf  being  offered.  As  prophet, 
when  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully  come  he 
sent  the  promise  of  the  Father,  the  Spirit  of 
Truth  and  of  utterance  upon  the  disciples,  the 
full  harvest  of  their  waiting  and  praying,  the 
bread  of  eternal  life  for  their  hungering  souls. 
In  this  brief  period  of  seven  times  seven  days 
there  is  a  typical  epitome  of  the  history  of  sal¬ 
vation.  M. 

I>e.  16  ;  16.  To  keep  this  feast  they  must 
bring  an  offering  unto  God.  It  is  here  called  a 
tribute  of  a  free-will  offering  It  was  required  of 
them  as  a  tribute  to  their  sovereign  Lord  and 
Owner,  under  whom  they  held  all  they  had  ; 
and  yet  because  it  was  left  to  every  man's  gen¬ 


erosity  to  bring  what  he  chose,  it  is  called  a.  free¬ 
will  offering.  H. - What  is  given  under  pressure 

is  not  given  ;  only  that  is  given  which  cannot 
be  kept  back  ;  only  that  is  accepted  which  car¬ 
ries  with  it  the  blood  of  the  heart.  J.  P. 

Tliou  §huU  give  uccordiaig  the 
I^ordtSiy  €rucl  blcssctli  thee.  The  good¬ 
ness  of  God  was  conspicuous  when  in  claiming 
what  was  his  own  he  did  not  at  all  diminish  the 
food  (if  the  people  ;  afterward  they  received  as 
fro  !i  Lis  hand  whatever  each  individual  had 
stored  at  home,  just  as  though  it  had  come  out 
of  his  sanctuary.  Paul’s  statement,  “  For  if  the 
first-fruit  be  holy,  the  lump  is  also  holy”  (Pom. 
11  : 16),  alludes  to  this  ancient  ceremony  of  the 
Law.  Moses  signifies  that  the  fruits  of  the 
earth  cannot  otherwise  be  eaten  with  a  clear 
conscience,  because  they  would  not  feel  that 
God  accepted  them  and  looked  upon  them  with 
paternal  affection.  The  ceremony  remains  in 
force  as  regards  its  substance  ;  for  nothing  but 
the  acknowledgment  of  God’s  bounty,  which 
springs  from  faith  and  thanksgiving,  sanctifies 
whatever  we  receive  of  his  hand.  Calv. - Re¬ 

ceiving  should  prompt  us  to  a  proportionate 
giving.  The  gift  to  be  brought  to  the  temple  is 
not  specified.  It  might  be  a  gift  of  corn,  or  of 
wine,  or  of  money.  The  form  of  the  gift  was 
left  to  the  option  of  the  husbandman  ;  but 
some  tribute  was  required,  and  the  amount  must 
be  proportionate  to  the  abundance  of  his  crops. 
If  plain  and  imperative  law  could  make  the 
Jews  generous-hearted,  God  did  his  utmost  to 
cultivate  in  them  this  excellence.  H.  D. 

l>e.  16  :  11.  Tlioii  rejoice  be¬ 

fore  Use  ILord  thy  Oocl.  This  gives  us  the 
joyous  aspect  of  religion.  An  ancient  Jewish 
annotator  has  made  a  beautiful  remark  upon 
this  verse,  to  the  effect  that  “  thy  four,  0  Israel, 
and  my  four  shall  rejoice  together.”  Observe 
how  the  numbers  are  divided  into  fours,  and 
how  the  one  four  may  be  said  to  be  man’s  and 
the  second  four  may  be  said  to  be  God’s.  This 
is  the  distinction  drawn  by  Rashi,  the  Jewish 
commentator  ;  “  Thy  son,  and  thy  daughter, 
and  thy  man-servant,  and  thy  maid-servant” — 
let  them  rejoice  ;  but  my  four  must  be  there 
also  :  the  Levite,  the  stranger,  the  fatherless, 
and  the  widow  ;  they  represent  the  Divine 
name,  and  sit  down  in  seats  divinely  claimed 

for  them  at  the  festive  board.  J.  P. - They 

must  rej  ice  bfore  God.  Holy  joy  is  the  heart 
and  soul  of  thankful  praises,  which  are  as  the 
language  and  expression  of  holy  joy.  They 
must  rejoice  in  their  receivings  from  God,  and 
in  their  returns  of  service  and  sacrifice  to  him  ; 
our  duty  must  be  our  delight  as  well  as  our  en- 


412 


SECTION  141.  FEAST  OF  TRUMPETS. 


joyment.  H, - It  was  not  intended  that  we  [ 

should  pass  our  religious  fesiivals  in  retirement,  i 
shunning  human  converse.  The  Jews  were 

bidden  to  “  rejoice”  in  their  feasts  “  before  the 

* 

Lord  their  God.”  Christians  are  bidden  to 
“rejoice  in  the  Lnid  alway.”  And  a  very 
ancient  father,  Tertullian,  informs  us  that  on  a 
Sunday,  for  so  he  calls  it,  they  gave  way  pecu¬ 
liarly  to  religious  joy  ;  as  well  they  might,  since 
be  who  “  died  for  our  sins  then  rose  for  our 
justification.”  Stoker. 


A  greater  degree  of  relative  importance  seems 
to  have  been  attached  to  this  festival  than  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  designed  by  the  Law.  It  was  dis¬ 
covered  that  the  date,  fifty  days  after  the  Pass- 
over,  coincided  with  the  delivery  of  the  Law 
from  Mount  Sinai,  which  was  fifty  days  after 
the  departure  from  Egypt,  and  consequently 
after  the  first  Passover.  Hence,  by  degrees,  in¬ 
stead  of  resting  on  the  ground  on  which  Moses 
placed  it,  the  festival  was  turned  into  a  com¬ 
memoration  of  that  great  event.  Bush. 

Sabs.''. TIC AL  Month  and  Peast  of  Trumpets. 

Lev.  23  ;  23-25.  Nu  29  : 1-6. 

The  month  of  Tisri,  being  the  seventh  of  the 
ecclesiastical  year,  had  a  kind  of  Sabbatic  char¬ 
acter.  The  calendar  was  so  arranged  that  its 
first  day  fell  on  a  Sabbath  (that,  no  doubt,  next 
after  the  new  moon),  and  this  was  ushered  in 
by  the  blowing  of  trumpets,  and  was  called  the 
feast  of  Trumpets.  It  was  a  holy  convocation  ; 
and  it  had  its  special  sacrifices,  in  addition  to 
those  of  other  new  moons — namely,  for  the 
burnt-offering,  a  young  bullock,  a  ram,  and 
seven  lambs,  with  a  meal  and  drink  offering, 
and  a  young  goat  for  a  sin-offering.  This 
month  was  also  marked  by  the  great  Day  of 
Atonement  on  the  tenth,  and  the  feast  of  Tab¬ 
ernacles,  the  greatest  of  the  whole  year,  which 
lasted  from  the  fifteenth  to  the  twenty-second 
of  the  month.  Thus  it  completed  the  Sabbatic 
C3'^cle  of  seven  months,  in  which  all  the  great 

festivals  were  kept.  P.  S. - The  culmination 

and  crown  of  the  sacred  jmar  was  in  the  seventh 
month.  There  were  three  great  occasions  in 
this  month.  The  first  was  the  feast  of  Trumpets. 
The  blowing  of  the  trumpets  summoned  the 
people  to  a  holj^  convocation,  which  ushered  in 
the  special  joy  of  the  specially  sacred  month. 
But  the  highest  joy  which  is  possible  to  man  on 
earth  can  be  reached  only  through  the  pathway 
of  penitential  sorrow.  Hence  on  the  tenth  day 
of  the  month  there  were  the  solemnities  of  the 
great  Atonement  Day.  But  after  the  short  sea¬ 
son  of  humiliation  was  over,  the  crowning  joy 


[  of  all  the  year  was  ushered  in.  The  day  of  fast- 
i  ing,  occuriing  on  the  tenth,  was  followed  bj’  a 
four  da} s’  pause,  to  give  iis  solemn  impressions 
time  to  be  graven  deeply  on  the  people’s  souls, 
and  then,  on  the  fifteetdh  day  of  the  month,  the 
nation  was  summoned  to  the  fes'ivities  and  re¬ 
joicings  of  the  great  feast  of  Tabernacles. 
J.  M.  G. 

23  ;  24.  In  this  verse  and  in  Nu.  29  : 1, 
the  only  places  in  the  Old  Testament  where  the 
festival  is  named,  the  word  rendered  “  blowing 
of  trumpets,”  means  literally  shoulimj.  Thete 
is  no  mention  of  trumpets  in  the  Hebrew  text 
of  the  Law  in  connection  with  the  day.  We 
know  from  Nu.  10  : 10,  that  the  silver  trumpets 
of  the  sanctuary  were  blown  at  all  the  festivals, 
including  the  new  moons,  and,  as  a  matter  of 
course,  on  this  occasion,  which  was  the  chief 
festival  of  the  new  moon.  There  is,  however, 
no  reason  to  doubt  the  tradition  that  the  day 
was  distinguished  by  a  general  blowing  of  trum¬ 
pets  throughout  the  land.  Clark. 

The  entire  series  of  uses  ordained  (Nu.  10  : 1- 
10)  in  connection  with  the  silver  trumpets, 
together  with  the  emphatic  promises  in  verses 
9  and  10,  “  they  shall  be  to  \mu  for  a  memorial 
before  your  God,  and  ye  shall  be  remembered 
before  the  Lord  ^mur  God,  and  ye  shall  be  saved 
from  your  enemies,”  indicate  clearl}'  the  pur 
pose  and  significance  of  this  singular  ordi¬ 
nance.  On  the  part  of  Israel  it  served  as  a  re¬ 
minder  of  great  events  and  obligations,  and  so 
added  stimulus  and  encouragement  ’to  their 
thoughtfulness  and  fidelity.  On  the  part  of  Je¬ 
hovah,  it  conveyed  a  frequently  repeated  assur¬ 
ance  of  his  Presence,  with  all  the  needed  guid¬ 
ance,  help,  and  blessing  that  such  Presence 
would  bring.  B. 

The  feast  of  Trumpets  was  a  day  of  rest  and 
holy  convocation,  and  its  peculiar  and  distinc¬ 
tive  characteristic  was  the  blowing  of  trumpets. 
The  feast  so  characterized  took  place  about  the 
latter  end  of  September  ;  and  though  the  people 
were  not  required  to  appear  at  the  tent  of  meet¬ 
ing,  yet  in  token  of  the  importance  of  the  day 
additional  offerings  were  presented,  beside  those 
appointed  for  the  new  moons  in  general.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  the  sacred  use  of  the 
trumpet  had  its  reason  in  the  loud  and  stirring 
noise  it  emits.  Hence  it  is  described  as  a  cry 
in  Lev.  25  :  9,  which  was  to  be  heard  through¬ 
out  the  whole  land.  On  this  account  the  sound 
of  the  trumpet  is  very  commonly  employed  in 
Scripture  as  an  image  of  the  voice  or  Word  of 
God.  The  voice  of  God,  and  the  voice  of  the 
trumpet  on  Mount  Sinai,  were  heard  together  ; 
first  the  trumpet-sound  as  the  symbol,  then  the 


SECTION  142. 


413 


reality.  So  John  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord  as 
that  of  a  trumpet  ;  and  the  sound  of  the  trum¬ 
pet  is  once  and  again  spoken  of  as  the  harbin¬ 
ger  of  the  Son  of  Man,  when  coming  in  power 
and  great  glory,  to  utter  the  almighty  word 
which  shall  quicken  the  dead  to  life,  and  make 
all  things  new.  The  sound  of  the  trumpet, 
then,  was  a  symbol  of  the  majestic,  omnipotent 
voice  or  Word  of  God  ;  but  of  course  only  in 


those  things  in  which  it  was  employed  in  re¬ 
spect  to  what  God  had  to  say  to  men.  In  this 
case,  it  would  be  a  call  to  a  greater  degree  of 
alacrity  and  excitement  in  regard  to  the  work 
and  service  of  God.  And  such,  probably, was 
the  more  peculiar  design  of  the  blowing  of 
trumpets  at  the  festivals  generally,  and  espe¬ 
cially  at  the  festival  of  Trumpets  on  the  first 
day  of  the  seventh  month.  P.  F. 


Section  142. 

THE  GREAT  DAY  OF  ATONEMENT. 

Leviticus  16  : 1-34  ;  23  :  26-32.  Nu.  29  :  7-11. 

Lev.  16  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  after  the  death  of  the  two  sons  of  Aaron,  when 

2  they  drew  near  before  the  Lord,  and  died  ;  and  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Speak  unto  Aaron 
thy  brother,  that  he  come  not  at  all  times  into  the  holy  place  within  the  veil,  before  the 
mercy-seat  which  is  upon  the  ark  ;  that  he  die  not  :  for  I  will  appear  in  the  cloud  upon  the 

3  mercy-seat.  Herewith  shall  Aaron  come  into  the  holy  place  ;  with  a  jmung  bullock  for  a  sin 

4  offering,  and  a  ram  for  a  burnt  offering.  He  shall  put  on  the  holy  linen  coat,  and  he  shall 
have  the  linen  breeches  upon  his  flesh,  and  shall  be  girded  with  the  linen  girdle,  and  with  the 
linen  mitre  shall  he  be  attired  :  they  are  the  holy  garments  ;  and  he  shall  bathe  his  flesh  in 

5  water,  and  put  them  on.  And  he  shall  take  of  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel  two 

6  he-goats  for  a  sin  offering,  and  one  ram  for  a  burnt  offering.  And  Aaron  shall  present  the 
bullock  of  the  sin  offering,  which  is  for  himself,  and  make  atonement  for  himself,  and  for  his 

7  house.  And  he  shall  take  the  two  goats,  and  set  them  before  the  Lord  at  the  door  of  the  tent 

8  of  meeting.  And  Aaron  shall  cast  lots  upon  the  two  goats  ;  one  lot  for  the  Lord,  and  the 

9  other  lot  for  Azazel.  And  Aaron  shall  present  the  goat  upon  which  the  lot  fell  for  the  Lord, 

10  and  offer  him  for  a  sin  offering.  But  the  goat,  on  which  the  lot  fell  for  Azazel,  shall  be  set 
alive  before  the  Lord,  to  make  atonement  for  him,  to  send  him  awa}'  for  Azazsi  into  the  wil- 

11  derness.  And  Aaron  shall  present  the  bullock  of  the  sin  offering,  which  is  for  himself,  and 
shall  make  atonement  for  himself,  and  for  his  house,  and  shall  kill  the  bullock  of  the  sin  offer- 

12  ing  which  is  for  himself:  and  he  shall  take  a  censer  full  of  coals  of  fire  from  off  the  altar 
before  the  Lord,  and  his  hands  full  of  sweet  incense  beaten  small,  and  bring  it  within  the 

13  veil  :  and  he  shall  put  the  incense  upon  the  fire  before  the  Lord,  that  the  cloud  of  the  incense 

14  may  cover  the  mercy-seat  that  is  upon  the  testimony,  that  he  die  not  :  and  he  shall  take  of 
the  blood  of  the  bullock,  and  sprinkle  it  with  his  finger  upon  the  mercy-seat  on  the  east  ;  and 

15  before  the  mercy-seat  shall  he  sprinkle  of  the  blood  with  his  finger  seven  times.  Then  shall 
he  kill  the  goat  of  the  sin  offering,  that  is  for  the  people,  and  bring  his  blood  within  the  veil, 
and  do  with  his  blood  as  he  did  with  the  blood  of  the  bullock,  and  sprinkle  it  upon  the  mercy- 

16  seat,  and  before  the  mercy-seat  :  and  he  shall  make  atonement  for  the  holy  place,  because  of 
the  uncleannesses  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  because  of  their  transgressions,  even  all  their 
sins  ;  and  so  shall  he  do  for  the  tent  of  meeting,  that  dwelleth  with  them  in  the  midst  of  their 

17  uncleannesses.  And  there  shall  be  no  man  in  the  tent  of  meeting  when  he  goeth  in  to  make 
atonement  in  the  holy  place,  until  he  come  out,  and  have  made  atonement  for  himself,  and 

18  for  his  household,  and  for  all  the  assembly  of  Israel.  And  he  shall  go  out  unto  the  altar  that 
is  before  the  Lord,  and  make  atonement  for  it  ;  and  shall  take  of  the  blood  of  the  bullock, 

19  and  of  the  blood  of  the  goat,  and  put  it  upon  the  horns  of  the  altar  round  about.  And  he 
shall  sprinkle  of  the  blood  upon  it  with  his  finger  seven  times,  and  cleanse  it,  and  hallow  it 

20  from  the  uncleannesses  of  the  children  of  Israel.  And  when  he  hath  made  an  end  of  atoning 

21  for  the  holy  place,  and  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  the  altar,  he  shall  present  the  live  goat  :  and 
Aaron  shall  lay  both  his  hands  upon  the  head  of  the  live  goat,  and  confess  over  him  all  the 
iniquities  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  all  their  transgressions,  even  all  their  sins  ;  and  he 
shall  put  them  upon  the  head  of  the  goat,  and  shall  send  him  away  by  the  hand  of  a  man  that 


414 


SECTION  142.  THE  GREAT  DAT  OF  ATONEMENT. 


22  is  in  readiness  into  the  wilderness  :  and  the  goat  shall  bear  upon  him  all  their  iniquities  unto 

23  a  solitary  land  :  and  he  shall  let  go  the  goat  in  the  wilderness.  Aud  Aaron  shall  come  into 
the  tent  of  meeting,  and  shall  put  off  the  linen  garments,  which  he  put  on  when  he  went  into 

24  the  holy  place,  and  shall  leave  them  there  :  and  he  shall  bathe  his  flesh  in  water  in  a  holy 
place,  and  pat  on  his  garments,  and  come  forth,  aud  offer  his  burnt  offering  and  the  burnt 

25  offering  of  the  people,  and  make  atonement  for  himself  and  for  the  people.  And  the  fat  of 

26  the  sin  offering  shall  he  burn  upon  the  altar,  xind  he  that  letteth  go  the  goat  for  Azazel  shall 
wash  his  clothes,  and  bathe  his  flesh  in  water,  and  afterward  he  shall  come  into  the  camp. 

27  And  the  bullock  of  the  sin  offering,  and  the  goat  of  the  sin  offering,  whose  blood  was  brought 
in  to  make  atonement  in  the  holy  place,  shall  be  carried  forth  without  the  camp  ;  and  they 

28  shall  burn  in  the  fire  their  skins,  and  their  flesh,  and  their  dung,  And  he  that  burnetii  them 
shall  wash  his  clothes,  and  bathe  his  flesh  in  water,  and  afterward  he  shall  come  into  the  camp, 

29  And  it  shall  be  a  statute  for  ever  unto  you  :  in  the  seventh  month,  on  the  tenth  day  of  the 
month,  ye  shall  afflict  your  souls,  and  shall  do  no  manner  of  work,  the  homeborn,  or  the 

30  stranger  that  sojourneth  among  you  ;  for  on  this  day  shall  atonement  be  made  for  you,  to 

31  cleanse  you  ;  from  all  your  sins  shall  ye  be  clean  before  the  Loed.  It  is  a  sabbath  of  solemn 

32  rest  unto  you,  and  ye  shall  afflict  your  souls  ;  it  is  a  statute  for  ever.  And  the  priest,  who 
shall  be  anointed  and  who  shall  be  consecrated  to  be  priest  in  his  father’s  stead,  shall  make 

33  the  atonement,  and  shall  put  on  the  linen  garments,  even  the  holy  garments  :  and  he  shall 
make  atonement  for  the  holy  sanctuary,  and  he  shall  make  atonement  for  the  tent  of  meeting 
and  for  the  altar  ;  and  he  shall  make  atonement  for  the  priests  and  for  all  the  people  of  the 

34  assembly.  And  this  shall  be  an  everlasting  statute  unto  you,  to  make  atonement  for  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel  because  of  all  their  sins  once  in  the  year.  And  he  did  as  the  Lord  commanded 
Moses. 

Lev.  23  26  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Howbeit  on  the  tenth  day  of  this 

27  seventh  month  is  the  day  of  atonement  :  it  shall  be  an  holy  convocation  unto  you,  and  ye 

28  shall  afflict  your  souls  ;  and  ye  shall  offer  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord.  And  ye 
shall  do  no  manner  of  work  in  that  same  day  :  for  it  is  a  day  of  atonement,  to  make  atone- 

29  ment  for  you  before  the  Lord  your  God.  For  whatsoever  soul  it  be  that  shall  not  be  afflicted 

30  in  that  same  day,  he  shall  be  cut  off  from  his  people.  And  whatsoever  soul  it  be  that  doeth 

31  any  manner  of  work  in  that  same  day,  that  soul  will  I  destroy  from  among  his  people.  Ye 
shall  do  no  manner  of  work  ;  it  is  a  statute  for  ever  throughout  your  generations  in  all  your 

32  dwellings.  It  shall  be  unto  you  a  sabbath  of  solemn  rest,  and  ye  shall  afflict  your  souls  :  in 
the  ninth  day  of  the  month  at  even,  from  even  unto  even,  shall  ye  keep  your  sabbath. 

Nu.  29  7  And  on  the  tenth  day  of  this  seventh  month  ye  shall  have  an  holy  convocation  ; 

8  and  ye  shall  afflict  your  souls  ;  ye  shall  do  no  manner  of  work  :  but  ye  shall  offer  a  burnt 
offering  unto  the  Lord  for  a  sweet  savour  ;  one  young  bullock,  one  ram,  seven  he-lambs  of  the 

9  first  year  ;  they  shall  be  unto  jmu  without  blemish  :  and  their  meal  offering,  fine  flour  mingled 

10  with  oil,  three  tenth  parts  for  the  bullock,  two  tenth  parts  for  the  one  ram,  a  several  tenth  part 

11  for  every  lamb  of  the  seven  lambs  :  one  he-goat  for  a  sin  offering  ;  beside  the  sin  offering  of 
atonement,  and  the  continual  burnt  offering,  and  the  meal  offering  thereof,  and  their  drink 
offerings. 


The  Day  or  Atonement. 

Though  one  day  only  of  the  entire  year  was 
devoted  to  the  holy  of  holies,  that  one  was  the 
day  of  days  of  all  the  j’ear.  We  have  already 
seen  that  the  idea  of  atonement  is  the  founda¬ 
tion-thought  in  all  the  sacrifices  and  in  all  the 
services,  both  in  the  ritual  of  the  altar  and  of 
the  holy  place.  But  there  was  one  day  of  the 
year,  and  that  the  most  sacred  of  all,  when  the 
great  fact  of  atonement  was  presented  alone 
and  in  the  most  solemn  manner  before  the 
minds  of  the  people  ;  and  there  was  one  depart¬ 
ment  of  the  ritual,  and  that  the  most  sacred  of 
all,  the  ritual  of  the  holy  of  holies,  which  was 


so  arranged  that  the  necessity  and  value  of  the 
atonement  which  God  has  provided  for  human 
sin  should  stand  out  in  solitary  grandeur,  like 
the  Matterhorn  among  Swiss  mountains,  before 
the  ejms  of  Israel  in  the  olden  time,  and  of  all 
God’s  Israel  to  the  end  of  the  world,  J,  M.  G. 

The  Day  of  Atonement  stood  forth  alone 
among  all  the  sacred  days  of  Israel,  distinguished 
by  services  altogether  peculiar  to  itself,  and  un¬ 
equalled  in  the  clearness  and.  impressiveness 
alike  of  its  bearing  on  the  past  and  of  its  typical 
relation  to  the  future.  All  the  lesser  atone¬ 
ments  of  the  year  then  reached  their  culminat¬ 
ing  point,  while  the  holiness  of  God,  the  evil  of 
sin,  the  completeness  of  the  pardon  offered  to 


DAY  OF  ATONEMENT. 


415 


the  sinner,  and  the  blessed  consequences  of  res¬ 
toration  to  the  Divine  favor  were  exhibited  and 
brought  home  to  the  people  with  a  singular  de¬ 
gree  of  distinctness  and  power.  There  is  no 
sacred  season  of  tbe  Old  Dispensation,  too, 
whose  “  fulfilling”  is  more  distinctly  spoken  of 
in  the  New  Testament.  Milligan,. 

The  doctrine  of  the  atonement  holds  no  more 
central  place  in  the  Christian  religious  and  dog¬ 
matic  system  than  does  the  Day  of  Atonement 
in  the  Jewish  ethical  and  ritualistic.  There  is 
not,  for  instance,  an  allusion  to  the  ark  with  its 
peculiar  covering— and  there  are  more  than 
twenty  such  references  in  Exodus  and  Leviticus 
— that  does  not  recognize  the  one  most  conspic¬ 
uous  feature  of  the  Day  of  Atonement.  The 
title  ‘‘  mercy-seat  ”  seems  to  have  had  no  other 
formal  or  moral  basis  than  the  characteristic  act 
of  the  high-priest  in  sprinkling  there  the  blood 
of  atonement.  In  the  second  temple  there  was 
no  ark  at  all.  E.  C.  B. 

The  Day  of  Atonement  took  its  rise  in  the 
working  out  of  the  Law  itself.  Its  ceremonial 
was  a  showing  forth  in  distinct  analytical  detail 
of  the  truth  which  was  compendiously  expressed 
in  the  single  rite  of  the  sin-offering.  (Aark. 

- This  is  called  by  the  sacred  writer  day  of 

expiations  or  atonements,  from  its  having  been  in¬ 
stituted  for  the  expiation  of  all  the  sins,  irrev¬ 
erences,  and  pollutions  of  all  the  Israelites, 
from  the  highest  priest  to  the  lowest  people, 
committed  by  them  throughout  the  year.  It 
was  observed  on  the  tenth  day  of  tbe  seventh 
month,  or  Tisri,  corresponding  to  a  part  of  our 
September.  Though  called  occasionally  the 
“  feast  of  Expiation,”  yet  its  genuine  character 
was  rather  that  of  a  fast — a  day  for  “  afflicting 
their  souls” — and  is  only  called  “  feast  ”  in  the 
sense  of  a  set  solemnity.  It  was  in  all  its  ser- 
vices  and  ceremonies  the  fullest  representation, 
the  most  perfect  shadow,  of  the  great  work  of 
redemption  ;  the  high-priest  prefiguring  in  all 
he  did  that  which  Christ  in  the  fulness  of 
times  was  ordained  to  do.  Bush. 

The  Day  of  Atonement  is  the  one  single  fast, 
or  day  of  humiliation  prescribed  by  the  Mosaic 
Law  ;  whence  it  is  called  the  Fast  (Acts  27  ;  9). 
and  by  the  Talmudists  the  Day.  It  was  kept  as 
a  most  solemn  Sabbath,  when  all  must  abstain 
from  work,  and  “  afflict  their  souls”  on  pain  of 
being  ”  cut  off  from  among  the  people.”  Its 
ceremonies  signified  the  public  humiliation  of 
the  people  for  all  the  sins  of  the  past  year,  and 
the  remission  of  those  sins  by  the  atonement 
which  the  high-priest  made  within  the  veil, 
whither  he  entered  on  this  day  only.  All  the 
sacrifices  of  the  day  were  performed  by  the  high- 


priest  himself.  He  first  washed  his  body  in  the 
holy  place,  and  put  on  his  white  linen  garments, 
not  the  robes  of  state.  Coming  out  of  the  tab¬ 
ernacle,  he  first  brought  forward  the  sacrifices 
for  himself  and  his  family  :  a  young  bullock  for 
a  sin-offering,  and  a  ram  for  a  burnt-offering. 
This  part  of  the  ceremony  set  forth  the  imper¬ 
fection  of  the  Levitical  priesthood,  even  in  its 
highest  representative.  The  high-priest  then 
led  forward  the  victims  for  the  people’s  sins  :  a 
ram  for  a  burnt-offering,  and  two  young  goats 
for  a  sin-offering.  Presenting  the  two  goats 
before  Jehovah  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle,  he 
cast  lots  upon  them,  the  one  lot  being  inscribed 
For  Jehovah,  the  other  For  Azazel. 

The  victims  being  prepared,  the  high -priest 
proceeded  to  offer  the  young  bullock  as  the 
sin-oft'ering  for  himself  and  his  family.  Having 
slain  it  at  the  altar,  he  took  some  of  its  blood 
with  a  censer  filled  with  live  coals  from  the 
altar  and  a  handful  of  incense  :  and  entering 
into  the  most  holy  place  he  threw  the  incense 
on  the  coals,  thus  enveloping  the  ark  in  a  fra¬ 
grant  cloud  and  partially  shrouding  it  from  his 
own  eyes,  and  then  s]3rinkled  the  blood  seven 
times  before  the  mercy  seat  on  the  east  side  of 
the  ark.  The  goat  ”  of  Jehovah”  was  then  slain 
as  a  sin-offering  for  the  people,  and  the  high- 
priest  again  went  into  the  most  holy  place  and 
performed  the  same  ceremonies  with  its  blood. 
As  he  returned  through  the  holy  place  he  puri¬ 
fied  it  by  sprinkling  some  of  the  blood  of  both 
victims  on  the  altar  of  incense.  This  completed 
the  purification  of  the  sanctuary,  the  second 
stage  of  the  atonement. 

Then  followed  tbe  remission  of  the  people’s 
sins  by  the  striking  ceremony  of  devoting  the 
goat  on  which  the  lot  had  fallen  “/or  Azazel," 
The  high-priest  having  laid  his  hands  upon  its 
head  and  confessed  over  it  the  sins  of  the  peo¬ 
ple,  the  victim,  loaded  as  it  were  with  those 
sins,  was  led  out  by  a  man  chosen  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  to  the  wilderness,  into  “  a  land  not  inhab¬ 
ited,”  and  there  let  loose.  The  simple  meaning 
of  the  rite  is  the  full  remission  of  sins  ;  and  the 
animal  who  bore  them  away  w’as  thenceforth  as 
free  as  the  pardoned  sinner.  To  trace  it  or  to 
endeavor  to  identify  it  would  be  a  profanation, 
just  ns  the  idea  of  remission  is  expressed  by  not 
inquiring  for  sins,  not  finding  them,  casting  them 
behind  the  back.  This  idea  of  remission  seems 
to  be  involved  in  the  name  to  which  the  scape¬ 
goat  was  devoted;  ‘‘for  Azazel”  signifying 
‘‘ for  complete  removal.”  The  great  ceremony 
of  the  remission  of  sins  being  thus  completed, 
the  high-priest,  after  again  washing  his  body  in 
the  holy  place,  and  resuming  his  robes  of  state, 


416 


SECTION  142.  THE  GREAT  DAT  OF  ATONEMENT. 


completed  the  offering  of  the  slain  victims. 

P.  S. 

8.  Cast  lots.  This  shows  the  perfect 
equality  of  the  two  goats  as  representatives, 
and  intimates  the  unity  of  that  which  is  repre¬ 
sented.  One  lot  lor  the  Lord.  The  goat 
on  which  this  lot  fell  was  to  be  offered  in  sacri¬ 
fice  unto  the  Lord.  And  the  other  lot  for 
Azazel.  This  is  simply  the  goat  that  is  to 
go  away,  escaping  from  death  into  the  wilder¬ 
ness  ;  a  meaning  which  is  suggested  and  sus¬ 
tained  by  the  text.  M. - The  word  Azazd 

occurs  nowhere  in  the  Old  Testament  except  in 
this  chapter.  The  best  modern  scholars  con¬ 
sider  its  most  probable  derivation  to  be  from  a 
root  in  use  in  Arabic,  but  not  in  Hebrew,  signi¬ 
fying  io  remove,  or  io  separate.  They  are  equally 
agreed  as  to  the  word  expressing  the  destina¬ 
tion  to  which  the  goat  was  sent,  not  (as  in  our 
version)  the  goat  itself.  The  etymology  sug 
gested  by  Buxtorf  and  the  earlier  critics,  ac¬ 
cording  to  which  the  word  answered  to  our 
own  “  scape-goat,”  is  now  almost  universal¬ 
ly  rejected.  Clark. i - The  general  idea  to  be 

attached  to  the  words  “for  Azazel”  seems 
clear.  It  is  for  final  and  complete  removal.  A 
complete  and  satisfactory  solution  rests  upon  j 
the  general  supposition  that  this  whole  observ¬ 
ance  was  intended  to  concentrate  and  epitomize 
the  ceremonial  method  of  atonement.  It  is 
natural  to  suppose  that  the  two  goats  were  in¬ 
tended  to  be  sy^mbolsof  the  same  great  doctrine, 
that  of  expiation,  as  consisting  of  two  parts, 
substitution  and  removal,  one  of  which  is  repre 
sented  by  the  death  of  the  first  goat,  and  the 
other  by  the  exile  of  the  second,  both  together 
constituting  a  single  undivided  symbol  of  atone¬ 
ment,  such  as  we  know  to  have  been  wrought 
by  Christ.  J.  A.  A. 

12-14.  Within  the  veil  .  .  .  before 
the  inerey-seat  §hall  he  sprinkle  of 

the  blood.  This  inner  shrine— the  throne 
room  and  presence-chamber  of  the  Eternal— was 
trod  by  mortal  foot  but  once  a  year,  on  that 
great  Da,y  of  Atonement,  when,  protected  by 
sacrificial  blood,  the  high-priest  entered  to  pre¬ 
sent  the  propitiation  for  the  people,  and  re¬ 
turned  to  show  that  God  was  still  good  to  Israel. 

Hamilton. - On  this  day  alone,  of  the  year, 

was  the  holy  of  holies,  the  sj'mbol  of  heaven, 
opened  for  the  entrance  of  the  high  priest.  Yet 
the  leading  thought  presented  by  the  ritual  for 
the  day  was  not  the  opening  of  heaven  with  all 
its  glories,  but  rather  the  solemn  warning  that 
“there  shall  in  no  wise  enter  into  it  anything 
that  defileth  ”  It  is  the  old,  old  lesson  pressed 
home  once  again,  and  more  solemnly  than 


ever,  that  “  without  holiness  no  man  can  see 
the  Lord.”  It  will  be  time  enough  by  and  by 
to  unfold  the  glories  of  the  future,  to  tell  of  the  * 
golden  city  with  its  gates  of  pearl,  its  blessed 
comrjany  and  joy  unspeakable  ;  but  first  there 
must  be  borne  deep  into  the  soul  this  abiding 
conviction,  that  before  we  are  prepared  even  to 
see  the  kingdom,  we  must  be  saved  from  sin. 

It  is  not  happiness  first,  but  holiness.  And  it 
is  only  after  holiness  to  the  Lord  has  taken  strong 
and  abiding  possession  of  the  soul,  that  happi¬ 
ness  from,  the  Lord  comes  down  on  joyous  wing 
from  out  the  open  heaven.  Marvel  not,  then, 
that  on  the  day  on  which  the  “  holiest  of  all  ” 
was  opened,  the  people  were  called  to  fasting 
and  humiliation  on  account  of  their  sin,  nor 
wonder  that,  for  the  purpose  of  entering  within 
the  veil,  the  high-priest  was  directed  to  put  on 
not  his  robes  “  of  glory  and  beauty,'  ’  but  plain 
linen  garments,  all  of  white,  so  that  the  thought 
of  holiness  should  stand  before  the  mind’s  eye 
of  the  people  quite  alone  Still  further,  the 
festal  offerings  were  excluded  :  no  bread-offer¬ 
ing,  no  joy-offering  to-day  ;  only  the  sin-offer¬ 
ing  and  the  burnt-offering,  the  great  essentials. 
And  even  the  burnt-offering  sinks  into  an  en- 
I  tirely  secondar}’’  position,  that  the  attention 
may  be  concentrated  from  beginning  to  end  on 
the  sin-offering,  and  on  the  great  fact  of  atone¬ 
ment,  which  gave  significance  to  the  ritual  and 
name  to  the  day.  J.  M.  G. 

14-19.  The  first  blood  sprinkling  was  to 
cleanse  the  mercy-seat  itself  ;  the  second,  seven 
times,  the  holy  of  holies,  from  the  sins  of  the 

priests.  Oerl. - The  sprinkling  of  the  mercy- 

seat  and  of  the  floor  in  front  of  it  was  followed 
by  a  similar  use  of  the  blood  in  the  holj^  place 
and  at  the  altar  of  burnt-offering,  “  to  hallow” 
the  scene  of  worship  and  of  sacrifice  “  from  the 
uncleanness  of  the  children  of  Israel.”  J.  M.  G. 

- This  significant "  type  tells  the  Christian 

that  there  is  nothing  in  itself  so  holy  as  not  to 
need  intercession  and  atonement.  God’s  own 
ordinances,  as  the  preaching  of  his  Word  and 
the  sacraments,  ought  never  to  be  approached 
without  the  consciousness  that  only  through 
the  power  of  Christ’s  atoning  blood  are  they 
pure  to  us,  and  the  channels  of  grace.  Oerl. 

21.  This  is  the  only  passage  in  all  Scripture  in 
which  the  meaning  of  the  ceremony  of  laying 
hands  on  the  head  of  the  victim  is  directly  ex¬ 
plained.  Magee. 

21,  22.  It  was  now.  after  the  completion  of 
the  atonement  by  blood,  that  the  high-priest 
confessed  over  the  live  goat  still  standing  at  the 
door  of  the  tabernacle  “  all  the  iniquities  of  the 
children  of  Israel,  and  all  their  transgressions,” 


DAY  OF  A  TONEMENT. 


417 


and  thereafter  sent  him  away,  laden  with  his  ' 
awful  burden,  by  a  fit  person  into  the  wilder-  j 
ness,  into  a  land  of  separation,  where  no  man  * 
dwelt.  The  action  with  this  second  goat  is  to 
be  regarded  as  the  continuation  of  the  action  I 
with  the  first,  and  its  proper  comjjlement.  j 
Hence  the  second  or  live  goat  is  represented  as 
standing  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  (verse 
10),  while  atonement  was  being  made  with  the 
blood  of  the  first.  And  it  is  only  after  this  pro¬ 
cess  of  atonement  is  accomplished  that  the  high- 
priest  returns  to  him,  and,  as  from  God,  lays  on 
him  the  now'-atoned-for  iniquities,  that  he  might 
carry  them  away  into  a  desert  place.  So  that 
the  part  he  has  to  do  in  the  transaction  is  sim¬ 
ply  to  bear  them  ofi  and  bury  them  out  of  sight 
as  things  concerning  which  the  justice  of  God 
had  been  satisfied,  no  more  to  be  brought  into 
account.  What  took  place  with  the  live  goat 
was  merely  intended  to  unfold  and  render  pal¬ 
pably  evident  to  the  bodily  eye  the  effect  of  the 
great  work  of  atonement.  Nor  is  it  of  any  mo¬ 
ment  what  became  of  the  goat  after  being  con¬ 
ducted  into  the  wilderness.  He  went  where 
“  all  death  lives  and  all  life  dies  and  so  ex¬ 
hibited  a  most  striking  image  of  the  everlasting 
oblivion  into  w^hich  the  sins  of  God’s  people 
are  thrown,  w^hen  once  they  are  covered  with 
the  blood  of  an  acceptable  atonement.  P.  F. 

It  was  Jehovah’s  act  to  choose  one  of  the  goats 
for  his  service  in  the  way  of  ordinary  sacrifice, 
the  other  for  his  service  in  carrying  off  the  sins 
to  Azazel.  The  idea  to  be  set  before  the  Israel¬ 
ites  was  the  absolute  annihilation,  by  the  aton¬ 
ing  sacrifice,  of  sin  as  a  separation  between  Je¬ 
hovah  and  his  people,  the  complete  setting  free 
of  their  consciences.  No  sj^mbol  could  so 
plainly  set  forth  the  completeness  of  Jehovah’s 
acceptance  of  the  penitent  as  a  sin-offering  in 
which  a  life  was  given  up  for  the  altar,  and  yet 
a  living  being  survived  to  carry  away  all  sin 
and  uncleanness.  The  truth  of  atonement  was 
involved  in  every  sin-offering  ;  but  it  was  only 
in  the  offering  of  the  two  goats  in  this  great 
annual  rite  that  the  expression  of  it  was  carried 
out  into  complete  detail.  The  declared  object 
of  the  observance  was  that  the  Israelites  might 
be  “  clean  from  all  their  sins  before  the  Lord  ” 
(verse  30).  This  was  expressed  in  later  times  by 
the  Psdlmist  :  “  As  far  as  the  east  is  from  the 
west,  so  far  hath  he  removed  our  transgressions 
from  us”  (103  ;  12)  ;  and  by  the  prophet  :  “  He 
will  subdue  our  iniquities  ;  and  thou  wilt  cast 
all  their  sins  into  the  depths  of  the  sea”  (Micah 
7  : 19).  Clark. 

No  symbol  could  give  more  precisely,  more  j 
unequivocally,  more  forcibly,  the  great  idea  of  j 
27  ‘ 


taking  away  sins.  You  see  them  transferred  to 
this  second  goat  by  means  of  hands  imposed 
and  formal  declaration,  ^'pulling  them  [the  sins] 
upon  the  head  of  the  goat  ;  '  and  then  he  is  driven 
away,  bearing  his  burden  into  an  unknown, 
desolate  land,  never  to  be  heard  fi'om  again  ! 
These  two  goats  therefore  represent  respective!  v 
the  two  great  ideas  which  make  up  the  atone 
ment — the  first  signifying  by  what  means  God 
can  testify  duly  against  sin  while  yet  he  forgives 
the  sinner  ;  and  the  second  certifying  that  — the 
innocent  victim  having  been  substituted  for  the 
sinner  and  slain  in  his  stead — God  does  truly 
take  sins  forever  away.  In  briefest  phrase  these 
coupled  ideas  stand  out  before  us  in  the  New 
Testament:  “Behold  the  Lamb  of  God  who 
takeih  away  the  sin  of  the  world  ”  (John  1  :  29). 
H.  C. 

27.  §liall  be  carried  fortli  witlioiit 
the  camp.  To  be  a  type  and  figure  of  the 
more  perfect  sacrifice  of  Christ  the  Messiah, 
who  was  to  suffer  ”  without  the  gate”  (Heb. 

13  : 11,  12).  Pyle. - The  holy  of  holies  on 

earth  represented  the  residence  of  the  Deity  in 
heaven.  The  service  that  was  performed  in  it 
consequently  represented  the  service  that  was 
to  be  performed  in  heaven.  The  high-priest 
under  the  Law,  therefore,  represented  the  per¬ 
son  of  our  great  High-Priest  and  Intercessor  ; 
and  the  blood  which  he  sprinkled  before  the 
cherubim  on  the  mercy-seat  w'as  the  type  of 
that  blood  the  merits  of  which  our  great  High- 
Priest,  when  ”  entered  within  the  veil,”  was 
afterward  to  plead  before  his  Heavenlj"  Father 
(Heb.  9  : 24).  Each  high-priest  acted  under  a 
public  character,  each  sustaining  the  persons  of 
those  whom  he  represented.  The  high-priest 
under  the  Law  ”  offered  for  himself  and  for  the 
errors  of  the  people.”  Our  great  High-Priest 
under  the  Gospel  “  appeared  in  the  presence  of 
God  for  us:"  while  the  burning  the  sin  offer¬ 
ing  “  without  the  camp”  answers  to  Christ’s 
suffering  ”  without  the  gate”  of  Jerusalem. 
And  the  particular  service  of  this  day  was  ex¬ 
pressly  calculated  to  leave  a  stronger  impression 
respecting  the  nature  of  sin  and  the  manner  in 
which  its  effect  w^as  by  Divine  appointment  to 
be  done  aw^ay,  than  if  such  ideas  had  been  con¬ 
veyed  only  by  words,  Daubeny. 

What  none  but  the  high  priest  could  do,  under 
the  Jewish  economy,  all  God’s  people  may  do 
now.  And  what  even  he  could  do  but  once  a 
year,  they  ma}’^  do  at  all  times.  They  can 
‘‘  enter  into  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus.” 
The  way  to  the  meroy-seat  lies  open  at  all 
times,  and  “  wdiosoever  will”  may  come  and 
find  mercy  and  grace  to  help  in  time  of  need. 


418 


SECTION  142.  THE  GREAT  DAY  OF  ATONEMENT. 


R.  Newton. - The  veil  is  rent  to  show  that  the 

Mediator  made  a  passage  into  heaven,  but  in 
nothing  does  he  act  for  himself  alone.  We  rose 
with  him  ;  we  ascended  with  him  ;  and  there¬ 
fore  is  the  rending  of  the  veil  as  much  a  pledge 
of  our  admission  as  of  his,  who,  by  the  efficiency 
of  his  sacrifice,  provided  for  our  being  not  only 
sons  of  God,  but  joint  heirs  with  himself.  The 
veil  is  rent.  The  door  of  heaven,  the  way  of 
access  to  God’s  glorified  presence  hereafter,  as 
well  as  to  his  gracious  presence  now,  is  thrown 
open  V)y  the  work  of  mediation.  We  may  not 
only  draw  nigh  to  God  now  in  prayer,  but  we 
shall  draw  nigh  to  him  hereafter  in  person.  We 
shall  rise  from  the  dust  ;  we  shall  tread  the 
firmament  ;  we  shall  enter  by  the  gates  of  pearl, 
and  we  shall  walk  the  streets  of  gold.  Blessed 
be  God  for  this  rent  veil  !  Like  a  windovv 
opened  in  the  sky,  there  have  come  forth 
through  it  the  shinings  of  eternity,  the  promises 
of  immortality,  rich  and  lively  visions  of  the  in¬ 
heritance  of  the  saints  in  light.  Melville. 

24.  And  now  that  the  great  atonement 
has  been  made,  the  high-priest  puts  off  the  linen 
garments  and  puts  on  his  gorgeous  robes,  the 
onyx  stones  upon  his  shoulders,  the  precious 
stones  upon  his  breast  again,  and  offers  the 
burnt-offering  for  himself  and  for  the  people. 
Althoiigh  the  day  was  above  all  a  day  of  atone¬ 
ment,  so  that  the  sin-offering  takes  the  place  of 
all  the  others,  and  stands  out  as  it  were  alone  ; 
yet  the  opportunity  cannot  be  allowed  to  pass 
of  pointing  out  that  atonement  is  in  order  to 
dedication  and  acceptance,  the  dedication  of  the 
people  to  God  and  the  acceptance  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  by  God  ;  and  this  is  kept  before  the  mind 
by  the  presentation  of  the  burnt-offering  by 
the  priest  in  his  priestly  attire  as  the  represen¬ 
tative  of  the  now  “  reconciled  ”  people.  And 
accordingly^  our  great  High-Priest,  having  laid 
aside  his  plain  vesture  of  mortal  flesh,  reclothes 
himself  with  his  garments  of  glory  and  beauty, 
and  thus  attired,  in  the  fair  form  of  his  resur- 
xection  vesture,  bearing  upon  his  strong  and 
conquering  shoulders  the  weight,  and  in  his 
warm  and  loving  heart  the  names,  of  all  his 
.children,  he  leads  the  way  as  “  the  Forerunner” 
into  the  holy,  blessed  presence  of  our  loving 
reconciled  Father,  God.  J.  M.  G. 

f?4.  This  shall  he  an  everlastings 
statute.  That  is,  through  the  whole  period 
of  that  economy  till  Christ,  the  substance  of  the 

Levitical  shadows,  should  come.  Bush. - 

During  the  legal  dispensation  it  was  to  continue 
among  them  :  but  Christ  put* an  end  to  it  and 
rendered  the  service  useless,  and  the  destruc¬ 
tion  of  their  temple  rendered  it  unpracticable. 


Bp.  Kidder. - This  great  Day  of  Atonement 

was  instituted  for  a  perpetual  observance  —  that 
is,  while  the  Mosaic  economy  lasted.  This  re¬ 
membrance  of  sins  every  year  is  now  superseded 
by  the  offering  of  Christ  once  for  all.  The 
high-priest  entered  the  most  holy  place  “  not 
without  blood.”  Christ  ‘‘ by  his  own  blood” 
entered  into  heaven  for  us.  Even  in  the  midst 
of  the  throne  his  appearance  is  that  as  of  a  lamb 
that  had  been  slain.  T.  C. 


The  law  of  the  priestly  service  in  the  Old 
Testament  is  indeed  a  vivid  parable  of  the 
needs,  the  aim,  the  benediction  of  human  life. 
Day  by  day,  morning  and  evening,  the  sweet 
lessons  of  atonement  and  consecration  were 
read  with  simple  and  solemn  emphasis  ;  and 
once  in  the  year  on  the  great  Day  of  Atone¬ 
ment,  ”  the  Day,”  as  it  was  called,  the  lessons 
were  set  forth  in  detail  with  every  accessory  of 
majestic  ritual,  so  that  the  simplest  worshipper 
could  hardly  fail  to  take  to  himself  with  intelli¬ 
gent  faith  the  warnings  and  the  consolations  of 
the  august  ceremonial  on  that  day.  On  that 
day,  though  but  for  a  passing  moment,  Israel 
in  their  representation  appeared  before  the 
presence  of  the  Lord  their  God.  On  that  day 
they  received  from  him  most  directly  the  assur¬ 
ance  of  forgiveness  and  blessing,  mercy,  and 
grace  to  help  in  time  of  need.  We  can,  then, 
all  understand  what  must  have  been  the  conso¬ 
lation,  the  strength,  the  joy,  with  which  that 
service  inspired  the  faithful  Jews  ;  how  it  must 
have  spoken  peace  in  the  name  of  Jehovah  to 
the  troubled  conscience,  and  brought  vigor  to  the 
trembling  ;  how,  in  the  power  of  that  visible 
pardon,  they  could,  within  a  few  daj’^s,  join  in 
the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  ihe  loveliest  and  great¬ 
est  of  all  their  festivals,  and  show,  for  a  brief 
space,  the  gladness  of  social  life  fulfilled  by  the 
gift  and  in  the  sight  of  God.  Wesicott. 

The  great  Day  of  Atonement,  and  the  sacri¬ 
fices  and  ceremonies  prescribed  for  it,  were 
commanded  to  be  solemnized  by  the  Jews 
through  the  whole  o£  their  dispensation  ;  yet 
scarcely  a  shadow  of  these  things  remains. 
There  is  no  longer  scape-goal  nor  a  goat  for 
sacrifice  provided  by  them  in  any  place.  They 
are  sinners  and  they  are  without  an  atonement. 
The  true  expiation,  the  Christ  crucified,  they 
refuse  to  receive,  and  are  consequent!}'  without 
temple,  altar,  atonement,  or  any  means  of  salva¬ 
tion  !  Who  with  the  Jews  and  the  B  ble  before 
his  eyes  can  doubt  the  truth  of  that  Bible  as  a 
Divine  revelation  !  God  has  ceased  to  work 
among  them  because  they  have  refused  to  receive 
and  profit  by  the  great  atonement  ;  and  yet  He 


SECTION  143. 


419 


preserves  them  in  a  state  of  complete  separation 
from  all  the  people  of  the  earth,  in  all  places  of 
their  dispersion  !  How  powerfully  does  their 
preservation  as  a  distinct  people  bear  testimony 
at  once  to  the  truth  of  their  own  hiw,  which  they 
acknow'edge,  and  the  G  'spel  of  Christ,  which  they 
f'eject  /  But  while  the  Jews  sit  in  darkness  be¬ 
cause  of  the  veil  that  is  on  their  hearts,  in  wliat 
state  are  those  who  profess  to  acknowledge  the 
truth  of  the  New  Testament,  and  yet  are  living 
without  an  atonement  applied  to  their  souls  for 
the  removal  of  their  iniquities  ?  A.  C. 

The  doctrines  of  atonement  and  incarnation, 
as  Bishop  Horsley  says,  reciprocate  :  the  one 
supports  and  demands  the  other  ;  nor  was  there 
ever  a  more  beautiful  congruity  than  in  the 
parts  of  the  sublime  Scripture  sentence  :  “  Be¬ 
hold  the  Lamb  of  lAod,  that  taketh  away  the  sin 
of  the  world  !”  While  this  doctrine  alone,  with 
any  sense  of  inward  satisfaction,  accounts  for 


the  appearance  of  Divinity  in  the  field,  it  also 
explains  the  severe  and  all  but  overwhelmiug 
strain  laid  on  our  Lord’s  humanity.  For  the 
only  pure  and  loving  One  there  is  the  bitterest 
cup  anfl  the  most  terrible  baptism,  and  the 
nearest  to  God  is  the  most  forsaken.  On  the 
common  theory  this  is  explicable  and  2)rofoundly 
impressive  ;  but  on  what  other?  If  judicial  in¬ 
fliction,  if  doom,  if  curse  be  not  here,  why  has 
the  Church  been  awed,  and  even  the  world  sol¬ 
emnized,  by  the  bearing  of  such  a  burden  ?  and 
whj"  does  the  Man  of  Sorrows  stand  alone  and 
unapproachable  ?  With  profoundest  reverence 
also  do  we  see  here  why  if  this  sacrifice  is  re¬ 
jected  there  remains  no  other,  and  how  the 
urgent  appeal  should  rise  from  the  whole  of 
Scripture  in  the  light  of  issues  which  no  other 
remedy  could  have  averted  or  can  avert,  “  how 
shall  we  escape,  if  we  neglect  so  great  salva¬ 
tion  !”  Cairns. 


Section  143. 

THE  FEAST  OF  TABEKNACLES. 

Leviticus  23  :  33-44.  Nu.  29  : 12-40.  De.  16  : 13-15. 

Nu.  29  12  And  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  seventh  month  ye  shall  have  an  holy  eonvoca- 

13  tion  ;  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work,  and  ye  shall  keep  a  feast  unto  the  Loed  seven  days  :  and  ye 
shall  offer  a  burnt  offering,  an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Loed  ;  thir¬ 
teen  young  bullocks,  two  rams,  fourteen  he-lambs  of  the  first  year  ;  they  shall  be  without 

14  blemish  :  and  their  meal  offering,  fine  flour  mingled  with  oil,  three  tenth  parts  for  every  bul- 

15  lock  of  the  thirteen  bullocks,  two  tenth  parts  for  each  ram  of  the  two  rams,  and  a  several 

16  tenth  jiart  for  every  lamb  of  the  fourteen  lambs  :  and  one  he-goat  for  a  sin  offering  ;  beside 
the  continual  burnt  offering,  the  meal  offering  thereof,  and  the  drink  offering  thereof. 

[Verses  17-34.  The  offerings  of  the  succeeding  six  days  are  identical  with  the  first,  except  in 
the  diminution  of  the  number  of  bullocks  by  one  each  day.] 

35  On  the  eighth  day  ye  shall  have  a  solemn  assembly  :  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work  :  but  ye 

36  shall  offer  a  burnt  offering,  an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  sayour  unto  the  Loed  :  one 

37  bullock,  one  ram,  seven  he-lambs  of  the  first  year  without  blemish  :  their  meal  offering  and 
their  drink  offerings  for  the  bullock,  for  the  ram,  and  for  the  lambs,  shall  be  according  to  their 

38  number,  after  the  ordinance  :  and  one  he-goat  for  a  sin  offering  ;  beside  the  continual  burnt 
offering,  and  the  meal  offering  thereof,  and  the  drink  offering  thereof. 

39  These  ye  shall  offer  unto  the  Loed  in  your  set  feasts,  beside  your  vows,  and  your  freewill 
offerings,  for  your  burnt  offerings,  and  for  your  meal  offerings,  and  for  your  drink  offerings, 

40  and  for  your  peace  offerings.  And  Moses  told  the  children  of  Israel  according  to  all  that  the 
Loed  commanded  Moses. 

Lev.  23  33  And  the  Loed  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel, 

34  saying.  On  the  fifteenth  day  of  this  seventh  month  is  the  feast  of  tabernacles  for  seven  days 

35  unto  the  Loed.  On  the  first  day  shall  be  an  holy  convocation  :  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work. 

36  Seven  days  ye  shall  offer  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Loed  ;  on  the  eighth  day  shall  be 
an  holy  convocation  unto  you  ;  and  ye  shall  offer  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Loed  :  it 
is  a  solemn  assembly  ;  ye  shall  do  no  servile  work. 

37  These  are  the  set  feasts  of  the  Loed,  which  ye  shall  proclaim  to  be  holy  convocations,  to 
offer  an  offering  made  by  fire  unto  the  Loed,  a  burnt  offering,  and  a  meal  offering,  a  sacrifice, 

38  and  drink  offerings,  each  on  its  own  day  :  beside  the  sabbaths  of'  the  Loed,  and  beside  your 


420 


SECTION  143.  THE  FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES. 


gifts,  and  beside  all  your  vows,  and  beside  all  your  freewill  offerings,  which  ye  give  unto  the 
Lord. 

39  Howbeit  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  seventh  month,  when  ye  have  gathered  in  the  fruits  of 
the  land,  ye  shall  keep  the  feast  of  the  Lord  seven  days  :  on  the  first  day  shall  be  a  solemn 

40  rest,  and  on  the  eighth  day  shall  be  a  solemn  rest.  And  ye  shall  take  you  on  the  first  day  the 
fruit  of  goodly  trees,  branches  of  palm  trees,  and  boughs  of  thick  trees,  and  willows  of  the 

41  brook  ;  and  ye  shall  rejoice  before  the  Lord  yoar  God  seven  days.  And  ye  shall  keep  it  a 
feast  unto  the  Lord  seven  days  in  the  year  :  it  is  a  statute  for  ever  in  your  generations  :  ye 

42  shall  keep  it  in  the  seventh  month.  Ye  shall  dwell  in  booths  seven  days  ;  all  that  are  home- 

43  born  in  Israel  shall  dwell  in  booths  :  that  your  generations  may  know  that  I  made  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel  to  dwell  in  booths,  when  I  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  :  I  am  the 

44  Lord  your  God.  And  Moses  declared  unto  the  children  of  Israel  the  set  feasts  of  the  Lord. 

Be.  SO  13  Thou  shalt  keep  the  feast  of  tabernacles  seven  days,  after  that  thou  hast  gath- 

14  ered  in  from  thy  threshing-floor  and  froin  thy  wdnepress  ;  and  thou  shalt  rejoice  in  thy  feast, 
thou,  and  thy  son,  and  thy  daughter,  and  thy  manservant,  and  thy  maidservant,  and  the 

15  Levite,  and  the  stranger,  and  the  fatherless,  and  the  widow,  that  are  within  thy  gates.  Seven 
days  shalt  thou  keep  a  feast  unto  the  Lord  thy  God  in  the  place  which  the  Lord  shall  choose  : 
because  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  bless  thee  in  all  thine  increase,  and  in  all  the  work  of  thine 
hands,  and  thou  shalt  be  altogether  joyful. 


The  last  of  the  three  great  feasts  is,  in  Ex. 
23  : 16  ;  34  : 22,  denominated  the  feast  of  In¬ 
gathering,  and  elsewhere  the  feast  of  Taber¬ 
nacles.  This  had  special  though  not  exclusive 
relation  to  the  ingathering  of  fruits  from  olive- 
yards  and  vineyards.  Coming  after  the  latest 
products  of  the  year,  it  fitly  commemorated 
God’s  goodness  in  the  whole.  Although  the 
feast  of  Weeks  was  specially  appointed  to  ex¬ 
press  the  grateful  joy  of  harvest,  both  the  har 
vest  and  the  vintage  are  joined  together  as  giv¬ 
ing  occasion  for  the  feast  of  Tabernacles  that 
followed.  Thus  their  occasions  of  exuberant 
joy  and  worldly  gain  and  patriotic  fervor  were 
their  sacred  times,  when  they  gathered  at  the 
sanctuary  of  God  and  poured  out  their  thankful 
praise  before  him.  Their  secular  life  became 
thus  a  consecrated  life  ;  their  secular  joy  a  joy 
before  the  Lord. 

Tabernacles,  as  it  was  the  concluding,  was 
likewise  the  culminating  festival  of  the  entire 
series.  It  occurred  at  the  crown  of  the  year,  in 
the  seventh  or  sacred  month,  with  its  accumu¬ 
lation  of  festivals  ;  and  it  was  itself  the  climax 
of  all  that  preceded.  It  was  hence  appropri¬ 
ately  marked  by  the  most  elaborate  and  profuse 
sacrificial  ritual  of  all  the  festivals.  And  while 
the  feast  of  Weeks  lasted  but  a  single  day,  and 
w'hile  at  the  Passover  pilgrims  were  permitted 
to  return  home  after  partaking  of  the  paschal 
meal  with  which  it  began,  at  Tabernacles  they 
remained  not  only  through  the  full  term  of 
seven  days,  but  an  eighth  day  was  added  at  the 
end,  which  in  later  times  at  least  was  reckoned 
“the  great  day  of  the  feast”  (John  7  : 37). 
W.  H.  G. 

This  festival  commemorated  the  time  when, 
after  leaving  Egypt  behind  them,  the  children 


of  Israel  gathered  in  their  first  camp  of  freedom 
at  Succoth,  where  thej^  had  built  themselves 
booths  or  leafy  huts,  whence  the  name.  Hence 
the  use  of  palm  branches  and  boughs  of  goodly 
trees  (verse  40),  and  the  dwelling  in  booths  dur¬ 
ing  the  celebration.  This  feast,  like  the  others, 
was  associated  with  the  labors  of  the  husband¬ 
men.  It  WB.S  harvest  home”  of  Israel,  known 
therefore  as  the  feast  of  Ingathering.  J.  M.  G. 

The  feast  of  Tabernacles  took  place  in  autumn, 
at  the  end  of  the  vintage,  in  all  southern  climates 
the  great  time  of  rejoicing  and  merriment.  If 
more  exquisite  music  and  more  graceful  dances 
accompanied  the  gathering  in  of  the  grapes  on 
the  banks  of  the  Cephisus  ;  the  tabret,  the 
viol,  and  the  harp,  which  sounded  among  the 
vineyards  of  Heshbon  and  Eleale,  were  not 
wanting  in  sweetness  and  gayety  ;  and  instead 
of  the  frantic  riot  of  satyrs  and  bacchanals,  the 
rejoicing  was  chastened  by  the  solemn  religious 
recollections  with  which  it  was  associated.  The 
branches  of  trees  were  woven  together  in  rude 
imitation  of  the  tents  in  which  the  Israelites 
dwelt  in  the  desert,  and  within  these  green 
bowers  the  whole  people  passed  the  week  of 
festivity.  Milman. - The  customs  of  this  fes¬ 

tival  were  especially  joyous,  and  in  later  times 
there  were  constant  additions  to  them.  The 
tabernacles  were  in  after  times  erected  on  the 
flat  roofs,  in  courts,  streets,  and  squares. 
Boughs  of  beautiful  trees,  palm-trees,  and  espe¬ 
cially  branches  of  the  leafy  willow,  were  taken 
for  the  purpose.  In  later  times  the  customs  of 
drawing  water  and  of  lighting  lamps  were  nat¬ 
urally  and  significantly  added  to  the  rest — all 
emblems  of  the  grace  and  goodness  which  the 
people  enjoyed  under  the  guidance  of  the  Lord, 
and  at  the  same  time  as  festive  rites,  pledges  of 


FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES. 


421 


the  continuance  of  his  guidance  and  blessing  of 
the  people  on  the  way  to  the  promised  rest,  of 
which  Canaan  was  only  the  type.  In  no  other 
festival  w^ere  the  natural  and  historical  rela¬ 
tions  so  closely  allied.  Ged. 

Lei'.  ‘2^  :  40.  ¥e  §liall  ta&io  llie  frail 
of  tree!*.  I>raiielie!<  of  palai. 

boiig^Ii^,  and  willoiv§;  and  ye 
rejoice  before  tlie  Lord.  It  is  no  doubt 
in  connection  with  the  joy  that  W'as  to  charac¬ 
terize  the  feast,  and  as  symbolical  of  it,  that 
branches  of  palms  and  other  trees  were  to  be 
taken.  They  were  to  “  rejoice  before  the  Lord  ” 
— the  joy  having  respect  immediately  to  the 
gathered  produce  of  the  year,  and  remotely  to 
the  abundance  of  Canaan,  as  contrasted  with 
the  barrenness  of  the  desert.  The  palm-tree 
was  specially  selected,  probably  from  having  the 
richest  foliage  and  thus  presenting  the  fittest 
symbol  of  joy.  The  history  of  our  Lord  shows 
how  naturally  the  people  associated  the  palm- 
leaf  with  joy. 

4*2,  4S.  Ye  §liall  dwell  In  bootli§ 
§even  days.  The  appellation  of  this  feast 
should  rather  be  of  booths,  because  during  its 
continuance  the  people  were  to  dwell  in  booths. 
A  booth  is  not  precisely  the  same  as  a  tent  or 
tabernacle,  though  the  names  are  frequently' 
interchanged.  It  properly  means  a  slight,  tem¬ 
porary  dwelling,  easily  run  up,  and  as  easily 
taken  down  again.  The  reason  assigned  for  the 
ordinance  is  “  that  their  generations  might 
know  that  the  Lord  made  the  children  of  Israel 
to  dwell  in  booths,  w'hen  he  brought  them  out 
of  the  land  of  Egypt.”  It  w'as  the  connecting 
link  between  their  house  of  bondage  and  their 
inheritance  of  blessing.  Then  especially  did 
the  Lord  come  near  and  reveal  himself  to  them, 
pitching  his  own  tabernacle  in  the  midst  of 
theirs,  communicating  to  them  his  Law  and  tes¬ 
timony,  and  setting  up  the  entire  polity  which 
W'as  to  continue  unimpaired  through  succeeding 
ages.  Hence  the  annual  celebration  of  the  feast 
of  Tabernacles  was  like  a  perpetual  renewing  of 
their  religious  youth  ;  recalling  and  re-enforc¬ 
ing  upon  their  minds  the  views  and  feelings 
proper  to  that  formative  period  of  their  history. 
On  this  account  we  have  no  doubt  it  was  that 
the  feast  of  Tabernacles  was  the  time  chosen, 
every  seventh  year,  for  reading  the  whole  Law 
to  the  people. 

29  :  13-38.  In  regard  to  the  mode  of 
celebrating  the  feast,  beside  the  dwelling  in 
booths  there  was  a  great  peculiarity  in  the  offer¬ 
ings  to  be  presented.  The  sin-offering  was  the 
same  as  on  the  other  feast-days,  a  single  goat  ; 
but  for  the  burnt- offering  the  rams  and  lambs 


were  double  the  usual  number,  two  and  four¬ 
teen  instead  of  one  and  seven  ;  while,  in  place 
of  the  tw'o  young  bullocks  of  other  days,  there 
were  to  be  in  all,  during  the  seven  days  of  the 
feast,  seventy,  and  these  so  divided,  that  on  the 
last  day  theie  were  to  be  seven,  eight  on  the 
day  preceding,  and  so  on  up  to  thirteen,  the 
number  offered  on  the  first  day  of  the  feast. 
The  eighth  day  did  not  properly  belong  to  the 
feast,  but  w'as  rather  a  solemn  winding-up  of 
the  whole  feast-season  ;  the  offerings  for  it, 
therefore,  were  much  of  the  usual  description. 
The  greater  number  of  the  offerings  may  be  ac¬ 
counted  for  by  the  occasion  of  the  feast,  as  in¬ 
tended  to  mark  the  grateful  sense  of  the  people 
for  the  Lord’s  goodness.  But  the  gradual  dim¬ 
inution  till  seven  is  reached  remains  a  sacred 
enigma.  P.  F. 

I>e.  BO  s  13-15.  Israel  is  taught  the  follow¬ 
ing  truths  :  After  the  corn  and  wine  have  been 
gathered  in,  they  are  expected  to  look  up  grate¬ 
fully  to  God  as  the  Author  of  all  With  the 
gladsome  rest  there  is  to  be  associated  a  thank¬ 
ful  memory  of  past  guidance  and  help  in  the 
w'ilderness  life.  In  this  rejoicing  and  thankful¬ 
ness  master  and  servant  are  alike  to  share,  as 
both  equal  in  the  sight  of  God.  By  Israel’s 
gladness  the  sorrows  of  the  poor,  the  sad,  the 
lonelj',  are  to  be  relieved,  and  the  solitary  ones 
are  to  be  made  conscious  of  a  kindly  care  en¬ 
compassing  them.  C.  C. 

The  spiritual  import  of  the  feast  is  to  be  real¬ 
ized  in  the  case  of  all  genuine  believers.  And 
on  this  account  the  Prophet  Zechariah  (14  : 16), 
when  speaking  of  what  is  to  take  place  after  the 
final  overthrow  of  the  Church’s  enemies,  repre¬ 
sents  all  her  members  as  going  up  to  Jerusalem 
to  keep  the  feast  of  Tabernacles.  She  shall  then 
rejoice  in  the  fulness  of  her  purchased  and  re¬ 
deemed  inheritance,  and  have  her  experiences 
of  heavenly  enjoyment  heightened  and  en¬ 
hanced  by  the  remembrance  of  the  past  tribu¬ 
lation  and  conflict.  Now  she  is  passing  through 
the  wilderness  ;  it  is  her  period  of  trial  and 
probation  ;  she  must  be  sifted  and  prepared  for 
her  final  destiny  by  constant  alternations  of 
fear  and  hope,  of  danger  and  deliverance,  of 
difficulties  and  conquests.  By  these  she  must  be 
reminded  of  her  own  weakness  and  insufficiency, 
her  proneness  to  be  overcome  of  evil,  and  the 
dependence  necessary  to  be  maintained  on  the 
word  and  promises  of  God  ;  the  dross  must  be 
gradually  purged  out  and  the  pure  gold  of  the 
Divine  life  refined  and  polished  for  the  kingdom 
of  glory.  Then  shall  she  ever  hold  with  her 
Divine  Head  a  feast  of  Tabernacles,  rejoicing  in 
his  presence,  satisfied  with  his  fulness  ;  and  so 


422 


SECTION  144.  SEVENTH  YEAB  SABBATH. 


far  from  grudging  on  account  of  the  trials  and 
difficulties  of  the  way,  rather  reflecting  on  them 
•with  thankfulness  because  seeing  in  them  the 
course  of  discipline  that  was  needed  for  the  ful¬ 
filment  of  her  final  destiny.  The  blessed  com¬ 
pany  in  Eev.  7,  clothed  in  white  robes  and  with 
palms  in  their  hands,  representatives  of  a  re¬ 
deemed  and  triumphant  Church,  are  the  final 
antitypes  of  the  Israelites  keeping  the  feast  of 
Tabernacles.  P.  F, 

JLev.  21}  :  37.  38.  We  have  here  the  sum¬ 
mary  and  conclusion  of  these  institutions.  God 
appointed  these  feasts,  Beside  the  Sabbaths  and 
your  free-will  offerings.  This  teaches  us  that  calls 
to  extraordinary  services  will  not  excuse  us 
from  our  constant  stated  performances.  Within 


the  daj’^s  of  the  feast  of  Tabernacles  there  must 
fall  at  least  one  Sabbath,  which  must  be  as 
strictly  observed  as  anj^  other.'  We  have  reason 
to  be  thankful  that  the  feasts  of  the  Lord  de¬ 
clared  unto  us  are  not  so  numerous,  nor  the  ob¬ 
servance  of  them  so  burdensome  and  costly,  as 
theirs  then  were,  but  more  spiritual  and  signifi¬ 
cant  aud  surer,  sweeter  earnests  of  the  everlast¬ 
ing  feast  at  the  last  ingathering  which  we  hti]>e 
to  be  celebrating  to  eternity.  H. 

With  the  close  of  the  feast  of  Tabernacles  the 
climax  of  the  doctrinal  teaching  by  symbol  had 
been  reached,  and  the  year  was  brought  to  a 
close  by  the  common  series  of  daily,  weekly, 
and  monthly  sacrificings.  Cave, 


Section  144. 

SEVENTH- YEAK  SABBATH  AND  YEAR  OF  JUBILEE. 

Exodus  23  : 10,  11.  Lev,  25  : 1-34.  De.  15  : 1-11. 

Lev.  25  1  And  the  Lokd  spake  unto  Moses  in  mount  Sinai,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  chil- 

2  dren  of  Israel,  and  say  unto  them.  When  ye  come  into  the  land  which  I  give  you,  then  shall 

3  the  land  keep  a  sabbath  irnto  the  Lokd.  Six  years  thou  shalt  sow  thy  field,  and  six  years  thou 

4  shalt  prune  thy  vineyard,  and  gather  in  the  fruits  thereof  ;  but  in  the  seventh  year  shall  be  a 
sabbath  of  solemn  rest  for  the  land,  a  sabbath  unto  the  Lokd  :  thou  shalt  neither  sow  thy 

5  field,  nor  prune  thy  vineyard.  That  which  groweth  of  itself  of  th}’’  harvest  thou  shalt  not 
reap,  and  the  grapes  of  thy  undressed  vine  thou  shalt  not  gather  :  it  shall  be  a  year  of  solemn 

6  rest  for  the  land.  And  the  sabbath  of  the  land  shall  be  for  food  for  you  ;  for  thee,  and  for 
thy  servant  and  for  thy  maid,  and  fur  thy  hired  servant  and  for  thy  stranger  that  sojourn  with 

7  thee  ;  and  for  thy  cattle,  and  for  the  beasts  that  are  in  thy  land,  shall  all  the  increase  thereof 
be  for  food. 

Ex.  23  10  And  six  years  thou  shalt  sow  thy  land,  and  shalt  gather  in  the  increase  thereof  : 

11  but  the  seventh  year  thou  shalt  let  it  rest  and  lie  fallow  ;  that  the  poor  of  thy  people  may  eat  : 
and  wffiat  they  leave  the  beast  of  the  field  shall  eat.  In  like  manner  thou  shalt  deal  with  thy 
vineyard,  and  with  thy  oliveyard. 

Lev.  25  18  Wherefore  ye  shall  do  my  statutes,  and  keep  my  judgements  and  do  them  ;  and 

19  ye  shall  dwell  in  the  land  of  safety.  And  the  land  shall  yield  her  fruit,  and  ye  shall  eat  your 

20  fill,  and  dwell  therein  in  safety.  And  if  ye  shall  say.  What  shall  we  eat  the  seventh  year  ?  be- 

21  hold,  wm  shall  not  sow,  nor  gather  in  our  increase  :  then  I  will  command  my  blessing  upon 

22  you  in  the  sixth  year,  and  it  shall  bring  forth  fruit  for  the  three  years.  And  ye  shall  sow  the 
eighth  year,  and  eat  of  the  fruits,  the  old  store  ;  until  the  ninth  year,  until  her  fruits  come  in, 

23  ye  shall  eat  the  old  store.  And  the  land  shall  not  be  sold  in  perpetuity  ;  for  the  land  is  mine  : 

24  for  ye  are  strangers  and  sojourners  with  me.  And  in  all  the  land  of  your  possession  ye  shall 
grant  a  redemption  for  the  land. 

i)e.,15  1  At  the  end  of  every  seven  years  thou  shalt  make  a  release.  And  this  is  the  man- 

2  ner  of  the  release  :  every  creditor  shall  release  that  wffiich  he  hath  lent  unto  his  neighbour  ; 
he  shall  not  exact  it  of  his  neighbour  and  his  brother  ;  because  the  Lokd’s  release  hath  been 

3  proclaimed.  Of  a  foreigner  thou  mayest  exact  it  :  but  whatsoever  of  thine  is  with  thy  brother 

4  thine  hand  shall  release.  Howbeit  there  shall  be  no  poor  with  thee  ;  (for  the  Lokd  will  surely 
bless  tliee  in  the  land  which  the  Lokd  thy  God  giveth  thee  for  an  inheritance  to  possess  it  ;) 

5  if  only  thou  diligently  hearken  unto  the  voice  of  the  Lokd  thy  God,  to  observe  to  do  all  this 

6  commandment  which  I  command  thee  this  da}'.  For  the  Lokd  thy  God  will  bless  thee,  as  he 
promised  thee  :  and  thou  shalt  lend  unto  many  nations,  but  thou  shalt  not  borrow  ;  and  thou 
shalt  rule  over  many  nations,  but  they  shall  not  rule  over  thee. 


TEAR  OF  JUBILEE. 


433 


7  If  there  be  with  thee  a  poor  man,  one  of  thy  brethren,  within  any  of  thy  gates  in  thy  land 
which  the  Lokd  thy  God  giveth  thee,  thou  shalt  not  harden  thine  heart,  nor  shut  thine  hand 

8  from  thy  poor  brother  :  but  thou  shalt  surely  open  thine  hand  unto  him,  and  shalt  surely  lend 

9  him  sufficient  for  his  need  in  that  which  he  wantcth.  Beware  that  there  be  not  a  base  thought 
in  thine  heart,  saying,  The  seventh  year,  the  year  of  release,  is  at  hand  ;  and  thine  eye  be  evil 
against  thy  poor  brother,  and  thou  give  him  nought  ;  and  he  cry  unto  the  Loed  against  thee, 

10  and  it  be  sin  unto  thee.  Thou  shalt  surely  give  him,  and  thine  heart  shall  not  be  grieved 
when  thou  givest  unto  him  :  because  that  for  this  thing  the  Loed  thy  God  shall  bless  thee  in 

11  all  thy  work,  and  in  all  that  thou  puttest  thine  hand  unto.  For  the  poor  shall  never  cease 
out  of  the  land  :  therefore  I  command  thee,  saying.  Thou  shalt  surely  open  thine  hand  unto 
thy  brother,  to  thy  needy,  and  to  thy  poor,  in  thy  land. 

Lev.  25  8  And  thou  shalt  number  seven  sabbaths  of  years  unto  thee,  seven  times  seven 
years  ;  and  there  shall  be  unto  thee  the  days  of  seven  sabbaths  of  years,  even  forty  and  nine 

9  years.  Then  shalt  thou  send  abroad  the  loud  trumpet  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  seventh  month  ; 

10  in  the  day  of  atonement  shall  ye  send  abroad  the  trumpet  throughout  all  your  land.  And  ye 
shall  hallow  the  fiftieth  year,  and  proclaim  liberty  throughout  the  land  unto  all  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  thereof  :  it  shall  be  a  jubilee  unto  you  ;  and  ye  shall  return  every  man  unto  his  posses- 

11  sion,  and  ye  shall  return  every  man  unto  his  family.  A  jubilee  shall  that  fiftieth  year  be  unto 
you  :  ye  shall  not  sow,  neither  reap  that  which  groweth  of  itself  in  it,  nor  gather  the  grapes  in 

12  it  of  the  undressed  vines.  For  it  is  a  jubilee  ;  it  shall  be  holy  unto  you  :  ye  shall  eat  the  in- 

13  crease  thereof  out  of  the  field.  In  this  year  of  jubilee  ye  shall  return  every  man  unto  his  pos- 

14  session.  And  if  thou  sell  aught  unto  thy  neighbour,  or  buy  of  thy  neighbour’s  hand,  ye  shall 

15  not  wrong  one  another  ;  according  to  the  number  of  years  after  the  jubilee  thou  shalt  buy  of 
thy  neighbour,  and  according  unto  the  number  of  years  of  the  crops  he  shall  sell  unto  thee. 

16  According  to  the  multitude  of  the  years  thou  shalt  increase  the  price  thereof,  and  according 
to  the  fewness  of  the  years  thou  shalt  diminish  the  price  of  it  ;  for  the  number  of  the  crops 

17  doth  he  sell  unto  thee.  And  ye  shall  not  wrong  one  another  ;  but  thou  shalt  fear  thy  God  : 
for  I  am  the  Loed  your  God. 

25  If  thy  brother  be  waxen  poor,  and  sell  some  of  his  possession,  then  shall  his  kinsman  that 

26  is  next  unto  him  come,  and  shall  redeem  that  which  his  brother  hath  sold.  And  if  a  man 

27  have  no  one  to  redeem  it,  and  he  be  waxen  rich  and  find  sufficient  to  redeem  it  ;  then  let  him 
count  the  years  of  the  sale  thereof,  and  restore  the  overplus  unto  the  man  to  whom  he  sold  it  ; 

28  and  he  shall  return  unto  his  possession.  But  if  he  be  not  able  to  get  it  back  for  himself,  then 
that  which  he  hath  sold  shall  remain  in  the  hand  of  him  that  hath  bought  it  until  the  year  of 
jubilee  :  and  in  the  jubilee  it  shall  go  out,  and  he  shall  return  unto  his  possession. 

29  And  if  a  man  sell  a  dwelling  house  in  a  walled  city,  then  he  may  redeem  it  within  a  whole 

30  year  after  it  is  sold  ;  for  a  full  jmar  shall  he  have  the  right  of  redemption.  And  if  it  be  not 
redeemed  within  the  space  of  a  full  year,  then  the  house  that  is  in  the  walled  city  shall  be 
made  siire  in  perpetuity  to  him  that  bought  it,  throughout  his  generations  :  it  shall  not  go  out 

31  in  the  jubilee.  But  the  houses  of  the  villages  which  have  no  wall  round  about  them  shall  be 
reckoned  with  the  fields  of  the  country  ;  they  may  be  redeemed,  and  they  shall  go  out  in  the 

32  jubilee.  Nevertheless  the  cities  of  the  Levites,  the  houses  of  the  cities  of  their  possession, 

33  may  the  Levites  redeem  at  any  time.  And  if  one  of  the  Levites  redeem,  then  the  house  that 
was  sold,  and  the  city  of  his  possession,  shall  go  out  in  the  jubilee  :  for  the  houses  of  the  cities 

34  of  the  Levites  are  their  possession  among  the  children  of  Israel.  But  the  field  of  the  suburbs 
of  their  cities  may  not  be  sold  ;  for  it  is  their  perpetual  possession. 


The  Sabbatical  year  and  the  year  of  Jubilee 
belong  to  that  great  Sabbatical  system  which 
runs  through  the  religious  observances  of  the 
Law.  They  were  solemnly  connected  wdth  the 

sacred  covenant.  Clark. - The  sacred  times 

of  Israel  are  arranged  in  cycles  of  seven,  the 
sacred  number.  There  is  first  a  cycle  of  seven 
days,  ending  with  the  Sabbath  ;  then  a  cycle  of 
seven  weeks,  closing  with  “  the  feast  of  Weeks 
a  cycle  of  seven  months,  culminating  in  the 
Month  of  Feasts  ;  and  now  a  cycle  of  seven 


years,  closing  wdth  the  Sabbatical  Year  ;  and  a 
cycle  of  seven  sevens  of  years,  or  seven  weeks 

of  years,  followed  by  the  Jubilee.  J.  M.  G. - 

The  seventh  day  in  every  week  was  ‘  ‘  set  apart  ” 
as  a  day  in  which  no  work  was  to  be  done  ;  the 
seventh  year  was  “set  apart”  as  a  year  in 
which  no  seed  was  to  be  sown  ;  and  at  the  end 
of  seven  times  seven  years,  there  was  a  great 
festival  during  vv'hich  the  whole  land  was  to 
rest,  and  when  debts  were  to  be  cancelled,  alien¬ 
ated  estates  to  return  to  their  owners,  and  slaves 


424 


SECTION  144.  SEVENTH-YEAR  SABBATH. 


to  be  set  free.  Consecrated  men,  consecrated 
j.roperty,  consecrated  space,  consecrated  time, 
declared  that  God  still  claimed  the  world  as  his 
own,  and  that  in  all  the  provinces  of  Imman 
life  he  insisted  on  being  recognized  as  Lord  cf 
all.  Dale. 

Every  seven  led  up  to  something  solemn,  in¬ 
structive,  and  benehcent,  and  every  seven  Lmes 
seven  to  something  yet  more  solemn,  instruc¬ 
tive,  and  benencent.  Through  the  skilfully- 
prepared  perspective  of  enlarging  intervals  and 
more  and  more  absorbing  conditions,  the  great 
coming  period  towered  in  the  distance,  and 
every  weekly  Sabbath  was  the  gateway.  Grey. 

The  Sabbatical  Yeae. 

E:.  23  :  10,  11.  Lev.  25  : 1-7,  18-22.  Be.  15  : 

1-11. 

The  appointment  of  a  Sabbatical  year  does 
not  strictly  belong  to  the  stated  festivals,  nor  is 
it  included  among  these  in  the  twenty-third 
chapter  of  Leviticus  ;  but  it  was  very  closely 
related  to  them,  and  in  some  respects  had  the 
same  purposes  to  serve.  It  is  hence  called  by 
the  name  moed,  festival,  in  De.  31  :10.  The 
principal*  law  on  the  subject  is  given  in  Lev. 
25  ;  1-7.  There  it  is  enjoined,  that  after  the 
children  of  Israel  came  into  possession  of  the 
land  of  Canaan,  they  were  to  allow  it  every  sev¬ 
enth  year  an  entire  season  of  rest.  The  land 
was  to  be  untilled— a  promise  being  also  given 
of  such  plenty  on  the  sixth  year  as  would  render 
the  people  independent  of  a  harvest  on  the  sev¬ 
enth.  P.  F. 

The  Sabbatical  year  is  called  in  Deuteronomy 
“  the  year  of  release”  (31  ;  10).  In  this  passage 
and  in  Exodus  it  is  represented  merely  as  a 
period  of  rest  for  the  land,  during  which  the 
ownership  of  the  soil  was  iiractically  in  abey¬ 
ance  and  the  chance  jn-oduce  (which  in  the  cli¬ 
mate  of  the  holy  land  must  have  been  verj’  con¬ 
siderable)  was  at  the  service  of  all  comers. 
There  was  to  be  neither  sowing  nor  reaping, 
neither  planting,  pruning,  nor  gathering.  What 
day  and  night  are  to  man  and  beast,  that  sum¬ 
mer  and  winter  are  to  the  soil  ;  and  hence  as 
man  had  his  Sabbath  every  seventh  day,  so  the 
land  was  to  have  its  Sabbath  everv  seventh 

V 

year.  Clark. - The  Sabbath  elay  was  a  rest 

from  the  labors  laid  upon  man  for  sin.  The 
Sabbath  year  was  a  rest  for  the  ground,  which 
for  man’s  sin  God  had  cursed.  Biblioih.  Bihl. 

- The  Sabbatical  rest  of  the  soil  declared  that 

every  dweller  in  the  land,  the  hired  servant,  the 
foreigner,  the  cattle,  even  the  wild  animals,  had 
an  acknowledged  claim  of  their  own  on  its  pro¬ 
duce.  The  different  Sabbatical  observances  of 


the  Law  thus  concur  in  pointing  to  that  state  of 
things  which  would  have  followed  the  tir.st  Sab¬ 
bath  of  creation,  had  not  sin  and  its  conse 
quences  brought  disorder  among  the  creatures 
of  God.  Clark. 

5.. CV,  ^25  :  8-7.  The  prominent  circum¬ 
stances  which  distinguished  the  Salibutical  \  ear 
ftom  common  years  may  be  thus  enumt  rated. 
(1)  All  agricuhural  operations  were  to  be  sus¬ 
pended,  and  the  land  was  to  He  fallow.  The 
whole  country  must,  in  fact,  have  been  thrown 
into  one  vast  common,  free  to  the  poor  and  the 
stranger,  to  the  domestic  cattle  and  the  game  ; 
for  the  proprietor  of  the  land  not  only  ceased  to 
cultivate  it,  but  had  no  exclusive  right  to  its 
spontaneous  jiroduce,  although  he  might  share 
in  it.  (2)  The  produce  of  every  sixth  j  ear  was 
promised  to  be  such  as  would  support  them  till 
the  harvest  of  the  ninth  j’ear  ;  a  circumstance 
which  would  clearly  demonstrate  a  particular 
providence  in  respect  to  the  institution.  (3)  It 
was  a  season  of  release  ftom  debts  due  from  one 
Israelite  to  another  ;  but  not  those  due  from 
foreigners  to  Israelites.  (4)  Every  Hebrew 
slave  had  the  option  of  being  released  this  year 
from  his  servitude.  At  least  this  is  often  in¬ 
ferred  from  Ex.  21  : 2  ;  but  it  is  quite  doubtful 
whether  the  seventh  vear  there  mentioned  was 
not  the  seventh  year  of  hisactual  service,  rather 
than  the  Sabbatical  year.  (5)  In  the  Sabbatical 
year,  at  the  feast  of  Tabernacles,  they  were  en¬ 
joined  to  read  the  Law  in  the  hearing  of  all  the 
X)eople.  This  was  called  by  the  Kabbinical 
writers  “  the  reading  cf  the  king,”  because  tra¬ 
dition  made  the  king  himself  the  reader  on  this 
occasion.  Bush. 

The}^  were  to  be  gathered  together,  men  and 
women  and  children  and  strangers,  -that  they 
might  hear  and  learn,  and  fear  the  Lord  their 
God,  and  observe  to  do  all  the  words  of  his 
Law  (De.  31  : 12).  It  is  of  this  reading  of  the 
Law  by  Ezra  that  so  interesting  an  account  is 
given  in  the  Book  of  Nehemiah  (8  : 1-12). 
Jfdligan. 

1.. CF.  25:28^  22.  Fruit  f«r  tEiree 
years.  There  shall  be,  not  three  erop.s  in  one 
year,  but  one  crop  equal  in  its  abundance  to 
ihree,  because  it  must  supply  the  wants  of  three 
years.  (1)  For  the  sixth  year,  supplying  fruit 
for  its  own  consumption.  (2)  For  the  sevetdh 
3'ear,  in  which  they  were  neither  to  sow  nor 
reap.  And  (3)  For  the  eighth  year,  for  though 
they  ploughed  and  sowed  that  year,  yet  a  whole 
course  of  its  seasons  was  requisite  to  bring  all 
these  fruits  to  perfection,  so  that  they  could  not 
have  the  fruits  of  the  eighth  year  till  the  ninth, 
till  which  time  God  promised  that  they  should 


THE  SABBATIC  YEAR. 


425 


eat  of  Vie  old  store.  What  an  astonishing  proof 
(lid  this  give  of  the  being,  power,  Providence, 

lueicy,  and  goodness  of  God  !  A.  C. - God 

would  “  comaiand  his  blessing”  in  an  especial 
manner  so  that  the  land  should  be  twice  or 
thrice  more  fertile.  Hence  is  suggested  to  us 
no  oi'dinaiy  ground  of  confidence  in  asking  for 
our  daily  bread.  Of  this  special  promise  that 
food  should  not  fail  the  Jews  on  account  of  the 
Sabbatical  year,  God  had  already  given  a  token 
in  the  desert,  when  he  supplied  a  double  por¬ 
tion  of  manna  to  those  who  gathered  it  on  the 
day  before  the  Sabbath.  Galv. 

Perhaps  nothing  brought  home  to  all  the  sense 
of  living  under  a  different  and  unusual  admin¬ 
istration  more  powerfully  than  the  permission 
for  any  and  every  one  to  consume  freely  the 
fruits  of  any  and  all  lands  alike,  without  owner¬ 
ship  and  without  labor,  coupled  with  an  inter¬ 
dict  against  storing  one  grain  away.  It  was  not 
communism.  It  was  brotherhood  in  the  enjoy¬ 
ment  of  a  Father's  bounty.  Grey. - They  were 

brought  to  live  in  a  constant  dependence  upon 
the  Divine  Providence,  finding  that  as  man  lives 
not  by  bread  alone,  so  he  has  bread  not  by  his 
own  industry  alone,  but,  if  God  pleases,  by  the 
W'ord  of  blessing  from  the  mouth  of  God,  wdth- 

out  any  care  or  pains  of  man.  H. - The  most 

careless  and  the  most  stupid  could  not  fail  to 
learn  that  he  did  not  depend  wholly  on  the 
land  he  tilled  for  bread.  There  were  two  parts 
to  the  lesson.  On  the  one  hand,  he  had  forced 
upon  his  attention  the  fact  that  ho  was  only  a 
tenant,  and  not  the  owner  of  the  land.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  was  compelled  to  notice  the 
bounty  of  the  owner  and  landlord,  which  was 
always  larger  according  to  his  straits.  Grey. 

23.  Tlie  laaid  §ball  not  be  soBd  fn 
perpetuity.  The  great  principle  of  the  law 
of  property  is  that  Jehovah  is  the  supreme  pos¬ 
sessor  of  the  whole  land.  Hence  they  could 
never  sell  the  land,  but  only  the  produce,  for  a 
limited  time.  Herein  is  declared  the  principle 
of  eternal  Divine  right  that  in  God’s  kingdom 

every  man  is  only  God’s  steward.  Gerl. - The 

land  in  Israel  is  the  representative  not  merely 
of  property  of  a  similar  kind  that  may  be  pos¬ 
sessed  by  a  Christian  man,  but  of  property  of 
every  kind  which  he  may  own.  As  therefore 
the  lesson  of  the  Sabbatic  year  to  Israel  was 
that  the  possession  it  most  highly  valued — viz., 
property  in  land — was  not  its  own,  but  God’s, 
the  lesson  of  the  fulfilment  to  us  is  that  all  our 
property  of  every  kind  belongs  to  him  who  by 
the  right  of  redemption  claims  to  himself  both 
us  and  what  we  have.  It  is  not  of  the  soil  only, 
when  we  may  own  it,  that  we  are  stewards  ;  we 


are  only  stewards  of  all  that  we  possess.  The 
Christian,  in  giving  himself  to  God,  gives  also 
his  goods,  whatever  they  may  be.  He  dues  not 
say  of  anything  he  possesses  that  it  is  his  own. 
He  acknowledges  the  Divine  claim  upon  himself 
and  everything  that  he  has  ;  and  in  so  far  as  ho 
retains  it  he  does  so  in  the  Spirit  of  God’s  holy 
rest,  regarding  it  as  connecrated  to  him,  and  to 
be  used  in  whatever  manner  he  may  direct,  for 
his  glor}",  and  the  good  of  his  truth  and  king¬ 
dom  upon  earth.  Milligan. 

T5ie  laiact  i§  mine.  This  was  of  course 
true  in  a  special  sense  of  the  territory  which 
God  gave  by  promise  and  miracle,  which  was 
kept  by  obedience  and  lost  by  rebellion.  But 
it  is  as  really  true  about  our  possessions,  and 
that  not  onl}^  because  of  our  transient  staj  here. 
Length  of  time  makes  no  difference  in  this  ten¬ 
ure.  Undisturbed  possession  for  ever  so  long 
does  not  constitute  ownership  here.  God  is 
possessor  o^  all,  by  virtue  of  his  very  nature,  by 
his  creation  and  preservation  of  us  and  of  all 
tilings.  When  we  talk  of  “  mine”  and  “  thine” 
we  are  only  speaking  a  half  truth.  There  is  a 
great  sovereign  “  his"’  behind  both.  Here  is 
ground  for  constant  thankfulness  and  submis¬ 
sion,  as  well  as  a  constant  sense  of  responsibil¬ 
ity  in  the  use  of  all  which  we  have.  All  is  his, 

and  he  has  given  all  for  a  purpose. - Yc  arc 

straiiger!^  and  scjowrners  with  me. 
While  we  are  strangers  indeed,  passing  through 
a  country  that  is  not  ours,  yet  are  we  sojourners 
with  the  King  of  the  land.  With  him  we  have 
companionship,  even  when  most  solitary.  Who¬ 
ever  goes,  he  abides.  So  will  it  be  while  we 
live,  and  when  we  are  called  to  die — well  ;  the 
King  of  this  land,  where  we  are  strangers,  is  the 
King  of  the  other  land  beyond  the  sea,  where 
we  are  at  home.  Death,  the  separator,  shall  but 
invite  us  to  the  King  whose  presence  indeed  fills 
this  subject-province  of  his  empire  with  all  its 
good,  but  who  dwells  in  more  resplendent 
“  beauty,”  and  is  felt  in  greater  nearness  in  the 
other  “land  that  is  very  far  off.”  Whether 
here  or  there,  we  may  have  God  with  us  if  we 
will.  With  him  for  our  Host  and  Companion, 
let  us  go  peacefully  on  our  road,  while  the  life 
of  strangers  and  sojourners  shall  last.  It  will 
bring  us  to  the  fatherland,  where  we  shall  be  at 
home  with  the  King,  and  find  in  him  our  “sure 
dwelling,  and  quiet  resting-place,  and  peaceful 
habitation  forever.”  A.  M. 

The  Sabbatic  Year,  a  Year  of  Release  and  of  Help¬ 
ful  Bounty  to  Impoverished  Debtors. 

De.  15  : 1-11. 

De.  15:1.  At  tlie  end  of  every  seven 


426 


SECTION  144.  SEVENTH-TEAR  SABBATH. 


years  tbou  shall  make  a  release.  The 

year  of  release  is  uo  doubt  identical  with  the 
Sabbatical  year  of  the  earlier  legislation  ;  the 
word  “  release”  of  this  passage  being  indeed 
fundamentally  the  same  word  as  is  used  in  ref¬ 
erence  to  the  land.  Espin. - 2.  The  Lor<rs 

release.  The  beautiful  name  given  here  — 
“  the  Lord’s  release” —suggests  Gospel  ideas. 
It  finds  its  higher  counterpart  in  that  “  accept¬ 
able  year  of  the  Lord  ”  (Luke  4  : 19),  which  is 

the  true  Lord’s  release.”  Orr. - The  scope 

of  the  entire  ordinance  seems  to  imply  an  abso¬ 
lute  release  of  hopelessly  impoverished  debtors  as 
well  as  a  continuance  of  needful  help  for  their 
support.  Where  there  was  a  possibility  of  sub¬ 
sequent  payment  the  remission  of  indebtedness 
was  only  teniiiorary.  B. 

I>e.  15:3,  Foreigners  could  hold  no  prop¬ 
erty  in  the  soil  of  Palestine.  Their  income  was 
drawn  from  other  sources,  and  they  were  there¬ 
fore  under  an  uninterrupted  obligation  to  dis¬ 
charge  their  debts.  Alllliyan.—  — 4-6.  Tiiere 
§liall  he  no  poor  wilEi  tliee.  This  ordi¬ 
nance  is  not  intended  to  prevent  creditors  seek¬ 
ing  the  payment  of  their  just  debts,  but  only  to 
prevent  there  being  poor  in  the  land.  The  rea¬ 
son  assigned  is  that  the  Lord  would  greatly 
bless  them  in  the  land  which  he  had  given  them, 
so  that  the  creditor  would  be  no  loser  by  re¬ 
fraining  from  exacting  his  debt  from  his  brother 
in  the  seventh  year. 

7-1 1,  The  reference  to  the  release  leads  to  a 
prescription  regarding  readiness  to  lend  to  the 
poor.  They  were  not  to  harden  their  hearts 
against  their  poorer  brethren,  nor  were  they,  in 
the  prospect  of  the  year  of  release,  to  refuse  to 
lend  them  what  was  necessary  for  their  uses, 
but  were  to  open  their  heart  and  their  hand  to 
them  according  to  their  need,  lest  the  poor 
should  appeal  against  them  to  God  and  sin 

should  lie  upon  them.  W.  L.  A. - We  have 

here  what  we  may  call  the  “  poor  law”  of  Pal¬ 
estine.  The  poor  were  to  be  i-egarded  as 
“  brethren.”  Loans  were  to  be  acts  of  gener¬ 
osity,  and  the  idea  was  distinctly  to  be  kept  in 
view  that  a  person  should  sometimes  lend,  “  ex¬ 
pecting  nothing  again.”  With  foreigners —that 
is,  those  not  of  “  the  household  of  faith,”  it 
might  be  different  ;  the  debt  need  not  in  this 
case  be  cancelled  ;  the  year  of  release  was  a  Di¬ 
vine  institution  for  the  people  of  God.  Edgar. 

- There  is  in  this  law  no  encouragement  to 

mendicancy,  but  rather  such  a  check  on  press¬ 
ure  by  the  rich  and  such  an  inculcation  of  re¬ 
gard  for  the  poor  that  beggary  may  be  a  thing 
unknown  among  them.  “  The  spirit  of  this 
law  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  weekly  Sabbath. 


Both  have  a  beneficent  tendency,  limiting  the 
rights  and  checking  the  sense  of  property  ;  the 
one  puts  in  God’s  claims  on  time,  the  other  on 
the  land.  The  land  shall  keep  a  Sabbath  unto 
the  Lord.”  C.  C. 

9,  This  very  provision  of  God,  that  at  the  end 
of  the  septennial  period  release  should  be 
afforded  to  all  debtors,  might  become  very  prej¬ 
udicial  to  the  interests  of  the  poor.  The  ap¬ 
proach  of  the  Sabbatic  year  might  make  the  He¬ 
brew  capitalists  parsimonious  and  (:lo^e-fisted. 
‘‘Beware  of  this  I'  saith  God.  “Such  an  act 
will  be  an  act  of  unfaithfulness  to  me.”  Je¬ 
hovah  has  constituted  himself  the  Guardian  of 
the  poor.  And  if  his  stewards  fail  to  fulfil  their 
mission,  to  them  it  will  be  accounted  sin. 
D.  D. 

aO.  Here  is  a  command  to  give  cheerfully 
whatever  we  give  in  charit}".  Thine  heart  shall 
not  he  grieved  when  thou  givest.  Be  not  loath  to 
part  with  thy  money  on  so  good  an  account  ; 
grudge  not  a  kindness  to  thy  brother  ;  and  dis¬ 
trust  not  the  Providence  of  God,  as  if  thou 
shouldest  want  that  thyself  which  thou  givest 
in  charity  ;  but  let  it  be  a  pleasure  and  a  satis¬ 
faction  of  soul  to  thee  to  think  that  tliou  art 
honoring  God  with  thy  substance,  doing  good, 
making  thy  brother  easy,  and  laying  up  for  thy¬ 
self  a  good  security  for  the  time  to  come.  For 
this  thing  the  Lord  thy  God  t-hall  bless  thee.  Covet¬ 
ous  people  say,  “  Giving  undoes  us  ;  ’  no,  giv¬ 
ing  cheerfully  in  charity  wdll  Jid  the  barns  with 
ptenty  (Prov.  3  : 10)  and  the  soul  with  true  com¬ 
fort  (Is.  58  : 10,  11).  H. - Open-handedness  for 

God’s  sake  is  sure  of  its  reward.  The  Lord  show- 
eth  in  both  dispensations  how  “  he  loveth  a 
cheerful  giver.”  When  a  religious  man,  acting 
on  principle,  lives  an  open-handed  life,  he  has 
the  finest  business  stimulus.  He  works  that  he 
may  have  the  more  to  give,  and  thus  be  the 
more  God -like.  There  is  nothing  so  hallows 
business  as  this  desire  to  be  able  to  help  those 

in  need.  Edgar. - A  blessing  is  attached  to  all 

obedience  when  the  obedience  is  rendered  to 
law  Divine  and  gracious.  The  reward  is  in  the 
man’s  own  heart.  None  can  forestall  God,  or 
outrun  God,  or  confer  upon  God  an  obligation 
which  he  cannot  repay  ;  he  takes  the  moisture 
from  the  earth  only  that  he  may  return  it  in 
copious  showers.  No  man  can  serve  God  for 
nought.  J.  P. 

I B.  Tlie  poor  §hall  never  cen§e  owl 
of  tlie  land.  This  phrase  is  not  to  be  re¬ 
garded  as  indicating  a  Divine  appointment  that 
it  should  be  so,  but  as  a  Divine  declaiation  that 
it  would  be  so.  As  long  as  men  are  what  they 
are,  and  the  varied  features  of  temperament  and 


THE  TEAR  OF  JUBILEE. 


427 


ability  continue  as  they  are,  so  long  will  there 
be  abundant  scope  for  the  exercise  of  sympathy 
and  of  kindly  help.  C.  C. 

The  world  has  never  seen  institutions  like 
these.  No  lawgiver  ever  proposed  the  like. 
Here  was  a  picture,  a  type,  a  suggestion  of  what 
the  unchallenged  government  of  men  by  God, 
under  his  covenant  of  grace,  would  be.  It  was 
indeed  justice,  with  benevolence  between  man 
and  man.  No  oppression,  no  outwitting  !  The 
covetous  restrained  !  The  keen  and  ambitious 
turned  aside  !  The  drudge  awakened  to  medi¬ 
tation,  and  the  stupid  aroused  to  hope  !  The 
fallen  lifted  up  to  essay  a  new  starting  !  The 
unfortunate  restored  to  earlier  comfort  !  The 
whole  population  made  free  to  consume  the  fruit 
of  the  land  wherever  it  grew,  not  as  the  reward 
of  toil,  but  as  God’s  free,  unearned  gift  !  At 
last  they  would  surel}^  be  able  to  read  this  le- 
gend  over  all  the  land  :  “  Ye  and  your  posses¬ 
sions  are  not  your  own.”  Grey. 

The  constant  neglect  of  this  Sabbatic  year 
from  the  very  first  was  one  of  the  national  sins 
that  were  punished  by  the  Babylonian  captiv¬ 
ity.  Moses  warned  Israel  of  the  retribution, 
that  their  land  should  be  desolate  till  it  had  en¬ 
joyed  its  Sabbaths  ;  and  the  warning  was  ful¬ 
filled  in  the  seventy  j'ears’  duration  of  the  cap- 

tivity.  P.  S. - When  the  captivity  actually 

came,  the  years  of  its  continuance  corresponded 
with  the  number  of  the  neglected  Sabbatic 
years  ;  and  as  these  were  seventy,  this  would 
carry  us  back  about  five  hundred  years  to  the 
commencement  of  the  kingly  government,  as 
the  time  at  which  the  observance  was  discon¬ 
tinued,  After  the  captivity  it  was  more  scrupu¬ 
lously  observed.  Bush. 

The  Year  of  Jubilee. 

Return  of  Every  Man  to  his  Land. 

Lev.  25  :  8-17  ;  23-34. 

The  Y"ear  of  Jubilee  stood  in  the  closest  rela¬ 
tion  to  the  Sabbatical  year,  and  may  be  regarded 
as  an  intensified  form  of  the  other.  It  was  ap¬ 
pointed  that  when  seven  weeks  of  years  had  run 
their  course,  this  great  Sabbath-year,  the  Year  of 
Jubilee,  should  come  ;  when  not  only,  as  in  the 
ordinary  Sabbatical  year,  the  land  should  be 
allowed  to  rest,  the  fruit-trees  to  grow  un¬ 
pruned,  and  debts  to  be  cancelled,  but  also 
every  personal  bond  should  be  broken,  every 
alienated  possession  restored  to  its  proper 
owner,  and  a  general  restitution  should  take 
place.  P.  F, 

Lev.  25  :  9.  The  tenth  day  of  the 
§eveiith  month,  in  the  Day  of  Atone¬ 
ment.  It  is  not  clear  at  what  hour  of  the  day 


of  annual  expiation  the  silver  trumpets  sounded 
to  announce  the  commencement  of  the  Jubilee. 
It  is  probable  that  it  was  in  the  evening  after 
the  high-priest  had  entered  the  most  holy  place, 
the  scape-goat  had  been  sent  into  the  wilder, 
ness,  and  the  people  in  full  concert  had  been 
praising  the  Lord  for  his  goodness  and  mercy. 
It  is  held  by  all  the  Jewish  writers  that  trumpets 
were  sounded  extensively  all  over  the  land,  in 
the  mountains,  in  the  streets,  and  at  nearly 
every  door.  It  was  intended  as  a  universal 
waking  up  of  all  the  population  to  the  occur¬ 
rence  of  this  joyous  festival.  Bush. 

10,  Here  we  have,  as  always,  the  predomi¬ 
nant  notes  of  holiness  and  joy  .  “  Ye  shall  hallow 
the  fiftieth  year  “  it  shall  be  a  jubilee  unto 
you.”  The  former  is  the  key-note  of  the  entire 
Mosaic  system  ;  the  latter  is  the  predominant 
strain  (for,  as  we  have  seen,  there  is  very  little 
of  the  minor  key  in  it)  throughout  ;  and  the 
notes  of  the  Jubilee  were  the  climax  of  the 
“  joyful  noise”  which  this  favored  land  was 
called  to  make  unto  the  Lord  (Ps.  100  : 1).  The 
special  occasions  of  jubilation  in  the  Jubilee 
Year  are  also  given  in  this  verse  :  first,  the  proc¬ 
lamation  of  ”  liberty  throughout  all  the  land 
unto  all  the  inhabitants  thereof,”  and  next  an 
invitation  to  “  return  every  man  unto  his  pos¬ 
session,”  and  “every  man  unto  his  family.” 
J.  M.  G. 

One  of  the  most  important  provisions,  as  it 
regarded  the  interests  of  the  community  and  the 
stability  of  the  State,  was  the  statute  regulating 
the  tenure  of  landed  property,  which  consti¬ 
tuted  the  very  foundation  of  the  commonwealth 
next  to  the  Theocracy  itself,  and  most  materially 
affected  all  their  more  special  relations  as  an 
agricultural  community.  The  land  which  God 
bestowed  upon  his  people,  and  which  they  held 
directly  from  himself,  was  by  express  directions 
to  be  divided  into  tribal  allotments,  which  were 
to  be  subdivided  into  as  many  parts  as  there 
were  families  in  the  respective  tribes.  D.  M. 

The  provi.sion  of  the  Hebrew  constitution  in 
reference  to  the  ownership  of  the  soil,  is  that 
the  national  domain  should  be  so  divided,  that 
the  whole  six  hundred  thousand  free  citizens 
should  have  a  full  property  in  an  equal  part  of 
it  (Nu  33  : 54).  And  to  render  this  equality 
solid  and  lasting,  the  tenure  was  made  inalien¬ 
able,  and  the  estates,  thus  originally  settled 
upon  each  family,  were  to  descend  by  an  inde¬ 
feasible  entail,  in  perpetual  succession.  No 
matter  how  often  the  property  had  changed 
hands,  at  the  return  of  the  Jubilee  Year,  it  was 
restored,  free  of  encumbrance,  to  the  original 
owners  or  their  heirs.  E.  C.  W. 


428 


SEGTION  144.  THE  YEAR  OF  JUBILEE. 


as.  Ye  §lftall  relurii  every  man  unlo 
Iiis  po^sessio:!.  Bj-  appointing  that  on  the 
Year  of  Jubilee  the  owner  of  estates  which  had 
been  sold  should  return  to  his  possession,  and 
that  every  Israelitish  slave  should  be  at  perfect 
liberty  to  return  to  his  family,  God  wisely  pro¬ 
vided  for  the  suppression  of  luxury,  cruelty, 
and  ambition  ;  for  the  preservation  of  a  perfect 
distinction  of  tribes,  families,  and  genealogies  ; 
and  chiefly  for  ascertaining  the  descent  of  the 
future  Messiah,  whose  more  eminent  deliver¬ 
ance  wrought  for  all  mankind  was  shadowed  out 
by  the  privileges  bestowed  upon  the  Israelites 

in  the  Year  of  Jubilee.  Pyle. - The  uses  of 

this  provision  were,  first,  to  prevent  the  con¬ 
fusion  of  the  tribes  by  the  alienation  of  their 
lands  ;  secondly,  to  prevent  the  rich  from  swal¬ 
lowing  the  inheritance  of  their  poor  brethren  ; 
thirdly,  to  make  them  still  look  upon  themselves 
as  sojourners,  and  their  land  to  bo  God’s.  S. 
Clarke. - By  this  law  of  jubilee,  which  pre¬ 

scribed  that  every  one  who  could  justify  his 
X^edigree  should  be  reinstated  in  the  posses¬ 
sions  of  his  ancestors  every  fifty  years,  God 
obliged  the  people  of  Israel  to  keep  up  a  dis¬ 
tinct  knowledge  of  the  first  division  of  land 
made  under  Joshua,  much  more  effectually  than 
if  he  had  made  a  law  for  that  very  purpose  ; 
also  to  preserve  regular  genealogies  of  their 
tribes  and  families.  AUix. 

As  a  political  regulation,  it  would  operate  to 
ju-event  the  accumulation  of  wealth  in  the 
hands  of  the  few,  and  tend  to  preserve  that 
comi^arative  social  equality  which  distinguished 
the  community  of  Israel  in  the  beginning.  It 
would,  indeed,  tend  jjeriodically  to  rectify  all 
those  disorders  and  abuses  which  are  apt  to 
grow  up  in  the  State,  and  become  aggravated  by 
the  lajDse  of  time,  and  would  give  those  who 
had  been  unfortunate  or  inconsiderate,  an  op¬ 
portunity  of  beginning  afresh  in  the  ancient 
patrimony.  And  all  this  would  be  accomplished 
without  the  sl^htest  infringement  of  vested  or 
acquired  rights,  inasmuch  as  the  Law  was  made 
before  the  land  was  divided,  before  a  single 
transaction  had  been  entered  into  in  reference 
to  any  part  of  it  ;  so  that  whatever  was  done, 
was  done  with  the  full  knowledge  of  the  bear¬ 
ing  which  the  Jubilee  law  would  have  upon  the 
transaction,  when  the  appointed  time  came 
round.  J.  M.  G. 

As  the  Sabbath-year  affords  a  release  at  the 
same  time  from  toil  and  from  the  demand  of  the 
creditor,  so  the  Year  of  Jubilee  affords  the  un¬ 
measured  blessings  of  freedom  from  bondage, 
and  restoration  to  all  the  rights  of  property. 
But  the  whole  economy  of  Israel  was  a  type  of 


higher  things,  of  things  in  the  Church  on  earth 
in  its  wider  range,  and  of  things  in  the  general 
assembly  and  Church  of  the  first-born  w'ho  are 
written  in  heaven.  So  it  is  with  the  Jubilee.  It 
affords  to  the  prophetic  seer  a  fine  figure  of  the 
advent  of  Messiah  and  of  the  effect  of  his  mis¬ 
sion.  M. - The  typical  use  of  the  Jubilee  is 

pointed  out  by  the  Prophet  Isaiah,  at  ch.  G1  : 1, 
2,  in  which  passage  “  the  accejitable  year  of  the 
Lord,”  when  “liberty  was  proclaimed  to  the 
captives,”  and  “  the  opening  of  the  prison  to 
them  that  are  bound,”  evidently  refers  to  the 
Jubilee  ;  but  in  the  prophetic  sense  means  the 
Gospel  state  and  dispensation  which  proclaims 
spiritual  liberty  from  the  bondage  of  sin  and 
Satan,  and  the  liberty  of  returning  to  our  own 
possession,  even  the  heavenly  inheritance,  to 
which,  having  incurred  a  forfeiture  by  sin,  we 

had  lost  all  right  and  claim.  Jennings. - A 

presage  and  earnest  of  its  complete  fulfilment 
was  given  in  the  work  of  Christ,  when  at  the 
outset  he  declared  that  he  was  anointed  to 
“proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord.” 
But  it  is  from  his  finished  work  of  reconcilia¬ 
tion  on  the  cross,  from  the  great  Day  of  Atone¬ 
ment,  that  the  commencement  of  the  proclama¬ 
tion  properly  dates,  respecting  the  world’s  com¬ 
ing  Jubilee.  P.  F. - Christ  himself  blew  the 

first  notes  of  the  jubilee  trumpet,  when  he  pro¬ 
claimed  the  kingdom  of  heaven  to  be  at  hand. 
Apostles  and  evangelists  jjrolonged  the  sound 
through  many  lands  and  wondering  cities  of  the 
East  ;  and  now  to  us  is  this  salvation  come.  In 
the  name  of  Christ  is  j) reached,  as  through  ju¬ 
bilee  trumpets,  forgiveness  of  sins,  rest  for  the 
weary,  liberty  to  the  captives,  the  acceptable 
year  of  the  Lord.  D.  F. 

Two  Exceptions  to  the  Law. 

Lev.  25  : 29-32. 

Houses  in  walled  cities  could  be  redeemed  for 
a  year  after  the  sale.  If  they  were  not  redeemed 
within  that  time,  they  were  “  established  for 
ever  to  him  that  bought  them  throughout  all 
generations,”  and  they  did  not  go  out  in  the 
Jubilee.  The  reason  of  the  exception  is  obvi¬ 
ous.  Houses  in  walled  cities  had  no  particular 
connection  with  the  land.  They  would  be  in¬ 
habited  not  by  agricultural  laborers,  but  by 
different  classes  of  artisans,  perhaps  often  by 
foreigners.  M'dligan. - Of  course,  such  a  pro¬ 

vision  would  give  greater  value  to  property  in 
the  country  and  in  villages  and  induce  every 
Israelite  to  reside  upon  and  improve  his  land, 
and  would  make  agriculture  the  most  honorable 
of  all  employments.  S.  B. 

3‘2.  €Uie§  of  tlie  Levites.  The  Levites 


SECTION  145. 


429 


had  no  other  possessions  than  the  forty-eight 
cities  which  were  assigned  them  ;  and  it  was 
for  the  interest  of  the  public  that  they  should 
not  be  impoverished  or  deprived  of  their  pos¬ 
sessions,  Therefore  as  their  houses  in  these 
cities  were  the  whole  of  what  they  could  call 
their  oicn,  they  could  not  be  utterly  alienated. 
Bush. 

A  practical  system,  so  eminently  pious  and 
pure,  so  strict  and  so  wise,  so  humane,  so  su¬ 
perior  to  anything  found  anywhere  else  in  the 
world  at  that  era,  cannot  be  accounted  for  if  we 
reject  the  supposition  of  its  Divine  original. 
For  when  properly  understood  this  system  will 
be  seen  to  furnish  the  most  perfect  safeguards 
to  the  freedom  of  the  State — the  surest  protec¬ 
tion  to  the  just  and  natural  rights  of  the  citizen, 
and  the  best  incentives  to  industry,  virtue,  and 
peace  to  be  found  among  all  the  social  and  polit¬ 
ical  systems  of  ancient  or  modern  times.  ,  ,  , 
As  each  tribe  was  settled  as  it  were  in  the  same 
county,  and  estates  could  not  pass  by  inheri¬ 
tance  or  marriage  out  of  one  tribe  into  another, 
the  closest  connection  of  affinity  must  exist  in 
every  neighborhood  ;  the  happiness  of  rural  life  ! 
was  thereby’'  increased,  and  every  family  was 
interested  in  maintaining  the  good  character  of 
the  neighborhood  ;  and  the  poor,  not  left  to  the 
care  of  entire  strangers,  would  receive  more 
ready  assistance,  as  their  appeal  would  be  to 
those  who  must  have  a  natural  sympathy  with 
them.  Manifestly,  under  such  an  arrangement. 


there  was  no  need  of  standing  armies  ;  for  such 
was  the  arrangement  of  families  and  clans  in 
each  tribe,  with  their  civil  organization  under 
captains  of  thousands,  captains  of  hundreds, 
and  captains  of  tens,  which  could  become  at 
once  a  military  organization  that  at  the  very 
briefest  notice  a  hundred  thousand  or  two  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  men  could  be  brought  into  the 
field.  It  was  an  army  composed  of  indepen¬ 
dent  freeholders.  And  when  the  soldier  left  for 
the  battle-field  he  left  his  family  among  friends 
and  kindred  to  be  cared  for,  not  to  the  cold 
chanties  of  strangers,  S,  E, 


These  ordinances,  the  primitive  simplicity  of 
which  awakens  some  touch  of  enthusiasm,  failed 
to  produce  all  the  holy  and  happy  results  which 
they  were  calculated  to  effect.  The  Sabbath- 
day,  the  cycle  of  annual  festivals,  the  Sabbath - 
year,  and  the  Jubilee  fell  into  oblivion  and  neg¬ 
lect.  Nevertheless,  by  these  significant  institu- 
[  tions  and  the  written  revelation  in  which  they 
were  embodied  and  illustrated,  a  seed  of  Divine 
truth  was  planted  in  the  heart  and  memory  of 
man  which  at  this  day  maintains  the  spiritual 
life  of  all  Christendom,  fills  and  extends  the 
boundaries  of  civilization,  and  makes  its  benign 
influence  felt  to  the  utmost  limits  of  the  human 
race.  It  has  not  therefore  been  sown  in  vain  ; 
and  it  is  destined  eventually  to  accomplish  the 
whole  purpose  for  which  it  was  sent.  M. 


Section  145. 

HEBREW  SLAVERY. 

Exodus  21  :  2-11.  Lev.  25  :  39-55.  De.  15  :  12-18  ;  23  :  15,  16. 

Lev.  25  39  And  if  thy  brother  be  waxen  poor  with  thee,  and  sell  himself  unto  thee  ;  thou 

40  shalt  not  make  him  to  serve  as  a  bondservant  :  as  an  hired  servant,  and  as  a  sojourner,  he 

41  shall  be  with'thee  ;  he  shall  serve  with  thee  unto  the  year  of  jubilee  :  then  shall  he  go  out  from 
thee,  he  and  his  children  with  him,  and  shall  return  unto  his  own  family,  and  unto  the  pos- 

42  session  of  his  fathers  shall  he  return.  For  they  are  my  servants,  which  I  brought  forth  out  of 

43  the  land  of  Egypt  :  they  shall  not  be  sold  as  bondmen.  Thou  shalt  not  rule  over  him  with 

44  rigour  ;  but  shalt  fear  thy  God.  And  as  for  thy  bondmen,  and  thy  bondmaids,  which  thou 
shalt  have  ;  of  the  nations  that  are  round  about  you,  of  them  shall  ye  buy  bondmen  and  bond- 

45  maids.  Moreover  of  the  children  of  the  strangers  that  do  sojourn  among  you,  of  them  shall 
ye  buy,  and  of  their  families  that  are  with  you,  which  they  have  begotten  in  your  land  :  and 

46  they  shall  be  your  possession.  And  ye  shall  make  them  an  inheritance  for  your  children  after 
you,  to  hold  for  a  possession  ;  of  them  shall  ye  take  your  bondmen  for  ever  :  but  over  your 
brethren  the  children  of  Israel  ye  shall  not  rule,  one  over  another,  with  rigour. 

47  And  if  a  stranger  or  sojourner  with  thee  be  waxen  rich,  and  thy  brother  be  waxen  poor 
beside  him,  and  sell  himself  unto  the  stranger  or  sojourner  with  thee,  or  to  the  stock  of  the 

48  stranger's  family  :  after  that  he  is  sold  he  may  be  redeemed  ;  one  of  his  brethren  may  redeem 

49  him  :  or  his  uncle,  or  his  uncle’s  son,  may  redeem  him,  or  any  that  is  nigh  of  kin  unto  him 


430 


^SECTIOj^  145.  HEBREW  SLAVERY. 


50  of  his  family  may  redeem  him  ;  or  if  he  be  waxen  rich,  he  may  redeem  himself.  And  he  shall 
reckon  with  him  that  bought  him  from  the  year  that  he  sold  himself  to  him  unto  the  year  of 
jubilee  :  and  the  price  of  his  sale  shall  be  according  unto  the  number  of  years  ;  according  to 

51  the  time  of  an  hired  servant  shall  he  be  with  him.  If  there  be  yet  many  years,  according 
unto  them  he  shall  give  back  the  price  of  his  redemption  out  of  the  money  that  he  was  bought 

52  for.  And  if  there  remain  but  few  years  unto  the  year  of  jubilee,  then  he  shall  reckon  with 

53  him  ;  according  unto  his  years  shall  he  give  back  the  price  of  his  redemption.  As  a  servant 
hired  year  by  year  shall  he  be  with  him  :  he  shall  not  rule  with  rigour  over  him  in  thy  sight. 

51  And  if  he  be  not  redeemed  by  these  means,  then  he  shall  go  out  in  the  year  of  jubilee,  he,  and 

55  his  children  with  him.  For  unto  me  the  children  of  Israel  are  servants  ;  they  are  my  servants 
whom  I  brought  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  :  I  am  the  Lokd  your  God. 

De.  15  12  If  thy  brother,  an  Hebrew  man,  or  an  Hebrew  woman,  be  sold  unto  thee,  and 

13  serve  thee  six  years  ;  then  in  the  seventh  year  thou  shalt  let  him  go  free  from  thee.  And 

14  when  thou  lettest  him  go  free  from  thee,  thou  shalt  not  let  him  go  empty  :  thou  shalt  furnish 
him  liberally  out  of  thy  flock,  and  out  of  thy  threshing-floor,  and  out  of  thy  winepress  :  as 

15  the  Loan  thy  God  hath  blessed  thee  thou  shalt  give  unto  him.  And  thou  shalt  rerneruber  that 
thou  wast  a  bondman  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  the  Loan  thy  God  redeemed  thee  :  therefore  I 

16  command  thee  this  thing  to-day.  And  it  shall  be,  if  he  say  unto  thee,  I  will  not  go  out  from 

17  thee  ;  because  he  loveth  thee  and  thine  house,  because  he  is  well  with  thee  ;  then  thou  shalt 
take  an  awl,  and  thrust  it  through  his  ear  unto  the  door,  and  he  shall  be  thy  servant  for  ever. 

18  And  also  unto  thy  maidservant  thou  shalt  do  likewise.  It  shall  not  seem  hard  unto  thee, 
when  thou  lettest  him  go  free  from  thee  ;  for  to  the  double  of  the  hire  of  an  hireling  hath  he 
served  thee  six  years  :  and  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  bless  thee  in  all  that  thou  doest, 

De.  23  15  Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  master  a  servant  which  is  escaped  from  his  mas- 

16  ter  unto  thee  :  he  shall  dwell  with  thee,  in  the  midst  of  thee,  in  the  place  which  he  shall 
choose  within  one  of  thy  gates,  where  it  liketh  him  best  ;  thou  shalt  not  oppress  him. 

[T/ie  special  laws  of  Exodus  {text  omitted)  are  referred  to  in  the  commerd.'] 


Hebrew  Slavery. 

Treatment  of  Slaves.  Emancipation  and  its  Con¬ 
sequent  Arrangements. 

Ex.  21  : 1-9.  Lev.  25  :  39-55.  De.  15  : 12-18. 

If  slavery  has  been  truly  called  “  the  open 
sore”  of  this  modern  world,  it  was  the  universal 
leprosy  of  the  ancient.  It  was  a  contingency 
which  might  possibly  befall  any  and  every  man. 
Debt  easily  led  to  it.  Landless  poverty  drove 
men  to  it.  War  fattened  on  it.  One  may  read 
ancient  history  and  easily  overlook  it  amid  the 
circumstances  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  cities  and 
empires,  and  the  varied  interest  of  political  and 
social  struggles.  But  in  fact  slavery  was  a  uni¬ 
versal  bog,  sickening  and  unstable,  on  which 
the  whole  of  ancient  society  was  built.  Any 
man  and  any  family  and  any  neighborhood 
might  sink  in  it.  A  battle,  a  bad  harvest,  or 
sickness,  an  error,  a  fault,  inability  to  pay  taxes, 
or  even  sheer  force  and  fraud,  might  seize  any 
one.  The  whole  of  ancient  thought  was  per¬ 
vaded  with  a  sort  .of  tragic  melancholy.  Black 
fate,  whom  their  heathen  imagination  had  put 
in  the  place  of  God,  had  suspended  over  every 
man  not  only  death  but  ruin  worse  than  death  ; 
and  that  not  only  for  himself  but  also  for  his 
wife  and  children  with  him  ;  a  descent  to  the 
domination  of  cruelty,  lust,  and  exile,  to  the 
condition  of  a  beast  and  the  estimation  of  a 


thing.  In  every  community  that  achieved  any 
degree  of  civilization  the  great  majority  were 
slaves.  Ten,  to  one  freeman,  as  at  Athens,  seems 
to  have  been  no  unusual  proportion.  Incred¬ 
ible  numbers  of  human  chattels  accumulated  in 
Egypt,  Assyria,  and  Rome,  and  otLier  great 
monarchies.  The  mind  loathes  the  contempla¬ 
tion  of  the  festering  horrors  of  their  condition. 
The  Israelite  alone  was  debarred  by  his  consti¬ 
tution  from  admitting  perpetual  slavery.  Grey. 

Slavery,  universal  in  the  ancient  world,  was 
recognized  by  the  Mosaic  institutions  ;  but  of 
all  the  ancient  lawgivers  Moses  alone  endeavored 
to  mitigate  its  evils.  His  regulations  always  re¬ 
mind  the  Israelites  that  they  themselves  were 
formerly  bondslaves  in  Egypt.  The  free-born 
Hebrew  might  be  reduced  to  slaver^’’,  either  by 
his  own  consent,  or  in  condemnation  as  an  in¬ 
solvent  debtor,  or  as  a  thief  unable  to  make  res¬ 
titution.  In  either  case  he  became  free  at  the 
end  of  seven  years’  service.  If  he  refused  to 
accept  his  manumission  he  might  remain  in 
servitude.  But  to  prevent  any  fraudulent  or 
compulsory  renunciation  of  this  right,  the  cere¬ 
mony  of  reconsigning  himself  to  bondage  was 
public  ;  he  appeared  before  the  magistrate,  his 
ear  was  bored,  and  he  was  thus  judicially  de¬ 
livered  back  to  his  master  ;  but  even  this  servi¬ 
tude  expired  at  the  Jubilee,  when  the  free-born 
Hebrew  returned  into  the  possession  of  his 


HEBREW  SLAVERY. 


431 


patrimoDial  estate.  The  Law  expressly  abhorred 
the  condemnation  of  an  Israelite  to  perpetual 
servitude.  As  a  punishment  for  debt  slaver^s 
at  least  under  its  mitigated  form,  may  be  con¬ 
sidered  as  merciful  to  the  sufferer,  and  certainly 
more  advantageous  to  the  creditor  and  to  the 
public  thun  imprisonment.  The  Israelite  sold 
to  a  stranger  might  at  any  time  be  redeemed  by 
his  kindred  on  j3ayment  of  the  value  of  the  ser¬ 
vice  that  remained  due.  He  who  became  a 
slave,  being  already  married,  recovered  the  free¬ 
dom  of  his  wife  and  family  as  well  as  his  own  ; 
he  who  married  a  fellow-slave,  left  her  and  her 
children  as  the  property  of  his  master,.  The 
discharged  slave  was  not  to  be  cast  forth  upon 
society  naked  and  destitute  ;  he  was  to  be  de¬ 
cently  clothed,  and  liberally  furnished  out  of  the 
flock,  and  out  of  the  floor,  and  out  of  the  wine¬ 
press.  Milman. 

The  laws  given  of  God  through  Moses  can¬ 
not  be  held  responsible  for  the  existence  of 
slavery.  They  found  it  existing  and  proceeded 
to  modify  it ;  to  ordain  that  the  slave  had  rights 
which  the  master  and  the  nation  were  bound  to 
respect—  in  short,  to  tone  down  the  severities 
of  the  system  from  unendurable  slavery  to  very 

tolerable  servitude.  H.  C. - Whatever  the 

obligation  under  which  a  Hebrew  slave  came 
among  the  Jews,  never  was  his  person  regarded 
as  chattel,  goods,  or  property.  His  services 
were  bought  for  six  years,  or  till  the  Year  of 
Jubilee  ;  but  his  person  never  was  regarded 
as  property  to  be  sold  in  the  market.  J.  C. 

A  religion  which  so  sharply  emphasized  the 
high  dignity  of  man,  as  a  being  made  in  the 
image  of  God  ;  a  legislation  based  on  that  very 
idea  of  man’s  worth,  and  which  in  all  its  enact¬ 
ments  insisted  not  only  upon  the  highest  justice 
but  also  upon  the  tenderest  pity  and  forbear¬ 
ance,  especially  toward  the  necessitous  and  the 
unfortunate  ;  a  people,  in  fine,  which  had  itself 
smarted  under  the  yoke  of  slavery  and  had  be¬ 
come  a  nation  only  by  emancipation  -  would 
necessarily  be  solicitous  to  do  away  wherever  it 
was  practicable  with  the  unnatural  state  of  sla¬ 
very,  by  which  human  nature  is  degraded.  Still 
at  the  period  of  the  Mosaic  legislation,  slavery 
was  so  closely  intertwined  with  the  whole  econ¬ 
omy  of  all  nations  that  its  entire  abolition  could 
not  at  once  be  taken  in  hand,  even  by  the  Israel¬ 
ites,  without  serious  peril  to  the  domestic  con¬ 
stitution.  Besides,  slavery  under  certain  re¬ 
strictions  offered  many  important  advantages, 
to  which  regard  must  be  paid  under  existing 
circumstances.  The  system  of  labor  for  daily 
wages  was  not  yet  established  ;  so  that  when 
any  one,  through  his  own  fault  or  through  mis¬ 


fortune,  was  reduced  so  that  he  could  not  sup¬ 
port  himself  and  his  family,  servitude  was  the 
only  means  of  providing  for  his  necessities,  the 
only  way  of  escape  from  the  temptation  to  open 
robbery  or  secret  theft.  And,  further,  as  the 
most  ancient  Hebrew  legislation  did  not  recog¬ 
nize  the  punishment  of  imprisonment,  when 
any  one  was  found  guilty  of  robbery  or  theft 
slavery  was  also  a  fitting  means  of  chastisement, 
so  that  the  thief  who  could  not  pay  the  pecuni¬ 
ary  penalty  might  still  be  punished  by  the  loss 
of  his  freedom.  Under  these  circumstances  the 
Mosaic  legislation  allowed  slavery  to  exist  pro¬ 
visionally  ;  aiming  at  first  to  do  away  with  all 
the  inhumanity  and  harshness  that  character¬ 
ized  it  in  the  other  nations,  and  preparing  for 
its  complete  abolition,  in  the  first  instance  in 
the  case  of  Hebrew  slaves,  by  so  limiting  its 
duration  and  conditions  that  it  hardly  deserved 
to  be  called  by  the  name  of  slavery.  Mielziner. 

The  Hebrew  slave  might  be  held  for  six  years 
only  ;  in  the  seventh  he  was  to  be  permitted  his 
freedom.  Kigorous  exaction  and  harshness 
were  distinctly  and  sternlj^  forbidden.  If  a 
master  by  revengeful  treatment  inflicted  serious 
bodily  injury  on  the  slave,  such  slave  was  to 
have  his  freedom  (Ex.  21  :  26).  Undue  iDunish- 
ment  was  avenged  by  the  judges  (Ex.  21  : 20, 
21).  The  slave  might  acquire  property  of  his 
own,  and  might  even  amass  enough  to  buy  his 
own  freedom.  Slaves  were  to  be  free  from  all 
manner  of  work  on  the  Sabbath  day.  They  had 
a  right  to  fruit  which  grew  spontaneously  dur¬ 
ing  the  Sabbatical  year.  They  were  to  have 
their  share  of  the  feasts  at  the  great  national 
festivals.  IE  they  accepted  freedom  at  the  end 
of  the  sixth  year,  they  were  not  to  be  sent  away 
empty,  but  were  to  be  furnished  by  their  mas¬ 
ter,  liberally  and  gladly,  with  a  sufficiency 
wherewith  to  “  start  on  their  own  account.” 
The  idea  of  freedom  Avas  ever  kept  before  them. 
They  might  not  sell  themselves  for  life  to  any 
one.  They  were  the  Lord’s  freemen,  and  they 
were  not  to  pervert  the  Divine  thought  by  be¬ 
coming  life-long  bondmen.  When  a  foreign 
slave  escaped  from  his  master,  the  moment  he 
touched  the  Hebrews’  soil  he  was  a  free  man. 
C.  C. 

In  matter  of  personal  right  the  children  of 
covenant  were  equal  before  God,  While  the 
ancient  Eoman  laws  say,  “  The  master  has 
power  of  life  and  death  over  his  slave,  and  all 
which  the  slave  earns  belongs  to  the  master,” 
both  these  marks  of  slavery  were  unknowm  in 
Israel.  ”  They  are  my  servants,  Avhich  T  brought 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  :  they  shall  not  be  sold 
as  bondmen”  (Lev.  25:42).  “If  thy  brother 


432 


SECTION  146.  RESPECTING  VOWS  AS  OFFERINGS. 


be  sold  unto  thee,  thou  shalt  not  compel  him 
to  serve  as  a  bondservant  ”  (verse  39).  Gtrl. 

- As  regards  rest  from  labor  and  religious  and 

social  festivities,  the  Law  was  very  specific  in 
stipulating  that  the  man-servant  and  the  maid¬ 
servant  must  share  in  all  these  equally  with  the 
son  and  the  daughter.  We  see  this  in  the  law 
of  the  Sabbath  ;  in  the  feast  upon  the  second 
tithes  (De.  12  ;  17,  18)  ;  and  in  the  great  festi¬ 
vals  of  Pentecost  and  of  Tabernacles  (De. 
16  : 11,  14).  Thus  they  were  put  religiously  and 
socially  upon  the  same  footing  as  children  in 
the  family.  No  ban  of  exclusion,  no  stigma  of 
caste,  could  attach  to  their  condition  so  long  as 
these  statutes  were  duly  observed.  H.  C. 

L^ev.  25  :  48,  49.  Any  iifgli  ©f  km 
may  redeem.  The  term  Goel,  though  sig¬ 
nifying  Redeemer,  has  yet  a  more  specific  pur¬ 
port  than  anything  conveyed  by  that  English 
word  or  its  equivalents  in  Greek  and  Latin  or 
in  any  other  language  ;  for  the  idea  was  peculiar 
to  the  Hebrew.  The  kmsman-redeemer  would  be 
the  nearest  rendering  of  the  original  designa¬ 
tion,  but  even  this  fails  adequately  to  convey 
the  deep  significance  of  the  Hebrew.  A  more 
exact  definition  would  be,  “  a  person  related  by 
blood,  who  by  right  of  consanguinity  lays  claim 
to  and  redeems  a  person  or  thing,  vindicates 
the  rights  involved  or  avenges  the  wrong  sus¬ 
tained  ”  {Glass).  It  is  easy  to  perceive  how  the 
institution  of  the  Goel  must  have  been  produc¬ 
tive  of  important  benefits  to  the  Israelitish  com¬ 
munity  ;  how  it  acted  as  a  conservating  power 
in  the  State,  by  binding  together  various  inter¬ 
ests,  and  particularly  by  offering  to  the  weaker 
and  poorer  members  protection  against  wrong, 
and  against  the  necessities  of  parting  with  their 
personal  liberties  or  their  patrimonial  posses¬ 
sions.  But  it  is  in  its  spiritual  aspect  that  the 
matter  chiefly  deserves  consideration.  In  this 
respect  it  was  made  the  subject  of  so  much 
solicitude  in  the  Law  ;  and  the  very  name  was 
assumed  so  frequently  as  a  designation  of  the 
Divine  Redeemer  and  of  the  relation  which,  as 
such,  he  sustained  toward  his  people.  D.  M. 

The  Jubilee  seems  to  have  had  typical  refer¬ 
ence  ;  First.  To  the  great  time  of  release,  the 
Gospel  dispensation,  when  all  who  believe  in 


Christ  Jesus  are  redeemed  from  the  bondage  of 
sin— repossess  the  favor  and  image  of  God,  the 
only  inheritance  of  the  human  soul,  having  all 
debts  cancelled  and  the  right  of  inheritance  re¬ 
stored,  To  this  the  prophet  seems  to  allude 
(Is.  26  : 13),  and  particular!}^  ch.  61  : 1-3.  Sec¬ 
ondly.  To  the  general  resurrection.  “It  is,” 
says  Parkhurst,  “  a  lively  prefiguration  of  the 
grand  consummation  of  time,  which  will  be  in¬ 
troduced  in  like  manner,  by  the  trump  of  God  (1 
Cor.  15  : 52),  when  the  children  and  heirs  of 
God  shall  be  delivered  from  all  their  forfeitures, 
and  restored  to  the  eternal  wheritance  allotted  to 
them  by  their  father  ;  and  thenceforth  rest  from 
their  labors,  and  be  supported  in  life  and  hap¬ 
piness  by  what  the  field  of  God  shall  supply.” 
That  the  Jubilee  was  proclaimed  on  the  very  day 
when  the  great  annual  atonemerd  was  made  for 
the  sins  of  the  people  proves  that  the  great 
liberty,  or  redemption  published  under  the  Gos¬ 
pel  could  not  take  place  till  the  great  atonement, 
the  sacrifice  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  had  been  offered 
up  !  Through  this  sacrifice,  the  Jubilee  de¬ 
clares,  that  the  believer  in  Jesus  who  was  in 
debt  to  God’s  justice  had  his  debt  discharged 
and  his  sin  forgiven  ;  that  he  who  had  sold  him¬ 
self  for  nought,  who  was  a  bond-slave  of  sin  and 
Satan,  regains  his  liberty  and  becomes  a  son  of 
God,  through  faith  in  His  blood  ;  and  that  he 
who  by  transgression  had  forfeited  all  right  and 
title  to  the  kingdom  of  God  becomes  an  heir  of 
God  and  a  joint  heir  with  Christ.  Heaven,  his 
forfeited  inheritance,  is  restored,  for  the  king¬ 
dom  of  heaven  is  opened  to  all  believers  j  and 
thus  redeemed  from  his  debt,  restored  to  his 
liberty,  united  to  the  heavenly  family,  and  re¬ 
entitled  to  his  inheritance,  he  goes  on  his  way 
rejoicing  till  he  enters  the  Paradise  of  his 
Maker,  and  is  forever  with  the  Lord.  A.  C. 

Like  the  Sabbatical  year,  the  Jubilee  shadows 
out  a  state  of  permanent  prosperity,  happiness, 
joy,  and  glory,  in  the  latter  periods  of  this 
world’s  history.  Like  many  other  features  of 
the  Levitical  economy,  its  substance  has  never 
yet  been  realized.  That  is  reserved  for  that 
blissful  era  announced  by  the  seventh,  or  jubilee 
trumpet  of  the  Apocalypse,  when  the  grand  con¬ 
summation  of  all  prophetic  blessedness  shall 
take  place.  Bush. 


Section  146. 

RESPECTING  VOWS  AS  OFFERINGS. 

Leviticus  27  :  1-29.  Nu.  6  :  1-21  ;  30  :  1-16.  De.  23  :  21-23. 

De.  23  21  When  thou  shalt  vow  a  vow  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  thou  shalt  not  be  slack  to 


FOTra,  VOLUNTARY  AND  OBLIGATORY. 


433 


22  pay  it  :  for  tlie  Lord  thy  God  will  surely  require  it  of  thee  ;  and  it  would  be  sin  in  thee.  But 

23  if  thou  shalt  forbear  to  vow,  it  shall  be  no  sin  in  thee.  That  which  is  gone  out  of  thy  lips 
thou  shalt  observe  and  do  ;  according  as  thou  hast  vowed  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  a  freewill 
offering,  which  thou  hast  promised  with  thy  mouth. 

Na.  30  1  And  Moses  spake  unto  the  heads  of  the  tribes  of  the  children  of  Israel,  saying, 

2  This  is  the  thing  which  the  Lord  hath  commanded.  When  a  man  voweth  a  vow  unto  the 
Lord,  or  sweareth  an  oath  to  bind  his  soul  with  a  bond,  he  shall  not  break  his  word  ;  he  shall 
do  according  to  all  that  proceedeth  out  of  his  mouth. 

[  Verses  3-16  refer  to  vows  of  woman,  as  daiujhier,  wfe,  widow,  or  divorced.'] 

Lev.  27  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and 

2  say  unto  them.  When  a  man  shall  accomplish  a  vow,  the  persons  shall  be  for  the  Lord  by  thy 

3  estimation.  And  thy  estimation  shall  be  of  the  male  from  twenty  years  old  even  unto  sixty 
years  old,  even  thy  estimation  shall  be  fifty  shekels  of  silver,  after  the  shekel  of  the  sanctu- 

4  ary.  And  if  it  be  a  female,  then  thy  estimation  shall  be  thirty  shekels.  And  if  it  be  from 

5  five  years  old  even  unto  twenty  years  old,  then  thy  estimation  shall  be  of  the  male  twenty 

G  shekels,  and  for  the  female  ten  shekels.  And  if  it  be  from  a  month  old  even  unto  five  years 

old,  then  thy  estimation  shall  be  of  the  male  five  shekels  of  silver,  and  for  the  female  thy  esti- 

7  mation  shall  be  three  shekels  of  silver.  And  if  it  be  from  sixty  years  old  and  upward  ;  if  it  be 

8  a  male,  then  thy  estimation  shall  be  fifteen  shekels,  and  tor  the  female  ten  shekels.  But  if  he 
be  poorer  than  thy  estimation,  then  he  shall  be  set  before  the  priest,  and  the  priest  shall  value 
him  ;  according  to  the  ability  of  him  that  vowed  shall  the  priest  value  him. 

\^Verses  9-25  concern  the  redemption  of  beasts,  houses,  and  fields] 

26  Only  the  firstling  among  beasts,  which  is  made  a  firstling  to  the  Lord,  no  man  shall  sane 

27  tify  it  ;  whether  it  be  ox  or  sheep,  it  is  the  Lord’s.  And  if  it  be  of  an  unclean  beast,  then  he 
shall  ransom  it  according  to  thine  estimation,  and  shall  add  unto  it  the  fifth  part  thereof  ;  or 
if  it  be  not  redeemed,  then  it  shall  be  sold  according  to  thy  estimation. 

28  Notwithstanding,  no  devoted  thing,  that  a  mnn  shall  devote  unto  the  Lord  of  all  that  he 
hath,  whether  of  man  or  beast,  or  of  the  field  of  his  possession,  shall  be  sold  or  redeemed 

29  evor}^  devoted  thing  is  most  holy  unto  the  Lord.  None  devoted,  which  shall  be  devoted  of 
men,  shall  be  ransomed  ;  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death. 

Na.  O  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and  say 

2  unto  them,  When  either  man  or  woman  shall  make  a  special  vow,  the  vow  of  a  Nazarite,  to 

3  separate  himself  unto  the  Lord  :  he  shall  separate  himself  from  wine  and  strong  drink  ;  he 
shall  drink  no  vinegar  of  wine,  or  vinegar  of  strong  drink,  neither  shall  he  drink  any  liquor  of 

4  grapes,  nor  eat  fresh  grapes  or  dried.  All  the  days  of  his  separation  shall  he  eat  nothing  that 

5  is  made  of  the  grape-vine,  from  the  kernels  even  to  the  husk.  All  the  days  of  his  vow  of  sep 
aration  there  shall  no  razor  come  upon  his  head  :  until  the  days  be  fulfilled,  in  the  which  he 
separateth  himself  unto  the  Lord,  he  shall  be  holy,  he  shall  let  the  locks  of  the  hair  of  his 

6  head  grow  long.  All  the  days  that  he  separateth  himself  unto  the  Lord  he  shall  not  come  near 
to  a  dead  body. 

[  Vej'ses  7-20  respect  purification  from  defilement  by  the  dead.] 

21  This  is  the  law  of  the  Nazarite  who  voweth,  and  of  his  oblation  unto  the  Lord  for  his  sepa¬ 
ration,  beside  that  which  he  is  able  to  get  :  according  to  his  vow  which  he  voweth,  so  he  must 
do  after  the  law  of  his  separation. 


Vows  were  religious  engagements  or  promises 
voluntarily  undertaken  by  a  person  toward  the 
Almighty.  Though  the  Israelites  were  not 
counselled  or  encouraged  to  make  them,  yet  Je¬ 
hovah  himself  declared  his  acceptance  of  them, 
and  they  were  therefore  binding  not  only  in  a 
moral  view,  but  according  to  the  national  law, 
and  the  priest  was  authorized  to  enforce  and 

estimate  their  fulfilment.  Wheeler. - The 

motive  for  such  vows  is  to  be  sought  in  the  un¬ 
satisfactory  feeling  attending  the  religious  ser¬ 
vice  of  the  Old  Te.stament  in  the  hearts  of  those 
who  wished  by  means  of  it  to  draw  nearer  to 
28 


God.  The  consciousness  that  the  sacrifices 
could  only  figuratively  reconcile  and  unite  to 
God,  urged  some  among  the  Israelites  expiessly 
and  entirely  to  give  up  themselves  or  what  be¬ 
longed  to  them  to  the  Lord.  Gerl. 

I>e.  23  :  21-2?  ,  The  imperative  obligation 
and  the  voluntary  character  of  such  vows  is 
very  clearly  enunciated  in  these  emphatic 
words  :  When  thou  shalt  vow  a  row  to  Jehovah  thy 
God,  thou  shalt  not  be  slack  io  pay  it ;  for  Jehovah 
thy  God  will  surely  require  it  of  thee  j  acco7'ding  as 

thou  hast  vowed,  a  free  will- offering.  B. - 

30  :  2.  He  that  vows  is  here  said  to  bind  his 


434 


SECTION  146.  RESPECTING  VOWS  AS  OFFERINGS. 


soul  with  a  bond.  It  is  a  vow  to  God,  who  is  a 
Spirit,  and  to  him  the  soul  with  all  its  powers 
must  be  bound.  A  promise  to  man  is  a  bond 
upon  his  estate,  but  a  promise  to  God  is  a  bond 
upon  the  soul.  Our  sacramental  vows,  by 
which  we  are  bound  to  no  more  than  what  was 
before  our  dut}^  are  bonds  upon  the  soul  ;  by 
them  we  must  feel  ourselves  bound  out  from  all 
sin  and  bound  up  to  the  whole  will  of  God. 
Our  occasional  vows  concerning  that  which  be¬ 
fore  was  in  our  own  poicer,  when  they  are  made 
are  bonds  upon  the  soul  likewise.  The  command 
given  is  that  these  vows  be  conscientiously  per¬ 
formed,  He  shall  not  break  Ids  word.  H. 

The  remarkable  passage  Josh,  9  :  19,  20  shows 
in  what  light  the  children  of  Israel  regarded 
the  breach  of  their  plighted  faith  even  to  a  por¬ 
tion  of  the  devoted  nations  of  Canaan  ;  “  But 
all  the  princes  said  unto  all  the  congregation, 
We  have  sworn  unto  them  by  the  Lord  God  of 
Israel  :  now  therefore  we  may  not  touch  them. 
This  v/ill  we  do  to  them  ;  we  will  even  let  them 
live,  lest  wroth  he  upon  us,  because  of  the  oath  which 
we  sware  unto  them.''  Bush. 

The  Vows  of  Women  (Nu.  30  :  3-16). 

Vows  made  without  the  knowledge  or  consent 
of  the  father  or  husband  were  to  be  of  no  force. 
No  priest  had  any  warrant  from  the  Mosaic  in¬ 
stitutes  to  come  between  a  young  woman  and 
her  father,  or  between  husband  and  wife.  Vows 
to  God  were  to  be  completely  spontaneous,  as 
between  the  soul  and  God.  They  were  not  to 
be  extorted  by  others,  nor  yet  to  involve  the  en¬ 
tanglement  of  others.  C.  C. - It  is  observable 

how  carefully  the  Divine  Law  consults  the  good 
order  of  families.  It  is  fit  that  every  man 
should  hear  rule  in  his  own  house,  and  rather  than 
that  this  great  rule  should  be  broken  God  him¬ 
self  would  release  the  obligation  even  of  a  sol¬ 
emn  vow  ;  so  much  does  religion  strengthen  the 
ties  of  all  relations  and  secure  the  welfare  of  all 
societies,  and  in  it  the  families  of  the  earth  are 
blessed.  H. 

Redemption  of  Votive  Offerings. 

Lev.  27  : 1-27. 

Upon  reflection,  the  person  might  regret  the 
step  he  had  taken,  or  particular  circumstances 
might  render  the  literal  performance  of  this  vow 
inconvenient  or  unsuitable.  Provision  is  here 
made  for  the  redemption  of  the  persons  or  things 
thus  consecrated,  and  a  table  of  rates  is  here 
given  by  which  the  priests  were  to  be  governed 
in  their  estimation  of  the  value  of  the  thing 
vowed.  It  does  not  appear  that  it  w^as  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  the  Law  to  enforce  the  practice,  but 


[  merely  to  place  a  natural  impulse  of  devotion 
under  wise  regulations.  If  an  Israelite  under 
such  an  impulse  should  bind  himself  or  his 
child  by  a  vow,  to  be  a  servant  of  the  sanctuaij’, 
he  might  commute  that  service  by  paying  a 
specified  pecuniary  equivalent,  varying  with  sex 
and  age,  into  the  sacred  treasurj"  ;  and  if  he 
were  too  poor  to  pay  the  prescribed  sum,  it  was 
in  the  discretion  of  the  priest  to  fix  upon  some 
other,  proportioned  to  his  means. 

Redemption  of  Persons  {verses  3-8). 

The  rides  of  mortality  are  the  principle  on 
which  these  rates  are  graduated.  The  value 
was  regulated  according  to  the  probability  of 
life  and  service.  None  were  vowed  under  a 
month  old  ;  and  the  first-born,  being  consid¬ 
ered  by  a  prior  Law  (Ex.  12)  the  Lord’s  prop¬ 
erty,  could  not  be  vowed  at  all. 

(ff  Beasts  {verses  9-13). 

Clean  beasts  and  unblemished,  proper  for 
offering —viz.,  bullocks,  sheep,  or  goats,  could 
not  be  redeemed  ;  and  the  firstlings,  being  al¬ 
ready  consecrated  to  God,  could  not  be  thus  de¬ 
voted.  9,  Chilli  toe  SioBy.  Set  apart  for 
God’s  service  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
VOW' — that  is  to  say,  it  shall  be  offered  at  the  altar 
if  given  or  vowed  for  sacrifice  ;  or  shall  be  given 
to  the  priests  or  Levites  if  vowed  for  that  end  ; 
or  shall  be  sold  and  the  value  of  it  employed  in 
the  service  of  the  sanctuary,  if  given  with  that 
intention  ;  or  left  at  large  to  be  disposed  of  as 
should  be  deemed  most  meet  for  the  service  of 
God.  If  the  vow  related  to  the  gift  of  an  ani¬ 
mal,  it  must  be  offered  in  sacrifice  if  suitable  to 
be  so  offered  ;  and  whoever  was  detected  in  at¬ 
tempting  to  substitute  for  it  one  of  inferior 
worth  was  punished  by  the  forfeiture  of  both. 
If  it  were  an  unclean  animal  that  had  been  con¬ 
secrated,  the  owner  might  still  retain  it  on  the 
payment  of  one  fifth  more  than  the  priest  de¬ 
clared  to  be  its  value. 

Houses  and  Lands  {verses  14-25). 

On  the  same  condition  a  house  or  a  farm, 
consecrated  as  a  religious  offering,  might  be  re¬ 
deemed.  The  estimation  of  the  value  of  an 
estate  so  consecrated  w'as  to  have  reference  to 
the  length  of  the  interval  between  the  time  of 
the  consecration  and  a  Jubilee  Year,  at  which 
time  it  reverted  to  its  owmer  ;  and  this  provision 
held  equally  good,  if  the  estate  consecrated  was 
one  of  which  the  devotee  w'as  only  a  tenant. 
Bush. — The  law  is  then  extended  to  lands  which 
had  been  sold,  and  w'hich  in  the  Year  of  Jubilee 
returned  to  their  former  owners  ;  because  the 


vow  OF  THE  NAZAllITE. 


435 


first  allotment  of  the  land  was  then  wholly  re¬ 
stored.  For  these  fields  God  commands  a  price 
to  be  paid  upon  a  calcalation  of  the  time,  so 
that  only  the  produce  and  not  the  fee  should  be 
taken  into  account. 

LiCV.  27  ;  20.  The  first-born  of  all  males  of 
both  men  and  animals  belonged  to  God.  The 
firstling  of  a  cow,  sheep,  or  goat  was  unredeem¬ 
able  and  sacrificed,  its  blood  sprinkled  and  fat 
burned  upon  the  altar,  and  the  remainder  given 
to  the  priests.  But  the  firstling  of  a  man  or  an 
unclean  animal  was  to  be  redeemed  b^'’  the  pay¬ 
ment  of  five  shekels.  Wheeler. 

Of  Things  Irredeemnhly  Devoted. 

28,  XotwitlistanOiii^,  no  devoted 
tiling'.  Heb.  cherem.  This  is  not  the  neder  or 
common  vow,  such  as  we  have  previously  con¬ 
sidered,  but  one  of  a  far  more  solemn  kind,  and 
inadequately  represented  by  the  term  “  devoted 
thing.”  It  signifies  properly  a  vow  made  with 
imprecations  by  the  vower  on  himself  or  others 
if  that  should  not  be  done  in  which  he  engaged. 
Of  the  precise  difference  between  the  neder  and 
the  cherem  we  are  not  informed  by  Moses,  but 
it  is  clear  from  this  passage  that  a  thing  devoted 
to  God  by  cherem  was  irrevocably  devoted  beyond 

the  power  of  redemption.  Bush. - As  to  the 

word  cherem,  there  is  no  good  reason  to  doubt 
that  its  application  to  man  is  made  exclusively 
in  reference  to  one  rightly  doomed  to  death  and 
in  that  sense  alone  given  up  to  Jehovah.  The 
feeling  of  the  sacredness  of  life  has  its  seat  in 
the  depth  of  the  human  heart.  In  an  enlight¬ 
ened  mind  it  becomes  a  clear  conviction  that  all 
life  belongs  to  God  and  is  claimed  by  him. 
Every  animal  sacrifice  is  an  expression  of  this 
truth.  When  human  life  is  in  question,  the  im¬ 
pression  is  beyond  comparison  stronger  and 
more  distinct.  To  destroy  a  life  is  in  tact  to 
give  it  back  to  God.  The  putting  to  death 
either  of  a  criminal  or  an  enemy,  if  it  is  any¬ 
thing  more  than  an  indulgence  of  vengeance,  is 
to  be  regarded  in  this  light.  The  man  who,  in 
a  right  spirit,  either  carries  out  a  sentence  of 
just  doom  on  an  offender,  or  wdth  a  single  eye 
to  duty  slays  an  enemy  in  battle,  must  regard 
himself  as  God’s  servant  rendering  up  a  life  to 
the  claim  of  the  Divine  justice  (Bom.  13  :  4).  It 
was  in  this  way  that  Israel  was  required  to  de¬ 
stroy  the  Canaanites  at  Hormah,  and  that  Samuel 
hewed  Agag  in  pieces  before  the  Lord,  In  all 
such  instances  a  moral  obligation  rests  upon 
him  whose  office  it  is  to  take  the  life.  He  has 
to  look  upon  the  object  of  his  stroke  as  under  a 
ban  to  the  Lord.  This  is  the  only  ground  on 
which  the  destruction  of  human  life  is  to  be 


justified.  When  this  ground  is  clearly  ascer¬ 
tained,  the  duty  of  him  who  is  called  to  act  re¬ 
fers  to  the  forfeit  of  the  individual  life.  There 
can  therefore  be  neither  redemption  nor  com¬ 
mutation.  Clark. 

29.  i-*ut  l<>  cleatll.  The  vow  of  Jephtha 
has  very  mistakenly  been  retened  to  this  com¬ 
mand.  What  was  devoted  could  never  be  offered 
in  sacrifice  ;  but  m  a'l  places  where  mention  is 
elsewhere  made  of  the  ban  laid  on  anything 
(Nu.  21  ;  23  ;  Le.  2  : 34  ;  Joshua  G  :  17  ;  Mai. 
4  ;  6),  this  appears  as  a  dedication  to  destruc¬ 
tion,  as  a  fulfilling  of  the  Divine  vengeance,  as 
an  honoring  of  God  on  those  in  whom  he  can¬ 
not  show  himself  holy  and  glorious.  Jephtha’s 
vow  cannot  be  of  this  kind,  as  he  vowed  his 
daughter  for  a  “  burnt-offering,”  since  here  it 
is  not  said  that  the  thing  devoted  should  be 
offered  in  sacrifice,  but  that  it  should  be  put  to 
death.  In  like  manner  the  devoted  town  was  to 
be  made  ”  an  heap  forever”  (De.  13  :  16).  Qerl. 

Special  Vow  of  the  Nazaette. 

Nu.  6  : 1-21. 

This  chapter  contains  the  Law  of  the  Naza- 
rites,  recognizing  devotees,  or  persons  of  more 
than  ordinary  allegiance  and  consecration  to 
God.  In  its  ethical  and  spiritual  meaning,  this 
law  suggests  the  need  of  abstinence  from  fleshly 
lusts  and  dangerous  delights,  and  the  mainte¬ 
nance  of  full  moral  energy,  and  separation  from 
the  body  of  death.  The  sanction  given  to  the 
Nazarite  vow  encourages  no  vows  of  celibacy, 
which  were  unknown  to  priest,  Levite,  or  Naz¬ 
arite,  nor  arbitrary  rules  sequestering  men  or 
women  from  the  proper  duties  of  family  and 
social  life,  but  a  loft}"  aim  in  sanctification,  and 
a  vow  or  pledge,  under  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  to  be  in  heart  and  conduct  wholly  sep¬ 
arated  to  Christ.  D.  F. - The  vow  of  the  Naz¬ 

arite  differed  from  the  ordinary  one  in  that  it 
affected  the  person,  w^as  one  of  ab.stinence  and 
of  separation  unto  the  Lord.  It  was  a  kind  of 
voluntarily  assumed  priestly  sanctity.  The  long 
hair  of  the  Nazarite,  it  might  be  said,  answered, 
in  its  way,  to  the  regalia  of  the  sons  of  Aaron. 
His  abstemiousness  and  avoidance  of  ceremonial 
defilement  went  even  beyond  theirs.  His  whole 
life,  as  a  Nazarite,  must  begin  anew,  if,  by 
chance  or  by  design,  his  vow  had  been  violated. 

E.  C.  B. - The'  Nazarite  was  to  be  a  living 

type  and  image  of  holiness  ;  he  was  to  be  in  his 
person  and  habits  a  symbol  of  sincere  consecra¬ 
tion  and  devotedness  to  the  Lord.  It  was  no 
mere  ascetical  institution,  as  if  the  outward 
bonds  and  restraints,  the  self-denials  in  meat 


436 


SECTION  147.  OFFERINGS  OF  FIRST-BORN. 


and  drink,  were  in  themselves  well-pleasing  to 
the  Lord.  Such  a  spirit  was  as  foreign  to  Juda¬ 
ism  as  it  is  to  Christianity.  The  Nazarite  was 
an  acted,  symbolical  lesson  in  respect  to  cove- 
nant  obligations  ;  and  the  outward  observances 
to  which  he  was  bound  were  merely  intended  to 
exhibit  to  the  bodily  eye  the  separation  from 
everything  sinful  and  impure  required  of  the 
Lord’s  servants.  P.  P. 

Of  Nazarites  there  were  two  classes  ;  First. 
Those  who  were  Nazarites  by  birth  (as  Samson 
and  John  the  Baptist)  ;  Second.  Those  who 
were  Nazarites  by  engagement  and  for  a  limited 
time.  All  Nazarites  were  required  :  (1)  To 
drink  no  wine  or  strong  drink  of  any  kind  ;  (2) 
To  eat  no  grapes  or  anything  belonging  to  the 
vine  ;  (3)  To  let  their  hair  grow  ;  (4)  Not  to  de¬ 
file  themselves  by  touching  the  dead  or  mourn¬ 
ing  for  their  relations.  If  any  one  died  in  the 
presence  of  a  Nazarite  of  the  second  class,  the 
latter  was  compelled  to  shave  his  head,  make 
the  usual  offerings,  and  recommence  his  Naza- 
riteship.  At  the  expiration  of  the  vow  the  Naz¬ 
arite  was  to  offer  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle 


one  male  lamb  of  the  first  year  for  a  burnt-offer¬ 
ing,  one  ewe-lamb  of  the  first  year  for  a  sin- 
offering,  and  one  ram  for  a  peace-offering,  to¬ 
gether  with  a  basket  of  unleavened  bread  and 
meal  and  drink  offerings.  He  was  also  to  shave 
his  head  and  place  the  hair  on  the  fire  under¬ 
neath  the  peace-offering,  and  the  priest  was  to 
take  the  sodden  shoulder  of  the  ram,  oue  un¬ 
leavened  cake,  and  one  unleavened  wafer,  and, 
placing  them  in  the  hands  of  the  Nazarite,  he 
was  to  wave  them  for  a  wave-offering.  After 
this  the  Nazarite  might  drink  wine.  Wheeler. 

Such  persons  in  Israel  must  have  been  emi¬ 
nently  useful  in  keeping  alive  upon  men’s  con¬ 
sciences  the  holy  character  of  God’s  service,  and 
stimulating  them  to  engage  in  it.  The  Nazarites 
are  hence  mentioned  by  Amos  along  with  proph¬ 
ets  as  among  the  chosen  instruments  of  God  ; 
“  And  I  raised  up  of  your  sons  for  prophets,  and 
of  your  young  men  for  Nazarites.”  They  were 
a  kind  of  inferior  priesthood  in  the  land — by 
their  manner  of  life,  as  the  priests  by  the  duties 
of  their  office,  acting  the  part  of  symbolical 
lights  and  teachers  to  Israel.  P.  F. 


Section  147. 

OFFERINGS  OF  FIRST-BORN  OF  MAN  AND  BEAST  ;  OF  FIRST-FRUITS,  ETC.  ;  OF 

TITHES. 

Exodus  13  : 1,  2,  11-16  ;  22  ;  29,  30  ;  23  : 19.  Lev.  19  :  23-25  ;  27  ;  30-34.  Nu.  15  : 17-21.  De. 

14  :  22-29  ;  15  : 19-23. 

Ex.  13  1  And  the  Loed  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Sanctify  unto  me  all  the  firstborn,  what- 
2  soever  openeth  the  womb  among  the  children  of  Israel,  both  of  man  and  of  beast  :  it  is  mine. 

11  And  it  shall  be  when  the  Loed  shall  bring  thee  into  the  land  of  the  Canaanite,  as  he  sware 

12  unto  thee  and  to  thy  fathers,  and  shall  give  it  thee,  that  thou  shalt  set  apart  unto  the  Loed  all 
that  openeth  the  womb,  and  every  firstling  which  thou  hast  that  comoth  of  a  beast  ;  the  males 

13  shall  be  the  Loed’s.  And  every  firstling  of  an  ass  thou  shalt  redeem  with  a  lamb  ;  and  if  thou 
wilt  not  redeem  it,  then  thou  shalt  break  its  neck  ;  and  all  the  firstborn  of  man  among  thy 

14  sons  shalt  thou  redeem.  And  it  shall  be  when  thy  son  asketh  thee  in  time  to  come,  saying. 
What  is  this  ?  that  thou  shalt  say  unto  him,  By^  strength  of  hand  the  Loed  brought  us  out 

15  from  Egypt,  from  the  house  of  bondage  :  and  it  came  to  pass,  when  Pharaoh  would  hardly  let 
us  go,  that  the  Loed  slew  all  the  firstborn  in  the  land  of  Egypt,  both  the  firstborn  of  man, 
and  the  firstborn  of  beast  ;  therefore  I  sacrifice  to  the  Loed  all  that  openeth  the  womb,  being 

16  males  ;  but  all  the  firstborn  of  my  sons  I  redeem.  And  it  shall  be  for  a  sign  upon  thine  hancl^ 
and  for  frontlets  between  thine  eyes  ;  for  by  strength  of  hand  the  Loed  brought  us  forth  out 
of  Egypt. 

De.  15  19  All  the  firstling  males  that  are  born  of  thy  herd  and  of  thy  flock  thou  shalt  sanc¬ 
tify  unto  the  Loed  thy  God  :  thou  shalt  do  no  work  with  the  firstling  of  thine  ox,  nor  shear 

20  the  firstling  of  thy  flock.  Thou  shalt  eat  it  before  the  Loed  thy  God  year  by  year  in  the  place 

21  which  the  Loed  shall  choose,  thou  and  thy  household.  And  if  it  have  any  blemish,  as  if  it  he 
lame  or  blind,  any  ill  blemish  whatsoever,  thou  shalt  not  sacrifice  it  unto  the  Loed  thy  God. 

22  Thou  shalt  eat  it  within  thy  gates  :  the  unclean  and  the  clean  sholl  eat  it  alike,  as  the  gazelle, 

23  and  as  the  hart.  Only  thou  shalt  not  eat  the  blood  thereof  ;  thou  shalt  pour  it  out  upon  the 
ground  as  water. 

Ex.  *2'2  29  Thou  shalt  not  delay  to  offer  of  the  abundance  of  thy  fruits,  and  of  thy  liquors. 


OFFERINGS  OF  FIRST-BORN. 


437 


23  19  The  first  of  the  firstfruits  of- thy  ground  thou  shalt  bring  into  the  house  of  the  Lord 
thy  God. 

Nil.  15  17  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and 

18  say  unto  them,  When  ye  come  into  the  land  whither  I  bring  you,  then  it  shall  be,  that, 

19  when  ye  eat  of  the  bread  of  the  land,  ye  shall  offer  up  an  heave  offering  unto  the  Lord. 

20  Of  the  first  of  your  dough  ye  shall  offer  up  a  cake  for  an  heave  offering  :  as  j^e  do  the  heave 

21  offering  of  the  threshing-floor,  so  shall  ye  heave  it.  Of  the  first  of  your  dough  ye  shall  give 
unto  the  Lord  an  heave  offering  throughout  your  generations. 

Lev.  27  30  And  all  the  tithe  of  the  land,  whether  of  the  seed  of  the  land,  or  of  the  fruit  of 

31  the  tree,  is  the  Lord’s  :  it  is  holy  unto  the  Lord.  And  if  a  man  will  redeem  aught  of  his 

32  tithe,  he  shall  add  unto  it  the  fifth  part  thereof.  And  all  the  tithe  of  the  herd  or  the  flock, 

33  whatsoever  passeth  under  the  rod,  the  tenth  shall  be  holy  unto  the  Lord.  He  shall  not 
search  whether  it  be  good  or  bad,  neither  shall  he  change  it  :  and  if  he  change  it  at  all,  then 

34  both  it  and  that  for  which  it  is  changed  shall  be  holy  ;  it  shall  not  be  redeemed.  These  are 
the  commandments,  which  the  Lord  commanded  Moses  for  the  children  of  Israel  in  mount 
Sinai. 

De.  14  22  Thou  shalt  surely  tithe  all  the  increase  of  thy  seed,  that  which  cometh  forth  of 

23  the  field  year  by  year.  And  thou  shalt  eat  before  the  Lord  thy  God,  in  the  place  which  he 
shall  choose  to  cause  his  name  to  dwell  there,  the  tithe  of  thy  corn,  of  thy  wine,  and  of  thine 
oil,  and  the  firstlings  of  thy  herd  and  of  thy  flock  ;  that  thou  mayest  learn  to  fear  the  Lord 

24  thy  God  always.  And  if  the  way  be  too  loDg  for  thee,  so  that  thou  art  not  able  to  carry  it,  be¬ 
cause  the  place  is  too  far  from  thee,  which  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  choose  to  set  his  name 

25  there,  when  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  bless  thee  :  then  shalt  thou  turn  it  into  mone3^  and  bind 
up  the  money  in  thine  hand,  and  shalt  go  unto  the  place  which  the  Lord  thy  God  shdll 

26  choose  :  and  thou  shalt  bestow  the  money  for  whatsoever  thy  soul  desireth,  for  oxen,  or  for 
sheep,  or  for  wine,  or  for  strong  drink,  or  for  whatsoever  thy  soul  asketh  of  thee  ,  and  thou 
shalt  eat  there  before  the  Lord  thy  God  :  and  thou  shalt  rejoice,  thou  and  thine  household  : 

27  and  the  Tievite  that  is  within  thy  gates,  thou  shalt  not  forsake  him  ;  for  he  hath  no  portion 

28  nor  inheritance  with  thee.  At  the  end  of  every  three  years  thou  shalt  bring  forth  all  the  tithe 

29  of  thine  increase  in  the  same  year,  and  shalt  lay  it  up  within  thy  gates  :  and  the  Levite, 
because  he  hath  no  jjortion  nor  inheritance  with  thee,  and  the  stranger,  and  the  fatherless, 
and  the  widow,  which  are  within  thy  gates,  shall  come,  and  .shall  eat  and  be  satisfied  ;  that 
the  Lord  thy  God  may  bless  thee  in  all  the  work  of  thine  hand  which  thou  doest. 


The  burnt-offerings  and  peace-offerings,  in 
which  the  unity  of  the  soul  with  God  is  ex¬ 
pressed,  find  their  parallels  in  the  gifts,  the 
■firstlings,  the  first  born,  the  tithes,  the  shew- 
bread,  the  eternal  fire  on  the  altar  of  burnt  offer 
ing,  the  daily  and  festal  burning  of  incense,  the 
washings  before  every  sacred  act  of  prayer  or 
sacrifice,  and  in  the  vows  of  the  Nazarite  and 
the  Rechabite  ;  in  all  these  things  the  desire  is 
expressed  to  authenticate  by  outward  acts 
the  readiness  to  surrender  one's  self  unreserv¬ 
edly  to  God.  Tholuck. 

Offering  of  First-Born  of  Man  and  Beast. 

Ex.  13:1,  2,  11-16;  22:29,  30;  34:19,  20. 

Lev.  27  : 26.  De.  15  : 19,  20. 

2.  Sanctify  unto  me  all  tlic  first- 

boriB.  To  sanctify,  kadanh,  signifies  to  con¬ 
secrate,  separate,  and  set  apart  a  thing  or  person 
from  all  secular  purposes,  to  some  religious  use. 

A.  C. - As  a  permanent  memorial  of  God’s 

having  graciously  spared  them  in  Egypt,  every 
first-born  male,  both  among  men  and  cattle, 
was  henceforward  by  the  Divine  command  to 


Moses  to  be  declared  holy~i.e.,  was  to  be  sep¬ 
arated  from  others,  and  devoted  to  God  and  to 
his  service.  They  were  thus  to  be  put  into  his 
possession,  because  by  sparing  them  in  Egj^pt 
he  had  shown  that  they  belonged  to  him. 
C  G.  B.  ^ 

We  see  throughout  the  patriarchal  period  a 
prominence  given  to  the  right  of  the  first-born, 
who  received  a  double  inheritance  and  author¬ 
ity  over  the  family.  The  reason  for  this  was 
chiefly  founded  on  the  great  importance  at¬ 
tached  in  ancient  times  to  the  keeping  together 
of  families,  the  transmission  of  their  traditions, 
the  maintenance  of  discipline  and  morality,  of 
steadfastness  and  community.  This  famil}'  re¬ 
lationship  had  clearly  continued  in  Egypt,  and 
preserved  Israel  from  disruption.  It  was  in  after 
times  one  of  the  foundation-stones  of  the  Israel- 
itish  political  constitution.  Among  the  people 
of  God  the  first  born  was  the  head,  the  centre 
of  unity  in  the  family,  and  so  God’s  representa¬ 
tive,  After  the  judgment  on  the  Egyptian  first¬ 
born,  Israel  was  now  in  a  double  way  God’s 
peculiar  possession.  He  had  spared  them  of 


438 


SEGTIOy  147.  OFFERINGS  OF  FIRST-BORN 


his  mercy,  as  be  had  punished  the  Egyptians. 
As  a  thank-offering  were  all  the  first-born  to  he 
given  up  to  him.  This  saciilice  consisted  in 
the  perfect  surrender  to  the  seiviceof  the  Lord  ; 
in  which  respect  the  tribe  of  Levi  in  later  times 
stood  in  the  place  of  the  first-born  (Nu.  3  ;  13), 
and  the  first-born  were  hence  under  an  obliga¬ 
tion  to  tax  Ihemselves  for  its  support  ;  at  the 
same  time  the  first-born  was  yet  further  released 
by  an  express  offering.  In  all  this  we  perceive 
a  type  of  him  who  is  “  the  first-born  of  every 
creature”  (Col.  1  ;  15)  ;  who  gave  himself  to  God 
by  the  sacrifice  of  his  own  will  once  for  all,  for 
the  sanctification  of  all,  and  not  merely  as  a 
typical  service.  His  death  became  at  the  same 
time  the  effectual  sin-offering  for  men  (cf.  Heb. 
10  : 5-10).  This  is  the  deep  significance  of  the 
Law  before  tis,  by  means  of  which  Moses  was 
led  to  a  clearer  understanding  of  what  took  place 
before  his  eyes.  Gerl. 

The  earliest  birth  is  here  regarded  as  the  rep¬ 
resentative  of  all  the  births  ;  so  that  the  dedi¬ 
cation  of  the  whole  family  was  involved  in  that 
of  the  first-born.  The  difference  between  the 
first-born  of  Israel  and  the  first-born  of  Egypt 
W{\s  this  :  the  Egyptians  refused  to  render  to 
Jehovah  that  which  was  due  and  continued 
most  obstinately  to  resist  his  will  ;  Israel  did 
nol  draw  back  from  the  dedication  required,  and 
covered  their  previous  omissions  by  the  atoning 
blood  of  the  sacrificial  iamb.  Now  the  Law  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  is,  that  everything  which 
will  not  voluntarily  consecrate  itself  to  the  Lord, 
for  the  purpose  of  receiving  life  and  blessedness 
through  this  self-dedication,  is  compulsorily  dedi¬ 
cated  in  such  a  manner  as  to  receive  judgment 
and  condemnation.  The  slaughter  of  the  first 
born  of  the  Egyptians  is  therefore  to  be  regarded 
as  of  the  nature  of  a  ban,  an  involuntary^  com¬ 
pulsory,  dedication.  But  Israel’s  self-dedica 
tion  to  Jehovah  had  hitherto  been  insufficient, 
and  hence  the  necessity  for  the  expiatory  sacri¬ 
fice  to  cover  the  defects.  The  necessary  com¬ 
plement  of  reconciliation  is  sanctification.  By 
virtue  of  the  atoning  paschal  blood  the  first¬ 
born  of  Israel  had  been  spared  ;  but  if  they 
were  to  continue  to  be  thus  spared,  the  sanctifi¬ 
cation  of  the  first-born  must  follow.  And  as 
the  first-born  of  Egypt  represented  the  entire 
nation  and  in  their  fate  the  wdiole  people  were 
subjected  to  a  compulsory  dedication  ;  so  was 
the  voluntary  dedication  of  the  whole  nation  of 
Israel  set  forth  in  the  sanctification  of  the 
Israelitish  first-born.  K. 

Observe  that  this  order  for  the  consecration 
of  the  first-born,  w’hich  lies  at  the  foundation 
of  the  whole  system  of  provision  for  the  minis¬ 


try  and  ordinances  of  religion  subsequently, 
grows  immediately  out  of  and  connects  with  the 
Passover  covenant  and  its  blessings.  “  The 
first-born  is  mine,”  saith  Jehovah.  Of  course, 
all  things  are  his,  of  right,  by  creation.  But 
this  call  for  the  consecration  of  the  first-born  is 
founded  upon  an  act  of  redemption — the  preser¬ 
vation  of  the  first-born  of  Israel  in  the  blood- 
sprinkled  houses  when  the  first-born  of  Egypt 
were  slain.  It  was,  therefore,  to  be  a  jjerpetual 
reminder  of  this  wmrk  of  redemption,  and  in 
token  of  their  gratitude  for  it  this  portion 
was  to  be  devoted  to  God  as  his  peculiar  por¬ 
tion,  and  if  reappropriated  by  themselves  it 
must  be  redeemed  by  an  equivalent.  When, 
subsequently,  the  new  system  of  religious  wor¬ 
ship  was  formally  inaugurated,  a  whole  tribe 
—  the  tribe  of  Levi — was  taken  as  a  substitute 
for  the  first-born  of  every  family,  so  that  thus 
a  ministry  was  provided.  But  the  consecration 
of  the  firstlings  of  animals  w^as  still  required, 
together  with  the  tithe  of  one  tenth  of  the  prod¬ 
uce  of  the  land  for  the  maintenance  of  religion. 
The  whole  system  subsequently  adopted  had, 
however,  its  original  root  in  this  ordinance  of 
consecration  of  the  first-born.  Thus  it  will  be 
perceived  that  the  iDrovision  made  for  the  sup¬ 
port  of  religious  ordinances  even  in  the  Old 
Testament,  though,  as  to  its  subsequent  form  it 
was  represented  by  the  consecration  of  a  whole 
tribe  to  religion,  and  of  a  tenth  of  the  income 
of  the  land  for  its  maintenance,  was,  in  prin¬ 
ciple  and  in  the  ground  of  it,  the  same  as  under 
the  New  Testament.  The  consecration  of  one’s 
self  to  the  redeeming  Christ  involves  the  conse¬ 
cration  of  all  that  is  his  so  far  as  it  is  needed  to 
promote  the  honor  and  advancement  of  Christ’s 
cause.  And  thus  in  the  ancient  Church  was 
developed  the  principle  laid  down  by  Christ 
that  the  test  to  determine  the  measure  of  one’s 
love  to  God,  and  how'  high  he  stands  in  our 
affections,  is  how  much  we  are  willing  to  part 
with  of  what  we  love  best  in  this  world.  The 
Church  of  Pentecost,  whose  members  no  longer 
“  called  anything  their  own”  as  against  the 
needs  of  the  cause  of  God,  was  indeed  a  fit  suc¬ 
cessor  to  the  newly-redeemed  Church  of  the 
Passover  in  Egypt.  And  fitting  and  beautiful, 
as  the  title  of  a  chiirch  which  had  such  an  origin 
to  its  ministry  and  ordinances,  is  that  title  “  the 
Church  of  the  first-born,  ”  and  Christ  himself  the 
'^first-born  of  many  brethren.”  S.  B. 

Offeeing  of  Fikst-Fettits. 

Ex.  22  :  29,  30  ;  23  : 19.  Nu.  15  : 17-21. 

Ex.  2S:]9.  Tlie  first  of  the  first- 
fruits  thou  Shalt  bring.*  It  was  a  jrrecept 


FIRST-FRUITS.  TITHES. 


439 


of  the  ceremonial  law  that  the  firstlings  of  the 
flock  and  the  first  and  best  fruits  of  the  earth 
should  be  offered  to  God  ;  not  as  if  the  first  was 
more  valuable  iu  his  account  than  the  last,  or 
the  most  early  fruits  in  the  spring  more  pleas¬ 
ing  to  him  than  the  later  in  the  autumn  ;  but  it 
was  instructive  that  our  love,  the  ‘‘  first-born  of 
the  soul  and  the  beginning  of  its  strength,” 

should  be  consecrated  to  God.  Bates. - The 

Israelites  are  commanded  to  offer  their  first 
fruits  for  the  same  reason  that  they  were  to  pay 
the  tribute  for  every  soul  ;  that  they  might  con¬ 
fess  that  they  themselves  and  all  that  they  had 
belonged  to  God.  Calv. 

In  the  Law,  God  called  for  the  first  of  all 
things  ;  he  required  not  only  the  first-fruits, 
but  the  very  first  of  the  first ;  and  in  Lev,  2  : 14, 
he  is  so  set  upon  having  the  first  of  the  first 
that  he  will  not  stay  till  the  ears  of  corn  are 
ripe,  but  will  have  the  green  ears  dried  in  the 
fire.  And  what  would  God  teach  us  by  all  this 
but  to  serve  him  with  the  first-fruits  of  our  age, 
the  morning  of  our  youth  ?  Brooks. 

Special  Law.  Newly-planted  Trees. 

L<ev.  19  :  23-25.  The  i3eople  of  Israel  was 
to  have  in  nature  everywhere  a  mirror  of  God’s 
moral  governance,  and  a  guide  to  him.  As  every 
child  from  his  birth  was  unclean,  until  by  the 
covenant  of  circumcision  he  was  given  to  God 
and  sanctified,  so  are  all  the  fruits  of  the  earth  to 
be  regarded  as  unclean  until  they  have  been  sanc¬ 
tified.  Moreover,  as  nothing  small,  unripe,  im¬ 
perfect,  might  be  sacrificed  to  the  Lord,  the  full 
perfection  of  the  fruit  in  the  fourth  year  was  to 
be  waited  for  before  the  consecration  followed, 
Gerl. 

Tithes. 

/  Lev.  27  :  30-34.  Be.  14  :  22-29. 

L<ev.  27  : 30.  Tlie  titlie  of  llie  land. 

This  is  the  first  mention  of  tithes  in  the  Law  of 
Moses.  As  the  priests  and  Levites  had  no  share 
in  the  division  of  the  land,  except  a  number  of 
cities  with  their  suburbs,  they  were  supported 
by  the  tithe  or  tenth  part  of  the  produce  of  all 
the  lands  :  this  tenth  was  paid  to  the  Levites, 
who  again  paid  a  tenth  of  all  which  they  re¬ 
ceived  to  the  priests.  It  is  impossible  to  assign 
any  direct  reason  why  a  tenth  part  of  the  pro¬ 
duce,  and  not  more  or  less,  was  assigned  to  the 
ministers  of  religion.  The  tenth  part  was  an¬ 
ciently  paid  to  kings,  as  well  as  to  God.  It  ap¬ 
pears  from  1  Sam.  8:15  that  this  was  a  part  of 
the  royal  right  among  the  people  of  the  East. 
Aristotle  mentions  it  as  an  ancient  law  in  Baby¬ 
lon;  the  same  law  obtained  also  in  Athens,  which 
was  a  republic,  and  among  the  Homans.  Lewis. 


Licv.  27  ;  32.  Passctli  under  llic 

rod.  The  tithing  rod,  used  in  numbering  the 
tenth  out  of  the  herd  ;  or  the  shepherd’s  crook, 
under  which  the  flock  passed  as  he  numbered 
them  daily.  Patrick. - It  seems  to  be  in  refer¬ 

ence  to  this  custom  that  the  Prophet  Ezekiel, 
speaking  to  Israel,  says,  I  will  cause  you  to  pass 
under  the  rod,  and  will  bring  you  into  the  bond  of  the 
covenant :  you  shall  be  once  more  claimed  as  the 
Lord's  property,  and  be  in  all  things  devoted  to 
his  service,  being  marked  or  ascertained  by  es¬ 
pecial  providences  and  manifestations  of  his 
kindness,  to  be  his  peculiar  people.  A.  C. 

The  Second  Tithe  (Be.  14  : 22-29). 

The  tithe  of  Lev.  27  : 30-32  (above)  was  taken 
generally  from  the  land,  the  herd,  and  the  flock, 
and  was  paid  to  the  priests  and  Levites  as  their 
regular  means  of  support.  But  here  is  a  second 
tithe  in  addition  to  the  first,  taken  specifically 
from  the  corn,  the  wine,  and  the  oil.  This  was 
not  for  the  maintenance  of  the  priests  and  Le¬ 
vites,  but  was  taken  to  the  sanctuary  and  ex¬ 
pended  in  providing  sacrificial  meals  for  the 
promotion  of  brotherly  and  religious  feeling. 
This  for  two  years  out  of  three.  B.  * 

28,  29.  Every  third  year  the  whole  second 
tithe  of  the  year’s  produce  was  to  be  set  apart, 
not  to  be  brought  to  the  sanctuar}-  to  be  eaten 
before  the  Lord,  but  as  a  portion  in  their  towns 
for  the  Levite,  the  stranger,  the  widow,  and  the 
fatherless.  This  was  not  an  additional  tithe, 
but  the  former  differently  applied  ;  the  tithe  of 
the  first  and  second  years  was  to  be  eaten  before 
the  Lord  at  the  sanctuary  ;  the  tithe  of  the  third 
year  was  for  the  poor  and  needy.  W.  L,  A. 

Each  man  was  to  act  as  his  own  assessor,  and 
to  separate  at  harvest-time  God’s  share  of  corn 
and  wine  and  oil.  Every  plan  was  devised  to 
suit  his  convenience.  He  might  bring  his  tithe 
to  the  temple  either  in  kind  or  in  coin.  Je¬ 
hovah  was  no  hard  Taskmaster,  but  a  consider¬ 
able  and  generous  King.  Giving  to  him  was 
only  another  form  of  receiving,  The  absence  of 
intermediary  officers  was  a  spiritual  advantage. 
It  brought  each  man  into  direct  contact  with 
God,  and  taught  him  to  act  with  integrity  tow¬ 
ard  the  “  Searcher  of  hearts.”  D.  D., 

Piety  and  charily  are  to  be  liberally  provided  for 
in  the  apportionment  of  income.  The  tithes  were 
to  be  faithfully  and  punctually  set  apart  as  a 
first  charge  upon  the  Jew's  income.  The  sec¬ 
ond  or  vegetable  tithe  was  appointed  to  be  con¬ 
sumed  in  feasts  at  the  sanctuary,  or,  in  the  third 
year,  at  home.  A  lesson  is  taught  here  as  to 
the  duty  of  liberal,  systematic,  and  conscien¬ 
tious  giving  for  religious  and  charitable  pur- 


440 


SECTION  148.  ORDINAmES  RESPECTING  FOOD. 


poses.  If  this  was  done  under  law,  how  much 
more  ought  to  be  done  under  the  impulse  of 
love  to  Christ  !  Orr. 

The  iVhes  in  Israel  being  thus  sanctified  by 
the  commandment  of  God  to  his  Itonor^  the 
maintenance  of  his  ministers  and  the  relief  of 
the  poor,  it  taught  them  and  teaches  us  to  honor 
ihe  Lord  with  our  substance  (Prov.  :9)»  acknowl¬ 
edging  him  to  be  the  author  of  all  our  increase 
and  store  (Hos.  2  :  8).  To  honor  his  ministers, 
and  to  communicate  unto  them  in  all  good  things, 
that  they  who  sow  unto  us  spiritual  things  should 
reip  our  carnal  things.  And  to  give  alms  of  such 
things  as  we  have,  thot  all  things  may  he  clear  unto 
us.  Yea  even  to  sell  that  we  have,  and  give  alms  ; 
to  provide  ourselves  b  igs  that  wax.  not  old,  a  treas¬ 
ure  in  ihe  heavens  that  fnileth  not.  Ainsworth. 

The  greatest  prosperity  that  a  man  can  have 
from  God  is  the  gift  of  a  heart  that  loves  to  give. 
Under  the  Old  Dispensation  it  was  a  law  to  give 
the  tenth  part  of  one’s  income  to  the  Lord. 
Under  the  New  Dispensation  all  giving  is  a  vol¬ 
untary  thing.  A  man  who  had  complied  strictly 
with  the  terms  of  the  Law  in  giving  his  tithes 
might  be  just  as  covetous  as  ever  in  regard  to 
all  the  rest  ;  but  a  man  under  grace  has  the 
covetousness  itself  broken  up,  and  feels  that  all 
is  the  Lord’s,  and  only  lent  to  himself  for  a  little 
season  to  use  for  the  Lord,  to  do  good  with  as 
he  has  opportunity.  It  is  one  of  the  remarkable 
things  in  the  change  from  the  Old  Dispensation 
to  the  New,  that  whereas  the  tithe  law  of  be 
nevolence  was  abolished,  no  new  law  was  p\it  in 
its  place  It  was  because  God  was  then  setting 
up  the  voluntary  system,  and  would  carry  every¬ 
thing  by  grace,  and  heartfelt,  cheerful,  happy 
love.  Cheever. 

God  is  a  good  Master.  He  will  be  pleased  to 
see  you  increase  your  comforts,  provided  only 
you  increase  your  giving  to  his  poor  and  his  cause 
in  the  proportion  in  which  you  increase  your  expen¬ 
diture  on  yourself.  Next  to  our  own  daily  sup¬ 
port  and  that  of  those  dependent  upon  us,  lie 
would  have  us  to  lay  up  against  the  time  to 
come,  and  make  provision  for  those  of  our 


households  who  are  under  age  or  in  infirmity  if 
we  should  be  taken  suddenly  from  the  earth. 
If  he  open  up  the  way,  we  may  add  to  the  cap 
ital  of  our  business,  only  however  to  increase 
the  means  of  serving  him.  We  are  to  give  to 
his  cause  and  to  his  poor  liberally  and  sj^sto 
matically.  No  one  of  us  is  kept  from  the  enjoy 
nrent  of  this  high  privilege— for  it  is  a  priv¬ 
ilege  ;  and  as  we  increase  in  resources  v/e  should 
increase  our  gifts.  As  far  as  possible  we  should 
have  a  fixed  proportion  of  our  income  laid  aside 
for  these  j)urposes.  The  poorer  w'e  are,  that 
proportion  may  bo  the  smaller,  for  the  twenti¬ 
eth  part  of  his  income  may  be  a  greater  sacri¬ 
fice  for  one  than  the  tenth  will  be  for  another. 
We  should  never  allow  it  to  become  stereotyped, 
but  w^e  should  adjust  the  matter  anew  with 
every  change  in  our  circumstances.  If  w'e  act 
on  this  plan,  benevolence  would  become  a  habit 
in  us,  instead  of  a  wayward  impulse,  and  our 
lives  would  help  to  irrigate  the  Church,  the 
neighborhood,  and  the  nation  with  blessing. 
W.  M.  T. 


In  the  after  Jewish  history,  tithe  neglect  was 
always  associated  with  spiritual  decay  and 
death,  and  tithe  resumption  was  equally  asso¬ 
ciated  with  spiritual  restoration  and  life.  When 
Hezekiah  instituted  his  great  reformation  he 
made  it  a  point  to  have  tithe  paying  restored. 
And  the  people  were  busy  four  whole  months 
in  the  w'ork.  The  result  w^as  that  God  blessed 
them.  TLe  priests  wdio  served  in  God’s  house 
said  to  Hezekiah,  “  Since  the  people  began  to 
'oring  the  offerings  we  have  had  enough  to  eat 
and  have  left  plenty,  for  the  Lord  hath  blessed 
his  people  and  that  which  is  left  is  this  great 
store.”  It  should  be  the  same  to-day  All  the 
great  societies  are  complaining  for  W'ant  of 
means  to  carry  on  their  work.  If  God’s  people 
would  do  their  duty  and  come  back  to  weekly 
giving,  as  Paul  has  “  given  order,”  and  give  as 
God  has  prospered  them,  the  blessed  shout 
would  come  up  from  the  missionary  societies, 
“  We  are  well  supplied.”  Ashmore. 


Section  148. 

ORDINANCES  RESPECTING  FOOD  ;  CLEAN  AND  UNCLEAN  ANIMALS. 

Exodus  22  ;  31.  Lev.  7  :  22-27  ;  11  : 1-47  ;  19  :  26  ;  20  :  24-26.  De  14  :  3-21. 

Led.  B 1  1  And  the  Lobd  spake  unto  Moses  and  to  Aaron,  saying  unto  them.  Speak  unto 

2  the  children  of  Israel,  saying.  These  are  the  living  things  which  ye  shall  eat  among  all  the 

3  beasts  that  are  on  the  earth.  Whatsoever  parteth  the  hoof,  and  is  clovenfooted,  and  chevveth 

4  the  cud,  among  the  beasts,  that  shall  ye  eat.  Nevertheless  these  shall  ye  not  eat  of  them  that 
chew  the  cud,  or  of  them  that  part  the  hoof  :  the  camel,  because  he  cheweth  the  cud  but  part- 


CLEAN  AND  UNCLEAN  FOOD. 


441 


5  eth  ijot  the  hoof,  he  is  unclean  unto  you.  And  the  coney,  because  he  cheweth  the  cud  but 

G  parteth  not  the  hoof,  he  is  unclean  unto  you.  And  the  hare,  because  she  cheweth  the  cud 

7  but  parteth  not  the  hoof,  she  is  unclean  unto  you.  And  the  swine,  because  he  parteth  the 

8  hoof,  and  is  clovenfooted,  <but  cheweth  not  the  cud,  he  is  unclean  unto  you.  Of  their  tlesh  ye 
shall  net  eat,  and  their  carcases  ye  shall  not  touch  ;  they  are  unclean  unto  you. 

9  These  shall  ye  eat  of  all  that  are  in  the  w'aters  :  whatsoever  hath  fins  and  scales  in  the 

12  waters,  in  the  seas,  and  in  the  rivers,  them  shall  ye  eat.  Whatsoever  hath  no  fins  nor  scales 
‘  in  the  waters,  that  is  an  abomination  unto  you. 

13  And  these  ye  shall  have  in  abomination  among  the  fowls  ;  they  shall  not  be  eaten,  they  are 
ill  an  abomination  :  the  eagle  and  the  gier  eagle,  and  the  ospraj^  ;  and  the  kite,  and  the  falcon 
15  alter  its  kind  ;  every  raven  after  its  kind,  and  the  ostrich,  and  the  night  hawk,  and  the  sea- 
16,  17  mew,  and  the  hawk  after  its  kind  ;  and  the  little  owl,  and  the  cormorant,  and  the  great  owl  ; 

18  and  the  horned  owl,  and  the  pelican,  and  the  vulture  ;  and  the  stork,  the  heron  after  its 

19  kind,  and  the  hoopoe,  and  the  bat. 

20  All  Avinged  creeping  things  that  go  upon  all  four  are  an  abomination  unto  you.  Yet  these 

21  may  ye  eat  of  all  winged  creeping  things  that  go  upon  all  four,  which  have  legs  above  their 

22  feet,  to  leap  withal  upon  the  earth  ;  even  these  of  them  ye  may  eat  ;  the  locust  after  its  kind, 

and  the  bald  locust  after  its  kind,  and  the  cricket  after  its  kind,  and  the  grasshopper  after  its 

kind. 

39  And  if  any  beast,  of  which  ye  may  eat,  die  ;  he  that  toucheth  the  carcase  thereof  shall  be 

40  unclean  until  the  even.  And  he  that  eateth  of  the  carcase  of  it  shall  wash  his  clothes,  and  be 
unclean  until  the  even  :  he  also  that  beareth  the  carcase  of  it  shall  wash  his  clothes,  and  be 
unclean  until  the  even. 

Z)e.  14  21  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  any  thing  that  dieth  of  itself  :  thou  mayest  give  it  unto  the 
stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates,  that  he  may  eat  it  ;  or  thou  mayest  sell  it  unto  a  foreigner : 
for  thou  art  an  holy  people  unto  the  Lord  thy  God. 

Ex.  22  31  And  ye  shall  be  holy  men  unto  me  ;  therefore  ye  shall  not  eat  any  flesh  that  is 
torn  of  beasts  in  the  field  ;  ye  shall  cast  it  to  the  dogs. 

Lev.  7  22  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  say- 

23  ing,  Y"e  shall  eat  no  fat,  of  ox,  or  sheep,  or  goat.  And  the  fat  of  that  which  dieth  of  itself, 
21  and  the  fat  of  that  which  is  torn  of  beasts,  may  be  used  for  any  other  service  :  but  ye  shall  in 

25  no  wise  eat  of  it.  For  whosoever  eateth  the  fat  of  the  beast,  of  which  men  offer  an  offering 
made  by  fire  unto  the  Lord,  even  the  soul  that  eateth  it  shall  be  cut  off  from  his  people. 

26  And  ye  shall  eat  no  manner  of  blood,  whether  it  be  of  fowd  or  of  beast,  in  any  of  your  d well- 

27  ings.  Whosoever  it  be  that  eateth  any  blood,  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from  his  people. 

Lev  2©  24  I  am  the  Lord  your  God,  which  have  separated  you  from  the  peoples.  Ye  shall 

25  therefore  separate  between  the  clean  beast  and  the  unclean,  and  between  the  unclean  fowl 
and  the  clean  :  and  ye  shall  not  make  your  souls  abominable  by  beast,  or  by  fowd,  or  by  any 

26  thing  wherewdth  the  ground  teemeth,  wdiich  I  have  separated  from  you  as  unclean.  And  ye 
shall  be  holy  unto  me  :  for  I  the  Lord  am  holy,  and  have  separated  you  from  the  peoples,  that 
ye  should  be  mine. 

Lev.  11  43  Ye  shall  not  make  yourselves  abominable  with  any  creeping  thing  that  creepeth, 

44  neither  shall  ye  make  yourselves  unclean  with  them,  that  ye  should  be  defiled  thereby.  For  I 
am  the  Lord  your  God  :  sanctify  yourselves  therefore,  and  be  ye  holy  ;  for  I  am  holy  ;  neither 
shall  ye  defile  yourselves  with  any  manner  of  creeping  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth. 

45  For  I  am  the  Lord  that  brought  you  up  OTit  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  to  be  your  God  :  ye  shall 
therefore  be  holy,  for  I  am  holy. 

46  This  is  the  law  of  the  beast,  and  of  the  fowl,  and  of  every  living  creature  that  moveth  in 

47  the  w^aters,  and  of  every  creature  that  creepeth  upon  the  earth  ;  to  make  a  difference  between 
the  unclean  and  the  clean,  and  between  the  living  thing  that  may  be  eaten  and  the  living 
thing  that  may  not  be  eaten. 

[Omissions  of  text  for  economy  of  space.  Substance  indicated  in  the  comment.^ 


This  and  the  three  following  sections,  148- 
150,  treat  of  ceremonial  uncleanness,  which 
may  be  removed  by  ceremonial  observances. 
B. - There  now  follows  a  long  list  of  regula¬ 

tions  with  respect  to  pollution.  One  kind  of 


this  pollution  w'as  the  eating  of  unclean  food. 
The  other  kinds  were  natural  and  bodily  condi¬ 
tions.  These  concern  the  disease  of  leprosy, 
the  relations  of  the  sexes,  child-bearing,  and 
death.  The  object  of  the  Law  in  all  these  cases 


442 


SECTION  148.  ORDINANCES  RESPECTING  FOOD. 


is  continually  to  remind  the  people  of  God  of 
sin,  and  of  their  own  call  to  holiness.  Although 
generation,  birth,  nourishment,  sickness,  and 
death  are  all  God’s  ordinances,  and  therefore 
good,  still  there  clings  to  them  partly  sinful 
lust,  partly  they  stand  in  distinct  relation  to  it 
as  its  punishment  (thou  shalt  bring  forth  with 
sorrow  (Gen.  3  : 16)  ;  with  sorrow  shalt  thou  eat 
until  thou  return  again  to  the  earth,  verses  18, 
19).  For  this  reason,  during  the  time  of  nonage 
laws  must  be  of  the  greatest  consequence  which 
taught  men  to  see  in  bodily  uncleanness  em¬ 
blems  of  spiritual  defilement,  in  bodily  purifi¬ 
cation  the  image  o^  cleanness  of  heart.  Gerl. 

Observe  how  under  the  ancient  economy  the 
idea  of  the  holiness  of  God  was  revealed.  The 
heathen  nations  have  no  word  which  properly 
represents  this  attribute,  and  to  the  Jews  it 
needed  to  be  suggested  by  a  special  institution. 
In  preparation  for  this  arrangement,  all  animals 
were  divided  from  the  first  into  clean  and  un¬ 
clean.  From  the  clean  one  was  afterward 
chosen  without  sj)ot  or  blemish  ;  a  peculiar 
tribe  selected  from  the  other  tribes  was  ap¬ 
pointed  to  present  it,  the  offering  being  first 
washed  with  pure  water,  and  the  priest  himself 
undergoing  a  similar  ablution.  Neither  priest 
nor  victim,  however,  much  less  the  offerer,  was 
deemed  sufficiently  holy  to  come  into  the  Di¬ 
vine  presence  ;  but  the  offering  was  made  with¬ 
out  the  holy  place.  The  idea  of  the  infinite 
purity  of  God  was  thus  suggested  to  the  minds 
of  observers  ;  and  holiness  in  things  created 
came  to  mean,  under  the  Law,  jDurification  for 
sacred  uses.  Angus. 

In  accordance  with  the  character  of  a  dispen¬ 
sation  which  put  moral  and  spiritual  ideas  into 
visible  and  material  forms,  the  distinction  be¬ 
tween  the  clean  and  the  unclean  was  .marked  in 
the  creatures  used  for  food  as  well  as  for  sacri¬ 
fice.  All  the  living  creatures  around  were  made 
to  suggest  moral  conceptions  to  an  Israelite, 
and  it  was  arranged  that  the  very  question, 
“  What  to  eat,  and  what  to  drink,”  should  act 

as  a  bridle  upon  his  will.  D.  F. - There  can 

be  no  doubt  that  there  was  a  sanitary  element 
in  this  distinction  ;  but  it  is  evident  that  this 
was  not  the  main  idea  ;  for  it  is  not  ”  whole¬ 
some  and  unwholesome,”  but  “  clean  and  tin- 
dean.  ”  It  was  not  simply  and  solely  a  natural 
distinction,  but  also  and  mainly  ceremonial. 
J.  M.  G. 

The  distinction  of  the  animal  tribes  into  clean 
and  unclean,  is  founded  not  so  much  upon  any¬ 
thing  in  the  nature  of  lli(if  JuihUs  as  more  or 
less  cleanly,  but  upon  the  circumstance  that  one 
class  of  them  was  to  be  eaten  for  food,  and  the 


other  not.  If,  then,  to  declare  an  animal  clean 
or  unclean,  was  merely  to  pronounce  it  fit  or 
unfit  to  be  eaten,  it  follows  that  there  was  noth¬ 
ing  contemptuous  or  degrading  in  the  use  of  the 

epithet  unclean  in  this  connection.  Bush. - 

God  does  not  condemn  his  work  in  the  animals, 
but  he  would  have  them  accounted  unclean  that 
the  j)eople  may  abominate  that  which  in  forbid¬ 
den  them.  It  is  only  transgression  which  de¬ 
files  :  for  the  animals  have  never  changed  their 
nature  ;  but  it  was  in  God’s  power  to  determine 
what  he  would  have  to  be  lawful  or  unlawful. 
Christ  declares  that  “  not  that  which  goeth  into 
the  mouth  defileth  a  man.”  When  God  for 
bade  the  Israelites  to  eat  this  or  that  kind  of 
food,  they  were  admonished  by  this  ceremonial 
jjrecept  how  abominable  is  the  inward  corrup¬ 
tion  of  the  heart.  But  by  such  elementary 
teaching  they  were  led  onward  to  spiritual  doc 

trine.  Calv. - They  were  to  learn  that  even 

the  common  business  of  eating  was  to  be  gov¬ 
erned  by  holy  laws.  By  minute  obedience  to- 
precept,  the}'  were  to  be  indoctrinated  into  the 
principles  of  holiness.  Their  social  board  was 
to  be  a  standing  protest  against  idolatrous  cus¬ 
toms,  and  also  a  perpetual  rebuke  of  impurity 
and  of  any  infringement  of  sanitary  law.  C.  C. 

Further,  this  arrangement  served  for  the  daily 
discipline  of  obedience  and  faith.  Apart  from 
the  command  they  might  have  eaten,  or  ab¬ 
stained  from  eating,  without  any  violation  of 
conscience.  This  would  make  the  matter  a  bet¬ 
ter  test  of  obedience.  In  abstaining  from  such 
and  such  meat  they  did  no  one  wrong  ;  they 
violated  no  law  of  nature,  no  law  of  God  ;  they 
did  themselves  no  injury.  They  still  had 
enough  to  meet  all  the  necessities  of  hunger. 
Here,  then,  was  a  true  test  whether  men  would 
simply  obey  God’s  word,  even  though  obedi^ 
ence  should  mean  privation.  This  was  the  dis¬ 
cipline  of  faith.  D.  D.  - 

The  food  allowed  the  Hebrew  nation,  as  an 
holy  people,  were  the  gentler  sort  of  creatures 
and  of  most  common  use,  such  as  were  bred 
about  their  houses  and  in  their  fields  ;  they 
were  creatures  of  the  cleanest  feeding,  which 
gave  the  most  wholesome  nourishment  and  were 
of  a  better  taste,  and  might  be  had  in  greater 
plenty  and  perfection  by  a  proper  care  of  their 
breeding  and  feeding  ;  they  seem,  therefore, 
naturally  fit  to  be  chosen  as  a  better  kind  of 
food.  Such  a  difference  as  the  ritual  makes  be¬ 
tween  foods  was  wisely  appointed  to  encourage 
the  improvement  of  their  ground,  to  contribute 
to  the  health  of  their  bodies,  and  to  the  ease  of 
their  employment  in  life,  no  inconsiderable 
part  of  the  blessings  of  the  promised  land. 


BEASTS,  FISHES  AND  FOWLS. 


443 


Lowman. - As  regards  the  animals  allowed  for 

food,  comparing  them  with  those  forbidden, 
there  can  be  no  doubt  on  which  side  the  balance 
of  wholesomeness  lies.  Nor  would  any  dietetic 
economist  fail  to  pronounce  in  favor  of  the  Le- 
vitical  dietary  code  as  a  whole,  as  insuring  the 
maximum  of  public  health  and  yet  of  national 
distinctness,  procured,  however,  by  a  minimum 
of  the  inconvenience  arising  from  restriction. 
Die.  B. 

Lev.  IB  :  Among  the  clean  creatures 

are  the  ox,  the  sheep,  the  goat,  the  lamb  ;  all 
fishes  with  fins  and  scales,  and  of  the  fowls,  the 
dove,  the  pigeon,  the  lark,  whose  habits  are 
agreeable,  and  their  flesh  grateful.  On  the 
other  side  we  find  the  dog,  the  swine,  the  wolf, 
the  fox,  the  lion,  the  tiger  ;  of  birds,  the  vul¬ 
ture,  the  kite,  the  raven,  the  owl,  the  bat  ;  of 
reptiles,  the  whole  serpent  tribe,  with  the  eel 
and  the  water-snake  ;  and  finally  all  insects  and 
worms,  and  the  various  species  of  testacea. 

Busk. - All  these  marks  of  distinction  in  the 

Levitical  Law  are  wisely  and  even  necessarily 
made  on  the  basis  of  popular  observation  and 
belief,  not  on  that  of  anatomical  exactness. 
These  matters  are  often  referred  to  as  scientific 
errors  ;  whereas  they  were  simply  descriptions, 
necessarily  popular,  tor  the  understanding  and 
enforcement  of  the  Law.  Gardiner. 

Distinction  of  Beasts. 

Lev.  11  :  2-8.  De.  14  ;  3-8. 

“  Whatsoever  partelh  the  hoof  and  is  cloven- 
footed,  and  cheweth  the  cud,  that  shall  ye  eat.” 

Lev.  tl  ;  3.  Cliewetli  llie  eud.  Ru¬ 
minates,  casts  up  the  grass  which  had  been  taken 
into  the  stomach,  for  the  purpose  of  mastication. 
Animals  which  chew  the  cud,  or  ruminate, 
are  provided  with  teoo,  three,  or  four  stomachs. 
The  ox  has  four  :  in  the  first  or  largest,  called 
the  veniriculus  (rumen),  the  food  is  collected 
without  being  masticated.  The  food,  by  the 
force  of  the  muscular  coats  of  this  stomach  and 
the  liquors  poured  in,  is  sufficiently  macerated, 
after  which,  formed  into  small  balls,  it  is  thrown 
up  by  the  oesophagus  into  the  mouth,  where  it 
is  made  very  small  by  mastication  or  chewing, 
and  then  sent  down  into  the  second  stomach, 
into  which  the  oesophagus  opens  as  well  as  into 
the  first,  ending  exactly  where  the  two  stomachs 
meet.  This  is  what  is  termed  chewing  the  cud. 
The  second  stomach,  which  is  called  the  reticulum, 
honey-comb,  ItonnH,  or  king' s-hood,  has  a  great 
number  of  small  shallow  cells  on  its  inw’ard  sur¬ 
face  ;  in  this  the  food  is  further  macerated,  and 
then  pushed  onward  into  the  third  stomach,  called 
the  omasum  or  manyplies,  because  its  inward 


surface  is  covered  wdth  a  great  number  of  thin 
membranous  ijartitions.  From  this  the  food 
passes  into  the  Jrmrth.  stomach,  called  the  aha- 
massum  or  'letd.  Ja  ihis  stomach  it  is  digested, 
and  from  the  digested  mass  the  chyle  is  formed, 
which  being  absorbed  by  the  lacteal  \essels  is 
afterward  thrown  into  the  mass  of  blood,  and  be¬ 
comes  the  principle  of  nutrition  to  all  the  solids 
and  fluiils  of  the  body.  The  intention  of  ru¬ 
mination,  or  chewing  the  cud,  seems  to  be  that  the 
food  maybe  sufficiently  comminuted,  that  being 
more  fully  acted  on  by  the  stomachs  it  may 
afford  the  greatest  possible  portion  of  nutritive 
juices.  A  C. 

Another  peculiar  characteristic  of  clean  beasts 
is  that  of  chewing  the  cud — a  faculty  so  expressive 
of  that  act  of  the  mind  by  which  it  revolves, 
meditates,  and  reasons  upon  what  it  receives 
within  it,  that  the  word  ruminate,  from  rumen, 
the  stomach,  distinctive  of  this  class  of  animals, 
has  become  an  established  metaphorical  term 
in  our  language,  by  which  to  express  the  act  of 
the  mind  in  studious  meditation. 

Distinction  of  Fshes. 

Lev.  11  :  9-12.  De.  14  ;  9,  10. 

All  that  have  scales  and  fins  were  to  be  ac¬ 
counted  clean,  and  all  others  unclean — a  dis¬ 
tinction  equally  clear,  simple,  and  systematic. 
Even  to  this  day  fish  with  fins  and  scales  are 
generally  regarded  as  wholesome  and  often  de¬ 
licious,  while  others  that  differ  in  these  particu¬ 
lars  are  looked  upon  with  disgust,  and  occa¬ 
sionally  with  horror,  under  a  belief  that  they  are 
sometimes  poisonous  It  is  interesting  to  re¬ 
mark  how  the  sentiments  of  mankind  do  gener¬ 
ally,  in  this  matter,  coincide  with  the  Divine 
precept. 

Distinction  of  Fowls. 

Lev.  11  ;  13-19.  De.  14  : 11-18. 

The  ordinance  respecting  birds  differs  from 
the  others  in  the  absence  of  any  particular  dis¬ 
tinction  of  clean  and  unclean.  It  merely  speci¬ 
fies,  for  the  sake  of  prohibiting,  certain  species 
of  known  birds,  leaving  it  to  be  understood  that 
all  others  were  allowed.  But  even  in  regard  to 
the  permitted  species,  it  is  now  so  difficult  to 
ascertain  them,  that  we  cannot  resist  the  infer¬ 
ence  that  the  Law  itself  must  be  considered  as 
abrogated  ;  for  there  is  probably  not  a  Jew  in 
existence  who  is  able  to  identify  the  different 
classes  here  mentioned.  And  the  same  remark 
holds  good  in  respect  to  many  of  the  animals 
and  insects  designated  in  this  chapter.  As 
Moses  begins  his  catalogue  with  the  eagle,  the 
highest  and  noblest  of  the  feathered  race,  so  he 


444 


SECTION  148.  ORDINANCES  RESPECTING  FOOD. 


ends  with  the  bat,  which  is  the  lowest,  and 
lornis  the  connecting  link  between  the  quad- 
iu2)ed  and  volatile  species.  Bash. 

The  unclean  buds  are  those  which  are  gross 
feeders,  devonrers  of  flesh  or  offal,  and  therefore 
offensive  to  the  taste,  beginning  with  the  eagle 
and  vulture  tribe.  F.  M. - The  birds  forbid¬ 

den  are  either  rapacious,  and  live  on  flesh,  or 
are  nightbirds,  or  haunt  marshes  and  lakes,  or 
are  heavy  and  not  easily  raised  from  the  ground, 
or  live  on  coarse  diet.  On  the  contrary,  the 
birds  allowed  by  the  Law  of  Moses  are  those 
that  live  upon  a  cleaner  food.  Lewis. 

Dislittdion  of  Insects. 

Lev.  11  :  20-23.  De.  14  : 19. 

120.  All  wing^ed  crecpiii;;;  tliingis. 

That  insects  are  here  meant  is  plain  from  the 
following  verse,  and  therefore  the  sense  is,  all 
those  creatures  which  fly  and  also  creej),  “  going 
upon  all  four” — i.e.,  creeping  along  upon  their 
feet  in  the  manner  of  quadrupeds,  such  as  flies, 
wasps,  bees,  etc.,  together  with  all  leaping  in¬ 
sects  ;  these  are  to  be  avoided  as  unclean,  with 

the  excejjtions  in  the  two  next  verses. - 121, 

1212.  Insects,  rejjtiles,  and  worms  are  generally 
jirohibited  ;  but  an  exception  is  here  made  in 
favor  of  those  insects  which,  besides  four  walk¬ 
ing  legs,  have  also  two  longer  springing  legs  and 
•which,  under  the  name  of  “  locusts,”  are  de¬ 
clared  clean.  Those  particularly  enumerated 
seem  to  indicate  the  four  leading  genera  of  the 
locust  famil}'.  In  Palestine,  Arabia,  and  the 
adjoining  countries,  locusts  are  one  of  the  com¬ 
mon  articles  of  food,  and  the  people  would  be 
very  ill  off  if  precluded  from  eating  them.  Bush. 

- They  collect  them  in  great  quantities,  not 

only  for  their  own  eating,  but  for  sale  in  the 
bazaars — for  these  insects  are  highly  relished 
by  all  classes  of  people.  In  some  towns  there 
are  shops  exclusively  for  the  sale  of  locusts. 
They  are  so  prepared  as  to  be  kept  for  use  a 
considerable  time.  Kit. 

Creeping  Things. 

Lev.  11  : 29-38,  41-43. 

All  creatures  of  the  creeping  kind  may  be 
ranged  under  the  three  following  classes  :  Those 
which  move  by  the  aid  of  the  under  joart  of  the 
stomach  and  belly,  as  serpents.  Those  which, 
though  they  have  four  legs,  nevertheless  move 
like  reptiles,  as  lizards,  moles.  Those  which 
move  by  short  and  almost  imperceptible  feet, 
as  caterpillars,  centipedes,  millepedes.  Bush. 

As  the  little  animals  mentioned  — 
weasels,  mice,  and  lizards — are  more  likely  than 
those  of  a  larger  size  to  be  found  dead  in  domes¬ 


tic  utensils  and  clothes,  a  further  warning  as  to 
their  defiling  character  is  addeil,  with  rules  for 
daily  use. 

4 1-4«{.  The  last  class  is  that  c  f  vermin,  which 
constitute  a  part  of  the  unwiuged  creeijing  class 
already  spoken  of  (verses  29,  3U)  Whatsoever 
goeth  upon  the  belly  indicates  snakes,  worms, 
maggots  ;  whatsoever  goeth  upon  all  four,  things 
that  grovel,  as  moles,  rats,  hedgehogs  ;  whatso¬ 
ever  hath  more  feet,  or  doth  multiply  feet,  centi¬ 
pedes,  caterpillars,  spiders.  F.  M. 

Defilement  from  Unclean  Carcases. 

Lev.  11  : 24-28,  39,  40. 

The  great  inconveniences  which  the  Law  con¬ 
nected  with  defilements  necessarily  obliged  the 
Israelites  to  jiay  great  attention  to  cleanliness  : 
and  this  was  probably  what  the  laws  on  this 
subject  had  principally  in  view.  Kit. 

Animals  Eaten  to  he  Properly  S'aughtered. 

_  « 

Ex.  22  :  31.  “  Flesh  torn  of  beasts  in  the  field  ye 
shall  not  eat  ;  ye  shall  cast  u  to  the  dogs." 

Lev.  17  : 15.  “  Every  soul  that  eateth  that 
which  dieth  of  itself,  or  is  torn  of  beasts,  be  he 
home-born  or  stranger,  shall  be  unclean  until 
even." 

De.  14  :  21.  “Ye  shall  not  eat  anything  that 
duth  (f  itself :  thou  mayest  give  it  to  the  stranger, 
or  sell  it  to  a  foreigner." 

With  the  law  of  clean  and  unclean  foods, 
there  fitly  connects  itself  this  one  forbidding  as 
food  the  flesh  of  animals  accidentally  killed  or 
dying  a  natural  death.  It  is  really  the  old 
Noachian  precept  (G-en.  9  : 4)  in  another  form, 
which  forbade  eating  the  blood  with  the  flesh 
(cf.  De.  12  : 16,  24  ;  15  : 23),  and  which  was  held 
by  the  Jews  of  later  times  to  be  binding  on  all 
proselytes  (cf.  Acts  15  :  20,  29  ;  21  :25).  The 
present  enactment  is  found  in  each  of  the  three 
codes,  but  with  considerable  difference  of  detail. 
It  is  quite  in  keeping  with  the  circumstances, 
that  the  Law  in  its  Levitical  shape,  as  applicable 
especially  to  life  in  camj),  should  put  both  citi¬ 
zens  and  strangers  under  the  same  rule  ;  while 
the  Deuteronomic,  looking  toward  changed  con¬ 
ditions  in  Palestine,  takes  on  a  considerably 
milder  form  as  it  respects  the  latter.  In  fact, 
the  permission  to  sell  the  carcases  of  fallen  ani¬ 
mals  to  “foreigners”  would  have  been  without 
special  pertinence  during  the  forty  years’  wan¬ 
derings.  Such  a  class  was  then  almost  entirely 
wanting;  while  the  ’“stranger” — that  is,  so¬ 
journer  and  possible  proselyte,  belonging  to  a 
wholly  different  category,  was  necessarily  sub¬ 
jected,  as  we  have  seen,  to  Israelitish  laws. 
E.  C.  B. 


DESIGN  OF  THESE  OllDINANCES. 


445 


Dietli  of  itself,  or  lorn  of  l>esisfs. 

This  is  but  the  application  of  the  main  law  in 
regard  to  blood  ;  for  in  both  cases  the  blood 
was  retained  in  the  body  ;  hence  the  council  at 
Jerusalem  forbade  things  stranghd,  as  well  as 
blood;  because  in  such  beasts  the  blood  was 
coagulated  in  the  veins  and  arteries.  Bush. 

The  dt'filing  character  of  dea'h  through  natural 
causes  was  to  be  constan'ly  recognized.  Men  might 
devote  an  animal  to  death  for  sacrificial  pur¬ 
poses  or  for  their  own  use,  but  when  death 
came  as  the  debt  of  nature,  at  once  its  defiling 
character  must  be  realized  and  purification 
sought  accordingly:  These  laws  entailed  con¬ 
stant  watchfulness,  No  careless  living  was  pos¬ 
sible  under  the  Jewish  regime.  Edgar. 

Neither  Fat  nor  Blood  to  be  Eaten. 

Lev.  7  :  22-27  ;  19  :  26. 

The  prohibition  of  fat  was  distinguished  from 
that  of  blood  by  its  being  grounded  simply  on 
its  consecration  to  a  peculiar  use  on  the  altar 
and  its  being  limited  to  the  suet  of  the  animals 
which  were  offered  in  sacrifice.  It  would  seem 
that  it  was  in  virtue  of  this  distinction  that  the 
apostles  decided  to  retain  only  the  restriction 
regarding  blood,  confirmed  as  it  is  by  the  pri¬ 
meval  prohibition  (Gen.  9  :  4).  Clark. 

Medically  considered,  fat  is  certainly  unwhole¬ 
some,  and  particularly  so  in  warm  climates. 
Besides  this,  the  eating  of  the  fat  pieces  in  ques¬ 
tion,  and  the  use  of  fat  in  the  preparation  of 
food,  is  highly  injurious  to  persons  particularly 
subject  to  cutaneous  disorders,  as  the  Israelites 
seem  to  have  been.  To  this  we  may  add  that, 
as  it  was  an  object  to  discourage  friendly  inter¬ 
course  between  the  Israelites  and  the  idolatrous 
nations,  nothing  could  be  better  calculated  than 
these  regulations  to  prevent  them  from  joining 
in  the  festivites  of  their  neighbors.  Piet.  Bib. 

The  prohibition  of  blood  is  more  general,  be¬ 
cause  the  fat  was  offered  to  God  only  by  way  of 
acknowledgment  ;  but  the  blood  made  atonement 
for  the  soul,  and  so  typified  the  sacrifice  of 
Christ  much  more  clearly  than  the  burning  of 
fat  ;  to  this,  therefore,  a  greater  reverence  must 
be  jjaid,  till  those  types  had  their  accomplish¬ 
ment  in  the  offering  up  of  the  body  of  Christ 
once  for  all.  The  Jews  rightly  expound  this 
Law  as  forbidding  only  the  blood  of  the  life. 

Bash. - The  eating  of  blood  was  so  often  and 

so  strongly  prohibited  because  its  practice  would 
have  encouraged  inhumanitj”,  because  it  would 
have  lowered  men’s  estimate  of  the  preciousness 
of  human  life,  and  chiefly  because  of  its  vital 


relation  to  the  great  end  of  all  sacrificial  offer¬ 
ing.  B. 

The  Ultimate  End  and  Sublime  Object  of  the  Ordi¬ 
nances  Bespecting  Food. 

Lev.  11  : 43-45  ;  20  : 24-26.  De  14:21  {last 

clause). 

“  I  am  the  Loed  your  God,  which  have  sep¬ 
arated  you  from  other  people.  Ye  shall  not 
make  your  souls  abominable  by  any  manner  of 
living  thing  which  I  have  separated  from  you  as 
unclean.  For  I  am  the  Loed  j^our  God  :  sanc¬ 
tify  yourselves  therefore,,  and  be  ye  holy  ;  for  I 
am  holy  :  neither  shall  ye  defile  yourselves. 
For  I  am  the  Loed  that  brought  you  up  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  to  be  your  God.  And  ye 
shall  be  holy  unto  me  :  for  I  the  Loed  am  holy, 
and  have  severed  you  from  other  people,  that  ye 
should  be  mine.  For  thou  art  an  holy  people 
unto  the  Loed  thy  God.” 

These  concluding  verses  [grouped  from  pas¬ 
sages  noted  above]  give  a  religious  sanction  to 
the  previous  regulations,  and  make  them  mat¬ 
ters  of  sacred,  not  merely  sanitary  or  political, 
obligation.  They  were  to  sanctify  themselves 
— that  is,  to  avoid  uncleanness,  because  God  is 
hol3%  and  they  were  God’s.  They  were  thus 
taught  that  ceremonial  cleanness  of  the  body 
was  a  symbol  of  holiness  of  heart,  and  a  means 

of  its  attainment.  F.  M. - As  the  body  exists 

only  for  the  sake  of  the  soul,  and  God  feeds  and 
nourishes  it  through  the  day  of  probation  that 
the  soul  may  here  be  prepared  for  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  ;  therefore  he  shows  in  the  conclusion 
of  these  ordinances,  that  the  grand  scope  and 
design  of  all  was  that  they  might  be  a  holy  people  ; 
and  that  they  might  resemble  him  who  is  a  holy 
God.  God  is  holy,  and  this  is  the  eternal  reason 
why  all  his  people  should  be  holy  ;  should  be 
purified  from  all  filthiness  of  the  flesh  and  spirit, 
perfecting  holiness  in  the  fear  of  God.  A.  C. 

This  is  indeed  the  great  design  of  all  the  or¬ 
dinances,  that  by  them  we  may  sanctify  our¬ 
selves  and  learn  to  be  holy.  Even  this  law 
concerning  their  food,  which  seemed  to  stoop 
so  very  low,  aimed  thus  high,  for  it  was  the 
statute-law  of  heaven  under  the  Old  Testament 
as  well  as  the  New,  that  without  holiness  no  man 

shad  see  the  Lord.  H. - A  redeemed  life  must 

be  holy.  “  He  that  hath  this  hope  in  Him  puri- 
fieth  himself,  even  as  He  is  pure.”  Christ  has 
cleansed  us  with  his  blood,  therefore  we  must 
be  clean.  Likeness  to  God  is  our  rule  ;  fellow¬ 
ship  with  God  is  our  strength  and  joy.  B.  A.  R 


446  SECTION  149.  CEREMONIAL  UNCLEANNESS  AND  PURIFICATION 


Section  149. 


CEREMONIAL  UNCLEANNESS  AND  PURIFICATION  :  LEPROSY  IN  PERSON,  GAR¬ 
MENTS,  AND  DWELLING. 

Leviticus  13  :  1-59  ;  14  : 1-57.  Nu.  5  : 1-4.  De.  24  :  8,  9. 


[The  text  of  Lev.  13  and  14  omitted,  but  the  substance  fully  explained.] 

Nil  5  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Command  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they 

2  put  out  of  the  camp  every  leper,  and  every  one  that  hath  an  issue,  and  whosoever  is  unclean 

3  by  the  dead  :  both  male  and  female  shall  ye  put  out,  without  the  camp  shall  ye  put  them  ; 

4  that  they  defile  not  their  camp,  in  the  midst  whereof  I  dwell.  And  the  children  of  Israel  did 
so,  and  put  them  out  without  the  camp  :  as  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  so  did  the  children 
of  Israel. 

De.  8  Take  heed  in  the  plague  of  leprosy,  that  thou  observe  diligently,  and  do  accord¬ 
ing  to  all  that  the  priests  the  Levites  shall  teach  you  :  as  I  commanded  them,  so  ye  shall  ob- 

9  serve  to  do.  Remember  what  the  Lord  thy  God  did  unto  Miriam,  by  the  way  as  ye  came 
forth  out  of  Egypt. 


Ceremonial  purifications,  like  the  sacrifices, 
had  an  immediate  efficacy,  symbolizing  that  be¬ 
longing  to  the  change  which  they  prefigured. 
The  occasions  of  these  ceremonial  cleansings 
arose  partly  from  the  state  of  the  body,  under 
which  head  the  leprosy  may  be  included,  and 
partly  from  external  contact  with  dead  bodies, 
or  participation  in  the  rites  of  burial.  The 
purifying  rites  themselves  were  always  partly 
sacrificial.  The  additional  ceremonies  consisted 
chiefly  in  sprinkling  with  water,  either  pure  or 
mixed  with  the  blood  of  the  victim,  or  with  its 
ashes,  or  with  those  of  cedar-wood,  scarlet  wool, 
and  hyssop,  to  which  may  be  added  the  letting 
go  of  living  birds  on  a  particular  occasion.  The 
officiating  person  was  required  to  be  clean— that 
is,  ceremonially  undefiled,  but  not  necessarily 
a  priest.  The  best  explanation  is  that  these 
purifying  rites  were  intended  to  keep  con¬ 
stantly  before  the  mind  the  idea  of  sin  as  a  de¬ 
filement,  and  the  necessity  of  sanctification, 
just  as  the  sacrifices  rendered  prominent  the 
idea  of  guilt  and  the  necessity  of  expiation. 
Thus  the  two  great  doctrines  of  atonement  and 
sanctification  were  embodied  in  these  two  dis¬ 
tinct  but  parallel  systems  of  expiatory  and  ex¬ 
purgatory  rites.  All  the  cases  are  connected 
more  or  less  with  a  natural  feeling  which  adapted 
them  to  serve  this  purpose.  It  was  not  neces¬ 
sary  for  this  end  that  they  should  all  be  imme¬ 
diately  connected  with  actual  sin.  A  leper,  for 
example,  might  be  a  good  man  ;  but  this  only 
served  to  prevent  misapprehension,  and  to  show 
that  the  whole  system  was  symbolical.  .  .  . 
The  entire  system  of  ceremonial  defilement  and 
purification  may  be  described  as  intended  to 
keep  constantly  before  the  mind,  by  natural 
association  no  less  than  by  arbitrary  symbols, 
the  loathsomeness  of  sin,  the  innate  corruption 


of  mankind,  its  hereditary  propagation,  its  con¬ 
nection  with  the  sufferings  of  life,  and  its  ten¬ 
dency  to  death,  both  in  the  lowest  and  the  high¬ 
est  sense  ;  while  the  complication  of  these  puri¬ 
fying  rites  with  those  of  sacrifice  peiqietually 
taught  the  fundamental  doctrine  that  without 
atonement  moral  renovation  is  impossible.  All 
these  were  symbols,  as  distinguished  from 
prophetic  t3^pes,  and  as  such  suited  to  prepare 
the  way  for  the  Christian  system,  without  con¬ 
founding  the  two  dispensations  by  an  anticipa¬ 
tion  of  the  Gospel  light  amid  the  shadows  of 
the  Law.  J.  A.  A. 

“  Uncleanness”  was  not  the  immediate  con¬ 
sequence  of  deliberate  wrong-doing,  but,  as  far 
as  the  subject  of  it  was  concerned,  it  was  so  in¬ 
terwoven  with  the  present  constitution  of  things 
as  to  deserve  the  name  of  involuntary.  To  be 
unclean  was  to  become  defiled  in  the  course  of 
nature.  ...  In  the  technical  language  of  the 
Law,  certain  physical  conditions  rendered  their 
subject  “unclean.”  The  “unclean”  were  tem¬ 
porarily  cut  off  from  the  theocratic  privileges 
of  the  Israelite,  whether  priest  or  common  per¬ 
son  ;  but  these  privileges  were  restored  upon 
the  dutiful  fulfilment  of  the  rites  of  purifica¬ 
tion.  Purification  was  effected  either  by  water 
or  by  blood.  Gave. 

Of  all  the  various  sorts  of  ceremonial  unclean¬ 
ness,  there  is  none  which  appears  to  have  had 
so  much  a  typical  import  as  the  case  of  lepros}', 
which  accordingly  is  treated  of  with  a  niceness 
of  distinction  and  a  particularity  of  detail  pecul¬ 
iar  to  itself.  Not  less  than  these  two  very  long 
chapters  are  devoted  to  the  ascertaining  of  the 
signs  of  this  disease,  and  prescribing  the  method 
of  its  purification.  R.  Hall. - As  disease  gen¬ 

erally  is  the  fruit  and  evidence  of  sin,  every 
form  of  disease  might  have  been  held  to  be 


LEPROSY. 


447 


polluting,  and  to  have  required  separate  puri¬ 
fications.  This  would  have  rendered  the  cere¬ 
monial  observances  an  intolerable  burden.  One 
disease,  therefore,  was  chosen  in  particular,  and 
that  such  an  one  as  could  scarcely  fail  to  appear 
a  fit  representation  and  most  atfecting  symbol 
of  sin.  This  disease  was  the  leprosy  (the  while 
leprosy,  as  it  is  sometimes  called,  to  distinguish 
it  from  other  forms  of  the  same  malady).  It  is 
described  with  much  minuteness  by  Moses,  and 
various  marks  are  given  to  distinguish  it  from 
others,  which,  though  somewhat  resembling  it, 
yet  did  not  possess  its  inveterate  and  virulent 
character.  It  began  in  the  formation  of  certain 
spots  upon  the  skin,  small  at  first,  but  gradually 
increasing  in  dimensions  ;  at  their  first  appear¬ 
ance  of  a  reddish  color,  but  by  and  by  present¬ 
ing  a  white,  scaly,  shining  aspect,  attended  b^' 
little  pain,  but  incapable  of  being  healed  by  any 
known  remedy.  Slowly,  yet  regularly,  the 
spots  continued  to  increase,  till  the  whole  bodj^ 
came  to  be  overspread  with  them,  and  assumed 
the  appearance  of  a  white,  dry,  diseased,  un¬ 
wholesome  scurf.  But  the  corruption  extended 
inwardly  while  it  spread  outwardly,  and  affected 
even  the  bones  and  marrow  :  the  joints  became 
first  relaxed,  then  dislocated  ;  fingers,  toes,  and 
even  limbs  dropped  off  ;  and  the  body  at  length 
fell  to  pieces,  a  loathsome  mass  of  dissolution 
and  decay.  Such  is  the  description  of  the  dis¬ 
ease  given  in  Scripture,  taken  in  connection 
with  what  is  known  of  certain  bodily  disorders 
which  still  go  b}’^  the  name  of  leprosy.  It  was 
disease  manifesting  itself  peculiarly  in  the  form 
of  corruption — a  sort  of  living  death.  P.  F. 

Of  all  pollutions,  that  of  leprosy  is  mentioned 
with  especial  detail —certainly  not  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  giving  sanitary  regulations,  but  by  refer¬ 
ence  to  this  bodily  evil  to  awaken  an  inward 
horror  of  sin,  and  its  kingdom — death.  From 
this  way  of  viewing  it  arise  the  great  care  and 
minuteness  with  which  this  ailment  was  distin¬ 
guished  from  all  others  of  a  similar  kind.  Oerl. 
- Several  varieties  of  disease,  more  or  less  in¬ 
timately  connected  with  each  other,  were  cer¬ 
tainly  included  under  the  generic  term  tsara'ath, 
and  some  of  these  were  contagious  and  some 

K.J 

were  not  ;  and  this  fact  seems  to  furnish  the 
simplest  explanation  of  most  of  the  difficul¬ 
ties  that  beset  the  subject.  For  instance,  the 
apparently  paradoxical  regulation  that  a  man 
entirely  covered  with  leprosy  is  to  be  pro¬ 
nounced  “clean”  (Lev.  13:12,  13).  But  the 
explanation  is  easy  and  satisfactory  if  we  sup¬ 
pose  that  the  “  unclean”  leprosy  was  simply 
one  or  more  of  the  contagious  species,  and  that 
the  man  who  was  pronounced  “  clean,”  even 


when  covered  with  a  white  eruption  from  head 
to  foot,  was  one  who  might  safely  mix  with  his 
neighbors  without  any  fear  of  communicating 

to  them  his  disease.  W.  A.  Greenhill. - As 

the  prominent  aim  of  the  laws  on  this  subject 
was  to  secure  a  fair  and  impartial  decision  of 
the  main  question,  of  the  Jact  of  the  disease, 
Moses  has  not  mentioned  those  signs  of  leprosy 
which  admitted  of  no  doubt,  but  those  only 
which  might  be  the  subject  of  contention,  and 
left  it  to  the  priests  to  distinguish  between  the 
really  leprous  and  those  v-ho  had  only  the  ap¬ 
pearance  of  being  such.  Bush. 

I^ev.  13  :  1-17,  Symptoms  to  he  Examined  and 

Determined  by  the  Priest  (verses  18-44).  Methods 

of  Discriminating  between  Leprous  Spots  and 

Ulcers,  Burns,  Freckles,  and  Baldness. 

What  the  Leper  Himself  is  Enjoined  to  do. 

Lev.  13  :45,  46. 

His  elotlies  sliall  l>c  rent,  tlie  liair 
of  liis  liead  shall  go  loose,  lie  shall 
cover  his  upper  lip,  and  shall  ery, 
Unclean,  uii clean.  He  shall  dwell 
alone;  without  the  eainp  shall  his 
dwelling  be. 

The  ]ej)er  was  to  carry  about  with  him  every 
mark  of  sorrow  and  distress,  going  with  rent 
clothes,  with  bare  [and  dishevelled]  head,  with  a 
bandage  on  the  chin  or  lip  ;  and  when  he  saw 
any  one  approaching,  was  to  give  timely  warn¬ 
ing  of  his  condition  by  crying  out,  “  Unclean, 
unclean  !”  The  only  adequate  reason  that  can 
be  asfiigned  for  the  manner  in  which  leprosy 
was  thus  viewed  and  treated,  was  its  fitness  to 
serve  as  a  symbol  of  sin,  and  of  the  treatment 
those  who  indulge  in  sin  might  expect  at  the 
hand  of  God.  It  was  the  visible  sign  and  ex¬ 
pression  upon  the  living  of  what  God  thought 
and  felt  upon  the  subject.  Hence,  when  he 
manifested  his  righteous  severity  toward  par¬ 
ticular  persons,  and  testified  his  displeasure 
against  their  sins  by  the  infliction  of  a  bodily 
disease,  it  was  in  the  visitation  of  leprosy  that 
the  judgment  commonly  took  effect,  as  in  the 
cases  of  Miriam,  Uzziah,  and  Gehazi.  Hence, 
also,  Moses  warned  the  people  against  incurring 
such  a  plague  (De.  24  :  9)  ;  and  when  David  be¬ 
sought  the  infliction  of  God’s  judgment  upon 
the  house  of  Joab,  leprosy  was  one  of  the  forms 
in  which  he  wished  it  might  appear.  So  general 
was  the  feeling  in  this  respect,  that  the  leprous 
were  proverbially  called  the  smitten— i.e.,  the 
smitten  of  God  ;  and  from  the  Messiah  being 
described  in  Isaiah  as  one  smitten,  certain  Jew¬ 
ish  interpreters  inferred  that  he  should  be  af- 


448 


SECTION  149.  LEPROSY. 


flicted  with  leprosy.  Viewing  the  disease  thus, 
as  a  kind  of  visible  image  of  sin  inflicted  by  the 
hand  of  God  un  the  living  body,  it  is  not  diffi¬ 
cult  to  understand  how  the  leper  especially 
should  have  been  regarded  as  an  object  of  de¬ 
filement,  as  theocratically  dead  until  he  was  re¬ 
covered  and  purified.  He  was  a  sort  of  death 
in  life,  a  walking  sepulchre,  as  Spencer  aptly 
designated  him  (sepulchrum  ambulans),  unfit 
while  in  such  a  state  to  draw  near  to  the  local 
habitation  of  God,  or  to  have  a  place  among  the 
ranks  of  the  living.  And  hi^  exiled  and  sepa¬ 
rate  condition,  his  disfigured  dress,  and  lament¬ 
able  appearance,  while  they  proclaimed  the  sad¬ 
ness  of  his  case,  bore  striking  testimony  at  the 
same  time  to  the  holiness  of  God,  and  solemnlj^ 
warned  all  who  saw  him  to  beware  how  they 
should  offend  against  him.  But  these  things  1 
are  written  also  for  our  learning  ;  and  the  mal¬ 
ady,  with  its  attendant  evils,  though  but  rarely 
visible  to  the  bodily  eye,  speaks  still  to  the  ear 
of  faith.  It  tells  us  of  the  insidious  and  grow¬ 
ing  nature  of  sin,  spreading,  if  not  arrested  by 
the  merciful  interposition  of  God,  from  small 
beginnings  to  a  universal  corruption — of  the  in¬ 
evitable  exclusion  which  it  brings  when  in¬ 
dulged  in  from  the  fellowship  of  God  and  the 
society  of  the  blessed — of  the  deplorable  and 
unhappy  condition  of  those  who  are  still  subject 
to  its  sway— and  of  the  competency’^  of  Divine 
grace  alone  to  bring  deliverance  from  the  evil. 
P.  F. 

It  is  remarkable  how  well  even  the  Jewish 
teachers  themselves  understood  the  symbolical 
meaning  of  this  regulation  ;  for  thus  speaks  one 
of  them  on  this  place.  “  If  a  man  considers 
this,  he  will  be  humbled  and  ashamed  on  ac¬ 
count  of  his  sin  ;  since  every  sin  is  a  leprosy,  a 
spot  upon  his  soul.  And  as  it  is  written  of  the 
leper,  his  clothes  shall  be  rent,  etc.  ;  in  like 
manner  the  defilement  on  his  soul,  which  is  far 
removed  from  the  holiness  on  high,  shall  equally 
separate  him  from  the  camp  of  Israel.  And  if 
a  man  turns  to  repentance  in  order  to  be 
cleansed  from  his  spots,  behold  he  is  clean  from 
his  leprosy,  but  otherwise  the  leprosy  remains 
clinging  to  his  soul  ;  and  in  this  world  and  in 
the  world  to  come  he  is  far  removed  from  the 
whole  camp  above  until  he  has  become  cleans¬ 
ed."’  The  Law  instructs  how  to  know  leprosy, 
pronounces  the  leper  unclean,  shuts  him  out 
from  the  congregation,  but  it  has  not  power  to 
heal  him  :  this  was  reserved  for  the  Son  of 
God,  to  cleanse  bodily  in  figure,  and  spiritually 
also  as  the  true  Redeemer  from  sin  and  its  con¬ 
sequences.  Ctrl 

No  clearer  manifestation  of  his  Divine  power 


to  the  eyes  of  men  in  his  day  did  Jesus  give 
than  his  power  to  heal  the  lepers.  It  was  like 
raising  the  dead.  To  turn  the  pale,  loathsome, 
putrid  leper  to  all  the  peaceful  vigor  and  health, 
fill  joy  of  a  little  child’s  life,  was  manifestly 
what  none  but  God  could  do.  The  arm  that 
could  lift  into  life  the  moving  corpse  must  be 
that  arm  only  which  could  raise  the  putrid, 
smoldering  carcase  from  the  grave. 

It  was  a  most  striking  tyqje  of  sin.  As  the 
pain  of  leprosy  was  not  vehement,  but  kept  the 
man  restless  and  sad,  so  sin,  in  fallen  man, 
may  not  be  felt  keenly,  or  he  may  not  be  con¬ 
scious  of  it  ;  but  it  is  yet  the  cause  of  all  his 
restlessness  and  sadness — the  root  of  his  unsat¬ 
isfied  desires.  As  the  leprosy  was  corrosive, 
and  iienetrated  almost  unfelt  and  unseen  till  it 
I  had  wasted  away  the  substance  of  life  from  the 
several  parts  of  the  body,  so  sin  in  the  soul  eats 
out  its  spiritual  life  and  beauty,  while  the  sin¬ 
ner  outwardly  may  seem  ‘‘  to  live  and  move  and 
have  his  being’  ’  as  a  creature  of  God.  And  as 
at  last  the  disease  of  the  leper  bursts  forth  ex¬ 
ternally^,  and  the  man  becomes  a  mere  skeleton 
and  a  mass  of  loathsome  corrujotion,  so  sin  un¬ 
checked  defaces  more  and  more  the  image  of 
God  and  every  vestige  of  comeliness  that  was 
left  As  the  sure  end  of  the  leprosy  is  death, 
not  less  surely  “  the  wages  of  sin  is  death.”  It 
would  seem,  therefore,  to  have  been  a  disease 
specially  adapted  to  typifying  sin  in  all  its  vari¬ 
ous  features  as  no  other  disease  could  do.  S.  R. 

PuBIFICATION  or  THE  LePEE. 

Lev.  14  : 1-32. 

The  rites  enjoined  for  the  cleansing  of  the 
leper  were  evidently  not  designed  as  curative  of 
the  disease,  for  it  was  only  after  the  patient  was 
convalescent  that  these  were  applied  ;  and  it 
was  for  the  purpose  of  removing  the  legal  de 
filement  and  restoring  the  individual  to  theo¬ 
cratic  privileges.  As  a  curative  medium  such 
rites  must  appear  utterly  inapplicable,  while 
they'  are  highly  significant  as  symbolical  of 
moral  and  spiritual  truths.  Than  the  leprosy 
and  its  effects  on  the  human  frame,  nothing 
could  more  appropriately  exhibit  the  corrupting 
consequences  of  sin,  while  the  exclusion  from 
the  camp  and  congregation  relatively  pure,  in¬ 
dicated  most  forcibly  exclusion,  through  sin, 
from  communion  with  the  absolutely  holy. 
D.  M. 

The  purification  of  the  leper  had  three  dis¬ 
tinctly  marked  stages.  The  first  had  respect  to 
his  reception  into  the  ^'isible  community  of 
Israel,  the  next  to  his  participation  in  their 


PURIFICATION  OF  THE  LEPER. 


449 


sacred  character,  and  the  last  to  his  full  re¬ 
establishment  in  the  favor  and  fellowship  of 
God.  When  God  was  pleased  to  recover  him 
from  the  leprosy  and  the  priest  pronounced  him 
whole,  before  he  was  permitted  to  leave  his  iso¬ 
lated  position  outside  the  camp  or  city,  two  liv¬ 
ing  clean  birds  were  to  be  taken  for  him  ;  one 
was  to  be  killed  over  a  vessel  of  living  or  fresh 
water  so  that  the  blood  might  intermingle  with 
the  water,  and  the  other,  after  being  dipped  in 
this  blood -w’ater,  was  let  loose  into  the  open  field. 
That  the  two  birds  were  to  be  regarded  as  ideally 
one,  and  that  they  together  represented  what 
was  adjudged  to  belong  to  the  recovered  leper, 
is  clear  as  day.  The  life-blood  of  the  one, 
mingled  with  pure  fresh  water,  imaged  life  in  its 
state  of  greatest  purity  ;  and  by  the  other  bird 
being  dipped  in  this  was  signified  a  participation 
in  such  life,  as  was  done  also  by  the  sprinkling 
of  the  recovered  leper  seven  times  with  the 
same.  Then  the  recovered  leper  saw  repre¬ 
sented  in  the  bird’s  dismissal  his  own  liberty  to 
enter  into  the  society  of  living  men.  But  in  token 
of  his  actual  participation  in  the  whole  and  his 
being  now  separated  from  his  nncleanness,  he 
must  wash  his  clothes  and  his  flesh  also,  even 
shave  his  hair,  that  every  remnant  of  his  im¬ 
purity  might  appear  to  be  removed.  In  all  this, 
however,  there  was  no  proper  atonement  ;  and 
though  the  leper  could  enter  into  the  society  of 
other  living  men,  he  was  not  admitted  to  the 
privileges  of  a  member  of  God’s  covenant.  He 
had  to  remain  for  an  entire  week  out  of  his  own 
dwelling.  Then,  for  his  restoration  to  the  full 
standing  <f  an  Israelite,  he  had  to  bring  a  lamb 
for  a  trespass-offering,  another  for  a  sin-offer¬ 
ing,  and  another  still  for  a  burnt-offering,  with 
the  usual  meal-offering,  and  a  log  of  oil.  The 
lamb  for  the  trespass-offering  and  the  log  of  oil 
were  for  his  consecration  ;  and  for  this  purpose 
they  were  first  waved  before  the  Lord.  Then 
with  a  portion  of  the  blood  of  the  trespass.- 
offering  the  priest  sprinkled  his  right  ear,  the 
thumb  of  his  right  hand,  the  great  too  of  his 
right  foot,  repeating  the  same  action  afterward 
with  the  oil,  and  pouring  also  some  upon  his 
head.  When  the  recovered  leper  had  been 
thus  far  restored  —his  feet  standing  within  the 
sacred  community  of  God’s  people,  his  head 
and  members  anointed  with  the  holy  oil  of  Di¬ 
vine  refreshment  and  gladness — he  was  now 
permitted  and  required  to  consummate  the  pro¬ 
cess  by  bringing  a  sin-offering,  a  burnt-oft’ering, 
and  a  meal-offering,  that  his  access  to  God’s 
sanctuary  and  his  feUowsh’p  with  God  himself 
might  be  properly  establi.shed.  What  could 
more  impressively  bespeak  the  arduous  and  sol- 
29 


emn  nature  of  the  work,  by  which  the  outcast, 
polluted,  and  doomed  sinner  regains  an  in¬ 
terest  in  the  kingdom  and  blessing  of  God  J 

P.  P. 

After  the  blood  of  the  offering  had  been  put 
with  the  priest’s  finger  upon  the  extremities  of 
the  body,  to  include  the  whole,  some  of  the  oil 
that  he  brought,  which  was  first  waved,  and 
then  sprinkled  before  the  Lord,  was  in  like 
manner  put  in  the  same  places  upon  the  blood. 
“  The  blood  seems  to  have  been  a  token  of  for¬ 
giveness  ;  the  oil,  of  healing  for  God  first 
forgiveth  our  iniquities,  and  then  healeth  our  dis¬ 
eases  (Ps,  103  : 3.  See  Is.  38  ;  17).  Wherever 
the  blood  of  Christ  is  aj^plied  for  justification, 
the  oil  of  the  Spirit  is  applied  for  sanctifica¬ 
tion  ;  for  these  two  are  inseparable,  and  both 
necessary  to  our  accejitance  with  God.  Nor 
shall  our  former  leprosy,  if  it  be  healed  by  re¬ 
pentance,  be  any  bar  to  these  glorious  priv¬ 
ileges.  Cleansed  lepers  are  as  welcome  to  the 
blood  and  the  oil  as  consecrated  priests.  Such 
were  some  of  you,  hut  ye  are  washed.  When  the 
leper  was  sprinkled  the  water  must  have  blood 
in  it,  when  he  was  anointed  the  oil  must  have 
blood  under  it,  to  signify  that  all  the  graces  and 
comforts  of  the  Spirit,  all  his  purifying  dignify¬ 
ing  influences,  are  owing  to  the  death  of  Christ  : 
2^  is  by  his  blood  alone  that  we  are  sanctified. 

We  may  see  in  this  law  the  care  w'e  ought  to 
take  to  keep  our  minds  from  the  dominion  of 
all  sinful  affections  and  dispositions,  which  are 
both  their  disease  and  their  defilement,  that  we 
may  be  fit  for  the  service  of  God.  We  ought 
also  to  avoid  all  bad  company,  and,  as  much  as 
may  be,  to  avoid  coming  within  the  danger  of 
being  infected  by  it.  Touch  not  the  unclean  thing, 
saith  the  Lord,  and  I  will  receive  you  (^2  Cor. 
6  : 17).  H. 

Look  at  the  precautions  taken  in  the  case  of 
certain  malignant  diseases  !  What  anxiety  ! 
What  endeavors  to  prevent  the  ravages  of  the 
disease  !  All  this  is  right  ;  but  it  throws  into 
tremendous  and  appalling  contrast  our  careless¬ 
ness  about  the  contagion  that  poisons  the  soul. 
We  are  anxious  to  shut  out  a  disease  that  would 
kill  the  body,  and  yet  open  all  the  doors  and  all 
the  windows  and  let  in  the  diseases  wLich  in¬ 
fect  and  poison  and  damn  the  soul,  J.  P. - 

How  often  is  spiritual  disease  neglected  by  per¬ 
sons  who  are  extremely  anxious  respecting  some 
disease  of  the  physical  frame  !  For  the  former 
they  seek  no  remedy  and  have  no  concern  as  to 
its  ultimate  issue,  whereas  the  latter  is  viewed 
with  unceasing  distress.  Would  that  every 
spiritual  leper  entertained  just  conceptions  re¬ 
garding  his  state  !  S.  R. 


450 


SECTION  149.  LEPROSY  IN  GARMENTS,  AND  IN  HOUSES. 


Leprosy  in  Garments. 

Lev.  13  : 47-59. 

The  similarity  of  appearance  presented  by 
the  two  affections  is  enough  to  account  for  their 
going  by  the  same  name.  Leprosy  in  garments 
and  in  leather  is  a  mildew  which  cannot  be  got 
rid  of,  called  leprosy  by  analogy.  Like  other 
causes  of  uncleanuess,  it  makes  the  material  un¬ 
clean,  because  it  gives  a  repulsive  appearance  to 
it,  reminding  the  beholder  of  the  disease  which 

it  resembles.  F.  J\I. - Leprosy  in  linen  and 

woollen  fabrics  or  clothes  consisted  in  all  prob¬ 
ability  in  nothing  but  so-called  mildew,  which 
commonh^  arises  from  damj)  and  want  of  air, 
and  consists,  in  the  case  of  linen,  of  round, 
partially  colored  spots,  which  spread  and  grad¬ 
ually  eat  up  the  fabric,  until  it  falls  to  pieces 
like  mould.  In  leather,  the  mildew  consists 
more  strictlv  of  “  holes  eaten  in,”  and  is  of  a 
greenish,  reddish,  or  whitish  color,  according 
to  the  species  of  the  delicate  cryptogam!  by 
which  it  has  been  formed.  Keil. 

From  passages  of  the  Old  Testament  (Zech. 
3  : 3-5  ;  Is.  61  : 10)  we  find  that  clothing  is 
connected  with  the  idea  of  atonement,  that  God 
will  not  be  approached  except  in  holy  garments, 
that  foul  garments  typify  iniquity,  that  gar¬ 
ments  which  have  contracted  ceremonial  un¬ 
cleanness  must  be  washed,  that  clean  garments 
typify  salvation  and  righteousness.  From  the 
New  Testament  we  learn  what  are  the  materials 
of  the  robe  of  salvation.  They  are  the  right¬ 
eousness  of  Christ  imputed  to  man — such  is  the 
argument  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Komans  and  the 
Epistle  to  the  Galatians — and  the  righteousness 
inwrought  in  man  by  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  — “  for  the  fine  linen  is  the  righteousness 
of  saints.”  If  these  form  the  materials  of  the 
Christian’s  spiritual  raiment,  there  will  appear 
no  leprosy  or  mildew  either  in  warp  or  woof. 
F.  M. 

Leprosy  in  a  House,  and  its  Cleansing. 
Lev  14  ;  33-53. 

Leprosy  in  houses  must  be  regarded  from  the 
•same  point  of  view  as  that  of  leprosy  in  clothes. 
The  regulations  respecting  it  are  not  sanitarj' 
laws,  but  rest  upon  an  ideal  or  symbolical  basis. 
The  same  thought  is  attached  to  all  species  of 
uncleanness.  Something  — it  matters  not  what 
— produces  a  foul  and  repulsive  appearance  in 
the  walls  of  a  house.  That  is  in  itself  sufficient 
to  make  that  house  unclean  ;  for  whatever  is 
foul  and  repulsive  is  representative  of  moral 
and  spiritual  defilement,  and  therefore  is  itself 
symbolically  defiling  and  defiled.  F.  M. 

Michaelis  observes  that  walls  and  bouses  are 


often  attacked  with  something  that  corrodes  and 
consumes  them,  and  which  is  called  by  the  Ger¬ 
mans  “  saltpetre,”  but  which  we  will  call  “  mural 
salt.”  This  mural  incrustation,  or  efflorescence, 
chiefiy  appears  in  damp  situations,  in  cellars 
and  ground-floors,  seldom  extending  to  the 
upper  stories  of  a  house.  The  walls  become 
mouldy,  the  plaster  detaches  itself  from  the 
wall,  swells,  and  then  falls  off.  The  things  that 
lie  near  the  walls  become  damaged  and  in  the 
end  spoiled.  If  this  “saltpetre”  be  strong  in 
the  occupied  apartments,  it  is  very  injurious  to 
health,  particularly  where  people  sleep  near  the 
wall.  If  such  effects  be  experienced  in  modern 
Europe,  there  is  room  to  conclude  that  they 
were  more  strongly  exhibited  at  the  early  period 
under  notice,  and  in  countries  where  domestic 
architecture  never  attained  much  perfection, 
and  where  people  generally  live  in  houses  hav¬ 
ing  but  one  story.  Taking  this  to  be  the 
“  house-leprosy”  of  the  Scriptures,  the  object 
of  the  Mosaic  ordinance  is  sufficiently  intelli¬ 
gible,  Piet.  Bib. 

4t}-45,  It  was  possible  that  notwithstanding 
all  the  precautions  thus  ordered  to  be  taken, 
their  efforts  might  still  be  unavailing,  and  the 
taint  of  leprosy  disclose  itself  in  the  walls  of  the 
house.  Where  this  was  the  case,  the  only  re¬ 
maining  alternative  was  utterly  to  demolish  the 
building,  and  cast  away  the  materials  as  ab¬ 
horred  and  polluted  rubbish,  into  some  place 
equally  unclean  and  abominable,  A  leprous 
house  was  not  to  be  permitted  to  stand.  The 
injury  which  such  houses  might  do  to  the  health 
of  the  inhabitants  or  to  the  articles  they  con¬ 
tained  was  of  more  consequence  than  the  build¬ 
ings  themselves  Bash. 

4§-53,  The  ceremony  of  cleansing  the  house 
is  as  similar  to  that  of  cleansing  the  leper  as 
circumstances  will  permit.  In  case  there  is  no 
reappearance  of  the.  mischief  after  the  new 
stones  and  plastering  have  been  put  in.  the  priest 
shall  pronounce  the  house  clean,  because  the  plague 
is  healed.  First,  the  priest  assures  himself  that 
the  plague  is  healed,  then  he  pronounces  the  house 
clean,  and  still  after  that  the  cleansing  is  to  take 
place.  The  cleansing  is  effected  by  the  same 
ceremony  as  that  of  the  leper  himself,  by  the 
two  birds,  and  cedar -wood,  and  scarlet,  and  hyssop. 
F.  M. 

The  surprising  part  which  at  first  sight  ap¬ 
pears  in  this  is  that  a  sin-offering  was  to  be 
made  for  the  house  as  for  the  purification  of  a 
leprous  human  being  ;  but  it  leads  again  to  the 
conclusion  that  every  disorder  which  sin  has 
caused  among  men— and  leprosy  was  peculiarly 
regarded  as  such — should  be  covered  by  God’s 


SECTION  150. 


451 


means  of  healing,  withdrawn  from  his  sight,  and 
so  his  grace  again  turned  toward  man.  Gerl. 

- That  the  Divine  Lawgiver  should,  in  this 

tabernacle  period  of  Israel’s  history,  anticipate 
a  time  when  their  future  houses  would  be 
affected  by  some  disorder  similar  to  leprosy  in 
the  human  skin,  and  that  he  should  direct  a 
treatment  of  such  houses  closely  corresponding 
with  that  of  ihe  human  leper,  is  exceedingly  re¬ 
markable.  Nothing  could  possibly  impress  the 
Hebrew  mind  more  powerfully  with  the  idea 
that  “  the  face  of  the  Lord  was  against”  that 
spiritual  evil  of  which  leprosy  was  the  chosen 
type,  W,  C. 

AVe  avoid  places  that  are  known  to  be  fever- 
stricken.  We  are  alarmed  lest  we  bring  our¬ 
selves  within  the  influence  of  contagion.  This 
is  natural  and  justifiable.  Is  there  no  sugges¬ 
tion  in  such  rational  caution  that  there  may  be 
moral  danger  from  moral  contagion?  Can  a 
body  emit  pestilence  and  a  soul  dwell  in  all  evil 
and  riot  in  all  wantonness  without  giving  out 
an  effluvium  fatal  to  moral  vigor  and  to  spiritual 
health  ?  They  are  the  unwise  and  most  repre¬ 


hensible  men  who  being  afraid  of  a  fever  have 
no  fear  of  a  moral  pestilence  ;  who  running 
away  from  fatal  diseases,  rush  into  companion¬ 
ships  and  actions  which  are  positively  steeped 
and  saturated  with  moral  pollution.  A  poor 
thing  indeed  that  the  hand  has  kept  itself  away 
from  pollution  and  defilement  if  the  mind  has 
opened  wide  all  the  points  of  access  to  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  evil.  There  may  be  a  chamber  of 
imagery  in  the  heart.  A  man  may  be  utterly 
without  offence  in  any  social  acceptation  of  that 
term — a  friend  of  magistrates  and  judges,  and 
himself  a  high  interpreter  of  the  law  of  social 
morality  and  honor,  and  yet  all  ihe  while  may 
be  hiding  a  very  perdition  in  his  heart.  It  is 
the  characteristic  mj^stery  of  the  salvation  of 
Jesus  Christ  that  it  does  not  come  to  remove 
stains  upon  the  flesh  or  spots  upon  the  gar¬ 
ments,  but  to  work  out  an  utter  and  eternal 
cleansing  in  the  secret  places  of  the  soul,  so 
that  the  heart  itself  may  in  the  event  be  with¬ 
out  “  spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  thing” — pure, 
holy,  radiant,  fit  to  be  looked  upon  by  the  very 
eye  of  God.  J.  P. 


Section  150. 

CEREMONIAL  UNCLEANNESS  AND  PURIFICATION  :  WATER  OF  PURIFICATION 
FOR  CONTACT  AVITH  THE  DEAD.  CHILDBIRTH.  BODILY  ISSUES. 

Leviticus  12  : 1-8  ;  15  : 1-33.  Nu.  19  : 1-22.  De.  23  : 9-14. 

Note. — The  text  is  sufficiently  indicated  as  well  as  explained  in  the  comment. 


Throughout  the  entire  Levitical  economy, 
purity  is  the  predominating  idea,  pervading  all 
its  ceremonies  and  observances.  The  priests, 
the  sacrifices,  the  people,  were  to  be  purified, 
the  camp  was  to  be  purified,  everything  was  to 

be  purified  and  repurified.  E.  C.  AV. - Each 

process  of  the  ordinances  was  designed  to  re¬ 
flect  purity  upon  the  others  ;  until  that  idea  of 
parity,  formed  in  the  mind  and  rendered  in¬ 
tense  by  the  convergence  of  s  ■>  many  rays,  was 
transferred  to  God — in  whom  as  a  moral  being 
it  would  become  moral  purity,  or  holiness. 
That  the  idea  of  moral  purity  in  the  minds  of 
the  Israelites  was  thus  originated  by  the  ma¬ 
chinery  of  the  Levitical  dispensation,  is  sup¬ 
ported  by  man}’-  allusions  in  the  Scriptures, 
both  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New.  Walker. 

Divine  wisdom  was  imparted  to  the  people  of 
Israel  not  in  that  form  which  was  best  in  it¬ 
self,  but  in  that  in  which  they  were  best  able  to 
bear  it  ;  and  being  very  much  the  creatures  of 
sense,  religious  principles  w’ere  communicated 
through  the  medium  of  sensible  images.  To 


convince  them  of  the  inherent  defilement  at¬ 
tached  to  sin  and  of  the  necessity  of  being  puri¬ 
fied  from  it  by  a  method  of  God’s  devising,  it 
was  enjoined  that  several  incidents,  such  as 
touching  a  dead  body,  the  disease  of  leprosy, 
and  some  others,  should  be  considered  as  pol¬ 
luting*  the  person  whom  they  befell  ;  in  conse¬ 
quence  of  which  they  were  pronounced  unclean, 
and  separated  from  the  camp  and  the  taber¬ 
nacle.  To  every  instance  of  ceremonial  defile¬ 
ment  there  are  two  circumstances  attached — 
the  forfeiture  of  certain  privileges,  especially 
that  of  approaching  God  in  his  sanctuary  ;  and 
a  representation  of  the  defiling  nature  of  sin. 
R.  Hall. 

Besides  the  great  types  of  atonement  for  sin 
and  justification  of  the  sinner,  there  w’as  also  a 
remarkable  detail  of  ritual  expressive  of  the  sin¬ 
fulness  of  man  by  nature  and  practice,  and  the 
need  of  purification  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  To 
this  ritual  belongs  all  those  provisions  for  puri¬ 
fying  and  sprinkling  and  washing  ;  the  “  di¬ 
verse  baptism”  of  which  the  apostle  speaks. 


452  SECTION  150.  CEREMONIAL  UNCLEANNESS  FROM  THE  DEAD. 


To  tliisriinal  must  be  referred  all  the  provi¬ 
sions  concerning  clean  and  unclean  beasts  and 
birds,  many  of  them  being  declared  unclean 
though  wholesome  and  nutritious  ;  the  provi¬ 
sions  of  purification  after  defilement  by  the 
touch  of  a  dead  body,  etc.  In  short,  the  gen¬ 
eral  idea  is  that  everything  that  pertains  to  the 
worship  of  the  tabernacle,  and  everything  about 
it,  must  speak  of  the  ineffable  purity  of  Je¬ 
hovah.  And  so  the  true  worshippers  are  re¬ 
minded  at  every  turn  that  they  are  “  a  nation 
of  kings  and  priests” — a  people  peculiarly  be¬ 
longing  to  Jehovah.  S.  B. 

Legal  pollution  was  not  in  any  mode  or  de¬ 
gree  connected  with  the  personal  sin  of  the  in¬ 
dividual  bv  whom  it  was  occasioned  or  con- 
tracted.  It  originated  only  in  certain  phj^sical 
conditions.  The  corpse  of  a  saint  was  as  im¬ 
pure  as  that  of  the  most  degraded  criminal,  and 
any  human  corj)se  communicated  even  a  greater 
degree  of  impurity  by  contact  or  approximation 
than  the  body  of  an  animal.  The  Law  made 
no  distinction  between  the  leprosy  which  an 
unoffending  child  inherited  from  its  parents 
and  that  which  might  have  been  inflicted  as  a 
visitation  for  crime.  All  need  of  purification 
without  doubt  took  its  rise  in  a  sense  of  the 
sinfulness  of  man.  Legal  uncleanness  would 
not  else  have  excluded  the  person  from  partici 
pation  in  the  service  of  the  sanctuary.  But  the 
connection  between  sin  and  uncleanness  Is  not 
immediate.  The  connecting  links  between 
them  are  the  disease  and  death  which  are  the 
ofisiDriug  of  sin.  The  pains  of  childbirth  and 
the  suffering  of  death  were  the  two  sentences 
pronounced  by  God  upon  mankind  after  the 
first  sin.  The  case  seems  to  be  strengthened 
by  the  fact  that  the  diseased  conditions  of  un¬ 
cleanness  (Lev.  15  : 2,  25),  compared  with  the 
healthy  ones,  are  treated  as  if  they  had  a  double 
ground  of  pollution  ;  they  alone  require  sacri¬ 
ficial  atonement.  The  conclusion  then  appears 
to  be  reasonable  that  all  the  rites  of  purification 
were  intended  to  remind  the  Israelite  that  he 
belonged  to  a  fallen  race  and  that  he  needed  a 
purification  and  atonement  which  he  could  not 
effect  for  himself.  Clark, 

Uncleanness  from  Contact  with  the  Dead  and 
Means  op  Purification. 

Na.  19  ;  1-22. 

Washing  with  water,  sprinkling  with  blood, 
and  anointing  with  oil  have  thus  far  been  indi¬ 
cated  as  the  means  of  ceremonial  purification 
from  defilement.  In  exclusive  connection  with 
uncleanness  from  personal  association  with 
death,  there  is  here  introduced  as  a  special  or¬ 


dinance  a  new  and  peculiar  means  of  purifica¬ 
tion.  The  ordinance  (respecting  the  red  heifer) 
is  first  recited,  and  its  uses  subsequent! re¬ 
ferred  to.  B. 

The  ordinance  regarding  the  red  heifer  had 
respect  to  actual  defilements  arising  from  per¬ 
sonal  contact  with  the  dead,  such  as  the  touch¬ 
ing  of  a  dead  body,  or  dwelling  in  a  tent  where 
death  had  entered,  or  lighting  on  the  bone,  of  a 
dead  man,  or  having  to  do  with  a  grave  in  which 
a  corpse  had  been  deposited.  In  such  cases  a 
bodily  uncleanness  was  contracted,  which  lasted 
seven  days,  and  even  then  could  not  be  removed 
but  by  a  very  peculiar  element  of  cleansing — 
viz.,  the  application  of  the  ashes,  mixed  with 
water,  of  the  body  of  a  heifer,  red-colored, 
without  blemish,  unaccustomed  to  the  yoke, 
burned  without  the  camp,  and  with  cedar-wood, 
hyssop,  and  scarlet  cast  into  the  midst  of  the 
burning. 

The  rite  respecting  the  red  heifer  presents  in 
bold  relief  what  was  one  grand  design  of  the 
Law’s  observances  —the  bringing  of  sin  to  re¬ 
membrance,  and  teaching  the  necessity  of  men  s 
being  purified  from  its  pollution.  It  is  true 
there  was  no  actual  sin  in  simply  touching  a 
dead  body,  or  being  in  the  place  where  such  a 
body  lay.  In  the  case  of  ordinary  persons  it 
was  even  a  matter  of  duty  to  defile  one’s  self  in 
connection  with  the  death  of  near  relatives. 
But  as  the  corporeal  relations  were  here  made 
the  signs  and  interpreters  of  the  spiritual,  there 
was,  in  such  cases,  the  coming,  on  the  part  of 
the  living  body,  into  contact  with  what  bore  on 
it  the  awful  mark  and  impress  of  sin — a  breath¬ 
ing  of  the  polluted  atmosphere  of  corruption, 
most  alien  to  the  region  where  Jehovah  has  his 
peculiar  dwelling,  and  which  corruption  cannot 
inherit.  Therefore,  in  a  symbolical  religion 
like  the  Mosaic,  the  neighborhood  or  touch  of  a 
dead  body  was  most  fitly  regarded  as  forming 
an  interruption  to  the  intercourse  between  God 
and  his  people.  It  placed  them  in  a  condition 
of  external  unfitness  for  approaching  the  sanc¬ 
tuary  of  his  presence  and  glory,  or  even  for 
having  freedom  to  go  out  and  in  among  the  liv¬ 
ing  in  Jerusalem.  It  was  not  an  ordinance  for 
purging  away  the  guilt  of  actual  sin,  but  the 
means  of  purification  from  a  merely  external 
contact  with  the  cpnsequences  of  transgression, 
a  symbolical  ordinance  of  cleansing  a  symboli¬ 
cal  defilement.  And  the  bearing  of  the  whole 
on  Christian  times,  with  respect  to  the  higher 
work  of  Christ,  is  so  plainly  and  distinctly  in¬ 
timated  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  that 
there  is  no  need  for  any  further  comment  ;  ”  If 
the  ashes  of  an  heifer  sprinkling  the  unclean. 


PURIFICATION  AT  CHILDBIRTH. 


453 


sanctified  to  the  purifying  of  the  flesh,  how 
much  more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  who 
through  the  eternal  Spirit  offered  himself  with¬ 
out  spot  to  God,  i>urge  your  conscience  from 
dead  works  to  serve  the  living  God  !”  Whoever 
looks  with  this  view  to  the  ordinance,  will  see 
in  it  the  perfect  purity  and  completeness  of 
Christ’s  character,  the  corrupt  and  loathsome 
nature  of  that  for  which  he  died,  and  the  sole 
as  well  as  perfect  efficacy  of  his  blood,  so  that 
he  who  has  not  this  ai^plied  to  his  conscience 
must  inevitably  perish,  P.  F. 

2-3©,  The  two  marks  of  the  sin-offering  here 
meet — that  it  must  be  in  and  for  itself  clean — 
but  becomes  unclean  through  the  .sin  laid  upon 
it.  The  heifer,  therefore,  must  be  clean  and 
without  blemish  in  itself  ;  but  all  is  impure 
which  has  to  do  with  the  act  of  sacrifice — i.e., 
with  the  laying  on  of  sin  upon  it,  with  the 
whole  process  of  purification  :  only  when  all  is 
accomplished  which  is  to  serve  for  the  purifica¬ 
tion  does  the  water  of  sprinkling  defile  no  more. 
Then  is  sin  and  death  overcome  by  the  Divine 
power  of  life.  In  all  this  may  we  easily  per¬ 
ceive  a  type  of  the  true  offering  for  sin  (Heb. 
9  ;  13  ;  2  Cor.  5  ;  21).  Gerl. 

Lilt  why  did  the  Law  make  a  dead  corpse 
such  a  defiling  thing?  (1)  Because  death  is  the 
w  iges  of  sin,  entertd  into  Hlh  world  by  it,  and 
reigns  by  the  power  of  it.  Death  to  mankind 
is  another  thing  from  what  it  is  to  other  creat¬ 
ures.  It  is  a  curse,  it  is  the  execution  of  the 
Law,  and  therefore  the  defilement  of  death  sig¬ 
nifies  the  defilement  of  sin.  (2)  Because  the 
Law  could  not  conquer  death  nor  abolish  it  and 
alter  the  property  of  it,  as  the  Gospel  does  by 
bringing  life  and  immortality  to  light  and  so 
introducing  a  better  hope.  Since  our  Bedeemer 
was  dead  and  buried  death  is  no  more  destroy¬ 
ing  to  the  Israel  of  God,  and  therefore  dead 
bodies  are  no  more  defiling  ;  but  while  the 
Church  was  under  the  Law,  to  show  that  it  wade 
not  the  comers  thereunto  perfect,  the  pollution  con¬ 
tracted  by  dead  bodies  could  not  but  form  in 
their  minds  melancholy  aud  uncomfortable 
notions  concerning  death,  w'hile  believers  now 
through  Christ  can  triumph  over  it.  0  grave, 
where  is  thy  victory  ?  Where  is  thy  pollution?  H. 

Purification  at  Childbirth. 

Lev.  12  ;  1-8. 

Motherhood  involved  a  longer  or  shorter 
period  of  ceremonial  separation — forty  days  in 
the  case  of  a  son,  seventy  days  in  the  case  of  a 
(laughter,  after  which  a  burnt-offering  and  a 
sin-offering  are  to  lie  presented  to  the  Lord,  and 
atonement  made  for  her  that  she  may  be  clean. 


Edgar. - It  is  to  be  emphatically  denied  that 

the  Bible  gives  any  encouragement  to  the  senti¬ 
ment  that  the  mere  act  of  giving  birth,  or  the 
fact  of  having  given  birth,  is  a  defilement.  The 
condition  into  which  a  woman  is  brought  by 
the  birth  of  a  child  is  said  lather  to  be  like  the 
impurity  of  her  monthly  illness  (verse  2).  It 
was,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  tffect  and  evidence 
of  death.  Such  death,  as  the  penalty  of  sin, 
had  not  only  a  physical,  but  a  moial,  character. 
One  needed,  therefore,  to  be  ceremoninlly  puri¬ 
fied  from  it.  E.  C,  B. - The  explanation  of 

this  statute  on  maternity  we  shall  find  in  the 
fact  that  there  is  connected  with  it  that  which 
is  painfully  suggestive  of  sin.  The  sorrow  of 
maternity  points  clearly  to  the  primeval  curse, 
and  therefore  to  the  primeval  .sin.  The  birth 
of  a  human  child  means  the  entrance  into  the 
w’^orld  of  one  in  whom  are  the  genus  of  sin. 
Hence  sin  is  associated  with  the  birth  of  the 
human  infant,  and  the  physical  condition  (verse 
7)  attending  it  is  typical  of  sin,  constitutes  un¬ 
cleanness,”  and  necessitates  purification.  W^.  C. 

- As  in  the  whole  province  of  unclean  meats 

man  was  not  internally  defiled,  but  was  contin¬ 
ually  reminded  of  the  desecration  of  the  crea¬ 
tion  by  sin,  and  as  the  prohibition  about  un¬ 
clean  meats  was  a  call  to  abstain  from  ail  com¬ 
munion  with  sin  and  its  consequences,  in  like 
manner  is  to  be  regarded  the  declaration  of  un¬ 
cleanness  in  these  natural  relations  which  are 
not  sinful  in  themselves,  but  are  especially  liable 
by  misuse  to  become  sinful,  and  wdiich  carry 
with  them  the  stigma  of  sin.  With  no  other 
people  of  antiquity  was  marriage  so  honored, 
founded  as  it  was  on  express  Divine  institution. 
Among  no  other  people  do  we  find,  through 
their  religious  idea  of  death,  so  reverential  a 
care  for  the  rites  of  sepulture.  If  then  procre¬ 
ation,  birth,  and  death  caused  defilement,  we 
perceive  therein  in  emblem  and  germ  the  doc¬ 
trine  which  w^as  more  clearly  revealed  in  the 
New  Testament,  which  teaches  us  that  the  flesh 
created  by  God,  and  originally  good,  has  never¬ 
theless,  by  sin  which  dwelt  in  it,  been  made  the 
means  of  exciting  sinful  desire.  Geri. 

3.  Shall  he  circunicised.  As  the 
mother  and  the  father  are  members  of  the  com¬ 
munity  of  Israel,  the  child  is  in  this  respect  also 
counted  with  them.  On  these  grounds  he  re¬ 
ceives  the  sign  of  circumcision.  The  origin  and 
meaning  of  this  rite  we  have  in  Gen.  17.  As 
the  symbol  of  moral  renewal,  it  implies  the  ex¬ 
istence  of  depravity.  But  the  mother  in  Israel 
having  passed  through  her  ceremonial  defile¬ 
ment  is  now  clean,  and  her  child  is  clean  with 
her.  As  the  descendant  of  a  circumcised  father 


454  SECTION  150.  CEREMONIAL  UNGLEANNESS  AND  PURIFICATION. 


lie  bus  the  inheritance  of  circumcision,  the 
outward  token  of  the  covenant  of  grace.  This 
involves  ihe  principle  that  in  the  right  order  of 
things  the  olispring  of  pious  parents  will  be 
pious.  It  cannot  mean  that  circumcision  is  it¬ 
self  regeneration.  This  would  be  to  make  a  rite 
a  charm,  instead  of  a  symbol  of  precious 
truth. 


No  event  is  more  interesting  to  the  parent  or 
to  the  race  than  the  birth  of  a  child.  In  a  state 
of  innocence  it  would  have  been  a  source  of  un¬ 
mingled  and  unutterable  gladness.  But  the  fall 
casts  a  shade  of  impenetrable  darkness  over  the 
birth  of  a  child  of  man.  All  that  reason  can 
say  is,  that  this  is  another  child  of  sin  and  heir 
of  death.  Hence  the  insertion  of  this  short  and 
reassuring  chapter  in  the  book  of  propitiation. 
For  the  mother  in  Israel  is  here  taught  that 
while  there  is  impurity  and  guilt  connected 
with  the  bearer  and  the  born  of  the  fallen  race, 
yet  there  is  a  propitiation  on  which  she  may 
rely  for  herself  and  for  her  offspring,  and  a  puri¬ 
fication  which  she  has  for  herself  and  may  ask 
and  confidently  expect  for  her  child,  while  she 
trains  him  up  in  the  way  he  should  go.  This 
encourages  believing  parents  to  enter  upon  the 
task  of  training  up  their  child  for  glory,  honor, 
and  immortality.  As  the  mother  and  her  child 
emerge  out  of  the  impurity,  she  learns  to  hope 
for  the  day  when  both  will  emerge  out  of  the 
bondage  and  corruption  of  sin  ;  as  the  mother 
offers  her  burnt-sacrifice  and  sin-sacrifice  she 
rejoices  in  the  knowledge  that  there  is  a  propi¬ 
tiation  that  is  sufficient  for  her  and  for  her  chil¬ 
dren  and  her  children's  children  to  all  genera¬ 
tions.  Thi.s  chapter  could  not  be  wanting  in  the 
book  of  atonement  ;  and  assuredly  it  has  not 
been  written  in  vain.  M. 

Issues  from  the  Human  Body. 

Lev.  15  : 1-33. 

This  chapter  contains  one  communication, 
which  is  made  to  Moses  and  Aaron  together,  by 
whom  it  is  to  be  conveyed  to  the  people.  It  is 
on  the  subject  of  issues  which  involve  unclean- 
iiess.  It  gives  directions  concerning  an  issue 
to  which  men  are  liable  (1-15),  the  seed  of  co¬ 
habitation  (16-18),  the  monthly  secretion  of 
w.)men  (19-24),  and  a  bloody  flux  in  women 
(25-30),  followed  by  a  conclusion  (31-33).  M. 

In  this  chapter  the  Offilemenl.  ol  sin  is  the  lead¬ 
ing  thought.  Here  again  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  there  was  a  sanitary  element  in  the  regula¬ 
tions.  “  Cleanliness  is  next  to  Godliness”  is 
not,  as  some  suppose,  a  Bible  sentence,  but  it 
is  beyond  all  question  a  Bible  sentiment.  The 


first  all-embracing  law  of  the  Mosaic  economy 
is,  Be  holy.  And  the  second  is  like  unto  it,  Be 
dean  :  clean  in  person,  clean  in  garments,  clean 
in  house,  clean  in  camp,  clean  everywhere. 
Who  can  tell  how  much  the  world  owes  to  these 
“  health  laws  of  Moses?”  “  It  is  certainly  a 
curious  thing,”  writes  one  who  is  an  authority 
on  the  subject,  “  worthy  the  notice  of  every 
student  of  the  progress  of  the  human  race, 
whether  his  standpoint  bo  religious  or  purely 
scientific,  that  the  moving  camp  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness  was  governed  by  as  strict  and  perfect  a 
sanitary  code  as  any  sanitary  commission  could 
now  devise.”  But  in  the  Mosaic  institutes  the 
purity  of  the  soul  was  ever  kept  before  the 
mind  as  the  main  thing  to  be  desired  and  se¬ 
cured.  “  Our  hearts  sprinkled  from  an  evil  con¬ 
science,”  was  always  the  first  thing  ;  “  our 
bodies  washed  with  pure  water,”  was  the  sec¬ 
ond  (Heb.  10  : 22)  ;  and  throughout  the  book  of 
the  Law  these  two  have  been  by  God  so  joined 
together  that  no  candid  mind  can  put  them 
asunder.  J.  M.  G. 

2.  Hath  an  i§i»uc,  literally,  is  flowing  or 
discharging.  There  are  many  diseases  common 
to  both  sexes,  which  are  characterized  by  a  dis¬ 
charge  of  some  kind.  In  his  i§§ue  lie  is 
unclean.  This  is  the  point  in  question. 
The  malady  is  not  otherwise  regarded  than  as 

an  occasion  of  uncleanness,  M. - We  are  not 

to  look  for  a  moral  basis  for  the  regulation  on 
account  of  any  vicious  habit  connected  with 
such  issues.  They  are  repulsive,  and  simply 
for  that  reason  they  are  causes  of  ceremonial 
uncleanness  to  those  who  suffer  from  them,  and 
to  those  who  come  in  contact  with  persons  suf¬ 
fering  from  them.  F.  M. 

4-13.  There  is  a  strong  feeling  of  loathsome¬ 
ness  called  forth  by  these  descriptions — em¬ 
blematic  of  the  abhorrence  wherewith  those  of 
a  pure  and  holy  nature  must  look  upon  sin — 
even  that  sin  from  which  we  are  saved  not  by 
water  only,  but  by  water  and  blood,  like  as  the 
uncleanness  here  had  to  be  removed  not  by  a 
washing  alone,  but  also  by  a  sacrifice.  T,  C. 

By  reason  of  the  inherent  depravity  of  nature 
growing  out  of  the  fall,  the  powers  of  human 
life  are  tainted  with  corruption,  and  all  that 
pertains  to  the  production  of  life,  as  well  as  to 
its  cessation,  appears  enveloped  in  the  garments 
of  impurity.  That  the  whole  was  mainly  viewed 
in  this  strictly  moral  light,  and  not  merely  in 
relation  to  natural  health  or  cleanliness,  is  evi¬ 
dent  not  only  from  the  predominantly  ethical 
character  of  the  whole  legislation  of  Moses,  but 
also  from  the  kind  of  purifications  prescribed, 
in  which  atonement  is  spoken  of  as  being  made 


MORAL  LESSONS. 


455 


in  behalf  of  the  parties  concerned  ;  and  also 
from  the  references  made  to  the  cases  under 
consideration  in  other  parts  of  Scripture  (Ezek. 
36  ;  17  ;  Lam.  1  : 17),  which  point  to  them  as 
defilements  in  a  moral  respect.  There  is  no 
possibility  of  obtaining  a  satisfactory  view  of 
the  subject,  or  accounting  for  the  place  assigned 
such  things  in  the  symbolical  ritual  of  Moses, 
excepting  on  the  ground  of  that  moral  taint 
which  was  believed  to  pervade  all  the  powers 
and  productions  of  human  nature.  P.  F. 

14,  15,  ‘J9,  30.  For  these  uncleannesses,  in¬ 
voluntary  and  secret,  God  provided  a  fitting  atone- 
rnent.  It  is  the  smallest  sacrifice,  two  turtle¬ 
doves  or  two  young  pigeons,  which  God  re¬ 
quires.  There  is  no  exaggeration  in  dealing 
with  the  secret  sins.  Done  in  ignorance,  they 
are  not  placed  upon  the  same  level  with  volun¬ 
tary  transgressions.  At  the  same  time  they  are 
not  winked  at.  The  whole  analysis  of  sin  in 
these  chapters  (Lev.  13-15)  is  profound  and 
philosophical.  In  fact,  portions  of  Scripture 
apparentl}^  repulsive  become  replete  with  whole¬ 
some  truth  when  handled  humbly  and  reverent¬ 
ly.  Edgar. 

Dc.  9-14,  Cleanliness  a  religious  duty.  The 
precepts  in  this  paragraph  refer  to  the  inculca¬ 
tion  of  cleanliness,  both  in  camp  and  in  person. 
We  get  here,  moreover,  an  illustration  of  that 
which  so  often  occurs  in  the  Law  of  Moses— 
viz.,  that  duties  of  the  lowest,  humblest  order 
are  urged  on  the  people  by  the  highest  and 
noblest  sanctions.  Common  work  may  be  dig¬ 
nified  by  great  motives.  It  will  be  regarded  by 
a  wise  Christian  man  as  a  part  of  his  duty  which 
is  by  no  means  to  be  neglected,  to  maintain 
order  and  unsullied  cleanliness  in  person  and 
home.  C.  C. 


While  these  minute  details  neither  require 
nor  reward  particular  investigation  in  our  day, 
yet  taken  in  whole  they  are  pregnant  with  great 
moral  lessons  for  all  time.  There  was  a  perpet¬ 
ual  inculcation  of  cleanliness,  external  purity, 
and  the  most  careful  avoidance  of  whatever  was 
defiling.  The  ceremonial  washings  and  cleans¬ 
ings,  the  removal  from  the  camp,  or  as  the  case 
may  be,  the  seclusion  from  the  court  of  the  tab¬ 
ernacle  for  a  term  of  purification,  occur  fre¬ 
quently.  By  a  natural  law  of  mind,  sin  is  asso¬ 
ciated  with  uncleanness  ;  crime  is  defiling. 
Hence,  with  almost  infinite  pains  the  Lord  was 
impressing  upon  his  people  the  great  idea  that 
their  God  who  deigned  to  dwell  among  them 
“  was  of  purer  eyes  than  to  behold  iniquity.” 
He  could  not  abide  with  them  save  as  they  kept 


themselves  clean  and  pure.  H.  C. - By  these 

laws  they  were  taught  their  privilege  and 
honor,  that  they  were  purified  unto  God  a  peculiar 
people,  and  were  intended  by  the  holy  God  for 
a  kingdom  of  priests,  a  holy  nation.  Thej'  were 
also  taught  to  preserve  the  honor  of  their  purity, 
and  to  keej)  themselves  from  all  sinful  pollu¬ 
tions.  It  was  eas}’^  for  them  to  argue  that  if 
those  pollutions  which  were  natural,  unavoid¬ 
able,  involuntary,  their  affiiction  and  not  their 
sin,  rendered  them  for  the  time  so  odious  that 
they  were  not  fit  for  communion  either  with 
God  or  man,  much  more  abominable  and  filthy 
were  they  if  they  sinned  against  the  light  and 
law  of  nature,  bj"  drunkenness,  adultery,  fraud, 
and  the  like  sins,  which  defile  the  very  mind 
and  conscience.  And  if  these  ceremonial  pol¬ 
lutions  could  not  be  done  away  but  by  sacrifice 
and  offering,  something  greater  and  much  more 
valuable  must  be  expected  and  depended  upon 
for  the  purifying  of  the  soul  from  the  unclean¬ 
ness  of  sin.  H. 

All  this  mystically  teaches  us  to  beware  of 
courting  or  choosing  the  conversation  of  those 
that  have  received  any  tincture  of  vice,  and  not 
to  contract  acquaintance  with  anj’  persons  who 
we  have  reason  to  believe  are  not  on  good  terms 
with  God.  There  is  such  a  venomous  contagion 
in  vice  and  immorality  that  familiarity  with 
sinners  does,  of  itself,  make  a  man  an  associate 
in  their  practices  :  so  saith  the  son  of  Sirach 
(Ecclus.  13  : 1),  and  thus  the  apostle  commands 
(1  Tim.  5  : 22).  Bihlioth.  Bibl. - All  those  de¬ 

tails  of  Divine  precept,  by  which  every  person 
and  article  anywise  brought  into  contact  with 
the  unclean  man  or  woman  became  unclean, 
bring  out  the  truth  that  impurity  is  an  essen¬ 
tially  communicable  evil.  It  is  so  physicallj’’  ; 
“  let  sinners  look  to  it.”  It  is  so  spiritually. 
How  guilty  in  the  very  last  degree  are  those 
who  drive  a  nefarious  trade  in  corrupt  litera¬ 
ture  !  How  shameful  to  put  indecent  thought 
into  print  to  pollute  the  young  !  How  demor¬ 
alizing  to  the  soul,  how  displeasing  to  God,  how 
scrupulously  to  be  avoided,  the  questionable 
conversation  that  borders  on  the  indelicate  and 
impure  (Eph.  5  : 3,  4,  12  ;  Col.  3:8)!  W.  C. 

That  plain-speaking  and  plain-dealing,  such 
as  we  find  in  the  Book  of  Leviticus,  was  neces¬ 
sary,  is  amply  proved  by  the  history  of  the  an¬ 
cient  world,  and  of  the  modern  world,  too.  The 
Bible  is  the  only  book  that  has  exercised  any 
considerable  effect  in  keeping  men  and  women 
pure.  There  are  many  books,  where  everything 
offensive  to  the  ear  is  studiously  avoided,  which 
nevertheless  are  very  poison  to  the  soul.  In 
the  Bible,  on  the  other  hand,  while  there  is  not 


45G  SECTION  151.  THOmilTS  RESPECTINO  THE  HEBREW  RITUAL. 


a  little  that  is  offensive  to  the  ear,  there  is  ab- 
8)lutely  nothing  that  is  poisonous  to  the  spirit, 
imless  the  spirit  has  been  poisoned  already  ; 
for  we  must  remember  that  while  “  to  the  pure 
all  things  are  pure,”  “  unto  them  that  are  de¬ 
filed  and  unbelieving  is  nothing  pure  ;  but  even 
their  mind  and  conscience  is  dehled.”  There 
is  absolutely  nothing  in  the  entire  Bible  that 
will  not  exert  a  holy  and  purifying  influence  on 
those  who  read  it  in  the  right  spirit.  And  as  a 
historical  fact,  such  has-been  the  result  among 
those  who  have  made  these  Scriptures  their 
companion  and  counsellor.  The  Jews  alone 
among  the  nations  of  antiquity  had  even  the 
conception  of  purity  as  we  understand  it  now. 
Consider  for  a  moment  whence  we  derive  those 
exalted  notions  of  purity  which  are  widely  prev¬ 
alent  in  modern  society,  especially  among  Chris¬ 


tian  people.  Even  the  purest  and  the  best  of 
Greek  philosophers,  those  who  in  other  respects 
have  come  nearest  to  Bible  ethics,  are  wofully 
behind  in  regard  to  personal  purity  of  heart 
and  life,  some  of  them  tolerating  and  others 
approving  that  which  enlightened  Christian 
sentiment  utterly  condemns.  Let  any  one 
fairly  investigate  the  genesis  and  “evolution” 
of  our  modern  ideas  of  chastity  and  purity,  and 
he  will  find  that  they  are  trace<ible  chiefly  to 
the  Hebrew  Scriptures  as  their  source.  And  so 
the  remarkable  fact  will  present  itself  that  to 
these  very  Scripture.s,  and  largely  to  those  parts 
of  them  where  the  corrupt  imagination  of  certain 
cavillers  finds  an  indecency  which  is  all  its  own, 
we  owe  that  very  sentiment  of  delicacy  which 
makes  it  impossible  for  us  to  read  them  aloud 
in  public  or  in  the  family.  J.  M.  G. 


Section  151. 

THOUGHTS  RESPECTING  THE  HEBREW  RITUAL. 


Thuough  the  whole  Bible  history  of  the  Jews 
we  find  from  the  date  of  their  organization  as 
a  nation  a  system  of  sacrifices,  framed  first  as 
a  compensation  or  atonement  for  certain  civil 
and  ceremonial  offences,  and  next  as  expressing 
the  need  of  a  propitiation  in  approaching  to 
God.  The  svstem  was  cumbersome  and  mean- 

4/ 

ingless  except  in  this  latter  view.  But  going 
back  of  the  Levitical  ritual  instituted  in  the 
wilderness,  to  Noah  as  the  priest  of  a  new  world, 
and  back  again  beyond  the  flood  to  Abel,  we 
find  a  custom  of  sacrifice  for  which  no  mere 
natural  instinct  or  reason  can  fully  account. 
In  the  system  of  Moses  we  know  this  was  ex¬ 
pressly  enjoined  by  God  ;  and  the  prophets, 
wdiile  they  denounced  any  neglect  or  abuse  of 
sacrifice  as  a  crime,  also  insisted  that  the  sacri¬ 
fice  was  worthless  unless  its  spiritual  signifi¬ 
cance  was  kept  in  view  by  the  offerer.  Here 
then  we  have  the  same  firinciple  of  unity  and 
of  development  in  the  language  of  symbol  and 
ritual  as  in  the  verbal  promise  (Gen.  3)  :  the 
primitive  rudimental  conception  of  sacrifice  by 
way  of  atonement  for  sin  ;  this  conception  un¬ 
folded  in  a  great  number  and  variety  of  sacri¬ 
fices,  in  which,  however,  the  central  figure  was 
ever  the  Lamb  slain,  and  the  central  thought  the 
redemption  of  sin  ;  and  all  these  emblems  and 
types  meeting  in  Christ  by  his  own  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  his  death  and  the  exposition  of  it  by  the 
apostles  as  the  consummation  of  this  system, 
which  then  vanished  away  as  but  the  prophetic 
shadow,  the  outline  sketch  of  the  True — when 


the  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world  was  offered  once  for  all  to  take  awav  sin. 
And  so  the  death  of  Christ  verifies,  interprets, 
and  transfigures  that  mysterious  system  which 
had  else  remained  without  a  key.  The  unity 
that  runs  through  the  relUjion  of  the  Bible  in  its 
treatment  of  sin  and  reconciliation,  a  treatment 
foreign  to  all  rationalistic  conceptions  of  man’s 
approach  to  God,  argues  the  Divine  impress 
upon  the  original  conception,  the  law  of  its 
unfolding,  the  dread  mystery  and  glory  of  its 
consummation  through  the  cross.  J.  P.  T. 

The  system  of  Levitical  worship,  so  far  as  we 
can  see,  was  the  only  method  by  which  there 
was  any  possibility  of  imparting  to  apostate 
humanity  those  lost  ideas  of  God’s  purity  and 
justice,  and  those  new  ideas  of  God’s  mercy 
and  redemption,  which  were  to  be  the  only  prop 
and  hope  of  the  race.  There  were  no  words  in 
human  language  to  represent  such  ideas,  be¬ 
cause  the  ideas  themselves  were  wanting  ;  and 
to  create  them  it  was  needful  that  correspond¬ 
ing  things  should  be  presented  to  the  senses  ; 
and  so  the  Levitical  ritual  enacted  before  the 
eye  its  expressive  promise  of  the  coming  Be- 

storer.  W.  Adams. - The  idea  of  God  was 

embodied  to  the  senses  in  a  visible  temple — of 
bis  holiness  in  an  awful  shrine  or  sanctuary', 
fenced  off  from  curious  gaze  and  unhallowed 
step.  The  notion  of  a  Divine  order  pervading 
human  life  was  lodged  in  regulations  for  food 
and  dress,  distinctions  between  things  clean 
and  unclean,  minute  prescriptions  and  rules  for 


TEACHING  OF  THE  RITUAL. 


457 


all  the  varied  relations  and  exigencies  of  social 
exioieuce.  Tlie  cuiiceplions  of  sin,  guilt,  peni¬ 
tence,  prayer,  of  atonement,  pardon,  purity, 
self-devotion,  were  forced  on  the  senses,  and 
drilled  into  minds  otherwise  incapable  of  rising 
to  them,  by  laws  of  ceremonial  exclusion, 
priests,  costly  sacrifices,  sprinklings,  lustra¬ 
tions  —by  the  life’s  blood  of  victims  dyeing  the 
altar,  or  borne  by  priestly  hands  into  the  awful 
presence  of  the  Deity — by  the  mysterious  flight 
of  the  sin-burdened  goat  into  a  region  of  dark¬ 
ness  and  forgetfulness.  Without  these  and 
other  manifold  aids  to  thought,  spiritual  ideas, 
to  such  a  race,  would  have  been  unattainable. 
In  a  more  spiritual  and  reflective  age,  on  the 
other  hand,  in  which  the  spiritual  perceptions 
have  become  developed,  and  the  mind  has  be¬ 
come  receptive  of  direct  religious  instruction, 
such  sensible  helps  to  the  formation  of  thought 
are  no  longer  necessary.  In  the  old  dispensa¬ 
tion  ritual  observances  constituted  an  elaborate 
mechanism  for  the  awakening  of  religious 
thought  and  feeling  ;  in  the  new  economy,  they 
are  the  actual  and  voluntary  manifestation  of 
rtligious  thought  and  feeling  already  existing. 
Gaird. 

Practically  regarded,  the  Levitical  sacrifices 
are  noteworthy,  first,  as  a  means  of  religious 
education,  and  next  as  a  means  of  religious  sat¬ 
isfaction.  They  evolved  religious  sentiment, 
and  they  appeased  it.  However  superficially 
this  sacrificial  cultus  be  regarded,  it  assuredly 
proclaimed  such  truths  as  these  :  the  sinfulness 
of  man,  the  Divine  alienation  consequent  there¬ 
upon,  the  need  of  atonement,  its  possibility,  its 
meth  )d,  the  acceptability  of  the  service  of  the 
reconciled.  All  these  truths — which,  to  judge 
from  Christianity,  constitute  the  essentials  of  a 
religion  adapted  to  man — were  taught  by  arrest¬ 
ing  symbolism  and  an  imposing  ceremonial. 
They  were  equally  capable  of  educating  up  to  a 
high  degree  of  religiousness  and  of  ministering 
to  the  religious  needs  so  matured.  They  af¬ 
fected  too  the  whole  range  of  life,  training  the 
Church,  sanctifying  the  State,  penetrating  the 
home,  and  affecting  the  individual.  They  inter¬ 
wove  the  essentials  of  religion  with  all  the  re¬ 
lationships,  duties,  sorrows,  and  pleasures  of 
life.  According  to  its  own  ideal,  the  Jewish 
nation  was  a  Theocracy  where  reconciled  rebels 
gave  their  every  allegiance  to  the  King  of  kings 
acceptably.  Thus,  historically  regarded,  and 
without  trespassing  upon  or  forestalling  the 
later  revelations  made  by  Christ  and  his  apos¬ 
tles,  the  Levitical  sacrifices  are  seen  to  be  a  pro¬ 
found  recognition  of  the  wants  of  man,  and  a 
response  to  his  deepest  needs.  The  Levitical 


sacrifices  declared  unmistakably,  from  the  hour 
of  their  first  promulgation,  the  necessity  there 
was  for  atonement,  and  the  Diviue  provision 
for  that  necessity.  Indeed,  it  is  simple  truth  to 
say  that  there  is  not  a  feature  of  the  Levitical 
sacrifices  which  does  not  ucceiituaie  in  some 
way,  either  the  fact  of  cstrangtment  from  God 
with  its  large  disabilities,  or  the  fact  of  reconcili¬ 
ation  to  God  with  its  large  privih  gts.  Cave. 

Under  the  Old  Covenant  there  was  certainly 
a  most  elaborate  arrangement  fur  the  relief  of 
burdened  consciences  and  the  purification  of 
the  unclean.  Jehovah  declaied  himself  again 
and  again  to  be  “  merciful  and  gracious,  forgiv¬ 
ing  iniquity,  transgression,  and  sin.”  His 
throne  between  the  cherubim  w  as  a  mercy-seat ; 
and  the  penitent  who  embraced  these  comfort¬ 
ing  promises  found  an  open  wa}'  back  into  the 
favor  of  a  pardoning  God.  What  then  ailed  the 
Old  Covenant,  as  a  revelation  of  Divine  merej’^  ? 
How  comes  it  to  be  said  that  first  by  Jesus 
Christ  came  grace  and  truth,  since  every  true 
religion  or  stage  in  the  revelation  of  God  must 
have  much  to  say  of  his  ijrace  as  well  as  of  his 
justice  ?  Here  lay  the  defect  :  that  what  Divine 
grace  led  sinners  to  hope  for,  there  was  no  pro¬ 
vision  under  the  Law  effectively  to  provide. 
To  put  much  in  a  single  word  :  What  the  Mosaic 
religion  wanted  was  power. 

Take  for  illustration  its  promises  of  pardon. 
It  certainly  revealed  God  as  a  forgiving  God  to 
the  people  of  his  covenant  and  encouraged  the 
penitent  to  count  on  pardon.  But  it  furnished 
no  sufficient  or  real  means  of  cleansing  for  the 
guilty  conscience  (Heb.  7).  There  were  priests  ; 
but  they  were  only  men  like  others,  officially 
but  not  really  raised  above  their  brethren,  and 
soon  removed  by  death.  There  was  an  altar  of 
expiation  ;  but  the  blood  upon  it  was  the  blood 
of  beasts,  which  could  never  take  aw^ay  sins. 
There  was  a  mercy-seat  ;  but  the  way  to  reach 
it  was  not  yet  laid  open.  In  forih  and  outward 
showq  there  stood  in  Israel  a  complete  apparatus 
for  the  cleansing  of  unclean  men  that  they 
might  be  reassured  of  Divine  favor  ;  but  it  was 
only  “  in  a  figure.”  The  power’  was  a  wan  ting. 
The  sacrifices  could  not  make  the  worshippers 
perfect  as  touching  the  conscience.  The  sins 
confessed  were  not  actually  purged  away  and 
forgotten.  The  whole  ritual  was  a  symbol  of 
something  else  ;  a  “  shadow,”  or  mimic  repre¬ 
sentation  ;  a  “  parable  for  the  time  being  a 
“  copy”  or  ”  image”  merely  of  certain  real  and 
spiritual  transactions  which  had  still  to  be  trans¬ 
acted.  Hence,  the  Law  completed  nothing  as  a 
system  of  grace  ;  it  achieved  nothing.  It  pre- 


y 


458 


ISECTION  152.  UNLAWFUL  MARRIAGES. 


figured  only  ;  it  foretold.  But,  blessed  be  God  ! 
with  Jesus  Christ  there  has  come  the  very  truth 
and  reality  of  expiation.  Confess  over  his  sac¬ 
rifice  ;  it  has  once  for  all  put  away  your  sins. 
Draw  near  unto  God  by  this  Priest  ;  he  ever  liv- 
eth  to  intercede  for  you.  Put  your  trust  in  his 
blood  ;  it  will  cleanse  your  conscience  from 
dead  works.  Approach  the  most  holy  place 
with  boldness  ;  he  has  dedicated  it  lor  us  by  his 
entrance  into  heaven.  Then  be  of  good  cheer  ; 
for  the  New  Covenant  is  established  on  better 
promises  than  the  Old.  It  makes  no  more  re¬ 
membrance  of  sin.  By  one  offering  Christ  hnth 
perfected  forever  them  that  are  sanctified.  “  The 
Law  as  given  by  Moses  ;  but  grace  and  truth 
came  by  Jesus  Christ.” 

A  further  illustration  of  the  Mosaic  Law’s 
feebleness  was  its  imperfect  provision  for  sancti¬ 
fying  human  life.  Under  this  aspect,  too,  what 
it  warned  was  power.  By  elaborate  ceremonies 
of  lustration  and  sprinkling,  by  splendid  offer 
ings  of  self-surrender  and  dedication  to  God,  it 
was  forever  proclaiming  the  sanctity  of  the 


chosen  people  and  their  separation  as  a  nation 
of  priests  to  the  service  of  the  Most  High.  But 
while  it  demanded  holiness  of  life  and  symbol¬ 
ized  it  in  ritual,  it  did  not  clearly  reveal  the  only 
means  through  whicn  man  can  be  made  holy. 
New  birth  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  adoption 
as  sons  into  his  family  of  love,  with  the  Spirit’s 
indwelling  as  the  source  of  inward  purity — 
these  were  truths  shadowed  very  dimly  indeed 
under  the  Old,  reserved  to  be  the  crowning 
glories  of  the  New  Covenant. 

Perfect,  then,  and  exquisite  as  the  legal  econ¬ 
omy  was  for  its  own  temporary  and  educational 
purpose,  and  noble  as  were  many  of  the  lives 
which  grew  up  beneath  its  teaching,  it  was. 
after  all,  to  the  Gospel  as  dawn  is  to  noon. 
The  elder  saints  saw  but  the  blossom  where  we 
taste  the  fruit.  As  the  King  himself  testified, 
he  who  is  least  in  the  New  Kingdom  stands  in 
privilege  and  insight  above  the  greatest  of  the 
Old.  Let  us  see  that  we  prize  and  duly  use  our 
higher  opportunity,  lest  the  last  should  come  in 
the  end  to  be  the  first.  Dykes. 


Section  152. 


UNLAWFUL  MAERIAGES.  DIVORCE.  MARRYING  A  BROTHER’S  WIDOW.  JEAL¬ 
OUSY  OFFERING.  PUNISHMENT  OF  A  DEFAMING  HUSBAND.  SINS  AGAINST 
CHASTITY. 


Exodus  22  : 16,  17,  19. 


Lev.  18  : 1-30  ;  19  :  20-22,  29  ;  20  : 10-24. 
23  : 17,  18  ;  24  : 1-4  ;  25  : 5-12. 


Nu.  5  : 11-31.  De.  22  : 13-30  ; 


Lev.  18  1  And  the  Lobd  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and 

2  say  unto  them,  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.  After  the  doings  of  the  land  of  Egj^pt,  wherein  ye 

3  dwelt,  shall  ye  not  do  :  and  after  the  doings  of  the  land  of  Canaan,  whither  I  bring  you,  shall 

4  ye  not  do  :  neither  shall  ye  walk  in  their  statutes.  My  judgements  shall  ye  do,  and  my  statutes 

5  shall  ye  keep,  to  walk  therein  ;  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.  Ye  shall  therefore  keep  my  stat¬ 
utes,  and  my  judgements  ;  which  if  a  man  do,  he  shall  live  in  them  :  I  am  the  Lord. 

6  None  of  you  shall  approach  to  any  that  is  near  of  kin  to  him,  to  uncover  their  nakedness  : 
I  am  the  Lord. 

24  Defile  not  ye  yourselves  in  any  of  these  things  :  for  in  all  these  the  nations  are  defiled  which 

25  [  cast  out  from  before  you  :  and  the  land  is  defiled  :  therefore  I  do  visit  the  iniquity  thereof 

26  upon  it,  and  the  land  vomiteth  out  her  inhabitants.  Ye  therefore  shall  keep  my  statutes  and 
my  judgements,  and  shall  not  do  any  of  these  abominations  ;  neither  the  horaeborn,  nor  the 

27  strauger  that  sojourneth  among  you  :  (for  all  these  abominations  have  the  men  of  the  land 

28  done,  which  were  before  you,  and  the  land  is  defiled  ;)  that  the  land  vomit  not  you  out  also, 

29  when  ye  defile  it,  as  it  vomited  out  the  nation  that  was  before  you.  For  whosoever  shall  do 
any  of  these  abominations,  even  the  souls  that  do  them  shall  be  cut  off  from  among  their 

30  people.  Therefore  shall  ye.  keep  my  charge,  that  ye  do  not  any  of  these  abominable  customs, 
which  were  done  before  you,  and  that  ye  defile  not  yourselves  therein  :  I  am  the  Lord  your 
God. 

[^OmittHl  text  sufficiently  indicated  and  explained.^ 


These  ordinances  cover  the  principal  topics 
included  under  the  head  of  Moral  UncJeanness, 
and  naturally  follow  the  subjects  previously 


considered  under  the  head  of  Ct'remonial  Un- 
cFanness.  Moreover,  while  they  partake  largely 
of  a  moral  and  civil  character,  there  are  in  them 


INCESTUOUS  CONNECTIONS. 


459 


some  elements  which  affiliate  them  with  the 
ceremonial  institutes.  Still  further,  the  prin¬ 
ciple  underlying  these  ordinances  is  identical 
with  that  of  a  large  portion  of  the  ceremonial 
laws  — viz.,  the  inculcation  of  purity  in  the  in¬ 
dividual,  the  family,  and  the  community.  For 
these  three  reasons  they  are  placed  in  this  con¬ 
nection,  as  an  appendage  to  the  ritual  ordi¬ 
nances. 

Beside  certain  special  laws  (touching  divorce, 
the  marriage  of  a  deceased  brother’s  widow,  the 
trial  of  a  wife’s  alleged  criminality,  and  the 
punishment  of  a  slandering  husband)  this  sec¬ 
tion  covers  the  main  prohibitions  and  penalties 
respecting  “  the  abominations  of  the  Egyptians 
and  Canaanites,  incestuous  connections  and 
similar  sins  contrary  to  temperance  and  mod¬ 
esty,  both  in  and  out  of  marriage.”  B, - The 

aim  of  the  Lawgiver  was  the  preservation  of  per¬ 
sonal  purity,  especially  by  the  strict  laws  against 
all  unnatural  marriages  and  lusts,  and  against 
fornication  and  prostitution.  The  Law  of 
Moses,  like  that  of  Christ,  takes  cognizance  of 
sins  against  a  man’s  own  self,  and  that  not  so 
much  in  the  light  of  self-interest  or  even  of  self- 
respect,  but  from  that  principle  of  holiness  to 
God  which  is  so  emphatically  laid  down  by  the 
Apostle  Paul.  P.  S. 

Of  Unlawful  (Incestuous)  Maeeiages. 

Lev.  18  : 1-18  ;  20  : 19-21. 

A  recital  is  here  made  of  some  of  those  aggra¬ 
vated  forms  of  wickedness  which  were  rife 
among  the  Canaanites,  and  which  God  had  de¬ 
termined  signally  to  punish.  This  is  done  not 
merely  to  illustrate  the  justice  of  the  Divine 
proceedings  in  their  excision,  but  chiefly  with 
a  view  to  put  the  peculiar  people  themselves  on 
their  guard  against  yielding  to  the  contagion  of 
their  pernicious  example,  and  thus  becoming 
obnoxious  to  the  same  fearful  retributions 
which  were  to  be  visited  upon  the  Canaanites. 
The  particular  class  of  abominations  more  espe¬ 
cially  pointed  out  here,  and  to  which  the  brand 
mark  of  the  Divine  reprobation  is  so  conspicu¬ 
ously  affixed,  is  that  of  incestuous  connections. 
As  this  is  the  only  passage  in  the  compass  of  the 
whole  Bible  where  any  formal  enactments  are 
given  on  this  subject,  this  and  the  connected 
chapters  treating  of  this  theme  have  always 
been  deemed  of  peculiar  importance  in  their  re¬ 
lations  to  the  question  of  the  lawful  degrees, 
within  which  the  marriage  connection  may  now 
be  formed  by  those  who  make  the  Law  of  God 
the  great  standard  of  moral  duty. 

Siiy  unto  them,  I  am  the 
I.iOrd  your  Ood,  These  words  constitute 


the  grand  authoritative  sanction  of  all  the  en¬ 
suing  laws,  implying  that  they  respect  a  matter 
of  the  utmost  importance,  one  in  which  the 
honor  and  glory  of  the  great  God  were  most 
deeply  involved.  He  was  in  a  special  and  em¬ 
phatic  sense  the  God  of  the  nation  of  Israel, 
with  whom  they  were  in  covenant,  whom  they 
professed  to  serve,  and  to  whom  they  w'ere 
under  the  greatest  obligations.  The  phrase  oc¬ 
curs  six  times  in  the  present  chapter,  and  still 
oftener  in  the  chapters  following  Bush. 

3.  After  the  doiiig:§  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  and  of  Canaan.  The  wilderness 
in  whieh  they  now  were  was  a  very  fit  place  for 
enjoining  these  laws  upon  the  Israelites,  as  they 
were  now  removed  from  the  snares  and  tempta¬ 
tions  of  Egypt  and  were  not  yet  mingled  with 
the  people  of  Canaan.  Bp.  Kidder. - The  ex¬ 

cellence  of  the  law  contained  in  this  chapter  is 
shown  in  a  strong  light  if  contrasted  with  the 
abominations  and  irregularities  in  the  usages  of 
the  most  cultivated  nations  of  antiquity.  The 
Egyptians  and  the  Persians  appear  to  have  in¬ 
dulged  in  connections  with  near  relations  to  a 
greater  degree  than  any  other  civilized  nations. 
In  Egypt  marriage  with  a  full  sister  was  permit¬ 
ted  in  very  early  times.  The  custom  was 
handed  down  in  the  royal  family  from  the 
Pharaohs  to  the  Ptolemies,  and  seems  to  have 
been  continued  till  the  termination  of  the  lat¬ 
ter  dynasty  with  Cleopatra  and  her  brother. 
The  prevalence  of  the  custom  is  shown  in  the 
sculptures  in  both  Lower  and  Upper  Egypt. 
The  Medes  and  Persians  were  in  the  habit  of 
marrying  their  mothers  from  the  earliest  ages. 

Clark. - The  Orientals  never  had  any  scruple 

in  polluting  themselves  by  incestuous  mar¬ 
riages  ;  while  it  is  abundantly  proved  by  his¬ 
tory  how  great  were  the  excesses  of  the  Egyp¬ 
tians  in  this  respect.  They  were  so  dead  to 
shame  that  they  trampled  upon  ail  the  laws  of 
nature.  This  is  the  reason  why  God  here  enu¬ 
merates  the  kinds  of  incest  of  which  the  men¬ 
tion  would  else  have  been  superflnous.  Calv. 

The  necessity  for  laws  on  this  point  at  once 
discriminating,  wise,  and  stringent,  will  be  suf- 
flciently  obvious  when  we  consider  the  strength 
of  the  passion  to  be  controlled —constitution¬ 
ally  common  to  all  ages  of  the  world  ;  the 
sacredness  of  the  marriage  relation  and  the  in¬ 
estimable  value  of  moral  purity  in  a  1  human 
society — also  common  to  all  ages  of  the  world’s 
history  ;  and  (peculiar  to  the  earlier  ages)  the 
necessity  of  defining  the  limits  of  consanguinity 
within  which  marriage  should  be  prohibited, 
and  all  sexual  connection  sternly  forbidden. 
Perhaps  we  need  to  remind  ourselves  that  the 


4G0 


SECTION  152.  UNLAWFUL  MAFdUAGES. 


race  having  sprung  from  a  single  pair  and  the 
world  having  been  repeupled  a  second  time 
from  one  family,  those  primitive  examples  may 
have  sent  down  for  many  generations  a  certain 
looseness  which  called  for  special  lestraiiit  and 
a  carefully  defining  law.  I'he  crimes  of  Sodom, 
their  polluting  iutluence  in  so  good  a  family  as 
that  of  Lot  ;  the  low  morals  of  Egyptian  life  ; 
some  sad  manifestations  in  the  early  history  of 
Jacob’s  family  ;  the  horrible  contagion  of  Moab 
and  Midian  when  the  tribes  of  Israel  came  so- 
ciall}’^  near  them  ; — these  and  kindred  facts  will 
be  readily  recalled  as  m  point  to  show  the  neces¬ 
sity  of  vigorous  legislation  in  the  Mosaic  code 
to  counteract  these  untoward  influences  of  their 
antecedent  life  and  of  surrounding  society. 
H  C. 

Lev.  18:6.  The  Most  High  lays  down  near¬ 
ness  of  kin  as  the  foundation  of  all  the  following 
prohibitions,  and  then  proceeds  to  state  and 
determine,  by  his  own  sovereign  authority,  be¬ 
tween  whom  that  nearness  of  kin  subsists.  In 
the  interpretation  of  what  follows  it  is  important 
to  bear  in  mind,  that  although  these  prohibi¬ 
tions  are  principally  addressed  to  the  man,  yet 
they  are  equally  binding  upon  the  woman,  who 
stands  in  the  same  degree  of  relationship. 

Bash. - Near  of  kin.  Literally,  “  no  one 

shall  approach  to  any  flesh  of  his  flesh.”  The 
repeated  word  ”  flesh  ”  are  in  the  Hebrew  two 
separate  but  synonymous  expressions,  which 
are  intended  to  betoken  the  fleshly  union,  as 
Gen.  2  : 23.  Men  stand  in  relation  to  *‘  their 
flesh”  in  the  divinely  appointed  connection  of 
father,  brother,  etc.,  which  they  may  not  tread 
under  foot.  The  general  prohibition  is  first 
given,  and  then  is  more  particularly  mentioned 
what  is  to  be  esteemed  as  “  his  flesh.”  As  rea¬ 
son  for  the  prohibition  of  these  marriages  in  a  too 
near  relationship,  we  find  nothing  assigned  be¬ 
yond  this  very  degree  of  relationship.  One  can¬ 
not  at  the  same  time  be  daughter  or  sister  and 
wife  ;  and  without  the  strict  prohibition  of  such 
marriage  the  domestic  life  would  altogether  for¬ 
feit  its  sanctity,  and  be  continually  exposed  to 
the  greatest  danger  of  disorder  through  lust. 
The  family  relationship  is  itself  ordained  by 
God.  It  is  the  birthplace  of  the  children  of 
God  ;  the  first  school  and  generally  the  source 
of  all  chastity  and  good  manners.  Any  injury 
inflicted  on  it  would  undermine  the  temporal 
and  eternal  welfare  both  of  individuals  and  of 
the  people.  In  this  lies  the  abomination  of  in¬ 
cest.  This  is  the  reason  of  that  natural  horror 
of  it  which  God  has  implanted  in  us.  This  is 
the  reason  that,  among  all  nations,  marriage 
within  certain  degrees  was  forbidden,  though 


the  laws  of  the  most  moral  nations  wavered  in 
respect  to  the  exact  boundaries.  This  is  the 
reason  that  such  marriages  in  degrees  of  near 
relationship  as  cannot  be  called  exactly  forbid¬ 
den,  still  excite  in  us  a  feeling  of  aversion. 
Gerl. 

7-Q8.  These  precepts  must  be  understood  to 
prohibit  marriage  within  the  degrees  of  kins- 
manship  here  mentioned.  A  man  is  not  to 
wed  his  mother,  father’s  wife,  sister  by  either 
parent,  granddaughter,  sister  by  the  father  who 
has  married  a  second  time,  aunt  by  either  side, 
wife  of  father’s  brother,  daughter-in-law,  broth¬ 
er’s  wife,  wife’s  daughter,  or  granddaughter.  It 
is  to  be  presumed  that  the  law  applies  to  the 
female  as  well  as  the  male  ;  and  hence  a  woman 
is  not  to  wed  her  father,  and  so  on  through¬ 
out.  M. 

18.  The  rule  as  it  here  stands  would  seem  to 
bear  no  other  meaning  than  that  a  man  is  not 
to  form  a  connection  with  his  wife’s  sister 
while  his  wife  is  alive.  It  appears  to  follow 
that  the  law  permitted  marriage  with  the  sister 
of  a  deceased  wife.  A  limitation  being  ex¬ 
pressly  laid  down  in  the  words,  ‘‘  beside  the 
other  in  her  lifetime,”  it  may  be  inferred  that, 
when  the  limitation  is  removed,  the  prohibition 
loses  its  force,  and  permission  is  implied. 

Clark. - It  is  remarkable  that  while  there  is  an 

express  interdict  on  the  marriage  of  a  man  with 
his  brother’s  wire,  there  is  no  such  prohibition 
against  his  marriage  with  his  wife's  sister.  In 
verse  18  the  prohibition  is  only  against  marry¬ 
ing  a  wife’s  sister  during  the  life  of  the  first 
wife,  which  of  itself  implies  a  liberty  to  marry 
the  sister  after  her  death— beside  implying  a 
connivance  at  polygamy.  T.  C. 

Respecting  Divoece. 

Be.  24  : 1-4. 

If  a  man  put  away  his  wife  because  she  did 
not  any  longer  please  him,  and  she  became  the 
wife  of  another  man,  by  whom  also  she  was  put 
away,  or  from  whom  she  was  severed  by  his 
death,  the  first  husband  might  not  remarry  her, 
for  that  would  be  an  abomination  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Lord,  and  would  bring  sin  on  the  land. 
This  is  not  a  law  sanctioning  or  regulating  di¬ 
vorce  ;  that  is  simply  assumed  as  what  might 
occur,  and  what  is  here  regulated  is  the  treat¬ 
ment  by  the  first  husband  of  a  woman  who  has 
been  divorced  a  second  time. 

1-4.  These  verses  should  be  read  as  one  con¬ 
tinuous  sentence,  thus  :  “  If  a  man  hath  taken 
a  wife,  and  married  her,  and  it  come  to  pass 
that  she  doth  not  find  favor  in  his  eyes,  bei^ause 
of  some  uncleanness  in  her,  and  he  hath  writ- 


DIVORCE.  LEVIRATE  MARRIAGE. 


461 


ten  her  a  bill  of  divorcement,  and  given  it  in 
her  hand,  and  sent  her  out  of  his  house  ;  and  if 
she  hath  departed  out  of  his  house,  and  hath 
gone  and  become  another  man’s  ;  and  if  the  lat¬ 
ter  husband  hate  her,  and  write  her  a  bill  of  di¬ 
vorcement,  and  give  it  in  her  hand,  and  send 
her  out  of  his  house  ;  or  if  the  latter  husband 
who  took  her  to  be  his  wife  die  :  her  former 
husband,  who  sent  her  awaj’,  may  not  take  her 

again  to  be  his  wife,”  etc.  W.  L.  A.- - In  the 

Hebrew  these  four  verses  form  but  one  period, 
the  first  part  of  which  extends  to  the  end  of 
verse  3.  A  right  of  divorce  is  not  here  intro¬ 
duced,  but  there  is  only  mentioned  what  was 
the  custom  as  Moses  found  it.  He  let  the  prac¬ 
tice  continue,  and  suffered  the  putting  away  by 
reason  of  the  hardness  of  their  hearts,  while  in 
the  history  of  the  creation  he  had  taught  the 
indissolubility  of  the  bond  (Gen.  2  : 24).  Gni. 

- This  regulation  is  remarkable  alike  for  its 

concessive  and  its  restrictive  character.  It  as¬ 
sumes  the  prevalence  of  divorce — a  fact  also  rec¬ 
ognized  in  a  number  of  other  laws  of  this  and 
the  Leritical  code  (Lev.  21  :  7  ;  De.  22  : 19,  29), 
It  assumes  that  it  was  carried  on  with  some  de¬ 
gree  of  formality.  And  such  a  custom,  with 
the  form  it  took  of  giving  a  ”  bill  of  divorce¬ 
ment,”  this  law  does  not  forbid  ;  neither  does 
it  command  it.  Herein  our  Lord  corrected  the 
Pharisees’  false  quotation  of  the  Pentateuch, 
changing  their  “Why  did  Moses  command?” 
into  “  Moses  suffered.”  In  its  restrictions,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  law  assumes  the  sacredness 
of  the  marital  tie  and  provides  against  an  obvi¬ 
ous  tendency  to  break  and  renew  it  at  will.  Its 
sole  prohibition,  however,  is  of  the  remarriage 
of  divorced  persons  after  a  second  marriage  had 
been  entered  upon  bj^  the  former  wife.  This, 
as  the  words  “  after  that  she  has  been  defiled  ” 
(cf.  Nu.  5  :  20)  indicate,  it  looked  upon  as  a  form 
of  adultery  and  not  to  be  tolerated.  The  law 
tends  directly  to  the  preservation  of  the  original 
tie  ;  and,  in  case  it  is  severed,  plainly  encour¬ 
ages  a  single  life  in  view  of  a  possible  later  re¬ 
union.  E.  C.  B. 

The  Mosaic  legislation  permitted  a  certain 
liberty  of  divorce  ;  but  our  Lord  only  brought 
into  clear  relief,  and  made  emphatic  for  all  time, 
its  determining  ethical  principle,  when  he  de¬ 
clared  that  the  Mosaic  permission  was  an  un¬ 
willing  concession  to  the  “  hardness”  of  the 
people’s  heart  ;  that  “  from  the  beginning”  mar¬ 
riage  was  not  so  contemplated  and  constituted, 
that  man  may  not  “  pat  asunder  what  God  hath 
joined  together  that  divorce  is  permissible 
only  “  for  the  cause  of  fornication  that  sep¬ 
aration  for  any  other  cause  is  an  incentive  to 


adultery,  and  that  whoever  contracts  marriage 
with  the  guilty  party  commits  adultery.  Beh- 
rerids. 

Markying  a  Brother’s  Widow. 

De.  25  :  5-10. 

If  a  man  who  was  married  died  without  issue, 
his  surviving  brother  was  required  to  marry  the 
widow,  so  as  to  raise  up  a  successor  to  the  de¬ 
ceased,  who  should  be  his  heir.  The  brother 
who  refused  this  duty  must  be  publicly  dis¬ 
graced,  The  design  of  this  institution — wliich 
was  not  originated  by  Moses,  but  came  down 
from  early  times  (Gen.  38  ;  8),  and  is  to  be  found 
among  other  nations  than  the  Jews,  and  that 
even  in  the  present  day — was  to  preserve  a 
family  from  becoming  extinct  and  to  secure  the 
property  of  a  family  from  passing  into  the  hands 
of  a  stranger. 

7-10.  If  the  man  refused  to  marry  the  widow 
of  his  deceased  brother,  he  was  free  to  do  so  ; 
but  the  woman  had  her  redress.  She  was  to 
bring  the  matter  before  the  elders  of  the  town, 
sitting  as  magistrates  at  the  gate,  and  thej’  were 
to  summon  the  man  and  speak  to  him,  and  if 
he  persisted  in  his  refusal,  the  woman  was  to 
take  his  shoe  from  off  his  foot,  and  spit  before 
his  face,  and  say.  So  shall  it  be  done  unto  that 
man  that  will  not  build  up  his  brother’s  house. 
The  taking  off  of  the  shoe  of  the  man  by  the 
woman  was  an  act  of  indignity  to  him  ;  it 
amounted  to  a  declaration  that  he  was  not 
worthy  to  stand  in  his  brother’s  place,  and  was 
scornfully  rejected  by  the  Avoman  herself. 
W.  L.  A. 

The  Jealmisy  Offering  {Nu.  5  : 11-31). 

We  find  among  the  covenant  people  adultery 
forbidden  in  the  Ten  Commandments,  and  in 
the  more  full  explanation  of  the  Law,  threat¬ 
ened  with  death.  The  prohibitions  of  marriage 
in  cases  of  near  kinship  are  intended  to  protect 
the  holy  family  bond,  which  is  founded  on 
marriage.  The  whole  constitution  of  the  peo¬ 
ple  of  Israel,  with  their  tables  of  genealogies, 
resting,  as  this  constitution  did,  on  the  patri¬ 
archal  family  unity,  necessarily  inculcated  the 
great  importance  of  a  pure  and  unmixed  de¬ 
scent.  Hence  the  appointment  of  the  jealousy- 
offering,  which  was  intended  to  bring  to  light 
the  truth  of  the  suspicion  of  adultery.  It  is  re¬ 
markable  that  the  woman  must  appear  with  an 
offering  before  the  Lord.  This  was  an  offering 
of  barley  with  wheat-meal — no  oil,  no  frankin¬ 
cense,  might  be  on  it.  She  lay  under  grave 
suspicion.  In  this,  at  least,  she  was  not  blame¬ 
less.  Yet  she  might  bring  the  offering,  since 


462 


SECTION  152.  SINS  AGAINST  CHASTITY. 


she  was  only  smpeded,  not  judged.  By  making 
the  offering  she  confessed  herself  pure  before 
God  ;  she  appealed  to  him  to  defend  her  inno- 
cency  ;  in  case  of  guilt,  she  challenged  his  judg¬ 
ment  to  fall  upon  her  more  heavily.  Holding 
the  offering  in  her  hand,  she  must  take  the  oath 
that  she  is  clean,  which  is  the  main  point  of  the 
whole  transaction.  All  besides  is  intended  to 
make  the  perjury  in  this  case  the  more  fearful. 
Therefore  she  must  now  drink  the  water  wherein 
is  placed  dust  taken  from  the  floor  of  the  sanc¬ 
tuary,  and  figuratively  charged  with  a  curse. 
The  meaning  is  not  that  the  water  has  thereby 
received  any  actual  power  to  do  her  any  injury  : 
it  was  rather  an  earnest  and  token  of  the  Divine 
judgment  which  now  passed  over  her.  From 
the  moment  of  drinking  it  she  might  be  sure 
that,  as  certainly  as  the  curse  had  figuratively 
passed  into  the  water  and  the  water  into  her, 
so  surely  would  God  know  how  to  find  her  out 
with  his  punishments.  Gerl. 

The  national  covenant  had  its  parallel  in  every 
family  of  Israel,  in  the  marriage-tie  that  bound 
together  man  and  wife.  This  relation  was 
chosen  as  an  expressive  image  of  that  in  which 
the  whole  people  stood  to  God.  It  was,  there¬ 
fore,  in  accordance  with  the  whole  spirit  of  the 
Mosaic  legislation  that  the  strongest  enactments 
should  be  made  respecting  this  domestic  rela¬ 
tion,  that  the  behavior  of  man  and  wife  to  each 
other  throughout  the  families  of  Israel  might 
present  a  faithful  image  of  the  behavior  Israel 
should  maintain  toward  God  ;  or  if  otherwise, 
that  exemplary  judgment  might  be  inflicted. 
Not  only  must  ascertained  guilt  be  punished, 
but  strong  suspicions  of  guilt  must  be  brought 
by  solemn  appeal  to  God.  Therefore  it  was 
that  the  ritual  respecting  the  trial  and  offering 
of  jealousy  was  prescribed.  Of  course,  the  act¬ 
ual  infliction  of  the  curse  depended  upon  the 
will  and  power  of  God,  whose  interference  was 
at  the  time  so  solemnly  invoked.  But  the  whole 
service  was  fitted  to  convey  a  deep  impression 
of  the  jealous  care  with  which  God  watched 
over  even  the  most  secret  violations  of  the  mar¬ 
riage  vow,  and  the  certainty  with  which  he 
would  avenge  them.  P.  F 

A  Defaming  Husband  Punished. 

De.  22  : 13-21. 

Among  the  many  provisions  of  the  Deutero- 
nomic  code  inculcating  humanity,  or  conceived 
especially  in  a  humane  spirit,  is  that  regarding 
a  complaint  of  unchastity  previous  to  marriage, 
preferred  by  a  husband  against  a  newly-married 
wife  (22  : 13-21).  One  main  object  of  it  seems 
to  have  been  to  protect  an  otherwise  helpless 


woman  against  the  brutality  of  a  selfish  and  un¬ 
scrupulous  lord  to  whom  she  was  legally  bound.. 
The  rigorous  punishment  inflicted  on  the  plain¬ 
tiff,  if  he  failed  to  make  out  his  case,  the  fine 
(cf,  Ex.  21  : 22),  the  beating  (cf.  De,  25  : 1-3), 
and  the  denial  of  the  right  of  future  separation 
on  any  terms  (24  : 1-4)  bring  the  statute  into 
line  with  other  enactments  of  the  present  code 
and  bespeak  for  it  the  same  origin.  E.  C.  B. 

20,  21.  If  the  charge  made  against  the  wife 
prove  true,  then  she  is  to  bo  stoned  to  death 
for  her  sin.  Immorality  was  really  treason  tow¬ 
ard  the  Divine  King,  it  was  incompatible  with 
his  kingdom,  and  so  was  put  into  the  category 
of  capital  crimes.  The  morale  of  the  Theocracy 
was  reallj’’  higher  in  idea  than  that  of  any  other 
kingdom  then  or  now  existing.  Edgar. 

Sins  against  Chastity. 

Adultery  (Lev.  18  : 20  ;  20  : 10.  De.  22  :  22-29). 
Incest  (Lev.  20  :  11,  12,  14,  17-21).  Lying  with 
bond,  betrothed,  etc.  (Ex.  22  : 16,  17.  Lev.  19  : 
20-22).  Ly'ng  with  Mankind  (Lev.  18  :  22  ;  20  : 
13).  With  a  Beast  (Ex.  22  :  19.  Lev.  20  : 15, 
16  ;  18  ;  23).  Prostitution  of  Daughter,  etc.  (Len. 
19  :  29.  De.  23  : 17,  18).  Of  ‘these  the  first, 
second,  fourth,  and  fifth  were  punished  with 
death  to  the  guilty  parties,  one  or  both. 

No  blame  can  lie  against  the  Scriptures  be¬ 
cause  they  legislate  on  such  detestable  matters. 
The  blame  must  lie  at  the  door  of  depraved  hu¬ 
manity,  which  perpetrates  such  deeds  and 
makes  Divine  legislation  necessary.  The  ob¬ 
scenity  appertains  to  the  vices,  only  praise  be¬ 
longs  to  the  remedy.  An. 

Unna'tural  lusts,  sodomy,  and  bestiality  are 
sins  not  to  be  named  or  thought  of  without  the 
utmost  abhorrence  imaginable.  Other  sins  level 
men  with  the  beasts,  but  these  sink  them  much 
lower.  That  ever  there  should  have  been  occa¬ 
sion  for  the  making  of  these  laws,  and  that  since 
they  are  published  they  should  ever  have  been 
broken,  is  the  perpetual  reproach  and  scandal 
of  the  human  nature  :  the  giving  of  men  up  to 
these  vile  affections  was  frequently  the  punish¬ 
ment  of  their  idolatries  ;  so  the  apostle  shows 

(Kom.  1  ;  24).  H. - There  are  specific  forms 

of  vice  prohibited  by  express  enactments  in  the 
Mosaic  Law  which  to  many  are  simply  incon¬ 
ceivable.  Such  was  the  case  with  the  writer  till 
assured  by  one  who  knew,  and  whose  word  was 
to  be  trusted,  that  the  grossest  and  most  beastly 
of  all  is  an  actual,  well-known,  and  widespread 
fact  of  human  life  in  the  heart  of  Asia  to  this 
day.  And  to  an  angel’s  eye  are  the  gilded, 
sugared,  ornamented  vices  of  a  high  civiliza¬ 
tion,  at  its  most  populous  centres  in  our  own 


SECTION  153. 


463 


day,  any  less  revolting?  Herrick. - Humar  | 

nature,  wherever  without  cultivation  and  with¬ 
out  the  revelation  of  God,  is  everything  that  is 
vile  in  princ’ple  and  detestable  in  practice.  Nor 
would  any  part  of  the  habitable  globe  materi¬ 
ally  differ  from  Egypt  and  Canaan  had  they  not 
that  rule  of  righteousness,  the  revealed  Law  of 
God,  and  life  and  immorl'iUiy  been  brought  to 
light  by  the  Gospel  among  them.  From  these 
accounts,  for  which  we  could  easily  find  paral¬ 
lels  in  ancient  Greece  and  Italy,  we  may  see  the 
absolute  need  of  a  Divine  revelation,  without 
which  man  even  in  his  best  estate  differs  little 
from  the  brute.  A.  C. 

Concluding  Command. 

Lev.  18  ;  24-30  ;  20  : 22-24. 

The  land  designed  and  consecrated  for  his 
people  by  Jehovah  is  here  impersonated,  and 
represented  as  vomiting  forth  its  present  inhabi¬ 
tants,  in  consequence  of  their  indulgence  in  the 
abominations  that  have  been  mentioned.  The 
iniquity  of  the  Canaanites  was  now  full.  The 
Israelites  in  this  place  and  throughout  the  chap¬ 
ter  are  exhorted  to  a  pure  and  holy  life,  on  the 
ground  that  Jehovah,  the  Holy  One,  is  their 
God  and  that  they  are  his  people.  It  is  upon 
this  high  sanction  that  they  are  peremptorily 
forbidden  to  defile  themselves  with  the  pollu¬ 
tions  of  the  heathen.  Clark. - By  the  coming 

doom  of  the  Canaanites  he  would  have  them 
take  warning.  If  guilty  of  similar  crimes  they 
might  anticipate  a  more  aggravated  and  fearful 


[  judgment,  according  to  the  declared  principle 
of  the  Divine  administration,  “  Because  you 
only  have  I  known  of  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  therefore  will  I  punish  your  iniquities,” 
Bush. 


God  has  made  our  nature,  in  every  part 
thereof,  for  himself.  In  making  man  male  and 
female,  God  has  opened  up  to  each  wondrous 
possibilities  of  love,  of  holiness,  of  usefulness, 
by  each  rendering  to  the  other  due  honor  in 
accordance  with  Divine  Law.  By  as  much  as 
the  joy  and  culture  are  great  when  God’s  laws 
are  obeyed,  by  so  much  are  the  misery  and  de¬ 
basement  great  when  they  are  disobeyed.  He 
who  trifles  with  himself  or  with  others  in  regard 
to  the  holiest  of  all  human  relations  will  find 
that  sins  of  impurity  nip  his  nature  in  the  bud, 
embitter  life  beyond  all  power  of  expression, 
and  render  true  greatness  altogether  impossible. 
One  sin  will  drag  the  whole  man  after  it.  C.  C. 

- A  close  and  constant  adherence  to  God’s 

ordinances  is  the  most  effectual  preservative 
from  the  infection  of  gross  sin.  The  more  we 
taste  of  the  sweetness  and  feel  of  the  power  of 
holy  ordinances,  the  less  attachment  we  shall 
have  to  the  forbidden  pleasures  of  sinners’ 
abominable  customs.  It  is  the  grace  of  God 
only  that  will  secure  us,  and  that  grace  is  to  be 
expected  only  in  the  use  of  the  means  of  grace. 
Nor  does  God  ever  leave  any  to  tLeir  own 
hearts’  lusts,  till  they  have  first  left  him  and  his 
institutions.  H. 


Section  153. 

IDOLS  AND  ALTARS  TO  BE  DESTROYED.  IDOLATERS,  ENTICERS,  FALSE  PROPH¬ 
ETS,  AND  WONDER-WORKERS  PUT  TO  DEATH,  AND  IDOLATROUS  CITIES  TO 
BE  BURNED.  MAGICAL  ARTS  AND  DIVINATION  CONDEMNED  ;  ALSO  CHILD- 
SACRIFICE  TO  MOLECH. 

Exodus  22  :  18.  20  ;  23  :  13.  Lev.  18  :  21  ;  19  :  31  ;  20  :  1-6.  27  ;  r6  :  1.  De.  12  : 1-4,  29-32  ; 

13  : 1-18  ;  16  ;  21,  22  ;  17  ;  2-5  ;  18  : 9-14. 

Lev.  26  1  Ye  shall  make  you  no  idols,  neither  shall  ye  rear  you  up  a  graven  image,  or  a 

2  pillar,  neither  shall  ye  place  any  figured  stone  in  your  land,  to  bow  down  unto  it  :  for  I  am 
the  Lokd  your  God. 

Be.  B6  21  Thou  shalt  not  plant  thee  an  Asherah  of  any  kind  of  tree  beside  the  altar  of  the 

22  Lord  thy  God,  which  thou  shalt  make  thee.  Neither  shalt  thou  set  thee  up  a  pillar  ;  which 
the  Lord  thy  God  hateth. 

Be.  12  1  These  are  the  statutes  and  the  judgements,  which  ye  shall  observe  to  do  in  the 
land  which  the  Lord,  the  God  of  thy  fathers,  hath  given  thee  to  possess  it,  all  the  days  that 

2  ye  live  upon  the  earth.  Ye  shall  surely  destroy  all  the  places,  wherein  the  nations  which  ye 
shall  possess  served  their  gods,  upon  the  high  mountains,  and  upon  the  hills,  and  under  every 

3  green  tree  :  and  ye  shall  break  down  their  altars,  find  dash  in  pieces  their  pillars,  and  burn 
their  Asherim  with  fire  ;  and  ye  shall  hew  down  the  graven  images  of  their  gods  ;  and  ye  shall 

4  destroy  their  name  out  of  that  place.  Ye  shall  not  do  so  unto  the  Lord  your  God. 


464 


SECTION  153.  IDOLS  AND  ALTARS  TO  BE  DESTROYED. 


De.  17  2  If  there  be  found  in  the  midst  of  thee,  within  an}"  of  thy  gates  which  the  Lokd 
thy  God  giveth  thee,  man  or  woman,  that  doeth  that  which  is  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Loed  thy 

3  God,  in  transgressing  his  covenant,  and  hath  gone  and  served  other  gods,  and  worshipped 
them,  or  the  sun,  or  the  moon,  or  any  of  the  host  of  heaven,  which  I  have  not  commanded  ; 

4  and  it  be  told  thee,  and  thou  hast  heard  of  it,  then  shalt  thou  inquire  diligently,  and,  behold, 

5  if  it  be  true,  and  the  thing  certain,  that  such  abomination  is  wrought  in  Israel  ;  then  shalt 
thou  bring  forth  that  man  or  that  woman,  which  have  done  this  evil  thing,  unto  thy  gates, 
even  the  man  or  the  woman  ;  and  thou  shalt  stone  them  with  stones,  that  they  die. 

De.  13  1  If  there  arise  in  the  midst  of  thee  a  prophet,  or  a  dreamer  of  dreams,  and  he  give 

2  thee  a  sign  or  a  wonder,  and  the  sign  or  the  wonder  come  to  pass,  whereof  he  spake  unto 
thee,  saying,  Let  us  go  after  other  gods,  which  thou  hast  not  known,  and  let  us  serve  them  j 

3  thou  shalt  not  hearken  unto  the  words  of  that  prophet,  or  unto  that  dreamer  of  dreams  :  for 
the  Lokd  your  God  proveth  you,  to  know  whether  ye  love  the  Loed  your  God  with  all  your 

4  heart  and  with  all  your  soul.  Ye  shall  walk  after  the  Loed  your  God,  and  fear  him,  and  keep 

5  his  commandments,  and  obey  his  voice,  and  ye  shall  serve  him,  and  cleave  unto  him.  And 
that  prophet,  or  that  dreamer  of  dreams,  shall  be  put  to  death  ;  because  he  hath  spoken  rebel¬ 
lion  against  the  Loed  your  God,  w"hich  brought  you  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  and  redeemed 
thee  out  of  the  house  of  bondage,  to  draw  thee  aside  out  of  the  way  which  the  Loed  thy  God 
commanded  thee  to  walk  in.  So  shalt  thou  put  away  the  evil  from  the  midst  of  thee. 

6  If  thy  brother,  the  son  of  thy  mother,  or  thy  son,  or  thy  daughter,  or  the  wife  of  thy  bosom, 
or  thy  friend,  which  is  as  thine  own  soul,  entice  thee  secretly,  saying.  Let  us  go  and  serve 

7  other  gods,  which  thou  hast  not  known,  thou,  nor  thy  fathers  ;  of  the  gods  of  the  peoples 
which  are  round  about  you,  nigh  unto  thee,  or  far  olf  from  thee,  from  the  one  end  of  the  earth 

8  even  unto  the  other  end  of  the  earth  ;  thou  shalt  not  consent  unto  him,  nor  hearken  unto 
him  ;  neither  shall  thine  eye  pity  him,  neither  shalt  thou  spare,  neither  shalt  thou  conceal 

9  him  :  but  thou  shalt  surely  kill  him  ;  thine  hand  shall  be  first  upon  him  to  put  him  to  death, 

10  and  afterw'ards  the  hand  of  all  the  people.  And  thou  shalt  stone  him  with  stones,  that  he  die  ; 
because  he  hath  sought  to  draw  thee  away  from  the  Lokd  thy  God,  which  brought  thee  out  of 

11  the  land  of  Eg3^pt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage.  And  all  Israel  shall  hear,  and  fear,  and  shall 
do  no  more  any  such  wickedness  as  this  is  in  the  midst  of  thee. 

Lev.  19  31  Turn  ye  not  unto  them  that  have  familiar  spirits,  nor  unto  the  wizards  ;  seek 

26  them  not  out,  to  be  defiled  by  them  :  I  am  the  Loed  your  God.  Neither  shall  y"e  use  enchant¬ 
ments,  nor  practise  augury. 

Lev.  SiO  27  A  man  also  or  a  woman  that  hath  a  familiar  spirit,  or  that  is  a  wizard,  shall 
surely  be  put  to  death  :  they  shall  stone  them  with  stones  :  their  blood  shall  be  upon  them. 

De.  1§  9  When  thou  art  come  into  the  land  which  the  Lokd  thy  God  giveth  thee,  thou  shalt 

10  not  learn  to  do  after  the  abominations  of  those  nations.  There  shall  not  be  found  with  thee 
any  one  that  maketh  his  son  or  his  daughter  to  pass  through  the  fire,  one  that  useth  divina- 

11  tion,  one  that  practiseth  augury,  or  an  enchanter,  or  a  sorcerer,  or  a  charmer,  or  a  consulter 

12  with  a  familiar  spirit,  or  a  wizard,  or  a  necromancer.  For  whosoever  doeth  these  things  is  an 
abomination  unto  the  Lokd  :  and  because  of  these  abominations  the  Lokd  thy  God  doth  drive 

13.  them  out  from  before  thee.  Thou  shalt  be  perfect  with  the  Loed  thy  God.  For  these  nations, 

14  which  thou  shalt  possess,  hearken  unto  them  that  practise  augury,  and  unto  diviners  :  but  as 
for  thee,  the  Lokd  thy  God  hath  not  suffered  thee  so  to  do. 

Lev.  IS  21  And  thou  shalt  not  give  any  of  thy  seed  to  make  them  pass  through  the  fire  to 
Molech,  neither  shalt  thou  profane  the  name  of  thy  God  :  I  am  the  Loed. 

Lev.  tlO  1  And  the  Lokd  spake  unto  Moses,  saying  Moreover,  thou  shalt  say  to  the  chil- 

2  dren  of  Israel,  Whosoever  he  be  of  the  children  of  Israel,  or  of  the  strangers  that  sojourn  in 
Israel,  that  giveth  of  his  seed  unto  Molech  ;  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death  :  the  people  of  the 

3  land  shall  stone  him  with  stones.  I  also  will  set  my  face  against  that  man,  and  will  cut  him 
off  from  among  his  people  ;  because  he  hath  given  of  his  seed  unto  Molech,  to  defile  ray  sanc- 

4  tuary,  and  to  profane  my  holy  name.  And  if  the  people  of  the  land  do  any  ways  hide  their 

5  eyes  from  that  man,  when  he  giveth  of  his  seed  unto  Molech,  and  put  him  not  to  death  ;  then 
I  will  set  my  face  against  that  man,  and  against  his  family,  and  will  cut  him  off  and  all  that 
go  a  whoring  after  him,  to  commit  whoredom  with  Molech,  from  among  their  people. 

Idolatry  had  overspread  the  earth,  and  was  Law  was  proclaimed  from  Sinai.  There  was 

the  universal  religion  of  mankind,  when  the  scarcely  an  object,  element,  or  living  creature 


IDOLATERS,  ETC.,  PUT  TO  DEATH, 


465 


in  nature  which  did  not  receive  a  heart-debas¬ 
ing  and  life-corrupting  worship.  Dead  men, 
celestial  luminaries,  light,  air,  wind,  fire,  hills, 
streams,  groves,  beasts,  birds,  reptiles,  plants, 
darkness,  storm,  pestilence,  the  fates,  the  furies, 
and  other  like  objects,  were  deified,  and  adored 
by  trembling  votaries.  By  a  system  of  worship 
so  blind  and  degrading,  reason,  truth,  and  vir¬ 
tue  were  well-nigh  obliterated  from  the  human 
heail  ;  and  in  their  place  follj^  falsehood,  and 
vice  reigned  with  almost  undisputed  sway, 
Not  only  in  the  ruder  and  more  uncivilized,  but 
even  in  the  most  enlightened  and  polished  na¬ 
tions  of  Gentile  antiquity,  immoralities  the 
most  revolting  and  crimes  the  most  unnatural 
were  sanctioned  by  the  example  and  consecrated 
in  the  worship  of  the  gods.  Lewdness  was 
practised  in  the  temples,  and  human  victims 
bled  upon  the  altars  of  these  impure  and  san¬ 
guinary  deities.  E.  C.  W. 

The  religion  of  the  natives,  in  whose  territory 
the  Israelites  were  about  to  settle,  appears  to 
have  been  a  dei^ravation  of  the  purer  Tsabaism, 
or  worship  of  the  host  of  heaven.  On  this 
primitive  form  of  idolatry  had  gradually  been 
engrafted  a  sj^stem  of  rites  absurd,  bloody,  or 
licentious.  Among  the  Canaanites  human  sac¬ 
rifices  were  common — babes  were  burned  alive  to 
Moloch.  The  inland  tribes,  the  Moabites  and 
Midianites,  worshipped  that  obscene  symbol 
which  originally  represented  the  generative  in- 
flaence  of  the  sun,  but  had  now  become  a  dis¬ 
tinct  divinity.  The  chastity  of  their  women 
was  the  offering  most  acceptable  to  Baal  Peor. 
It  was  this  inhuman  and  loathsome  religion 
which  was  to  be  swept  away  from  the  polluted 
territory  of  Palestine  by  the  exterminating  con¬ 
quest  of  the  Jews  ;  against  the  contagion  of 
these  abominations  they  were  to  be  secured  by 
the  most  rigid  penal  statutes,  and  by  capital 
punishments  summary  and  without  aj)peal.  All 
approximation  to  these  horrible  usages  was  in¬ 
terdicted  with  equal  severity.  The  Canaanites 
had  no  enclosed  temples,  their  rites  were  per¬ 
formed  in  consecrated  or  open  spaces  on  the 
summits  of  their  hills,  or  under  the  shade  of 
groves  devoted  to  their  deities.  The  worship 
of  God  on  mountain-tops,  otherwise  a  sublime 
and  innocent  practice,  was  proscribed.  The 
strictest  personal  purity  was  enjoined  upon  the 
priests  ;  the  prohibition  against  prostituting 
tlieir  daughters,  as  well  as  that  which  forbids 
the  woman  to  appear  in  the  dress  of  the  man, 
the  man  in  that  of  the  woman,  are  no  doubt 
pointed  against  the  same  impure  ceremonies. 
Mlman. 

30 


Idolatky  Fokbidden.  Its  Monume^^ts  to  be 

Destroyed. 

'Ex.  20  : 23  ;  22  :  20  ;  23  : 13,  24  ;  34  : 14, 17.  Lev. 

19  :  4  ;  26  : 1.  De.  4  : 15-19,  23,  24  ;  12  :  2-4, 

29-32  ;  16  ;  21,  22. 

Lev*  20  :  I ,  Ye  shall  make  you  no  idols.  Heb. 
nothings,  vanities.  The  import  of  the  original  is 
things  of  nought,  in  allusion  to  which  the  apos¬ 
tle  says,  “  We  know  that  an  idol  is  nothing  in 
the  world.’’  dravCBl  Iniag'C.  Heb.  pesel, 
anything  hewed  or  sculptured  out  of  wood  or 
stone.  PilBar.  Either  a  single  stone,  or  a 
pile  of  stones  reared  and  consecrated  to  relig¬ 
ious  purposes.  Bush. 

l>e.  10  :  2fi.  Tliou  slialt  not  plant — 

i.e.,  place  or  set  up,  an  Aslierala  of  any 
kind  of  tree.  The  Asherah  was  an  idol  of 
wood  in  the  form  of  a  pillar,  usually  placed  by 
the  side  of  the  altars  of  Baal.  It  was  the  sym¬ 
bol  of  Astarte,  the  great  Canaanitish  goddess, 
the  companion  and  revealer  of  Baal.  The  two 
are  usually  associated  in  the  Old  Testament. 
W.  L.  A. 

l>e.  12  :  29-32.  Hebrew  worship  was  to  be 
in  all  respects  a  protest  against  surrounding 
idolatry.  They  were  not  only  to  carry  out  a 
policy  of  destruction,  in  sweeping  from  the  land 
every  vestige  of  ancient  heathen  worship,  but 
were  to  avoid  everything  like  imitation  of  it. 
Theirs  was  a  new  nationality,  a  new  deliver¬ 
ance,  a  new  faith,  and  it  must  be  a  new  kind  of 
worship,  corresponding  in  its  purity  to  the 
holiness  of  Jehovah.  The  Divine  rules  W'ere  to 
be  precisely  adhered  to.  They  might  not  be 
swerved  from,  either  by  addition  or  diminu 
tion.  C.  C. 

Idolaters,  Eniicers,  False  Prophets,  and  Wonder- 

Workers  to  be  Put  to  Death,  and  Idolatrous  Cities 

Destroyed. 

De.  17  : 2-5  ;  13  : 1-18. 

I>e.  17  ;  2,  3.  The  crime  here  ordained  to 
be  punished  by  death  was  the  worship  of  the 
heavenly  bodies.  Its  apparent  sublimity  made 
it  only  the  more  seductive  and  dangerous.  It 
was  a  departure,  though  at  first  a  very  subtle 
and  scarcely  recognizable  one,  from  pure  mo¬ 
notheism — the  beginning  of  a  course  of  declen¬ 
sion  which  speedily  led  in  Egypt,  Phoenicia, 
Babylonia,  India,  and  most  other  nations  to 
the  grossest  abominations.  Orr. 

4.  These  are  tokens  of  severity,  that  a  woman 
as  well  as  a  man  is  to  be  slain  ;  that  the  whole 
people  should  unite  in  stoning  them  ;  that  the 
evil  should  be  removed  from  the  midst  of  the 


466 


SECTION  153.  ENTICERS  TO  FALSE  WORSHIP  DESTROYED. 


land,  lest  the  abomination  should  continue  un¬ 
punished.  He  marks  the  heinous  nature  of  the 
offence,  by  calling  it  the  “  transgressing  of  God's 
covenant  f'  thus  affirming  that  all  who  go  aside 
unto  idols  are  covenant-breakers.  It  is  not  simple 
impiety  which  is  here  punished,  but  the  perlidy 
whereby  true  religion  is  forsaken  after  men 
have  devoted  themselves  to  God  and  professed 
themselves  to  be  of  the  number  of  his  people. 

Calv. - Although  physical  death  is  no  longer 

to  be  inflicted  and  outward  stoning  is  happily 
unknown,  there  remains  the  eternal  truth  that 
false  worship  is  death,  misconceived  worship)  is 
loss  of  soul,  and  right  worship  is  dail}^  suste¬ 
nance  and  the  continual  enhancement  of  highest 
strength.  J.  P. 

I>c.  13  :  1-18.  Temptations  to  depart  from 
God  to  he  resisted  at  all  costs.  Here  Israel  is  told 
what  to  do  in  case  of  temptation  arising  to  wor¬ 
ship  false  gods.  The  chapter  deals  with  this 
one  topic.  Temptations  to  depart  from  God 
may  come  (1)  from  a  professed  projihet  or  won¬ 
der-worker,  or  (2)  the}^  may  arise  from  the  near¬ 
est  relative  or  bosom  friend,  or  (3)  they  may 
come  from  a  town  or  city.  In  either  case,  the 
infection  is  to  be  “  stamped  out  ”  at  once.  Any 
enticement  to  idolatry,  come  whence  it  may,  is 
not  to  be  tolerated  for  a  moment.  The  wonder¬ 
worker  is  to  be  put  to  death  ;  the  friend  is  to  be 
slain  ;  the  city  is  to  be  destroyed.  C.  C. 

Even  when  a  prophet  performs  a  miracle  for 
the  sake  of  seducing  the  people  into  idolatry, 
they  shall  not  believe  him  but  punish  him. 
This  precept  is  of  great  importance,  because  it 
shows  that  even  in  the  Old  Testament  a  miracle 
was  only  of  an  introductory  and  preparatory 
character,  and  never  was  meant  in  and  for  itself 
to  work  as  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  truth. 
Every  miracle  points  to  something  ;  and  if  that 
to  which  it  points  is  shown  by  other  yet  more 
•undoubted  signs  to  be  false  and  mischievous, 
then  the  miracle  itself  is  a  lying  miracle. 
Therefore  the  New  Testament  also  warns  us 
-against  false  prophetic  spirits.  Gerl. 

Terribly  stern  is  the  duty  here  laid  on  the 
person  enticed  to  idolatry.  The  law  is  adapted 
to  an  age  of  stern  deeds,  and  to  a  people  living 
under  a  stern  dispensation.  Yet,  reflecting  on 
the  nature  of.  the  crime,  on  the  constitution  of 
the  Jewish  state,  and  on  the  issues  to  mankind 
which  hung  on  the  slender  thread  of  this  one 
nation’s  fidelity,  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  it 
could  well  have  been  less  stern  than  it  is.  Its 
severity  was  perhaps  its  mercy.  Note,  too,  that 
the  criminal  could  be  executed  only  after  formal 
impeachment,  fair  trial,  and  conclusively  estab¬ 
lished  guilt.  Orr. 


II.  And  all  I§rael  shall  hear,  and 
fear.  God  doth  not  punish  merely  for  the 
sake  of  punishment.  Even  his  severities  are 
the  effects  of  goodness,  and  always  directed  to 
the  advantage  either  of  those  who  feel  them  or 

of  others.  Seeker. - The  effect  anticipated 

was  this  :  All  Israel  shall  hear,  and  fear,  and  do 
no  more  any  such  wickedness.  On  God’s  side  the 
result  would  be  that  he  would  “  turn  and  show 
them  mercy,  and  multiply”  their  numbers. 
Very  clearly  was  it  announced  that  this  judicial 
action  was  the  action  of  God,  and  that  right¬ 
eous  and  obedient  Hebrews  were  the  officers  of 
Jehovah.  D.  D. 

I>c.  S3  :  3,  4.  “  The  Lokd  your  God  proveth 
you,  to  know  whether  ye  love  the  Lord  your  God 
'with  all  your  heart  and  wUh  all  your  soul.  Ye  shad 
walk  of  ter  the  Lord  your  God,  andfiarldm,  and 
keep  Ids  commandments,  and  obey  his  voice,  and 
cleave  unto  him."  These  words  present  the  su¬ 
preme  reason  and  sanction  for  the  commands 
of  this  thirteenth  chapter  of  Deuteronomy,  as 
they  furnish  the  one  sublime  and  sufficient 
basis  for  all  Divine  commands  and  prohibi¬ 
tions.  B. - “Ye  shall  walk  after  the  Lord” 

embodies  New  Testament  teaching  as  well  as 
Old.  Absolute  loyalty  to  Christ  should  be  the 
governing  principle  of  life.  The  Jehovah  of 
the  Old  Testament  is  the  Christ  of  the  New. 
He  appeals  to  us  by  righteousness,  love,  hope, 
fear.  Temptations  to  desert  Christ’s  standard 
may  pour  in  upon  us  from  various  quarters. 
Seductions  either  to  the  false  in  faith  or  the 
corrupt  in  practice  may  come  from  those  near 
and  dear  to  us.  These  temptations  are  to  be 
withstood  at  all  costs.  How  earnestly  should 
we  pray  that  we  may  be  kept  faithful  to  our 
dear  Lord  in  heaven  !  How  lovingly  should  we 
warn  others,  lest  they  swerve  from  their  fealty 
to  him  !  C.  C. 

Magical  Arts  and  Divination. 

Ex.  22  : 18.  Lev,  19  :  26,  31  ;  20  :  6,  27.  De. 

18  : 9-14. 

There  was  nothing  more  common  among  all 
the  peoples  of  antiquity,  including  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  Canaan  and  adjacent  lands,  than  the 
practice  of  magic  in  some  of  its  numerous  forms. 
Ancient  Egypt  abounded  in  it,  and  the  monu¬ 
ments  of  Assyria  and  Babylon  show  that  these 
nations  in  their  religious,  social,  and  even  polit¬ 
ical,  life  were  no  less  under  its  influence.  And 
as  one  of  the  most  subtle  and  fascinating  forms 
of  idolatry,  it  was  natural  that  the  Mosaic  Law 
should  take  cognizance  of  it,  and  denounce  the 
severest  penalties  against  it.  In  this  particular 
all  the  codes  agree  ;  there  is  not  one  of  them  that 


MAOIC  ARTS  CONDEMNED. 


467 


does  not  adjudge  so  gross  a  violation  of  its  fun¬ 
damental  principles  as  worthy  of  death.  E.  C.  13. 

De,  i8:9-B4,  Different  names  are  here 
assigned  to  persons  dealing  in  the  arts  tfmafjic. 
“  One  that  useth  divination,”  professing  to  gain 
power  and  knowledge  more  than  human.  “  One 
that  practiseth  augury,”  or  covert  arts.  “  An 
enchanter  ’  the  original  suggesting  the  serpent, 
and  implying  the  practice  of  charming  serpents, 
yet  always  connected  with  the  arts  of  divina¬ 
tion.  “  A  sorcerer  the  Hebrew  word  signify¬ 
ing  one  who  xnutters  incantations,  but  only  in 
the  bad  sense  of  seeking  help  from  others  than 
God.  A  charmer  a  word  which  suggests 
binding  as  wuth  the  spell  of  enchantment.  “  A 
consul  ter  with  a  familiar  spirit.”  The  English 
phrase  signifies  spirits  who  stand  in  such  a  re¬ 
lation  to  the  performer  that  they  come  at  his 
call.  Of  course  it  is  pretended  that  these  spirits 
are  other  and  greater  than  human.  The  orig¬ 
inal  Hebrew  [Ob]  comes  down  to  us  in  the 
African  “  Obe-man”  who  still  follows  the  same 
profession,  by  means  of  similar  arts.  “  A 
wizard  ”  is  one  who  claims  superhuman  wis¬ 
dom,  the  old  English  accurately  translating  the 
Hebrew  ;  the  distinctively  tcise  one.  The  word 
is  restricted  in  usage  to  superior  wusdom  gained 
by  the  arts  of  magic.  “  A  necromancer  ;”  pre¬ 
cisely  the  spiritist  of  modern  times,  or  rather, 
of  all  time,  who  claims  to  have  communion  with 
the  spirits  of  dead  men.  [The  word  necroman¬ 
cer  comes  from  the  Greek  ;  necros— a  dead  one  ; 
nnd  “  mantis”  divination — gaining  superhuman 
*:nowledge  from  the  dead.] 

This  analysis  of  the  original  words  may  aid 
toward  some  just  conception  of  the  associated 
ideas  which  cluster  round  the  magic  arts  of  the 
Hebrew  age.  Their  name  and  their  arts  are 
legion.  Think  of  so  many  classes — professions 
— of  men  and  women  naturally  shrewd,  sharp, 
cunning  ;  practising  upon  the  superstitions  and 
fears  of  the  millions  ;  working  upon  their  im¬ 
agination,  haunting  them  with  the  dread  of  un¬ 
known  powers,  bringing  up  to  them  ghosts  from 
the  invisible  world,  claiming  to  give  auguries  of 
the  future,  playing  in  every  way  upon  their 
fears  and  hopes,  to  extort  their  money  or  to 
make  sport  of  their  fears  or  to  gratify  their  own 
or  others’  malice.  A  system  so  near  akin  in 
spirit  and  influence  to  idolatry,  which  so  thor¬ 
oughly  displaces  God  from  the  hopes  and  fears 
of  men,  and  which  seeks  so  successfully  to  in¬ 
stall  these  horrible  superstitions  in  his  place  ; — 
a  system  w’hich  perverts  the  powers  of  the  world 
to  come  to  subserve  ungodliness  and  which 
practically  rales  out  the  blessed  God  from  the 
sphere  of  men’s  homage,  fears,  and  hopes  ; — this 


system  has  always  been  worked  by  wicked  and 
never  bj^  good  men,  has  always  subserved  all 
iniquity,  but  piety  and  morality  never  ; — this 
has  been  a  master  stroke  of  Satan’s  policy  and 
one  of  the  most  palpable  fields  of  his  triumph 
through  all  the  ages.  Let  it  not  surprise  us  that 
God’s  Law  given  through  Moses  denounced  it 
unqualifiedly  and  made  it  punishable  with 
death.  The  nations  whom  God  drove  out  of 
Canaan  were  steeped  in  its  abominations  and 
ripened  under  its  influence  for  their  righteous 
doom.  Not  even  one  pagan,  idolatrous  nation, 
known  to  history  since  the  world  began,  has 
been  free  from  this  abomination —the  arts  of 
magic.  Egypt,  Canaan,  Babylon,  India,  Africa, 
historic  Greece,  and  Borne  ;  the  old  nations  of 
Northern  Europe,  the  savages  of  America — all 
testify  that  they  have  been  cursed  by  its  pres¬ 
ence  and  power.  H.  C. 

Witchcraft  not  only  gives  that  honor  to  the 
devil  which  is  due  to  God  alone,  but  bids  defi¬ 
ance  to  the  Divine  Providence,  wages  war  with 
God’s  government,  and  puts  His  work  into  the 
devil’s  hand,  expecting  him  to  do  good  and  evil, 
and  so  making  him,  indeed,  the  God  of  ihis 
world;  justly  therefore  was  it  punished  with 
death,  especially  among  a  people  that  were 
blessed  with  a  Divine  revelation  and  cared  for 
by  Divine  Providence  above  any  people  under 
the  sun.  H. 

The  methods  of  modern  so-called  “  spiritual¬ 
ism”  are  so  nearly  analogous  to  those  of  ancient 
times,  that  it  is  as  needful  now  to  warn  the  peo¬ 
ple  against  them  as  it  was  for  Moses  to  warn 
the  Hebrews.  Even  among  them  the  roothold 
of  this  superstition  was  so  strong  that  Isaiah 
had  to  caution  the  men  of  his  time  against  it, 
and  to  remind  them  of  the  more  excellent  way 
(Is.  8  : 19,  20).  What  we  really  need  is  light 
/or  the  future,  not  light  on  it  ;  and  light  con¬ 
cerning  the  invisible  world,  not  light  into  it. 
And  these  are  given  to  us  in  the  revelation  of 
the  Divine  Word.  It  opens  up  immortality 
and  life.  By  its  light  we  know  that  our  de¬ 
parted  ones  in  Christ,  though  absent  from  the 
body,  are  present  with  the  Lord.  Cheered  by 
its  words  of  hope  we  can  sing,  “  Thou  shalt 
guide  me  with  thy  counsel,  and  afterward  re¬ 
ceive  me  to  glory  !”  Be  it  ours  to  study  the 
Book  of  God  :  to  take  it  not  only  as  a  guide, 
but  the  guide  ;  n>'t  simply  as  the  only  guide,  but 
as  the  aU-svfficient  one,  “  until  the  day  break,  and 
the  shadows  flee  away.”  C.  C. 

Child- Sacrifice  to  Molech. 

Lev.  18  :  21  ;  20  : 1-5. 

Lev,  20  :  2-5.  Molech,  literally,  the  Kin(g^ 


468 


SECTION  154.  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  INSTITUTED  BY  MOSES. 


called  also  Moloch,  Milcom,  and  Malcham, 
whose  rites  are  here  so  severely  condemned, 
was  known  in  later  times  as  “  the  abomination 
of  the  Ammonites,”  when  Chemosh  was  the 
abomination  of  the  Moabites,  and  Astarte  the 
abomination  of  the  Sidonians,  The  nature  of 
this  rite,  and  of  what  others  there  may  have 
been  connected  with  the  name  of  Molech,  is 
very  doubtful.  The  practices  appear  to  have 
been  essentially  connected  with  magical  arts, 
probably  also  with  unlawful  lusts.  Clark. 

3.  The  close  connection  between  giving  of 
lii§  seed  onto  Molccli  and  cleiiiing  my 
§aiiciuary,  and  profaning  my  lioSy 
name,  is  exjjlained  and  illustrated  by  Ezekiel 
in  the  judgment  on  Aholah  and  Aholibah. 
”  They  have  caused  their  sons,  whom  they  bare 
unto  me,  to  pass  for  them  through  the  fire,  to 
devour  them.  Moreover  this  thej’^  have  done 
unto  me  :  they  have  defiled  my  sanctuary  in  the 
same  day,  and  have  profaned  my  Sabbaths. 
For  when  they  had  slain  their  children  to  their 
idols,  then  they  came  the  same  day  into  my 
sanctuary  to  profane  it  ;  and,  lo,  thus  have 
they  done  in  the  midst  of  mine  house”  (Ezek. 
23  :  37-39).  Not  only  was  the  combination  of 
the  worship  of  Molech  and  Jehovah  an  offence 
to  him  whose  name  is  Jealous,  but  at  the  time 
that  Molech-worship  was  carried  on  in  the  valley 
of  Hinnom,  idols  were  set  up  in  the  court  of 
the  temple  itself,  as  we  learn  from  Jer.  32  :  34, 
35  ;  2  Kings  21  : 4. 

4,  5.  There  is  to  be  no  connivance  with  Mo¬ 
lech  worship.  The  penalty  is  death,  and  is  to  be 
carried  out  by  the  proper  tribunals,  whose  busi¬ 
ness  it  was  to  see  that  the  stoning  took  place. 
In  the  case  of  Molech-worship  God  declares 
that,  if  the  tribunals  of  the  nation  fail  to  ad¬ 
judge  the  penalty  of  death  to  the  offender.  He 
will  Himself  cut  him  off  with  his  family  and  all 


that  follow  him  in  his  sin  of  unfaithfulness. 

F.  M. - Admit  other  religions,  and  the  bond 

which  held  together  the  twelve  tribes  was  dis¬ 
solved.  How  long  could  that  union  have  lasted 
if  the  prophets  of  Baal  had  had  the  freedom  of 
the  camp,  and  been  permitted  to  go  from  tent 
to  tent,  jrreaching  the  doctrine  of  human  sacri¬ 
fices  ?  Hence  Moses  did  not  suffer  them  for  an 
hour.  False  prophets  were  to  be  stoned  to  death. 
Field. 

Almost  the  whole  of  the  religion  of  the  ancient 
pagan  world  consisted  in  rites  of  deprecation. 
Fear  was  the  leading  feature  of  their  religious 
impressions.  Hence  arose  that  most  horrid  of 
all  religious  ceremonies — the  rite  of  human  sac¬ 
rifice.  Of  this  savage  custom.  Archbishop 
Magee  asserts  and  proves,  that  there  is  no  na¬ 
tion  mentioned  in  history  which  wo  cannot  re¬ 
proach  with  having,  more  than  once,  made  the 
blood  of  its  citizens  to  stream  forth  in  holy  and 
pious  ceremonies,  to  appease  the  divinity  when 
he  appeared  angry,  or  to  move  him  when  he  ap¬ 
peared  indolent.  “  Conformably  with  this  char¬ 
acter  of  their  gods,”  he  adds,  “  we  find  the 
worship  of  many  of  the  heathen  nations  to  con¬ 
sist  in  suffering  and  mortification,  in  cutting 
their  flesh  with  knives,  and  scorching  their 
limbs  with  fire.  The  cruel  austerities  of  the 
gymnosophists,  both  of  Africa  and  India  ;  the 
dreadful  sufferings  of  the  initiated  votaries  of 
Mithra  and  Eleusis  ;  the  frantic  and  savage  rites 
of  Bellona  ;  and  the  horrid  self-mutilations  of 
the  worshippers  of  Cybele  —  but  too  clearly 
evince  the  dreadful  views  entertained  by  the 
ancient  heathens  of  the  nature  of  their  gods.” 
It  became  the  wisdom,  the  justice,  and  the  good¬ 
ness  of  the  one  true  God,  to  check  these  spread¬ 
ing  and  direful  evils  ;  to  bring  men  back  from 
I  their  polytheistic  follies  to  the  belief  and  wor- 
I  ship  of  Himself.  E.  C.  W. 


Note. — This  section,  treating  of  Idolatrous,  Blasphemous,  and  Cruel  Worship,  fitly  closes  the 
group  of  ordinances  classed  as  ceremonial,  those  pertaining  to  the  sanctuary,  the  ministry,  and 
the  worship  of  the  only  living  and  true  Jehovah.  B. 


Section  154. 


CIVIL  GOVEKNMENT  INSTITUTED  BY  MOSES  :  ITS  DISTINGUISHING  ELEMENTS 
AND  INFLUENCE  UPON  SUBSEQUENT  CIVILIZATIONS. 


Civil  government  is  a  Divine  institution,  if 
not  as  directly,  yet  as  really  as  is  the  family. 
The  rights  which  society  has,  and  which  it  may 
rightfully  exercise  through  some  form  of  gov¬ 
ernment  it  bas  from  no  contract.  Men  may,  if 
they  choose,  express  the  rights  and  duties  in¬ 


volved  in  government  in  the  form  of  a  contract, 
but  it  is  a  mistake,  and  may  lead  to  mischievous 
consequences  to  suppose  that  these  rights  and 
duties  originate  in  any  form  of  contract.  By 
the  constitution  of  God  the  ends  of  the  individ¬ 
ual  can  be  attained  only  through  government, 


ITS  DISTINGUISHING  ELEMENTS. 


469 


and  therefore  the  rights  of  government  and  the 
duties  of  individuals  under  it  originate  in  the 
same  waj"  as  the  rights  and  duties  of  parents 
and  of  children.  The  individual  is  born  in  so¬ 
ciety*.  That  is  his  natural  state,  and  as  thus  born 
both  society  and  he  have  reciprocal  rights  and 
duties.  These  he  may  recognize  and  have  all 
the  benefits  of  society  and  of  government,  or  he 
may  refuse  to  recognize  them  and  be  deprived 
of  these  benefits,  but  the  rights  and  duties  exist 
independently  of  his  will.  They  exist,  and  in 
entering  into  society,  the  individual  comes 
under  no  new  obligation,  and  gives  up  no  right. 
M.  H. 

Civil  government  is  a  Divine  institution.  In 
support  of  this  view  we  have  the  concurrent 
testimony  of  reason  and  revelation.  The  testi¬ 
mony  of  reason  we  have  in  the  original  aptitude 
of  our  nature  for  government  ;  in  the  posses¬ 
sion  by  man  of  conscience,  benevolence,  desire 
of  esteem,  and  love  of  society,  qualities  clearh^ 
suited  to  promote  the  good  of  civil  communi¬ 
ties,  and  therefore  a  plain  indication  that  it  is 
the  Creator’s  will  that  such  communities  should 
exist  ;  in  the  admirable  order  and  harmony  of 
the  material  universe,  evincing  analogically 
that  it  is  not  the  design  of  the  Deity  to  aban¬ 
don  the  moral  world  to  chance  and  confusion  ; 
in  the  fact  that  were  such  the  Divine  purpose, 
our  highest  faculties— reason,  reflection,  pru¬ 
dence,  conscience,  the  power  of  suspending  our 
judgment,  and  liberty  of  choice — would  be  in 
vain,  and  caprice  and  passion  would  become 
the  governors  of  human  conduct  ;  in  the  un¬ 
doubted  truth  that  God’s  end  in  creating  man —  j 
the  perfection  of  his  nature  and  the  happiness  j 
of  his  being — would  be  defeated  by  the  non-ex-  i 
istence  of  civil  government  and  law  ;  and  in  { 
the  actual  benefits  flowing  from  civil  polity  and  ! 
law.  The  testimony  of  revelation  we  have  in 
numerous  explicit  passages,  affirming  or  imply¬ 
ing  the  divinity  of  government  ;  particularly 
Ps,  82  : 1  ;  Prov.  8  : 15,  16  ;  Rom.  13  : 1-6  ;  Tit. 

3  : 1  ;  1  Pet.  2  : 13,  14. 

But  as  government  is  a  truly  Divine,  so  is  it  a 
truly  human  institution.  It  has  a  twofold 
origin — one  in  the  will  and  purpose  of  the  Deity, 
the  other  in  the  act  and  choice  of  men.  The 
Divine  will  is  its  remote  source  and  ultimate 
basis  ;  human  covenants  its  direct  spring  and 
immediate  foundation.  This  view  harmonizes 
two  passages  of  holy  writ,  one  of  which  in  ex¬ 
plicit  terms  afSrms  government  to  be  an  “or¬ 
dinance  of  God  the  other  in  language  equally 
distinct  affirms  it  to  be  an  “  ordinance  of  man.” 
The  distinction,  plain  and  solid  in  itself,  is 
well  stated  by  Bishop  Sanderson  and  Arch- 


j  bishop  Bramhall.  Says  the  former  :  “  The  sub- 
I  stance  of  the  jDower  of  -every  magistrate  is  the 
ordinance  of  God  ;  but  the  specification  of  the 
circumstances  thereto  relating  is  a  human  ordi¬ 
nance,  introduced  by  custom  or  positive  law.” 
Says  the  latter  :  “  That  all  lawful  dominion, 
considered  in  the  abstract,  is  from  God,  no  man 
can  make  any  doubt.  But  the  right  and  ajDpli- 
cation  of  this  power  and  interest,  in  the  con¬ 
crete,  to  this  or  that  jDarticuIar  man,  is  many 
times  from  the  grant  and  consent  of  the  people. 
So  God  is  the  prineijoal  agent ;  man,  the  instru¬ 
mental.  God  is  the  fountain,  the  root  of  pow'er  ; 
man,  the  stream,  the  bough,  by  which  it  is  de¬ 
rived.  The  essence  of  power  is  always  from 
God  ;  the  existence,  sometimes  from  God,  some¬ 
times  from  man.”  The  sum  is  :  God  ordains 
government  to  secure  the  rights  of  man — “  life, 
liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.”  He 
equally  ordains  the  means  necessary"  and  fit  to 
attain  that  end.  He  does  not  designate  the 
means.  He  could  not  do  so,  for  the  plain  rea¬ 
son  that  the  means  will  vary  in  different  ages, 
climates,  and  states  of  society.  He  leaves  it  to 
men,  whom  he  has  endowed  with  reason  for 
this  among  other  purposes,  to  choose  such 
means  as  to  their  wisdom  may  seem  suitable 
and  sufficient.  Neither  forms  of  government 
nor  theories  of  government  make  any  differ¬ 
ence.  The  magistrate,  whether  he  be  an  heredi¬ 
tary  prince  of  the  thousandth  generation,  or  the 
elected  chief  of  a  community  whose  members  but 
yesterday  formed  themselves  into  a  civil  state  by 
voluntar^^  compact,  is  the  minister  and  vicege- 
I  rent  of  God.  E.  C.  W. 

I  The  political  constitution  of  the  Jewish  com¬ 
monwealth  was  founded  entirely  upon  a  relig¬ 
ious  basis.  In  form,  it  was  Iheocraii.c-  -a  mon¬ 
archy,  with  Jehovah  for  the  only  king,  all  magis¬ 
trates  and  judges  being  his  ministers  :  in  its 
substance  and  spirit,  it  is  a  commonwealth,  in  the 
strict  sense,  its  object  being  the  highest  welfare 
of  the  whole  people,  who  enjoy  equal  rights  as 
being  all  the  children  of  God  and  united  by  the 
bond  of  holiness.  The  formal  constitution  grew 
out  of  the  wants  of  the  people.  When  the  peo¬ 
ple  left  Egypt,  they  could  not  be  called  a  na¬ 
tion,  in  the  political  sense  ;  but  a  body  of  tribes, 
united  by  the  bonds  of  grace  and  religion,  and 
especially  by’’  ”  the  promise  given  to  the  fathers.” 
Each  of  these  tribes  had  its  own  patriarchal 
government  by  the  “  princes”  of  the  tribe,  and 
the  “  heads”  of  the  respective  families,  and  we 
find  their  authority  subsisting  through  the 
whole  history  of  the  nation.  But  no  central 
government  was  as  yet  provided.  God  preserved 
it  in  his  own  hands,  and  committed  its  adminis- 


470 


8EC1I0N  154.  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  INSTITUTED  BT  MOSES. 


tration  to  Moses  as  his  servant.  The  people 
were  all  collected  in  one  encampment  around 
the  tabernacle  of  Jehovah,  their  ever-present 
King.  They  were  commanded  by  his  voice, 
whether  directly  or  through  Moses,  and  their 
movements  were  guided  by  his  visible  signs. 
If  any  doubtful  case  arose  of  law  or  policy, 
there  was  his  oracle  to  be  consulted.  If  any 
opposition  was  made  to  the  authority  of  his 
minister,  Jehovah  summoned  the  rebels  to  his 
presence  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle,  smote 
them  with  lepiosy,  consumed  them  with  pesti¬ 
lence,  devoured  them  with  fire,  or  sent  them 
down  alive  into  the  pit.  Such  was  the  simple 
constitution  of  this  period  ;  God  governing  by 
his  will,  while  embodying  that  will  in  the  Law. 
P.  S. 

Under  the  Theocracy,  the  function  of  legisla¬ 
tors  was  out  of  the  question.  The  people  did 
not  make  their  own  laws  :  these  were  given 
them — made  by  the  Lord  alone.  It  only  re¬ 
mained  for  them  to  say  whether  they  would  ac¬ 
cept  the  Lord  their  God  as  their  Lawgiver  and 
Supreme  King.  Such  assent  and  consent  on 
their  part  was  appropriate  ;  and  precisely  this 
they  gave  at  Sinai  (Ex.  19  : 3-8  and  De.  5  : 27, 

28) .  This  national  recognition  of  God  as  Su¬ 
preme  Lawgiver  was  renewed  from  time  to  time 
with  subsequent  generations  of  Israel  (De. 
29  : 10-15  and  Josh.  24  : 15-27  and  Neh.  10  :28, 

29) .  Thus  it  appears  that  the  laws  under 
which  they  lived  were  not  arbitrarily  imposed 
upon  them  without  their  consent — much  less, 
against  their  will  ;  but  only  with  their  formal 
and  solemn  consent.  So  far  forth,  their  gov¬ 
ernment  involved  an  element  of  freedom  and  of 
self-control.  They  were  not  tyrannously  coerced 
into  subjection  to  laws  which  they  repudiated. 
A  svstem  of  law,  in  itself  most  excellent  and 
entirely  unexceptionable,  was  presented  to  them 
for  their  adoption  or  rejection.  They  adopted 
it — apparently  with  the  warmest  approbation. 
H.  C. 

It  was  the  character  of  the  Law  itself,  as  affect¬ 
ing  person  and  property,  rights  and  privileges, 
and  the  management  of  national  affairs,  that 
formed  the  great  bond  of  Israelitish  society. 
How  largely  the  constitution  was  charged  with 
conservating  elements  appears  conspicuously  in 
the  care  with  which  it  watched  over  life,  liberty, 
and  property,  and  whatever  else  concerned  the 
well-boiug  of  society.  D.  M. 

From  the  beginning  of  history  down  to  the 
birth  of  Christ  we  find  no  trace  of  civil  liberty 
outside  of  the  Jewish  Theocracy.  Elsewhere 
there  was  no  recognition  of  the  rights  of  man 
as  an  individual,  no  caring  for  his  individual 


interests.  There  were  privileged  classes,  and  a 
caring  for  them.  But  the  machinery  of  society 
did  not  run  to  take  care  of  the  individual.  He 
was  the  tool  of  the  society,  but  his  well-being 
was  nowhere  the  end  of  its  action.  But  in  the 
Jewish  Theocracy  (which  was  just  a  preparative 
Christianity)  a  fundamental  truth  was  the  love 
of  one's  neighbor  as  one’s  self.  The  govern¬ 
ment  vVas  formed  for  the  well-being  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual,  and  he  was  consequently  helped  and 
protected  in  all  his  civil  rights.  W.  II.  Camp- 
hell 

The  civil  government  of  the  ancient  Hebrew's 
was  the  government  of  a  free  people  ;  it  was  a 
government  of  laws  ;  it  was  a  system  of  self- 
government,  The  Hebrew  civilization  was  the 
earliest  that  history  has  recorded,  in  which  the 
human  faculties  had  free  play.  It  was  the  ear¬ 
liest  civilization  which  was  based  upon  a  true 
faith,  a  just  science  of  politics,  and  a  right  phi¬ 
losophy  of  life.  It  was  not  only  the  first,  but 
the  only  government  of  antiquity,  to  which  this 
description  is  fully  applicable.  The  best  sub¬ 
sequent  civilization  has  been  built  upon  that 
ancient  Hebrew  Law.  The  best  wisdom  of 
modern  times  in  the  difficult  science  of  legisla¬ 
tion  was  anticipated  by  Moses,  The  great  prin¬ 
ciples  of  public  and  private  law,  which  he  not 
only  developed  in  theory,  but  reduced  to  prac¬ 
tice,  are  so  many  lessons  of  inspired  wisdom, 
so  many  lights  of  experience,  to  guide  the  labors 
of  statesmen  and  legislators  to  the  end  of  time. 
The  moderns  are  not  real  discoverers  ;  they' 
have  but  propagated  and  applied  truths  and 
principles,  established  by  the  first,  the  wisest,- 
the  ablest  of  legislators.  In  an  age  of  barbarism 
and  tyranny,  Moses  solved  the  problem  how  a 
people  could  be  self-governed,  and  yet  well  gov¬ 
erned  ;  how  men  could  be  kept  in  order,  and 
still  be  free  ;  and  how  the  liberty  of  the  indi¬ 
vidual  could  be  reconciled  with  the  welfare  of 
the  community.  There  were  elements  in  the 
Roman,  Grecian,  Egyptian,  and  even  Asiatic 
polities,  worthy  of  praise  and  imitation.  But 
civil  liberty,  founded  on  equal  rights,  and  act¬ 
ing  through  the  popular  will,  was  a  blessing  un¬ 
known  to  the  whole  ancient  Gentile  world. 
Only  in  the  green  vales  and  upon  the  vine-clad 
hills  of  Palestine  we  see  millions  of  freemen  re¬ 
posing  in  happiness  and  security,  beneath  the 
sheltering  aegis  of  a  polity  stamped  in  its  every 
lineament  with  the  signatures  of  its  Divine  orig¬ 
inal.  This  favored  people  were  not  more  dis¬ 
tinguished  during  their  journeyings  and  en¬ 
campments  in  the  wilderness  by  the  mysterious 
shechinah,  symbolizing  the  Divine  presence 
among  them,  than  they  afterward  were  by  iheir 


ITS  DISTmCTIVE  ELEMENTS. 


471 


civil  constitution  ;  a  constitution  containing  the 
elemental  principles  of  all  just,  wise,  and  equal 
Irgislation,  and  bearing  indubitable  marks  of  a 
Divine  wisdom  in  its  formation. 

The  public  functions  prescribed  in  the  He¬ 
brew  constitution  flow  from  the  nature  of  things. 
The  first  want  of  a  State,  as  of  every  organized 
living  being,  is  self  preservation.  To  meet  this 
want  the  constitution  institutes  certain  func¬ 
tionaries,  not  only  to  strengthen  the  union  of 
the  tribes,  but  also  to  preserve  in  its  integrity 
both  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the  fundament¬ 
al  law,  and  to  teach  it  incessantly  to  the  peo¬ 
ple.  Such  are  the  Hebrew  priests  and  Levites. 
Next,  the  body  politic  wants  a  supreme  legisla¬ 
tive  council,  to  watch  over  its  wants,  to  direct 
its  general  movements,  to  shape  its  policy,  and 
to  modify  old  laws  and  enact  new  ones,  as  the 
exigency  of  times  and  occasions  demands.  For 
this  the  constitution  provides  in  the  assemblies 
composing  the  states-general  of  Israel.  •  The 
third  fundamental  necessity  of  a  nation  is  that 
of  having  the  civil  relations  of  the  citizens  main¬ 
tained  agreeably  to  the  rules  laid  down  in  the 
Law.  The  constitution  satisfies  this  require¬ 
ment  by  a  judiciary  system  which  brings  the 
administration  of  justice  to  every  man’s  door, 
and  makes  it  at  once  cheap  and  speedy,  taking 
care,  however,  to  prevent  the  evils  of  crude, 
hasty,  and  interested  decisions  by  a  system  of 
appeal  through  courts  of  various  grades,  up  to 
the  supreme  judicature,  which  holds  its  ses¬ 
sions  in  the  capital  of  the  republic.  Again,  the 
State  requires  that  its  force  be  wisely  and  effec¬ 
tively  directed  against  its  public  enemies. 
This  care  the  constitution  devolves  upon  the 
chief  magistrate  of  Israel.  The  great  principle 
of  the  ancient  Hebrews,  in  which  we  recognize 
the  germ  of  the  modern  idea  of  the  three  pow¬ 
ers,  was,  that  there  were  three  crowns  in  Israel 
■ — viz.,  the  crown  of  royalty,  the  crown  of  the 
priesthood,  and  the  crown  of  the  Law.  The 
first  was  bestowed  upon  David  and  his  descend¬ 
ants  ;  the  second  was  given  to  Aaron  and  his 
sons  ;  but  the  third,  which  was  superior  to 
both  the  others,  was  the  inheritance  of  all  Israel. 
The  king,  the  priest,  the  judge,  all  the  magis¬ 
tracies,  were  the  creatures  of  the  Law  ;  and  the 
Law  was  enacted  by  the  people.  The  constitu¬ 
tion,  in  its  parts,  was  pervaded  with  the  demo¬ 
cratic  spirit.  E.  C,  W. 

The  form  of  the  Hebrew  republic  was  unques¬ 
tionably  democratical.  Its  head  admitted  of 
change  as  to  the  name  and  nature  of  his  office, 
and  it  could  even  subsist  without  a  head. 
When  Moses  promulgated  his  laws  he  convened 


the  whole  congregation  of  Israel,  to  whom  he  is 
repeatedly  said  to  have  spoken  ;  but  as  he  could 
not  possibly  be  heard  by  six  hundred  thousand 
men,  we  must  conclude  that  he  only  addressed 
a  certain  number  of  persons  who  were  deputed 
to  represent  the  rest  of  the  Israelites  Accord¬ 
ingly  in  Nu.  1  : 16  these  delegates  or  representa 
lives  are  termed  those  word  to  be  called  to  the  conven¬ 
tion;  in  our  version,  the  renowned  of  the  congrega¬ 
tion  ;  and  in  Nu.  16  : 2  they  are  denominated 
chiefs  of  the  community  or  congregation,  that  are 
called  to  the  coiwention  ;  in  our  version,  “  famous 
in  the  congregation,  men  of  renown.”  By  com¬ 
paring  De,  29  : 10  with  Josh.  23  : 2,  it  appears 
that  these  representatives  were  the  heads  of  tribes 
and  families,  and  judges  and  officers  ;  the  judges, 
by  virtue  of  their  office.  Probably,  as  Michaelis 
conjectures,  only  judges  of  hundreds,  or  [more 
probablv]  even  those  only  of  thousands,  had  seats 
and  voices  in  the  public  deliberative  assemblies. 
Horne. 

It  was  a  GOVEENMENT  in  the  proper  sense  of 
the  term,  and  not  a  confedeeation.  Moses 
drew  up  a  constitution,  which  applied  not 
merely  to  each  tribe  as  a  distinct  political  body, 
but  also  to  every  individual  in  the  tribe.  He 
thus  gave  to  each  a  personal  interest  in  the 
national  concerns,  making  him  as  much  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  the  nation  as  he  was  of  his  own  tribe. 
The  tribes  formed  but  one  nation.  Though 
they  had  separate  interests,  as  being  in  some  re¬ 
spects  independent  States,  they  had  also  general 
interests,  as  being  united  in  one  body  politic. 
They  had  much  in  common  to  draw  them  to¬ 
gether  in  bonds  of  brotherhood,  and  strengthen 
the  ties  of  political  union  ; — a  common  ances¬ 
tor,  the  illustrious  depositary  of  promises  ap¬ 
pertaining  to  all  the  tribes  alike  ;  a  common 
God,  who  was  their  chosen  and  covenanted 
king  ;  a  common  tabernacle  and  temple,  which 
was  the  royal  palace  ;  a  common  oracle,  the 
Urim  and  Thummim  ;  a  common  high-priest, 
the  prime-minister  of  the  king  ;  a  common 
learned  class,  who  possessed  cities  in  all  the 
tribes  ;  a  common  faith  and  worship,  which  at 
the  same  time  differed  fundamentally  from  that 
of  all  other  contemporaneous  nations  :  and  a 
common  law  of  Church  and  State.  Thus,  while 
each  Hebrew  was  strongly  concerned  to  main¬ 
tain  the  honor  of  his  tribe,  the  constitution  of 
the  general  government  gave  him  an  equal  in¬ 
terest  in  the  honor  of  his  country.  Thus  also 
the  constitution  was  so  contrived,  that,  notwith¬ 
standing  the  partial  independence  and  sover¬ 
eignty  of  the  separate  tribes,  each,  as  constitut¬ 
ing  a  part  of  the  national  union,  had  a  kind  of 


472 


SECTION  154.  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  INSTITUTED  BY  MOSES. 


superintendence  over  all  the  rest  in  regard  to 
their  observance  of  the  organic  law.  The  He¬ 
brew  tribts  were  in  some  respects  independent 
sovereignties,  while  in  other  respects  their  in¬ 
dividual  sovereigut}^  was  merged  in  the  broader 
and  higher  sovereignty  of  the  commonwealth  of 
Israel.  They  were  independent  republics,  hav¬ 
ing  each  a  local  government,  which  was  sover¬ 
eign  in  the  exercise  of  its  reserved  rights  ;  3  et 
they  aT  united  together  and  formed  one  great 
republic,  with  a  general  government,  which  was 
sovereign  in  the  highest  sense.  Thus  all  the 
Israelitish  tribes  formed  one  body  politic.  They 
had  one  common  weal..  Thej’’  held  general 
diets.  They  were  bound  to  take  the  held  against 
a  common  enemy.  They  had  at  first  general 
judges,  and  afterward  general  sovereigns.  And 
even  when  they  had  no  common  head,  or,  as  the 
sacred  historian  expresses  it,  when  there  was 
neither  kingnor  judge,  a  tribe  guilty  of  a  breach 
of  the  fundamental  law  might  be  accused  be¬ 
fore  the  other  tribes,  who  were  authorized  to 
carry  on  war  against  it  as  a  punishment.  It  is 
evident  that  the  tribes  were  sometimes  without 
a  general  chief  magistrate.  The  constitution, 
as  exi^lained  above,  makes  it  quite  conceivable 
that  the  State  might  have  subsisted  and  pros¬ 
pered  without  a  common  head.  Every  tribe 
had  always  its  own  chief  magistrate  ;  subordi¬ 
nate  to  whom  again  were  the  chiefs  of  clans,  the 
judges,  and  the  genealogists  ;  and  if  there  wus 
no  general  ruler  of  the  whole  people,  there  were 
twelve  lesser  commonw'ealths,  whose  general 
convention  would  deliberate  together  and  take 
measures  for  the  common  interest.  The  head 
might  be  gone  but  the  living  body  remained. 
Its  movements  would  be  apt  to  be  slower  and 
feebler  ;  yet,  as  the  history  of  the  Benjamite 
rebellion  teaches  us,  they  did  not  always  want 
either  promptness  or  energy. 

The  education  enjoined  by  Moses  wms  not 
merely  of  the  children  of  the  highborn  and  the 
rich,  but  of  all  ranks  and  conditions.  It  was  a 
fundamental  maxim  of  his  policy  that  no  citi¬ 
zen,  not  even  thelowmst  and  the  poorest,  should 
grow  up  in  ignorance.  In  proportion  as  this 
idea  enters  into  the  constitution  of  a  State, 
tyranny  will  hide  its  head,  practical  equality 
wull  be  established,  party  strife  will  abate  its 
ferocity,  error,  rashness,  and  folly  w'ill  disappear, 
and  an  enlightened,  dignified,  and  venerable 
public  opinion  will  bear  sway.  Upon  the  whole, 
it  may  be  affirmed  that  in  no  part  of  the  He¬ 
brew  constitution  does  the  wisdom  of  the  Law¬ 
giver  shine  with  a  more  genial  lustre  than  in 
W'hat  relates  to  the  education  of  the  young. 


The  provisions  of  the  constitution  on  this  point 
cannot  be  regarded  otherwise  than  as  the  dic¬ 
tate  of  a  wise,  liberal, and  comprehensive  states¬ 
manship  ;  for  it  is  in  the  highest  degree  desir¬ 
able  that  every  citizen  should  be  acquainted 
with  the  laws  and  constitution  of  his  country. 
Patriotism  itself  is  but  a  blind  impulse  if  it  i.i 
not  founded  cn  a  knowledge  of  the  blessings  we 
are  called  upon  to  secure,  and  the  privileges 
which  w'e  propose  to  defend.  It  is  political 
ignorance  alone  that  can  reconcile  men  to  the 
tame  surrender  of  their  rights  ;  it  is  political 
knowledge  alone  that  can  rear  an  effectual  bar¬ 
rier  against  the  encroachments  of  arbitrary 
power  and  lavyless  violence. 

The  Hebrew  constitution,  in  its  substance  and 
its  forms,  in  its  letter  and  its  spirit,  was  emi¬ 
nently  republican.  The  power  of  the  people 
was  great  and  controlling.  This  point  is  clear 
even  on  a  superficial  examination  of  the  sub¬ 
ject.  But  not  only  so  ;  it  had  also  important 
and  striking  analogies  wirh  our  own  constitu- 
ti  jn,  and  with  that  other  free  constitution  from 
which  ours,  in  its  most  essential  features,  W'as 
taken  ;  a  constitution  which  Montesqirieu  er¬ 
roneously  represents  as  drawn  from  the  woods 
of  Germany,  but  which  Salvador,  and  truly  with¬ 
out  doubt,  regards  as  derived  from  the  Hebrew 
fountains.  Whoever  attentively  considers  the 
Herbrew  and  British  constitutions,  and  still 
more  the  Hebrew  and  American  constitutions, 
cannot  but  be  impressed  with  the  resemblance 
between  them.  Their  fundamental  principles 
are  identical  ;  and  many  of  the  details  of  organ¬ 
ization  are  the  same  or  similar.  The  rights  of 
every  person  in  the  Hebrew  State,  from  the 
head  of  the  nation  to  the  humblest  stranger, 
were  accurately  defined  and  carefully  guarded. 
Even  Ahab,  an  unprincipled  tyrant,  dared  not 
invade  the  field  of  a  vine-dresser,  though  the 
want  of  it  was  so  keenly  felt  as  to  make  him  re¬ 
fuse  his  ordinary  food  ;  and  his  still  more  tyran¬ 
nical  and  unprincipled  queen,  Jezebel,  knew  no 
method  of  compassing  the  same  end  but  through 
the  perverted  forms  of  law  and  justice  (1  Kings 
21).  Every  man  was  in  a  political  sense  on  an 
equality  with  the  most  exalted  of  the  nation. 
The  rulers  were  raised  to  the  dignities  which 
they  enjoyed  by  the  free  suffrages  of  their  fel¬ 
low-citizens.  The  laws,  though  proposed  by 
God,  w'ere  approved  and  enacted  b}’’  the  people, 
through  their  representatives  in  the  states-gen- 
eral  of  Israel.  The  Israelites  exercised  the  right 
of  meeting  in  primarj^  assemblies,  of  discussing 
questions  of  public  policy,  and  of  petitioning 
their  rulers  for  the  redress  of  grievances.  Every 
Hebrew  citizen  was  eligible  to  the  highest  civil 


ITS  DISTINCTIVE  ELEMENTS. 


473 


dignities,  even  to  that  of  the  royal  purple. 
The  whole  nation  constituted  a  republic  of  free¬ 
men,  equal  originally  even  in  property,  equal  in 
political  dignity  and  privilege,  equal  in  their 
social  standing,  and  equall^^  entitled  to  the  care 
and  protection  of  the  government. 

The  Hebrew  polity  was  essentiallj’^  a  sj^stem  of 
self-government.  It  v^as  the  government  of  in¬ 
dividual  independence,  municipal  indepen¬ 
dence,  and  State  independence — subject  only  to 
so  much  of  central  control  as  was  necessary  to 
constitute  a  true  nationality,  and  to  provide  for 
the  general  defence  and  welfare.  Centraliza¬ 
tion  was  foreign  to  its  spirit.  The  local  govern¬ 
ments  loom  out  under  the  Mosaic  constitution  ; 
the  central  government  is  proportionably  over¬ 
shadowed.  Public  opinion  w^as  a  powerful  ele¬ 
ment  in  the  Hebrew'  government.  This  gave 
shape  and  force  both  to  the  national  and  pro¬ 
vincial  administrations.  Let  any  one  read  the 
Hebrew  history  with  this  in  his  mind,  and  he 
w'ill  see  proofs  of  it  in  every  page. 

It  is  an  admitted  fact  that  the  tendency  of  all 
the  modern  improvements  in  government  is  to 
equalize  the  conditions  of  men,  and  so  to  bring 
about  that  general  social  intercourse,  by  which 
many  of  the  most  important  principles  and 
habits  are  formed  and  fixed  and  the  masses  of 
society  are  elevated,  humanized,  and  refined. 
To  secure  these  great  ends,  many  bloody  wars 
have  been  waged  and  countless  treasures  ex- 
jDended.  But  all  these  struggles  and  expendi¬ 
tures  have  not  yet,  in  the  particulars  just  indi¬ 
cated,  brought  modern  society  to  tjiat  point 
where  Moses  fixed  his  people,  in  an  age  when 
even  the  Greeks  and  the  Homans  were  still  sav¬ 
ages  and  barbarians.  Privileged  classes,  enjoy¬ 
ing  the  benefit  of  milder  laws  and  special  ex¬ 
emptions,  were  unknown  to  the  Mosaic  consti¬ 
tution.  And  civil  liberty,  according  to  the 
notion  of  it  presented  in  the  excellent  defini¬ 
tions  of  Blackstone,  Paley,  and  other  approved 
w'riters  on  public  law,  that  it  is  no  other  than 
natural  liberty  so  far  restrained  by  human  laws 
(and  no  further)  as  is  necessary  and  expedient 
for  the  general  advantage  of  the  public  ;  that  it 
is  the  not  being  restrained  by  any  law  but  what 
conduces  in  a  greater  degree  to  the  public  wel¬ 
fare  ;  and  that  it  consists  in  a  freedom  from  all 
restraints  except  such  as  established  law  im¬ 
poses  for  the  good  of  the  community  liberty, 
thus  regulated  b}'  law,  with  the  superadded  idea 
that  the  restraining  laws  should  be  equal  to  all, 
w’as  as  fully  developed  and  secured  by  the  He¬ 
brew  constitution,  as  by  any  other  known  S5^s- 
tem  of  government  in  the  world.  The  great  ' 
natural  rights  of  personal  security,  in  respect  to  j 


life,  limb,  health,  and  reputation  ;  of  personal 
liberty,  in  respect  to  locomotion,  residence, 
education,  and  the  choice  of  occupation  ;  and 
of  private  property’’,  in  the  free  use,  enjoyment, 
and  disposal  of  all  acquisitions,  without  any 
control  or  diminution  save  by  the  laws  of  the 
land — were  recognized  and  guarded  in  the  am¬ 
plest  manner  by  the  laws  and  constitution  of 
Moses.  And  these  absolute  and  paramount 
rights  were  protected,  and  their  inviolability 
maintained,  by  other  subordinate  rights  : — the 
right  of  representation  in  the  congregation  of 
Israel  ;  the  right  of  a  speedy  and  impartial  ad¬ 
ministration  of  justice  through  the  courts  ;  and 
the  right  of  petitioning  the  public  authorities 
for  the  redress  of  wrongs,  where  other  means  of 
establishing  the  right  were  inadequate  to  the 
purpose.  Such  were  the  liberties  of  a  Hebrew 
citizen  ;  such  the  barriers  by  which  they  were 
defended  ;  such  the  inestimable  system  of  pub¬ 
lic  polity  and  law,  which  spread  its  ample  and 
beneficent  protection  over  the  humblest  and 
meanest  as  well  as  the  most  exalted  and  honored 
member  of  the  commonwealth  of  Israel. 

The  two  greatest  interests  of  a  State,  and  yet 
the  two  interests  mest  difficult  to  be  harmonized 
— permanence  and  progress — were  as  wisely 
provided  for  and  as  effectually  secured  by  the 
Mosaic  system  of  government  as  by  any  other 
civil  constitution  in  the  world  :  the  former,  by 
its  regulations  respecting  the  distribution  and 
tenure  of  landed  property  ;  the  latter,  by  the 
three  annual  assemblages  of  the  nation,  whereby 
there  was  kept  up  a  continual  circulation  of 
ideas  between  all  parts  of  the  country  :  and 
both,  by  the  institution  of  the  Levitical  order, 
which  was  at  once  conservative  and  irrogres- 
sive  ;  conservative,  by  its  duty  to  teach,  inter¬ 
pret,  and  maintain  the  laws  ;  jrrogressive,  by  its 
obligation  to  devote  itself  to  the  cultivation  of 
science  and  letters.  Is  it  not  a  fact  well  worthy 
to  arrest  attention,  that  in  the  midst  of  barbar¬ 
ism  and  darkness,  hearing  no  sounds  but  those 
of  violence  and  seeing  no  soil  which  was  not 
drenched  with  blood,  a  legislator  should  have 
founded  a  government  on  principles  of  peace, 
justice,  equality,  humanity,  liberty,  and  social 
order,  carried  out  as  far  as  in  the  freest  govern¬ 
ments  now  existing  among  men  ?  This  would 
be  an  inexplicable  mystery,  on  any  other  theory 
than  that  of  a  supernatural  revelation  to  the 
Lawgiver.  The  reality  of  the  Divine  legation  of 
Moses  might  be  rested  on  this  argument  alone. 

The  Mosaic  constitution  contains,  undeni¬ 
ably,  the  germ  of  almost  everything  precious  in 
j  modern  civilization.  It  is  a  common  fountain, 


474 


SECTION  154.  CIVIL  GOVERNMENT  INSTITUTED  BY  MOSES. 


from  which  the  most  enlightened  ‘nations  of 
subsequent  ages  have  drawn  their  best  prin¬ 
ciples  of  political,  civil,  and  criminal  law.  The 
unity  of  God,  the  itnity  of  the  nation,  civil  lib¬ 
erty,  political  equality,  an  elective  magistracy, 
the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  the  responsibility 
o£  public  officers  to  their  constituents,  a 
prompt,  cheap,  and  imiDartial  administration  of 
justice,  peace,  and  friendship  with  other  nations, 
agriculture,  universal  industry,  the  inviolability 
of  private  property,  the  sacredness  of  the  family 
relation,  the  sanctity  of  human  life,  universal 
education,  social  union,  a  well-adjusted  balance 
of  powers,  and  an  enlightened,  dignified,  ven¬ 
erable  public  opinion,  were  the  vital  elements 
of  the  constitution  of  Moses. 

As  imprisonment  w^as  a  punishment  unknown 
to  the  Hebrew  law,  there  was  no  place  for 
tlie  writ  of  habeas  corpus  there.  With  this  ex¬ 
ception,  there  is  not  a  single  fundamental  prin¬ 
ciple  which  enters  into  the  constitution  of  a 
free  State  which  will  not  be  found  to  have  been 
incorporated  into  the  polity  of  the  Hebrew  com¬ 
monwealth.  That  government  is  instituted  for 
the  good  of  the  many,  and  not  of  the  few — for 
the  happiness  of  the  people,  and  not  the  advan¬ 
tage  of  the  prince  and  the  nobles  ;  that  the 
people,  either  directly  or  by  representatives, 
should  have  a  voice  in  the  enactment  of  the 
law's  ;  that  the  powers  of  the  several  depart¬ 
ments  of  government  should  be  cautiously  bal¬ 
anced  ;  that  the  laws  should  be  equal  in  their 
operation,  without  special  burdens  or  special 
exemptions  ;  that  the  life,  liberty,  and  property 
of  no  citizen  should  be  infringed,  but  by  pro¬ 
cess  of  law;  that  justice  should  hold  an  even 
balance,  neither  respecting  the  persons  of  the 
rich  nor  yielding  to  the  necessities  of  the  poor  ; 
that  judicial  proceedings  should  be  public,  and 
conducted  in  accordance  with  established  rules  ; 
that  every  man  who  obeys  the  laws  has  a  right 
to  their  protection  ;  that  education,  embracing 
a  knowledge  of  the  laws,  the  obligations  of  citi¬ 
zenship,  and  the  duties  of  morality,  should  be 
universal,  and  that  whatever  is  valuable  in  polit¬ 
ical  and  social  institutions  rests  upon  the  in¬ 
telligence  and  virtue  of  the  people  : — these  great 
and  vital  principles  of  civil  liberty  were  as  fully 
embodied  in  the  Hebrew  constitution  as  they 
are  in  the  freest  constitutions  now  existing 
among  men.  E  C.  W. 

Influence  of  the  Mosaic  Legiolation  and  the 

Hebrew  Writings  upon  Literature,  Govern¬ 
ment,  AND  Law  in  Succeeding  Ages. 

That  the  Grecian  critics  were  acquainted  with 


the  writings  of  Moses  is  certain  from  the  fact 
that  we  find  Longinus,  in  his  treatise  on  the 
Sublime,  drawing  from  them  in  illustration  of 
his  subject.  The  same  is  true  of  the  historians. 
Strabo  makes  honorable  mention  of  Moses  as  a 
lawgiver  ;  and  Diodorus  Siculus  acknowledges 
him  to  be  the  first  of  legislators,  from  whom  all 
laws  had  their  origin.  Among  distinguished 
modern  critics  and  divines  who  have  held  the 
opinion  that  profane  literature  is  greatly  indebted 
to  the  sacred  Scriptures  may  be  mentioned 
Ludovicus  Vives,  the  Scaligers,  Grotius,  Bo- 
chart,  Selden,  Usher,  Cudworth,  Stillingfleet, 
Witsius,  Magee,  and  a  host  of  others,  of  scarcely 
inferior  note,  Grotius  says  :  “  That  which  the 
ancient  philosophers  drew  from  the  theology  of 
the  Phcenicians,  and  the  poets  from  them,  the 
Phoenicians  drew  from  the  Hebrews.”  That 
the  Phoenicians  were  identical  with  the  ancient 
Canaanites  ;  that  they  were  well  acquainted 
with  the  Jewish  doctrine  and  traditions  ;  that 
by  their  commerce  they  spread  these  ideas  all 
along  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea,  in 
Asia  Minor,  Greece,  Italy,  Spain,  Africa,  and 
numerous  islands  ;  and  that  the  Jews  them¬ 
selves  were  known  to  other  nations  under  the 
names  of  Phoenicians,  Syrians,  Assyrians,  has 
been  proved  at  large  by  learned  men. 

That  the  greater  part  of  the  myths  which 
make  up  the  ancient  pagan  theology  were  but 
corrupt  imitations  of  Scripture  histories,  has 
been  abundantly  demonstrated  by  learned  men, 
as  Selden,  Bochart,  Vossius,  the  Scaligers,  Mai- 
monides,  and  various  of  the  Christian  fathers. 
These  authorities  will  be  found  cited  at  length 
by  Gale  in  the  second  book  of  his  Court  of  the 
Gentiles,  and  by  Stillingfleet  in  the  fifth  chap¬ 
ter  of  the  third  book  of  his  Origiues  Sacrae.  A 
strong  presumptive  evidence  of  the  obligations 
of  Grecian  philosophy  to  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
is  found  in  the  fact  that  Egypt  and  Phoenicia, 
themselves  large  recipients  of  the  treasures  of 
revelation,  were,  by  common  admission,  the 
sources  of  Grecian  culture  and  learning.  Up  to 
the  period  when  the  empire  of  Jerusalem  was 
destroyed  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  Europe  had  re¬ 
mained,  to  a  great  degree,  sunk  in  barbarism 
and  ignorance.  At  this  time  part  of  the  Jewish 
nation  was  carried  captive  to  Babylon,  and  an 
other  large  portion  took  refuge  in  Egypt.  These 
latter,  after  the  restoration  of  their  brethren  by 
Cyrus,  remained  in  their  adopted  country, 
where  they  built  a  temple,  publicly  exerciseil 
their  religion,  and  flourished  in  such  multi¬ 
tudes  under  Alexander  and  his  successors  as 
almost  to  equal  those  of  Judea  in  number, 
wealth,  and  influence.  They  even  lost  the  use 


ITS  INFLUENCE  UPON  SUBSEQUENT  CIVILIZATIONS. 


4:5 


of  the  Hebrew,  and  adopted  the  Greek  tongue 
— a  language,  beyond  all  others,  copious,  ex¬ 
pressive,  and  harmonious  ; — qualities  which 
caused  it  to  become  the  universal  dialect  of 
learned  men,  both  in  the  East  and  the  West. 
About  the  time  of  the  Babylonish  captivity 
Greece  began  to  emerge  from  the  depths  of  igno¬ 
rance  and  rudeness  in  which  her  people  had 
hitherto  been  sunk.  A  spirit  of  inquiry  and  re¬ 
search  was  awakened.  Thales,  Anaximander, 
Anaxagoras,  Pherecydes,  Pythagoras,  Plato, 
Herodotus,  and  a  host  of  other  Grecian  philoso¬ 
phers  and  historians,  travelled  into  Egypt,  Chal¬ 
dea,  and  Phoenicia,  some  of  them  residing  in 
those  countries  for  a  long  series  of  years.  Here 
they  became  acquainted  with  the  more  culti¬ 
vated  and  learned  of  the  Jews.  It  is  not  im¬ 
probable  that  some  of  them  saw  and  read  the 
sacred  books  of  the  Hebrews,  either  in  the 
original  tongue  or  the  Greek  translation  made 
under  Ptolemy  Philadelphus.  Ptolemy  himself 
was  delighted  with  the  laws  of  Moses  ;  pro¬ 
nounced  his  legislation  wonderful  ;  was  aston¬ 
ished  at  the  depth  of  his  wisdom,  and  professed 
to  have  learned  from  him  the  true  science  of 
government. 

The  testimonies  of  J ewish,  pagan,  and  Chris¬ 
tian  writers,  and  the  presumptive  proofs  here 
referred  to,  are  sufficient  of  themselves  to  war¬ 
rant  the  belief  that  Greece,  the  parent  of  pagan 
letters  and  arts,  Greece,  the  common  .mistress 
and  teacher  of  Europe,  owed  the  best  part  of 
her  wisdom  to  Judea,  But  that  which  affords 
incontestable  proofs  of  this  fact  is  a  comparison 
of  the  maxims  of  her  philosophers  with  the 
teachings  of  Holy  Scripture.  Let  the  reader 
who  would  see  this  subject  fully  discussed,  with 
all  the  authorities  bearing  upon  it  cited,  consult 
the  third  book  of  the  Aeg^’^ptiaca  of  Witsius  and 
the  whole  of  the  second  part  of  Gale’s  Court  of 
the  Gentiles.  It  may  never  be  fully  known  how 
far  the  Greeks  and  other  heathen  nations  were 
indebted  to  Moses  and  the  prophets  for  their 
purest  ethical  doctrines,  their  choicest  poetic 
beauties,  their  finest  rhetorical  touches,  their 
loftiest  flights  of  eloquence,  their  wisest  maxims 
of  government,  and  their  sublimest  speculations 
concerning  the  Divine  nature  and  human  duty. 
Enough,  however,  is  known  to  afford  solid 
ground  for  the  opinion  that  Judea  was  the 
birthplace  of  letters,  that  her  priests  were  men 
of  learning,  that  her  Levitical  cities  were  so 
many  universities,  that  the  scholars  of  other 
countries  lighted  their  torch  in  Zion,  and  that 
the  altars  of  pagan  philosophy  caught  their  first 
spark  from  the  flame  that  glowed  within  the 
temple  of  Jerusalem. 


Equally  great  was  the  influence  of  the  Mosaic 
legislation  on  government  and  law  in  succeed¬ 
ing  ages.  Grotius  says:  “The  most  ancient 
Attic  laws,  whence  in  after  times  the  Boman 
were  derived,  owe  their  origin  to  Moses’s  laws.” 
He  expresses  the  same  opinion  in  his  treatise  on 
the  Bight  of  War  and  Peace  :  ‘‘  Who  may  not 
believe,  that  seeing  the  Law  of  Moses  had  such 
an  express  image  of  the  Divine  will,  the  nations 
did  well  in  taking  their  laws  thence  ?  Which 
that  the  Grecians  did,  especially  the  Attics,  is 
credible.  Whence  the  Attic  laws  and  the  Bo¬ 
man  twelve  tables,  which  sprang  thence,  bear 
so  much  similitude  with  the  Hebrew  law's.” 
The  similitude  between  the  Grecian  and  Mosaic 
laws  has  been  noticed  by  Josephus,  Clemens 
Alexandrinus,  Augustin,  Selden,  Gale,  Cunaeus, 
Serranus,  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  and  Archbishop 
Potter.  E.  C.  W. 

The  last-named  in  his  Grecian  Antiquities 
has  adduced  many  points  of  Grecian  law  which 
seem  to  have  been  taken  from  Moses — viz.,  the 
laws  3f  divorce  ;  the  purgation  oath  compared 
with  “  the  oath  of  jealousy”  among  the  He¬ 
brew's  ;  the  harvest  and  vintage  festival  ;  the 
law  of  first-fruits  ;  the  law  requiring  the  best 
offerings  for  God  ;  the  portion  for  the  priests  ; 
protection  to  the  man-slayer  at  their  altars  ;  re¬ 
quiring  priests  to  be  unblemished  ;  the  agrarian 
law  ;  laws  regulating  descent  of  property,  and 
prohibiting  marriage  within  certain  degrees  of 
consanguinity.  Plato  in  his  ideal  Bepublic” 
is  thought  to  have  drawn  largely  from  Moses. 
Clement  of  Alexandria  accosts  him  (by  Apos¬ 
trophe)  :  “  But  as  for  laws,  whatever  are  true 
were  conveyed  to  thee  from  the  Hebrew's.” 
These  historic  facts  seem  to  indicate  the  definite 
channel  through  which  the  laws  of  Moses 
reached  the  Grecian  mind  in  Us  earliest  stages 
of  culture  and  thus  w'rought  themselves  into  the 
great  fountains  of  Grecian  and  Boman  civiliza¬ 
tion  and  jurisprudence. 

There  seem  to  be  strong  grounds  for  the  gen¬ 
eral  statement  that  the  greatest  reformers  of  all 
known  history  have  acted  upon  the  ideas  of 
Moses,  and  have  probably  drawn  their  doc¬ 
trines  more  or  less  directly  from  that  fountain. 
I  will  venture  to  place  in  this  category  Zoroas¬ 
ter,  Plato,  Confucius,  Buddha,  and  Mahomet. 
These  men  were  in  their  time  reformers  of  so¬ 
ciety,  of  morals,  and  of  jurisprudence.  Their 
influence  led  toward  if  not  fully  unto  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  one  God,  and  by  natural  consequence,  to 
a  purer  morality  and  juster  views  of  law  and 
equity  ;  of  love  to  one’s  neighbor  and  purity  of 
life.  The  historic  evidence  that  Zoroaster, 
Plato,  and  Mahomet  drew  from  Moses  is  very 


476 


SECTION  155.  CIVIL  LAWS. 


stronfj;.  Of  the  p;reat  Indian  reformer  and  of 
iho  Chinese  comparatively  little  is  known. 

Of  Roman  law  as  finally  embodied  in  the  great 
code  of  Justinian,  it  Las  been  justly  suggested 
that  its  best  things  came  from  Moses  and  the 
Septuagint  through  Greece  and  the  Egypt  of  the 
Ptolemies.  In  the  age  of  Justinian  (first  half 
of  the  sixth  Christian  century)  primitive  Chris¬ 
tianity  had  quite  fully  leavened  the  public  sen¬ 
timent  and  thus  the  jurisprudence  of  the  then 
civilized  world.  Wneii  Justinian  created  a  com¬ 
mission  of  learned  jurists  to  “  collect  the  scat¬ 
tered  monuments  of  ancient  jurispmdence,”  he 
recommended  them  in  settling  any  23oiDt  to  re¬ 
gard  neither  the  number  nor  the  rejrutation  of 
the  jurisconsults  who  had  given  opinions  on  the 
subject,  but  to  be  guided  solely  by  reason  and 
equity. 

Of  Alfred  the  Great  (reigned  a.d.  871-901) 
the  central  testimony  of  history  is  that  he  was 
severely  just.  Despite  of  surroundings  almost 
barbarous,  he  rose  by  dint  of  his  irrepressible 
manliness  to  become  the  greatest  legislator  and 
scholar  of  his  age,  and  so  was  able  to  lay  the 
foundations  for  the  best  and  truest  glory  of  the 
English  name.  The  common  law  of  England 
and  of  the  English-speaking  world  began  its  de¬ 
velopment  under  his  hand.  The  spirit  of  her 
law  from  the  days  of  Alfred  was  justice  and 
righteousness  between  a  man  and  his  neighbor. 
The  laws  of  Moses  were  in  Alfred's  eye  ;  the 
spirit  of  those  laws  filled  and  fired  his  noble 
soul.  It  is  currently  said  that  the  telling  words 
wdiich  describe  the  needy  as  “  God's  poor'”  are 
original  (for  our  mother  Saxon  tongue)  with 
him.  Moses  had  reiterated  the  sentiment  long 
ages  before.  Sir  Matthew  Hale  has  traced  the 
influence  of  the  Bible  generally  on  the  laws  of 
England.  Sismondi  testifies  that  Alfred,  in 
causing  a  republication  of  the  Saxon  laws,  in¬ 
serted  several  statutes  taken  from  the  code  of 
Moses,  to  give  new  strength  and  cogency  to 
the  principles  of  moralit3^  H.  C. 

The  civil  institutions  of  [England  and]  the 
United  States  are  pervaded  with  the  spirit  of 
the  Mosaic  legislation.  Equality,  liberty,  gen¬ 
eral  education,  social  order,  peace,  industry, 
union,  and  the  reign  of  law  are  the  sources  of 


our  prosperity  and  nappiness.  But  these  prin¬ 
ciples  are  the  very  heart  of  the  Mosaic  constitu¬ 
tion.  In  conclusion,  it  appears  that  through 
various  channels,  as  well  as  more  directly  from 
the  original  fountain,  the  2Jiincq)les  of  the 
Mosaic  code  have  found  their  way,  to  a  less  or 
greater  extent,  into  the  jurisprudence  of  all 
civilized  nations. 


My  faith  in  our  [American]  institutions  has 
been  strengthened  m3'  stucl3'  of  the  Hebrew 
constitution.  I  have  seen  wiih  suii^rise  and 
delight  that  the  essential  iirincijiles  oi  our  con¬ 
stitution  are  identical  with  those  of  a  political 
system  which  emanated  from  a  siqierhuman 
wisdom,  and  was  established  by  the  authority 
of  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  world.  I  accept 
this  knowledge  as  a  pledge  that  these  jirinciples 
are  destined,  in  the  good  lU’ovidtnce  of  God,  to 
a  universal  triumph.  Men  are  cajiable  of  gov¬ 
erning  themselves  ;  such  is  the  decision  of  the 
infinite  intelligence.  Tyranny  will  everywhere 
come  to  an  end  ;  humanity  will  recover  its 
rights  ;  and  the  entire  lace  of  mankind  will  ex¬ 
ult  in  the  enjoyment  of  freedom  and  hajojiiness. 
Futurity  is  big  with  events  of  momentous  im¬ 
port  ;  events  compared  with  which  the  grandest 
and  the  sublimest,  hitherto  inscribed  ujron  the 
rolls  of  fame,  are  but  as  insignificant  trifles. 
But  this  better  future,  for  which  our  nature 
sighs  and  to  which  it  is  evidentl3'  tending,  “  is 
not  a  tree  transplanted  from  paradise,  with  all 
its  branches  in  full  fruitage.  It  was  not  in 
vernal  breezes  and  gentle  rains  that  its  roots 
were  fixed,  and  its  growth  and  strength  insured. 
With  blood  was  it  planted.  It  is  rocked  in  tem¬ 
pests.  Deep  scars  are  on  its  trunk,  and  the 
path  of  the  lightning  may  be  traced  among  its 
branches.”  But  through  storm  and  darkness, 
amid  blood  and  carnage,  the  political  redemp¬ 
tion  of  our  race  holds  on  its  course.  Liberty 
and  law,  Christianity  and  science,  religion  and 
learning,  are  yet  to  enjoy  a  universal  triumph, 
to  sway  a  universal  sceptre.  Thanks  be  to  God 
for  that  rainbow  of  promise,  with  which  the 
civil  polity  of  Moses  has  spanned  the  political 
heavens !  E.  G.  Wines.  {Laios  of  the  Ancient 
Hebrews.) 


Section  155. 

CIVIL  LAWS  :  APPOINTMENT  OF  JUDGES  BY  JETHRO’S  COUNSEL. 

Exodus  18  : 1-27.  De.  1  :  9-15. 

Ex.  18  1  Now  Jethro,  the  priest  of  Midian,  Moses’  father  in  law,  heard  of  all  that  God  had 
done  for  Moses,  and  for  Israel  his  people,  how  that  the  Lobd  had  brought  Israel  out  of  Egypt, 


JETURO’S  COUNSEL  REGARDING  JUDGES. 


477 


2  And  Jethro,  Moses’  father  in  law,  took  Zipporah,  Moses’  wife,  after  he  had  sent  her  away, 

3  and  her  two  sons  ;  of  which  the  name  of  the  one  was  Gershom  ;  for  he  said,  I  have  been  a 

4  sojcmrner  in  a  strange  land  :  and  the  name  of  the  other  was  Eliezer  ;  for  he  said,  The  God  of 

5  my  father  was  my  help,  and  delivered  me  from  the  sword  of  Pharaoh  :  and  Jethro,  Moses’ 
father  in  law,  came  with  his  sons  and  his  wife  unto  Moses  into  the  wilderness  where  he  was 

6  encamped,  at  the  mount  of  God  :  and  he  said  unto  Moses,  I  thy  father  in  law  Jethro  am  come 

7  unto  thee,  and  thy  wife,  and  her  two  sons  with  her.  And  Moses  went  out  to  meet  his  father 
in  law,  and  did  obeisance,  and  kissed  him  ;  and  they  asked  each  other  of  their  welfare  ;  and 

8  they  came  into  the  tent.  And  Moses  told  his  father  in  law  all  that  the  Loed  had  done  unto 
Pharaoh  and  to  the  Egyptians  for  Israel’s  sake,  all  the  travail  that  had  come  upon  them  by 

9  the  way,  and/how  the  Loed  delivered  them.  And  Jethro  rejoiced  for  all  the  goodness  which 
the  Loed  had  done  to  Israel,  in  that  he  had  delivered  them  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Egyptians. 

10  And  Jethro  said,  Blessed  be  the  Loed,  who  hath  delivered  you  out  of  the  hand  of  the  Egyptians, 
and  out  of  the  hand  of  Pharaoh  ;  who  hath  delivered  the  people  from  under  the  hand  of  the 

11  Egyptians,  Now  I  know  that  the  Loed  is  greater  than  all  gods  :  yea,  in  the  thing  wherein 

12  they  dealt  proudly  against  them.  And  Jethro,  Moses’  father  in  law,  took  a  burnt  offering  and 
sacrifices  for  God  :  and  Aaron  came,  and  all  the  elders  of  Israel,  to  eat  bread  with  Moses’ 

13  father  in  law  before  God.  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  morrow,  that  Moses  sat  to  judge  the 

14  people  :  and  the  people  stood  about  Moses  from  the  morning  unto  the  evening.  And  when 
Moses’  father  in  law  saw  all  that  he  did  to  the  people,  he  said.  What  is  this  thing  that  thou 
doest  to  the  people?  why  sittest  thou  thyself  alone,  and  all  the  people  stand  about  thee  from 

15  morning  unto  even  ?  And  Moses  said  unto  his  father  in  law.  Because  the  people  come  unto 

16  me  to  inquire  of  God  :  when  they  have  a  matter,  they  come  unto  me  ;  and  I  judge  between  a 

17  man  and  his  neighbour,  and  I  make  them  know  the  statutes  of  God,  and  his  laws.  And  Moses’ 

18  father  in  law  said  unto  him,  The  thing  that  thou  doest  is  not  good.  Thou  wilt  surely  wear 
away,  both  thou,  and  this  people  that  is  with  thee  ;  for  the  thing  is  too  heavy  for  thee  ;  thou 

19  art  not  able  to  perform  it  thyself  alone.  Hearken  now  unto  my  voice,  I  will  give  thee  counsel, 
and  God  be  with  thee  :  be  thou  for  the  people  to  God-ward,  and  bring  thou  the  causes  unto 

20  God  :  and  thou  shalt  teach  them  the  statutes  and  the  laws,  and  shalt  shew  them  the  way 

21  wherein  they  must  walk,  and  the  work  that  they  must  do.  Moreover  thou  shalt  provide  out 
of  all  the  people  able  men,  such  as  fear  God,  men  of  truth,  hating  unjust  gain  and  place  such 
over  them,  to  be  rulers  of  thousands,  rulers  of  hundreds,  rulers  of  fifties,  and  rulers  of  tens, 

22  and  let  them  judge  the  people  at  all  seasons  :  and  it  shall  be,  that  every  great  matter  they 
shall  bring  unto  thee,  but  every  small  matter  they  shall  judge  themselves  :  so  shall  it  be  easier 

23  for  thyself,  and  they  shall  bear  the  burden  with  thee.  If  thou  shalt  do  this  thing,  and  God 
command  thee  so,  then  thou  shalt  be  able  to  endure,  and  all  this  people  also  shall  go  to  their 

24  place  in  peace.  So  Moses  hearkened  to  the  voice  of  his  father  in  law,  and  did  all  that  he  had 

25  said.  And  Moses  chose  able  men  out  of  all  Israel,  and  made  them  heads  over  the  people, 

26  rulers  of  thousands,  rulers  of  hundreds,  rulers  of  fifties,  and  rulers  of  tens.  And  they  judged 
the  people  at  all  seasons  :  the  hard  causes  they  brought  unto  Moses,  but  every  small  matter 

27  they  judged  themselves.  And  Moses  let  his  father  in  law  depart  ;  and  he  went  his  way  into 
his  own  land. 

De.  1  9  And  I  spake  unto  you  at  that  time,  saying,  I  am  not  able  to  bear  you  myself  alone  : 

10  the  Loed  your  God  hath  multiplied  you,  and,  behold,  ye  are  this  day  as  the  stars  of  heaven  for 

11  multitude.  The  Loed,  the  God  of  your  fathers,  make  you  a  thousand  times  so  many  more  as 

12  ye  are,  and  bless  you,  as  he  hath  promised  you  !  How  can  I  myself  alone  bear  your  cum- 

13  brance,  and  your  burden,  and  your  strife  ?  Take  you  wise  men,  and  understanding,  and 

14  known,  according  to  your  tribes,  and  I  will  make  them  heads  over  you.  And  ye  answered 

15  me,  and  said.  The  thing  which  thou  hast  spoken  is  good /or  us  to  do.  So  I  took  the  heads  of 
your  tribes,  wise  men,  and  known,  and  made  them  heads  over  you,  captains  of  thousands, 
and  captains  of  hundreds,  and  captains  of  fifties,  and  captains  of  tens,  and  officers,  according 
to  your  tribes. 


The  visit  of  Jethro  to  Moses  is  recounted  in 
Ex,  18.  According  to  the  order  of  the  text,  it 
would  seem  to  have  taken  place  immediately  after 
the  battle  with  Amalekat  Rephidim  (Ex.  17),  and 
before  the  encampment  at  Sinai  (Ex.  19  : 2). 


For  the  reasons  assigned  below  it  is  transferred 
from  its  orderly  place  in  the  record,  and  in¬ 
serted  here,  at  the  commencement  of  the  third 
main  division  of  the  laws  of  Moses,  the  class  of 
Civil  Ordinances.  The  leading  fact  connected 


478 


SEGTIOR  155.  CIVIL  LAWS. 


with  this  historical  visit,  for  which  mainly  it  is 
recorded,  was  the  appointment  by  Moses  of 
ruling  judges,  at  the  suggestion  of  Jethro.  It 
falls  here,  therefore,  into  its  fitting  place,  as  a 
natural  introduction  as  well  as  a  substantial 
portion  of  the  civil  laws.  B. 

There  are  indications  which  show  that  this 
occurrence  must  have  taken  place  after  Israel 
had  reached  Sinai  and  heard  the  Law,  and  not 
before  they  had  arrived  at  that  mount  and  re¬ 
ceived  the  statutes  and  ordinances  of  God. 
There  is  reference  clearly  to  a  state  of  things 
which  indicates  national  organization,  and  not 
the  nomadic  state  in  which  the  Israelites  were 
at  the  outset.  And  we  see  plainly  that  the  nine¬ 
teenth  (Exodus)  is  the  proper  continuation  of  the 

seventeenth  chapter.  J.  C. - The  moiintain 

of  God,  and  not  Rephidim,  is  described  as  the 
place  of  encampment  at  that  time  (verse  5). 
Moreover,  the  circumstances  in  which  we  find 
the  people  are  adapted  not  to  Viieix  flying  halt  at 
Rephidim  (only  half  a  month  intervened  be¬ 
tween  their  arrival  at  the  desert  of  Sin  and 
their  encampment  in  the  desert  of  Sinai),  but 
to  their  longer  staj'’  at  Sinai.  Hence  this  chap¬ 
ter  departs  from  the  chronological  order,  and 
anticipates  the  occurrence.  The  author  is  now 
standing  at  the  commencement  of  an  important 
section  in  his  history,  which  extends  from  Ex. 
19  to  Nu.  10,  and  contains  the  account  of  the 
giving  of  the  Law  at  Sinai.  All  the  directions 
embraced  in  this  section  are  given  through 
Moses  by  Jehovah,  and  bear  throughout  the 
character  of  Divine  commands.  It  is  different 
with  the  appointment  of  the  judges,  the  origin 
of  which  is  recorded  in  this  chapter.  This  was 
not  ordered  by  Jehovah,  but  recommended  by 
Jethro.  And  hence  we  are  led  to  conjecture 
that  the  author  purposely  separated  the  human 
institution  from  such  as  were  Divine,  and 
pointed  out  the  distinction  by  the  position  as¬ 
signed  to  it.  Ranke, 

The  reason  of  the  order  in  the  text,  Lightfoot 
says,  is  to  be  sought  for  in  the  prophetic  curse 
denounced  against  the  Amalekites  in  the  close 
of  the  preceding  chapter  ;  for  as  Jethro  and  his 
family  were  residing  in  the  country  of  this  de¬ 
voted  people,  it  was  proper  to  afford  the  reader 
an  intimation  that  he  was  not  to  be  involved  in 
their  doom,  and  accordingly  the  incident  of  his 
visit  to  the  camp  of  Israel,  and  his  joining  in 
the  worship  of  the  true  God,  is  introduced  in 
immediate  connection  with  the  mention  of  the 
curse  ;  not  that  it  actually  occurred  at  that  pre¬ 
cise  time,  but  to  show  that  he  once  came,  and 
evinced  by  his  conduct  that  he  was  exempted 
from  the  denunciation.  This  view  of  the  sub¬ 


ject  we  consider  on  the  whole  the  correct  one. 
Bash. 

The  Israelites  had  moved  into  the  district  of 
Horeb  and  had  encamped  in  the  plain,  in  which 
they  remained  for  a  whole  year,  and  from  which 
they  witnessed  the  giving  of  the  Law  ;  and  it 
was  some  time  during  their  residence  there  that 
Jethro  came  with  Zipporah  and  her  sons  to 
Moses.  •“  The  mount  of  God  ”  (verse  5)  is  pre- 
eminently  and  emphatically  Sinai  ;  and  there¬ 
fore  we  are  shut  up  to  the  inference  that  the 
encampment  here  referred  to  was  not  Rephi¬ 
dim,  but  Sinai.  This  view  of  the  matter  is  con¬ 
firmed  by  the  words  of  Moses  in  the  first  chap¬ 
ter  of  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  where,  de¬ 
scribing  what  must  be  held  to  be  the  same 
change  in  the  mode  of  his  administration  which 
he  here  initiated,  he  places  it  clearly"  in  Horeb, 
and  not  long  before  the  removal  of  the  people 
from  the  base  of  Sinai.  Moreover,  in  this  chap¬ 
ter  itself  there  are  certain  expressions  which 
seem  to  refer  to  the  promulgation  of  the  Law 
and  the  establishment  of  the  Divine  oracle  as 
things  already  past  ;  for  Moses  speaks  to  Jethro 
of  ‘  the  people  coming  to  inquire  of  God,”  and 
of  his  making  them  “  to  know  the  statutes  of 
God  and  his  laws  while  Jethro  uses  language 
which  appears  to  imply  that  Moses  had  already 
begun  to  bring  their  causes  unto  God.”  Be¬ 
sides,  the  time  which  elapsed  between  the  ar¬ 
rival  of  the  people  at  Rephidim  and  their  jour- 
neying  to  Sinai  would  hardly  admit  of  the 
occurrence  of  all  the  events  here  enumerated, 
especially  when  we  take  into  consideration  the 
conflict  with  Amalek,  of  which  that  valle3’^  was 
the  scene,  and  which  occupied  at  least  one 
whole  daj^  And  further,  no  one  can  read  the 
words  of  Jethro  without  perceiving  that  his  ad¬ 
vice  to  Moses  was  founded  not  upon  the  pro¬ 
ceedings  of  a  single  day,  and  that  one  of  excep¬ 
tional  hardship,  but  rather  on  his  observation, 
for  some  considerable  time,  of  the  wearing 
character  of  the  constant  routine  of  duties 
which  Moses  had  undertaken,  and  which  he 
was  endeavoring  dailj^  to  perform.  W.  M.  T. 

Ex.  18.  This  chapter,  which  abounds  in 
personal  reminiscences  (and  gives  a  vivid  im¬ 
pression  of  the  affectionate  and  confiding  char 
acter  of  Moses),  stands  rather  apart  from  the 
general  narrative.  It  may  have  been  and  prob¬ 
ably  was  written  on  a  separate  roll.  The  repe¬ 
tition  of  particulars  well  known  to  the  reader  is 
a  general  characteristic  of  such  distinct  por¬ 
tions.  Cook. 

1.  Jetliro,  TTIose§’fatlier-iii-law.  Ac¬ 
cording  to  the  note,  vol.  i.,  p.  579,  “  it  appears 
probable  that  Reuel  was  the  grandfather,  Jethro 


JETHRO  AND  MOSES. 


479 


the  father,  and  Hobab  the  brother,  of  Zipporah. 
Hence,  after  forty  years  Reuel  is  no  more  spoken 
of.”  The  treatment  of  Jethro  in  this  place,  and 
afterward  of  Hobab,  by  Moses,  accords  with 
this  view.  B. 

3,  4.  T\i^o  §oiis,  Oerstioni,  Ellezer. 

Moses  had  no  interest  but  that  of  God  and  his 
people  ;  to  promote  this  he  employed  his  whole 
time  and  his  uncommon  talents.  The  zeal  of 
God’s  house  consumed  him  ;  for  in  that  house, 
in  all  its  concerns,  we  have  the  testimony  of 
God  himself  that  he  was  faithful  (Heb.  3  :  2),  and 
a  higher  character  was  never  given  nor  can  be 
given,  of  any  governor  sacred  or  civil.  He  made 
no  provision  for  his  own  sons,  Gershom  and 
Eliezer  ;  they  and  their  families  were  incorpo¬ 
rated  with  the  Levites  (1  Ch.  23  : 14),  and  had  no 
higher  employment  than  that  of  taking  care  of 
the  tabernacle  and  the  tent.  No  historv,  sacred 
or  profane,  has  been  able  to  produce  a  parallel 

to  the  disinterestedness  of  Moses.  A.  C. - 

The  two  sons  sink  into  obscurity.  Their  names, 
though  of  Levitical  origin,  relate  to  their  foreign 
birthplace.  Gershom,  the  “stranger,”  and 
Eliezer,  “  God  is  my  help,”  commemorated 
their  father’s  exile  and  escape.  Their  posterity 
lingered  in  obscurity  down  to  the  time  of 
David.  A.  P.  S. 

5-7.  On  our  entrance  into  the  Desert  of 
Sinai,  we  had  a  piece  of  the  Bible  translated  for 
us  into  every-day  life  as  it  was  in  the  time  of 
the  exodus.  We  had  reached  the  neighborhood 
of  the  tents  of  our  Sheikh  Eid,  and  his  wife  and 
two  children,  accompanied  by  an  aged  male  rel¬ 
ative,  came  out  to  meet  him.  Eid  saluted  the 
old  man,  embraced  him,  and  kissed  him  on 
either  cheek,  and  the  pair  then,  with  right 
hands  clasped,  repeated  over  and  over  again  the 
words,  “Are  you  well?”  with  the  answer, 
“  Thank  God,  well  !”  As  I  watched  the  scene, 
I  could  not  help  calling  to  mind  the  words  of 
Ex.  18  :  5-7.  Palmer. 

8-1 1,  Jethro  is  before  us  here  as  both  a  good 
and  a  wise  man — good  in  that  his  heart  is  shown 
to  be  with  God  and  with  God's  people,  “  re¬ 
joicing  for  all  the  goodness  which  the  Lord  had 
done  to  Israel  whom  he  had  delivered  out  of  the 
hand  of  the  Egyptians”  (verse  9)  ;  and  wise  in 
that  he  saw  at  a  glance  that  the  burdens  then 
borne  by  Moses  in  the  administration  of  justice 
among  the  people  would  soon  break  him  down  ; 
and  in  his  admirable  suggestions  of  a  better 
method  which  from  that  day  became  established 
among  the  Hebrew  people.  For  both  reasons 
such  a  visit  deserved  a  permanent  record. 
H.  C. 

12.  A  burnt-offering  and  §acrifices. 


This  clearly  shows  that  Jethro  was  recognized 
as  a  priest  of  the  true  God.  The  identity  of  re¬ 
ligious  faith  could  not  be  more  conclusively 
proved  than  by  the  participation  in  the  sacri¬ 
ficial  feast.  This  passage  is  of  great  importance 
in  its  bearings  upon  the  relation  between  the 
Israelites  and  their  congeners,  and  upon  the 
state  of  religion  among  the  descendants  of  Abra¬ 
ham.  Cook. - The  term  ‘‘burnt-offering”  is 

usually  applied  to  a  sacrifice  which  is  burned  en¬ 
tire  upon  the  altar.  The  phrase  “  sacrifice  for 
God,”  refers  here  to  a  peace-offering  upon  por¬ 
tions  of  which  the  worshippers  partook  in  the 
manner  of  a  religious  feast  ;  an  act  at  once  re¬ 
ligious  toward  God  and  social  toward  man. 
H.  C. 

13-18.  Read  carefully  this  simple  recital, 
and  note  how  natural  the  inquiry  of  Jethro,  the 
answer  of  Moses,  and  the  earnest  caution  ex¬ 
pressed  in  the  rejoinder  of  the  interested  and 
wise  hearted  old  man.  When  we  consider  the 
immense  toil  of  Moses  involved  in  his  “sitting 
from  morning  unto  evening”  to  decide  the  mul¬ 
titude  of  questions  arising  “  between  a  man 
and  his  neighbor,”  and  to  instruct  the  people  in 
the  detail  of  God’s  laws,  we  can  well  appreciate 
the  urgency  and  plainness  of  Jethro’s  words  of 
protest.  B. 

17,  18.  Tlic  tiling  tliou  doc$t  i»  not 
good.  Tlion  wilt  surely  wear  away. 

It  was  a  lawful,  a  laudable  work,  pushed  to  a 
perilous  extreme  ;  and  it  was  the  undue  e.v- 
treme  to  which  it  was  pushed  that  was  not  good. 
Labor  is  good  ;  but  if  we  labor  unwisely,  so  as 
to  overtask  and  enervate  our  faculties,  the  labor 
which  in  itself  is  good  becomes  an  evil.  What¬ 
ever  merciful  alleviations  and  remissions  of  toil 
the  good  providence  of  God  may  have  brought, 
there  is  plenty  of  work  for  every  man  to  do — 
work  which  he  cannot  neglect  save  to  his  own 
hurt,  and  to  the  loss  of  the  community  at  large. 
No  man  is  so  unhappy  or  so  likely  to  become  a 
burden  to  himself  and  a  pest  to  his  neighbors 
as  he  who  neither  has  a  daily  task  set  him,  nor 
sets  himself  a  task.  Labor  braces  the  energies 
of  mind  and  body,  and  makes  the  after-rest 
sweet.  It  conditions  all  good  things  ;  for  all 
good  things  are  hard  to  get  ;  and  in  the  labor 
of  getting  them  lies  our  best  safeguard  against 
temptations  to  evil.  Yet  man  is  not  a  machine 
that  he  should  do  nothing  but  work,  though  he 
often  uses  himself  as  if  he  were.  If  he  give 
himself  to  incessant  labor  or,  if,  like  Moses,  ho 
simply  carry  labor  to  an  excess,  he  will  surely 
wear  himself  away  and  yet  not  achieve  that  at 
wdiich  he  aims  ;  while  if  he  will  listen  to  some 
wise  Jethro,  and  lighten  his  labor,  he  may  long 


480 


SECTION  155.  APPOINTMENT  OF  JUDGES. 


retain  his  strength,  and  in  the  long  run  do  a 
larger  stroke  of  work  than  if  he  went  at  it  with 
the  feverish  excitement  which  preys  upon  the 
strength  it  evokes.  To  wear  out  is  better  than 
to  rust  out  ;  but  it  is  best  of  all  neither  to  rust 
out  in  sloth  nor  prematurely  to  wear  out  in  un¬ 
due  toils.  To  follow  any  vocation  with  so  ab¬ 
sorbing  an  interest  as  to  undermine  health  and 
to  neglect  the  higher  ends  for  which  life  is 
given,  is  both  unwise  and  wicked.  It  is  to  sin 
against  the  law  which  God  has  written  on  our 
bodies — a  law  which  is  very  prompt  to  avenge 
itself,  and  against  the  law  which  he  has  revealed 
in  our  reason  and  experience.  And  therefore 
God  has  ordained  the  intermission  of  labor. 
Not  only  has  he  given  us  an  inward  monitor 
which  warns  us  when  mental  or  vital  powers  are 
overtasked  ;  he  has  also  fixed  bounds  to  our 
labor  beyond  which  we  cannot  or  ought  not  to 
pass.  Seven  times  a  week  the  day  draws  to  an 
end,  and  the  night  comes  on  in  which  most  of 
us  at  least  are  compelled  to  rest.  Once  every 
week,  too,  there  returns  the  day  of  rest,  on 
which  we  cease  from  our  toils,  and  withdraw 
our  minds  from  the  noisy  labors  and  corroding 
anxieties  of  traffic.  Ah  !  if  men  would  abstract 
their  minds  as  well  as  their  hands  from  labor 
night  by  night  and  Sunday  by  Sunday,  instead 
of  wearing  themselves  away,  they  would  carry  an 
intenser  vigor  to  their  toils,  and  do  more 
though  in  lesser  time.  It  is  because  they  will 
not  rest  when  God  says,  “  Kest,  ”  nor  worship 
when  God  saj’-s,  “  Worship,”  that  so  many  are 
urged  into  mania  or  borne  to  a  premature 
grave.  Cox. 

Jethko’s  Counsel  :  First  Particular,  What 
Duties  Moses  Himself  Should  Undertake. 

Ex.  18  : 19,  20. 

19,  20.  He  introduces  his  counsel  with  the 
fervent  words,  “  God  he  with  thee!''  “  Continue 
thou, ”  he  advises,  “in  thine  appointed  work 
of  mediation  in  behalf  of  the  people,  and  inter¬ 
pret  to  them  all  the  way  and  the  will  of  God,  as 
it  has  been  and  shall  be  disclosed  to  thee.”  B. 

- Herein  Jethro  declares  the  twofold  office 

which  Moses  was  to  sustain — viz.,  that  of  advo¬ 
cate  in  behalf  of  the  people,  and  interpreter  on 
the  part  of  God.  Bush. - What  a  comprehen¬ 

sive  form  of  a  preacher’s  duty  does  this  verse 
exhibit !  He  must  instruct  the  people  in  the 
nature,  use,  and  importance  of  the  ordinances 
of  religion.  He  must  la)’^  before  them  the  whole 
moral  law,  and  their  obligations  to  fulfil  all  its 
precepts.  He  must  point  out  their  principal 
duties  ;  and  he  must  set  before  them  all  their 
work.  A.  C. 


Second  Particular,  Appointment  or  Judges. 

Ex.  18  :  21,  22.  De.  1  : 13-15. 

Requisites  of  character.  Able  nicil,  such 
as  fear  €ro<l,  men  of  truth,  hatiiig^  un¬ 
just  g^aiii.  Able  men.  Heb.  men  of  might  or 
force — i.e.,  men  of  vigorous,  active,  energetic 
character.  This  was  the  first  requisite.  The 
second  was  that  they  should  be  men  fearing  God 
— that  is,  conscientious  men  ;  men  who  dare 
not  do  a  base,  mean,  or  unjust  thing,  whatever 
the  temptation  or  however  secretly  it  might  be 
done,  because  they  are  controlled  by  a  holy  awe 
of  heaven.  The  next  qualification  is  that  they 
should  be  men  of  truth  ;  men  who  would  on  no 
account  utter  a  falsehood  or  betray  a  trust. 
Bush. - Hating  unjust  gain.  Not  only  not  seek¬ 

ing  bribes  or  aiming  to  enrich  themselves,  but 
abhorring  the  thought  of  it  ;  he  is  fit  to  be  a 
magistrate,  and  he  alone,  who  despiseth  the  gain 
of  oppression,  and  shaketh  his  hands  from  thehold- 
ing  of  bribes  (Is.  33  : 15).  H. 

Such  was  Jethro’s  conception  of  the  man  fit¬ 
ted  to  be  placed  in  authority  over  his  fellows. 
To  this  list  of  qualifications  Moses  adds  others 
at  the  time  of  their  election,  as  we  learn  from 
De.  1  : 15.  First,  they  were  to  be  “  wise  men" 
of  their  tribes— that  is,  of  first  intelligence. 
Secondly,  known  men”  in  their  tribes— that 
is,  men  who  have  been  tried,  and  thus  become 
known.  Thirdly,  “men  of  understanding"  — 
that  is,  of  good,  practical  judgment,  as  well  as 
intelligence.  And  in  inducting  them  to  office, 
he  charges  them  :  First,  “  hear  and  judge  right¬ 
eously ’’not  only  between  two  fellow-citizens, 
but  between  a  fellow-citizen  and  a  stranger. 
Second,  “  without  respect  of  persons,  but  hear 
the  small  as  well  as  the  great.”  Third,  without 
“fear  of  the  face  of  man,”  remembering, 
fourthly,  that  “  the  judgment  is  God's"  not  man’s  ; 
and,  therefore,  should  rest  upon  no  fear  or  favor 
of  man,  but  on  the  principles  of  eternal  recti- 
lude.  Whatever  opinions  may  be  entertained 
of  the  theology  and  ritual  of  the  Mosaic  age,  it 
is  very  clear  that  there  is  no  evidence  of  nar¬ 
rowness,  ignorance,  and  the  childishness  of  that 
era  to  be  gathered  from  this  analysis  of  the 
qualification  of  candidates  for  office  under  a 
free  popular  government.  S.  R. 

A  magistracy  elected  by  the  people,  the  pub¬ 
lic  officer  chosen  by  the  public  voice,  was  an¬ 
other  of  those  great  principles  on  which  Moses 
founded  his  civil  polity.  The  magistrates  are 
not  properly  the  ministers  of  the  people  unless 
the  people  elect  them.  No  fact  can  be  plainer 
or  more  certain  than  that  the  judges,  instituted 
at  the  suggestion  of  Jethro,  were  chosen  by  the 


CHAUACTER  AND  CLASSES. 


481 


suffrages  of  all  Israel.  The  direction  of  Moses 
to  the  people  upon  that  occasion  is  very  ex¬ 
plicit,  His  words  are,  “Take  you  wise  men, 
and  understanding,  and  known,  according  to 
your  tribes,  and  I  will  make  them  heads  over 
you.”  The  meaning  is,  “Do  you  elect  the  pro¬ 
posed  officers,  and  I  will  commission  and  in¬ 
duct  them  into  office.”  It  is  very  observable 
that  these  magistrates  were  to  be  taken  “  out 
of  all  the  people,”  and  not  from  any  privileged 
class.  The  only  qualifications  for  office  re¬ 
quired  were  that  they  should  be  “  able  men, 
such  as  fear  God,  men  of  truth,  hating  unjust 
gain,”  “  wise  men,  and  understanding,  and 
known  among  their  tribes.”  The  possession  of 
these  high  attributes  was  enough  ;  no  other 
patent  of  nobility  was  required.  To  the  test  of 
official  competency  expressed  in  the  three  inter¬ 
rogatories,  “  Is  he  honest  ?  Is  he  capable  ?  Is 
he  faithful  ?’  ’  if  there  be  added  a  fourth, 
“  Does  he  fear  God?” — this  would  include  the 
Mosaic  test  to  a  tittle.  Moses  demanded  four 
qualifications  in  a  civil  ruler  — viz.,  ability,  in¬ 
tegrity,  fidelity,  and  piety.  When  Jephthah 
was  made  judge,  it  is  expressly  said,  “  The  peo¬ 
ple  made  him  head  and  captain  over  them.” 
These  instances,  and  others  which  might  be 
cited,  prove  that  the  great  principle,  that  rulers 
should  be  elected  by  the  ruled,  that  authority 
should  emanate  from  those  over  whom  it  is  to 
be  exercised,  was  fully  embodied  in  the  Hebrew 
constitution,  E  C.  W. 

Herein  was  a  wide  distinction  between  the 
civil  and  the  ecclesiastical  officers  in  the  Mosaic 
system,  which  is  another  evidence  of  the  clear 
discrimination  between  the  secular  and  spirit¬ 
ual  officers  under  the  Theocracy.  Here  Moses 
calls  upon  the  people  to  select  officers  to  rule 
and  judge  them.  But  the  appointment  of  the 
sanhedrim  of  seventy  elders  for  the  service  of 
religion,  on  one  occasion,  was  altogether  differ¬ 
ent,  as  we  find  in  Nu.  11  : 16.  When  Moses 
complained  despondingly  of  his  too  great  labor, 
“  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Gather  unto  me 
seventy  men  of  the  elders  of  Israel  whom  thou 
knowe4  io  he  elders  of  the  people  and  officers 
over  them,  and  bring  them  up  unto  the  taber¬ 
nacle  of  the  congregation,  that  they  may  stand 
there  with  thee  ;  and  I  will  come  down  and  talk 
with  thee  there,  and  I  will  take  of  the  spirit 
that  is  upon  thee  and  will  put  ib  upon  them, 
and  they  shall  bear  the  burden  of  the  people 
with  thee.”  This  was  after  the  departure  from 
Mount  Sinai,  and  after  the  appointment  of  the 
civil  magistrates.  This  council  of  seventy  were 
ecclesiastical  and  spiritual  officers,  who  after 
their  appointment  prophesied^  as  religious  teach- 
33 


ers  and  guides  of  the  people.  They  were,  there¬ 
fore,  altogether  distinct  from  the  civil  rulers. 
Thus  it  is  evident  that  even  in  the  Mosaic  sys¬ 
tem,  though  a  Theocracy,  the  civil  authority 
even  from  the  first  v'as  recognized  as  resting  on 
reason  and  natural  law,  while  the  whole  matter 
of  religious  order  and  worship  was  directly  re¬ 
vealed  from  God  to  Moses  for  the  Church  and 
delivered  through  the  elders.  The  Scottish 
fathers  were  right,  therefore,  in  asserting  that 
even  in  the  Hebrew  system  the  civil  and  eccle¬ 
siastical  powers  were  not  confounded.  And 
that,  according  to  the  Word  of  God,  they  dif¬ 
fered  in  their  origin,  nature,  and  end,  though 
both  powers  are  from  God  and  ordained  for  his 
glory.  S.  K.  {See  Sec.  167.) 

Classification  of  Bulebs,  ok  Captains. 

Ex.  18  :  21,  22.  De.  1  : 15. 

In  one  of  these  passages  (Ex.)  they  are  called 
rulers,  and  their  function  is  to  '‘judge  the  people 
at  all  seasons,  upon  every  small  matter.”  In  the 
other  passage  (De.)  they  are  characterized  as 
“  heads”  and  “  captains."  B. 

In  the  patriarchal  form  of  government  which 
was  maintained  by  the  Hebrews  during  their 
sojourn  in  Eg3qit,  every  father  exercised  a 
father’s  authority  over  his  own  household,  and 
every  tribe  obeyed  its  own  prince,  who  was 
originally  the  first-born  of  the  founder  of  the 
tribe,  but  subsequent!}'’  appears  to  have  been 
elected.  The  princes,  whose  duty  it  had  been 
originally  to  keep  genealogical  tables,  subse¬ 
quently  employed  scribes  (translated  “  officers") 
for  that  purpose,  who  in  progress  of  time  ac¬ 
quired  so  much  authority  as  to  be  permitted  to 
exercise  a  share  in  the  government.  Under  the 
Mosaic  economy  the  authority  of  these  heads 
and  princes  continued  the  same  as  before,  with 
the  addition  of  the  judges  of  tens,  of  fifties,  of 
hundreds,  and  of  thousands.  Difficult  cases 
went  up  from  the  inferior  to  the  superior 
judges  ;  and  the  very  difficult  causes  were  sub¬ 
mitted  to  Moses  himself  or  to  the  supreme  ruler 
of  the  commonwealth,  and  in  the  time  of  tho 
monarchy  to  the  king  himself  ;  and  sometimes 
a  further  appeal  was  made  to  the  high-priest. 
Wheeler. 

These  judges  seem  to  have  been  a  sort  of  jus¬ 
tice  of  the  peace  in  several  divisions,  probably 
taken  from  the  militar}'’  division  of  a  host.  This 
was  a  model  proper  for  them  as  an  array  march¬ 
ing,  and  not  unsuitable  to  their  settlement  as 
tribes  and  families,  in  a  sort  of  counties,  hun¬ 
dreds,  and  tithings.  Perhaps  our  [English]  old 
Saxon  constitution  of  sheriffs  in  counties,  hun- 


482 


SECTION  155.  CIVIL  LAWS. 


clredors  or  centgraves  in  hundreds,  and  deciners 
in  decennaries,  may  give  some  light  to  this  con¬ 
stitution  of  Moses.*  Some  of  our  legal  antiqua¬ 
ries  [among  them  Lord  Bacon]  have  thought  that 
those  constitutions  of  the  Saxons  were  taken 
from  these  laws  of  Moses,  introduced  by  Alfred 
or  by  his  direction.  After  the  establishment  of 
the  Hebrews  in  the  land  of  Canaan,  Moses  or¬ 
dained  that  judges  should  be  appointed  in  every 
city  (De.  IG  :  18),  and  it  would  seem  that  they 
were  chosen  by  the  people.  In  succeeding  ages 
these  judicial  offices  were  filled  by  the  Levites, 
as  the  persons  best  skilled  in  the  Law  of  the 

Hebrews.  Horne. - The  guiding  principle  in 

the  classification  was  at  first  both  tribal  and 
numerical — follow*ing  their  division  into  tribes 
and  their  numbers.  After  their  location  in 
Canaan  the  numerical  element  gave  place  to 
the  geographical.  Judges  had  their  province 
and  their  responsibility  limited,  not  by  thou¬ 
sands  and  hundreds  directly  but  by  cities  and 
localities.  With  this  modification  the  system 
2^assed  into  established  usage  among  the  He¬ 
brews,  H.  C. 

In  the  system  suggested  by  Jethro,  as  we  find 
it  afterward  developed  in  Israel,  the  basis  of 
the  commonwealth  is  the  family,  the  divinel}’’ 
constituted  government.  For  the  division  into 
thousands,  hundreds,  fifties,  and  tens  was,  as 
we  gather  from  the  subsequent  history,  not 
tens,  fifties,  etc.,  of  individuals,  but  of  families. 
The  ten  families  over  whom  one  magistrate  was 
chosen  might  embrace  from  two  to  five  hundred 
individuals  ;  and  the  fifty  families  compre¬ 
hended  within  the  limits  of  the  appellate  juris¬ 
diction  of  the  next  highest  magistrate  might 
embrace  from  one  thousand  to  two  thousand 
five  hundred  individuals,  and  so  on  upward. 
In  Josh.  7  : 14-18  the  command  to  search  for 
“  the  accursed  thing,”  in  the  case  of  Achan’s 
sin,  was  :  “  In  the  morning  ye  shall  be  brought 
according  to  your  tribes,  and  it  shall  come  to 
pass  the  tribe  which  the  Lord  taketh  shall  come 
according  to  the  families  thereof  ;  and  the 
family  which  the  Lord  shall  take  shall  come  by 
households,  and  the  household  which  the  Lord 
shall  take  shall  come  man  by  man.”  Out  of 
the  household  of  Zabdi,  when  examined  ”  man 
by  man,’'  Achan  was  taken  as  the  culprit  ;  yet 
we  find  that  Achan  had  his  own  tent,  and  sons 
and  daughters,  who  perished  with  him  in  the 
judgment.  All  of  which  illustrates  to  us  the 
arrangement  of  society  into  families  when  this 
system  of  magistrates  over  tens  and  hundreds 
was  adopted.  Now,  the  earlier  Anglo-Saxon 
civil  structure  was  singularly  coincident  with 
this.  Its  fundamental  idea  was  just  the  oppo¬ 


site  of  that  of  the  old  Roman  civilization  which 
moulded  the  modern  social  structures  of  the 
continent.  Under  the  Roman  civilization  the 
feeling  proper  to  family  relationship  had  been 
almost  suj^erseded  by  maxims  of  State.  Hence, 
when  the  State  became  utterly  corrupt,  nothing 
remained  but  that  society  should  fall  to  pieces. 
But  with  the  Saxon  race  the  bonds  of  family 
and  kindred  were  sacred  and  were  made  the 
basis  of  all  o'her  relations.  The  reverence  for 
w^oman,  the  sanctity  of  the  marriage  vow,  the 
vigor  with  which  men  of  the  same  blood  were 
bound  to  guard  the  interests  of  each  other,  were 
all  parts  of  a  system  in  which  the  family  was 
regarded  as  the  first  form  of  society,  and  in 
which  also  everything  beyond  was  viewed  as  an 
expansion  of  what  had  been  found  there.  The 
Saxon  institutions  familiar  to  us  under  the 
names  of  the  tithing  s,"  or  “tens”  and  the 
“  hundreds,”  were  the  natural  outgrowth  of  this 
family  feature  in  Teutonic  life.  The  tithings 
and  hundreds  were  not  divisions  of  territory, 
but  associations  of  tens  and  hundreds  of  fam¬ 
ilies.  Out  of  this  grew  the  county  court,  and 
the  whole  system  of  police  and  justice.  And 
out  of  this  came  also  the  mysterious  influence 
which  turned  warriors  and  marauders  into  men 
of  peace  so  soon  as  they  touched  the  soil  and 
breathed  the  air  of  Britain,  and  which  led  the 
man  of  plunder  to  put  his  hand  to  honest  in¬ 
dustry  ;  and  soon  the  culture  of  the  soil  was 
followed  by  the  construction  of  the  village,  the 
town,  the  city.  The  “tithings,”  the  “hun¬ 
dreds,”  then  the  shire  courts  wove  them  all  into 
the  great  social  network.  Every  man  entered 
into  security  for  the  good  conduct  of  men  about 
him.  Such  as  were  not  responsible  to  the  court 
of  the  hundred  were  resjDonsible  to  the  hall 
court  of  their  lord.  Each  locality  had  its  refuge 
against  injustice  in  the  right  of  appeal,  and  on 
the  other  hand  each  individual  had  his  protec¬ 
tion  against  imperial  misrule  in  the  courts  of 
his  own  locality.  For  neither  tithe  court,  hun¬ 
dred  court,  king’s  court,  nor  the  king  himself  was 
absolute.  Thus  what  began  in  the  system  of 
tithings  of  the  families  ascended  onward  and 
upward  to  the  great  council  or  parliament  rep¬ 
resenting  all  the  families  of  the  nation. 

From  the  same  principle  sprang  the  origin  of 
trial  by  jury.  The  finding  of  a  verdict  in  the 
Hundred  Court  and  in  all  other  courts  was  the 
province  alone  of  twelve  thanes  or  free-tenants, 
or  twice  that  number,  After  investigation  or 
compurgation,  if  the  court  was  still  perplexed, 
the  twelve  thanes,  chosen  equally  by  the  liti¬ 
gants,  retired  from  the  court  to  deliberate  on  a 
verdict.  Thus  that  great  institution,  the  bul- 


SECTION  156. 


483 


wark  of  individual  liberty,  had  its  origin  in  the 
very  roots  of  the  civilization,  grew  with  its 
growth  and  strengthened  with  its  strength. 
Here  is  the  secret  of  the  aversion  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  civilization  to  the  imperialism,  to  which 
the  continent  has  ever  tended.  By  reason  of 
this  fundamental  law  of  the  family  as  the  unit 
of  the  State,  when  the  uniting  influence  of 
Christianity  gradually  drew  together  the  several 
petty  States  into  a  consolidated  kingdom,  this 
left  still  unimpaired  the  constitutional  protec¬ 
tion  of  the  local  courts  and  lords  and  barons, 
who  jealously  watched  against  the  encroach¬ 
ments  of  consolidating  imperialism  till  the  con¬ 
stitutional  rights  which  they  represented  found 
a  permanent  asylum  in  the  great  charter  of  con¬ 
stitutional  liberty. 

In  the  history  of  Israel  we  find  that  these 
fundamental  guarantees  of  liberty  were  finally 
swept  away  by  the  imperial  tendencies  of  Solo¬ 
mon,  the  wisest  man  indeed,  but  really  the  worst 
king,  in  the  sense  of  working  ruin  to  the  liber¬ 
ties  of  his  country,  that  ever  sat  upon  the 
throne.  In  the  history  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  con¬ 
stitutions,  as  developed  under  both  monarchical 
and  republican  forms,  the  most  dangerous  ten¬ 
dency  seems  to  be  not  from  any  direct  tendency 
to  imperialism  so  much  as  from  a  departure 
from  the  fundamental  idea  of  the  family, 

Ex.  1§:24.  Mosc§  did  all  that  lie 
had  §aid.  This  settlement  was  made  not  by 
any  special  revelation  from  Jehovah,  nor  by  the 
inspired  Moses,  but  at  the  wise,  common-sense 
suggestion  of  Jethro,  which  Moses,  simply  as 
the  leader  of  Israel,  accepted  and  put  into  ex¬ 
ecution.  S.  B. - Moses  might  with  some  rea¬ 

son  have  claimed  a  monopoly  of  Divine  counsel- 
But  when  Jethro,  though  an  outsider  and  one 
who  had  only  good  common-sense  on  his  side, 
makes  his  suggestion,  Moses  does  not  scorn  to 


listen  to  his  advice  and  take  it,  too.  And  the 
event  showed  that  the  Lord  fully  approved  his 
servant’s  course.  J.  M.  G. 

I>C.  1:9-15.  In  this  parallel  passage  Moses 
recites  the  same  transaction,  omitting  all  allu¬ 
sion  to  his  father-in-law,  and  giving  prominence 
to  the  qualities  requisite  in  judges,  and  to  the 
principles  of  justice  and  righteousness  by  which 

they  were  to  be  governed.  H.  C. - He  recalls 

his  own  words  to  the  people,  spoken  after  he  had 
adopted  the  suggestion  of  Jethro.  Ye  are  so 
many,”  he  had  said  ;  “  how  can  I  myself  alone 
hear  your  cumhrance,  and  your  burden,  and  your 
strife?''  Yet  in  the  midst  of  his  recital  respect¬ 
ing  the  event  of  forty  years  before,  there  bursts 
from  his  heart  the  fervent  prayer,  ‘‘  TAe  Lokd 
make  you  a  thousand  times  more,  and  bless  you,  as 

he  hath  promised  !  ”  B. - How  abruptly  is  this 

prayer  interposed  in  his  own  after  account  of 
the  appointment  of  the  judges  !  How  true  to 
nature,  if  it  be  a  real  utterance  of  the  dying 
Lawgiver  !  And  how  clear  the  proof  that  it  is 
the  record  of  a  real  address  by  Moses  himself  to 
the  people  !  Birks. 

Ex.  1 8  : 27.  And  Mo§es  let  liis  fatlier- 

in-law  depart.  The  sacred  writer,  as  usual, 
brings  one  line  of  events  to  a  close  before  pass¬ 
ing  to  another.  So  far  as  the  form  of  the  nar¬ 
rative  goes,  we  are  at  liberty  to  suppose  that 
the  interview  with  Jethro  took  place  any  time 
during  the  encampment  at  Sinai.  M. 

Jethro  returned  to  his  home  and  people.  His 
son  Hobab,  brother-in-law  of  Moses,  appears  in 
the  history  somewhat  later  (Nu.  10  : 29-32),  and 
seems  to  have  consented  to  act  as  guide  to  Moses 
and  Israel  in  their  march  from  Sinai  to  Kadesh, 
and  not  improbably  until  they  reached  the  Jor¬ 
dan.  H.  C. - It  would  appear  that  Hobab 

came  with  Jethro  at  this  time  to  the  camp,  and 
remained.  B. 


Section  156. 

ADMINISTRATION  OF  JUSTICE  :  SUPREME  COURT.  CHARGES  TO  JUDGES.  WIT- 
NESSES.  PUNISHMENTS  ;  THEIR  DESIGN  AND  KINDS. 

Exodus  22  :  28  ;  23  : 1-3,  6-8.  Lev.  19  : 15.  De,  1  : 16-18  ;  16  : 18-20  ;  17  :  6-13  ;  19  : 15-20  ; 

24  : 16  ;  25  : 1-3. 

De.  16  18  Judges  and  officers  shalt  thou  make  thee  in  all  thj*  gates,  which  the  Lord  thy 
God  giveth  thee,  according  to  thy  tribes. 

Be.  17  8  If  there  arise  a  matter  too  hard  for  thee  in  judgement,  between  blood  and  blood, 
between  plea  and  plea,  and  between  stroke  and  stroke,  being  matters  of  controversy  within 
thy  gates  :  then  shalt  thou  arise,  and  get  thee  up  unto  the  place  which  the  Lord  thy  God  shall 
9  choose  ;  and  thou  shalt  come  unto  the  priests  the  Levites,  and  unto  the  judge  that  shall  be  in 
10  those  days  :  and  thou  shalt  inquire  ;  and  they  shall  shew  thee  the  sentence  of  judgement  :  and 


SECTION  156.  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JUSTICE, 


m 


thou  shalt  do  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  sentence,  which  they  shall  shew  thee  from  that 
place  which  the  Lord  shall  choose  ;  and  thou  shalt  observe  to  do  according  to  all  that  they 

11  shall  teach  thee  :  according  to  the  tenor  of  the  law  which  they  shall  teach  thee,  and  according 
to  the  judgement  which  they  shall  tell  thee,  thou  shalt  do  :  thou  shalt  not  turn  aside  from  the 

12  sentence  which  they  shall  shew  thee,  to  the  right  hand,  nor  to  the  left.  And  the  man  that 
doeth  presumptuously,  in  not  hearkening  unto  the  priest  that  standeth  to  minister  there 
before  the  Lord  thy  God,  or  unto  the  judge,  even  that  man  shall  die  :  and  thou  shalt  put 

13  away  the  evil  from  Israel.  And  all  the  people  shall  hear,  and  fear,  and  do  no  more  presump- 
tuouslJ^ 

Ex,  22  28.  Thou  shalt  not  revile  God,  nor  curse  a  ruler  of  thy  people. 

Ex.  23  6  Thou  shalt  not  wrest  the  judgement  of  thy  poor  in  his  cause.  Keep  thee  far  from 

7  a  false  matter  ;  and  the  innocent  and  righteous  slay  thou  not  :  for  I  wull  not  justify  the 

8  wicked.  And  thou  shalt  take  no  gift  :  for  a  gift  blindeth  them  that  have  sight,  and  perverteth 
the  words  of  the  righteous. 

De.  1  16  And  I  charged  your  judges  at  that  time,  saying.  Hear  the  causes  between  your 
brethren,  and  judge  righteously  between  a  man  and  his  brother,  and  the  stranger  that  is  with 

17  him.  Ye  shall  not  respect  persons  in  judgement  ;  ye  shall  hear  the  small  and  the  great  alike  ; 
ye  shall  not  be  afraid  of  the  face  of  man  ;  for  the  judgement  is  God’s  :  and  the  cause  that  is 

18  too  hard  for  you  ye  shall  bring  unto  me,  and  I  will  hear  it.  And  I  commanded  you  at  that 
time  all  the  things  which  ye  should  do. 

Lev.  19  15  Ye  shall  do  no  unrighteousness  in  judgement  :  thou  shalt  not  respect  the  person 
of  the  poor,  nor  honour  the  person  of  the  mighty  :  but  in  righteousness  shalt  thou  judge  thy 
neighbour. 


De,  16  18  They  shall  judge  the  people  with  righteous  judgement.  Thou  shalt  not  wrest 

19  judgement  ;  thou  shall  not  respect  persons  :  neither  shalt  thou  take  a  gift  ;  for  a  gift  doth 

20  blind  the  eyes  of  the  wise,  and  pervert  the  words  of  the  righteous.  That  which  is  altogether 
just  shalt  thou  follow,  that  thou  mayest  live,  and  inherit  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God 
giveth  thee. 

De.  1 7  6  At  the  mouth  of  two  witnesses,  or  three  witnesses,  shall  he  that  is  to  die  be  put 

7  to  death  ;  at  the  mouth  of  one  wintess  he  shall  not  be  put  to  death.  The  hand  of  the  wit¬ 
nesses  shall  be  first  upon  him  to  put  him  to  death,  and  afterward  the  hand  of  all  the  people. 
So  thou  shalt  put  away  the  evil  from  the  midst  of  thee. 

De.  19  15  One  witness  shall  not  rise  up  against  a  man  for  any  iniquity,  or  for  any  sin,  in 
any  sin  that  he  sinneth  :  at  the  mouth  of  two  witnesses,  or  at  the  mouth  of  three  witnesses, 
shall  a  matter  be  established. 

Ex.  23  1  Thou  shalt  not  take  up  a  false  report  :  put  not  thine  hand  with  the  wicked  to  be 

2  an  unrighteous  witness.  Thou  shalt  not  follow  a  multitude  to  do  evil  ;  neither  shalt  thou 

3  speak  [or,  bear  witness]  in  a  cause  to  turn  aside  after  a  multitude  to  wrest  judgement :  neither 
shalt  thou  favour  a  poor  man  in  his  cause. 

De.  19  16  If  an  unrighteous  witness  rise  up  against  any  man  to  testify  against  him  of  wrong 

17  doing  ;  then  both  the  men,  between  whom  the  controversy  is,  shall  stand  before  the  Lord, 

18  before  the  priests  and  the  judges  which  shall  be  in  those  days  ;  and  the  judges  shall  make 
diligent  inquisition  :  and,  behold,  if  the  witness  be  a  false  witness,'  and  hath  testified  falsely 

19  against  his  brother  ;  then  shall  ye  do  unto  him,  as  he  had  thought  to  do  unto  his  brother  ;  so 

20  shalt  thou  put  away  the  evil  from  the  midst  of  thee.  And  those  which  remain  shall  hear,  and 
fear,  and  shall  henceforth  commit  no  more  any  such  evil  in  the  midst  of  thee. 

De.  25  1  If  there  be  a  controversy  between  men,  and  they  come  unto  judgement,  and  the 

2  judges  judge  them  ;  then  they  shall  justify  the  righteous,  and  condemn  the  wicked  ;  and  it 
shall  be,  if  the  wicked  man  be  worthy  to  be  beaten,  that  the  judge  shall  cause  him  to  lie 

3  down,  and  to  be  beaten  before  his  face,  according  to  his  wickedness,  by  number.  Forty 
stripes  he  may  give  him,  he  shall  not  exceed  :  lest,  if  he  should  exceed,  and  beat  him  above 
these  with  many  stripes,  then  thy  brother  should  seem  vile  unto  thee. 

De.  24  16  The  fathers  shall  not  be  put  to  death  for  the  children,  neither  shall  the  children 
be  25ut  to  death  for  the  fathers  :  every  man  shall  be  put  to  death  for  his  own  sin. 


The  Civil  Code  of  the  Hebrews  did  much  to 
develo]3  kindness  and  humanity  among  the  peo¬ 
ple.  The  mere  rehearsal  of  its  main  provisions 


is  its  noblest  panegyric.  If  we  compare  its  de¬ 
tails  with  the  enactments  of  other  nations,  we 
see  how  much  the  world  has  owed  in  the  mat- 


THE  SUPREME  COURT, 


485 


ter  of  jurisprudence  to  the  Hebrew  Lawgiver  ; 
for  in  the  very  i)oints  in  which  the  best  modern 
legislation  has  outgrown  his  system,  it  has  done 
so  only  by  the  ampler  development  of  its  prin¬ 
ciples.  W.  M.  T. - From  the  enactments  of 

Moses  almost  all  legislation  has  been  drawn, 
both  as  to  jirinciple  and  as  to  form  ;  and  where 
any  departure  from  this  giand  outline  is  at¬ 
tempted,  the  change  has  been  i3erceptibly  for 
the  worse.  Em.  Mel. 

The  Hebrew  Code  and  its  system  of  jurispru¬ 
dence  were  benefited  by  the  Egyptian  in  the 
example  and  silent  influence  of  a  full  civil, 
written  code  of  law.  That  Egj'i^t  had  such  a 
code  admits  of  no  question.  The  Hebrew  patri¬ 
archs,  prior  to  the  sojourn  in  Egypt,  had  noth¬ 
ing  of  the  sort.  Their  life  in  Egypt  therefore 
gave  them  their  first  lessons,  their  first  ideas  of 
a  complete  code  of  written  law.  We  shall  be  in 
small  danger  of  over-estimating  the  value  of 
these  lessons  and  ideas  in  their  bearings  upon 
a  higher  civilization.  So,  also,  Egypt  gave  to 
the  Hebrew  mind  the  example  of  a  well-digested 
system  of  judicial  procedure,  established  courts 
and  forms  of  trial  ;  laws  put  in  force  by  the  aid 
of  judges,  witnesses,  and  the  systematic  execu¬ 
tion  of  penalties,  Eemarkably  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century  has  brought  to  light  documentary 
evidence  of  a  judicial  trial  in  Egj^pt  as  far  back 
as  the  age  of  Moses.  H.  C. 

Laws  and  not  men  are  the  rulers  in  every 
justly  constituted  State,  The  difference  is 
broad  and  impassable  between  a  government  of 
will  and  a  government  of  law.  Under  the  He¬ 
brew  constitution,  the  poor  and  the  weak  were 
not  to  be  the  victims  of  the  rich  and  the  strong. 
The  small  as  well  as  the  great  were  to  be  heard, 
and  equal  justice  awarded  to  all  without  fear  or 
favor.  That  terrible  and  ruinous  evil,  “  the 
law’s  delay,”  was  unknown  to  the  Hebrew  juris¬ 
prudence,  Courts  of  various  grades  were  estab¬ 
lished,  from  high  courts  of  appeal  down  to 
those  ordained  for  every  town.  “  Judges  and 
officers  shaft  thou  make  thee  in  all  thy  gates,” 
was  the  constitutional  provision  on  this  sub¬ 
ject.  To  what  a  minute  subdivision  the  judi¬ 
ciary  system  had  been  carried  in  the  wilderness 
appears  from  the  ordinance  which  required 
“  rulers  over  thousands,  rulers  over  hundreds, 
rulers  over  fifties,  and  rulers  over  tens  [of  fami¬ 
lies],  who  should  judge  the  people  at  all  seasons. 
(See  previous  section  )  Care  was  thus  taken 
that  in  suits  and  proceedings  at  law  every  man 
should  have  what  was  just  and  equal,  without 
going  far  to  seek  it,  without  waiting  long  to  ob¬ 
tain  it,  and  without  paying  an  exorbitant  price 
for  it.  With  a  judiciary  constituted  in  this 


manner  justice  could  be  administered  promptly, 
while  provision  was  made  against  the  evils  of 
hasty  decisions  in  the  right  of  appeal  to  higher 
!  courts  ;  in  important  cases  even  to  the  vener- 
!  able  council  of  seventy,  composed  of  the  wisest, 
the  gravest,  the  ablest,  the  most  upright,  and 
trustworthy  men  in  the  nation.  E.  C.  W. 

De.  Jaadijes  aaid  oWicers 

tSioii  iiialke  tSiee  i.a  si3l  tliy 
In  anticipation  of  their  settlement  in  Canaan 
and  dispersion  in  towns  and  villages  over  the 
whole  land,  Moses  here  enacts  that  judges  and 
officers  were  to  be  appointed  by  the  people  in 
all  their  gates,  in  all  their  places  of  residence 
which  the  Lord  should  give  them.  The  “  offi¬ 
cers'*  (.sholerim,  writers)  associated  with  the 
judges  both  in  the  earlier  arrangements  and  in 
that  which  was  to  succeed  were  secretaries  and 
clerks  of  court,  and  acted  also  as  assessors  and 
advisers  of  the  judges.  No  instruction  is  given 
as  to  the  number  of  judges  and  officers,  or  as  to 
the  mode  of  appointing  them  ;  nor  was  this 
necessary.  The  former  would  be  determined 
by  the  size  and  population  of  the  place  where 
they  were  appointed,  and  the  latter  would  fol¬ 
low  the  method  instituted  by  Moses  in  the 
earlier  arrangement. 

Tiiy  g'atcs.  Judicial  proceedings  were 
conducted  at  the  gates  of  the  city,  and  in  some 
place  outside  the  walls  the  sentence  was  exe¬ 
cuted  on  the  condemned  criminal  (Neh.  8  : 1,  3), 
just  as  during  the  journey  through  the  wilder¬ 
ness  it  had  been  outside  the  camp  that  trans¬ 
gressors  were  punished.  W,  L.  A. - The  seat 

of  justice — the  place  for  holding  court — was 

in  the  gates  of  the  city.”  Hence  this  being 
with  all  Orientals  the  place  of  public  resort,  the 

courts  were  public— open  to  all.  H,  C. - 

The  chamber  over  one  of  the  principal  gates  of 
each  city  was  in  ancient  times  the  council 
chamber,  where  the  judges  sat,  and  causes  were 
tried  ;  as  in  2  Sam.  18  : 33  ;  19  :  8  ;  Ps.  69  : 12). 
And  “  to  speak  with  the  enemy  in  the  gate”  is 
to  plead  against  an  adversary  in  court  (Ps. 
127  :  5).  So,  “  to  be  crushed  in  the  gate,”  and 
“  to  be  afflicted  in  the  gate,”  is  to  lose  the  cause 
and  to  be  condemned  in  court.  Pyle. 

The  Supreme  Court  {De.  17  :8-13). 

So  long  as  Moses  was  with  the  people,  they 
had  in  him  one  to  whom,  in  the  last  resort, 
cases  might  be  brought  for  decision  which  were 
found  too  difficult  for  the  ordinary  judges.  But 
as  he  was  not  to  be  always  with  them,  it  was 
needful  to  provide  a  Supreme  Court,  to  which 
such  cases  might  be  carried  when  they  could  no 
longer  be  decided  by  him  ;  and  such  a  court  is 


486 


SECTION  156.  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JUSTICE. 


here  appointed  to  be  held  at  the  sanctuary. 
W.  L.  A. - The  provision  for  a  Supreme  Judi¬ 

cature,  which  we  find  to  have  been  established 
by  the  constitution,  is  in  the  following  words 
(verses  8,  9)  ;  “  If  there  arise  a  matter  too  hard 
for  thee  in  judgment,  between  blood  and  blood, 
between  plea  and  plea,  and  between  stroke  and 
stroke,  being  matters  of  controversy  within  thy 
gates  {i.e.,  in  the  inferior,  local  courts),  then 
thou  shalt  arise,  and  get  thee  unto  the  place 
wdiich  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  choose  ;  and 
thou  shalt  come  unto  the  priests  the  Levites, 
and  unto  the  judge  that  shall  be  in  those  days, 
and  inquire  ;  and  they  shall  show  thee  the  sen¬ 
tence  of  judgment.”  “  The  priests  the  Levites 
and  the  judge”  here  evidently  mean  a  national 
council  or  court.  The  phrase  must  be  inter¬ 
preted  of  such  priests  and  Levites  only  as  had 
some  commission  to  give  judgment  in  the  place 
which  Jehovah  should  choose.  On  account  of 
their  learning  and  knowledge  of  the  law's  they 
would  naturally  be  esteemed  best  qualified  to  be 
chosen  to  interpret  them.  This  Supreme  J udica- 
ture,  composed  of  persons  of  the  greatest  abil¬ 
ity,  experience,  and  learning  in  the  laws,  was 
not  only  highly  important  and  useful  as  a  court 
of  appeal  in  adjudicating  difficult  cases,  and 
those  in  which  great  interests  were  at  stake  be 
tween  individuals,  but  it  was  indispensable  for 
the  decision  of  controversies  which  might  arise 
between  ditferent  tribes.  As  no  one  tribe  had 
any  authority  or  jurisdiction  over  any  other, 
such  controversies  could  be  decided  only  by 
some  common  judge.  The  tribes,  as  sovereign 
States,  W'ere  subject  to  no  lower  court  than  the 
supreme  judicial  council  of  the  w'hole  nation. 
What  concerned  one  tribe  was  by  no  means  to 
be  determined  by  the  judges  of  another.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  add  that  the  judgment  of 
this  court  w'as  final.  Hence  it  was  enacted 
(verses  10,  11)  :  “  Thou  shalt  do  according  to 
the  sentence,  which  they  of  that  place  which 
the  Lord  shall  choose  (the  supreme  court)  shall 
show  thee  ;  and  thou  shalt  observe  to  do  all  ac¬ 
cording  to  all  that  they  inform  thee  ;  according 
to  the  sentence  of  the  Law  which  they  shall 
teach  thee,  and  according  to  the  judgment  which 
they  shall  tell  thee,  thou  shalt  do  ;  thou  shalt 
not  decline  from  the  sentence  which  they  shall 
show  thee,  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left.” 
The  judicial  office  among  the  Hebrews  was  elec¬ 
tive,  (See  previous  section.)  Even  the  supreme 
judge  was  chosen  by  the  free  suffrages  of  the 
people.  The  historian  distinctlj'  informs  us 
that  “  the  people  made  Jephthah  head  and  cap¬ 
tain  over  them.”  Four  stages  may  be  noted  in 
the  proceedings  relating  to  Jephthah — the  pre¬ 


liminary  discussion,  the  nomination,  the  pres¬ 
entation  to  the  people,  and  the  installation. 

E.  C.  W. 

§.  ^ciwecai  bQood  and  I(>Bood,  be¬ 
tween  plea  and  plea,  and  between 

$itroke  Jiiid  stroke— i.e.,  in  cases  where 
blood  had  been  shed  and  death  had  ensued, 
either  accidentally  or  from  marderous  intent  ; 
in  cases  of  disputed  rights  an  1  claims  ;  and  in 
cases  where  corporeal  injury  had  been  suffered, 
whether  in  strife  or  from  assault  ;  and,  in  gen- 
er.d,  wherever  matters  of  controversy  — disputes 
as  to  what  was  lawful  and  right,  .might  arise  in 
their  towns  and  villages.  In  all  such  cases  re¬ 
course  was  to  be  had  to  the  court  at  the  sanc- 
tuarv.  W.  L.  A. 

4/ 

Ex.  22  :  28,  He  commands  that  they  should 
think  and  speak  reverently  of  judges  and  others 
who  exercise  the  office  of  magistrate  ;  in  the 
ordinary  idiom  of  the  Hebrew  language  he  re¬ 
peats  the  same  thing  twice  over— the  same  per¬ 
sons  are  called  '‘gods”  and  “rulers  of  the 
people.”  The  name  of  God  is,  figuratively  in¬ 
deed  but  most  reasonably,  applied  to  magis¬ 
trates,  upon  whom  as  the  ministers  of  his  au¬ 
thority  he  has  inscribed  a  mark  of  his  glory. 
For  as  honor  is  due  to  fathers  because  God  has 
associated  them  with  himself  in  the  possession* 
of  the  name,  so  also  here  his  own  dignity  is 
claimed  for  judges  in  order  that  the  people  may 
reverence  them,  because  they  are  God’s  repre¬ 
sentatives.  And  so  Christ,  the  surest  expositor, 
explains  it  (John  10  : 34)  when  he  quotes  the 
passage  from  Ps.  82  :  6.  Galv. 

Judges  Solemnly  Charged. 

Ex.  23  : 1-3,  6-8.  Lev.  19  : 15.  De.  1  : 16-18  ; 

16  : 18-20, 

In  the  previous  section  (Ex.  18  ;  21)  the  quali¬ 
fications  of  those  who  should  be  appointed  as 
judges  are  expressly  stated.  In  these  passages 
definite  charges  are  given  to  secure  righteous 
and  impartial  judgments,  B. 

Ex.  23  ;  6,  Judges  were  required  to  do  jus¬ 
tice  to  the  poor.  It  was  the  part  of  the  judge 
to  defend  the  poor  against  the  oppression  of 

the  rich.  Clark. - 7.  The  righteous  God 

will  not  leave  such  wickedness  to  go  unpunished, 
“  I  will  not  justify  the  wicked  ”  —that  is,  “I  will 
condemn  him  that  unjustly  condemns  others,” 
Judges  themselves  are  accountable  to  the  great 
Judge.  8,  They  must  not  take  bribes.  They 
must  not  only  not  be  swayed  by  a  gift  to  give 
an  unjust  judgment,  either  to  condemn  the  in¬ 
nocent,  or  acquit  the  guilty,  or  adjudge  a  man’s 
right  from  him  ;  but  they  must  not  so  much  as 
take  a  gift,  lest  it  should  have  a  bad  influence 


JUDGES  CHARGED.  OF  WITNESSES. 


487 


upon  them,  and  overrule  them,  contrary  to  their 
intentions,  for  it  has  a  strange  tendency  to 
blind  those  that  otherwise  would  do  well.  H. 

De.  1:17,  Ye  shall  not  respect  persons  in 
judgment,  hut  ye  shall  hear  the  small  as  well  as  the 
great ;  ye  shall  not  he  afraid  of  the  face  of  man  ; 
for  the  judgment  is  God's.  Lev,  19  :  15. 
Thou  shalt  not  respect  the  person  of  the  poor,  nor 
honor  the  person  of  the  mighty.  In  matters  of 
right,  right  was  alwa3"s  to  be  done,  without  re¬ 
gard  to  rank,  character,  or  condition.  There 
was  more  danger  that  the  cause  of  justice  would 
be  biassed  in  favor  of  the  rich  than  of  the 
poor,  3’et  there  might  be  such  a  thing  as,  under 
the  pretence  of  charity  or  compassion,  making 
a  man’s  poverty  a  shelter  for  his  wrong-doing. 
This  was  not  to  be  allowed.  But  on  the  other 
hand,  the  just  rights  of  the  poor  against  influ¬ 
ences  of  an  opposite  character  are  guarded  by  a 
special  precept.  Bush. 

De.  1«  :  20.  “  That  which  is  aliogetJwr  just 
shaft  thou  follow.”  Adhere  to  the  principles  of 
justice,  act  by  the  rules  of  justice,  countenance 
the  demands  of  justice,  imitate  the  patterns  of 
justice,  and  pursue  with  resolution  that  which 
appears  to  be  just.  “  Justice,  justice  shalt  thou 
follow.”  This  is  that  which  the  magistrate  is  to 
have  in  his  eye,  on  this  he  must  be  intent,  and 
to  this  all  personal  regards  must  be  sacrificed,  to 
do  right  to  all,  and  wrong  to  none.  H. 

“Take  heed,’’  says  Jehoshaphat,  “what  ye 
do  ;  for  ye  judge  not  for  man,  but  for  the  Lord, 
who  is  with  30U  in  the  judgment.  Wherefore 
now  let  the  fear  of  the  Lord  be  upon  you  :  take 
heed  and  do  it  :  for  there  is  no  iniquity  with 
the  Lord  our  God.”  “  God  standeth  in  the 
congregation  of  the  mighty,”  sa^'s  the  psalm¬ 
ist;  “  he  judgeth  among  the  gods  [magistrates]. 
How  long  will  ye  judge  unjustly,  and  accept  the 
persons  of  the  wicked  ?”  The  motives  here 
urged  upon  magistrates  to  the  exercise  of  j)ru- 
dence,  moderation,  justice,  clemency,  and  dili¬ 
gence  in  their  public  relations  are,  that  their 
seat  is  the  throne  of  God  ;  that  their  decisions 
are  the  utterances  of  the  divinity  ;  that  their 
decrees  are  the  edicts  of  heaven  ;  that,  in  short, 
they  are  ministers  of  the  Divine  equity  and 
goodness,  and,  “  if  they  fail  in  their  duty,  they 
not  only  injure  men  by  criminally  distressing 
them,  but  they  offend  God  by  polluting  his 
sacred  judgments.”  E.  C.  W. 

Justice  honestly  administered  secures  na- 
tional  prosperit5^  It  is  the  lesson  of  universal 
historj’  that  official  injustice  loosens  all  the 
bonds  of  society,  and  brings  a  nation  into  ruin. 
Men  will  patiently  tolerate  many  abuses  of 
power,  but  the  public  abuse  of  justice  quickly 


brings  deadly  retribution.  On  the  other  hand, 
an  honest  and  prompt  administration  of  right¬ 
eous  law  is  the  seed  of  order,  content,  and 
mutual  confidence.  It  gives  a  sense  of  secu¬ 
rity  ;  it  fosters  patriotism  ;  it  develops  courage  ; 
it  brings  the  smile  and  benediction  of  God. 

D.  D. 

Of  Witnesses. 

Ex.  23  : 1-3.  De.  17  :  6,  7  ;  19  : 15-21. 

To  secure  against  injury  to  life  or  property 
through  inadequate  or  false  attestation,  it  is 
enacted  that  more  than  one  witness  must  ap¬ 
pear  before  anything  can  be  established  ;  and 
that  should  a  witness  be  found  on  trial  to  have 
testified  falsely  against  his  neighbor,  he  was  to 
be  punished  by  having  done  to  him  what  he 
thought  to  have  done  to  his  neighbor  (cf.  Nu. 

35  :  30).  W.  L.  A. - The  right  of  the  criminal  to 

a  fair  and  full  trial  is  strenuously  asserted  in  the 
Law  of  Moses.  He  must  be  formally  impeached, 
tried  before  judges,  and  legally  convicted  under 
stringent  conditions  of  proof.  The  evidence  of 
one  witness,  however  apparentlj^  conclusive, 
was  not  to  be  accepted  as  sufficient.  A  second 
must  confirm  it.  The  principle  is  a  plain  dic¬ 
tate  of  justice.  Orr. - Human  life  is  precious, 

but  the  interests  of  righteousness  are  more 

9> 

precious  still.  On  both  these  grounds  the  scru¬ 
tiny  must  be  thorough.  To  prevent  any  injurj" 
to  the  sacred  cause  of  justice,  through  error,  in¬ 
competence,  or  malice,  one  witness  must  be  in¬ 
competent  to  obtain  a  verdict.  Security  against 
injustice  comes  from  corroborated  testimon^^ 
and  from  independent  witnesses,  D.  D. 

Witnesses  testified  under  oath — the  manner  of 
administration  being  this  :  The  witness  listened 
to  the  rehearsal  of  the  words,  and  gave  his  oral 
assent,  “  Amen,”  or,  “  As  thou  sayest.’’  The  * 
passage  (Lev.  5  : 1)  describes  the  case  of  one 
who  sins  in  this  way,  hearing  the  voice— i.e., 
the  words  of  the  sacred  oath,  adjuring  him  to 
testify  whether  he  has  seen  or  known  anything 
in  this  case.  Then  if  he  will  not  make  known, 

“  he  shall  bear  his  iniquity.” 

There  are  stringent  statutes  against  false  ac¬ 
cusation  and  false  witness.  Under  this  general 
head  fall  two  distinct  cases  ;  Testimony  given 
to  favor  the  guilty  (Ex.  23  :  1-3),  and  allega¬ 
tions  designed  to  condemn  the  innocent  (De. 
19  : 16-21).  (1)  The  former  class  (as  given  Ex. 

23  : 1-3)  forbids  not  merely  originating,  but 
taking  up  a  false  report  and  seconding  it  by  en¬ 
dorsement.  It  warns  men  not  to  be  drawn  in 
to  help  the  wicked  in  their  malicious  plots  to 
screen  each  other,  though  they  be  many.  The 
cause  of  the  poor  man  which  you  may  not  favor 


488 


SECTION  156.  ADMINISTRATION  OF  JUSTICE. 


is  certainly  supposed  to  be  a  bad  one.  Your 
sympathy  for  him  as  poor  must  not  override 
justice  and  truth.  (2)  False  witness,  purposed 
to  condemn  the  innocent,  is  met  by  the  statute 
(De.  19  : 16-21).  The  accuser  and  the  accused 
are  to  be  brought  face  to  face  before  the  Lord 
and  before  the  priests  and  the  judges  who  are 
to  “  make  diligent  inquisition,”  obviously  hear 
ing  both  parties,  and  if  the  accuser  is  proved  to 
be  a  false  vvitness,  “  Y’e  shall  do  to  him  as  he 
thought  to  do  to  his  brother  ;  thine  eye  shall 
not  pity,  but  life  shall  go  for  life  ;  eye  for  eye,’’ 
etc.  H.  C. 

The  Law  of  Moses  condemns  the  crime  of 
“false  witness,”  indicts  upon  it  a  suitable  pun¬ 
ishment— namely,  retaliation.  He  who  would 
thus  deprive  another  of  his  liberty,  his  prop¬ 
erty,  or  his  life  was  to  suffer  the  same  evil 
which  he  would  unjustly  bring  upon  his  neigh¬ 
bor.  This  was  a  law  of  the  Egyptians  and  of 
other  nations  ;  it  is  so  reasonable  that  it  may  be 
accounted  a  law  of  nature,  and  the  voice  of  hu¬ 
manity  and  of  common-sense.  Joriin. - Such 

is  the  rule  of  the  Mosaical  Law  ;  because  by 
means  of  false  witness  the  good  name,  the  prop¬ 
erty,  the  livelihood,  the  life  of  an  iunocent  per¬ 
son,  may  be  taken  away  :  the  advantages  of 

society  defeated,  nay,  perverted  into  mischiefs  ; 

« 

and  the  very  bonds  of  it  dissolved.  Seeker. - 

Bearing  false  wutness  against  a  man  in  a  matter 
that  touches  his  life  has  in  it  all  the  guilt  of 
lying,  perjury,  malice,  theft,  murder,  with  the 
additional  stains  of  coloring  all  with  a  pretence 
of  justice,  and  involving  many  others  in  the 
same  guilt.  There  is  scarcely  any  one  act  of 
wickedness  that  a  man  can  possibly  be  guilty  of 
which  has  in  it  a  greater  complication  of  vil 

lanies  than  this.  H. - The  rules  here  apply 

primarily  to  false  witness  given  in  courts  of 
justice,  but  the  principles  involved  may  be  ex 

tended  to  all  forms  of  the  sin.  Orr. - Were 

there  no  publishers  of  slander  and  calumny, 
there  would  be  no  receivers;  and  were  there 
none  to  receive  them  there  would  be  none  to 
reiise  them  ;  and  w^ere  there  no  raisers,  receivers, 
nor  propatjators  of  calumnies,  society  would  be 
in  peace.  A.  C. 

Punishments. 

De.  19  :  20  ;  25  : 1-3. 

No  punishment  could  be  awarded  without 
previous  judicial  investigation,  and  a  conviction 
arrived  at  only  on  sufficient  evidence.  And  the 
punishment  due  to  any  particular  offence  was 
prescribed  in  the  Law,  and  was  not  left  to  the 
arbitrary  determination  of  the  judge.  Thus, 
every  precaution  was  constitutionally  taken 


not  only  to  maintain  established  order,  but  to 
insure  a  consistent  and  equitable  administra¬ 
tion  of  justice.  This  w^as  a  most  potent  prin 
ciple  in  securing  respect  for  the  Law,  and  so 
promotive  of  its  objects.  D.  M. 

Design  of  Punishment. 

I>c.  ID  :  ‘2D.  And  those  which  re¬ 
main  shall  hear,  siiid  fear,  ;ind  e<»iii- 
mit  no  more  any  such  evil.  The  design 
of  punishment  is  put  in  the  plainest  terms.  In 
its  severer  forms  it  is  not  the  discii^liue  of  the 
criminal  but  the  good  of  the  public  — to  deter 
the  evil-minded  from  crime  and  so  to  make 
society  safe  from  outrage.  In  the  case  of  pre¬ 
sumptuous  sins  we  read — “  That  man  shall  die, 
and  thou  shalt  put  away  the  evil  from  Israel, 
and  all  the  people  shall  hear  and  fear  and  do 
no  more  presumptuously  ”  (De.  17  : 12,  13). 

H.  C. - Moses  was  quite  unacquainted  with  a 

modern  refinement  of  wisdom,  which  represents 
the  reformation  of  the  criminal  as  the  only 
legitimate  end  of  punishment.  Its  great  design 
he  represents  to  be  the  protection  of  society 
and  the  vindication  of  law  and  justice.  E.  C.  W. 

Kinds  of  Punishment. 

The  principal  punishments,  known  to  the 
Mosaic  Code,  were  the  sword,  stoning,  stripes, 
compensations,  restitutions,  reparation  of 
losses,  and  fines.  Our  inspired  jurist  appointed 
no  ignominious  punishments  for  the  living. 
Blows  were  not  regarded  in  that  light  by  the 
Asiatics  ;  and  burning,  hanging,  and  burying 
beneath  a  pile  of  stones,  which  were  of  this  na¬ 
ture,  were,  it  is  probable,  according  to  the  laws 
of  Moses,  inflicted  after  death,  and  are,  there¬ 
fore,  to  be  looked  upon  as  a  posthumous  dis¬ 
grace.  The  Penal  Code  of  Moses  was  not  stained 
with  any  of  those  torturous  and  lingering  pun¬ 
ishments  which  have  disgraced  the  jurispru¬ 
dence  of  so  many  polished  nations  since  his 
day.  E.  C.  W. 

I>e.  :  1  -3.  Stripes  were  made  the  penal uy 
of  certain  specified  crimes  (Lev  19  :  20  and  D.i. 
22  : 18).  The  Law  was  careful  to  limit  the  num¬ 
ber  of  stripes  to  forty,  giving  as  the  reason  — 
“  Lest  if  thou  shouldest  exceed  this  number 
then  thy  brother  should  seem  vile  unto  thee” 
— i.e.,  not  merely  lest  the  man  might  lose  his 
s'^lf  respect,  but  lest  he  lose  the  respect  of  the 
community,  and  be  hopelessly  degraded.  In 
usage  the  Hebrews  limited  the  number  to  thirty- 
nine — said  to  have  been  administered  bj^  thir¬ 
teen  strokes  of  a  triple  cord.  H.  C. - The 

ground  upon  which  this  law  is  rested  is  even 
more  remarkable  than  the  law  itself.  It  is  not 


PUNISHMENTS. 


489 


to  a  simple  motive  of  compassion  that  the  legis- 
Jaior  makes  appeal  ;  it  is  respect  for  the  dignity 
of  human  nature.  To  inflict  upon  a  man  pun- 
islmient  of  an  excessive  and  degrading  nature 
is  to  outrage  humanity  itself.  This  character 
of  the  legislation  has  perhaps  not  been  suffi¬ 
ciently  noticed.  Strict  as  it  is,  it  provides  for 
respect  to  the  dignity  of  man  ;  it  punishes  the 
criminal,  it  never  degrades  him.  Bovet. 

Other  minor  and  special  penalties,  and  the 
crowning  one  of  all,  the  death  penalty,  will  be 
treated  of  in  the  section  following  this,  in  direct 
connection  with  various  injuries  and  crimes. 
But  we  desire  to  emphasize  here  a  great  prin¬ 
ciple  bearing  upon  all  punishment,  though  in 
terms  referring  to  the  death  penalt3^  It  is 
found  in  I>e,  24  :  16,  Every  man  shall 
he  put  to  death  for  his  OAvn  sin.  {Read 

the  whole  verse.)  B. - How  much  and  how 

justly  do  we  appreciate  the  principle  of  our 
constitutional  law  that  no  criminal  attainder 
shall  work  corruption  of  blood  !  Yet  this  prin¬ 
ciple  Moses  here  incorporated  into  his  code,  in 
the  face  of  prejudice,  common  opinion,  im 
memorial-  usage,  and  the  sentiment  of  inexor 
able  and  insatiate  revenge.  Undeniably,  it  is  a 
specimen  of  legislative  policy  which  takes  its 
author  out  of  the  crowd  of  ancient  legislators 
and  places  him  on  an  eminence  far  above  them 
all.  E.  C.  \V. 


As  between  man  and  man,  justice  consists  in 
conceding  and  rendering  to  every  one  all  his 
rights.  He  who  has  all  his  rights  has  no  injus¬ 
tice  done  him  Divine  justice  consists  not  only 
in  this,  but  also  in  rendering  to  every  one  his 
deserts.  These  two  forms  of  justice  are  en¬ 
tirely  distinct.  Desert  of  punishment  depends 
upon  guilt  ;  but  with  guilt  as  such  and  in  dis¬ 
tinction  from  injury  to  the  individual  and  to 
societ}^  man  cannot  deal.  That  depends  upon 
the  heart,  which  he  cannot  know  and  can  have 
no  claim  to  regulate.  Man  looks  on  the  act  and 
infers  the  motive.  He  may  not  punish  except 
on  the  presumption  of  a  bad  motive,  but  his 
punishment  must  be  graduated,  not  by  the  pre¬ 


sumed  badness  of  the  motive,  but  by  the  ten¬ 
dency  of  the  act  to  injure  society.  God,  on  the 
other  hand,  looks  at  the  motive  and  disregards 
the  act.  He  sees  and  punishes  guilt  in  inttn- 
tion  where  there  is  no  outward  act.  Hence 
“  vengeance  belongs  to  him.”  He  only  can  ad 
minister  punitive  justice.  Man  may  guard 
rights  ;  he  may  prevent  any  violation  of  them 
in  the  name  of  justice  and  within  its  limits. 
And  the  sentiment  of  justice  within  him  may 
find  satisfaction  in  such  punishment,  but  the 
measure  of  punishment  by  him  must  be  found 
in  its  necessity  to  guard  the  rights  of  societ}^ 
and  not  in  any  satisfaction  of  absolute  punitive 
justice.  Any  other  right  can  be  had  only  from 
direct  revelation. 

Punishment  presupposes  a  law  administered 
by  a  personal  lawgiver  having  rights.  It  pre¬ 
supposes  a  righteous '  penalty  annexed  to  the 
law,  and  that  the  law  has  been  violated.  These 
conditions  being  given,  punishment  is  the  in¬ 
fliction  of  a  previously  declared  penalty  by  the 
will  of  the  lawgiver  for  the  sake  of  sustaining 
the  authority  of  the  law.  That  authority  can 
bo  sustained  in  no  other  way.  Nothing  but  a 
penalty  proclaimed,  and,  if  need  be,  inflicted, 
can  make  known  and  measure  the  regard  of  the 
lawgiver  for  the  law.  Hence,  as  entering  into 
the  very  conception  of  government,  punishment 
is  justified  It  can  never  be  wanton,  or  capri¬ 
cious,  or  revengeful,  for  evil  thus  inflicted  would 
cease  to  be  punishment,  but  the  extent  of  it 
must  be  measured  by  its  necessity  for  the  at¬ 
tainment  of  the  ends  of  government,  and  what 
that  extent  should  be  only  a  righteous  and  com¬ 
petent  lawgiver  can  judge.  Obviously,  as  pro¬ 
claimed  beforehand,  the  penalty  miist  express, 
and  that  only  can,  the  estimate  by  the  law¬ 
giver  of  his  own  rights,  and  of  the  rights  of 
others  that  are  in  question,  and  also  his  benev¬ 
olent  desire  to  present  the  highest  moral  motives 
the  case  will  allow  to  prevent  the  infraction  of  . 
law.  And  then,  whatever  it  is  right  to  affix  as 
a  penalty  beforehand  it  must  be  not  only  right, 
but  necessary  to  inflict  as  punishment,  else,  un¬ 
less  some  adequate  reason  can  be  given,  all 
government  must  be  abandoned.  M.  H. 


490 


SECTION  157.  CRIMES,  INJURIES,  AND  PENALTIES. 


Section  157. 

CRIMES,  INJURIES,  AND  PENALTIES  :  THEFT  AND  BURGLARY  ;  DAMAGE  OR 
LOSS  ;  INJURIES  TO  PERSONS  AND  TO  CATTLE.  THE  LAW  OF  RETALIATION. 
DEATH  PENALTY  FOR  SPECIAL  CRIMES  (OTHER  THAN  MURDER).  STONING 
OF  SABBATH-BREAKER.  THE  BLASPHEMING  SON  OF  SHELOxMITH.  MODES  OF 
INFLICTING  DEATH. 


Exodus  21  :  15-36  ;  22  :  1-15.  Lev.  20  :  9  ;  24  :  10-21.  23.  Nu.  15  :  32-36.  De.  19  :  21  ;  21  ;  18-23. 
Note.  —  The  text  discriminated,  indicated,  and  explained  in  the  comment. 


The  spirit  which  breathes  in  the  Civil  Code  of 
the  Jews  is  the  spirit  of  the  moral  law  ;  and 
those  enactments  impress  our  minds  with  a  deep 
sense  of  their  equity  and  humanity.  The  Jew¬ 
ish  Code  forbade  idolatr}",  witchcraft,  and  the 
profanation  of  the  name  of  God.  It  forbade 
disrespectful  conduct  to  parents,  rulers,  and  the 
aged.  It  forbade  all  polluting  and  perverse 
conduct.  Surely  we  see  here  how  sound  policy 
unites  and  incorporates  in  one  friendly  system 
all  that  is  sacred  in  religion,  just  in  social  reg¬ 
ulations,  and  pure  in  morals.  There  is  a  Di 
vine  voice  addressing  us  in  these  laws  :  “  Do 
justly,  love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God.'’  Jos  Jones. 

These  different  regulations  are  as  remarkable 
for  their  justice  and  prudence  as  for  their  hu 
manity.  Their  great  tendency  is  to  show  the 
valuableness  of  human  life  and  the  necessity  of 
having  peace  and  good  understanding  in  every 
neighborhood  ;  and  they  possess  that  quality 
which  should  be  the  object  of  all  good  and 
wholesome  laws,  the  prevention  of  crimes.  A.  C. 

Is  it  possible  to  suppose  that  a  man  who  was 
forty  years  in  the  desert  and  forty  years  a  sub¬ 
ordinate  in  Pharaoh’s  court  should  have  been 
able  to  invent  laws  so  just,  reasonable,  and  fair, 
in  comparison  of  which  those  of  Solon  are  ex¬ 
tremely  imperfect  and  poor  ?  Is  it  possible  to 
account  for  all  this  in  any  other  way  than  that 
God  inspired  Moses  so  to  teach  ?  J.  C. 

Theft  and  Burglary  —Penalties. 

Ex.  22  : 1-4. 

The  right  and  the  advantage  of  private  prop¬ 
erty  are  everywhere  assumed  by  Moses.  To 
facilitate  its  increase,  to  regulate  its  use,  and  to 
provide  for  its  distribution  are  leading  objects 
of  his  Law.  A  political  community  could  not 
be  organized  except  upon  a  basis  of  individual 
property  and  right.  This  is  the  only  bond 
strong  enough  to  hold  such  an  association  to¬ 
gether.  The  ownership  by  each  member  of  the 
body  politic  of  his  tools,  arms,  clothing,  and 
habitation,  is  essential  to  the  rudest  form  of 
civil  society.  None  would  be  willing  to  till  the 


ground,  if  others  had  an  equal  right  with  him 
to  gather  the  harvest.  If  the  idle  and  the  in¬ 
dustrious,  those  who  waste  and  those  who  save, 
have  the  same  rights,  and  are  to  share  alike  in 
the  fruits  of  the  earth  and  the  products  of 
labor,  then  prudence,  frugalitj^  thrift,  and  pro¬ 
vision  for  the  future  become  simple  impossibil¬ 
ities.  All  this  is  recognized  in  the  legislation 
of  Moses.  That  legislation  has  no  S3'mpathy 
with  a  social  theory  which  places  activity,  in¬ 
dustry,  ability,  and  virtue  upon  the  same  level 
with  indolence,  idleness,  incapacity,  and  vice, 
E.  C.  W 

The  protection  of  person  and  property  from 
the  force  of  the  violent  and  from  the  frauds  of 
the  dishonest  is  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  all 
criminal  law  ;  and  this  object  is  compassed,  or 
at  least  aimed  at,  by  means  of  punishments  or 
penalties  annexed  to  crime.  The  most  obvious, 
appropriate,  and  efficacious  punishment  for 
stealing  is,  that  the  thief  should  be  compelled 
to  restore  many  times  the  value  of  that  which 
he  had  stolen  ,  and  in  this  we  find  the  principle 
of  the  ensuing  statutes  concerning  theft.  Bush. 

Ex.  22  ;  1.  The  staple  penalty  for  theft  was 
restitution,  yet  varying  widely  in  amount  to 
meet  the  peculiarities  of  the  case.  In  pastoral 
life  cattle  were  specially  exposed  ;  therefore  the 
Law  ordained  that  if  the  thief  had  killed  the  ani¬ 
mal  or  sold  it,  he  must  restore— of  oxen  five  for 
one  ;  of  sheep,  four.  But  if  the  animal  was 
found  alive  in  his  hand,  the  restitution  was 
only  double — two  for  one.  The  indolent  or  un¬ 
principled  man  who  thought  to  live  upon  his 
neighbor's  toil  would  find  stealing  very  un¬ 
profitable.  The  Law  had  the  more  grip  in  those 
times  because  if  a  man  tried  to  put  his  prop¬ 
erty  out  of  his  hands  to  evade  the  demand  for 
restitution,  or  were  in  fact  too  poor  to  restore 
four  or  five  fold,  there  was  always  the  last  re¬ 
sort— the  Law  could  take  him  for  a  slave  (“  ser¬ 
vant”)  and  make  him  work  it  out.  This  was 
one  of  the  incidental  benefits  of  a  hard  system  : 
it  could  be  applied  so  as  to  make  the  penalties 
for  theft  effectually  stringent.  The  Law  pun¬ 
ished  trespass  upon  another’s  property  and 


INJURIES  TO  PERSONS. 


491 


want  of  care  for  its  due  protection— on  which 
points  subsequent  statutes  reaffirm  and  expand 
what  we  first  find  in  Ex.  22.  H.  C. 

The  different  proportions  in  which  reparation 
is  to  be  made  for  an  ox  or  a  sheep  (or  gout,  the 
Hebrew  word  being  one  for  smaller  cattle  gen¬ 
erally)  are  due  apparently  to  the  fact  that  the 
ox,  as  the  companion  of  man’s  labor  at  the 
plough,  has  a  value  in  the  eyes  of  its  master  far 
exceeding  that  of  a  sheep,  and  the  loss  of  one 
might  stop  his  tillage  altogether.  The  law  of 
fourfold  restoration  for  a  sheep  is  cited  by 
David  in  reply  to  Nathan’s  famous  parable  (2 
Sam.  12  :  6),  and  alluded  to  as  a  general  rule  by 
Zacchieus.  Alf. 

What  we  call  money  was  not  then  in  exist¬ 
ence  ;  an  ox  was  given  for  an  ox,  or  a  sheep  for 
a  sheep  ;  or  if  a  man  wished  to  buy  a  robe  or  a 
wardrobe,  he  gave  so  many  sheep  or  oxen  for 
it.  And  this  usage  of  cattle  as  money  is  the 
origin  of  our  word  “  pecuniary.”  The  Latin 
word  pecunia,  “money,”  is  derived  from  the 
Latin  word  pecus,  “  cattle.’  ’  The  first  coins 
had  struck  upon  them  oxen  or  sheep,  indicating 
that  cattle  was  the  substantial  property  ;  and 
that  gold,  silver,  or  copper  coins  were  but  the 
conventional  representations  of  that  property. 
J.  C. 

3.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  laws  of  most 
nations  have  punished  more  severely  an  attack 
by  night  than  by  day.  The  Jewish  law  made  it 
justifiable  to  kill  a  house-breaker  only  in  the 
case  of  a  nocturnal  attempt  ;  the  Athenian  and 
Homan  laws  enacted  the  same  ;  and  by  the 
English  law,  if  a  person  attempts  to  break  open 
a  house  in  the  night  time  and  is  killed  in  the 
attempt,  the  slayer  is  acquitted  ;  not  so  in  the 
day-time,  unless  the  act  carries  with  it  an  at¬ 
tempt  at  robbery  also.  Blackstone. - It  was 

no  crime  before  the  Law  to  kill  a  thief  breaking 
into  a  h»use  by  night.  After  sunrise  it  be¬ 
came  a  crime  of  blood  to  take  his  life— it  being 
assumed  that  he  might  be  caught  and  compelled 
to  make  restitution,  and  that  the  peril  to  your 
own  life  and  that  of  your  family  is  materially 
lessened.  The  Law  carefully  guarded  the  de¬ 
fenceless  hours  of  sleep  by  night.  If  a  thief  in 
defiance  of  this  law  played  the  burglar  by  night, 
he  must  run  his  own  risk  of  death.  H.  C. 

Damage  or  Loss — Penalties. 

Ex.  22  : 5-15. 

Ex.  22  :  5.  From  loose  beasts.  This  was  a 
case  of  trespass  upon  another  man’s  grounds, 
where  the  intruder  sent  in  his  cattle  to  feed 
upon  and  eat  down  the  grass,  vines,  or  fruit- 
trees  of  his  neighbor.  The  penalty  was  that  he 


should  make  restitution  of  the  best  of  his 
own. 

6.  From  kindled  fires.  It  is  a  plain  principle 
running  through  these  enactments,  that  men 
should  suffer  for  their  carelessness,  as  well  as 
for  their  wickedness  ;  that  they  are  to  consider 
themselves  accountable  not  only  for  the  injury 
they  do,  but  also  for  that  which  they  occasion 
through  inadvertency.  Here  it  is  not  necessary 
to  suppose  that  he  who  kindled  the  fire  designed 
the  mischief  that  ensued. 

7-13.  Ft  'om  loss  of  vdrusted  goods  or  cattle. 
When  valuable  articles  were  left  for  safe  keep¬ 
ing  in  the  hands  of  any  one,  and  while  thus  in- 
trusted  were  in  some  way  missing,  if  the  thief 
were  found  he  was  to  restore  double.  But  if 
not,  there  was  at  least  a  suspicion  that  he  who 
had  the  articles  in  keeping  had  secreted  or  ab¬ 
stracted  them,  and  a  judicial  inquiry  was  there¬ 
upon  to  be  instituted.  The  depositary  was  to  be 
summoned  before  the  magistrates,  and  his 
oath  that  he  knew  nothing  of  them  was  to  be 
accounted  a  full  acquittance.  Bush. 

1 1 ,  “  An  oath  of  the  I,ord  ”  is  an  oath  wherein 
God  is  appealed  to  as  the  only  witness,  there 
being  no  need  of  this  oath  where  there  was  any 
other  witness.  He  that  had  stolen  was  forced 
to  forswear  himself  if  he  would  avoid  discovery. 
Hence  it  is  that  theft  and  perjury  are  so  often 
mentioned  together  in  Scripture,  one  very  often 
inferring  the  other.  (See  Lev.  19  : 11,  12  ;  Prov. 
30  :8,  9.)  Bp.  Kidder. 

14,  15.  F  rom  loss  of  things  borrowed.  In  the 
case  of  a  borrowed  beast  of  burden,  as  an  ox,  an 
ass,  or  a  horse,  receiving  any  hurt,  or  coming 
by  his  death,  the  borrower  was  to  make  it  good, 
provided  the  owner  were  not  present.  Bush. 

Injubtes  to  Persons — Penalties. 

Ex.  21  : 18-32.  Lev.  24  : 19,  20. 

It  is  here  to  be  noted  that  the  distinction  of 
intentional  or  unintentional  runs  through  the 
whole  of  these  enactments,  and  modfties  the  de¬ 
gree  of  guilt  and  the  amount  of  the  penalty. 
M. - In  the  laws  which  follow  respecting  in¬ 

juries  inflicted,  the  great  principle  enforced  is 
that  of  retaliation,  which  lies  at  the  foundation 
of  all  judicial  punishment.  The  criminal  has 
violated  the  order  of  God  in  the  life  and  prop¬ 
erty  of  his  people,  and  that  order  must  be  re¬ 
stored  again  in  him  by  recompense  made.  Such 
recompense  extends,  according  to  this  original 
law  of  right,  to  the  smallest  particular An 
eye  for  an  eye,”  etc. — in  which,  however,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  analogy  of  all  other  legislations, 
it  is  supposed  that  the  injured  party  may  remit 


492 


SECTION  157.  CRIMES,  INJURIES,  AND  PENALTIES. 


the  retributorj'  punishment,  or  receive  restitu¬ 
tion  in  some  other  way  ;  and  thus  it  holds  good 
of  these,  as  of  all  similar  Divine  and  human 
laws,  that  the  general  principle  is  laid  down  in 
certain  definite  plain  examples,  which  prin¬ 
ciple,  legal  usage,  and  custom  extended  to  all 
similar  cases,  and  more  clearly  explained,  Ctrl. 

Ex.  21  :  18,  ID.  Injury  from  personal  con- 
i€)dion.  If  the  smitten  man  die  not  but  “  rise 
again  and  walk  abroad  upon  his  staff,  ”  the 
smiter  “  shall  pay  for  the  loss  of  his  time  and 
shall  cause  him  to  be  thoroughly  healed.” 

Ex.  21  :  20,  2S,  26,  2?.  Injuries  io  ser- 
vanis.  For  smiting  to  death,  the  master  ‘  ‘  shall 
be  surely  punished.”  For  smiting  out  a  ser¬ 
vant’s  eye  or  tooth,  ‘‘  he  shall  let  the  slave  go 
free.”  B. - The  superiority,  which  he  has  im¬ 

properly  abused,  is  taken  from  the  master  ;  and 


permits  the  judges  to  distinguish  the  nature  of 
the  offence.  Calv. 

Injuries  i  >  Cattlt'. 

Ex.  21  : 33-36.  Lev.  24  : 18. 

3;}.  If  a  man  shall  open  a  pit.  The 

statutes  of  this  Divine  Code  were  so  framed  as 
to  guard  against  mischief  and  injury  occasioned 
by  a  culpable  negligence.  The  pits  or  wells 
from  which  water  was  procured  in  those  coun¬ 
tries,  though  usuall}^  covered  when  not  in  use, 
yet  were  very  liable  to  be  left  open,  thus  ex¬ 
posing  to  the  utmost  peril  the  lives  or  limbs  of 
the  animals  that  chanced  to  fall  into  them. 

35.  If  one  inaii’s  ox  hurt  another’s. 
Where  cattle  fought  and  one  killed  another,  the 
owners  were  to  adjust  the  matter  by  selling  the 
live  ox  and  dividing  the  price  equally  between 


in  compensation  for  the  injury,  liberty,  which 
is,  almost  half  of  life,  is  given  to  the  male  or 
female  slave.  In  consideration  that  it  was  his 
slave,  the  master  is  treated  more  leniently,  when 
the  severity  of  the  punishment  is  thus  miti¬ 
gated  ;  while  in  compensation  for  his  loss  the 
slave  receives  what  is  more  advantageous  to 
him — viz.,  that  being  set  free  he  should  not  be 
exposed  to  another’s  cruelty,  Calv. 

Ex.  21  :  22.  Special  injury  to  a  woman  with 
child.  If  she  lose  the  child,  and  yet  no  other  ! 
mischief  follow,  the  injurer  “  shall  be  surely  I 
fined,  as  the  judges  determine.”  But  other¬ 
wise  the  law  of  retaliation  is  to  be  rigidly  en-  ' 
forced,  of  life  for  life.  In  this  connection  this  ! 
law  is  first  announced.  Its  full  treatment  will 
be  found  further  on  in  this  section.  B, 

Ex.  21  :  28-32.  Inj  uries  by  beasts  and  pen¬ 
alties  of  the  owner.  If  ail  ox  gore  a  man. 
Even  an  ox  which  bad  gored  a  man  to  death, 
and  by  parity  of  reason  any  other  animal  that 
had  killed  a  person  by  pushing,  biting,  or  kick¬ 
ing,  was  to  be  stoned  ;  not  to  punish  the  beast 
but  the  owner,  and  so  oblige  him  to  be  careful 
in  preventing  his  oxen  from  injuring  his  neigh¬ 
bors.  The  flesh  of  the  goring  ox  could  not  be 
eaten,  a  prohibition  which  served  to  keep  up  a 
wholesome  horror  of  murder,  at  the  same  time 
that  it  punished  the  man  by  the  total  loss  of  his 
beast.  E.  C.  W. 

29.  God  proceeds  further,  condemning  the 
master  of  the  ox  himself  to  death  if  he  had  been 
previously  admonished  to  beware  ;  for  such  a 
warning  takes  away  the  pretext  of  ignorance  ; 
and  to  give  free  outlet  to  dangerous  beasts  is 
equivalent  to  compassing  men’s  death.  He 
who  knowingly  and  wilfully  exposes  the  life  of 
his  brother  to  peril  is  justly  accounted  his  mur¬ 
derer.  30,  The  exception  which  is  here  added 


them,  and  also  by  making  an  equal  division  of 
the  dead  ox.  But  if  the  animal  was  known  to 
be  vicious  and  his  owner  had  not  kept  him  in, 
it  was  just  that  he  should  suffer  for  his  negli¬ 
gence,  and  was  consequently  required  to  give 
up  his  live  ox  and  take  the  dead  one.  Bush. 

The  Law  of  Betaliation. 

Ex.  21  :  23-25.  Lev.  24  : 19,  20.  Be.  19  : 21. 

The  lex  talionis,  or  law  of  like  for  like,  after¬ 
ward  prevailed  among  the  Greeks  and  Bonuins. 
Among  the  latter  it  constituted  a  part  of  the 
twelve  tables,  so  famous  in  antiquity  ;  but  the 
punishment  was  afterward  changed  to  a  pecuni¬ 
ary  fine,  to  be  levied  at  the  discretion  of  the 
Praetor.  It  prevails  less  or  more  in  most  civil¬ 
ized  countries,  and  is  fully  acted  upon  in  the 
Canon  Law  in  reference  to  all  calumniators  : 
“  Calumniator,  si  in  accusatione  defecerit,  taii- 
onem  recipiat.”  Nothing,  however,  of  this 
kind  was  left  to  private  revenge  ;  the  magistrate 
awarded  the  punishment  when  the  fact  was 
proved.  Otherwise  the  lex  talionis  would  have 
utterly  destroyed  the  peace  of  society,  and  have 
sowed  the  seeds  of  hatred,  revenge,  and  all  un¬ 
charitableness.  A.  C. 

The  principle  of  the  lex  talionis,  “  Eye  for  eye 
and  tooth  for  tooth,  ”  is  here  laid  down  as  the 
rule  for  magistrates  administering  justice  be¬ 
tween  man  and  man,  not  as  the  law  for  private, 
social  life,  as  implying  the  lawfulness  of  private 
revenge.  It  is  in  fact  but  the  same  principle 
which  in  another  form  we  have  embodied  in 
our  own  civil  constitutions,  that  “  excessive 
punishments  shall  not  be  inflicted.”  The  lex 
talionis  is  in  fact  the  only  true  and  reasonable 
j  rule  of  retributive  justice  as  administered  under 

j  law.  S.  K. - Betaliation  is  the  converse  of 

the  “  golden  rule.”  It  is  giving  back  to  a  per- 


LEX  TALIONm,  DEATH  PENALTY. 


493 


son  his  breach  of  that  rule  to  see  how  he  likes 
it.  It  is  a  rough  method  of  teaching  rude,  sel¬ 
fish  souls  that  there  is  retribution  in  all  selfish 
practices.  It  is  morally  right  that  those  who 
do  to  others  as  they  do  not  wish  others  to  do 
to  them  should  have  precisely  their  own  paid 
back  to  them.  It  is  simple  justice.  Edgar. 

The  law  of  retaliation  has  been  objected  to  as 
productive  of  hatred  and  revenge.  It  might  be 
so  if  left  to  the  exercise  of  private  individuals, 
instead  of  being,  as  it  really  was,  a  rule  of  offichd 
judgment,  by  which  to  apportion  the  punish¬ 
ment  due  to  personal  injuries.  Its  vindication 
is  found  in  the  fact  that  it  is  based  on  natural 
equity,  and  is  “  an  eternal  law  in  the  govern¬ 
ment  of  the  world.”  It  accords  with  the  usages  of 
all  ancient  nations  not  only  the  rude  and  bar¬ 
barous,  but  also  the  civilized,  as  the  Athenians, 
and  in  the  Eoraan  laws  of  the  twelve  tables. 
The  Law  as  it  stands  in  the  Mosaic  Code  is  not 
to  be  regarded  merely  as  the  declaration  of  the 
general  principle  that  a  wrong-doer  is  bound  to 
make  suitable  reparation  for  the  wrong  done — a 
principle  without  which  society  could  not  exist 
— but  as  announcing  the  fundamental  nature  of 

punishment.  D.  M. - A  juster  reverence  for 

personal  security  and  a  more  comprehensive 
economy  of  human  life  have  led  to  a  return 
toward  the  Mosaic  jurisprudence.  It  is  utterly 
vain  to  trump  up  a  philosophy  of  punishment 
in  which  the  principle  of  retribution  shall  have 
no  place.  Whatever  may  be  said  for  the  rival 
theories,  it  is  the  idea  of  retaliation  which  most 
readily  presents  itself  to  the  mind  of  the  crim¬ 
inal,  and  which  justifies  his  sentence  in  the 
eyes  of  the  public.  London  Times. 

The  law  does  not  peremptorily  command  an 
injured  person  to  avail  himself  of  the  right  of 
retaliation,  without  any  alternative.  It  only 
fixes  the  punishment  to  which  the  author  of  an 
injury  must  submit,  if  he  cannot  compound 
matters  with  the  injured  party.  The  law,  as 
it  stands  in  the  Mosaic  Code,  is  to  be  regarded 
as  a  mere  declaration  of  the  general  principle, 
that  whoever  has  done  an  injury  to  another  is 
bound  to  make  suitable  reparation  for  the  wrong 
which  he  has  committed — a  principle  essential 
to  the  safety  and  good  order  of  society — a  prin¬ 
ciple,  indeed,  without  which  society  could  not 
exist.  But  even  if  interpreted  and  adminis¬ 
tered  literally,  how  favorably  does  it  compare, 
on  the  score  of  liberality,  with  what  was  at  no 
distant  period  the  law  of  our  British  ancestors  ! 
It  is  not  so  very  long  since  both  the  theory  and 
practice  of  British  jurispudence  might  have 
been  expressed  not  in  the  Hebrew  formulary 
of  “an  eye  for  an  eye,”  but  in  such  maxims  as 


“  a  man  for  a  sheep,”  “  a  man  for  a  guinea,” 
nay,  “  a  man  for  a  twelve-pence-farthing  !” 

It  has  often  been  alleged  that  Christ  made  war 
upon  the  lex  talionis  as  of  more  than  doubtful 
morality,  and  thus  assumed  an  attitude  of  di¬ 
rect  hostility  to  the  Law  of  Moses.  But  the 
persons  addressed  by  Moses  and  by  Christ  be¬ 
longed  to  distinct  classes.  Moses  speaks  to  the 
perpetrator  of  the  injury,  and  tells  him  that  he 
was  bound  to  give  “  eye  for  eye  and  tooth  for 
tooth — ’’  that  is,  to  make  satisfaction  for  wrongs 
and  injuries  committed  by  him.  Christ  ad¬ 
dresses  the  injured  party,  and  forbids  him  to 
give  vent  to  his  vindictive  feeling.  E.  C.  W. 

- The  murderer  is  to  be  punished,  or  he  who 

has  maimed  a  member  of  his  brother  ;  but  it  is 
not  therefore  lawful,  if  you  have  unjustly  suf¬ 
fered  violence,  to  indulge  in  wrath  or  hatred, 
so  as  to  render  evil  for  evil.  Calv. 

If  men  reject  the  Divine  mercy,  there  is  no 
other  alternative  but  strict  justice.  And  strict 
justice  means  retaliation.  It  is  giving  back  to 
man  what  he  dares  to  give  to  God.  If  man  re¬ 
fuses  God’s  love,  and  instead  of  accepting  and 
returning  it  gives  to  God  hate,  then  it  is  only 
right,  eternally  right,  that  he  should  receive 
what  he  gives.  God  cannot  but  hate  as  utterly 
abominable  the  soul  that  hates  him  who  is  es¬ 
sential  love.  Wrath  is  the  “  love  pain  of  God,” 
as  Schdberlein  has  called  it.  It  is  forced  on 
him  b}’  the  action  of  his  creatures.  They  have 
had  the  opportunity  of  love,  but  since  they  re¬ 
fuse  it,  they  must  be  visited  by  wrath.  Edgar. 

- What  do  these  words  mean  ;  “  He  that 

transgressed  Moses’s  Law  died  without  mercy 
under  two  or  three  witnesses  ;  of  how  much  sorer 
punishment,  suppose  ye,  shall  he  be  thought 
worthy  who  hath  trodden  underfoot  the  Son  of 
God?’’  The  only  difference  between  the  judg¬ 
ments  of  the  Old  Testament  and  those  of  the 
New  is,  that  the  latter  are  more  terribly  severe 
in  proportion  as  the  privileges  are  greater.  And 
whether  in  the  Old  or  in  the  New,  the  denunci¬ 
ation  of  judgment  is  an  expression  of  love  ;  for 
it  is  the  warning  voice  of  affection,  telling  of 
the  coming  danger,  and  beseeching  those  ex¬ 
posed  to  it  to  “  flee  from  the  wrath  to  come.’’ 
J.  M.  G. 

Death  Penalty  foe  Special  Ckimes  (othee 
THAN  Muedee). 

Enumeration  of  these  crimes.  Ex.  21  : 15,  17  ; 
Lev.  20  : 9  ;  De.  21  : 18-21,  refer  to  smiting  or 
cursing  father  or  mother,  and  to  a  rebellious 
and  drunken  son. 

Ex.  21  : 16  ;  De.  24  :  7,  to  stealing  and  selling 
a  man  of  Israel. 


494 


SECTION  157.  CRIMES,  INJURIES,  AND  PENALTIES. 


Ex.  21  :  29,  to  the  owner  of  a  goring  ox  known 
to  have  killed  before. 

De.  17  : 12,  to  the  man  who  disobeys  the  de¬ 
cisions  of  the  appointed  priest  or  judge. 

Nil.  15  ;  32-36.  The  Sabbath-breaker  in  the 
Wilderness. 

Lev.  24  : 10-16,  23.  The  blaspheming  son  of 
Shelomith. 

In  addition  to  these  are  the  crimes  (included 
in  Sections  152,  153)  connected  with  Idolatry 
and  Fornication.  B. 

Complaint  has  been  made  against  Moses  on 
account  of  the  number  of  crimes  made  capital 
in  his  code.  But  great  injustice  has  been  done 
him  in  this  particular.  The  crimes  punishable 
with  death  by  his  laws  were  either  of  a  deep 
moral  malignity  or  such  as  were  aimed  against 
the  very  being  of  the  State.  It  will  be  found, 
too,  on  examination,  that  there  were  but  four 
classes  of  capital  offences  known  to  his  laws — 
treason,  murder,  deliberate  and  gross  abuse  of 
parents,  and  the  more  unnatural  and  horrid 
crimes  arising  out  of  the  sexual  relation.  And 
all  the  specifications  under  these  classes 
amounted  to  only  seventeen  ;  whereas,  it  is  not 
two  hundred  years  since  the  criminal  code  of 
Great  Britain  numbered  one  hundred  and  forty- 
eight  crimes  punishable  with  death— many  of 
them  of  a  trivial  nature,  as  petty  thefts  and  | 
trespasses  upon  property.  But  “  no  injury 
simply  affecting  property  could  draw  down  upon 
an  Israelite  an  ignominious  death.  The  Mosaic 
Law  respected  moral  depravity  more  than  gold. 
Moral  turpitude,  and  the  most  atrocious  expres¬ 
sions  of  moral  turpitude — these  were  the  objects 
of  its  unsleeping  severity.”  E  C.  W. 

Of  crimes  against  parents,  the  statutes  of 
Moses  specify  smiling  and  cursing  (Ex.  21  : 15, 
17)  ;  the  penalty  in  both  cases,  death.  The 
precept  forbidding  to  curse  a  parent  is  repeated 
impressively  (Lev.  20  :  9).  This  crime  stands  in 
the  list  of  those  that  are  anathematized  in  De. 

27  : 16.  H.  C. - If  a  Jew  smote  his  neighbor, 

the  Law  merely  smote  him  in  return  ;  but  if 
the  blow  was  given  to  a  parent,  it  struck  the 
.=,miter  dead.  The  parental  relation  was  the 
focJ  point  of  the  social  system,  and  required 
powerful  safeguards.  “  Honor  thy  father  and 
thy  mother,”  stands  at  the  head  of  those  com¬ 
mands  which  prescribe  the  duties  of  man  to 
man  ;  and  throughout  the  Bible  the  parental 
state  is  God’s  favorite  illustration  of  his  own 
relations  to  the  human  family.  In  this  case, 
death  was  to  be  inflicted  not  for  smiting  a  man, 
but  a  parent — a  clisiincUon  made  sacred  by  God. 
He  hath  cursed  his  father  or  his  mother.  This  is 
repeated  as  by  a  kind  of  note  of  exclamation,  to 


aggravate  the  enormity  of  the  crime.  lie  shall 
be  put  to  death,  for  he  hath  cursed  his  father 
or  his  mother  !  Such  a  monster  must  surely 
die.  Bush. 

Oe.  21  :  l§-2l.  Afterward,  obstinate  in¬ 
corrigible  disobedience  to  parents  also  came 
under  the  list  of  crimes  worthy  of  death.  The 
reason  is  to  be  found  in  that  divinely  hallowed 
reverence  toward  parents  which  is  implanted  in 
us  by  God’s  will,  whereby  any  injurj'  by  deed,  or 
a  cursing  of  parents,  is  a  violation  in  their  per¬ 
sons  of  God’s  majesty.  Ctrl. - The  case  is  sup¬ 

posed  of  a  son  incurably  stubborn,  rebellious, 
gluttonous,  and  drunken,  upon  whom  parental 
chastisement  is  unavailing.  The  Law  very  con¬ 
siderately  provides  that  his  father  and  his 
mother  shall  lay  hold  of  him  and  bring  him  be¬ 
fore  the  elders  of  his  city  unto  its  gates  (i.e., 
into  open  court),  and  there,  as  a  public  example 
and  warning,  the  men  of  his  city  shall  stone 
him  with  stones  that  he  die  : — ”  So  shalt  thou 
put  evil  away  from  you,  and  all  Israel  shall  hear 
and  fear.”  Parental  love  and  partiality  would 
guarantee  this  law  against  abuse.  It  is  pleasant 
to  note  that  no  case  of  its  execution  is  on  rec¬ 
ord.  Perhaps  the  severity  of  the  Law  fore¬ 
stalled  its  violation.  The  spirit  of  this  precept 
is  so  fully  in  harmony  with  the  Book  of  Prov- 
I  erbs  that  wo  naturally  expect  to  find  it  there. 
(See  Prov.  2U  :  20  and  30  :  11,  17.)  H.  C. 

The  penalty  of  such  crimes  was  death  ;  but 
the  power  of  inflicting  this  was  not  among  the 
Hebrews — as  among  the  Greeks  and  Homans — 
left  with  the  father  ;  the  punishment  could  be 
inflicted  only  by  the  community,  with  the  sanc¬ 
tion  of  the  magistrate.  A  Hebrew  parent  might 
chastise  his  child  with  severity,  but  not  so  as  to 
affect  his  life  (Prov.  19  ;  18,  “  Chasten  thy  son 
while  there  is  hope,  but  raise  not  thy  soul  [let 
not  thy  passion  rise  so  high  as]  to  slay  him”). 
While  parental  authority  was  sacredly  preserved, 
a  check  was  by  the  Law  imposed  on  hasty  pas¬ 
sion.  W.  L.  A. - The  supreme  and  impartial 

law  took  under  its  charge  the  morals,  the  health, 
as  well  as  the  persons  and  the  property  of  the 
whole  people.  It  entered  into  the  domestic 
circle,  and  regulated  all  the  reciprocal  duties  of 
parent  and  child,  husband  and  wife,  as  well  as 
of  master  and  servant.  Among  the  nomad 
tribes,  from  which  the  Hebrews  descended,  the 
father  was  an  arbitrary  sovereign  in  his  family 
as  under  the  Homan  law,  with  the  power  of  life 
and  death.  Moses,  while  he  maintained  the 
dignity  and  salutary  control,  limited  the  abuse 
of  the  parental  authority.  From  the  earliest 
period  the  child  was  under  the  protection  of 
the  Law.  The  father  had  no  power  of  disin- 


THE  SABBATH-BREAKER  AND  BLASPHEMER  STONED. 


495 


heriting  his  sons  ;  the  first-born  received  by 
law  two  portions,  the  rest  shared  equally.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Decalogue  enforced  obedi¬ 
ence  and  respect  to  parents  under  the  strongest 
sanctions.  To  strike  or  to  curse  a  parent  was  a 
capital  offence.  On  parricide  the  law,  as  if,  like 
that  of  the  Eomans,  it  refused  to  contemplate 
its  jpossibility,  preserved  a  sacred  silence.  Mil- 
ni'in 

The  mention  of  a  trial  implies  that  the  son 
was  heard  in  his  defence,  so  as  to  clear  himself 
of  the  crime  if  he  was  not  guilty  of  it.  Espe¬ 
cially  when  he  was  to  be  stoned  by  the  whole 
people  it  was  necessary  that  he  should  be  first 
convicted  ;  and  on  this  ground  he  was  brought 
forth  publicly  that  he  might  be  allowed  to  plead 
his  cause.  Galv. - Undoubtedly  in  thus  en¬ 

forcing  filial  obedience,  the  Jewish  Law  laid  the 
foundation  of  every  virtue.  He  who  despises 
parental  instruction,  tramples  on  parental  au¬ 
thority,  and  feels  no  gratitude  for  parental 
affection  in  his  earlier  years,  will  probably  as 
his  passions  strengthen  and  his  depraved  habits 
grow  inveterate  trample  on  the  authority  of 
laws  both  human  and  Divine,  and  requite  with 
ingratitude  all  the  benefits  which  man  can  con¬ 
fer,  and  all  the  blessings  which  the  Divinity  be¬ 
stows  Graves. 

3fan- stealing  was  punished  with  death.  “  He 
that  stealeth  a  man  and  selleth  him,  or  if  he  be 
found  in  his  hand,  he  shall  surely  be  put  to 
death”  (Ex.  21  : 16).  The  Law  as  recited  in  De. 
21  :  7  applies  to  a  man  stealing  one  of  his  breth¬ 
ren  of  the  children  of  Israel.  As  stated  in  Ex. 
21  ;  16  it  is  universal,  with  no  limitation.  Steal¬ 
ing  a  man  is  the  crime.  This  statute  struck  at 
the  very  root  of  real  slavery.  Both  stealing  and 
selling  contemplate  property — assume  the  fact 
of  a  property  value.  The  spirit  of  the  Law  is 
— Men  shall  never  be  degraded  into  merchan¬ 
dise,  H.  C. 

Stoning  or  the  Sabbath-Beeakee. 

Nu.  15  : 32-36. 

While  the  children  of  Israel 
were  in  the  wilderness,  Moses  men¬ 
tions  here,  as  is  his  wont,  the  first  open  trans¬ 
gression  and  its  punishment,  in  order  to  exem¬ 
plify  the  laws  which  he  is  laying  down.  The 
offence  of  Sabbath-breaking  was  one  for  which 
there  could  be  no  excuse.  This  law  at  least 
might  be  observed  even  in  the  wilderness. 

E-tpin. - His  offence  was  the  doing  servile 

work;  its  spirit  was  presumptuous  disobedience 
to  Jehovah,  and  the  penalty  had  already  been 
declared.  The  case  was  expressly  referred  by 
Moses  to  Jehovah,  and  it  is  recorded  as  an  ex¬ 


ample  that  the  law  of  the  Sabbath  was  not  to 

bo  a  dead  letter.  P.  S. - In  the  judgment  of 

this  case  we  must  carefully  keep  in  view  the 
significance  of  the  Sabbath  as  the  sign  of  God’s 
covenant  with  his  people.  An  intentional  trans¬ 
gression  of  the  prohibition  to  work  was  an 
open  breach  of  the  covenant,  an  act  of  rebellion 
against  the  Lord.  Qerl. 

We  think  of  huge  sins  ;  there  are  none.  We 
think  of  little  sins  ;  there  are  none.  In  relation 
to  the  poor  man  who  went  out  on  the  Sabbath 
day  to  gather  a  bundle  of  “  sticks,”  we  look  at 
the  “  sticks”  and  not  at  the  Sabbath.  Why  not 
look  at  the  reality  of  the  case — of  every  case — 
and  instead  of  dwelling  upon  the  relative 
smallness  of  the  offence,  fix  the  imagination 
and  the  judgment  and  the  conscience  upon  the 
thing  violated  ? — for  only  in  that  way  can  we 
establish  the  balance  of  righteousness  and  begin 
to  understand  the  movement  of  God.  J.  P. 

The  BiiASPHEMiNG  Son  of  Shelomith. 

Lev.  24  : 10-16.  23. 

II.  Blasplieined  tlie  name,  and 

cursed.  The  words,  “  of  the  Lord,”  it  will 
be  perceived,  are  supplied,  not  being  found  in 
the  original.  Nor  does  any  one  of  the  ancient 
versions  attempt  to  supply  the  sacred  name. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  words  are  prop¬ 
erly  supplied,  and  that  his  crime  was  a  bold  and 
impious  profaning  the  august  name  of  Jehovah, 
which  name  is  perhaps  omitted  by  the  writer, 
in  order  to  evince  a  reverence  strikingly  in  con¬ 
trast  with  the  daring  hardihood  of  the  offender. 
Bush. 

The  crime  of  Shelomith’s  son  was,  doubtless, 
some  species  of  blasphemy  :  as,  however,  it  was 
a  new  and  unprecedented  case,  it  was  neces¬ 
sary  to  consult  the  great  Lawgiver  on  the  occa¬ 
sion.  In  what  way  the  answer  of  the  Lord  was 
communicated,  we  know  not  (probably  by  Urim 
and  Tliummim)  ;  but  it  came  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  preclude  all  doubt  upon  the  subject.  The 
man  was  declared  to  be  guilty,  and  was  sen¬ 
tenced  to  be  stoned  to  death.  And  on  this  oc¬ 
casion  a  law  is  made  relative  to  blasphemy  in 
general.  However  sinful  the  Jews  might  have 
been  at  this  time,  we  have  reason  to  believe 
they  did  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord  in  vain  ; 
and  blasphemy  was  not  known  among  them. 
But  what  shall  we  say  of  Christians,  so  called, 
whose  mouths  are  full  of  cursing  and  bitter¬ 
ness  ?  A.  C. 

16.  He  that  hlasphemeth  the  name 

of  the  Lord,  On  the  principle  of  preserving 
the  allegiance  due  to  the  Supreme  Jehovah,  the 
blasphemer,  and  the  deliberate  presumptuous 


496 


SECTION  158.  DEATH  PENALTY  FOR  MURDER. 


Sabbath-breaker,”  and  the  “  false  prophet,” 
as  they  openly  shook  ofl;  all  reverence  for  the 

Lord,  were  to  suffer  death.  Graves, - The 

majesty  of  the  Great  King— the  infinitely  holy 
God,  must  be  held  sacred.  No  punishment 
could  be  too  severe  for  a  crime  which  struck  so 
fatally  against  the  reverence  and  homage  due  to 
Jehovah.  H.  C. 

Modes  of  Inflicting  Death, 

De.  21  : 22,  23. 

Hanging  was  not  properly  one  of  the  punish¬ 
ments  inflicted  by  the  Jewish  Law  :  they  were 
four  ;  stoning,  burning,  beheading,  and  stran¬ 
gling  the  criminal  as  he  stood  on  the  ground. 
But  none  were  hanged  till  they  were  dead. 
And  as  the  Jewish  rabbies  and  many  Christian 
commentators  say,  only  idolators  and  blas¬ 
phemers  were  so  treated  ;  having  been  first 
stoned,  which  was  reckoned  the  most  severe 


punishment  of  all.  And  as  their  crimes  were 
the  most  heinous  and  offensive  to  God,  this 
addition  of  hanging  them  afterward  was  ap¬ 
pointed,  as  a  token  to  denote  the  Divine  dis¬ 
pleasure  against  those  criminals  ;  who  are  there¬ 
fore  said  to  be  “accursed  of  God,”  or  “the 
curse  of  God  ” — that  is,  execrable  to  him.  Ward. 

- The  placing  of  the  body  on  a  tree  was  not 

that  which  made  the  person  accursed,  but  was 
an  external  token  of  his  being  an  accursed  one. 
In  the  placing  of  Jesus  on  the  cross,  the  sin 
and  madness  of  the  world  were  overruled,  to 
give  unwitting  expression  to  the  highest  truth. 
“  Christ  hath  redeemed  us  from  the  curse  of  the 
Law,  being  made  a  curse  for  us  ;  for  it  is  writ¬ 
ten,  Cursed  is  everyone  that  hangeth  on  a  tree” 
(Gal.  3  : 13).  If  not  a  sinner,  Christ  was  treated 
as  if  he  were  one.  This  is  a  fact  of  essential 
importance  in  the  work  of  Christ  for  man’s  sal¬ 
vation  (2  Cor.  5  :  21),  Orr, 


Section  158. 

DEATH  PENALTY  FOE  MUEDEE.  CITIES  OF  EEFUGE  FOE  ACCIDENTAL  OE 
JUSTIFIABLE  HOMICIDE.  PUEGATION  OF  A  HIDDEN  MUEDEE. 

Exodus  21  : 12-14.  Lev.  24  : 17,  21.  Nu.  35  ;  9-34.  De.  19  : 1-13  ;  21  : 1-9. 

Ex.  21  12  He  that  smiteth  a  man,  so  that  he  die,  shall  surely  be  put  to  death.  And  if  a 

13  man  lie  not  in  wait,  but  God  deliver  him  into  his  hand  ;  then  I  will  appoint  thee  a  place 

14  whither  he  shall  flee.  And  if  a  man  come  presumptuously  upon  his  neighbour,  to  slay  him 
with  guile  ;  thou  shalt  take  him  from  mine  altar,  that  he  may  die. 

Nu.  35  16  But  if  he  smote  him  with  an  instrument  of  iron,  so  that  he  died,  he  is  a  man- 

17  slayer  :  the  manslayer  shall  surely  be  put  to  death.  And  if  he  smote  him  with  a  stone  in  the 
hand,  whereby  a  man  may  die,  and  he  died,  he  is  a  manslayer  :  the  manslayer  shall  surely  be 

18  put  to  death.  Or  if  he  smote  him  with  a  weapon  of'  wood  in  the  hand,  whereby  a  man  may 

19  die,  and  he  died,  he  is  a  manslayer  :  the  manslayer  shall  surely  be  put  to  death.  The  avenger 
of  blood  shall  himself  put  the  manslayer  to  death  :  when  he  meeteth  him,  he  shall  put  him  to 

20  death.  And  if  he  thrust  him  of  hatred,  or  hurled  at  him,  lying  in  wait,  so  that  he  died  ;  or 

21  in  enmity  smote  him  with  his  hand,  that  he  died  :  he  that  smote  him  shall  surely  be  put  to 
death  ;  he  is  a  manslayer  :  the  avenger  of  blood  shall  put  the  manslayer  to  death,  when  he 
meeteth  him. 

30  Whoso  killeth  any  person,  the  manslayer  shall  be  slain  at  the  mouth  of  witnesses  :  but  one 

31  witness  shall  not  testify  against  any  person  that  he  die.  Moreover  ye  shall  take  no  ransom 

for  the  life  of  a  manslayer,  which  is  guilty  of  death  :  but  he  shall  surely  be  put  to  death. 

32  And  ye  shall  take  no  ransom  for  him  that  is  fled  to  his  city  of  refuge,  that  he  should  come 

33  again  to  dwell  in  the  land,  until  the  death  of  the  priest.  So  ye  shall  not  pollute  the  land 
wherein  ye  are  :  for  blood,  it  polluteth  the  land  :  and  no  expiation  can  be  made  for  the  land 

34  for  the  blood  that  is  shed  therein,  but  by  the  blood  of  him  that  shed  it.  And  thou  shalt  not 
defile  the  land  which  ye  inhabit,  in  the  midst  of  which  I  dwell  :  for  I  the  Lord  dwell  in  tbe 
midst  of  the  children  of  Israel. 

Be.  ID  11  But  if  any  man  hate  his  neighbour,  and  lie  in  wait  for  him,  and  rise  up  against 

12  him,  and  smite  him  mortally  that  he  die  ;  and  he  flee  into  one  of  these  cities  :  then  the  eldeis 
of  his  city  shall  send  and  fetch  him  thence,  and  deliver  him  into  the  hand  of  the  avenger  of 

13  blood,  that  he  may  die.  Thine  eye  shall  not  pity  him,  but  thou  shalt  put  away  the  innocent 
blood  from  Israel,  that  it  may  go  well  with  thee. 


CITIES  OF  REFUGE, 


497 


Nu.  35  9  And  the  Loed  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and 

10  say  unto  them,  When  ye  pass  over  Jordan  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  then  ye  shall  appoint  you 

11  cities  to  be  cities  of  refuge  for  you  ;  that  the  manslayer  which  killeth  any  person  unwittingly 

12  may  flee  thither.  And  the  cities  shall  be  unto  you  for  refuge  from  the  avenger;  that  the  man- 

13  slayer  die  not,  until  he  stand  before  the  congregation  for  judgement.  And  the  cities  which 

14  ye  shall  give  shall  be  for  you  six  cities  of  refuge.  Ye  shall  give  three  cities  beyond  Jordan, 

15  and  three  cities  shall  ye  give  in  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  they  shall  be  cities  of  refuge.  For  the 
children  of  Israel,  and  for  the  stranger  and  for  the  sojourner  among  them,  shall  these  six  cities 

22  be  for  refuge  :  that  every  one  that  killeth  any  person  unwittingly  may  flee  thither.  But  if 
he  thrust  him  suddenly  without  enmity,  or  hurled  upon  him  any  thing  without  lying  in  wait, 

23  or  with  any  stone,  whereby  a  man  may  die,  seeing  him  not,  and  cast  it  upon  him,  so  that  he 

24  died,  and  he  was  not  his  enemy,  neither  sought  his  harm  :  then  the  congregation  shall  judge 

25  between  the  smiter  and  the  avenger  of  blood  according  to  these  judgements  :  and  the  congre¬ 
gation  shall  deliver  the  manslayer  out  of  the  hand  of  the  avenger  of  blood,  and  the  congrega¬ 
tion  shall  restore  him  to  his  city  of  refuge,  whither  he  was  fled  :  and  he  shall  dwell  therein 

26  until  the  death  of  the  high  priest,  which  was  anointed  with  the  holy  oil  But  if  the  man- 

27  slayer  shall  at  any  time  go  beyond  the  border  of  his  city  of  refuge,  whither  he  fleeth  ;  and  the 
avenger  of  blood  find  him  without  the  border  of  his  city  of  refuge,  and  the  avenger  of  blood 

28  slay  the  manslayer  ;  he  shall  not  be  guilty  of  blood  :  because  he  should  have  remained  in  his 
city  of  refuge  until  the  death  of  the  high  priest  :  but  after  the  death  of  the  high  priest  the 

29  manslayer  shall  return  into  the  land  of  his  possession.  And  these  things  shall  be  for  a  statute 
of  judgement  unto  you  throughout  your  generations  in  all  your  dwellings. 

De.  19  1  When  the  Loed  thy  God  shall  cut  off  the  nations,  whose  land  the  Loed  thy  God 

2  giveth  thee,  and  thou  succeedest  them,  and  dwellest  in  their  cities,  and  in  their  houses  ;  thou 
sbalt  separate  three  cities  for  thee  in  the  midst  of  thy  land,  which  the  Loed  thy  God  giveth 

3  thee  to  possess  it.  Thou  shalt  prepare  thee  the  way,  and  divide  the  borders  of  thy  land, 
which  the  Loed  thy  God  causeth  thee  to  inherit,  into  three  parts,  that  every  manslayer  may 

4  flee  thither.  And  this  is  the  case  of  the  manslayer,  which  shall  flee  thither  and  live  :  whosa 

5  killeth  his  neighbour  unawares,  and  hated  him  not  in  time  past  ;  as  when  a  man  goeth  into  tho 
forest  with  his  neighbour  to  hew  wood,  and  his  hand  fetcheth  a  stroke  with  the  axe  to  cut  down 
the  tree,  and  the  head  slippeth  from  the  helve,  and  lighteth  upon  his  neighbour,  that  he  die  , 

6  he  shall  flee  unto  one  of  these  cities  and  live  :  lest  the  avenger  of  blood  pursue  the  manslayer, 
while  his  heart  is  hot,  and  overtake  him,  because  the  way  is  long,  and  smite  him  mortally  , 

7  whereas  he  was  not  worthy  of  death,  inasmuch  as  he  hated  him  not  in  time  past.  Wherefore 

8  I  command  thee,  saying.  Thou  shalt  separate  three  cities  for  thee.  And  if  the  Loed  thy  God 
enlarge  thy  border,  as  he  hath  sworn  unto  thy  fathers,  and  give  thee  all  the  land  which  he 

9  promised  to  give  unto  thy  fathers  ;  if  thou  shalt  keep  all  this  commandment  to  do  it,  which  1 
command  thee  this  day,  to  love  the  Loed  thy  God,  and  to  walk  ever  in  his  ways  ;  then  shalt 

10  thou  add  three  cities  more  for  thee,  besides  these  three  :  that  innocent  blood  be  not  shed  in 
the  midst  of  thy  land,  which  the  Loed  thy  God  giveth  thee  for  an  inheritance,  and  so  blood 
be  upon  thee. 

[Omilted  text  indicated  in  the  com,ment.'\ 

Note. — The  two  special  topics— the  sanctuary 
for  accidental  or  justifiable  homicide,  and  the 
purgation  of  a  community  from  the  guilt  of  an 
undisclosed  murder — although  belonging  in 
form  to  the  class  of  ceremonial  laws,  are  placed 
in  tLis  connection,  because  they  relate  directly 
to  man-slaying,  and  because  in  a  comparison 
with  previous  details  touching  the  death-penalty, 
they  find  clearer  apprehension  and  more  effec¬ 
tive  impression.  B. 


The  Jewish  Law  taught  the  great  principles  of 
moral  duty  in  the  Decalogue  :  it  enjoined  love 
to  God  and  man  ;  impressed  the  deepest  con- 
victi  n  that  God  required  not  merely  external 
32 


observances,  but  heartfelt  piety,  well-regulated 
desires,  and  active  benevolence  :  it  taught  that 
sacrifice  would  not  pardon  without  repentance, 
nor  repentance  without  reformation  and  resti 
tution  ;  it  described  circumcision,  and  there¬ 
fore  every  other  legal  rite,  as  designed  to  typify 
and  inculcate  internal  holiness  :  it  represented 
the  love  of  God  as  the  practical  principle,  stim¬ 
ulating  to  the  cultivation  of  purity,  mercy,  and 
truth  :  and  it  enforced  all  by  sanctions  most 
likely  to  act  on  the  minds  of  such  people  as  the 
Israelites  were.  If  we  examine  its  penal  code, 
it  punished  capitally  idolatry,  with  all  its  train 
of  profanation  and  crimes  ;  adultery  and  im¬ 
purity  in  all  its  pollutions  ;  murder  ;  obstinate 


498 


SECTION  158.  DEATH  PENALTY  FOR  MURDER. 


disobedience  to  parents  ;  presumptuous  defi¬ 
ance  of  the  Divine  law  ;  and  resistance  to  the 
supreme  authority  of  the  State.  It  provided 
with  great  wisdom  for  the  trial  of  those  who 
were  gnilty  of  manslaughter  ;  it  punished  in¬ 
ferior  offences  with  mildness  and  lenity  ;  it  pro¬ 
tected  the  slave  as  well  as  the  freeman.  In 
short,  the  whole  scheme  and  universal  spirit  of 
the  penal  code  and  judicial  sj’stem  were  strictly 
conformable  to  the  religion  that  was  taught  and 
to  the  moral  principles  that  were  inculcated. 
Graves. 

Muedee  Punished  with  Death. 

Ex.  21  : 12,  14.  Lev.  24  : 17,  21.  Nu.  35  : 16-21, 
30-34.  De.  19  : 11-13. 

It  is  here  enacted  and  provided,  consonant  to 
natural  equity,  that  wilful  murder  should  be 
punished  with  death,  and  in  that  case  no  sanctu¬ 
ary  should  be  allowed,  no  ransom  taken,  nor 
any  commutation  of  the  punishment  accepted  ; 
the  murderer  shall  surely  he  put  to  death.  It  was  an 
ancient  law,  consonant  to  the  law  of  nature, 
that  whoso  sheds  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his 
Pood  be  .shed  (Gen.  9:6).  Since  the  murderer 
cannot  restore  the  life  he  has  wrongfully  taken 
away,  his  own  must  be  exacted  in  lieu  of  it,  to 
satisfy  the  law  and  the  justice  of  a  nation,  and 
to  be  a  warning  to  all  others  not  to  do  likewise. 
It  is  here  said,  and  it  is  well  worthy  the  consid¬ 
eration  of  all  magistrates  and  States,  that  blood 
defiles  not  only  the  conscience  of  the  murderer, 
but  also  the  land  in  which  it  is  shed.  And  it  is 
added  that  the  land  cannot  be  cleansed  from  the 
blood  of  the  murdered  but  by  the  blood  of  the 
murderer  (verse  33).  H, 

The  law  discriminated  with  the  utmost  care 
and  wisdom  between  real  murder  and  homi¬ 
cide,  more  or  less  justifiable.  A  special  law 
provided  cities  of  refuge.  Another  special  law 
met  the  case  of  murder  by  unknown  hands.  In- 
•excusable  carelessness  causing  injury  or  death 
was  punished.  Personal  injuries  not  fatal  were 
^specially  punished  by  statute.  But  7'eal  murder 
was  punished  capitally.  The  law  is  briefly  stated 
in  Ex.  21  : 12,  14,  and  Lev.  24  : 17,  21.  More  fully 
it  is  given  in  Nu.  35  : 16-21  and  De.  19  : 11-13, 
in  connection  with  the  ordinance  respecting  the 
cities  of  refuge.  These  passages  reaffirm  and 
amplify  the  doctrine  of  the  law  as  given  to  Noah 
and  to  the  repeopled  world  ;  “  And  surely  your 
blood  of  your  lives  [life-blood]  will  I  require  ; 
at  the  hand  of  every  beast  will  I  require  it,  and 
at  the  hand  of  every  man;  at  the  hand  of  every 
man’s  brother  will  I  require  the  life  of  man. 
Whoso  sheddeth  man’s  blood,  by  man  shall  his 
blood  be  shed  ;  for  in  the  image  of  God  made  he 


man.^’  Human  life  is  sacred,  and  God  protects 
it  under  the  sternest  possible  penalties — noth¬ 
ing  less  than  the  life  of  the  murderer.  That 
God  intended  this  law /or  the  whole  race,  for  the 
entire  repeopled  world  from  and  after  Noah,  is  too 
plain  to  be  denied  or  even  doubted.  It  is  not 
easy  to  see  how  another  word  could  be  said  to 
make  this  more  plain.  The  Law  of  Sinai  and 
the  code  given  through  Moses  are  intensely  em¬ 
phatic,  indeed  perfectly  decisive.  According  to 
this  code,  real  murder  must  be  proven  :  by  pre¬ 
vious  hatred  and  enmity  (De.  19  : 11)  ;  by  evi¬ 
dence  of  “  lying  in  wait  ”  (Nu.  35  :  20)  ;  by  the 
sort  of  instrument  used  (Nu.  35  : 16-18),  a  wea¬ 
pon  large  enough  to  fill  the  hand  and  deal  a 
death-blow.  H.  C. 

The  crime  of  deliberate  and  wilful  murder  is 
a  crime  at  w  hich  human  nature  starts,  and  which 
is  punished  almost  universally  throughout  the 
world  with  death.  The  words  of  the  Mosaical 
Law  (over  and  above  the  general  precept  of 
Noah,  that  “  whoso  sheddeth  man’s  blood,  by 
man  shall  his  blood  be  shed  ”)  are  very  emphati- 
cal  in  prohibiting  the  pardon  of  murderers  : 
“  moreover  ye  shall  take  no  satisfaction  for  the 
life  of  a  murderer.”  Blackstone. 

De.  19:13.  Thine  eye  shall  not 
pity.  There  are  some  situations  in  which  her 
presence  would  be  out  of  place,  her  action  in¬ 
jurious.  But  righteousness  must  never  be  ab¬ 
sent.  The  very  atmosphere  in  God’s  kingdom 
is  penetrated  with  her  vital  breath.  Her  sceptre 
is  the  sceptre  of  God,  and  exerts  a  potent  influ¬ 
ence  over  every  department  of  human  life.  All 
true  prosperity  is  the  fruit  of  righteousness.  It 
cannot  go  well  with  any  nation,  nor  with  any 
man,  until  guilt  is  put  aw^ay.  Even  compassion 
for  others  must  be  a  righteous  compassion. 
D.  D. 

Have  we  as  citizens  pondered  as  we  ought 
that  solemn  warning  implied  in  the  words, 
“  Thine  eye  shall  not  pity  him  but  thou  shalt 
put  away  innocent  blood  from  Israel,  that  it 
may  go  well  with  thee?”  “  So  shall  ye  not  pol¬ 
lute  the  land  wherein  ye  are  ;  for  blood  it  de- 
fileth  the  land  and  the  land  cannot  be  cleansed  of 
the  blood  shed  therein  but  by  the  blood  of  him  that 
shed  it."  Eememberthat  this  law  of  God  levels 
its  prohibitions  against  not  only  wilful  murder, 
suicide,  duelling,  and  unlawful  wars  ;  nay,  not 
only  against  all  those  callings,  customs,  prac¬ 
tices  that  militate  against  the  safety  of  human 
life  ;  and  not  only  declares  judgment  against 
those  who  violate  the  law  themselves,  but 
against  the  society  which  fails  to  execute  judg¬ 
ment  against  the  reckless  shedding  of  blood. 
Nor  does  it  matter  from  what  causes  this  un- 


REFUGE  FOR  ACCIDENTAL  HOMICIDE. 


499 


faithfulness  of  society  may  spring.  It  may  be 
from  the  breaking  away  of  society  from  its  moor¬ 
ings  by  the  upheaving  of  its  social  institutions 
and  the  outbursting  of  a  reckless  mob-violence 
which  fears  not  God  nor  regards  man.  Or  it 
may  be  a  pseudo-philanthropism  affecting  a  hor¬ 
ror  of  anything  but  a  perverted  law  of  love  that 
knows  no  eternal  truth  and  righteousness  to  be 
vindicated  by  either  God  or  man  ;  and  there¬ 
fore  denies  the  right  of  society  itself  to  inflict 
death.  Or  it  may  be  a  breaking  down  cf  family 
authority  under  the  great  law  ‘  ‘  Honor  thy  father 
and  thy  mother,”  which  turns  the  family  gov¬ 
ernment  itself — God’s  own  appointed  seed-plant 
for  the  rearing  of  citizens  for  the  State,  and 
members  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  - into  a  hot¬ 
bed  for  the  rearing  of  j)rofligates,  assassins,  and 
murderers  of  every  phase.  No  matter  what  the 
cause  of  the  failure  ;  still  that  great  law  stands 
written  as  in  letters  of  flame  —  “  The  land  cannot 
he  cleansed  of  the  blood  shed  therein  hut  by  the 

BLOOD  OF  HIM  THAT  SHED  IT.”  S.  H. 

Cities  of  Eefuge  for  the  Accidental  or  Jus¬ 
tifiable  Homicide. 

Ex.  21  : 13.  Nil  35  : 9-15,  22-29.  De.  19  : 1-10. 

Ex.  ‘21  :  lf{.  This  expression,  respecting  a 
man  being  killed  by  accident  without  any  ill 
intention  on  the  part  of  the  slayer,  is  remark¬ 
able.  It  signifies  that  even  those  things  which 
to  us  seem  the  most  casual  and  merely  accident¬ 
al,  in  respect  of  God  are  really  providential, 
and  could  not  happen  but  by  His  (for  wise  rea¬ 
sons)  permitting  them  to  be  done.  N.  Clarke. 

35  :  1‘2,  19.  Tlie  avenger  of 
blood.  The  Hebrew,  goel,  signifies  a  re¬ 
deemer  ;  and  because  the  right  of  redemption  of 
estates  belonged  to  the  nearest  kinsman,  the 
word  imports  such  a  kinsman  here.  Bp.  Kidder. 

The  original  import  of  the  term  goel  is  uncer¬ 
tain.  The  very  obscurity  of  its  etymology  tes¬ 
tifies  to  the  antiquity  of  the  office  which  it  de¬ 
notes.  That  office  rested  on  the  principle  of 
Gen.  9:6,  “  whoso  sheddeth  man’s  blood,  by 
man  shall  his  blood  be  shed.”  In  an  unsettled 
state  of  society  the  execution  of  justice  was 
necessarily  left  in  private  hands.  The  lowest 
stage  of  national  development  is  where  every 
one  assumes  the  right  of  avenging  alleged  mis¬ 
deeds  at  his  discretion  ;  and  it  was  therefore 
already  an  upward  step  when  prevailing  custom 
restricted  this  right  to  certain  persons,  who,  al¬ 
though  wielding  no  public  authority,  were  yet 
invested,  ipso  facto,  for  the  time  being,  with  a 
public  character.  It  was  in  such  a  spirit  that 
the  unwritten  code  of  the  east  conceded  to  the 
nearest  kinsman  of  a  murdered  man  the  right 


of  avenging  the  blood  that  had  been  shed.  He 
was  permitted  to  kill  the  murderer,  without 
notice,  openly  or  secretly,  wheresoever  he  might 
find  him.  Such  rude  justice  necessarily  in¬ 
volved  grave  evils.  It  gave  no  opportunity  to 
the  person  charged  with  crime  of  establishing 
his  innocence  ;  it  recognized  no  distinction  be¬ 
tween  murder,  manslaughter,  and  accidental 
homicide  ;  it  perpetuated  family  blood-feuds, 
the  avenger  of  blood  being  liable  to  be  treated 
in  his  turn  as  a  murderer  by  the  kinsman  of  the 
man  whom  he  had  slain.  These  grievances 
could  not  be  removed  as  long  as  there  was  no 
central  government  strong  enough  to  vindicate 
the  law  ;  but  they  might  be  mitigated  ;  and  to 
do  this  was  the  object  of  the  institution  in  the 
text.  Among  the  Arab  tribes,  who  are  under 
the  control  of  no  central  authority,  the  practice 
of  blood-revenge  subsists  in  full  force  to  the 
present  day.  The  law  of  the  Koran  limits  the 
right  of  demanding  satisfaction  to  cases  in 
which  a  man  has  been  unjustly  smitten,  and 
forbids  the  kinsman  of  the  deceased  to  avenge 
his  blood  on  any  other  than  the  actual  mur¬ 
derer.  But  these  restrictions  are  generally  dis¬ 
regarded  in  practice  by  the  Arabs.  Espin. 

The  law  demanded  blood  for  blood.  But  it 
transferred  the  exaction  of  the  penalty  from 
private  revenge  and  committed  it  to  the  judicial 
authority.  To  effect  this,  it  had  to  struggle  with 
an  inveterate  though  barbarous  usage,  which 
still  prevails  among  the  Arabian  tribes.  By  a 
point  of  honor,  the  nearest  of  kin  is  bound  to 
revenge  the  death  of  his  relation  :  he  is  his  Goel, 
or  blood-avenger.  He  makes  no  inquiry,  allows 
no  pause.  Whether  the  deceased  had  been 
slain  on  provocation,  by  accident,  or  of  deliber¬ 
ate  malice,  death  can  only  be  atoned  by  the 
blood  of  the  homicide.  To  mitigate  the  evils  of 
an  usage  too  firmly  established  to  be  rooted  out, 
Moses  appointed  certain  cities  of  refuge,  con¬ 
veniently  situated.  If  a  homicide  could  escape 
to  one  of  these,  he  was  safe  till  a  judicial  inves¬ 
tigation  took  place.  If  the  homicide  was  justi¬ 
fiable  or  accidental  he  was  bound  to  reside  with¬ 
in  the  sanctuary  for  a  certain  period.  Milman. 

]%u.  35  :  2‘2.  If  the  killing  was  not  volun¬ 
tary,  nor  done  designedly,  if  without  enmity,  or 
lying  in  wait  (verse  22),  not  seeing  him,  or  seeking 
his  harm  (verse  23),  which  our  law  calls  chance- 
medley,  or  homic'de  through  misfortune,  in  this 
case  there  were  cities  of  refuge  appointed  for 

the  man-slayer  to  flee  to.  TI. - 9-15,  2^1—29. 

Six  cities  in  Palestine — three  on  each  side  of 
the  Jordan— were  selected  in  such  convenient 
geographical  position  that  from  any  point  of  the 
whole  country  the  man-slayer  might  make  the 


500 


SECTION  158.  DEATH  PENALTY  FOR  MURDER. 


nearest  one  within  less  than  one  day’s  run.  All  j 
these  were  cities  of  the  Levites  ;  hence  the  1 
leading  roen  of  the  city  would  be  competent  to  [ 
hold  a  preliminary  investigation.  The  man- 
slayer  fled  for  his  life  to  the  nearest  of  these 
cities.  The  legal  authorities  there  protected 
him  against  the  Goel— the  blood-avenger.  The 
elders  of  his  own  city,  if  the  case  seemed  to  de¬ 
mand  it,  might  send  and  fetch  him  ;  try  him, 
and  deliver  him  up  to  the  blood-avenger  ;  or 
remand  him  back  to  his  city  of  refuge.  Thus 
this  city  shielded  him  against  sudden  and  in¬ 
discriminate  vengeance,  and  secured  for  him  a 
trial  before  the  congregation  or  elders  of  his 
own  city.  If  his  case  was  proved  to  be  homi¬ 
cide,  he  must  remain  within  the  city  of  refuge 
till  the  death  of  the  high-priest,  after  which  the 
avenger’s  right  to  take  his  life  (outside  the 
refuge-city)  ceased  and  he  could  go  at  large  in 
safety.  This  provision  affixed  a  limit  to  his 
quasi-imprisonment.  Perhaps  it  was  also  sig¬ 
nificant  of  the  pardon  for  sin  provided  for  in 
the  death  of  our  Great  High-Priest.  If  the 
man-slayer  allowed  himself  to  be  caught  by  the 
blood-avenger  outside  his  city  when  he  should 
be  within  it,  the  avenger  might  take  his  life 
with  impunity.  H.  C. 

These  laws  of  Moses  were  perfectly  wise  : 
the  man  wffio  involuntarily  killed  another  w^as 
innocent,  but  he  was  obliged  to  be  taken  away 
from  before  the  eyes  of  the  relatives  of  the  de¬ 
ceased  ;  Moses,  therefore,  appointed  an  asylum 
for  such  unfortunate  persons  ;  great  criminals 
deserved  not  a  place  of  safety,  and  they  had 
none  :  if  persons  who  had  committed  man¬ 
slaughter  had  been  driven  out  of  the  country, 
as  was  customary  among  the  Greeks,  there  was 
reason  to  fear  they  would  worship  strange  gods. 
All  these  considerations  made  them  establish 
cities  of  refuge,  where  they  might  remain  until 
the  death  of  the  high-priest.  Montesquieu. 

l>e.  S9 :  Thou  shall  prepare  Ihee 
a  AVay.  The  design  of  the  injunction  here 
was  that  every  facility  should  be  afforded  to  the 
fugitive  to  escape  to  the  place  of  refuge.  In 
later  times,  it  was  enacted  that  the  roads  lead¬ 
ing  to  these  cities  should  be  repaired  every  year 
in  the  month  Adar,  and  every  obstruction  re¬ 
moved.  VV.  L.  A. 

Here  is  a  great  deal  of  good  gospel  couched 
under  the  type  and  figure  of  the  cities  of  refuge  ; 
and  to  them  the  apostle  seems  to  allude,  when 
he  speaks  of  our  Jlqing  for  refuge  to  the  hope  set 
before  us  (Heb.  G  :  18).  There  were  several  cities 
of  refuge,  and  they  were  so  appointed  in  several 
parts  of  the  country  that  the  man-slayer,  wher¬ 
ever  he  dwelt  in  the  land  of  Israel,  might  in  a 


day  reach  one  or  other  of  them  ;  so,  though 
there  is  but  one  Christ  appointed  for  our  Kefuge, 
yet  wherever  we  are  He  is  a  Hefuge  at  hand,  a 
yury  present  help,  for  the  word  is  nigh  us  and 
Christ  in  the  word.  The  man-slayer  was  safe 
in  any  of  these  cities  ;  so  in  Christ  believers 
that  fly  to  him  and  rest  in  him  are  protected 
from  the  wrath  of  God  and  the  curse  of  the 
Law.  There  is  no  condemnation  to  them  that  are  in 
Christ  Jesus  (Horn.  8  : 1).  H. 

Purgation  of  a  Community  from  Hidden 

Murder. 

De.  21  : 1-9. 

The  sanctity  of  human  life  is  still  the  leading 
thought  ;  and  where  a  corpse  is  found  “  lying 
in  the  field,  and  it  be  not  known  who  hath  slain 
him,”  the  wffiole  land  is  regarded  as  guilty  be¬ 
fore  God  (verse  8)  until  a  solemn  rite  be  gone 
through.  These  verses  prescribe  the  mode  and 
form  of  this  rite  ;  which  from  the  nature  of  the 
case  could  have  place  only  when  the  people 
were  settled  in  Canaan,  and  so  is  prescribed 
first  in  Deuteronomy.  Espin. 

When  a  dead  body  was  found  in  the  field,  in 
circumstances  fitted  to  give  rise  to  the  suspicion 
of  the  person  having  come  to  a  violent  end, 
while  yet  no  trace  could  be  discovered  of  the 
murderer,  it  was  then  to  be  presumed  that  the 
guilt  attached  to  the  nearest  city,  either  by  the 
murderer  having  come  from  it  or  from  his  hav¬ 
ing  found  concealment  in  it.  That  city,  there¬ 
fore,  had  a  certain  indefinite  charge  of  guilt 
lying  upon  it— indefinite  as  to  the  parties  really 
concerned  in  the  charge,  but  most  definite  and 
particular  as  regards  the  greatness  of  the  crime 
involved  in  it,  and  the  treatment  due  to  the 
perpetrator.  For  deliberate  murder  the  law 
provided  no  expiation.  Even  for  the  infliction 
of  death  by  some  fortuitous  and  unintentional 
stroke  it  did  not  appoint  any  rite  of  expiation, 
but  only  a  way  of  escape  by  means  of  a  partial 
exile.  Here,  therefore,  where  the  question  is 
respecting  a  murder,  the  prescribed  ritual  can¬ 
not  contemplate  a  work  of  expiation.  Nor  is  the 
language  employed  such  as  to  convey  that  idea. 
The  elders  of  the  city  were  enjoined  to  go  down 
into  a  valley  with  a  stream  in  it,  bringing  with 
them  a  heifer  which  had  never  been  yoked,  and 
there  strike  off  its  head  by  the  neck.  Then,  in 
presence  of  the  priests,  the  representatives  and 
ministers  of  God,  they  were  to  wash  their  hands 
over  the  carcass  of  the  slain  heifer  in  token  of 
their  innocence,  and  to  say,  “  Our  hands  have 
not  shed  this  blood,  neither  have  our  eyes  seen 
it.  Be  merciful,  O  Lord,  unto  thy  people  Israel, 


SECTION  159. 


501 


whom  thou  hast  redeemed,  and  lay  not  innocent 
blood  unto  thy  people  of  Israel’s  charge.  And 
(it  is  added)  the  blood  shall  be  forgiven  them.” 
The  forgiveness  here  meant  was  evidently  for¬ 
giveness  in  the  more  general  sense  ;  they  were 
personall}’’  cleared  from  the  guilt,  but  the  guilt 
itself  was  not  atoned  ;  there  was  a  purgation  but 
not  an  expiation.  And,  accordingly^  none  of 
the  usual  sacrificial  terms  or  acts  are  applied  to 
the  transaction  with  the  heifer  ;  even  the  mode 
of  killing  it  was  different  from  that  followed  in 
all  the  proper  sacrifices.  Indeed,  the  process 
was  merely  a  symbolical  action  of  judgment  and 
acquittal  before  the  priests,  not  as  ministers  of 
worship,  but  as  officers  of  Justice.  For  they 
were  “  chosen  to  minister-to  God,  to  bless  the 
people,  and  to  pronounce  sentence  as  to  every 
stroke.”  P.  F. 

The  heifer  was  not  a  sacrifice,  since  no  atone¬ 
ment  might  be  brought  for  an  intentional  mur¬ 
der.  For  this  reason  the  heifer’s  neck  was 
“  struck  off  ”  (or  broken),  executed  in  the  place 
of  the  murderer.  Therefore  the  elders  do  not, 
in  the  name  of  the  inhabitants,  lay  their  hands 
on  the  heifer  with  the  confession  of  guilt,  and 
its  blood  is  not  sprinkled  on  the  holy  place  ; 
rather  they  declare  by  a  solemn  symbolical  act 
their  innocence,  and  in  consequence  the  guilt, 
which  objectively  clings  to  the  city,  is  removed 
by  the  .symbolically  atoning  punishment.  Ge7i. 

- The  fundamental  elements  of  a  sacrifice  are 

wanting.  There  is  no  altar.  The  blood  is  not 
shed.  The  victim’s  neck  is  simply  broken.  It 
is  an  execution.  Justice  has  done  its  work  as 
far  as  it  is  possible  to  do  it  under  these  circum¬ 
stances.  The  murdered  man  has  been  avenged 
by  the  whole  community  acting  as  his  kinsman. 
The  same  form  of  words,  in  fact,  that  in  a  pre¬ 
vious  chapter  brought  to  a  close  the  execution 
of  a  wilful  homicide  (19  : 13)  also  concludes  this 
ceremony.  E.  C.  B. 

9.  Shalt  thou  put  away  tli®  iu- 

lioceilt  blood.  In  a  well-ordered  society 
life  should  be  safe.  When  it  is  proved  unsafe, 
society  cannot  plead  “  Not  guilty.”  Locally  it 
must  be  allocated,  and  so  the  city  nearest  the  vic¬ 
tim  has  the  crime  imputed  to  it.  The  sense  of 
guilt  is  distributed  territorially,  and  the  elders, 
or  representatives  of  the  people,  are  required  to 
clear  themselves  by  the  special  rite  here  de¬ 


scribed.  Sin  has  thus  wider  relations  than  to 
the  individual  who  has  committed  it.  It  may 
lie  at  the  door  of  a  city  or  of  a  neighborhood, 
and  in  their  collective  capacity  they  may  be  re¬ 
quired  to  deal  with  it.  Edgar. - We  learn  ; 

That  responsibility  attaches  to  each  and  all  in  a 
community  for  crimes  committed  in  its  midst. 
That  the  community  is  not  absolved  till  every 
effort  has  been  made  to  discover  the  perpetrators 
of  crime  and  to  bring  them  to  justice.  That 
the  punishment  of  murder  is  death.  That  to 
ignore,  connive  at,  or  encourage  crime  in  a 
community,  involves  the  authorities  in  the 
criminality  of  the  deeds  connived  at.  That  all 
parties,  the  people  (represented  by  the  elders), 
the  magistrates  (judges),  the  Church  (priests), 
are  alike  interested  in  bringing  criminals  to 
justice.  Orr. 

Such  was  the  criminal  law  of  the  Hebrews — • 
stern  indeed,  but  not  “  inhuman”  or  unjust. 
It  will  not  find  favor  with  sentimental  apolo¬ 
gists  for  crime  ;  for  it  was  not  shorn  of  its  terror 
by  those  easy  pardons  which  take  away  the 
dread  of  punishment,  and  almost  the  sense  of 
guilt,  Moses  believed  in  nAW,  and  that  law  was 
made  to  be  obeyed.  •  No  law-breaker  found  in¬ 
dulgence  from  him.  Yet  never  was  a  lawgiver 
more  gentle  to  the  children  of  .sorrow,  and  ‘‘  lo 
all  who  are  desolate  and  opf)ressed.”  Never 
did  the  awful  form  of  justice  seem  bending  v,  itli 
more  of  compassion  for  human  weakuees  and 
infirmity,  and  for  every  grief  and  pain.  It  is 
this  mingling  of  the  tender  and  the  terrible  that 
gives  to  the  Hebrew  law  a  character  so  unique— 
a  majesty  that  awes,  with  a  gentleness  tluit 
savors  more  of  parental  affection  than  of  se¬ 
verity. 

Nor  W'as  that  law  given  to  the  Israelites  alone. 
It  W’as  an  inheritance  for  all  ages  and  genera¬ 
tions.  That  mighty  arm  w^as  to  protect  the  op¬ 
pressed  so  long  as  human  governments  endure. 
Moses  was  the  king  of  legislators,  and  to  the 
code  which  he  left  rulers  of  all  times  have  turned 
for  instruction.  Thence  Alfred  and  Charle¬ 
magne  derived  statutes  for  their  realms.  To 

that  code  turned  alike  the  Puritans  under  Crom- 

% 

well,  who  founded  the  Commonwealth  of  Eng¬ 
land,  and  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  who  founded  the 
Commonwealths  of  New  England.  Field. 


Section  159. 

THE  WIDOW  AND  THE  FATHERLESS  ;  THE  STRANGER  AND  THE  POOR. 
Exodus  22  :  21-27  ;  23  :  9.  Lev.  19  :  9,  10,  13,  33,  34  ;  23  :  22  ;  24  :  22  ;  25  :  35-38.  De.  10  ;  18, 

19  ;  23  : 19,  20.  24,  25  ;  24  : 6,  10-15,  17-22. 


502 


SECTION  159.  THE  WIDOW  AND  THE  FATHERLESS. 


Ex.  22  22  Ye  shall  not  afflict  any  widow,  or  fatherless  child.  If  thou  afflict  them  in  any 

23  wise,  and  they  cry  at  all  unto  me,  I  will  surely  hear  their  cry  ;  and  my  wrath  shall  wax  hot, 

24  and  I  will  kill  you  with  the  sword  ;  and  your  wives  shall  be  widows,  and  your  children 
fatherless. 

De.  24  17  Thou  shalt  not  wrest  the  judgement  of  the  stranger,  nor  of  the  fatherless  ;  nor 

18  take  the  widow’s  raiment  to  pledge  :  but  thou  shalt  remember  that  thou  wast  a  bondman  in 
Egypt,  and  the  Loei>  thy  God  redeemed  thee  thence  ;  therefore  I  command  thee  to  do  this  thing. 

De.  10  18  He  doth  execute  the  judgement  of  the  fatherless  and  widow,  and  loveth  the 

19  stranger,  in  giving  him  food  and  raiment.  Love  ye  therefore  the  stranger  :  for  ye  were 
strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt. 

Ex.  2J{  9  And  a  stranger  shalt  thou  not  oppress  :  for  ye  know  the  heart  of  a  stranger,  see¬ 
ing  ye  were  strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt. 

Lev.  19  33  And  if  a  stranger  sojourn  with  thee  in  your  land,  ye  shall  not  do  him  wrong. 

34  The  stranger  that  sojourneth  with  you  shall  be  unto  you  as  the  home-born  among  you,  and 
thou  shalt  love  him  as  thyself  ;  for  ye  were  strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt  :  I  am  the  Lord 
your  God. 

Lev.  19  9  And  when  ye  reap  the  harvest  of  your  land,  thou  shalt  not  wholly  reap  the  cor- 

10  ners  of  thy  field,  neither  shalt  thou  gather  the  gleaning  of  thy  harvest.  And  thou  shalt  not 
glean  thy  vineyard,  neither  shalt  thou  gather  the  fallen  fruit  of  thy  vineyard  ;  thou  shalt  leave 
them  for  the  poor  and  for  the  stranger  :  I  am  the  Lord  your  God. 

De.  24  19  When  thou  reapest  thine  harvest  in  thy  field,  and  hast  forgot  a  sheaf  in  the 
field,  thou  shalt  not  go  again  to  fetch  it  :  it  shall  be  for  the  stranger,  for  the  fatherless,  and 

20  for  the  widow  ;  that  the  Lord  thy  God  may  bless  thee  in  all  the  work  of  thine  hands.  When 
thou  beatesi  thine  olive  tree,  thou  shalt  not  go  over  the  boughs  again  :  it  shall  be  for  the 

21  stranger,  for  the  fatherless,  and  for  the  widow.  When  thou  gatherest  the  grapes  of  thy  vine¬ 
yard,  thou  shalt  not  glean  it  after  thee  :  it  shall  be  for  the  stranger,  for  the  fatherless,  and  for 

22  the  widow.  And  thou  shalt  remember  that  thou  wast  a  bondman  in  the  land  of  Egypt  :  there¬ 
fore  I  command  thee  to  do  this  thing. 

De.  23  24  When  thou  comest  into  thy  neighbour’s  vineyard,  then  thou  mayest  eat  grapes 

25  thy  fill  at  thine  own  pleasure  ;  but  thou  shalt  not  put  any  in  thy  vessel.  When  thou  comest 
into  thy  neighbour’s  standing  corn,  then  thou  mayest  pluck  the  ears  with  thine  hand  ;  but 
thou  shalt  not  move  a  sickle  unto  thy  neighbour’s  standing  corn. 

Ex.  22  25  If  thou  lend  money  to  any  of  my  people  with  thee  that  is  poor,  thou  shalt  not 
be  to  him  as  a  creditor  ;  neither  shall  ye  lay  upon  him  usury. 

Lev.  25  35  And  if  thy  brother  be  waxen  poor,  and  his  hand  fail  with  thee  ;  then  thou  shalt 

36  uphold  him  :  us  a  stranger  and  a  sojourner  shall  he  live  with  thee.  Take  thou  no  usury  of 

37  him  or  increase  ;  but  fear  thy  God  :  that  thy  brother  may  live  with  thee.  Thou  shalt  not  give 

38  him  thy  money  upon  usury,  nor  give  him  thy  victuals  for  increase.  I  am  the  Lord  your  God, 
which  brought  you  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  to  give  you  the  land  of  Canaan,  to  be  your 
God. 

De.  23  19  Thou  shalt  not  lend  upon  usury  to  thy  brother  ;  usury  of  money,  usury  of 

20  victuals,  usury  of  anj^  thing  that  is  lent  upon  usury  :  unto  a  foreigner  thou  mayest  lend  upon 
usury  ;  but  unto  thy  brother  thou  shalt  not  lend  upon  usury  ;  that  the  Lord  thy  God  may 
bless  thee  in  all  that  thou  puttest  thine  hand  unto,  in  the  land  whither  thou  goest  in  to  pos¬ 
sess  it. 

De.  24  10  When  thou  dost  lend  thy  neighbour  any  manner  of  loan,  thou  shalt  not  go  into 

11  his  house  to  fetch  his  pledge.  Thou  shalt  stand  without,  and  the  man  to  whom  thou  dost 

12  lend  shall  bring  forth  the  pledge  without  unto  thee.  And  if  he  be  a  poor  man,  thou  shalt  not 

13  sleep  with  his  pledge  :  thou  shalt  surely  restore  to  him  the  pledge  when  the  sun  goeth  down, 
that  he  may  sleep  in  his  garment,  and  bless  thee  :  and  it  shall  be  righteousness  unto  thee 
before  the  Lord  thy  God. 

Ex.  22  26  If  thou  at  all  take  thy  neighbour’s  garment  to  pledge,  thou  shalt  restore  it  unto 

27  him  by  that  the  sun  goeth  down  :  for  that  is  his  only  covering,  it  is  his  garment  for  his  skin  : 
wherein  shall  he  sleep  ?  and  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  he  crieth  unto  me,  that  I  will  hear  ; 
for  I  am  gracious. 

De.  24  6  No  man  shall  take  the  mill  or  the  upper  millstone  to  pledge  :  for  he  taketh  a 
man’s  life  to  pledge. 


THE  WIDOW,  FATHERLESS,  AND  STRANGER. 


503 


li  Thou  shalt  not  oppress  an  hired  servant  that  is  poor  and  needy,  whether  he  be  of  thy  breth- 
15  ren,  or  of  thy  strangers  that  are  in  thy  land  within  thy  gates  :  in  his  day  thou  shalt  give  him 
his  hire,  neither  shall  the  sun  go  down  upon  it  ;  for  he  is  poor,  and  setteth  his  heart  upon  it  : 
lest  he  cry  against  thee  unto  the  Lord,  and  it  be  sin  unto  thee. 

Lev.  19  13  Thou  shalt  not  oppress  thy  neighbour,  nor  rob  him  ;  the  wages  of  a  hired  ser¬ 
vant  shall  not  abide  with  thee  all  night  until  the  morning. 

{Only  two  or  three  equivalent  texts  omitted.'] 


No  portion  of  our  study  of  this  Divine  legis¬ 
lation  has  more  profoundly  affected  us  than  the 
precepts  grouped  in  this  and  the  following  sec¬ 
tions.  The  text  itself,  if  thoroughly  pondered, 
seems  scarcely  to  require  exposition  or  com¬ 
ment.  We  earnestly  bespeak  the  reader’s  delib¬ 
erate  and  thoughtful  reading  before  proceeding 
to  the  explanatory  and  suggestive  paragraphs 
that  follow.  B. 

How  imperfectly  do  those  understand  the  He¬ 
brew  legislation,  who  accuse  it  of  inhumanity  ! 
Its  distinctive  character  is  gentleness  and  benefi¬ 
cence.  No  ancient  legislation  will  bear  a  mo¬ 
ment’s  comparison  with  it  in  this  respect.  It 
forbids  to  cherish  sentiments  of  hatred  and  re¬ 
venge.  It  enjoins  the  forgetfulness  of  injuries, 
the  cultivation  of  mutual  love,  and  the  practice 
of  kindness  even  to  enemies.  It  commands  re¬ 
spect  and  compassion  toward  the  aged,  the 
deaf,  and  the  blind.  It  enjoins  that  the  travel¬ 
ler  uncertain  of  his  route  be  directed  in  the 
right  way.  It  requires  benevolence  and  gener¬ 
osity  toward  the  poor,  the  widow,  the  orphan, 
and  the  stranger.  For  them  the  corners  of  the 
field  were  to  remain  unreaped,  and  the  forgotten 
sheaf  was  to  be  left  where  it  had  fallen.  For 
them  the  husbandman  was  forbidden  to  go  over 
his  corn  patch  a  second  time,  or  to  twice  glean 
the  grapes  of  his  vineyard  and  shake  the  boughs 
of  his  olive  trees.  E.  C.  W. 

The  Mosaic  Law  was  infinitely  superior  in 
point  of  humanity  to  all  the  institutions  of  the 
most  celebrated  lawgivers  of  antiquity.  It 
abounds  with  injunctions  of  mercy  and  pity, 
not  only  to  Jews  but  to  strangers,  to  enemies, 
and  even  to  those  who  had  most  cruelly  op¬ 
pressed  and  injured  them.  The  Divine  legisla¬ 
tion  thought  no  creature  below  its  notice  ;  and 
extended  itself  to  the  minutest  articles  of  social 
and  domestic  life,  which,  though  unnoticed  by 
less  benevolent  lawgivers,  do  in  fact  constitute 
a  very  great  and  essential  part  of  human  happi¬ 
ness  and  misery.  Porteous. 

The  Widow  and  the  Fathebdess. 

Ex.  22  : 22-24.  De.  10  ;  18  ;  24  ;  17,  18. 

Ex.  22  :  22-24.  Ye  i^liall  not  afflict 
any  widow,  or  fatherless  child.  Je¬ 
hovah  here  avows  himself  the  husband  of  the 
widow  and  the  father  of  the  orphan.  He  vir¬ 


tually  says  of  himself,  what  is  emphatically 
affirmed  by  the  Psalmist  (Ps.  68  : 5),  “  A  father 
of  the  fatherless  and  a  judge  of  the  widow,  is 
God  in  his  holy  habitation.”  In  thus  forbid¬ 
ding  his  people  to  afflict  widows  and  orphans 
he  does  in  fact  enjoin  upon  them  to  comfort 
and  assist  them,  and  to  be  ready  on  all  occa¬ 
sions  to  show  them  kindness.  Bush. - -The 

Law  took  under  its  care  all  whom  death  had 
deprived  of  their  natural  protectors.  They  were 
sacred  by  misfortune.  God  would  j)unish 
cruelty  to  them  :  “  If  thou  afflict  them  in  any 
wise,  and  they  cry  unto  me,  I  will  surely  hear 
their  cry  ;  and  your  wives  shall  he  widows,  and 
your  children  fatherless."  Thus  under  the  He¬ 
brew  law,  sorrow,  widowhood,  orphanage,  all 
threw  a  shield  of  protection  over  the  desolate 
and  the  unhappy.  Field. 

It  is  remarkable  that  offences  against  this  law 
are  not  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  judges  to  be 
punished  ;  God  reserves  the  punishment  to 
himself.  It  is  no  common  crime,  and  shall  not 
be  punished  in  a  common  way  ;  the  wrath  of 
God  shall  wax  hot  against  him  who  in  any  wise 
afflicts  or  wrongs  a  widow,  or  a  fatherless  child  ; 
and  we  may  rest  assured,  that  he  who  hel'ps 
either,  does  a  service  highly  acceptable  in  the 

sight  of  God.  A.  C. - Those  whom  God  makes 

his  especial  charge  can  never  be  injured  or  as¬ 
sailed  with  impunity.  Let  the  parallel  mo- 
nition  therefore  of  the  wise  man  be  reverently  re¬ 
garded  (Prov.  23  : 11),  “  Enter  not  into  the  fields 
of  the  fatherless  ;  for  their  Redeemer  is  mighty  ; 
he  shall  plead  their  cause  with  thee.”  Bush. 

The  Stranger. 

Ex.  22  : 21.  Lev.  19  : 33,  34  ;  24  : 22.  De.  10  ;  19. 

The  spirit  of  the  Hebrew  law  was  broader 
than  race,  or  country,  or  kindred.  Among  the 
ancients  generally  a  foreigner  had  no  rights  in 
any  country  but  his  own.  In  some  languages 
the  very  word  “  stranger”  was  synonymous 
with  enemy.  Against  these  race  hatreds  Moses 
set  up  this  command,  “  Thou  shalt  not  oppress 
a  stranger” — which  he  enforced  upon  the  IsraeL 
ites  by  the  touching  remembrance  of  their  own 
bitter  experience — for  ye  know  the  heart  of  a 
stranger,  seeing  ”  ye  were  strangers  in  the  land 
of  Egypt.”  But  not  only  were  foreigners  to  be 


504 


SECTION  159.  THE  STRANGER  AND  THE  POOR. 


tolerated  ;  they  were  to  receive  the  fullest  pro¬ 
tection  :  “  Ye  shall  have  one  manner  of  law  as 
well  for  the  stranger  as  for  one  of  your  own 
country.”  If  they  chose  to  be  naturalized,  they 
became  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  of  Hebrews. 
Fidd. 

Ex.  :  *21,  A  §traiig^or  tlioii 

Eiot  Avronj;,  saciHier  oppress  iiiiii. 

This  was  not  only  a  humane  law,  but  it  was  a 
sound  i:)olicy.  D  >  not  wrong  a  stranger remem¬ 
ber  ye  were  strangers.  Do  not  oppress  a 
stranger  ;  remember  ye  were  oppressed.  There¬ 
fore  do  unto  all  men  as  ye  would  they  should 
do  to  you.  Let  strangers  be  well  treated  among 
you  acd  many  will  come  among  you,  and  the 
strength  of  your  country  will  be  increased.  If 
refugees  of  this  kind  be  treated  well  they  will 
becomes  proselytes  to  your  religion,  and  thus 
their  souls  may  be  saved.  In  every  point  of 
view,  therefore,  justice,  humanitj",  sound  polic}^ 
and  religion,  say — Neither  wrong  nor  oppress  a 
stranger.  A.  C. 

Eev,  lf>  :  34.  Tliou  love  Iiiin 

a§  til  J’seir.  The  apostle  makes  use  of  a  strong 
argument  to  induce  men  to  hospitality  toward 
strangers.  Be  not  forgetful  to  entertain  strangers, 
for  thereby  some  have  entertained  angels  unawares. 
Moses  also  uses  a  powerful  motive  :  ye  were 
strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  A.  C. - The  pur¬ 

pose  of  this  humane  law  was,  as  these  words 
show,  to  keep  Israel  in  mind  that  it  was  only  of 
God’s  grace  that  he  had  been  chosen  above  all 
other  people  ;  and  that  they  who  were  now  de¬ 
fenceless  strangers,  might  also  some  day  become 
God’s  people.  All  other  ancient  nations,  espe¬ 
cially  the  Egyptians,  were  notoriously  unkind 
to  strangers.  Gerl. 

Dc.  10  :  B8.  As  the  God  of  the  wdiole  earth, 
he  lovelli  tlic  Granger,  helpless  or  op¬ 
pressed,  and  givelEa  Iiiiii  food  and  rai- 

iiieal.  Following  him,  Israel,  as  his  people, 
were  to  be  benevolent  to  the  stranger,  inasmuch 
as  they  themselves  knew  by  experience  what  it 
was  to  be  a  stranger.  They  were  to  love  the 
stranger  as  God  loves  him,  by  relieving  his 
necessities.  W.  L.  A. 

B.,ev. 24  : 22.  Yc sHiaBIliai'e oac man¬ 
ner  of  law,  as  well  for  iSie  stranger, 

as  for  one  of  your  own  country.  Equal  laws,  where 
each  individual  receives  the  same  protection  and 
the  same  privileges,  are  the  boast  only  of  a  sound 
political  constitution.  He  who  respects  and  dbtys 
the  laws  has  a  right  to  protection  and  support ; 
and  his  person  and  property  are  sacred  in  the 
sight  of  justice.  Therefore  each  individual  in 
a  well-regulated  State  must  have  eqwd  rights 
and  privileges  in  everything  that  relates  to  the 


safety  of  his  person  and  the  security  of  his 
property.  Such  was  the  Mosaic  code.  A.  C. 

The  Supply  and-  Protection  of  the  Poor. 

No  part  of  the  code  of  Moses  seems  to  be 
more  deeply  imbued  with  the  tenderness  and 
pity  of  the  Lord  than  the  provisions  made  for 
the  poor,  and  tbe  restrictions  and  limitations 
upon  personal  servitude.  In  all  his  utterances 
on  these  points  tho  Lord  assumes  that  no  inter¬ 
ests  of  man  more  need  his  protection  than  these, 
and  he  comes  promptly  to  the  front  to  give  it. 
He  would  have  us  know  that  over  these  inter¬ 
ests  his  watchful  eye  never  sleeps  ;  his  quick 
ear  is  never  shut  to  any  cry  for  help.  The  rich 
and  the  mighty  may  get  on  without  his  special 
aid  ;  the  poor  are  his  own  wards  and  shall 
never  lack  his  sympathy  nor  his  present  hand. 
Human  laws  are  in  gi  eat  part  worthless— at  least 
they  miss  their  most  important  function— un¬ 
less  they  make  it  their  chief  endeavor  to  protect 
the  interests  and  rights  of  those  who,  powerless 
in  themselves,  rest  upon  the  strong  arm  of  law 
for  their  defence.  H.  C. 

The  Open  Hand  and  Heart  Enjoined  {Be. 
15  :  7-11).  He  commands  that  the  poor  brother 
shall  be  relieved.  “  Thou  shalt  not  harden  thy 
heart,  nor  shut  thy  hand,’^  he  says,  “from  thy 
poor  brother.”  But  beyond  this  point,  where 
mere  human  law  must  stop  short,  he  goes  on  to 
say  :  “  And  thy  heart  shall  not  be  grieved  when 
thou  givest  unto  him”  (verse  10).  He  enjoins 
upon  masters  that  they  load  their  departing 
slaves  with  gifts  and  rewards  :  “  Thou  shalt 
furnish  him  liberally  out  of  thy  flock  and  out 
of  thy  floor  and  out  of  thy  wine-press,  ”  But  it 
is  no  injunction,  it  is  a  moving  entreaty  ,  when 
he  adds  :  “  It  shall  not  seem  hard  unto  thee 
when  thou  sendest  him  away  free  from  thee.” 
E.  C.  B. 

The  declaration,  “  There  shall  always  be  poor 
in  the  land  ;  therefore  I  command  thee  to  open 
thine  hand  to  thy  brother,  and  to  the  poor  and 
needy  in  thy  land  ”  (verse  11),  does  not  encour¬ 
age  begging,  but  exhorts  to  anticipate  and  to 
supply  the  wants  of  the  needy.  The  idea  of 
anticipating  and  preventing  forms  the  basis  of 
the  whole  system  of  the  poor  laws  enacted  in 
the  Pentateuch.  Ginsburg. 

Gleanings  of  the  Harvest  ani>  Vintage. 

Lev.  19  :  9,  10  ;  23  :  22.  Be.  24  : 19-22. 

Ecv.  1J>  ;  9.  When  yc  reap  tlie  har¬ 
vest  of  your  land,  thou  shalt  not 
wholly  reap.  Heb.,  thou  shalt  not  finish, 
make  a  full  end  of  the  corner  of  thy  field ;  thou 
I  shalt  not  make  a  clean  riddance  of  it.  On  this 


GLEANINGS  OF  HARVEST  AND  VINTAGE. 


505 


precept  the  Jewish  canons  remark,  “  He  that 
reapeth  his  field  must  not  reap  all  the  field 
wholly  ;  but  must  leave  a  little  standing  corn 
for  the  poor  in  the  end  of  the  field,  whether  he 
cut  it  or  pluck  it  up  :  and  that  which  is  left  is 
called  the  corner.”  And  so  of  the  trees,  when 
he  gathereth  their  fruit  he  must  leave  a  little 
for  the  poor.  And  so  also  in  respect  to  the  scat¬ 
tered  grape-clusters  of  the  vintage.  The  rule 
thus  given  was  intended  for  the  benefit  not 
only  of  the  poor,  but  also  of  the  stranger ;  for 
as  strangers  and  foreigners  could  not  hold  their 
possessions  on  the  same  advantageous  terms  as 
native  Israelites,  they  were  very  liable  to  be  op¬ 
pressed  by  poverty.  It  is  easy  to  perceive  that 
the  natural  tendency  of  this  law  was  to  incul¬ 
cate  a  kindly,  liberal,  generous  spirit.  Bash. 

De.  24  :  23.  In  Deuteronomy,  the  oliveyard 
is  specified  together  with  the  harvest-field  and 
the  vineyard,  and  it  is  added  that,  if  a  sheaf  be 
by  chance  left  behind,  it  is  to  remain  for  the 
benefit  of  the  poor.  The  object  of  this  law  is 
to  inculcate  a  general  spirit  of  mercy,  which  is 
willing  to  give  up  its  own  exact  rights  in  kind¬ 
ness  to  others  suffering  from  want.  The  word 
here  used  for  vineyard  covers  also  the  olive- 
yard.  The  expression,  neither  shalt  thou  gather 
every  grape  of  thy  vineyard,  would  be  more 
literally  rendered,  neither  shall  thou  gather  the 
scattering  of  thy  vineyard,  meaning  the  berries 
(grapes  or  olives)  which  had  fallen  or  which  were 
left  singly  on  the  boughs.  F.  M. 

21,  Thou  shalt  not  glean  it  afterward  ;  lit¬ 
erally,  Thou  shaft  not  glean  after  thee — i.e.,  af¬ 
ter  thou  hast  reaped  and  gathered  for  thy¬ 
self.  It  is  still  the  custom  among  the  Arabs  for 
the  poor  to  be  allowed  to  gather  the  berries  that 
may  be  left  on  the  olive  trees  after  they  have 
been  beaten  and  the  main  produce  carried  off  by 
the  owner.  All  the  injunctions  in  this  section 
lire  adapted  to  preserve  relations  of  brotherliness 
and  love  among  the  people  of  the  Lord.  W.  L.  A. 

Piety  which  begins  and  ends  in  acts  of  devo¬ 
tion  is  one  that  may  be  reasonably  suspected  ; 
it  is  not  of  the  scriptural  order.  PhilanthrojDy 
may  not  have  its  synonym  in  the  Old  Testament, 
but  the  Hebrew  legislator  was  not  ignorant  of 
the  idea,  and  the  Hebrew  people  were  not  left 
without  iu'-itement  to  the  thing  itself.  Hence 
these  injunctions  to  leave  some  corn  in  their 
fields,  and  scattered  ears  for  the  reaping  and 
gleaning  of  the  poor  ;  to  leave  also  some  clus¬ 
ters  of  grapes  for  needy  hands  to  pluck  to 
take  no  advantage  of  the  weaker  members 
of  their  society  ;  and  to  show  kindness  to  the 
stranger.  W.  C. 

fi>e,  21 : 19.  Tliat  tlie  L.ord  thy  Ood 


’  may  blc$§  thee.  Charity  to  their  poor 
brethren  had  many  promises  of  a  great  reward  ; 
and  this  law  was  made  peculiarly  for  their  relief. 
God  ordered  them  all  to  live  together  as  breth¬ 
ren,  children  of  the  same  father  ;  and  de¬ 
scended,  as  indeed  they  all  were,  from  one  and 
the  same  original.  To  this  end  all  these  pre¬ 
cepts  were  given  which  require  them  to  lend 
gratuitously  to  their  poor  brother  ;  to  restore 
the  pledge  left  with  them  ;  to  leave  the  corners 
of  their  fields  unreaped  ;  not  to  gather  the 
gleanings  of  the  harvest  and  vintage  ;  and  to 
observe  the  year  of  release  and  of  jubilee. 

Patrick. - It  is  His  honor,  and  will  be  ours,  to 

help  the  helpless.  And  if  we  thus  serve  God 
and  do  good  with  what  we  have,  it  is  promised 
here  that  the  Lord  our  God  will  hless  us  in  all  the 
work  of  our  hand.  The  blessing  of  God  descends 
upon  the  giving  hand  ;  he  that  thus  scatters 
certainly  increases,  and  the  liberal  soul  will  be 
made  fat.  It  is  an  undoubted  truth,  though 
little  believed,  that  to  be  charitable  to  the  poor, 
and  to  be  free  and  generous  in  the  support  of 
religion  and  any  good  work,  is  the  surest  and 
safest  way  of  thriving.  What  is  lent  to  the  Lord 
will  he  repaid  loith  abundant  interest  (Ezek. 
44  : 30).  H. 

I>e.  23  : 24,  25.  Tlioii  mayest  eat 
grape§  ,  .  .  pluck  the  ears.  The  Law 

enacted  that  the  poor  should  have  a  claim  to  a 
certain  portion  of  the  produce  of  the  ground. 
Hence,  when  a  man  was  hungry  he  had  a  right 
to  go  to  any  field  or  vineyard,  and  eat  as  much 
corn  or  grapes  as  would  satisfy  his  hunger. 
Acting  upon  this  right,  the  disciples  who,  with 
Jesus,  went  on  the  Sabbath-day  through  the 
corn,  when  they  “  were  an  hungered  began  to 
pluck  the  ears  of  corn,  and  to  eat.”  Ginshurg. 

- The  quantity  plucked  was  a  loss  never  felt 

by  the  proprietor,  and  it  was  a  kindly  privilege 
afforded  to  the  poor  and  wayfaring  man.  Jame¬ 
son. - Thou  mayest  take  for  necessity,  not  for 

superfluity.  2'rapp. - In  other  words,  the 

hungry  was  regarded  as  having  a  right  to  satisfy 
the  cravings  of  nature  and  to  pass  on.  And 
when  it  was  placed  on  the  statute-book  as  a 
right,  it  saved  the  poor  man’s  self-respect  and 
never  interfered  with  his  personal  freedom. 
This  “poor-law”  gives  man  his  need  without 
asking  him  to  surrender  his  liberty.  It  meets 
the  pressing  necessity  without  destroying  the 
person’s  legitimate  self-respect.  Edgar. 

Usury,  or  the  Emotion  of  Interest. 

Ex.  22  : 25-27.  Lev.  25  : 35-38.  De.  23  : 19-21  ; 

24  :  6,  10-13. 

Exacting  interest  for  what  was  loaned  to 


506 


SECTION  159.  USURY.  PLEDGES  FOR  LOANS. 


Israelitisli  brethren  is  forbidden  in  eacb  of  the 
three  forms  of  the  legislation  of  the  Pentateuch.  I 
Each  furnishes  something  peculiar  to  itself.  In 
Exodus  the  poor  Israelite  is  spoken  of  as  one 
of  God's  people,  and  this  thought  supplies  the 
place  of  the  motives  urged  in  the  other  laws. 
In  Leviticus,  not  only  is  interest  for  money 
loaned  prohibited,  but  for  food.  In  Deuteron¬ 
omy  this  is  extended  to  anything  loaned.  Le¬ 
viticus  enjoins  that  its  provisions  shall  be  ap¬ 
plied  to  strangers  (proselytes)  and  sojourners 
who  are  casually  dwelling  among  the  Israelites 
Deuteronomy  adds,  in  harmony  with  its  special 
outlook,  that  from  foreigners  interest  for  any¬ 
thing  loaned  may  be  legally  received  ;  that  is, 
from  Phoenician,  Canaanitish,  and  other  i^ro- 
fessional  traders  with  whom  they  may  have 
dealings.  These  laws  are  completely  self- 
adjusting.  They  nicely  fit  and  complement  one 
another,  and  the  three  taken  together  form  one 
harmonious  whole.  The  question  of  conflict 
or  of  development  in  the  line  of  Exodus.  Deu¬ 
teronomy,  Leviticus,  with  a  space  of  centuries 
between  the  separate  codes,  cannot  for  a  mo¬ 
ment  be  entertained.  E.  C.  B. 

Ex.  22  :  25.  Eev.  25  ;  37.  The  rea¬ 

son  of  the  prohibition  appears  to  have  respect 
to  the  oppression  of  the  poor  ;  and  it  has  a 
perpetual  meaning  for  all  times  and  countries. 
That  the  lender  should  receive  compensation 
for  the  risk  he  runs,  and  the  advantage  he  con¬ 
fers  on  the  borrower,  is  not  only  fair,  but  like¬ 
wise  mutually  advantageous.  A  literal  prohibi¬ 
tion  of  usury  would  make  loans  very  rare,  and 
thus  act  injuriously  on  the  borrower,  to  whom 
the  possibility  of  a  loan  on  interest  is  of  the 
greatest  service.  But  in  its  spirit  the  Christian 
will  still  faithfully  observe  this  law.  He  ought 
to  regard  himself  simply  as  the  steward  of  goods 
which  do  not  belong  to  him,  but  are  only  en¬ 
trusted  to  his  keeping.  Usury  is  generally  for¬ 
bidden,  but  the  taking  of  it  from  strangers  is  at 
the  same  time  permitted.  The  relation  of  all 
Israelites  to  God  as  their  common  Lord  was 
plainly  the  ground  of  this  prohibition.  Prom 
“  his  people”  should  no  usury  be  taken  ;  and 
so  far  the  prohibition  is  a  result  of  the  general 
brotherly  love,  by  means  of  which  the  use  of  all 
earthly  goods  ought  to  be  common  to  all  men. 
The  limitation  of  this  right  to  Israelites,  and 
the  permission  to  take  usury  from  strangers, 
was  a  necessary  act  of  defence,  in  respect  to 
those  people  who  themselves  had  no  prohibition 
about  usury.  Gerl. 

The  ground  for  this  discrimination  against 
the  stranger  may  be  a  purpose  to  discourage  his 
residence  in  the  land  ;  or  it  may  be  related  to 


(  the  general  fact  that  foreigners  were  the  men 
I  of  traffic.  Tradesmen,  doing  business  on  bor¬ 
rowed  capital,  might  afford  to  pay  interest  ; 
and  on  every  principle  of  right  and  justice 
ought  to  do  so.  But  God  did  not  encourage  the 
Israelites  in  traffic  with  other  nations.  It  would 
have  been  too  perilous  to  their  morals  and  to 
their  religion.  The  reader  will  scarcely  need 
the  suggestion  that  the  Hebrew  law  against  in¬ 
terest  applies  in  our  Christian  age  only  to  the 
case  of  loans  made  to  the  poor  to  meet  their 
necessities.  The  spirit  of  the  Law  unquestion¬ 
ably  does  apply  in  such  cases,  and  does  not  ap' 
ply  to  any  other.  H.  C. 

Money  gain  is  not  the  business  of  life.  There 
are  occupations  nobler  than  money-getting. 
Contentment  is  better  than  gold.  The  culture 
of  the  mind  is  better.  The  discipline  of  the 
moral  powers  is  better.  Brotherly  kindness  is 
better.  The  diffusion  of  knowledge  is  better. 
Earthly  prosperity  is  to  be  hailed  especially  as 
a  condition  for  doing  good.  To  have  and  yet 
to  refuse  to  help  is  a  sin.  That  man’s  gold  is 
a  curse.  D.  D. 

Respecting  Pledges  Given  for  Loans. 

Dc.  24  :  10,  11.  Tliou  shall  not  g^o 
into  his  house.  If  one  had  to  take  a  pledge 
from  another,  he  was  not  to  go  into  the  house 
of  the  latter  and  take  what  he  thought  fit  ;  he 
must  stand  without,  and  summon  the  debtor  to 
produce  his  pledge.  W.  L.  A. 

How  are  the  feelings  as  well  as  the  wants  of 
the  poor  consulted  in  this  precept !  as  if  the 
legislator  had  said.  Intrude  not  into  the  abode 
of  thy  poor  brother.  He  is  not  willing  to  ex, 
pose  to  the  stranger’s  eye  the  circumstances  of 
want  and  nakedness  which  attend  his  destitute 
state  ;  or  perhaps  there  is  some  little  monu¬ 
ment  of  his  better  days  which  he  reserves  to 
console  his  misery,  and  which  he  would  not 
wish  to  be  seen  by  the  person  from  whom  he 
implores  aid  lest  he  should  demand  that  in 
pledge.  No,  says  the  Law,  the  hovel  of  the 
poor  must  be  sacred  as  an  holy  asylum  ;  neither 
the  eye  of  scorn,  the  foot  of  pride,  nor  the  hand 
of  power  must  dare  to  intrude  ;  even  the  agent 
of  mercy  must  not  enter  it  abruptly  and  unhid¬ 
den.  Graves. - -The  fine  sense  of  justice,  the 

delicacy  of  feeling,  in  these  precepts  is  certainly 
remarkable.  We  owe  it  to  God  and  we  owe  it 
to  the  humanity  which  is  in  our  poorer  brethren 
as  well  as  in  us,  that  we  treat  them  and  their 
belongings  with  precisely  the  same  amount  of 
respect  that  we  would  show  to  persons  in  a  bet- 
ter  social  position.  Orr. 

Ex.  22  : 26«  27.  De.  21 : 13.  Thou 


SECTION  160. 


507 


slialt  rcitorc  tlie  pledgee  when  the 
sun  g^oelh  down.  If  the  debtor  was  needy, 
and  being  such  could  give  in  pledge  only  some 
necessary  article,  such  as  his  upper  garment  in 
which  he  slept  at  night,  the  pledge  was  to  be 
returned  ere  nightfall,  that  the  man  might  sleep 
in  his  own  raiment,  and  have  a  grateful  feeling 
toward  his  creditor.  In  many  parts  of  the  East, 
with  the  Arabs  notably,  it  is  customary  for  the 
poor  to  sleep  in  their  outer  garment.  W.  L.  A. 

Dc,  24  ;  6,  The  mills  of  the  ancient  He¬ 
brews  probably  differed  but  little  from  those  at 
present  in  use  in  the  East.  These  consist  of 
two  circular  stones,  about  eighteen  inches  or 
two  feet  in  diameter,  the  lower  of  which  is  fixed, 
and  has  its  upper  surface  slightly  convex,  fit¬ 
ting  into  a  corresponding  concavitj"  in  the  upper 
stone.  So  essential  were  millstones  for  daily 
domestic  use,  that  they  were  forbidden  to  be 
taken  in  pledge,  in  order  that  a  man’s  family 
might  not  be  deprived  of  the  means  of  prepar¬ 
ing  their  food.  Die.  B. - He  prohibits  the 

taking  of  anything  in  pledge  which  is  necessary 
to  the  poor  for  the  support  of  existence  ;  for  in 
the  words  upper  and  nether  millstone,  he  in¬ 
cludes  all  other  instruments  which  workmen 
require  in  earning  their  daily  bread.  This  is 
sufficiently  clear  from  the  context,  where  it  is 
said,  “He  taketh  a  man’s  life  to  pledge,’’ to¬ 
gether  with  his  millstones.  He,  then,  who 


takes  in  pledge  what  supports  a  poor  man’s 
life,  it  is  as  if  he  should  take  away  bread  from 
a  starving  man,  and  thus  his  life  itself,  which  is 
sustained  by  labor.  Galv. 

De.  24:IS.  It  §liall  be  rigrliteoii§- 
ness  unto  tliee.  It  is  only  when  we  bear 
in  mind  the  laws  enacted  in  favor  of  the  poor 
that  we  can  understand  the  expression  tzedakah 
which  the  Old  Testament  uses  to  express  the 
idea  of  charity  (Prov.  10  :  2  ;  11  : 4,  etc.).  This 
expression,  which  literally  denotes  right,  acts 
of  right  or  justice,  came  to  mean  “  charity,”  be¬ 
cause,  as  we  have  seen,  according  to  the  Mosaic 
Law  the  poor  had  an  inalienable  right  to  certain 
produce  of  the  soil.  Hence  it  does  not  exactly 
correspond  to  our  term  “  alms,”  but  occupies 
the  midway  position  between  deeds  of  right  and 

of  love.  Ginsburg. - If  the  concession  be  an 

act  of  sterling  love,  pure  from  the  alloy  of  sel¬ 
fishness,  it  is  an  act  of  righteousness — the  fruit 
of  the  Divine  Spirit’s  grace.  This  is  not  self- 
righteousness,  for  genuine  love  to  men  is  a  gra¬ 
cious  affection.  It  does  not  begin  with  self  ;  it 
does  not  terminate  in  self.  God  is  its  object  ; 
hence  it  shall  be  counted  for  righteousness.  As 
Abraham’s  faith  counted  for  righteousness,  so 
does  also  genuine  love.  D.  D. 

Oppeession  of  the  Hikeling. 

De.  24  : 14,  15.  This  needs  no  comment.  B. 


Section  160. 

HUMANE  AND  MERCIFUL  PRECEPTS. 

Exodus  23  : 4,  5,  19.  De.  14  :  21  ;  20  :  5-7  ;  21  : 10-17  ;  22  : 1-4,  6-8  ;  24  :  5  ;  25  : 4. 

De.  22  8  When  thou  buildest  a  new’  house,  then  thou  shalt  make  a  battlement  for  thy  roof, 
that  thou  bring  not  blood  upon  thine  house,  if  any  man  fall  from  thence. 

De.  24  5  When  a  man  taketh  a  new  wife,  he  shall  not  go  out  in  the  host,  neither  shall  he 
be  charged  with  any  business  :  he  shall  be  free  at  home  one  year,  and  shall  cheer  his  wife 
which  he  hath  taken. 

De.  20  5  And  the  officers  shall  speak  unto  the  people,  saying.  What  man  is  there  that  hath 
built  a  new  house,  and  hath  not  dedicated  it?  let  him  go  and  return  to  his  house,  lest  he  dje 

6  in  the  battle,  and  another  man  dedicate  it.  And  what  man  is  there  that  hath  planted  a  vine¬ 
yard,  and  hath  not  used  the  fruit  thereof?  let  him  go  and  return  unto  his  house,  lest  he  dje 

7  in  the  battle,  and  another  man  use  the  fruit  thereof.  And  what  man  is  there  that  hath  be¬ 
trothed  a  wife,  and  hath  not  taken  her  ?  let  him  go  and  return  unto  his  house,  lest  he  die  in 
the  battle,  and  another  man  take  her. 

De.  21  10  When  thou  goest  forth  to  battle  against  thine  enemies,  and  the  Loed  thy  God 

11  delivereth  them  into  thine  hands,  and  thou  carriest  them  away  captive,  and  seest  among  the 
captives  a  beautiful  woman,  and  thou  hast  a  desire  unto  her,  and  wouldest  take  her  to  thee  to 

12  wife  ;  then  thou  shalt  bring  her  home  to  thine  house  ;  and  she  shall  shave  her  head,  and  pare 

13  her  nails  ;  and  she  shall  put  the  raiment  of  her  captivity  from  off  her,  and  shall  remain  in 
thine  house,  and  bewail  her  father  and  her  mother  a  full  month  :  and  after  that  thou  shalt  go 

14  in  unto  her,  and  be  her  husband,  and  she  shall  be  thy  wife.  And  it  shall  be,  if  thou  have  no 


508 


SECTION  160.  IILCWANE  AND  AIERCIFUL  PRECEPTS. 


delight  in  her,  then  thou  shalt  let  her  go  whither  she  will  ;  but  thou  shalt  not  sell  her  at  all 
for  money,  thou  shalt  not  deal  with  her  as  a  slave,  because  thou  hast  humbled  her. 

15  If  a  man  have  two  wives,  the  one  beloved,  and  the  other  hated,  and  they  have  borne  him 
children,  both  the  beloved  and  the  hated  ;  and  if  the  firstborn  son  be  hers  that  was  hated  ; 

16  then  it  shall  be,  in  the  day  that  he  causeth  his  sons  to  inherit  that  which  he  hath,  that  he 
may  not  make  the  son  of  the  beloved  the  firstborn  before  the  son  of  (he  hated,  which  is  the 

17  firstborn  :  but  he  shall  acknowdedge  the  firstborn,  the  son  of  the  hated,  by  giving  him  a  double 
portion  of  all  that  he  hath  :  for  he  is  the  beginning  of  his  strength  ;  the  right  of  the  firstborn 
is  his. 

Ex.  23  4  If  thou  meet  thine  enemy’s  ox  or  his  ass  going  astray,  thou  shalt  surely  bring  it 
5  back  to  him  again.  If  thou  see  the  ass  of  him  that  hateth  thee  lying  under  his  burden,  and 
wouldest  forbear  to  helj)  him,  thou  shalt  surely  helt>  with  him. 

De.  22  1  Thou  shalt  not  see  thy  brother’s  ox  or  his  sheep  go  astray,  and  hide  thyself  from 
d  them  :  thou  shalt  surely  bring  them  again  unto  Ihy  brother.  And  if  thy  brother  be  not  nigh 
unto  thee,  or  if  thou  know  him  not,  then  thou  shalt  bring  it  home  to  thine  house,  and  it  shall 

3  be  wdth  thee  until  thy  brother  seek  after  it,  and  thou  shalt  restore  it  to  him  again.  And  so 
shalt  thou  do  with  his  ass  ;  and  so  shalt  thou  do  with  his  garment  ;  and  so  shalt  thou  do  with 
every  lost  thing  of  tliy  brother’s,  which  he  hath  lost,  and  thou  hast  found  :  thou  mayest  not 

4  hide  thyself.  Thou  shalt  not  see  thy  brother’s  ass  or  his  ox  fallen  down  by  the  way,  and  hide 
thyself  from  them  :  thou  shalt  surely  help  him  to  lift  them  up  again. 

De.  25  4  Thou  shalt  not  muzzle  the  ox  when  he  tread eth  out  the  corn. 

■Ex.  23  19  ;  34  26.  De.  14  21.  Thou  shalt  not  seethe  a  kid  in  its  mother’s  milk. 

De.  22  6  If  a  bird’s  nest  chance  to  be  before  thee  in  the  way,  in  any  tree  or  on  the  ground, 
with  young  ones  or  eggs,  and  the  dam  sitting  upon  the  young,  or  upon  the  eggs,  thou  shalt 
7  not  take  the  dam  with  the  young  :  thou  shalt  in  any  wise  let  the  dam  go,  but  the  young  thou 
mayest  take  unto  thyself  ;  that  it  may  be  well  with  thee,  and  that  thou  mayest  prolong  thy 
days. 


The  Hebrew  Law  code  is  sometimes  com 
pared  with  the  laws  of  the  twelve  tables  at 
Rome,  which  were  the  gathered  wisdom  of 
Greece  and  the  Italian  States,  a  thousand  years 
later  than  the  Exodus.  Several  laws  in  the  two 
codes  are  almost  the  same  ;  but  in  breadth  of 
view  and  in  humaneness  of  feeling,  the  Hebrew 
fiir  surpasses  the  Roman.  Sime. 

God  has  written  nothing  to  be  thrown  aside. 
The  oldest  records  still  give  us  lessons  of  God 
shining  wdth  unfading  freshness  and  undimmed 
glory.  The  statutes  binding  on  Israel  in  the 
wilderness  and  in  Canaan  may  not  be  in  the 
same  sense  binding  on  our  age,  but  they  have 
not  for  this  reason  become  valueless.  They  made 
revelations  of  God  then,  truthful  and  rich  ;  they 
make  revelations  of  God  still  which  it  were  but 
small  indication  of  wisdom  or  good  sense  to 
ignore.  H.  C. 

Battlement  (or  Parapet)  upon  the  Roof  (De. 
22  ;  8),  In  building  a  house,  care  must  be 
taken  that  none  might  receive  mischief  by  fall¬ 
ing  from  it.  The  roofs  of  their  houses  were  flat 
for  people  to  walk  on,  as  appears  by  many  Scrip¬ 
tures  ;  lest  any  through  carelessness  should  fall 
off  them,  they  must  compass  them  with  battle¬ 
ments  ;  if  this  were  not  done  and  mischief  fol¬ 
lowed,  the  owner  brought  the  guilt  of  blood 
upon  his  house.  The  Jews  say,  that  by  the 
equity  of  this  law  they  were  obliged  (and  so  are 


we  too)  to  fence  or  remove  everything  by  which 
life  may  be  endangered,  as  to  cover  draw-wells, 
keep  bridges  in  repair,  and  the  like  ;  lest  if  any 
perish  through  our  omission,  their  blood  be 
required  at  our  hand.  H. 

Exemptions  from  MilUary  and  Public  Service. 
Each  estate  was  held  on  the  tenure  of  military 
service  ;  all  Israel  was  one  standing  army. 
Some  curious  exemptions  were  made,  which 
show  the  attention  of  the  lawgiver  to  the  agri¬ 
cultural  habits  and  domestic  comfort  of  his 
people.  Milman. 

S>e.  24  :  5.  A  man  newly  married  was  to  be 
exempt  from  going  to  war,  and  was  not  to  have 
any  public  burdens  imposed  on  him  for  a  year 

after  his  marriage.  W.  L.  A. - By  this  law 

God  showed  how  he  approved  of  holy  wedlock, 
when,  to  encourage  the  newly  married  against  the 
cumbrances  which  that  estate  bringeth  with  it, 
and  to  settle  their  love  each  to  other,  he  ex¬ 
empted  those  men  from  all  wars,  cares,  and  ex¬ 
penses.  Ainsworth. 

I>e.  20  :  5-7.  Three  classes  were  exempted 
from  service  in  war  :  (1)  He  who  had  built  a 
house,  but  had  not  dedicated  it  (2)  He  who 
had  planted  a  vineyard,  but  had  not  eaten  of 
its  fruit.  (3)  He  who  had  betrothed  a  wife,  but 
had  not  married  her.  There  would  obviously 
be  a  disinclination,  when  war  was  imminent,  to 
acquire  property,  to  institute  improvements,  or 


HUMANE  AND  MERCIFUL  PRECEPTS. 


509 


to  enter  into  any  new  engagements.  This  pro¬ 
vision  of  the  Law  would  so  far  counteract  the 
tendency  of  war-like  rumors  to  paralyze  indus¬ 
try  and  the  arrangements  of  domestic  life.  Orr. 


I>e.  21  :  10-14.  If  an  Israelite  saw  among 
captives  taken  in  war  a  woman  fair  of  avspect, 
and  loved  her  and  took  her  to  be  his  wife,  he 
was  to  allow  her  a  full  month  to  mourn  her  lost 
kindred  and  become  accustomed  to  her  new 
condition,  before  he  consummated  his  union 
with  her.  This  refers  to  captives  from  other 
nations  than  those  of  Canaan,  with  whom  the 
Israelites  were  to  form  no  alliance  and  not  to 
take  captive,  but  either  wholly  destroy  or  render 
tributary.  W.  L.  A. - The  captor  could  re¬ 

duce  her  to  slavery.  But  if  ho  chose  to  make 
her  his  wife,  he  conveyed  to  her  rights  which 
could  not  be  alienated.  It  became  henceforth 
his  duty  to  protect  her  and  all  her  interests 
God  threw  around  her  the  shield  of  his  sacred 
Law.  D.  D. 

lie.  21  :  15-17.  If  a  man  have  two  wives, 
one  of  whom  is  a  favorite  and  the  other  dis¬ 
liked,  and  if  his  firstborn  son  be  the  child  of 
the  latter,  he  is  not  to  allow  his  love  for  the 
other  to  prejudice  the  right  of  the  son,  but  must 
allow  him,  both  in  his  own  lifetime  and  in  the 
disposition  of  his  property  after  death,  the  full 
privilege  and  right  of  a  firstborn  son,  W.  L.  A. 

Straying  and  Overburdened  Animals  to  he  Restored 

or  Helped. 

Ex.  23:4:,  5.  Be.  22:1-4:. 

The  scope  of  these  precepts  is  not  only  to  in¬ 
culcate  mercy  toward  the  brute  creation,  but 
also  to  engender  kindly  feelings  among  breth¬ 
ren.  For  what  would  tend  more  directly  to 
win  the  heart  of  an  alienated  neighbor  than 
such  an  act  of  well-timed  benevolence  ?  Bush. 

- It  was-  Moses  who,  long  before  the  era  of 

Jesus  incarnate,  announced  the  principle, 
“  Love  your  enemies  and  do  good  to  them  that 
hate  you.’'  For  it  was  one  of  the  express  pro¬ 
visions  of  Moses’  law  (Ex.  33  : 4,  o)  ;  “If  thou 
meet  thine  enemy' s  ox  or  his  ass  going  astray, 
thou  shalt  surely  bring  it  back  to  him  again. 
And  if  thou  see  the  ass  of  him  that  hatelh  thee 
lying  under  his  burden,  and  wouldst  forbear  to 
help  him,  thou  shalt  surely  help  with  him.” 
The  spirit  of  this  law  is  precisely  the  same  with 
that  of  the  ethical  code  taught  by  Jesus  in  the 
Gospel  ;  and  it  is  simply  ignorance,  or  the 
necessities  of  some  theory  that  have  led  to  the 
too  current  notion  of  the  narrow  and  less  be 
nevolent  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament  religion, 
S.  R. 


Not  only  the  ox  or  the  ass  that  had  strayed 
was  to  be  taken  and  restored  to  its  owner,  but 
articles  of  raiment,  and,  in  short,  anything  that 
had  been  lost  was,  when  found  by  another,  to 
be  carefully  kept  until  it  could  be  restored  to 

the  person  to  whom  it  belonged.  W,  L.  A. - 

We  have  here  such  express  directions  given  as 
should  have  made  of  the  Israelites  a  most  neigh¬ 
borly  people.  The  finding  of  lost  oxen,  or 
sheep,  or  asses,  or  raiment,  is  here  made  to 
carry  with  it  the  obligation  of  brotherly  kind¬ 
ness  ;  it  is  the  law  of  love  in  practice.  Edgar. 

Dc.  25  :  4.  TSioii  slialt  not  muzzle 
tlie  ox  wlaesi  lie  treadetli  out  tlie 
com.  This  prohibition  was  dictated  by  a  re¬ 
gard  to  the  rights  and  claims  of  animals  em 
ployed  in  labor  ;  but  there  is  involved  in  it  the 
general  principle  that  all  labor  is  to  be  duly  re¬ 
quited,  and  hence  it  seems  to  have  passed  into 
a  proverb,  and  was  applied  to  men  as  well  as 
the  lower  animals.  The  use  of  oxen  to  tread 
out  the  corn  and  the  rule  of  leaving  the  animals 
so  employed  unmuzzled  still  prevail  among  the 
Arabs  and  other  Eastern  peoples.  W.  L,  A. 

- This  instance  of  the  beast  that  trod  out  the 

corn  (to  which  there  is  an  allusion  in  that  of 
the  prophet,  Hos.  10  : 11),  is  put  for  all  similar 
instances.  That  which  makes  this  law  very 
remarkable  above  its  fellows  (and  which  coun¬ 
tenances  the  like  application  of  other  such 
laws),  is,  that  it  is  twice  quoted  in  the  New 
Testament,  to  show  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
people  to  give  their  ministers  a  comfortable 

maintenance.  H. - Whoever  or  whatever  does 

us  useful  service  brings  us  under  obligation. 
To  the  extent  of  our  power  we  are  bound  to  rec¬ 
ompense  such  This  sense  of  indebtedness  is 
a  channel  of  blessing  to  the  soul.  A  muzzle  is 
a  shackle  forged  by  wanton  selfishness.  D.  D. 

Tliou  §lialt  uot  ieetlie  a  kid  in  it§ 
iuotlier’§  milk  {Ex.  23  : 19  ;  34  ;  26.  De. 
14  ;  21). 

No  doubt  this  prohibition  relates  to  the  sacri¬ 
fices,  for  in  the  first  and  second  passages  it  is 
added  in  connection  with  the  offering  of  the 
first-fruits  ;  and  so  also  in  the  third  passage  •. 
“  Ye  shall  not  eat  of  anything  that  dieth  of  it¬ 
self,  etc  ,  for  thou  art  an  holy  people  unto  the 
Lord  thy  God  ;  nor  shalt  thou  seethe  a  kid  in 
his  mother’s  milk.”  God  would  not  admit  a 
monstrous  thing  in  his  sacrifices,  that  the  flesh 
of  the  young  should  be  cooked  in  its  mother’s 

milk.  Calv. - The  prohibition  suggests  the 

duty  of  cherishing  the  finer  instincts  of  our  na¬ 
ture.  The  act  here  forbidden  could  hardly  be 
called  cruelty,  the  kid  being  dead,  but  it  was 


510 


SECTION  161.  ADDITIONAL  PRECEPTS. 


unnatural.  It  is  beautiful  to  see  the  ancient 
Law  inculcating  this  rare  and  delicate  fineness 
of  feeling.  The  lesson  is  that  everything  is  to 
be  avoided  which  would  tend  to  blunt  our  moral 
sensibilities.  Orr. 

Protection  of  Birds'  Nests— a  “  Commandment 
with  Promise"  {De.  22  :  6,  7).  There  is  no  ques¬ 
tion  but  that  it  was  God’s  intention  to  accus¬ 
tom  his  people  to  study  humanity.  For  if  there 
be  one  drop  of  compassion  in  us,  it  will  never 
enter  into  our  minds  to  kill  a  little  bird,  which 
so  burns  with  love  toward  its  little  ones  as  to 
be  heedless  of  its  life,  and  to  prefer  endanger¬ 
ing  itself  to  the  desertion  of  its  eggs  or  its 

brood.  Galv. - He  who  can  wantonly  destroy 

birds’  nests  can  wantonly  do  a  hundred  other 
things  of  the  same  kind.  To  be  cruel  at  all  is 
to  be  cruel  through  and  through  the  substance 
and  quality  of  the  character.  J.  P. 

Doubtless  the  purpose  of  the  Law  was  partly 
economic  ;  but  the  special  motive  urged,  tBiat 
it  may  toe  well  with  thee,  shows  that 
higher  considerations  also  ruled.  It  seems  to 
be  but  another  specification,  or  illustration, 
under  the  Law  given  in  Leviticus  (22  :  28)  which 
prohibits  the  killing  of  an  animal  and  its  young, 


“  whether  it  be  a  cow  cr  ewe,  ”  both  in  one  day. 
There  is  no  evidence  whatever  that  the  Deuter 
onoinic  law  antedates  the  Levitical.  The  one 
looks  simply  toward  the  open  fields  and  ordi¬ 
nary  life  ;  the  other  toward  the  sanctuary  and 
its  sacrifice.  E.  C.  B. 

It  is  plain  that  in  this  small  example  are  por¬ 
trayed  more  important  relations — that  in  pity 
toward  animals  is  inculcated  mercy  toward 
men.  The  promise,  lliat  niaycst 

prolong  Illy  day§,  is  added,  according  to 
the  observation  of  the  Kabbins,  to  this  least  of 
all  commandments  as  to.  the  greatest,  “  Honor 
thy  father  and  thy  mother,  ”  in  order  to  show 
that  the  keeping  of  all  the  commandments  flows 
from  one  source.  Gerl. - This  is  a  vivid  illus¬ 

tration  of  the  minuteness  of  Divine  govern¬ 
ment,  and  as  such  it  affords  the  beginning  of 
an  argument  which  must  forever  accumulate  in 
volume  and  force,  on  the  ground  that  if  God  is 
so  careful  of  a  bird’s  nest  he  must  be  propor¬ 
tionately  careful  of  all  things  of  higher  quality. 
So  we  may  add.  If  God  is  so  careful  of  birds' 
nests,  what  must  he  be  of  human  hearts,  and 
human  homes,  and  the  destinies  of  the  human 
family  ?  J.  P, 


Section  161. 

ADDITIONAL  PEECEPTS  :  EESPECT  TO  PAEENTS,  TO  THE  SABBATH  AND  SANC¬ 
TUARY,  TO  THE  AGED,  THE  DEAF  AND  THE  BLIND,  ENJOINED.  TALE  BEAR¬ 
ING,  NEIGHBOR  HATE,  STEALING,  LYING,  DEFRAUDING  IN  SEVERAL  PARTIC¬ 
ULARS,  AND  VARIOUS  IDOLATROUS  AND  INDECENT  CUSTOMS  FORBIDDEN. 

Leviticus  19  : 3,  4,  11,  12,  14,  16-19,  27,  28,  30,  32,  35-37.  De.  14  : 1,  2  ;  19  ;  14  ;  22  :5,  9-12  ; 

23  ;  1,  2  ;  25  : 13-16. 

Lev.  19  3  Ye  shall  fear  every  man  his  mother,  and  his  father,  and  ye  shall  keep  my  sab- 
4  baths  :  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.  Turn  ye  not  unto  idols,  nor  make  to  yourselves  molten 
30  gods  :  I  am  the  Lord  your  God.  Ye  shall  keep  my  sabbaths,  and  reverence  my  sanctuary  :  I 
32  am  the  Lord.  Thou  shalt  rise  up  before  the  hoary  head,  and  honour  the  face  of  the  old  man, 
14  and  thou  shalt  fear  thy  God  :  I  am  the  Lord,  Thou  shalt  not  curse  the  deaf,  nor  put  a 

16  stumblingblock  before  the  blind,  but  thou  shalt  fear  thy  God  :  I  am  the  Lord.  Thou  shalt 
not  go  up  and  down  as  a  talebearer  among  thy  people  :  neither  shalt  thou  stand  against  the 

17  blood  of  thy  neighbour  :  I  am  the  Lord.  Thou  shalt  not  hate  thy  brother  in  thine  heart  : 

18  thou  shalt  surely  rebuke  thy  neighbour,  and  not  bear  sin  because  of  him.  Thou  shalt  not 

11  take  vengeance,  nor  bear  any  grudge  against  the  children  of  thy  people  :  I  am  the  Lord.  Ye 

12  shall  not  steal  ;  neither  shall  ye  deal  falsely,  nor  lie  one  to  another.  And  ye  shall  not  swear 

35  by  my  name  falsely,  so  that  thou  profane  the  name  of  thy  God  :  I  am  the  Lord,  Ye  shall  do 

36  no  unrighteousness  in  judgement,  in  meteyard,  in  weight,  or  in  measure.  Just  balances, 
just  weights,  a  just  ephah,  and  a  just  hin,  shall  ye  have  :  I  am  the  Lord  you'r  God,  which 

37  brought  you  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt.  And  ye  shall  observe  all  my  statutes,  and  all  my  judge¬ 
ments,  and  do  them  :  I  am  the  Lord. 

De.  13  Thou  shalt  not  have  in  thy  bag  divers  weights,  a  great  and  a  small.  Thou  shalt 

14  not  have  in  thine  house  divers  measures,  a  great  and  a  small.  A  perfect  and  just  weight  shalt 

15  thou  have  ;  a  perfect  and  just  measure  shalt  thou  have  :  that  thy  days  may  be  long  upon  the 


REVERENCE  TO  PARENTS,  ETC, 


511 


16  land  which  the  Lokd  thy  God  giveth  thee.  For  all  that  do  such  things,  euen  all  that  do  un¬ 
righteously,  are  an  abomination  unto  the  Loed  thy  God. 

De.  19  14  Thou  shalt  not  remove  thy  neighbour’s  landmark,  which  they  of  old  time  have 
set,  in  thine  inheritance  which  thou  shalt  inherit,  in  the  land  that  the  Loed  thy  God  giveth 
thee  to  possess  it. 

Lev.  19  27  Ye  shall  not  round  the  corners  of  your  heads,  neither  shalt  thou  mar  the  cor- 

28  ners  of  thy  beard.  Ye  shall  not  make  any  cuttings  in  your  flesh  for  the  dead,  nor  print  any 
marks  upon  you  :  1  am  the  Loed. 

De.  14  1  Ye  are  the  children  of  the  Loed  your  God  :  ye  shall  not  cut  yourselves,  nor  make 
2  any  baldness  between  your  eyes  for  the  dead.  For  thou  art  an  holy  people  unto  the  Loed  thy 
God,  and  the  Loed  hath  chosen  thee  to  be  a  peculiar  people  unto  himself,  above  all  peoples 
that  are  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 

Lev.  19  19  Ye  shall  keep  my  statutes.  Thou  shalt  not  let  thy  cattle  gender  with  a  diverse 
kind  :  thou  shalt  not  sow  thy  field  with  two  kinds  of  seed  :  neither  shall  there  come  upon 
thee  a  garment  of  two  kinds  of  stuff  mingled  together. 

.  De.  22  9  Thou  shalt  not  sow  thy  vineyard  with  two  kinds  of  seed  :  lest  the  whole  fruit  be 
forfeited,  the  seed  which  thou  hast  sown,  and  the  increase  of  the  vineyard. 

10  Thou  shalt  not  plough  with  an  ox  and  an  ass  together.  Thou  shalt  not  wear  a  mingled  stuff, 

11  wool  and  linen  together. 

12  Thou  shalt  make  thee  fringes  upon  the  four  borders  of  thy  vesture,  wherewith  thou  cover- 
est  thyself. 

5  A  woman  shall  not  wear  that  which  pertaineth  unto  a  man,  neither  shall  a  man  put  on  a 
woman’s  garment  :  for  whosoever  doeth  these  things  is  an  abomination  unto  the  Loed  thy 
God. 


You  may  perhaps  have  looked  with  astonish¬ 
ment  upon  that  indefinite  number  of  external 
ceremonies  and  statutes  with  which  Moses  en¬ 
compassed  the  children  of  the  Old  Dispensa¬ 
tion,  An  Israelite  could  scarcely  spend  a  single 
hour  without  being  reminded  of  some  one  of 
the  many  outward  duties  which  were  prescribed 
for  him.  These  outward  disciplinary  laws  were 
the  very  barrier  for  the  sinful  inclinations  of 
such  a  heart  as  was  not  swayed  by  the  Spirit. 
If  from  the  depth  of  the  Israelite’s  conscious¬ 
ness  the  feeling  did  not  force  itself  upon  him 
that  he  was  dependent,  constantly  and  in  all 
his  deeds,  upon  the  invisible  King  of  all  kings, 
still  by  such  a  system  of  outward  legal  disci¬ 
pline  this  feeling  must  have  been  ever  freshly  ex- 
’cited  in  his  bosom.  He  was  not  permitted  to 
resign  himself  to  his  impulses.  Every  one  of 
these  commands  would  be  a  fact  preaching  to 
the  heart  that  had  forgotten  its  Creator — man, 
thou  art  a  servant  of  God,  Tholuck. 

Reverence  to  Parents  and  to  Age — The  Sabbath  and 
Sanctuary.  Lev.  19  ;  3,  4,  12,  30,  32, 

3.  Ye  §tiall  fear  every  man  lii§ 
mother  and  liis  father.  The  “  fear” 
here  required  is  virtually  the  same  with  the 
honor  commanded  by  the  fifth  commandment. 
It  includes  inward  reverence  and  esteem,  out¬ 
ward  expression  of  respect,  obedience  to  the 
lawful  commands  of  parents,  care  and  endeavor 
to  please  and  render  them  comfortable,  and  to 
avoid  anything  that  may  offend  and  grieve 


them,  or  incur  their  displeasure.  It  will  be 
noticed  that  the  “  mother”  is  mentioned  before 
the  “father.”  The  two  precepts,  ‘‘Honor  thy 
father  and  thy  mother,”  and  “  Fear  thy  mother 
and  thy  father,  ”  when  taken  together  plainly 
evince  that  both  father  and  mother  are  to  be 
regarded  as  entitled  to  equal  tokens  of  honor, 
respect,  and  reverence.  Bush. 

And  keep  my  ISabbatlis.  Fearing  par¬ 
ents  and  keeping  the  Sabbath  are  associated 
here  as  they  are  in  the  Decalogue,  where  they 
unite  the  first  and  second  tables  of  the  Law — 
our  duty  to  God  and  our  duty  to  man.  Kever- 
ence  to  parents  is  the  foundation  of  all  piety 
and  equity.  Up  to  the  years  of  discretion  the 
parent  is  in  the  place  of  God  to  the  child.  Kev- 
erence  for  the  parents  and  their  faithful  lessons 
will  beget  reverence  for  God  in  the  heart.  The 
Sabbath  is  the  appointed  season  of  rest  from 
labor,  of  leisure  for  holy  converse,  of  convoca¬ 
tion  for  religious  instruction  and  worship  in 
all  our  dwelling-places.  It  is,  therefore,  the 
fountain  of  all  social  religion,  peace,  purity, 
and  liberty.  In  the  eyes  of  him  who  inspired 
the  legislator  it  stands  on  a  par  with  obedience 
to  parents,  among  the  very  pinnacles  of  holi¬ 
ness,  And  the  history  of  Jew  and  Christian 
corroborates  the  sentence  that  lays  honor  to 
parents  and  the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath  at  the 
foundation  of  all  morality  and  religion.  M. 

30.  The  command  in  this  verse  differs  from 
that  in  verse  3  by  adding  the  injunction  to  rev¬ 
erence  my  sanctuary  to  that  requiring  the  ob- 


512 


SECTION  161.  ADDITIONAL  PRECEPTS. 


servance  of  the  Sabbath.  It  is  a  matter  of  ex¬ 
perience  that  where  the  Sabbath  is  not  kept, 
God’s  sanctuary  is  not  reverenced,  and  that 
that  reverence  increases  or  falls  away  according 
as  the  obligation  of  the  Sabbatical  Law,  whether 
in  its  Jewish  form  or  its  Christian  form,  be 
more  or  less  recognized.  The  Sabbatical  ordi¬ 
nance  is  necessary  as  a  previous  condition  of 
religious  worship.  Without  it,  the  business 
and  pleasure  of  the  world  are  too  strong  to  give 
way  to  the  demands  upon  time  made  by  the 
stated  service  of  God.  The  verse  is  repeated  in 
Lev.  26  :  2  :  “  When  the  Lord’s  Day  is  kept 

holy,  and  a  holy  reverence  for  the  Lord’s  sanc¬ 
tuary  lives  in  the  heart,  not  only  are  many  sins 
avoided,  but  social  and  domestic  life  is  pervaded 
by  the  fear  of  God,  and  characterized  by  de 
voutness  and  propriety”  (Keil).  F.  M. 

These  precepts  are  enforced  on  the  simple 
supreme  authority  of  him  who  enacts  them  ;  I 
am  the  Lord  your  God— a  declaration 
which  in  this  connection  is  a  royal  signature  to 

a  solemn  edict.  Bush. - This  lofty  and  sol- 

emn  reminder  is  the  one  emphatic  sanction  an¬ 
nexed  to  all  the  Divine  precepts,  and  inform  or 
substance  to  all  Divine  promises  and  threaten 
ings.  It  is  linked,  as  we  have  already  seen,  with 
a  multitude  of  special  commands  covering  par¬ 
ticular  duties,  ritual,  moral,  and  social.  Its  ex 
pression  is  here  emphasized,  in  connection  with 
these  injunctions  concerning  personal  holiness, 
reverence  to  parents  and  elders,  keeping  the 
Sabbath  and  honoring  the  sanctuary,  turning 
from  idolatry,  stealing,  false  dealing,  lying  and 
profanity,  just  weights  and  balances,  changing 
of  landmarks,  and  hurtful  mourning  practices. 
As  we  read  the  text  in  its  orderly  arrangement 
above,  this  intensely  solemn  and  sublime  sanc¬ 
tion  constantly  repeats  its  momentous  and  im¬ 
pressive  refrain,  I  am  the  Loed  !  B. 

Lev.  19  :  32.  With  remarkable  solicitude 
the  Law  of  Moses  impresses  reverence -for  the 
authority  and  attention  to  the  wants  of  the 
aged,  delivering  as  the  direct  command  of  Je¬ 
hovah,  “  Thou  shalt  rise  up  before  the  hcary 
head,  and  honor  the  face  of  the  old  man,  and 
fear  thy  God;  I  am  the  Lord.”  How  much 
praise  have  the  Spartan  institutions  justly  ob¬ 
tained  for  cherishing  this  principle  ;  yet  how 
much  more  energetic  and  authoritative  is  the 

language  of  the  Jewish  Lawgiver  !  Graves. - 

There  is  probably  no  object  in  creation  so  fitted 
to  inspire  reverence  as  the  sight  of  the  snowy 
locks  of  the  old  man,  and  consequently  the 
duty  here  enjoined  has  been  recognized  in  all 
civilized  nations  as  one  the  violation  of  which 
is  deserving  of  the  severest  punishment.  Bush, 


Respecting  the  Deaf  and  the  Blind. 

Lev.  19  : 14. 

Cur§e  tlie  deaf.  The  general  meaning 
is,  thou  shalt  not  take  advantage  of  a  man’s  in¬ 
capacity  to  defend  himself,  and  hurt  him  either 
in  his  body,  fortunes,  or  reputation.  To  abuse 
an  absent  person,  to  calumniate  in  secret,  to 
attack  another’s  reputation  in  the  dark  and  in 
disguise,  to  defame  those  who  are  dead,  to  hurt 
in  any  manner  those  who  are  unable  to  help 
and  redress  themselves — all  this  may  be  called, 
“  to  curse  the  deaf.”  Dr.  Jortin. 

Thou  shall  not  put  a  stumbling- 
hlock  before  the  blind.  For  this  is  to 
add  affliction  to  the  afflicted,  and  to  make  God’s 
providence  a  servant  to  our  malice.  This  pro¬ 
hibition  implies  a  precept  to  help  the  blind, 
and  remove  stumbling-blocks  out  of  their  way. 
The  Jewish  writers,  thinking  it  impossible  that 
any  should  be  so  barbarous  as  to  put  a  sium- 
hling -block  in  the  way  of  the  blind,  understood  it 
figuratively,  that  it  forbids  giving  bad  counsel 
to  those  that  are  simple  and  easily  imposed 
upon,  by  which  they  may  be  led  to  do  something 
to  their  own  prejudice.  We  ought  to  take  heed 
of  doing  anything  which  may  occasion  our  weak 
brother  to  fall.  It  is  added,  as  a  preservative 
from  these  sins,  but  fear  thou  God.  “  Thou  dost 
not  fear  the  deaf  and  blind,  they  cannot  right 
themselves  ;  but  remember  it  is  the  glory  of 
God  to  help  the  helpless,  and  he  will  plead  their 
cause.”  The  fear  of  God  will  restrain  us  from 
doing  that  which  will  not  expose  us  to  men’s 
resentments.  H. 

Against  Tale-bearing  {Lev.  19  : 16). 

Go  up  and  down  as  a  tale-bearer. 

It  is  as  bad  an  office  as  a  man  can  put  himself 
into  to  be  the  publisher  of  every  man's  faults, 
divulging  what  was  secret,  aggravating  crimes; 
and  making  the  worst  of  everything  that  wna 
amiss,  with  design  to  blast  and  ruin  men’s  rep 
utation,  and  to  sow  discord  among  neighbors 
The  word  signifies  a  peddler  or  petty  chapman,  the 
interlopers  of  trade  ;  for  tale-bearers  pick  up 
ill-natured  stories  at  one  house,  and  utter  them 
at  another,  and  commonly  barter  slanders  by 
way  of  exchange.  H. 

For  the  evil  done  by  mere  idle  tale-bearing, 
see  Bishop  Butler’s  sermon  “  Upon  the  Gov. 
ernment  of  the  Tongue,”  and  four  sermons  by 
Bishop  Jeremy  Taylor  on  “  The  Good  and  Evil 
Tongue  ;  Slander  and  Flattery  ;  the  Duties  of 
the  Tongue.”  Neither  shalt  thou  stand  against 
the  blood  of  thy  neighbor  ;  that  is,  thou  shalt 
not  endanger  his  life,  which  is  the  result  of  the 


HATE,  REVENGE,  LYING  AND  FRAUD  FORBIDDEN 


513 


worst  kind  of  tale-bearing— namely,  bearing 
false  witness  against  him.  Thus  the  effect  of 
the  false  witness  of  the  two  men  of  Belial  against 
Naboth  was  that  “  they  carried  him  forth  out  of 
the  city,  and  stoned  him  with  stones,  that  he 

died.”  F.  M  - “  Standing  against  the  blood,” 

must  mean  taking  ground  against  the  very  life, 
and  must  not  be  construed  to  forbid  truthful 
testimony  against  the  real  murderer.  But  the 
informer  should  constantly  remember  that  his 
neighbor’s  interests  and  life  are  too  precious  to 
be  lightly  tampered  with.  H.  0, 

Neigkbo7'-h((te  and  Revenge  Forbidden,  Faithful 
Rebuke  Enjoined  (Lev.  19  ;  17,  18). 

This  double  precept  forms  the  introduction 
to  the  great  law,  “  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
as  thj'self  ”  (Section  110).  . 

1 7.  Tliou  §lialt  not  liate  tliy  brother 
in  thine  heart ;  for  malice  is  murder  begun. 
If  our  brother  has  done  us  an  injury,  we  must 
not  return  it  upon  him,  that  is  avenging  ;  we 
must  not  upon  every  occasion  upbraid  him  with 
it,  that  is  bearing  a  grudge  ;  but  we  must  both 
forgive  it  and  forget  it,  for  thus  we  are  forgiven 

of  God.  H. - The  Jews  explain  the  precept 

thus  :  “  When  any  man  is  sinned  against  by 
another,  he  must  not  inwardly  hate  him  and 
keep  silence  ;  as  it  is  said  of  the  wicked,  ‘  And 
Absalom  spake  unto  his  brother  Amnon  neither 
good  nor  bad,  for  Absalom  hated  Amnon  ’  (2 
Sam.  13  :  22)  ;  but  he  is  commanded  to  make  it 
known  unto  him,  and  to  say.  Why  hast  thou 
done  thus  unto  me  ?”  This  is  confirmed  by  the 
Gospel  rule  (Luke  17  : 3),  ‘‘If  thy  brother  sin 
against  thee,  rebuke  him  ;  and  if  he  repent, 
forgive  him.” 

Tlioii  shalt  ill  any  wise  rebuke  thy 
lieig'hl>or.  Heb.  thou  shalt  by  all  means  re¬ 
buke,  or,  thou  shalt  freely,  plainly,  soundly  re 
buke.  The  true  force  of  the  original  is  to  con¬ 
vince  of  wrong  by  reaaoning  and  argument.  Bush. 

- Thou  shalt  rebuke  thy  neighbor  for  his 

fault,  and  endeavor  to  convince  him  of  it  ;  and 
”  not  bear  sin  because  of  him  meaning,  that 
•by  forbearing  to  reprove  thy  neighbor  thou 
mayest  not  bring  his  guilt  upon  thyself.  Bp. 

Patrick. - In  many  cases  direct  remonstrances 

to  the  faulty  are  necessary,  which,  therefore, 
such  as  with  propriety  can,  are  bound  to  make 
whatever  reluctance  they  may  find  in  so  painful 
a  work.  Timely  admonition  may  stop  him  short 
just  at  the  entrance  upon  a  wrong  course.  Even 
those  who  are  farther  gone  may  yet  be  recalled 
by  a  lively  representation  of  their  guilt  and 
danger.  But  we  must  be  very  careful  that  we 
never  bring  a  charge  unless  we  have  incontes- 
33 


table  proof  of  its  truth  ;  that  a  genuine  friendly 
concern  be  evidently  the  principle  of  all  we  say  ; 
that  we  express  more  sorrow  than  anger,  where 
circumstances' will  allow  it  ;  that  we  use  tender 
expostulations  by  choice,  and  strong  expres¬ 
sions  only  when  nothing  else  will  prevent  ruin. 
Seeker. 

Stealing,  Lying,  False  Dealing  and  False  Swearing, 

and  Profaning  God's  Name,  Included  in  a  Single 

Prohibition  (Lev.  19  ;  11,  12). 

Stealing  had  been  before  forbidden  in  the 
eighth  commandment,  and  lying  in  the  ninth  , 
but  they  are  here  repeated  and  put  together, 
because  they  generally  go  together.  He  that 
will  steal  will  lie  to  hide  it  ;  and  he  that  will 
lie  shows  that  the  first  moral  barrier  is  broken 
down  which  stands  in  the  way  of  the  commis¬ 
sion  of  any  and  all  crimes.  Bush. 

Cheating  is  to  stealing  as  equivocation  is  to 
lying.  Cheating  and  equivocating  only  differ 
morally  from  stealing  and  lying  by  being  more 
mean  and  cowardly.  The  law  of  man  cannot 
prevent  cheating.  It  can  indeed  send  inspect¬ 
ors  to  see  that  there  are  just  balances  and  just 
weights ’  but  that  is  not  enough  to  prevent 
cheating.  The  only  thing  that  will  do  this  is 
the  fear  of  the  Lord  and  the  consciousness  that 
the  unjust  appropriation  of  anything,  however 
small,  is  contrary  to  the  will  of  God.  ”  Thou 
shalt  not  deceive  thy  neighbor”  is  the  rule  of 
conduct.  Whether  this  deception  takes  place 
by  means  of  a  lie,  or  of  an  equivocation,  or  of 
a  mental  reservation  makes  no  difference  in  the 
morality  of  the  act.  The  defence  of  equivoca¬ 
tion  rests  upon  a  confusion  of  two  things  totally 
different — material  truth  and  moral  truthful¬ 
ness.  The  statement  that  the  sun  rises  or  sinks 
is  materially  false,  because  it  remains  station¬ 
ary.  But  the  man  who  makes  such  a  statement 
is  morally  truthful,  if  he  makes  it  not  intending 
to  deceive  his  neighbor  and  knowing  that  he 
will  not  be  deceived.  F,  M. 

Just  Balances,  Just  Weights,  Just  Measures. 

Lev.  19  •  35-37.  He.  25  : 13-16. 

Lev.  19  :  35,  36.  These  verses,  beginning 
with  the  same  words  as  verse  15,  Ye  §liall  do 
no  unri^liteousne§§  ill  judgement,  con¬ 
tain  another  and  wider  application  of  that  prin¬ 
ciple.  Verse  15  prohibited  unrighteousness  in 
the  judge,  or  in  one  who  was  in  the  position  of  a 
judge  ;  these  verses  forbid  it  in  merchants  and 
tradesmen.  It  is  the  more  necessary  to  condemn 
dishonesty  in  unmistakable  terms,  as  men  who 
make  a  profession  of  religion,  and  therefore 


514 


SECTION  161.  ADDITIONAL  PRECEPTS. 


would  be  shocked  at  stealing,  have  often  less 
scruple  in  cheating.  Here  and  in  Deuteronomy, 
where  the  Law  is  repeated,  a  religious  sanction 
is  given  to  the  command  ;  “  For  all  that  do  un¬ 
righteously  are  an  abomination  unto  the  Lord 
thy  God.”  F.  M. 

The  ephah  is  here  taken  as  the  standard  of 
dry  measure,  and  the  hin  as  the  standard  of 
liquid  measure  (cf.  Ezek.  45  :  10-12).  Two  very 
different  estimates  of  the  capacities  of  these 
measures  have  been  formed,  Clark. 

I>e.  25  :  33.  sQaaBi  not  Slave 

divers  weigBits.  They  must  not  only  not 
use  them,  but  they  must  not  have  them  ;  not 
have  them  in  the  bag,  not  have  them  in  the 
house  ;  for  if  they  had  them  they  would  be 
strongly  tempted  to  use  them.  They  must  not 
have  a  great  weight  and  measure  to  buy  by  and 
a  small  one  to  sell  by,  for  that  was  to  cheat  both 
ways,  when  either  was  bad  enough  ;  as  we  read 
of  those  that  made  the  ephah  small,  in  which 
they  measured  the  corn  they  sold,  and  the  shekel 
great,  by  which  they  weighed  the  money  they 
received  for  it  (Am.  8:5).  But  ihou  shall  have 
a  perfect  and  just  weight  (verse  15).  That  which 
is  the  rule  of  justice  must  itself  be  just  ;  if  that 
be  otherwise  it  is  a  constant  cheat.  This  law 
is  enforced  with  two  very  good  reasons.  (1) 
That  justice  and  equity  will  bring  down  upon 
us  the  blessing  of  God.  The  way  to  have  our 
days  lengthened  and  to  jrrosper,  is  to  be  just 
and  fair  in  all  our  dealings  ;  honesty  is  the  best 
policy.  (2)  That  fraud  and  injustice  will  expose 
us  to  the  curse  of  God  (verse  16).  Not  only  un¬ 
righteousness  itself,  but  all  that  do  unright¬ 
eously,  are  an  abomination  to  the  Lord.  And 
miserable  is  that  man  who  is  abhorred  by  his 
Maker.  How  hateful  all  the  arts  of  deceit  are 
to  God,  Solomon  several  times  observes  (Prov. 
11  : 1  ;  20  : 10,  23),  and  the  apostle  tells  us  that 
■the  Lord  is  the  Avenger  of  all  such  as  overreach 
and  defraud  in  any  matter  (1  Thess.  4  :  6).  H. 

16.  Besides  what  everybody  calls  theft,  there 
:are  many  practices  which  amount  indirectly  to 
much  the  same  thing,  however  disguised  in  the 
world  under  gentle  names.  Thus  in  the  way  of 
trade  and  business,  if  the  seller  puts  off  any- 
ithing  for  better  than  it  is  by  false  assertions  or 
deceitful  arts  :  if  he  takes  advantage  of  the 
buyer’s  ignorance  or  particular  necessities  or 
good  opinion  of  him  to  insist  on  a  larger  price 
for  it  than  the  current  .value  ;  or  if  he  gives  less 
in  quantity  than  he  professes  or  is  understood 
to  give  ;  the  frequency  of  some  of  these  cases 
cannot  alter  the  nature  of  any  of  them.  No 
one  can  be  ignorant  that  they  are  wrong  but 
such  as  are  wilfully  or  very  carelessly  ignorant : 


and  the  declaration  of  Scripture  against  the  last 
of  them  is  here  extended  to  every  one  of  the 
rest.  “  For  all  that  do  such  things,  even  all 
that  do  unrighteously,  are  an  abomination  unto 
the  Lokd  thy  God  ”  (verse  16).  Seeker. 

It  is  apparently  easy  to  make  money  bj"  light 
weights  and  short  measures.  It  is  not  only 
securing  the  ordinary  profits,  but  gaining  by 
the  deficiency  palmed  off  for  the  perfect  meas¬ 
ure.  It  is  a  gain  by  quantity  as  well  as  by  price. 
And  plenty  of  people  who  look  only  at  the  sur¬ 
face  imagine  that  they  can  easily  enrich  them¬ 
selves  bj’  a  little  dishonestjq  which  will  never 
be  detected.  Inspectors  of  weights  and  meas¬ 
ures  are  the  embodiment  of  the  suspicions  of 

society.  Edgar. - “On  the  average,”  says 

Mr.  Spencer,  “  men  who  deal  in  bales  and  tons 
differ  but  little  in  morality  from  men  who  deal 
in  j’^ards  and  .pounds.  Illicit  practices  of  every 
form  and  shade,  from  venial  deception  up  to  all 
but  direct  theft,  may  be  brought  home  to  the 
higher  grades  of  the  commercial  world.  Tricks 
innumerable,  lies  acted  or  uttered,  elaborately 
devised  frauds,  are  prevalent —many  of  them 
established  as  ‘  customs  of  the  trade  ;  ’  nay, 
not  only  established,  but  defended.”  The  sad¬ 
dest  feature  in  the  outlook  is  the  apparent  jDrev- 
alence  of  the  feeling  that  trickery  of  this  kind 
is  absolutely  essential  to  success — that  a  man 
can’t  get  on  without  it.  Trade  dishonesty 
should,  if  possible,  be  checked  :  (1)  In  view  of 
its  inherent  immorality.  Nothing  can  be  more 
despicable,  more  mean  and  disgraceful,  than 
the  lies,  frauds,  briberies,  malpractices,  adul¬ 
terations,  which  abound  in  all  branches  of  trade. 
(2)  In  view  of  Us  corrupting  effect  on  morals  gener¬ 
ally.  It  saps  principle,  eats  out  faith  in  virtue, 
unfits  the  individual  for  every  moral  task.  (3) 
In  view  of  its  effects  on  national  prosperity.  God’s 
displeasure  rests  on  the  nation,  and  he  is  cer¬ 
tain  to  chastise  it.  (4)  As  a  measure  of  self -pro¬ 
tection.  Each  individual  suffers  as  part  of  the 
wLole.  He  is  frequently  cheated,  sometimes 
incurs  serious  losses.  Hard-earned  money  finds 
its  way  into  the  pockets  of  clever  but  unscrupu¬ 
lous  scoundrels,  who  as  rapidly  squander  it  in 
reckless  living.  Orr. 

Business  men  and  devout  women  may  be 
Christians,  and  devising  liberal  things  for  their 
Master,  whose  hands  have  never  learned  to  wipe 
out  the  small  dust  of  deceit  which  usage  and 
precedent  have  left  in  the  balance.  But  the 
sooner  they  make  away  with  it,  the  better  honor 
for  the  Head,  and  the  better  progress  and  power 
for  the  Church.  Kemember,  nothing  stays  her 
wheels  like  the  frauds  of  her  defenders.  Noth¬ 
ing  under  the  Holy  Spirit  speeds  them  like 


HONEST  DEALING,  ETC. 


515 


saints  whose  ways,  patterned  after  their  Eter¬ 
nal  King’s,  are  true  and  just.  F.  D.  H. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  in  these  regulations, 
and  throughout  the  entire  law,  the  care  which 
is  taken  to  keep  religion  and  morality  closely 
wedded  and  welded  together.  “  I  am  the  Lord 
your  God,”  is  continually  put  forth,  not  as  a 
creed  article,  but  as  an  unanswerable  argument 
for  strictest  obedience  and  the  most  scrupulous 
integrity.  The  relations  of  privilege  which 
the  people  enjoyed  are  continually  set  forth  as 
increasing  their  responsibility.  “  To  whom 
much  is  given,  of  them  much  shall  be  required,’  ’ 
is  a  principle  taken  for  granted  all  through. 
“  Ye  shall  do  no  unrighteousness  in  judgment, 
in  meteyard,  in  weight,  or  in  measure.  Just 
balances,  just  weights,  a  just  ephah,  and  a  just 
bin,  shall  ye  have  :  I  am  the  Loan  your  God, 
which  brought  you  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt." 
J.  M.  G. 

Against  Removing  Landmarks  {De,  19  ;  14). 
Landmarks  placed  by  a  man’s  ancestors  to  mark 
the  boundaries  of  possessions  were  not  to  be 
surreptitiously  altered.  Landmarks  were  held 
sacred,  and  a  curse  is  pronounced  against  those 
who  remove  them.  Among  other  nations  also 
landmarks  were  regarded  as  sacred.  W.  L.  A. 

- He  who  fraudulently  removes  a  landmark  is 

convicted  because  he  disturbs  the  lawful  owner 
in  his  possession  of  the  land  ;  while  he  who 
advances  the  boundaries  of  his  own  land  to  his 
neighbor’s  loss,  doubles  the  crime  by  the  con¬ 
cealment  of  his  theft.  Whence  we  gather  that 
not  only  arc  those  thieves  who  actually  carry 
away  their  neighbor’s  property,  who  take  his 
money,  or  pillage  his  granaries,  but  also  those 
who  unjustly  possess  themselves  of  his  land. 
Calv. - This,  without  doubt,  is  a  moral  pre¬ 

cept,  and  to  us  it  forbids  the  invading  of  any 
man’s  right,  and  taking  to  ourselves  that  which 
is  not  our  own,  by  any  fraudulent  arts  or  prac¬ 
tices,  as  by  forging,  concealing,  destroying,  or 
altering,  deeds  and  writings,  which  are'our  land¬ 
marks,  to  which  appeals  are  made  ;  or  by  shift¬ 
ing  hedges,  meer-stones,  and  boundaries.  H. 

Cutting  of  the  Hair  and  Beard  {Lev.  19  ;  27). 
Idolatrous  priests,  ministers  of  a  false  religion, 
made  the  mode  of  cutting  the  hair  and  beard, 
forbidden  by  Moses,  essential  to  the  acceptable 
worship  of  the  gods,  and  efficacious  in  procur¬ 
ing  the  several  blessings  prayed  for  by  the  wor¬ 
shippers.  It  was  to  eradicate  idolatry  that 
Moses  introduced  this  prohibitory  statute  into 
his  code.  E.  C.  W. 

Self-Laceration  or  Maiming  for  .the  Dead  Forbid¬ 
den  {Lev.  19  :  28.  De.  14  : 1,  2).  Among  the  ex¬ 
citable  races  of  the  East  this  custom  appears  to 


have  been  very  common.  The  Persians,  Abys- 
sinians.  Bedouins,  and  many  other  nations  still 

practise  it.  Clark. - They  were  not  to  maim 

or  lacerate  their  persons  m  any  manner  in 
their  mourning  ceremonies,  us  with  the  vain 
idea  of  pacifying  or  projpitiating  the  infernal 
spirits  in  behalf  of  the  dead,  a  notion  very 
prevalent  among  the  heathen  idolaters.  Mourn¬ 
ing  habits  they  might  put  on  if  they  chose,  and, 
with  the  exception  of  the  high  priest,  rend  their 
garments  in  token  of  grief  ;  but  they  were  not 
to  disfigure  their  bodies.  This  would  be  utterly 
unbecoming  a  people  who  were  instructed  to  a 
better  knowledge  of  a  future  state  and  of  the 
invisible  world  than  the  ignorant  heathen  could 
be  supposed  to  possess.  Bush. 

\  e  are  tlie  cliildrcii  of  tlic  Lord : 
.  .  .  All  holy  people  unto  the  Lord. 
These  words  suggest  the  principle  which  under¬ 
lies  these  precepts.  It  was  unbeseeming  their 
dignity  and  privileges  to  disfigure  themselves  in 
mourning,  as  the  heathen  which  have  no  hope. 

Espin. - It  is  an  excellent  passage  which  Mr. 

Ainsworth  here  quotes  from  one  of  the  Jewish 
writers,  who  understands  this  as  a  law  against 
immoderate  grief  for  the  death  of  our  relations. 
“  If  your  father  die  you  shall  not  cut  yourselves 
— that  is,  you  shall  not  sorrow  more  than  is 
meet,  for  you  are  not  fatherless  ;  you  have  a 
Father  who  is  great,  living,  and  permanent, 
even  the  holy  blessed  God  whose  children  ye 
are.  But  an  infidel  when  his  father  dies  hath 
no  father  that  can  help  him  in  time  of  need  ; 
for  he  hath  said  to  a  stock,  Thou  art  my  father, 
and  to  a  stone.  Thou  hast  brought  me  forth 
(Jer.  2  :  27),  therefore  he  weeps,  cuts  himself, 
and  makes  him  bald.”  We  that  have  a  God  to 
hope  in  and  a  heaven  to  hope /or  must  bear  up 
ourselves  with  that  hope  under  every  burden  of 
this  kind.  H. 

Against  Mixing  Diverse  Things  {Lev.  19  :  19. 
De.  22  ;  5,  9-11).  The  law  in  Deuteronomy 
against  sowing  a  field  with  diverse  seed,  plough¬ 
ing  with  an  ox  and  ass  yoked  together,  wearing 
garments  of  mingled  woollen  and  linen,  and 
forbidding  one  sex  to  wear  the  clothing  of  the 
other,  is,  as  it  would  appear,  but  an  enlarge¬ 
ment  of  that  of  Leviticus,  two  of  the  particulars 
being  precisely  the  same,  and  the  unlike  one  in 
the  latter  code — that  cattle  of  diverse  kinds  shall 
not  be  allowed  to  gender  together— not  being  of 
such  a  nature  as  to  suggest  priestly  improve¬ 
ments  of  a  later  date.  A  peculiar  dual  form  is 
found  only  in  these  two  places.  The  same  is 
true  of  another  word,  which  is  explained  in  the 
more  popular  code  as  meaning  a  material  made 
up  of  woollen  and  linen.  Deuteronomy  speaks 


516 


SECTION  161.  ADDITIONAL  PBEGEPTS. 


of  “  vineyard,”  in  place  of  “  field  ”  found  in 
Leviticus  ;  but  it  is  an  unimportant  variation. 
The  motive  urged  in  Deuteronomy  for  not  sow¬ 
ing  with  diverse  seeds  is  worthy  of  notice,  ”  lest 
it  be  made  holy” — that  is,  be  confiscated  to 
feed  the  priests  and  Levites  of  the  sanctuary 
(cf.  Lev.  6  ;  11).  E.  C.  B. 

The  different  directions  here  given  may  be 
reduced  to  one  idea,  that  of  genuineness ,  The 
vineyards  were  to  be  sown  with  pure  seed,  that 
the  plants  might  have  a  fair  chance  of  growing 
luxuriantly.  The  ploughing  was  not  to  be  done 
by  an  ox  and  ass  together,  for  the  contrariety  in 
temper  and  inequality  in  power  would  prevent 
good  work.  Linsey-woolsey  was  to  be  avoided 
as  poor  stuff  compared  with  either  woollen  or 
linen  alone.  Elgar. 

There  should  be  no  unnatural  mixtures.  For  the 
examples  furnished,  sound  economic  and  hy¬ 
gienic  reasons  may  be  given.  But  the  spirit  of 
the  Law  is  moral.  The  iieopleof  God  are  taught 
by  it  to  avoid  everything  that  would  compromise 
their  simplicity  and  sincerity  (2  Cor.  6  :  14). 
They  must  avoid  marriages  with  the  ungodly. 
In  business  they  must  be  careful  not  to  join  in 
ungodly  partnerships.  In  friendships  they 
must  choose  those  who  are  of  the  household  of 
faith.  J.  A.  M. 

De.  22  :  5,  The  divinely  instituted  distinc¬ 
tion  between  the  sexes  was  to  be  sacredly  ob 
served,  and,  in  order  to  this,  the  dress  and  other 
things  appropriate  to  the  one  were  not  to  be 
used  by  the  other.  That  which  pertaineth  unto 
a  man  ;  literally,  the  apparatus  of  a  man,  includ¬ 
ing  not  dress  merely,  but  implements,  tools, 
W'eapons,  and  utensils.  This  is  an  ethical  reg 
ulation  in  the  interests  of  morality.  Whatever 
tends  to  obliterate  the  distinction  between  the 
sexes  tends  to  licentiousness  ;  and  that  the  one 
sex  should  assume  the  dress  of  the  other  has  al¬ 
ways  been  regarded  as  unnatural  and  indecent. 
Such  a  change  of  vesture  is  here  declared  to  be 
an  abomination  to  the  Lord,  because  of  its  ten¬ 
dency  to  immorality.  W.  L.  A. 

It  was  an  idolatrous  custom  for  men  to  wear 
the  flowered  garments  of  women,  when  they 
worshipped  Venus  ;  and  for  women  to  wear  a 
coat  of  mail  and  armor,  when  they  worshipped 
Mars  ;  these  dresses  being  accounted  more 
l)leasing  to  them,  as  better  suiting  their  particu¬ 
lar  characters  ;  for  Venus  w^as  supposed  to  be 
the  goddess  of  pleasure  and  love,  and  Mars  the 
god  of  arms  and  war.  The  idolatrous  notion  of 
deities  of  different  sexes  was  a  great  corruption 
of  the  knowledge  of  the  true  God,  and  gave 


great  occasion  for  impure  rites,  even  in  their  re¬ 
ligious  worship.  It  was  this  custom  which  the 
jDresent  law  was  designed  to  discountenance. 

Lowman. - If  men  and  women  were  wont  to 

dress  alike,  there  could  be  no  enforcement  of 
decorum  such  as  difference  in  dress  renders  pos¬ 
sible.  The  sexes  are  intended  to  be  distinct, 
and  it  is  a  deep  injury  to  both  to  obliterate  the 
distinctions  Providence  has  made.  Whatever 
tends  to  render  the  male  sex  effeminate  and  the 
female  sex  masculine  is  an  injury  to  both  ;  and 
those  reformers  are  not  friends  of  either  sex 
who  try  to  break  down  the  barriers  between 
them.  Edgar. 

I>c.  22  :  12.  Make  fringe;^  upon  tliy 
vesture.  This  also  had  regard  to  modesty  in 
dress.  Divine  provisions  were  made  even  with 
respect  to  their  garments,  so  that  the  elect  peo¬ 
ple  should  cultivate  decency,  and  diligently 
guard  against  everything  immodest  and  what¬ 
ever  is  repugnant  to  puiity.  Calv. 

De.  23  ;  1,  2.  The  meaning  of  these  jDro- 
hibitions  is  mainly  a  symbolical  one  ;  what  \\  as 
perfect  and  pure  only  was  to  be  used  for  sacri¬ 
fice.  In  like  manner,  no  one  might  belong  to 
the  people  of  the  Lord  on  whose  person  the  Di¬ 
vine  creation  had  been  disfigured  by  man’s  wil¬ 
ful  act.  Mutilation,  so  frequent  in  the  East, 

was  therefore  prevented  by  this  law.  Gerl. - 

Though  exclusions  of  this  kind  are  done  away 
in  Christ,  there  was  a  fitness  under  the  Theoc¬ 
racy  in  the  exclusion  of  the  classes  specified 
from  full  participation  in  covenant  privilege, 
such  exclusion  being  in  harmony  with  the  idea 
of  “a  holy  nation.”  The  truth  conveyed  is 
that,  the  impure  are  unalterably  debarred  from 
membership  in  God's  kingdom.  Impuritj^  of 
heart  and  life  exclude  from  inward  membership 
in  it  now,  and  will  do  so  forever.  Known  im¬ 
purity  should  exchrde  from  Church  fellowship 
on  earth.  Orr. 


All  these  laws,  with  others  of  an  apparently 
like  trivial  nature,  were  aimed  against  the  idol¬ 
atrous  customs  then  prevalent  in  the  world. 
There  were  some  things  condemned  in  them 
which  are  in  themselves  innocent  and  harmless, 
as  worshipping  God  in  groves,  sowing  mixed 
seeds,  wearing  clothes  of  wool  and  flax  mingled 
together,  etc.  But  in  that  age  these  things  were 
so  closely  connected  with  others  which  were 
evil,  that  the  permission  of  the  one  would  be 
likely  to  draw  after  it  the  practice  of  the  other. 
E.  C.  W. 


SECTION  162. 


517 


Section  162. 

CONCLUSION  OF  MOSAIC  LEGISLATION  :  ISRAEL’S  THREEFOLD  RELATION  TO 
THE  THREEFOLD  LAW.  CENTRAL  PLACE  OF  THE  LEGISLATION  IN  THE  OLD 
TESTAMENT  HISTORY  ;  COEVAL  WITH  ISRAEL’S  EXISTENCE  AS  A  NATION. 
PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  CIVIL  CODE  OF  UNIVERSAL  APPLICATION.  THE  WRIT- 
TEN  LAW  THE  GREAT  CAUSE  OF  NATIONAL  UNITY  AND  SEPARATION.  THIS 
DIVINE  CODE  SUPERSEDED  BY  TWO  HUMAN  CODES. 


Israel’s  Threefold  Relation  to  the  Three¬ 
fold  Law. 

The  people  of  Israel,  standing  at  the  base  of 
Mount  Sinai,  are  to  be  contemplated  in  three 
different  relations,  with  reference  to  each  of 
which  these  laws  were  given. 

First.  They  stood  as  men  representative  of 
all  men  of  the  Adam  race,  owing  duties  to  God 
and  to  his  other  creatures. 

Second.  As  the  chosen,  organized,  spiritual 
body  under  the  covenant  with  Abraham,  consti¬ 
tuting  them  Jehovah’s  peculiar  people,  and  him 
their  God. 

Third.  As  a  social  and  civil  organization  which 
is  to  possess  a  countr}’’ guaranteed  to  them  as  an 
inheritance  for  a  special  purpose. 

Contemplated  in  the  first  aspect,  they  needed 
a  moral  law,  or  ethical  rule  of  life,  definitely 
pointing  out  their  duties  to  God  and  man.  Such 
a  law  of  two  tables  they  received,  as  the  foun¬ 
dation  of  all  other  laws  which  are  but  the  detailed 
application  of  its  principles.  Its  provisions  are 
arranged  with  marvellous  logical  method,  so  as 
to  be  exhaustive  on  the  subject  of  moral  duty. 
Th  )se  concerning  God,  the  invisible,  begin  with 
the  invi.silde  acts  of  the  heart,  and  proceed  out¬ 
ward  to  the  words  and  deeds  of  the  life  ;  those 
concerning  man,  visible,  begin  with  the  outward 
deeds  and  proceed  inwardly  to  the  desires  of 
the  heart.  The  substance  of  the  ten  commands 
is,  thou  shalt  worship  God  only  ;  in  his  ap¬ 
pointed  way  only  ;  using  his  name  reverently  in 
worshiji  only  ;  specially  worship  him  at  his  ap¬ 
pointed  times  ;  honor  father  aild  mother,  his 
representatives,  and  types  of  all  that  earthly 
authority  which  he  has  delegated  for  social 
order  ;  nor  shalt  thou  injure  thy  fellow^-man 
either  in  deed,  against  his  life,  affections  or 
property — in  word,  against  his  reputation — nor 
in  desire,  against  anything  that  is  his.  So  per¬ 
fect  and  exhaustive  is  this  ethical  code,  few  as 
its  words  are  and  simple,  that  the  human  mind 
can  conceive  of  no  moral  act  or  impulse  that 
comes  not  under  one  or  other  Of  its  categories. 

Contemplated  in  the  second  aspect,  as  the 
chosen  and  organized  spiritual  body  under  the 


covenant  with  Abraham,  they  needed— not  an 
ecclesiastical  constitution  organizing  them,  for 
that  they  already  had  ;  nor  a  theological  creed 
j  and  ritual  of  worship,  for  that  they  also  had  al- 
I  ready — but  a  further  development  of  their  eccle¬ 
siastical  constitution,  adapting  it  to  their  new 
conditi(m  ;  and  a  fuller  detail  of  their  theology 
and  ritual,  in  order  to  set  forth  more  clearl}^  by 
its  symbols,  both  the  objective  theology  of  re¬ 
demption  by  atonement,  and  the  subjective  the¬ 
ology  of  that  atonement,  applied  by  the  faith  of 
the  individual,  to  the  renewal  and  purification 
of  his  nature.  Such  an  adaptation  of  their  ec¬ 
clesiastical  constitution  they  received,  in  vari¬ 
ous  incidental  precepts  and  enactments  ;  and 
such  an  expansion  of  the  ritual,  in  the  elaborate 
detail  of  Leviticus,  with  incidental  precejits  and 
enactments  elsewhere. 

Contemplated  in  the  third  aspect  of  a  social 
organization  to  dwell  together  as  a  nation — they 
needed  not  organization  and  a  political  consti¬ 
tution,  for  that  they  already  had.  And  had  it 
been  the  purpose  of  Jehovah  to  leave  them 
simply  an  ordinary  civil  community,  with  his 
church  established  among  them,  there  would 
have  been  no  revelation  of  civil  law,  save  by 
way  of  illustrating  and  applying  the  moral  law 
as  before  mentioned.  They  would  have  modi¬ 
fied  and  changed  their  civil  polity  as  experience 
and  the  counsels  of  wise  statesmen,  such  as 
Jethro,  might  suggest  ;  just  as  any  other  people 
under  the  guidance  of  natural  law  and  reason 
may  modify  their  civil  laws.  But  it  being  the 
purpose  of  Jehovah  to  dwell  among  them  by  his 
visible  presence,  and  to  be  a  perpetual  prophecy 
of  the  coming  Messiah,  it  was  needful  to  intro¬ 
duce  various  modifications  of  their  civil  code 
with  reference  to  that  purpose.  Hence  those 
peculiar  laws  forbidding  the  alienation  of  their 
lands  by  any  familj^  or  the  alienation,  perma¬ 
nently,  of  his  liberty  by  any  Israelite  ;  hence  the 
various  ordinances  making  idolatry’,  consulta¬ 
tion  of  evil  spirits,  false  prophecies,  etc.,  trea¬ 
sonable.  Hence,  in  short,  the  whole  of  the  pe¬ 
culiar  principles  of  civil  law  in  the  Mosaic  Code 
and  in  the  administration  under  it. 

But  while,  for  purposes  of  analysis  and  expo- 


518 


SECTION  162.  CENTRAL  PLACE  OF  TUE  LEGISLATION. 


sitiou,  we  may  thus  contemplate  the  Sinai  cov¬ 
enant  as  aiming  to  meet  the  threefold  asfiect  of 
the  body  with  whom  it  was  made  —viz.,  men  as 
men,  as  church -members,  and  as  citizens  of  a 
peculiar  civil  commonwealth,  we  must  not  for 
get  that,  in  its  great  practical  aspect,  these  di¬ 
visions  all  meige  together,  and,  practically,  it  is 
to  be  considered  in  its  twofold  character  of  a 
law  to  convict  of  sin,  and  a  gospel  to  teach  the 
l^ardon  and  justification  of  the  sinner  by  faith, 
and  that  a  faith  which  purifies  the  heart.  In 
this  view  it  is,  on  the  one  hand,  a  law  of  com¬ 
mandments  “exceeding  broad,  reaching  to  the 
thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart,”  with  Divine 
annotations  showing  the  application  of  its  pre¬ 
cepts  to  every  relation  of  man  as  a  creature  of 
God,  and  as  a  social  being  with  relations  to  his 
fellow'-men.  On  the  other  hand,  it  sets  before 
the  convicted  sinner,  in  fullest  detail,  the  Gos¬ 
pel  salvation  by  symbols  and  types.  The  per¬ 
petual  daily  offering  of  the  lamb  upon  the  altar 
is  its  central  symbol,  and  around  that  ancient 
figure  of  the  Old  Covenants  is  arranged,  in  elo¬ 
quent  symbols,  the  whole  subjective  process  of 
salvation — faith,  purification  —  consecration  to 
Jehovah.  And  while  many  of  the  Mosaic  enact¬ 
ments,  practically  applying  principles,  expired 
by  limitation,  all  the  great  Gospel  truths  and 
principles  of  the  Sinai  covenant  remained,  not¬ 
withstanding  the  fashion  of  uttering  them 
changed  and  the  concrete  ritual  and  typical 
organisms  which  they  animated  passed  away. 

No  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  reasonings  of 
that  great  apostle,  whose  specialty  it  was  to  be 
the  Jewish  iconoclast,  and  dash  in  pieces  the 
narrow  perverted  ritualism  of  his  age,  but  must 
be  filled  with  admiration  at  the  heights  and 
depths  of  his  inspired  logic,  when,  planting  his 
premises  upon  these  Old  Covenants  with  Adam 
and  Abraham  and  Israel  at  Sinai,  and  David,  as 
the  great  Gospel  bonds  in  which  Jehovah  hath 
bound  himself  to  secure  the  sinner’s  salvation 
—  he  proceeds  to  reason  out  the  title  of  all  that 
believe,  irrespective  of  blood,  or  nation,  or  age, 
to  the  benefit  of  those  covenants  as  being  repre¬ 
sented  in  them.  And  with  what  transcendental 
generalization  does  he,  in  the  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews,  take  the  dead  S5mibolism  to  which  a 
contracted,  unspiritual  ritualism  still  clings, 
and  reanimate  it  with  the  new,  fully  developed 
Gospel  truths,  until  tabernacle,  and  smoking 
altar,  and  flowing  blood,  and  floating  cloud  of 
incense  become  so  many  infinite  transparencies 
blazing  with  excess  of  light,  exhibiting  to  us  the 
actual  scenes  transpiring  in  the  inner  temple  of 
the  spiritual  universe. 

This  is  the  tiue  spirit  in  which  to  study  the 


Gospel  of  this  Sinai  covenant.  It  is  no  curious 
and  amazing  history,  merely,  of  how  Jehovah 
once  spake  and  covenanted  with  certain  Israel¬ 
ites  at  Sintii.  “  Not  with  your  fathers  merely,” 
said  Moses  forty  years  afterward,  “  did  he  make 
this  covenant  at  Horeb,  but  with  us  who  are  all 
alive  here  this  day.”  And  said  Stephen,  fifteen 
hundred  years  afterward,  under  his  own  dis¬ 
pensation,  “  He  spake  in  Mount  Sinai  with  our 
fathers  who  received  the  lively  oracles  to  give 
unto  us.”  And  just  as  truly  was  it  with  us, 
“  who  are  all  alive  this  day,”  that  He  made  that 
covenant.  It  was  to  us  that  He  spake  these 
“  ten  words”  of  command  to  show  us  our  sin 
and  make  us  feel  it.  For  us  He  appointed  that 
ritual  of  atoning  sacrifice  to  teach  us,  by  its 
beautiful  symbols,  how  the  sin  is  to  be  taken 
away  ;  for  us  those  typical  purifications  for  sin 
and  uncleanness  and  those  signs  and  the  cleans¬ 
ings  of  the  leprosy  ;  for  us  those  cities  of  refuge, 
and  that  singular  typical  commonwealth  with 
its  curious  laws  and  constitution.  All  this  is 
just  as  really  and  truly  the  Word  of  Jehovah 
to  us,  and  as  really  deserving  of  our  reverence, 
as  though  we  heard  the  voice  of  the  thunders, 
and  had  seen  the  lightnings  and  the  smoke  and 
the  shaking  of  the  huge  mountains,  and  nature 
herself,  half  dissolved  in  fear,  prostrating  her¬ 
self  in  reverent  awe  to  attest  the  words  of  her 
Maker  and  Lord,  as  the  word  of  the  Almighty 
to  men.  Stuart  Robmson. 

The  Centeali  Place  and  Relation  of  the 

Legislation. 

The  central  mass,  both  of  the  history  and  an¬ 
tiquities  of  the  Old  Testament,  is  the  Mosaic 
legislation.  The  only  way  in  which  the  parts 
of  the  Old  Testament  can  be  brought  into  agree¬ 
ment,  so  as  to  constitute  one  harmonious  whole, 
is  by  assuming  that  what  goes  before  the  Law 
of  Moses  was  intended  to  prepare  the  way  for 
it,  and  that  what  follows  was  designed  to  show 
how  far  it  was  observed,  departed  from,  or 
modified  in  later  times.  Nor  is  this  true  only 
of  the  history.  The  prophecies  bear  a  definite 
relation  to  the  Law,  without  due  regard  to 
which  they  are  almost  unintelligible.  The 
same  is  true,  though  in  a  less  degree,  of  the  re¬ 
maining  books.  J.  A.  A. 

The  Legislation  Coeval  with  the  Existence 
OF  THE  Nation. 

The  connection  between  religion  and  history, 
the  first  great  distinctive  character  of  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  is 
strongly  marked  with  regard  to  these  three  es 
sential  elements  of  the  system  set  up  by  Moses  : 


COEVAL  WITH  NATIONAL  EXISTENCE. 


519 


the  Tabernacle,  the  Priesthood,  the  Sacrificial 
Ritual.  All  three  are  inseparably"  interwoven 
with  the  main  facts  of  Hebrew  story  :  the  de¬ 
liverance  from  Egypt,  the  encampment  at 
Sinai,  the  covenant  between  Jehovah  and  his 
people,  the  giving  of  the  Law,  the  stubborn  re¬ 
belliousness  of  Israel,  and  the  consequent  delay 
of  their  entrance  into  Canaan  until  the  death 
of  Moses  in  the  fortieth  year  from  the  exodus. 
You  cannot  explain  the  religion  apart  from  the 
history,  nor  the  history  apart  from  the  religion. 
And  throughout  the  Old  Testament  the  religion 
bears  witness  to  the  history.  Solomon’s  temple 
presupposes  the  tabernacle.  It  actually  con¬ 
tained  the  ark.  But  the  ark  and  the  tabernacle 
presuppose  the  wandering  in  the  wilderness  ; 
which  in  turn  presupposes  Sinai  and  the  deliv¬ 
erance.  David’s  institutions,  which  survived 
the  captivity  and  lasted  into  the  Christian  era, 
attest  the  national  importance  and  numerical 
strength  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  their  sacred  char¬ 
acter,  and  the  hereditary  priesthood  of  the  de¬ 
scendants  of  Aaron.  How  can  these  (joined 
with  the  fact  that  Levi  was  a  landless  tribe)  be 
explained  apart  from  a  legislation  coeval  with 
the  existence  of  the  nation?  In  a  word,  is  it 
rationally  conceivable  that  a  nation  so  numer¬ 
ous,  compact,  tenacious  of  tradition,  yet  stur¬ 
dily  independent,  prone  to  strife,  and  obstinately 
addicted  to  forbidden  rites,  should  have  been 
persuaded  (before,  during,  or  after  the  reigns 
of  David  and  Solomon)  to  receive  a  body  of  new 
institutions,  forged  laws,  and  fictitious  public 
annals,  and  that  this  astonishing  fabrication, 
unparalleled  in  all  literature,  should  have  gained 
that  prodigious  hold  on  national  belief  and  rev¬ 
erence  which  the  writings  ascribed  to  Moses  un¬ 
deniably  possessed  after  the  return  from  Baby¬ 
lon  ?  The  demands  made  on  our  faith  bv  mod- 

•/ 

ern  sceptical  criticism  far  exceed  in  fact  those 
made  by  all  the  miracles  of  the  Bible.  In  the 
latter  case,  apparent  physical  impossibilities 
find  an  adequate  explanation  in  the  exercise  of 
Divine  power  for  worthy  ends  ;  whereas  in  the 
former  case,  moral  impossibilities  are  presented 
for  our  belief  with  no  explanation  at  all.  E.  R. 
Conder. 

At  Sinai,  after  the  most  solemn  preparations 
and  under  the  most  terrific  circumstances,  the 
great  Lawgiver  of  the  Jews  delivered  that  sin¬ 
gular  constitution  to  his  people,  which  presup¬ 
posed  their  possession  of  a  rich  and  fertile  ter¬ 
ritory  in  which  as  yet  they  had  not  occupied  an 
acre,  but  had  hitherto  been  wandering  in  an 
opposite  direction,  and  not  even  approached  its 
borders  The  laws  of  a  settled  and  civilized 
community  were  enacted  among  a  wandering 


and  homeless  horde  who  were  traversing  the 
wilderness,  and  more  likely,  under  their  exist¬ 
ing  circumstances,  to  sink  below  the  pastoral 
life  of  their  forefathers,  than  advance  to  the 
rank  of  an  industrious  agricultural  community 
Yet,  at  this  time,  judging  solely  from  its  inter¬ 
nal  evidence,  the  Law  must  have  been  enacted. 
Who  but  Moses  ever  possessed  such  authority 
as  to  enforce  submission  to  statutes  so  severe 
and  uncompromising  ?  Yet  as  Moses  incontes¬ 
tably  died  before  the  conquest  of  Canaan,  his 
legislation  must  have  taken  place  in  the  desert. 
To.  what  other  period  can  the  Hebrew  constitu¬ 
tion  be  assigned  ?  To  that  of  the  judges  ?  a 
time  of  anarchy,  warfare,  or  servitude  !  To 
that  of  the  kings?  when  the  republic  had  under¬ 
gone  a  total  change  !  To  any  time  after  Jerusa¬ 
lem  became  the  metropolis  ?  when  the  holy 
city,  the  pride  and  glory  of  the  nation,  is  not 
even  alluded  to  in  the  whole  Law  !  After  the 
building  of  the  temple  ?  when  it  is  equally  silent 
as  to  any  settled  or  durable  edifice  !  After  the 
separation  of  the  kingdoms?  when  the  close 
bond  of  brotherhood  had  given  place  to  implac 
able  hostility!  Under  Hilkiah  ?  under  Ezra? 
when  a  great  number  of  the  statutes  had  become 
a  dead  letter  !  The  Law  depended  on  a  strict 
and  equitable  partition  of  the  land.  At  a  later 
period  it  could  not  have  been  put  into  practice 
without  the  forcible  resumption  of  every  indi 
vidual  property  by  the  State  ;  the  difficulty,  or 
rather  impossibility,  of  such  a  measure,  may  be 
estimated  by  any  reader  who  is  not  entirely  un¬ 
acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  ancient  re¬ 
publics.  In  other  respects  the  Law  breathes 
the  air  of  the  desert.  Enactments  intended  for 
a  people  with  settled  habitations,  and  dwelling 
in  walled  cities,  are  mingled  up  with  temporary 
regulations,  only  suited  to  the  Bedouin  encamp¬ 
ment  of  a  nomad  tribe.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  statute  book  of  Moses,  with  all  his  par¬ 
ticular  enactments,  still  exists,  and  that  it  re¬ 
cites  them  in  the  same  order,  if  it  may  be  called 
order,  in  which  they  were  promulgated.  Mil- 
man. 

It  is  sometimes  alleged  that  Moses  borrowed 
his  institutions  from  Egypt.  But  from  what 
fountain  did  Egypt  herself,  in  all  likelihood, 
draw  her  best  principles  of  law?  There  is  a 
common  fact  in  the  history  of  the  Hebrews  and 
the  Egj'ptians  which  sheds  an  imiiortant  light 
on  this  subject.  By  an  extraordinary  concur¬ 
rence  of  circumstances,  an  Israelite,  some  cen¬ 
turies  prior  to  the  age  of  Moses,  had  been  raised 
to  the  primacy  of  Egypt.  I’or  eighty  successive 
years  Joseph  swayed  the  destinies  of  that  em¬ 
pire  ;  and  an  inspired  writer  has  told  us  that  he 


520 


SECTION  162.  CONCLUSION  OF  MOSAIC  LEGISLATION. 


taught  her  senators  wisdom  (Ps.  105  : 22).  It 
cannot  be  doubted,  therefore,  that  many  of  the 
wisest  maxims  of  Egyptian  policy  were  due  to 
the  genius  of  that  illustrious  minister,  and  to 
the  special  Divine  guidance  vouchsafed  to  him 
in  his  administration  The  argument  for  the 
Divine  legation  of  Moses  may  be  stated  in  one 
sentence.  The  general  credibility  of  tlie  Pen 
tateuch,  the  publication  of  a  theology  worthy  of 
the  true  God,  the  overthrow  of  idolatry  and  the 
substitution  of  a  better  faith  and  worship  in  its 
place,  the  superhuman  purity  and  excellence  of 
his  moral  code,  and  the  clear  and  well-estab¬ 
lished  power  of  miracles  —such  is  the  array  of 
proofs  which  concentrate  their  force  in  a  blaze 
of  demonstration  around  the  warrant  of  Moses 
to  publish  laws  in  the  name  of  Jehovah.  E.  C.  W. 

Principles  of  the  Hebrew  Civil  Code  of  Uni¬ 
versal  Application. 

The  Hebrew  Code  of  civil  law  simply  expands 
and  applies  the  general  principles  expressed  or 
implied  in  the  Ten  Commandments.  The  great 
principles  of  this  code  should  underlie  every 
code  of  human  law^  These  principles  must  be 
good  for  all  time — for  man  in  his  social  and 
civil  relations  everywhere.  For  example,  its 
doctrine  of  equity  ;  its  law  of  love  ;  its  regard 
for  the  personal  rights  of  life,  chastity,  prop 
erty  ;  its  doctrine  of  the  essential  equality  of 
every  man’s  rights  before  the  Law  ,  and  its  as 
sumption  that  the  poor,  being  otherwise  de 
fenceless,  have  special  need  of  the  protection 
of  law,  and  should  be  regarded  therefore  as  the 
special  wards  of  government  and  its  officers. 
And  as  the  Hebrew  Civil  Code,  while  accepting 
the  supreme  authority  of  the  Ten  Command¬ 
ments  and  aiming  to  embody  and  apply  its 
principles,  did  yet  allow  to  itself  a  certain  lati¬ 
tude  in  adjusting  its  “  precepts  and  statutes” 
to  the  condition  of  the  people,  so  may  human 
legislators.  Lessons  of  wisdom  may  be  drawn 
from  this  code  in  both  these  lines  of  its  exam¬ 
ples — viz.,  its  fidelity  to  the  principles  and  doc¬ 
trines  of  the  perfect  moral  law  of  Sinai,  and 
its  careful  adaptation  of  these  principles  to  the 
actual  status  of  the  people  so  as  to  reach  the 
highest  possible  amount  of  practical  efficiency 
in  securing  the  ends  of  justice  and  of  virtue. 
H.  C. 

Their  Written  Law  the  Great  Cause  of  the 

Solitary  Unity  of  the  Hebrews. 

« 

Subdued  yet  un vanquished,  scattered  yet  not 
lost,  the  dispersion  of  a  people  without  their 


dissolution  is  a  phenomenon  in  the  annals  of 
mankind  ;  no  human  power  has  broken  the 
solitary  unity  of  this  ancient  people.  Their 
separation  from  all  the  generations  of  mankind 
is  to  be  ascribed  mainly  to  the  written  Law  of 
Moses,  received  as  of  Divine  in.stituiion,  in¬ 
cluding  especially  the  institution  of  the  Sab¬ 
bath,  the  multitude  and  the  minuteness  of 
their  rites  in  their  ceremonial  law,  and  the  pro¬ 
hibition  of  certain  aliments. 

The  restriction  of  the  education  of  the  Jew¬ 
ish  people  to  their  Divine  Law  unquestionably 
preserved  them  during  their  national  indepen¬ 
dence  as  a  great  and  religious  community. 
There  could  be  no  non-conformity  in  the  land 
of  Israel  ;  an3"  opposition  to  the  code  of  the 
Theocracy  from  a  protester  or  a  dissenter  would 
have  involved  them  in  an  overt  act  of  treason, 
since  their  religion  was  their  law  ;  and  the  citizen 
who  violated  the  civil  precepts  of  the  Mosaic 
Code  necessarily  incurred  the  pains  of  the  blas¬ 
phemer,  since  their  law  mi:,  their  religion.  And 
it  is  the  abiding  attachment  of  the  Israelites  to 
their  sacred  code  that  has  perpetuated  their  im¬ 
mutable  faith.  As  members  of  a  political  insti¬ 
tution  they  were  to  be  made  entirely  different 
from  every  other  people  ;  and  what  no  other 
nation  had  imagined,  their  governing  principle 
was  to  be  that  of  a  religious  republic.  D'  Isi  aeli. 

A  Human  Supersedes  the  Divine  Code. 

The  religious  Judaism  of  the  Theocracy  de¬ 
generated  into  Rabbinical  Judaism.  Two  hu¬ 
man  codes  have  superseded  the  code  delivered 
from  heaven  ;  the  one  originates  in  imposture 
— that  of  their  traditions ;  and  the  other  is 
founded  on  tyranny — that  of  their  customs. 
Twelve  folios  of  the  Babylonish  Talmud,  or 
“  the  Doctrinal,”  the  labor  of  nearl}"  five  hun¬ 
dred  years,  form  this  portentous  monument  in 
the  intellectual  history  of  man.  Here  we  find 
a  prodigious  mass  of  contradictory  opinions,  an 
infinite  number  of  casuistical  cases,  a  logic  of 
scholastic  theology,  some  recondite  wisdom, 
and  much  rambling  dotage  ;  many  puerile  tales 
and  Oriental  fancies  ;  ethics  and  sophisms,  rea¬ 
sonings  and  unreasonings,  subtle  solutions,  and 
maxims  and  riddles  ;  nothing  in  human  life 
seems  to  have  happened  which  these  doctors 
have  not  perplexed  or  provided  against.  The 
children  of  Israel,  always  children,  were  de¬ 
lighted  as  their  Talmud  increased  its  volume 
and  their  hardships.  The  Gemara  was  a  third 
law  to  elucidate  the  Mishna,  which  was  a  sec¬ 
ond  laM',  and  which  had  thrown  the  first  law, 
the  Law  of  Moses,  into  obscurity.  D'  Israeli. 


SECTION  163. 


521 


Section  163. 

DEATH  OF  NADAB  AND  ABIHU  BY  FIRE. 
Leviticus  10  : 1-20. 


Lev.  10  1  And  Nadab  and  Abihu,  the  sons  of  Aaron,  took  each  of  them  his  censer,  and  put 
fire  therein,  and  laid  incense  thereon,  and  offered  strange  fire  before  the  Lord,  which  he  had 

2  not  commanded  them.  And  there  came  forth  fire  from  before  the  Lord,  and  devoured  them, 

3  and  they  died  before  the  Lord.  Then  Moses  said  unto  Aaron,  This  is  it  that  the  Lord  spake, 
saying,  I  will  be  sanctified  in  them  that  come  nigh  me,  and  before  all  the  peo23le  I  will  be 

4  glorified.  And  Aaron  held  his  peace.  And  Moses  called  Mishael  and  Elzaphan,  the  sons  of 
Uzziel  the  uncle  of  Aaron,  and  said  unto  them.  Draw  near,  carry  your  brethren  from  before 

5  the  sanctuary  out  of  the  camp.  So  they  drew  near,  and  carried  them  in  their  coats  out  of  the 

6  camp  ;  as  Moses  had  said.  And  Moses  said  unto  Aaron,  and  unto  Eleazar  and  unto  Ithamar, 
his  sons.  Let  not  the  hair  of  your  heads  go  loose,  neither  rend  your  clothes  ;  that  ye  die  not, 
and  that  he  be  not  wroth  with  all  the  congregation  :  but  let  your  brethren,  the  whole  house  of 

7  Israel,  bewail  the  burning  which  the  Lord  hath  kindled.  And  ye  shall  not  go  out  from  the 
door  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  lest  ye  die  :  for  the  anointing  oil  of  the  Lord  is  upon  you.  And 

8  they  did  according  to  the  word  of  Moses.  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Aaron,  saying.  Drink  no 

9  wine  nor  strong  drink,  thou,  nor  thy  sons  with  thee,  when  ye  go  into  the  tent  of  meeting, 

10  that  ye  die  not  :  it  shall  be  a  statute  for  ever  throughout  your  generations  :  and  that  ye  may 
23ut  difference  between  the  holy  and  the  common,  and  between  the  unclean  and  the  clean  ; 

11  and  that  ye  may  teach  the  children  of  Israel  all  the  statutes  which  the  Lord  hath  spoken  unto 
them  by  the  hand  of  Moses. 

12  And  Moses  spake  ujito  Aaron,  and  unto  Eleazar  and  unto  Ithamar,  his  sons  that  were  left, 
Take  the  meal  offering  that  remaineth  of  the  offerings  of  the  Lord  made  by  fire,  and  eat  it 

13  without  leaven  beside  the  altar  :  for  it  is  most  holy  :  and  ye  shall  eat  it  in  a  holy  place,  because 
it  is  thy  due,  and  thy  sons’  due,  of  the  offerings  of  the  Lord  made  by  fire  :  for  so  I  am  com- 

14  manded.  And  the  wave  breast  and  the  heave  thigh  shall  ye  eat  in  a  clean  23lace  ;  thou,  and 
thy  sons,  and  thy  daughters  with  thee  :  for  they  are  given  as  thy  due,  and  thy  sons’  due,  out 

15  of  the  sacrifices  of  the  peace  offerings  of  the  children  of  Israel.  The  heave  thigh  and  the 
wave  breast  shall  they  bring  with  the  offerings  made  by  fire  of  the  fat,  to  wave  it  for  a  wave 
offering  before  the  Lord  :  and  it  shall  be  thine,  and  thy  sons’  with  thee,  as  a  due  for  ever  ; 
as  the  Lord  hath  commanded. 

16  And  Moses  diligently  sought  the  goat  of  the  sin  offering,  and,  behold,  it  was  burnt  :  and  he 

17  was  angry  with  Eleazar  and  with  Ithamar,  the  sons  of  Aaron  that  were  left,  saying.  Wherefore 
have  ye  not  eaten  the  sin  offering  in  the  place  of  the  sanctuary,  seeing  it  is  most  holy,  and  he 
hath  given  it  you  to  bear  the  iniquity  of  the  congregation,  to  make  atonement  for  them  before 

18  the  Lord?  Behold,  the  blood  of  it  was  not  brought  into  the  sanctuary  within  :  ye  should 

19  certainly  have  eaten  it  in  the  sanctuary,  as  I  commanded.  And  Aaron  spake  unto  Moses, 
Behold,  this  day  have  they  offered  their  sin  offering  and  their  burnt  offering  before  the  Lord  ; 
and  there  have  befallen  me  such  things  as  these  :  and  if  I  had  eaten  the  sin  offering  to-day, 

20  would  it  have  been  well-pleasing  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  ?  And  when  Moses  heard  that,  it 
was  well-pleasing  in  his  sight. 


This  incident  of  personal  history  furnishes 
various  points  of  comment  and  illustration  re¬ 
specting  the  ceremonial  laws,  and  probably  a 
reason  for  the  special  enactment  that  immedi¬ 
ately  follows.  It  occurred  on  the  day  of  the 
consecration  of  Aaron  and  his  sons,  which  took 
place  in  the  early  2^art  of  the  first  month  of  the 
second  year.  And  it  preceded  the  observance 
of  the  Passover  on  the  fourteenth  day  of  the 
first  month,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  next  section. 
It  is  therefore  iilaced  here,  as  the  first  incident 
of  the  history,  following  the  legislation.  B. 


1,  2.  The  Death  of  Nadab  and  Abihu,  the  sons 
of  Aaron.  The  first  day  of  Aaron’s  ministry  had 
not  yet  closed.  He  had  offered  the  sacrifices, 
and  had  entered  into  the  holy  place  with  Moses, 
and  had  returned  to  the  court  of  the  tabernacle, 
where  the  peo23le  had  been  standing  in  mute  ex¬ 
pectation,  and  God  had  shown  his  approval  and 
his  confirmation  of  him  in  his  priestly  acts  by 
consuming  the  sacrifices,  as  they  lay  on  the 
altar,  with  a  miraculous  fire  emblematic  of  him¬ 
self,  when  a  presumptuous  act  on  the  2^art  of 
his  two  eldest  children  changed  the  day  from 


522 


SECTION  163.  DEATH  OF  NADAB  AND  ABIHV  BY  FIRE. 


one  of  rejoicing  to  one  of  mourning.  They  lit 
their  censers  from  one  of  the  fires  which  had 
been  made  for  boiling  the  sacrificial  flesh,  and, 
putting  incense  upon  them,  started  forward, 
with  the  intention  of  carrying  the  burning  in¬ 
cense  to  the  golden  altar  of  prayer  in  the  holy 
place.  They  reached  the  door  of  the  taber¬ 
nacle,  where  Moses  and  Aaron  were  standing, 
when  they  were  met  by  a  blast  of  the  same  fire 
which  had  already  swept  to  the  brazen  altar, 
and  they  fell  dead.  They  had  acted  presump- 
tuousl3\  They  had  not,  according  to  the  Di¬ 
vine  command,  taken  the  tire  for  the  altar  of  in¬ 
cense  from  the  altar  of  burnt  sacrifice  alone. 
They— the  newly-ordained  priests — had  done 
what  God  had  n  A  commanded,  and  in  doing  it 
had  done  what  he  had  forbidden.  Like  Uzzah 
afterward  (2  Sam.  6  ;  7),  they  died  for  it,  that 
others  might  fear  to  do  the  same.  Will- worship 
received  thereby  an  emphatic  condemnation, 
and  priests  and  people  were  taught,  in  a  man¬ 
ner  not  to  be  forgotten,  that  “  to  obey  is  better 
than  sacrifice.”  F.  M. 

They  had  been  honored  with  the  high  dis¬ 
tinction  of  accompanying  Moses  and  their  father 
to  the  summit  of  the  hallow'ed  mount,  where 
they  were  favored  with  a  vision  of  God,  such 
as  had  never  before  been  accorded  to  mortal 
eyes.  They  had  just  been  consecrated,  along 
with  their  father,  to  the  dignity  of  the  priestly 
office.  They  had  just  been  assisting  him  and 
Moses  in  the  sacred  offerings.  They  had  been 
prominent  actors  in  the  solemnities  of  an  occa¬ 
sion  which  should  above  all  others  have  filled 
their  souls  with  reverence  and  holy  awe.  Yet  in 
the  midst  of  it  all  they  sinned  a  sin,  the  enor¬ 
mity  of  which  is  most  effectually  proclaimed  by 
the  tremendous  punishment  which  it  immedi 
ately  drew  after  it.  They  were  struck  dead  with 
their  censers  in  their  hands,  without  a  moment’s 
warning !  What  a  fearful  exhibition  of  the 
truth,  that  God’s  jealousy  burns  fiercest  about 
his  altar  !  Bush. 

While  the  people  with  fear  and  joy  see  God 
lighting  his  own  fire,  fire  from  heaven,  the  two 
sons  of  Aaron  in  careless  presumption  will  be 
serving  him  with  a  common  flame  ;  as  if  he 
might  not  have  leave  to  choose  the  forms  of  his 
own  worship.  If  this  had  been  done  some  ages 
after  when  the  memory  of  the  original  of  this 
heavenly  fire  had  been  worn  out,  it  might  have 
been  excused  with  ignorance  ;  but  now  when 
God  had  newly  sent  his  fire  from  above,  while 
it.still  flamed  to  fetch  profane  coals  to  God’s 
altar,  could  savor  of  no  less  than  presumption 
and  sacrilege.  When  we  bring  zeal  without 
knowledge,  misconceits  of  faith,  carnal  affec¬ 


tions,  the  devices  of  our  will-worship,  supersti¬ 
tious  devotions,  into  God’s  service,  we  bring 
common  lire  to  his  altar  :  these  flames  were 
never  of  his  kindling  ;  he  hates  both  altar,  fire, 
priest,  and.  sacrifice.  And  now  behold,  the 
same  fire  which  consumed  the  sacrifice  before 
consumes  the  sacrifleers.  It  was  the  sign  of 
his  acceptance,  in  consuming  the  beast  ;  but 
while  it  destroyed  men,  the  fearful  sign  of  his 
displeasure.  By  the  same  means  can  God  be¬ 
wray  both  love  and  hatred.  Bp.  IL - The  ver)' 

fire  at  whose  appearing  the  people  had  before 
rejoiced  was  fatal  to  them  who  now  despised 
it.  The  same  Gospel  is  to  one  a  savor  of  life,  to 
others  a  savor  of  death.  It  ‘‘  devoured  i.e., 
it  killed  them  ;  since,  according  to  verse  5, 
their  clothes  were  not  singed.  They  died  ”  be¬ 
fore  the  Lord  ” — before  the  tent  of  his  dwelling, 
in  which  he  had  shown  himself  as  present  by 
means  of  the  fire  :  as  in  the  case  of  Uzzah  (1 
Ch  13  : 10).  The  history  reminds  us  of  Ananias 
and  Sapphira.  Geri. 

All  those  who  contrive  modes  of  prayer,  or 
symbols  of  prayer,  other  than  those  which  the 
Lord  has  himself  prepared  and  revealed  in  his 
Word,  will  do  well  to  study  this  lesson  of  the 
doom  of  Nadab  and  Abihu.  All  will-worship, 
however  attractive  in  its  forms  ;  all  worship 
which  leaves  out  of  view  the  one  great  sacrifice 
on  the  altar  as  its  spring  source,  should  find 
here  their  warning.  There  is  no  longer  an 
earthly  tabernacle  and  visible  mercy-seat  from 
which  the  fire  may  shoot  forth  to  destroy,  yet 
not  less  surely  will  God  visit  with  his  anger  the 
priests  who  lead  the  people  astray  with  these 
symbols  and  ritual,  which  pretend  to  kindle  the 
incense  with  “  strange  fire.”  S  K. 

The  penalty  which  was  inflicted  upon  the 
transgressors  was  indeed  severe.  But  the  case 
called  for  severity.  The  rank  and  station  of  the 
offenders  was  a  high  aggravation  of  their  crime. 
It  was  their  duty  to  set  an  example  of  scrupu 
lous  regard  to  the  known  will  of  God.  They 
had  been  admitted  to  more  intimate  communion 
with  God  than  others,  and  had  seen  more  of  the 
terrors  of  his  power,  more  of  the  wonders  of  his 
grace.  Moreover,  the  Levitical  institute  had 
been  just  established,  and  was  now  for  the  first 
time  going  into  operation.  It  behoved,  there¬ 
fore,  that  everything  should  be  done  in  exact 
conformity  to  the  Divine  prescription.  The 
sanctity  of  the  whole  system  would  be  gone  at 
once,  if  the  ministry  of  it  might  with  impunity 
presume,  in  its  setting  out,  to  dispense  with 
any  of  its  fixed  regulations.  As,  then,  the  deed 
was  daring  and  high-handed  in  the  extreme,  so 
the  expiation  was  proportionably  fearful  ;  and 


SPECIAL  ORDINANCES  FOLLOWING. 


523 


the  whole  transaction  forcibly  impresses  the 
admonition  of  the  apostle,  “  Let  us  have  grace 
whereby  we  may  serve  God  acceptably,  with 
reverence  and  godly  fear  ;  for  our  God  is  a  con¬ 
suming  lire.”  Bush. 

3.  The  Lord  ‘‘is  sanctified”  by  showing 
mercy  on  those  who  are  his  (Ezek.  20  : 41),  and 
likewise  by  punishing  those  who  despise  him 
(Ezek.  38  : 16).  In  both  cases  he  shows  and 
reveals  himself  as  the  Holy  One.  The  Lord 
has  “  said  ”  this  actually  (Ex.  19  :  22  ;  29  :  34), 
and  it  is  also  implied,  in  the  words  so  often  ap¬ 
pended  to  the  commandments  relating  to  the 

priests,  “  that  they  die  not.”  Gerl. - Nadab 

and  Abihu,  despising  the  Divine  fire,  are  con¬ 
sumed  by  it.  In  a  moment  they  experience 
how  God  is  a  “  consuming  fire”  to  all  presump¬ 
tion.  Ananias  and  Sapphira  feel  the  same. 
The}’’  fall  before  the  deserved  vengeance  of  the 
Most  High.  God  offers  us  the  great  alterna¬ 
tive — either  sanctification  through  the  fire  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  or  destruction  from  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  the  Lord  and  the  glory  of  his  power. 
God  will  be  sanctified  in  some  way.  Edgar. 

- Thus  it  is  that  the  same  thing  serves  as  a 

means  of  glorification  or  of  destruction,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  qualities  of  that  with  which  it  comes 
in  contact.  The  discipline  of  daily  life  makes 
one  a  saint,  another  a  more  determined  sinner. 
The  discipline  of  suffering  softens  one  heart, 
hardens  another.  The  difficulties  of  religious 
belief  make  one  the  more  submissive,  another 
an  unbeliever.  F.  M. 

Ahk'oii  field  liis  peace.  This  was  not 
out  of  an  amazement  nor  sullenness,  but  out  of 
patient  and  humble  submission  ;  seeing  God’s 
pleasure  and  their  desert  he  is  content  to  forget 
that  he  had  sons.  He  submits  to  the  will  of 
God,  and  holds  his  peace  because  the  Lord  had 
done  it.  There  is  no  greater  proof  of  grace 
than  to  smart  patiently,  and  humbly  and  con¬ 
tentedly  to  rest  the  heart  in  the  justice  and 
wisdom  of  God’s  proceeding,  and  to  be  so  far 

from  chiding  that  we  dispute  not.  Bp.  II. - 

“  He  held  his  peace."  Never  did  that  eloquent 
tongue  utter  words  so  cogent  or  so  beautiful  as 
w^as  this  silence  then.  This  simply  natural  and 
touching  circumstance  raises  Aaron  in  our  es¬ 
teem.  We  view  his  veiled  sorrows  with  respect 
and  feel  more  than  ever  disposed  to  extenuate 
the  w'eakness  which  belonged  to  some  parts  of 
his  career.  Kit. 

6,  7,  The  commandments  which  follow  were 
based  upon  the  foregoing  event.  The  command 
to  the  priests  not  to  uncover  their  heads  or  tear 
their  clothes  (both  signs  of  mourning)  was  based 
upon  the  fact  that  their  clothes  and  head-dress 


formed  part  of  their  official  costume,  and  there¬ 
fore,  by  laying  aside  or  tearing  them,  their 
priestly  vocation  and  character  would  be  af¬ 
fected.  As  the  heads  of  the  priests  had  been 
anointed  wdth  holy  oil,  the  uncovering  of  the 
head,  which  was  required  by  custom  in  times  of 
mourning  (Lev.  13  ;  45),  Avould  have  been  an  act 
of  profanation.  K. 

8-11.  It  would  seem  that  Nadab  and  Abihu 
were  betrayed  into  this  act  of  presumption  by 
intemperance  at  the  feast  upon  the  peace-offer¬ 
ings  ;  for  immediately  after  Moses  delivers  the 
injunctions  against  the  priests’  drinking  wine 
and  strong  drink  when  they  approached  the 

sanctuary.  Graves. - It  cannot  be  denied  that 

there  was  a  connection  between  the  prohibition 
to  partake  of  strong  drink  before  entering  the 
sanctuary  and  the  event  which  had  just  oc¬ 
curred  ;  yet  it  would  be  going  too  far  to  infer 
from  this  that  Nadab  and  Abihu  committed  the 
crime  in  a  state  of  intoxication.  “  There  is  a 
connection,  however.”  as  Baumgarten  says, 
‘  ‘  between  the  state  of  mind  in  which  Nadab 
and  Abihu  forced  their  way  into  the  sanctuary 
and  a  state  of  intoxication,  for  it  was  an  act  of 
presumptuous  audacity  which  was  altogether  at 
variance  with  calmness  and  moderation  and 
in  the  juxtaposition  of  the  prohibition  to  drink 
wine  and  the  command  to  abstain  from  the 
signs  of  mourning,  it  was  distinctly  intimated, 
as  0.  von  Gerlach  says,  that  “  while  nothing 
from  without  should  dejDress  the  priest,  he  was 
not  to  allow  his  senses  to  be  taken  away  by 
unnatural  excitement.  His  whole  attention  was 
to  be  fixed  upon  the  sacred  acts  which  he  was 
commanded  to  perform.”  K. 

The  propriety  of  the  prohibition  is  obvious. 
The  worship  of  God  is  an  intelligent  service, 
and  therefore  requires  a  clear  and  collected 
mind  ;  it  is  a  holy  exercise,  and  therefore  de¬ 
mands  a  pure  and  undivided  heart.  This  is 
therefore  to  be  a  perpetual  statute  for  all  gener¬ 
ations.  M. - The  spirit  of  the  precept  re¬ 

quires  of  gospel  ministers  that  they  be  “  sober, 
not  given  to  wine"  (1  Tim.  3  :  2,  3).  “  Lest  they 

drink  and  forget  the  Law,  and  pervert  judg¬ 
ment  ”  (Prov.  31  :  5).  Bush. 

16-^0.  Moses  takes  care  that  the  remaining 
part  of  the  ritual  of  the  day  shall  be  carried  out 
in  spite  of  the  terrible  interruption  that  has 
occurred.  But  he  finds  that  the  sin  offerings, 
which  ought  to  be  eaten  by  the  priests,  had 
been  burned.  The  rule  was  that,  when  the  blood 
w^as  presented  in  the  tabernacle,  the  flesh  was 
burned  ;  when  it  was  not,  the  flesh  was  eaten 
b}’  the  priests.  In  the  present  case,  the  blood 
had  not  been  brought  within  the  holy  place. 


5^4 


SECTION  164.  THE  PASSOVER  AT  SINAI. 


and  yet  the  flesh  had  been  burned  instead  of 
being  eaten.  Moses  was  angry  with  Eleazar 
and  Ithainar,  and  demanded  an  explanation. 
F.  M, 

ll>,  Aaron's  apology  appears  to  amount  to 
this— “  Behold  this  very  da^^  in  which  we  have 
done  our  part  in  sacriticing  sin-otferings  and 
burnt-offerings  to  the  Lord,  this  great  calamity 
has  befallen  me.  Could  it  have  been  well- 
pleasing  to  the  Lord  if  those  who  have  been  so 
humbled  as  I  and  my  sons  have  been  by  the  sin 
of  our  relations  and  the  Divine  judgment  had 
feasted  on  the  most  holy  flesh  of  the  sin-offer- 
mg  ?'  ’  He  and  his  sons  would  seem  to  have 
been  bowed  down  by  a  sense  of  self-humiliation 
and  awe  suggested  by  the  fearful  example  which 
they  had  witnessed  and  by  grief  at  the  loss  of 
their  kindred.  This  working  of  natural  feeling 
seems  to  be  sufficient  to  account  for  their  ab¬ 
stinence  and  for  Aaron’s  words.  Clark. - 

Such  things  have  hef alien  one,  such  sad  things, 
which  could  not  but  go  near  his  heart  and  make 
it  very  heavy.  He  was  a  high-priest  taken  froon 
among  men,  and  could  not  put  off  natural  affec¬ 
tion  when  he  put  on  the  holy  garments.  He 
held  his  peace,  yet  his  sorrow  was  stirred.  He 
makes  that  an  excuse  for  his  varying  from  the 
appointment  about  the  sin-offering.  He  could 
not  have  eaten  it  but  in  his  mourning,  and  w'ith 
a  sorrowful  spirit  ;  and  would  that  have  been 
accepted  ?  Moses  acquiesces  in  the  excuse 
(verse  20).  Our  unfitness  for  duty,  when  it  is 
natural  and  not  sinful,  will  have  great  allow¬ 
ances  made  for  it  ;  and  God  will  have  mercy 


and  not  sacrifice.  The  spirit  was  willing  hut  the 
flesh  was  weak.  God  by  Moses  showed  that  he 
considered  his  frame.  Aaron  sincerely  aimed 
at  God’s  acceptance  ;  and  those*tbat  do  so  with 
an  upright  heart  shall  find  he  is  not  ('xtremeto 
mark  ichat  they  do  atniss.  Nor  must  we  be  severe 
in  our  animadversions  upon  ever}'  mistake,  con¬ 
sidering  ourselves,  lest  we  also  be  tempted.  H. 

There  is  something  profoundl}^  touching  in 
the  excuse  which  Aaron  urged.  His  sons  who 
“  were  left  ”  had,  spite  of  their  bereavement, 
“  offered  their  sin-off ering  and  their  burnt-offer¬ 
ing  before  the  Lord  they  had  striven  to  ren¬ 
der  the  service  required  of  them.  And  W'hen 
“  such  things  had  befallen  him  when  Aaron 
“held  his  peace,”  indeed,  but  his  parental 
heart  was  bleeding —would  the  eating  of  the 
flesh  of  the  goat  have  been  an  acceptable  ser¬ 
vice  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  ?  Moses  was  con¬ 
tent  with  Aaron’s  plea.  We  may  infer  that  he 
was  right  in  accepting  it.  Had  Aaron  repined 
or  murmured  against  God,  he  would  have  sin¬ 
ned.  But  this  he  did  not  He  summoned  him¬ 
self  and  his  sons  to  continue  in  the  service  of 
the  Lord,  and  only  stopped  at  the  point  where 
overcoming  sorrow'  laid  its  arresting  hand  upon 
him.  God  desires  of  us  the  will  to  serve  him, 
the  faith  which  uncomplainingly  accepts  his 
decisions  when  these  are  painful  and  perplex¬ 
ing,  and  the  endeavor,  to  the  height  of  our 
power,  to  continue  at  our  post.  When  the  spirit 
of  obedience  is  thus  in  our  hearts,  he  does  not 
exact  a  strict  measure  of  work  to  be  accomplished 
by  our  hands.  W.  C. 


Section  164. 

THE  PASSOVEK  (OF  THE  SECOND  YEAK)  AT  SINAI.  LAW  OF  A  SUPPLEMENTAKY 
PASSOVER.  THE  CLOUD,  A  DIVINE  GUIDE.  HOBAB,  A  HUMAN  GUIDE. 

Exodus  40  :  36-38.  Nu.  9  : 1-14,  17-23  ;  10  : 29-32. 

Nu.  9  1  And  tbe  Lokd  spake  unto  Moses  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai,  in  the  first  month  of 

2  the  second  year  after  they  were  come  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  saying.  Moreover  let  the  chil- 

3  dren  of  Israel  keep  the  passover  in  its  appointed  season.  In  the  fourteenth  day  of  this  month, 
at  even,  ye  shall  keep  it  in  its  appointed  season  :  according  to  all  the  statutes  of  it,  and  ac- 

4  cording  to  all  the  ordinances  thereof,  shall  ye  keep  it.  And  Moses  spake  unto  the  children  of 

5  Israel,  that  the}'  should  keep  the  passover.  And  they  kept  the  passover  in  the  first  month,  on 
the  fourteenth  day  of  the  month,  at  even,  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai  :  according  to  all  that  the 

6  Loed  commanded  Moses,  so  did  the  children  of  Israel.  And  there  were  certain  men,  w'ho  w'ere 
unclean  by  the  dead  body  of  a  man,  so  that  they  could  not  keep  the  passover  on  that  day  : 

7  and  they  came  before  Moses  and  before  Aaron  on  that  day  ;  and  those  men  said  unto  him.  We 
are  unclean  by  the  dead  body  of  a  man  :  wherefore  are  we  kept  back,  that  we  may  not  offer 

8  the  oblation  of  the  Lokd  in  its  appointed  season  among  the  children  of  Israel  ?  And  Moses 

9  said  unto  them.  Stay  ye  ;  that  I  may  hear  what  the  Lord  will  command  concerning  you.  And 
10  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  saying,  If  any  man  of 

you  or  of  your  generations  shall  be  unclean  by  reason  of  a  dead  body,  or  be  in  a  journey  afar 


THE  SUPPLEMENTARY  PASSOVER. 


525 


11  off,  yet  he  shall  keep  the  passover  unto  the  Lokd  :  in  the  second  month  on  the  fourteenth  day 

12  at  even  thej'^  shall  keep  it  ;  they  shall  eat  it  with  unleavened  bread  and  bitter  herbs  :  they 
shall  leave  none  of  it  unto  the  morning,  nor  break  a  bone  thereof  ;  according  to  all  the  statute 

13  of  the  passover  they  shall  keep  it.  But  the  man  that  is  clean,  and  is  not  in  a  journey,  and 
forbeareth  to  keep  the  passover,  that  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from  his  people  :  because  he  offered 

14  not  the  oblation  of  the  Lokd  in  its  appointed  season,  that  man  shall  bear  his  sin.  And  if  a 
stranger  shall  sojourn  among  you,  and  will  keep  the  passover  unto  the  Lord  ;  according  to  the 
statute  of  the  passover,  and  according  lo  the  ordinance  thereof,  so  shall  he  do  :  ye  shall  have 
one  statute,  both  for  the  stranger,  and  for  him  that  is  born  in  the  land. 

Ex.  40  3G  And  when  the  cloud  was  taken  up  from  over  the  tabernacle,  the  children  of  Israel 

87  went  onward,  throughout  all  their  journeys  :  but  if  the  cloud  were  not  taken  up,  then  they 

38  journeyed  not  till  the  day  that  it  was  taken  up.  For  the  cloud  of  the  Lord  was  upon  the  tab¬ 
ernacle  by  day,  and  there  was  tire  therein  by  night,  in  the  sight  of  all  the  house  of  Israel, 
throughout  all  their  journeys. 

Na.  9  17  And  whenever  the  cloud  was  taken  up  from  over  the  Tent,  then  after  that  the 
children  of  Israel  journeyed  :  and  in  the  jjlace  where  the  cloud  abode,  there  the  children  of 

18  Israel  encamped.  At  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  the  children  of  Israel  journeyed,  and  at 
the  commandment  of  the  Lord  they  encamped  ;  as  long  as  the  cloud  abode  upon  the  taber- 

19  nacle  they  remained  encamped.  And  when  the  cloud  tarried  upon  the  tabernacle  many  days, 

20  then  the  children  of  Israel  kept  the  charge  of  the  Lord,  and  journeyed  not.  And  sometimes 
the  cloud  was  a  few  da3^s  upon  the  tabernacle  ;  then  according  to  the  commandment  of  the 
Lord  thej’  remained  encamped,  and  according  to  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  they  journej^ed. 

21  And  sometimes  the  cloud  was  from  evening  until  morning  ;  and  when  the  cloud  was  taken 
up  in  the  morning,  they  journeyed  :  or  if  it  continued  by  day  and  by  night,  when  the  cloud 

22  was  taken  up,  thej^  journeyed.  Whether  it  were  tw'o  days,  or  a  month,  or  a  j^ear,  that  the 
cloud  tarried  upon  the  tabernacle,  abiding  thereon,  the  children  of  Israel  remained  encamped, 

23  and  journej^ed  not  :  but  when  it  was  taken  uj^,  they  journeyed.  At  the  commandment  of  the 
Lord  they  encamped,  and  at  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  they  journeyed  :  the}"  kept  the 
charge  of  the  Lord,  at  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  by  the  hand  of  Moses. 

Nu.  10  29  And  Moses  said  unto  Hobab,  the  son  of  Reuel  the  Midianite,  Moses’  father  in 
law.  We  are  journeying  unto  the  place  of  which  the  Lord  said,  I  will  give  it  you  :  come  thou 

30  with  us,  and  we  will  do  thee  good  :  for  the  Lord  hath  spoken  good  concerning  Israel.  And 

31  he  said  unto  him,  I  will  not  go  ;  but  1  will  depart  to  mine  own  land,  and  to  my  kindred  And 
he  said.  Leave  us  not,  I  pray  thee  ;  forasmuch  as  thou  knowest  how  we  are  to  encamp  in  the 

32  wilderness,  and  thou  shalt  be  to  us  instead  of  eyes.  And  it  shall  be,  if  thou  go  with  us,  yea, 
it  shall  be,  that  what  good  soever  the  Lord  shall  do  unto  us,  the  same  will  we  do  unto  thee. 


Nu.  9  :  1-5.  The  Passover  was  kept  at  Sinai 
in  the  first  month  of  the  second  year.  This  was 
before  the  census  and  all  the  other  events  pre¬ 
viously  recorded  in  this  book,  except  the  offer¬ 
ings  of  the  princes  (ch.  7).  There  was,  how¬ 
ever,  an  obvious  reason  for  mentioning  together 
the  two  passovers,  the  second  of  which  (the 
supplementary)  immediately  preceded  the  de¬ 
parture  from  Sinai.  Espin. 

6-14.  When  certain  men,  “  defiled  by  a  dead 
body,”  complained  that  they  had  thereby  been 
excluded  from  the  feast,  Moses  would  not  de¬ 
cide  the  matter  himsfilf,  but  brought  their  case 
before  God.  The  direction  given  was,  that 
under  such  or  similar  circumstances  the  Pass- 
over  should  be  observed  exactly  a  month  later, 
it  being  at  the  same  time  added,  to  guard 
against  any  wilful  neglect,  that  whoever  omit¬ 
ted  the  ordinance  without  such  reason  should 
“  but  cut  off  from  among  his  people.”  A.  E. 


- For  those  who,  on  account  of  ceremonial 

disqualification,  had  not  been  able  to  join  with 
the  rest  in  the  celebration  on  the  regular  day,  a 
special  Passover  service  on  the  fourteenth  day 
of  the  second  month  was  appointed.  And  a 
general  rule  was  adopted  in  future  for  the  ben¬ 
efit  of  those  who,  for  no  fault  of  their  own,  had 
been  deprived  of  the  privilege  at  the  appointed 
season.  All  this  goes  to  show  the  great  impor¬ 
tance  which  was  attached  to  this  observance. 
J.  M.  G. 

The  later  Jews  speak  of  this  as  the  Little 
Passover.  Coming,  as  it  did,  a  month  after  the 
proper  Passover,  it  afforded  ample  time  for  a 
man  to  purify  himself  from  legal  defilement,  as 
also  to  return  from  any  but  a  very  distant 
journey.  It  was  in  conformity  with  the  spirit 
of  this  ordinance  that  Hezekiah,  at  the  opening 
of  his  reign,  celebrated  the  Great  Passover  in 
the  second  month,  being  unable  to  complete 


526 


SECTION  164.  THE  CLOUD-GUIDE. 


the  sanctification  of  the  temple  and  priesthood 
against  the  regular  season  of  the  feast  (2  Ch. 
29).  Espin. 

The  Pillak  of  Cloud  and  Fire. 

Ex.  40  :  36-38.  Nu.  9  ;  17-23. 

In  this  pillar  from  the  first  the  liord  accom¬ 
panied  and  led  the  people.  The  appearance  of 
this  symbol  of  the  Divine  Presence  was  various, 
but  it  is  uniformly  spoken  of  as  itself  one— a 
lofty  column  rising  toward  heaven.  By  day  it 
would  seem  to  have  expanded  as  it  rose  and 
formed  itself  into  a  shade  between  the  Israelites 
and  the  sun,  as  the  Lord  is  said  by  means  of  it 
to  have  “  spread  a  cloud  for  a  covering.”  while 
by  night  it  exchanged  the  cloudy  for  the  illu 
minated  form,  and  diffused  throughout  the  camp 
a  pleasant  light.  At  first  it  went  before  the 
army,  pointing  the  way  ;  but  after  the  taber¬ 
nacle  was  made  it  became  more  immediately 
connected  with  this,  though  sometimes  appear 
ing  to  rest  more  closely  on  it  and  sometimes  to 
rise  higher  aloft.  Sometimes,  however,  as  when 
a  manifestation  of  Divine  glory  needed  to  be 
given  to  overawe  the  people,  or  when  some 
special  revelation  was  to  be  given  to  Moses,  the 
fire  discovered  itself  through  the  cloud.  So  that 
it  may  be  described  as  a  column  of  fire  sur¬ 
rounded  by  a  cloud,  the  one  or  the  other  appear¬ 
ance  becoming  predominant  according  as  the 
Divine  purpose  required,  but  that  of  fire  being 
more  peculiarly  identified  with  the  glory  of 
God.  P.  F. 

The  ordinary  form  w'hich  it  assumed  was 
that  of  a  pillar,  which  moved  forward  at  the 
head  of  the  Israelites,  and  showed  the  way  to 
the  hindmost  ranks  of  the  whole  procession 
(Ex.  13  :  21  ;  De.  1  : 33).  When  the  people  were 
to  encamp  for  the  purpose  of  resting,  the  cloud 
descended  ;  and  when  they  were  to  set  out 
again,  it  w'as  taken  up.  The  fire  in  the  pillar 
was  a  symbol  of  the  holiness  of  God,  which 
moved  before  the  sanctified  people,  both  as  a 
covering  and  a  defence.  It  was  the  same  fire 
which  Moses  had  seen  in  the  bramble,  and  the 
same  which  came  down  upon  Sinai  enveloped 
in  a  thick  cloud.  As  the  fire  was  a  symbol  of 
the  holiness  of  God,  the  cloud  in  which  it  was 
enveloped  was  a  symbol  of  his  mercy.  In  and 
with  the  symbol  was  Jehovah  himself,  with  his 
holiness  and  mercy,  or  the  angel  who  repre¬ 
sented  him  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  fore¬ 
shadowed  his  future  incarnation.  Thus  in  the 
pillar  of  cloud  and  fire  there  dwelt  the  holiness 
of  the  Lord  (cf.  Ex.  16  : 10  ;  40  :  34  ;  Nu.  16  : 42). 


This  relation  between  the  symbol  and  that 
which  it  represented  was  afterward  designated 
in  Jewish  theology  the  Shekinah.  From  it  pro¬ 
ceeded  all  the  commands  of  Jehovah  ;  from  it 
he  terrified  the  enemies  of  Israel  ;  from  it  he 
threatened  the  murmuring  people  ;  and  from  it 
went  forth  the  devouring  flame,  which  slew  the 
disobedient  and  rebellious.  K. 

The  lifting  of  the  cloud  w'as  the  signal  of  de¬ 
parture.  The  cloud  by  day  and  the  fire  by 
night  were  conspicuous  before  the  eyes  of  “  all 
the  house  of  Israel  in  all  their  journeys.”  Young 
and  old,  male  and  female,  the  numbered  and 
marshalled  host  and  the  wandering  clans  tend¬ 
ing  their  flocks  and  herds,  were  alike  spectators 
of  this  wondrous  sign  of  the  Djvine  presence, 
of  the  central  encampment  of  their  race,  and  of 
their  perfect  security  under  the  Divine  protec¬ 
tion.  M. - It  "was  a  threefold  token  of  the 

Hivine  presence,  protection,  and  guidance.  In  this 
sublime  symbol  the  journeying  host  could  but 
feel  that  God  was  always  nigh  them,  resting 
with  them  when  they  rested,  and  moving  with 
them  when  they  moved.  Never  could  they  cast 
their  eyes  upon  that  towering  pillar,  ever  dark 
b}’-  day  and  bright  by  night,  always  maintaining 
its  position,  and  not,  like  other  clouds,  chang¬ 
ing,  breaking,  and  dissipating  into  the  sur¬ 
rounding  air  ;  never  could  they  look  upon  this 
august  object  without  being  reminded  that  “  a 
God  at  hand,  and  not  afar  off,  was  the  Lord  in 
his  holy  habitation.”  It  conducted  them  in  all 
their  movements,  and  indicated  to  them  all 
their  rests.  They  rose  up  and  journeyed  when¬ 
ever  it  began  to  move  ;  they  stopped  when  it 
became  stationary.  When  it  rose  they  knew 
not  w'hither  it  would  go,  but  it  led  them  con¬ 
stantly  in  the  right  wmy  ;  they  had  nothing  to 
do  but  to  yield  themselves  implicitly  to  its  guid¬ 
ance.  Bush. 

And  as  he  chooses,  so  he  guides  their  way. 
That  they  might  not  err  in  that  sandy  and  un¬ 
tracked  wilderness,  himself  goes  before  them  : 

« 

who  could  but  follow  cheerfully,  when  he  sees 
God  lead  him  ?  He  that  led  the  wise  men  by 
a  star  leads  Israel  by  a  cloud  :  that  was  a  higher 
object,  therefore  he  gives  them  a  higher  and 
more  heavenly  conduct  ;  this  was  more  earthly, 
therefore  he  contents  himself  with  a  lower  rep¬ 
resentation  of  his  presence  ;  a  pillar  of  cloud 
and  fire  :  a  pillar,  for  firmness  ;  of  cloud  and 
fire,  for  visibility  and  use.  The  greater  light 
extinguishes  the  less  ;  therefore  in  the  day  he 
shows  them  not  fire,  but  a  cloud  :  in  the  night 
nothing  is  seen  without  light  ;  therefore  he 
shows  them  not  the  cloud  but  fire  :  the  cloud 
shelters  them  from  heat  by  day  ;  the  fire  digests 


IIOBAB,  THE  HUMAN  GUIDE. 


527 


the  rawness  of  the  night.  The  same  God  is 
both  a  cloud  and  a  fire  to  his  children  ;  ever 
putting  himself  into  those  forms  of  gracious  re¬ 
spects  that  may  best  fit  their  necessities. 

Bp.  II. - There  it  glows  whenever  night  begins 

to  fall  :  no  clouds  conceal  it,  no  tempest  drives 
it  hence  :  and  when  once  more  the  sun  arises 
in  the  east,  its  brightness  fades,  but  changes 
then  into  a  pillar  of  cloud,  hovering  above  and 
sheltering  the  camp  or  the  march.  Well  might, 
centuries  thereafter,  the  Psalmist  in  ecstasy 
claim  :  “  He  spread  a  cloud  for  a  covering,  and 
fire  to  give  light  in  the  night”  (Ps,  105  : 39). 

Van  0. - And  the  conduct  of  this  cloud  is 

spoken  of  as  signifying  the  guidance  of  the 
blessed  Spirit  (Is.  63  : 14)  ;  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord 
caused  him  to  rest,  and  so  didst  thou  lead  thy  peo¬ 
ple.  We  are  not  now  to  expect  such  sensible 
tokens  of  the  Divine  presence  and  guidance  as 
this  was,  but  the  promise  is  sure  to  all  God’s 
spiritual  Israel.  That  he  will  guide  them  hy  his 
counsel  (Ps.  73  : 24),  even  unto  dtath  (Ps.  48  :  14). 
That  all  the  children  (f  God  shall  be  led  hy  the 
Spirit  of  God  (Korn.  8  : 14).  That  he  will  direct 
their  paths,  who  in  all  their  ways  acknowledge 
lain  (Prov.  3:6).  Those  that  by  faith  commit 
their  works  to  the  Lord,  though  they  are  bound 
to  the  prudent  use  of  means,  yet  may  be  easy 
in  the  expectation  of  the  event  ;  Father,  thy 
will  be  done ;  dispose  of  me  and  mine  as  thou 
pleasest  ;  here  I  am,  desirous  to  be  found  wait¬ 
ing  on  my  God  continually,  to  journey  and  rest  at 
the  commandment  of  the  Lord.  What  thou  wilt, 
and  where  thou  wilt,  only  let  me  be  thine,  and 
always  in  the  way  of  my  duty.”  H. 

All  these  circumstances  are  recited  thus  par¬ 
ticularly  by  Moses,  to  show  that  the  Israelites 
did  not  wonder  so  long  in  the  wilderness  from 
being  bewildered  and  unable  to  find  their  way 
out  ;  but  that  all  their  motions  were  directed 
by  the  special  appointment  of  God.  Patrick. 
- These  tokens  continued  with  them  through¬ 
out  all  their  journeys' :  for,  notwithstanding  their 
frequently  repeated  disobedience  and  rebellion, 
God  never  withdrew  these  tokens  of  his  presence 
from  them  till  they  were  brought  into  the 
promised  land.  When,  therefore,  the  taber¬ 
nacle  became  fixed,  because  the  Israelites  had 
obtained  their  inheritance,  this  mark  of  the 
Divine  presence  was  no  longer  visible  in  the 
sight  of  all  Israel,  but  appears  to  have  been 
confined  to  the  holy  of  holies,  where  it  had  its 
fixf-d  residence  upon  the  merej^'-seat,  between 
the  cherubim  ;  and  in  this  place  continued  till 
the  first  temple  was  destroyed  ;  after  which  it 
was  no  more  seen  in  Israel  till  God  was  mani¬ 
fested  in  the  flesh,  A,  C, 


Hobab,  the  Human  Guide. 

Nu.  10  : 29-32. 

It  seems  evident  that  Hobab  was  in  fact  the 
brother-in-law,  not  father-in-law  of  Moses,  and 
the  Hebrew  word  signifies  simply  any  relation 
by  marriage.  Hobab  is  described  as  the  ”  son 
of  Keuel  and  the  desire  of  Moses  to  obtain 
his  services  as  guide  through  the  wilderness  in¬ 
dicates  that  he  was  younger  than  Moses’s  father- 
in-law  could  now  have  been.  It  is  stated  in 
Ex.  18  :  27  that  Jethro  quitted  the  Israelites  be¬ 
fore  they  reached  Sinai,  to  return  to  his  own 
land  ;  while  it  appears  from  the  passage  now 
before  us  compared  with  Judges  1  : 16  ;  4  : 11, 
that  Hobab  eventually  accompanied  them,  and 
obtained  a  settlement  with  them  in  the  land  of 

Canaan.  Espin. - It  seems  probable  that 

Hobab  was  the  son  of  Jethro,  and  that  when 
the  father,  being  aged,  went  to  his  own  land 
(Ex.  18  : 27),  he  left  his  son  Hobab  with  Moses, 
as  Barzillai  left  Chimham  with  David  ;  and  the 
same  word  signifies  both  a  faiher-in-law  and  a 
brother -in-law.  Hobab  stopped  contentedly  with 
Israel  while  the}’’  encamped  at  Mount  Sinai  near 
his  own  country  ;  but  now  that  they  were  re¬ 
moving,  ho  was  for  going  back  to  his  own  coun¬ 
try  and  kindred  and  his  father’s  house.  H. 

.  Moses  offers  the  inducement  of  great  good  to 
the  man  whom  he  invites  to  accompany  him — 
one  near  to  him,  whose  society  he  had  daily  en 
joyed  while  he  abode  in  the  tents  of  Midian. 
For  this  good  Hobab  had  not  altogether  to  wait 
for  forty  years.  He  realized  much  of  it  evrn  in 
the  wilderness — more  than  he  could  have  en¬ 
joyed  among  his  own  people  and  in  his  own 
land.  It  was  good  to  be  among  a  people  under 
God’s  special  covenant.  He  had  opportunities 
unattainable  elsewhere  of  realizing  the  presence 
of  God  amdnghis  people.  The  air  he  breathed, 
the  sights  he  saw  every  day — the  sounds  he 
heard — all  were  full  of  God.  And  all  tended  to 
build  up  his  faith,  to  cheer  his  heart,  to  keep 
him  from  being  “  discouraged  because  of  the 
way.”  We  need  not  apply  this.  It  is  applied, 
even  by  the  terms  in  which  it  is  expressed.  In 
the  conviction  of  the  high  privilege's  which  be¬ 
long  to  their  condition  the  people  of  God  may 
freely  and  confidently  say  to  those  who  go  with 
them,  that  it  shall  be  good  for  them— good  for 
them  in  the  wilderness  — and  good  for  them  in 
the  promised  land.  Kit. 

It  is  no  idle  fancy  which  sees  in  all  this  a 
parable  of  the  Christian  faith  and  the  Christian 
profession.  We  also  look  for  an  inheritance 
and  rest.  As  truly  as  the  tribes  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,  we  (unless  we  have  believed  in-vain)  have 


528 


SECTION  164.  IIOBAB’S  SERVICE. 


turned  our  backs  upon  Egypt,  and  have  set  our 
faces  toward  the  better  country.  We  are  jour¬ 
neying.  We  are  strangers  and  pilgrims.  “Come 
thou  with  us.”  Even  under  the  Old  Testament 
the  Church  had  an  open  door  and  a  welcome 
for  all  who  desired  to  enter.  In  point  of  fact, 
a  considerable  proportion  of  those  who  const! 
tuted  the  Hebrew  commonwealth  at  any  given 
time  were  of  Gentile  descent.  Moses  did  not 
act  without  warrant  when  he  invited  Hobab  to 
come  in  — he  and  all  his.  Binnie. - The  in¬ 

ducement  was,  “  we  will  do  thee  good.”  Not  of 
their  own  ability  or  of  their  own  abundance, 
but  by  communicating  unto  him  the  good  things 
which  God  should  bestow  on  them.  We  may 
fearlessly  say  to  the  child  of  this  world,  “  we 
will  do  thee  good.”  As  a  fact  men  find  peace, 
support,  sympathy,  consolation  here — heaven 
hereafter — in  the  society  of  the  faithful,  not  out 

of  it,  K.  W. - And  what  argument  can  be 

more  powerful  with  us  to  take  God’s  people  for 
our  people  than  this,  that  God  hath  spoken  good 
concerning  them.  It  is  good  having  fellowshij) 
with  those  that  have  fellowship  with  God  (1 
John  1  : 3),  and  going  with  those  with  whom 
God  is  (Zech.  8  :  23).  H. 

31,  “  Forasmuch  as  thou  knowest  how  we  are 
to  encamp  in  the  wilderness,  and  thou  mayest 
be  to  us  instead  of  eyes,”  It  is  an  obvious  con¬ 
clusion,  from  the  reasons  here  urged  by  Moses, 
that  the  many  and  wonderful  promises  of  Di¬ 
vine  guidance  and  Divine  direction  did  not 
supersede  in  his  eyes  the  use  of  all  available 
human  aids.  In  the  broken  and  difficult  coun¬ 
try  which  they  were  to  traverse,  which  had  been 
familiar  to  Hobab  from  his  youth,  there  would 
be  scope  enough  for  all  his  ability  as  a  guide. 
And  it  would  seem  that  it  was  just  this  prospect 
of  being  really  useful  to  the  people  of  Israel 
that  prevailed  with  Hobab.  R.  W. - The  Di¬ 

vine  guidance  of  the  pillar  of  the  cloud  would 
not  render  superfluous  the  human  conductor 
who  could  indicate  the  spots  where  water,  fuel, 
and  pasture  might  be  found,  and  the  dangers 
from  hurricanes.  Probably  indeed  the  pillar 
prescribed  only  the  general  direction  of  the 
journey.  Nor  would  it  be  according  to  the  gen¬ 
eral  analogy  of  God’s  dealings  had  he  miracu¬ 
lously  rendered  his  people  independent  of  such 
aids  from  human  experience  and  sagacity  as 

were  within  their  reach,  Espin. - Parties  took 

several  journeys  while  the  host  lay  still.  They 
therefore  needed  such  a  person  as  Hobab,  who 
was  well  acquainted  with  the  desert,  to  direct 
these  paiticular  excursions  What  man  cannot 
under  fhe  direction  of  God’s  providence  do  for 
himself,  God  will  do  in  the  way  of  especial 


mercy.  He  could  have  directed  them  to  the 
fountains  and  to  the  places  of  fuel  ;  bat  Hobab 
can  do  this,  therefore  let  Hobab  be  employed  : 
and  let  Hobab  know,  for  his  encouragement, 
that  while  he  is  serving  others  in  the  way  of 
God’s  providence  he  is  securing  his  own  best 
interests.  On  these  grounds  Hobab  should  be 
invited  ;  and  for  this  reason  Hobab  should  go. 
Man  cannot  do  God’s  work  ;  and  God  will  not 
do  the  work  which  he  has  qualified  and  com¬ 
manded  man  to  perform.  Thus  then  the  Lord 
is  ever  seen,  even  while  he  is  helping  man  by 

man.  A.  C. - Moses  had  the  Divine  signal  of 

the  moving  pillar  and  cloud  of  fire,  but  he 
would  not  neglect  any  subordinate  aids  that 
were  available.  An  important  lesson  is  here  for 
our  guidance  both  in  private  and  public  life. 
D.  F. 

Moses  said,  ‘  ‘  Thou  mayest  be  to  us  instead 
of  eyes  ;  and  what  goodness  the  Lord  shall  do 
unto  us,  the  same  will  we  do  unto  thee.” 
There  was  true  friendship,  consisting  in  the  in¬ 
terchange  of  mutual  help.  Those  are  ever  the 
m.ost  profitable  fellowships  in  which  the  weak¬ 
ness  of  one  party  is  fortified  by  the  strength  of 
the  other.  Moses  was  ears  to  Hobab  to  hear 
what  the  Lord  might  say,  and  to  share  with  him 
the  knowledge  which  he  thus  obtained  ;  and 
Hobab  was  eyes  to  Moses  to  communicate  to 
him  all  his  familiarity  with  that  trackless  desert 
in  which  he  had  lived  so  long.  So  they  jour¬ 
neyed  on,  each  helping  the  other.  Moses  re¬ 
ceived  the  earthly  assistance,  and  sought  to  re¬ 
ward  it  by  sharing  the  spiritual  blessing. 
W.  M.  T. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  eventually  Hobab 
yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  Moses.  The  scrip¬ 
tural  account  leaves  very  little  room  to  doubt  of 
this.  In  fact,  it  is  fully  proved  by  Judges  1  :16  ; 
4  :  11,  and  1  Sam.  15  :  6,  where  the  descendants 
of  Hobab,  who  are  called  children  of  the  Kenite, 
the  name  by  which  they  were  distinguished 
from  the  rest  of  the  Midianites,  are  said  to  have 
gone  up  with  the  Israelites  into  Canaan,  and  to 
have  settled  among  them  there,  probably  with¬ 
out  relinquishing  their  nomadic  mode  of  life. 

K. - From  Judges  1  ;16  we  learn  that  the  sons 

of  Hobab  joined  themselves  to  the  sous  of 
Judah,  and  dwelt  among  them  on  the  southern 
border  of  the  land.  Here  is  an  “  undesigned 
coincidence,”  albeit  a  slight  one.  Judah  led 
the  way  on  the  march  from  Sinai  to  Canaan, 
and  Hobab’s  duties  as  guide  and  scout  would 
bring  him  more  into  contact  with  that  tribe 
than  with  any  other.  R.  \V 

All  through  the  subsequent  history  of  Israel 
we  come  on  the  traces  of  the  Kenites,  living 


SECTION  165. 


529 


their  free  desert  life,  dwelling  in  tents,  and 
drinking  no  wine  ;  one  with  the  people  of  the 
Jews,  and  yet  retaining  their  Arab  customs  ; 
producing  men  distinguished  in  the  worst  times 
by  their  fidelity  to  God  and  to  the  habits  of 
their  fathers  —as,  for  instance,  Jabez,  who  was 
“  more  honorable  than  his  brethren  Jonadab, 


the  austere  sectary,  who  rode  with  Jehu  when 
that  vehement  prince  sought  to  extirpate  every 
worshipper  of  Baal  throughout  the  land  ;  and 
that  little  band  of  Bechabites,  who,  in  the  final 
siege  of  Jerusalem,  j^itched  their  tmts  in  the 
streets,  and  rather  than  drink  wine  endured 
the  parching  thirsts  of  famine,  Gox. 


Section  165, 

BOOK  OF  NUMBEKS.  PKEPARATIONS  FOR  LEAVING  SINAI  :  NUMBERING  OF  THE 
FIGHTING  MEN  ;  ARRANGEMENT  OF  THE  CAMP  AND  ORDER  OF  THE  MARCH  ; 
NUMBERING  OF  THE  LEVITES,  AND  ASSIGNMENT  OF  SERVICE  TO  THE  THREE 
FAMILIES. 

Numbeks,  chapters  1-4. 

iVu.  I  1  And  the  IjOrd  spake  unto  Moses  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai,  in  the  tent  of  meeting, 
on  the  first  day  of  the  second  month,  in  the  second  year  after  they  were  come  out  of  the  land 

2  of  Egypt,  saying,  Take  ye  the  sum  of  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel,  by  their 
families,  by  their  fathers’  houses,  according  to  the  number  of  the  names,  every  male,  by  their 

3  polls  ;  from  twenty  years  old  and  upward,  all  that  are  able  to  go  forth  to  wp  in  Israel,  thou 

4  and  Aaron  shall  number  them  by  their  hosts.  And  with  you  there  shall  be  a  man  of  every 

5  tribe  ;  every  one  head  of  his  fathers’  house.  And  these  are  the  names  of  the  men  that  shall 

G  stand  with  you  :  of  Reuben  ;  Elizur  the  son  of  Shedeur.  Of  Simeon  ;  Shelumiel  the  son  of 

7,  8  Zurishaddai.  Of  Judah  ;  Nahshon  the  son  of  Amminadab.  Of  Issachar  ;  Nethanel  the  son 

9,  10  of  Zuar.  Of  Zebulun  ;  Eliab  the  son  of  Helon.  Of  the  children  of  Joseph  :  of  Ephraim  ; 

11  Elishama  the  son  of  Ammihud  :  of  Manasseh  ;  Gamaliel  the  son  of  Pedahzur.  Of  Benjamin  ; 

12,  13  Abidan  the  son  of  Gideoni.  Of  Dan  ;  Ahiezer  the  son  of  Ammishaddai.  Of  Asher  ;  Pagiel 

14,  15  the  son  of  Ochran.  Of  Gad  ;  Eliasaph  the  son  of  Deuel.  Of  Naphtali  ;  Ahira  the  son  of 
•  16  Enan.  These  are  they  that  were  called  of  the  congregation,  the  princes  of  the  tribes  of  their 

17  fathers  ;  they  were  the  heads  of  the  thousands  of  Israel.  And  Moses  and  Aaron  took  these 

18  men  v.diich  are  expressed  by  name  :  and  they  assembled  all  the  congregation  together  on  the 
first  day  of  the  second  month,  and  the.y  declared  their  pedigrees  after  their  families,  by  their 
fathers’  houses,  according  to  the  number  of  the  names,  from  twenty  years  old  and  upward,  by 

19  their  polls.  As  the  Lord  commanded  Moses,  so  he  numbered  them  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai. 

44  These  are  they  that  were  numbered,  which  Moses  and  Aaron  numbered,  and  the  princes  of 

45  Israel,  being  twelve  men  :  they  were  each  one  for  his  fathers’  house.  So  all  they  that  were 
numbered  of  the  children  of  Israel  by  their  fathers’  houses,  from  twenty  years  old  and  up- 

46  ward,  all  that  were  able  to  go  forth  to  war  in  Israel  ;  even  all  they  that  were  numbered  were 
six  hundred  thousand  and  three  thousand  and  five  hundred  and  fifty, 

52  And  the  children  of  Israel  shall  pitch  their  tents,  every  man  by  his  own  camp,  and  every 

53  man  by  his  own  standard,  according  to  their  hosts.  But  the  Levites  shall  pitch  round  about 
the  tabernacle  of  the  testimony,  that  there  be  no  wrath  upon  the  congregation  of  the  children 

54  of  Israel  :  and  the  Levites  shall  keep  the  charge  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  testimony.  Thus  did 
the  children  of  Israel  ;  according  to  all  that  the  Lord  commanded  Moses,  so  did  they. 

ii  1,  2  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses  and  unto  Aaron,  saying.  The  children  of  Israel  shall 
pitch  every  man  b}’-  his  own  standard,  with  the  ensigns  of  their  fathers’  houses  :  over  against 

3  the  tent  of  meeting  shall  they  pitch  round  about.  And  those  that  pitch  on  the  east  side  toward 
the  sunrising  shall  be  they  of  the  standard  of  the  camp  of  Judah,  according  to  their  hosts. 

9  All  that  were  numbered  of  the  camp  of  Judah  were  an  hundred  thousand  and  fourscore  thou¬ 
sand  and  six  thousand  and  four  hundred,  according  to  their  hosts.  They  shall  set  forth  first. 

10  On  the  south  side  shall  be  the  standard  of  the  camp  of  Reuben  according  to  their  hosts. 

16  All  that  were  numbered  of  the  camp  of  Reuben  were  an  hundred  thousand  and  fifty  and  one 
thousand  and  four  hundred  and  fifty,  according  to  their  hosts.  And  they  shall  set  forth 
second. 

17  Then  the  tent  of  meeting  shall  set  forward,  with  the  camp  of  the  Levites  in  the  midst  of  the 
camps  :  as  they  encamp,  so  shall  they  set  forward,  every  man  in  his  place,  by  their  standards. 

34 


630 


SECTION  165.  BOOK  OF  NUMBERS. 


18  On  the  west  side  shall  be  the  standard  of  the  camp  of  Ephraim  according  to  their  hosts. 

24  All  that  were  numbered  of  the  camp  of  Ephraim  were  an  hundred  thousand  and  eight  thou, 

sand  and  an  hundred,  according  to  their  hosts.  And  they  shall  set  forth  third. 

25  On  the  north  side  shall  be  tbe  standard  of  the  camp  of  Dan  according  to  their  hosts. 

31  All  that  were  numbered  of  the  camp  of  Dan  were  an  hundred  thousand  and  fifty  and  seven 

thousand  and  six  hundred.  They  shall  set  forth  hindmost  by  their  standards. 

32  These  are  they  that  were  numbered  of  the  children  of  Israel  by  their  fathers’  houses  :  all 
that  were  numbered  of  the  camps  according  to  their  hosts  were  six  hundred  thousand  and 

33  three  thousand  and  tive  hundred  and  fifty.  But  the  Levites  were  not  numbered  among  the 

34  children  of  Israel  ;  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses.  Thus  did  the  children  of  Israel  ;  accord¬ 
ing  to  all  that  the  Lord  commanded  ll^oses,  so  they  pitched  by  their  standards,  and  so  they 
set  forward,  every  one  by  their  families,  according  to  their  fathers’  houses. 

3  1  Now  these  are  the  generations  of  Aaron  and  Moses  in  the  day  that  the  Lord  spake  with 

2  Moses  in  mount  Sinai.  And  these  are  the  names  of  the  sons  of  Aaron  ;  Nadab  the  firstborn, 

3  and  Abihu,  Eleazar,  and  Ithamar.  These  are  the  names  of  the  sons  of  Aaron,  the  priests 

4  which  were  anointed,  whom  he  consecrated  to  minister  in  the  priest’s  ofiice.  And  Nadab  and 
Abihu  died  before  the  Lord,  when  they  offered  strange  fire  before  the  Lord,  in  the  wilderness 
of  Sinai,  and  they  had  no  children  :  and  Eleazar  and  Ithamar  ministered  in  the  priest’s  office  in 

f 

the  presence  of  Aaron  their  father. 

[The  text  covering  the  numbers  of  the  several  tribes,  and  names  of  the  particular  tribes  in 
each  camp  ;  also  the  double  enumeration  of  the  three  families  of  Levi,  with  the  special  charge 
of  each  in  the  care  of  the  tabernacle  and  its  furniture,  omitted  for  economy  of  space.] 


The  Book  of  Numbers. 

The  titles  of  the  five  books  of  Moses  in  our 
Bibles  are  all  borrow’ed  from  the  Greek  transla- 
tion  of  the  Seventy.  But  the  title  of  this  book 
only  we  turn  into  English  ;  in  all  the  rest  we 
retain  the  Greek  word  itself.  This  book  might 
as  well  have  been  called  Arithnoi,  the  Greek 
title,  as  the  first  Genesis,  and  the  second  Exodus. 
H. - The  book  is  so  called  from  the  two  num¬ 

berings  (ch.  1  and  ch.  26)  of  the  people  at  the 
beginning  and  end  of  the  wanderings.  The 
book  relates  to  a  period  of  thirty-eight  years 
and  three  months,  from  the  completion  of  the 
Law-giving,  “  the  first  day  of  the  second  month 
•of  the  second  year”  of  the  Exodus,  to  the  first 
■daj^  of  the  fifth  month  of  the  fortieth  year.  Its 
contents  have  been  thus  summarized  :  (1)  The 
breaking  up  of  the  encampment  at  Sinai  ;  ar¬ 
rangement  of  the  army,  and  the  service  of  the 
priestly  tribe,  with  an  inventory  of  their  charge  ; 
the  parting  service  and  blessing.  (2)  The  march 
upon  Canaan  and  its  repulse.  (3)  Rebellions  ; 
•confirmation  of  Moses  and  Aaron  in  authority  ; 
condemnation  of  the  people  to  death  in  the  wil¬ 
derness.  (4)  Various  events  in  the  forty  years’ 
wandering.  (5)  Events  of  the  fortieth  year,  the 
deaths  of  Miriam  and  Aaron  ;  Balaam’s  mission  ; 
the  corruption  of  the  people  by  the  Midianites, 
and  its  consequences  ;  laws  of  inheritance,  etc. 
From  the  death  of  Aaron  to  the  opening  of  Deu¬ 
teronomy  there  is  a  space  of  exactly  six  months. 
The  first  month  of  the  six  was  passed  at  the  foot 
of  Mount  Hor  mourning  for  Aaron.  Next  en¬ 


sued  the  journey  to  the  brook  Zered,  accom¬ 
plished  within  four  weeks.  Then  came  the  two 
battles  at  Jahaz  and  Edrei.  During  the  next 
two  months  the  Israelites  were  engaged  in  com¬ 
pleting  and  consolidating  their  conquest  of  Gil¬ 
ead  and  Bashan.  J.  P. 

The  Book  of  Numbers  possesses  characteris¬ 
tics  which  point  unmistakably  in  the  direction 
of  a  Mosaic  authorship.  [After  enumerating 
these  {Pul.  Com.),  Mr.  Whitelaw  concludes  ;] 
This  book,  when  fairly  and  dispassionately  in¬ 
terrogated,  not  only  does  not  su}  port  the  mod¬ 
ern  hypothesis  of  its  being  a  late  compilation 
from  pre-existing  documents,  some  of  which  had 
descended  from  primitive  times  but  the  mn  jority 
of  which  were  only  the  praiseworthy  endeavors 
of  subsequent  ages  to  preserve  the  national  tra¬ 
ditions  of  the  Beni-Israel  from  becoming  ex¬ 
tinct,  but  abundantly  warrants  the  belief  that 
while  there  is  every  probability  that,  like  the 
rest  of  the  Pentateuchal  writings,  it  has  been 
subjected  to  one  or  more  revisions  and  may  even 
have  suffered  interpolation  in  unimportant  pas¬ 
sages,  yet  in  the  main,  and  substantially  as  we 
still  possess  it,  it  proceeded  as  an  original  com¬ 
position  from  the  hand  of  Moses.  T  W.  [Seo 
also  Introduction  to  Numbers,  by  Mr.  Espin, 
Bib.  Com.,  p.  650-52.] 

Preparations  for  Leaving  Sinai. 

The  design  of  the  encampment  at  Sinai  -was 
now  fulfilled.  The  covenant  was  concluded  ; 
the  Law  had  been  given  ;  the  sanctuary  was 
erected  ;  the  priests  were  consecrated  ;  the  wor- 


NUMBERING  OF  FIGHTING  MEN 


531 


ship  had  been  arranged  ;  and  Jehovah  dwelt  in 
the  midst  of  his  chosen  people.  It  M^as  now 
time  to  think  of  departing,  in  order  that  the 
purpose  to  which  the  Israelites  had  been  set 
apart  might  be  accomplished.  The  immediate 
object  was  to  take  possession  of  the  promised 
land.  But  this  could  not  be  done  in  a  peace¬ 
able  manner,  for  Canaan  was  inhabited  by  pow¬ 
erful  and  warlike  tribes.  It  must  be  conquered  ; 
and  the  conquest  of  the  land  was  to  be  con¬ 
nected  with  the  extermination  of  the  inhabi¬ 
tants,  for  the  iniquity  of  the  Amorites  was  now 
full.  They  had  become  ripe  for  judgment,  and 
Israel  w^as  to  execute  it  in  the  name  and  bj^  the 
command  of  Jehovah.  It  was  necessary,  there¬ 
fore,  that  the  Israelites  should  be  organized  as 
an  army  of  Jehovah.  To  this  end  a  census  was 
taken  of  those  who  were  fit  for  war — viz.,  all 
the  men  of  twenty  years  old  and  upward.  The 
tribe  of  Levi  alone  was  omitted.  For  this  tribe, 
which  had  changed  the  curse  of  the  patriarch 
Jacob  into  a  blessing,  through  its  zeal  for  the 
honor  of  G-od,  was  to  be  set  apart  from  the  rest 
of  the  tribes,  and  spend  its  life  in  the  service  of 
the  sanctuary.  Through  this  separation  of  an 
entire  tribe,  the  significant  number,  twelve, 
which  had  been  disturbed  by  the  adoption  of 
Joseph’s  sons,  was  once  more  restored.  As  the 
numbering  of  the  tribes  was  so  closely  related 
to  the  vocation  of  Israel,  it  was  carried  out  with 
fitting  pomp  and  ceremony.  Moses  and  Aaron 
performed  the  task  themselves,  attended  by  one 
of  the  princes  from  each  of  the  twelve  tribes.  K, 

A  month  had  passed  away  since  the  setting  up 
of  the  tabernacle  ;  and  the  Sinaitic  legislation 
was  now  complete. 

The  labor  involved  in  taking  the  census  had 
already  been  partially  anticipated.  An  order 
had  been  issued  some  months  before  that,  when¬ 
ever  the  sum  of  the  Israelites  was  taken,  every 
person  numbered  should  offer  an  atonement- 
money  of  half  a  shekel,  to  be  applied  for  the 
service  of  the  tabernacle  (Ex,  30  :  11  sqq.).  Be¬ 
fore  the  construction  of  the  tabernacle  was  com¬ 
plete,  such  a  poll-offering  had  been  actually  re¬ 
ceived  (Ex.  38  :  25-28).  The  accordance  of 
numerical  results  shows  that  the  present  census 
was  based,  not  upon  any  fresh  registration  of 
individuals,  but  upon  that  which  necessarily 
accompanied  the  previous  collection  of  the  offer¬ 
ings.  From  the  round  numbers  in  which  the 
results  are  given,  we  may  infer  that  the  offer¬ 
ings  had  been  tendered  by  the  people  ingroups, 
and  these  probably  determined  by  kindred.  If 
certificates  of  registration  were  furnished  to 
such  groups,  the  new  census  might  be  easily 
carried  out  by  means  of  these  documents,  and 


got  through,  as  seems  suggested  by  verse  18,  in 
a  single  day.  But  while,  for  the  purpose  of  the 
poll-offering,  it  sufficied  to  note  merely  the  num¬ 
ber  of  persons,  it  was  now  required  to  enroll 
them  “  after  their  families,  by  the  house  of 
their  fathers.”  The  former  registiation  too  had 
been  superintended  by  the  Levites  (Ex.  38  :  21) ; 
but  now  (verse  4)  an  assessor  is  to  be  named  for 
each  tribe  to  act  in  the  business  with  Moses  and 
Aaron  ;  for  the  purpose  now  in  view  w^as  not 
religious  only.  Tlie  census  now  taken  would 
serve  as  a  basis  for  various  civil  and  military 
arrangements.  Espin. 

Israel,  who  had  been  numbered  already  (Ex. 
38  :  26)  as  the  Lord’s  people,  to  be  taxed  for  the 
sanctuary,  are  here  numbered  as  the  Lord’s 
host,  with  a  view  to  the  order  of  encampment. 
Here  women  and  children,  old  men  and  stran¬ 
gers,  are  not  included,  but  such  onl}'  as  were 
capable  of  military  service  ;  ‘‘  all  that  are  able 
to  go  forth  to  war,”  “  every  male  from  twenty 

years  old  and  upward.”  C.  G.  B,^ - A  careful 

distinction  was  to  be  made  of  tribes,  families, 
and  households  ^  that  every  one  might  know,  and 
deliver  to  his  posterity,  the  tribe  and  family  to 
which  he  belonged.  God  hereb}'^  further  pro¬ 
vided  for  the  certain  genealogy  of  the  Messiah, 
hereafter  to  be  born  of  this  nation.  Further, 
God  hereby  demonstrated  to  them  how  faithful 
he  had  been  to  the  promise,  made  to  Abraham 
and  their  forefathers,  of  multiplying  and  pre¬ 
serving  their  posterity.  Pyl^. 

4-16,  The  significancy  of  the  names  of  these 
princes  shows  how  much  God  was  in  the 
thoughts  of  those  that  gave  them  their  names  ; 
for  most  of  them  have  El,  God,  at  one  end  or 
other  of  their  names.  NelhaneeJ,  the  gift  of  God; 
Eliab,  my  God  a  father ;  EUzur,  my  God  a  rock ; 
Shelumiel,  God  my  peace ;  Eliasaph,  God  has 
added ;  Elishama,  my  God  has  heard;  Gamaliel, 
God  my  reward;  Pagiel,  God  has  met  me.  By 
which  it  appears  that  the  Israelites  in  Egvpl  did 
not  quite  forget  the  name  (.f  their  Gotl,  but 
preserved  the  remembrance  of  it  in  the  names 
of  their  children,  and  therefore  comforted  them¬ 
selves  in  their  affliction.  H.  . 

44-46.  The  number  of  the  fighting  m<n.  It 
appears  from  the  record  that  on  three  several 
occasions  -in  the  third  month  of  the  first  j’ear 
after  the  exodus  for  the  purpose  of  raising  a 
poll-tax  (Ex.  30  :  11  sqq.)  ;  now,  in  the  second 
month  of  the  second  year,  for  the  organization 
of  an  army,  and  in  the  fortieth  year,  in  the  step¬ 
pes  of  Moab,  with  a  view  to  the  prospective  di¬ 
vision  of  Canaan  among  the  tribes  (Nu.  26  ;  4) — 
in  accordance  with  Divine  instructions,  a  formal 
registration  of  the  male  heads  of  the  people 


632 


SECTION  165.  ARRANGEMENT  OF  THE  TRIBES. 


from  twenty  years  old  and  upward  was  effected, 
the  result  being  that  in  each  case  the  numbers 
were  jjractically  the  same — 603,550,  603,550, 
and  601,730  ;  the  Levites,  who  were  reckoned 
separately,  numbering  22,000  in  the  second  cen¬ 
sus,  and  23,000  in  the  third.  The  historic  ac¬ 
curacy  of  the  second  and  third  lists  receives  au¬ 
thentication  from  the  circumstance  that,  while 
the  totals  of  both  so  nearly  approximate,  the  dif¬ 
ference  being  only  1820,  considerable  variations 
exist  in  the  numbers  of  the  individual  tribes,  as 
appears  from  the  appended  table,  and  that  these 
can  in  no  small  degree  be  accounted  for. 


Sinai. 

Plains  of  Moab. 

Reuben 

46,500 

43,730 

Simeon 

59,300 

22,200 

Gad 

45,650 

40,500 

Judah 

74,600 

76,500 

Issachar 

54,400 

64,300 

Zebulun 

57,400 

60,500 

Ephraim 

40,500 

32,500 

Manasseh 

32,200 

52,700 

Benjamin 

35,400 

45,600 

Dan 

62,700 

64,400 

Asher 

41,500 

53,400 

Naphtali 

53,400 

45,400 

Total 

603,550 

601,730 

The  number  of  the  congregation.  Accepting 
then  what  seems  to  be  indisputable,  that  the 
census  of  the  adult  males  reached  the  round 
sum  of  600,000,  and  estimating  the  proportion 
of  those  adult  males  or  persons  in  the  prime  of 
life  and  capable  of  bearing  arms  to  the  rest  of 
the  population,  in  accordance  with  the  some¬ 
what  precarious  standard  of  modern  statistics, 
as  that  of  one  to  four  or  five,  it  may  be  safely 
concluded  that  the  entire  body  of  the  people,  or 
“  the  whole  congregation,”  numbered  between 
two  and  three  millions.  T.  W. 

2  :  1-34,  The  tribes  being  mustered,  regis¬ 
tered,  and  formed  into  companies,  the  next 
orders  given  were  about  the  form  of  their  en¬ 
campments  and  of  their  marches.  Their  gen¬ 
eral  camp  was  to  be  in  the  form  of  a  square  ;  of 
which  the  four  sides  were  to  be  placed  toward 
the  four  quarters  of  the  compass.  Each  side 
was  to  consist  of  three  tribes,  nearest  related  to 
each  other  ;  an  I  they  were  to  pitch  at  such  a 
distance  from  the  tabernacle,  which  was  in  the 
midst  of  all,  as  might  show  their  reverence  for 
it,  at  the  same  time  that  the  whole  camp  might 
serve  for  its  protection.  Pyte. 

Those  tribes  w^ere  placed  together  under  the 
same  stan'lard,  that  w’ere  nearest  of  kin  to  each 
other  ;  Judah,  Issachar,  and  Zebulun,  were  the 
three  youngest  sons  of  Leah,  and  they  w'ere  put 


together  ;  Issachar  and  Zebulun  would  not 
grudge  to  be  under  Judah,  since  they  were 
younger  brethren.  Reuben,  Jacob’s  eldest  son, 
is  made  chief  of  the  next  squadron  ;  Simeon  no 
doubt  is  willing  to  be  under  him,  and  Gad,  the 
son  of  Zilpah,  Leah’s  handmaid,  is  fitly  added 
to  them  in  Levi’s  room.  Ephraim,  Manasseh, 
and  Benjamin,  are  all  the  posterity  of  Rachel. 
Dan,  the  eldest  son  of  Bilhah,  is  made  a  lead¬ 
ing  tribe,  and  to  him  were  added  the  two  younger 
sons  of  the  handmaids.  Thus  unexceptionable 
w^as  the  order  in  which  they  were  placed,  God 
himself  appointed  them  their  place,  to  prevent 
strife  and  envy  among  them.  Had  they  been 
left  to  determine  precedency  among  themselves, 
they  would  have  been  in  danger  of  quarrelling 
with  one  another  ;  each  would  have  had  a  pre¬ 
tence  to  be  first,  or  at  least  not  to  be  last.  Had 
it  been  left  to  Moses  to  determine,  the}^  would 
have  quarrelled  with  him  and  charged  him  with 
partiality  ;  therefore  God  does  it  who  is  himself 
the  Fountain  and  Judge  of  honor,  and  in  his 
appointment  all  must  acquiesce.  If  God  in  his 
providence  advance  others  above  us,  we  ought 
to  be  satisfied  in  his  doing  it,  H. 

Every  three  of  the  tribes  had  a  common  ban¬ 
ner,  while  every  one  of  them  had  besides  a  pai’- 
ticular  standard,  with  the  ensign  of  “  the  house 
of  their  fathers.”  The  centre  of  the  camp  was 
occupied  by  the  tabernacle  ;  around  this  and 
nearest  to  it  were  the  habitations  of  the  priests 
and  Levites  ;  toward  the  east— Judah,  Issachar, 
and  Zebulun  ;  toward  the  south  —  Reuben, 
Simeon,  and  Gad  ;  toward  the  west  —Ephraim, 
Manasseh,  and  Benjamin  ;  and  toward  the  north. 
— Dan,  Asher,  and  Naphtali,  The  whole  formed 
a  square  according  to  the  sketch  on  the  fol¬ 
lowing  page.  C.  G.  B. 

Such  was  the  ideal  form  of  the  encampment 
in  the  wilderness  :  a  form  reproduced  in  the 
square  court  with  which  the  temple  was  event¬ 
ually  surrounded,  and  in  the  vision  of  the 
heavenly  city  as  seen  by  Ezek.  48  :  20  ;  and  by 
John  (Rev.  21  ;  16  ;  20  : 9).  Thus  the  camp  of 
God’s  earthly  people  was  divinely  ordered  so  as 
to  set  forth  the  completeness  of  his  Church  ; 
and  to  illustrate  by  its  whole  arrangement, 
which  was  determined  by  the  tabernacle  in  the 
centre,  both  the  dependence  of  all  on  God,  and 
the  access  which  all  enjoyed  to  God.  The  act¬ 
ual  form  of  the  encampment  would  no  doubt, 
while  observing  this  arrangement  generally, 
vary  in  different  places  according  to  local  exi¬ 
gencies.  Espin. 

On  the  march  the  camp  of  Judah,  consisting 
of  186,400  soldiers,  led  the  van.  These  were 
followed  by  the  Gershonites  and  Merarites, 


FORM  OF  ENCAMPMENT. 


533 


West.  3d  Division. 


o 

M 

75 

;> 

M 

Q 

n 


The  whole  may  be  said  to  consist  of  three  camps — viz.  :  (1)  The  camp  of  the  Lord:  the 
inner  square.  (2)  The  camp  of  the  :  the  intermediate  square.  (3)  And  the  camp  of  the 

people.  These,  in  the  grand  camp  in  the  wilderness,  corresponded  with  the  holy  of  holies, 
the  holy  place,  and  the  outward  court  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem.  A.  C, 


13,700  strong,  accompanied  by  the  tabernacle 
furniture  on  wagons.  Next  came  the  camp  of 
Reuben,  numbering  151,450  men  of  war.  Be¬ 
hind  these  the  Kohathites,  8600,  kept  the  charge 
of  the  sanctuary.  These  were  succeeded  by  the 
camj)  of  Ephraim,  containing  108,100  adult 
males  ;  while  the  camp  of  Dan,  with  157,600 
warriors,  brought  up  the  rear.  In  each  case  the 
soldiers  were  accompanied  by  their  families,  so 
that,  counting  women  and  children,  each  of  the 
four  camps  may  be  roughly  estimated  at  half  a 
million.  T.  W. 

3  :  1-4.  The  family  of  Aaron  are  alone  men¬ 
tioned,  because  these  belonged  to  the  priest- 
hood  Moses  passes  by  his  own  family  or  im¬ 
mediate  descendants  ;  he  gave  no  rank  or  priv¬ 


ilege  to  them  during  his  life  and  left  nothing  to 
them  at  his  death.  They  became  incorporated 
with  the  Levites,  from  or  among  whom  they  are 
never  distinguished.  What  a  strong  proof  is 
this  of  the  celestial  origin  of  his  religion  ! 
A.  C. 

44-53.  The  above  numbers,  besides  exclud¬ 
ing  the  tribe  of  Levi,  included  some  who  had 
no  right  there — namely,  ihefi'.st  born,  who  were 
consecrated  to  Jehovah.  Of  both  these  classes, 
the  Levites  and  the  first-born,  the  census  in¬ 
cluded  the  males  from  one  month  old  and  up¬ 
ward,  and  there  were  found  to  be  :  Of  the  first¬ 
born,  22,273,  and  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  22,000. 
The  difference  amounted  to  273  (verse  46).  The 
Levites  were  taken  for  the  service  of  Jehovah, 


534 


SECTION  166.  ADVANCE  MAliCE  FROM  SINAI, 


in  place  of  the  first-born,  man  for  man  ;  the  re¬ 
maining  273  were  redeemed  for  five  shekels 
each  ;  and  this  sum  of  1365  shekels  was  given 
to  Aaron  and  his  sons  (verse  50).  This  substi¬ 
tution  of  the  Levites  for  the  first-born  gave  the 
former  a  sacrificial  as  well  as  a  sacerdotal  holi¬ 
ness  to  Jehovah,  an  idea  extended  to  all  the  re¬ 
deemed,  as  “  the  church  of  the  first-born.” 

4  ;  1-49.  The  Levites  were  again  numbered 
from  thirty  to  fifty  years,  for  the  service  of  tie 
sanctuary  ;  and  to  each  of  their  three  families 
their  respective  duties  were  assigned.  The 
numbers  were  ;  of  the  Kohathites,  2750  ;  of 
the  sons  of  Gershon,  2630  ;  of  the  sons  of  Me- 
rari,  3200  ;  total  of  priests  and  Levites,  8580. 
P.  S. 

4,  The  sense  is,  “  this  is  the  charge  of  the 
sons  of  Kohath,  the  most  holy  things” — i  e. ,  the 
Ark  of  the  Covenant,  the  Table  of  Shew-bread, 
the  Candlestick,  and  the  Golden  Altar,  as  ap¬ 
pears  from  the  verses  following,  together  with 
the  furniture  pertaining  thereto.  5-20.  Par¬ 
ticular  directions  are  laid  down  as  to  the  prep¬ 


aration  of  these  for  being  transported  when  the 
camp  set  forward,  and  strict  injunction  Riven 
that  none  but  the  priests  were  to  take  part  in 
that  duty.  After  the  priests  had  covered  the 
most  holy  things  and  made  them  ready  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  rules  here  prescribed,  then  only  were 
the  Kohathites  to  lift  their  burden  (verse  15). 
It  appears,  from  a  comparison  of  verses  16,  28, 
and  33,  that  the  ministry  of  the  Kohathites  was 
superintended  by  Eleazar,  the  elder  of  the  two 
surviving  sons  of  Aaron  ;  as  was  that  of  the  two 
other  families  by  Ithamar  Eipin. - God  com¬ 

mands  the  sons  of  Aaron  to  take  down  and  care¬ 
fully  cover  the  veil,  the  altar,  and  other  sacred 
vessels  with  their  proper  covers,  before  the  sons 
of  Kohath  laid  a  finger  upon  them,  that  thus 
the  reverence  of  the  people  for  holy  things  might 
be  increased.  For  like  reason  the  sons  of 
Kohath  are  threatened  with  death  if  they  touch 
any  forbidden  thing  ;  and  the  sons  of  Aaron  are 
admonished  lest  by  their  careless  neglect  of 
covering  the  sacred  things  they  should  destroy 
their  brethren.  Galv, 


Section  166. 

ADVANCE  MARCH  OF  THREE  DAYS  FROM  SINAI  TO  KIBROTH-HATTAAVAH. 

Numbees  10  : 11-28,  33-36  ;  33  ;  16.  De.  10  : 11. 

Nu.  10  11  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  second  year,  in  the  second  month,  on  the  twentieth 
day  of  the  month,  that  the  cloud  was  taken  up  from  over  the  tabernacle  of  the  testimony. 

12  And  the  children  of  Israel  set  forward  according  to  their  journeys  out  of  the  wilderness  of 

13  Sinai  ;  and  the  cloud  abode  in  the  wilderness  of  Paran.  And  they  first  took  their  journey 

14  according  to  the  commandment  of  the  Lokd  by  the  hand  of  Moses.  And  in  the  first  place  the 
standard  of  the  camp  of  the  children  of  Judah  set  forward  according  to  their  hosts  :  and  over 

15  his  host  was  Nahshon  the  son  of  Amminadab.  And  over  the  host  of  the  tribe  of  the  children 

16  of  Issachar  was  Nethanel  the  son  of  Zuar.  And  over  the  host  of  the  tribe  of  the  children  of 

17  Zebulun  was  Eliab  the  son  cf  Helon.  And  the  tabernacle  was  taken  down  ;  and  the  sons  of 

18  Gershon  and  the  sons  of  Merari,  who  bare  the  tabernacle,  set  forward.  And  the  standard  of 
the  camp  of  Reuben  set  forward  according  to  their  hosts  ;  and  over  his  host  was  Elizur  the 

19  son  of  Shedeur.  And  over  the  host  of  the  tribe  of  the  children  of  Simeon  was  Shelumiel  the 

20  son  of  Zuiishaddai.  And  over  the  host  of  the  tribe  of  the  children  of  Gad  was  Eliasaph  the 

21  son  of  Deuel.  And  the  Kohathites  set  forward,  bearing  the  sanctuary  :  and  the  other  did  set 

22  up  the  tabernacle  against  they  came.  And  the  standard  of  the  camp  of  the  children  of 
Ephraim  set  forward  according  to  their  hosts  :  and  over  his  host  was  Elishama  the  son  of 

23  Ammihud.  And  over  the  host  of  the  tribe  of  the  children  of  Manasseh  was  Gamaliel  the  son 

24  of  Pedahzur.  And  over  the  host  of  the  tribe  of  the  children  of  Benjamin  was  Abidan  the  son 

25  of  Gideoni.  And  the  standard  of  the  camp  of  the  children  of  Dan,  which  was  the  rearward 
of  all  the  camps,  set  forward  according  to  their  hosts  :  and  over  his  host  was  Ahiezer  the  son 

26  of  Ammishaddai.  And  over  the  host  of  the  tribe  of  the  children  of  Asher  was  Pagiel  the  son 

27  of  Ochran.  And  over  the  host  of  the  tribe  of  the  children  of  Naphtali  was  Ahira  the  son  of 

28  Enan  Thus  were  the  journeyings  of  the  children  of  Israel  according  to  their  hosts  ;  and 
they  set  forward. 

33  And  they  set  forward  from  the  mount  of  the  Lokd  three  days’  journey  ;  and  the  ark  of  the 
covenant  of  the  Lokd  went  before  them  three  days’  journey,  to  seek  out  a  resting  place  for 

34  them.  And  the  cloud  of  the  Lokd  was  over  them  by  day,  when  they  set  forward  from  the 


INTO  THE  WILDERNESS  OF  PARAN, 


535 


35  camp.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  ark  set  forward,  that  Moses  said,  Rise  up,  0  Lord,  and 

36  let  thine  enemies  be  scattered  ;  and  let  them  that  hate  thee  flee  before  thee.  And  when  it 
rested,  he  said.  Return,  O  Lord,  unto  the  ten  thousands  of  the  thousands  of  Israel. 

Nu.  33  16  And  they  journeyed  from  the  wilderness  of  Sinai,  and  pitched  in  Kibroth- 
hattaavah. 


The  march  out  of  Egypt  to  Mount  Sinai  occu¬ 
pied  six  weeks,  making,  with  the  fourteen  days 
before  the  Passover,  two  months  ;  and  they 
were  encamped  before  Sinai,  receiving  the  Di¬ 
vine  laws,  for  the  remaining  ten  months  of  the 
first  ecclesiastical  j^ear.  The  tabernacle  was  set 
up  on  the  first  day  of  the  first  month  (Abib)  of 
the  second  year  ;  and  its  dedication  occupied 
that  month.  On  the  first  day  of  the  second 
month  Moses  began  to  number  the  people,  and 
their  encampment  was  broken  up  on  the  twen¬ 
tieth  day  of  the  second  month  of  the  second 
year.  On  that  day  the  cloud  ot  Jehovah’ s  pres¬ 
ence  was  lifted  up  from  the  tabernacle,  as  the 
sign  of  departure  ;  and  the  tabernacle  itself  was 
taken  down.  At  the  alarm  blown  by  the  two 
silver  trumpets,  which  God  had  commanded  to 
be  made,  each  of  the  four  camps  set  forward  in 
its  appointed  order,  and  the  host  followed  the 
cloud.  P.  S. 

When  the  silver  trumpets  sounded,  the  tribe 
of  Judah,  mustering  74,600  fighting  men,  defiled 
forward  from  the  east  side  of  the  camp,  and  led 
the  van,  followed  by  Issachar,  with  54,400,  and 
Zebulun,  57,400.  Then  came  a  division  of  the 
tribe  of  Levi,  the  descendants  of  Gershom  and 
Merari,  bearing  the  tabernacle,  which  was  care¬ 
fully  taken  down,  and,  thus  moving  after  the 
advanced  guard,  might  be  set  up,  ready  for  the 
reception  of  the  ark.  Then  Reuben,  number¬ 
ing  46,500  ;  Simeon,  59,300  ;  Gad,  45,650,  broke 
up,  and  advanced  from  the  southern  part  of 
the  encampment.  The  second  division  of  the 
Levites,  the  family  of  Kohath,  next  took  their 
station,  bearing  the  sanctuary  and  the  ark,  and 
all  the  sacred  vessels,  with  the  most  religious 
care,  lest  any  hands  but  those  of  Aaron  and  his 
assistants  should  touch  a  single  part.  All  the 
males  of  the  house  of  Levi  amounted  onl}'  to 
22,000.  Ephraim,  40,500  ;  Manasseh,  32,200  ; 
Benjamin;  35,400,  defiled,  and  formed  the  west¬ 
ern  wing  of  the  encampment.  Dan,  62,700  ; 
Asher,  41,500  ;  Napthali,  53,400,  brought  up  the 
rear.  The  whole  number  of  fighting  men  was 
603,550.  This  formidable  army  set  forward, 
singing,  “  Rise  up,  0  Lord,  and  let  thine  enemies 
he  scattered  and  thus— already  furnished  with 
their  code  of  laws,  irresistible  both  in  their 
numbers  and  the  promised  assistance  of  their 
God —they  marched  onward  to  take  possession 
of  the  fruitful  land  which  had  been  promised 
as  the  reward  of  their  toils,  Milman, 


After  leaving  Horeb,  the  Israelites  marched 
northward,  and  traversing  the  grand  gorge  of 
El  Watiyeh,  turned  to  the  east  along  the  valleys 
of  Zillegah  and  El  Ain.  Turning  northward 
they  entered  the  region  of  the  Tih  (Desert  of 
Paran)  ;  and  then  proceeding  onward  across  the 
great  plains  of  limestone  reached  their  halting- 
place  at  Kadesh-Barnea.  The  whole  distance 
would  be  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles, 
and  for  eleven  days  would  be  at  the  rate  of 
nearly  fourteen  miles  a  day.  Holland. 

12.  Tlie  wilclernes§  of  Paran.  This 
tract  comprised  about  one  third  of  the  entire 
extent  of  the  peninsula,  which  lies  between 
Egypt  and  Canaan,  and  is  the  eastern  half  of 
the  great  limestone  plateau,  which  constitutes 
the  centre  of  that  peninsula.  It  was  bounded 
on  the  north  by  the  Canaanitish  frontier  ;  on 
the  west  by  the  brook  or  river  of  Egypt,  which 
parted  it  from  the  other  half  of  the  plateau,  the 
Wilderness  of  Shur  ;  on  the  south  by  the  great 
sand-belt,  which  sweeps  across  the  peninsula 
in  a  northwardly-concave  line,  from  gulf  to  gulf, 
and  forms  a  broad  demarcation  between  it  and 
the  cliffs  of  Sinai  ;  and  on  the  east  by  the  north¬ 
ern  portion  of  the  Elanitic  Gulf,  and  by  the 
great  valley  of  the  Arabah,  which  divides  it 
from  the  mountains  of  Edom.  The  Wilderness 
of  Zin  (to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  that 
of  Sin),  forming  the  immediate  boundary  of 
Canaan,  was  its  northeastern  extremity  ;  and 
it  is  thus  that  Kadesh  is  indifferently  spoken 
of  as  in  the  Wilderness  of  Zin,  or  in  that  of 
Paran.  The  Wilderness  of  Paran  is,  on  the 
whole,  to  European  eyes,  a  blanched  and  dreary 
waste  ;  intersected  by  watercourses,  almost  al¬ 
ways  dry  except  in  the  rainy  season,  and  crossed 
by  low  ranges  of  horizontal  hills  which  relieve 
but  little  the  general  monotony  of  its  appear¬ 
ance.  It  does  not  exhibit  the  savage  and  fright¬ 
ful  desolation  of  the  Arabah  ;  but  neither,  on 
the  other  hand,  is  it  enlivened  by  the  fertile 
valleys  to  be  found  amid  the  granite  mountains 
of  Sinai.  Its  soil  is  mostly  strewn  with  pebbles, 
through  M^hich  a  slight  coating  of  vegetation 
struggles  ;  yet  here  and  there  level  plains  may 
be  found  in  it  of  rich  red  earth  fit  for  culture, 
or  valleys  abounding  in  shrubs  and  trees.  Es- 
pin. 

The  whole  district  still  bears  the  name  Bddiet 
et  Tih,  “  the  desert  of  the  wanderings.”  Its 
southern  portion  seems,  as  it  were,  drr/en  in 


536 


SECTION  166.  ADVANCE  MARCH  OF  THREE  DAYS. 


wedge  w’ays  into  the  Sinaitic  peninsula  proper, 
from  which  it  is  separated  by  a  belt  of  sand. 
From  the  scene  of  the  first  year  of  Israel’s  pil¬ 
grimage  and  of  the  Sinaitic  legislation,  the  Tih 
might  be  entered  by  one  of  several  passes 
through  the  mountains  which  form  its  southern 
boundary.  The  Et  Tih  itself  “  is  a  limestone 
plateau  of  irregular  surface.”  It  may  generally 
be  described  as  “open  plains  of  sand  and  gravel 
broken  by  a  few  valleys,”  and  is  at  present 
”  nearly  waterless,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
springs,  situated  in  the  larger  wadies,”  which 
yield  rather  an  admixture  of  sand  and  water 
than  water.  A.  E. 

After  they  had  received  the  Law,  and  com¬ 
pleted  the  year  of  discipline,  and  put  everything 
in  order  for  their  journey,  they  turned  north¬ 
ward,  through  the  wadies  of  granite,  into  the 
wadies  of  sandstone,  crossed  the  sandy  plain  of 
Debbet-er  ramleh  between  Sinui  and  Et-Tih, 
and,  climbing  the  steep  escarpment  of  the  Tih 
plateau,  began  their  wanderings.  Post. 

They  went  out  of  the  wilderness  of  Sinai,  and 
rested  in  the  wilderness  (f  Paran.  All  our  removes 
in  this  world  are  but  from  one  wilderness  to  an¬ 
other.  The  changes  which  we  think  will  be  for 
the  better  do  not  always  prove  so  ;  while  we 
carry  about  with  us  wherever  we  go  the  com- 
mon  infirmities  of  human  nature,  we  must  ex¬ 
pect  wherever  we  go  to  meet  with  its  common 
calamities  ;  we  should  never  be  at  rest,  never  at 
home,  till  we  come  to  heaven,  and  all  will  be 
w’ell  there.  H. 

33.  Three  days’  joaaraiey.  There  is 
not  much  room  for  doubt  that  it  was  a  “  three 
days’  journey”  from  Mount  Sinai  to  their  first 
resting-place  ;  not  that  they  marched  day  and 
night  without  stopping  to  rest  ;  but  that  the 
first  two  nights  they  bivouacked,  and  on  the 
third  day  they  formally  encamped.  This  is 
what  we  should  gather  from  the  text  itself  ;  and 
all  outside  examination  as  to  the  probabilities 
tends  to  confirm  this  view.  H.  C.  T. 

34.  The  cloud  of  the  Lord  was  upon  them  by 
day.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  cloud,  whic’n  was 
luminous  by  night,  dense  and  dark  by  day, 
spread  itself  upward  and  backward  from  over 
the  ark,  overshadowing  the  host  as  it  followed. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  it  dwelt  in  the  memory 
of  the  nation,  and  gave  meaning  to  such  expres¬ 
sions  as  the  “  shadow  of  the  Almighty”  (Ps. 
91  : 1),  and  “  the  shadow  of  a  cloud  ”  (Is.  25  :4, 
5).  E.  W. 

35.  36.  “  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  ark 
set  forward,  that  Moses  sail,  Eise  up.  Lord, 
and  let  thine  enemies  be  scattered  ;  and  let 
them  that  hate  thee  flee  before  thee.  And  when 


it  rested,  he  said,  Eeturn,  O  Lord,  unto  the  ten 
thousands  of  the  thousands  of  Israel.”  Moses 
uttered  a  prayer  of  faith  both  in  the  marching 
and  at  the  standing  still.  It  was  a  petition  from 
the  mouth  of  the  mediator  of  the  covenant,  and 
contained  at  the  same  time  an  earnest  encour 
agement  to  the  people  themselves,  reminding 
them  of  their  entire  dependence  on  God.  Gerl. 
- Each  forward  movement  of  the  ark  betoken¬ 
ed  the  going  forth  of  God  against  his  enemies  ; 
each  rest  his  gathering  of  his  own  people  to 
himself  :  the  one  was  the  pledge  of  victor}",  the 

other  the  earnest  of  repose.  Espin. - When 

the  ark  and  the  cloud  set  forward,  it  was  the 
Almighty  God  going  on  before  to  victory  ;  when 
the  ark  and  the  cloud  rested,  it  was  the  all- 
merciful  God  returning  to  protect  and  cherish 
his  own.  This  is  clearly  recognized  in  the 
morning  and  evening  jorayer  of  Moses.  The 
typical  and  spiritual  character  of  that  setting 
forward  und  that  resting  could  not  well  have 
been  lost  upon  an}^  religious  mind— that  God 
going  before  us  is  the  certain  and  abiding 
pledge  of  final  victory,  that  God  returning  to 
us  is  the  only  hope  of  present  safety.  “Eise  up, 
Lord,  and  let  thine  enemies  be  scattered.”  The 
sixty -eighth  Psalm,  which  we  have  learned  to 
associate  'with  the  wonders  of  Pentecost  and  the 
triumphs  of  the  Church  on  earth,  seems  to  be 
an  expansion  of  Moses’  morning  prayer.  E.  W. 

Unless  the  ark  went  with  them,  and  the  cloud 
of  the  Divine  glory  with  it,  they  could  have 
neither  direction  nor  safety  •  unless  the  ark  rested 
with  them,  and  the  cloud  of  glory  with  it,  they 
could  have  neither  rest  nor  comfort.  How  neces¬ 
sary  the  Word  of  God  and  the  Spirit  of  God, 

for  direction,  comfort,  and  defence.  A.  C. - 

Here  we  have  two  prayers — one  for  the  hours  of 
warfare  and  journeying,  another  for  the  hours 
of  repose  and  recreation.  Both  turn  to  the  one 
thing,  the  symbolic  presence  of  God  in  that 
ark  of  the  covenant.  Is  it  not  beautiful  to 
think  that  the  One  Presence  takes  any  shape 
that  a  man  wants?  When  he  needs  it  to  be  a 
spear  and  a  shield,  it  is  a  spear  and  a  shield  for 
him  ;  when  he  needs  it  to  be  a  pillow  on  which 
to  rest  his  head,  it  is  a  pillow  on  which  he  re¬ 
poses.  A  M. 

iVii.  33  :  16,  The  first  station  after  Sinai  in 
the  list  of  stations  is  Kibroth-hattaavah.  It  is 
evident  from  the  narrative  that  the  tabernacle 
was  set  up  at  Kibroth-hattaavah,  and  that  the 
people  remained  there  a  month  or  more.  There 
were  dug  “  the  graves  of  lust  ” — for  those  who 
died  as  a  penalty  of  their  gluttonous  and  faith¬ 
less  lusting  ;  and  Taberah  (the  place  of  burn¬ 
ing)  was  the  name  given  to  the  rear  of  that  vast 


HEBREW  ELEMENT  IN  CIVILIZATION. 


camping  field.  Palmer  thinks  that  he  has  dis¬ 
covered  the  site  of  that  encampment,  at  a  place 
called  by  the  Arabs  “  Erweis  el-Ebeirig,”  some 
thirty  miles,  more  or  less.  H.  C.  T. 

It  would  be  natural  that  the  host  should  move 
north-easterly  out  of  Wady  Sheikh  six  miles 
from  Jebel  Musa,  along  the  great  thoroughfare 
through  Watly  Sa’al.  The  region  of  Erweis 
el-Ebeirig,  with  its  mysterious  remains,  its  line 
of  passage  for  great  flocks  of  birds,  and  its 
vicinit^’^  to  Hudherah,  might  answer  to  Kibroth- 
hattaavah  ;  and  the  copious  spring  of  Ain  Hud¬ 
herah  represents  the  etymology  of  Hazeroth. 
S.  C.  B. 

The  Hebrew  Element  a  Main  Constituent  of 

Modern  Civilization.  Its  Distinctive  Char¬ 
acteristic,  THE  Instinct  of  Statical  Order. 

Modern  civilization  has  received  its  impulse, 
not  from  Greece  and  Borne  only,  but  from  the 
ancient  people  of  Palestine  also,  and,  indeed, 
from  these  last  mainly.  This  inherited  influ¬ 
ence  has  not  been  confined  to  the  impartation 
of  a  religion  ;  for  the  Hebrew  mind  has  entered 
very  largely  among  the  constituents  of  our  sec¬ 
ular  civilization,  and  its  presence  may  be  traced 
where  least  we  might  imagine  it  to  exist.  This 
suffused  influence  needs  only  to  be  pointed  out 
to  be  recognized. 

It  is  trite  to  say  that  the  Hellenic  people,  and 
these  without  a  rival,  possessed  the  instinct  of 
symmetry  and  the  consciousness  of  beauty. 
This  prerogative  of  the  race  developed  itself, 
not  only  in  matchless  works  of  art— in  its  sculp¬ 
ture  and  its  architecture,  but  also  in  its  abstract 
aud  speculative  philosophy.  Symmetry  in 
Form  and  symmetry  in  Thought  were  the  two 
excellent  products  of  the  one  endowment  of  the 
race.  It  is  also  trite  to  say  that  the  Boman 
stock — whencesoever  derived — signalized  itself 
in  a  wholly  different  manner.  The  race-endow¬ 
ment  of  the  Boman  people  was  the  instinct  of 
Order -order  Dynamic j  and  this  distinction 
evolved  itself  in  the  several  modes  of  adminis¬ 
trative  abilit3^  The  outspeak  of  this  gift  was 
command  ;  its  passion  was  power  ;  its  means 
was  military  organization,  and  its  result  was  ex¬ 
tended  empire. 

In  thus  following  the  method  of  comparison, 
we  find  the  distinctive  characteristic  of  the  He¬ 
brew  race  to  be  the  instinct  of  Order  ;  not 
dynamic,  as  the  Boman,  but  Statical  Order  ; 
and,  as  such,  it  has  suffused  itself  in  different 
degrees  among  the  modern  European  nations. 
This  instinct  of  statical  order,  as  the  endowment 
of  the  Hebrew  race,  the  evidences  of  which  are 
marked  and  unquestionable,  evolved  itself  in 


oor 

its  clanship,  carried  out  with  a  rigorous  adhe- 
rence  to  its  principle  ;  and  also  in  adjustments; 
and  in  administrative  managements,  and  in  fit¬ 
nesses,  either  among  material  objects,  or  in  the 
constantly  recurrent  operation.s  of  life  ecclesi¬ 
astical,  or  life  secular.  Order  in  position,  order 
in  daily  observances  :  order  was  the  law  of  a 
tranquil,  a  peaceful,  a  regulated,  and  unambi¬ 
tious  perpetuity.  Thus  it  stood  contrasted  with 
the  Boman  dynamic  order,  the  law  of  which  was 
restlessness,  onward  movement,  and  progress. 

It  is  manifest  that,  in  whatever  way  so  strange 
an  event  had  come  about,  a  vast  multitude — 
mainly  the  men  of  one  race,  but  not  wholly  so 
— had  come  to  spread  itself  up  and  down  through 
the  wadies  of  the  Sinaitic  peninsula— a  great 
multitude  indeed,  but  it  was  not  a  crowd.  This 
people,  by  the  fixed  usages  of  centuries,  had 
long  before  divided  and  subdivided  itself,  on 
the  jiatriarchal  platform,  into  clans,  and  these 
clans  into  families,  and  the  chief  of  each  clan 
had  his  subordinates,  and  each  family  had  its 
head,  and  the  head  had  its  subalterns.  Each 
separate  tribe  constituting  this  people  was 
swathed  in  ancestral  loyalties— in  its  own  tradi¬ 
tions— in  its  rivalries.  The  mass  was  thor¬ 
oughly  an  organic,  mass;  and  the  cementing 
principle  possessed  binding  energy  enough  to 
afford  ample  security  against  any  widespread 
confusion  or  social  disintegration.  Seditions 
might  and  did  spring  up  here  and  there  ;  but 
there  would  not  occur  a  national  chaos.  Becent 
national  sufferings  had  imparted  strength  to 
every  bond  ;  and,  in  a  word,  as  if  in  prepara¬ 
tion  for  the  shocks  and  throes  of  the  new  life  in 
the  desert,  the  Hebrew  instinct  of  order — statical 
— had  recently  become  intense  in  a  degree  that 
had  not  before  been  known. 

This  people  had  become  wealthy — not  in  herds 
only,  but  in  all  kinds  of  personal  appointments. 
It  possessed  the  costumes  and  the  decorations 
of  superfluous  wealth.  The  mechanical  and  the 
decorative  arts  had  long  been  in  practice  among 
them  :  quite  familiar  were  they  with  the  lux¬ 
uries  of  an  advanced  material  civilization  ;  and 
they  were  adepts  in  the  laborious  arts  of  com¬ 
mon  life.  The  movable  wealth  of  the  people, 
and  the  appurtenances  of  rank,  they  had  brought 
with  them.  As  to  the  wealth  they  had  created 
upon  the  Egyptian  soil,  they  received  from  their 
masters  a  bare  tithe  of  its  value  in  jewelry. 
These  were  the  visible  or  exterior  conditions  of 
this  ousted  multitude. 

But  the  people  had  also  their  inner  habitudes, 
and  these  got  expression  in  the  tone  and  pur¬ 
port  of  those  ordinances — in  those  regulations, 
mi xcdly  religious  and  secular — in  those  forecast* 


538  SECTION  167.  MURMURING  PUNISHED  BT  FIRE  AT  TABER  AH 


iQg  appointments,  which  were  to  be  carried  out, 
years  later,  in  a  land  of  rest.  In  all  these  legal 
elements,  whether  sacred  or  civil,  the  race-in¬ 
stinct  makes  itself  manifest  ;  and  thus,  also, 
was  it  in  the  specialties,  and  in  the  measure¬ 
ments,  and  in  the  fitting  of  every  hook  to  its 
eye  and  of  every  cord  to  its  pole,  of  every  vessel 
to  its  use  and  of  every  movement  to  its  move¬ 
ment — everything  was  in  harmony  with  and 
was  an  expression  of  statical  order.  Now  read 
the  Book  of  Numbers  with  this  key  in  your 
hand  ;  and  while  keeping  in  view  analogous  in 
stances  occurring  in  later  histories,  give  license 
for  a  moment  to  the  imagination  while  you 
bring  before  you,  by  the  various  aids  of  modern 
travel  and  of  pictorial  illustration,  first,  the 
Sinaitic  scenery  which  the  people  were  at  this 
moment  leaving  ;  and  then  the  broad  expanses 
of  the  northward  table-land — the  wilderness  of 
Paran.  I  see  —as  if  I  were  carried  back  through 
the  forty  centuries — I  see  the  host,  for  it  is  just 
now  pushing  its  upward  way  through  the  passes 
of  Jebel  et  Tih,  and  it  is  fanning  itself  out,  in  a 
predetermined  order,  upon  the  flats  of  this  up¬ 
land.  What  I  see  is  not  a  rabble,  is  not  a  pro¬ 
miscuous  crowd  or  horde  ;  it  is  not  a  deluge  of 
struggling,  countless  human  forms  ;  but  it  is  a 
sample  of  what  may  be  done  in  marshalling  the 
millions  of  a  people  whose  native  instinct  is  order, 
and  whose  daily  habitudes  render  conformity 
thereto  far  more  easy  to  them  than  confusion 
could  be. 

“  Who  is  this  that  looketh  forth  as  the  morn¬ 
ing,  fair  as  the  moon,  clear  as  the  sun,  terrible  as 
an  army  with  banners  ?”  Thus  I  read  the  rec¬ 
ord  :  “  When  the  cloud  rested  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness  of  Paran,  and  the  host  took  their  journey 
according  to  the  commandment  of  the  Lord,  by 
the  hand  of  Moses.  In  the  first  place  went  the 


standard  of  the  camp  of  Judah,  according  to 
their  armies  :  and  over  his  host  was  Nahshon, 
the  son  of  Amminadab  and  so,  and  so,  on, 
and  on,  and  on,  in  their  turns,  came  all  Ihe 
tribes  and  families  of  Israel.  “  Thus  were  tie 
journeyings  of  the  suns  of  Israel  according  lo 
their  armies,  when  they  set  forward.” 

Now,  if  such  ijassages  do  not  breathe  the  very 
life  of  reality— if  they  be  not  pre-eminently  ex¬ 
act  and  historic  d,  then  there  is  nothing  true, 
there  is  nothing  real,  in  all  the  hundred  folios 
upon  which  our  modern  industry  has  employed 
itself  these  three  centuries  past.  Not  only  are 
these  Pentateuchal  records  manifestly  real  and 
true,  but  they  carry  with  them,  to  the  con  vie 
tion  of  every  unsophisticated  mind,  that  inim¬ 
itable  impression  of  grandeur,  that  aspect  of 
sublimity  which  no  art  can  counterfeit,  and 
which  arises  of  itself  to  accompany  and  to  sig¬ 
nalize  those  notable  occasions  when  the  move¬ 
ments  of  vast  multitudes  of  the  human  family 
are  seen  to  be  governed,  in  tranquil  silence,  by 
an  instinctive  sense  of  order.  Here  now  before 
us  a  great  people  is  outspreading  its  ranks — 
bright  and  banner-led,  upon  a  scene  fitting  the 
action.  The  stony  plain  may  vibrate  far  be¬ 
neath  the  measured  tread  of  these  millions  of 
men  ;  but  as  the  heaven  above  them  is  clear, 
and  as  the  one  cloud  sharply  outlines  itself 
against  the  burning  azure,  so  are  the  human 
masses  free  from  din  and  uproar,  or  confusion 
— one  voice  in  front  is  listened  to,  and  this  is 
the  utterance  : 

“  And  when  the  ark  set  forward,  Moses  said, 
Eise  up.  Lord,  and  let  thine  enemies  be  scat¬ 
tered  ;  and  let  them  that  hate  thee  flee  before 
thee.  And  when  it  rested,  he  said,  Keturn,  O 
Lord,  unto  the  many  thousands  of  Israel.” 
Isaac  Taylor, 


Seotion  167. 

MURMURING  PUNISHED  BY  FIRE  AT  TABERAH,  AND  MOSES  INTERCEDES.  A 
SECOND  MURMURING,  AND  MOSES  COMPLAINS  TO  GOD.  SEVENTY  ELDERS 
ENDUED  WITH  THE  PROPHETIC  GIFT.  QUAILS  FOLLOWED  BY  PLAGUE  AT 
KIBROTH-  H ATTAA VAH 

Numbers  11  : 1-34. 

Na.  II  1  And  the  people  were  as  murmurers,  speaking  evil  in  the  ears  of  the  Lord;  and 
when  the  Lord  heard  ft,  his  anger  was  kindled  ;  and  the  fire  of  the  Lord  burnt  among  them, 

2  and  devoured  in  the  uttermost  part  of  the  camp.  And  the  people  cried  unto  Moses  ;  and 

3  Moses  pra\ed  unto  the  Lord,  and  the  fire  abated.  And  the  name  of  that  place  was  called  Ta- 
berah  ;  because  the  fire  of  the  Lord  burnt  among  them. 

4  And  the  mixed  multitude  that  was  among  them  fell  a  lusting  :  and  the  children  of  Israel 

5  also  wept  again,  and  said.  Who  shall  give  us  flesh  to  eat?  We  remember  the  fish,  which  we 
did  eat  in  Egypt  for  nought  ;  the  cucumbers,  and  the  melons,  and  the  leeks,  and  the  onions, 


AND  PLAGUE  AT  KIBROTU-UATTAAVAH. 


.  539 


6  and  the  garlick  :  but  now  our  soul  is  dried  away  ;  there  is  nothing  at  all  :  W'e  have  nought 

7  save  this  manna  to  look  to.  And  the  manna  was  like  coriander  seed,  and  the  appearance 

8  thereof  as  the  appearance  of  bdellium.  The  people  went  about,  and  gathered  it,  and  ground 
it  in  mills,  or  beat  it  in  mortars,  and  seethed  it  in  pots,  and  made  cakes  of  it  :  and  the  taste 

9  of  it  was  as  the  taste  of  fresh  oil.  And  when  the  dew  fell  upon  the  camp  in  the  night,  the 

10  manna  fell  upon  it.  And  Moses  heard  the  people  weeping  throughout  their  families,  every 
man  at  the  door  of  his  tent  :  and  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  gieatly  ;  and  Moses  was 

11  displeased.  And  Moses  said  unto  the  Lord,  Wherefore  hast  thou  evil  entreated  thy  servant? 
and  wherefore  have  I  not  found  favour  in  thy  sight,  that  thou  layest  the  burden  of  all  this  peo- 

12  pie  upon  me?  Have  I  conceived  all  this  people?  have  I  brought  them. forth,  that  thou 
shouldest  say  unto  me.  Carry  them  in  thy  bosom,  as  a  nursing-father  carrieth  the  sucking 

13  child,  unto  the  land  which  thou  swarest  unto  their  fathers  ?  Whence  should  I  have  flesh  to 

14  give  unto  all  this  people  ?  for  they  weep  unto  me,  saying,  Give  us  flesh,  that  we  maj^  eat.  I 

15  am  not  able  to  bear  all  this  people  alone,  because  it  is  too  heavy  for  me.  And  if  thou  deal 
thus  with  me,  kill  me,  I  pray  thee,  out  of  hand,  if  I  have  found  favour  in  thy  sight  ;  and  let  me 
not  see  my  wretchedness. 

16  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Gather  unto  me  seventy  men  of  the  elders  of  Israel,  wdiom 
thou  knowest  to  be  the  elders  of  the  people,  and  officers  over  them  ;  and  bring  them  unto  the 

17  tent  of  meeting,  that  they  may  stand  there  with  thee.  And  I  will  come  down  and  talk  with 
thee  there  :  and  I  will  take  of  the  spirit  which  is  upon  thee,  and  will  put  it  upon  them  ;  and 

18  they  shall  bear  the  burden  of  the  people  with  thee,  that  thou  bear  it  not  thyself  alone.  And 
say  thou  unto  the  people.  Sanctify  yourselves  against  to-morrow,  and  ye  shall  eat  flesh  :  for  ye 
have  w^ept  in  the  ears  of  the  Lord,  saying.  Who  shall  give  us  flesh  to  eat  ?  for  it  was  well  with 

19  us  in  Egypt  :  therefore  the  Lord  will  give  ymu  flesh,  and  ye  shall  eat.  Ye  shall  not  eat  one  day, 

20  nor  two  days,  nor  five  days,  neither  ten  days,  nor  twenty  days  ;  but  a  whole  month,  until  it 
come  out  at  your  nostrils,  and  it  be  loathsome  unto  you  :  because  that  ye  have  rejected  the  Lord 

21  which  is  among  you,  and  have  wept  before  him,  saying,  Why  came  we  forth  out  of  Egypt  ?  And 
Moses  said.  The  people,  among  whom  I  am,  are  six  hundred  thousand  footmen  ;  and  thou  hast 

22  said,  I  will  give  them  flesh,  that  they  may  eat  a  whole  month.  Shall  flocks  and  herds  be  slain 
for  them,  to  suffice  them  ?  or  shall  all  the  fish  of  the  sea  be  gathered  together  for  them,  to 
suffice  them  ? 

23  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Is  the  Lord’s  hand  waxed  short?  now  shalt  thou  see  whether 

24  my  word  shall  come  to  pass  unto  thee  or  not.  And  Moses  went  out,  and  told  the  people  the 
words  of  the  Lord  :  and  he  gathered  seventy  men  of  the  elders  of  the  peoj^le,  and  set  them 

25  round  about  the  Tent.  And  the  Lord  came  down  in  the  cloud,  and  spake  unto  him,  and  took 
of  the  spirit  that  was  upon  him,  and  put  it  upon  the  seventy  elders  :  and  it  came  to  pass, 

26  that,  when  the  spirit  rested  upon  them,  they  prophesied,  but  they  did  so  no  more.  But  there 
remained  two  men  in  the  camp,  the  name  of  the  one  was  Eldad,  and  the  name  of  the  other 
Medad  :  and  the  spirit  rested  upon  them  ;  and  they  were  of  them  that  were  written,  but  had 

27  not  gone  out  unto  the  Tent  :  and  they  prophesied  in  the  camp.  And  there  ran  a  young  man, 

28  and  told  Moses,  and  said,  Eldad  and  Medad  do  prophesy  in  the  camp.  And  Joshua  the  son 
of  Nun,  the  minister  of  Moses,  one  of  his  chosen  men,  answered  and  said,  My  lord  Moses, 

29  forbid  them.  And  Moses  said  unto  him.  Art  thou  jealous  for  my  sake  ?  would  God  that  all  the 

30  Lord’s  people  were  prophets,  that  the  Lord  would  put  his  spirit  upon  them  !  And  Moses  gat 

31  him  into  the  camp,  he  and  the  elders  of  Israel.  And  there  w’ent  forth  a  wind  from  the  Lord, 
and  brought  quails  from  the  sea,  and  let  them  fall  by  the  camp,  about  a  day’s  journey  on  this 
side,  and  a  day’s  journey  on  the  other  side,  round  about  the  camp,  and  about  two  cubits 

32  above  the  face  of  the  earth.  And  the  people  rose  up  all  that  day,  and  all  the  night,  and  all 
the  next  day,  and  gathered  the  quails  :  he  that  gathered  least  gathered  ten  homers  :  and  they 

33  spread  them  all  abroad  for  themselves  round  about  the  camp.  While  the  flesh  was  yet  be¬ 
tween  their  teeth,  ere  it  was  chewed,  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against  the  people, 

34  and  the  Lord  smote  the  people  with  a  ver}’  great  plague.  And  the  name  of  that  place  was 
called  Kibroth-hattaavah  :  because  there  they  buried  the  people  that  lusted. 


This  and  the  following  three  chapters  recount 
the  successive  rebellions  of  the  Israelites  after 
their  dep.arture  from  Sinai  ;  culminating  in  that 
by  which  they  brought  upon  themselves  the  sen¬ 


tence  of  personal  exclusion  from  the  land  of 
promise.  Incidentally  the  narrative  furnishes 
some  details  of  the  northward  march.  Espiu. 

1 ,  We  read  of  their  murmurings  several  times 


540  SECTION  167.  MUHMURINO  PUNISHED  BY  FIRE  AT  TABERAII. 


when  they  came  first  out  of  Egypt.  But  we  do 
not  read  of  any  plagues  inflicted  on  them  for 
thc'ir  murmurings,  as  there  were  now  ;  for  now 
they  had  had  gieat  experience  of  God’s  care  of 
them,  and  therefore  now  to  distrust  him  was  so 
much  the  more  inexcusable.  Now  a  fire  vcas 

kindled  ag  dust  Jacob  (Ps.  78:21).  H. - The 

indulgence  allowed  to  their  weakness  at  the  first 
is  no  longer  conceded  to  them  after  the  training 
and  organization  they  had  undergone  —and  after 
the  further  opportunities  afforded  them  of  un¬ 
derstanding  their  relations  to  the  Lord,  and  their 
experience  of  his  care  and  bounty,  his  power  and 
judgments.  All  murmurings  before  binai  are 
passed  over,  or  merel^^  rebuked  — all  murmuring 
and  rebellion  after  Sinai  bring  down  punish¬ 
ment  and  doom.  They  have  now  a  law,  and 
know  what  it  exacts  from  them,  and  by  that 
law  they  must  be  judged.  So  in  this  case,  the 
fire  of  the  Lord  came,  and  “  consumed  them 
that  were  in  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  camp,” 
The  name  of  Taberah,  or  the  burning,  was  given 
to  the  spot  in  sorrowful  memory  of  the  event. 
Kit. 

2.  The  prevalency  of  Moses’s  intercession  for 
them  ;  wlieyi  Moses  prayed  unto  the  Lord  (he  was 
always  readj^  to  stand  in  the  gap  to  turn  away 
the  wrath  of  God),  God  had  respect  to  him  and 
his  offering,  and  the  fire  was  quenched.  By  this 
it  appears  that  God  delights  not  in  punishing, 
for  when  he  has  begun  his  controversy,  he  is 
soon  prevailed  with  to  let  it  fall.  Moses  was 
one  of  those  worthies  who  by  faith  quenched  the 
violence  of  fire.  H. 

3.  Taberali.  34.  Kibrotli-liattaa- 
vali.  The  “  burning,”  which  gave  to  the 
place  the  name  of  Taberah,  occurred  on  the 
outer  edge  of  the  camp  (verse  1).  Taberah  was 
then  the  name  of  a  spot  in  or  near  the  station 
of  Kibroth-hattaavah,  and  accordingly  is  not 
named  in  the  list  of  encampments  given  (Nu, 
33).  Espin. 

4.  iWixecl  multitude.  We  should  very 
imperfectly  realize  to  our  minds  the  idea  of  the 
great  Hebrew  camp  if  we  ignored  the  existence 
in  it  of  a  large  body  of  Egyptian  people  of  the 
lowest  order.  In  Ex.  12  : 38  they  are  described 
as  “  a  great  rabble,  ”  for  such  is  the  literal  im¬ 
port  of  the  Hebrew  phrase.  In  the  grosser  dis¬ 
contents  and  low  repinings,  it  is  “  the  mixed 
multitude”  who  take  the  lead  ;  and  in  De. 
29  : 10,  the  members  of  this  great  body — the 
strangers  of  the  camp  — seem  to  be  described  as 
having  become  servants  to  the  Hebrew  host  : 
“  Thy  stranger  that  is  in  thy  camp,  from  the 
hewer  of  thy  wood  to  the  drawer  of  thy  water.” 
Kit. 


5,  G.  God  “  had  opened  the  doors  of  heav¬ 
en,  ”  so  as  to  supply  them  vith  the  “  corn  of 
heaven,”  and  the  bread  “  of  angels,”  and  yet 
they  complain  that  they  are  famished,  while 
they  are  abundantly  supplied.  The.}'  complain 
that  there  is  nothing  before  their  eyes  but 
manna  :  as  if  their  loathing  of  this  excellent 
and  abundant  food  was  actual  famine.  Calc. 

- They  were  madly  in  love  with  the  idolatries 

of  Egypt.  Hence,  on  every  little  distress, 
“  Let  us  go  back  to  Egyj)t,”  was  their  never- 
ceasing  cry.  It  was  not  merely  the  flesh  pots  — 
the  fish,  the  cucumbers,  the  melons,  the  leeks, 
the  onions,  and  the  garlic— it  was  the  spiritual 
luxury  of  Egypt,  her  superstitions,  with  which 
the  people  were  so  debauched  ;  a  debauchery, 
which  neither  gentleness  nor  severit3\  neither 
mercy  nor  vengeance,  neither  the  blaze  of  mir 
acle  nor  the  terrors  of  prophetic  denunciation, 
could  ever  wholly  overcome  ;  a  debauchery,  of 
whose  malignant  virus  the  nation  was  at  last 
purged  only  in  the  fiery  furnace  of  a  seventy 
years’  captivity.  E.  C.  W. 

Oh,  the  precious  time  that  is  buried  in  the 
grave  of  murmuring !  When  the  murmurer 
should  be  praying,  he  is  murmuring  against 
the  Lord  ;  when  he  shculd  be  hearing,  he  is 
murmuring  against  Divine  providences  ;  when 
he  should  be  reading,  he  is  murmuring  against 
instruments  ;  and  in  these  and  a  thousand  other 
ways  do  murmurers  expend  that  precious  tin.o 
which  some  would  redeem  with  a  world.  Brooks, 

7-9.  The  manna  was  sufficiently  palatable 
for  all  practical  purposes  and  had  the  necessary 
elements  for  the  real  bread— the  staff  of  life  — 
for  a  whole  nation  during  forty  years  of  wilder¬ 
ness  life,  with  its  alternations  of  marchings  and 
encampments  ;  of  labor  and  of  rest. 

The  points  which  evinced  the  miraculous 
hand  of  God  were— that  it  came  from  no  known 
or  possible  source  of  supply  in  the  kingdom  of 
nature  ;  that  it  fell  in  the  full  amount  needed 
for  the  thousands  of  Israel  ;  fell  on  each  of  six 
mornings  but  not  at  all  on  the  seventh,  the  Sab¬ 
bath  ;  that  the  average  amount  on  five  of  these 
mornings  was  a  supply  for  one  day,  while  on 
the  morning  next  preceding  the  Sabbath,  a 
double  quantity  fell,  being  a  supply  for  two 
days  ;  that  the  gathering  for  the  first  five  days 
of  the  week  could  be  kept  only  one  day,  but  the 
double  supply  of  the  sixth  day  remained  sweet 
and  pure  for  two  days  ;  and  moreover,  a  quan¬ 
tity  laid  up  by  God’s  command  in  the  sacred 
ark  remained  unchanged  for  many  generations. 
Thus  wonderfully  did  the  Almighty  impress  his 
hand  upon  every  feature  of  this  bread  from 
heaven  !  H.  C.  (See  Section  97.) 


APPOINTMENT  OF  SEVENTY  ELDERS. 


541 


11-15.  These  murmurings  of  theirs  reflected 
great  dishonor  upon  God,  and  Moses  laid  to 
heart  the  reproaches  cast  on  him.  They  knew 
that  he  did  his  utmost  for  their  good,  and  that 
he  did  nothing,  nor  could,  without  a  Divine  ap¬ 
pointment  ;  and  yet  to  be  thus  continually 
clamored  against  by  an  unreasonable  ungrate 
ful  people  would  break  in  upon  the  temper  even 
of  Moses  himself.  God  considered  this,  and 
therefore  we  do  not  find  that  he  chid  him.  Yet 
Moses  expressed  himself  otherwise  than  became 
him  upon  this  provocation,  and  came  short  of 
his  duty  both  to  God  and  Israel  in  these  expos¬ 
tulations.  He  speaks  distrustfully  of  the  Di¬ 
vine  grace,  when  he  despairs  of  being  able  io 
hear  all  ihis  people  (verse  14).  Had  the  work 
been  much  less,  he  could  not  have  gone  through 
it  in  his  own  strength  :  but  had  it  been  much 
greater,  through  God  strengthening  him  he 
might  have  done  it.  It  was  worst  of  all  pas¬ 
sionately  to  wish  for  death,  and  desire  to  be 
killed  out  of  hand  because  just  at  this  time  his 
life  w'as  made  a  little  uneasy  to  him  (verse  15). 
Is  this  Moses  ?  Is  this  the  meekest  of  all  the 
men  on  the  earth?  The  best  have  their  infir¬ 
mities,  and  fail  sometimes  in  the  exercise  of  that 
grace  which  they  are  most  eminent  for.  Bat 
God  graciously  overlooked  Moses’s  passion  at 

this  time.  H. - God  was  exceeding  merciful 

to  the  sin  of  Moses,  because  it  was  of  human  in¬ 
firmity,  and  because  it  was  the  petulant  out¬ 
break  of  a  mind  and  heart  overcharged  with 
grief  and  failure.  Even  so  did  our  Lord  bear 
with  his  apostles,  and  will  bear  w'ith  all  the 
errors  and  outbreaks  of  an  honest  heart.  K.  W. 

The  Lord  permits  even  the  stronger  language 
of  dissatisfaction  in  his  servant,  as  already  be¬ 
fore  (Ex.  32  : 11).  The  wish  to  die  was  cer- 
tainl}"  a  despairing  and  therefore  a  sinful  wish. 
But  God  would  rather  that  his  servants  should 
lay  open  before  him  in  their  prayers  even  such 
unholy  movements  of  their  heart,  than  that  they 
should  express  their  sorrow  in  any  other  v/ay. 
In  no  way  can  this  hidden  sin  of  murmuring, 
of  fear,  of  despondency,  be  so  completely  re¬ 
moved  as  by  making  it  known  to  the  merciful 
and  gracious  One.  Gerl. 

16,  Note  the  Divine  dignity  and  goodness  of 
the  Lord’s  answer.  The  one  thing  in  Moses’s 
prayer  which  was  reasonable  he  allowed  at 
once  ;  the  rest  he  passed  over  without  answer 
or  reproof,  as  though  it  had  never  been  uttered. 
R.  W. 

16, 1 7, 24,  Sevcnly  men  of  the  elcler§ 

of  Israel.  The  selection  of  the  seventy  elders 
and  the  prophetic  gift  bestowed  on  them  is 
plainly  distinct  in  character  from  the  selection 


of  judges  (Section  155),  as  well  as  later  in  time. 
Not  merely  the  exclusive  judgeship,  but  the  sole 
exercise  of  the  prophetic  office  was  too  heavy  a 
burden,  and  needed  to  be  shared  with  others. 
Birks. 

The  Hebrew  Theocracy  was  engrafted  upon  a 
previously  existing  patriarchal  government,  and 
therefore  it  recognized  this  previous  system  as 
substantially  the  common  law  of  the  land,  to  be 
in  force  except  so  far  as  modified  by  special 
legislation  under  the  new  regime  given  from  the 
Lord  through  Moses.  This  principle  is  illus¬ 
trated  in  the  powers  and  functions  of  the  elders, 
know'n  as  “  heads  of  the  house  of  their  fathers  ;’  ’ 
“princes  “  heads  of  the  thousands  of  Israel  ” 
(Ex  6  : 25,  and  Nu.  3  : 24,  30,  35,  and  1  ;  16, 

and  10:4).  H.  G. - The  elders  or  chiefs  of 

the  tribes,  who  appear  as  the  background  of  the 
primitive  constitution,  existed  before  the  ex¬ 
odus  (Ex.  4  :  29).  The  priests  were  not  part  of 
them  (2  Ch.  31  : 2).  Through  all  the  changes 
of  the  office,  the  name  still  continued.  From 
time  to  time  it  appears  in  the  settled  period  of 
the  monarchy.  On  the  dissolution  of  the  king¬ 
dom  it  reasserts  something  of  its  original  im¬ 
portance.  Out  of  the  elders  of  the  desert  thus 
grew  the  elders  of  the  synagogues  ;  and  out  of 
the  elders  of  the  synagogues  — with  no  change 
of  name  except  that  which  took  place  in  pass¬ 
ing  from  Hebrew  to  Greek  and  from  Greek  to 
the  languages  of  modern  Euiope — the  “  Pres¬ 
byters’’  of  Christendom.  That  word  and  that 
office,  so  limited  in  its  present  meaning,  is  the 
direct  descendant  of  the  rudest  and  most  prim¬ 
itive  forms  of  the  Jewish  nation.  The  Christian 
Presbyter  represents  not  the  sacerdotal,  but 
the  primitive  element  of  the  ancient  Church. 
Stanley. 

The  distinguishing  office,  in  every  age  alike, 
is  the  “  elder,”  the  successor  of  the  patriarch. 
Already,  when  Moses  comes  to  Egypt  there  are 
elders  to  receive  him  and  examine  his  commis¬ 
sion.  Moses  makes  no  change  in  the  govern¬ 
ment— the  elders  continue  to  rule.  One  great 
source  of  confusion  in  reading  the  Law  of  Moses 
and  his  history  arises  from  the  fact  that,  like  all 
other  nations,  the  title  of  elder  was  given  also  to 
the  civil  magistrates  of  the  courts  set  up  at  the 
suggestion  of  Jethro.  But  the  careful  reader 
will  find  that  no  ancient  system  of  government 
kept  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical  so  distinct  as 
the  system  of  Moses.  It  is  very  easy  in  any 
case  to  see  whether  the  elders  who  act  are 
Church  elders  or  civil  magistrates,  even  though 
the  ultimate  appeal  of  both  was  to  Jehovah  him¬ 
self  at  the  tabernacle.  In  all  subsequent  times 
the  same  government  is  found.  Jeremiah  is 


542 


SECTION  167.  WEAKNESS  OF  MOSES. 


condemned  to  prison  by  an  ecclesiastical  court 
of  the  elders  ;  Ezekiel,  a  captive  among  the  cap¬ 
tives  on  the  far-distant  Chebar,  is  found  sitting 
with  the  “  elders”  of  Judah  in  council  when 
the  message  of  Jehovah  comes  to  him.  So  chief 
priests  and  elders  counselled  at  Christ’s  birth 
and  death — so  the  Apostle  Paul,  called  the 
elders  at  Ephesus — so  at  Jerusalem  a  synod  was 
of  elders  with  apostles.  Now  you  may  see  sig- 
nificancy  of  John’s  'vision  of  twentj^-four  elders 
that  represented  the  Chuich  still  organized,  as 
it  stands  before  the  great  throne. 

To  Israel  as  a  church  w'as  given  the  Passover, 
the  Sinai  Law  wdth  its  ritual  of  worship  and  ec¬ 
clesiastical  law.  To  the  Israelites  as  a  State 
was  given,  in  fulfilment  of  the  covenant  with 
Abraham,  to  inherit  as  a  civil  government  the 
land  of  Canaan.  As  a  church,  not  as  a  State, 
Israel,  under  the  Mosaic  forms  of  ordinance, 
worshij^ped  Jehovali.  As  a  State,  not  as  a 
church,  the  people  administered  civil  govern¬ 
ment  and  punished  with  pains  and  j)enalties  the 
transgression  of  the  civil  law.  Nor  did  it  make 
it  less  a  civil  government  that  Jehovah  was  its 
theocratic  King,  to  direct  and  decide  cases  in 
the  last  resort.  As  a  church,  not  as  a  State, 
Israel  had  priests  and  elders  and  Levites  to  ad¬ 
minister  in  spiritual  things.  As  a  State,  not  as 
a  church,  Israel  had  judges  and  magistrates 
who  wielded  the  sword  of  power.  As  a  church, 
not  as  a  State,  Israel  had  ecclesiastical  courts  to 
adjudge  in  what  were  called  the  ‘‘  Lord’s  mat¬ 
ters,”  with  a  supreme  court  of  last  resort  (see 
De.  17  :  8-12  and  2  Ch,  19  : 5-11),  As  a  State, 
not  as  a  church,  Israel  had  a  series  of  civil  courts 
for  “  the  King’s  matters,”  appealing  in  the  last 
resort  to  a  supreme  court  and  the  oracle,  as  may 
be  seen  from  the  same  passages.  As  a  church, 
Israel  admitted  foreigners  into  membership  by 
the  rite  of  circumcision  and  to  all  the  privileges 
of  the  people  of  God.  As  a  State,  Israel  ex¬ 
cluded  foreigners  from  civil  dignities  and  from 
the  right  to  inherit  or  hold  real  estate.  As  a 
church  Israel  changed  not,  nor  could  change, 
the  form  and  order  of  the  Church’s  administra¬ 
tion.  As  a  State  Israel  could  and  did  change 
its  form  of  government  from  chieftain  and  re¬ 
publican  to  monarchical  rulers.  As  a  church 
Israel  continued  to  exist,  even  after  being  car¬ 
ried  away  from  Canaan.  .In  the  captivity, 
though  without  the  temple  and  altar,  the  proph¬ 
ets  still  conferred  with  the  presbyterj^  or  elder¬ 
ship  ;  and  after  the  captivity  the  Church  still 
continued,  whereas  the  State  as  an  indepen¬ 
dent  government  perished  at  the  captivity'.  Any 
one  bearing  these  points  in  mind  as  he  studies 
the  Mosaic  institutes  and  the  subsequent  his- 


j  tory  will  be  surprised  to  find  how  readilj’  the 
whole  system  may  be  understood  with  this  key  ; 
and  how  strange  is  the  confusion  of  ideas  under 
either  the  popular  or  the  scientific*  theory  of 
the  Mosaic  system,  which  represents  the  Law  at 
Mount  Sinai  as  certain  vague  moral  and  ritual 
precepts,  together  with  certain  semi-political 
laws  organizing  a  sort  of  half  church,  half  State, 
with  which  the  Christian  Church  has  nothing  to 
do.  S.  K, 

The  record  of  this  weakness  of  faith 
on  the  part  of  one  who,  according  to  the  same 
history,  had  been  accustomed  to  Divine  inter¬ 
positions  equally  remarkable  with  anjdhing 
here  promised,  shows  the  thorough  honesty  of 
the  narrator  ;  while  it  affords  some  measure 
whereby  to  estimate  the  extent  to  which  so 
great  a  multitude  must  have  been  indebted  to 
extraordinary  sources  for  their  dail}^  supply. 
Had  there  been  anything  like  a  suitable  pro¬ 
vision  for  their  subsistence,. either  in  the  desert 
or  obtainable  from  friendly  tribes,  the  above 
promise  would  not  have  been  received  by 
Moses  with  such  incredulity  as  to  call  forth  the 

rebuke  that  f  jllo\\*ed  (verse  23).  D.  M, - Hoav, 

in  these  wide  deserts,  this  host  of  more  than 
two  millions  of  souls  could  find  supplies  for 
their  support  without  a  constant  miracle,  I 
am  unable  to  divine.  Yet  among  them  we  read 
only  of  occasional  longings  and  complaints  ; 
while  the  tribes'^that  now  roam  over  the  same 
regions,  numbering  scarcely  as  many  thou¬ 
sands,  are  exposed  to  famine  and  privation  of 
every  kind  ;  and  at  the  best  obtain  onl3^a  meagre 
and  precarious  subsistence.  Bobinson. 

The  sacred  writer,  with  singular  candor,  under 
the  moving  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  records  not  only 
his  own  utter  disgust  with  a  temper  in  his  peo¬ 
ple  so  unreasonable  and  ungrateful,  but  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  such  a  spiritdn  enfeebling  his  own 
faith.  With  the  giving  way  of  his  patience  there 
comes  upon  him  also  a  spirit  of  unbelief  that 
leads  him  also  to  murmur.  And  when  the  full¬ 
est  assurance  is  given  by  Jehovah — “  The  Lord 
will  give  you  flesh,  and  ye  shall  eat” — the  queru¬ 
lous,  desponding  Moses  replies  with  incredulity 
and  unbelief.  We  are  ready  to  exclaim  in 
amazement  :  Is  this  the  Moses,  the  man  of 
heroic  faith  ?  And  yet,  with  all  this  exhibition 
of  an  improper  spirit,  there  is  no  record  of  any 
fault  found  with  him.  The  Lord  is  merciful 
and  gracious,  Pie  knoweth  our  frame  ;  he  re- 
membereth  that  w'e  are  dust.  It  is  simplj*  of 
the  Lord’s  mercy  that  we  are  not  consumed. 
How  often  comes  home  this  reproof  :  “  Is  the 

Lord’s  hand  shortened?”  S.  R. - Whatever 

our  unbelieving  hearts  may  suggest  to  the  con- 


NOBLENESS  OF  MOSES.  THE  QUAILS  AND  PLAGUE. 


543 


trary,  it  is  certain  that  God’s  hand  is  not  short, 
his  power  cannot  be  restrained  by  anything  but 
his  own  will,  with  him  nothing  is  impossible. 
That  hand  is  not  short  which  measures  the 
waters,  metes  out  the  heavens,  and  grasps  the 
winds.  And  this  is  sufficient  to  silence  all  our 
distrusts  when  means  fail  us.  Is  anything  too 
hard  for  the  Lord  ?  H, 

5J5.  Then,  to  show  in  sight  of  all  men  that  he 
had  appointed  such  help,  yet  only  as  a  help  to 
Moses,  God  “  came  down  in  a  cloud,”  spake 
unto  Moses,  and  then  put  of  his  spirit  upon 
these  “elders.”  In  manifestation  of  this  new 
gift  “  they  prophesied,”  by  which,  however, 
we  are  to  understand  probably  that  “  speaking 
in  the  spirit  ”  which  in  the  New  Testament  also 
is  designated  as  “  prophesying.”  A.  E, 

27.  Eldad  and  iTf  cdad  do  propliicsy. 
These,  it  seems,  made  two  of  the  seventy 
elders — they  wfre  written  though  they  went  not 
out  to  the  Tabernacle— they  were  enrolled  as  of 
the  elders,  but  went  not  to  meet  God  at  the 
Tabernacle,  probably  at  that  time  prevented  by 
some  hindrance — but  they  continued  in  the 
camp  using  their  new  function  in  exhorting  the 

people.  A.  C. - The  Spirit  of  God  found 

them  out  in  the  camp,  and  there  they  prophe¬ 
sied— that  is,  they  exercised  their  gift  of  pray¬ 
ing,  preaching,  and  praising  God.  The  Spirit 
of  God  is  not  tied  to  the  Tabernacle,  but,  like 
the  wind,  b’ows  where  he  lisidh.  There  was  a 
special  providence  in  it  that  these  two  should 
be  absent,  for  thus  it  appeared  that  it  wms  indeed 
a  Divine  Spirit  which  the  elders  were  actuated 
by,  and  that  Moses  gave  them  not  that  Spirit, 
but  God  himself.  H. 

2§.  My  lord  Moses,  forbid  them.  Probably 
he  did  not  know  that  they  had  been  enrolled, 
and  he  was  naturally  jealous  for  the  honor  of 
Moses  -  a  jealousy  which  was  not  at  all  unneces¬ 
sary,  as  the  events  of  the  next  chapter  proved. 
The  prophesying  of  Eldad  and  Med  ad  in  the 
camp  might  well  seem  like  the  setting  up  of  an 
independent  authority  not  in  harmony  with 
that  of  Moses.  R.  W. 

Moses,  having  no  aim  to  his  own  glory,  re¬ 
plied  that  he  wished  “  all  the  Lord’s  people 
were  prophets,  and  that  the  Lord  would  put  his 
Spirit  upon  them.”  If  God  would  have  thus 
immediately  revealed  his  will  to  every  Israelite, 
the  people  would  all  have  known  what  they 
were  to  do,  as  well  as  Moses  himself  ;  and  he, 
not  seeking  his  own  honor,  but  sincerely  desir¬ 
ing  to  be  ”  faithful  to  him  that  appointed  him,” 
would  have  heartily  rejoiced  to  see  the  Divine 
purpose  and  design  thus  effectually  taking  place 
among  his  people.  Shuckford. 


“Would  God,”  was  the  longing  of  Moses, 
“  that  all  the  Lord’s  people  were  prophets,  and 
that  the  Lord  would  put  his  Spirit  upon  them  !” 
His  desire  was  fulfilled  at  Pentecost,  and  is  re¬ 
alized  now.  Every  believer  posse.sses  the  Holy 
Spirit,  not  for  his  own  spiritual  life  only,  but 
to  be  a  witness  for  Christ,  as  were  the  hundred 
and  twenty  at  Pentecost.  Equally  does  the 
charge  to  publish  the  glad  tidings,  and  the 
promise  of  adequate  power  come  to  every  one, 
according  to  that  closing  command  of  inspira¬ 
tion,  “  Let  him  that  heareth  say.  Come  !”  Nay, 
more,  the  tongue  of  fire,  the  gift  of  utterance  in 
its  fitting  measure,  is  always  bestowed  upon  the 
kindled  heart.  Every  one  who  seeks  humbly 
and  prayerfully  to  be  a  witness  for  Christ,  in 
the  home,  in  the  ways  of  toil,  in  the  spheres  of 
intercourse,  in  the  house  of  prayer,  by  the 
printed  page,  with  the  lips,  and  by  the  life, 
every  such  faithful  disciple  of  the  living  Master 
shall  receive  his  promised  gift,  the  Pentecostal 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost  !  B. 

{{I,  32.  The  quail  migrates  in  vast  flocks  and 
regularly  crosses  the  Arabian  Desert,  flying  for 
the  most  part  by  night.  The  period  when  they 
were  brought  to  the  camp  of  Israel  was  in 
spring,  when  on  their  northward  migration 
from  Africa.  According  to  their  well-known  in¬ 
stinct,  they  would  follow  up  the  coast  of  the 
Red  Sea  till  they  came  to  its  bifurcation  by  the 
Sinaitic  peninsula,  and  then,  with  a  favoring 
wind,  would  cross  at  the  narrow  part,  resting 
near  the  shore  before  proceeding.  Accordingly, 
we  read  that  the  wind  brought  them  up  from 
the  sea,  and  that,  keeping  clOvSe  to  the  ground, 
they  fell  thick  as  rain  about  the  camp  in  the 
month  of  April,  according  to  our  calculation. 
Thus  the  miracle  consisted  in  the  supply  being 
brought  to  the  tents  of  Israel  by  the  si^ecial 
guidance  of  the  Lord  in  exact  harmony  with  the 
known  habits  of  the  bird.  The  Israelites 
“  spread  them  out,”  when  they  had  taken  them 
before  they  were  sufficiently  refreshed  to 
escape,  “  round  about  the  camp,”  to  dry  them 
and  prepare  them  for  food,  exactly  as  Herodotus 
tells  us  the  Egyptians  were  in  the  habit  of 
doing,  drying  them  in  the  sun.  Again,  it  was  at 
even  that  they  began  to  arrive,  and  by  the  morn¬ 
ing  the  whole  flock  had  settled.  I  have  myself 
seen  the  ground  in  Algeria,  in  the  month  of 
April,  covered  with  quails  for  an  extent  of  many 
acres  at  daybreak,  where  in  the  preceding  after¬ 
noon  there  had  not  been  one.  Tristram,. 

33,  Hardly  had  they  tasted  the  flesh  ere  the 
plague  began  among  them.  Even  so  greed  has 
its  natural  reaction  of  misery,  even  in  the  life 
of  this  world,  but  it  has  its  Divine  punishment 


544  SECTION  168.  MIRIAM  AND  AARON  SPEAK  AGAINST  MOSES. 


in  the  soul.  “  He  gave  them  their  request,  but 
sent  leanness  into  their  soul,"  says  the  Psalmist 
(106  : 15),  revealing  the  spiritual  truth  which 
lay  hid  in  this  history.  No  man  can  cater 
greedily  for  his  body  without  impoverishing  his 
soul  ;  no  man  can  gratify  eagerly  his  carnal  ap¬ 
petites  without  incurring  spiritual  disease. 

E.  W. - He  had  formerly  pardoned  the  mur- 

murings  for  which  he  now  punished  them. 
The  same  sin  repeated  is  death,  whose  first  act 
found  remission  :  relapses  are  desperate  where 
the  sickness  itself  is  not.  It  is  a  mortal  thing 
to  abuse  the  lenity  of  God  :  it  is  presumptuous 
madness  to  hope  that  God  will  quietly  suffer  us 


to  provoke  him  how  we  will.  It  is  more  mercy 
than  we  are  entitled  to  if  he  forbear  us  once  : 
it  is  his  justice  to  punish  us  the  second  time  : 
it  is  our  own  fault  if  we  will  not  profit  by  former 
warnings.  Bp.  II. 

34.  The  remembrance  of  this  is  preserved  in 
the  name  given  to  the  place.  Moses  called  it 
Kibroth-hatlaavah,  the  graves  of  lusters,  or  of  lust. 
And  w^ell  it  had  been,  if  these  graves  of  Is¬ 
rael’s  lusters  had  proved  the  graves  of  Israel’s 
lust  :  the  warning  was  designed  to  be  so,  but  it 
had  not  its  due  effect,  for  it  follows  (Ps.  78  : 32), 
For  all  this,  they  sinned  still.  H. 


Section  168. 

MIRIAM  AND  AARON  SPEAK  AGAINST  MOSES.  JEHOVAH  VINDICATES  MOSES 

AND  PUNISHES  MIRIAM.  AT  HAZEROTH. 


Numbees  11  :  35  ;  12  : 1-15  ;  33  : 17. 


Nu.  11  35  Feom  Kibroth-hattaavah  the  people  journeyed  unto  Hazeroth  ;  and  they  abode 
at  Hazeroth. 

12  1  And  Miriam  and  Aaron  spake  against  Moses  because  of  the  Cushite  woman  whom  he 

2  had  married  :  for  he  had  married  a  Cushite  woman.  And  they  said.  Hath  the  Lokd  indeed 

3  spoken  only  with  Moses  ?  hath  he  not  spoken  also  with  us?  And  the  Lokd  heard  it.  Now 

4  the  man  Moses  was  very  meek,  above  all  the  men  which  were  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  And 
the  Loed  spake  suddenly  unto  Moses,  and  unto  Aaron,  and  unto  Miriam,  Come  out  ye  three 

5  unto  the  tent  of  meeting.  And  they  three  came  out.  And  the  Lokd  came  down  in  a  pillar  of 
cloud,  and  stood  at  the  door  of  the  Tent,  and  called  Aaron  and  Miriam  :  and  they  both  came 

6  forth.  And  he  said.  Hear  now  my  words  ;  if  there  be  a  prophet  among  you,  I  the  Lokd  will 

7  make  myself  known  unto  him  in  a  vision,  I  will  speak  with  him  in  a  dream.  My  servant 

8  Moses  is  not  so  ;  he  is  faithful  in  all  mine  house  :  with  him  will  I  speak  mouth  to  mouth, 
even  manifestly,  and  not  in  dark  speeches  ;  and  the  form  of  the  Lokd  shall  he  behold  :  where- 

9  fore  then  were  ye  not  afraid  to  speak  against  my  servant,  against  Moses  ?  And  the  anger  of 

10  the  Lokd  was  kindled  against  them  ;  and  he  departed.  And  the  cloud  removed  from  over  the 
Tent  ;  and,  behold,  Miriam  was  leprous,  as  white  as  snow  :  and  Aaron  looked  upon  Miriam, 

11  and,  behold,  she  was  leprous.  And  Aaron  said  unto  Moses,  Oh  my  lord,  lay  not,  I  pray  thee, 

12  sin  upon  us,  for  that  we  have  done  foolishlj’’,  and  for  that  we  have  sinned.  Let  her  not,  I 
pray,  be  as  one  dead,  of  whom  the  flesh  is  half  consumed  when  he  cometh  out  of  his  mother’s 

13  womb.  And  Moses  cried  unto  the  Lokd,  saying.  Heal  her,  0  God,  I  beseech  thee.  And  the 

14  Lokd  said  unto  Moses,  If  her  father  had  but  spit  in  her  face,  should  she  not  be  ashamed  seven 
days  ?  let  her  be  shut  up  without  the  camp  seven  days,  and  after  that  she  shall  be  brought  in 

15  again.  And  Miriam  was  shut  up  without  the  camp  seven  days  :  and  the  people  journeyed  not 
till  Miriam  was  brought  in  again. 


I,  Miriam  stands  foremost  as  the  author  of 
this  revolt  against  Moses,  which  originated  in 
spiritual  pride  ;  and  for  that  reason  she  is 
chiefly  subjected  to  the  punishment,  Aaron, 
consistently  with  the  well-known  softness  of  his 
character,  allows  himself  to  be  drawn  by  his 
sister  into  the  same  sin,  takes  her  side,  and  joins 

her  in  reproaching  their  brother.  C.  G.  B. - 

Is  not  this  Aaron,  that  was  brother  in  nature, 
and  by  office  joint  commissioner  with  Moses, 


that  made  his  brother  an  intercessor  for  him  to 
God  in  the  case  of  his  idolatry,  that  climbed  up 
the  hill  of  Sinai  with  Moses,  whom  the  mouth 
and  hand  of  Moses  consecrated  a  high-pnest 
unto  God?  Is  not  this  Miriam,  the  elder  sister 
of  Moses,  Miriam  that  led  the  triumph  of  the 
women  and  sung  gloriously  to  the  Lord  ?  Who 
would  not  have  thought  this  should  have  been 
their  glory,  to  have  seen  the  glory  of  their  own 
brother?  Bp.  H. 


REVOLT  OF  IJIRIAM  AND  AARON. 


545 


A  €ii§liitc  woman.  The  name  of  Cush, 
the  son  of  Ham,  is  ajjplied  in  Scripture  not 
only  to  Africa  but  to  Arabia.  Zipporah  may 
have  been  called  a  Cushite,  not  as  being  herself 
of  the  children  of  Cush,  but  as  belonging  to  a 
country  which  had  received  from  them  its 
name.  Kit. 

For  the  first  time  we  here  encounter  that 
pride  of  Israel  after  the  flesh  and  contempt  for 
all  other  nations,  which  appeared  throughout 
their  after  history  in  proportion  as  they  mis¬ 
understood  the  spiritual  meaning  of  their  call¬ 
ing.  Miriam  and  Aaron  now  actually  boasted 
in  that  prophetic  gift,  which  should  have  only 
wrought  in  them  a  sense  of  deep  humility. 

A.  E. - Admitting  the  existence  of  any  sense 

in  which  Jethro’s  daughter  could  be  called  a 
Cushite,  it  is  obvious  that  her  arrival  might  be 
very  unwelcome  to  Miriam,  since  the  wife  of 
Moses  would  at  least  share  the  deference  and 
attention  which  had  hitherto  belonged  to  his 
sister  alone.  The  high  consideration  with 
which  Jethro  had  been  treated  on  his  visit  to 
the  camp,  and  the  influential  position  now  taken 
by  his  son  Hobab,  may  have  been  distasteful  to 
Aaron.  Yet  his  own  position  in  the  common¬ 
wealth  was  in  some  respects  superior  to  that  of 
Moses  himself.  The  function  of  Moses  was 
temporary,  and  would  pass  away  with  his  life  ; 
whereas  his  own  was  permanent  in  himself  and 
his  heirs,  and  would  leave  him  and  them  the. 
foremost  and  most  important  persons  in  the 
State.  He  might  not,  therefore,  always  regard 
with  patience  the  degree  in  which  the  full  de¬ 
velopment  of  his  own  high  ofiice  was  superseded 
by  the  existing  authority  of  Moses.  That  he 
was  discontented  is  certain — that  he  made  no 
secret  of  that  discontent  is  clear— and  that  it 
had  its  principal  source  in  the  jealousy  enter¬ 
tained  of  the  powers  exercised  by  Moses,  is 
plainly  stated.  Kit. 

By  this  contention  of  his  own  brother  and 
sister  w'ith  respect  to  the  supremacy  it  was 
clearly  shown  that  Moses  was  sustained  by  the 
power  of  God  alone.  At  the  same  time  it  ap¬ 
pears  how  natural  is  ambition  to  the  minds  of 
almost  all  men.  Aaron  and  Miriam  contend 
with  their  own  brother  for  the  supremacy  ;  and 
yet  they  had  received  the  most  abundant  proofs 
that  he,  whom  they  desire  to  overthrow,  had 
been  elevated  by  the  hand  of  Gorl,  and  was  thus 
maintained  in  his  position.  For  Moses  had  ar¬ 
rogated  nothing  to  himself  ;  therefore  it  w'as 
not  allowable  that  man  should  attempt  to  under¬ 
mine  the  dignify  of  that  high  office  which  God 
had  conferreJ  upon  him.  Besides,  God  had 
enniibled  their  own  house  and  name  in  the  per- 
35 


son  of  Moses,  and  out  of  favor  to  him  they  had 
also  been  endued  with  peculiar  gifts  of  their 
own.  Aaron  too  had  been  by  his  brother  asso¬ 
ciated  with  himself  :  Moses  had  allowed  the 
high. priesthood  to  be  transferred  to  him  and  his 
descendants,  and  thus  had  placed  his  own  in 
subjection  to  them.  What,  then,  was  there  for 
Aaron  to  begrudge  his  brother,  when  so  exalted 
a  dignity  was  vested  in  his  own  sons,  while  all 
i:he  race  of  Moses  was  degraded  ?  Calv. 

God  had  spoken  by  Moses,  but  he  had  some- 
■Jmes  spoken  also  by  them  ;  and  they  intended 
to  make  themselves  equal  with  him,  though 
God  had  so  many  ways  distinguished  him. 
Striving  to  be  greatest  is  a  sin  which  easily  be¬ 
sets  disciples  themselves,  and  it  is  exceeding 
sinful.  Even  those  that  are  well  preferred  are 
seldom  pleased  if  others  be  better  preferred. 

Those  that  excel  are  commonly  envied.  H. - 

Pride  is  lightly  the  ground  of  all  sedition. 
Which  of  their  faces  shined  like  Moses  ?  Which 
of  them  had  fasted  twi^e  forty  days  ?  Which  of 
them  ascended  up  to  the  top  of  Sinai,  and  was 
hid  with  smoke  and  fire?  Which  of  them  re 
ceived  the  Law  twice  in  two  several  tables,  from 
God's  own  hand  ?  And  yet  they  dare  say,  “  Hath 
God  spoken  only  by  Moses?”  They  do  not 
deny  Moses’s  honor,  but  they  challenge  a  part 
with  him  ;  and  as  thej’^  were  the  elder  in  nature, 
so  thej''  would  be  equal  in  dignity,  equal  in  ad¬ 
ministration.  And  yet  how  unfit  were  they  ? 
One,  a  woman,  whom  her  sex  debarred  from 
rule  ;  the  other,  a  priest,  whom  his  office  se¬ 
questered  from  earthly  government.  Self-love 
makes  men  unreasonable,  and  teaches  them  to 
turn  the  glass  to  see  themselves  bigger,  others 
less  than  they  are.  It  is  a  hard  thing  for  a 
man  willingly  and  gladly  to  see  his  equals  lifted 
over  his  head,  in  worth  and  opinion.  Nothing 
will  more  try  a  man’s  grace  than  questions  of 
emulation.  That  man  hath  true  light  which 
can  be  content  to  be  a  candle  before  the  sun  of 
others.  Bp.  H. 

3.  There  is  about  these  words,  as  also  about 
the  passages  in  which  Moses  no  less  unequivo¬ 
cally  records  his  own  faults  (Nu.  20  : 12  ;  Ex. 
4  :  24  ;  De.  1  :  37),  the  simplicity  of  one  who 
bare  witness  of  himself,  but  not  to  himself  (cf. 
Matt.  11  : 28,  29).  The  words  are  inserted  to 
explain  how  it  was  that  Moses  took  no  steps  to 
vindicate  himself,  and  why  consequently  the 
Lord  so  promptly  intervened.  Espin. 

No  man  could  have  given  more  proofs  of  his 
courage  than  Moses.  He  slew  the  Egyptian  ;  he 
confronted  Pharaoh  in  his  own  court  ;  he  beat 
the  Midianite  shepherds  ;  he  feared  not  the 
troops  of  Egypt  ;  he  durst  behold  the  face  of 


546 


SECTION  168.  JEHOVAH  VINDICATES  MOSES 


God  amid  all  the  terrors  of  Sinai  :  and  yet 
that  Spirit  which  made  and  knew  his  heart, 
says,  “  He  was  very  meek  above  all  men  upon 
earth.”  Mildness  and  fortitude  may  well  lodge 
together  in  one  breast  :  to  correct  the  miscon¬ 
ceptions  of  these  men  who  think  none  valiant 

but  those  that  are  fierce  and  cruel.  Bp.  II. - 

When  God's  honor  was  concerned,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  golden  calf,  no  man  more  zealous 
than  Moses,  but  when  his  own  honor  was 
touched,  no  man  more  meek.  God’s  people 
are  the  meek  of  the  earth  (Zeph.  2  :  3),  but  some 
are  more  remarkable  than  others  for  this  grace, 
as  Moses,  who  was  thus  fitted  for  the  work  he 
was  called  to,  which  required  all  the  meekness 
he  had  and  sometimes  more.  And  sometimes 
the  unkindness  of  our  friends  is  a  greater  trial 
of  our  meekness  than  the  malice  of  our  ene¬ 
mies.  Christ  himself  records  his  own  meek¬ 
ness  (Matt.  11  :  29),  /  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart ; 
and  the  copy  of  meekness  which  Christ  has  set 
was  without  a  blot,  that  of  Moses  was  not.  H. 

At  his  earliest  call  Moses  prayed  that  Aaron 
might  be  the  leader  instead  of  himself  ;  at  Sinai 
lie  besought  that  his  name  might  be  blotted  out 
if  only  his  people  might  be  spared  ;  in  the 
desert,  he  wished  that  not  only  he,  but  all  the 
Lord’s  people  might  prophesy.  He  founded  no 
dynasty  ;  his  own  sons  were  left  in  deep  ob¬ 
scurity  ;  his  successor  was  taken  from  the  rival 
tribe  of  Ephraim.  He  himself  presents  the 
highest  type  and  concentration  of  endurance 

and  self-abnegation.  Stanley. - As  we  read 

this  history,  we  can  see  that  the  service  of 
Moses  was  rendered  all  for  love,  and  nothing 
for  reward.  All  he  desired  was  the  welfare  of 
kis  countrymen,  and  their  prosperous  settle¬ 
ment  in  the  land  which  God  had  covenanted  to 
give  them.  He  was  the  most  beavily-burdened 
man  in  the  encampment,  and  was  literally  only 
the  highest  among  them,  because  he  was  the 
.servant  of  all.  W.  M.  T. 

Meekness  is  the  attribute  assigned  to  Moses. 
But  he  was  not  meek  to  begin  with.  He  was 
not  meek  when  he  srnote  the  Egyptian  and  hid 
kirn  in  the  sand  ;  nor  when,  descending  the 
mountain  at  sight  of  the  people’s  idolatry,  he 
dashed  in  pieces  the  tables  consecrated  by  the 
holograph  of  heaven,  and  for  the  moment  felt 
that  it  was  no  use  taking  further  pains  with 
such  a  people.  But  seldom  has  the  triumph 
been  more  complete.  The  man  Moses  became 
exceeding  meek  ;  and  throughout  all  the  sequel 
Meribah  is  the  one  brief  outburst  which  inter¬ 
rupts  the  sweetness  and  self-control  of  nearly 
forty  years.  Hamilton. 

4j  5,  But  there  was  One  vko  guarded  the 


honor  of  Moses  too  well  for  him  to  be  afiiicted 
at  the  hard  speeches  even  of  a  sister  and  a 
brother.  It  is  emphatically  remarked  that  “  the 
Lord  heard  it.”  They  were  all  three — the  two 
brothers  and  the  sister  -suddenly  summoned 
before  the  door  of  the  tabernacle.  To  that  door 
the  pillar  of  cloud  visibly  moved,  and  the  voice 
of  the  Lord  spoke  to  them  from  it  in  words  well 
suited  to  fill  their  hearts  with  shame.  Kit. 

- Moses  had  often  showed  himself  zealous 

for  God’s  honor,  and  now  God  showed  himself 
jealous  for  his  reputation  ;  for  those  that  honor 
God  he  will  honor,  nor  will  he  ever  be  behind¬ 
hand  with  any  that  appear  for  him.  Judges  of 
old  sat  in  the  gate  of  the  city  to  try  causes,  and 
so  on  this  occasion  the  Shechinah  in  the  cloud 
of  glory  stood  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle.  H. 

- Come  out  ye  tBiree  unto  the  tab- 

eriiaeBe.  God  calls  Aaron  and  Miriam  to  the 
tabernacle,  that  the  very  sanctity  of  the  place 
may  cast  down  their  haughtiness  ;  that  in  the 
presence  of  God  they  at  length  might  learn  to 
revere  Moses,  whose  cause  is  upheld  by  God.  Calv. 

5-§,  Because  he  was  meek  and  complained 
not,  therefore  the  Lord  struck  in  for  him  the 
more.  The  less  a  man  strives  for  himself,  the 
more  is  God  his  champion.  No  sooner  is  the 
word  out  of  Miriam’s  mouth  than  the  word  of 
God’s  reproof  meets  it.  Moses  was  zealously 
careful  for  God’s  glory,  and  now  God  is  zealous 
for  his.  They  had  equalled  themselves  to 
Moses,  God  prefers  him  to  them.  Their  plea 
was  that  God  had  spoken  by  them,  as  well  as  by 
Moses  ;  God’s  reply  is.  That  he  hath  in  a  more 
entire  fashion  spoken  to  Moses  than  them.  God 
spake  to  the  best  of  them  but  either  in  their 
dream,  sleeping  ;  or  in  vision,  waking  ;  but  to 
Moses  he  spake  with  more  inward  illumination, 
with  more  lively  representation  ;  to  others,  as 
a  stranger  ;  to  Moses,  as  a  friend.  God  had 
never  so  much  magnified  Moses  to  them,  but 
for  their  envy.  Bp.  II. 

7.  Moses  was  a  man  of  great  integrity  and 
tried  fidelity.  He  is  faithful  in  all  my  house. 
This  is  put  first  in  his  character,  because  grace 
excels  gifts,  love  excels  knowledge,  and  sincerity 
in  the  service  of  God  puts  a  greater  honor  upon 
a  man,  and  recommends  him  to  the  Divine 
favor,  more  than  learning,  abstruse  speculations, 
and  an  ability  to  speak  with  tongues.  God  in¬ 
trusted  Moses  to  deliver  his  mind  in  all  things 
to  Israel  ;  Israel  intrusted  him  to  treat  tor  them 
with  God  ;  and  he  was  faithful  to  both,  Moses 
was  therefore  honored  with  clearer  discoveries 
of  God’s  mind,  and  a  more  intimate  communi¬ 
cation  with  God,  than  any  other  prophet  what¬ 
soever.  H. 


AND  PUNISHES  MIRIAM. 


547 


S.  Willi  him  will  I  speak  inoulli  to 

nioiitli.  Moses  received  the  Word  of  God  di¬ 
rect  from  him  and  plainly,  not  through  the 
medium  of  dream,  vision,  parable,  dark  sav  ing, 
or  such  like  (cf.  Ex.  33  ;  11  ;  De.  34  :  10).  Es- 

pin. - “  Were  you  not.  afraid  to  speak  against 

ray  servant,  against  Moses?”  Notice  the  em¬ 
phasis  of  that  expression,  my  servant, 

against  Moses?''  We  ought  to  be  afraid  to  speak 
against  any  one,  much  more  against  those  whom 
God  has  a  mind  to  honor,  lids  is  the  devil’s 
proper  sin,  for  he  is  “  the  accuser  of  the  breth¬ 
ren.”  T.  Manton. 

9,  God’s  departure  was  a  sign  of  immediate 
condemnation,  because  there  was  no  need  of 
any  further  questioning.  After  God  had  con¬ 
victed  them  of  their  sin,  he  first  pronounced 
sentence  against  Miriam,  and  then  suddenly 
withdrew.  That  “  the  cloud  departed”  is  added 
in  explanation.  Galv. 

10,  Since  she  would  acknowledge  no  differ¬ 
ence  betwixt  herself  and  her  brother  Moses, 
every  Israelite  now  sees  his  face  glorious,  hers 
leprous.  Now  both  Moses  and  Miriam  need  to 
wear  a  veil  :  the  one  to  hide  his  glory  ;  the 

other,  her  deformity.  Bp.  II. - God’s  wrath 

was  exceedingly  kindled  against  Miriam,  because 
she  had  inflamed  her  brother’s  mind.  It  was 
just  “that  the  blame  should  rest  on  her,  since 
she  had  been  the  origin  of  the  evil.  In  sparing 
Aaron,  he  had  regard  to  the  priesthood,  inas¬ 
much  as  in  his  person  it  would  have  been  sub¬ 
jected  to  disgrace.  Calv. 

11,  12.  Aaron,  that  but  just  now  joined  with 
his  sister  in  speaking  against  Moses,  here  is 
forced  for  himself  and  his  sister  to  make  a  pen¬ 
itent  address  to  him,  and  in  the  highest  degree 
to  magnify  him  (as  if  he  had  the  power  of  God 
to  forgive  and  heal),  whom  he  had  so  lately 

vilified.  H. - Lay  not  the  sin  upon  us.  Aaron 

speaks  to  Moses  almost  as  if  he  were  pray¬ 
ing  to  God,  so  completely  does  he  recognize 
in  his  brother  the  representative  of  God,  in 
a  far  higher  sense  than  himself.  R.  W, 

13,  14.  O  admirable  meekness  of  Moses  ! 
His  people  rebelled  against  him  ;  God  proffers 
revenge  ;  he  would  rather  die  than  they  should 
perish.  Ilis  sister  rebels  against  him  ;  God 
works  his  revenge  ;  he  will  not  give  God  peace 
till  she  be  recured.  Behold  a  worthy  and  noble 
pattern  for  us  to  follow.  How  far  are  they  from 
this  disposition  who  are  not  only  content  God 
should  revenge,  but  are  ready  to  prevent  God’s 
revenge  with  their  own  !  God’s  love  to  Moses 
suffers  him  not  immediately  to  obtain  his  suit 
for  Miriam.  If  the  judgment  had  been  at  once 
inflick d  and  removed,  there  had  been  no  ex¬ 


ample  of  terror  for  others  ;  God  either  denies 
or  defers  the  grant  of  our  requests  for  our 
good.  It  was  fit  for  all  that  Miriam  should  con¬ 
tinue  some  while  leprous.  There  is  no  policy 
in  a  sudden  removal  of  just  punishment  :  un¬ 
less  the  rain  so  fall  that  it  lie  and  soak  into  the 
earth,  it  profits  nothing.  If  the  judgments  of 
God  should  be  only  as  passengers,  and  not  so¬ 
journers  for  a  little,  they  would  be  no  whit  re¬ 
garded.  Bp.  II. 

J4.  The  act  in  question  was  not  uncommon 
in  itself,  and  in  significance  clearly  marked  (see 
De.  25  ;  9).  It  was  the  distinctive  note  of  pub¬ 
lic  disgrace  inflicted  by  one  wdio  had  a  right  to 
inflict  it.  In  the  case  of  a  father,  it  meant  that 
he  was  thoroughly  ashamed  of  his  child,  and 
judged  it  best  (which  would  be  only  in  extreme 
cases)  to  put  his  child  to  shame  before  all  the 
world.  So  public  a  disgrace  would  certainly  be 
felt  in  patriarchal  times  as  a  most  severe  ca¬ 
lamity,  and  entailed  by  ordinary  custom  (as  we 
learn  here)  retirement  and  mourning  for  seven 
days  at  least.  How  much  more,  when  her  Heav¬ 
enly  Father  had  been  driven  to  inflict  a  public 
disgrace  upon  her  for  perverse  behavior,  should 
the  shame  and  the  sorrow  not  be  lightly  put 
away,  but  patiently  endured  for  a  decent 
period  !  E.  W. 

15.  The  punishment  was  as  humiliating  as 
it  was  public.  Her  tongue,  so  free  upon  her 
brother’s  conduct,  is  mute  enough  now,  except 
to  cry  if  any  approached  her,  ‘  ‘  Unclean  !”  “  un¬ 
clean  !’  ’  She  who  aspired  to  be  Queen  of  Israel 
is  cast  forth  as  an  unclean  thing  from  the  camp. 
When  the  dreadful  punishment  was  finished 
she  came  back  to  the  camp  humbled,  and  no 
doubt  strengthened  in  her  soul  by  the  correc¬ 
tion  she  had  received.  There  is  no  further  rec¬ 
ord  of  her  until  the  record  of  her  death.  S.  E. 

The  Israelites  are  stayed  seven  daj^s  in  the 
station  of  Hazeroth,  for  the  punishment  of 
Miriam.  Og,  Sihon,  and  the  kings  of  Canaan 
resisted  Israel,  but  hindered  not  their  passage  ; 
their  own  sins  only  stay  them  from  remov¬ 
ing.  Afflictions  are  not  crosses  to  us  in  the 
way  to  heaven,  in  comparison  to  our  sins. 
Bp.  H. 

These  things  were  written  for  our  instruction. 
The  lesson  here  has  a  very  close  application  to 
all  who  engage  as  the  Lord’s  instruments  and 
agents  in  the  work  of  building  up  Christ’s  king¬ 
dom.  When  those  so  engaged  forget  the  nature 
of  their  calling,  and. fall  into  contentions  and 
bickerings  about  their  relative  position  as  agents 
for  Jehovah,  the  result  must  in  the  end  be 
shame  and  humiliation  to  the  envious  and  jeal¬ 
ous  and  damage  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  about 


548 


SECTION  169.  FROM  HAZEROTH  TO  KADE8H. 


which  he  will  surely  make  inquisition.  How 
much  of  the  strifes  and  bickering  between 
Christians  of  the  same  church,  and  between  dif¬ 
ferent  churches  of  the  same  body,  and  between 
ditferent  sects  comes  not  from  earnestly  con¬ 
tending  for  the  faith,  but  from  the  narrow  jeal. 


ousies  and  envyings  wholly  personal  with  those 
who  indulge  them  ?  How  often  is  it  simply  the 
Miriams  and  Aarons  giving  way  to  their  petty 
jealousy  under  cover  of  scruples  of  conscience  ! 

S.  R. 


Section  169. 

FROM  HAZEROTH  TO  KADESH  IN  WILDERNESS  OF  PARAN,  TWELVE  SPIES 
TRAVERSE  THE  LAND  OF  CANAAN.  REPORT  OF  TEN,  AND  OF  CALEB  AND 
JOSHUA.  REBELLION  OF  THE  PEOPLE.  UPON  MOSES’  PLEADING  JEHOVAH 
REMITS  JUDGMENT  OF  DESTRUCTION,  BUT  ANNOUNCES  THEIR  DOOM  OF 
FORTY  YEARS’  WANDERING  AND  DEATH  IN  THE  DESERT.  THE  TEN  SPIES 
DESTROYED  BY  PLAGUE.  PRESUMPTUOUS  ATTACK  UPON  THEIR  NEAREST 
ENEMIES  PUNISHED  BY  ISRAELS  DEFEAT. 

Numbees  12  : 16  ;  13  : 1-33  ;  14  : 1-45  ;  33  : 18.  De.  1  : 20-45. 

Na.  12  16  And  afterward  the  people  journeyed  from  Hazeroth,  and  pitched  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness  of  Paran. 

13  1  And  the  Loed  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Send  thou  men,  that  they  may  spy  out  the 

2  land  of  Canaan,  which  I  give  unto  the  children  of  Israel  :  of  every  tribe  of  their  fathers  shall 

3  ye  send  a  man,  every  one  a  prince  among  them.  And  Moses  sent  them  from  the  wilderness 
of  Paran  according  to  the  commandment  of  the  Loed  :  all  of  them  men  who  were  heads  of  the 

21  children  of  Israel.  So  they  went  up,  aud  spied  out  the  land  from  the  wilderness  of  Zin  unto 

22  Rehob,  to  the  entering  in  of  Hamath.  And  they  went  up  by  the  South,  and  came  ‘unto 

23  Hebron.  .  .  .  And  they  came  unto  the  valley  of  Eshcol,  and  cut  down  from  thence  a 
branch  with  one  cluster  of  grapes,  and  they  bare  it  upon  a  staff  between  two  ;  they  brovght  also 

25  of  the  pomegranates,  and  of  the  tigs.  And  they  returned  from  spying  out  the  land  at  the  end 

26  of  forty  days.  And  they  went  and  came  to  Moses,  and  to  Aaron,  and  to  all  the  congregation 
of  the  children  of  Israel,  unto  the  wilderness  of  Paran,  to  Kadesh  ;  and  brought  back  word 

27  unto  them,  and  unto  all  the  congregation,  and  shewed  them  the  fruit  of  the  land.  And  they 
told  him,  and  said.  We  came  unto  the  land  whither  thou  sentest  us,  and  surely  it  floweth  with 

28  milk  and  hone)'  ;  and  this  is  the  fruit  of  it.  Howbeit  the  people  that  dwell  in  the  land  are 
strong,  and  the  cities  are  fenced,  and  very  great  :  and  moreover  we  saw  the  children  of  Anak 

29  there.  Amalek  dwelleth  in  the  land  of  the  South  :  and  the  Hittite,  and  the  Jebusite,  and  the 
Amorite,  dwell  in  the  mountains  ;  and  the  Canaanite  dwelleth  by  the  sea,  and  along  by  the 

30  side  of  Jordan.  And  Caleb  stilled  the  people  before  Moses,  and  said.  Let  us  go  up  at  once, 

31  and  possess  it  ;  for  we  are  well  able  to  overcome  it.  But  the  men  that  went  up  with  him  said, 

32  We  be  not  able  to  go  up  against  the  people  ;  for  they  are  stronger  than  we.  And  they  brought 
up  an  evil  report  of  the  land. 

14  1  And  all  the  congregation  lifted  up  their  voice,  and  cried  ;  and  the  people  wept  that 

2  night.  And  all  the  children  of  Israel  murmured  against  Moses  and  against  Aaron  :  and  the 
whole  congregation  said  unto  them,  Would  God  that  we  had  died  in  the  land  of  Egypt !  or 

3  would  God  we  had  died  in  this  wilderness  !  And  wherefore  doth  the  Loed  bring  us  unto  this 
land,  to  fall  by  the  sword  ?  Our  wives  and  our  little  ones  shall  be  a  prey  :  were  it  not  better 

4  for  us  to  return  into  Egypt  ?  And  thej'  said  one  to  another.  Let  us  make  a  captain,  and  let 

5  us  return  into  Egj’pt.  Then  Moses  and  Aaron  fell  on  their  faces  before  all  the  assembly  of 

6  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel.  And  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun  and  Caleb  the  son  of 

7  Jephunneh,  which  were  of  them  that  spied  out  the  land,  rent  their  clothes  :  and  they  spake 
unto  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel,  saying,  The  land,  which  we  passed  through 

8  to  spy  it  out,  is  an  exceeding  good  land.  If  the  Loed  delight  in  us,  then  he  will  bring  us  into 

9  this  land,  and  give  it  unto  us  ;  a  land  which  floweth  with  milk  and  honey.  Only  rebel  not 
against  the  Loed,  neither  fear  ye  the  people  of  the  land  ;  for  they  are  bread  for  us  :  their 


ISRAEL’S  MURMURING  AND  DOOM. 


549 


10  defence  is  removed  from  over  them,  and  the  Lord  is  with  us  :  fear  them  not.  But  all  the 
congregation  bade  stone  them  with  stones.  And  the  glory  of  the  Lord  appeared  in  the  tent 
of  meeting  unto  all  the  children  of  Israel. 

11  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  How  long  will  this  people  despise  me?  and  how  long  will 

12  they  not  believe  in  me,  for  all  the  signs  which  I  have  wrought  among  them  ?  I  will  smite 
them  with  the  pestilence,  and  disinherit  them,  and  will  make  of  thee  a  nation  greater  and 

13  mightier  than  they.  And  Moses  said  unto  the  Lord,  Then  the  Egyptians  shall  hear  it  ;  for 

14  thou  broughtest  up  this  people  in  thy  might  from  among  them  ;  and  they  will  tell  it  to  the 
inhabitants  of  this  land  :  they  have  heard  that  thou  Lord  art  in  the  midst  of  this  people  ;  for 
thou  Lord  art  seen  face  to  face,  and  thy  cloud  standeth  over  them,  and  thou  goest  before 

15  them,  in  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day,  and  in  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night.  Now  if  thou  shalt  kill  this 
people  as  one  man,  then  the  nations  which  have  heard  the  fame  of  thee  will  speak,  saying, 

16  Because  the  Lord  was  not  {.ble  to  bring  this  people  into  the  land  which  he  sware  unto  them, 

17  therefore  he  hath  slain  them  in  the  wilderness.  And  now,  I  pray  thee,  let  the  power  of  the 

18  Lord  be  great,  according  as  thou  hast  spoken,  saying.  The  Lord  is  slow  to  anger,  aud  plente¬ 
ous  in  mercy,  forgiving  iniquity  and  transgression,  and  that  will  by  no  means  clear  the  guilty  ‘ 
visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  upon  the  third  and  upon  the  fourth 

19  generation.  Pardon,  I  pray  thee,  the  iniquity  of  this  people  according  unto  the  greatness  of 

20  thy  mercy,  and  according  as  thou  hast  forgiven  this  jDeople,  from  Egypt  even  until  now.  And 

21  the  Lord  said,  I  have  pardoned  according  to  thy  word  :  but  in  very  deed,  as  I  live,  and  as  all 

22  the  earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  the  Lord  ;  because  all  those  men  which  have  seen 
my  glory,  and  my  signs,  which  I  wTought  in  Egypt  and  in  the  wdlderness,  yet  have  tempted 

23  me  these  ten  times,  and  have  not  hearkened  to  my  voice  ;  surely  they  shall  not  see  the  land 

24  which  I  sw'are  unto  their  fathers,  neither  shall  any  of  them  that  despised  me  see  it  :  but  my 
servant  Caleb,  because  he  had  another  spirit  with  him,  and  hath  followed  me  fully,  him  will  I 

25  bring  into  the  land  w^hereinto  he  went  ;  and  his  seed  shall  possess  it.  .  .  .  To-morrow 

turn  ye,  and  get  you  into  the  wdlderness  by  the  way  to  the  Red  Sea. 

26  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses  and  unto  Aaron,  saying.  How  long  shall  I  hear  with  this 

27  evil  congregation,  which  murmur  against  me?  I  have  heard  the  murmurings  of  the  children 

28  of  Israel,  which  they  murmur  against  me.  Say  unto  them.  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord,  surely 

29  as  ye  have  spoken  in  mine  ears,  so  will  I  do  to  you  :  your  carcases  shall  fall  in  this  wilderness  ; 
and  all  that  were  numbered  of  you,  according  to  your  whole  number,  from  twenty  years  old 

30  and  upward,  which  have  murmured  against  me,  surely  ye  shall  not  come  into  the  land,  con¬ 
cerning  W’hich  I  lifted  up  my  hand  that  I  would  make  you  dwell  therein,  save  Caleb  the  son  of 

31  Jephunneh,  and  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun.  But  your  little  ones,  which  ye  said  should  be  a  prey, 

32  them  will  I  bring  in,  and  they  shall  know  the  land  which  ye  have  rejected.  But  as  for  you, 

33  your  carcases  shall  fall  in  this  wilderness.  And  your  children  shall  be  wanderers  in  the  wil- 

34  derness  forty  years.  .  .  .  After  the  number  of  the  days  in  which  ye  spied  out  the  land, 

even  forty  days,  for  every  day  a  year,  shall  ye  be*ar  your  iniquities,  even  forty  years,  and  ye 

35  shall  know  my  alienation.  I  the  Lord  have  spoken,  surely  this  will  I  do  unto  all  this  evil 
congregation,  that  are  gathered  together  against  me  :  in  this  wilderness  they  shall  be  con- 

36  sumed,  and  there  they  shall  die.  And  the  men,  w'hich  Moses  sent  to  spy  out  the  land,  who 
returned,  and  made  all  the  congregation  to  murmur  against  him,  by  bringing  up  an  evil  report 

37  against  the  land,  even  those  men  that  did  bring  up  an  evil  report  of  the  land,  died  by  the 

38  plague  before  the  Lord.  But  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun,  and  Caleb  the  son  of  Jepbnnneh,  re- 

39  mained  alive  of  those  men  that  went  to  spy  out  the  land.  And  Moses  told  these  words  unto 

40  all  the  children  of  Israel  :  and  the  people  mourned  greatly.  And  they  rose  up  early  in  the 
morning,  and  gat  them  up  to  the  top  of  the  mountain,  saying,  Lo,  we  be  here,  and  will  go  up 

41  unto  the  place  which  the  Lord  hath  promised  :  for  we  have  sinned.  And  Moses  said,  Where- 

42  fore  now  do  ye  transgress  the  commandment  of  the  Lord,  seeing  it  shall  not  prosper  ?  Go  not 

43  up,  for  the  Lord  is  not  among  you  ;  that  ye  be  not  smitten  down  before  your  enemies.  For 
there  the  Amalekite  and  the  Canaanite  are  before  you,  and  ye  shall  fall  by  the  sword  :  because 

44  ye  are  turned  back  from  following  the  Lord,  therefore  the  Lord  will  not  be  with  jmu.  But 
they  presumed  to  go  up  to  the  top  of  the  mountain  :  nevertheless  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of 

45  the  Lord,  and  Moses,  departed  not  out  of  the  camp.  Then  the  Amalekite  came  down,  and 
the  Canaanite  w^hich  dwelt  in  that  mountain,  and  smote  them  and  beat  them  down,  even  unto 
Hormah. 


550 


SECTION  169.  JOURNEY  AND  REPORT  OF  TEE  SPIES. 


Be.  \  44  A.ncl  the  Amorites,  which  dwelt  in  that  mountain,  came  out  against  you,  and 
45  chased  j'ou,  as  bees  do,  and  beat  you  down  in  Seir,  even  unto  Horraah.  And  ye  returned  and 
wei)t  before  the  Loed  ;  hut  the  Loed  hearkened  not  to  your  voice,  nor  gave  ear  unto  you. 


I>e.  1  :  •i©-45.  A  condensed  statement,  the 
fuller  account  being  in  Nu.  13  and  14,  of  the 
occurrences  which  led  to  the  banishment  of  the 
people  for  foity  years  into  the  wilderness.  The 
facts  are  treated  with  freedom,  as  by  one  fa¬ 
miliar  with  them,  addressing  those  no  less  so, 
yet  in  consistency  with  the  more  strictly  liistori 
cal  record  of  Numbers.  There  is  no  real  dis 
crepancy  between  these  joassages.  The  plan  of 
sending  the  spies  originated  with  the  people  ; 
and,  as  in  itself  a  reasonable  one,  it  approved 
itself  to  Moses  ;  was  submitted  to  God,  and 
sanctioned  by  him  ;  and  carried  out  under 
special  Divine  direction.  Espin. - The  mis¬ 

sion  of  the  spies  is  ascribed  in  Numbers  to  the 
express  command  of  God,  but  in  Deuteronomy 
to  the  wish  of  the  people.  But  the  two  things 
perfectly  agree.  If  Moses  consulted  God  upon 
the  request  of  the  people,  the  answer  would  be 
a  Divine  command.  So  also  in  Numbers  Moses 
is  said  to  exhoit  the  people  to  go  up,  only  after 
the  return  of  the  spies,  while  in  Deuteronomy 
it  is  before.  But  there  is  nothing  in  Numbers 
to  exclude  the  earlier  exhortation,  and  it  is  im¬ 
plied  by  the  whole  course  of  the  previous  his¬ 
tory.  Birkfi. 

13  : 21-23.  Up  by  the  South.  The 

negeb,  or  south-country,  was  a  well-defined 
tract  of  territory  forming  the  southernmost  and 
least  fertile  portion  of  the  land  of  Canaan  and 
of  the  subsequent  inheritance  of  Judah,  It  ex 
tended  northward  from  .Kadesh  to  within  a  few 
miles  of  Hebron,  and  from  the  Dead  Sea  w^est- 
ward  to  the  Mediterranean.  The  hill-country 
of  southern  and  central  Canaan  commences  a 
few  miles  south  of  Hebron,  and  extending  north¬ 
ward  to  the  2^1ain  of  Jezreel,  runs  out  eventually 
northwestw-ard  into  the  sea  in  the  headland  of 

Carmel.  Espin. - The  northern  barrier  of  the 

Desert  of  Paran  or  Tih,  which  forms  the  terrace 
of  the  “  Negeb”  or  south  country  of  Judah,  is 
well  described  by  Williams  as  “  a  gigantic  nat¬ 
ural  rampait  of  lofty  mountains,  which  we  could 
trace  for  many  miles  east  and  west  of  the  spot 
on  which  we  stood,  whose  precipitous  promon¬ 
tories  of  naked  rock,  forming,  as  it  were,  bas¬ 
tions  of  Cyclopean  architecture,  jutted  forth  in 
irregular  masses  from  the  mountain  barrier  into 
the  southern  wilderness,  a  confused  chaos  of 
chalk.”  We  can  well  understand  how,  with 
this  barrier  in  front  of  them,  the  children  of 
Israel  alw'ays  spoke  of  “  going  up”  into  Canaan. 
H.  B.  T. 

Eluding  the  Canaanites,  they  entered  Pales¬ 


tine,  and  searched  the  land  to  its  northernmost 
boundary,  “  unto  liehob,  as  men  come  to  Ha¬ 
math”—  that  is,  as  far  as  the  plain  of  Coele-Syria, 
On  their  way  back  they  descended  by  Hebron, 
and  explored  the  route  which  led  into  the  Negeb 
by  the  western  edge  of  the  mountains.  A.  E. 

- Hebron,  being  the  most  southerly  place 

where  grapes  are  now  found,  Eshcol  has  been 
generally  identified  with  it.  But  Palmer  and 
Drake  discovered  [on  the  route  into  the  Negeb] 
miles  upon  miles  of  the  small  stone-heaps  on 
which  in  former  times  the  vines  were  trained. 
The  spies,  therefore,  would  be  under  no  neces¬ 
sity  of  going  so  far  as  Hebron.  In  any  case, 
these  travellers  would  put  Eshcol  some  way 
south  of  Hebron,  Work  in  Palestine. 

25.  God  had  told  them  that  Canaan  was  a 
land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  and  they  had 
therefore  no  need  to  distrust  its  advantages. 
God  had  promised  to  give  the  land  to  them, 
and  it  was  needless  for  them  to  ascertain  the 
strength  of  the  inhabitants— as  if  their  strength 
could  render  the  jierformance  of  the  promise 
difficult,  or  their  weakness  make  it  easy  to  him. 
It  is  profoundly  remarked  by  Bishop  Hall  on 
this  very  case,  ‘  ‘  That  which  the  Lord  moves 
unto  prospers  ;  but  that  which  we  move  him 
unto  first,  seldom  succeedeth.” 

Forty  days  did  they  spend  in  the  search,  and 
forty  years — a  year  for  a  day— of  toilsome  wan¬ 
derings  did  that  search  cost  them,  connected  as 
it  was  from  beginning  to  end  with  distrust  and 
unbelief.  KH. 

30.  And  Caleb  stilled  the  people  before  Moses. 
His  words  show,  what  appears  plainly  in  the 
verses  following,  that  the  ten  spies  sought  to 
dissuade  the  people  from  advancing  by  assert¬ 
ing  that  it  was  impossible  to  overcome  these 
powerful  enemies.  But  Caleb,  relying  on  God’s 
promise,  believed  that  they  would  be  success¬ 
ful,  and  thus  boldly  foretold  it.  Calv. - We 

have  a  short  account  of  their  sin,  with  which 
they  infected  the  whole  congregation  (Ps. 
106  :  24).  The}’’  despised  the  land,  they  believed  not 
his  word.  Though,  upon  search,  they  had  found 
it  as  good  as  he  had  said,  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey  ;  yet  they  would  not  believe  it  as  sure 
as  he  had  said,  but  despaired  of  having  it, 
though  Eternal  Truth  itself  had  engaged  it  to 
them.  H. 

14  :  2-4.  They  accuse  God  of  deception  and 
cruelty,  as  if  he  were  betraying  them  to  the 
Canaanitish  nations,  and  leading  them  forth  to 
slaughter.  They  also  accuse  God  of  ,  weakness, 


SUCCESSFUL  PLEADING  OF  HOSES. 


551 


as  if  he  were  less  powerful  than  the  nations  of 
Canaan.  At  length  their  blind  senselessness 
comes  to  its  climax  when  they  consult  as  to 
their  return,  and,  rejecting  Moses,  set  them¬ 
selves  about  choosing  a  leader  who  may  again 

deliver  them  up  to  Pharaoh.  Galv. - What 

had  they  to  complain  of  ?  They  had  plenty,  and 
peace,  and  rest,  were  under  a  good  government, 
had  good  company,  had  the  tokens  of  God’s 
presence  with  them,  and  enough  to  make  them 
easy  even  in  the  wilderness,  if  they  had  but 
hearts  to  be  content.  But  whither  were  they 
thus  •eager  to  go  to  mend  themselves?  To 
Egypt !  Had  they  so  soon  forgotten  the  sore 

bondage  they  were  in  there  ?  H. - How  could 

they  get  thither  without  food  ?  which  they 
could  not  expect  God  would  send  them  from 
heaven  when  they  had  forsaken  him.  Or  how 
could  they  hope  to  find  their  way  when  his 
cloud  that  directed  them  was  withdrawn  ?  Or 
hope  to  resist  such  nations  as  might  oppose 
their  progress  ?  And  if  they  came  into  Egypt, 
what  reception  could  they  exj^ect  from  a  people 
whose  king,  princes,  and  first-born  had  lately 
perished  on  their  account  ?  Patrick. 

5-10.  Already  Caleb  had  endeavored  to  still 
th’e  people  before  Moses  ;  already  Moses  him¬ 
self  (De.  1  :  29)  had  endeavored  to  recall  the 
people  to  obedience.  After  the  failure  of  these 
efforts  Moses  and  Aaron  cast  themselves  down 
in  solemn  prayer  before  God  ;  and  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  the  glory  of  the  Loed  in  the  tabernacle 
of  the  congregation  was  the  immediate  answer. 
Espin. 

In  the  case  of  Caleb  and  Joshua,  in  conti'ast 
with  their  ten  associate  scouts,  we  have  the  il 
lustration  of  how  true  heroism  can  be  displayed 
only  by  souls  staid  on  God.  While  the  others 
portray  the  difficulties,  these  look  simply  to  the 
fact  “  Jehovah  will  go  with  us.”  The  theology 
which  n)akes  God  everything  and  man  nothing 
is  the  theology  which  fnakesmost  of  men  in  the 
way  of  true  energy  and  courage.  All  the  world’s 
great  histories,  ancient  and  modern,  are  full  of 
this  theology.  All  the  world’s  great  tragedies 
are  full  of  the  theology  of  Caleb  and  Joshua. 

Proffer  of  Jehovah^  and  Answer  of  Moses  {verses 

11-20). 

This  is  the  second  time  that  Jehovah,  in  his* 
holy  anger,  had  proposed  to  deal  thus  with 
Moses  and  make  him  the  head  of  a  righteous 
seed  to  receive  the  inheritance  which  Israel  has 
so  justly  forfeited.  How  would  any  one  else 
have  acted  in  his  place?  As  the  offer  comes 
from  Jehovah,  can  the  Judge  of  all  the  earth  do 
wrong  ?  And  if  the  forbearance  of  Jehovah  is 


exhausted,  may  not  the  patience  of  Moses  well 
be  ?  Here  is  an  offer  that  will  release  him  from 
the  thankless  burden  of  a  cowardly,  degraded 
people  which  has  again  and  again  almost 
crushed  him.  Shall  he  not  accept  it,  and  not 
only  free  himself  from  trouble,  but  rise  to  the 
greatness  in  history  of  being  the  outflowing 
stock  of  the  visible  kingdom  of  God  ?  No,  Moses 
has  in  himself  an  intrinsic  greatness  of  soul  be¬ 
yond  all  that,  though  it  may  make  his  name  less 
celebrated.  He  will  not  dissociate  himself  from 
his  people.  He  will  rather  be  the  type  of  the 
great  Intercessor  who  is  to  come.  The  single¬ 
ness  of  heart  with  which,  as  a  saint,  he  loves 
God  shall  not  impair  the  passionate  love  that 
bound  him  to  his  people.  Yea,  and  above  the 
love  of  his  people  rises  his  passionate  earnest¬ 
ness  for  the  honor  of  Jehovah.  Lying  there 
prostrate  on  the  ground  before  the  brightness 
at  the  tabernacle— hear — as  you  may  almost  hear 
in  the  Hebrew — his  sobs  in  broken  sentences, 
as  he  argues  the  case  with  Jehovah  and  pleads 
for  his  people.  “  And  Egypt  will  hear  that 
thou  hast  brought  thy  people  in  thj^  might  out 
of  the  midst  of  her  ;  and  they  will  say  to  the 
inhabitants  of  this  land,  the}’  have  heard  how 
thou,  Jehovah,  wert  in  the  midst  of  thy  people, 
seen  of  them  face  to  face,  and  thy  cloud  stand¬ 
ing  over  them  ;  even  thou,  Jehovah,  going  in 
front  of  them  in  a  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  in 
a  pillar  of  fire  by  night.  And  thou  wilt  make 
thy  people  die  as  one  man.  And  they  will  say, 
the  nations  that  have  heard  tell  of  thee  ;  Through 
being  not  able  to  lead  his  people  into  the  land  that 
he  had  sworn  to  them,  he  hath  slain  them  in 
the  wilderness.  And  now,  I  beseech  thee,  the 
might  of  Jehovah  shall  be  magnified,  even  as 
thou  hast  spoken,  saying  Jehovah,  long-suffer¬ 
ing  and  of  great  mercy,  bearing  iniquity  and 
transgression  and  not  cleansing,  but  visiting  the 
iniquity  of  fathers  upon  children  to  the  third 
and  fourth  generation  ;  forgive,  I  pray  thee,  the 
iniquity  of  this  people  according  to  thy  great 
mercy,  and  as  thou  hast  been  gracious  to  them 
from  Egypt  up  to  this  present  time.”  Do  not 
these  passionate  pleadings  raise  Moses  nearer 
than  any  born  of  woman  to  the  type  of  the  great 
Intercessor  ?  And  yet  now  with  the  great  In¬ 
tercessor  on  his  side  the  least  in  the  kingdom 
of  heaven,  who  is  truly  in  Christ — one  with 
Christ,  is  greater  in  power  than  Moses  at  the 
throne.  And  Jehovah  is  moved  by  the  passion¬ 
ate  plea,  and  declares,  “  I  have  forgiven  them 
according  to  thy  word.”  S.  R. 

God’s  proposal,  twice  made  to  Moses,  to  cut 
off  all  Israel  and  make  of  him  a  great  nation, 
in  neither  case  does  he  ever  even  allude  to. 


552 


SECTION  169.  WANEEBINO  AND  DEATH  IN  THE  DESERT. 


But  as  the  Lord  seemed  to  overlook  the  glory 
of  his  own  name  before  the  nations,  Moses  took 
the  responsibility  (boldly,  shall  we  say?)  of  re¬ 
minding  him  as  to  this  point.  Apparently  his 
soiil  was  so  much  absorbed  in  this  line  of  con¬ 
siderations —the  glor}’’  of  God  as  before  the  na¬ 
tions  of  the  earth — that  he  could  not  let  it  drop 
from  his  range  of  view.  Hence  Moses  was 
mighty  (almost  omnipotent  we  may  say)  in 
prayer.  It  would  seem  to  have  been  the  Lord's 
special  purpose  to  bring  out  this  prime  quality 
of  his  religious  character  and  set  it  in  sunlight 
before  all  future  ages —an  illustration  of  the  fact 
that  the  (jredt  men  of  all  time  are  ‘Divjlitij  w'th  God 
in  prayer.  They  know  the  secret  of  communion 
with  God.  They  have  easy,  unrestricted  access 
to  his  throne.  H.  C. 

Of  Moses  it  was  to  be  said  in  miniature  what 
of  his  antitype  can  be  said  in  full — that  his 
gentleness  made  him  great.  Not  when  he  parted 
the  waters  of  the  Bed  Sea,  Eot  when  he  sang  his 
hymn  of  triumph  on  the  shores  of  liberty,  is  he 
half  so  great  as  when  he  bore  the  sorrows  and 
endured  the  murmurings  of  that  nrde  undis¬ 
ciplined  multitude.  If  ever  a  man  has  inherited 
the  earth  by  meekness,  that  man  was  Moses. 
His  was  a  grand  unselfish  life  made  to  wait  upon 
the  lives  of  others.  He  never  reached  the  prom¬ 
ised  land  ;  he  received  not  the  treasures  of 
Canaan  any  more  than  the  treasures  of  Egypt  ; 
he  bore  the  toil,  and  Joshua  entered  in.  He 
had  to  bear  on  his  heart  the  interests  of  that 
motley  multitude  wdth  no  other  encouragement 
than  faith.  Geo.  Ma'heson. 

The  effectual  intercession  of  Moses  was  based  on 
two  arguments  :  that  God  would  not  destroy  his  own 
work  begun  ;  that  God  would  not  belie  his  own  char¬ 
acter  revealed.  Even  so  is  all-prevailing  Christian 
prayer  based  upon  the  same  foundations  :  we 
plead  with  God  his  own  work  begun  in  us  or 
others  ;  we  plead  with  him  his  eternal  love  and 
mercy  declared  in  Christ,  and  extended  to  sin¬ 
ners  in  days  past.  B  W. 

iil,  Once  more,  as  before  Sinai,  the  in¬ 
tercession  of  Moses  prevailed  ;  but  in  pardon¬ 
ing  the  nation,  Jehovah  swore  by  himself  that 
“  the  whole  earth  should  be  filled  with  his 
glory,  ”  in  the  example  he  would  make  of  the 
men  who  had  rebelled  against  him,  not  one  of 
whom,  save  Caleb,  should  see  the  promised 
land.  The  execution  of  the  sentence  was  to 
begin  on  the  morrow,  by  their  turning  into  the 
wilderness  by  the  way  of  the  Bed  Sea.  There 
they  were  to  wander  for  forty  years — a  year  for 
each  day  that  the  spies  had  searched  the  land  — 
till  all  the  men  of  twenty  years  ol  1  and  upward 
had  left  their  carcases  in  the  desert.  P.  S. - 


It  was  at  Kadesh  that  the  measure  of  their  in¬ 
iquity  was  filled  up.  At  Sinai  they  had  rejected 
Jehovah,  who  led  them  out  of  Egypt,  and  had 
desired  a  god  such  as  they  formerly  possessed 
in  Egypt  ;  at  Kadesh  they  rejected  the  land  of 
Jehovah — the  land  of  promise,  and  wdshed  to 
return  to  Egypt.  K. 

24.  “My  servant  Caleb.”  Caleb  had  uu 
spirit,  not  only  a  bold,  generous  courageous, 
noble,  and  heroic  spirit  ;  but  the  Spirit  and  in¬ 
fluence  of  the  God  of  heaven  thus  raised  him 
above  earthly  fears  ;  therefore  he  foliowal  (lod 

fully.  A.  C. - This  other  spirit  was  the  spirit 

of  faith,  which  the  Law  cannot  give,  the  spirit 
of  adoption,  not  of  bondage.  By  the  guidance 
of  this  spirit,  Caleb  constantly  followed  the 
Lord  and  obtained  the  promised  inheritance. 
Ahxs  worth. 

26-35.  The  decree  was  gone  forth,  the  con¬ 
sumption  was  determined,  they  did  not  seek  the 
Lord  while  he  might  be  found,  and  now  he 

would  not  be  found.  H. - One  significant 

addition  in  Heutei’onomy  (1  ;  38)  :  Ye  returned 
and  Wfpt  before  the  Lord  j  but  the  Lord  would  not 
give  ear  to  you.  Their  tears  were  like  those  of 
Esau,  on  the  borders  of  whose  lands  they  were 
encamped,  and  could  not  reverse  the  settled 
judgment  of  God.  They  too,  like  him,  had  de¬ 
spised  their  birthright,  and  “  thought  scorn  of 
that  pleasant  land.  ”  Birks. 

36,  3’J',  The  sudden  death  of  the  ten  evil 
spies.  AYhile  the  sentence  was  passing  upon 
the  people,  before  it  was  published,  they  died 
of  the  plague  before  the  Lord.  God  hereby  showed 
his  particular  displeasure  against  them  who  sin¬ 
ned,  and  made  Israel  to  sin.  They  sinned  them¬ 
selves  in  bringing  up  a  slander  upon  the  land  of 
promise.  Those  greatly  provoke  God  who  mis¬ 
represent  religion,  cast  reproach  upon  it,  and 
raise  prejudices  in  men’s  minds  against  it,  or 
give  occasion  to  those  to  'do  so  who  seek  occa¬ 
sion.  H. 

40-45.  Against  Jehovah’s  sentence  they  re¬ 
belled  ;  and,  having  been  afraid  when  they 
should  have  been  bold,  they  were  now  bold 
when  they  should  have  been  afraid.  Disregard 
ing  the  command  of  Moses,  they  attacked  the 
Amalekites,  and  suffered  a  severe  defeat,  learn¬ 
ing  to  their  cost,  and  showing  to  us,  that  the 
bravery  of  presumption  is  just  as  fatal  as  the 

cowardice  of  unbelief.  D.  F. - Moses  said. 

“  Go  not  up,  for  Jehovah  is  not  among  you.” 
The  pillar  of  cloud  did  not  move,  and  Moses 
remained  in  the  camp.  But  they  went  up,  not¬ 
withstanding  ;  and  the  Amalekites  and  Amorites 
came  down  from  the  mountains,  and  drove  them 
I  back  to  Ilormah.  K. 


SECTION  170. 


5o3 


Hormah  seems,  with  reason,  identified  with 
the  ruins  of  Sebaita,  twenty-four  miles  north  of 
Kadesh  It  is  on  the  very  northern  extremity 

of  the  wilderness  of  Paran.  H.  B.  T. - In 

the  immediate  neighborhood  of  Kadesh  are  the 
mountains  of  the  Amorites,  still  called  by  their 
scriptural  name  in  its  Arabic  form,  'Amirin. 
An  ancient  fort  guards  a  mountain-pass  in  these 
hills,  by  which  we  reach  a  fertile  plain  having 
the  ruins  of  a  fine  town  in  its  midst  The  city 
is  named  Sehaitah  (the  Hebrew  Zephath,  or 
“  watch-tower”)  ;  and  the  fort  is  called  by  an 
Arabic  word  meaning  also  watch-tower.  Com¬ 
paring  Nu.  14  : 43,  45,  and  Judges  1:17  we  find 
that  Zephath  and  Hormah  are  the  same,  or  rather 
that  Hormah  was  called  the  city  of  the  Zephath 
or  watch-tower,  because  of  the  tower  or  fort 
which  guarded  the  approach  to  it.  E.  H.  Palmer. 


Thus  issued  this  sad  case  of  strange,  cruel  un¬ 
belief.  The  conquest  of  Canaan  was  postponed 
almost  forty  years  ;  the  generation  of  twenty 


years  and  over  when  they  came  out  from  Egypt 
were  doomed  to  fruitless  wandering  and  an  early 
death  in  the  wilderness  ;  and  that  nation  aud 
the  world  had  one  more  lesson  on  the  wisdom  of 
believing  God,  and  on  the  infinite  folly  as  wtll 
as  guilt  of  refusing  to  believe  and  trust  the 
Lord.  Moses  (in  De.  1  :  19-46)  gives  a  some¬ 
what  full  recapitulation  of  these  scenes.  In  Ps. 
90  he  puts  in  the  form  of  sacred  song  his  medi¬ 
tation  and  prayer  on  this  sad  yet  most  instruc¬ 
tive  event.  H.  C. 

One  of  many  internal  proofs  of  the  truthful¬ 
ness  of  the  record  is  that  Moses  does  not  conceal 
from  us  the  difficulties  and  even  the  disasters 
which  they  met  with.  Had  the  Pentateuch 
been  written  in  long  subsequent  times,  when 
the  sojourn  in  the  wilderness  was  surrounded 
by  a  halo  of  romance,  while  its  physical  diffi¬ 
culties  were  probably  magnified  (Jer.  2  ;  2,  6), 
the  conduct  of  the  Israelites  would  have  been 
put  in  a  better  light,  and  certainly  they  would 
not  have  been  represented  as  poor  soldiers,  not 
to  say  cowards.  R.  P.  S. 


Section  170. 

WILDERNESS  OE  PARAN.  ROUTE  OF  ISRAEL  FROM  SINAI  TO  KADESH.  LOCAL¬ 
ITY  OF  KADESH-BARNEA.  THIRTY-SEVEN  YEARS’  BAN  :  STATIONS  ;  LIFE  AND 
MAINTENANCE  OF  THE  PEOPLE. 

Deuteronomy  1  : 2,  19,  46.  Nu.  33  : 1,  2,  19-36. 

De.  1  2.  It  is  eleven  days’  journey  from  Horeb  by  the  way  of  mount  Seir  unto  Kadesh - 
barnea. 

19  And  we  journe3’’ed  from  Horeb,  and  went  through  all  that  great  and  terrible  wilderness 
which  ye  saw,  by  the  waj"  to  the  hill  country  of  the  Amorites,  as  the  Loed  our  God  com¬ 
manded  us  ;  and  we  came  to  Kadesh-barnea. 

46  So  ye  abode  in  Kadesh  many  days,  according  unto  the  days  that  ye  abode  there. 

Nu.  33  1  These  are  the  journeys  [or  stages]  of  the  children  of  Israel,  when  they  went  forth 
2  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  by  their  hosts  under  the  hand  of  Moses  and  Aaron.  And  Moses  wrote 
their  goings  out  according  to  their  journeys  by  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  ;  and  these  are 

19  their  journeys  according  to  their  goings  out.  And  they  journeyed  from  Rithmah,  and  pitched 

20  in  Rimmon-perez.  And  they  journeyed  from  Rimmon-perez,  and  pitched  in  Libnah.  And 
21,  22  they  journeyed  from  Libnah,  and  pitched  in  Rissah.  And  they  journeyed  from  Rissah,  and 

23  pitched  in  Kehelathah.  And  they  journeyed  from  Kehelathah,  and  pitched  in  mount 

24  Shepher.  Aud  thej’’  journeyed  from  mount  Shepher,  and  pitched  in  Haradah.  And  they 
25,  26  journeyed  from  Haradah,  and  pitched  inMakheloth.  And  they  journeyed  from  Makheloth, 
27  and  pitched  in  Tahath.  And  they  journeyed  from  Tahath,  and  pitched  in  Terah.  And  they 
28,  29  journeyed  from  Terah,  and  pitched  in  Mithkah.  And  they  journeyed  from  Mithkah,  and 
30  pitched  in  Hashmonah.  And  they  journeyed  from  Hashmonah,  and  jiitched  in  Moseroth. 
31,  32  And  thej’’  journeyed  from  Moseroth,  and  pitched  in  Bene-jaakan.  And  thej^  journeyed  from 

33  Bene-jaakan,  and  pitched  in  Hor-haggidgad.  And  they  journeyed  from  Hor-haggidgad,  and 

34  pitched  in  Jotbathah.  And  they  journeyed  from  Jotbathah,  and  pitched  in  Abronah.  And 

35  they  journeyed  from  Abronah,  and  pitched  in  Ezion-geber.  And  they  journe3'ed  from  Ezion- 

36  geber,  and  pitched  in  the  wilderness  of  Zin  (the  same  is  Kadesh). 

The  previous  section  narrates  the  events  which  in  the  Wildernesfi  (f  Paran,  and  announces  the 
took  place  after  reaching  Kadesh  (or  Rithmah)  Doom  of  Israel  to  an  aimless  wandering  of 


554 


SECTION  170.  WILDE imESS  OF  PAEAN. 


nearly  forty  years  and  the  death  of  the  existing  j 
ailuU  generation,  excepting  Caleb  and  Joshua. 
7'his  section  is  designed  to  cover  the  general 
points  of  interest  connected  with  the  long 
period  of  thirty-seven  to  thirty-eight  years, 
which  histoi  ically  is  almost  a  chasm.  The  single 
occurrence  certainly  transpiring  during  this 
period  is  narrated  in  the  following  section.  The 
order  proposed,  in  presenting  these  general 
pv'ints,  is  :  (1)  A  geographical  survey  of  the 
Wilderness  of  Paran,  in  which  our  map  facing 
the  title-page  will  be  explained  ;  (2)  the  loca¬ 
tion  of  Kadesh,  second  in  importance  only  to 
Sinai  in  this  history  ;  (3)  the  stations  named 
and  the  probable  life  of  the  people  during  the 
thirty-seven  and  a  half  years  of  wandering.  B. 

In  following  the  route  of  the  Israelites,  the 
general  direction  is  northward  from  Sinai  “  to 
the  mount  of  the  Amorites,”  the  highlands  of 
Southern  Palestine.  The  two  extremes  are  the 
camp  before  Sinai  on  the  south,  and  the  “  city’’ 
of  Kadesh,  or  Kadesh-barnea,  on  the  north. 
The  distance  between  these  points  was  eleven 
days’  journey,  about  one  hundred  and  sixty-five 
miles.  Their  final  entrance  into  Palestine  was 
made  from  the  east,  by  way  of  the  plains  of 
Moab  ;  but  their  first  entrance  was  to  have  been 
from  the  south,  by  way  of  Hebron.  This  is 
clear  from  the  command  to  march  to  the  moun¬ 
tain  of  the  Amorites  :  from  the  description  of 
the  circuit  made  by  the  spies,  and  especially 
from  their  visiting  Hebron  and  Eshcol.  What¬ 
ever,  therefore,  the  route  to  Kadesh  may  have 
been,  that  station  was  a  final  starting-point  for 
Hebron  ;  and  thus  we  have  some  guide  for  the 
latter  part  of  the  journey.  Between  ‘  ‘  the  mount 
of  the  Amorites”  and  the  group  of  Sinai  lies  the 
great  table-land  now  called  the  desert  of  et-Tih 
(the  wandering).  There  can  be  no  doubt  of  its 
general  correspondence  to  the  Wilderness  of 
Paran.  The  general  limits  of  this  wilderness 
are  clearly  marked  out  by  the  mountain  ranges 
which  divide  it,  on  the  southwest  from  the 
Desert  of  Shur,  on  the  south  from  that  of  Sinai, 
and  on  the  east  from  the  Arabah.  P.  S. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  SURVEY. 

The  borders  of  the  Biblical  Desert  of  Paran  cor¬ 
respond,  on  the  whole,  to  the  boundaries  as¬ 
signed  by  the  modern  Bedouins  to  the  Desert  of 
et-Tih.  It  embraces  the  tract  of  desert  betw'een 
Egypt,  Palestine,  and  the  mountains  of  Seir, 
which  is  separated  from  the  Sinaitic  peninsula 
(in  the  strictest  sense)  by  the  border  mountains 
of  et-Tih.  This  broad,  desert  tract  of  table-land 
is  completely  surrounded  by  a  fringe  of  desert 


on  a  lower  Uvel.  The  Desert  of  Jifar  (or  Shur) 
divides  it  on  the  west  from  the  Egyptian  terri¬ 
tory,  on  the  southwest  beyond  the  mountains  of 
er-Bahah,  from  the  Heroopolitan  gulf,  and  on 
the  noithwest  from  the  Mediterranean.  On  the 
north  it  is  separated  from  the  mountains  of  the 
Amorites,  the  southern  slope  of  the  table-land 
of  Palestine,  by  the  broad  valley  of  Murreh,  or 
the  Wilderness  of  Zin.  On  the  east  it  falls  ab¬ 
ruptly  into  the  Arabah,  which  divides  it  from 
the  mountains  of  the  Edomites  ;  and  on  the 
south,  on  the  other  side  of  the  mountains  of  et- 
Tih,  stretches  the  sandy  desert-plain  of  er- 
Ramleh,  out  of  which  the  promontories  of  the 
mountains  of  Serbaland  Sinai  immediately  rise. 
The  Old  Testament  furnishes  indisputable 
proofs  that  the  Desert  of  Paran  w'as  quite  as  ex¬ 
tensive  as  this.  This  large  tract  of  desert  slopes 
generally  downward  in  the  direction  from  south 
to  north,  and  rises  from  west  to  east,  until  it 
falls  abruptly  into  the  Arabah,  In  De.  1  : 19  it 
is  most  appropriately  designated  a  ”  great  and 
terrible  desert.  ”  In  general,  it  consists  of  table¬ 
land,  on  which  bare  limestone  and  sandstone 
rocks,  dazzling  chalk  and  red  sand-hills,  are  al¬ 
most  the  sole  relief  from  the  parched  and  bar- 
rent  tracts  of  sand,  interspersed  with  gravel  and 
black  flint  stones.  At  the  same  time,  so  much 
water  falls  in  the  wadies  during  the  rainy  season, 
that  a  scanty  supply  of  grass  and  herbs  may  be 
found  for  the  support  of  passing  herds.  There 
are  also  a  few  wells  and  fountains  with  a  con¬ 
stant  supply  of  water.  The  desert  is  divided 
into  two  halves,  an  eastern  and  a  western,  by 
the  Wady  el-Arish  (called  in  the  Old  Testament 
(Nu.  34  : 4,  5)  “  brook  of  Egypt”),  which  runs 
completely  from  north  to  south.  Although  there 
are  several  by  no  means  inconsiderable  moun¬ 
tains  in  the  western  half,  it  is  distinguished 
from  the  eastern  by  a  far  greater  regularity  and 
flatness  in  the  soil.  [But'it  is  to  the  easUrn  half 
that  our  attention  is  to  be  especially  directed, 
as  to  that  section,  and  chiefly  its  northern  part, 
the  sojourn  of  the  Israelites  was  exclusively  con¬ 
fined.]  In  the  eastern  half  a  large  mountain 
range,  the  Jebel  Ojrneh,  branches  off  northeast¬ 
erly  from  the  Jebel  et-Tih,  near  to  the  mouths 
of  the  Wady  el-Arish.  The  southern  portion  of 
this  eastern  half  (about  two  thirds  of  the  whole) 
has  throughout  a  similar  character  to  the  west¬ 
ern.  It  consists  of  barren,  sandy  table-land,  the 
surface  of  which  is  broken  by  but  a  very  small 
number  of  isolated  mountains.  Its  slope  tow¬ 
ard  the  northeast  is  indicated  by  the  large 
Wady  Jerafeh,  which  runs  in  a  northeasterly 
direction  to  the  Arabah  But  the  northern  third 
of  this  eastern  half  has  a  totally  different  charac- 


NORTH-EASTERN  PORTION  AND  CONNECTIONS. 


555 


ter.  There  suddenly  rises  from  the  plain  a 
strong  mountain  fastness,  of  a  rhomboid  shape 
and  of  the  same  breadth  as  the  Wady  Jerafeh, 
at  the  point  where  it  joins  the  Arabah  ;  and 
this  mountain  covers  the  northern  portion  of 
the  eastern  half  of  the  deseit.  At  the  present 
day  it  is  called,  after  its  inhabitants,  the  moun- 
iain  country  of  the  Azazimeh.  This  mountain 
country  rises  precipitously  from  the  surround¬ 
ing  valleys  or  plains  on  the  south,  the  east,  and 
the  north  ;  and  it  is  only  on  the  western  side 
that  it  slopes  off  more  gradually  toward  the 
Wady  el-Arish,  As  it  is  completely  detached  on 
every  side,  and  forms  a  compact  mass  with  its 
gigantic  mountain  groups,  it  presents  the  most 
striking  contrast  to  the  desert  by  which  it  is 
surrounded,  and  w'ould  be  altogether  isolated, 
“  were  it  not  that,  toward  the  northwest,  in¬ 
stead  of  terminating  abruptly  in  a  coiner  col¬ 
umn,  a  line  of  mountains  intervenes,  and  thus 
prevents  entire  separation  from  the  Amorite 
mountains.”  The  southern  hmindary  wall  of  this 
mountain  fortress  is  formed  bj'’  a  range  which 
rises  steeply  and  in  an  imposing  manner  from 
the  desert,  and  runs  in  a  straight  line  from  west 
to  east,  and  which  towers  up  to  an  immense 
height  at  both  the  eastern  and  western  ends. 
The  corner  column  toward  the  east,  quite  close 
to  the  Arabah,  is  called  Jehel  Mekrah,  and  that 
toward  the  west  Jehel  Araif  en- Nakak.  The  east¬ 
ern  wall  rises  with  equal  abruptness  from  the 
Arabah,  but  is  intersected  by  several  defiles, 
which  furnish  approaches  of  more  or  less  diffi¬ 
culty  into  our  mountain  fortress.  The  northern 
boundary  wall,  Jehel  Ilalal,  which  had  remained 
altogether  unknown  until  very  recently,  is  cut 
off  almost  vertically  by  a  broad  defile,  the  Wady 
Murreh,  which  runs  from  east  to  west,  and  opens 
into  the  Arabah.  On  the  other  side  of  this  val¬ 
ley,  the  plateau  Rakmah,  the  southern  rampart 
of  the  Palestinian  mountains  of  the  Amorites, 
rises  perpendicularly.  The  Wady  Murreh  is  as 
much  as  ten  or  fifteen  miles  broad.  At  the  east¬ 
ern  extremity  the  solitary  mountain  of  Madurali 
(Modera)  rises  in  the  very  midst  of  the  valley. 
To  the  south  of  this  mountain  the  principal  val¬ 
ley  bends  in  a  southeasterly  direction  toward 
the  Arabah,  still  bearing  the  name  of  Wady 
Murreh,  and  to  the  north  of  the  Madurah  a  side 
branch  of  the  valley  leads  through  el-Ghor  to 
the  Dead  Sea,  under  the  name  of  Wady  Fikreh. 
When  passing  (westward)  through  the  Wady 
Murreh,  the  ascent  is  constant  from  the  lowest 
level  of  the  Arabah,  and  therefore  the  relative 
height  of  the  mountain  walls,  by  v^hich  it  is  en¬ 
closed  on  the  north  and  south,  is  continually 
diminishing.  You  proceed  westward,  and  ar¬ 


rive  at  length  at  the  link,  already  referred  to,  by 
which  the  south-western  corner  of  the  Amorit- 
ish  plateau  of  Eakmah  is  connected  with  the 
northwestern  corner  of  the  Azazimat.  This 
link  is  formed  by  an  eminence  to  the  east  of 
Eboda  (Abdeh),  ‘‘  from  which  the  Jehel  Garrah 
and  Jehel  Gamar  emerge,  the  former  toward  the 
northwest,  and  the  latter  to  the  southwest, 
and  encircle  Eboda  in  the  form  of  an  amphi¬ 
theatre.  ”  The  western  wall  of  the  mountain 
fortress  runs  in  a  straight  line  from  its  south¬ 
ern  corner  (Jebel  Araif  en-Nakah)  k)  the 
northern  heights,  which  unite  it  with  the 
Eakmah,  and  bears  the  names  of  Jehel  Yaled  and 
Moyleh  (or  Moilahi).  It  is  a  lofty  mountain 
range,  from  three  to  four  hundred  feet  high, 
w'hich  is  intersected  by  numerous  wadies,  run¬ 
ning  parallel  to  one  another  from  north  to 
south,  and  all  opening  into  the  Wady  el-Arish. 
The  road  from  Sinai  to  Hebron  passes  at  the 
foot  of  this  western  wall  of  the  Azazimat, 
and  through  the  undulating  tract  of  desert 
land  which  lies  between  it  and  the  Wady  el- 
Arish. 

As  you  pass  along  the  ordinary  road  to  Heb¬ 
ron,  on  the  western  side  of  the  mountainous 
district  of  the  Azazimeh,  the  whole  of  the 
mountain  slopes  between  Jebel  Araif  and  Jebel 
Khalil  (or  the  heights  of  Hebron)  appear  to 
form  a  continued  and  unbroken  range.  But 
just  as  the  separation  of  the  mountains  of  the 
Amorites  from  the  northern  wall  of  the  Azazi¬ 
mat,  by  the  Wady  Murreh,  is  concealed  by  the 
link  which  connects  the  two  together  to  the  east 
of  Eboda  ;  so  do  the  projecting  ranges  of  the 
western  wall  of  the  Azazimat  keep  out  of  sight 
an  extended  desert  plain,  which  runs  for  many 
miles  into  the  heart  of  the  Azazimat  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Jebel  Moyleh,  and  into  which 
several  wadies  open  from  the  eastern  side  of  the 
mountain  {e.g.,  the  Wady  Kesaimeh,  the  Wady 
Muweilih  [Moilahi],  and  the  Wady  Eetemat). 
“  In  the  remote  background,  surrounded  by  the 
wilderness,  there  stands  in  a  state  of  remarkable 
isolation  the  strong  rock  with  its  copious  spring 
— the  spot  which  still  bears  the  ancient  name  of 
Kadesh  {Ain  Gadis),  and  of  which  Rowlands  was 
the  discoverer.”  That  this  is  the  wilderness  of 
Kadesh,  which  plays  so  important  a  part  in  the 
history  of  the  sojourn  of  the  Israelites,  is  ap¬ 
parently  no  longer  open  to  dispute.  From  the 
peculiar  configuration  of  the  soil,  we  may  easily 
understand  why  this  plain,  which  has  a  distinct 
name  of  its  owm  (viz.,  Kadesh),  should  some¬ 
times  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  Desert  of 
Paran  (et-Tih),  and  at  other  times  as  belonging 
to  that  of  Zin  (the  plain  of  Murreh).  Kurtz. 


55G 


SECTION  170.  KADESH-BAKNEA 


Route  of  laradlles  fi  om  Sinai  to  Kadesh 

Of  the  ways  open  to  the  Israelites  from  Sinai 
to  the  southern  boundary  of  Canaan,  the  most 
easterly  led  along  the  western  shore  of  the  Ela- 
nitic  Gulf  to  the  Arabah,  and  then  through  the 
Arabah  to  the  soiitbeastern  border  of  Canaan. 
Biifc,  however  Well  adapred  the  road  through  the 
broad  valley  of  the  Arabah  may  appear,  such  a 
supposition  is  inconsistent  with  De.  1  : 19,  where 
the  Israelites  are  said  to  have  traversed  “  the 
whole  of  the  great  and  terrible  desert,”  by  which 
we  can  only  understand  the  Desert  of  et-Tih  ; 
and  this  they  would  never  have  touched  at  all  if 
tliey  had  taken  the  easterlj^  road.  E wald,  Tuch, 
Wimr^  R,  Schwarz,  and  Fries  are  all  agreed  that 
they  took  the  westerly  road,  which  leads  from 
Horeb  to  Hebron  across  the  mountains  of  et-Tih 
and  the  large  tract  of  table-land  of  the  same 
name,  by  the  western  foot  of  the  Jebel  Araif, 
and  which  is  taken  by  most  of  the  travellers  to 
Sinai  at  the  present  day.  K. 

When  the  Israelites  moved  over  from  Mount 
Sinai  to  Kadesh-barnea,  they  went  across  the 

great  and  terrible  wilderness  which  would 
not  have  been  the  case  had  thej^  skirted  the 
eastern  peninsula  into  and  along  the  Arabah. 
That  “  wilderness”  must  have  been  the  elevated 
desert-plateau  of  et-Tih.  In  journeying  by  the 
“  Way  of  Mount  Seir,”  they  simply  took  the 
easternmost  road  out  of  the  Mount  Sinai  group  ; 
a  road  bearing  the  name  and  trending  in  the 
direction  of  Mount  Seir,  but  which  they  fol¬ 
lowed  no  farther  than  brought  them  to  the  bor¬ 
der  of  the  wilderness  beyond  which  lay  the  land 
of  their  seeking.  They  took  the  Mount  Seir 
Road,  but  they  did  not  pursue  that  road  to 
Mount  Seir.  On  the  face  of  it,  the  Amorite 
Hill-country  Road  would  seem  to  have  been  that 
one  road  which  presents  itself  for  a  desert-cross¬ 
ing  to  a  northward-bound  traveller  coming  out 
of  the  Mount  Sinai  group  by  the  easternmost  or 
Mount  Seir  Road.  That  is  the  road  which  leads 
to  the  Amorite  Hill-country.  It  is  obviously 
the  road  which  the  Israelites  would  have  taken 
unless,  indeed,  they  were  compelled  to  go  else¬ 
where  for  reasons  not  yet  indicated.  Of  late,  a 
possibility  of  an  alternative  road  through  the 
Azazimeh  mountain  tract,  running  diagonally 
northwestward  from  the  southeastern  corner  of 
that  tract,  has  been  suggested.  It  was  reserved 
for  the  experienced  Holland  to  note  the  possi¬ 
bility  of  such  a  road  out  from  the  Desert  et-Tih. 
It  was  on  his  last  visit  to  the  peninsula  that  he 
first  ascertained  that  Jebel  Makrah  was  sepa¬ 
rated  from  Jebel  Jerafeh,  at  the  southeastern 
corner  of  that  mass  of  mountains,  instead  of  the 


two  mountains  being  in  a  connected  and  un 
broken  range,  as  was  before  supposed.  Be¬ 
tween  these  two  mountains  there  is  a  roadway, 
which  Holland  thinks  finds  its  course  up  to  the 
borders  of  Canaan — to  the  Amorite  Hill-country. 
Wherever  Hazeroth  may  have  been,  and  whether 
the  Israelites  passed  into  the  Azazimeh  moun¬ 
tain  tract  from  that  southeastern  corner,  near 
Jebel  Makrah,  or  kept  on  along  the  southern 
face  of  that  tract  until  they  rounded  Jebel 
Araif  en-Nakah — their  third  encampment  was  at 
the  strategic  stronghold  (within  that  tract), 
then  known  as  Rithmah,  afterward  as  Kadesh, 
yet  later  as  En-mishpat,  later  still  as  Meribah- 
Kadesh,  and  now  as  Wady  Gadis. 

Kadesh-babnea. 

Kadesh-barnea  has  a  manifold  importance  in 
the  sacred  story.  It  looms  up  as  the  objectrve 
point  of  the  Israelites  in  their  movement  from 
Sinai  to  the  Promised  Land.  It  is  the  place  of 
their  testing,  of  their  failure,  of  their  judging, 
and  of  their  dispersion.  It  is  their  rallying 
centre  for  the  forty  years  of  their  wandering, 
and  the  place  of  their  reassembling  for  their 
final  move  into  the  land  of  their  longings.  It 
is  the  scene  of  repeated  and  varied  displays  of 
God’s  power  and  of  his  people’s  faithlessness. 
And  finally  it  is  the  hinge  and  pivot  of  the 
southern  boundary  of  the  holy  land  in  history, 
and  of  the  holy  land  in  prophecy.  H.  C.  T. 

Two  stages  alone  of  the  journey  are  distinctly 
visible,  from  Sinai  to  Kadesh,  and  from  Kadesh 
to  Moab.  Kadesh  is  in  this  stage  of  the  history 
almost  what  Sinai  was  in  the  first.  “  He 
brought  them  to  Mount  Sinai”  “  and  to  Kadesh- 
barnea.”  It  is  the  only  place  dignified  by  the 
name  of  a  city.  ”  The  encampment  there  is 
distinct  in  character  from  any  other  in  the  wil¬ 
derness,  except  the  stay  at  Sinai.  Stanley. - 

According  to  Nu.  20  : 13,  Kadesh  also  received  the 
name  Merihah  (Strife-water)  and  in  Gen.  14  ;  7 
it  occurs  under  the  name  of  En- Mishpat  (foun¬ 
tain  of  judgment  or  decision).  The  explanatory 
words,  “  that  is  Kadesh"  (which  occur  in  Gen.), 
seem  to  impjy  that  En-Mishpat  was  the  original 
name,  and  Kadesh  a  more  recent  one,  which 
was  not  in  existence  in  the  time  of  Abraham. 
In  Nu.  33  ;  18  the  place  is  called  Rithmah,  and 
not  Kadesh  ;  whereas  in  verse  36,  after  the  in¬ 
fliction  of  the  judgment,  it  is  not  called  Rith¬ 
mah,  but  Kadesh.  K. - The  place  where  the 

people  murmured  upon  the  return  of  the  spies 
was  now  named  Kadesh,  because  the  Lord  was 
there  sanctified  upon  the  people,  and  Barnea,  or 
the  imnderiny  son,  because  here  was  the  decree 
made  of  their  long  wandering  in  the  wilderness. 


LOCATION  Ob  KAhESH-BARNEA. 


They  continued  a  good  space  at  Kadesh  before 
they  removed  ;  for  so  said  Moses,  Ye  abode  in 
Kadesh  many  dags.  Lighffoot. 

Kadesh  is  to  be  recognized  in  the  plain  and 
fountain  of  Gadis,  just  within  the  northwest 
corner  of  the  mountains  of  the  Azazimeh.  This 
desert  plain,  some  ten  miles  by  six  in  extent,  is 
screened  from  ordinary  observation  by  the  outer 
mountain  walls  of  the  Azazimat,  which  shut  it 
off  on  the  west  from  the  desert  road  from  Sinai 
to  Hebron,  on  the  north  from  the  Wady  Mur- 
reh.  At  the  northeast  of  the  plain  is  a  bold 
and  bare  rock,  a  promontory  of  the  northern 
mountain  rampart,  from  the  foot  of  which  issues 
a  copious  spring,  which  begins  by  falling  in  cas¬ 
cades  into  the  bed  of  a  torrent,  and  ends  by 
losing  itself  in  the  sands.  The  plain  of  Gadis 
is  strictly  within  the  limits  of  that  southern 
desert  now  called  et-Tih,  and  yet  it  is  quite 
close  to  the  WadyMurreh,  which  with  its  sandy 
expansions  toward  the  east  may  well  have  been 

the  Wilderness  of  Zin.  R.  W. - This  plain, 

which  Ave  may  confidently  set  4own  as  the  an¬ 
cient  Desert  of  Kadesh,  embraces  a  superficial 
area  of  about  nine  or  ten  English  miles  in 
length,  and  five  or  six  in  breadth.  The  rock 
with  the  Ain  Gadis  is  situated  at  the  northeast 
of  the  plain,  where  it  presents  the  appearance 
of  a  solitary  promontory  of  the  Jebel  Halal.  It 
is  a  bare  rock,  at  the  foot  of  which  there  issues 
a  copious  spring,  which  falls  in  beautiful  cas¬ 
cades  into  the  bed  of  a  mountain  torrent,  and 
after  flowing  about  four  hundred  paces  in  a 
westerly  direction,  is  lost  in  the  sand.  “  I  have 
discovered  Kadesh  at  last,”  writes  Rowlands  to 
Williams.  “  I  look  with  amazement  upon  the 
stream  from  the  rock  which  Moses  smote,  and 
the  lovely  waterfalls  in  which  it  descends  into 
the  bed  of  the  brook  below.”  K. 

I  came  to  the  place  so  glowingly  described  by 
Mr.  Rowlands,  and  found  it  all  that  he  had  pict¬ 
ured.  It  was  an  oasis  unapproached  by  any  I 
had  seen  in  the  desert  since  leaving  Feiran,  and 
net  surpassed,  within  its  limits,  by  that.  It 
w^as  carpeted  with  grass  and  flowers.  Fig-trees 
laden  with  fruit  were  against  its  limestone  hill 
sides.  Shrubs  in  richness  and  variety  abounded. 
Standing  out  from  the  mountain  range  at  the 
northward  of  the  beautiful  oasis  amphitheatre, 
was  the  “  large  single  mass  or  small  hill  of  solid 
rock”  which  Rowlands  looked  at  as  the  cliff 
(sela)  smitten  by  Moses  to  cause  it  to  “  give 
forth  its  water”  when  its  flowing  had  ceased. 
From  beneath  this  cliff  came  the  abundant 
stream.  A  well,  walled  up  with  time-worn  lime¬ 
stone  blocks,  was  the  first  receptacle  of  the 
water.  Not  far  from  this  was  a  second  well 


od7 

similarly  walled,  supplied  from  the  same  source. 
Around  both  these  wells  were  ancient  watering 
troughs  of  limestone.  Several  pools,  not  walled 
up,  were  also  supplied  from  the  stream.  On 
from  the  line  of  these  pools  a  gurgling  stream 
flowed  musically  for  several  hundred  yards  and 
then  lost  itself  in  the  verdure-covered  desert. 
The  water  was  clear  and  sweet  and  abundant. 
Two  of  the  pools  were  ample  for  bathing.  Be¬ 
fore  the  cliff,  aod  around  its  neighboring  wells, 
camel  and  goat  dung  was  trodden  down  as  if  by 
the  accumulations  of  centuries,  showing  that 
the  place  was  much  frequented  for  watering 
purposes. 

Mr.  Rowlands  was  certainly  correct  as  to  the 
name,  the  general  location,  and  the  description 
of  this  remarkable  place.  It  is  Gadis.  There 
is  a  Jebel  Gadis,  a  Wady  Gadis,  and  an  Ain 
Gadis.  It  is  quite  as  far  to  the  eastward  as  he  put 
it,  fully  twelve  to  fifteen  miles  east-southeast 
of  his  Moilahhi,  or  Ain  Muweilih.  The  wady 
at  the  head  of  which  it  is  situated  is  an  exten¬ 
sive  and  fertile  plain,  larger  by  far  than  er-Rahah 
before  Jebel  Musa,  where  the  children  of  Israel 
received  the  Law.  Remains  of  rude  stone  build¬ 
ings  and  other  ruins  abound  in  the  vicinity, 
showing  that  it  was  once  a  well-peopled  region. 
H.  C.  T. 

For  an  exhaustive  and  conclusive  treatment 
of  this  w'hole  subject  the  reader  is  referred  to  Dr. 
Trumbull’s  admirable  volume,  entitled  Kadesh- 
barnea,  noted  in“  Index  of  Authors  Cited.”  B. 

The  connection  between  Kadesh  and  Gadis  is 
as  close  as  in  almost  any  Hebrew  and  Arabic 
names  now  identified  by  modern  scholars.  Mr. 
Palmer  speaks  Arabic  like  a  native,  and  he  gives 
the  name  Gadis.  Our  dragoman  was  an  Arabic¬ 
speaking  Syrian,  and  he  on  the  spot  gave  us  the 
name  ;  and  we  heard  it  from  the  lips  of  Sulei¬ 
man,  the  sheikh,  who  definitely  declared  this 
fountain  to  be  known  to  all  the  Arabs  as  Ain 
Gadis.  There  is,  therefore,  no  mistake  as  to 

the  name.  S.  C.  B, - Ain  Gadis,  at  the  head 

of  the  Wady  Gadis,  the  name  being  the  exact 
Arabic  equivalent  of  the  Hebrew  Kadesh  (i.e., 
a  sacred  city  or  separated  place),  is  just  at  the 
frontier  of  the  south  country  of  Judah,  of  which 
it  is  the  key  strategically,  as  its  identification  is 
the  key  topographically,  to  this  part  of  the  his¬ 
tory  of  the  wanderings.  It  exactly  answers  to 
the  description  of  the  Bible  ;  the  Israelites  wait¬ 
ing,  as  it  were,  on  the  threshold  of  the  southern 
portion  of  the  Promised  Land,  and,  from  the 
evidence  on  all  sides,  we  may  fairly  conclude 
that  the  surrounding  country  was  better  sup¬ 
plied  with  water  than  it  is  now  ;  and  that  it 
was,  therefore,  at  least  as  suitable  for  the  en- 


558 


SECTION  170.  TUIRTY-SEVEN  YEARS'  BAN 


campment  of  the  Israelitish  hosts  as  any  spot 
in  Sinai.  There  are  three  springs  which  form 
shallow  pools,  one  of  them  overflowing  and  pro¬ 
ducing  a  stream  of  water  in  the  rainy  season  ; 
its  exact  position  is  lat.  31°  34.',  long.  43^  31', 
and  situated  on  the  natural  border  of  the  coun¬ 
try. 

We  are  here  on  one  of  the  most  interesting 
spots  in  early  Scripture  history.  It  is  first  men¬ 
tioned  in  Gen.  14  :  7,  in  the  account  of  the  foray 
of  Chedorlaomer,  who  crossed  from  Seir,  or 
Petra,  to  Kadesh,  defeated  the  Amorites,  and 
then  turned  back  to  the  northeast  to  Ilazezon 
Tamar,  or  Engedi,  by  the  Dead  Sea.  It  is  next 
mentioned  in  Gen.  IG  :  14,  as  marking  the  sit¬ 
uation  of  Hagar’s  Well,  Beer-lahai-roi,  which  lay 
between  Kadesh  and  Bered,  a  site  not  yet  satis¬ 
factorily  identified.  Hence  Joshua  and  Caleb, 
with  their  companions,  were  sent  to  spy  out  the 
country,  and  hither  they  returned  with  the 
grapes  of  Eshcol  and  their  report  of  the  land. 
Here  broke  out  the  murmuring  ;  and  here,  after 
those  who  had  brought  up  an  evil  report  died 
of  the  plague,  began  the  forty  years’  penal  wan¬ 
dering  in  the  wilderness.  Hence,  stung  with 
shame  and  sudden  remorse,  the  people,  against 
the  exhortations  of  Moses  and  without  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  went  up  against 
the  Amalekites  and  the  Canaanites,  and  were 
defeated  and  discomfited  even  unto  Ilormah 
CNu.  14).  Hither  Israel  returned  after  the  re¬ 
bellion  of  Korah  ;  and  here  Miriam  died  and 
was  buried  (Nu.  20  : 1).  H.  B.  T. 

The  Position  and  Extent  of  the  Desert  of  Z>n. 
According  to  Nu.  13  :  26,  Kadesh  wms  within 
the  limits  of  the  Desert  of  Paran  ;  but  accord¬ 
ing  to  20  : 1  and  27  : 14,  it  was  in  the  Desert  of 
Zin  ;  and  in  33  : 36  the  Israelites  are  said  to 
have  pitched  in  “  the  Wilderness  of  Zin,  w^hich 
is  Kadesh.”  From  this  it  clearly  follows  that 
Zin  must  have  formed  a  j^art  of  the  still  more 
extensive  Desert  of  Paran  ;  and  if  the  spies  who 
were  sent  from  the  Desert  of  Paran  surveyed 
the  land  “  from  the  Wilderness  of  Zin  unto  Be- 
hob  ”  (13:21),  it  must  have  lain  close  to  the 
southern  border  of  Canaan.  But  the  relative 
position  of  the  various  localities  may  be  seen 
still  more  clearly  from  Nu.  34  ;  3  sqq.  and  Josh. 
15  ;  1  sqq.,  where  the  southern  boundary  of 
Judah  from  the  Dead  Sea  to  the  brook  of  Egypt 
on  the  Mediterranean  -  that  is,  from  east  to  west 
— is  said  to  have  started  from  the  southern  ex¬ 
tremity  of  the  Dead  Sea,  skirted  the  Scorpion 
Steps  (Maaleh  Akrabbim  ;  that  is,  as  Robinson 
correctly  observes,  the  row  of  cliffs  which  runs 
diagonally  across  the  el-Ghor  in  the  form  of  an 
irregular  curve,  and  constitutes  the  boundary 


between  this  valley  and  the  more  elevated  Ara- 
bah),  whence  it  passed  along  to  Zin,  and  then 
upward  to  the  south  of  Kadesh-ba’'nea.  If  we 
take  this  according  to  the  literal  signification  of 
the  words,  it  is  evident  that  Zin  comprehended 
the  tract  of  desert  which  runs  from  the  Ghor  in 
a  westerly  direction,  winding  round  the  steep 
walls  of  the  mountains  of  the  Amorites,  and  is 
bounded  on  the  south  by  a  range  which  runs 
parallel  to  the  northern  mountain  rampart. 

Tuch. - Hence  it  consisted  chiefly  of  the  broad 

valley  of  Murreh,  including  the  Wady  Fikreh 
and  the  Delta  enclosed  within  the  tw'o.  It  may 
also  have  been  used  in  a  still  wider  sense — 
namely,  as  including  the  plain  of  Kadesh  also, 
since  the  rampart  which  separated  this  plain 
from  the  Wady  Murreh  cannot  have  been  very 
high,  and  the  desert  has  very  much  the  same 
character  as  the  plain.  K. 

The  Thirty-seven  Years’  Ban  :  Stations  ;  Life 

AND  Maintenance  of  the  People  (De.  1  : 46. 

Nu.  33  : 19-36). 

They  marched  for  thirty-seven  years  from 
that  point  round  about,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Kadesh  ;  and  therefore  in  the  description  of  the 
encampments  (Nu.  33  : 36),  a  resting-point  was 
made  there,  and  the  objectless  wandering 
through  the  wulderness  is  passed  over.  Geri. 

- In  a  certain  sense  Israel  never  left  Kadesh, 

and  during  the  thirty-seven  years  this  place  had 
formed  the  northern  boundary  and  principal 
point  in  that  portion  of  the  desert  over  which  it 
was  scattered,  the  southern  boundary  being  on 
the  Elanitic  Gulf  ;  and,  secondly,  that  it  was  a 
matter  of  great  importance,  in  connection  with 
the  general  training  of  the  Israelites,  that  at  the 
close  of  the  period  of  the  curse  inflicted  by 
God,  they  should  assemble  together  in  the  very 
same  spot  in  which  the  sentence  was  first  pro¬ 
nounced.  Tuch. 

Nu.  :  19-36.  The  s'ations,  whose  names 
occur  between  Rithmah  and  Kadesh,  undoubtedly 
refer  to  the  principal  quarters  occupied  by  the 
Israelites  (with  the  tabernacle,  the  Ark  of  the 
Covenant,  and  the  pillar  of  cloud)  during  their 
thirty-seven  years’  wandering  in  the  desert.  As 
RVhmah  (verse  18)  coincides  geographically  with 
Kadesh,  the  seventeen  stations  must  have  lain 
between  the  first  and  second  visits  to  Kadesh.  K. 

The  stations  named  are  those  visited  during 
the  years  of  penal  wandering.  The  determi¬ 
nation  of  their  positions  is  difficult,  because  dur¬ 
ing  this  period  there  was  no  definite  line  of 
march  pursued.  All  indications  thus  far  seem 
to  show  that  the  Israelites  during  this  period 
did  not  overstep  the  boundaries  of  the  Wilder- 


CONDITION  AND  MAINTENANCE  IN  THE  DESERT. 


559 


ness  of  Paran  except  to  pass  along  the  adjoin¬ 
ing  valley  of  the  Arabah.  Over  the  ridges  of 
Paran  then  it  is  probable  that  for  many  years 
the  people  spread,  while  the  tabernacle  and  or¬ 
ganized  camp  moved  about  from  place  to  place 
among  them.  Nu.  20  ;  1  seems  to  hint,  what  is 
in  itself  natural  and  likely,  that  the  congrega¬ 
tion”  was  during  these  years  broken  up.  No 
doubt  round  the  tabernacle  there  continued  an 
organized  camp  consisting  of  the  Levites  and 
others,  which  Avas  moved  from  time  to  time  up 
and  down  the  country.  But  there  was  no  longer 
any  reason  for  the  coherence  of  the  whole  people 
in  mass,  and  we  may  accordingly  believe  that 
they  were  scattered  over  the  face  of  the  Wilder¬ 
ness  of  Paran,  and  led  a  nomadic  life  as  best 
suited  the  pasturage  of  the  cattle.  It  is  thus 
that  the  modern  Bedouins  maintain  very  large 
flocks  and  herds  in  these  same  deserts.  “  On 
one  occasion,”  says  Dr.  J.  L.  Porter,  “I  rode 
for  two  successive  days  through  the  flocks  of 
a  section  of  the  Anazeh  tribe,  and  the  encamp¬ 
ment  of  the  chief  was  then  at  a  noted  fountain 
thirty  miles  distant,  at  right  angles  to  my 
course  ;  j^etthe  country  was  swarming  with  men 
and  women,  boys  and  girls,  looking  after  the 
cattle.”  He  adds  with  special  reference  to  the 
Israelites,  “  The  camp  would  be  a  mere  nucleus. 
Yet  as  being  the  headquarters  of  the  nation, 
containing  the  tabernacle,  the  priests,  and  the 
chiefs,  and  forming  the  rallying  point  for  the 
warriors,  it  was  the  only  place  with  which  the 
sacred  historian  is  concerned.”  Thus  the  en¬ 
campments  named  would  be  various  spots  at 
which  in  the  course  of  these  years  the  tabernacle 
was  for  a  time  pitched.  Espin. 

The  indications  of  the  text  are  that  when  the 
people  found  their  progress  into  Canaan  barred 
for  a  generation,  they  gvaduallj’’  scattered  them¬ 
selves  among  the  wadies  of  the  desert,  living  a 
nomad  life — seeking  sustenance  by  sowing  and 
reaping  with  the  divinely  added  supply  of  daily 
manna —having,  all  this  time,  Kadesh  as  the 
northernmost  limit  of  their  roving,  and  as,  in  a 
jieculiar  sense,  the  centre  of  their  occupancy,  or 
the  pivot  of  their  wanderings.  Meantime,  the 
tabernacle,  with  its  ministry,  would  seem  to 
have  moved,  under  the  Divine  guidance,  from 
place  to  place  within  the  limits  of  the  wander¬ 
ings,  as  if  on  circuit,  in  order  that  Moses  and 
Aaron  might  retain  a  spiritual  oversight  of  the 
scattered  people.  Certain  it  is,  that  the  popular 
opinion,  of  a  formal  marching  to  and  fro  in  the 
desert  for  the  forty  years  of  wandering,  finds 
no  more  countenance  in  the  tf“xt  than  it  does  in  j 
reason- in  view  of  the  purposes  of  Godwiih  his 
people,  and  of  the  habits  ot  Oriental  nomads.  | 


In  this  light  of  the  narrative,  the  stations  named 
in  the  sacred  text,  for  the  period  of  the  wander¬ 
ings,  may  be  taken  either  as  the  stations  of  the 
tabernacle  on  its  circuit,  or  as  the  exception¬ 
ally  prominent  encampments  of  the  people  as  a 
whole,  at  the  earlier  or  at  the  later  portion  of 
that  period.  H.  C.  T. 

For  a  series  of  years  the  lawgiver  and  the 
nation  pass  mostly  out  of  sight.  He,  it  may  be, 
was  at  work  on  those  imperishable  records  that 
lie  at  the  foundation  of  our  religion.  They  were 
being  trained  and  schooled  by  rites  and  observ¬ 
ances,  as  by  a  series  of  object  lessons  for  way¬ 
ward  children,  into  some  reverence  for  a  holy 
God  ;  were  shut  away  from  sensual  distractions 
to  the  pressure  of  his  Law  ;  were  to  be  trans¬ 
formed  by  the  life  of  the  desert  from  the  laxity 
of  Egypt  to  the  robustness  of  Palestine  ;  and 
were  to  be  bound  together  by  bonds  that  have 
held  them  for  three  thousand  years  An. 

So  far  as  the  sacred  records  were  concerned, 
there  was  no  hisiory  between  the  first  and  sec¬ 
ond  encampments  at  Kadesh.  From  Sinai  to 
Kadesh  the  Israelites  were  moving  forward.  At 
Kadesh  they  were  on  the  verj’^  borders  of 
Canaan  :  only  one  step  farther,  and  their  feet 
would  stand  upon  the  holy  land  of  the  pilgrim¬ 
age  of  their  fathers,  which  was  destined  to  be 
their  own  inheritance.  But  during  the  thirty- 
seven  years,  about  which  the  scriptural  records 
are  silent,  the  history  of  Israel  did  not  advance 
a  single  step  toward  its  immediate  object,  the 
conquest  of  the  promised  land.  It  was  very 
different  in  the  fortieth  year,  when  they  were 
journeying  from  Kadesh  to  the  plains  of  Moab. 
According  to  De.  8  : 2-6,  the  whole  forty  years, 
including  the  thirty-seven  j^ears  of  detention, 
may  be  regarded  in  the  same  light,  as  years  of 
training  and  temptation,  of  humiliation  and 
blessing,  of  natural  wants  and  suijernatural  as¬ 
sistance.  The  relation  in  which  Jehovah  stood 
to  the  nation  was  not  altered  b}'’  the  sentence  of 
detention  ;  and  the  people  continued  essentially 
the  same  in  their  relation  to  Jehovah,  always 
ready  to  despair,  constantly  murmuring,  easily 
excited  to  rebellion  ;  but  always  rising  again 
after  their  fall,  and  penitent  after  their  sin.  K. 

Support  in  the  Wilderness. 

There  was,  it  is  evident,  in  former  times,  a 
growth  both  of  the  larger  sorts  of  trees  and  of 
smaller  shrubs,  of  which  we  have  no  remnant  ; 
there  was  also  a  large  number  of  plants  which 
might  contribute  in  part  to  the  sustenance  of 
Israel  during  the  journey  ;  there  was  a  univer¬ 
sally  distributed  agriculture,  as  we  learn  from 
the  existence  of  mines,  and  from  the  oldest 


5G0 


SECTION  171.  REBELLION  AND  DESTRUCTION  OF  KORAH, 


Egyptian  habitations,  as  well  as  from  the  Chris¬ 
tian  monuments  which  are  everywhere  found- 
cloisters,  hermitages,  walls,  gardens,  and  foun¬ 
tains  ;  and,  lastly,  there  is  an  evident  possibil¬ 
ity  that  there  was  a  much  greater  supj)ly  of 
water  in  the  wadies,  more  abundant  rain-storms, 
and  the  possibility  of  economizing  the  supplies 
thus  gained  by  a  use  of  the  same  appliances 
\vhich  were  common  elsewhere  in  countries 
similarly  situated  and  conditioned,  Ritter. 

The  water-supply  of  this  whole  region,  though 
scanty,  is  much  more  considerable  than  has 
usually  been  represented.  After  a  journey 
through  this  region  with  various  detours,  under¬ 
taken  with  special  reference  to  the  conformity 
of  the  narration  to  the  region,  and  on  the  con¬ 
stant  lookout  for  water,  pasturage,  and  the 
means  of  subsistence,  the  writer  found  that  con¬ 
formity  much  more  striking,  even,  than  he  had 
anticipated.  He  reached  substantially  Ihs  same 
conclusion  with  Wellsted,  that  with  sufficient 
care,  there  is  “  no  reason  why  there  should  have 
been  a  lack  of  water,”  ordinarily — although  at 
times  great  straits  must  occur — but  that  the 
grand  and  constant  difficulty  would  have  been 
to  find  a  supply  of  food.  This  difficulty  seems 
insuperable  And  the  consistency  of  the  Bibli¬ 
cal  narrative  is  in  nothing  more  manifest  than 
in  the  fact  that  it  narrates  the  Divine  interposi¬ 
tion  to  give  the  people  water  as  only  an  excep¬ 
tional  thing,  but  the  miraculous  supply  of  food 
as  constant  and  permanent.  S.  C.  B. 

That  the  Israelites  availed  themselves  of  the 
means  of  support  which  the  wilderness  afforded 
them,  in  common  wdth  these  tribes  of  the  des¬ 
ert,  is  clear  from  what  is  mentioned  of  their 
flocks  and  herds.  They  are  expressly  said  to 
have  left  Egypt  with  large  property  in  these  ; 
and  that  they  were  enabled  to  jjreserve,  and 
even  perhaps  to  increase,  these  possessions,  we 
may  gather  from  the  notices  subsequently  given 
concerning  them,  especially  from  the  mention 
made  of  the  cattle,  when  they  sought  liberty  to 
passthrough  the  territory  of  Edom  ;  and  from 
the  very  large  accumulation  of  flocks  and  herds 
by  Gad  and  Reuben,  which  led  to  their  obtain¬ 
ing  a  portion  beyond  the  bounds  of  what  was 
properly  the  promised  land.  The  Israelites  thus 
had  within  themselves  considerable  resources 
as  to  the  supply  of  food  ;  and  the  sale  of  the 


skins  and  wool,  and  what  they  could  spare  from 
the  yearly  increase  of  their  possessions,  would 
enable  them  to  purchase  again  from  others.  Be¬ 
sides,  the  treasure  which  they  brought  with 
them  from  Egypt,  and  the  traffic  which  they 
might  carry  on  in  the  fruit,  spices,  and  other 
native  productions  of  the  desert,  would  furnish 
them  with  the  means  of  obtaining  provisions 
in  the  way  of  commerce.  Nor  have  we  any 
reason  to  think  that  the  Israelites  neglected 
these  natural  opportunities,  but  rather  the  re¬ 
verse.  So  that  the  period  of  their  sojourn  in 
the  wilderness  may  have  been,  and  most  prob¬ 
ably  was,  far  from  being  characterized  by  the 
inactivity  and  destitution  which  is  commonly 
supposed  ;  for  Moses  not  only  speaks  of  their 
buying  jDrovisions,  but  also  of  the  Lord  having 
“  blessed  them  in  all  the  works  of  their  hands, 
and  suffered  them  to  lack  nothing.”  P.  F. 

Such  a  lot  was  hard  enough,  with  all  its 
necessary  trials,  and  with  its  hope  constantly 
deferred  ;  but  it  is  consistent  and  intelligible. 
It  may  be  left  to  imagination  to  fill  up  the  pict¬ 
ure  of  the  doomed  generation  dropping  off  year 
by  year,  and  of  the  lesson  impressed  on  their 
children  by  seeing  their  carcasses  left  in  the 
wilderness.  Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  this 
passage  also  of  their  historj*  is  emblematic  of 
the  whole  pilgrimage  of  man,  who  must  toil  on 
to  his  rest  through  a  path  marked  by  the  graves 
of  his  illusions  and  his  sins.  P.  S. 

During  this  long  time  all  but  a  few  of  those 
who  were  above  twenty  years  old  at  the  com¬ 
mencement  of  that  period  had  died  off,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  sentence  pronounced  upon  that  gen- 
eration  ;  and  of  these  few  the  residue,  all  but 
the  two  faithful  spies,  Caleb  and  Joshua,  seem 
to  have  been  removed  before  entering  the  prom- 
ised  land.  This  remarkable  consequence  fol- 
lowed,  that  none  (with  two  exceptions)  being 
above  sixty  years  of  age— there  were,  in  fact,  no 
aged  men  in  the  camp,  no  elders,  none  unfit  by 
reason  of  age  to  bear  arms  in  active  warfare. 
Thus,  therefore,  the  new  Israel  was  not  only 
better  trained,  morally,  for  the  great  work  be¬ 
fore  it,  but  was  physically  more  equal  to  it  ;  the 
host  being  encumbered  with  no  useless  mem¬ 
bers,  but  every  man  being  fit  to  stand  up  as  a 
soldier  in  the  Lord’s  host.  Kit. 


Section  171. 

REBELLION  AND  DESTRUCTION  OF  KORAH,  DATHAN,  AND  ABIRAM.  MURMUR¬ 
ING  OF  THE  PEOPLE  PUNISHED.  THE  PLAGUE  STAYED  THROUGH  AARON’S 
INTERCESSION.  TEST  OF  THE  RODS. 

Numbers  16  ;  1-50  ;  17  : 1-13. 


DATHAN  AND  ABIRAM, 


561 


Nu.  B6  1  Now  Korali,  the  son  of  Izhar,  the  son  of  Kohath,  the  son  of  Levi,  with  Dathan 

2  and  Abiram,  the  sons  of  Eliab,  and  On,  the  son  of  Peleth,  sons  of  Reuben,  took  men  :  and  they 
rose  up  before  Moses,  with  certain  of  the  children  of  Israel,  two  hundred  and  fifty  princes  of 

3  the  congregation,  called  to  the  assembly,  men  of  renown  :  and  they  assembled  themselves 
together  against  Moses  and  against  Aaron,  and  said  unto  them.  Ye  take  too  much  upon  you, 
seeing  all  the  congregation  are  holy,  every  one  of  them,  and  the  Lord  is  among  them :  where- 

4  fore  then  lift  ye  up  yourselves  above  the  assembly  of  the  Lord  ?  And  when  Moses  heard  it, 

5  he  fell  upon  his  face  :  and  he  spake  unto  Korah  and  unto  all  his  company,  saying,  In  the 
morning  the  Lord  will  shew  who  are  his,  and  who  is  holy,  and  will  cause  him  to  come  near 

6  unto  him  :  even  him  whom  he  shall  choose  will  he  cause  to  come  near  unto  him.  This  do  ; 

7  take  you  censers,  Korah,  and  all  his  company  ;  and  put  fire  therein,  and  put  incense  upon 
them  before  the  Lord  to-morrow :  and  it  shall  be  that  the  man  whom  the  Lord  doth  choose, 

8  he  shall  be  holy  :  ye  take  too  much  upon  j^ou,  ye  sons  of  Levi.  And  Moses  said  unto  Korah, 

9  Hear  now,  ye  sons  of  Levi  :  seemeth  it  but  a  small  thing  unto  you,  that  the  God  of  Israel  hath 
separated  you  from  the  congregation  of  Israel,  to  bring  you  near  to  himself  ;  to  do  the  service 
of  the  tabernacle  of  the  Lord,  and  to  stand  before  the  congregation  to  minister  unto  them  : 

10  and  that  he  hath  brought  thee  near,  and  all  thy  brethren  the  sons  of  Levi  with  thee?  and  seek 

11  ye  the  priesthood  also?  Therefore  thou  and  all  thy  company  are  gathered  together  against 

12  the  Lord  ;  and  Aaron,  what  is  he  that  ye  murmur  against  him  ?  And  Moses  sent  to  call 

13  Dathan  and  Abiram,  the  sons  of  Eliab  :  and  they  said.  We  will  not  come  up  :  is  it  a  small  thing 
that  thou  hast  brought  us  up  out  of  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  to  kill  us  in  the  wil- 

14  derness,  but  thou  must  needs  make  thyself  also  a  prince  over  us  ?  Moreover  thou  hast  not 
brought  us  into  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  nor  given  us  inheritance  of  fields  and 

15  \ineyards  :  wilt  thou  put  out  the  eyes  of  these  men  ?  we  will  not  come  up.  And  Moses  was 
very  wroth,  and  said  unto  the  Lord,  Respect  not  thou  their  offering  ;  I  have  not  taken  one 

16  ass  from  them,  neither  have  I  hurt  one  of  them.  And  Moses  said  unto  Korah,  Be  thou  and 

17  all  thy  congregation  before  the  Lord,  thou,  and  they,  and  Aaron  to-morrow  :  and  take  je 
every  man  his  censer,  and  put  incense  upon  them,  and  bring  ye  before  the  Lord  every  man 

18  liis  censer,  two  hundred  and  fifty  censers  ;  thou  also,  and  Aaron,  each  his  censer.  And  they 
took  every  man  his  censer,  and  put  fire  in  them,  and  laid  incense  thereon,  and  stood  at  the 

19  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting  with  Moses  and  Aaron.  And  Korah  assembled  all  the  congrega¬ 
tion  against  them  unto  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting  :  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  appeared 
unto  all  the  congregation. 

20,  21  xVnd  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses  and  unto  Aaron,  saying.  Separate  yourselves  from  among 

22  this  congregation,  that  I  may  consume  them  in  a  moment.  And  they  fell  upon  their  faces, 
and  said,  O  God,  the  God  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh,  shall  one  man  sin,  and  wilt  thou  be  wroth 

23  with  all  the  congregation?  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  the  congre- 

24  gation,  saying,  Get  you  up  from  about  the  tabernacle  of  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram.  And 

25  jMoses  rose  up  and  went  unto  Dathan  and  Abiram  ;  and  the  elders  of  Israel  follow'ed  him. 

26  And  ho  spake  unto  the  congregation,  saying.  Depart,  I  pray  you,  from  the  tents  of  these 

27  wicked  men,  and  touch  nothing  of  theirs,  lest  ye  be  consumed  in  all  their  sins.  So  they  gat 
them  up  from  the  tabernacle  of  Korah,  Dathan,  and  Abiram,  on  every  side  :  and  Dathan  and 
Abiram  came  out,  and  stood  at  the  door  of  their  tents,  and  their  wives,  and  their  sons,  and 

28  their  little  ones.  And  Moses  said.  Hereby  ye  shall  know  that  the  Lord  hath  sent  me  to  do  all 

29  these  works  ;  for  I  have  not  done  thfm  of  mine  own  mind.  If  these  men  die  the  common  death 
of  all  men,  or  if  they  be  visited  after  the  visitation  of  all  men  ;  then  the  Lord  hath  not  sent 

30  me.  But  if  the  Lord  make  a  new  thing,  and  the  ground  open  her  mouth,  and  swallow  them 
up,  with  all  that  appertain  unto  them,  and  they  go  down  alive  into  the  j)it  ;  then  ye  shall 

31  understand  that  these  men  have  despised  the  Lord.  And  it  came  to  pass,  as  he  made  an  end 

32  of  speaking  all  these  words,  that  the  ground  clave  asunder  that  was  under  them  ;  and  the 
earth  opened  her  mouth,  and  swallowed  them  up,  and  their  households,  and  all  the  men  that 

33  appertained  unto  Korah,  and  all  their  goods.  So  they,  and  all  that  appertained  to  them,  went 
down  alive  into  the  pit  :  and  the  earth  closed  upon  them,  and  they  perished  from  among  the 

31  assembly.  And  all  Israel  that  were  round  about  them  fled  at  the  cry  of  them  :  for  they  said, 

35  Lest  the  earth  swallow  us  up.  And  fire  came  forth  from  the  Lord,  and  devoured  the  two 
handled  and  fifty  men  that  offered  the  incense. 

(Verses  36-40.  The  two  hundred  and  fifty  censers  made  into  “  beaten  plates  for  a  covering 
of  the  altar.”) 

36 


562 


.  SECTION  171.  REBELLION  AND  DESTRUCTION  OF  EORAH. 


41  But  on  the  morrow  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel  murmured  against  Moses 

42  and  against  Aaron,  saying,  Ye  have  killed  the  people  of  the  Lobd.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when 
the  congregation  was  assembled  against  Moses  and  against  Aaron,  that  they  looked  toward  the 

43  tent  of  meeting  ;  and,  behold,  the  cloud  covered  it,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lobd  appeared.  And 

44  Moses  and  Aaron  came  to  the  front  of  the  tent  of  meeting.  And  the  Lobd  spake  unto  Moses, 

45  saying.  Get  jou  up  from  among  this  congregation,  that  I  may  consume  them  in  a  moment. 

46  And  they  fell  upon  their  faces.  And  Moses  said  unto  Aaron,  Take  thy  censer,  and  put  fire 
therein  from  off  the  altar,  and  lay  incense  thereon,  and  carry  it  quickly  unto  the  congregation, 
and  make  atonement  for  them  :  for  there  is  wrath  gone  out  from  the  Lobd  ;  the  plague  is 

47  begun.  And  Aaron  took  as  Moses  spake,  and  ran  into  the  midst  of  the  assembly  ;  and,  be¬ 
hold,  the  plague  was  begun  among  the  people  :  and  he  put  on  the  incense,  and  made  atone- 

48  ment  for  the  people.  And  he  stood  between  the  dead  and  the  living  ;  and  the  plague  was 

49  stayed.  Now  they  that  died  by  the  ydague  were  fourteen  thousand  and  seven  hundred,  besides 

50  them  that  died  about  the  matter  of  Korah.  And  Aaron  returned  unto  Moses  unto  the  door  of 
the  tent  of  meeting  ;  and  the  plague  was  stayed. 

17  1,  2  And  the  Lobd  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and  take 
of  them  rods,  one  for  each  fathers’  house,  of  all  their  piinces  according  to  their  fathers’ 

3  houses,  twelve  rods  :  write  thou  every  man’s  name  upon  his  rod.  And  thou  shalt  write  Aaron’s 
name  upon  the  rod  of  Levi  :  for  there  shall  be  one  rod  for  each  head  of  their  fathers’  houses. 

4  And  thou  shalt  lay  them  up  in  the  tent  of  meeting  before  the  testimony,  where  I  meet  with 

5  you.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that  the  man  whom  I  shall  choose,  his  rod  shall  bud  ;  and  I 
will  make  to  cease  from  me  the  murmurings  of  the  children  of  Israel,  which  they  murmur 

6  against  you.  And  Moses  spake  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and  all  their  princes  gave  him 
rods,  for  each  prince  one,  according  to  their  fathers’  houses,  even  twelve  rods  :  and  the  rod  of 

7  Aaron  was  among  their  rods.  And  Moses  laid  up  the  rods  before  the  Lobd  in  the  tent  of  the 

8  testimony.  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  morrow,  that  Moses  went  into  the  tent  of  the  testi¬ 
mony  ;  and,  behold,  the  rod  of  Aaron  for  the  house  of  Levi  was  budded,  and  put  forth  buds, 

9  and  bloomed  blossoms,  and  bare  ripe  almonds.  And  Moses  brought  out  all  the  rods  from 
before  the  Lobd  unto  all  the  children  of  Israel  :  and  they  looked,  and  took  every  man  his  rod. 

10  And  the  Lobd  said  unto  Moses,  Put  back  the  rod  of  Aaron  before  the  testimony,  to  be  kept 
for  a  token  against  the  children  of  rebellion  ;  that  thou  mayest  make  an  end  of  their  murmur- 

11  ings  against  me,  that  they  die  not.  Thus  did  Moses  :  as  the  Lobd  commanded  him,  so  did  he. 

12  And  the  children  of  Israel  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Behold,  we  perish,  we  are  undone, 

13  we  are  all  undone.  Every  one  that  cometh  near,  that  cometh  near  unto  the  tabernacle  of  the 
Lobd,  dieth  :  shall  we  perish  all  of  us  ? 

After  Moses’  nearest  kinsmen  had  risen  up 
against  him,  the  same  rebellious  spirit  seizes  on 
the  Levitical  tribe,  to  which  Moses  and  Aaron 
themselves  belonged,  and  which  was  entrusted 
with  the  highest  service  in  sacred  things.  The 
nearer  they  stood  to  the  priesthood,  so  much 
the  more  did  they  feel  their  distance  from  it. 

With  them  distinguished  men  out  of  the  tribe 
of  Reuben  ally  themselves,  probably  in  order  to 
assert  the  natural  right  of  primogeniture  in  op¬ 
position  to  God’s  election,  both  in  respect  to 
Levi  and  to  Judah.  Moses’  behavior  here  is  the 
same  as  ever.  We  see  him,  as  in  the  former 
outbreaks,  firm  and  dauntless,  full  of  holy  anger 
against  the  godless  sinners,  fall  of  intercession 
and  love  for  the  thankless  covenant  people  of 
God.  And  the  punishment  inflicted  by  God 
justifies  and  attests  his  authority  afresh,  while 
it  shows  most  clearly  the  hopeless  corruption  of 
that  generation  of  Israelites.  Gerl. 

We  find  him  first  on  his  face  before  the  Lord 
(verse  4),  and  then,  without  the  slightest  asser¬ 


tion  of  authority,  leaving  the  whole  matter  in 
dispute  to  the  Lord’s  decision  (verse  5),  while 
at  the  same  time  he  gave  the  leaders  to  under¬ 
stand  that  he  recognized  the  selfish  motives 
which  really  inspired  the  rebellion  (verses  8-11). 
And  then,  when  the  decision  was  given  and  the 
judgment  of  God  was  about  to  fall  (verse  21), 
again  we  find  him  on  his  face  before  the  Lord, 
pleading  with  all  the  earnestness  of  his  mighty 
nature  for  the  people  whom  he  loved  so  much, 
in  spite  of  all  their  ingratitude  and  sin,  and 
anon  making  atonement  for  them,  until  the 
plague  was  stayed.  As  the  matter  in  dispute 
had  been  the  right  of  Aaron  and  his  family  to  a 
priesthood  distinct  from  that  of  the  entire  na¬ 
tion,  care  was  taken,  after  the  excitement  of  the 
conspiracy  and  the  judgment  which  followed 
had  calmed  down,  to  give  such  a  testimony  to 
the  Divine  right  of  the  Aaronic  priesthood  as 
should  set  the  matter  forever  at  rest.  Hence 
the  proceeding  recorded  in  the  seventeenth 
chapter.  J.  M.  G. 


KOllAirS  REBELLION. 


563 


The  date  of  the  transaction  contained  in  it 
cannot  be  determined,  but  verses  13,  14  prob¬ 
ably  point  to  a  period  not  much  later  than  that 

of  the  rebellion  at  Kadesli.  Espin.. - Korah 

was  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  family  of  Kohath, 
which  was  specially  employed  to  carry  the  ark 
and  furniture  of  the  holy  of  holies,  though  not 
permitted  to  look  into  them.  They  were  there¬ 
fore,  among  the  Levites,  the  next  in  sacredness 
of  function  to  Aaron  and  his  sons,  and  may 
therefore  the  more  readily  have  formed  a  vscheme 
to  contest  with  Aaron  his  exclusive  right  to  the 
high-prieslhood.  Dathan,  Abiram,  and  On,  were 
chiefs  of  the  tribe  of  Reuben,  the  first-born  of 
the  sons  of  Jacob  ;  and  may  therefore  have 
conceived  themselves  better  entitled  than  Moses 
to  pre-eminence  in  temporal  power.  Graves. 

- On  is  not  again  mentioned.  He  probably 

withdrew  from  the  conspiracy.  These  three 
were  Reuben ites  ;  and  were  probably  discon¬ 
tented  because  the  birthright  had  been  taken 
away  from  their  ancestor,  and  with  it  the  pri¬ 
macy  of  their  own  tribe  among  the  tribes  of 
Israel.  Espin. 

We  discover  two  interests  at  work  —  one 
against  the  sacerdotal  and  the  other  against  the 
political  power  and  pre-eminence — and  we  find 
the  two  coalescing  to  produce  the  objects  sought 
by  both.  We  do  not  discover  that  they  desired 
to  disturb  the  institutions  as  established  ;  but 
that  they  aspired  to  take  to  themselves  the 
power  which  these  institutions  gave  to  others. 
Kit. 

It  is  mentioned  incidentally  (Nu.  3  : 20)  that 
“  the  families  of  the  sons  of  Kohath  were  to 
pitch  on  the  side  of  the  tabernacle  southward." 
And  we  read  no  less  incidentally  (2  : 10),  “  on 
the  south  side  (of  the  tabernacle)  shall  be  the 
standard  of  the  camp  of  Rtuhen,  according  to 
their  armies,”  The  family  of  Kohath^  there¬ 
fore,  and  the  family  of  Reuben,  both  pitched  on 
the  same  side  of  the  tabernacle — they  were  neigh¬ 
bors,  and  were  therefore  conveniently  situated  for 
taking  secret  counsel  together.  Blunt. 

3.  Every  word  of  this  speech  was  a  false¬ 
hood.  Instead  of  “  lifting  himself  up,”  Moses 
humbled  himself,  “  Who  am  I?”  It  was  God 
who  lifted  him  up  over  Israel.  And  Israel  was 
as  “  holj'”  as  Moses  was  ambitious.  What 
holiness  was  there  in  so  much  infidelity,  fear, 
idolatry,  mutiny,  disobedience  ?  What  could 
make  them  unclean,  if  this  were  holiness  ? 
They  were  still  fresh  from  their  last  obstinacy  ; 
and  yet  these  flatterers  say,  “  All  Israel  is  holy.” 

6,  7,  There  cannot  be  conceived  an  honor 
less  worth  emulation  than  this  principality  of 
Israel  ;  a  people  that  could  give  nothing  ;  a 


people  that  had  nothing,  but  in  hope  ;  a  people 
whom  their  leader  was  fain  to  feeil  with  bread 
and  water  ;  which  paid  him  no  tribute  but  of 
ill  words  ;  whose  command  was  nothing  but  a 
burden  ;  and  yet  this  dignity  was  an  ej^e-sore 
to  these  Levites  and  these  Reubenites,  “  Ye  take 
too  much  upon  you,  ye  sons  of  Levi,”  And 
this  challenge,  though  thus  unseasonable,  Lath 
drawn  in  two  hundred  and  fifty  captains  of 
Israel.  What  wonder  is  it,  that  the  ten  rulers 
prevailed  so  much  with  the  multitude  to  dis¬ 
suade  them  from  Canaan,  when  three  traitors 
prevailed  thus  with  two  hundred  and  fifty 
rulers,  “famous  in  the  congregation,  and  men 
of  renown”  ?  Bp.  H. 

9-11,  Neither  of  these  brothers  had  been 
desirous  of  office,  and  the  places  which  they 
filled  had  not  been  taken  by  them  of  their  own 
motive.  Moses  had  not  seized  upon  authority 
as  a  usurper.  He  had  been  called  to  his  post 
by  Jehovah,  who  had  given  him  credentials,  in 
miracles  and  signs,  such  as  no  impostor  could 
fabricate  and  no  enemy  could  gainsay.  In  like 
manner,  Aaron  had  not  taken  his  office  upon 
himself;  he,  too,  had  been  “called  of  God,” 
who  had  commanded  him  to  be  consecrated  by 
peculiar  services  to  his  work. 

It  was  the  prerogative  of  Jehovah  to  appoint 
his  priest  and  to  designate  his  magisterial  rep¬ 
resentative.  The  people,  according  to  their 
own  covenant  obligations,  had  no  option  but  to 
accept  them  both.  They  had  been  taken  out 
from  the  nations  and  elected  to  certain  great 
privileges  ;  and  in  connection  with  their  accept¬ 
ance  of  that  position  they  had  taken  Jehovah  to 
be  their  King.  But  his  royalty  was  a  reality. 
It  placed  them  under  his  authority  ;  it  bound 
them  to  respect  his  laws,  to  obey  his  legate,  and 
to’  approach  him  in  worship  through  his  ap¬ 
pointed  priest.  Therefore,  this  conspiracy  to 
overthrow  Moses  and  depose  Aaron  was  worse 
than  an}’’  political  plot,  because  it  was  rebellion 
against  God,  who  was  not  only  the  fountain  of 
law  among  the  people,  but  also  the  object  of 
their  worship.  W,  M.  T. 

13, 14.  Moses  is  accused  of  injustice,  cruelty, 
falsehood,  treachery,  usurpation  ;  and  Egypt 
itself  must  be  commended,  rather  than  Moses 
shall  want  reproach.  Innocency  is  no  shelter 
from  ill  tongues  ;  malice  never  regards  how  true 
any  accusation  is,  but  how  spiteful.  Bp.  II. 

15,  He  begs  of  God  to  plead  his  cause. 
Lord,  says  he,  Respect  not  thou  their  offering. 
Wherein  he  seems  to  refer  to  the  history  of  Cain 
lately  written  by  his  own  hand,  of  whom  it  is 
said  that  to  him  and  his  offering  God  had  not 
respect  (Gen.  4  : 5).  These  that  followed  the 


564 


SECTION  171.  REBELLION  AND  DESTRUCTION  OF  KORAH. 


gainsaying  of  Korah^  walked  in  the  way  of  Cain 
(these  are  put  together,  Jude  11),  and  therefore 
he  prays  that  they  might  be  frowned  upon  as 
Cain  was  and  put  to  the  same  confusion.  H, 

- He  went  to  God  with  everything,  and  he 

waited  for  God’s  vindication.  He  was  conscious 
of  integrity.  He  could  take  God  to  witness 
that  “  he  had  not  taken  an  ass  from  one  of 
them,  or  injured  any  of  them.”  And  strong  in 
the  knowledge  of  his  own  rectitude,  he  left  the 
whole  matter  in  God’s  hands.  So  if  we  are  in 
the  right,  and  men  assail  us,  let  us  calmly  ap¬ 
peal  to  God,  and  bide  his  time.  W.  M.  T. 

1§.  Aii<l  they  took  every  man  liis 
censer.  The  sacred  incense-offering  was 
calculated  to  inspire  with  alarm,  especially  after 
so  memorable  an  example  had  been  made  in  the 
case  of  Nadab  and  Abihu.  How  greatly  they 
were  blinded  by  pride,  since,  although  admon¬ 
ished  both  by  the  confidence  of  Moses  and  also 
by  the  previous  examples,  they  still  obstinately 
go  forward  !  Moses  narrates  how  ostentatiously 
Korah  hardened  himself  in  his  rebellion,  before 
he  should  offer  the  incense  ;  for  he  gathered 
the  joeople  together  to  his  party,  in  oi’der  that 
the  magnificence  of  his  array  might  overwhelm 
the  grace  of  God,  which  opposed  him.  Calv. 

The  gl  >ry  of  the  Lord  appeared  (verse  19).  The 
same  glory  that  appeared  to  install  Aaron  in  his 
office  at  first,  now  appeared  to  confirm  him  in 
it,  and  to  confound  those  that  oppose  him,  and 
set  up  themselves  in  competition  with  him. 
The  Shekinah,  or  Divine  Majesty,  the  glory  of 
the  Eternal  Word,  which  ordinarily  dwelt  be¬ 
tween  the  cherubim  within  the  veil,  now  was 
publicly  seen  over  the  door  of  the  tabernacle, 
to  the  terror  of  the  whole  congregation.  H. 

Korah  kindled  the  fire  ;  the  two  hundred  and 
fifty  captains  brought  sticks  to  it  ;  all  Israel 
warmed  themselves  by  it  ;  only  the  incendiaries 
perish.  Now  do  the  Israelites  owe  their  life  to 
them,  whose  death  they  intended.  God  and 
Moses  knew  to  distinguish  betwixt  the  heads  of 
the  faction  and  the  train  ;  though  neither  be 
faultless,  yet  the  one  is  plagued,  the  other  for¬ 
given.  God’s  vengeance,  when  it  is  at  the  hot¬ 
test,  makes  differences  of  men  ;  “  Get  you  away 
from  about  the  tabernacles  of  Korah.”  Ever 
before  common  judgment  there  is  a  separation. 
In  the  universal  judgment  of  all  the  earth,  the 
Judge  himself  will  separate  ;  in  these  particular 
executions,  we  must  separate  ourselves.  The 
society  of  wicked  men,  especially  in  their  sins, 
IS  mortally  dangerous  ;  while  we  will  not  be 
parted, -how  can  we  complain  if  we  be  enwrap¬ 
ped  in  their  condemnation?  Bp  II. 

28-30.  From  the  beginning  of  the  world 


unto  this  day,  no  man  ever  made  so  bold  and 
noble  an  assertion  of  Divine  approval,  or  sub¬ 
jected  his  claims,  in  the  presence  of  a  nation,  to 
a  test  so  immediate  and  so  infallible.  But  the 
response  to  this  awful  appeal  was  not  for  a 
moment  delayed.  The  earth  did  open  ;  and 
Dathan  and  Abiram— they,  their  tents,  and  all 
they  had,  went  down,  and  the  earth  closed  over 
them—  they  were  seen  no  more.  At  the  same 
moment  a  fire  went  forth  from  the  presence  of 
the  Lord,  and  smote  down  with  instant  death 
the  men  with  their  censers  at  the  door  of  the 
tabernacle — in  number  two  hundred  and  fifty. 
Thus  both  branches  of  the  great  conspiracy 
were  at  once  extinguished  by  a  judgment  most 
signal,  immediate,  and  miraculous.  Kit. 

31 — 33,  35,  Korah  and  his  company  who 
dared  to  intrude  themselves  on  the  priestly 
office  were  destroyed  by  fire  from  the  Lord  at 
the  door  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  Lord  ;  the 
Eeubenites,  who  had  reviled  Moses  for  the  fail¬ 
ure  of  the  promises  about  the  pleasant  land, 
were  suddenly  engulfed  while  standing  at  their 
own  tent  doors  in  the  barren  wilderness.  We 
read  (Nu.  26  : 11),  ‘‘  The  children  of  Korah  died 
not,”  but  all  belonging  to  him  who  had  associ¬ 
ated  themselves  with  him  in  this  rebellion. 

Espin. - It  is  an  emphatic  testimony  alike  to 

the  truth  of  God’s  declaration,  that  he  punish- 
eth  not  men  for  the  sins  of  their  fathers,  and  to 
•the  piety  of  the  Levites,  that  the  sons  of  Korah 
did  not  share  in  the  rebellion  of  their  father, 
and  consequently  died  not  with  him.  More 
than  this,  not  only  were  Samuel  and  afterward 
Ileman  descendants  of  Korah,  but  among  them 
were  some  of  those  “  sweet  singers  of  Israel,” 
whose  hymns,  divinely  inspired,  were  intended 
for  the  Church  at  all  times  And  all  the  Psalms 
“  of  the  sons  of  Korah”  have  this  common  char¬ 
acteristic,  which  sounds  like  an  echo  of  the  les¬ 
son  learned  from  the  solemn  judgment  upon 
their  house,  that  their  burden  is  praise  of  the 
King  who  is  enthroned  at  Jerusalem,  and  long¬ 
ing  after  the  services  of  God’s  sanctuary.  A.  E. 

36-40.  God  would  have  the  Israelites  keep 
up  the  memory  of  these  things,  and  learn  from 
this  sad  example,  to  have  due  regard  to  them 
whom  he  chose  to  minister  in  holy  things.  And 
to  this  purpose  he  commands  that  plates  should 
be  made  of  the  censers  of  the  rebels  for  the 
altar  of  burnt-offering,  that  so  there  might  re¬ 
main  a  memorial  of  this  fatal  rebellion  in  the 
view  of  tlie  people.  He  caused  also  Aaron’s 
rod  to  flourish,  and  to  be  preserved  as  a  token 
against  the  rebels.  Kidder. 

41-50.  It  seems  almost  incredible  that  after 
such  a  scene  of  holy  judgment  on  guilty  rebels 


PLAGUE  STAYED  BY  AARON'S  INTERCESSION 


5G5 


and  of  such  consternation  npon  the  M'hole  peo¬ 
ple,  vve  read  that  on  the  morrow  all  the  congre¬ 
gation  murmured  against  Moses  and  Aaron,  say¬ 
ing,  “  Ye  have  killed  the  people  of  the  Lord.” 
This,  although  their  prayer  had  saved  the  masses 
of  the  people  (vei'se  22)  ;  this,  although  the 
hand  of  God  only  and  of  no  mortal  man  had 
wrought  their  destruction  ;  this,  although  they 
had  seen  the  whole  transaction  and  lied  in  hor¬ 
ror  lest  God  swallow  them  up  also  !  It  should 
not  surprise  us  that  the  wrath  of  the  Lord  broke 
forth  against  them  and  the  plague  began.  Moses 
cried  to  Aaron  to  take  a  censer  with  incense  (the 
symbol  of  prayer)  and  run  in  among  the  people, 
waving  his  censer  between  the  living  and  the 
dead.  Only  so  was  the  plague  stayed.  Yet 
fourteen  thousand  seven  hundred  fell  in  that 
fearful  judgment.  We  are  simply  amazed  at 
the  perverseness  and  foll}’^  of  many  o£  that  He¬ 
brew  people.  ”  How  often”  and  with  what 
strange  infatuation  “did  they  provoke  their 
God  in  the  wilderness  and  grieve  him  in  the 
desert  ”  (Ps.  78  ;  40) !  H.  C. 

46,  47,  This  dark  picture  of  men  insulting 
God,  even  with  his  recognized  presence  among 
them  and  in  spite  of  his  amazing  goodness  tow¬ 
ard  them,  because  he  has  been,  as  it  were,  com¬ 
pelled  to  punish  treason  against  his  authority,  ! 
is  but  the  life-likeness  of  what  is  going  on  every 
day  around  us.  Hence  the  apostle,  reciting  these 
events,  admonishes  :  “  Take  heed,  brethren, 
lest  there  be  in  any  of  you  an  evil  heart  of  un¬ 
belief.” 

Ordinarily  incense  could  be  offered  only  at 
the  tabernacle,  in  the  sanctuary,  on  the  golden 
altar,  but  in  this  extraordinary  emergency  Aaron 
is  sent  into  the  canijr,  where  the  death  arrows 
are  flying.  The  Lord  could,  in  answer  to  their 
prayers,  have  stayed  the  plague  without  any 
ritual  ;  but  it  is  all  important  to  demonstrate  to 
these  rebellious  scoffers,  w'ho  have  assailed  his 
ministers,  that  it  is  through  the  intercession  of 
the  very  men  whom  they  have  injured  that  (heir 
lives  are  spared,  and  that  their  high-priest  was 
acting  in  his  sacred  office  under  Jehovah’s  ap¬ 
pointment,  and  by  his  direction.  Aaron  is  as 
full  of  anxiety  as  his  brother  Instantly — for 
he  knew  that  every  moment  was  adding  fear¬ 
fully  to  the  numbers  of  the  dead  — he  runs  Muth 
his  censer  into  the  crowded  camp.  He  inter¬ 
posed  himself  between  the  infected  and  unin¬ 
fected  parts  of  the  camp,  exposing  himself  to 
the  ravages  of  the  plague  in  behalf  of  his  peo¬ 
ple.  Bishop  Hall  remarks  on  this  phrase  :  “  As 
one  that  would  part  a  fray,  he  thrusts  himself 
under  the  strokes  of  God,  and  puts  it  to  the 
choice  of  the  revenger  w’hether  he  will  smite 


him  or  forbear  the  rest  ;  he  stands  boldly  be¬ 
tween  the  living  and  the  dead,  as  one  tiiat  will 
either  die  with  them  or  have  them  to  live  with 
him  ;  the  sight  of  fourteen  thousand  carcasses 
dismayed  him  not  ;  he  that  before  feared  the 
threats  of  the  people  now  fears  not  the  strokes 
of  God.”  Beautifully  does  Aaron  here  typify 
the  love  of  Jesus,  our  great  High-Priest  and 
Intercessor,  who,  though  it  must  cost  him  his 
life  and  infinite  agonj’',  interposed  between  the 
living  and  the  dead  to  make  atonement  for  us. 
S.  K. 

If  Aaron’s  sacrifice  were  thus  accepted,  how 
much  more  shall  the  High-Priest  of  the  New 
Testament,  by  interposing  himself  to  the  wrath 
of  his  Father,  deliver  the  cfifendeis  from  death  ! 
The  plague  was  entered  upon  all  the  sons  of 
men  :  O  Saviour,  thou  stoodst  betM'ixt  the  living 
and  the  dead,  that  all  which  believe  in  thee 
should  not  perish.  Aaron  offered  and  was  not 
stricken  ;  but  thou,  O  Bedeemer,  wouldst  offer 
and  be  struck  that  by  thy  stripes  we  might  be 
healed  ;  so  stoodst  thou  betwixt  the  dead  and 
living  that  thou  wert  both  alive  and  dead  ;  and 
all  this  that  we,  when  we  were  dead,  might  live 
forever.  Bp.  H. 

It  was  the  intercession  of  Moses  and  Aaron 
■  which  saved  the  people  ;  but  it  was  necessary 
that  the  power  of  this  mediation  should  be 
made  manifest  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  bj'  a 
visible  sign,  and  thereby  the  truth  declared. 
The  same  burning  of  incense  which  in  the  hands 
of  him  who  is  not  a  priest  brings  death,  gives 
life  in  the  priest’s  own  hands.  It  vas  also  in¬ 
tended  that  the  people  should  receive  an  im¬ 
pression  of  the  greatness  of  Aaron’s  loving  de¬ 
votion  by  his  placing  himself  b(  tween  the  liv¬ 
ing  and  the  dead.  Gejl - Further,  by  the 

destructive  results  that  followed  the  attempt  of 
Korah  and  his  company  to  intrude  into  the 
priest's  office  and  burn  incense  before  the  Lord 
—as  contrasted  with  the  beneficent  effects  of 
Aaron’s  approach  with  his  censer  unto  Jehovah 
when  the  plague  was  stayed -  the  divine  and  in¬ 
defeasible  right  of  Aaron  to  the  priesthood  is 
conclusively  established.  W.  M.  T. 

Aaron's  Bod  ihat  Blossomed. 

17  ;  1-13.  In  order  to  cut  off  forever  the 
disposition  to  revolt  against  the  lawful  priest 
hood,  the  Lord  was  pleased  to  follow  up  what 
he  had  done  to  Korah  and  his  two  hundred 
and  fifty  men  and  immediately  after  to  fourteen 
thousand  seven  hundred  of  the  rebels,  with  an 
additional  sign,  and  to  settle  by  a  Divine  elec¬ 
tion  whom  he  had  called  to  serve  him  in  his 
sanctuary.  From  the  head  of  every  tribe  Moses 


5G6 


SECTION  172.  THE  HOST  QATHEUS  AT  KADESH-BARNEA. 


was  to  take  an  almond-rod  inscribed  with  the 
name  of  the  tribe,  and  add  as  the  thirteenth  one 
for  the  family  of  Aaron  with  his  name  also  writ¬ 
ten  upon  it,  and  to  bring  them  all  before  the 
Lord  into  the  tabernacle,  while  He  made  this 
Divine  intimation  to  the  people  :  The  man's 
rod,  whom  I  shall  choose,  shall  blossom  ;  that  I 
may  make  to  cease  the  murmurings  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel.”  Moses  did  as  he  was  told  ;  and 
on  the  morrow  he  brought  all  the  rods  unto  the 
children  of  Israel  from  the  tabernacle,  and  they 
saw  and  were  convinced  that  one  of  the  rods 
had  put  forth  leaves  and  blossoms  and  almonds. 
This  one  was  the  rod  of  Aaron.  Thus  did  the 
Lord  declare  by  a  new  miracle  to  whom  he  was 
pleased  to  impart  of  his  vital  Spirit  and  whom 
the  people  were  to  recognize  as  their  rightful 
mediator.  As  a  token  of  this  and  a  warning 
against  the  murmuring  of  the  people,  Aaron’s 
rod  that  blossomed  was  to  be  preserved  in  the 
sanctuary  and  in  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant  (Ileb. 
9  : 4,  5).  C.  G.  B. 

The  priesthood  was  to  be  confirmed  to  Aaron 
not  only  by  the  destruction  of  those  who  had 
presumed  to  take  it,  but  also  by  a  miracle, 
which  signified  in  a  beautiful  manner  the  holy 
fulness  of  life  which  God  vouchsafed  to  this 
order  of  men,  and  so  an  abiding  memorial  of  it 
(as  well  as  of  Korah’s  punishment)  might  be 
preserved.  Gerl. 

8.  And  it  came  topase,  that  on  the  morrow.  Not 
without  cause  the  time  is  notified,  for  by  no 
skill  could  it  be  brought  about  that  a  rod  should 
blossom  in  the  lapse  of  a  single  night.  Again, 
all  suspicion  of  fraud  was  removed  by  the  fact 
that  Moses  departed  when  he  had  placed  the 
rods  in  the  sanctuary,  and  returning  on  the 
next  daj"  brought  out  the  bundle  of  rods  before 
them  all.  Galv. 

10.  Commonly,  those  fruits  which  are  soon 
ripe  soon  wither  ;  but  these  almonds  of  Aaron’s 
rod  are  not  more  early  than  lasting  ;  the  same 
hand  which  brought  them  out  before  their  time, 
preserved  them  beyond  their  time  ;  and  for  per¬ 
petual  memory  both  rod  and  fruit  must  be  kept 


in  the  ark  of  God.  The  tables  of  Moses,  the 
rod  of  Aaron,  the  manna  of  God,  are  monuments 
fit  for  so  holy  a  shrine.  All  times  shall  see  and 
wonder  how  his  ancient  Church  was  fed,  taught, 
ruled.  Moses’s  rod  did  great  miracles,  yet  I 
find  it  not  in  the  ark.  The  rod  of  Aaron  hath 
this  privilege,  because  it  carried  the  miracle 
still  in  itself  ;  whereas  the  wmndersof  that  other 
rod  were  passed.  Those  monuments  would  God 
have  continued  in  his  Church,  which  carry  in 
them  the  most  manifest  evidences  of  that  which 
they  import.  Bp.  H. 


Read  the  Pentateuch  without  asking  minor 
questions  ;  read  it  as  a  whole,  and  then  ask 
what  are  the  impressions  it  makes  upon  the 
mind  ;  and  the  first  impression  will  be  that  God 
is  near,  direct  in  his  communication,  interested 
in  every  action,  holding  every  man  of  value  ; 
that  God  is  Critic  of  all  time.  Judge  of  all  action, 
never  afraid  after  having  blessed  the  world  to 
drown  it,  to  burn  it,  for  human  wickedness  may 
be  greater  than  Divine  blessing.  In  the  Penta¬ 
teuch  w^e  are  struck  with  the  fact  that  though 
hand  join  in  hand  the  wicked  shall  not  go  un¬ 
punished.  ”  Be  sure  your  sin  will  find  you 
out.”  There  is  more  water  in  the  clouds,  there 
is  more  fire  in  the  throne  of  God  ;  and  God  will 
not  hesitate  to  drown  the  world  or  to  burn  the 
universe,  if  so  be  that  man’s  sin  exceed  God’s 
grace.  J.  P. 

In  the  world  there  is  not  a  greater  misery  can 
happen  to  any  man  than  to  be  an  enemy  to 
God’s  Church.  All  histories  of  Christendom 
and  the  whole  Book  of  God  have  sad  records 
and  sad  stories  and  sad  threatenings  of  Korab, 
Doeg,  and  Balaam,  of  Jeroboam,  Uzzah,  and 
Ananias  and  Sapphira,  of  Julian,  and  of  heretics, 
schismatics,  and  sacrilegious  ;  and  after  all  these 
men  could  not  prevail  finally,  but  paid  for  the 
mischief  they  did  ;  they  ended  their  days  in 
dishonor,  and  left  nothing  behind  them  but  the 
memory  of  their  sin  and  the  record  of  their 
curse.  Bp.  Taylor. 


Section  172. 

THE  HOST  GATHERS  AT  KADESH-BARNEA  FOR  FINAL  DEPARTURE.  REBELLIOUS 
MURMURING  OF  THE  NEW  GENERATION.  SIN  01?  MOSES  AT  THE  ROCK  IN 
KADESH  ;  ITS  PUNISHMENT  ANNOUNCED. 

Numbees  20  : 1-13. 

Nu.  20  1  And  the  children  of  Israel,  even  the  w’hole  congregation,  came  into  the  wilderness 
of  Zin  in  the  first  month  :  and  the  people  abode  in  Kadesh  ;  and  Miriam  died  there,  and  was 
2  buried  there.  And  there  was  no  water  for  the  congregation  :  and  they  assembled  themselves 


DEATH  OF  MIRIAM.  I8RAEIJ8  MURMURING. 


567 


3  together  against  Moses  and  against  Aaron,  And  the  people  strove  with  Moses,  and  spake, 

4  saying,  Would  God  that  we  had  died  when  our  brethren  died  before  the  Lord  !  And  why 
have  ye  brought  the  assembly  of  the  Lord  into  this  wilderness,  that  we  should  die  there,  we 

5  and  our  cattle  ?  And  wherefore  have  ye  made  us  to  come  up  out  of  Egypt,  to  bring  us  in  unto 
this  evil  place  ?  it  is  no  place  of  seed,  or  of  figs,  or  of  vines,  or  of  pomegranates  ;  neither  is 

6  there  any  water  to  drink.  And  Moses  and  Aaron  went  from  the  presence  of  the  assembly 
unto  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting,  and  fell  upon  their  faces  :  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord 

7  appeared  unto  them.  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Take  the  rod,  and  assemble 

8  the  congregation,  thou,  and  Aaron  thy  brother,  and  speak  ye  unto  the  rock  before  their  eyes, 
that  it  give  forth  its  water  ;  and  thou  shalt  bring  forth  to  them  water  out  of  the  rock  :  so  thou 

9  shalt  give  the  congregation  and  their  cattle  drink.  And  Moses  took  the  rod  from  before  the 

10  Lord,  as  he  commanded  him.  And  Moses  and  Aaron  gathered  the  assembly  together  before 
the  rock,  and  he  said  unto  them,  Hear  now,  ye  rebels  ;  shall  we  bring  you  forth  water  out  of 

11  this  rock  ?  And  Moses  lifted  up  his  hand,  and  smote  the  rock  with  his  rod  twice  :  and  water 

12  came  forth  abundantly,  and  the  congregation  drank,  and  their  cattle.  And  the  Lord  said 
unto  Moses  and  Aaron,  Because  ye  believed  not  in  me,  to  sanctify  me  in  the  eyes  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel,  therefore  ye  shall  not  bring  this  assembly  into  the  land  which  I  have  given 

13  them.  These  are  the  waters  of  Meribah  ;  because  the  children  of  Israel  strove  with  the  Lord, 
and  he  was  sanctified  in  them. 


1.  Tiae  whole  eoiigregatioii  ...  in 
KadC.^ll.  At  the  close  of  the  long  period  of 
wandering  to  which  the  people  were  condemned, 
this  chapter  introduces  us  at  once  to  the  transac¬ 
tions  belonging  to  the  second  encampment  at 
Kadesh  in  the  fortieth  year  after  the  Exodus, 

“  in  the  first  month.”  Espin. - The  events 

of  history  beginning  with  Nu.  20  fall  within  the 
last  of  the  forty  years  of  wandering.  This  date 
is  obtained  indirectly  from  the  death  of  Aaron, 
which  is  recorded  at  the  close  of  this  chapter 
(verses  22-29),  and  was  connected  with  its 

events.  H.  C. - The  twentieth  of  Numbers  is 

one  of  the  saddest  chapters  in  the  book  It  be 
gins  with  the  death  of  her  who  had  been  the 
leader  in  the  song  of  victory  on  the  shores  of 
the  Red  Sea.  It  ends  with  the  death  of  him  who 
had  so  long  been  the  honored  representative 
of  Israel  in  the  holy  and  the  most  holy  place 
And,  between  the  two,  we  have  the  old  story  of 
murmuring  on  the  part  of  the  people,  and 
mercy  on  the  part  of  God,  but  with  this  sad  ad 
dition,  that  Moses  himself  has  a  fall  —a  fall  so 
serious  that  it  leads  to  his  own,  as  well  as 
Aaron’s  exclusion  from  the  land  of  promise. 
J.  M.  G. 

A  new  time  begins  for  Israel.  At  first  the  old 
rebellious  and  capricious  spirit  meets  us  ;  nay, 
even  Moses  and  Aaron  waver.  Repeated  dis¬ 
obedience  brings  fresh  punishment  after  it. 
Nevertheless,  these  outbreaks  are  not  of  so  bad 
a  character  as  the  former  ones.  A  fresh,  enter- 
prising  spirit  inspires  the  new  generation,  full 
as  it  is  of  hope,  and  destined  to  take  possession 
of  the  promised  land.  The  people  march  with 
eagerness  to  battle  and  to  victory.  Songs  cele¬ 
brating  their  triumphant  march  are  sung.  These 
are  collected  in  a  book  of  the  wars  of  the  Lord, 


and  the  fulfilment  of  the  great  promise  draws 
nigh.  Gerl. 

IHirmiii  died.  The  doom  under  which 
most  of  the  old  generation  had  by  this  time 
perished,  now  reached  the  house  of  Amram, 
Miriam,  the  elder  sister  of  Moses  and  Aaron, 
died  and  was  buried  here.  We  have  seen  her 
as  a  young  girl,  watching  the  cradle  of  Moses, 
and  aiding  in  his  deliverance.  She  is  spoken 
of  as  sharing  in  the  sacred  mission  of  her  broth 
ers.  When  she  leads  off  the  song  of  triumph 
on  the  shore  of  the  Red  Sea,  she  is  expressly 
called  “  Miriam,  the  prophetess  f'  and  the  ground 
on  which  she  and  Aaron  rebelled  against  Moses 
implies  their  iDossession  of  the  prophetic  gift  : 
“Hath  Jehovah  spoken  by  Moses?  Hath  he 
not  also  spoken  by  us  ?”  The  delay  of  the 
march  till  she  was  free  from  the  defilement  of 
her  leprosy  proves  her  high  consideration. 
Lastly,  she  bore  the  name  of  the  mother  of  our 
Lord.  Tradition  makes  her  the  wife  of  Hur 
and  grandmother  of  the  artist  Bezaleel  ;  and  it 
is  said  that  the  mourning  for  her,  as  for  her 
brothers,  lasted  thirty  dajs.  P.  S. 

Rebellions  Murmuring  of  the  New  Generation 

(verses  3-5). 

Israel  was  in  Kadesh,  or  the  Desert  of  Zin,  the 
name  applying  probably  to  the  whole  district. 
So  large  a  number  of  people  gathered  in  one 
place  would  naturally  soon  suffer  from  want  of 
water.  That  generation  knew  of  the  wonders 
of  the  Lord  chiefly  by  the  hearing  of  the  ear, 
but  of  his  judgments  by  what  they  had  seen  of 
death  sweeping  away  all  who  had  come  out  of 
Egypt.  It  now  seemed  as  if  the  prospect  be¬ 
fore  them  were  hopeless,  and  they  destined  to 
suffer  the  same  fate  us  their  fathers.  Some- 


SECTION  172.  THE  SIN  OF  MOSES, 


5fi8 

thing  of  this  unbelieving  despair  appears  in 
their  cry  :  “  Would  God  that  we  had  died  when 
our  brethren  died  before  Jehovah” — that  is,  by 
Divine  judgment  during  these  years  of  wander¬ 
ing.  The  remembrance  of  the  past  with  its  dis¬ 
appointments  seems  t  )  find  expression  in  their 
complaints.  It  is  as  if  they  contrasted  the  slay 
of  their  nation  in  Egypt  and  the  hopes  awak¬ 
ened  on  leaving  it,  with  the  disappointment  of 
seeing  the  good  land  almost  within  their  grasp 
and  then  being  turned  back  to  die  in  the  wil- 
dernes.s  !  And  so  the  people  broke  forth  in  re¬ 
bellion  against  Moses  and  against  Aaron.  A.  E. 

They  had  grown  so  weary  of  the  bread  of 
heaven  whieh  God  so  mercifully  provided  ;  and 
they  wanted  something  in  addition — something, 
too,  which  was  not  absolutely  necessary  to  their 
existence.  When  they  murmured  for  water  at 
Massah,  they  murmured  for  something  rvedfal. 
Their  sin  then  was  in  murmur  ng,  instead  ot pray¬ 
ing.  But  here  they  lusted  for  something  unnec¬ 
essary,  and  this  was  an  aggravation  of  their 
sin.  And  thus  the  psalmist  (78  : 17),  evidently 
comparing  this  sin  with  the  murmuring  at  Mas¬ 
sah,  says,  “  They  sinned  yd  more  against  him.” 

George  Wagner. - This  was  a  new  generation  ; 

murmuring  ran  in  the  blood,  yet  the  entail  of 
the  Divine  favor  was  not  cut  off  ;  but  in  this 
instance  of  it,  the  Divine  patience  shines  as 
bright  as  the  Divine  favor.  By  repeated  rebel¬ 
lions,  they  draw  upon  themselves  new  punish¬ 
ments.  They  were,  however,  a  fresh  genera¬ 
tion,  more  pliant  than  the  old,  and  not  as  yet 
so  hardened  ;  and,  inasmuch  as  they  had  not 
exhausted  the  Divine  patience  like  their  fathers, 
they  were  more  meet  to  enter  upon  the  posses¬ 
sion  of  the  promised  inheritance.  C.  G.  B. 

The  Directum  of  Jehovah  and  the  Disobedience  of 

Moses.  Punishment  Announced  {verses  7-13). 

When  the  eventful  moment  came,  Moses,  in¬ 
stead  of  saying— Ye  have  sinned  against  the 
Lord  your  God,  yet  in  his  mercy  ho  will  give 
you  rivers  of  water  from  this  rock  upon  the 
word  of  command  from  his  servant — said  as  in 
the  record — “  Hear  now,  ye  rebels,  must  we  fetch 
you  water  out  of  this  reck  ?”  In  circumstances 
where  man  should  be  nothing  and  God  all  in 
all,  it  was  one  of  the  sad  infirmities  of  the  best 
of  men  to  put  himself  so  prominently  forward 
and  thrust  the  great  God  so  ungratefully  into 
the  background.  Then,  moved  by  the  same  ex¬ 
cited  passion,  instead  of  speaking  to  the  rock 
he  smote  it  with  his  rod,  not  once  only  but 
twice.  Yet  the  Lord  did  not  rebuke  him  with 
failure,  but  despite  of  his  bad  spirit  gave  forth 
water  abundantl3\  The  rebuke  upon  both 


Moses  and  Aaron  came  shortly  after  in  the  form 
of  an  absolute  prohibition  upon  their  entering 
the  land  of  promise.  They  had  so  dishonored 
the  Lord  in  this  case  at  Kadesh  that  he  must 
needs  express  his  disapproLition  by  denying  1.) 
both  of  them  the  long-desired  consummation  of 
tntering  the  goodly  land.  If  the  Lord's  rebuke 
of  Moses  seem  severe,  let  it  be  considered  that 
his  sin  was  very  great  because  he  had  been  ad¬ 
mitted  into  so  near  communion  with  God  -  such 
communion  as  had  never  been  granted  to  any 
other  man.  If  the  guilt  of  sin  be  as  the  light 
sinned  again.-, t,  we  are  not  likely  to  overestimate 
the  guilt  of  his.  Tho  Lord  speaks  of  it  as  re¬ 
bellion  (Nu,  27  : 14).  And  manifestly  his  sin 
was  so  public  as  well  as  so  flagrant  that  it  be¬ 
came  vital  to  the  honor  of  God's  name  and  gov¬ 
ernment  to  rebuke  it  unmistakably.  H.  C. 

The  fact  that  he  smote  the  rock  impetucmsly,  and 
smote  it  twice,  is  a  part  of  the  sin,  inasmuch  as 
this  was  tho  unmistakable  effect  of  excitement 
caused  by  impatience  and  anger.  It  is  evident 
from  Ps.  106  :  32,  33,  “  they  provoked  his  spirit, 
so  that  he  spake  unadvisedly  with  his  lips” — 
that  the  sin  was  not  confined  to  the  two  pas¬ 
sionate  strokes,  but  embraced  also  his  passion¬ 
ate  words.  And  in  the  Divine  sentence  the  fact 
is  distinctly  expressed  that  his  actions  and 
words  evinced  a  temporary  xvavering  of  his 
faith  :  “  Because,  said  Jehovah,  ye  believed  me 
not  (or  did  not  place  confidence  in  me),  to  sanc¬ 
tify  me  in  the  eyes  of  the  children  of  Israel.”  K. 

Kemember  what  a  critical  time  this  was,  when 
Israel  was  taking  a  new  departure  ;  and  what 
special  care  he  ought  to  have  exercised  at  this 
juncture  to  have  his  testimony  unclouded  by 
any  weakness  or  faithlessness.  The  responsi¬ 
bility  of  Moses’s  position  was  great  at  all  times  ; 
but  it  was  pel  haps  greatest  of  all  at  this  partic¬ 
ular  time.  This  important  element  in  the  case 
must  not  be  disregarded.  But  besides  this,  we 
cannot  but  notice  that  the  impatience  which  he 
manifested  at  Kibroth-hattaavah  was  in  the 
presence  of  the  Lord  himself,  and  not  before 
the  jreople  —a  very  different  thing.  There,  he 
was  wrestling  with  God  in  jnivate.  Here,  he  is 
standing  in  the  eye  of  all.  Is  there  not  some 
reference  to  this  in  the  very  words  of  the  sen¬ 
tence  :  “  Because  ye  believed  me  not,  to  sonctify 
me  in  the  fy>s  of  the  children  of  Israel,  therefore  ye 
shall  not  bring  this  congregation  into  the  land 
which  I  have  given  them  ?  ’  J.  M.  G. 

The  Lord  desires  him  to  address  the  rock,  but 
Moses  speaks  to  Israel.  God  wishes  him  to 
speak  a  word  to  the  inanimate  stone,  and  Moses 
strikes  it  twice.  The  Lord  himself  elsewhere 
employs  in  reference  to  this  sin  the  strong  word 


AT  THE  ROCK  IN  KAHESH 


569 


rebellion ;  and  that  hard  word  is  surely  not  too 
hard.  Van  0. 

His  sin  is  characterized  in  ch.  20  : 12  by  his 
“  not  believing  God,”  and  in  verse  24,  and  ch. 
27  : 14,  as  a  “  rebelling  against  the  Word  of 
God.”  Again,  in  De,  1  : 37  ;  3  :  2G  ;  4  :  21,  the 
punishment  is  said  to  have  been  laid  on  Moses 
“for  their  sakes,’’or,  as  it  should  rather  be, 
“  because  of  their  words  ”  The  proper  account 
of  the  matter  seems  to  be  this  :  Moses  through 
their  chiding  lost  command  of  himself,  and  did 
the  work  appointed,  not  as  God’s  messenger,  in 
a  spirit  of  faith  and  holiness,  but  in  a  state  of 
carnal  and  passionate  excitement,  under  the  in- 
tluence  of  that  wrath  which  worketh  not  the 
righteousness  of  God.  The  punishment  he  re¬ 
ceived,  it  may  seem,  was  peculiarly  severe  for 
such  an  offence  :  but  it  was  designed  to  produce 
a  salutary  impression  upon  the  people  in  regard 
to  the  evil  of  sin.  And  then,  as  Moses  and 
Aaro-n  were  in  the  position  of  greatest  nearness 
to  God,  and  had  it  as  their  especial  charge  to 
represent  God’s  holiness  to  the  people,  even  a 
comparatively  small  backsliding  in  them  was  of 
a  serious  nature,  and  required  to  be  marked 
with  some  impressive  token  of  the  Lord’s  dis¬ 
pleasure.  P.  F. 

In  a  dispensation  itself  mainly  gracious,  and 
foreshadowing  one  which  would  be  grace  alto¬ 
gether,  it  w'as  of  prime  imiDortance  that  the 
mediating  men  should  be  men  merciful  and  gra¬ 
cious,  long-suffering,  and  slow  to  anger.  And 
such  they  were  in  marvellous  measure.  The 
man  Moses  was  exceeding  meek,  and  if  for  pa¬ 
tience  and  a  sweet  submissiveness  the  palm  had 
been  assigned  to  any  one  besides,  it  would  have 
been  to  Aaron,  his  brother.  But  after  all  they 
were  human.  Their  endurance  was  wonderful, 
but  it  w^as  not  inexhaustible  ;  and  on  this  occa¬ 
sion,  instead  of  hastening  in  betwixt  an  infatu¬ 
ated  people  and  the  God  against  whom  they 
murmured,  and  crying,  “  Pardon  the  iniquity 
of  this  people,  according  to  the  greatness  of  thy 
mercy,”  when  it  turned  out  that  God  had  this 
time  pardoned  already  and  was  about  to  give 
them  good  for  evil,  instead  of  faithfully  exhib¬ 
iting  the  Divine  munificence  and  calmly  asking 
the  rock  for  its  water,  they  (so  to  speak)  de¬ 
feated  the  Divine  generosity,  and  failing  to  sym¬ 
pathize  with  God’s  forgiveness,  he  was  not 
“  sanctified  in  the  eyes  of  the  children  of 
Israel.”  To  this  effort  of  long-suffering  and 
loving-kindness  the  chafed  spirit  of  Moses  and 
Aaron  \vas  unequal.  By  the  way  they  managed 
it,  they  spoiled  the  moral  glory  of  the  miracle, 
and  what  on  God’s  side  was  a  gift  of  pure  grace, 
under  their  hard  blows  and  hot  wmrds  assumed 


the  aspect  of  an  angry  gospel.  They  believed 
him  not,  to  sanctify  him  in  the  eyes  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel.  Hamilton.  . 

How  long  a  road  has  he  traversed  ere  he  has 
reached  this  fatal  Kadesh,  and  how  exemplary 
has  he  been  throughout  !  How  much  he  has 
endured  from  the  fathers  of  these  sulking  sons, 
without  becoming  wearied  or  embittered  l>y  it 
all  !  Israel  was  often  like  a  rock,  but  he  has 
never  struck  that  rock.  Through  all  those  years 
his  life  was  but  a  daily  sacrifice  of  faith  and 
true  obedience,  a  daily  prayer  for  his  people’s 
good.  He  has  not  sinned  designedly,  but  in  his 
haste.  He  is  old,  already  six  score  years  save 
one  ;  he  has  grown  gray  in  serving  Israel’s 
King  ;  may  not  the  old  man  be  forgiven  what, 
in  the  younger,  well  deserved  the  most  severe 
reproof  ?  But  Moses  cannot  say  he  did  not  un¬ 
derstand  the  will  of  God  ;  the  oracle  spoke 
plainly  enough.-  As  little  is  it  true  that  so  much 
passion  was  required  to  bring  about  what  was 
desired.  And  least  of  all  was  he  urged  to  such 
a  course  by  love,  either  to  God  or  to  his  people. 
He,  the  Lawgiver,  has  broken  the  command¬ 
ments  of  both  tables  in  their  spirit  ;  but  what 
caused  this  sin  ?  “  Because  you  believed  me  not 
God  perceived  in  Moses  what  none  of  us  would 
charge  against  the  man  of  God  :  that  the  bitter 
root  from  which  the  fruit  of  disobedience  sprung 
was  unbelief.  And  if  the  Lord  but  bring  our 
faith  and  obedience  to  a  special  test,  how  often 
may  we  see  that  we  too  merit  the  reproof  which 
brings  us  shame  :  “  Fe  believed  me  not,  neither 
sanctified  my  name!'"  Even  though  the  fruits 
and  branches  of  the  poison-plant  of  unbelief  are 
all  removed,  how  deeply  are  its  roots  sunk 
within  the  consecrated  heart  ;  and  how  often  to 
the  best  of  us  may  the  words  uttered  to  Bel¬ 
shazzar  be  justly  spoken  :  “  The  God,  in  whose 
hand  thy  breath  is  and  whose  are  all  thy  w^ays, 
hast  thou  not  glorified  !”  Van  0. 

The  best  have  their  failings,  even  in  those 
graces  that  they  are  most  eminent  for.  The 
man  Moses  was  very  meek,  and  yet  here  he  sin¬ 
ned  in  passion  ;  wherefore  let  him  that  thinks  he 
stands,  take  heed  lest  he  fall.  When  our  heart  is 
hot  within  us,  we  are  concerned  to  take  heed 
that  we  offend  not  with  our  tongue.  It  is  an 
evidence  of  the  sincerity  of  Moses,  and  his  im¬ 
partiality  in  writing,  that  he  himself  left  this 
upon  record  concerning  himself,  and  drew  not 
a  veil  over  his  own  infirmity  ;  by  which  it  ap¬ 
peared  that  in  what  he  wrote,  as  well  as  what 
he  did,  he  sought  God’s  glory  more  than  his 

own.  H. - The  most  eminent  saints  have  not 

only  failed,  but  failed  in  those  very  graces  for 
which  they  were  most  eminent,  and  that  too  by 


570 


SECTION  173.  MESSENGERS  TO  EDOM. 


means  of  temptations  far  inferior  to  others 
which  they  were  enabled  to  resist.  The  faith 
of  Abraham,  the  patience  of  Job,  the  meekness 
of  Moses,  and  the  courage  of  Peter  were  all 
found  unequal  to  the  conflict  when  left  alone  in 
the  hour  of  trial.  These  examples  are  recorded 
for  our  admonition.  Blessed  be  God  for  the 
assurance  we  have  that  help  is  laid  for  us  upon 
one  that  is  might}'  ;  upon  him  let  us  lean  in 
our  journey  through  the  wilderness  ;  to  his 
hand  let  us  look  for  the  help  we  need,  and  he 
will  make  his  grace  sufficient  for  us,  R.  Walker. 

In  Moses  himself,  who  had  been  thought 
worthy  of  so  high  grace,  the  very  least  imper¬ 
fection  must  be  chastised  in  the  most  severe 
manner.  And  in  this  very  punishment  he  ap¬ 
pears  as  the  greatest  servant  of  God  in  the  Old 

Testament  Ge7i - That  Moses  and  Aaron 

were  so  eminent  as  saints  and  representatives 
of  Jehovah,  only  made  it  the  more  necessary 
that  this  signal  failure  in  obedience  should  be 
marked  as  a  lesson  for  all  whom  God  should 
charge  with  his  missions  and  messages  in  after 
ages.  Nay,  it  is  a  law  of  his  administration  that 
the  sins  of  those  who  are  highest  in  knowledge 
or  official  station  or  prerogative  shall  be  pun¬ 
ished  with  special  severity.  Saith  Jehovah  by 
the  mouth  of  Amos,  “  Ye  only  have  I  known 
of  all  the  families  of  the  earth,  therefore  I  will 
punish  you  for  all  your  iniquities.”  Whoever 
else  may  escape,  the  Lord  will  not  fail  to  pun¬ 


ish  the  disobedience  of  his  own  favored  and 
honored  servants.  S.  R. 

It  had  been  the  aspiration  of  his  life  to  seethe 
goodly  land  of  Canaan  and  to  plant  his  childien 
—  the  great  Hebrew  nation — there  with  his  own 
hand  and  see  them  with  his  own  eyes  in  their 
glorious  home  !  The  exclusion  from  Canaan  fell 
sorely  upon  the  heart  of  Moses.  He  prayed 
earnestly  that  God  would  reverse  this  decree, 
but  in  vain.  The  Lord  shut  off  all  hope,  say¬ 
ing,  “  Let  it  suffice  thee  ;  speak  no  more  unto 
me  of  this  matter”  (De.  3  : 23-27).  Sorrowful 
are  the  words  of  Moses  :  “  I  must  die  in  this 
land  ;  I  must  not  go  over  Jordan”  (De,  4  : 21). 
H.  C.  . 


Moses  did  not  darken  that  last  year  of  his 
labor  with  any  forebodings  of  his  coming  death. 
He  simply  went  on  doing  his  daily  duties,  if 
anything  a  little  more  diligently,  just  as  the 
traveller  quickens  his  step  when  he  sees  the  sun 
hastening  to  his  setting.  He  kept  the  even  tenor 
of  his  way  precisely  as  he  had  done  before  and 
just  as  he  would  have  done  if  no  warning  had 
been  received  by  him  ;  and  he  left  all  the  rest 
to  God.  That  is  the  way  to  live,  and  that  is  the 
way  to  die.  Filling  every  day  with  God’s  ser¬ 
vice  in  the  service  of  our  generation,  at  the  last 
we  shall  get  something  better  than  Pisgah  ;  we 
shall  get  heaven,  and  be  at  home  with  Christ, 
W.  M.  T. 


Section  173. 

MESSENGERS  TO  EDOM.  RADESH  TO  MOUNT  HOR.  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  OF 
AARON.  RETURN  THROUGH  KADESH  REGION.  ARAD’S  ATTACK  AND  ISRAEL'S 
VOW.  SOUTHWARD  AND  EASTWARD  JOURNEY  THROUGH  THE  WAY  OF  THE 
RED  SEA.  THE  FIERY  SERPENTS  AND  METHOD  OF  HEALING. 

Numbeks  20  : 14-29  ;  21  : 1-10  ;  33  : 37-43,  De.  10  :  6,  7. 

Nil.  20  14  And  Moses  sent  messengers  from  Kadesh  unto  the  king  of  Edom,  Thus  saith 

15  thy  brother  Israel,  Thou  knowest  all  the  travail  that  hath  befallen  us  :  how  our  fathers  went 
down  into  Egypt,  and  we  dwelt  in  Egypt  a  long  lime  ;  and  the  Egyptians  evil  entreated  us, 

16  and  our  fathers  :  and  when  we  cried  unto  the  Lokd,  he  heard  our  voice,  and  sent  an  angel, 
and  brought  us  forth  out  of  Egypt  :  and,  behold,  we  are  in  Kadesh,  a  city  in  the  uttermost  of 

17  thy  border  :  let  us  pass,  I  pray  thee,  through  thy  land  :  we  will  not  pass  through  field  or 
tlirough  vineyard,  neither  will  we  drink  of  the  water  of  the  wells  ;  we  will  go  along  the  king’s 
hi(jh  way,  we  will  not  turn  aside  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left,  until  we  have  passed  thy 

18  border.  And  Edom  said  unto  him.  Thou  shalt  not  pass  through  me,  lest  I  come  out  with  the 

19  sword  against  thee.  And  the  children  of  Israel  said  unto  him.  We  will  go  up  by  the  high 
way :  and  if  we  drink  of  thy  water,  I  and  my  cattle,  then  will  I  give  the  price  thereof  :  let  me 
only,  without  doing  any  thing  else,  pass  through  on  my  feet.  And  he  said.  Thou  shalt  not  pass 
tlirough. 

Nu.  37  And  they  journeyed  from  Kadesh,  and  pitched  in  mount  Hor,  in  the  edge  of  the 

38  land  of  Edom.  And  Aaron  the  priest  went  up  into  mount  Hor  at  the  commandment  of  the 
Loed,  and  died  there,  in  the  fortieth  year  after  the  children  of  Israel  were  come  out  of  the 


KADESH  TO  110  UNT  IIOR. 


571 


39  land  of  Egypt,  in  the  fifth  month,  on  the  first  day  of  the  month.  And  Aaron  was  an  hundred 
and  twenty  and  three  years  old  when  he  died  in  mount  Hor, 

De.  10  6  And  the  children  of  Israel  journeyed  fromJieeroth  Bene-jaakan  to  Moserah  :  there 
Aaron  died,  and  there  ho  was  buried  ;  and  Eleazar  his  son  ministered  in  the  priest’s  office  in 
his  stead. 

Nu.  20  22  And  they  journeyed  from  Kadesh  :  and  the  children  of  Israel,  even  the  whole 

23  congregation,  came  unto  mount  Hor.  And  the  Loan  spake  unto  Moses  and  Aaron  in  mount 

24  Hor,  by  the  border  of  the  land  of  Edom,  saying,  Aaron  shall  be  gathered  unto  his  people  :  for 
he  shall  not  enter  into  the  land  which  I  have  given  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  because  ye 

25  rebelled  against  my  word  at  the  waters  of  Meribah.  Take  Aaron  and  Eleazar  his  son,  and 

26  bring  them  up  unto  mount  Hor  :  and  strip  Aaron  of  his  garments,  and  put  them  upon  Eleazar 

27  his  son  :  and  Aaron  shall  be  gathered  unto  his  pecpJe,  and  shall  die  there.  And  Moses  did  as 
the  Loan  commanded  ;  and  they  went  up  into  mount  Hor  in  the  sight  of  all  the  congregation. 

28  And  Moses  stripped  Aaron  of  his  garments,  and  put  them  upon  Eleazar  his  son  ;  and  Aaron 

29  died  there  in  the  top  of  the  mount  :  and  Moses  and  Eleazar  came  down  from  the  mount.  And 
when  all  the  congregation  saw  that  Aaron  was  dead,  they  wept  for  Aaron  thirty  days,  even  all 
the  house  of  Israel. 

20  And  Edom  came  out  against  him  with  much  people,  and  with  a  strong  hand.  Thus  Edom 

21  refused  to  give  Israel  passage  through  his  border  :  wherefore  Israel  turned  away  from  him. 

Nil.  33  40  And  the  Canaanite,  the  king  of  Arad,  which  dwelt  in  the  South  in  the  land  of 

41  Canaan,  heard  of  the  coming  of  the  children  of  Israel.  And  they  journeyed  from  mount  Hor, 
and  pitched  in  Zalmonah. 

Nu.  21  1  And  the  king  of  Arad,  which  dwelt  in  the  South,  heard  tell  that  Israel  came  by 
the  way  of  Atharim  [or,  of  the  spies]  ;  and  he  fought  against  Israel,  and  took  some  of  them 

2  captive.  And  Israel  vowed  a  vow  unto  the  Loed,  and  said.  If  thou  wilt  indeed  deliver  this 

3  people  into  my  hand,  then  I  will  utterly  destroy  their  cities.  And  the  Loed  hearkened  to  the 
voice  of  Israel,  and  delivered  up  the  Canaanites  ;  and  they  utterly  destroyed  them  and  their 
cities  :  and  the  name  of  the  place  was  called  Hormah. 

4  And  they  journeyed  from  mount  Hor  by  the  way  to  the  Bed  Sea,  to  compass  the  land  of 

5  Edom  :  and  the  soul  of  the  people  was  much  discouraged  because  of  the  way.  And  the  people 
spake  against  God,  and  against  Moses,  Wherefore  have  ye  brought  us  up  out  of  Egypt  to  die 
in  the  wilderness?  for  there  is  no  bread,  and  there  is  no  water  ;  and  our  soul  loatheth  this 

6  light  bread.  And  the  Loed  sent  fiery  serpents  among  the  people,  and  they  bit  the  people  ; 

7  and  much  people  of  Israel  died.  And  the  people  came  to  Moses,  and  said.  We  have  sinned, 
because  we  have  spoken  against  the  Loed,  and  against  thee  ;  pray  unto  the  Loed,  that  he  take 

8  away  the  serpents  from  us.  And  Moses  prayed  for  the  people.  And  the  Loed  said  unto 
Moses,  Make  thee  a  fiery  serpent,  and  set  it  upon  a  standard  :  and  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that 

9  every  one  that  is  bitten,  when  he  seeth  it,  shall  live.  And  Moses  made  a  serpent  of  brass, 
and  set  it  upon  the  standard  :  and  it  came  to  pass,  that  if  a  serpent  had  bijtten  any  man,  when 

10  he  looked  unto  the  serpent  of  brass,  he  lived.  And  the  children  of  Israel  journeyed,  and 
pitched  in  Obotb. 

Nu.  33  42  And  they  journeyed  from  Zalmonah,  and  pitched  in  Punon.  And  they  jour- 

43  neyed  from  Punon,  and  pitched  in  Oboth. 


The  region  assured  to  Esau  and  his  descend' 
ants  by  the  Divine  promise  was  Mount  Seir,  the 
mountain  range  on  the  east  of  the  Arabah,  a  region 
wholly  outside  of  the  limits  of  Canaan — the 
birthright  inheritance  bartered  to  Jacob.  The 
names  “Seir”  and  “  field  of  Edom,”  applied 
to  the  old  ranging-field  of  Esau  in  southern 
Canaan,  are  not  to  be  confounded  with  Esau’s 
Mount  Seir.  But  Edom  proper  seems  always  to 
have  included,  in  its  w'estward  stretch,  the  Ara¬ 
bah  and  more  or  less  of  the  mountain  region 
west  of  the  Arabah  and  southward  of  the  nat¬ 
ural  boundary  line  between  these  mountains 
and  Canaan  ;  southward  of  Wady  Eekreh,  with 


its  Azazimeh,  or  Mukrah,  mountain-wall  stand¬ 
ing  over  against  the  wall  of  Mount  Halak.  This 
is  fairly  to  be  inferred  from  the  Egyptian  refer¬ 
ences  to  ancient  Edom  ;  it  is  consistent  with 
our  earliest  knowledge  of  the  bounds  of  Edom  ; 
it  is  an  inevitable  deduction  from  the  early  Bible 
mentions  of  Edom’s  westward  reach.  H.  C.  T. 

- Both  Edom  and  Seir  and  Mount  Seir  cover 

a  wide  extent.  For  the  Amorites  destroyed  the 
Israelites  “  in  Seir  unto  Hormah”  (De,  1  : 44). 
Now  whatever  site  is  fixed  upon  for  Hormah 
carries  it  into  a  region  far  west  of  the  Arabah. 
So,  too,  among  the  twenty-nine  cities  of  Judah, 
toward  the  coast  of  Edom,  southward,  was  Beer- 


SECTION  173.  OUTLINE  OF  ISRAEL’S  COURSE. 


572 


sbeba  (Josh.  15  : 28).  These  facts  indicate  a 
wide  range  of  Edom  and  Seir,  westward  of  the 
Arubah.  S.  C.  B. 

Note. — Fur  a  clear  understanding  of  the  dis¬ 
tinction  between  the  r‘'gion  of  Esau’s  eailier 
occnpancy  in  and  adjoining  southern  Canaan 
(“  Land  of  Seir”  or  “  Field  of  Edom”),  and  the 
larger  definite  mountain  range  east  of  the  Ara- 
bah,  called  “  Mount  Seir,”  which  was  Esau’s 
birthright  inheritance  by  Divine  promise,  and 
fora  careful  study  of  the  manifold  Biblical  con¬ 
nections  of  each  of  these  distinct  regions,  as 
well  as  of  the  common  term  “Edom”  applied 
to  both,  see  Dr.  Trumbull’s  “  Kadesli  Barnea, ’’ 
15p.  74-102.  B. 

Outline  of  Mooerneuts  Included  in  this  Section. 

{To  be  be  studied  with  map.)  ^ 

The  line  of  contemplated  advance  into  Canaan 
at  this  time  was  a  new  one.  Not,  as  seemed  to 
be  the  plan  thirty-eight  years  before,  directly 
northward  by  way  of  Beersheba  and  Hebron, 
but  easterly,  around  the  lower  end  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  through  the  principal  highway  of  Edom 
[Wad^^  Ghuweir],  was  the  now  purposed  course. 
The  first  move  was  up  along  the  natural  boun¬ 
dary-line  of  Canaan,  from  Kadesh-barnea, 
through  the  Wilderness  of  Zin,  to  the  boundary- 
hinge  at  Jebel  Madurah,  at  the  junction  of  wadies 
Murrell  and  Madurah  ;  and  this  move  was  made 
while  messengers  were  on  their  way  to  the  King 
of  Edom  asking  permission  for  the  purposed 
traversing  of  his  territory.  There  at  Jebel 
Madurah,  or  Mount  Hor,  on  that  isolated  and 
remarkable  mountain,  at  the  very  border  line  of 
the  Land  of  Promise  yet  outside  of  it,  Aaron 
died  and  w'as  buried  ;  and  before  that  moun¬ 
tain,  on  the  borders  of  Edom  yet  not  within 
Edom's  line,  the  people  mourned  for  thirty  days 
over  the  loss  of  their  faithful  high-priest. 
Meantime,  this  forward  movement  of  regath¬ 
ered  Israel  alarmed  both  the  Edomites  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  neighboring  Canaanites  on 
the  other.  Edom’s  king  refused  his  consent  to 
Israel’s  passing  through  his  territory,  and  he 
came  dowm  against  Israel  in  force  ;  “  wherefore 
Israel  turned  away  from  him  turned  about 
from  Jebel  Madurah  and  moved  back  westerly 
along  the  course  which  had  been  taken  thither¬ 
ward.  And  as  the  Israelites  turned  back,  at  this 
time,  the  Canaanitish  King  of  Arad  came  down 
against  them. 

By  whatever  course  the  Israelites  had  origi¬ 
nally  entered  Kadesh,  or  Rithmah,  they  evidently 
went  out  from  that  region  by  the  westerly  route  ; 
for  it  is  said,  that  “  they  journeyed  from  Mount 
Hor,”  at  this  time,  “  by  the  Way  of  the  Red 


Sea.”  In  other  words,  they  passed  down  along 
by  Jebel  Araif  en-Nakah,  aud  struck  the  Red 
Sea  Road,  or  the  Hajj  route.  This  took  them 
across  the  Desert  et  Teeh,  almost  its  entire 
stretch  from  w'est  to  east  ;  “  and  the  soul  of  the 
people  was  much  discouraged  because  of  the 
[Hajj]  Road,”  in  its  dcsclateness.  [Thus  fer 
this  section.]  Reaching  the  eastern  edge  of  the 
desert,  thej’’  descended  to  the  Arabah,  and  thence 
in  due  time  they  passed  around  the  southern 
extremity  of  the  mountains  of  Seir,  by  the  Way 
of  the  Arabah,  and  turned  northw^ard  along  the 
eastern  borders  of  Seir  and  Moab,  until  they 
were  finally  opposite  the  Jordan  at  the  Plains  of 
Moab.  H.  C.  T. 

]%iu.  20  :  14-19,  “  The  Mountain  Seir” 

rises  precipitately  on  the  east  from  the  valleys 
Ghorand  Arabah,  and  is  intersected  by  a  couple 
of  narrow  wadies  from  the  w'est  to  the  east  ;  of 
these  the  Wady  Ghuweir  alone  offers  a  not  very 
difficult  route  for  a  hostile  force.  This  was 
probably  the  road  by  which  Moses,  who  per¬ 
ceived  how  difficult  it  would  be  to  force  his  waj’-, 
and  who  hoped  to  attain  his  object  by  negotia- 
tions,  desired  a  passage  from  the  Edomites,  on 
the  condition  of  buying  provisions  from  the  in¬ 
habitants.  Burckhardt. 

This  Arabah  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  de¬ 
pressions  in  the  world,  being  a  deep  trench 
from  two  to  fourteen  miles  wide,  extending,  in 
fact,  from  the  eastern  arm  of  the  Red  Sea  more 
than  three  hundred  miles,  if  we  include  the 
Dead  Sea,  the  Jordan,  and  the  Sea  of  Galilee, 
which  occupy  the  northern  portion  of  it,  but 
over  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  through  the 
Arabian  Desert  from  the  Dead  Sea  to  the  Red 
Sea.  The  mountains  on  each  side  of  this 
trench,  which  lies  thirteen  hundred  feet  below 
the  level  of  the  Mediterranean,  form  a  sort  of  a 
natural  wall.  On  the  west  side  are  the  long 
limestone  ranges  of  the  Tih,  which  range  from 
fifteen  hundred  to  eighteen  hundred  feet  in 
height,  while  the  eastern  wall  of  granite  and 
basalt,  with  overlying  porphyry,  tipped  with 
sandstone,  in  broken  cliffs  and  ridges  of  lime¬ 
stone,  is  in  many  places  covered  with  the  richest 
vegetation  and  abounds  in  sections  of  great 
fertility.  This  eastern  range  was  Esau’s  portion.* 
Now  if  Edom  would  permit  them  to  pass  up  one 
of  the  ravines  of  this  range  a  few  days’  march  to 
the  northeast  would  bring  them  to  the  plains  of 
Moab  on  the  Jordan.  S.  R. 

Xu.  33  ;  37,  De.  10:6.  While  the  mes¬ 
sengers  of  Moses  had  gone  on  their  embassy, 
the  camp  of  Israel  had  moved  forward  to  the 
border  of  E4om.  A  day’s  journey  eastward 
from  Kadesh  through  the  Wady  Murreh,  sud- 


LOCATION  OF  MOUNT  HOR. 


573 


denly  rises  a  remarkable  mountain,  quite  iso¬ 
lated  and  prominent.  Its  present  name  Mo- 
derali  preserves  the  Biblical  Moserah,  which  we 
know  from  above  passages  to  have  been  another 
designation  for  Mount  Hor.  This  was  the  nat¬ 
ural  route  for  Israel  to  take  if  they  hoped  to  pass 
through  Edom  by  the  king’s  highway,  the  pres¬ 
ent  Wady  Ghuweir,  which  would  have  led  them 
round  by  way  of  Moab  easily  and  straight  to  the 
other  side  of  Jordan.  It  was  natural  for  them 
here  to  await  the  reply  of  the  King  of  Edom. 
A.  E. 

Mount  Hor  :  Death  and  Buriad  of  Aaron. 

Nil  33  :  38,  30  ;  20  : 22-29.  Be.  10  :  6. 

“  Mount  Hor”  is  a  descriptive  title,  indicating 
a  mountain  which  is  peculiar  and  distinctive. 
Its  Hebrew  form  is  llor  ha-llar,  literally 
“  Mountain,  the  Mountain.”  There  is  a  moun¬ 
tain  which  fully  meets  the  requirements  of  the 
Bible  text,  and  the  rational  demands  of  the  nar¬ 
rative,  as  to  the  Mount  Hor  where  Aaron  died 
and  was  buried.  That  mountain  is  Jebel  Ma- 
durah,  near  the  western  extremity  of  Wady 
Fekreh,  a  little  to  the  southwest  of  the  jiasses 
Es-Sufah  and  El-Yemen.  Its  formation,  its 
location,  its  name,  go  to  identify  it  with  the 
place  of  Aaron’s  burial,  Jebel  Madurah  is  pecu¬ 
liarly  the  “  Mountain,  the  Mountain  a  moun¬ 
tain  rising  by  itself  alone  from  a  plain,  like 
Mount  Tabor.  “  This  Madurah,”  says  Crosby, 
“  is  detached  from  all  other  mountains,  and 
rises  from  the  plain  as  we  may  imagine  the  tower 
of  Babel  on  the  plain  of  Shinar. ”  Seetzen  de¬ 
scribes  it  as  a  “steep-sided”  hill,  “quite 
naked,”  and  “  surrounded  with  a  most  unfruit¬ 
ful  plain.”  Schubert  mentions  it  as  “  a  high, 
bald  mountain.”  Lord  Lindsay  calls  it  “a 
large,  singular-looking,  isolated  chalk  hill,’' 
Robinson  refers  to  it  as  “  remarkable  in  its  ap¬ 
pearance,  .  .  .  rising  alone  like  a  lofty  citadel,” 
Wilson  designates  it  as  “  an  isolated  hill  and 
Palmer  as  “a  round  isolated  hill.”  Nothing 
certainly  is  lacking  in  these  descriptions  to  show 
it  as  Hor  ha-IIar,  a  mountain  that  is  a  moun¬ 
tain,  instead  of  being  a  mountain  among  moun¬ 
tains. 

In  its  location,  Jebel  Madurah  stands  at  a  tri¬ 
angular  site,  where  the  boundaries  of  Edom,  of 
Canaan,  and  of  the  Wilderness  of  Zin,  or  in  a 
larger  sense  of  the  Wilderness  of  Paran,  ap¬ 
proach  each  other  so  as  to  pass  along  this  moun¬ 
tain  without  touching  it.  It  is  at  the  extremest 
northwestern  boundary  of  the  land  of  Edom, 
yet  it  is  not  within  that  boundary  line.  It  is  on 
the  very  verge  of  th^  Land  of  Promise,  yet  it  is 
not  wdthin  the  outer  limits  of  that  land.  The 


border  wadies — Fekreh,  Madurah,  Murreh,  and 
Hanjoorat — which  separated  Canaan  from  Edom, 
and  both  Canaan  and  Edom  from  the  unclaimed 
wilderness,  so  run  as  to  form  the  surrounding 
plain,  above  which  is  upreared  this  remarkable 
mountain-tower,  this  lofty,  solitary  mountain- 
citadel.  And  Jebel  Madurah  lies  in  a  north¬ 
easterly  direction  from  the  region  of  Kadesh- 
barnea,  in  the  line  from  Kadesh-barnea  of  the 
route  which  the  Israelites  seem  to  have  had  in 
mind,  when  they  proposed  to  pass  along  Edom’s 
royal  road  from  the  east  of  the  Arabah,  and  east¬ 
ward  of  the  Dead  Sea  ;  possibly  through  the 
broad  Wady  el-Ghuweir  which  offers  an  easy 
passage.  The  Israelites  would  not  unnaturally 
move  thitherward  as  they  planned  for  that 
route  ;  and  such  a  move  on  their  part  would 
not  unnaturally  be  looked  upon  by  the  kings  of 
Edom  and  Arad  as  a  threatening  move,  to  be 
met  and  resisted  vigorously.  Then  it  was,  on 
the  occasion  of  that  refusal,  and  the  hostile 
demonstration  that  accompanied  it,  that  Israel 
“  turned  away”  from  Edom,  turned  sharply 
from  the  northeast  to  the  southwest,  and 
journeyed  from  Mount  Hor  by  the  way  of  the 
Red  Sea  ;  went  out  into  the  “  great  and  terrible 
wilderness”  once  more,  to  strike  the  Red  Sea 
Road,  or  the  Hajj  Route  as  it  is  called  to-day. 
H.  C.  T. 

[For  additional  proofs  and  convincing  treat¬ 
ment,  see  Kddesh  harnea,  pp.  127-135.] 

The  traditional  site  for  Mount  Hor  is  Jebel 
Harun,  close  by  Petra,  the  capital  of  Edom, 
To  state  is  already  to  refute  a  supposition  which 
implies  that  Israel  had  asked  leave  to  pass 
through  Edom,  and  then,  w'ithout  awaiting  the 
reply,  marched  into  the  heart  of  Edom,  and 
camped  for  thirty  days  close  by  its  capital  ! 
Moreover,  it  is  difficult  to  understand  what 
could  have  been  the  object  of  going  so  far  south,, 
if  Israel  hoped — as  at  the  time  they  did — to 
strike  through  the  nearest  practicable  wady,  the 
road  that  led  northward  through  Edom  and 
Moab  to  the  ford  of  Jordan.  In  that  case  Jebel 
Harun  would  have  been  far  out  of  their  W'ay. 
Finally,  it  is  impossible  to  arrange  the  chrono¬ 
logical  succession  of  events  as  given  in  the 
Bible,  except  on  the  supposition  that  Moderah 
(Madurah)  was  Mount  Hor.  For,  if  the  camp  of 
Israel  had  been  near  Petra,  there  could  have 
been  no  reason  for  the  King  of  Arad  to  dread 
their  forcing  their  way  through  his  territory, 
even  as  it  seems  most  unlikely  that  he  should 
have  marched  so  far  southeast  as  Petra  to  attack 
Israel.  Accordingly,  interpreters  who  regard 
Jebel  Harun  as  Mount  Hor  are  obliged  to  sup¬ 
pose  that  the  attack  of  the  King  of  Arad  had 


574 


SECTION  173.  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  OF  AARON 


taken  place  earlier,  say,  at  the  period  indicated 
in  Nu.  20  :  22.  But  in  that  case  it  is  difficult  to 
imagine  how  the  king  could  have  heard  that 
Israel  was  “  coining  by  the  way  of  the  spies,” 
seeing  they  were  taking  exactly  the  opposite 
direction,  and  had  just  requested  permission  to 
pass  through  Edom.  Against  these  weighty 
reasons  we  have  only  the  authority  of  tradition 
in  favor  of  Harun.  On  the  other  hand,  all  be¬ 
comes  plain  and  easily  understood  if  we  regard 
Moderah  as  Mount  Hor  ;  and  the  whole  narra¬ 
tive  in  its  chronological  succession  in  Scripture 
is  just  what  we  should  have  expecteil.  A  E. 

]>iu.  :  t£4.  Aaron  slaaii  B)e  ^aSliercd 

unto  people.  “Gathered  to  his  peo¬ 
ple,”  to  a  reunion  with  the  patriarchal  fathers 
that  had  already  preceded  him,  and  whose  per¬ 
sonal  identity  and  continued  existence  is  here 
so  hopefully  indicated  for  the  comfort  of  all  true 

servants  of  God.  VhrislUeb. - This  beautiful 

expression  from  the  patriarchal  age  here  again 
returns  with  reference  to  a  man  who,  along  with 
much  infirmity,  showed  also  great  fidelity  to  the 
Lord,  especially  in  the  after  period  of  his  life. 
The  expression  involved,  at  the  very  least,  not 
merely  a  strong  desire  for,  but  a  more  cr  less 
clear  presentiment  of,  a  higher  life  beyond  the 
grave,  the  archetype  of  the  terrestrial  Canaan. 
C.  G.  B. 

‘26.  Strip  Aaron  of  liis  g^armeiits. 

Of  his  priestly  robes.  This  implied  the  divest¬ 
ing  him  of  his  office  ;  as  the  putting  them  upon 
Eleazar  his  son,  implied  the  succeeding  of 
Eleazar  to  his  father’s  office  and  dignity.  Moses 
herein  acted  as  the  minister  of  God,  who  now 
transferred  the  priesthood  to  another.  Patrick. 

- The  transference  of  his  office  to  his  son,  at 

the  command  of  God  and  by  the  hand  of  Moses, 
sets  forth  in  act  the  will  of  God  for  the  continu¬ 
ance  of  the  high-priesthood,  notwithstanding 
the  mortality  of  its  successive  inheritors  ;  and 
also  its  subordination  to  him  who  came  invested 
with  direct  authority  from  God.  Espin. 

28.  And  Aaron  died  there.  Hence, 
as  Lightfoot  has  observed,  we  have  an  “  indis¬ 
putable  proof  that  the  earthly  Canaan  was  not 
the  utmost  felicity  at  which  God’s  promises  to 
the  Israelites  aimed  ;  since  the  best  men  among 
them  were  excluded  from  it.”  The  remark  of 
some  of  the  Fathers  here  is  worthy  of  atten¬ 
tion.  “  Neither  Moses,  the  representative  of  the 
Law,  nor  Miriam,  the  representative  of  the 
prophets,  nor  Aaron,  the  representative  of  the 
priesthood  and  its  sacrificial  rites,  could  bring 
the  Israelites  into  the  possession  of  the  prom¬ 
ised  land.  This  was  reserved  for  Joshua,  who 
was  in  name  and  conduct  the  lively  type  of  our 


* 

Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.”  He  alone  can 
bring  those  who  believe  in  his  name  into  that 
rest  which  remains  for  the  people  of  God.  A.  C. 

34  :  38,  39.  The  notice  that  Aaron  was  a 
hundred  and  twenty-three  years  old  at  his  death 
in  the  fortieth  year  of  the  exodus  accords  with 
the  notice  of  Ex.  7  :  7,  that  he  was  eighty-three 
years  old  when  he  stood  before  Pharaoh.  Espin. 

- The  Pharaohs  built  lofty  pyramids  for  their 

ashes,  that  they  might  outstrip  all  other  beings 
in  the  magnificence  of  their  tombs  ;  but  no 
Pharaoh  had  ever  pyramid  or  monument  so  mas¬ 
sive  as  thatwffiich  God  thus  set  apart  for  Aaron. 
W.  G.  B. 

Scripture  has  few  more  solemn  and  majestic 
pictures  than  this  of  the  two  aged  men — broth¬ 
ers  in  heart  and  sacred  service— ascending  with 
Eleazar  to  this  wild  mountain-top.  “  In  his 
full  priestly  dress”  walked  Aaron  to  his  burial. 
He  knew  it  ;  and  so  did  all  in  that  camp,  who 
now,  for  the  last  time,  reverently  and  silently 
looked  upon  the  venerable  figure  of  him  who 
these  forty  years  had  ministered  unto  them  in 
holy  things.  There  were  no  farewells.  In  that 
typical  priesthood  all  depended  on  the  un¬ 
broken  continuance  of  the  office,  not  of  the  per¬ 
son.  And  hence  on  the  mountain-top,  Aaron 
was  first  unclothed  of  his  priestly  robes,  and 
Eleazar  his  son  formally  invested  with  them. 
Thus  the  priesthood  had  not  for  a  moment 
ceased  when  Aaron  died.  Then,  not  as  a  priest, 
but  simply  as  one  of  God’s  Israel,  was  he  “  gath¬ 
ered  unto  his  people.”  But  over  that  which 
passed  between  the  three  on  the  mount  has  the 
hand  of  God  drawn  the  veil  of  silence.  And  so 
the  new  priest  Eleazar  came  down  from  the  sol¬ 
emn  scene  on  Mount  Hor  to  minister  amid  a 
hushed  and  awe-stricken  congregation.  “  And 
when  all  the  congregation  saw  that  Aaron  was 
dead,  they  mourned  for  Aaron  thirty  days,  even 
all  the  house  of  Israel.”  A.  E. 

It  has  been  well  observed  that  the  very  defects 
of  Aaron’s  character,  and  especially  his  sin  and 
repentance  in  the  matter  of  the  golden  calf,  fit¬ 
ted  him  the  more  for  the  office  of  a  high-priest 
— “  "Who  can  have  compassion  on  the  ignorant 
and  the  erring,  for  that  he  himself  also  is  com¬ 
passed  with  infirmity.”  And  he  could  also 
sympathize  with  deep  suffering,  such  as  he  felt 
when  his  sons  Nadab  and  Abihu  were  slain  for 
their  sacrilege — “  and  Aaron  held  his  peace.” 
All  these  points  are  placed  by  the  apostle  in 
striking  contrast  to  His  priesthood,  whose  jjer- 
fect  and  sinless  human  nature  makes  him  have 
sympathy  without  infirmitj'.  P.  S. 

Despite  the  many  weaknesses  and  sins  Aaron 
had  alwa3^8,  through  the  Divine  mered«s  and  dis- 


THE  PLAGUE  OF  FIERY  SERPENTS. 


575 


cipline,  returned  to  the  Lord,  His  life  contained 
imperishable  fruits— deeds  of  faith,  of  love,  and 
of  trust  in  God,  Upward,  not  downward,  does  he 
go  in  his  death.  Though  privileged  to  see  the 
promised  land  only  at  a  distance,  his  end  was 
assuredly  in  peace  and  reconciliation  with  God 
— albeit  his  life-history  had  been  a  stormy 
one,  full  of  toils,  sufferings,  and  chastisements. 
Calmly  submissive  to  God’s  holy  but  most  gra¬ 
cious  decree,  deprived  of  his  outward  priestly 
robes,  yet  retaining  the  inward  priestly  adorn¬ 
ments  of  peace  and  hope,  of  trust  and  humble 
resignation  to  the  Divine  will  — thus  is  he  gath¬ 
ered  to  his  fathers,  and  permitted,  without  a 
protracted  struggle,  to  pass  away.  He  had  not 
lived  in  vain  ;  following  the  wise  guidance  of 
God  he  had  brought  forth  fruit,  and  therefore 
his  name  was  held  in  blessed  remembrance 
among  the  iieople,  Chris'lieh. 

Nil.  20  :  20,  28.  Now  the  messengers  re¬ 
turned  from  Edom  bringing  absolute  refusal  to 
the  request  of  passage  through  that  country. 
Not  only  so,  but  the  large  army  of  Edom  w^as 
assembling  on  the  frontier,  close  to  the  camping- 
ground  of  Israel.  If,  according  to  the  Divine 
command,  Edom  was  not  to  be  attacked,  then 
Israel  must  rapidly  retreat.  The  ordinary  route 
from  Mount  Hor  “  to  compass  the  land  of 
Edom,’ '  so  as  to  advance  northward  by  the  east 
of  Edom,  would  have  led  Israel  straight  dovm 
through  the  northern  part  of  the  Arabah,  But 
this  route  touched  the  western  boundary  of 
Edom  just  w’here,  as  w^e  gather  from  the  scrip¬ 
tural  narrative,  the  army  of  Edom  was  fcheloned. 
To  avoid  them,  it  became  therefore  necessary, 
in  the  first  place,  to  retrace  their  steps  again 
through  the  Wady  Murreh,  in  order  thence  to 
strike  in  a  southeasterly  direction  through  W’hat 
are  now  knowm  as  “  the  mountains  of  the  A.za- 
zimeh  ”  But  just  at  the  point  where  the  host 
of  Israel  w’ould  turn  southward  from  Wady 
Murreh,  they  w^ere  also  in  almost  a  straight  line 
for  the  territory  of  the  King  of  Arad.  Of  course, 
he  would  be  informed  that  Israel  had  been  re¬ 
fused  a  passage  through  Edom,  and,  finding  them 
on  the  flank  of  his  territory,  would  naturally 
imagine  that  they  intended  to  invade  it.  Nil. 
21  :  1-3.  “  And  the  Canaanitish  King  of  Arad, 
wdiich  dw  elt  in  the  Negeb  ”  (or  south  country), 
“  heard  tell  that  Israel  came  by  the  w'ay  of  the 
spies”  (or,  more  probablj",  “  the  way  of  the 
merchants,  ”  the  caravan  road)  ;  “  then  he  fought 
against  Israel,  and  took  of  them  prisoners” — 
having  j^robably  fallen  on  their  rearguard.  The 
event  is  mentioned  now  to  show  the  unprovoked 
emnitj’’  of  Canaan  against  Israel,  and  the  subse¬ 
quent  faithfulness  of  God.  For  Israel  at  that 


time  “vowed  a  vow' ’  utterly  to  destroy  these 
cities.  Many  jears  afterward  God  gave  the 
prayed-for  victory,  w'hen  the  name  of  Hormah, 
or  ban,  given  in  anticipation  of  Gcd’s  faithful¬ 
ness,  became  a  reality.  A.  E. - Joshua  con¬ 

quered  the  king  of  this  district,  and  finally  in 
the  time  of  the  early  Judges  the  ban  of  Moses 
and  his  contemporaries  was  fully  executed.  We 
have  therefore  in  the  passage  before  us  the  his¬ 
tory  of  the  actual  origin  of  the  name  “  Hormah.” 
Espin. 

The  Plague  of  Fiery  Serpents. 

Na.  21  : 4-10. 

This  probably  occurred  at  a  station  in  the 
Desert  et-Tih  (Paran),  on  the  eastward  journey 
toward  the  Gulf  of  Akabah,  and  before  reaching 
the  Arabah  Valley.  B. 

7,  Now  the  people  are  glad  to  seek  to  Moses 
unbidden.  They  had  spoken  against  God  and 
Moses,  and  now  they  humbly  ask  Moses  that  he 
would  pray  to  God  for  them.  He  that  so  often 
prayed  for  them  unbidden,  cannot  but  much 
more  do  it  requested  ;  and  now  obtains  the 
means  of  their  cure.  It  was  equally  in  the 
powder  of  God  to  remove  the  serpents,  and  to 
heal  their  stinging  ;  to  have  cured  the  Israelites 
by  his  w'ord,  and  by  his  sign  ;  but  he  finds  it 
best  for  his  people  (to  exercise  their  faith)  that 
the  serpents  may  bite  and  their  bitings  may  en¬ 
venom  and  that  this  venom  may  endanger  the 
Israelites  ;  and  that  they  thus  affected  may  seek 
to  him  for  remedy,  and  seeking  may  find  it  from 
such  means  as  should  have  no  power  but  in  sig¬ 
nification  ;  that  while  their  bodies  were  cured 
by  the  sign,  their  souls  might  be  confirmed  by 
the  matter  signified.  Bp.  H. 

§j  9.  The  Hebrews  cannot  but  acknowJedge 
a  mj'Stery  in  this  brazen  serpent,  which  our 
Lord  Christ  himself  hath  explained  in  his  dis¬ 
course  with  Nicodemus.  He  doth  not  compare 
himself  to  the  brazen  serpent  (for  what  likeness 
can  there  be  found  between  the  serpent  and  the 
seed  of  the  wmman  ;  or  how  should  light  be  fore- 
shadow’ed  by  darkness),  but  he  compares  the 
lifting  up  of  this  serpent  on  the  pole  with  his 
lifting  up,  or  crucifixion  on  the  cross.  For  so 
he  himself  expresses  his  death  and  the  manner 
of  it  ;  “  And  I,  if  I  bo  lifted  up  from  the  earth, 
will  draw  all  men  unto  me.”  And  their  looking 
on  the  serpent  in  the  wilderness,  as  evidently 
represented  men’s  believing  on  Christ  ;  and 
their  cure,  the  powerful  virtue  of  Christ’s  death 
to  preserve  all  those  that  believe  on  him  from 

perishing.  Patrick. - From  our  Lord’s  words, 

we  may  learn  :  (1)  Thatas  the  serpent  was  lifted 
up  on  the  pole  or  ensign,  so  Jesus  Christ  was 


576 


SECTION  173.  HEALING  OF  THE  SERPENT-PLAGUE. 


lifted  up  on  the  cross.  (2)  That  as  the  Israel¬ 
ites  were  to  look  at  the  brazen  serpent,  so  sin¬ 
ners  mast  look  to  Christ  for  salvation.  (3)  That 
as  God  provided  no  other  remedy  than  this  Look¬ 
ing  for  the  wounded  Israelites,  so  he  has  pro¬ 
vided  no  other  way  of  salvation  than/aii/i  in  the 
blood  of  his  son.  (4)  That  as  he  who  looked  at 
the  brazen  serpent  was  cured  and  did  live ;  so 
he  that  believeth  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  shall 
not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life.  (5)  That  as 
neither  the  serpent,  nor  looking  at  it,  but  the  in¬ 
visible  power  of  God  healed  the  people  ;  so 
neither  the  cross  of  Christ,  nor  his  merely  being 
crucified,  but  the  pardon  he  has  bought  by  his 
blood,  communicated  by  the  powerful  energy  of 
his  Spirit,  saves  the  souls  of  men.  May  not  all 
these  things  be  plainly  seen  in  the  circumstances 
of  this  transaction,  without  making  the  serpent 
a  type  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  A.  C. 

It  was  intended  to  be  a  pictorial  representa¬ 
tion  in  the  outer  physical  world,  both  of  the 
disease  and  cure  of  the  souls  of  a  fallen  race, 
bitten  by  that  old  serpent,  the  Devil,  who  se¬ 
duced  the  race  into  sin.  How  striking  does  the 
resemblance  become  as  we  look  at  it  in  this 
light !  The  disease  in  both  cases  is  similar.  In 
one  case  it  is  the  body  bitten  by  the  visible  ser¬ 
pent,  in  the  other  case  the  soul  bitten  of  him  of 
whom  the  serpent  is  the  type.  As  the  bite  of 
the  one  inflames  the  flesh  with  fiery  sores,  so 
the  bite  of  the  other  inflames  all  the  evil  pas¬ 
sions  and  lusts  of  the  soul.  In  both  cases  alike 
the  remedy  can  be  found  only  in  what  God  pre¬ 
scribes.  But  our  Lord  uses  it  to  illustrate  the 
very  central  truth  of  his  Gospel.  For  he  de¬ 
clares,  “As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the 
wilderness,  even  so  the  Son  of  Man  must  be 
lifted  up.’’  Have  you  ever  pondered  the  deep 
significancy  of  this  expression,  “  The  Son  of 
Man?”  And  yet,  in  assigning  the  ground  and 
reason  for  this,  he  declares,  “  For  God  gave  his 
only  begotten  Son."  It  was,  therefore,  an  essen¬ 
tial  element  in  the  remedy  provided  for  the  ser¬ 
pent-bitten  souls  that  the  only  begotten  Son  of 
God  should  become  also  the  “Son  of  Man,” 
And,  observe,  to  provide  the  remedy  for  the 
souls  exposed  to  death  and  dying  on  the  burning 
sin-desert,  the  Son  of  Man  must  be  “  lifted  up.” 
It  is  no  random  use  of  words,  this  “  lifted  up,” 
for  Jesus  uses  them  again,  with  remarkable  em¬ 
phasis,  in  John  12  : 32,  33  :  “  And  I,  if  I  be 
lifted  up  from  the  earth  will  draw  all  men  unto 
me.  This  he  said  signifying  what  death  he 
should  die.”  The  act  of  faith  bridges  over  the 
centuries —forgets  the  Roman  soldiers  and  the 
Jewish  mob— all  the  historic  drapery  of  the 
crucifixion,  and  sees  this  Jesus  here  and  now 


I  lifted  up  in  the  shame  and  agony,  and  yet  in 
the  majesty  of  the  crucified  One.  He  stands 
out  in  matchless  splendor  now  from  the  dark¬ 
ness  of  human  history  as  the  one  great  object 
which  can  arouse  the  self  sacrificing  enthusiasm, 
the  enduring  patience,  the  buoyant  trust  and 
hope  of  the  human  soul.  If  Jesus  had  only 
taught  us  the  guilt  of  sin  without  facing  it  for 
us  ;  the  power  of  sin  without  breaking  its  spell  ; 
the  beauty  of  holiness  without  bestowing  upon 
us  the  gifts  of  his  holy  Spirit— he  might  have 
excited  our  wonder,  indeed,  but  W’ould  only 
have  augmented  our  misery.  Thus  Jesus  “  lifted 
up”  is  the  grand  attraction,  not  because  he  is 
the  first  of  all  teachers,  but  because  he  is  the 
all-sufficient  victim  for  sin lifted  up”  avS 
such,  he  draws  all  unto  him  in  loving  obedi¬ 
ence.  It  is  by  his  sacrifice  that  he  has  such  an 
attractive  power.  And  then,  also,  by  his  good 
Spirit,  he  renews  those  thus  drawn  to  himself. 
S.  R. 

Our  condition  in  the  wilderne.ss  of  life  re¬ 
sembles  that  of  the  Israelites  in  their  wilder¬ 
ness.  Those  were  cured  who  looked  to  the  ser¬ 
pent  of  brass,  and  we  rise  to  newness  of  life  by 
lifting  our  eyes  to  the  cross.  By  the  good  pleas¬ 
ure  of  God  man  beays  an  active  and  important 
part  in  his  salvation,  but  a  part  which  is  very 
simple.  All  he  does  is  to  believe  and  look,  to 
look  and  believe.  Whoso  sees  the  Son  and  be¬ 
lieves  in  him  hath  eternal  life.  There  must  be 
something  to  look  at,  and  this  depends  solely  on 
God  ;  but  it  is  necessary  to  look,  and  this  is  the 
part  of  man.  The  object  exhibited  to  our  view 
is  of  such  a  nature  and  of  such  virtue  that  when 
looked  at  it  gives  us  life,  just  as  life  was  given 
to  those  who  looked  at  the  serpent  of  Moses.  .  .  . 
We  look,  and  we  are  saved.  We  look,  and  wo 
are  comforted.  There  is  the  blood  of  the  great 
sin-offering,  the  blood  that  cleanseth  from  all 
sin.  There  is  the  fountain  opened  for  sin  and 
uncleanness.  There  is  the  well  of  living  water, 
springing  up  into  everlasting  life.  That  cross 
is  both  death  and  life  ;  condemnation  and  par¬ 
don,  weakness  and  strength,  shame  and  glory. 
It  kills,  and  makes  alive  ;  it  wounds,  and  it 
heals  ;  it  is  wrath,  and  it  isdove  ;  it  is  terror, 
and  it  is  tenderness  ;  it  is  righteousness,  and  it 
is  grace  ;  it  is  Satan’s  victory,  and  it  is  Satan’s 
overthrow  ;  it  is  the  world’s  triumph,  and  it  is 
the  world’s  destruction  ;  it  saves  in  crucifying, 
and  it  crucifies  in  saving.  All  hell  is  there,  and 
all  heaven  is  there  ;  rebellion  is  there,  and  rec¬ 
onciliation  is  there.  Vi»et. 

That  cross  of  agony  and  shame  reared  on  Gol¬ 
gotha  shall  never  be  overturned.  Men  of  every 
race,  and  clime,  and  dye  of  guiltiness,  shall  be 


SECTION  174. 


577 


drawn  toward  it,  and  subdued  by  it.  Every¬ 
thing  else  on  earth  shall  totter  and  pass  away  ; 
laws,  customs,  institutions,  religions.  But  this 
shall  stand  unshaken  amid  the  nations.  Jews 
and  Gentiles,  wise  and  foolish,  high  and  low, 
bond  and  free,  shall  gather  round  it.  High 
looming  amid  the  civilizations  and  the  cen¬ 
turies,  it  shall  stand  and  draw  ;  working  slowly, 
it  may  be,  but  w^orking  ever  surely  till  its  work 
is  done,  and  great  voices  are  heard  shouting 
back  and  forth  athwart  the  heavens,  that  the 
kingdoms  of  this  world  are  become  the  king¬ 
doms  of  our  Lord  and  of  his  Christ,  and  he  shall 
reign  forever  and  ever.  K.  D.  H. 


The  fact  of  the  erection  of  the  brazen  serpent 


in  the  desert  is  fully  confirmed  by  2  Kings  18  : 4. 
We  are  there  told  that  the  brazen  serpent  which 
Moses  had  made  was  preserved  till  the  time  of 
Hezekiah.  and  called  Nehushtan  (brass,  copper)  ; 
that  it  had  become  an  object  of  Divine  worship 
(through  the  offering  of  incense)  ;  and  that  it 
was  destroyed  by  Hezekiah  himself,  who  broke 
it  to  pieces.  But  if  it  is  fully  established  as  a 
historical  fact  that  Moses  did  erect  the  serpent, 
it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  he  set  it  up  not 
as  a  (mere)  symbol  only,  but  also  as  a  means  of 
healing.  And  if  the  Israelites  preserved  it,  and 
subsequently  paid  it  Divine  honors,  ihis  is  only 
conceivable  on  the  supposition  that  they  asso¬ 
ciated  with  it  the  historical  recollection  of  the 
cure  that  had  been  wrought.  K. 


Section  174. 

FROM  THE  DESERT  ET-TIH  INTO  THE  ARABAH  ;  TO  ELATH  AND  EZION-GEBER 
ON  THE  RED  SEA.  NORTHWARD  ON  EASTERN  BOUNDARY  OF  EDOM,  OR 
MOUNT  SEIR,  TO  THE  VALLEY  OF  THE  ARNON.  DESERT  WANDERINGS  ENDED 
BY  TWO  SONGS  OF  GLADNESS. 

Numbers  21  : 11-18  ;  33  : 44.  De.  2  ;  1-25. 

De.  2  1  Then  we  turned,  and  took  our  journey  into  the  wilderness  by  the  way  to  the  Red 

2  Sea,  as  the  Lord  spake  unto  me  :  and  we  compassed  mount  Seir  many  days.  And  the  Lord 

3  spake  unto  me,  saying.  Ye  have  compassed  this  mountain  long  enough  :  turn  you  northward. 

4  And  command  thou  the  people,  saying.  Ye  are  to  pass  through  the  border  of  your  brethren 
the  children  of  Esau,  which  dwell  in  Seir  ;  and  they  shall  be  afraid  of  you  :  take  ye  good  heed 

5  unto  yourselves  therefore  :  contend  not  with  them  ;  for  I  will  not  give  you  of  their  land,  no, 
not  so  much  as  for  the  sole  of  the  foot  to  tread  on  :  because  I  have  given  mount  Seir  unto 

6  Esau  for  a  possession.  Y^’e  shall  purchase  food  of  them  for  money,  that  ye  may  eat  ;  and  ye 

7  shall  also  buy  w^ater  of  them  for  money,  that  may  drink.  For  the  Lord  thy  God  hath 
blessed  thee  in  all  the  work  of  thy  hand  ;  he  hath  known  thy  walking  through  this  great  wil¬ 
derness  :  these  forty  years  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  been  with  thee  ;  thou  hast  lacked  nothing. 

8  So  we  passed  by  from  our  brethren  the  children  of  Esau,  which  dwell  in  Seir,  from  the  way 
of  the  Arabah  from  Elath  and  from  Ezion-geber. 

9  And  we  turned  and  passed  by  the  way  of  the  wilderness  of  Moab.  And  the  Lord  said 
unto  me,  Vex  not  Moab,  neither  contend  with  them  in  battle  :  for  I  will  not  give  thee  of  his 
land  for  a  possession  ;  because  I  have  given  Ar  unto  the  children  of  Lot  ^or  a  possession. 

10  (The  Emim  dwelt  therein  aforetime,  a  people  great,  and  many,  and  tall,  as  the  Anakim  :  these 

11  also  are  accounted  Rephaim,  as  the  Anakim  ;  but  the  Moabites  call  them  Emim.  The  Horites 

12  also  dwelt  in  Seir  aforetime,  but  the  children  of  Esau  succeeded  them  ;  and  they  destroyed 
them  from  before  them,  and  dwelt  in  their  stead  ;  as  Israel  did  unto  the  land  of  his  posses- 

13  sion,  which  the  Lord  gave  unto  them.)  Now  rise  up,  and  get  jmu  over  the  brook  Zered.  And 

14  we  M’ent  over  the  brook  Zered.  And  the  days  in  which  we  came  from  Kadesh  barnea,  until 
we  were  come  over  the  brook  Zered,  were  thirty  and  eight  years  ;  until  all  the  generation  of 
the  men  of  war  were  consumed  from  the  midst  of  the  camp,  as  the  Lord  sware  unto  them. 

15  Moreover  the  hand  of  the  LoRDW'as  against  them,  to  destroy  them  from  the  midst  of  the  camp, 
until  they  were  consumed. 

16  So  it  came  to  pass,  when  all  the  men  of  war  were  consumed  and  dead  from  among  the 

17  people,  that  the  Lord  spake  unto  me,  saying.  Thou  art  this  day  to  pass  over  Ar,  the  border  of 

18  Moab  :  and  when  thou  comest  nigh  over  against  the  children  of  Ammon,  vex  them  not,  nor 

19  contend  with  them  ;  fori  will  not  give  thee  of  the  land  of  the  children  of  Ammon  fora  posses- 

37 


578  SECTION  174.  FBOM  THE  DESERT  ET-TIH  INTO  THE  ARAB  AH. 


20  sion  ;  because  I  have  given  it  unto  the  children  of  Lot  for  a  possession.  (That  also  is  ac- 
counted  a  land  of  Lephaim  :  Lephaim  dwelt  therein  aforetime  ;  but  the  Ammonites  call  them 

21  Zamzammim  ;  a  people  great,  and  many,  and  tall,  as  the  Anakim  ;  but  the  Loed  destroyed 

22  them  before  them  ;  and  they  succeeded  them,  and  dwelt  in  their  stead  :  as  he  did  for  the 
children  of  Esau,  which  dwell  in  Seir,  when  he  destroyed  the  Horites  from  before  them  ;  and 

23  they  succeeded  them,  and  d^^  elt  in  their  stead  even  unto  this  clay  :  and  the  Avvim  which 
dwelt  in  villages  as  far  as  Gaza,  the  Caphtorim,  which  came  forth  out  of  Caphtor,  destroyed 

24  them,  and  dwelt  in  their  stead).  Rise  ye  up,  take  your  journey,  and  pass  over  the  valley  of 
Arnon  ;  behold,  I  have  given  into  thine  hand  Sihon  the  Amorite,  king  of  Heshbon,  and  his 

25  land  :  begin  to  possess  it,  and  contend  with  him  in  battle.  This  day  will  I  begin  to  put  the 
dread  of  thee  and  the  fear  of  thee  upon  the  peoples  that  are  under  the  whole  heaven,  who 
shall  hear  the  report  of  thee,  and  shall  tremble,  and  be  in  anguish  because  of  thee. 

Nu.  21  11  And  they  journeyed  from  Oboth,  and  pitched  at  lye-abarim,  in  the  wilderness 

12  which  is  before  Moab,  toward  the  sunrising.  From  thence  they  journeyed,  and  pitched  in 

13  the  valley  of  Zered.  From  thence  they  journeyed,  and  pitched  on  the  other  side  of  Arnon, 
which  is  in  the  wilderness,  that  cometh  out  of  the  border  of  the  Amorites  :  for  Arnon  is  the 

14  border  of  Moab,  between  Moab  and  the  Amorites.  Wherefore  it  is  said  in  the  book  of  the 
Wars  of  the  Loed, 

Vaheb  in  Suphah, 

And  the  valleys  of  Arnon, 

15  And  the  slope  of  the  valle3^s 

That  inclineth  toward  the  dwelling  of  Ar, 

And  leaneth  upon  the  border  of  Moab. 

16  And  from  thence  ihey  journeyed  to  Beer  ;  that  is  the  well  whereof  the  Loed  said  unto  Moses, 
Gather  the  people  together,  and  I  will  give  them  water. 

17  Then  sang  Israel  this  song  : 

Spring  up,  O  well  ;  sing  ye  unto  it  : 

18  The  well,  cvhich  the  princes  digged^ 

Which  the  nobles  of  the  people  delved, 

With  the  sceptre,  and  with  their  staves. 

After  being  in  a  part  of  the  very  country  they 
•were  going  to  on  the  west  of  the  Dead  Sea,  they 
returned  toward  the  Bed  Sea,  and  near  the  east- 
-ern  tongue  or  gulf  of  the  Bed  Sea  on  the  south 
of  Edom  marched  round  Edom  to  the  east  of 
the  Dead  Sea,  in  order  to  enter  Canaan  from 
•ihe  east  side  of  Jordan  !  Kennicoit. 

De.  2:1.  By  the  way  to  the  Reel 
•Sea.  A  careful  study  of  all  the  connected  pas 
sages  impresses  us  with  the  reasonableness  of 
the  conjecture  that  the  plague  of  “  fiery  ser¬ 
pents”  (close  of  preceding  section)  occurred  at 
one  of  the  encampments  on  the  way  to  the  Bed 
.Sea,  in  the  Wilderness  of  et-Tih,  and  before 
descending  into  the  Arabah  to  the  stations  of 
Elath  and  Ezion  geber.  From  that  unknown 
■encampment  the  host  proceeded  into  the  Arabah 
Valley  to  these  stations  at  the  head  of  the  Gulf 
of  Akabah.  From  thence  their  course  would  lie 
northward  and  upward  on  the  eastern  border  of 
Mount  Seir,  or  Edom.  “  We  compassed  Mount 
Seir  many  days,  ”  says  Moses,  referring  to  the 
long  stay  at  these  Bed  Sea  stations  “  And  the 
Lord  said.  Turn  you  northward.”  B. 

The  great  valley  of  the  Arabah  is  the  physical 
prolongation  of  that  great  depression  which 
commences  at  the  north  with  the  valleys  of  the 


Litany  and  the  Orontis  [Mount  Lebanon],  and 
stretches  thence  southward  along  the  course  of 
the  Jordan,  the  Salt  Sea,  and  the  Ghor,  through 
the  El  Arabah  itself  into  the  Gulf  of  Akabah  ;  a 
depression  pronounced  by  Humboldt  to  be  the 
most  remarkable  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Throughout  the  whole  extent  of  this  depression 
the  strata  of  the  earth’s  crust  have  been  frac¬ 
tured  and  vertically  displaced,  so  that  those  on 
the  eastern  side  of  the  fracture  have  been  rela¬ 
tively  elevated,  or  those  on  the  western  rela¬ 
tively  lowered.  This  fracture  is  known  among 
geologists  as  a  “  fault,”  and  in  consequence  of 
the  displacement  above  stated,  the  rocks  and 
formations  on  opposite  sides  of  this  depression 
do  not  in  general  correspond  to  each  other.  The 
line  of  fault  generally  runs  along  the  eastern 
side  of  the  valley,  and  close  to  the  base  of  the 
mountains  of  granite  and  porphyry.  There  are 
no  continuous  rivers  in  the  Arabah  Valley  ;  and 
the  floods,  which  from  time  to  time  descend 
from  the  glens  opening  out  on  either  hand,  are 
speedily  absorbed  or  evaporated  on  entering  the 
plain,  Hull. 

The  general  direction  of  Israel’s  march,  in 
order  to  “  compass”  the  land  of  Edom,  was  first 
to  the  head  of  the  Elanitic  Gulf  of  the  Bed  Sea, 


NORTHWARD  JOURNEY  ON  THE  EAST  OE'  EDOM. 


579 


or  the  Gulf  of  Akabah.  Thence  they  would,  a 
few  hours  north  of  Ezion-geber  (the  giant’s  back¬ 
bone),  enter  the  mountains,  and  then  pass 
northward,  marching  to  Moab  “  by  the  road 
which  runs  between  Edom  and  the  limestone 
plateau  of  the  great  eastern  desert.”  A.  E. 

The  road  taken  by  the  Israelites,  with  the  de¬ 
sign  of  skirting  the  territory  of  the  Edomites, 
led  them  into  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
the  gnlf,  where  the  Wady  el-Ilhm  (Getnm)  af¬ 
forded  a  good  opening  through  the  mountains, 
by  which  they  could  cross  without  interruption 
to  the  eastern  side.  They  turned  to  the  north 
and  traversed  the  caravan  road,  which  is  still  in 
existence,  “  on  a  ridge  which  forms  the  western 
boundary  of  the  desert  of  Arabia,  and  the  east¬ 
ern  boundary  of  the  cultivated  country,  and  leads 
from  the  land  of  Edom  to  the  sources  of  the 
Jordan  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  Ghor.”  K. 

4.  The  name  Seir  was  perhaps  adopted  on 
account  of  its  being  descriptive  of  the  “  rugged” 
character  of  the  territory.  The  original  inhab¬ 
itants  of  the  country  were  called  IJorites,  from 
Ilori,  the  grandson  of  Seir  (Gen.  36  : 20,  22),  be¬ 
cause  that  name  was  descriptive  of  their  habits 
as  “  Troglodytes,”  or  ”  dwellers  in  caves.”  Im¬ 
mediately  after  the  death  of  Isaac  Esau  left 
Canaan  and  took  possession  of  Mount  Seir. 
When  his  descendants  increased  they  extirpated 
the  Horites,  and  adopted  their  habits  as  well  as 
their  country.  On  the  south,  Edom  reached  as 
far  as  Elath,  w^hich  stood  at  the  northern  end  of 
the  Gulf  of  Elath,  and  was  the  seaport  of  the 
Edmonites.  On  the  north  of  Edom  lay  the  ter¬ 
ritory  of  Moab,  from  which  it  was  divided  by 
the  “  brook  Zered,”  probably  the  modern  Wady 
el-Ahsy,  which  still  divides  the  provinces  of 
Kerak  (Moab)  and  Jehal  (Gebalene).  P.  S. 

The  land  of  Edom,  or  Idumaea,  stretches  along 
the  sides  of  a  rocky  ridge — Mount  Seir — which 
extends  from  the  Gulf  of  Akabah  to  near  the 
Dead  Sea.  Esau’s  descendants  held  possession 
of  it  for  manj’^  generations,  and  were  always  re¬ 
markable  for  the  intense  bitterness  of  their 
hatred  to  the  descendants  of  Jacob.  Though 
subdued  by  David  and  also  by  later  kings, 
the  Edomites  revived  from  time  to  time,  and 
when  Jerusalem  was  taken  hy  Nebuchadnezzar, 
they  were  a  powerful  nation.  By  the  Romans 
Idumaea  was  treated  pretty  much  as  a  part  of 
Juda  ;  afterward  it  seems  to  have  been  absorbed 
into  the  kingdom  of  Arabia  Petrsea.  For  many 
centuries  it  was  literally  an  unknown  land,  un¬ 
noticed  by  any  historian  and  unvisited  by  any 
traveller.  It  is  only  within  the  last  fifty  years 
that  it  has  begun  to  be  visited  and  known.  The 
interest  belonging  to  it  is  chiefly  derived  from 


the  wonderful  fulfilment  of  ancient  prophecy 
which  it  presents.  The  predictions  of  utter 
desolation  {pronounced  against  it  were  more 
than  usually  emphatic,  and  have  been  most  lit¬ 
erally  fulfilled.  At  one  time  a  very  populous 
and  fertile  kingdom,  it  is  now  an  expanse  of 
shifting  sands  and  rocky  mountains.  At  one 
time  the  highway  for  the  commerce  between 
Syria  and  India — now,  not  a  single  merchant 
passes  through  it.  Though  at  one  time  he  had 
his  dwelling  in  ”  the  fatness  of  the  earth,”  Esau 
has  now  become  most  “bare”  (Gen.  27  : 39  ; 
Jer.  49  : 10).  The  ancient  magnificence  of  the 
kingdom,  and  its  present  degradation  and  deso¬ 
lation,  are  both  most  strikingly  seen  in  the 
ruins  of  Petra.  Bozrah  (twenty-five  miles 
south  of  Kerak)  appears  to  have  been  the  ancient 
capital,  but  Petra  eclipsed  its  glory.  If  any 
city  could  have  defied  the  ravages  of  time,  that 
city  was  Petra.  Let  the  reader  fancy  a  narrow 
passage  of  two  miles,  lined  by  precipitous  cliffs 
from  four  hundred  to  seven  hundred  feet  high, 
leading  into  an  oblong  space,  where  the  rocks 
retire  to  some  distance  from  each  other  ;  let  him 
fancy  these  rocks  excavated  from  top  to  bottom — 
tombs,  temples,  and  other  buildings,  every¬ 
where  chiselled  out  of  the  solid  stone  ;  and  let 
him  fancy  the  whole  now  a  collection  of  ruins, 
without  a  single  inhabitant,  the  remains  of 
tombs  and  temples,  palaces  and  pillars,  strewn 
on  every  side,  and  he  will  have  some  concep¬ 
tion  at  once  of  the  “terribleness”  and  strength 
of  the  place  in  former  days,  and  its  marvellous 
degradation  now.  The  unbrotherly  act  of  the 
Edomites  in  refusing  the  Israelites  a  passage 
through  their  borders,  was  the  first  of  the  long 
series  of  crimes  that  provoked  upon  the  land 
and  people  of  Edom  the  heavy  -judgments  of 
God.  W.  G.  B. 

5.  Contend  not  ivitli  tUcm— i.e., 

”  which  dwell  in  Seir”^ — for  there  was  another 
branch  of  Esau’s  posterity — viz.,  the  Amale- 
kites,  who  were  to  be  fought  against  and  de¬ 
stroyed.  But  the  people  of  Edom  were  not  to 
be  injured,  either  in  their  persons  or  property. 
And  although  the  approach  of  so  vast  a  nomadic 
horde  as  the  Israelites  naturally  created  appre¬ 
hension,  they  were  to  take  no  advantage  of  the- 
prevailing  terror  to  compel  the  Edomites  to 
accept  whatever  terms  they  imposed.  They 
were  merely  to  pass  ”  through”  or  along  their 
border,  and  to  buy  meat  and  water  of  them  for 
money  (verse  6).  The  people,  kinder  than  their 
king,  did  sell  them  bread,  meat,  fruits,  and 
water  in  their  passage  alang  their  border. 
Jamieson. 

7,  When  Moses  spake  these  words  Israel  was 


580 


SECTION  174.  FROM  THE  ZERED  TO  THE  ARNON. 


near  the  verge  of  Canaan.  And  the  words  are 
retrospective.  They  are  a  testimony  to  Divine 
faithfulness  and  care  ;  “  These  forty  years  the 
Lord  thy  God  hath  been  with  thee  ;  thou  hast 
lacked  nothing.”  So  may  the  believer  say  and 
sing  as  he  closes  stage  after  stage  of  life  ;  so  will 
he  sing  when  he  closes  the  last  stage  of  all  : 
“  Not  one  thing  hath  failed  of  all  that  the  Lord 
hath  spoken.”  The  more  life  unfolds  to  him  of 
his  own  weakness,  the  louder  and  sweeter  will 
be  his  song  over  Divine  care  ;  yea,  he  will  go 
singing  to  the  heavenly  rest  !  Glemance. 

9.  He  had  previously  forbidden  them  to  enter 
the  land  of  Edom,  unless  consent  were  obtained. 
A  similar  prohibition  is  now  added  with  respect 
to  the  Moabites,  because  God  had  allotted  to 
them  the  territory  which  they  inhabited.  Inas¬ 
much  as  they  were  the  descendants  of  Lot,  and 
consequently  of  the  race  of  Abraham,  he  would 
treat  them  with  special  favor.  Calv. 

Not  very  long  before  the  return  of  the  Israel¬ 
ites  to  the  land  of  their  fathers’  pilgrimage,  the 
Moabites  and  Ammonites,  who  had  previously 
spread  themselves  as  far  as  the  Jabbok  and  the 
Jordan,  were  driven  back  by  the  Amorites  toward 
the  south  and  east,  and  an  Amoritish  kingdom 
was  established  in  Gilead  ;  so  that  the  Arnon 
was  now  the  northern  boundary  of  Moab.  This 
rendered  it  possible  for  the  Israelites  to  take 
possession  of  the  country  to  the  east  of  the  Jor¬ 
dan,  without  being  obliged  to  engage  in  hostil¬ 
ities  with  any  nations  that  were  related  to  them 
by  birth.  K. 

10-12.  The  mention  of  the  Moabites  gives 
occasion  to  the  author  to  introduce  some  notices 
of  ihe  ancient  inhabitants  of  Edom  and  Moab. 
In  Moab  dwelt,  in  the  earlier  times,  the  Emim, 
a  giant  race,  potent  and  numerous,  like  the  Ana- 
kim.  They  were  also,  like  the  Anakim,  reckoned 
among  the  Eephaim,  but  were  by  the  Moabites 
called  Emim.  The  Ilorim  appear  from  the 
name  to  have  been  a  Troglodyte  race,  inhabit¬ 
ing  the  caves  which  abound  in  the  Edomite 
range,  and  with  whom,  perhaps,  originated  the 
conception  which  was  at  a  later  period  carried 
out  in  the  marvellous  rock  city  of  Petra.  Of 
their  own  origin  nothing  is  known.  W.  L.  A. 

13.  Now  rise  up  and  get  you  over  the  brook 
Zered.  The  southern  border  of  Moab,  Zered 
(woody),  now  Wady  Ahsy,  forms  a  natural  di¬ 
vision  of  the  country  between  the  north  and 

south.  Jamieson, - 14,  This  brook  formed 

the  boundary  line  between  Edom  and  Moab,  and 
was  the  limit  of  Israel’s  wanderings  in  the  wil¬ 
derness.  They  crossed  it  thirty-eight  years 
after  the  doom  had  been  pronounced  upon  them 
at  Kadesh,  and  during  that  period  the  entire 


generation  of  those  who  had  rebelled  had  died 
out.  W.  L.  A. 

18.  Ar,  called  in  later  times  Eabbah,  was  the 
capital  of  Moab,  and  situated  twenty-tive  miles 
south  of  the  Arnon  on  the  banks  of  a  small  but 
shady  stream,  the  Beni-Hamed.  It  is  here 
mentioned  as  representative  of  the  country  de¬ 
pendent  on  it— a  rich  and  well-cultivated  coun¬ 
try,  as  appears  from  the  numerous  ruins  of 
cities,  as  well  as  from  the  traces  of  tillage  still 
visible  on  the  fields.  Jamieson. 

16-19.  The  generation  that  sinned  having 
quite  died  out,  the  people  were  now  to  cross  the 
border  of  Moab  and  advance  to  the  conquest  of 
the  promised  land.  To  the  east  of  Moab  was 
the  country  of  the  Ammonites  ;  these,  also,  the 
Israelites  were  to  leave  unassailed,  for  the  Lord 
had  given  to  them  their  land  for  a  possession. 

20-23.  Another  parenthetical  insertion,  con¬ 
taining  some  ethnographical  notices,  intended, 
probably,  to  confirm  the  assertion  that  to  the 
children  of  Ammon  God  had  given  their  land 

for  a  possession.  W.  L.  A. - What  a  strange 

insight  does  this  parenthesis  of  four  verses  give 
into  the  early  history  of  Palestine  !  How  many 
successive  wars  of  conquest  had  swept  over  its 
early  state— what  changes  of  dynasty  among 
the  Canaanitish  tribes  had  taken  place  long 
prior  to  the  transactions  recorded  in  this  his¬ 
tory  !  Jamieson. 

Mil.  21:13.  Pitched  on  the  other  side  of 
Arnon.  The  Arnon  was  without  doubt  the 
stream  or  torrent  now  known  as  the  Wady 
Mojeb,  which  breaks  its  way  down  to  the  Salt 
Sea  through  a  precipitous  ravine.  It  must  have 
been  in  the  upper  part  of  its  course,  in  the  des¬ 
ert  uplands,  that  the  Israelites  crossed  it  ;  and 
this  both  because  the  passage  lower  down  is  ex¬ 
tremely  difficult,  and  also  because  they  were 
keeping  well  to  the  eastward  of  Moabitish  terri¬ 
tory  up  to  this  point.  If  would  appear  from 
De.  2  : 26  that  Israel  remained  at  this  spot  until 
the  embassage  to  Sihon  had  returned.  That 
cometh  out  of  the  coasts  of  the  Amorites — i.e., 
the  Arnon  which  comes  down  from  the  north¬ 
east.  For  Arnon  is  the  border  of  Moab.  It  was 
at  that  time  the  boundary.  K.  W. 

It  was  a  marked  epoch  in  their  journeyings — 
almost  an  anticipation  of  the  passage  of  the  Jor¬ 
dan  itself— when,  after  having  crossed  the  water¬ 
course  or  torrent,  shaded  or  overgrown  by  wil¬ 
lows  (Zered),  that  formed  the  first  boundary  of 
the  desert,  they  passed  the  stream  of  the  Arnon 
— the  first  that  they  had  seen  since  the  Nile— 
which,  flowing  through  its  deep  defile  of  sand¬ 
stone  rocks,  parts  the  cultivated  land  of  Moab 
from  the  wild  mountains  of  Edom.  Stanley. 


JOURNEY  ENDED  WITH  SONGS  OF  GLADNESS. 


581 


14.  Tlic  I>ook  «r  Saic  Avars  of  tlie 

Lord.  Of  this  bo.)k  nothing  is  known  except 
W'hat  may  be  gaihereil  fi-oni  the  passage  before 
us.  It  w.is  apparently  a  collection  of  sacred 
odes  commemorative  of  that  triumphant  prog¬ 
ress  of  God’s  people  which  this  chapter  re¬ 
cords.  From  it  is  taken  the  ensuing  fragment  of 
ancient  poetry  relating  to  the  passage  of  the 
Arnon,  and  probaldy  also  the  Song  of  the  Well, 
and  the  Ode  on  the  Conquest  cf  the  Kingdom  of 

Sihon.  Espin. - This  book  was  probably  a 

collection  of  ballads  and  songs  composed  on 
different  occasions  by  the  w’atch-fires  of  the 
camp,  and  for  the  most  part,  though  not  per¬ 
haps  exclusively,  in  commemoration  of  the  vic¬ 
tories  of  the  Israelites  over  their  enemies.  The 
title  shows  us  that  these  were  written  by  men 
imbued  with  a  deep  sense  of  religion,  and  who 
were  therefore  foremost  to  acknowledge  that  not 
their  own  prowess,  but  Jehovah’s  right  hand 
had  given  them  the  victory  when  they  w^ent  forth 
to  battle.  Hence  it  was  called  “  The  Book  of 
the  Wars  of  Jehovah.”  J.  P. 

]¥ll.  21.  Three  quotations  are  given  succes¬ 
sively  in  this  chapter.  The  first  is  from  “  the 
Book  of  the  Wars  of  the  Lord,”  and  the  last  is 
plainly  a  triumphant  war-song.  Hence  they  all 
probably  belonged  to  the  same  book.  These 
quotations  are  made  to  relieve  the  seeming  dry¬ 
ness  of  the  details  in  these  journeys,  and  to 
show  how  melodies  of  song  and  praise,  which 
had  been  silent  in  the  wilderness,  awoke  once 
as  soon  as  they  began  to  enter  upon  the  land  of 
promise.  This  “  Book  of  the  Wars  of  the  Lord” 
was  probably  a  small  collection  of  national 
chants  or  songs  of  praise,  which  grew  up  during 
their  years  of  sojourn,  after  the  marvels  of  the 
exodus  had  wmkened  up  the  faithful  to  a  new 
sense  of  the  power  and  mercy  of  the  God  of 
Israel.  Its  chief  subjects  would  be  the  exodus 
and  the  entrance  ;  and  each  chant  or  song  being 
composed  successively  as  the  occasion  arose, 
these  brief  allusions  or  quotations  serve  to  light 
up  the  details  of  the  march  with  a  dramatic 
vividness,  scarcely  attainable  in  any  other  way. 
In  fact,  the  words  of  verse  27  (”  they  that  speak 
in  proverbs”)  seem  to  imply  that  this  last  tri¬ 
umphal  song  was  still  current  in  the  lips  of  the 
Israelite  bards,  and  had  scarcely  been  enrolled 
in  the  book  to  which  it  naturally  belonged  in  a 
wiitten  form  The  first  quotation  (verses  13-15) 
is  plainly  incomplete.  It  might  have  formed 
part  of  the  opening  words  of  a  lyrical  song 
nearly  as  follows  :  “I  will  sing  the  works  of  the 
Lord,  the  mighty  acts  of  the  God  of  Israel. 
Whut  he  did  for  us  at  the  Red  Sea,”  etc.  The 
crossing  of  the  Arnon  would  thus  be  marked,  in 


a  simple  but  impressive  way,  as  the  close  of 
their  wilderness  sojourn.  The  second  quota¬ 
tion  (verses  17,  18)  is  a  contrast  to  the  miracu¬ 
lous  smiting  of  the  rock  in  the  wilderness,  and 
marks  their  first  entrance  upon  “a  land  in¬ 
habited,”  with  “  fountains  and  depths  that 
spring  out  of  valleys  and  hills,”  The  rock  had 
been  smitten  amid  the  murmurs  of  the  people, 
but  the  well  of  the  nobhs  is  digged  amid 
their  songs  of  hope  and  joy.  The  third  quota¬ 
tion  (next  section)  is  clearly  an  Israelite  song  of 
victory  upon  the  conquest  of  Sihon.  His  former 
exploits  against  Moab  are  named,  to  make  the 
victory  of  Israel  more  impressive.  There  is  an 
abrupt  lyrical  change  from  Sihon’s  triumphs  to 
his  sudden  overthrow.  Birks. 

The  second  encampment  after  cross¬ 
ing  the  Arnon  was  called  Beer,  a  well.  The 
people  suffered  here  for  want  of  water  ;  but 
Moses  gathered  the  people  together  at  the  com¬ 
mand  of  Jehovah,  who  gave  them  water  again — 
not,  however,  by  a  miracle  in  the  ordinary 
sense,  but  by  means  of  their  own  exertions  in 
first  digging  a  well.  This  gave  rise  to  the  beauti¬ 
ful  WEim-SoNG  : 

Spring  up,  O  well  ! 

Sing  to  answer  it  ! 

Well,  which  the  princes  dug. 

Which  the  nobles  of  the  nation  bored, 

With  the  sceptre  and  their  staves. 

The  good-will  and  activity  of  the  people  which 
are  manifest  here  present  a  glorious  contrast  to 
the  bitter  spirit  and  murmuring  of  the  ancient 
Israelites.  K, 

Geographical  and  Ethnographical. 

The  deep  rocky  valley  of  the  Wady  Ahsy 
(Ahsa),  the  lower  end  of  which  is  called  Kurahy, 
divides  the  land  of  the  Edomites  from  the  J/o- 
abilish  mountains.  In  the  time  of  Moses,  and 
also  in  later  periods  of  the  Old  Testament  his¬ 
tory,  the  country  of  the  Moabites  extended 
northward  as  far  as  the  Wady  Mojeh,  through 
whose  deep  rocky  bed,  the  sides  of  which  are 
almost  perpendicular,  the  river  Arnon  flows  to 
the  Dead  Sea.  The  Wady  Keruk  (Haditheh)  in¬ 
tersects  Moabitis,  and  divides  it  into  two  nearly 
equal  halves.  As  long  as  it  received  a  certain 
amount  of  cultivation,  Moabitis  was  an  extra¬ 
ordinarily  fertile  country  ;  but  now  that  all  cul¬ 
tivation  has  been  suspended  for  many  centuries, 
it  is  barren  and  waste.  The  ancient  capital  was 
Ar,  or  Ar-Moah,  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Arnon. 
Rabha,  or  Rabbalh-Moab,  which  was  the  second 
capital,  was  situated  in  the  heart  of  the  country. 
The  fortified  city  of  Kir,  or  Kir-Moab,  the  mod- 


682 


OUTLINE  MAP  FOB  SECTIONS  174,  175. 


35 


Longitude  35  East 


from 


Green  wicli 


MOABITES  AND  AMMONITES. 


583 


ern  Kerek^  was  in  the  south,  and  stood  upon  a 
rocky  height,  not  far  from  the  northern  declivity 
of  the  Wady  Kerek,  K. 

The  Arnon  (Wady  Mojeb),  which  formed  the 
boundary  between  Moab  and  the  Amorites,  and 
at  a  later  period  between  Moab  and  Israel,  is  a 
tremendous  ravine,  more  than  two  thousand 
feet  deep,  which  cuts  its  way  through  the  plat¬ 
eau,  and  discharges  its  waters  into  the  Dead 
Sea.  The  district  south  of  the  Arnon  is  termed 
in  Ruth  1  “  the  country  of  Moab,”  and  may  be 
considered  as  Moab  proper  ;  but  Moab  extended 
at  one  period  much  farther  to  the  north,  over 
the  district  called  the  land  of  Moab”  in  De. 
1  : 5,  and  embraced  the  plain  of  Seisaban,  north 
of  tlie  Dead  Sea,  termed  in  the  Bible  Arboth 
Moab,  or  the  plain  of  Shittim,  On  the  south, 
Moab  extended  to  the  borders  of  the  Wady  Sidi- 
yeh,  or  Sell  Gharabi,  down  which  runs  a  fine 
stream,  which  is  probably'  the  brook  Zered,  that 
lay  between  Moab  and  Edom,  and  was  the  proper 
term  of  the  Israelites’  wandering.  The  charac 
ter  of  this  portion  of  the  country  is  very  similar 
to  that  north  of  the  Arnon,  an  elevated  plateau, 
with  a  rich  soil  providing  abundant  pasturage 
for  the  flocks  of  the  Bedouin,  as  it  formerly  did 
for  those  of  the  Moabites,  whose  pastoral  char¬ 
acter  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the 
country  paid  a  tribute  to  Ahab  of  one  hundred 
thousand  rams,  and  the  same  number  of  wethers 
with  their  fleeces.  The  relations  between  the 
Moabites  and  Israelites  appear  to  have  been  of 
a  mixed  character  ;  the  story  of  Ruth  points  to 
a  friendly  intercourse  between  the  two  peoples 
at  that  time,  and  at  a  later  period  we  find  David’s 
father  and  mother  dwelling  with  the  King  of 
Moab  all  the  while  that  David  was  in  the 
hold  ”  (1  Sam.  22  :4)  ;  but  with  the  exception  of 
these  instances,  the  relations  were  hostile  rather 
than  amicable.  Wi/son. 

The  Moabites  were  descended  from  Moab,  the 
son  of  Lot’s  eldest  daughter,  and  the  Ammon¬ 
ites  from  Ben-Ammi,  the  son  of  his  youngest 
daughter.  The  near  relation  between  the  two 
peoples  indicated  in  the  story  of  their  origin 
continued  throughout  their  existence.  Indeed, 
so  close  was  their  union,  and  so  near  their  iden¬ 
tity,  that  each  would  appear  to  be  occasionally 
spoken  of  under  the  name  of  the  other.  Zoar 
was  the  cradle  of  the  race  of  Lot.  From  this 
centre  the  brother-tribes  spread  themselves. 
The  Ammonites,  whose  disposition  seems 


throughout  to  have  been  more  roving  and  un¬ 
settled,  went  to  the  northeast.  The  Moabites, 
whose  habits  were  more  settled  and  peaceful, 
remained  nearer  their  original  seat.  The  Moa¬ 
bites  originally  dwelt  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
Dead  Sea,  extending  as  far  north  as  the  moun¬ 
tain  of  Gilead,  from  which  country  they  expelled 
the  Emims,  the  original  inhabitants.  But  they 
themselves  were  afterward  driven  southward  by 
the  warlike  Amorites,  wdio  had  crossed  the  Jor¬ 
dan,  and  were  confined  to  the  country  south  of 
the  river  Arnon,  which  formed  their  northern 
boundary  (Nu.  21  ;  13  ;  Judges  11  ;  18).  The 
territory  occupied  by  Moab  at  the  period  of  its 
greatest  extent,  before  the  invasion  of  the  Amo¬ 
rites,  divided  itself  naturally  into  three  distinct 
and  independent  portions.  Each  of  these  por¬ 
tions  appears  to  have  had  its  name  by  which  it 
is  almost  invariably  designated.  (1)  The  en¬ 
closed  corner  or  canton  south  of  the  Arnon  was 
the  "  field  of  Moab”  (Ruth  1  ;  1,  2,  6,  etc.).  (2) 
The  more  open  rolling  country  north  of  the 
Arnon,  opposite  Jericho,  and  up  to  the  hills  of 
Gilead,  was  the  “land  of  Moab”  (De.  1:5; 
33  : 49).  (3)  The  sunk  district  in  the  tropical 

depths  of  the  Jordan  vallej',  taking  its  name 
from  that  of  the  great  valley  itself  — the  Arabah 
— was  the  Arboth- Moab,  the  dry  regions — in  the 
Authorized  Version  very  incorrectly  rendered 
the  “plains  of  Moab”  (Nu.  22  ;  1,  etc.). 

Unlike  Moab,  the  precise  position  of  the  ter- 
litory  of  the  Ammonites  is  not  ascertainable.  In 
the  earliest  mention  of  them  (De.  2  ;  20)  they  are 
said  to  have  destroyed  the  Rephaim,  whom  they 
called  the  Zamzummim,  and  to  have  dwelt  in 
their  place,  Jabbok  being  their  border.  ‘ '  Land  ’  ’ 
or  “  country”  is,  however,  but  rarely  ascribed 
to  them,  nor  is  there  any  reference  to  those 
habits  and  circumstances  of  civilization  which 
so  constantly  recur  in  the  allusions  to  Moab. 
On  the  contrary,  we  find  everywhere  traces  of 
the  fierce  habits  of  marauders  in  their  incur¬ 
sions.  The  hatred  in  wdiich  the  Ammonites 
were  held  by  Israel  is  stated  to  have  arisen 
partly  from  their  opposition,  or,  rather,  their 
denial  of  assistance  to  the  Israelites  on  their  ap¬ 
proach  to  Canaan.  But  it  evidently  sprang 
mainlj^  from  their  share  in  the  affair  of  Balaam 
(De.  23  :  4  ;  Neh.  13  : 1).  But  whatever  its  ori 
gin,  it  is  certain  that  the  animosity  continued  in 
force  to  the  latest  date,  P.  S. 


584  SECTION  175.  8IH0N  SMITTEN,  HIS  LAND  AND  CITIES  TAKEN, 


Section  175. 

SmON  SMITTEN,  HIS  LAND  AND  CITIES  TAKEN.  OG  AND  HIS  PEOPLE  DE- 
STKOYED,  BASHAN  AND  ITS  CITIES  POSSESSED.  ENCAMPMENTS  NORTH  OF 
THE  ARNON.  FINAL  AND  PROTRACTED  GATHERING  ON  THE  ARBOTH  MOAB. 


PLAINS  OF  JORDAN. 

Numbers  21  : 21-35,  19,  20  ;  33  : 45-49. 

Nu.  21  21  And  Israel  sent  messengers 

22  unto  Sihon  king  of  the  Amorites,  saying,  Let 
me  pass  through  thy  land  :  we  will  not  turn 
aside  into  field,  or  into  vineyard  ;  we  will 
not  drink  of  the  water  of  the  wells  :  we  will 
go  by  the  king’s  high  way,  until  we  have 

23  passed  thy  border.  And  Sihon  would  not 
suffer  Israel  to  pass  through  his  border  :  but 
Sihon  gathered  all  his  people  together,  and 
went  out  against  Israel  into  the  wilderness, 
and  c»me  toJahaz;  and  he  fought  against 

24  Israel.  And  Israel  smote  him  with  the  edge 
of  the  sword,  and  jiossessed  his  land  from 
Arnon  unto  Jabbok,  even  unto  the  children 
of  Ammon  ;  for  the  border  of  the  children  of 

25  Ammon  was  strong.  And  Israel  took  all  these 
cities  :  and  Israel  dwelt  in  all  the  cities  of 
the  Amorites,  in  Heshbon,  and  in  all  the 

26  towns  thereof.  For  Heshbon  was  the  city 
of  Sihon  the  king  of  the  Amorites,  who  had 
fought  against  the  former  king  of  Moab,  and 
taken  all  his  land  out  of  his  hand,  even  unto 

27  Arnon.  Wherefore  they  that  s^^eak  in  prov¬ 
erbs  say. 

Come  ye  to  Heshbon,  let  the  city  of 
Sihon  be  built  and  established  : 

28  For  a  tire  is  gone  out  of  Heshbon,  a 

flame  from  the  city  of  Sihon  : 

It  hath  devoured  Ar  of  Moab,  the  lords 
of  the  high  places  of  Arnon 

29  Woe  to  thee,  Moab  !  thou  art  undone, 

O  people  of  Chemosh  ; 

He  hath  given  his  sons  as  fugitives,  and 
his  daughters  into  captivit}’’, 

30  Unto  Sihon  king  of  the  Amorites.  We 

have  shot  at  them  ;  Heshbon  is  per¬ 
ished  even  unto  Dibon, 

And  we  have  laid  waste  even  unto  No- 
phah,  which  reacheih  unto  Medeha. 

31  Thus  Israel  dwelt  in  the  land  of  the  Amorites. 

32  And  Moses  sent  to  spy  out  Jazer,  and  they 
took  the  towns  thereof,  and  drove  out  the 

33  Amorites  that  were  there.  And  they  turned 
and  went  up  by  the  way  of  Bashan  :  and  Og 
the  king  of  Bashan  went  out  against  them, 

34  he  and  all  his  people,  to  battle  at  Edrei.  And 
the  Loed  said  unto  Mose.-s,  Fear  him  not  :  for 
I  have  delivered  him  into  thy  hand,  and  all 


his  jjeople,  and  his  land  ;  and  thou  shalt  do 
to  him  as  thou  didst  unto  Sihon  king  of  the 

35  Amorites,  which  dwelt  at  Heshbon.  So  they 
smote  him,  and  his  sons,  and  all  his  people, 
until  there  was  none  left  him  remaining  ; 
and  they  possessed  his  land. 

Nu.  21  And  from  the  wilderness  they  jour- 

19  neyed  to  Mattanah  ;  and  from  Mattanah  to 

20  Nahaliel  :  and  from  Nahaliel  to  Bamoth  :  and 
from  Bamoth  to  the  valley  that  is  in  the  field 
of  Moab,  to  the  top  of  Pisgah,  which  lookelh 
down  upon  the  desert. 

Nu.  45  And  they  journeyed  from  1}  im, 

46  and  pitched  in  Dibon-gad.  And  they  jour¬ 
neyed  from  Dibon-gad,  and  pitched  in  Al- 

47  mon-diblathaim.  And  they  journeyed  from 
Almon-diblathaim,  and  pitched  in  the  moun- 

48  tains  of  Abarim,  before  Nebo.  And  they 
journeyed  from  the  mountains  of  Abaiim, 
and  pitched  in  the  plains  of  Moab  by  the 

49  Jordan  at  Jericho.  And  they  pitched  by 
Jordan,  from  Beth-jeshimoth  even  untoAbtl- 
shittim  in  the  plains  of  Moab. 

Be.  2  ;  26-37  ;  3  ;  1-11. 

Be.  2  26  And  I  sent  messengers  out  of  the 
wilderness  of  Kedemoth  unto  Sihon  king  of 

27  Heshbon  with  words  of  peace,  saying,  Let 
me  pass  through  thy  land  :  I  will  go  along 
by  the  high  way,  I  will  neither  turn  unto  the 

28  right  hand  nor  to  the  left.  Thou  shalt  sell 
me  food  for  money,  that  I  may  eat  ;  and  give 
me  water  for  money,  that  I  may  drink  :  only 

29  let  me  pass  through  on  my  feet  ;  as  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Esau  which  dwell  in  Seir,  and  the 
Moabites  which  dwell  in  Ar,  did  unto  me  ; 
until  I  shall  pass  over  Jordan  into  the  land 

30  which  the  Loed  our  God  giveth  us.  But 
Sihon  king  of  Heshbon  would  not  let  us  pass 
by  him  :  for  the  Loed  thy  God  hardened  his 
spirit,  and  made  his  heart  obstinate,  that  he 
might  deliver  him  into  thy  hand,  as  at  this 

31  day.  And  the  Loed  said  unto  me.  Behold,  I 
have  begun  to  deliver  up  Sihon  and  his  land 
before  thee  ;  begin  to  possess,  that  thou  may 

32  est  inherit  his  land.  Then  Sihon  came  out 
against  us,  he  and  all  his  people,  unto  battle 

33  at  Jahaz.  And  the  Loed  our  God  delivered 
Lim  up  before  us  ;  and  we  smote  him,  and 

34  his  sons,  and  all  his  people.  And  we  took 


COUNTRY  EAST  OF  THE  JORDAN. 


585 


all  his  cities  at  that  time,  and  utterly  de¬ 
stroyed  every  inhabited  city,  with  the  women 
and  the  little  ones  ;  we  left  none  remaining  : 

35  only  the  cattle  we  took  for  a  prey  unto  our¬ 
selves,  with  the  spoil  of  the  cities  which  we 

36  had  taken.  From  Aroer,  which  is  on  the 
edge  of  the  valley  of  Arnon,  and  from  the 
city  that  is  in  the  valley,  even  unto  Gilead, 
there  was  not  a  city  too  high  for  us  :  the 
Loed  our  God  delivered  up  all  before  us  : 

37  only  to  the  land  of  the  children  of  Ammon 
ihou  earnest  not  near  ;  all  the  side  of  the 
river  Jabbok,  and  the  cities  of  the  hill  coun¬ 
try,  and  wheresoever  the  Loed  our  God  for¬ 
bad  us. 

1  Then  we  turned,  and  went  up  the  waj’^ 
to  Bashan  :  and  Og  the  king  of  Bashan  came 
out  against  us,  he  and  all  his  jjeople,  unto 

2  battle  at  Edrei.  And  the  Loed  said  unto  me, 
Fear  him  not  :  for  1  have  delivered  him,  and 
all  his  people,  and  his  land,  into  thy  hand  ; 
and  thou  shalt  do  unto  him  as  thou  didst 
unto  Sihon  king  of  the  Amorites,  which 

3  dwelt  at  Heshbon.  So  the  Loed  our  God  de¬ 
livered  into  our  hand  Og  also,  the  king  of 
Bashan,  and  all  his  people  :  and  we  smote 
him  until  none  was  left  to  him  remaining. 

4  And  we  took  all  his  cities  at  that  time  ;  there 
was  not  a  city  which  we  took  not  from 
them  ;  threescore  cities,  all  the  region  of 

5  Argob,  the  kingdom  of  Og  in  Bashan.  All 
these  were  cities  fenced  with  high  walls, 
gates,  and  bars  ;  beside  the  unwalled  towns 

6  a  great  man3\  And  we  utterly  destroj^ed 
them,  as  we  did  unto  Sihon  king  of  Hesh¬ 
bon,  utterly  destroying  every  inhabited  city, 

7  with  the  women  and  the  little  ones.  But  all 
the  cattle,  and  the  spoil  of  the  cities,  we  look 

8  for  a  prey  unto  ourselves.  And  we  took  the 
land  at  that  time  out  of  the  hand  of  the  two 
kings  of  the  Amorites  that  were  beyond  Jor¬ 
dan,  from  the  valley  of  Arnon  unto  mount 

9  Hermon  ;  {which  Hermon  the  Sidonians  call 

10  Sirion,  and  the  Amorites  call  it  Senir)  ;  all 
the  cities  of  the  plain,  and  all  Gilead,  and 
all  Bashan,  unto  Salecah  and  Edrei,  cities 

11  of  the  kingdom  of  Og  in  Bashan.  (For  only 
Og  king  of  Bashan  remained  of  the  remnant 
of  the  Kephaim  ;  behold,  his  bedstead  was  a 
bedstead  of  iron  ;  is  it  not  in  Eabbah  of  the 
children  of  Ammon  ?  nine  cubits  was  the 
length  thereof,  and  four  cubits  the  breadth 
of  it,  after  the  cubit  of  a  man.) 

In  striking  contrast  with  the  west  of  Pales¬ 
tine,  with  its  narrow  vallej^s  and  broken  ridges 
of  hill,  crowded  with  towns,  and  their  sides 
ribbed  with  terraces,  stretches  forth  the  wide 


trans- J  ordanic  region  in  actual  extent  far 
greater  than  the  whole  inheritance  of  the  ten 
tribes,  if  we  except  the  south  country  of  Judah, 
yet  having  the  most  insignificant  btaring  on 
the  future  history  of  the  nation.  The  first  con¬ 
quered,  these  regions  were  the  first  lost,  and 
after  the  Assyrian  captivity  of  Israel  they  were 
never  repeopled  by  the  chosen  race,  but  re¬ 
mained  in  Gentile  occupation.  H.  B.  T. 

At  the  time  of  Moses  we  find  iwo  Araoi  itish 
kingdoms  on  the  other  side  of  the  Jordan.  The 
most  southerly  of  the  two,  between  the  Jabbok 
and  the  Arnon,  was  founded  by  King  Sihon, 
who  still  resided  at  Heshbon.  The  northern 
kingdom,  which  covered  the  whole  land  of 
Bashan,  was  governed  by  King  Og.  His  XJalace 
was  at  Ashtaroth  (Josh.  13  : 12).  The  territory 
of  Og  is  expressly  described  (De.  31  : 4)  as  an 
Amoritish  kingdom.  After  the  immigration  of 
the  Amorites,  they  soon  gained  the  upper  hand 
over  the  early  inhabitants.  K. 

From  the  Wady  Zered  on  the  south  to  the 
broad  ravine  of  the  river  Arnon  on  the  north, 
lay  the  territory  of  Moab,  also  called  Ar,  along 
the  southern  half  of  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
Dead  Sea  ;  and  a  southern  branch  of  the  Arnon 
bounded  their  country  on  the  east.  Shortly  be¬ 
fore  the  exodus,  the  warlike  Amorites  (highland¬ 
ers)  had  passed  the  Jordan  under  their  King 
Sihon,  and  had  driven  the  Moabites  and  Am¬ 
monites  out  of  the  region  between  the  Arnon 
and  the  Jabbok  ;  so  that  these  rivers  were  now 
the  southern  and  northern  boundaries  of  the 
kingdom  of  Sihon,  whose  capital  was  Heshbon. 
North  of  the  Jabbok,  the  great  upland  territory 
of  Bashan,  extending  to  Mount  Hermon,  formed 
the  kingdom  of  the  giant  Og,  who  is  also  called 
an  Amorite.  Such  was  the  state  of  the  country 
east  of  Jordan,  which  formed  no  part  of  the 
land  marked  out  for  the  first  settlement  of  the 
Israelites,  but  events  drew  them  on  to  its  con¬ 
quest.  Having  been  forbidden  to  molest  Moab 
or  Ammon,  they  had  asked  for  a  peaceable  pas¬ 
sage  through  the  former.  Probabl3%  as  in  the 
case  of  Edom,  a  direct  passage  was  refused,  but 
the  people  were  left  unmolested  in  passing  over 
the  upper  courses  of  the  Zered  and  the  Arnon, 
and  round  the  eastern  slope  of  the  intervening 
hills  by  the  margin  of  the  desert.  P.  S. 

The  country  ruled  by  Sihon  lay  between  the 
Arnon  and  the  river  Jabbok,  now  Wady  Zerka. 
The  name  most  frequently  given  in  the  Old  Tes¬ 
tament  is  the  land  of  Gilead.  In  the  Koman 
period  it  was  called  Perea.  It  is  intersected 
throughout  its  entire  extent  and  divided  into 
two  nearly  equal  parts  by  the  Wady  Ilesban, 
which  pours  its  waters  into  the  Jordan  (not  far 


58G  SECTION  175.  81II0N  SMITTEN,  HIS  LAND  AND  CITIES  TAKEN. 


from  its  mouth).  The  southern  half,  between 
Arnon  and  Wady  Hesban,  is  again  divided  in 
the  middle  by  the  Wady  Zerka  Main,  which 
flows  into  the  Dead  Sea.  In  the  time  of  Moses 
the  wh  >le  was  inhabited  aud  governed  by  the 
Amdrites  ;  but  it  had  previously  been  in  the 
possession  of  the  Moabites  and  Ammonites. 
The  former  had  been  driven  southward  across 
the  Arnon,  the  latter  more  in  an  easterly  direc¬ 
tion.  This  serves  to  explain  the  fact  that  the 
broad  plain  on  the  east  bank  of  the  Jordan  is 
constantly  designated  in  the  Pentateuch  the 
Arboth  Moab  or  Plains  of  Moab.  K. 

GILEAD, 

sometimes  called  “Mount  Gilead,”  and  “the 
land  of  Gilead,”  extended  from  the  river  Yar- 
muk  on  the  north  to  the  borders  of  Moab  on 
the  south --that  is,  to  the  Arnon.  It  would  ap¬ 
pear  that  at  a  very  early  period  the  Moabite  ter¬ 
ritory  extended  far  to  the  north  of  the  Arnon, 
and  embraced  the  “  plain  country’’  or  Mishor, 
and  southeastern  portion  of  the  Jordan  Vallej'’, 
but  that  when  the  Israelites  reached  the  coun¬ 
try  the  Moabites  had  been  driven  out  by  Sihon, 
king  of  the  Am  (rites,  who  was  in  23ossession 
and  living  at  Heshbon.  On  the  defeat  of  Sihon 
at  the  decisive  battle  of  Jahaz  the  country  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Israelites,  and  was  after¬ 
ward  given  to  Reuben  and  Gad,  but  this  partic¬ 
ular  district,  the  modern  “  Belka,  ”  still  retained 
the  distinctive  name  of  “  Mishor,”  or  some¬ 
times  the  “  land  of  Moab,  ’  and  the  fdains  east 
of  Jordan  were  also  known  as  the  Arboth  Moab, 
“  or  Plains  of  Moab.”  In  the  southern  half  of 
Gilead  were  situated  Mount  Abarim,  Mount 
Nebo,  Pisgah,  and  Peor,  which  are  mentioned 
in  connection  with  the  ajijDroach  of  the  Israelites 
to  the  Promised  Land  and  the  death  of  Moses. 
It  was  this  rich  district  of  Gilead,  with  its  abun¬ 
dant  pasturage  “  a  place  for  cattle,  ”  that  the  two 
tribes  of  Gad  and  Reuben  desired  for  their 
“  very  great  multitude  of  cattle,”  and  in  which 
they  afterward  led  a  pastoral  life,  to  which  there 
are  several  allusions  in  the  Bible.  Wilson. 

Sihon  Rejects  Moses'  Request.  He  Attacks,  and 

is  Exitrininaled.  His  Cities  Occupied  by  Israel. 

Nu.  21  :  21-30.  He.  2  :  26-37. 

Moses,  in  the  first  instance,  sent  a  message  of 
peace  to  Sihon,  projiosing  to  pass  through  his 
territory  on  the  same  terms  as  he  had  made  with 
the  Moabites  and  Edomites,  travelling  by  the 
highway,  and  paying  for  such  provisions  as  his 
followers  required.  But  this  Sihon  refused, 
and  came  out  against  Israel,  with  all  his  people, 
to  battle.  The  issue  was  that  he  was  utterly 


discomfited  ;  all  his  towns  were  captured,  he 
and  all  his  people  utterly  destroyed,  and  the 
cattle  and  spoil  of  the  whole  country  taken  for 
booty.  W.  L.  A. 

The  rejection  of  Moses’  request  by  Sihon, 
and  his  opposition  to  the  advance  of  the  Israel¬ 
ites  drew  down  on  himself  and  his  Amorite  sub¬ 
jects  the  predicted  doom  in  the  first  pitched 
battle  field  with  the  Canaanites,  and  secured  to 
Israel  not  only  the  possession  of  a  fine  and  pas¬ 
toral  country,  but  a  free  access  to  the  Jordan 
on  the  east,  Jamieson. 

25.  Now  Heshban,  a  ruined 

city,  due  east  of  the  point  where  the  Jordan 
enters  the  Dead  Sea  ;  conspicuous  from  all 
jiarts  of  the  high  plateau  on  which  it  stands, 
but  concealed,  like  the  rest  of  the  plateau,  from 
the  valley  beneath.  Espin. 

Israel' s  Song  of  Victory. 

Nu.  21  : 27-30. 

The  meaning  of  these  triumphant  proverbial 
sayings  is  this:  “Heshbon,  the  chief  city  of 
the  Amorites,  lies  overthrown.  Better  to  depict 
the  greatness  and  glory  of  the  city  the  poet  al¬ 
ludes  to  its  former  power,  when  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  the  Moabites  were  led  captive  by 
Sihon.  Israel  has  now  destro^’^ed  the  glory  of 
this  town— has  thrown  down  the  mighty  people 
with  their  spears.”  Heshbon  is  still  found  on 
the  end  of  the  Wady  Hesban,  as  also  are  places 
under  the  names  Diban  and  Madeba.  Hesban 
is  entirely  in  ruins,  but  these  bear  evidence  to 
the  considerable  circumference  and  splendor  of 
the  ancient  town.  Madeba  lies  on  a  hill,  and 
is  about  two  miles  in  circumference.  Gerl. 

On  closer  inspection  it  becomes  more  and 
more  obvious  that  this  song  of  victory  is  alto¬ 
gether  of  a  sarcastic  character,  and  is  not  a  song 
of  thanksgiving.  Come  home  to  HesJibon  -  to  the 
city,  that  is,  which  can  now  no  longer  furnish 
either  house  or  shelter  restore  (if  you  can)  the 
city,  which  is  now  laid  forever  in  ruins  !  That 
the  guilt  of  the  vanquished  may  be  the  more 
loudly  proclaimed,  a  second  voice  is  heard  re¬ 
calling  their  earlier  history.  This  Heshbon  is 
the  very  same  city  from  which  the  fire  of  war 
once  issued  forth  in  its  most  destructive  form 
against  unfortunate  Moab,  for  whose  fall  and 
the  impotence  of  its  god  Chemosh  the  most 
piteous  lamentations  had  been  uttered  !  But  at 
the  very  moment  when  these  Amorites,  who  had 
devastated  Moab  with  fire  and  sworl,  were  im 
agining  themselves  to  be  in  j^erfect  security  (the 
clear  voice  of  the  victors  now  returns  to  the 
opening  of  the  song),  our  fire  of  war  burst  forth 
from  Heshbon,  as  the  leading  and  central  place, 


B ASUAN’S  KING  AND  PEOPLE  DESTROYED. 


587 


and  burned  and  devastated  the  country  to  its 
utmost  borders.  Thus  was  Moab  avenged  by 
Israel.  That  this  ode  dates  immediately  from 
the  period  of  the  conquest,  is  also  obvious  from 
the  fact  that  shortly  afterward  (Nu.  32  : 37) 
Heshbon  was  restored  by  the  tribe  of  Eeubcn, 
and  that  henceforward  it  was  always  a  place  of 
importance.  Euoald. 

Attacked  by  Og,  King  of  Bashan.  Ills  People  De¬ 
stroyed,  his  Cities  arid  Territory  Taken  by 

T^vnpl 

Nu.  21  :  33-35.  De.  3  : 1-11. 

As  Og,  the  King  of  Bashan,  saw  at  once  that 
his  own  country  was  endangered  by  this  suc¬ 
cessful  campaign,  he  also  prepared  for  war,  and 
met  with  the  same  fate.  A  decisive  battle  was 
fought  at  Edrei,  in  which  the  army  of  Og  was 
utterly  annihilated.  As  the  whole  of  Bashan 
now  came  into  the  possession  of  the  Israelites, 
they  established  their  headquarters  in  the  Ar- 
both  Moab,  within  sight  of  the  Jordan,  opposite 
to  Jericho,  between  Beth-Hajeshimoth  and  Abel- 

Shittim.  K. - Thus  Israel  became  possessed  of 

two  kingdoms— whose  united  territories  ex¬ 
tended  from  the  river  Arnon  to  the  roots  of 
Lebanon — forming  one  of  the  finest  countries 
in  the  world,  well  wooded,  and  full  of  rich  pas¬ 
tures.  Thus  Israel  began  its  career  of  conquest 
by  acquiring  a  valuable  possession  over  and 
above  what  had  been  promised  to  them  ;  and 
by  this  their  faith  must  have  been  much  encour¬ 
aged.  Kit. 

The  boundaries  of  Bashan,  the  northern  por¬ 
tion  of  Manasseh’s  inheritance,  are  very  clearly 
laid  down.  It  extended  from  the  southern 
slopes  of  Mount  Hermon  in  the  north,  to  Gilead 
in  the  south— the  frontier  line  between  Bashan 
and  the  northern  Gilead  of  King  Og  being  the 
river  Ilieromax  or  Sheriat-el-Mandhur,  which 
runs  due  west  and  enters  the  Jordan  jast  below 
the  Sea  of  Galilee.  North  of  this  the  country 
is  comparatively  flat,  a  high  table-land,  whence 
the  name  Bashan — i.e.,  “  level  while  south 
of  it  is  the  undulating  and  rugged  country  of 
Gilead.  The  Upper  Jordan  and  the  Sea  of  Gal¬ 
ilee  bounded  Bashan  on  the  west,  the  city  of 
Salcah  and  the  country  of  the  Geshurites  and  of 

the  Maacathites,  on  the  east.  H.  B.  T. - 

The  region  of  Bashan,  as  Scripture  informs  us 
in  many  places,  was  fertile,  and  famous  for  its 
rich  pastures  ;  Moses  also  testifies  to  its  great 
extent.  In  Psalm  135  : 10-12  God’s  power  and 
goodness  is  magnified  in  reference  to  these  vie 
tories  ;  because  he  ‘  ‘  slew  mighty  kings  Sihon 
king  of  the  Amorites,  and  Og  King  of  Bashan. 
and  gave  their  land  for  a  heritage,  a  heritage 


unto  his  people.”  Galv. - Bashan  was  famous 

for  its  kine  in  Bible  times,  and  is  so  still.  In 
southern  Palestine  I  observed  flocks  of  sheep 
and  goats  in  numberless  instances,  yet  saw  no 
herds  of  kine.  But  coming  into  the  northern 
country,  opposite  Bashan,  on  the  slopes  of 
Little  Hermon  and  the  wooded  plain  noith  of 
Tabor,  our  party  encountered  immense  herds. 
N.  C.  B. 

De.  3  :  4.  Reg^ioii  of  Arg^ob.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  mention  a  spot  in  civilized  lands 
which  could  be  compared  to  this  ancient  region 
in  regard  to  its  wild  and  savage  aspect.  The 
lava  bed  proper  embraces  about  three  hundred 
and  fifty  square  miles,  and  its  average  height 
above  the  surrounding  plain  is  perhaps  twenty 
feet.  The  bed  in  its  outline  or  edge  is  far  from 
being  regular,  but  sends  out  at  a  multitude  of 
points  black  promontories  of  rock  into  the  sur¬ 
rounding  plain.  Argob,  or  the  Lejah  itself,  is  a 
great  plain,  and  one  of  the  strangest  on  earth. 
The  surface  is  black,  and  has  the  appearance  of 
the  sea  when  it  is  in  motion  beneath  a  dark, 
cloudy  skj^  and  when  the  waves  are  of  good  size 
but  without  any  white  crests  of  foam.  But  this 
sea  of  lava  is  motionless,  and  its  great  waves  are 
petrified.  In  the  process  of  cooling  the  lava 
cracked,  and  in  some  cases  the  layers  of  great 
basalt  blocks  look  as  if  they  had  been  prepared 
and  placed  where  they  are  by  artificial  means. 
In  other  cases,  the  hillocks  have  split  length¬ 
wise,  or  sometimes  into  several  portions,  and 
thus  seams  have  been  opened,  forming  great 
fissures  and  chasms  which  cannot  be  crossed. 
Merrill. 

4,  5.  Tlireeicore  cities,  fenced  with 
liig^ii  wails,  g^ates,  and  bars,  besidi^s 
unwalSed  toiviis,  a  great  iiiaiiy.  That 

sixty  walled  cities,  besides  unwalled  towns  a  great 
many,  should  exist  in  a  small  province,  at  such 
a  remote  age,  far  from  the  sea,  with  no  rivers 
and  little  commerce,  appeared  to  be  inexplic¬ 
able.  Inexplicable,  mysterious  though  it  ap¬ 
peared,  it  was  true.  On  the  spot,  with  my  own 
eyes,  I  now  verified  it.  The  walled  cities,  with 
their  ponderous  gates  of  stone,  are  there  now 
as  they  were  when  the  Israelites  invaded  the 
land.  Some  of  them  retain  the  ancient  names 
recorded  in  the  Bible.  I  have  more  than  once 
entered  a  deserted  city  in  the  evening,  taken 
possession  of  a  comfortable  house,  and  spent 
the  night  in  peace.  Many  of  the  houses  in  the 
ancient  cities  of  Bashan  are  perfect,  as  if  only 
finished  yesterday.  The  walls  are  sound,  the 
roofs  unbroken,  the  doors,  and  even  the  window- 
shutters  in  their  places.  The  great  numbers  of 
unwalled  towns  are  there,  too,  standing  testi- 


588 


SECT  [ON  175.  CITIES  AND  TEBRITORT  OF  BASE  AN. 


monies  to  the  truth  and  accuracy  of  Moses,  and 
monumental  protests  against  the  poetical  inter¬ 
pretations  of  modern  rationalists.  There  are 
the  roads  once  thronged  by  the  teeming  popu¬ 
lation  ;  there  are  the  fields  they  enclosed  and 
cultivated  ;  there  are  the  terraces  they  built  up  ; 
there  are  the  vineyards  and  orchards  they 
planted  ;  all  alike  desolate,  not  poetically  or 
ideally,  but  literally  “  without  man,  and  with¬ 
out  inhabitant,  and  without  beast.”  J.  L.  P. 

- It  is  astonishing  to  learn  that,  in  some  of 

these  ancient  cities,  from  two  to  five  hundred 
houses  have  been  found  perfect,  but  without  a 
solitary  inhabitant.  Prom  the  battlements  of 
the  Castle  of  Salcah,  Dr.  Porter  counted  no 
fewer  than  thirty  towns  and  villages  dotting  the 
vast  plain,  many  of  them  perfect  as  when  first 
built,  and  “  yet,  for  more  than  five  centuries, 
there  has  not  been  an  inhabitant  in  one  of 
them  ”  All  that  has  been  recently  discovered 
has  completely  established  the  descriptions  in 
the  \vritings  of  Moses  and  the  prophets.  To 
the  very  letter  their  statements  have  been  vin¬ 
dicated  by  architectural  remains,  which  are  with¬ 
out  a  parallel.  W.  Fraser. 

1 8.  Bedi^tcacl  of  iron.  The“  iron”  w  as 
probablj^  the  black  basalt  of  the  country,  which 
not  only  contains  a  large  proportion,  about 
twenty  per  cent,  of  iron,  but  was  actually  called 
iron,  and  is  still  so  regarded  by  the  Arabians. 
The  word  translated  “  bedstead  ”  may  certainly 
mean  ”  bier,”  and  perhaps  does  so  in  this  pas¬ 
sage.  Modern  travellers  have  discovered  in  the 
territories  of  Og  sarcophagi  as  well  as  many 
other  articles  made  of  the  black  basalt  of  the 
country.  Is  it  not  in  Rabbath  of  the  children  of 
Ammon?  Probably  after  the  defeat  and  death  of 
Og  at  Edrei  the  remnant  of  his  army  fled  into 
the  territory  of  the  friendly  Ammonites,  and 
carried  with  them  the  corpse  of  the  giant  king. 
Rabbah  was  not  captured  by  the  Israelites  till 
the  time  of  David  ;  but  it  is  not  likely  that  this 
remarkable  relic  would  remain  at  Rabbah  un¬ 
known  to  them.  ]\litie  cubits.  The  bedstead 
or  sarcophagus  would  thus  be  from  thirteen  to 
fourteen  feet  long  :  but  was  of  course  consider¬ 
ably  larger  than  the  body  of  the  man  for  whom 
it  was  designed.  Espin. 

It  was  not  for  nought  that  Og  and  his  people 
were  dispossessed.  Great  strength  was  com¬ 
bined  with  ghastly  wickedness.  This  is  the 
reason  why  they  were  swept  away.  Unless  a 
nation  is  accomplishing  God’s  purposes,  it  will 
not  be  spared  to  fulfil  its  owm  !  Whether  it  is 
best  for  the  world  that  a  nation  should  continue 
in  being  depends  on  the  virtue,  purity,  and  piety 
of  the  people  who  compose  it.  If  virtue  be 


a-wanting,  no  number  of  cities  and  towns,  nor 
any  strength  and  hardness  in  the  race,  will 
shield  a  nation  from  absolute  extinction.  Ciem- 
atice. 

In  reading  the  Old  Testament  account  of  the 
terrible  destruction  brought  upon  these  nations, 
we  are  to  bear  in  mind  that  we  are  reading  the 
execution  of  a  dreadful  but  just  sentence,  pro¬ 
nounced  by  God  against  their  intolerable  and 
incorrigible  crimes  ;  that  they  were  intended  to 
be  made  an  example  to  the  whole  wmrld  of  God’s 
avenging  wrath  agiiinst  sins  of  such  a  magni¬ 
tude  and  such  a  kind  ;  that  the  miseries  inflicted 
upon  the  nations  by  the  invasion  of  the  Jews 
were  expressly  declared  to  be  inflicted  on  ac¬ 
count  of  their  abominable  sins  ;  that  God  had 
borne  with  them  long  ;  that  he  did  not  proceed 
to  execute  his  judgments  till  their  wickedness 
was  full  ;  that  the  Israelites  were  mere  instru¬ 
ments  in  the  hands  of  a  righteous  Providence 
for  effecting  the  extermination  of  a  people 
whom  it  was  necessary  to  make  a  public  example 
to  the  rest  of  mankind  ;  that  this  extermination, 
which  might  have  been  accomplished  by  a  pes¬ 
tilence,  by  fire,  by  earthquakes,  was  appointed 
to  be  done  by  the  hands  of  the  Israelites,  as 
being  the  clearest  and  most  intelligible  method 
of  displaying  the  power  and  righteousness  of 
the  God  of  Israel — his  power  over  the  pretended 
gods  of  other  nations,  and  his  righteous  hatred 
of  the  crimes  into  which  thej’^  were  fallen.  This 
is  the  true  statement  of  the  case.  It  is  no  forced 
or  invented  construction,  but  the  idea  of  the 
transaction  set  forth  in  Scripture  ;  and  it  is  an 
idea  which  may  fairly  reconcile  us  to  everything 
which  we  read  in  the  Old  Testament  concerning 
it.  Paley. 

The  character  of  the  nations  to  be  extirpated 
furnishes  the  reason  of  the  Divine  procedure 
toward  them.  That  the  total  extirpation  of  a 
pre- eminently  wicked  race  is  in  no  respect  more 
opposed  to  Divine  justice  than  was  the  destruc¬ 
tion  of  the  w'oild  by  a  deluge,  and  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  by  fire  from  heaven,  will  hardly  be 
questioned.  Other  instances  of  the  destruction 
of  tribes  and  nations  are  of  frequent  occurrence 
in  the  world’s  history.  Further,  experience 
abundantly  confirms  the  testimony  of  Scripture, 
that  God  employs  men,  as  well  as  inferior 
agencies,  for  the  accomplishment  of  his  pur- 
poses,  whether  of  good  or  evil.  Individuals  and 
nations  have  a  mission,  and  God  employs  them 
often,  unconsciouslj’^  or  eten  contrary  to  their 
intentions,  as  the  instruments  of  his  wrath,  and 
when  they  have  fulfilled  their  destiny  arms  in 
turn  other  powers  against  them.  This  is  the 
voice  of  universal  history,  and  of  Scripture  his' 


FINAL  ENCAMPMENT  OPPOSITE  JERICHO. 


589 


tory  in  particular,  which  discovers  the  hidden 
springs  of  actions  and  the  will  which  directs  all 
affairs  (Is.  10  :  5-12).  In  these  matters  God  not 
merely  permits— for  this  were  to  take  a  low 
view  of  the  Divine  government,  and  utterly  in¬ 
adequate  to  explain  the  various  perplexing  phe¬ 
nomena  of  Providence — he  arranges  all  events 
and  regulates  their  issues.  If  God,  then,  does 
employ  men  as  the  unconscious  ministers  of  his 
will,  can  he  not  also  legitimate  a  people  as 
righteous  instruments  of  punishment  ?  If  God 
can  and  does  employ  an  inslrumentality  of  de¬ 
struction,  acting  from  its  own  will  and  for  the 
accomplishment  of  its  own  ends  without  any 
respect  to  the  Divine  will,  can  he  not  also  em¬ 
ploy  an  instrumentality  which,  acting  under  his 
sole  and  supreme  authority,  shall  be  guiltless  of 
wrong?  This  is  the  precise  point  to  which  the 
present  question  is  reduced,  and  it  is  with  this 
that  the  objector  has  to  deal.  D.  M. 

The  religion  of  the  Bible  is  ho  less  remark, 
able  for  its  tenderness  than  for  its  severe  purity. 
Once  in  five  hundred  or  a  thousand  years,  wdien 
morality  is  on  the  brink  of  perishing  among 
men,  the  sword  of  justice  smites  and  spares  not. 
Hostile  criticism,  blind  because  hostile,  fixes 
on  these  rare  and  long-deferred  examples  of  Di¬ 
vine  severity  (always  preceded  by  forbearance 
and  warning)  and  overlooks  the  fact  that  the 
prevailing  representation  of  the  Divine  charac¬ 
ter  places  mercy,  compassion,  kindness,  tender¬ 
ness  among  its  foremost  attributes.  Heathen 
poets  have  sounded  the  depths  of  human  sor¬ 
row,  passion,  and  pity  ;  but  nowhere  in  pagan 
literature,  least  of  all  in  the  religious  books  of 
heathendom,  can  we  catch  even  the  echo  of  that 
full-toned  tenderness  and  gracious  comfort 

which  rings  through  the  Hebrew  Scriptures, 

* 

assuring  us  that  “  the  Lokd  is  very  pitiful,”  and 
”  his  tender  mercies  are  over  all  his  works.” 
E.  R.  Conder. 

Stations  of  Israel  in  Sihon’ s  Territory.  Final  and 

Protracted  Encampment  on  the  Plains  of  Moab, 

or  Shitiim,  opposite  Jericho. 

Xii,  21  : 19,  20,  The  encampments  of  the 
Israelites,  amounting  to  forty-two,  are  recorded 
all  together  in  historical  succession  in  ch.  33, 
where  Ije-abarim  is  the  thirty-eighth  ;  Dibongad, 
thirty-nine  ;  Almon-Diblathaim,  forty  ;  mountains 
of  Abarim,  forty-one  ;  and  the  plains  of  Moab,  by 
Jordan,  forty-two.  The  words  are  strictly  the 
proper  names  of  thc^hree  places  :  but  here  the 
words  Mattanah,  Nahaliel,  and  Bamoth  follow 
some  lines  of  poetry,  and  seem  to  form  a  con¬ 
tinuation  of  the  song.  They  evidently  express 
figurative  and  poetical  ideas.  The  word  Mat- 


tanah  signifies  a  gift ;  Nahaliel,  great  streams  ; 
Bamoth  may  point  out  any  high  places  of  sig¬ 
nal  benefit  in  the  country  of  Moab.  If,  there¬ 
fore,  these  words  were  meant  to  express  poeti¬ 
cally  some  eminent  blessing,  what  blessing  was 
so  likely  to  be  then  celebrated  as  copious  streams 
of  water  ?  And  after  they  had  wandered  near 
forty  years  through  many  a  barren  desert  where 
there  was  no  water,  it  is  no  wonder  they  should 
shout  for  joy  at  finding  water  in  plenty.  No 
wonder  they  should  sing,  in  poetic  rapture, 
that  after  the  wilderness  was  {Mattar-ah)  the  gift 
OF  God,  meaning  the  great  well  in  Moab,  dug  by 
public  authority  ;  and  no  wonder  that,  after 
such  a  gift,  there  were  {Nahaliel)  blessed  streams, 
by  which  they  passed,  till  they  came  to  (Bamoth) 
the  high  places,  from  which  these  streams  de¬ 
scended.  Kennicott. 

IVu.  3G; :  4S.  Pitclied  in  tlie  plains 
of  Moab  by  the  Jordan  at  Jericho. 

The  plains  (Ar-both)  of  Moab,  Israel’s  last  place 
of  encampmeut  in  the  valley  to  the  east  of  the 
Jordan,  must  not  be  confounded,  as  is  often  the 
case,  with  the  field  of  Moab  on  the  top  of  the 
mountain  (Nu.  21  :  20).  Arboth  Moab  is  the 
name  given  to  that  portion  of  the  Ghor  (Arabah) 
which  stretches  along  the  eastern  bank  of  the 
Jordan,  from  the  Jabbok  or  thereabout  to  the 
Dead  Sea.  It  answers  to  the  lowlands  of  Jericho, 
on  the  other  side  of  the  Jordan  ;  and  for  this 
reason  it  is  frequently  described  as  being  “  over 
against  Jericho.”  The  field  of  Moab,  on  the 
other  hand,  was  undoubtedly  the  large  tract  of 
table-land  to  the  east  of  the  Jordan,  which 
stretched  pretty  uniformly  from  the  mountains 
of  Gilead  to  the  Kerek.  This  is  evident,  first, 
from  the  fact  that,  according  to  Nu.  21  :  20,  the 
Israelites  encamped  in  a  valley  of  the  field  of 
Moab  before  they  reached  the  Arboth  Moab 
(22  :  1)  ;  secondly,  from  21  : 20,  where  Bamoth,  or 
more  properly  Bamoth- Baal,  the  heights  of  Baal 
(22  ;  41),  which  was  situated  between  Dibon  and 
Beth-Baal-Meon,  is  also  described  as  being  in 
the  field  of  Moab  ;  and  thirdly,  from  the  fact 
that  the  cities  of  Heshbon,  Dibon,  Medeba,  and 
others,  were  in  this  field.  K. 

IVu.  21:20.  “And  from  Bamoth  (they 
marched)  to  the  valley,  which  is  in  the  field  of 
Moab  (on  the  plateau  of  Moab),  on  the  height 
of  Pisgah,  and  looks  over  to  the  face  of  the  wil¬ 
derness”— that  is,  over  the  tract  of  land  which 
extends  to  the  northeastern  shore  of  the  Dead 
Sea.  From  this  plateau  on  the  mountains  of  the 
Abarim,  of  which  Pisgah  and  Nebo  w'ere  peaks, 
Israel  had  its  first  view  of  the  Land  of  Promise, 
and  especially  of  that  mysterious  Sea  of  Salt 
whose  glittering  surface  and  death-like  surround- 


590 


SECTION  176.  BALAAM  AND  BALAK. 


ings  would  recall  such  solemn  memories  and 
warnings.  The  whole  country  east  of  the 
Jordan  was  now  Israel’s,  and  the  passage  of 
that  river  could  not  be  disputed.  A.  E. 

IV II.  :  49.  Abel-Shittim  signifies  “  marshes 

of  the  acacia,”  and  from  hence  to  Beth-Jesimoth, 
near  the  head  of  the  Dead  Sea,  the  camp  ex¬ 
tended.  Immediately  under  the  hills  of  Gilead 
and  Moab  a  rich  wilderness  of  garden  extends 
the  whole  way,  watered  by  the  abundant,  never- 
failing  springs  and  streams  that  gush  from  the 
foot  of  the  wooded  mountains.  Among  the 
tangled  wilderness,  chiefiy  on  its  western  edge, 
still  grow  many  of  the  acacia-trees,  “  shittim  ” 
from  which  the  place  derived  its  name.  No 
place  could  thus  be  better  situated  for  the  vast 
camp  — abundant  water  and  forage  behind,  and 
open  space  for  miles  in  front.  Here,  in  these 
sultry  groves,  Israel  was  seduced  by  the  Moab¬ 
ites  into  the  licentious  rites  of  Baal-Peor.  Upon 
this  rich  plain  Balaam  looked  down  from  the 
top  of  Peor,  from  Pisgah,  from  the  bare  hill  on 
the  top  of  the  rocks  and  from  the  cultivated 
field  of  Zophim,  “  that  looketh  on  the  face  of 
the  waste.”  Here,  not  many  months  after,  did 


Moses  give  his  last  blessing  to  the  people  he 
had  led  so  long  ;  hence  he  ascended  those  gray 
heights  that  towered  beyond,  and  gained  at 
length  a  glimpse  of  the  land  he  was  never  him¬ 
self  to  tread.  Here  were  the  tribes  marshalled 
by  his  successor.  In  front  of  these  green  pas¬ 
tures  their  hosts  were  drawn  out  in  the  early 
morning  just  before  their  last  halt  on  the  river’s 
brink  (Josh.  3:1).  H.  B.  T. 


The  pilgrimage  of  Israel  through  the  desert  to 
the  promised  land  presents  three  points,  around 
which  all  the  rest  is  grouped  :  fiy'st,  the  rest  at 
Sinai,  where  they  were  set  apart  as  the  people 
of  God,  and  where  the  covenant  with  Jehovah 
was  concluded  ;  second,  the  sojourn  at  Ivadesh, 
in  the  Desert  of  Paran,  where  the  unbelief  of 
the  Israelites  came  to  a  head,  and  the  Divine 
sentence  was  pronounced,  that  they  should  be 
detained  in  the  wilderness  for  fortj”  years  ;  and 
third,  their  stay  in  the  plains  of  Moab,  where 
the  period  of  the  curse  came  to  an  end,  and  the 
new  generation  arrived  at  the  goal  of  its  pilgrim' 
age  and  the  borders  of  the  promised  land.  K. 


Section  176. 

BALAAM  AND  BA.LAK.  FIRST  AND  SECOND  SOLICITATION.  THE  GOING  AND  THE 
DIVINE  HINDEKER.  THE  FIRST  CONSTRAINED  PROPHETIC  BLESSING. 

Numbeks  22  : 1-41  ;  23  : 1-10. 

Nu.  22.  1  And  the  children  of  Israel  journeyed,  and  pitched  in  the  plains  of  Moab  beyond 
the  Jordan  at  Jericho. 

2  And  Balak  the  son  of  Zippor  saw  all  that  Israel  had  done  to  the  Amorites.  And  Moab  was 

3  sore  afraid  of  the  jDeople,  because  they  were  many  :  and  Moab  was  distressed  because  of  the 

4  children  of  Israel.  And  Moab  said  unto  the  elders  of  Midian,  Now  shall  this  multitude  lick 

♦ 

up  all  that  is  round  about  us,  as  the  ox  licketh  up  the  grass  of  the  field.  And  Balak  the  son 

5  of  Zippor  was  king  of  Moab  at  that  time.  And  he  sent  messengers  unto  Balaam  the  son  of 
Beor,  to  Pethor,  which  is  by  the  River,  to  the  land  of  the  children  of  his  people,  to  call  him, 
saying,  Behold,  there  is  a  people  come  out  from  Egypt  :  behold,  they  cover  the  face  of  the 

6  earth,  and  they  abide  over  against  me  :  come  now  therefore,  I  pray  thee,  curse  me  this  people  ; 
for  they  are  too  mighty  for  me  :  peradventure  I  shall  prevail,  that  we  may  smite  them,  and 
that  I  may  drive  them  out  of  the  land  :  for  I  know  that  he  whom  thou  blessest  is  bles-ed,  and 

7  he  whom  thou  cursest  is  cursed.  And  the  elders  of  Moab  and  the  elders  of  Midian  departed 
with  the  rewards  of  divination  in  their  hand  ;  and  they  came  unto  Balaam,  and  spake  unto 

8  him  the  words  of  Balak.  And  he  said  unto  them.  Lodge  here  this  night,  and  I  will  bring  you 
word  again,  as  the  Loed  shall  speak  unto  me  :  and  the  princes  of  Moab  abode  with  Balaam. 

9  And  God  came  unto  Balaam,  and  said.  What  men  are  these  with  thee  ?  And  Balaam  said  unto 

■iO  God,  Balak  the  son  of  Zippor,  king  of  Moab,  hath  sent  unto  me,  saying,  Behold,  the  people 

11  that  is  come  out  of  Egypt,  it  covereth  the  face  of  the  earth  :  now,  come  curse  me  them  ;  per- 

12  adventure  I  shall  be  able  to  fight  against  them,  and  shall  drive  them  out.*  And  God  said  unto 
Balaam,  Thou  shalt  not  go  with  them  ;  thou  shalt  not  curse  the  people  :  for  they  are  blessed. 

13  And  Balaam  rose  up  in  the  morning,  and  said  unto  the  princes  of  Balak,  Get  you  into  your 

14  land  :  for  the  Loed  refuseth  to  give  me  leave  to  go  with  you.  And  the  princes  of  Moab  rose 

15  up,  and  they  went  unto  Balak,  and  said,  Balaam  refuseth  to  come  with  us.  And  Balak  sent 


BALAAM  AND  BALAK. 


591 


16  yet  again  princes,  more,  and  more  honourable  than  they.  And  they  came  to  Balaam,  and  said 
to  him.  Thus  saith  Balak  the  son  of  Zippor,  Let  nothing,  I  pray  thee,  hinder  thee  from  coming 

17  unto  me  :  for  I  will  promote  thee  unto  very  great  honour,  and  whatsoever  thou  sayest  unto 

18  me  I  will  do  :  come  therefore,  I  pray  thee,  curse  me  this  people.  And  Balaam  answered  and 
said  unto  the  servants  of  Balak,  If  Balak  would  give  me  his  house  full  of  silver  and  gold,  I 

19  cannot  go  beyond  the  word  of  the  Loan  my  God,  to  do  less  or  more.  Now  therefore,  I  pray 
you,  tarry  ye  also  here  this  night,  that  I  may  know  what  the  Loan  will  speak  unto  me  more. 

20  And  God  came  unto  Balaam  at  night,  and  said  unto  him.  If  the  men  be  come  to  call  thee,  rise 

21  UJ3,  go  with  them  ;  but  only  the  word  which  I  speak  unto  thee,  that  shalt  thou  do.  And 

22  Balaam  rose  up  in  the  morning,  and  saddled  his  ass,  and  went  with  the  princes  of  Moab,  And 
God’s  anger  was  kindled  because  he  went  :  and  the  angel  of  the  Loan  placed  himself  in  the 
way  for  an  adversary  against  him.  Now  he  was  riding  upon  his  ass,  and  his  two  servants 

23  were  with  him.  And  the  ass  saw  the  angel  of  the  Loan  standing  in  the  way,  with  his  sword 
drawn  in  his  hand  :  and  the  ass  turned  aside  out  of  the  way,  and  went  into  the  field  :  and 

24  Balaam  smote  the  ass,  to  turn  her  into  the  way.  Then  the  angel  of  the  Loan  stood  in  a  hol- 

25  low  way  between  the  vineyards,  a  fence  being  on  this  side,  and  a  fence  on  that  side.  And  the 
ass  saw  the  angel  of  the  Loan,  and  she  thrust  herself  unto  the  wall,  and  crushed  Balaam’s  foot 

26  against  the  wall  :  and  he  smote  her  again.  And  the  angel  of  the  Loan  went  further,  and 

27  stood  in  a  narrow  place,  where  was  no  way  to  turn  either  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left.  And 
the  ass  saw  the  angel  of  the  Loan,  and  she  lay  down  under  Balaam  :  and  Balaam’s  anger  was 

28  kindled,  and  he  smote  the  ass  with  his  staff.  And  the  Loan  opened  the  mouth  of  the  ass, 
and  she  said  unto  Balaam,  What  have  I  done  unto  thee,  that  thou  hast  smitten  me  these  three 

29  times?  And  Balaam  said  unto  the  ass,  Because  thou  hast  mocked  me  :  I  would  there  were  a 

30  sword  in  mine  hand,  for  now  T  had  killed  thee.  And  the  ass  said  unto  Balaam,  Am  not  I 
thine  ass,  upon  which  thou  hast  ridden  all  thy  life  long  unto  this  day  ?  was  I  ever  wont  to  do 

31  so  unto  thee?  And  he  said.  Nay.  Then  the  Lord  opened  the  eyes  of  Balaam,  and  he  saw 
the  angel  of  the  Lord  standing  in  the  way,  with  his  sword  drawn  in  his  hand  :  and  he  bowed 

32  his  head,  and  fell  on  his  face.  And  the  angel  of  the  Lord  said  unto  him,  Wherefore  hast  thou 
smitten  thine  ass  these  three  times?  behold,  I  am  come  forth  for  an  adversary,  because  thy 

33  way  is  perverse  before  me  :  and  the  ass  saw  me,  and  turned  aside  before  me  these  three  times  : 
unless  she  had  turned  aside  from  me,  surel}’’  now  I  had  even  slain  thee,  and  saved  her  alive. 

34  And  Balaam  said  unto  the  angel  of  the  Lord,  I  have  sinned  ;  for  I  knew  not  that  thou  stoodest 

35  in  the  way  against  me  :  now  therefore,  if  it  displease  thee,  I  will  get  me  back  again.  And  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  said  unto  Balaam,  Go  with  the  men  :  but  only  the  word  that  I  shall  speak 

36  unto  thee,  that  thou  shalt  speak.  So  Balaam  went  with  the  princes  of  Balak.  And  when 
Balak  heard  that  Balaam  was  come,  he  went  out  to  meet  him  unto  the  City  of  Moab,  which  is 

37  on  the  border  of  Arnon,  which  is  in  the  utmost  part  of  the  border.  And  Balak  said  unto 
Balaam,  Did  I  not  earnestly  send  unto  thee  to  call  thee  ?  wherefore  earnest  thou  not  unto  me  ? 

38  am  I  not  able  indeed  to  promote  thee  to  honour?  And  Balaam  said  unto  Balak,  Lo,  I  am 
come  unto  thee  :  have  I  now  any  power  at  all  to  speak  any  thing  ?  the  word  that  God  putteth 

39  m  my  mouth,  that  shall  I  speak.  And  Balaam  went  with  Balak,  and  they  came  unto  Kiriath- 

40  huzoth.  And  Balak  sacrificed  oxen  and  sheep,  and  sent  to  Balaam,  and  to  the  princes  that 

41  were  with  him.  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  morning,  that  Balak  took  Balaam,  and  brought  him 

2?{up  into  the  high  places  of  Baal,  and  he  saw  from  thence  the  utmost  part  of  the  j^eople.  And 

Balaam  said  unto  Balak,  Build  me  here  seven  altars,  and  prepare  me  here  seven  bullocks  and 

2  seven  rams.  And  Balak  did  as  Balaam  had  spoken  ;  and  Balak  and  Balaam  offered  on  every 

3  altar  a  bullock  and  a  ram.  And  Balaam  said  unto  Balak,  Stand  by  thy  burnt  offering,  and  I 
will  go  ;  peradventure  the  Lord  will  come  to  meet  me  :  and  whatsoever  he  sheweth  me  I  will 

4  tell  thee.  And  he  went  to  a  bare  height.  And  God  met  Balaam  :  and  he  said  unto  him,  I 

5  have  prepared  the  seven  altars,  and  I  have  offered  up  a  bullock  and  a  ram  on  every  altar.  And 
the  Lord  put  a  word  in  Balaam’s  mouth,  and  said,  Keturn  unto  Balak,  and  thus  thou  shalt 

6  speak.  And  he  returned  unto  him,  and,  lo,  he  stood  b}^  his  burnt  offering,  he,  and  all  the 

7  princes  of  Moab.  And  he  took  up  his  parable,  and  said, 

From  Aram  hath  Balak  brought  me,  the  king  of  Moab  from  the  mountains  of  the  East  : 

Come,  curse  me  Jacob,  and  come,  defy  Israel. 

8  How  shall  I  curse,  whom  God  hath  not  cursed  ?  and  how  shall  I  defy,  whom  the  Lord 
hath  not  defied  ? 


592 


SEGTIOI^  176.  BALAK’S  SOLICITATION'. 


9  For  from  the  top  of  the  rocks  I  see  him,  and  from  the  hills  I  behold  him  : 

Lo,  it  is  a  people  that  dwell  alone,  and  shall  not  be  reckoned  among  the  nations. 
10  Who  can  count  the  dust  of  Jacob,  or  number  the  fourth  part  of  Israel  ? 

Let  me  die  the  death  of  the  righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be  like  his  ! 


ti‘2  :  I.  With  the  decisive  victories  over  Sihon 
and  over  Og,  all  who  could  have  barred  access 
to  the  Land  of  Promise  had  been  either  left  be¬ 
hind,  or  else  scattered  and  defeated.  And  now 
the  camp  of  Israel  had  moved  forward  to  “  the 
other  side  Jordan  from  Jericho.”  Their  tents 
were  pitched  in  rich  meadow-land,  watered  by 
many  streams  which  rush  down  from  the  neigh¬ 
boring  mountains — the  Arhoih  or  lowlands  of 
Moab,  as  the  country  on  this  and  that  side  the 
river  was  still  called,  after  its  more  ancient  in¬ 
habitants.  The  vast  camp  lay  scattered  over  a 
width  of  several  miles,  from  Abel-Shittim,  “  the 
meadow  of  the  acacias,  ’  ’  in  the  north,  to  Beth- 
Jeshiinoth,  “  the  house  of  desolations.”  A.  E. 

Tlie  plains.  Heb.  Araboth-,  the  word  is 
the  plural  of  that  which  is  used  to  denote  the 
whole  depressed  tract  along  the  Jordan  and  the 
Dead  Sea,  and  onward,  where  it  is  still  called 
the  Arabah,  to  the  Elanitic  Gulf.  Near  the 
mouth  of  the  Jordan  this  tract  is  about  eleven 
miles  across,  a  breadth  of  from  four  to  five 
miles  being  on  the  eastern  bank.  The  space 
occupied  by  the  Israelitish  camp  consisted,  in 
the  main,  of  a  large  and  luxuriant  oasis  upon 
this  bank,  slightly  raised  above  the  barren  flat, 
sultry  because  sheltered  by  the  Persean  hills 
which  bear  up  the  fertile  plateau  above,  and 
watered  by  the  brooks  which,  descending  from 
those  hills,  run  westward  across  the  plain  into 
the  Jordan.  It  commenced  on  the  south  at  Beth- 
Jeshimoth,  “  house  of  the  wastes,”  close  to  the 
Dead  Sea  :  thence  it  covered  the  sites  of  the 
future  cities  Beth-ram  and  Beth-haran,  and 
terminated  northward  at  Abel-Shittim,  the 
“acacia-meadow.”  Espin. 

The  overthrow  of  the  Amorites  opened  the 
way  for  the  march  of  the  Israelites  to  “  the 
plains  of  Moab,”  where  they  remained  encamped 
during  all  the  subsequent  transactions  until 
they  passed  the  Jordan  into  the  promised  land. 
These  plains  are  formed  by  a  narrow  strip  of 
land,  scarcely  two  leagues  in  breadth,  lying 
along  the  eastern  banks  of  the  Jordan,  opposite 
to  the  plains  of  Jericho.  The  Dead  Sea  lies  to 
the  south  of  it.  Mount  Pisgah  on  the  southeast, 
and  the  mountains  on  the  east  ;  and  toward  the 
north,  losing  its  specific  name,  this  plain  con¬ 
tinues  as  “  the  valley  of  the  Jordan,”  even  to 
the  Sea  of  Tiberias,  This  plain,  with  that  of 
Jericho  on  the  opposite  side,  form  together,  in 
fact,  iin  expansi  )n  of  the  valley  of  the  Jordan. 
K 1. 


3.  And  Hoab  was  sore  afraid.  The 

Israelites  had  entirely  routed  and  ruined  Sihon 
King  of  the  Amorites,  and  Og  King  of  Bashan, 
taking  possession  of  their  lands  ;  and  they  had 
done  it  with  such  despatch  and  in  so  surprising 
a  manner,  that  the  neighboring  nations  had 
reason  to  suspect  there  was  something  super¬ 
natural  in  it.  It  seems  to  have  been  owing  to 
some  such  apprehension  that  none  of  them 
durst  oppose  the  Hebrews  without  endeavoring 
first  to  engage  heaven  on  their  side,  which  they 
hoped  to  do  by  the  help  of  enchantments.  The 
Midianites  and  Moabites  were  both  of  them  full 
of  this  persuasion,  as  we  learn  from  this  chap¬ 
ter  ;  and  we  find  from  other  places  of  Scripture 
that  the  Ammonites  joined  with  them  in  the 
design  of  sending  to  Balaam  (De.  23  ;  3,  4). 
Walerland. 

4.  Midiaii.  It  is  manifest  from  Scripture 
that  there  were  two  regions  called  Midian.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  one  were  at  first  of  the  Cush¬ 
ite  race,  and  their  situation  was  upon  the  Bed 
Sea  ;  they  were  the  people  to  whom  Moses  be¬ 
took  himself  when  he  fled  from  Egypt,  and 
among  whom  he  resided  forty  years.  The  other 
Midian  was  to  the  north,  on  the  river  Arnon, 
and  in  the  vicinity  of  Moab.  The  natives  were 
of  the  family  of  Abraham  by  Keturah,  and  bor¬ 
dered  on  the  upper  part  of  Edom  ;  being  allied 
to  the  Edomites,  as  well  as  to  the  children  of 
Moab,  by  the  ties  of  consanguinity.  Their  sit¬ 
uation  may  be  known  from  the  correspondence 
which  they  kept  up  with  the  Israelites  when  the 
latter  were  encamped  in  the  plains  of  Moab, 
near  the  rivers  Jordan  and  Arnon.  Bryant. 

5.  The  exact  situation  of  Pethor  is  uncertain. 
Balaam  came  “from  the  mountains  of  the  east  ” 
— i.e.,  from  Aram  or  from  Mesopotamia  ;  and 
Pethor  therefore  cannot  be  placed  very  far  down 
the  river.  No  better  centre  could  be  found  for 
influencing  alike  the  Arabian  tribes  on  the  east 
and  the  Aramaic  tribes  on  the  west  bank  of  the 
great  river.  Espin. 

King  Balak  does  not  venture  to  attack  the 
Israelites,  but  he  has  recourse  to  a  genuine  heath¬ 
en  means  of  defence.  He  hires,  for  a  great  sum,  a 
celebrated  soothsayer  to  curse  Israel.  The  per¬ 
son  and  the  history  of  this  man  are  in  every 
point  of  view  remarkable,  and  full  of  strange 

inconsistencies.  Gfrl. - When  ail  helps  fail 

Moab,  the  magician  is  sought  to.  it  is  a  sign 
of  a  desperate  cause,  to  make  Satan  either  our 
counsellor  or  our  refuge.  Why  did  tJiey  not 


CONCERNING  BALAAM. 


593 


send  to  Balaam  to  bless  themselves,  rather  than 
to  curse  Israel  V  It  had  been  more  easy  to  be 
defended  from  the  hurt  of  their  enemies,  than 
to  have  their  enemies  laid  open  to  be  hurt  by 
them.  Bp.  II. 

Few  characters  stand  forth  from  the  page  of 
Holy  Scripture  with  such  sombre  magnificence 
as  that  of  the  prophet  Balaam.  A  Gentile  yet  a 
Seer,  an  enchanter  yet  enlightened  with  some 
knowledge  of  the  true  God,  a  bad  man  yet  with 
the  fires  of  genius  burning  in  his  soul,  the  son 
of  Beor  had  won  throughout  the  colossal  king¬ 
doms  of  the  East,  and  even  among  the  desert 
tribes  of  Arabia,  a  reputation  so  powerful  that 
the  first  notice  of  him  tells  us  how  Balak,  King 
of  Moab,  sends  for  him  far  away  to  the  shores 
of  the  great  river  to  curse  Israel,  whose  tents 
lay  beneath  the  heights  of  Pisgah.  The  king 
thinks  that  where  arms  are  unavailing  maledic¬ 
tions  may  prevail.  He  thinks  that  nothing  will 
withstand  the  might  of  enchantments.  “  For,” 
he  says,  “  I  wot  that  he  whom  thou  blessest  is 
blessed,  and  he  whom  thou  cursest  is  cursed.” 
Farrar. 

According  to  the  view  which  Ilengstenberg  has 
thoroughly  established,  the  knowledge  of  Je¬ 
hovah  possessed  by  Balaam  is  to  be  traced  to 
the  events  of  his  own  day— namely,  to  the  fame 
of  the  God  of  Israel,  which  had  spread  in  the 
time  of  Moses  over  all  the  heathen  nations 
round  about,  and  to  the  overpowering  effect 
produced  upon  all  these  nations,  according  to 
the  express  testimony  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures, 
by  the  mighty  deeds  which  God  did  in  the 
midst  of  his  people.  K. 

In  Mesopotamia,  Balaam's  own  residence  and 
Abraham's  native  land,  the  knowledge  of  the 
true  God  does  not  seem  to  have  been  wholly 
lost  ;  and  he  must  have  heard  enough  of  what 
occurred  in  the  wilderness  and  in  Egypt  to  re¬ 
gard  Jehovah  at  least  as  a  mighty,  perhaps  as 
the  supreme  Deitj'.  But  with  this  knowledge 
there  was  also  combined  the  most  pagan  super¬ 
stition  -almost  in  the  same  way,  perhaps,  as  we 
find  in  Laban  the  Syrian  a  mixture  of  true  re¬ 
ligion  and  idolatry.  Hence  also  he  is  not  called 
a  prophet  in  Scripture,  but  a  soothsayer,  and  as 
such  he  was  accustomed  to  practise  his  sorceries 
on  a  large  scale,  and  had,  throughout  a  wide  ex¬ 
tent  of  country,  a  reputation  proportionate  to 
the  greatness  of  his  abilities  and  the  skill  with 
which  he  maintained  the  deception.  That  at 
least  on  one  occasion  the  Spirit  of  God  was  in¬ 
deed  present  with  him  is  attested  not  merely 
by  himself,  but  by  Moses  (ch.  24  :  2),  in  the 
most  express  terms.  Do  not  be  surprised  that 
God  could  make  use  of  such  a  deceiver  or  fanatic 
38 


— choose  whichever  name  you  please— to  make 
him  the  herald  of  the  coming  salvation.  Vaji  0. 
- Inspiration,  though  rarely,  was  really  be¬ 
stowed  on  wicked  men.  King  Saul  was  among 
the  prophets  ;  Balaam  was  inspired  ;  so  was 
Caiaphas  ;  so  were  those  who  prophesied  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  to  whom  Christ  will  sa}’’  ;  “  I 
never  knew  you,  depart  from  me  ye  that  work 
iniquity.”  Here  we  find  the  distinction  be¬ 
tween  the  gifts  and  the  graces  of  the  Spirit.  In¬ 
spiration,  like  the  foresight  of  prophecy,  like 
the  power  to  work  miracles,  was  a  gift  that 
might  or  might  not  be  associated  with  saving 
grace.  E.  P.  H. 

Concerning  Balaam  ;  his  residence,  his  pre¬ 
vious  and  subsequent  history,  and  his  personal 
character,  we  have  (outside  of  Nil.  22-24)  three 
references  in  the  Old  Testament  and  the  same 
number  in  the  New.  The  Old  Testament  pas¬ 
sages  describe  him  as  a  soothsayer,  practising 
divination  for  reward.  The  New  Testament 
writers  go  to  the  bottom  of  his  character,  and 
represent  him  as  “  loving  the  wages  of  unright¬ 
eousness  ;  rebuked  for  his  iniquitj”,  the  dumb 
ass,  speaking  with  man’s  voice,  forbade  the  mad¬ 
ness  of  the  prophet  ”  (2  Pet.  2  : 15,  16).  They 
speak  of  “  going  after  the  error  of  Balaam  for 
reward”  (Jude  11),  and  of  him  as  one  who 
“  taught  Balak  to  cast  a  stumbling  block  before 
the  children  of  Israel,  to  eat  things  sacrificed 
to  idols,  and  to  commit  fornication”  (Rev. 
2  : 14).  Further,  we  are  told  (Nu.  31  :  8  and  Josh. 
13  ;  22)  that  he  was  found  among  the  Midianites 
—  enemies  of  God’s  people,  and  slain  with  the 
sword.  H.  C. 

7,  §.  Balaam  was  being  tempted,  and  he 
knew  it,  to  commit  a  deadly  wrong  ;  but  un¬ 
happily  the  temptation  came  to  him  with  un¬ 
controllable  force,  for  it  appealed  to  his  beset¬ 
ting  sin.  That  sin  was  the  love  of  gold.  The 
keynote  to  the  whole  history  is  given  in  the 
quiet  words  that  “  the  elders  of  Midian  departed 
wiih  the  rewards  of  divina'ion  in  their  hand.” 

Now  there  would  have  been  for  Balaam,  had 
he  chosen  to  adopt  it,  “  with  the  temptation 
also  the  way  to  escape.”  It  lay  in  the  instant 
dismissal  of  the  messengers,  with  the  answer 
that  what  Balak  wished  could  never  be  granted. 
But  when  Balaam  gazed  on  those  “  rewards  of 
divination”  he  felt  morally  unable  to  do  this. 
Conscience  said  I  ought,"  but  inclination  re¬ 
fused  to  say  ”  I  will.”  He  parlej’^ed  and  dallied 
with  the  temptation  ;  and  to  dally  with  tempta¬ 
tion  is  to  be  lost.  He  put  off  the  right  decision  ; 
he  lost  the  opportunity  for  the  firm  refusal.  He 
blunted  his  moral  sense  by  hesitating  as  to  the 
decision  of  duty.  He  affected  to  need  a  direct 


594 


SECTION  176.  BALAAM  AND  BALAK. 


Divine  interposition  to  tell  him  how  to  act.  He 
must  (forsooth)  have  a  vision  from  God,  and 
longs  to  persuade  himself  that  he  may,  after  all^ 
earn  the  promised  guerdon  and  ma^'  go.  ‘  ‘  Lodge 
here  this  night  ;  and  1  will  bring  you  word 
again  as  the  Lord  shall  speak  unto  me  ”  Farrur. 

9.  I  should  wonder  to  hear  God  speak  with  a 
false  prophet,  if  I  did  not  know  it  hath  been  no 
rare  thing  with  him  (as  with  men)  to  bestow 
words,  even  where  he  will  not  bestow  favor. 
Pharaoh,  Abimelech,  Nebuchadnezzar,  receive 
visions  from  God  ;  neither  can  I  think  this 
strange,  when  I  hear  God  speaking  to  Satan  in 
a  question  no  less  familiar  than  this  of  Balaam, 

Whence  comestthou,  Satan?”  Not  the  sound 
of  the  voice  of  God,  but  the  matter  which  he 
speaks,  argues  love  ;  he  may  speak  to  an 
enemy  ;  he  speaks  peace  to  none  but  his  own. 
God  heard  all  the  consultation  and  message  of 
these  Moabites  ;  these  messengers  could  not 
have  moved  their  foot  or  their  tongue  but  in 
him  ;  and  yet  he,  who  asked  Adam  where  he 
was,  asks  Balaam,  “What  men  are  these?” 
God  loves  to  take  occasion  of  proceeding  with 
us  from  ourselves,  rather  than  from  his  own  im¬ 
mediate  prescience.  Hence  it  is,  that  we  lay 
ojoen  our  wants  and  confess  our  sins  to  him  that 
knows  both  better  than  our  own  hearts,  because 
he  will  deal  with  us  from  our  own  mouths. 

i;j.  He  insinuates  his  own  forwardness,  and 
casts  the  blame  of  the  prohibition  upon  God, 
and,  which  is  worse,  delivers  but  half  his  an¬ 
swer  ;  he  says,  indeed,  “  God  refuses  to  give 
me  leave  to  go  ;”  he  saj^s  not,  as  it  was,  “  He 
charges  me  not  to  curse  them,  for  they  are 
blessed.”  So  did  Balaam  deny,  SkH  one  that 

wished  to  be  sent  for  again.  Bp.  II. - He 

does,  in  effect,  desire  them  to  give  his  humble 
service  to  Balak,  and  let  him  know  that  he 
would  have  been  very  glad  to  gratify  him,  but 
that  he  must  not  go  without  leave  from  God, 
which  he  has  not  yet  obtained,  and  therefore  for 
the  present  he  must  be  excused.  Those  are  a 
fair  mark  for  Satan’s  temptation  that  speak 
diminishingly  of  Divine  prohibitions  as  if  they 
amounted  to  no  more  than  the  denial  of  a  per¬ 
mission,  and  as  if  to  go  against  God's  law  were 
only  to  go  without  his  leave.  H. 

19.  “  Tliat  I  may  know  wliat  tlie 
will  §ay  unto  me  more?”  What 
“  more?"  Did  Balaam  fashion  to  himself  a  god 
after  his  own  heart,  and  imagine  that  he  also 
was  to  be  moved  from  his  declared  purpose  by 
the  gifts  and  promises  of  Balak?  Could  he 
mean  to  insult  God  by  his  importunities?  Did 
he  hope  to  extort  from  him,  out  of  regard  to  his 
own  worldliness,  permission  to  bring  a  curse 


upon  an  entire  nation,  which  had  been  so  long 
and  so  notoriously  the  object  of  his  covenant 
care  ?  Even  such  was  what  Peter  well  calls 
“  the  madness  of  the  prophet.”  Kit. 

!iiO.  Again  Balaam  wavers,  dallies  with  the 
sin,  renews  his  vain  pretence  of  uncertainty, 
thinks  that  even  God  may  be  moved  to  allow 
his  acceptance  of  these  splendid  proffers  ; 
dwells  in  longing  anticipation  on  the  thought 
of  a  house  full  of  silver  and  gold.  And  then  in¬ 
sulted  conscience  leaves  him.  God  suffers  him 
to  go  ;  lets  him  eat  of  the  fruit  of  his  own  way 
and  be  fed  with  his  own  devices.  He  has  tried 
hard  to  persuade  himself,  and  as  it  were  to  per¬ 
suade  God,  that  in  the  course  to  which  he  is 
tempted  there  is  no  harm  ;  he  is  suffered  to  be- 
lieye  that  there  is  no  harm.  God  answered  him 
according  to  his  idols  ;  he  is  cursed  with  the 
gratification  of  his  own  desire  ;  he  may  start  on 
the  open  road  of  guilt.  He  wishes  to  face  both 
ways  :  to  go  a  certain  length  with  each  And 
God  suffers  him  to  try  the  experiment.  As  the 
temptation  had  been  renewed  because  it  had 
been  but  half  resisted,  so  now  the  temptation 
is  suffered  to  prevail  in  order  that  it  may  be  its 
own  avenger.  Sin,  in  Balaam’s  case  as  in  so 
many  cases,  was  made  the  penalty  of  sin.  He 
was  scourged  by  his  own  pleasant  vices.  His 
sin  was  punished  by  further  temptations  and 
opportunities  of  sin.  The  tempting  opportunity 
is  allowed  to  meet  the  susceptible  disposition. 
By  that  terrible  irony  which  w’e  so  often  see  in 
the  Divine  judgment  God  gives  the  penal  per¬ 
mission  to  go  astray.  Farrar. 

The  alternations  of  Balaam’s  own  mind  were 
the  alternations  of  a  mind  with  which  God  was 
expostulating  ;  the  horrible  mazes  and  incon¬ 
sistencies  of  a  spirit  which  contradicts  itself, 
and  strives  to  disobey  the  God  whom  yet  it  feels 
and  acknowdedges.  “  With  the  froward  ” — oh, 
how  true  !  — “  thou  wilt  show  thyself  froward.” 
God  speaks  once,  and  if  that  voice  be  not  heard, 
but  is  wilfully  silenced,  the  second  time  it  utters 
a  terrible  permission.  Experience  will  tell  us 
how  God  has  sent  us  to  reap  the  fruit  of  our 
own  wilfulness.  F.  W.  It. 

21.  Now  he  makes  himself  sure  of  success. 
His  corrupt  heart  tells  him  that,  as  God  had 
relented  in  his  license  to  go,  so  he  might  per¬ 
haps  in  his  license  to  curse  ;  and  he  saw  how 
this  curse  ndight  bless  him  with  abundance  of 
wealth  ;  he  rose  up  early,  therefore,  and  saddled 
his  ass.  Bp.  H. 

22-31 .  By  the  first  decided  and  satisfactory 
refusal  God  willed  to  repress  his  avarice,  and  to 
give  a  helping  hand  to  his  better  feelings.  But 
v  hen  the  greater  honors  and  gifts  excite  Balaam’s 


BALAAM  WITRSTOOl)  BY  THE  ANGEL  JEHOVAH. 


595 


avarice,  sin  obtains  the  tipper  hand,  and  so  God 
can  be  no  more  glorified  by  his  obedience  ;  and 
thus  he  will,  as  Avenger  of  his  disobedience,  be 
sanctified  in  him,  and  yet  in  such  a  manner 
thac,  step  by  step,  hegives  him  room  for  repent 
ance,  while  he  holds  him  as  it  were  by  a  chain, 
and  does  not  suffer  him  to  give  more  than  he 
pleases.  This  is  especially  the  object  in  view 
in  the  incident  of  the  ass  On  this  depends  its 
deep  significance.  Balaam  is  confident  in  his 
gift  of  soothsaying,  as  though  it  was  his  own 
property.  Possessed  of  this,  he  thinks  he  can¬ 
not  miss  the  reward,  when  suddenly,  bj’^  this 
event,  his  true  relation  to  the  gift  is  made 
known.  The  seer  who  boasts  that  the  eyes  of 
his  mind  are  open  (ch.  24  ;  4,  16)  becomes  blind. 
In  his  stead  the  beast  receives  the  higher  vis¬ 
ion  ;  and  thus  is  declared  to  him  that  it  is  God’s 
free  grace  to  which  he  owes  the  gift  of  second 
sight,  and  that  his  beast  is  more  capable  of  per 
ceiving  things  out  of  the  higher  world  than  an 
impure  man,  whom  sinful  desire  has  blinded. 
Nay,  the  punishment  goes  beyond  this  ;  the 
prophet  who  can  no  longer  see  anything  be¬ 
comes  also  dumb,  and  the  ass  prophesies  in  his 
stead.  This  is  clearly  the  meaning  of  the  his¬ 
tory,  whether  we  consider  it  as  an  event  which 
really  and  outwardly  happened,  or  as  a  vision 
represented  by  God  before  the  mind  of  the 
prophet,  by  which  the  conduct  of  the  ass  was 
explained.  An  argument  in  favor  of  the  opin¬ 
ion  that  it  was  not  a  mere  vision  but  an  actual 
event  seems  to  be  this — that  the  transaction  is 
related  just  like  the  rest  of  the  history,  but 
more  particularly,  because  God  designed  to 
show  Balaam  how  he  could  take  away  a  gift  from 
the  prophet  and  transfer  it  to  his  beast  ;  but 
this  a  vision,  however  significant,  w'ould  not 
have  told  him  ;  nay,  when  afterward  he  under¬ 
stood  it  to  be  a  vision,  that  very  impression 
must  have  been  destroyed.  What  the  ass  says 
is  merely  the  expression  of  her  animal  feeling, 
only  uttered  in  human  language  ;  but  it  is  not 
the  exjjression  of  any  thought,  since  an  animal 
is  incapable  of  this.  What  the  ass  therefore 
says  is  of  less  moment  in  the  history  than  the 
fact  that  she  really  has  spoken.  Gerl. 

25.  Even  the  dumb  animal  on  which  he  rides 
is  conscious  of  the  white  gleam  of  the  Avenger’s 
raiment  ;  but  the  prophet  at  first  sees  him  not, 
and  will  not  see  him  ;  will  persuade  himself 
that  what  he  sees  is  only  the  sunlight  streaming 
on  the  hot  gorge  through  the  vines.  The  ej’es 
which  will  not  see  are  blinded  ;  the  ears  that 
will  not  hear  are  made  deaf  ;  the  heart  which 
will  not  understand  is  made  hard  and  gross  ; 
the  iron  sinew  is  stiffened  in  the  neck  which 


will  not  bend.  It  is  thus  that  men  stumble  on 
toward  the  drawn  sword  of  retribution.  It  is 
thus  that,  as  Augustine  says,  God  scatters  penal 
darkness  over  forbidden  lusts.  Farrar. 

27,  Balaam  the  third  time  smote  his  ass, 
though  she  had  now  done  him  the  best  piece  of 
service  that  ever  she  did  him,  saving  him  from 
the  sword  of  the  angel,  and  by  her  falling  down 
teaching  him  to  do  likewise.  H. 

2§,  An  adequate  cause  is  assigned  for  this 
wonderful  effect,  for  it  is  said  expressly  that 
“  the  Lord  opened  the  mouth  of  the  ass  and 
no  one  who  believes  a  God  can  doubt  of  his 
having  power  to  do  this,  and  much  more.  The 
miracle  was  by  no  means  needless  or  superflu¬ 
ous  ;  it  was  very  proper  to  convince  Balaam 
that  the  mouth  and  tongue  were  under  God’s 
direction  ;  and  that  the  same  Divine  power 
which  caused  the  dumb  ass  to  speak  contrary 
to  its  nature  could  make  him  in  like  manner 
utter  blessings  contrary  to  his  inclination. 

Bp.  Nevoton. - That  no  man  may  marvel  to  see 

Balaam  have  visions  from  God  and  utter  prophe¬ 
cies  from  him,  his  very  ass  hath  his  eyes  opened 
to  see  the  angel,  which  his  master  could  not, 
and  his  mouth  opened  to  speak  more  reasonably 
than  his  master.  There  is  no  beast  deserves  so 
much  wonder  as  this  of  Balaam,  whose  com- 
mon-sense  is  advanced  above  the  reason  of  his 
rider  ;  so  as  for  the  time  the  prophet  is  brutish, 
and  the  beast  prophetical.  To  hear  a  voice 
come  from  that  mouth,  which  was  used  only  to 
bray,  it  was  strange  and  uncouth  ;  but  to  hear 
a  beast  whose  nature  is  noted  for  incapacity  to 
outreason  his  master,  a  professed  prophet,  is  in 
the  very  height  of  miracles  ;  yet  can  no  heart 
stick  at  these  that  considers  the  dispensation 
of  the  Almighty  in  both.  Bp.  H. 

3  8 .  When  the  dumb  ass  falls  under  his  im¬ 
potent  anger,  and  he  is  rebuked  and  horrified 
by  the  unnatural  voice,  Balaam  becomes  trem¬ 
blingly  aware  that  a  spirit  is  before  him.  He 
ran  discern  now  the  waving  of  his  garment,  the 
flashing  of  his  sword  ;  he  cannot  mistake  them 
now  for  the  hot  sunshine  and  the  flickering 
vines.  “Then  the  Lord  opened  the  eyes  of 
Balaam.”  God  dispelled  for  a  moment  the 
penal  blindness.  It  is  as  when  a  man  is  wan¬ 
dering  with  some  evil  purpose  at  the  dead  of 
night,  and  suddenly  a  flash  of  lightning  splits 
the  gloom,  and  shows  him  the  pitfalls  and  preci¬ 
pices  on  every  side.  “There  is,”  it  has  been 
said,  “  a  tendencj’^  in  acts  of  extreme  wicked¬ 
ness  suddenly  to  reveal  the  moral  law  within 
the  heart  in  terrible  and  unsupportable  majesty  ; 
and  the  interior  of  conscience  is  lighted  up  with 
all  the  fierce  glare  and  microscopic  clearness  of 


596 


SECTION  176.  BALAAM  AND  BALAK. 


an  unnatural  illumination  ;  the  guilty  act  oper¬ 
ates  with  the  power  of  a  spiritual  light  within 
the  dark  chamber  of  the  soul,  and  creates  a  more 
\ivid  scene  than  ever  the  natural  mid-day  sun 
•would  do.”  Farrar. 

32.  The  angel  of  God  takes  notice  of  the 
cruelty  of  Balaam  to  his  beast  ;  his  first  words 
to  the  unmerciful  prophet  are  an  expostulation 
for  this  wrong.  We  little  think  it,  but  God  shall 
call  us  to  an  account  for  the  unkind  and  cruel 
usage  of  his  poor  mute  creatures.  He  hath  made 
us  lords,  not  tyrants  ;  owners,  not  tormentors  ; 
he  that  hath  given  us  leave  to  kill  them  for  our 
use,  hath  not  given  us  leave  to  abuse  them  at 
our  pleasure.  Bp.  H. 

Tliy  way  i$  perverse  before  me. 

Th}'  intentions  and  purposes  are  not  sincere 
and  honest  before  me  ;  for  thou  designest  to 
serve  Balak,  and  so  to  gain  thy  covetous  and 
ambitious  ends  rather  than  to  serve  me.  Wells. 

- That  which  was  displeasing  to  God  was  his 

going  with  a  malicious  design  against  Israel, 
and  a  secret  hope  that,  notwithstanding  the  pro¬ 
viso  with  which  his  permission  was  clogged,  he 
might  prevail  to  curse  them,  and  so  gratify  Balak 
and  get  preferment  under  him. 

34.  It  does  not  appear  that  he  is  sensible  of 
this  wickedness  of  his  heart  or  willing  to  own  it, 
but  if  he  finds  he  cannot  go  forward  he  will  be 
content  (since  there  is  no  remedy)  to  go  back. 
Here  is  no  sign  that  his  heart  is  turned,  but  if 
his  hands  are  tied  he  cannot  help  it.  Thus  many 
leave  their  sins  only  because  their  sins  have  h  ft 
them.  There  seems  to  be  a  reformation  of  the 
life,  but  what  will  that  avail  if  there  be  no  ren¬ 
ovation  of  the  heart  ?  H. 

35.  Balaam  was  now  to  be  compelled  to 
further  the  designs  of  God,  though  even  now 
his  position  was  not  altogether  a  hopeless  one. 
He  was  obliged  to  submit,  it  is  true,  to  further 
the  designs  of  God  ;  but  he  might  still  have 
done  this  of  his  own  free  will.  He  icas  obliged 
to  do  what  would  bring  him  nothing  but  anger 
and  scorn  from  the  Moabites,  instead  of  gold 
and  renown  ;  but  he  might  still  have  done  it  in 
such  a  manner  that  it  would  bring  him  honor 
and  favor  from  C  id.  Bless  he  must  ;  but  every¬ 
thing  depended  upon  whether  he  did  this  with 
willingness  and  cheerful  obedience,  or  with  re¬ 
luctance  and  of  constraint.  K. 

23  :  B .  In  each  case  before  Balaam  inquired 
of  God  ho  directed  Balak  to  prepare  seven  altars 
and  to  offer  upon  each  one  bullock  and  one 
lam.  The  object  in  this  seems  to  have  been  to 
propitiate  the  Lord  and  secure  his  favorable 
consideration.  It  is  remarkable  that  Balaam, 
coming  from  the  region  of  the  Euphrates,  should 


have  these  ideas  as  to  the  sacrifice  of  clean  ani¬ 
mals.  The  fact  seems  to  show  that  the  idea  of 
animal  sacrifices  was  revealed  to  the  race  in  its 
infancy,  and  that  it  prevailed  extensively  over 
the  eastern  world.  H.  C. 

5.  God  did  meet  Balaam,  not  in  auguries, 
but  by  putting  “  a  word  in  Balaam’s  mouth.” 
As  the  man  shared  not  in  it  otherwise  than  by 
being  the  outward  instrument  of  its  communi¬ 
cation,  this  ”  word  ”  was  to  him  only  “  a  par¬ 
able,”  and  is  designated  as  such  in  Scripture. 
Never  before  so  clearly  as  in  presence  of  the 
powers  of  heathenism,  assembled  to  contend 
against  Israel,  did  Jehovah  show  forth  his  al¬ 
mighty  power,  alike  in  making  use  of  an  instru¬ 
ment  almost  passive  in  his  hand,  and  in  dis¬ 
closing  his  eternal  purpose.  A.  E. - Who 

shall  prescribe  God  what  instruments  to  use  ? 
He  knows  how  to  employ,  not  only  saints  and 
angels,  but  wicked  men,  beasts,  devils,  to  hia 
own  glory  ;  he  that  put  words  into  the  mouth 
of  the  ass  puts  words  into  the  mouth  of  Balaam  ; 
the  words  do  but  pass  from  him  ;  they  are  not 
polluted,  because  they  are  not  his.  Bp.  H. 

7.  The  predictions  of  Balaam  are  wonderful, 
whether  we  consider  the  matter  or  the  style  ;  as 
if  the  same  Divine  Sj^irit  that  inspired  his 
thoughts  had  also  raised  his  language.  They 
are,  indeed,  as  the  word  “  parable”  implies,  a 
weighty  and  solemn  speech,  delivered  in  figu¬ 
rative  and  majestic  language.  We  cannot  peruse 
them  without  being  struck  with  the  beauty  of 
them,  and  perceiving  their  uncommon  force  and 
energ3%  though  we  read  them  only  in  a  transla¬ 
tion.  Bp.  Newton. 

Balaam’s  oracles  are  expressed  in  the  purest 
style  of  Hebrew  poetry —such  as  few  can  read 
without  a  sense  of  its  beauty  and  majesty.  If 
read  with  a  present  sense  of  the  moral  status  of 
this  prince  of  diviners— of  the  conflict  in  his 
soul  between  the  love  of  riches  and  honor  on 
the  one  hand  and  some  regard  to  the  high  be¬ 
hests  of  the  Almighty  on  the  other,  we  cannot 
well  suppress  a  feeling  of  sadness  that  one  so 
gifted  by  nature  and  so  favored  of  God  with 
prophetic  revelations  should,  despite  of  all, 
have  yet  succumbed  to  the  dominion  of  the 
baser  impulses  of  his  soul.  H.  G. 

7-10.  First,  as  to  the  form  of  this  parable  ; 
each  thought  is  embodied  in  two  sentences, 
with  rapid,  almost  abrupt,  transitions  from  one 
thought  to  the  other.  Secondly,  the  outward 
and  inward  separation  of  Israel  (the  former  as 
symbol  of  the  latter)  is  singled  out  as  the  grand 
characteristic  of  God’s  people — a  primary  truth 
this  of  the  Old  Testament,  and,  in  its  spiritual 
application,  of  the  New  Testament  also.  But 


FIRST  PROPHETIC  BLESSING. 


597 


even  in  its  literality  it  has  proved  true  in  the  his¬ 
tory  of  Israel  of  old,  and  slill  applies  to  them, 
showing  us  that  Israel’s  histoiy  is  not  yet  fin¬ 
ished  ;  ihat  (xod  has  not  forgotten  his  people,  and 
that  a  purpose  of  mercy  yet  awaits  them,  in  ac- 
cjrd.ince  with  his  former  dealings.  Such  a 
people  Balaam  could  not  curse.  A.  E. 

Tiie  Israelites  needed  strong  encouragement 
for  the  conflicts  in  which  they  were  soon  to  en¬ 
gage.  So  God,  in  his  wisdom  and  goodness, 
adopted  a  method  of  revealing  his  purposes 
which  cheered  the  hearts  of  his  people,  while  it 
brought  confusion  on  their  adversaries.  It  was 
to  their  enemies,  the  world  powers,  before  whom 
they  were  ready  to  quail,  that  the  predictions 
of  Israel’s  irresistible  career  were  now  primarily 
addressed,  and  by  a  prophet  of  their  own  whose 
identity  of  interest  with  themselves  could  not 
be  suspected,  and  whose  oracle  therefore  an¬ 
nounced,  only  with  greater  certainty,  the  disap¬ 
pearance  of  their  glory  and  their  complete  sub¬ 
jugation  to  the  kingdom  of  God.  D.  M. 

9.  TIic  people  dwell  alone. 

They  shall  ever  be  preserved  as  udis'inct  nation. 
This  prophecy  has  been  literall^’^  fulfilled  through 
a  period  of  thirty-three  hundred  years  to  the 
present  day  !  This  is  truly  astonishing  !  A.  C. 

- How  could  Balaam,  on  a  distant  view'  only 

of  a  people  whom  he  had  never  seen  or  known 
before,  have  discovered  the  genius  and  manners 
not  only  of  the  people  then  living,  but  of  their 
posterity  to  the  latest  generations  ?  What  ren¬ 
ders  it  the  more  extraordinary  is  the  singularity 
of  the  character,  that  they  should  differ  from 
all  the  people  in  the  world,  and  should  dwell 
bv  themselves  among  the  nations  without  mix- 
ing  and  incorporating  with  any.  The  time,  too, 
when  this  was  affirmed  increases  the  wonder  ; 
it  being  before  the  people  w'ere  well  known  in 
the  world,  before  their  religion  and  government 
were  established,  and  even  before  they  had  ob¬ 
tained  a  settlement  anywdiere.  That  the  char¬ 
acter  w’as  fully  verified  in  the  event  not  only 
all  history  testifies,  but  we  have  ocular  demcn- 
stration  at  this  day.  The  Jew's  in  their  religion 
and  laws,  their  rites  and  ceremonies,  their  man¬ 
ners  and  customs,  w'ere  so  totally  different  from 
all  other  nations  that  they  had  little  intercourse 
or  communion  with  them.  Other  nations,  the 
conquerors  and  the  conquered,  have  often  asso¬ 
ciated  and  united  as  one  body  under  the  same 
laws  ;  but  the  Jew's  in  their  captivities  have 
commonly  been  more  bigoted  to  their  own  re¬ 
ligion  and  more  tenacious  of  their  own  rites  and 
customs  than  at  other  times.  And  even  now, 
while  they  are  dispersed  among  all  nations, 
they'  yet  live  distinct  and  separate  from  all  ; 


trading  only  with  others,  but  eating,  maiTying, 
and  Ct  nversing  chiefly  among  themselves.  Bp. 
Nf-wlon. 

10.  ILct  me  die  tiie  death  of  tiie 
righteous.  He  goes  upon  the  supposition 
of  the  soul’s  immortality,  and  a  different  state 
on  the  other  side  death,  to  which  this  is  a  noble 
testimony,  and  an  evidence  of  its  being  an¬ 
ciently  known  and  believed.  For  how'  could  the 
death  of  the  righteous  be  more  desirable  than 
the  death  of  the  wicked  upon  any  other  account 
than  as  it  involved  happiness  in  another  world, 
since  in  the  manner  and  circumstances  of  dying 
we  see  all  things  come  alike  to  all  ?  He  jironounces 
the  righteous  truly  blessed,  not  only  w'hile  they 
live,  but  when  they  die  ;  which  makes  their 
death  not  only  more  desirable  than  the  death  of 
others,  but  even  more  desirable  than  life  itself. 

H. - Balaam  could  wish  at  this  time  to  have 

his  dying  portion  with  the  righteous  ;  yet  that 
w'ish  had  no  abiding  influence  upon  his  conduct. 
The  present — the  gains  and  honors  of  the 
world,  were  still  the  subjects  of  his  thoughts, 
and  to  W'in  them  the  great  object  of  his  solici¬ 
tude.  Therefore  his  “  end  ”  w'as  far  from  that. 
In  the  tents  of  Midian,  where  he  lingered,  or  to 
which  he  returned  to  claim  the  rew'ards  of  un¬ 
righteousness,  his  sun  went  dow’n  in  blood,  leav¬ 
ing  a  name  that  has  become  a  byword  in  the 
world.  It  is  a  fearful  thought  that  a  man  may 
have  “  his  eyes  open”  so  wide  as  Balaam’s  were, 
and  see  as  distinctly  as  he  “  the  vision  of  the 
Almighty,”  and  yet  perish  in  practical  unbelief  ; 
for  that  belief  avails  only  for  condemnation, 
w'hich  is  not  operative  upon  the  heart,  and  al¬ 
lows  a  man  still  to  have  his  portion  w'ith  the 
world.  Kit. 

The  object  now'  before  us  is  the  most  aston 
ishing  in  the  world  !  A  very  wicked  man,  under 
a  deep  sense  of  God  and  religion,  per.sisting 
still  in  his  w'ickedness,  and  preferring  the  wages 
of  unrighteousness,  even  w'hen  he  had  before 
him  a  lively  view  of  death,  and  that  approach¬ 
ing  period  of  his  days  which  should  deprive 
him  of  all  the  advantages  for  w'hich  he  w'as  pros¬ 
tituting  himself  ;  and  likewise  a  prospect, 
whether  certain  or  uncertain,  of  a  future  state 
of  retribution  !  All  this  joined  w'ith  an  explicit 
wish  that  w'hen  he  w'as  to  leave  this  w'orld  he 
might  be  in  the  condition  of  a  righteous  man  ! 
What  inconsistency,  what  perplexity  is  here  ! 
With  w'hat  different  view's  of  things,  with  w'hat 
contradictory  principles  of  action,  must  such  a 
mind  be  torn  and  distracted  !  It  w'as  not  an 
unthinking  carelessness  ;  no,  he  acted  upon  the 
cool  motives  of  interest.  Neither  w'as  he  totally 
callous  to  impressions  of  religion,  what  w'e  call 


598  SECTION  177.  BALAAM'S  PROPHETIC  BLESSINGS  UPON  ISRAEL. 


abandoned;  for  lie  absolutely  refused  to  curse 
Israel.  When  Keason  resumes  lier  place,  lie 
owns  and  feels  and  is  actually  under  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  the  Divine  authority  while  he  is  carry¬ 
ing  on  his  views  to  the  grave,  the  end  of  all 
temporal  greatness  ;  under  this  sense  of  things, 
with  the  better  chai-acter  and  more  desirable 
state  present  full  before  him,  voluntarily  to 
choose  the  worse  !  How  can  such  a  character 
be  explained  ?  And  yet,  strange  as  it  may  appear, 
it  is  not  altogether  an  uncommon  one  1  Nay, 
with  some  small  alterations  and  put  a  little 
lower,  it  is  applicable  to  a  considerable  part  of 
the  world.  For  if  the  reasonable  choice  be  seen 
and  acknowledged,  and  yet  men  make  the  un¬ 
reasonable  one,  is  not  this  the  same  inconsis¬ 
tency  which  appeared  unaccountable?  Men’s 
strong  attachments  to  this  present  world,  their 
hopes,  fears,  and  pursuits,  are  beyond  all  pro¬ 
portion  to  the  known  value  of  the  things  they 


respect.  They  try  to  make  a  composition  witn 
the  Almighty.  Those  of  his  commands  they 
will  obey  ;  but  as  to  the  others,  they  will  make 
all  atonements  in  their  power.  Indulgences  be¬ 
fore,  or  atonements  afterward,  are  all  the  same  ; 
and  they  add  faint  hopes  and  half  resolves  of 
making  a  change  at  one  time  or  other.  Bp. 
Butler. 

For  the  death  of  the  righteous,  before¬ 
hand  W'e  must  die  daily  to  ourselves,  and  hide 
our  life  with  Christ  in  the  bosom  of  God. 
Lord,  teach  us  this  death,  in  order  that  w'e  may 
be  capable  of  the  other  !  Disrobe  us  of  our¬ 
selves,  and  clothe  us  with  thyself  !  Make  us 
poor  in  order  that  we  may  be  rich  !  Be  our 
only  treasure  !  Be  our  only  light  in  the  days  of 
happiness,  so  that  thoumayest  also  be  our  light 
in  days  of  mourning,  and  at  the  hour  of  final 
departure  I  Vind. 


Section  177. 


BALAAM’S  SECOND  AND  THIRD  PROPHETIC  BLESSINGS  UPON  ISRAEL.  HIS  GREAT 
PROPHECY  OF  THE  STAR  AND  SCEPTRE.  DESTINY  OF  EXISTING  NATIONS. 
VISTA  OF  THE  GREAT  FUTURE. 


NtJMBEKS  23  : 11-30  ;  24  : 1-25. 


Nu.  23  11  Ani>  Balak  said  unto  Balaam,  What  hast  thou  done  unto  me?  I  took  thee  to 

12  curse  mine  enemies,  and,  behold,  thou  hast  blessed  them  altogether.  And  he  answered  and 

13  said.  Must  I  not  take  heed  to  speak  that  w^hich  the  Lokd  putteth  in  my  mouth  ?  And  Balak 
said  unto  him,  Come,  I  pray  thee,  with  me  unto  another  place,  from  whence  thou  mayest  see 
them  ;  thou  shalt  see  but  the  utmost  part  of  them,  and  shalt  not  see  them  all  :  and  curse  me 

14  them  from  thence.  And  he  took  him  into  the  field  of  Zophim,  to  the  top  of  Pisgah,  and  built 

15  seven  altars,  and  offered  up  a  bullock  and  a  ram  on  every  altar.  And  he  said  unto  Balak, 

16  Stand  here  by  thy  burnt  offering,  while  I  meet  the  Lord  yonder.  And  the  Lord  met  Balaam, 

17  and  put  a  word  in  his  mouth,  and  said.  Return  unto  Balak,  and  thus  shalt  thou  speak.  And 
he  came  to  him,  and,  lo,  he  stood  by  his  burnt  offering,  and  the  princes  of  Moab  with  him. 

18  And  Balak  said  unto  him.  What  hath  the  Lord  spoken  ?  And  he  took  up  his  parable,  and 
said. 


Rise  up,  Balak,  and  hear  ; 

Hearken  unto  me,  thou  son  of  Zippor  : 

19  God  is  not  a  man,  that  he  should  lie  ; 
Neither  the  son  of  man,  that  he  should  re¬ 
pent  : 

Hath  he  said,  and  shall  he  not  do  it  ? 

Or  hath  he  spoken,  and  shall  he  not  make 
it  good  ? 

20  Behold,  I  have  received  commandment  to 

bless  : 

And  he  hath  blessed,  and  I  cannot  re¬ 
verse  it. 

21  He  hath  not  beheld  iniquity  in  Jacob, 
Neither  hath  he  seen  perverseness  in 

Israel  : 


The  Lord  his  God  is  with  him. 

And  the  shout  of  a  king  is  among  them. 

22  God  bringeth  them  forth  out  of  Egypt  ; 
He  hath  as  it  were  the  strength  of  the 

wild-ox. 

23  Surely  there  is  no  enchantment  with  Jacob, 
Neither  is  there  any  divination  with  Israel  : 
Now  shall  it  be  said  of  Jacob  and  of  Israel, 
What  hath  God  wrought  !  - 

24  Behold,  the  people  riseth  up  as  a  lioness, 
And  as  a  lion  doth  he  lift  himself  up  : 

He  shall  not  lie  down  until  he  eat  of  the 
prey. 

And  drink  the  blood  of  the  slain. 


PROPHEGT  OF  THE  STAR  AND  SCEPTRE. 


599 


25  And  Balak  said  unto  Balaam,  Neither  curse  them  at  all,  nor  bless  them  at  all.  But  Balaam 

26  answered  and  said  unto  Balak,  Told  not  I  thee,  saying,  All  that  the  Lord  speaketh,  that  I 

27  must  do  ?  And  Balak  said  unto  Balaam,  Come  now,  I  will  take  thee  unto  another  place  ;  per- 

28  adventure  it  will  please  God  that  thou  mayest  curse  me  them  from  thence.  And  Balak  took 

29  Balaam  unto  the  top  of  Peor,  that  looketh  down  upon  the  desert.  And  Balaam  said  unto 

30  Btilak,  Build  me  here  seven  altars,  and  prepare  me  here  seven  bullocks  and  seven  rams. 

24  1  And  Balak  did  as  Balaam  had  said,  and  offered  up  a  bullock  and  a  ram  on  every  altar.  And 
when  Balaam  saw  that  it  pleased  the  Lord  to  bless  Israel,  he  went  not,  as  at  the  other  times, 

2  to  meet  with  enchantments,  but  he  set  his  face  toward  the  wilderness.  And  Balaam  lifted  up 
his  eyes,  and  he  saw  Israel  dwelling  according  to  their  tribes  ;  and  the  spirit  of  God  came 

3  upon  him.  And  he  took  up  his  parable,  and  said, 


Balaam  the  son  of  Beor  saith. 

And  the  man  whose  eye  was  closed  saith  : 

4  He  saith,  which  heareth  the  words  of  God, 
Which  seeth  the  vision  of  the  Almighty, 
Falling  down,  and  having  his  ej’^es  open  : 

5  How  goodly  are  thy  tents,  O  Jacob, 

Thy  tabernacles,  O  Israel  ! 

6  As  valleys  are  they  spread  forth. 

As  gardens  by  the  river  side. 

As  lign-aloes  which  the  Lord  hath  planted. 
As  cedar  trees  beside  the  waters. 

7  Water  shall  flow  from  his  buckets. 

And  his  seed  shall  be  in  many  waters, 


And  his  king  shall  be  higher  than  Agag, 
And  his  kingdom  shall  be  exalted. 

8  God  bringeth  him  forth  out  of  Egypt  ; 

He  hath  as  it  were  the  strength  of  the 

wild-ox  : 

He  shall  eat  up  the  nations  his  adversaries, 
And  shall  break  their  bones  in  pieces. 

And  smite  them  through  with  his  arrows. 

9  He  couched,  he  lay  down  as  a  lion, 

And  as  a  lioness  ;  who  shall  rouse  him 
up? 

Blessed  be  every  one  that  blesseth  thee. 
And  cursed  be  every  one  that  curseth  thee. 


10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 

16 


17 


18 


19 


And  Balak’s  anger  was  kindled  against  Balaam,  and  he  smote  his  hands  together  :  and  Balak 
said  unto  Balaam,  I  called  thee  to  curse  mine  enemies,  and,  behold,  thou  hast  altogether 
blessed  them  these  three  times.  Therefore  now  flee  thou  to  thy  place  :  I  thought  to  promote 
thee  unto  great  honour  ;  but,  lo,  the  Lord  hath  kept  thee  back  from  honour.  And  Balaam  said 
unto  Balak,  Spake  I  not  also  to  thy  messengers  which  thou  sentest  unto  me,  saying.  If  Balak 
would  give  me  his  house  full  of  silver  and  gold,  I  cannot  go  beyond  the  word  of  the  Lord,  to 
do  either  good  or  bad  of  mine  own  mind  ;  what  the  Lord  speaketh,  that  will  I  speak?  And 
now,  behold,  I  go  unto  my  people  :  come,  and  I  will  advertise  thee  what  this  people  shall  do 
to  thy  people  in  the  latter  days.  And  he  took  up  his  parable,  and  said. 


Balaam  the  son  of  Beor  saith. 

And  the  man  whose  eye  was  closed  saith  : 
He  saith,  which  heareth  the  words  of 
God, 

And  knoweth  the  knowledge  of  the  Most 
High, 

Which  seeth  the  vision  of  the  Almighty, 
Falling  down,  and  having  his  eyes  open  : 

I  see  him,  but  not  now  : 

I  behold  him,  but  not  nigh  : 

There  shall  come  forth  a  star  out  of  Jacob, 
And  a  sceptre  shall  rise  out  of  Israel, 

And  shall  smite  through  the  corners  of 
Moab, 

And  break  dowm  all  the  sons  of  tumult. 
And  Edom  shall  be  a  possession, 

Seir  also  shall  be  a  possession,  which  were 
his  enemies  ; 

While  Israel  doeth  valiantly. 

And  out  of  Jacob  shall  one  have  dominion, 


And  shall  destroy  the  remnant  from  the 
city. 

20  And  he  looked  on  Amalek,  and  took  up  his 
parable,  and  said, 

Amalek  was  the  first  of  the  nations  ; 

But  his  latter  end  shall  come  to  destruc 
tion. 

21  And  he  looked  on  the  Kenite,  and  took  up 
his  parable,  and  said, 

Strong  is  thy  dwelling  place. 

And  thy  nest  is  set  in  the  rock. 

22  Nevertheless  Kain  shall  be  wasted. 

Until  Asshur  shall  carry  thee  away  captive. 

23  And  he  took  up  his  parable,  and  said, 

Alas,  who  shall  live  when  God  doeth  this? 

24  But  ships  shall  come  from  the  coast  of  Kit- 

tim. 

And  they  shall  afflict  Asshur,  and  shall 
afflict  Eber, 

And  he  also  shall  come  to  destruction. 


25  And  Balaam  rose  up,  and  went  and  returned  to  his  place  :  and  Balak  also  went  his  way. 


Balak  first  met  Balaam  on  the  banks  of  the 
Arnon,  then  proceeded  north  with  him  to  Kir- 


jath-huzoih  (22  : 39),  the  northern  Kiriathaim, 
and  its  high  place,  the  top  of  Attarus  immedi^ 


600 


SECTION  177.  SECOND  ^PROPHETIC  BLESSING  UPON  ISRAEL. 


ately  above  it,  and  the  first  conspicuous  emi¬ 
nence  north  of  the  Atnon  ;  then  across  the 
Zerka  the  next  day  to  the  high  places  of  Baal 
(verse  41),  Baal  nieon,  afterward  changed  by  the  I 
lleubenites  into  Btlh-mton.  Thence,  in  order 
that  he  might  see  the  utmost  part  of  Israel's 
host,  he  brought  him  sti  1  further  north  to  the 
top  of  Pisgdii  (23  : 14).  Finally,  in  the  last 
vain  attempt  to  conciliate  the  Deity  by  fresh 
sacrifices,  he  led  him  to  the  iopof  Peor  (verse  28), 
which,  following  the  topographical  sequence,  I 
would  place  where  there  are  a  group  of  ruins 
on  the  summit  of  the  ridge  due  Wr^st  of  Heshbon 
and  exactly  opposite  Belh-Jesiinolh,  which  is 
probably  identical  with  the  Jeshiinon  of  Nu. 
33  : 28.  Thus  we  have,  with  every  reasonable 
probability,  the  identification  of  the  four  sacri¬ 
ficial  stations  of  Balak  and  Balaam.  H.  B.  T. 

Second  Pkophetic  Blessing. 

Nu.  23  ;  18-24. 

This  oracle  depicts  the  source  of  Israel’s  pe¬ 
culiar  happiness  as  to  be  sought  in  its  excep¬ 
tional  relation  to  God.  Thanks  to  the  Divine 
Law  it  is  a  holy  people  ;  thanks  to  Divine  rev¬ 
elation  it  is  an  enlightened  people  ;  and  thanks 
to  God’s  royal  leading  it  is  an  unconquerable 
people  for  whom  a  glorious  future  is  reserved. 
Orelli. 

19.  Men  change  their  minds,  and  therefore 
break  their  words.  But  God  never  changes  his 
mind,  and  therefore  never  recalls  his  promise. 
Balaam  had  owned  (verse  8)  that  he  could  not 
alter  God’s  counsel,  and  from  thence  he  infers 
here  that  God  himself  would  not  alter  it  ;  such 
is  the  imperfection  of  man,  and  such  the  per¬ 
fection  of  God.  It  is  impossible  for  God  to  lie 
(Heb.  6  : 18),  And  when  in  Scripture  he  is  said 
to  repent^  it  is  not  meant  of  any  change  of  his 
mind  (for  he  is  in  one  mind,  and  who  can  turn 
him  ?),  but  only  of  the  change  of  his  way. 
This  is  a  great  truth,  that  with  God  there  is  no 
variableness  or  shadow  of  turning.  129,  lie  hath 
blessed,  and  I  cannol  reverse  it — that  is,  “I  can 
not  prevail  with  him  to  reverse  it.”  Israel  were 
of  old  a  biassed  people  ;  they  were  born  under 
the  blessing  of  the  covenant,  and  born  to  the 
blessing  of  Canaan,  and  therefore  they  could 
not  be  cursed,  unless  the  God  of  eternal  truth 
should  break  his  word  and  become  false  to  him¬ 
self  and  his  people.  He  has  not  beheld  in¬ 

iquity  in  Jacob.  Not  but  that  there  was  iniquity 
in  Jacob,  and  God  saw  it  ;  but  there  was  not 
such  a  degree  of  iniquity  as  might  provoke  God 
to  abandon  them  and  give  them  up  to  ruin. 
There  was  no  idolatry  among  them,  which  is  in 
a  particular  manner  called  iniquity  and  per- 


verseness  ;  we  have  found  nothing  of  that  kind  in 
Israel  since  the  golden  calf,  and  therefore 
though  they  were  in  other  instances  very  pro¬ 
voking  yet  God  would  not  cast  them  off.  H. 

Balaam  speaks  of  Israel  as  an  upright  and 
righteous  nation.  There  is  something  in  Mich 
a  description  which  cannot  fail  to  astonish  us, 
so  vivid  is  the  recollection  of  their  constant  re¬ 
bellion,  disobedience,  and  ingratitude,  of  the 
trouble  they  caused  their  God,  and  of  the  nu¬ 
merous  punishments  and  plagues  with  which  he 
had  to  visit  them.  We  must  look  deeper  for  an 
explanation.  Balaam’s  jirophetic  glance  and 
saying  was  not  concerned  with  what  Isiael 
might  be  at  any  one  particular  time  in  its  out¬ 
ward  and  variable  appearance,  but  with  its  call¬ 
ing  and  election  in  every  age.  In  this  sinful 
world  there  is  always  a  contrast,  of  less  or 
greater  strength,  between  the  idea  and  the  out¬ 
ward  manifestation.  We  find  it  in  Israel  ;  and 
on  many  occasions  it  became  most  terribly  glar¬ 
ing.  But  the  imperishable  seed  of  the  prom¬ 
ise,  which  had  been  deposited  in  the  outward 
Israel  by  him  who  had  begotten  the  spiritual 
Israel,  was  still  there.  A  genuine  Israel,  to 
whom  the  predicate  of  honorable  and  righteous 
might  justly  be  applied,  still  continued  to  exist 
in  the  most  deeply  degraded  periods  as  a  coun¬ 
teracting  leaven,  though  it  might  be  confined  to 
the  seven  thousand  who  had  not  bowed  tbe 
knee  to  Baal.  And  even  at  such  periods  as 
these,  according  to  its  calling  and  election, 
which  must  eventually  be  realized,  Israel  was  a 
nation  of  just  and  righteous  men.  So  essential 
a  characteristic  was  this  of  Israel,  so  inseparable 
was  the  inward  call  from  the  outward  manifes¬ 
tation,  that  the  Deuteronomist,  whom  no  one 
could  charge  with  unduly  glorifying  and  ideal¬ 
izing  his  nation,  has  incorporated  this  idea  in 
the  word  Jeshurun,  which  he  adopts  as  a  projrer 
name  for  Israel  (De.  32  : 15  ;  33  :  5,  26  ;  Is. 
44  :  2),  Balaam  looked  upon  Israel  in  its  sep¬ 
aration  from  the  heathen  ;  and  in  this  respect, 
notwithstanding  all  its  wanderings,  it  was  and 
remained  a  people  of  Jesharim,  a  Jeshurun  ;  since 
its  wanderings  were  only  for  a  time.  Under  the 
guidance  and  teaching  and  chastisement  of  Je¬ 
hovah,  it  always  returned  from  its  wanderings 
and  rose  up  from  its  fall,  whereas  the  way  of 
the  heathen  was  from  first  to  last  a  false  way,  K. 

23.  Here  we  find  an  answer  to  the  question, 
why  this  occurrence  has  been  left  on  record  in 
these  sacred  pages  for  all  generations.  A  man 
who  was  called  to  curse  feels  himself  irresistibly 
impelled  by  the  power  of  the  Spirit  from  on 
high  to  bless  the  people  of  the  Lord  :  what  was 
such  a  man.  if  not  a  powerful  witness  to  the 


BALAAM'S  THIRD  PROPHETIC  BLESSING. 


GOl 


greatness  and  the  honor  of  Israel  ?  To  use  his 
own  words,  it  was  necessary  to  show  that  “  no 
enchantment  availed  against  Jacob,  nor  any 
divination  against  Israel  and  that  the  people 
of  the  Lord  had  nothing  to  fear  in  any  case  from 
heathen  superstition  and  sorcery.  Thus  they 
were  encouraged  against  approaching  days  of 
darkness,  and  assured  of  the  protection  of  an 
Almighty  power,  which  if  need  were  could 
change  even  the  curse  into  a  blessing.  And  the 
history  and  utterances  of  Balaam  were  not 
merely  of  the  deepest  significance  for  that  time, 
but  remain  such  for  all  succeeding  ages.  Van  0. 

At  this  point  of  time  Israel  was  on  the  thresh¬ 
old  of  Canaan.  Sihon  and  Og  had  fallen.  The 
spirit  of  a  pure  and  vigorous  faith  in  God  was 
never  more  thoroughly  national  than  in  this 
generation.  As  between  Moab  and  Israel,  the 
contrast  was  never  greater.  God’s  people  as 
seen  by  his  prophetic  eye  were  on  the  eve  of 
sublime  victories.  No  enchantment  or  divina¬ 
tion  could  have  force  against  them.  That  was 
the  era  in  their  history  when  it  might  fitly  be¬ 
come  a  standing  exclamation  :  “  What  hath  God 
wrought?”  H.  C. 

iJS.  He  led  Balaam  this  time  to  the  top  of 
Mount  PeoT’,  which  rose  immediately  above  the 
plain  in  which  Israel  was  encamped,  and  where 
the  whole  camp  lay  spread  out  before  the  eyes 
of  the  seer,  like  the  contents  of  an  open  book. 
Altars  were  erected,  and  sacrifices  offered,  as 
before  ;  but  Balaam  did  not  go  and  seek  for 
auguries.  K. 

Thied  Pbophetic  Blessing. 

Nu.  24  :3-9. 

24  :  3-9.  The  third  blessing  is  the  finest  of 
all.  Its  central  ideas  are  prosperity  and  vic- 
tor3L  To  appreciate  its  imagery,  we  must  re¬ 
member  the  exceeding  value  of  water  in  the 
East,  so  that  abundance  of  it  is  the  best  poeti¬ 
cal  image  of  prosperity  and  national  welfare — 
also  that  Agag  was  the  dynastic  name  of  Amale- 
kite  kings,  and  that  accordingly,  inasmuch  as 
Avnalek  was  at  that  time  “  the  first  of  the  na¬ 
tions”  (verse  20)  with  w^hich  Israel  had  to  deal, 
Agag  was  the  great  representative  of  the  power 
of  the  enemies  of  God’s  people.  J.  M.  G. 

5.  Taberiiacle§.  The  sight  of  the  actual 
tents  in  the  camp  of  the  Israelites  transports 
nis  view  to  the  dwellings  of  Israel,  crowned 
with  all  manner  of  blessing  from  the  fulness  of 
the  Lord.  Their  whole  earthly  well-being  has 
its  source  in  the  unfailing  streams  which  flow 

from  God  to  his  people.  Ctrl. - By  an  inner 

sense  he  beholds  the  tribes  in  the  promised 
land,  that  region  which,  in  comparison  with  the 


desert  abodes  of  Moab,  Midian,  and  Edom,  was 
a  very  garden.  There  stretch  like  brooks  the 
long  lines  of  Israel’s  tents,  planted  in  fact  by 
fresh  waters.  The  thirsty  eye  of  the  Oriental 
rejoices  in  nothing  so  much  as  in  water.  Where 
this  is  there  is  life,  growth,  wealth,  joy.  Hence 
this  blessing  of  God  is  promised  in  fullest  meas¬ 
ure  to  Israel,  which  will  therefore  grow  up  like 
stately  trees.  From  this  peaceful  prosperity 
(verse  7)  then  passes  to  the  power  of  military 
expansion  dwelling  in  the  people,  by  which  it 
will  be  raised  above  the  mightiest  nations. 
Orelli. 

9.  Ble§§ed  i§  lie  tliat  blc§§etli  thee. 

Whatever  good  offices  are  performed  toward  the 
Church  are  conferred  upon  God  himself,  who 
will  recompense  them  faithfully  ;  and  believers 
cannot  be  injured  without  his  avenging  them  ; 
even  as  he  says  :  “  He  that  toucheth  3’ou,  touch- 
eth  the  apple  of  my  eye”  (Zech.  2  : 8).  And  as¬ 
suredly,  whosoever  have  contributed  their  labors 
for  the  Church’s  welfare  and  have  been  her 
faithful  helpers,  shall  be  sure  partakers  of  the 
blessing  which  is  here  promised.  Gah. 

11.  The  L<ord  hath  kept  you  back 
from  honor.  These  words  clearly  exemplify 
the  seductive  impious  spirit  of  the  world. 
Surely  Balaam  now  has  found  in  serving  Balak 
what  the  world  really  is  ;  and  the  world  itself 
fully  deserves  to  bear  the  name  borne  by  that 
king -Balak,  destroyer.  On  every  band,  the 
world  looks  out  for  allies,  servants,  friends  ;  as 
Balak  did  to  Balaam,  she  promises  to  bestow 
her  favors  and  her  wealth  if  you  but  follow  her 
behests,  and  make  her  will  your  own.  If  you 
refuse,  as  he  did  at  the  first,  the  world  will  not 
believe  that  you  act  but  from  principle— rather, 
she  thinks  that  you  regard  self-interest  ;  but 
she  will  give  you  large  rewards  when  you  but 
sell  yourself  to  her.  “  All  these  things  will  I 
give  thee,  if  thou  wilt  fall  down  and  worship 
me  so  spake  the  prince  of  this  world  to 
Jesus  ;  and  at  every  turn  he  modifies  his  voice, 
but  still  to  say  the  same  thing,  in  the  softest 
tone,  to  all  Christ’s  followers — nay,  even  to 
every  one  of  his  redeemed.  This  Balak  also, 
like  a  true  destroyer,  rests  not  for  an  instant  till 
he  brings  you  where  he  will  ;  and  if  the  first 
attempt  does  not  succeed,  he  makes  a  second 
and  a  third.  The  world  knows  very  well,  like 
Balak,  how  to  suit  herself  to  circumstances 
when  they  change  and  to  attract  some  friends 
from  every  side.  Nay,  she  can  even  in  her  own 
time  and  way  be  quite  religious — from  mere 
policy  and  ill-concealed  self-interest  ;  and  she 
shows  all  possible  respect  for — forms.  Obey 
God  rather  than  any  man  !  The  world  will  for' 


602  SECriON  177-  BALAAM'S  PROPHETIC  BLESSINGS  UPON  ISRAEL. 


give  you  everything  but  this — that  you  earnestly 
believe  God’s  Word,  and  give  obedience  to 
what  he  requires.  If  you  show,  like  Balaam, 
that  you  hesitate  because  the  truth  is  much  too 
strong  for  you,  like  Balaam,  you  are  roughly 
pushed  aside,  and  told,  “  The  Lord  hath  kept 
thee  back  from  honor,”  To  such  a  world — so 
selfish,  false,  malicious,  just  like  Balak — should 
you  make  your  heart  a  slave  ?  Van  0. 

14.  Balaam  was  ready  enough  to  go.  But  the 
Spirit  constrained  him  to  finish  his  prophecy  ; 
and  before  his  departure  he  announced  to  the 
Moabitish  king  what  glory  awaited  Israel,  and 
what  destruction  was  in  reserve  for  their  heathen 
foes.  K. 

The  Stab  and  Sceptbe  Pbophect. 

Na.  24  : 15-24. 

The  fourth  parable  is  more  strictly  prophetic, 
setting  forth  what  is  to  happen  in  the  end  of 
the  days.  It  is  not  given  at  Balak’s  solicita¬ 
tion  ;  but  is,  as  it  were,  forced  upon  his  unwill 
ing  ear  as  a  wonderful  appendix  to  the  three¬ 
fold  benediction  pronounced  upon  Israel. 
J.  M.  G. 

Behind  Balaam  lay  the  vast  expanse  of  desert 
extending  to  the  shores  of  his  native  Assyrian 
river.  On  his  left  were  the  red  mountains  of 
Edom  and  Seir  ;  further  still  was  the  dim  out 
line  of  the  Arabian  wilderness,  where  ruled  the 
then  powerful  tribe  of  Amalek  ;  immediately 
below  him  lay  the  vast  encampment  of  Israel, 
among  the  acacia  groves  of  Abel-Shittim — like 
the  water-courses  of  the  mountains,  like  the  hang, 
ing  gardens  beside  his  own  river  Euphrates,  with 
their  aromatic  shrubs,  and  their  widespreading 
cedars.  Beyond  them,  on  the  western  side  of 
Jordan,  rose  the  hills  of  Palestine,  with  glimpses 
through  their  valleysof  ancient  cities  towering  on 
their  crested  heights.  And  beyond  all,  though 
he  could  not  see  it  with  his  bodily  vision,  he 
knew  well  that  there  rolled  the  deep  waters  of 
the  great  sea,  with  the  Isles  of  Greece,  the  Isle 
of  Chittim— a  world  of  which  the  first  begin¬ 
nings  of  life  were  just  stirring,  of  which  the 
very  name  here  first  breaks  upon  our  ears. 
These  are  the  points  indicated  in  the  view  which 
laj'^  beforo  the  prophet  as  he  stood  on  the  Watch¬ 
ers’  Field,  on  the  top  of  Peor.  What  was  the 
vision  which  unrolled  itself  as  he  heard  the 
words  of  God,  as  he  saw  the  vision  of  the  Al¬ 
mighty,  “  falling”  prostrate  in  the  prophetic 
trance,  “  but  having  the  eyes”  of  his  mind  and 
his  spirit  “open”?  The  outward  forms  still 
remained.  He  still  saw  the  tents  below,  goodly 
in  their  array  ;  he  still  saw  the  rocks,  and  hills, 
and  distant  desert  ;  but  as  his  thought  glanced 


from  height  to  height,  and  from  valley  to  moun¬ 
tain,  the  future  fortunes  of  the  nations  who 
dwelt  there  unfolded  themselves  in  dim  succes¬ 
sion,  revolving  round  and  from  the  same  central 
object.  As  he  watched  the  course  of  the  sur¬ 
rounding  nations,  he  saw  how,  one  by  one,  they 
would  fall,  as  fall  they  did,  before  the  conquer¬ 
ing  sceptre  of  David,  before  the  steady  advance 
of  that  star  which  then,  for  the  first  time,  rose 
out  of  Bethlehem.  And,  as  he  gazed,  the  vision 
became  wider  and  wider  still.  He  saw  a  time 
when  a  new  tempest  would  break  over  all  these 
countries  alike,  from  the  remote  east — from 
Asshur,  from  his  own  native  land  of  Assyria. 
“  Asshur  shall  carry  thee  away  captive.  ”  But  at 
that  word  another  scene  opened  before  him,  and 
a  cry  of  horror  burst  from  his  lips  :  “  Alas  ! 
who  shall  live  when  God  doeth  this  !”  For  his 
own  nation,  too,  was  to  be  at  last  overtaken — 
”  For  ships  shall  come  from  the  coast  of  Chit¬ 
tim” — from  the  island  of  Cyprus,  w^hich,  as  the 
only  one  visible  from  the  heights  of  Palestine, 
was  the  one  familiar  link  with  the  western  world, 
“  and  shall  crush  Asshur,  and  shall  crush  Eber, 
‘  the  people  beyond  the  Euphrates,’  and  he  also 
shall  perish  forever.”  So  it  came  to  pass,  when 
the  ships  of  Cyprus,  of  Greece,  of  Europe,  then 
just  seen  in  the  horizon  of  human  hopes  and 
fears,  did  at  last,  under  the  great  Macedonian 
conqueror,  turn  the  tide  of  eastern  invasion 
backward  ;  and  Asshur  and  Babylon,  Assyria  and 
Chaldaea,  and  Persia,  no  less  than  the  wild 
hordes  of  the  desert,  ‘  ‘  perished  forever”  from 
the  earth.  S'anley. 

17.  I  see  liim,  but  not  now;  I  be¬ 
hold  him,  but  not  iiig^h  :  the  future 
tense  in  Hebrew  being  often  used  for  the  pres¬ 
ent.  He  saw  with  the  eyes  of  prophec}’^  ;  and 
prophets  are  emphatically  called  seers.  There 
shall  come  a  star  out  of  Jaeob,  aud 
a  sceptre.  The  “star”  and  “sceptre”  are 
probably  metaphors  borrowed  from  the  ancient 
hieroglyphics,  which  much  influenced  the  lan¬ 
guage  of  the  East  ;  and  they  evidentlj^  denote 
some  eminent  and  illustrious  king  or  ruler,  par¬ 
ticularized  in  the  following  words.  Bp.  New'on. 
- The  star  and  the  sceptre  are  symbols  of  roy¬ 
alty,  the  one  of  royal  splendor,  the  other  of  royal 
power.  The  prophecy  then  heralds  the  coming 
of  a  king,  who  shall  rise  out  of  Israel.  J.  M.  G. 

Who  is  “the  star”  and  “  the  sceptre”  of  this 
prophecy  ?  The  leading  thought  of  the  passage 
(verses  17-19)  and  indeed  of  the  entire  prophecy 
to  the  end  of  verse  24  is  the  supremacy  cf  Israel, 
and  the  fall  of  all  powers  hostile  to  Israel  and 
to  Israel’s  God.  The  key-note  is  in  the  words  : 
“  Out  of  Jacob  sha'l  come  he  that  shall  have  domin- 


THE  STAR  AND  SCEPTRE  PROPHECY. 


603 


ion.”  The  prophetic  future  (as  usual)  is  built 
upou  the  visible  present,  or  perhaps  more  pre¬ 
cisely,  springs  out  of  it  -  is  suggested  by  it,  and 
takes  its  phraseology  and  costume  from  it.  The 
Lord  forces  the  truth  upon  Balaam’s  soul  that 
this  Israel  whom  he  was  called  out  from  his 
Eastern  home  to  curse  could  not  be  cursed  to 
any  purpose  by  any  earthly  divination  or  power 
because  they  were  God’s  own  people,  and  it  was 
his  fixed  purpose  to  bless  them.  To  impress 
this  great  truth  the  more  deeply,  the  Lord  re¬ 
veals  to  him  in  prophetic  vision  that  this  pres¬ 
ent  fact  is  not  transient  but  destined  to  reach 
into  the  remote  future  ;  that  it  is  indeed  only  a 
beginning  of  their  supremacy— a  pledge  of  a  far 
more  sovereign  ascendency,  to  be  manifested  in 
future  ages.  With  this  view  of  the  spirit  of  the 
prophecy,  we  must  find  here,  not  merely  David 
in  whom  as  the  first  conqueror  of  Moab  and  of 
Edom  (2  Sam.  8  :  2,  12,  14)  these  words  receive 
the  first  palpable  instalment  of  their  meaning  ; 
but  yet  more  surely  that  greater  Son  of  David 
whose  sceptre  is  to  rule  the  nations  with  a  rod 
of  iron. 

That  this  broad  construction  is  the  true  one 
will  appear  yet  more  fully  when  we  compare  the 
use  of  the  word  “  sceptre”  here  with  Jacob’s 
use  of  it  (Gen.  49  ;  10)  ;  the  “  star”  here  with 
the  ‘‘star  in  the  East”  (Matt.  2:1)  seen  by 
other  wise  men  [magicians]  from  Balaam’s  own 
country  ;  and  not  least,  the  fact  that  Edom  and 
Seir  became  in  the  usage  of  later  prophets  sym¬ 
bolic  names  for  the  declared  and  malign  enemies 
of  Christ’s  kingdom  (see  Is.  34).  ”  He  shall 

smit^  the  corners  better  the  two  sides  of 
Moab— i.e.,  Moab  from  side  to  side,  through 
and  through,  laying  waste  her  whole  country. 
Edom  and  Seir  —two  names  for  one  and  the 
same  kingdom,  often  aiB&liated  with  Moab,  shall 
become  the  possession  of  their  enemies  and 
Israel  shall  outmaster  them  through  her  valor, 
and  yet  more  through  the  might  of  her  God — 
first  fulfilled  by  David  (2  Sam.  8  : 14).  H.  C. 

This  prophecy  was  fulfilled  in  the  person  and 
actions  of  David  ;  but  most  Jewish  as  well  as 
Christian  writers  apply  it  ultimately  to  the  Mes¬ 
siah,  as  the  person  chiefly  intended,  in  whom  it 
was  to  receive  its  full  and  entire  completion, 
Onkelos,  the  most  ancient  and  valuable  of  the 
Chaldee  paraphrasts,  interprets  it  of  the  Mes¬ 
siah  :  “  When  a  prince,”  says  he,  ”  shall  arise 
of  the  house  of  Jacob,  and  Christ  shall  be 
anointed  of  the  house  of  Israel,  he  shall  both  slay 
the  princes  of  Moab,  and  rule  over  all  the  sons  of 
men  and  with  him  agree  the  other  Targums 
or  paraphrases.  It  appears  to  have  been  gen¬ 
erally  understood  by  the  Jews  as  a  prophecy  of 


the  Messiah,  because  the  false  Christ,  who  ap¬ 
peared  in  the  reign  of  the  Koman  Emperor 
Adrian,  assumed  the  title  of  Barchochebas,  or  the 
son  of  the  star,  in  allusion  to  this  prophecy,  and 
in  order  to  have  it  believed  that  he  was  the  star 
whom  Balaam  had  seen  afar  off.  The  Christian 
fathers  are  unanimous  in  applying  this  prophecy 
to  our  Saviour,  and  to  the  star  which  appeared 
at  his  nativity.  Both  Origen  and  Eusebius 
affirm  that  it  was  in  consequence  of  Balaam’s 
prophecies,  which  were  known  and  believed  in 
the  East,  that  the  Magi,  upon  the  appearance 
of  a  new  star,  came  to  Jerusalem  to  worship  him 
who  was  born  king  of  the  Jews.  The  stream  of 
modern  divines  and  commentators  runs  the 
same  way — that  is,  they  apply  the  prophecy 
principally  to  our  Saviour,  and  by  Moab  and 
Edom  understand  the  enemies  and  persecutors 
of  the  Church.  A  star  did  really  appear  at  our 
Saviour’s  nativity  ;  and  in  Scripture  he  is  styled 
“  the  day  star”  (2  Pet.  1  :  19),  “  the  morning 
star’  ’  (Kev.  2  :  28),  ‘  ‘  the  bright  and  morning 
star”  (22  :  16),  perhaps  in  allusion  to  this  very 
prophecy.  Bp.  Newton. 

The  expression,  “  in  the  latter  days,”  always 
denotes  the  period  of  the  ultimate  completion 
of  the  kingdom  of  God,  in  other  words,  the 
Messianic  age.  The  “star  out  of,  Jacob”  evi¬ 
dently  denotes  the  Israelitish  monarchy  in  its 
highest  personal  culmination,  which  was  in  the 
person  of  the  Messiah.  If  Balaam’s  prophecy 
centred  in  David,  as  fulfilling  its  announce¬ 
ments,  it  centred  in  the  Messiah  also.  From 
the  fulfilment  we  know  that  what  Balaam  pre- 
dieted  of  this  one  king  was  certainly  fulfilled  in 
David,  but  only  in  a  provisional,  imperfect,  and 
not  exhaustive  manner.  It  was  not  till  the 
coming  of  Christ  that  the  fulfilment  was  com¬ 
plete  and  final.  The  conclusion  therefore  is 
that  the  prophecy  refers  first  of  all  to  David,  and 
that  it  really  was  fulfilled  in  David,  who  as  king 
was  a  type  of  Christ,  the  everlasting  King.  But 
it  also  refers  to  Christ  ;  and  the  fulness  of  the 
completion  in  Christ  exceeded  that  in  David,  to 
the  same  extent  to  which  the  sovereignty  of 
Christ,  the  antitype,  exceeded  that  of  David,  the 
type.  When  David  had  appeared,  and  had  ac¬ 
complished  all  that  was  given  him  to  do,  the 
believing  Israelite  could  perceive  that  David 
was  the  star  of  which  Balaam  had  prophesied. 
But  when  upon  closer  examination  he  found 
that,  notwithstanding  the  relative  completeness 
of  the  victories  of  David,  the  heathen  foes  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  were  not  absolutely  de¬ 
feated  and  destroyed,  and  therefore  that  Ba¬ 
laam’s  prophecy  was  only  provisionally  and  not 
finally  fulfilled  in  David— the  examination  might 


604  SECTION  177.  BALAAJTS  PROPUETIC  BLESSINGS  UPON  ISRAEL. 


have  led  him  to  false  conclusions  as  to  the 
prophecy  itself,  if  this  had  not  been  prevented 
by  a  continued  course  of  prophecy,  liut  just  at 
the  time  when  the  want  of  harmony  between 
Balaam’s  prophecy  and  the  fultilment  forced 
itself  upon  the  mind,  the  course  of  propliecy 
entered  upon  a  fresh  stage  of  its  historical  de¬ 
velopment,  and  the  announcement  was  made 
that  a  second  David  would  arise  from  Davi el  s 
seed,  in  whom  the  typical  attitude  of  David  to 
the  heathen  would  find  its  most  complete  and 
antitypical  realization.  The  star  above  the 
manger  merely  announced  the  Coming  of 
Christ  ;  it  served  as  a  guide  to  the  place  of  his 
birth.  But  the  star  which  was  seen  in  the 
future  by  Balaam’s  prophetic  eye  was  Christ 
himself.  Balaam’s  star,  therefore,  was  not  a 
prediction  of  the  star  of  the  wise  men,  but  they 
were  both  witnesses  of  the  coming  of  Christ — 
the  former  as  a  prophecy  of  the  future,  the  lat¬ 
ter  as  a  symbol  for  the  time  then  present.  K. 

]§.  £cloiii  shall  l>e  a  possession. 
This  was  fulfilled  by  David,  who  in  two  of  his 
Psalms  hath  mentioned  together  his  conquest  of 
Moab  and  Edom,  as  they  are  also  joined  to¬ 
gether  in  this  projrhecy  (Ps.  GO  :  8  ;  108  : 9). 
Scir  also.  “  Seir”  is  the  name  of  the  moun¬ 
tains  of  Edom  ;  so  that  even  their  mountains 
and  fastnesses  could  not  defend  the  Idumeans 
from  David  and  his  captains.  Israel  shall  do 
valiantly.  As  they  did  particularly  under  the 
command  of  David,  several  of  whose  victories 
are  recorded  in  2  Sam.  8  together  with  his  con¬ 
quest  of  Moab  and  Edom.  Bp  Newton. 

It  is  apparent  that  Edom  and  Moab  are  named 
by  Balaam,  as  they  are  also  by  the  prophets, 
not  for  their  own  sake  merely,  but  as  represen¬ 
tatives  of  the  heathen  nations  who  were  hostile 
to  the  Theocracy.  As  Jacob  then  figures  as  a 
constant  type  of  the  kingdom  of  Messiah  in  the 
prophets,  so  too  do  Edom  and  Moab  of  the  en¬ 
emies  of  that  kingdom  ;  and  in  the  threatened 
ruin  of  Edom  and  Moab  is  indicated  the  event¬ 
ual  destruction  of  all  that  resist  the  kingdom  of 

God  in  its  power.  Espin. - Nothing  less  than 

the  entire  and  permanent  conquest  of  all  the 
enemies  of  the  kingdom  of  God  could  be  re¬ 
garded  as  consummating  the  fulfilment  of  the 
prophecy.  Where  there  are  enemies,  there  are 
Moabites,  and  the  words  spoken  by  Balaam  are 

still  in  process  of  fulfilment.  Ilengs - We 

have,  in  fact,  in  this  last  prophecy  of  Balaam 
concerning  “  the  latter  days”  another  form  of  the 
earlier  assurance,  “  As  truly  as  I  live,  all  the 
earth  shall  be  filled  with  the  glory  of  the  Lord,” 
and  an  anticipation  of  many  that  are  to  follow’, 
some  of  which  combine  both  forms  of  present¬ 


ing  the  truth  ;  as,  for  example,  in  the  second 
Psalm.  J.  M.  G. 

20.  Ainaick,  of  tlie  iiadoiiM. 

The  most  ancient  and  most  pov.erful  of  all  the 
nations  or  States  then  within  the  view  of  Ba¬ 
laam  ;  hut  his  latter  end  shall  be  that  he  perish  f-  r- 
ever.  This  oracle  began  to  be  fulfilled  by  tyjiul 
(1  Sam,  15  : 7,  8),  who  overthrew  the  Amalekite-', 
and  took  their  King  Agag  prisoner.  Afterward 
they  were  nearly  destroyed  by  David  (1  Sam, 
27  : 8),  and  they  were  finally  exterminated  by 
the  sons  of  Simeon  in  the  days  of  llezekiah  (1 
Ch.  4  : 41-43)  ;  since  that  time  they  have  ceased 
to  exist  as  a  people,  and  now  no  vestige  of  them 
remains  on  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  so  completel}' 
is  their  posterity  cut  off  according  to  this  proph¬ 
ecy.  A.  C. 

21.  Tlic  H.eiiitc§.  Notoneof  theCanaan- 

itish  nations,  mentioned  in  Gen.  15  : 19,  but 
probably  a  tribe  of'  the  Midianites.  Bp.  New¬ 
ton. - Since  the  name  of  the  Kenites  unques¬ 

tionably  occurs  among  the  Midianites,  and  a 
curse  directed  against  this  nation,  which  was 
now  allied  with  the  Moabites  for  the  purpose  of 
compassing  the  destruction  of  Israel,  would  be 
perfectly  in  place  here,  we  have  no  hesitation  in 
regarding  the  curse  directed  against  the  Kenites 
as  intended  for  the  Midianites.  How^  the  name 
of  Kenites  came  to  be  applied  to  the  Midianites 
must  be  left  undetermined.  K. 

22.  The  Amalekites  were  to  be  utterly  de¬ 
stroyed,  but  the  Kenites  were  to  be  carried  cap¬ 
tive.  And  accordingly  when  Saul  was  sent  to 
destroy  the  Amalekites,  he  ordered  the  Kenites 
to  depart  from  among  them  (1  Sam,  15  : 6). 
This  shows  that  they  were  “  wasted  ”  and  re¬ 
duced  to  alow  and  weak  condition.  And  as  the 
kings  of  Assyria  carried  captive  not  only'  the 
Jews,  but  also  the  Syrians  (2  Kings  16  : 9)  and 
several  other  nations  (2  Kings  19  : 12,  13),  it  is 
highly  probable  that  the  Kenites  shared  the  same 
fate  with  their  neighbors  ;  especially’  as  some 
Kenites  are  mentioned  among  the  Jews  after 
their  return  from  captivity. 

24.  Miips  from  tlic  eoa§t  of  Kittini. 
Kittim  was  one  of  the  sons  of  Javan,  who  was 
one  of  the  sons  of  Japhet,  by  whose  posterity 
“  the  isles  of  the  Gentiles  were  divided  ”  and 
peopled — that  is,  Europe,  and  the  countries  to 
which  the  Asiatics  passed  by  sea.  The  land  of 
Kittim  was  a  general  name  for  the  countries 
and  islands  in  the  Mediterranean.  And  Balaam 
might  here  mean  either  Greece,  or  Italy,  or 
both  ;  the  particular  names  of  those  countries 
being  at  that  time  perhaps  unknown  in  the 
East,  And  the  passage  may  be  the  better  un¬ 
derstood  of  both,  because  Greece  and  Italy  were 


TUB  STAll  AND  SCEPTRE  PROPHECY. 


605 


alike  the  scourges  of  Asia.  ISliall  afflict 
A§§lllir.  Asshur  properly  means  the  descend¬ 
ants  of  Asshur,  the  Assyrians  ;  but  the  Syrians 
and  Assyrians  are  often  confounded  together, 
and  mentioned  as  the  same  people.  The  Greeks 
under  Alexander  the  Great  subdued  all  those 
countries.  The  Romans  attervvard  extended 
their  empire  into  the  same  regions  ;  and  Assj^ria, 
properly  so  called,  was  conquered  by  the  Emper¬ 
or  Trajan.  And  §8iall  afflict  Ebcr.  By 
Eber  is  meant  either  the  people  bordering  on  the 
Euphrates,  or  the  Hebrews,  the  posterity  of  Eber, 
If  the  former,  they  as  well  as  the  Assyrians  were 
subdued  both  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans  ;  if  the 
latter,  as  is  most  probable,  they  were  afflicted, 
though  not  much  by  Alexander  himself,  yet  b}^ 
his  successors  the  Seleucidte  and  particularly  by 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  who  spoiled  Jerusalem, 
defiled  the  temple,  and  slew  all  those  who  ad¬ 
hered  to  the  Law  of  Moses  (1  Macc.  1).  They 
were  worse  afflicted  by  the  Romans,  who  not 
only  subdued  and  oppressed  them  and  made 
their  country  a  province  of  the  empire,  but  at 
last  took  away  their  place  and  nation,  and  sold 
and  dispersed  them  over  the  face  of  the  earth. 
And  lie  al§o  §Iiall  come  to  clestrwc- 
tion.  That  is  “  Kittim,  ”  who  is  the  main  sub¬ 
ject  of  this  part  of  the  prophecy.  If  by  Kittim 
be  meant  the  Greeks,  the  Grecian  Empire  was 
entirelj^  subverted  by  the  Romans  ;  if  the  Ro¬ 
mans,  the  Roman  Empire  was  in  its  turn  broken 
into  pieces  by  the  incursion  of  the  northern 
nations.  The  name  only  of  the  Roman  Empire 
and  Caesarean  majesty  is  subsisting  at  this  day, 
and  is  transferred  to  another  country  and  an¬ 
other  people.  Bp.  Newton. 

The  fact  that  the  event  which  the  seer  here 
beholds,  an  event  which  shakes  the  world,  and 
fills  him  with  the  greater  terror  and  dismay, 
from  the  fact  that  it  touches  the  children  of  his 
own  nation,  is  mighty  and  irresistible  in  its 
chai’iicter,  is  expressed  without  ambiguity  in 
the  words,  “  Woe,  who  will  live,  when  God 
doeth  this  ”  (verse  23)  !  To  an  expositor  who 
retains  the  least  impartiality,  it  cannot  for  a 
moment  be  doubtful  that  the  destruction  of  the 
imperial  power  of  Asia  by  Greeks  and  Romans 
is  predicted  here  (like  the  Assyrian  and  Babj'-- 
lonian  empires,  they  fire  still  classed  together  as 
one)  ;  and  therefore  that  we  have  here  a  prophecy 
in  the  strictest  sense  of  the  word,  the  prediction 
of  an  event  which  no  human  wisdom  or  acute¬ 
ness  could  have  foreseen  or  calculated  upon, 
either  in  the  time  of  Moses,  or  David,  or  Mal- 
achi.  K. 

This  may,  indeed,  be  characterized  as  the 
most  wonderful  of  prophecies.  More  than  a 


thousand  years  before  the  event,  not  only  the 
rising  of  the  great  world  empire  of  the  West  is 
here  predicted,  with  its  conquest  of  Asshur  and 
Eber  (i.e.,  of  the  descendants  of  Eber),  but  far 
beyond  this  the  final  destruction  of  that  world, 
empire  is  foretold  !  In  fact,  we  have  here  a 
series  of  prophecies,  commencing  with  the  ap¬ 
pearance  of  the  Messiah  and  closing  with  the 
destruction  of  anti-Christ.  To  this  there  is  no 
parallel  in  Scripture,  except  in  the  visions  of 
Daniel.  No  ingenuity  cE  hostile  criticism  can 
take  from  or  explain  away  the  import  of  this 
marvellous  prediction.  A.  E. 

These  oracles  materially  enrich  the  patriarchal 
benedictions,  while  also  partially  coinciding 
with  them  The  enrichment  consists  pre¬ 
cisely  in  what  Israel  had  become  through  the 
Mosaic  covenant  at  Sinai.  We  see  there  the 
people  countless  in  numbers,  thanks  to  the 
covenant  with  Jehovah  possessing  a  sacred  na¬ 
tionality,  an  impregnable  victorious  power,  full 
of  blessing,  unfolding  into  true  royalty,  while 
every  worldly  power  and  force  is  sinking  into 

dust.  Orelli. - What  was  little  Israel  to  great 

Assj^ria,  or  greater  Greece,  or  Rome,  the  mighti¬ 
est  of  all  ?  Yet  where  is  Assyria  now  ?  Where 
are  the  Greek  and  Roman  empires  now  ?  And 
where  is  ihe  star  and  sceptre  vow  ?  Is  not  the 
star  brighter  and  the  sceptre  mightier  than  it 
ever  was  before  ?  And  in  the  same  way  shall 
the  enemies  of  the  truth  in  modern  times,  near 
and  far,  related  and  unrelated,  go  down  at  last 
before  the  rising  star  and  the  all-conquering 
sceptre,  J.  M.  G. 

Balaam  Returns  '^to  his  Place"  {verse  25). 

Not  to  his  own  land,  for  he  remained  among 
the  Midianites  to  plot  by  new  means  against  the 
people  of  God,  and  to  perish  in  his  sin.  The 
phrase,  which  is  of  frequent  recurrence,  is 
idiomatic,  meaning  merely  that  Balaam  went 
away  whither  he  would.  Espin. - He  re¬ 

mained  among  the  Midianites,  as  the  following 
history  shows,  and  gave  them  out  of  revenge 
the  advice  to  seduce  the  Israelites  by  means  of 
sensual  lust,  and  thereby  secured  his  reward. 
The  more  glorious  the  prophecies  which  he  was 
obliged  to  utter,  so  much  the  more  under  this 
compulsory  office  did  his  heart  become  alien¬ 
ated  from  God.  He  had  been  obliged  to  ex¬ 
perience  that  he  could  not  cope  with  God  him¬ 
self  ;  but  his  people  were  as  he  knew  a  weak, 
fickle,  sensual  people,  and  if  he  could  not  re¬ 
verse  God’s  promises,  yet  he  hoped  to  alienate 
this  his  people  from  him,  and  thus  to  under¬ 
mine  his  power.  Oerl, 


606 


SECTION  178.  ISRAENS  SIN  WITH  THE  MIDIANITES. 


“  The  wiy  of  Balaam"  and  the  words  of  Ba¬ 
laam  are  really  two  different  subjects.  His  con¬ 
duct  was  of  the  meanest  ;  his  words  were  of  the 
noblest  that  ever  came  from  mortal  lips.  Alas  ! 
how  often  do  these  two — noble  words  and 
ignoble  conduct  — run  on  alongside  each  other 
in  the  life  of  man,  and  never  meet !  The  words 
abide  ;  the  man,  identified  not  with  his  words, 
M^hich  were  from  him,  but  not  of  him,  but  with 
his  conduct,  which  was  the  true  expression  of 

himself,  perishes  forever.  J.  M,  G. - He  knew 

what  was  right,  and  yet  did  what  was  wrong. 
His  was  not  a  sin  of  ignorance.  His  intellec¬ 


tual,  nay,  his  moral  convictions  were  correct. 
He  knew  what  he  should  do,  and  there  was  in 
him  also  a  feeling  of  obligation  to  do  it.  It  was 
he  wLo  declared  that  “  God  is  not  a  man,  that 
he  should  lie  ;  neither  the  son  of  man,  that  he 
should  repent  while,  by  his  repeated  yield- 
ings  to  Balak’s  entreaties,  he  acted  just  as  if  he 
supposed  it  to  be  possible  to  change  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  God  in  reference  to  Israel.  And  it  was 
he  who  said,  “  Let  me  die  the  death  of  the 
righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be  like  his  yet 
he  loved  the  wages  of  iniquity,”  and  died  in 
the  ranks  of  Jehovah’s  enemies.  W.  M.  T. 


Section  178. 

ISB ALL’S  STN  WITH  THE  MOABITES  AND  MfDIANITES.  PUNISHMENT.  JUDGMENT 
EXECUTED  BY  PHINEHAS.  DESTRUCTION  OF  MIDIANITES.  DIVISION  OF 
ALLOWED  SPOIL. 

Numbeks  25  : 1-18  ;  31  : 1-54, 

Ku.  25  1  And  Israel  abode  in  Shittim,  and  the  people  began  to  commit  wLoredom  with  the 

2  daughters  of  Moab  :  for  they  called  the  people  unto  the  sacrifices  of  their  gods  ;  and  the 

3  people  did  eat,  and  bowed  down  to  their  gods.  And  Israel  joined  himself  unto  Baal-peor  : 

4  and  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against  Israel.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Take 
all  the  chiefs  of  the  people,  and  hang  them  up  unto  the  Lord  before  the  sun,  that  the  fierce 

5  anger  of  the  Lord  may  turn  away  from  Israel.  And  Moses  said  unto  the  judges  of  Israel,  Slay 

6  ye  every  one  his  men  that  have  joined  themselves  unto  Baal-peor.  And,  behold,  one  of  the 
children  of  Israel  came  and  brought  unto  his  brethren  a  Midianitish  woman  in  the  sight  of 
Moses,  and  in  the  sight  of  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel,  while  they  were  weep- 

7  ing  at  the  door  of  the  tent  of  meeting.  And  when  Phinehas,  the  son  of  Eleazar,  the  son  of 
Aaron  the  priest,  saw  it,  he  rose  up  from  the  midst  of  the  congregation,  and  took  a  spear  in 

8  his  hand  ;  and  he  went  after  the  man  of  Israel  into  the  pavilion,  and  thrust  both  of  them 
through,  the  man  of  Israel,  and  the  woman  through  her  belly.  So  the  plague  was  stayed  from 

9  the  children  of  Israel.  And  those  that  died  by  the  plague  were  twenty  and  four  thousand. 

10  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Phinehas,  the  son  of  Eleazar,  the  son  of  Aaron  the 

11  priest,  hath  turned  my  wrath  away  from  the  children  of  Israel,  in  that  he  was  jealous  with 
my  jealousy  among  them,  so  that  I  consumed  not  the  children  of  Israel  in  my  jealousy. 

12  Wherefore  say.  Behold,  I  give  unto  him  my  covenant  of  peace  :  and  it  shall  be  unto  him,  and 

13  to  his  seed  after  him,  the  covenant  of  an  everlasting  priesthood  ;  because  he  was  jealous  for 

14  his  God,  and  made  atonement  for  the  children  of  Israel.  Now  the  name  of  the  man  of  Israel 
that  was  slain,  who  was  slain  with  the  Midianitish  woman,  was  Zimri,  the  son  of  Salu,  a 

15  prince  of  a  fathers’  house  among  the  Simeonites.  And  the  name  of  the  Midianitish  woman 
that  was  slain  was  Cozbi,  the  daughter  of  Zur  ;  he  was  head  of  the  people  of  a  fathers’  house 
in  Midian. 

16  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Vex  the  Midianites,  and  smite  them  :  for  they  vex 

17  you  with  their  wiles,  wherewith  they  have  beguiled  you  in  the  matter  of  Peor,  and  in  the  mat- 

18  ter  of  Cozbi,  the  daughter  of  the  prince  of  Midian,  their  sister,  which  was  slain  on  the  day  of 
the  plague  in  the  matter  of  Peor. 

31  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Avenge  the  children  of  Israel  of  the  Midian- 

2  ites  ;  afterward  shalt  thou  be  gathered  unto  thy  people.  And  Moses  spake  unto  the  people, 

3  saying.  Arm  ye  men  from  among  you  for  the  war,  that  they  may  go  against  Midian,  to  execute 

4  the  Lord’s  vengeance  on  Midian.  Of  every  tribe  a  thousand,  throughout  all  the  tribes  of 

5  Israel,  shall  ye  send  to  the  war.  So  there  were  delivered,  out  of  the  thousands  of  Israel,  a 

6  thousand  of  every  tribe,  twelve  thousand  armed  for  war.  And  Moses  sent  them,  a  thousand 
of  every  tribe,  to  the  war,  them  and  Phinehas  the  son  of  Eleazar  the  priest,  to  the  war,  with 


DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  MIDIAN1TE8. 


607 


7  the  vessels  of  the  sanctuary  and  the  trumpets  for  the  alarm  in  his  hand.  And  they  warred 

8  against  Midian,  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses  ;  and  they  slew  every  male.  And  they  slew 
the  kings  of  Midian  with  the  rest  of  .their  slain  ;  Evi,  and  Rekem,  and  Zur,  and  Hur,  and 

9  Reba,  the  five  kings  of  Midian  :  Balaam  also  the  son  of  Beor  they  slew  with  the  sword.  And 
the  children  of  Isiael  took  captive  the  women  of  Midian  and  their  little  ones  ;  and  all  their 

10  cattle,  and  all  their  fiocks,  and  all  their  goods,  they  took  for  a  prey.  And  all  their  cities  in 

11  the  places  wherein  they  dwelt,  and  all  their  encampments,  they  burnt  with  fire.  And  they 

12  took  all  the  spoil,  and  all  the  prey,  both  of  man  and  of  beast.  And  they  brought  the  captives, 
and  the  prey,  and  the  spoil,  unto  Moses,  and  unto  Eleazar  the  priest,  and  unto  the  congrega¬ 
tion  of  the  children  of  Israel,  unto  the  camp  at  the  plains  of  Moab,  which  are  by  the  Jordan 
at  Jericho. 

13  And  Moses,  and  Eleazar  the  priest,  and  all  the  princes  of  the  congregation,  went  forth  to 

14  meet  them  without  the  camp.  And  Moses  was  wroth  with  the  officers  of  the  host,  the  cap¬ 
tains  of  thousands  and  the  captains  of  hundreds,  which  came  from  the  service  of  the  war. 

15  And  Moses  said  unto  them.  Have  ye  saved  all  the  women  alive?  Behold,  these  caused  the 

16  children  of  Israel,  through  the  counsel  of  Balaam,  to  commit  trespass  against  the  Lord  in  the 

17  matter  of  Peor,  and  so  the  plague  was  among  the  congregation  of  the  Lord.  Now  therefore 
kill  every  male  among  the  little  ones,  and  kill  every  woman  that  hath  known  man  by  lying 

18  with  him.  But  all  the  women  children,  that  have  not  known  man  by  Ijdng  with  him,  keep 
alive  for  yourselves. 

[Verses  19-24.  Instructions  to  purify  themselves,  their  garments,  and  their  useful  booty.] 

25  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Take  the  sum  of  the  prey  that  was  taken,  both  of 

26  man  and  of  beast,  thou,  and  Eleazar  the  priest,  and  the  heads  of  the  fathers  houses  of  the 

27  congregation  :  and  divide  the  prey  into  two  parts  ;  between  the  men  skilled  in  war,  that  went 

28  out  to  battle,  and  all  the  congregation  :  and  levy  a  tribute  unto  the  Lord  of  the  men  of  war 
that  went  out  to  battle  :  one  soul  of  five  hundred,  both  of  the  persons,  and  of  the  beeves,  and 

29  of  the  asses,  and  of  the  flocks  :  take  it  of  their  half,  and  give  it  unto  Eleazar  the  priest,  for  the 

30  Lord’s  heave  offering.  And  of  the  children  of  Israel’s  half,  thou  shalt  take  one  drawn  out  of 
every  fifty,  of  the  persons,  of  the  beeves,  of  the  asses,  and  of  the  flocks,  even  of  all  the  cattle, 

31  and  give  them  unto  the  Levites,  which  keep  the  charge  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  Lord.  And 
Moses  and  Eleazar  the  priest  did  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses. 

48  And  the  officers  which  were  over  the  thousands  of  the  host,  the  captains  of  thousands,  and 

49  the  captains  of  hundreds,  came  near  unto  Moses  :  and  they  said  unto  Moses,  Thy  servants 
have  taken  the  sum  of  the  men  of  war  which  are  under  our  charge,  and  there  lacketh  not  one 

50  man  of  us.  And  we  have  brought  the  Lord’s  oblation,  what  every  man  hath  gotten,  of  jewels 
of  gold,  ankle  chains,  and  bracelets,  signet-rings,  earrings,  and  armlets,  to  make  atonement 

51  for  our  souls  before  the  Lord.  And  Moses  and  Eleazar  the  priest  took  the  gold  of  them,  even 

52  all  wrought  jewels.  And  all  the  gold  of  the  heave  offering  that  they  offered  up  to  the  Lord, 
of  the  captains  of  thousands,  and  of  the  captains  of  hundreds,  was  sixteen  thousand  seven 

53  hundred  and  fifty  shekels.  (For  the  men  of  war  had  taken  booty,  every  man  for  himself.) 

54  And  Moses  and  Eleazar  the  priest  took  the  gold  of  the  captains  of  thousands  and  of  hundreds, 
and  brought  it  into  the  tent  of  meeting,  for  a  memorial  for  the  children  of  Israel  before  the 
Lord. 


We  have  here  the  record  of  an  idolatrous 
defection  on  the  part  of  a  new  generation  of 
Israelites,  the  children  of  the  men  who  had 
fallen  in  the  wilderness,  on  the  eve  of  entrance 
into  the  promised  land.  They  joined  themselves 
unto  Baal-peor,  the  god  of  the  Moabites,  for 
which  the  displeasure  of  the  true  God,  jealous 
of  his  honor,  broke  loose  upon  them.  T.  C. 

1,  The  last  station  of  the  wilder¬ 

ness,  called  afterward  Abel-Shittim  (the  afilic- 
tion  of  fShittim),  after  the  punishment  which 
followed  there.  It  lay  in  the  plains  opposite 
Jericho.  Hero  the  people  remained  a  long  time, 
and  received  the  second  giving  of  the  Law. 


Gerl. - And  now  at  the  very  last  station  of 

their  long  march,  with  the  land  of  promise  in 
full  view  before  them  across  the  Jordan,  the 
people  of  God— at  least  a  large  number  of  them 
— give  way  to  temptation.  That  Balaam  was 
the  instigator  of  this  plot  we  know  from  subse¬ 
quent  Scriptures,  among  others  from  Rev. 
2  : 14  :  “I  have  a  few  things  against  thee  be¬ 
cause  thou  hast  there  them  that  hold  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  Balaam,  who  iaught  Balak  to  cast  a 
stumbling-block  before  the  children  of  Israel,  to 
eat  things  sacrificed  unto  idols,  and  to  commit 

fornication.”  S,  R. - He  was  hankering  after 

the  rewards  that  Balak  offered  ;  and  he  could 


608 


SECTION  178.  ISRAEL’S  SIN  WITH  THE  MWIANITES. 


not  bear  to  give  them  up.  And  so  although  he 
would  never  curse  God’s  people,  since  he  was 
told  that  he  must  not,  he  did  the  very  wicked¬ 
est  thing  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament  ;  he 
deliberately  told  the  Moabites  how  they  could 

seduce  God’s  people  into  sin.  Temple. - As  if 

in  defiance,  he  counselled  the  evil  stratagem  by 
W’hich  he  hoped  to  compass  indirectly  that  ruin 
of  God’s  people  which  he  had  been  withheld 
from  working  otherwise.  He  thus,  like  Judas 
and  Ahithophel,  set  in  motion  a  train  of  events 
which  involved  his  own  destruction.  Espin. 

The  infernal  sagacity  of  Balaam  led  him  to 
conclude  that  if  they  could  be  seduced  from 
their  allegiance  to  their  Divine  king,  the  protec¬ 
tion  which  rendered  them  invincible  would  be 
wfithdrawm,  and  they  easily  be  subdued  by  their 
enemies.  This  discovery  he  made  known  to  the 
King  of  Moab  before  his  departure  ;  and  it  il¬ 
lustrates  the  character  of  the  man  that  he  could 
form  this  device  and  counsel  the  king  to  act 
upon  it,  just  after  his  mouth  had  poured  forth 
— even  by  constraint — eloquent  blessings  upon 
the  people  wdiose  ruin  he  now  devises.  And 
all  this  was  purely  gratuitous  ;  for  his  business 
w'ith  Moab  wms  ended.  He  could  not  curse 
Israel — and  had  incurred  the  anger  rather  than 
the  honors  of  the  King  of  Moab.  He  seems  to 
have  retii’ed  among  the  neighboring  people  of 
Midian,  close  allies  wdth  Moab,  until  he  should 
behold  the  results  of  the  course  he  had  sug¬ 
gested,  and  in  wdiicli  he  seems  to  have  induced 
the  Midianites  also  to  co-operate.  These  peo¬ 
ple,  however  dissatisfied  with  the  result  of  their 
sending  for  him,  were  still  too  deeply  impressed 
with  the  motion  of  his  superhuman  sagacity  not 
to  pay  the  most  heedful  attention  to  his  advice. 
This  wms,  in  effect,  that  the  wmrnen  should  be 
rendered  instrumental  in  seducing  the  Israelites 
to  take  part  in  the  obscene  rites  of  Baal-Peor.  Kit. 

He  instructs  Balak  to  make  a  gi*eat  feast ;  anrl, 
by  collecting  all  the  youth  and  beauty  of  Moab 
at  this  carnival,  he  allures  the  people  first  to 
fornication,  and  then,  through  the  medium  of 
their  passions,  to  idolatry  ;  he  thus  finds  a  way 
to  rob  them  of  all  those  privileges  which  he  had 
so  sublimely  sung.  Such  is  the  darkening, 
hardening  influence  of  an  evil  passion  cherished 
within  ;  so  wonderfully  it  glosses  over  evil  and 
confounds  it  with  good.  None  knew  so  wmll  as 
Balaam  that  w^hoso  touched  the  people  of  God, 
touched  the  apple  of  his  eye  ;  yet  all  was  lost  in 
the  love  of  filthy  lucre  ;  he  was  maddened  by 
avarice.  Tl.  Rdl. 

Bather  than  lose  his  hopes,  Balaam  resolves 
t  )  speak  w'orse  than  curses.  The  fear  of  God’s 
judgments  in  a  worldly  heart  is  at  length  over¬ 


come  with  the  love  of  gain.  He  would  not 
curse,  but  he  would  advise,  and  his  counsel  is 
wmrse  than  a  curse  ;  for  his  curse  had  hurt  none 
but  himself,  his  counsel  cost  the  blood  of 
twenty-four  thousand  Israelites.  Where  Balaam 
did  speak  well,  there  was  never  any  prophet 
spake  more  divinely  ;  where  he  spake  ill,  there 
was  never  any  devil  spake  more  wickedly.  How 
justly  did  he  perish  with  the  sword  of  Israel, 
wdioso  tongue  had  insensibly  slain  so  many 
thousands  of  them  !  Bp.  H. 

Balaam  wanted  to  do  what  he  knew  to  be  con¬ 
trary  to  the  express  mind  of  God  ;  he  had  in¬ 
ward  checks  and  restraints  which  he  could  not 
entirely  get  over.  Not  daring  as  a  prophet  to 
assist  the  King  of  Moab,  he  considers  whether 
there  might  not  be  found  some  other  means  of 
aiding  him  against  that  very  people  whom  he 
was  restrained  from  cursing  in  words.  He  could 
think  of  no  other  method  than  to  betray  the 
children  of  Israel  to  provoke  his  wrath,  who 
was  their  only  strength  and  defence.  The  temp¬ 
tation  which  he  pitched  upon  was  that  concern¬ 
ing  which  Solomon  afterward  observed  that  it 
had  cast  down  many  wounded  ;  yea,  many  strong 
men  had  been  slain  by  it  :  and  of  which  he  him¬ 
self  was  a  sad  example  when  Ks  wives  turned 
away  his  heart  after  other  gods.  This  succeeded  ; 
the  people  sin  against  God  ;  and  thus  the  proph¬ 
et’s  counsel  brought  on  that  destruction  which 
he  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  assist  with 
the  religious  ceremony  of  execration.  And 
surely  that  impious  counsel  he  gave  to  Balak 
against  the  children  of  Israel  was  a  greater  piece 
of  wickedness  than  if  he  had  cursed  them  in 
words.  ...  Yet,  strange  as  it  may  appear, 
such  a  character  is  not  an  uncommon  one  ;  nay, 
with  some  small  alterations  and  put  a  little 
lower,  it  is  applicable  to  a  considerable  part  of 
the  world.  For  if  the  reasonable  choice  be  seen 
and  acknowledged,  and  yet  men  make  the  un¬ 
reasonable  one,  is  not  this  the  same  contradic¬ 
tion  and  inconsistency  which,  in  Balaam,  ap¬ 
pear  so  unaccountable  ?  Bp.  Butler. 

I.  God  secured  the  people  against  their  en¬ 
emies,  while  they  brought  destruction  on  them¬ 
selves  by  their  wickedness.  Bp.  Wilson. - 2. 

Tlie  people  <li<l  eat.  Of  the  Moabitish 
sacrifices.  This  was  an  act  of  idolatry,  whereb}'’ 
they  owned  themselves  the  servants  of  the  gods 
of  Moab  ;  as  to  eat  cf  the  Lord’s  sacrifices  was 
an  act  of  Divine  worship  (see  Ex.  34  : 15).  Bp. 
Patrick. 

Closelv  connected  with  an  irrevocable  con- 
%■ 

demnation  of  every  form  of  idolatry  was  the 
special  character  of  the  legislation  that  dealt 
with  the  seven  nations  or  tribes  inhabiting  Pal- 


JUDGMENT  EXECUTED  BT  PHINEIIA8. 


609 


estine  at  the  time  of  the  exodus,  and  with  those 
people  who  dwelt  on  its  borders,  allies  in  blood 
to  the  Israelites,  as  being  the  descendants  of 
the  father  of  Abraham  in  two  cases,  and  of  Isaac 
himself  in  the  third — namely,  the  Ammonites, 
the  Moabites,  and  the  Edomites.  Whether  the 
chief  danger  of  being  seduced  to  join  in  the 
worship  of  these  people  lay  in  the  vicinity  of 
their  dwelling  places,  or  in  the  sympathy  of 
kindred  blood,  it  was  warded  off  by  the  most 
inflexible  barriers.  Against  the  seductive  influ¬ 
ences  of  the  neighboring  idolaters  the  door  was 
thus  altogether  closed,  so  long  as  the  Law  of 
God  was  obeyed.  For  the  Law  was  not  a  mere 
idle  threat  ;  it  was  a  rule  of  life,  to  be  enforced 
by  the  sword,  the  stake,  the  cord,  and  the  stone, 
for  wilful  breach  ;  by  stripes  and  by  the  pe¬ 
cuniary  mulct  of  the  sin-offering  for  inadvertent 
trespass.  It  is  only  within  the  past  few  years 
that  this  tone  and  temper  of  the  Pentateuch 
have  been  made  clearly  intelligible,  by  the  dis¬ 
covery  of  what  the  gods  of  Ammon  and  of  Moab 
actually  were.  From  the  time  when  Israel  abode 
in  Shittim,  the  rites  of  the  service  of  Baal-Peor 
have  been  of  a  directly  licentious  character  ; 
and  the  idols  before  which  they  were  performed 
are  of  a  type  and  nature  which  modesty  forbids 
us  to  delineate,  or  more  distinctly  to  describe, 
F.  R.  Conder. 

The  uncleanness  committed  was  a  part  of  the 
worship  and  service  performed  to  Baal-Peor. 
Those  that  have  broken  the  fences  of  modesty 
will  never  be  held  by  the  bonds  of  piety  :  and 
those  that  have  dishonored  themselves  by  fleshly 
lusts  will  not  scruple  to  dishoDor  God  by  idol¬ 
atrous  worship  ;  for  this  they  are  justly  given 
up  yet  further  to  vile  affections.  H. 

4,  5,  Kennicott  remarks  that  the  Samari¬ 
tan  and  Hebrew  texts  must  be  both  taken  to¬ 
gether,  to  make  the  sense  here  complete.  And 
the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Speak  unto  all  the 
heads  of  the  people  ;  and  let  them  slay  the 
MEN  THAT  WERE  JOINED  TO  Baal-Peor  *,  and  hang 

ih‘m  up  before  the  Lord,  against  the  sun.  A.  C. - 

The  pronoun  “  them”  refers  not  to  the  heads  of 
the  people,  but  to  the  transgressors,  whom  the 
chiefs  were  to  stone,  and  then  hang  up  as  a  ter¬ 
ror  to  those  evil  doers.  For  Moses  said  to  the 
judges,  “  Slay  j'e  every  one  his  men  that  were 
joined  to  Baal-Peor.”  Hanging  alive  was  not  a 
Jewish  mode  of  execution,  but  stoning.  The 
victim  was  first  stoned  to  death  and  then  hung 
up,  in  some  cases,  as  a  special  mark  of  the  Di¬ 
vine  malediction.  Hence  the  axiom  (De.  21  :23), 
“  He  that  is  hanged  is  accursed  of  God  ” — that 
i.s,  the  being  thus  hung  up  is  a  sign  of  his  being 
accursed,  S.  R. 

39 


6.  Midianitisli  wonia».  It  appears  that 
she  was  the  daughter  of  Zur,  who  was  a  “  head 
over  a  people,  and  of  a  chief  house  in  Midian,” 
and  is  mentioned  (31  ;  8)  as  one  of  the  five  kings 
of  Midian  that  afterward  perished  by  the  hands 
of  the  Israelites.  Her  high  rank  proves  that 
Zimri  had  not  fallen  in  with  her  by  mere  chance, 
but  had  been  deliberately  singled  out  by  the 
Midianites  as  one  whom  they  must  at  any  price 
lead  astray.  The  example  of  Zimri  is  doubtless 
recorded  as  one  of  the  most  memorable  and 
characteristic  in  itself,  as  well  as  because  it 
gave  the  impulse  to  the  act  of  Phinehas.  Espin. 

6-fl5,  Here  is  a  remarkable  contest  between 
wickedness  and  righteousness,  which  shall  be 
most  bold  and  resolute  ;  and  righteousness 
carries  the  day,  as  no  doubt  it  will  at  last.  Never 
was  vice  more  daring  than  it  was  in  Zimri  ;  a 
prince  of  a  chief  house  in  the  tribe  of  Simeon. 
All  the  circumstances  concurred  to  make  it  ex¬ 
ceeding  sinful,  exceeding  shameful.  It  was  an 
affront  to  the  justice  of  the  nation,  and  bid  de¬ 
fiance  to  that.  It  was  an  affront  to  the  religion 
of  the  nation,  and  put  a  contempt  upon  that. 
Moses  and  the  main  body  of  the  congregation 
who  kept  their  integrity  were  weeping  at  the  door 
of  the  tabernacle  ;  lamenting  the  sin  committed 
and  deprecating  the  plague  begun  ;  they  wer^ 
sanctifying  a  fast  in  a  solemn  assembly,  weeping 
between  the  porch  and  the  altar,  to  turn  away  th*» 
wrath  of  God  from  the  congregation  ;  thenv 
comes  Zimri  among  them,  in  effect  to  tell  them 
that  he  was  resolved  to  fill  the  measure  of  sin, 
as  fast  as  they  emptied  it.  And  never  was  vir 
tue  more  daring  than  it  was  in  Phinehas.  H. 

The  act  of  Phinehas  was  its  own  justification. 
Its  merit  consisted  in  the  evidence  it  gave  that 
his  heart  was  right  before  God.  He  was,  to 
quote  the  text  of  verse  11,  “  zealous  with  God's 
zeal,”  and  abhorred  the  presumptuous  wicked¬ 
ness  of  Zimri  as  God  abhorred  it.  He  therefore 
risked  his  own  life  by  dealing  according  to  their 
deserts  with  two  influential  and  defiant  evil¬ 
doers  ;  and  his  act,  done  in  the  face  of  Moses 
and  the  people  and  for  them,  was  accepted  by 
God  as  a  national  atonement.  How  thoroughly 
the  nation  adopted  the  deed  is  manifest  by  the 
conspicuous  position  from  henceforth  assigned 
to  Phinehas,  and  by  the  fame  which  attached 

to  him  and  it  ever  afterward.  Espin. - The 

zeal  of  God  hath  barred  out  all  weak  delibera¬ 
tions  ;  and  Phinehas  holds  it  now  both  his  duty 
and  his  glory  to  be  an  executioner  of  so  shame¬ 
less  a  pair  of  offenders.  God  loves  this  heat  of 
zeal  in  all  the  carriages  of  his  servants  ;  and  if 
it  transport  us  too  far  he  pardoneth  the  errors 
of  our  fervency,  rather  than  the  indifferences  of 


610 


SECTION  178.  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  MIDIANITES. 


lukewarmness.  As  these  two  were  more  beasts  j 
than  any  that  ever  he  sacrificed,  so  the  shedding 
of  their  blood  was  the  acceptablest  sacrifice  that 
ever  he  offered  unto  God  ;  for  both  all  Israel  is 
freed  from  the  plague,  and  all  his  posterity 
have  the  priesthood  entailed  to  them  so  long  as 
the  Jews  were  a  people.  Bp.  II. 

§.  So  tisc  wsis  §myc<l.  The 

plague  was  the  execution  which  Moses  and  the 
chiefs  of  the  people  were  carrying  on  till  twenty- 
four  thousand  had  been  executed.  S.  R. 

13.  The  promise  to  Phinehas  imports  no 
more  than  that  he  and  his  seed  should  thence¬ 
forward  have  the  honor  to  be  the  represeuta- 
tives  of  that  everlasting  priesthood,  which  pri¬ 
marily,  and  by  an  eternal  covenant,  was  vested 
in  the  Messiah  :  hence  God  calls  it  here  his 
covenant  of  peace.  It  proved  literally  true  t  hat 
Phinehas  and  his  seed  should  hold  that  typic.al 
and  ceremonial  priesthood  as  long  as  it  was  to 
last,  and  be  the  representatives  of  the  everlasting 
priesthood  of  Christ,  until  his  coming.  Wogan. 

- The  Jews  reckon  twelve  high-priests  of  the 

race  of  Phinehas,  from  this  time  to  the  days  of 
Solomon — nine  more  from  that  time  to  the  cap- 
tisity,  and  fifteen  from  their  return,  to  the  time 
of  Antiochus  Eupator,  the  last  of  whom  was 
Onias,  slain  by  Lysias.  Ezia,  the  great  priest 
and  scribe,  was  of  this  line  (7:1,  5).  The  family 
of  Ithamar,  uncle  of  Phinehas,  had  the  priest¬ 
hood  for  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  ; 
but  it  was  restored  to  the  family  of  Phinehas  in 
the  person  of  Zadok  the  priest  (1  Ch.  6  : 50),  in 
which  it  continued,  in  the  whole  about  nine 
hundred  and  lift}"  years.  God  therefore  suffi¬ 
ciently  fulfilled  his  promise.  A  C. 

1  7,  The  mischief  which  the  Midianites  did 
to.  Israel  must  be  remembered  and  punished 
with  as  much  severity  as  that  which  the  Amale- 
kites  did  in  fighting  vuth  them  when  they  came 
out  of  Egypt.  God  will  certainly  reckon  with 
those  that  do  the  devil  s  work  in  tempting  men 
to  sin.  H. 

Destruction  of  the  Midianites  {Nu.  31  : 1-54). 

Of  the  two  nations  who  had  shown  themselves 
hostile  toward  the  Israelites —the  Moabites  and 
Midianites — revenge  is  now  taken  on  the  latter. 
The  reason  w^hy  the  first  were  spared,  seems  to 
be  because  the  Midianites  had  taken  the  lead 
in  the  crime  of  seducing  Israel  to  the  practice 
of  the  licentious  idolatry,  and  Balaam,  the  insti¬ 
gator  to  the  act,  was  found  among  them  and 
killed.  The  sin  in  Israel  had  been  stemmed  by 
the  act  of  Phinehas:  so  had  judgment  begun  at 
the  house  of  God  ;  but  now  likewise  must  the 
purified  people  of  God  take  vengeance  on  his 


enemies.  The  conduct  of  the  people  in  the 
war,  the  division  of  the  spoil,  as  well  as  their 
wonderful  preservation,  are  related  with  partic¬ 
ular  detail,  since  this  battle  was  to  serve  as  a 
kind  of  example  for  the  war  of  conquest  which 
was  now  immediately  before  them.  Gerl. 

For  these  plots  against  Israel,  as  well  as  for 
their  former  inhospitality,  the  Moabites  were  ex¬ 
cluded  from  the  congregation  to  the  tenth  gen¬ 
eration  ;  and  the  Midianites  were  doomed  to 
destruction.  The  execution  of  this  sentence 
was  the  last  act  of  the  government  of  Moses. 
All  the  men  of  Midian  were  slain,  with  the 
princes  who  had  been  allied  with  Balak,  and 
Balaam  died  in  the  general  slaughter.  Their 
cities  were  burned  and  their  spoil  taken,  and  the 
women,  who  had  been  saved  alive,  were  slain 
by  the  command  of  Moses,  the  female  children 
only  being  spared.  At  the  same  time  a  law  was 
made  for  the  equitable  division  of  the  spoil  be¬ 
tween  those  who  went  forth  to  battle  and  those 

who  remained  in  the  camp.  P.  S. - That  this 

account  of  the  attack  and  extermination  of  the 
Midianites  has  reference  to  the  Midianitish 
tribes  upon  the  table-land  of  Moab,  the  chiefs 
of  which  are  spoken  of  in  Josh.  13  :21  as  having 
been  formerly  the  vassals  of  Sihon,  is  placed 
beyond  all  doubt  by  the  express  statement  to 
that  effect  in  verse  8,  The  main  body  of  the 
Midianites  does  not  appear  to  have  taken  part 
at  all,  and  therefore  there  is  nothing  surprising 
in  their  subsequent  hostile  and  powerful  attacks 
upon  the  Israelites.  Moreover,  the  fact  that 
only  twelve  thousand  Israelites  (a  thousand  from 
every  tribe)  were  engaged  in  the  battle,  is  a 
proof  that  the  foe  was  neither-  numerous  nor 
strong.  K. 

2,  3.  God  said.  Avenge  Israel,  Moses  says. 
Avenge  the  Lord ;  for  the  interests  of  God  and 
Israel  are  united,  and  the  cause  of  both  is  one 
and  the  same.  And  if  God  in  what  he  does 
shows  himself  jealous  for  the  honor  of  Israel, 
surely  Israel  in  wEat  they  do  ought  to  show 
themselves  jealous  for  the  glory  of  God.  Then 
only  we  can  justify  the  avenging  of  ourselves 
when  it  is  the  vengeance  of  the  Lord  that  we  en¬ 
gage  in.  Nay,  for  this  reason  we  are  forbidden 
to  avenge  ourselves,  because  God  has  said. 
Vengeance  is  mine,  I  will  repay.  H. 

The  very  words  in  which  the  command  is 
given  show  that  the  war  against  the  Midianites 
was  no  ordinary  one.  It  was  indeed  less  a  war 
than  the  execution  of  a  Divine  sentence  against 
a  most  guilty  people.  The  Midianites  had  cor¬ 
rupted  and,  so  far  as  in  them  lay,  ruined  God’s 
people,  body  and  soul  ;  and  had  done  this 
knowing,  as  after  the  overruling  by  God  of  Ba- 


BALAAM  SLA.m  WITH  THE  SWORD. 


611 


laam’s  attempts  to  curse  Israel  they  must  have 
known,  that  in  doing  it  they  were  openly  re¬ 
belling  against  God.  From  God  then  a  no  less 
open  retribution  overtakes  them.  The  employ¬ 
ment  in  this  work  of  so  small  a  number  of 
Israelites  as  twelve  thousand  averse  4)  ;  the  se¬ 
lection  of  an  ecpial  number  from  each  tribe  irre¬ 
spective  of  its  warlike  strength  ;  the  appoint¬ 
ment  of  Phinehas,  famous  for  his  zeal  against  the 
ver}^  sin  to  which  the  Midianites  had  tempted 
Israel,  to  take  the  lead  in  the  war  with  “  the 
holy  instruments  and  trumpets”  (verse  G)  ;  and 
the  extraordinary  preservation  (verse  49)  of  all 
those  engaged  ;  are  tokens  that  on  this  occasion, 
no  less  than  when  the  cities  of  the  plain  were 
destroj^ed  b}’^  fire  from  heaven,  the  hand  of  God 
directed  the  stroke.  The  Israelites  had  no  dis¬ 
cretion  to  kill  or  to  spare.  They  w^ere  bidden 
to  exterminate  without  mere}’,  and  brought 
back  to  their  task  (verse  14)  when  they  showed 
signs  of  flinching  from  it.  It  was  a  preparation 
for  other  duties  of  the  like  kind  which  awaited 
them  ;  a  proof  by  experiment  that  they  had  no 
alternative  in  such  matters  except  to  fulfil  the 
commands  of  God  ;  an  awdul  but  doubtless 
salutary  manifestation,  as  was  afterward  the 
slaughter  of  the  Canaanites,  to  which  that  of 
Midian  is  in  all  essential  respects  similar,  of 
God’s  wrath  against  sin  ;  and  a  type  of  the 
future  extermination  of  sin  and  sinners  from 
his  kingdom.  Espin. 

8,  Moses  forsook  Egypt,  not  fearing  the  wrath 
of  King  Pharaoh,  that  he  might  be  true  to 
Israel  ;  Balaam,  a  man  of  the  same  time,  but  of 
a  base  selfishness  of  heart,  went  to  Moab  to 
seek  King  Balak’s  favor  and  rewards  by  cursing 
those  whom  God  had  blessed.  By  enchant¬ 
ments  he  prevailed  nothing  against  Israel,  and 
was  compelled  to  bless  them  in  glowdng  strains. 
But  by  vile  and  crafty  counsel  he  did  succeed  in 
partially  ensnaring  them.  So  the  chosen  nation 
was  defiled  and  was  smitten  of  God  for  the  sin. 
But  Israel  was  soon  restored,  and  under  Phine¬ 
has  the  priest  attacked  and  almost  exterminated 
the  wicked  Midianites.  “  Balaam  also,  the  son 
of  Beor,  they  slew  with  the  sword.”  No  death 
of  the  righteous  could  be  for  a  man  that  loved 
the  wages  of  unrighteousness.  He  had  proph¬ 
esied  as  one  who  enjoyed  the  “vision  of  the  Al¬ 
mighty.”  Yet  he  died  as  a  fool  dieth,  and  has 
left  a  shameful  memory.  D.  F, - Had  he  him¬ 

self  believed  what  he  said  of  the  happy  state  of 
Israel,  he  would  not  have  herded  himself  thus 
with  the  enemies  of  Israel,  but  justly  does  he 
die  the  death  of  the  loicked  (though  he  pretended 
to  desire  that  of  the  righteous),  and  go  down 
slain  to  the  pit  with  the  uncircumcised,  who  rebelled 


thus  against  the  convictions  of  his  own  con¬ 
science.  The  Midianites’  wiles  were  Balaam’s 
projects,  it  was  therefore  just  that  he  should 
perish  with  them  (Hos.  4:5).  Now  was  his 
folly  made  manifest  to  all  men,  who  foretold  the 
fate  of  others,  but  foresaw  not  his  own.  H. 

The  beginning  of  the  way  of  Balaam  w'as  lov¬ 
ing  the  wages  of  unrighteousness  ;  the  middle 
of  it  was  the  seeking  of  thimi,  combined  with 
an  ever- weakening  attempt  to  keep  the  path  of 
righteousness  while  seeking  the  other  wages  ; 
and  now  what  is  the  end  ?  “  The  wages  of  sin  ;” 
which  is  death.  From  the  double-mindedness 
of  the  middle  stage  he  very  rapidl}'  passed  into 
whole-hearted  wickedness,  and  after  doing  the 
devil’s  work  with  a  singleness  of  purpose  he 
had  never  shown  before,  at  last  “  utterly  per¬ 
ished  in  his  own  corruption.”  One  of  his  won¬ 
derful  sayings  had  been  :  “  Let  me  die  the  death 
of  the  righteous,  and  let  my  last  end  be  like 
his.”  These,  and  such  as  these,  were  his 
words  ;  that  was  the  end  of  his  way.  J.  M,  G. 

Not  with  the  righteous,  but  fighting  among 
the  enemies  of  God  ;  not  on  a  peaceful  death¬ 
bed,  but  in  the  red  front  of  guilty  strife  :  so, 
on  the  l)lood-stained  turf,  amid  the  routed 
ranks,  by  the  pitiless  sword  of  men  whom  he 
had  tempted  to  their  ruin  ;  so,  after  a  wasted 
life,  his  plots  frustrated,  his  curses  foiled,  died 
one  who,  if  he  had  been  true  to  liis  convictions, 
might  have  been  almost  as  great  as  Moses’  self  ; 
and  the  thick  pall  of  utter  darkness  rushes 
down  upon  his  end.  And  if  we  look  down  the 
dark  and  slippery  steps  of  his  degradation,  we 
can  trace  them  through  temptation  faintly  re¬ 
sisted  to  temptation  yielded  to,  and  remorse 
stifled,  and  warnings  resisted,  and  penal  blind¬ 
ness  inflicted,  and  sin  willingly  chosen,  and  sin 
let  alone,  until  the  seer  of  the  vision  of  the  Al¬ 
mighty  becomes  the  tempter  to  the  infamies  of 
Baal-Peor.  But  the  very  central  lesson  of  his 
career  is  the  power  of  a  besetting  sin.  Farrar. 

Two  hostile  kingdoms  forever  confront  each 
other  in  this  world.  The  strong  one  armed 
keepeth  his  own  palace.  He  will  never  sur¬ 
render  it,  or  one  particle  of  it,  in  any  human 
soul,  till  a  stronger  than  he  — and  there  is  only 
one  stronger — binds  him.  He  will  seem  to  sur¬ 
render  it  ;  he  will  call  it  by  some  innocent 
name  ;  he  will  cover  it  with  a  Christian  title  ; 
he  will  deceive,  flatter,  promise,  and  manage  ; 
he  will  transform  himself  into  an  angel  of  light ; 
but  he  will  do  it  all  to  keep  his  own.  Equally 
exclusive,  over  against  that  dark  kingdom,  is 
the  kingdom  of  light  ;  open,  candid,  without 
concealment  or  evasion,  rejoicing  in  the  truth, 
all  its  deeds  done  in  the  day,  but  admitting  no 


612 


SECTION  178.  DI8TBIEUTI0N  OF  SPOILS. 


admixture,  no  compromise,  no  neutrality. 
Everywhere,  what  fellowship  hath  light  with 
darkness  ?  Anywhere,  what  part  hath  the  true 
subject  with  the  traitor?  In  every  soul,  these 
two  kingdoms  and  their  laws  are  contrary  the 
one  to  the  other.  It  is  remarkable,  in  all  the 
Gospel,  how  invariable  and  how  clear  Christ 
makes  this  doctrine  of  absolute  and  necessary 
separation.  There  is  no  third  part}^  after  all. 
There  is  no  place  for  one.  Non-profession  does 
not  make  non-allegiance,  or  neutrality.  It 
makes  allegiance  to  the  enemy.  It  makes  dis¬ 
loyalty.  “He  that  is  not  with  me  is  against 
me.’’  There  is  a  striking  record  of  a  prophet 
who  tried  in  jierilous  days  to  be  on  neither  side, 
and  paltered  with  a  double  tongue  between  the 
true  God  and  his  enemies  ;  but  at  last  the  issue 
between  the  two  armies  could  be  no  longer 
evaded,  and  after  the  battle  the  body  of  this 
compromising  neutral,  Balaam,  was  found  on 
the  enemy’s  side,  where  it  fell  fighting  against 
the  Lord.  F.  D.  H. 

9-24,  In  this  war  against  the  Midianites, 
which  was  to  be  to  a  certain  extent  the  pattern 
of  the  subsequent  wars  of  extermination  in 
Canaan,  all  cattle,  with  all  kinds  of  property 
and  substance,  were  destroyed,  the  whole  spoil 
brought  before  Moses  and  the  high-priest,  and 
only  the  female  sex  spared.  The  rest  of  the 
booty  was  sanctified  and  purged — metal  articles 
being  passed  through  the  fire,  and  wearing  ap¬ 
parel  through  water.  C.  G.  B. 

It  was  the  women  more  than  the 
men  of  Midian  of  whom  they  had  just  reason 
to  be  afraid.  In  justice  to  the  men,  in  fairness 
to  the  wives  of  Israel,  it  was  simply  impossible 
to  let  them  loose  upon  the  camp.  Again,  to 
suffer  a  generation  of  Midianites  to  grow  up 
under  the  roofs  of  Israel  would  have  been  mad¬ 
ness  and  worse,  for  it  would  have  been  to  court 
a  great  and  perhaps  fatal  national  disaster.  For 
the  sake  of  Israel  the  captive  women  and  chil¬ 
dren  must  be  got  rid  of,  and  this  could  only  be 
done  either  by  slaughtering  the  women  and  boys, 
or  by  taking  them  back  to  their  desolated  homes 
to  perish  of  hunger  and  disease.  Of  the  two 
courses  Moses  certainly  chose  the  more  merciful. 
The  nation  was  exterminated,  as  God  had  com¬ 
manded  ;  the  girls  only  were  spared  because 
they  were  harmless  then,  and  likely  to  remain 
harmless  ;  distributed  through  the  households  of 
Israel,  without  parents  or  brothers  to  keep  alive 
the  national  sentiment,  they  would  rapidly  be 
absorbed  in  the  people  of  the  Lord.  K.  W. 

25-47,  The  dlsiribuiiim  of  the  spoils.  Those 
who  had  gone  to  the  war  had  gone  as  repre¬ 
sentatives  of  the  whole  of  Israel,  hence  it  was 


for  the  whole  of  Israel  to  share  in  the  spoil. 
While  part  was  away,  avenging  the  Lord  of 
Midian,  another  part  stayed  at  home,  also 
serving  God  by  looking  after  the  interests 

of  those  who  were  absent.  Young. - The 

booty  brought  home  by  the  conquerors  was  ex¬ 
traordinarily  rich,  especially  in  cattle  ;  from 
which  we  may  infer  that  the  rearing  of  cattle 
was  the  occupation  of  the  tribe.  For  the  Israel¬ 
ites  such  booty  as  this  must  have  been  doubly 
valuable.  There  was  something  very  peculiar 
in  the  manner  in  which  Moses  and  Eleazar  dis¬ 
tributed  the  booty.  The  whole  of  it,  consisting 
of  675,000  sheep,  72,000  oxen,  61,000  asses,  and 
32,000  persons,  was  divided  into  two  equal  parts, 
one  of  which  was  allotted  to  the  victors,  the 
other  to  those  who  had  taken  no  part  in  the 
battle.  As  the  12,000  men  who  were  selected 
to  fight  did  not  go  to  war  on  their  own  respon¬ 
sibility,  but  as  representatives  of  the  whole  con¬ 
gregation,  it  was  but  right  that  the  whole  con¬ 
gregation  should  share  in  the  booty  ;  but  as  the 
12,000  had  had  all  the  trouble  and  fatigue,  it 
was  just  as  proper  that  they  should  receive  an 
incomparably  larger  share.  And  since  the  war 
was  also  a  war  of  Jehovah,  whose  presence  and 
aid  had  given  the  victory  to  the  Israelites,  and 
therefore  the  booty,  strictly  speaking,  belonged 
to  Jehovah,  a  certain  quota  was  to  be  allotted 
to  the  priests  and  Levites  as  his  servants  and 
representatives.  The  priests  were  to  receive 
two  parts  in  a  thousand  from  the  share  of  the 
warriors  ;  the  Levites,  two  in  a  hundred  from 
that  of  the  congregation.  K. 

28-30,  The  soldiers  were  ordered  out  of 
their  naif  to  deduct  a  five  hundredth  part  of 
every  kind  of  spoil,  as  an  offering  to  God,  in 
acknowledgment  of  him  as  the  sovereign  owner 
of  all  and  the  author  of  their  success.  This 
was  to  be  presented  to-  the  priests.  In  like 
manner,  out  of  the  half  belonging  to  the  people, 
who  had  borne  no  fatigue  in  the  war,  a  much 
larger  proportion  was  to  be  deducted  out  of 
each  article  of  spoil — namely,  a  fiftieth  part,  to 
be  presented  to  the  Levites,  the  other  branch 
of  God’s  ministry.  Pyle. 

49.  There  Eaekelli  not  one  man  of 
ns.  The  Israelitish  army  consisted  of  but 
12,000  men,  a  mere  handful  when  opposed  to 
the  people  of  Midian.  Yet  when  the  officers 
made  a  muster  of  their  troops  after  their  return 
from  the  war,  they  found  they  had  not  lost  a 
single  man  !  This  struck  them  as  so  decisive 
an  evidence  of  God’s  interposition  that  out  of 
the  spoils  they  had  taken  they  offered  “  an 
oblation  to  the  Lord,  an  atonement  for  their 
souls.”  Bp.  Watson. 


SECriON  179. 


This  oblation  the  captains  offered  to  make  an 
atommeiil  for  th*'ir  souls  (verse  50).  Instead  of 
coming  to  Moses  to  demand  a  recompense  for 
the  good  service  they  had  done  in  avenginj  the 
Lord  of  Midian,  they  bring  an  oblation  io  make 
atonement  for  their  souls,  being  conscious  to  them¬ 
selves,  as  the  best  men  must  be  even  in  their 
best  services,  that  they  had  been  defective  in 
their  duty  not  only  in  that  instance  for  which 
they  were  reproved  (verse  14),  but  in  many 


fil3 

others.  Moses  accepted  it  and  laid  it  up  in 
the  tabernacle  as  a  memorial  for  the.  chddren  of 
Israel  (verse  54) — that  is,  a  monument  of  Gud’s 
goodness  to  them,  that  they  might  be  encour¬ 
aged  to  trust  in  him  in  their  further  wars  ;  and 
a  monument  of  their  gratitude  to  God,  that  he, 
being  well  pleased  with  this  thankful  acknowl¬ 
edgment  of  favors  bestowed,  might  continue 
and  repeat  his  mercies  to  them.  H. 


Section  179. 

THIRD  NUMBERING  OF  ISRAEL.  LAND  EAST  OF  JORDAN  DIVIDED  BETWEEN 
REUBEN,  GAD,  AND  HALF  MANASSEH.  BOUNDARIES  OF  THE  LAND  OF 
CANAAN.  DIVISION  BY  LOT  AMONG  NINE  AND  A  HALF  REMAINING  TRIBES. 

Numbers  26  ;  1-62  ;  32  : 1-42  ;  33  ;  50-56  ;  34  : 1-29.  De.  3  : 12-20. 

Note, — Essential  portions  cited. 

Na.  26  1  And  it  came  to  pass  after  the  plague,  that  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses  and  unto 

2  Eleazar  the  son  of  Aaron  the  priest,  saying.  Take  the  sum  of  all  the  congregation  of  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel,  from  twenty  years  old  and  upward,  by  their  fathers’  houses,  all  that  are  able  to 

3  go  forth  to  war  in  Israel.  And  Moses  and  Eleazar  the  priest  spake  with  them  in  the  plains  of 

4  Moab  by  the  Jordan  at  Jericho,  saying,  Take  the  sum  of  the  people,  from  twenty  years  old  and 
upward  ;  as  the  Lord  commanded  Moses  and  the  children  of  Israel,  which  came  forth  out  of 

52  the  land  of  Egypt.  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying.  Unto  these  the  land  shall  be 

53  divided  for  an  inheritance  according  to  the  number  of  names.  These  are  thev  that  were 

51  numbered  of  the  children  of  Israel,  six  hundred  thousand  and  a  thousand  seven  hundred  and 

thirty. 

57  And  these  are  they  that  were  numbered  of  the  Levites  after  their  families  :  of  Gershon,  the 
family  of  the  Geshonites  :  of  Kohath,  the  family  of  the  Kohathites  :  of  Merari,  the  family  of  the 

62  Merarites.  And  they  that  were  numbered  of  them  were  twenty  and  three  thousand,  every 
male  from  a  month  old  and  upward  :  for  they  were  not  numbered  among  the  children  of 
Israel,  because  there  was  no  inheritance  given  them  among  the  children  of  Israel. 

Nu.  32  1  Now  the  children  of  Reuben  and  the  children  of  Gad  had  a  very  great  multitude 
of  cattle  ;  and  when  they  saw  the  land  of  Jazer,  and  the  land  of  Gilead,  that,  behold,  the 

2  place  was  a  place  for  cattle  ;  the  children  of  Gad  and  the  children  of  Reuben  came  and  spake 
unto  Moses,  and  to  Eleazar  the  priest,  and  unto  the  j)rinces  of  the  congregation,  saying, 

3  Ataroth,  and  Dibon,  and  Jazer,  and  Nimrah,  and  Heshbon,  and  Elealeh,  and  Sebam,  and 

4  Nebo,  and  Beon,  the  land  which  the  Lord  smote  before  the  congregation  of  Israel,  is  a  land 

5  for  cattle,  aud  thy  servants  have  cattle.  And  they  said,  If  we  have  found  grace  in  thy  sight, 

6  let  this  land  be  given  unto  thy  servants  for  a  possession  ;  bring  us  not  over  Jordan.  And 
Moses  said  unto  the  children  of  Gad  and  to  the  children  of  Reuben,  Shall  your  brethren  go  to 

7  the  war,  and  shall  ye  sit  here  ?  And  wherefore  discourage  ye  the  heart  of  the  children  of 

8  Israel  from  going  over  into  the  land  which  the  Lord  hath  given  them  ?  Thus  did  your 

13  fathers,  when  I  sent  them  from  Kadesh-barnea  to  see  the  land.  And  the  Lord’s  anger  was 
kindled  against  Israel,  and  he  made  them  wander  to  and  fro  in  the  wilderness  forty  years, 

14  until  all  the  generation,  that  had  done  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord,  was  consumed.  And, 
behold,  ye  are  risen  up  in  your  fathers’  stead,  an  increase  of  sinful  men,  to  augment  yet  the 

15  fierce  anger  of  the  Lord  toward  Israel.  For  if  ye  turn  away  from  after  him,  ho  will  yet  again 

16  leave  them  in  the  wilderness  ;  and  ye  shall  destroy  all  this  people.  And  they  came  near  unto 
him,  and  said.  We  will  build  sheepfolds  here  for  our  cattle,  and  cities  for  our  little  ones  : 

17  but  we  ourselves  will  be  ready  armed  to  go  before  the  children  of  Israel,  until  we  have  brought 
them  unto  their  place  :  and  our  little  ones  shall  dwell  in  the  fenced  cities  because  of  the  in- 

18  habitants  of  the  land.  We  will  not  return  unto  our  houses,  until  the  children  of  Israel  have 

19  inherited  every  man  his  inheritance.  For  we  will  not  inherit  with  them  on  the  other  side 


614 


SECTION  179.  DIVISION  OF  THE  LAND. 


Jordan,  and  forward  ;  because  our  inheritance  is  fallen  to  us  on  this  side  Jordan  eastward. 

20  And  Moses  said  unto  them,  If  ye  will  do  this  thing  ;  if  ye  wdll  arm  yourselves  to  go  before  the 

21  Lord  to  the  war,  and  every  armed  man  of  you  will  pass  over  Jordan  before  the  Lord,  until 

22  he  hath  driven  out  his  enemies  from  before  him,  and  the  land  be  subdued  before  the  Lord  : 
then  afterward  ye  shall  return,  and  be  guiltless  toward  the  Lord,  and  toward  Israel  ;  and 

23  this  land  shall  be  unto  you  for  a  possession  before  the  Lord.  But  if  ye  will  not  do  so,  be- 

24  hold,  ye  have  sinned  against  the  Lord  :  and  be  sure  your  sin  will  find  you  out.  Build  you 
cities  for  your  little  ones,  and  folds  for  your  sheep  ;  and  do  that  which  hath  proceeded  out  of 

25  your  mouth.  And  the  childrerr  of  Gad  and  the  children  of  Eeuben  spake  unto  Moses,  saying, 

26  Thy  servants  will  do  as  my  lord  commandeth.  Our  little  ones,  our  wives,  our  flocks,  and  all 

27  our  cattle,  shall  be  there  in  the  cities  of  Gilead  :  but  thy  servants  will  pass  over,  every  man 
that  is  armed  for  war,  before  the  Lord  to  battle,  as  my  lord  saith. 

28  So  Moses  gave  charge  concerning  them  to  Eleazar  the  priest,  and  to  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun, 

29  and  to  the  heads  of  the  fathers’  houses  of  the  tribes  of  the  children  of  Israel.  And  Moses  said 
unto  them.  If  the  children  of  Gad  and  the  children  of  Beuben  will  pass  with  you  over  elordan, 
ever}’^  man  that  is  armed  to  battle,  before  the  Lord,  and  the  land  shall  be  subdued  before  you  ; 

30  then  ye  shall  give  them  the  land  of  Gilead  for  a  possession  :  but  if  they  wdll  not  pass  over 

31  with  you  armed,  they  shall  have  possessions  among  you  in  the  land  of  Canaan  And  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Gad  and  the  children  of  Beuben  answered,  saying.  As  the  Lord  hath  said  unto  thy 

32  servants,  so  will  we  do.  We  wdll  pass  over  armed  before  the  Lord  into  the  land  of  Canaan, 

33  and  the  possession  of  our  inheritance  shall  remain  with  us  beyond  Jordan.  And  Moses  gave 
unto  them,  even  to  the  children  of  Gad,  and  to  the  children  of  Beuben,  and  unto  the  half 
tribe  of  Manasseh  the  son  of  Joseph,  the  kingdom  of  Sihon  king  of  the  Amorites,  and  the 
kingdom  of  Og  king  of  Bashan,  the  land,  according  to  the  cities  thereof  with  their  borders, 

34  even  the  cities  of  the  land  round  about.  And  the  children  of  Gad  built  Dibon,  and  Ataroth, 

35  and  Aroer  ;  and  Atroth  shophan,  and  Jazer,  and  Jogbehah  ;  and  Beth-nimrah,  and  Beth- 

36  haran  >  fenced  cities,  and  folds  for  sheep.  And  the  children  of  Beuben  built  Heshbon,  and 

37  Elealeh,  and  Kiriathaim  ;  and  Nebo,  and  Baal-meon,  (their  names  being  changed,)  and 

38  Sib  mail  :  and  gave  other  names  unto  the  cities  which  they  builded.  And  the  children  of 

39  Machir  the  son  of  Manasseh  went  to  Gilead,  and  took  it,  and  dispossessed  the  Amorites  which 

40  wmre  therein.  And  Moses  gave  Gilead  unto  Machir  the  son  of  Manasseh  ;  and  he  dwelt 

41  therein.  And  Jair  the  son  of  Manasseh  went  and  took  the  towns  thereof,  and  called  them 

42  Havvoth  jair  And  Nobah  went  and  took  Kenath,  and  the  villages  thereof,  and  called  it 
Nobah,  after  his  own  name. 

De.  3  12  And  this  land  we  took  in  possession  at  that  time  :  from  Aroer,  which  is  by  the 
valley  of  Arnon,  and  half  the  hill  country  of  Gilead,  and  the  cities  thereof,  gave  I  unto  the 

13  Beuben ites  and  to  the  Gadites and  the  rest  of  Gilead,  and  all  Bashan,  the  kingdom  of  Og, 
gave  I  unto  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh  ;  all  the  region  of  Argob,  even  all  Bashan.  (The  same 

14  is  called  the  land  of  Bephaim.  Jair  the  son  of  Manasseh  took  all  the  region  of  Ai^ob,  unto 
the  border  of  the  Geshurites  and  the  Maacathites  ;  and  called  them,  even  Bashan,  after  his 

15  own  name,  Havvoth-jair,  unto  this  day.)  And  I  gave  Gilead  unto  Machir.  And  unto  the 

16  Beuben  ites  and  unto  the  Gadites  I  gave  from  Gilead  even  unto  the  valley  of  Arnon,  the 
middle  of  the  valley,  and  the  border  thereof ;  even  unto  the  river  Jabbok,  which  is  the  border 

17  of  the  children  of  Ammon  ;  the  Arabah  also,  and  Jordan  and  the  border  thereof  from  Chinner- 
eth  even  unto  the  sea  of  the  Arabah,  the  Salt  Sea,  under  the  slopes  of  Pisgah  eastward. 

Nil.  33  50  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses  in  the  plains  of  Moab  by  the  Jordan  at  Jericho, 

51  saying.  Speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  and  say  unto  them,  When  ye  pass  over  Jordan  into 

52  the  land  of  Canaan,  then  ye  shall  drive  out  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  from  before  you, 
and  destroy  all  their  figured  stones,  and  destroy  all  their  molten  images,  and  demolish  all  their 

53  high  places  :  and  ye  shall  take  possession  of  the  land,  and  dwell  therein  ;  for  unto  you  have 

54  I  given  the  land  to  possess  it.  And  shall  inherit  the  land  by  lot  according  to  your  families  ; 
to  the  more  ye  shall  give  the  more  inheritance,  and  to  the  fewer  thou  shalt  give  the  less  in¬ 
heritance  :  w'heresoever  the  lot  falleth  to  any  man,  that  shall  be  his  ;  according  to  the  tribes 

55  of  your  fathers  shall  ye  inherit.  But  if  ye  will  not  drive  out  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  from 
before  jmu  ;  then  shall  those  which  ye  let  remain  of  them  be  as  pricks  in  your  eyes,  and  as 

56  thorns  in  your  sides,  and  they  shall  vex  jmu  in  the  land  w^herein  ye  dwell.  And  it  shall  come 
to  pass,  that  as  I  thought  to  do  unto  them,  so  will  I  do  unto  you. 


TIIIliD  NUMBERING  OF  ISRAEL. 


615 


Nu.  34  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  Command  the  children  of  Israel,  and 

2  say  unto  them,  When  ye  come  into  the  land  of  Canaan,  (this  is  the  land  that  shall  fall  unto 

3  you  for  an  inheritance,  even  the  land  of  Canaan  according  to  the  borders  thereof,)  then  your 
south  quarter  shall  be  from  the  wilderness  of  Zin  along  by  the  side  of  Edom,  and  your  south 

4  border  shall  be  from  the  end  of  the  Salt  Sea  eastward  :  and  your  border  shall  turn  about 
southward  of  the  ascent  of  Akrabbim,  and  pass  along  to  Zin  :  and  the  goings  out  thereof  shall 
be  southward  of  Kadesh-barnea  ;  and  it  shall  go  forth  to  Hazaraddar,  and  pass  along  to 

5  Azmon  :  and  the  border  shall  turn  about  from  Azmon  unto  the  brook  of  Egypt,  and  the  goings 

6  out  thereof  shall  be  at  the  sea.  And  for  the  western  border,  ye  shall  have  the  great  sea  and  the 

7  border  thereof :  this  shall  be  your  west  border.  And  this  shall  be  your  north  border  ;  from 

8  the  great  sea  ye  shall  mark  out  for  you  mount  Hor  :  from  mount  Hor  ye  shall  mark  out  unto 

9  the  entering  in  of  Hamath  ;  and  the  goings  out  of  the  border  shall  be  at  Zedad  :  and  the 
border  shall  go  forth  to  Ziphron,  and  the  goings  out  thereof  shall  be  at  Hazar-enan  :  this  shall 

10  be  3'our  north  border.  And  ye  shall  mark  out  your  east  border  from  Hazar-enan  to  Shepham  : 

11  and  the  border  shall  go  down  from  Shepham  to  Riblah,  on  the  east  side  of  Ain  ;  and  the  bor- 

12  der  shall  go  down,  and  shall  reach  unto  the  side  of  the  sea  of  Chinnereth  eastward  :  and  the 
border  shall  go  down  to  Jordan,  and  the  goings  out  thereof  shall  be  at  the  Salt  Sea  :  this  shall 

13  be  jmur  land  according  to  the  borders  thereof  round  about.  And  Moses  commanded  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel,  saying,  This  is  the  land  which  ye  shall  inherit  by  lot,  which  the  Lord  hath 

14  commanded  to  give  unto  the  nine  tribes,  and  to  the  half  tribe  :  for  the  tribe  of  the  children 
of  Eeuben  according  to  their  fathers’  houses,  and  the  tribe  of  the  children  of  Gad  according 
to  their  fathers’  houses,  have  received,  and  the  half  tribe  of  Manasseh  have  received,  their 

15  inheritaDce  :  the  two  tribes  and  the  half  tribe  have  received  their  inheritance  beyond  the 
Jordan  at  Jericho  eastward,  toward  the  sunrising. 

16  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses,  saying,  These  are  the  names  of  the  men  which  shall 

17  divide  the  land  unto  you  for  inheritance  :  Eleazar  the  priest,  and  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun. 

18  And  ye  shall  take  one  prince  of  every  tribe,  to  divide  the  land  for  inheritance.  ’And  these  are 

19  the  names  of  the  men.  These  are  they  whom  the  Lord  commanded  to  divide  the  inheritance 

29  unto  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  land  of  Canaan. 


Third  Numbering  op  Israel,. 

Nu.  26  :  1-62. 

The  first  numbering  was  under  the  express 
direction  of  God  (Ex.  38  :  26)  in  the  third  or 
fourth  month  after  the  exodus,  during  the  en¬ 
campment  at  Sinai,  chiefly  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  money  for  the  Tabernacle.  The  num¬ 
bers  then  taken  amounted  to  603,550  men,  which 
may  be  presumed  to  express  with  greater  pre¬ 
cision  the  round  numbers  of  600,000  who  are 
said  to  have  left  Egypt  at  first.  Again,  in  the 
second  month  of  the  second  year  after  the 
exodus  (Nu.  1  :  2,  3)  a  census  was  taken.  The 
total  number  on  this  occasion,  exclusive  of  the 
Levites,  amounted  to  603,550  (Nu.  2  :  32).  This 
third  numbering  took  place  thirty-eight  years 
afterward,  previous  to  the  entrance  into  Canaan, 
when  the  total  number,  excepting  the  Levites, 
amounted  to  601,730  males,  showing  a  decrease 
of  1870.  All  tribes  presented  an  increase  except 
the  following :  Eeuben,  of  2770  ;  Simeon, 
37,100  ;  Gad,  5150  ;  Ephraim  and  Naphtali, 
8000  each.  The  tribe  of  Levi  had  increased  by 
727.  The  great  diminution  which  took  place 
in  the  tribe  of  Simeon  may  probably  be  assigned 
to  the  plague  consequent  on  the  misconduct  of 
Zimri.  On  the  other  hand,  the  chief  instances 


of  increase  are  found  in  Manasseh,  of  20,500  ; 
Benjamin,  10,200  ;  Asher,  11,900  ;  and  Issachar, 
9,900.  None  were  numbered  at  this  census  who 
had  been  above  twenty  years  of  age  at  the  pre¬ 
vious  one  in  the  second  year,  excepting  Caleb 
and  Joshua.  Die.  B. 

Its  main  object  was  in  view  of  the  approach¬ 
ing  apportionment  of  the  land  which  Israel  was 
so  soon  to  possess.  Accordingly,  the  census 
w'as  not  taken  as  before,  according  to  the  num¬ 
ber  of  individuals  in  each  tribe,  but  according 
to  “  families,”  This  corresponded  in  the  main 
with  the  names  of  the  grandsons  and  great- 
grandsons  of  Jacob,  enumerated  in  Gen.  46. 
In  reference  to  the  future  division  of  the  land, 
it  was  arranged  that  the  extent  of  the  “  inheri¬ 
tance”  allotted  to  each  tribe  should  correspond 
to  its  numbers.  But  the  exact  locality  assigned 
to  each  w^as  to  be  determined  “  b}’^  lot,”  so  that 
each  tribe  might  feel  that  it  had  received  its 
“  possession”  directly  from  the  Lord  himself. 
A.  E. 

Notwithstanding  the  increase  in  some  and 
decrease  in  other  tribes,  the  same  sort  of  pro¬ 
portion  is  preserved  in  the  east,  west,  north,  and 
south  divisions  as  before  ;  so  as  to  keep  the  divi¬ 
sion  of  Judah,  which  was  always  in  ihefrord  or 
van,  the  largest ;  and  the  division  of  Dan,  which 


610 


SECTION  179.  LAND  EAST  OF  JORDAN  DIVIDED. 


■was  alwaj^s  in  the  rear,  the  next  number.  But  ' 
it  is  wortliy  of  remark  that  as  they  are  now  to 
‘•ornmence  their  grand  military  operations,  so 
their or  advanced  division  is  increased  from 
186,400  to  201,300.  And  their  ?‘ear  from  157,600 
tj  163,200.  The  first  division  is  strengthened 
14,900  men,  and  the  last  division  5600  men. 
The  reasons  for  this  are  sufSciently  olrvious. 
A.  C. 

53,  As  they  were  multiplied,  so  they  were 
j)ortioned,  not  by  common  j^rovidence,  but  by 
promise  ;  and  for  the  sripport  of  the  honor  of 
Divine  revelation,  God  will  have  the  fulfilling 
€:>f  the  promise  taken  notice  of  both  in  their  in¬ 
crease  and  in  their  inheritance.  When  Moses 
had  numbered  the  people,  God  does  not  say, 
By  Ihfse  shall  the  land  he  c  onquered  ^  but  taking 
that  for  granted,  he  tells  him.  Unto  these  shod  the 
land  he  divided.  These  that  are  now  registered 
as  the  sons  of  Israel  shall  be  admitted  (as  it 
were  by  copy  of  court-roll)  heirs  of  the  land  of 
Canaan.  H. 

Division  of  the  Conquered  Land  East  of  the  Jordan, 

Gilead  and  Bashan,  hetuoeen  Reuben,  Gad,  and 

Half  Manasseh. 

Nu.  32  :  1-42  ;  De.  3  :  12-17. 

The  destruction  of  the  power  of  Midian,  who 
might  have  harassed  them  from  the  east,  secured 
to  Israel  the  quiet  possession  of  the  district  east 
of  Jordan,  which  their  arms  had  already  con¬ 
quered.  All  along,  from  the  river  Arnon  in  the 
south,  which  divided  Israel  from  Moab,  to  the 
river  Jabbok  and  far  beyond  it,  the  land  of 
Gilead  and  of  Bashan,  their  borders  were  safe 
from  hostile  attacks.  The  accounts  of  travellers 
are  unanimous  in  describing  that  district  as 
specially  suited  for  pastoral  purposes.  We  read 
of  magnificent  park-like  scenery,  of  wide  upland 
jjastures,  and  rich  forests,  which  everywhere 
gladden  the  eye.  No  wonder  that  those  of  the 
tribes  which  had  all  along  j^reserved  their 
nomadic  habits,  and  whose  flocks  and  herds 
constituted  their  main  possessions  and  their 
wealth,  should  wish  to  settle  in  those  plains  and 
mountains.  To  them  they  were  in  very  truth 
the  land  of  promise,  suited  to  their  special 
w'ants,  and  offering  the  very  riches  which  they 
desired.  The  other  side  Jordan  had  little 
attraction  for  them  ;  and  its  possession  would 
have  been  the  opposite  of  advantageous  to  a 
strictly  i^astoral  people.  Accordingly’,  “the 
children  of  Gad  ”  and  “  the  children  of  Beu- 
ben”  requested  of  Moses  :  “Let  this  land  be 
given  unto  thy  servants  for  a  possession,  and 
bring  us  not  over  Jordan”  (Nu.  32  :  5)  A.  E. 

The  Arnon  was  the  southern  limit  of  the  trans- 


Jordanic  Palestine.  “From  Arnon  to  Her- 
mon”  was  equivalent  on  the  east  side  to  “  from 
Dan  to  Beersheba”  on  the  west.  The  river  ab¬ 
solutely  splits  by  its  narrow  channel  the  great 
Moab  range  to  their  very  base,  for  several  thou¬ 
sand  feet  ;  yet  its  channel  is  not  more  than  one 
hundred  feet  wide.  South  of  it  Israel  never 
extended  their  conquests  ;  while  those  north  of 
it  w’ere,  as  w’e  have  seen,  soon  lost,  at  least  as 
far  as  Heshbon.  It  is  therefore  diOcult  to  sep- 
ai’ate  the  history  of  Reuben  from  that  of  Moab. 
H.  B.  T. - The  part  assigned  to  Reuben  stretch¬ 

ed  from  the  deep  chasm  of  the  Arnon  north 
to  a  line  -with  the  head  cf  the  Dead  Sea  ;  Gad 
secured  the  region  from  the  limits  of  Reuben’s 
territory  to  the  Jabbok,  across  the  whole  breadth 
of  the  country,  and  also  a  strip  along  the  east 
side  of  the  Jordan,  to  the  Sea  of  Chinoereth, 
better  known  as  the  Lake  of  Galilee.  Thence  to 
the  foot  of  Lebanon  was  made  over  to  Manasseh. 
Geikie. 

The  trans-Jordanic  territory  was  the  forest¬ 
land,  the  pasture-land  of  Palestine.  The  smooth 
downs  received  a  special  name,  “Mishor,”  ex¬ 
pressive  of  their  contrast  with  the  rough  and 
rocky  soil  of  the  wmst.  The  “  oaks”  of  Bashan, 
which  still  fill  the  traveller  with  admiration, 
w’ere  to  the  prophets  and  psalmists  of  Israel  the 
chief  glory  of  the  vegetation  of  their  common 
country.  The  vast  herds  of  wild  cattle  which 
then  wandered  through  the  w’oods  w’ere  at  once 
the  terror  and  pride  of  the  Israelite — “  the  fat 
bulls  of  Bashan,” 

In  the  encampment  of  Israel  tw’o  tribes,  Reu¬ 
ben  and  Gad,  were  pre-eminently  nomadic. 
They  had  “  a  very  great  multitude  of  cattle.” 
For  this  they  desired  the  land,  and  for  this  it 
was  given  to  them,  “  that  they  might  build 
cities  for  their  little  ones,  and  folds  for  their 
sheep.”  In  no  other  case  is  the  relation  between 
the  territory  and  its  occupiers  so  expressly  laid 
down,  and  such  it  continued  to  be  to  the  end. 
From  first  to  last  they  alone  of  the  tribes  never 
emerged  from  the  state  of  their  Patriarchal  an¬ 
cestors.  Gad  and  Reuben  accordingly  divided 
the  kingdom  of  Sihon  between  them — that  is, 
the  territory  between  the  Arnon  and  the  Jab¬ 
bok,  and  the  eastern  side  of  the  valley  of  the 
Jordan  up  to  the  Lake  of  Chinnereth  or  Gen- 
nesaret.  The  northern  outposts  of  the  eastern 
tribes  were  intrusted  to  that  portion  of  Ma¬ 
nasseh  which  had  originally  attacked  and  ex 
pelled  the  Amorite  inhabitants  from  Gilead. 
The  same  martial  spirit  which  fitted  the  w’estern 
Manasseh  to  defend  the  passes  of  Esdraelon 
fitted  “  Machir,  the  firht-born  of  Manasseh, 
the  father  of  Gilead,”  to  defend  the  passes  of 


WILL  FIND  YOU  OUT:' 


617 


Hauran  and  Anti-Libanus  ;  ‘  ‘  because  be  was  a 
man  of  war,  therefore  be  bad  Gilead  and 
Basban.”  The  pastoral  character  cor^mon  to 
Gad  and  Beuben  was  shared,  but  in  a  much  less 
degree,  by  these  descendants  of  the  ruling  tribe 

of  Joseph.  Siardey. - Machir,  Jair,  and  Nobah, 

chiefs  of  Manasseh,  were  valiant  warriors, 
whose  deeds  are  frequently  recorded.  It  was 
Jair  who  took  all  the  tract  of  Argob  with  its 
sixty  great  cities  ;  and  Nobah  who  took  Kenath 
and  its  dependencies  ;  and  we  are  told  that 
because  Machir  was  a  man  of  war,  therefore  he 
had  Gilead  and  Bashan,  These  districts,  as  we 
have  seen,  were  the  most  difficult  in  the  whole 
country,  for  they  embraced  the  hills  of  Gilead, 
and  the  almost  impregnable  tract  known  as  the 
Lejah,  or  “  refuge,”  from  the  security  which  its 
natural  fortifications  afforded.  But  Manasseh 
also,  like  Reuben  and  Gad,  affected  by  its  posi¬ 
tion  and  its  isolation,  gradually  fell  into  the 
wandering  shepherd  life,  and  ceased  to  be  a 
power  in  Israel.  Nor  did  it  even  remain  true  to 
its  ancient  faith,  but,  like  the  other  tribes  of  the 
east  of  Jordan,  gave  itself  up  to  the  local  idol¬ 
atry.  Geikie. 

17-23,  They  promised  to  go  armed  before  the 
tihildren  of  Israel.  “  Nay”  (says  Moses),  “  ye 
shall  go  armed  before  the  Lord.  It  is  God’s  cause 
luore  than  your  brethren’s,  and  to  him  you 
must  have  an  eye,  not  to  them  only.”  Upon 
this  condition  he  grants  them  this  land,  and 
neither  sin  nor  blame  should  cleave  to  it  ; 
neither  sin  before  God  nor  blame  before  Israel  ; 
and  whatever  possessions  we  have,  it  is  desir¬ 
able  thus  to  come  guiltless  to  them.  But  he 
warns  them  of  the  danger  of  breaking  their 
word  :  If  you  fail,  you  sin  against  the  Lord  (verse 
23),  and  not  against  your  brethren  only,  and  be 
sure  your  sin  will  find  you  out — that  is,  “  God 
will  certainly  reckon  with  you  for  it,  though  you 
may  make  a  light  matter  of  it.”  Sin  will  find 
out  the  sinner  sooner  or  later.  It  concerns  us 
therefore  to  find  our  sins  out  that  we  may  re¬ 
pent  of  and  forsake  them,  lest  our  sins  find  us 
out  to  our  rain  and  confusion.  H. 

Moses  consents  to  the  request  of  the  Reuben- 
ites  and  Gadites  on  certain  conditions  ;  but  is 
very  earnest  that  the  conditions  which  he  pre¬ 
scribed  should  be  punctually  observed.  Ac¬ 
cordingly  he  represents  sin,  by  which  he  means 
the  consequence  of  sin,  under  the  strong  image 
of  a  person,  who  should  certainly  find  out  every 
transgressor  among  them  that  did  not  punc¬ 
tually  perform  the  condition  to  which  he  had 
agreed.  Gilpin. — -—The  expression,  “  Sin  will 
find  you  out,”  is  more  emphatic  than  as  if  he 
had  simply  said,  You  shall  not  escape  God’s 


hand  ;  for  the  meaning  of  it  is  that  vengeance 
is  so  connected  with  sin,  that  it  cannot  be 
severed  from  it.  Thus,  in  Gen.  4  :  7  it  is  said, 
“  Sin  lieth  at  the  door”  to  lay  hold  at  length  of 

the  guilty.  Calv. - Moses  meant  to  sa3',  “  Ye 

will  recognize  your  sin  when  it  overtakes  you” 
Men  fail  to  recognize  their  sin  at  the  time  ; 
often,  that  it  is  a  sin  at  all  ;  generally,  how 
great  a  sin  it  is  in  deed.  Then  when  it  overtakes 
them  in  its  consequences,  then  they  see  it  in  its 
true  light.  The  awfulness  of  sin  is  not  due  to 
its  awful  consequences,  but  it  is  manifested  by 
them.  The  particular  sin  against  which  Moses 
warned  them  was  the  sin  of  selfishly  deserting 
their  brethren,  and  thereby  discouraging  and 
enfeebling  them.  And  this  is  a  sin  as  great  as 
it  is  common,  the  disastrous  consequences  of 

which  are  most  sadly  evident.  R.  W. - These 

words,  though  ultimately  true  of  every  sin,  are 
spoken  of  actions  which,  going  forth  from  us, 
jierform  their  mischievous  errands,  but  will 
come  home  again,  bringing  retribution  with 
them.  Sinners  indulge  vague  hopes  of  im¬ 
punity  ;  they  act  as  though  they  said,  “  The 
Uord  shall  not  see”  (Ps.  94  :  7).  But  they  can¬ 
not  escape  from  sin.  Lapse  of  time  will  not 
annihilafe  sin  ;  careful  concealment  will  not 
hide  it  up  ;  mere  repentance  will  not  avert  all 
its  consequences.  Nor  will  death  screen  from 
detection.  Front. 

Men’s  sins  often  find  them  out,  though  no 
visible  sign  or  token  may  betray  this  fact  to  the 
world.  All  may  outwardly  stand  fair  ;  there 
may  be  no  breach  in  the  worldly  prosperity  ; 
nay,  this  may  be  ampler,  more  strongly  estab¬ 
lished  than  ever  ;  while  yet  there  may  be  that 
within  which  forbids  to  rejoice,  which  takes  all 
the  joy  and  the  gladness  out  of  life— the 
memory  of  that  old  sin  which  was  as  nothing 
when  committed,  but  which  now  darkens  all, 
the  deadly  arrow  poisoning  the  springs  of  life, 
which  will  not  drop  from  the  side,  which  no 
force,  no  art  of  man’s  device  can  withdraw.  Is 
there  not  here  one  whose  sin  has  found  him 
out  ?  Nor  is  it  only  the  wicked  whose  sins  thus 
come  round  to  them  again.  God  will  not  allow 
his  own  children  to  escape  any  more  than  the 
children  of  this  present  world.  But  there»is 
still  something  which  we  cm  do.  We  can  turn 
the  table  on  our  sins,  and  instead  of  waiting  for 
them  to  find  us  out,  we,  earnestly  seeking  by 
aid  of  that  candle  which  the  Lord  has  liehted 
in  us,  may  find  them  out  ;  and  then  we  have  the 
sure  word  of  promise  that  if  we  will  judge  our¬ 
selves  we  shall  not  be  judged  of  the  Lord. 
Trench. 

33.  ”  And  unto  half  the  tribe  of  Manasseh.” 


618 


SECTION  179.  THIRD  NUMBERING  OF  ISRAEL. 


As  ho  mention  has  been  jjreviously  made  of  this 
tribe  in  this  connection,  we  are  left  to  conjec¬ 
ture  why  it  should  have  been  divided  at  all, 
and  why  the  one  half  should  have  received  the 
remote  regions  of  Northern  Gilead  and  Bashan, 
The  enormous  increase  in  the  tribal  numbers 
during  the  wanderings  may  have  made  the  divi¬ 
sion  more  advisable,  and  the  adventurous  and 
independent  character  of  the  Machirites  maj’’ 
have  rendered  it  almost  a  necessity.  They  had 
not  apparently  preferred  any  request  to  Moses, 
but  since  the  trans-Jordanic  territory  \vas  to  be 
occujried,  Moses  i3robably  recognized  their  claim 

to  the  conquests  they  had  made.  R.  W. - It 

would  seem  that  Moses,  when  assigning  to  the 
pastoral  tribes  the  inheritance  which  they  de¬ 
sired,  took  opj)ortunity  at  the  same  time  to  ap¬ 
propriate  to  these  Manassites  specially  the  dis¬ 
trict  they  had  already  subdued.  Thus  the 
who’e  of  the  conquered  country  was  provision¬ 
ally  disposed  of,  and  the  forwardness  and  valor 
of  the  Machirites  rewarded.  It  seems  clear 
from  verse  39  and  Josh.  17:1,  that  the  claims 
of  the  Machirites  arose  simply  out  of  their  ex- 
23loits.  The  notices  o£  the  conquest  of  northeast 
Gilead  and  Bashan  by  the  Machirites  plainly 
intimate  that  it  w^as  effected  by  a  few  chiefs  of 
great  military  prowess,  who  overran  rapidly  a 
far  larger  district  than  they  could  colonize. 
The  tribe  of  Manassfh  w^as  the  least  numerous 
of  all  at  Sinai,  and  only  stood  sixth  in  the  census 
recently  held  ;  yet  it  eventually  received  on  the 
west  of  Jordan  a  territory  as  large  on  the  aver¬ 
age  as  fell  to  the  other  tribes. 

34.  The  leading  city  of  the  first  group  is 
Dibon ;  called,  from  the  j)ossession  which  the 
Gadites  now  took  of  it,  Dibon-gad.  It  lay  four 
miles  north  of  the  Arnon,  and  its  extensive 
ruins  still  bear  the  name  Dhiban.  It  was  here 
that  the  Moabite  stone  was  discovered  by  the 
Rev.  T.  Klein,  in  18G8.  Occuj)ied  on  the  first 
acquisition  of  the  territory  by  the  Gadites,  and 
assigned  by  Joshua  to  the  Reubenites,  it  was 
eventually  recaj^tured  by  the  Moabites,  in  whose 

hands  it  remained.  Esp'm. - A  wall  runs 

round  the  town,  and  just  within  the  gateway 
the  famous  Moabite  stone,  containing  an  in¬ 
scription  of  King  Mesha,  was  found.  The  in¬ 
scription  gives  a  brief  account  of  King  Mesha 
and  his  father,  fells  of  the  victorious  campaigns 
of  tbe  former,  and  contains  a  record  of  the  re¬ 
building  of  certain  cities  in  Moab  :  among  the 
names  which  a2>pear  are  Jehovah,  Israel,  Omri, 
Chemosh,  Dibon,  Baal-meon,  Horonaim,  Keri- 
oth,  etc.  A  short  distance  south  of  Dhiban,  on 
the  “brink”  of  the  torrent  Arnon,  are  the  fea¬ 
tureless  ruins  of  Araar,  the  ancient  Aroer,  the 


'  southern  point  of  the  territory  of  Sihon,  King 
of  the  Amoriles,  and  afterward  of  the  tribe  of 
Reuben.  \Vilso7i. 

37,  38,  The  Reubenites  established  them¬ 
selves  more  compactly  than  the  Gadites.  Their 
central  city  was  the  old  Amoiitish  capital, 
Heshbon.  They  occujjied  also  Eleahh,  now 
el-’Al,  a  mile  to  the  northeast  ;  Ntbo,  jjrobably 
three  miles  to  the  southwest,  and  Banl-mfon, 
now  apparently  Myun,  nearly  two  miles  to  the 
south.  It  is  obvious  that  neither  the  Reuben¬ 
ites  nor  the  Gadites  were  the  founders  of  the 
cities  of  which  they  thus  took  possession,  and 
which  the  text  describes  them  as  “  building.” 
They  probably  fortified  them,  for  the  first  time 
or  afresh,  so  as  to  render  them  places  of  safety 
for  their  families  during  the  campaigns  on  the 
other  side  of  the  Jordan,  and  ^arovided  them  with 
all  conveniences  for  their  flocks  and  herds.  Espin 

De.  3  :  14.  Unto  this  clay.  Why  this 
phrase,  when  the  conquest  had  occurred  only 
three  full  months  before?  The  j)hrase,  used 
seven  times  in  Genesis,  never  once  in  the  three 
later  books,  reappears  in  De.  2  :  12,  22,  in  refer¬ 
ence  to  the  occupation  of  Seir  and  the  conquest 
of  the  Horites.  This  was  the  first  instance  of 
the  overthrow  of  a  giant  race  by  the  posterity  of 
Abraham,  and  the  possession  of  Bashan  was  th« 
last.  Five  similar  events  had  occurred,  and  the 
latest,  like  the  earliest,  was  an  accomplished 
fact,  marked  by  an  abiding  and  settled  change 
of  jDossessors.  Thus  the  use  of  the  phrase  by 
Moses  is  emphatic  and  significant.  All  the  giaut 
races  outside  of  Canaan  are  at  length  finally 
vanquished  and  displaced.  It  remains  only  for 
Israel  to  overthrow  the  dreaded  Anakims,  and 
enter  their  promised  inheritance.  This  day 
beholds  Edom  in  the  land  of  the  Horims,  Moab 
in  that  of  the  Emims,  Ammon  in  that  of  the 
Zamzummims,  and  Manasseh  in  the  land  of  Og, 
the  last  remnant  of  the  -giants.  To-morrow, 
then,  must  see  the  Anakims  overthrown,  and 
Israel  settled  in  their  stead.  The  use  of  the 
fihrase  is  thus  no  objection  to  the  Mosai<s 
authorship,  but  its  strong  confirmation.  Birks 

]^U.  33  ;  50-56.  The  expulsion  of  tb« 
Canaanites  and  the  destruction  of  their  menu 
ments  of  idolatry  had  been  already  enjoined, 
and  verse  54  is  substantially  a  repetition  from 
26  :  53-55.  But  the  solemn  warning  of  verses 
55,  56  is  new.  A  call  for  it  had  been  furnished 
by  their  past  transgressions  in  the  matter  of 
Baal-peor,  by  their  imjrerfect  fulfilment,  at  the 
first,  of  Moses’  orders  in  the  Midianitish  war  ; 
and  perhaps  by  the  indulgence  of  tbe  Machir¬ 
ites  to  those  whom  they  conquered  in  Bashan 
(32  ;  42).  Espin. 


BOUNDARIES  OF  CANAAN. 


619 


55,  Since  God  did  not  at  once  cast  out  the 
Canaanites,  but  u:ade  their  conquest  dependent 
on  the  faith  of  the  Israelites,  he  thus  secured 
an  instrument  for  the  punishment  of  iheir  unbe¬ 
lief  and  disobedience,  and  so  proved  that  his 
favor  for  them  was  not  inconsiderate,  but  that 
they  would  be  treated  as  the  Canaanites  if  they 

resembled  them  in  their  character.  D.  M - 

56,  The  righteous  God  would  turn  that  wheel 
upon  the  Israelites  which  was  to  have  crushed 
the  Canaanites,  I  shall  do  to  you  as  I  thought  to 
do  unto  them.  It  was  intended  that  the  Canaan¬ 
ites  should  be  dispossessed,  but  if  the  Israelites 
fell  in  with  them  and  learned  their  way,  they 
should  be  dispossessed,  for  God’s  displeasure 
W'ould  justly  be  greater  against  them  than 
against  the  Canaanites  themselves.  Let  us  hear 
this,  and  fear.  If  we  do  not  drive  sin  out,  sin 
will  drive  us  out  ;  if  we  be  hot  the  death  of  our 
lusts,  our  lusts  will  be  the  death  of  our  souls. 
H. 

Definite  Boundakies  of  the  Land  of  Canaan. 

Allotted  to  9^  Tribes.  Nu.  34  :  1-12, 

3-5,  The  southern  border.  Bender:  “Then 
your  south  quarter  shall  extend  from  the  wilder¬ 
ness  of  Zin  which  resteth  upon  the  side  of 
Edom.  And  your  south  border  shall  start  from 
the  extremity  of  the  salt  sea  on  the  east  ;  and 
your  border  shall  turn  on  the  south  to  Maaleh- 
akrabbim,  and  shall  pass  on  toward  Zin,  and 
the  extent  of  its  reach  on  the  south  shall  be  to 
Kadesh-barnea  ;  and  it  shall  reach  forth  thence 
to  Hazar-addar,  and  shall  pass  on  to  Azmon, 
and  from  Azmon  the  border  shall  turn  to  the 
river  of  Egypt,  and  its  reach  shall  be  to  the 
sea.”  The  first  few  words  set  forth  in  general 
terms  the  southern  boundary,  which  is  more  ex¬ 
actly  described  in  the  following  sentence.  The 
details  of  its  course  are  more  fully  given  (Josh^ 
15  :  1-4.)  The  boundary  commenced  at  the 
Dead  Sea.  Of  the  broad  and  desolate  valley  by 
which  the  depressed  bed  of  that  sea  is  pro¬ 
tracted  toward  the  south,  the  first  few  miles- 
comprised  under  the  general  name  of  the  Ghor’ 
present  little  else  than  a  tract  of  marshy  jungle. 
A  deep  narrow  glen,  descending  from  the  south¬ 
west,  enters  this  tract  at  its  southwest  corner  ; 
it  is  called  Wady  Fikreh.  The  course  of  this 
valley  forms  the  natural  division  between  the 
land  of  promise  and  ihe  desert.  On  its  left 
side,  as  one  ascends  it,  the  hills  are,  though 
utterly  barren,  comparatively  low  ;  but  on  the 
right  it  is  flanked  all  the  way  by  a  steep  moun¬ 
tain-wall  varying  irom  about  700  to  1000  feet  in 
height,  to  the  north  of  which  rise  ranges  of 
much  greater  elevation.  The  route  from  Petra 


to  Hebron  mounts  this  precipice  at  a  point 
about  fourteen  miles  from  the  mouth  of  Wady 
Fikreh,  by  a  long  winding  track,  appropriately 
designated  the  “  Pass  of  the  Bare  Bock,”  Nakb 
es-Safah  ;  and  attesting  by  its  difficulty  how 
formidable  was  the  rampart  which  the  land  of 
Canaan  here  presented  to  an  invader.  About 
three  miles  further  up  the  valley,  on  its  left 
bank,  stands  the  isolated  hill  of  Madurah  [Mount 
Hor],  rising,  citadel-like,  in  the  form  of  a  trun 
cated  cone,  to  a  height  of  about  500  feet.  Here 
the  head  of  the  water-course  of  Wady  Fikreh  is 
reached.  But  the  valley  itself  is  continued  in 
the  same  southwestern  direction,  under  the 
name  of  Wady  Murreh  ;  the  water-course  of 
which,  passing  south  of  the  hill  of  Madurah, 
runs  eastward,  not  like  Wady  Fikreh  into  the 
Ghor,  but  into  the  higher  level  of  the  Arabah. 
The  upper  part  of  Wady  Murreh  is,  however, 
grander  and  more  striking  than  Wady  Fikreh. 
Not  only  do  the  hills  of  Canaan  rise  as  precipi¬ 
tously  and  in  greater  elevation  on  the  right, 
jutting  forth  in  huge  irregular  promontories  or 
bastions  of  naked  rock  ;  but  on  the  other  side, 
the  hills  of  the  wilderness  (which  in  this  part 
are  known  as  Jebel  Murreh)  become  more  lofty, 
and  present  in  their  terrific  ruggedness  an 
aspect  which  English  travellers  describe  as  that 
of  a  confused  chaos  of  matter  once  in  a  boiling 
state  and  while  so  suddenly  solidified.  To  the 
French  traveller  Callier  the  great  depth  of  the 
valley  appeared  extraordinary  in  a  district  where 
the  water-courses  are  often  so  shallow  as  to  be 
scarcely  recognizable.  The  direction  of  this 
valley  continues  nearly  straight  for  about  ten 
miles  above  Madurah,  up  to  a  wild  ascent  on 
the  Canaanitish  side  called  Nakb  Kareb.  In 
this  w'e  may  recognize,  by  the  resemblance  of 
name,  the  ancient  Maaleh-akrabbim  or  “  Scor¬ 
pion  Pass.”  The  literal  Arabic  rendering  of 
Akrabbim,  “  scorpions,  ”  would  be  Akarib  ;  and 
to  this  the  modern  name  of  the  ascent  comes 
very  near.  Here  the  Wady  Murreh  turns  south¬ 
ward,  and  probably  loses  itself  among  the  hills, 
which  must  have  belonged  to  “  the  wilderness 
of  Zin  and  Kadesh-barnea,  which  is  “  in  the 
wilderness  of  Zin,”  will  be,  as  the  text  implies, 
the  southernmost  point  of  the  southern  boun¬ 
dary,  That  wilderness,  however,  was  probably 
of  wide  extent,  and  comprised  the  whole  rugged 
mountain  region  south  of  Wad^’^  Murreh  and 
Wady  Fikreh,  as  far  east  as  the  Arabah.  If 
this  be  so,  it  w'as  separated  by  the  Arabah  only 
from  the  mountains  of  Edom  ;  and  might  thus 
be  fairly  described  in  the  text  as  resting  upon 
the  side  or  flank  of  the  latter  territory.  And  if 
the  wilderness  of  Zin  were  thus  regarded  as 


620 


SECTION  179.  APPOETIONMENT  AMONG  THE  TPJBES. 


c  .nnecterl  with  Edom,  the  fact  would  help  to 
a  •civiiiit  fur  the  \va3’  in  which  the  southern  cities 
of  Jadali  are  described  as  lying  “  toward  the 

1 

coast  of  Edom”  (^Jush.  15  :  21). 

That  so  many  points  are  named  in  so  short  a 
line  is  due  perhaps  to  tie  familiarity  which  the 
Israelites  had  acquired  with  the  district  during 
the  peiiod  of  their  encampment  at  Kadesh 

The  northern  border.  Here  the  name 
“  Hor”  denotes  the  whole  western  crest  of 
Mount  Lebanon,  eighty  miles  in  length,  com¬ 
mencing  east  of  Zidon,  and  terminating  with 
the  point  immediately  above  the  entrance  of 

Hamath.  Espin. - From  Hor  ye  shall  point 

your  border  to  the  entrance  of  Hamath  which 
Joshua,  sj)eaking  of  the  yet  unconquered  land, 
describe-!,  “  All  Lebanon,  toward  the  sun-rising, 
from  the  valley  of  Baal-gad,  under  Mount  Her- 
mon,  unto  the  entrance  of  Hamath”  (Josh. 
l3  :  5).  This  demonstrates  that  Hor  corre¬ 
sponded  to  all  Lebanon,  including  Mount  Her- 
mon.  Hales. 

JO-liS.  The  eastern  border,  as  here  described, 
must  be  understood  to  commence  at  that  point 
from  which  the  boundary  line  pursued  an  un¬ 
interruptedly  southward  course.  Espin. 

11,  Tlie  Sea  ol  Cliiiiiaerelli.  The  sea 
known  as  the  “  lake  of  Gennesabet,”  mentioned 
as  at  the  end  of  Jordan  opposite  to  the  “  Sea  of 
the  Aeabah  ”  — i.e.,  the  Dead  Sea  ;  as  having  the 
Arabah  below  it  (De.  3  :  17  ;  Josh.  11  :  2  ;  12  : 
3).  In  the  two  latter  passages  it  is  Chinnekoth, 
It  seems  likely  that  Chinnereth  was  an  ancient 
Canaanite  name  existing  long  prior  to  the  Israel¬ 
ite  conquest.  Die.  B. 

The  boundary  line  is  described  with  great 
minuteness,  the  river  Jordan  is  mentioned  as 
the  east  border  ;  and  an  irregular  curve,  extend¬ 
ing  across  the  desert,  from  the  southern  ex¬ 
tremity  of  the  Dead  Sea  to  the  river  of  Egypt, 
forms  the  south  border.  But  in  all  the  other 
passages,  where  the  boundaries  are  spoken  of — 
viz  ,  Gen.  15  ;  Ex.  23  :  De.  1  :  11  ;  2  Sam.  8  ; 
1  Kings  4  ;  and  2  Ch.  8  :  9 — eight  passages  in 
all — the  Euphrates  is  mentioned  as  the  eastern 
limit  ;  and  in  Ex.  23  :  31  the  bounds  of  Israel 
are  spoken  of  as  stretching  to  the  southward  as 
far  as  the  Red  Sea.  But  there  is  no  real  con¬ 
tradiction.  The  boundary  of  the  holy  land, 
which  the  Israelites  were,  to  divide,  after  ex¬ 
pelling  the  inhabitants,  was  one  thing  ;  the 
boundary,  beyond  which  they  were  not  per¬ 
mitted  to  extend  their  conquests  eastward,  was 


another.  Jordan  was  the  former,  Euphiates  the 
latter.  The  intervening  territoiy  was  not  neces¬ 
sarily  to  be  occupied  exclusively  by  the  Israelites, 
but  was  to  serve  as  a  pasture-ground  for  their 
cattle,  the  greater  part  of  it  being  fit  for  no 
other  purpose.  The  appointment  of  the  Eu¬ 
phrates  as  a  boundary  included  in  it  a  prohibi¬ 
tion  to  the  Israelites  against  extending  their 
dominion  beyond  it  ;  which  they  never  did,  not 
even  in  the  reign  of  David,  although  he  obtained 
important  victories  over  the  kings  of  Mesopo¬ 
tamia.  E.  C.  W. 

I  Appointment  of  princes  from  the  ten 

tribes  to  divide  the  land  just  described.  The 
positions  of  the  several  inheritances  were  to  be 
determined  by  lot  ;  but  their  dimensions  were 
proportioned  to  the  wants  of  the  tiibes  to  which 
they  fell.  Thus  the  limits  of  each  were  to  be 
!  marked  out  after  the  lot  had  determined  to 
I  which  tribe  it  belonged,  and  for  the  due  and 
fair  adjustment  of  the  limits  the  presence  of  a 
representative  from  each  tribe  was  requisite. 

'  Of  the  representatives  now  selected  through 
Moses  beforehand,  who  were  all  princes  - i.e., 
heads  of  chief  families  in  their  respective  tribes, 
j  Caleb  alone,  of  the  tribe  of  Judah,  is  otherwise 

known  to  us.  Espin. - This  was  arranged,  no 

doubt,  in  order  to  insure  fairness  in  fixing  the 
boundaries  between  the  tribes,  which  had  to  be 
done  after  the  situation  of  the  tribe  was  deter¬ 
mined  by  lot  ;  the  further  subdivision  of  the 
I  tribal  territory  was  probably  left  to  be  managed 

by  the  chiefs  of  the  tribe  itself.  R.  W. - 

Through  the  casting  of  the  lots  by  the  princes, 
j  God  would  show  by  his  decree  the  districts  re¬ 
spectively  assigned  to  the  tribes  ;  while  the 
princes  could  arrange  that  the  dimensions  of 
each  might  be  proportionate  to  the  number  of 

its  occupants.  Galv. - Nothing  could  be  more 

prudent  than  this  partition  of  the  country  by 
lot,  and  making  Joshua  and  the  high-priest 
superintendents  of  it,  since  it  was  the  only  plan 
which  could  effectually  prevent  all  murmurings 
and  quarrellings  among  such  an  obstinate  peo¬ 
ple  as  the  Jews.  It  is  supposed,  from  what 
followed,  that  every  tribe  first  drew  its  lot  for 
its  own  canton  ;  and  after  that  there  were  prop¬ 
er  persons  appointed  to  measure  out  a  quantity 
of  land  for  each  family,  according  to  their  size. 
But  whether  this  distribution  was  made  by  this 
or  any  other  method,  it  is  certain  that  we  do 
not  read  of  any  broils  or  jealousies  that  it  ever 
occasioned  among  them.  Stackhouse. 


SECriON  180. 


621 


Section  180. 

A  GENERATION  DEAD.  THE  LEVITICAL  CITIES.  LAW  OF  DAUGHTERS’  INHERI¬ 
TANCE  ;  THE  LAW  AMENDED  ANNOUNCEMENT  OF  MOSES’S  DEATH  ;  HIS 
DOUBLE  PRAYER.  ORDINATION  OF  JOSHUA  AS  HIS  SUCCESSOR. 

Numbers  26  ;  63-65  ;  27  : 1-23  ;  35  : 1-8  ;  36  : 1-13.  De.  3  :  21-29  ;  4  ;  41-43. 

Nu.  26  63  These  are  they  that  were  numbered  by  Moses  and  Eleazar  the  priest  ;  who  num- 

64  bered  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  plains  of  Moab  by  the  Jordan  at  Jericho.  But  among  these 
there  was  not  a  man  of  them  that  were  numbered  b}^  Moses  and  Aaron  the  priest  ;  who  num- 

65  bered  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  wilderness  of  Sinai.  For  the  Lord  had  said  of  them,  They 
shall  surely  die  in  the  wilderness.  And  there  was  not  left  a  man  of  them,  save  Caleb  the  son 
of  Jephunneh,  and  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun. 

Nu.  35  1  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  IVIoses  in  the  plains  of  Moab  by  the  Jordan  at  Jericho,  say- 

2  ing.  Command  the  children  of  Israel,  that  they  give  unto  the  Levites  of  the  inheritance  of  their 
possession  cities  to  dwell  in  ;  and  suburbs  for  the  cities  round  about  them  shall  ye  give  unto 

3  the  Levites  And  the  cities  shall  they  have  to  dwell  in  ;  and  their  suburbs  shall  be  for  their 

4  cattle,  and  for  their  substance,  and  for  all  their  beasts.  And  the  suburbs  of  the  cities,  which 
ye  shall  give  unto  the  Levites,  shall  be  from  the  wall  of  the  city  and  outward  a  thousand 

5  cubits  round  about.  And  ye  shall  measure  without  the  city  for  the  east  side  two  thousand 
cubits,  and  for  the  south  side  two  thousand  cubits,  and  for  tbe  west  side  two  thousand  cubits, 
and  for  the  north  side  two  thousand  cubits,  the  city  being  in  the  midst.  This  shall  be  to  them 

6  the  suburbs  of  the  cities.  And  the  cities  which  ye  shall  give  unto  the  Levites,  they  shall  be 
the  six  cities  of  refuge,  which  ye  shall  give  fur  the  manslayer  to  flee  thither  :  and  beside  them 

7  ye  shall  give  forty  and  two  cities.  All  the  cities  which  ve  shall  give  to  the  Levites  shall  be 

8  forty  and  eight  cities  ;  them  shall  ye  give  with  their  suburbs.  And  concerning  the  cities  which 
ye  shall  give  of  the  possession  of  the  children  of  Israel,  from  the  many  ye  shall  take  many  ; 
and  from  the  few  ye  shall  take  few"  :  every  one  according  to  his  inheritance  w"hich  he  inheriteth 
shall  give  of  his  cities  unto  the  Levites. 

De.  4  41  Then  Moses  separated  three  cities  beyond  Jordan  tow^ard  the  sunrising  ;  that  the 

42  manslayer  might  flee  thither,  which  slayeth  his  neighbour  unawares,  and  hated  him  not  in 

43  time  past  ;  and  that  fleeing  unto  one  of  these  cities  he  might  live  :  namely,  Bezer  in  the  w"il- 
derness,  in  the  plain  country,-  for  the  Reubenites  ;  and  Ramoth  in  Gilead,  for  the  Gadites  ; 
and  Golan  in  Bashan,  for  the  Manassites. 

[Nu.  27  : 1-11  and  36  : 1-12  contains  the  Law  of  Daughters’  Inheritance  and  its  Amend¬ 
ment.] 

Nil.  27  12  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Get  thee  up  into  this  mountain  of  Abarim,  and 

13  behold  the  land  which  I  have  given  unto  the  children  of  Israel.  And  when  thou  hast  seen  it, 

14  thou  also  shalt  be  gathered  unto  thy  people,  as  Aaron  thy  brother  was  gathered  :  because  ye 
rebelled  against  my  word  in  the  wilderness  of  Zin,  in  the  strife  of  the  congregation,  to  sanctify 
me  at  the  waters  before  their  eyes.  (These  are  the  wmters  of  Meribah  of  Kadesh  in  the  wul- 

15  derness  of  Zin.)  And  Moses  spake  unto  the  Lord,  saying,  Let  the  Lord,  the  God  of  the 

16  spirits  of  all  flesh,  appoint  a  man  over  the  congregation,  wLich  may  go  out  before  them,  and 

17  w'hich  may  come  in  before  them,  and  which  may  lead  them  out,  and  which  may  bring  them 

18  in  ;  that  the  congregation  of  the  Lord  be  not  as  sheep  which  have  no  shepherd.  And  the 
Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Take  thee  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun,  a  man  in  whom  is  the  spirit,  and  lay 

19  thine  hand  upon  him  ;  and  set  him  before  Eleazar  the  priest,  and  before  all  the  congregation  ; 

20  and  give  him  a  charge  in  their  sight.  And  thou  shalt  put  of  thine  honour  upon  him,  that  all 

21  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel  may  obey.  And  he  shall  stand  before  Eleazar  the 
priest,  w'ho  shall  inquire  for  him  by  the  judgement  of  the  Urim  before  the  Lord  :  at  his  word 
shall  they  go  out,  and  at  his  word  they  shall  come  in,  both  he,  and  all  the  children  of  Israel 

22  with  him,  even  all  the  congregation.  And  Moses  did  as  the  Lord  commanded  him  :  and  he 

23  took  Joshua,  and  set  him  before  Eleazar  the  priest,  and  before  all  the  congregation  :  and  he 
laid  his  hands  upon  him,  and  gave  him  a  charge,  as  the  Lord  spake  by  the  hand  of  Moses. 

De.  3  21  And  I  commanded  Joshua  at  that  time,  saying.  Thine  eyes  have  seen  all  that  the 
Lord  your  God  hath,  done  unto  these  two  kings  :  so  shall  the  Lord  do  unto  all  the  kingdoms 


622 


SECTION  180.  A  GENERATION  DEAD. 


22  whitlier  thou  goest  over.  Ye  shall  not  fear  them  ;  for  the  Loed  your  God,  he  it  is  that  fight- 
eth  for  you. 

23  And  I  besought  the  Lord  at  that  time,  saying,  O  Lord  God,  thou  hast  begun  to  shew  thy 

24  servant  thy  greatness,  and  thy  strong  hand  :  for  what  god  is  there  in  heaven  or  in  earth,  that 

25  can  do  according  to  thy  works,  and  according  to  thy  mighty  acts?  Let  mo  go  over,  I  pray 
2G  thee,  and  see  the  good  land  that  is  beyond  Jordan,  that  goodly  mountain,  and  Lebanon.  But 

the  Lord  was  wroth  with  me  for  your  sakes,  and  hearkened  not  unto  me  :  and  the  Lord  said 

27  unto  me.  Let  it  suffice  thee  ;  sj^cak  no  more  unto  me  of  this  matter.  Get  thee  up  into  the 
top  of  Pisgah,  and  lift  up  thine  eyes  %Yestward,  and  northward,  find  southward,  and  eastward, 

28  and  behold  with  thine  eyes  ;  for  thou  shalt  not  go  over  this  Jordan.  But  charge  Joshua,  and 
encourage  him,  and  strengthen  him  :  for  he  shall  go  over  before  this  people,  and  he  shall  cause 

29  them  to  inherit  the  land  which  thou  shalt  see.  So  we  abode  in  the  valley  over  against  Beth- 
peor. 

Nil.  3G  13  These  are  the  commandments  and  the  jiulgements,  which  the  Lord  commanded 
by  the  hand  of  Moses  unto  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  plains  of  Moab  by  the  Jordan  at 
Jericho. 


IVti.  26  ;  63-65.  The  impressive  fact  is 
here  distinctly  recorded  of  the  disappearance  by 
death  of  every  man  of  the  former  generation, 

save  Caleb  and  Joshua.  T.  C. - Attention  is 

called  to  a  fulfilled  prediction.  It  deserves 
special  attention  as  a  very  remarkable,  exact, 
and  early  fulfilment  of  prediction.  Most  of 
God’s  i^redictions  fr  r  Israel  worked  on  to  their 
fulfilment  slowly  and  imperceptibly  through 
many  generations  ;  some  in  the  highest  sense 
of  them  are  still  incomplete  ;  but  here  was  a 
j)rediction  concerning  the  present,  moving  to 
its  fulfilment  under  the  very  e^^es  of  many 
whom  in  their  turn  it  would  also  include. 
Surely  it  must  often  have  been  talked  of  in  the 
tents  of  Israel.  The  fulfilment  had  its  dark 
side  and  its  bright  one.  It  was  an  impressive 
proof  that  what  penalties  God  attaches  to  sin 
he  can  accomi^lish  to  their  full  extent.  All  had 
perished  save  Caleb  and  Joshua.  Things  had 
happened  exactly  as  God  said  they  would,  the 
people  themselves  being  witnesses.  Kightly 
looked  at,  it  was  very  comforting  and  inspiring 
for  Israel  to  go  into  Canaan  with  such  a  won¬ 
derful  proof  of  God’s  power  in  their  minds. 
He  who  had  so  manifestly  fulfilled  such  a  pecul¬ 
iar  prediction  might  be  confidently  exioected  to 
keep  his  word  in  all  others.  Young. 

The  Levitical  Cities. 

Nu.  35  :  1-8  ;  Z)^  4  :  41-43. 

Nil.  35  ;  4,  5.  The  suburbs  of  the  cities  are 
ordained  to  be  3000  cubits  on  every  side  from 
the  wall  of  the  city  and  outward.  The  first 
thousand  cubits  are  the  suburbs,  and  the  2000, 
which  they  measured  without  the  suburbs,  were 

for  fields  and  vineyards.  Maimonides. - 

7.  Moses  allotted  to  the  Levites  forty-eight 
cities  in  different  j)arts  of  the  land,  that  they 
might  with  more  convenience  go  to  perform  re¬ 
ligious  offices  in  every  quarter,  particularly  that 


of  instructing  the  people,  which  Moses  ex¬ 
pressly  assigns  to  their  whole  tribe  (De.  33  :  10). 
Ahp.  Seeker. 

The  forty-eight  cities,  although  denominated 
“  Levitical  cities,”  terre  not  devoted  exclusively  to 
members  of  this  tribe.  For  example,  Hebron, 
which  was,  jjerhaps,  the  most  noted  of  the  forty- 
eight,  being  the  city  of  refuge  for  what  was 
afterward  the  wdiole  kingdom  of  Judah,  formed 
part  of  the  inheritance  of  Caleb  the  Kenezite 
(Josh.  14  :  14).  Doubtless  many  families  of 
Judah  would  also  be  found  among  the  residents  ; 
for  the  city  belonged  to  Judah.  What  the 
Levites  obtained  was  not,  in  any  instance,  ex¬ 
clusive  possession  of  the  city,  but  certain,  houses 
within  the  walls,  and  certain  pasture  grounds 
(“glebe  lands”)  adjoining.  The  houses  and 
glebes  thus  set  apart  became  the  inalienable 
inheritance  of  the  respective  Levitical  families. 
They  were  as  strictly  entailed  as  the  lands  wdiich 
constituted  the  patrimony  of  the  other  families 
in  Israel.  If  at  any  time  they  were  sold  for 
debt,  they  reverted  to  the  family  at  the  Jubilee. 
The  cities  of  refuge  were  so 'distributed  that  no 
manslayer  had  far  to  run  before  reaching  one. 
There  were  three  on  each  side  of  Jordan  ;  of 
the  three,  in  each  case,  one  la}’’  near  the  north 
border,  one  near  the  south  border,  and  one  in 
the  middle.  Every  city  was  the  natural  centre 
of  its  province  and  accessible  from  every  side. 
They  w’ere  so  situated  that  no  fugitive  required 
to  cross  either  a  river  or  a  mountain  chain 
before  reaching  his  refuge.  How  strikingly  is 
all  this  realized  in  Christ  our  refuge  !  Binnie. 

Now’  when  Eleazar  and  Phinehas  have  the 
promise  of  an  everlasting  priesthood,  and  the 
leadership  is  about  to  pas.s,  in  Joshua,  to  the 
tribe  of  Ephraim,  one  object  of  the  dying  Law¬ 
giver  is  to  confirm  the  priestly  dignity  of  the 
tribe  of  Levi,  on  which  the  very  preservation 
of  the  whole  legal  economy  would  depend. 


DAUGHTERS'  INHERITANCE;  LAW  AMENDED. 


G23 


The  Levites  were  made  to  depend  for  their  sub¬ 
sistence  on  the  tithes  and  offerings  of  the  peo¬ 
ple,  and  new  and  strong  safeguards  for  their 
protection  would  be  needed  after  Moses  was 
gone.  Hence  he  enforces  more  than  twenty 
times  the  distinctive  honors  and  privileges  of 
the  Levites,  while  the  prerogatives  of  Aaron’s 
family  are  left  to  depend  on  the  Sinaitic  legis¬ 
lation.  This  feature  of  Deuteronomy,  which 
has  been  alleged  as  a  proof  of  separate  and 
later  authorship,  is  really  a  sign  of  its  historical 

truth  and  Mosaic  origin.  Birk-i. - The  three 

codes  present  the  cities  of  refuge  much  as  we 
might  expect  them  to  do  on  the  supposition 
that  they  appear  in  chronological  order,  and 
that  all  of  them  originated  within  the  Mosaic 
period.  The  Book  of  the  Covenant  (Ex.  21  :  13) 
recognizes  the  necessity  for  a  law  on  the  sub¬ 
ject,  and  announces  that  some  place  will  be 
provided  to  which  one  accidentally  taking  the 
life  of  another  may  flee  and  be  safe.  In  the 
fuller  legislation  of  Numbers  (35  :  1-38),  in 
natural  connection  with  instructions  concern¬ 
ing  the  Levitical  cities,  such  provision  is  duly 
made,  and  a  sufficient  number  of  conveniently 
situated  asylums  of  this  sort  appointed.  In 
Deuteronomy'  (4  :  41-43)  we  find  Moses,  in  har¬ 
mony  with  the  law  of  the  middle  books,  desig¬ 
nating  three  cities  of  refuge  on  the  eastern  side 
of  the  Jordan  ;  and  subsequently,  Joshua  (Josh. 
21  :  13,  21,  27)  selecting  the  other  three  called 
for  by  the  statutes  on  the  western  side.  The 
Deutermomic  code  (19  :  1-13  ;  cf  24  :  16),  evi¬ 
dently  presupposing  what  Moses  is  recorded  as 
doing  here  previously,  is  much  of  the  nature  of 
a  commentary  on  the  law  in  Numbers.  It 
makes  still  more  explicit  by  illustration  what 
class  of  persons  might  find  domicile  within  the 
refuge  cities  ;  gives  comprehensive,  though 
brief,  directions  for  rendering  the  cities  easily 
accessible,  and,  what  is  more  important  of  all 
for  our  investigations,  adds  the  concession  that, 
on  certain  conditions,  three  cities  more,  making 
nine  in  all,  may  bo  used  for  this  purpose.  The 
conditions  are  that  the  people  prove  obedient 
and  faithful — which,  unhappily,  they  do  not  — 
and  their  boundaries  are  ultimately  enlarged  to 
the  extent  promised  to  Abraham.  E,  C.  B. 

Law  of  Daughters’  Inheritance. 

Nu.  27  :  1-11. 

The  command  to  divide  the  land  among  the 
people  “  according  to  the  number  of  the  tribes 
of  their  fathers,”  suggests  the  petition  of  the 
daughters  of  Zelophehad  now  brought  before 
Moses  (verses  1-6)  ;  and  the  decision  in  this 
case  leads  to  a  general  enactment  respecting 


the  right  of  inheritance  when  a  man  died  and 
left  only  daughters  behind  him.  This  law  is 
afterward  supplemented  by  certain  restrictions 
as  to  the  marriage  of  such  heiresses  (36).  It  is 
obvious  that  these  successive  enactments  grew 
out  of  emergencies  which  presented  themselves 
when  the  questions  connected  with  the  taking 
possession  of  Canaan  came  actually  to  be  en¬ 
countered.  Espin. 

A  very  interesting  case  arose  on  the  promul¬ 
gation  of  the  land  law  which  should  govern  the 
new  settling  of  the  country.  It  was  the  case  of 
four  daughters  of  a  father  who  left  no  son  to 
perpetuate  the  name  of  his  family,  and,  of 
course,  therefore,  under  the  general  rule,  this 
family  would  receive  no  inheritance.  The 
daughters,  with  true  filial  regard  for  the  memory 
of  their  father  and  reverence  for  the  name  of 
his  family,  but,  higher  than  all,  with  an  abid¬ 
ing  faith  in  the  covenant  of  Jehovah  with  Abra¬ 
ham  that  the  promised  land  would  come  into 
actual. possession  of  the  covenant  people  ;  and, 
therefore,  with  an  earnest  desire  to  share  in  tho 
inheritance,  came  before  Moses  and  the  great 
court  of  the  congregation  and  stated  their  case. 

S.  E. - The  singular  case  of  these  women 

caused  an  additional  law  to  be  made  to  the  civil 
code  of  Israel,  which  satisfactorily  ascertained 
and  amply  secured  the  right  of  succession  in 
cases  of  inheritance.  The  law,  which  is  as 
reasonable  as  it  is  just,  stands  thus  :  1.  On  the 
demise  of  ihefaiher,  the  estate  goes  to  the  sons. 

2.  If  there  be  no  son,  the  daughters  succeed. 

3.  If  there  be  no  daughter,  the  brothers  of  the 
deceased  inherit.  4.  If  there  be  no  brethren  or 
.paternal  uncles,  the  estate  goes  to  the  brothers  of 
his  father.  5.  If  there  be  no  grand  uncles  or 
brothers  of  iha  father  of  the  deceased,  then  the 
nearest  a  kin  succeeds  to  the  inheritance.  Be¬ 
yond  this  fif'h  degree  the  law  does  not  proceed, 
because,  as  the  families  of  the  Israelites  were 
kept  distinct  in  their  respective  tribes,  there 
must  always  be  some  who  could  be  called  kins¬ 
men,  and  were  really  such,  having  descended 
without  interruption  from  the  patriarch  of  the 
tribe.  A.  C. 

The  Law  Amended. 

Nu.  36  :  1-13. 

The  amendment  contained  provisions  for  pre¬ 
venting  any  portion  of  the  inheritance  of  one 
tribe  passing  to  another  through  the  marriage 
of  an  heiress.  The  necessity  for  regulating 
this  arose  out  of  the  ordinance  which  permitted 
the  daughters  of  an  Israelite  dying  without 
male  issue  to  inherit  their  father’s  property. 
And  as  it  was  on  the  suit  of  the  daughters  of 


624 


SECTION  180.  DEATH  OF  MOSES  ANNOUNCED. 


Zelophebad  that  that  ordinance  had  been  pro¬ 
mulgated,  so  now  it  was  on  the  suit  of  the 
chiefs  of  the  Machirites,  of  whom  Zelophehad 
had  been  one,  that  a  supplemental  enactment 
is  made,  directing  that  heiresses  should  marry 
within  their  own  tribe.  The  Machirites  doubt 
less  foresaw  the  loss  which,  but  for  the  provi¬ 
sions  of  the  text,  would  be  likely  to  fall  on  their 
tribal  inheritance.  Espin. 

the  previous  law  it  would  happen  that  the 
inheritance  of  the  daughters  of  Zelophehad, 
who  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Manasseh,  if  they 
married  into  another  tribe,  would  be  transferred 
from  their  own  to  their  husband’s  tribe.  This, 
should  it  ever  occur,  Manasseh  thought  would 
be  a  hardship  and  a  wrong.  That  tribe  did  not 
attempt  to  nullify  the  law's  of  the  land,  but 
brought  the  case  before  the  national  legislature, 
and  sought  relief  through  its  action.  The 
petition  w'as  respectfully  considered,  and  a  law 
w'as  enacted  in  accordance  wdth  its  prayer.  By 
this  law,  heiresses  were  required  to  marry  in 
their  own  tribes,  that  no  part  of  the  ancient  in¬ 
heritance  might  be  alienated  from  the  original 
family.  It  is  plain  that,  if  the  decree  of  the 
nation  had  been  different  from  wdiat  it  was, 
Manasseh ’s  duty  would  have  been  submission. 
E.  C.  W. 

It  was  a  great  point  with  the  people  of  Israel 
that  their  possession  should  alwa3^s  appear  as 
one  lent  to  them  by  God.  But  the  division  of 
the  tribes  W'as  essentially  connected  with  this 
view.  This  division  would  be  done  away  with 
if  the  inheritance  was  allowed  to  pass  into  other 
tribes  by  marriage  ;  and  this  so  much  the  more 
as  the  small  states  which  formed  the  tribes 
rested  altogether  on  the  family  constitution. 
The  geographical  boundaries,  therefore,  could 
not  be  regulated  otherwise  than  by  the  posses¬ 
sions  of  the  families  constituting  the  tribe. 
6erl. 

The  original  division  of  land  w^as  to  the  sev¬ 
eral  tribes  according  to  their  families,  so  that 
each  tribe  w^as  settled  in  the  same  country,  and 
each  family  in  the  same  barony  or  hundred. 
Nor  was  the  estate  of  any  family  in  one  tribe 
permitted  to  pass  into  another,  even  by  the 
marriage  of  an  heiress.  So  that,  not  only  was 
the  original  balance  of  property  preserved,  but 
the  closest  and  dearest  connections  of  affinity 
attached  to  each  other  the  inhabitants  of  every 
vicinage.  Thus  domestic  virtue  and  affection 
had  a  more  extensive  sphere  of  action  ;  the 
happiness  of  rural  life  w'as  increased,  and  a 
general  attention  to  virtue  and  decorum  was 
])ronioted,  from  that  natural  emulation,  which 
each  family  w’ould  feel  to  preserve  unsullied 


the  reputation  of  their  neighborhood  ;  and  the 
poor  might  everywhere  expect  more  ready  assist¬ 
ance,  since  they  implored  it  from  men  whose 
sympathy  in  their  sufferings  would  be  quick- 
ehed  by  hereditary  friendship,  and  hereditary 
connection.  Graves. 

This  law  was  amended  because  of  a  direct 
appeal  to  the  Lawgiver  in  view  of  certain  diffi¬ 
culties  expected  to  arise  under  it  if  it  were  left 
as  first  drafted.  It  is  quite  probable  that  the 
legislation  in  Deuteronomy  was  the  result  of  a 
similar,  though  unrecorded,  emergency.  Such 
instances,  in  fact,  serve  to  account,  in  some 
measure,  for  the  journal-like  character  of  a  large 
portion  of  the  laws  of  the  Pentateuch.  So 
called  discrepancies  are  often  nothing  more  or 
leas  than  amendments  called  forth  by  altered 
circumstances,  or  revision  suggested  by  further 
thought.  In  the  case  before  us  there  is  cer¬ 
tainly  no  just  occasion  for  predicating  a  later 
date  for  the  law  in  its  Levitical  form.  We  see, 
indeed,  the  very  circumstance  of  the  history 
that  called  it  forth  passing  before  our  eyes 
E.  C.  B. 

Announcement  of  Moses’s  Death.  His  Touch¬ 
ing  Peayek.  Oedination  of  Joshua  as  his 

SUCCESSOE. 

Nu.  27  :  12-23  ;  De.  3  :  21-29. 

JViii,  27  :  12.  Though  Moses  was  a  servant 
of  the  Lord,  a  faithful  servant,  yet  once  he 
rebelled  against  God's  commandment,  and  failed 
in  his  duty  ;  and  though  a  very  honorable  ser¬ 
vant,  and  highly  favored,  yet  he  shall  hear  of 
his  miscarriage,  and  all  the  world  shall  hear  of 
it,  too,  again  and  again  ;  for  God  will  show  his 
displeasure  against  sin,  even  in  those  that  are 
nearest  and  dearest  to  him.  Those  that  are  in 
reputation  for  wisdom  and  honor  have  need  to  be 
constantly  careful  of  their  words  and  ways,  lest 
at  any  time  they  say  or  do  that  which  may  be  a 
diminution  either  to  their  comfort  or  to  their 

credit,  or  both,  a  great  while  after.  H. - Thn 

time  will  soon  arrive  when  the  great  servant  oC 
the  Lord  shall  depart  this  life.  That  his  death 
maj'  not  be  altogether  unexpected  either  to  him 
seif  or  to  the  people,  and  that  he  may  complete 
the  whole  commission  laid  on  him  by  God  in 
respect  to  them,  God  solemnly  apprises  him  of 
his  approaching  death  and  reminds  him  of  his 
former  sin.  Gerl. 

13.  Thow  glialt  be  gathered  to  {by 
people.  Moses  had  seen  how  easily  and 
cheerfully  Aaron  had  put  off  the  priesthood  first, 
and  then  the  body  ;  let  not  Moses  therefore  be 
afraid  of  dying,  it  was  but  to  be  gathered  to  his 
people,  as  Aaron  was  gathered.  Thus  the  death 


ORDINATION  OF  JOSHUA. 


625 


of  onr  near  and  dear  relations  should  be  im-  I 
proved  by  us  as  an  encouragement  to  us  to  j 
think  of  death  without  terror  ;  it  is  but  to  die  as 
such  and  such  died  if  we  live  as  they  lived  ;  and 
their  end  was  peace,  they  finished  iheir  course  with 
joy  ;  why  then  should  we  fear  any  evil  in  that 
valley  ?  H. 

De.  3  ;  The  whole  of  this  prayer  of 

Moses  is  very  characteristic.  The  longing  to 
witness  farther  manifestations  of  God’s  good¬ 
ness  and  glory,  and  the  reluctance  to  leave  un¬ 
finished  an  undertaking  which  he  had  been  per¬ 
mitted  to  commence,  are  striking  traits  in  his 
character.  Espin. 

Moses  remembered  the  time  when  he  had  by 
prayer  prevailed  with  God  to  recede  from  the 
declarations  which  he  had  made  of  his  wrath 
against  Israel  (Ex.  32  : 14).  And  why  might  he 
not  hope  in  like  manner  to  prevail  for  himself  ? 
Let  me  go  over  and  see  the  good  land.  How  patheti¬ 
cally  does  he  speak  of  Canaan,  that  good  land, 
that  goodly  mountain  f  Though  Moses,  being 
one  of  the  wrestling  seed  of  Jacob,  did  not  seek 
in  vain,  yet  he  had  not  the  thing  itself  which 
he  sought  for.  God  may  accept  our  prayers  and 
yet  not  grant  us  the  verj’^  thing  we  pray  for. 

20,  God  put  an  honor  upon  his  prayer,  in 
directing  him  not  to  insist  upon  his  request. 
Speak  nn  more  to  me  of  this  m, alter.  It  intimates 
that  God  takes  such  a  pleasure  in  the  prayer  of 
the  upright  that  it  is  no  pleasure  to  him  to  give 

a  denial  to  it.  H. - Yet  part  of  the  prayer 

was  answered.  Moses  was  permitted  to  see, 
though  not  to  tread  the  good  land.  B. 

It  is  remarkable  how  often  saints  who  have 
spent  their  strength  on  some  great  Christian 
enterprise,  and  earnestly  desired  to  see  it  ac¬ 
complished  before  their  departure,  have  been 
denied  this  gratification.  Moses  did  not  cross 
the  Jordan  ;  David  did  not  see  the  temple,  nor 
Daniel  the  return,  nor  John  the  Baptist  the 
manifestation'  of  Christ’s  glory.  Yet  to  all  those 
saints  there  was  granted  some  such  view  as  that 
which  gladdened  the  eye  of  Moses  on  Nebo. 
He  who  knows  the  hearts  knew  how  dear  to 
Moses’s  heart  w'as  the  good  of  Israel,  Binnie. 

Nn,  27;  15-B7.  It  is  touching  to  see  how 
meekly  Moses  received  the  sentence.  Faithful 
to  the  end  in  his  stewardship  over  God’s  house, 
his  chief  concern  was  that  God  would  appoint 
a  suitable  successor,  so  “  that  the  congregation 
of  the  Lord  be  not  as  sheep  which  have  no 
shepherd.”  A.  E. - This  is  a  beautiful  ex¬ 

pression,  and  show^s  us  in  what  light  Moses 
viewed  himself  among  this  people.  He  was 
their  shepherd --he  sought  no  higher  place  ;  he 
fed  and  guided  the  flock  of  God  under  the  direc- 


I  tion  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  and  was  faithful  in 
1  all  his  Master’s  house.  To  this  saying  of  Moses 

our  Lord  alludes  (Matt.  9  :  36).  A.  C. - This 

request  was  met  by  the  command  to  take  Joshua, 
whom  we  have  met  already  on  several  occasions 
as  his  minister,  and  to  set  him  apart  as  his  suc¬ 
cessor  before  the  high-priest  and  before  the 
people.  And  so,  having  been  freed  from  all 
anxiety  on  the  score  of  the  leadership  of  the 
tribes,  he  made  haste  to  put  everything  else  in 
order,  in  anticipation  of  his  death.  How  dili¬ 
gently  he  labored  with  that  end  in  view  will  ap¬ 
pear  from  the  fact  that  the  entire  Book  of  Deu¬ 
teronomy  belongs  to  the  closing  days  of  the 
great  Lawgiver’s  life.  W,  M.  T. 

IS,  He  must  ordain  him  ;  lay  thine  hand  upon 
him.  This  was  done  in  token  of  Moses’s  trans¬ 
ferring  the  government  to  him,  as  the  laying  of 
hands  on  the  sacrifice  put  the  offering  in  the 
place  and  stead  of  the  offerer  ;  also  in  token  of 
God’s  conferring  the  blessing  of  the  Spirit  upon 
him,  which  Moses  obtained  by  prayer.  It  is 
said  (De.  34  : 9)  Joshua  was  full  of  the  spirit  of 
wisdom.^  for  Moses  had  laid  his  hands  on  him.  H. 

- Well  doth  Joshua  (Jesus)  succeed  Moses. 

The  very  acts  of  God  of  old  were  allegories  : 
where  the  Law  ends,  there  the  Saviour  begins  ; 
we  may  see  the  land  of  promise  in  the  Law  ;  only 
Jesus  the  mediator  of  the  New  Testament  can 
bring  us  into  it.  So  was  he  a  servant  of  the  Law 
that  he  supplies  all  the  defects  of  the  Law  to  us  : 
he  hath  taken  possession  of  the  promised  land 
for  us  ;  he  shall  carry  us  from  this  wilderness  to 
our  rest.  Bp.  11. 

20,  21,  Though  thus  recognized  as  Moses’s 
successor,  divinely  commissioned  to  bring  the 
children  of  Israel  into  the  promised  land,  he 
w&s  not  to  be  Moses’s  equal.  It  was  only 
“some”  of  his  “honor”  that  he  was  to  put 
upon  him.  There  was  one  point  in  which  his 
inferiority  was  very  strongl}'  marked.  Moses 
enjoyed  unrestricted  personal  intercourse  with 
God,  “  face  to  face.”  This  privilege  was  denied 
to  Joshua.  Eleazar,  the  high-priest,  was  to  be 
his  medium  of  communication  with  God.  Joshua 
was  to  bring  his  matters  to  the  priest,  and  he 
was  to  inquire  of  God  for  him,  through  the  or¬ 
dinary  means  of  obtaining  the  knowledge  of 
God’s  will.  E.  V. 

22,  Moses  did  as  flic  I>.ord  com¬ 
manded  him.  In  this  w'e  see  the  great  in¬ 
tegrity,  the  sincere  humility  and  self-denial  of 
Moses,  that  he  readily  submitted  to  have  the 
government  of  Israel  translated  from  his  own 
family  and  tribe  to  another  who  was  of  the  tribe 
of  Ephraim.  By  this  means  his  own  children 
were  reduced  to  a  mean  condition  ;  being  not 


626 


SECTION  181.  THE  BOOK  OF  DEUTERONOMY.  . 


80  much  as  priests,  but  mere  Levites.  This 
demonstrates  that  he  acted  not  from  himself,  be¬ 
cause  he  acted  not  for  himself  ;  but  was  con¬ 
tented  to  have  the  supreme  authority  placed 
where  God  pleased,  both  in  Church  and  8tate  ; 
and  to  leave  his  own  family  in  inconsiderable 
employment.  This  shows  him  to  have  had  a 
principle  which  raised  him  above  all  other  law¬ 
givers  ;  who  always  took  care  to  advance  their 
own  families,  and  establish  them  in  some  share 
of  that  greatness  which  they  themselves  pos¬ 
sessed.  This  likewise  shows  that  the  future 
rulers  of  this  nation  had  no  temptation  to  ad¬ 
vance  the  credit  of  Moses  beyond  what  it  really 
was  ;  since  they  were  not  descended  from  him, 
but  were  of  other  tribes.  Bp.  Patrick. 

It  had  not  been  so  much  his  j^raise  if  he  had 
thus  resigned  his  honor  to  a  son  of  his  own  ; 
but  with  his  own  hands  to  ordain  Eleazar  high- 
priest,  and  then  Joshua,  one  of  another  tribe, 
chief  ruler,  while  his  own  children  had  no  pre¬ 


ferment  at  all,  but  were  left  in  the  rank  of  com¬ 
mon  Levites  ;  this  was  such  an  instance  of  self- 
denial  and  submission  to  the  will  of  God,  as 
was  more  his  glory  than  the  highest  advance¬ 
ment  of  his  family  could  have  been  ;  for  it  con¬ 
firms  his  character  as  the  meekest  man  upon 
earth,  and  faithful  to  him  that  appointed  him 
in  all  his  house.  H. 

Nil.  S6  :  13.  Close  of  the  Book  of  Numbers. 
The  conclusion  of  this  whole  book,  referring  to 
the  latter  part  of  it  ;  these  are  the  judgments  which 
the  Lord  commanded  in  the  plains  (f  Moab,  these 
foregoing  ever  since  (ch.  26),  most  of  which  re¬ 
lated  to  their  settlement  in  Canaan,  into  which 
they  were  now  entering.  Whatever  new  condi¬ 
tion  God  is  by  his  providence  bringing  us  into, 
we  must  beg  of  him  to  teach  us  the  duty  of  it, 
and  to  enable  us  to  do  it,  that  we  may  do  the 
work  of  the  day  in  its  day,  of  the  place  in  its 
place.  H. 


Section  181. 

THE  BOOK  OF  DEUTERONOMY. 


We  have  borrowed  the  name  of  this  book,  as  ' 
in  former  cases,  from  the  Vulgate  Latin,  Deuter- 
onomium,  as  the  Vulgate  has  done  from  the 
Greek  version  of  the  Septuagint  Deuteronomion, 
which  is  a  compound  term  literally  signifying 
the  second  law,  because  it  seems  to  contain  a 
repetition  of  the  preceding  laws,  from  which  cir¬ 
cumstance  it  has  been  termed  by  the  Rabbins 
mishneh,  the  iteration,  or  doubling.  It  appears 
that  both  these  names  are  borrowed  from  ch. 
17  : 18,  where  the  king  is  commanded  to  write 
him  a  copy  of  this  Law  ;  the  original  is  mishneh 
ha-torah,  a  repetition,  or  doubling  of  the  Law; 
which  the  Septuagint  have  translated  this  second 
Law ;  which  we  properly  enough  translate  a 
copy  of  the  Law.  In  Hebrew,  like  the  preceding 
books,  it  takes  its  name  from  its  commence¬ 
ment,  ELLEH  HA-DEBAREEM,  these  are  the  words ; 
,and  in  the  best  Rabbinical  Bibles  its  running 
title  is  SEPHEE  DEBAREEM,  the  book  of  debareem,  or 
the  book  of  the  words.  Our  Saxon  ancestors 
termed  it  the  after  Law. 

The  Book  of  Deuteronomy  contains  an  account 
of  what  passed  in  the  wilderness  from  the^rs^ 
day  of  the  eleventh  month  of  ih.e  fortieth  year  after 
the  departure  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt,  to 
the  seventh  day  of  the  twelfth  month  of  the  same  ; 
making  in  the  whole  a  history  of  the  transac¬ 
tions  of  exactly  five  weeks,  the  months  of  the 
Jews  being  lunar.  The  history  is  continued  about  , 


I  seven  days  after  the  death  of  Moses  ;  for  he 
began  to  deliver  his  first  discourse  to  the  people 
in  the  plains  of  Moab,  the  first  day  of  the  elev¬ 
enth  month  of  i\\e  fortieth  year  (ch.  1  ;  3),  and  died 
on  the  first  day  of  the  twelfth  month  of  the  same 
year,  aged  one  hundred  and  twentj^  years.  As 
the  Israelites  were  now  about  to  enter  into  the 
promised  land,  and  many  of  them  had  not  wit¬ 
nessed  the  different  transactions  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,  to  impress  their  hearts  with  a  deep  sense 
of  their  obligation  to  God  and  to  prepare  them 
for  the  inheritance  which  God  had  prepared  for 
them,  Moses  here  repeats  the  principal  occur¬ 
rences  of  the  forty  years,  now  almost  elapsed. 
A.  C. 

As  we  have  it,  the  Pentateuch  is  rounded  and 
complete  ;  it  is  a  living  unity  ;  and  to  separate 
its  parts  is  to  mutilate  and  mangle  it.  In  Gen¬ 
esis  we  have  the  soil  and  the  seed  ;  in  the  his¬ 
torical  part  of  Exodus  we  have  the  stem  ;  in  the 
prophetical  portion  of  the  same  book,  in  the 
priestly  Book  of  Leviticus,  and  in  the  kingly 
Book  of  Numbers,  we  have  the  threefold  devel¬ 
opment  of  the  single  stem  as  it  branches  out 
into  three  main  limbs,  one  going  right  up  from 
the  central  stem,  and  therefore  finding  a  place 
in  the  same  Book  of  Exodus,  and  the  other  tvm 
spreading  out  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left ; 
in  the  closing  book  we  have  the  blossoms  and 
,  the  fruit,  not,  however,  actually  gathered,  for  it 


; 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEUTERONOMY, 


627 


is  a  prophetic  book,  but  the  thought  and  idea 
of  that  fruit  in  the  mind  of  Moses,  who  looked 
forward  to  the  gathering  of  it  after  the  people 
had  come  into  the  land  to  which  the  Lord  was 
leading  them.  J.  M.  G. 

And  now,  with  the  solemnity  of  death  just 
before  him,  Moses  proceeds  in  three  great 
spee«hes  to  Israel  to  recapitulate  the  story  of 
the  deliverance  and  the  journey,  to  restate  the 
chief  provisions  of  the  Law,  and  to  adaj)t  its 
several  provisions  to  the  new  and  settled  condi¬ 
tion  upon  which  they  were  now  about  to  enter. 
These  three  addresses,  together  with  an  inspired 
ode  and  a  prophetic  blessing  at  the  close,  con¬ 
stitute  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy.  The  first  ad¬ 
dress,  extending  to  cli.  4  : 40,  is  of  a  hortator}^ 
character,  reminding  Israel  of  their  continued 
rebellions  against  God  and  of  his  goodness  and 
mercy  toward  them.  The  second  and  longest 
address  extends  from  ch.  5  to  26,  and  contains 
a  practical  exposition  of  the  Ten  Command¬ 
ments  as  the  basis  of  all  morality.  He  takes 
the  first  table  of  the  Law  and  deduces  from  it 
the  chief  truths  which  should  govern  our  rela¬ 
tions  to  God.  Then,  in  ch.  12,  he  proceeds  to 
consider  man  in  his  social  relations,  and  supple¬ 
ments  the  precepts  of  the  previous  books  by 
the  addition  of  many  special  regulations  and 
the  application  of  many  of  the  former  enact 
ments  to  the  altered  circumstances  of  Israel  in 
a  settled  state.  In  the  third  discoTirse,  extend 
ing  from  ch.  27  to  ch.  30,  inclusive,  he  proceeds 
to  set  before  them  the  blessings  and  the  curses 
which  will  follow  upon  obedience  and  disobedi 

ence.  S.  B. - The  remainder  of  the  book, 

containing  the  thirty-first  and  three  following 
chapters,  was  probably  added  to  the  rest  by 
Joshua  or  some  other  duly  authorized  prophet 
or  leader  of  the  people  after  the  death  of 
Moses.  The  three  addresses,  which  constitute 
seven  eighths  of  the  contents  of  Deuteronomy, 
reflect  very  clearly  the  circumstances  which  at¬ 
tended  their  delivery.  Thej'  were  spoken  within 
the  space  of  a  very  few  days  By  comparing 
De.  1:3;  34  : 8,  and  Josh.  4  : 19,  it  is  evident 
that  the  delivery  of  these  speeches,  and  like¬ 
wise  the  utterance  of  the  song  and  blessing,  and 
the  transaction  of  the  closing  events  of  Moses’s 
life,  must  all  be  placed  chronologically  in  the 
first  ten  days  of  the  eleventh  month  of  the  forti¬ 
eth  year.  Espin. 

Now  the  time  had  arrived  for  the  people  to 
pass  over  into  the  promised  land,  and  for 
Moses  to  take  leave  of  them.  As  Christ,  the 
Mediator  of  the  New  Covenant,  must  leave  his 
disciples  even  before  they  had  received  the 
promised  Comforter  and  were  endued  with 


power  from  on  high  for  their  new  life,  in  like 
manner  must  the  Mediator  of  the  Old  Covenant 
lake  leave  of  his  people  without  seeing  them  in 
possession  of  the  promised  land,  or  witnessing 
the  fulfilment  of  God’s  Word,  and  without  being 
himself  the  accomplisher  of  it.  But  as  Christ, 
before  he  went  to  his  death,  once  more  put  his 
disciples  in  mind  of  what  he  had  said  to  them 
in  his  farewell  discourses,  and  confirmed  them 
by  the  repetition  of  exhortations  and  warnings, 
in  like  manner  did  Moses  clearly  and  emphati¬ 
cally  lay  before  the  people  once  more  the  whole 
counsel  of  God  in  the  election  of  his  people  — 
how  he  had  saved  them  by  miracles  out  of 
Egj'pt,  led  them  through  the  wilderness,  made 
them  to  triumph  over  the  Canaanites,  as  it  was 
contained  in  the  Law  itself.  The  “  repetition 
of  the  Law,”  therefore,  includes  the  memorial 
of  these  events,  as  well  as  here  and  there  inter¬ 
weaves  some  new  rules  of  conduct.  Two  some¬ 
what  long  discourses  of  Moses  open  the  whole 
book,  which  are  written  down  by  himself,  as 
his  last  legacy  of  wisdom  and  love.  Gerl. 

The  book  repeats  portions  of  the  civil  code 
and  also  of  the  religious  system.  It  also  gives 
a  brief  summary  of  the  leading  historical  events 
of  the  exodus,  of  Sinai,  of  the  golden  calf,  and 
of  the  murmiirings  of  the  fathers  in  the  early 
years  of  their  wanderings.  This  book  was  mani¬ 
festly  written  within  the  last  one  or  two  years 
of  Moses’s  life,  when  the  scenes  of  the  desert 
wandering  were  drawing  to  a  close.  Moses 
stood  before  the  people,  almost  the  only  old 
man  of  the  nation  at  the  age  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  years,  while  all  the  rest  (Caleb  and 
Joshua  excepted)  were  under  twenty  when  they 
came  out  of  Egypt,  and  not  exceeding  sixty  at 
the  writing  of  this  book.  “  The  fathers — where 
were  they  !”  Fallen  in  death  ;  smitten  with 
the  swift  judgments  of  the  Almighty  for  their 
rnurmurings  or  cut  off  in  middle  life  during 
their  wanderings,  to  which  they  were  doomed 
for  their  unbelief  upon  the  report  of  the  spies. 
The  nation,  as  they  stood  before  Moses,  were 
truly  his  children.  How  had  he  borne  them  on 
his  heart  for  forty  years  ;  given  them  line  upon 
line  of  statute  and  of  ritual  ;  shaping  their  civil 
life  and  their  religious  life  ;  watching  every  de¬ 
velopment  of  their  character  ;  devoted  with  the 
deepest  love  of  his  heart  to  their  moral  culture. 
The  points  of  the  history  from  Egypt  and  Sinai 
onward  to  that  hour  Moses  brings  forward  here, 
with  more  or  less  expansion  of  the  details  for 
the  sole  purpose  of  enforcing  their  moral  applica¬ 
tion.  He  makes  those  historic  facts  the  basis  of 
a  series  of  exhortations  to  holy  living,  which 
testify  how  deeply  he  sympathized  with  God 


G28 


SECTION  181.  THE  BOOK  OP  DEUTERONOMY. 


and  with  the  true  interests  of  his  covenant  peo¬ 
ple.  Most  solemnly  does  he  exhort  them 
against  the  great  sin  of  their  times— idolatry  ; 
and  implore  them  to  remember  the  God  of  their 
fathers  ;  the  Giver  of  all  their  mercies  ;  the 
God  of  their  national  salvation,  H.  C, 

Their  aim  is  strictly  hortatory  ;  their  style 
earnest,  heart-stirring,  impressive,  in  passages 
sublime,  but  throughout  rhetorical  ;  they  keep 
constantly  in  view  the  circumstances  then  pres¬ 
ent  and  the  crisis  to  which  the  fortunes  of  Israel 
had  at  last  been  brought,  Moses  had  before 
him  not  the  men  to  whom  by  God’s  command 
he  delivered  the  Law  at  Sinai,  but  the  genera¬ 
tion  following  which  had  grown  up  in  the  wil¬ 
derness.  Large  portions  of  the  Law  necessarily 
stood  in  abeyance  during  the  years  of  wander¬ 
ing  ;  and  of  his  present  hearers  manj^  must 
have  been  strangers  to  various  prescribed  ob¬ 
servances  and  ordinances,  and  those  not  unim¬ 
portant  ones.  On  their  entry  into  settled  homes 
in  Canaan  a  thorough  discharge  of  the  various 
obligations  laid  on  them  by  the  covenant  would 
become  imperative  ;  and  it  is  to  this  state  of 
things  that  Moses  addresses  himself.  Espin. 

In  these  thirty  chapters  we  have  the  essence 
of  Exodus,  Leviticus,  and  Numbers  ;  only  con¬ 
veyed  in  a  tone  of  patriarchal  affection  and  per 
sonal  tenderness.  Deuteronomy  is  a  speech 
rather  than  a  book,  full  of  that  anxious  fidelity 
and  fatherly  desirousness  which,  knowing  that 
it  is  a  last  opportunity,  can  hardly  leave  off, 
and  which,  after  attempting  to  close,  begin 
again  in  the  spirit  of  the  last  sentences  (ch, 

30:15-20).  Hamilton. - The  Deuteronomic 

Code  is  adapted  to  the  supposed  occasion  of  a 
popular  assembly.  It  is  simple  in  style.  The 
technical  language  of  the  preceding  books  dis¬ 
appears.  Nearly  all  the  laws  of  Deuteronomy^ 
moreover,  are  marked  by  a  peculiarly  hortatory, 
rather  than  a  merely  prohibitive  style.  The 
“  thou  shalt  not”  of  Mount  Sinai  has  largely 
taken  on  a  pathetic  “  0,  do  not  ”  of  expostula¬ 
tion  and  affectionate  appeal.  What  is  enjoined 
is  not  alone  put  upon  the  conscience  of  the  in¬ 
dividual  Israelite  :  he  is  expected  to  lay  it  to 
heart.  Each  of  the  codes  treats  of  the  respect 
that  is  due  to  the  poor  and  the  helpless  ;  but 
neither  of  the  others  to  the  extent  that  it  is  done 
in  this.  It  is  exactly  in  the  spirit  of  Deuteron¬ 
omy  to  enjoin  that  the  back  of  the  enfranchised 
slave  be  loaded  down  with  gifts  from  granary 
and  wine-press  (15  : 14).  It  is  just  like  it  to 
call  .attention  to  the  circumstance  that  the  day- 
Liborer  “  sets  his  heart  ”  upon  his  earnings  and 
to  urge  that  he  be  paid  the  wage  of  the  day  on 
his  day  (24  :  15).  There  is  evidently  a  purpose 


in  all  this.  As  it  seems  to  us,  it  cannot  lie  far 
off  from  that  other  purpose  which  prompted 
Moses  to  rehearse  to  the  people  their  own  code 
in  a  language  they  could  understand  and  to  pro¬ 
vide  for  this  whole  impressive  scene  just  pre¬ 
ceding,  as  we  are  told,  the  exit  of  the  great  Law¬ 
giver  from  the  stage  of  Jewish  historj’’.  Alike 
the  style  of  speech  and  the  spirit  of  it  harmo¬ 
nize  perfectly  with  the  circumstances  of  the  case 
as  they  are  frankly  recited  in  the  eleven  chap¬ 
ters  that  introduce  the  code  of  Deuteronomy 
and  the  eight  that  follow  it.  With  those  other 
circumstances  in  the  days  of  King  Josiah  (b.c. 
621),  alleged  to  be  the  real  historic  setting  of 
these  laws,  clearly  and  emphatically  they  do 
not  harmonize.  For  strictly  speaking  this  is 
not  legislation.  It  is  rather  the  admonition 
that  follows  the  precept,  Moses  performing  the 
office  of  prophet,  after  fulfilling  so  well  the 
office  of  leader  and  legislator.  It  is  the  same 
voice  that  we  hear  speaking,  but  one  grown 
somewhat  tremulous  with  age  and  full  of  the 
tenderness  of  a  farewell  utterance.  Mark  the 
motives  to  which  appeal  is  made.  These  are 
the  thousands  of  Israel,  fresh  from  a  pilgrimage 
of  forty  years  in  the  rough  wilderness  skirting 
the  southern  borders  of  Canaan.  But  they  are 
addressed  as  any  audience  of  Bible-educated 
people  in  similar  circumstances  might  be  ad¬ 
dressed.  The  standard  that  is  set  for  them — 
how  far  short  does  it  come  of  that  which  is  set 
for  us  by  the  teachers  and  preachers  of  to-day  ? 
If  there  be  imperfectness  of  form,  there  is  surely 
none  in  spirit.  It  is  a  spirit  that  we  recognize 
as  Divine.  E,  C.  B. 

Deuteronomy  is  what  it  purports  to  be,  a  rep¬ 
etition  and  modification,  under  other  circum¬ 
stances,  of  older  laws,  at  the  hands  of  him  who 
himself  had  been  their  medium  at  first,  and  who 
therefore  had  the  right  to  modify,  as  w^ell  as 
repeat,  them.  It  begins  with  the  sublimities  of 
Sinai  and  ends  with  the  inimitable  solemnities 
of  Nebo  and  Pisgah.  It  is  no  effort  at  histori¬ 
ography  interjected  with  pious  expressions,  as 
some  critics  represent  the  later  biblical  narra¬ 
tives  to  be.  It  is  in  web  and  woof  sacred  his¬ 
tory,  narrated,  as  it  was  enacted,  under  the  eye 
of  God.  The  point  of  view  from  beginning  to 
end  is  conspicuously  that  of  a  tender  father  of 
his  people,  emphatically  Mosaic,  in  short,  and 
nothing  else.  That  it  is  genuine,  and  not  as¬ 
sumed  for  effect,  the  latest  results  of  biblical 
archaBology  unite  with  the  best  results  of  liter¬ 
ary  criticism  in  strongly  confirming.  E.  C,  B. 

The  aspect  and  attitude  of  the  writer,  both 
retrospective  and  prospective,  are  those  of  one 
in  the  position  of  Moses  at  the  time  immedi- 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEUTERONOMY. 


629 


ately  before  the  entrance  of  the  Israelites  into 
Canaan.  The  book  jDresents  itself  as  Mosaic, 
and  with  this  the  entire  costume  and  coloring 
of  the  book  is  in  keeping.  ‘  ‘  There  is  nowhere 
even  a  single  expression  which  is  not  suited  to 
the  position  of  Moses  at  that  time  ;  the  stand¬ 
point  throughout  the  whole  book  is  the  same  ; 
the  situation  is  ever  that  of  one  on  the  borders 

of  the  promised  land.”  W.  L.  A. - He  speaks 

to  hearers  neither  whollj^  ignorant  of  the  Law, 
nor  yet  fully  versed  in  it.  Much  is  assumed 
and  taken  for  granted  ;  again,  on  other  matters, 
he  goes  into  detail,  knowing  that  instruction  in 
them  was  needed.  Sometimes,  too,  opportunity 
is  taken  of  promulgating  regulations  which  are 
supplementary  or  auxiliary  to  those  of  the  pre¬ 
ceding  books  ;  some  few  moditications  sug¬ 
gested  by  longer  experience  or  altered  circum¬ 
stances  are  now  made,  and  the  whole  Mosaic 
system  is  completed  by  the  addition  of  several 
enactments  of  a  social,  civil,  and  political  na¬ 
ture.  E.spin. 

Whoever  penned  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
as  amanuensis  or  historiographer,  if  its  own 
clear  and  continually  repeated  testimony  is  to 
be  accepted,  Moses  is  responsible  both  for  its 
substance  and  general  form.  It  does  not  sim¬ 
ply  belong  to  his  time  ;  it  actually  originated 
with^  him.  It  is  essentially  the  product  of  his 
divinely  illuminated  mind,  is  thoroughly  pene¬ 
trated  by  his  spirit,  and  in  outward  arrangement 
still  carries  throughout  the  peculiar  individual 
imprc'^sion  he  left  upon  it.  It  would  surprise 
one  unacquainted  with  the  subject  to  know  how 
large  a  jjortion  of  the  book  is  put  directly  into 
the  mouth  of  the  Lawgiver  and  is  represented 
to  be  spoken  by  him.  By  actual  enumeration 
of  verses,  it  makes  fifteen  sixteenths  of  the 
whole  matter.  Out  of  nearly  a  thousand  verses, 
there  are  but  about  sixty  that  are  not  in  the 
form  of  direct  address— that  is,  that  do  not  pur¬ 
port  to  be  the  word-for-word  utterances  of 
Moses  himself.  This  is  not  all.  Not  only  is 
Moses  made  responsible  for  the  substance  of  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy,  he  is  equally  so  for  its 
literary  construction  and  expression.  It  is  de¬ 
clared  that  he  wrote  it  (31  : 9,  24),  and  wrote  it 
“  to  the  end  an  addition  of  no  slight  imjDor- 
tance.  It  is  true  that  the  term  employed  is 
“this  Law, ’’“this  book  of  the  Law.”  Still, 
there  ought  to  be  no  uncertainty  on  that  ac¬ 
count,  considering  the  form  in  which  the  work 
is  cast,  its  own  usage  as  it  respects  this  very 
term,  and  the  admitted  unity  of  language  and 
style  throughout.  The  whole  book  up  to  this 
point  is  meant.  E.  C.  B. 

Nothing  can  be  more  probable  than  that  the 


Lawgiver,  now  in  the  presence  of  a  new  gener¬ 
ation,  when  the  wanderings  in  the  wilderness 
had  come  to  an  end,  when  the  Israelites  were 
to  cease  to  be  a  Bedouin  tribe,  and  to  l>ecome  a 
settled  agricultural  people — that  Moses,  at  the 
close  of  his  mission  and  of  his  own  life,  should 
now  reiterate  in  the  most  solemn  and  impres¬ 
sive  way  the  sanctity  of  the  Law,  the  penalties 
and  the  promises.  There  might  be  even  modi¬ 
fications  and  corrections,  a  harmonizing  of  the 
provisions,  and  in  some  degree  an  adaptation 
to  the  change  of  circumstances.  The  wild  des¬ 
ert  would  now  be  left  behind  ;  the  promised 
land,  with  its  settled  life,  expand  more  fully. 
Certainly  in  Deuteronomy  the  people  seem  to 
be  in  a  transitional  state.  Strange  if  a  late  im¬ 
aginative  writer,  or  even  compiler,  should  pre¬ 
serve  this  singular  accuracy  — if  I  may  so  say, 
this  naturalness  of  detail.  Even  in  Deuteron¬ 
omy  there  is  still  great  want  of  order  and  ar¬ 
rangement  ;  the  laws  do  not  follow  each  other 
in  natural  sequence  ;  they  pass  from  one  sub¬ 
ject  to  another,  apparently  with  no  connection 
or  relation  to  each  other  ;  they  are  more  or  less 
mingled  with  historical  incidents.  But  all  this 
seems  to  belong  to  an  early  inartificial  period 
of  composition  ;  it  is  precisely  that  which  a 
later  writer  or  compiler  would  have  labored  to 
avoid.  The  ancient  legislation  would  afford 
materials  for  a  code,  the  later  would  have  framed 
a  code.  Mihnan. 

The  difference  between  the  Law  of  the  cen¬ 
tral  books  and  the  Law  of  Deuteronomy,  so  far 
as  the  substance  is  concerned,  is  chiefly  the  fol¬ 
lowing.  In  the  first  place,  the  latter  expressly 
refers  to  the  circumstances  in  which  the  Israel¬ 
ites  would  be  placed  in  the  promised  land  (see, 
for  example,  ch.  6  : 1,  etc.)  ;  whereas  the  former 
is  much  more  general  in  its  character,  and  no 
special  reference  is  made  to  circumstances 
which  would  not  arise  till  they  reached  the 
borders  of  the  land.  And  seco7idly,  the  Law  of 
the  central  books  is  chiefly  of  a  priestly  charac¬ 
ter — is,  in  fact,  properl}^  the  Law  for  the  priestly 
and  Leyitical  order.  By  far  the  greater  num¬ 
ber  of  its  laws  are  laws  for  the  priests — laws 
which  it  was  not  necessary  that  anj^  should  be 
thoroughly  acquainted  with,  except  the  priests 
(and  Levites).  The  Law  of  Deuteronomy  is 
much  less  restricted  in  its  purpose.  Its  pre¬ 
cepts  all  relate  to  the  nation  as  a  whole ;  and 
therefore  it  passes  over  all  such  precepts  and 
ordinances  as  it  was  unnecessary  for  any  but 
the  priests  and  Levites  to  be  particularly  ac 
quainted  with.  K. 

There  is  much  more  in  the  last  book  of  the 
Pentateuch  than  in  the  preceding  four — regarded 


SECTION  181.  THE  BOOK  OF  DEUTERONOMY. 


()30 


as  a  ground  and  moral  condition  of  the  Hebrew  i 
people  of  that  time  ;  for  it  consists  of  a  series 
of  popular  addresses,  orally  delivered  ;  and 
these,  by  the  calm  majesty  of  the  style  through¬ 
out,  by  the  remonstrant  tone,  by  innumerable 
allusions  to  events  and  usages,  carry  with  them 
a  demonstration  of  historic  verity  which  no  in¬ 
genuous  and  cultured  mind  will  fail  to  admit. 
The  Israelite  of  that  time  was  such  tliat  to  him 
might  be  propounded,  intelligently,  the  sublime 
theology  and  the  lightfal  and  truthful  ethics 
of  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  ;  which  have  held 
their  place,  unrivalled,  as  institutes  of  religion, 
from  age  to  age.  What  is  our  alternative  on 
this  ground  ?  This  book  is  either  “  from 
heaven,”  in  its  own  sense,  or  it  is  from  man. 
If  from  heaven,  then  a  great  controversy  reaches 
its  conclusion,  by  admission  of  the  opponent  ; 
but  if  from  man,  then  the  people  among  whom 
this  theology,  and  these  ethical  principles,  and 
these  institutions  spontaneously  arose,  and  to 
whose  actual  condition  they  w^ere  adapted,  were 
a  people  far  advanced  beyond  any  other,  even 
of  later  times,  in  their  religious  conceptions,  in 
their  moral  consciousness,  in  their  openness  to 
remonstrance,  and  their  sensibility  toward  some 
of  the  most  refined  emotions  of  domestic  and 
social  life.  Onr  question  is.  What  were  these 
people,  or  what  had  they  become  in  consequence 
of  their  Egyptian  sojourn  ?  what  in  consequence 
of  the  discipline  of  the  desert  ?  What,  upon  a 
new  generation,  had  been  the  influence  of  the 
Sinaitic  Law,  and  of  tabernacle  worship,  and 
of  the  tribune  administration  of  social  order  ? 
Prospective  as  were  many  of  the  Mosaic  injunc¬ 
tions,  social  and  ecclesiastical,  the  theology  was 
ripe  and  entire,  from  the  first  ;  so  were  the 
ethical  principles,  and  so  was  the  worship.  The 
generation  which  then  reached  maturity  along 
with  all  of  younger  age,  from  infancy  upward, 
were  (he  product  of  this  religious  and  social  train¬ 
ing.  The  Mosaic  homilies  are  available  as  in¬ 
direct,  yet  conclusive,  evidence  of  a  true  the- 
istic  habitude  of  mind  among  the  people  of  the 
Exodus.  They  must  have  been  a  people  with 
whom  there  had  been  matured  a  settled  usage 
of  theistic  terms,  devout  habitudes,  and  withal 
a  diffused  warmth  of  those  social  sentiments 
which  are  consequent  upon  and  which  are  the 
proper  results  of  an  expansion  of  the  domestic 
affections.  I.  T. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that  this 
book  is  wholly  a  repetition  of  the  history  and 
the  laws  recorded  elsewhere,'  with  comments 
upon  them  and  applications  to  the  new  state. 
There  are  some  important  additional  histoiical 
statements  and  many  important  additions  to  the 


i  laws  as  previously  recorded.  The  command 
of  God  to  leave  Horeb  (De.  1  :  6,  7),  the  repent¬ 
ance  of  the  Israelites  when  defeated  by  the  Amal- 
ekites  (ch.  1  ;  45),  the  intercession  of  Moses  for 
Aaion  (ch.  9  :  20),  are  minor  instances  of  addi¬ 
tions  to  the  historic  record  in  Deuteronomy. 
There  are  also  more  important  additions  to  the 
historical  statements,  such  as  the  command 
prohibiting  war  with  the  Moabites  and  Am¬ 
monites  and  Edomites,  and  permitting  Israel 
to  buy  of  them  food  and  water  (ch.  2:4);  the 
historical  notice  of  the  earlier  inhabitants  of 
Moab,  Ammon,  and  Mount  Seir  (ch.  2  : 10,  23), 
the  sixty  fortified  cities  of  Bashan  and  the  king, 
who  was  a  remnant  of  the  giants  (ch.  3  : 11),  and 
the  more  extended  account  of  the  battle  with 
the  Amalekites  (ch.  25  : 17).  The  additions  to 
the  Law  recorded  in  Deuteronomy  are  still  more 
extensive.  Thus  to  the  Law  concerning  cities 
of  refuge  (ch.  19  :  7)  ;  the  appointment  of  one 
permanent  place  of  worship  (ch.  12  ;  5)  ;  the 
removal  of  the  restriction  as  to  slaying  the  vic¬ 
tims  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  ;  the  law  of 
tithes  (chs.  12  :  11,  and  14  : 22)  ;  the  law  con¬ 
cerning  false  prophecy  (ch.  12  :  5),  etc.  And  so 
of  many  other  precepts  found  in  Deuteronomy, 
but  not  found  in  the  previous  records  of  the 
Law.  S.  E. 

But  these  additions  do  not  betraj’^  another 
and  a  later  hand  than  that  which  gave  the  orig¬ 
inal  code.  They  are  one  and  all  such  as  are 
supplementary  or  explanatory  of  earlier  laws, 
and  might  well  be  suggested  by  a  short  experi¬ 
ence  of  the  working  of  those  laws  ;  or  such  as 
would  have  been  premature  or  impracticable 
during  the  wandering  in  the  wilderness,  but 
became  necessary  when  the  people  was  about 
to  settle  down  in  Canaan!  The  occurrence  of 
such  enactments  in  Deuteronomy,  and  there 
first,  is  in  thorough  harmony  with  the  time  and 
circumstances  set  forth  in  the  book  itself  as 
belonging  to  its  composition.  In  like  manner 
the  alleged  historical  inconsistencies  between 
this  book  and  the  earlier  narrative  are  apparent 
only  and  not  real  ;  and  the  total  omission  of 
large  portions  of  the  Sinaitic  legislation  is  easily 
intelligible  when  we  bear  in  mind  the  purpose 
which  the  orator  in  Deuteronomy  had  in  view. 
It  is  particularly  to  be  noted  that  the  laws 
jjassed  over  in  this  book  are  more  especially 
those  pertaining  to  the  offices  of  the  priests  and 
Levites.  And  these  are  precisely  the  topics 
which  it  would  be  needless  for  one  addressing 
the  general  assembly  of  the  people  to  expound 
or  insist  upon.  Espin. 

With  all  its  additions  and  modifications,  the 
Deuteronomic  Law  is  not  a  new  legislation,  o? 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEUTERONOMY. 


631 


even  a  continuation  of  the  preceding  ;  it  is  the 
Sinaitic  legislation  enforced  anew,  and  wherever 
necessary  adapted  to  the  circumstances  which 
had  emerged  at  the  close  of  the  forty  years’ 

wandering.  D,  M. - More  than  seventy  facts, 

recorded  more  fully  in  the  previous  history,  are 
woven  into  the  texture  of  this  closing  book  of 
the  Law.  Nothing  can  be  more  spontaneous 
and  natural  than  the  way  in  which  they  are  in¬ 
troduced,  Some  fresh  j^articulars  are  added, 
but  so  naturally  and  in  such  agreement  with 
the  rest  as  to  bespeak  their  own  reality.  Be¬ 
sides  these  historical  references  w'hich  link  this 
book  so  closely  with  the  whole  previous  history 
and  disprove  its  later  origin,  its.  moral  features 
and  tone  make  the  hypothesis  of  a  forgery  in¬ 
sufferable  and  monstrous  to  every  mind  which 
retains  any  spiritual  instinct  and  has  learned 
“  to  fear  that  great  and  terrible  name,  the  Lord 
our  God  ”  How  real  and  earnest,  how  lofty 
and  sublime  is  its  tone  of  Divine  authority,  from 
first  to  last !  Hovv  tender  and  delicate  are  its 
touches  of  human  sympathy  from  the  dying 
Lawgiver  to  the  people  he  so  dearly  loved,  and 
whom,  for  their  sins  even  more  than  his  own, 
he  was  forbidden  to  lead  into  the  land  of  prom¬ 
ise  !  Birks. 

The  Deuteronomist  evidently  had  in  mind, 
at  least,  nearly  as  extensive  a  code  of  laws  as 
we  possess  in  the  priestly  legislation.  If  this 
were  not  the  case,  it  would  be  inconceivable 
that,  with  the  exception  of  the  Book  of  the  Cov¬ 
enant,  a  poiDular  address  should  be  produced  in 
which  allusions  were  made  to  laws,  but  in  which 
the  laws  themselves  were  not  fully  given.  There 
are  really  no  regulations  in  regard  to  priests  and 
sacrifices  in  Deuteronomy.  Hence  it  presup¬ 
poses  a  code  and  one  much  fuller  than  the  Book 
of  the  Covenant.  If  we  accept  the  premises  of 
modern  criticism,  we  must  also  accept  its  con¬ 
clusions,  The  Bible  at  once  sinks  to  the  level 
of  other  books.  It  is  no  longer  God’s  revela¬ 
tion  to  man  Its  supernatural  character  is  at 
once  lost.  The  Old  Testament  ceases  to  be  pre¬ 
paratory  for  Christianity  as  the  religion  of  Di¬ 
vine  revelation.  There  is  no  sin,  and  no  need 
of  a  Saviour.  Prom  this  point  we  can  very 
readily  accept  the  positions  of  a  Haeckel,  and 
denj’^  the  existence  of  a  personal  God.  We  can¬ 
not  see  anj'-  stopping-place,  Guriiss. 

The  alterations  and  modifications  of  the  Law 
in  Deuteronomj’’  are  in  no  way  inconsistent  with 
the  old  theory,  that  it  was  composed  toward 
the  close  of  the  wanderings  before  the  entrance 
into  the  holy  land.  Of  these  variations,  some 
relate  to  a  permanent  place  for  the  Divine  wor¬ 
ship,  hereafter  to  be  determined  by  God.  This 


provision  could  not  have  been  made  during  the 
wanderings.  Some  forbid  idolatrous  usages  com¬ 
mon  among  the  tribes  with  whom  they  were  or 
were  about  to  be  in  contact  ;  men  wearing  wom¬ 
en’s  clothes  ;  worship  of  sacred  trees,  less  com¬ 
mon,  no  doubt,  in  the  wilderness  ;  laws  about 
captive  women  and  runaway  slaves.  These 
laws  were  especially  necessary  when  war  was 
about  to  begin.  Some  are  modifications  of  rit¬ 
ual  observances  ;  tithes  and  first-fruits  to  the 
Levites,  widows  and  orphans,  not  to  the  sanc¬ 
tuary  ;  the  slaughter  of  beasts  (in  Leviticus)  be¬ 
fore  the  door  of  the  tabernacle,  now  (in  Deuter- 
onomy)  anywhere.  Strangers  (Exodus  and  Le¬ 
viticus)  were  bound  to  keep  the  whole  law,  now 
(in  Deuteronomy)  with  certain  exemjitions. 
Some  are  more  precise  provisions  for  the  ad¬ 
ministration  of  justice,  being  necessary  for  a 
settled  people  ;  the  inhibition  of  man-stealing, 
not  very  likely  in  the  wandering  life  ;  inheri¬ 
tance  of  elder  sons.  The  simplicity  of  what  may 
be  called  the  prophet  law  (De.  18)  is  singularly 
inconsistent  with  any  later  time,  after  schools 
of  the  prophets  had  been  an  historic  institu¬ 
tion,  and  during  or  after  the  great  age  not  of 
one  but  of  many  prophets.  A.11  these  discrep¬ 
ancies  seem  to  me  sufficiently  accounted  for  by 
the  change  in  the  state  and  position  and  char¬ 
acter  of  the  people  ;  from  that  when  the  orig¬ 
inal  Law  was  delivered  in  the  actual  desert, 
and  fort}’'  years  after,  when  they  had  approached 
and  were  about  to  enter  into  Palestine.  Milman. 

That  the  character  of  the  style  and  diction  in 
this  book  deviates  in  various  ways  from  that  of 
the  former  ones,  and  that  there  is  greater  free¬ 
dom  and  power  in  the  flow  of  the  narrative,  is 
what  we  naturally  expect  to  find  when  we  take 
into  view  the  purpose  of  the  book,  and  the  time 
in  which  Moses  communicated  its  contents.  It 
is  the  repetition  of  what  had  been  before  re¬ 
lated,  accompanied  by  impressive  exhortations, 
promises,  and  threatenings,  and  rehearsed  by 
Moses  in  the  last  two  months  of  his  life,  to  a 
people  that  had  grown  up  under  his  eye,  and 

with  the  land  of  promise  in  view.  C.  G.  B. - 

The  allegation  so  positively  made  that  the  very 
style  of  Deuteronom}''  betrays  its  late  origin  is 
arbitrary  and  baseless.  No  doubt  the  book  is 
written  in  a  very  different  manner  from  the  pre¬ 
ceding  ones  ;  yet  the  parallelisms  between  it 
and  them  both  in  ideas  and  expressions  are 
neither  few  nor  insignificant  (ef.  for  instance 
De.  28  with  Lev.  26  throughout).  And  the  fact 
that  the  book  consists  mainly  of  three  speeches 
addressed  by  Moses  to  the  people  in  immediate 
view  of  his  own  death  and  their  entrance  into 
Canaan  sufficiently  explains  its  literary  charac- 


G32 


SECTION  181.  THE  BOOK  OF  DEUTERONOMY, 


teristics.  Naturally  the  matter  thus  orally  set 
forth  is  given  in  more  sustained,  flowing,  and 
rhetorical  language  than  would  be  employed 
when  laws  were  to  be  promulgated,  passing 
events  chronicled,  or  ancient  transactions,  al¬ 
ready  perhaps  enshrined  in  tradition  or  docu 
ment,  incorporated  into  a  connected  historical 
work.  It  is  to  be  observed  also  that  all  the 
classes  of  archaisms,  whether  in  vocabulary  or 
grammatical  forms,  which  have  been  pointed 
out  as  characteristic  of  the  Hebrew  of  the  Pen 
tateuch  (see  Introduction  to  Pentateuch,  j^p.  18, 
19)  are  found  in  Deuteronomy,  and  some  of 
them  frequently.  Espin  {Bib.  Com.) 

The  style  used  in  Deuteronomy  answers  to 
the  changed  circumstances  at  the  close  of  the 
sojourn.  The  judgment  on  Ivorah,  the  Levite 
ringleader  in  rebellion,  had  made  the  deepest 
impression.  Aaron  had  died,  full  of  years  and 
honor,  second  only  to  Moses  in  the  reverence  of 
the  people,  and  Eleazar  had  succeeded  in  his 
stead,  Phinehas,  Eleazar’s  son,  had  received 
the  high  approval  of  God  and  the  promise  of 
an  everlasting  joriesthood.  The  house  of  Aaron 
were  still  few  in  number,  and  their  honor  for 
the  present  was  secure  ;  but  the  Levites  were  a 
tribe  of  many  thousands.  They  were  made  to 
depend  for  their  subsistence  on  the  tithes  and 
offerings  of  the  people,  and  their  honor  and 
privilege  needed  new  and  strong  safeguards 
after  Moses  was  gone.  This  key  explains  the 
partial  change  of  style  in  Deuteronomy,  which 
no  dual  authorship  can  ever  do.  Moses  first 
mentions  the  death  of  Aaron,  and  that  Eleazar, 
his  son,  ministered  in  the  priest’s  office  in  his 
stead.  After  this  he  dwells  mainly,  if  not  en¬ 
tirely,  on  the  privileges  and  duties  of  the-  whole 
priestly  tribe.  This  feature  of  Deuteronomy, 
which  has  been  alleged  as  a  decisive  f)roof  of 
separate  and  later  authorship,  is  really  a  sign  of 
its  historical  truth  and  Mosaic  origin.  The  re¬ 
lation  to  the  history  is  of  that  delicate  and  real 
kind  which  no  forger  of  later  times  could  in¬ 
vent  or  observe.  Birks. 

Moses  valued  his  opportunity  too  highly  to 
spend  his  breath  in  repeating  that  which  was  so 
well  known,  nay,  was  daily  before  the  eyes  of 
the  people,  as  the  order  of  worship,  the  duties 
and  emoluments  of  the  priesthood  and  their  as¬ 
sistants.  From  memory  he  calls,  with  remark¬ 
able  freshness,  as  much  as  is  necessary  of  the 
Israelitish  history,  pist  as  it  occurs  to  him  at 
the  time.  He  speaks  from  experience,  empha¬ 
sizes  an  old  law,  modifies  it  as  the  result  of  his 
observation  through  more  than  an  entire  gen¬ 
eration,  without  thought  or  anxiety  concerning 
the  cross-examination  which  would  arise  as  to 


the  apparent  differences  between  his  reported 
speech  and  the  existing  documents.  He  throws 
out  principles  in  bold  outline,  and  speaks  of 
tribes  rather  than  individuals.  He  passes  over 
Aaron,  who  is  dead,  with  the  briefest  mention, 
although  he  does  not  thereby  disparage  his 
memory.  His  object  is  not  eulogy.  The  tribe 
of  Levi  stands  before  him  as  the  living  embodi¬ 
ment  of  the  priesthood.  Hence  he  naturally 
speaks  of  the  Levitical  rather  than  of  the  Aaron- 
ite  priests.  Suirposing  the  priestly  law  was  al¬ 
ready  in  existence,  there  was  no  object  in  his 
speaking  of  the  priests  as  the  sons  of  Aaron.  It 
was  rather  natural  in  addressing,  as  it  were,  the 
nation,  which  was  composed  of  twelve  tribes, 
that  he  should  connect  the  name  of  the  tribe  of 
Levi  with  that  which  gave  it  its  honor  and  dig¬ 
nity,  nay  more,  its  very  subsistence,  the  priest¬ 
hood.  As  regards  the  authorship  of  Deuteron¬ 
omy,  we  have,  besides,  the  positive  testimony 
that  ‘‘  Moses  wrote  this  law,”  not  to  speak  of 
the  strong  personality  which  pervades  the  book. 
Of  course,  on  Kuenen’s  theory  and  that  of  ether 
critics,  we  may  believe  that  the  author  assumed 
the  character  of  Moses  for  the  sake  of  iufluence. 
But  this  is  fatal  to  our  belief  that  Deuteronomy 
is  a  divinely  revealed  book.  The  Christian  ex¬ 
perience  very  properly  revolts  from  the  idea 
that  God  could  sanction  the  systematic  fiction, 
“  These  be  the  words  which  Moses  spake  unto 
all  Israel,”  and  especially,  “And  Moses  wrote 
this  law,”  as  the  medium  of  his  revelation,  if 
Moses  did- not  write  it,  but  some  one  else.  The 
assertion  that  Moses  wrote  this  book  is  too  posi¬ 
tive  and  its  whole  texture  is  too  real  and  favor¬ 
able  to  that  authorship  for  us  to  accept  an  ex¬ 
planation  which  strikes  at  the  very  foundations 
of  morality.  That  Moses  should  have  foreseen 
the  future  woes  of  his  people  ;  that  he  should 
have  anticijiated  the  rise  of  the  kingdom,  and 
spoken  accordingly  ;  thatffie  should  speak  of 
these  things  with  prophetic  certainty,  can  only 
be  a  stumbling-block  to  those  who  deny  the 
possibilitj'^  of  a  Divine  revelation  of  the  future. 
Curtiss. 

The  legislation  of  Deuteronomy  was  commit¬ 
ted  to  writing  from  the  first,  but  refers  through¬ 
out  to  an  earlier  code,  the  covenant  at  Sinai,  of 
which  it  is  only  the  completion.  There  are 
nearly  a  hundred  links  of  mutual  correspond¬ 
ence-most  various  in  their  character  -  from  a 
verbal  repetition  of  the  same  law  to  supplement¬ 
al  developments  of  historical  facts,  or  kindred 
laws  where  the  principle  is  the  same.  But  this 
earlier  legislation,  the  central  portion  of  the 
Pentateuch,  is  inseparably  linked  with  the  his¬ 
tory  of  the  desert,  the  sojourn  in  Egypt,  the 


THE  BOOK  OF  DEUTERONOMY. 


G33 


plagues,  the  Passover,  and  the  exodus,  which 
have  gone  before,  and  with  the  forty  years  in 
the  wilderness  which  follow.  And  the  allusions 
to  these  histories  in  Deuteronomy  are  in  pro 
portion  not  less  numerous  than  to  the  Sinaitic 
legislation  which  intervenes.  The  coat  maj^  be 
said  to  be  woven  without  seam  from  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  Exodus  to  the  end  of  Deuteronomy. 
Birks. 

It  Tiiust  be  added  that  Deuteronomy  has  in  a 
singular  manner  the  attestation  of  the  apostles 
and  of  our  Lord.  Paul  in  Komans  10  and  15 
argues  from  it  at  some  length,  and  expressly 
quotes  it  as  written  by  Moses  ;  Peter  and  Ste¬ 
phen  (A.cts  3  :  22  ;  7  :  37)  refer  to  the  promise  of 
“  a  prophet  like  unto  ”  Moses,  and  regard  it  as 
given,  as  it  professes  to  be,  by  Moses  himself  ; 
our  Lord,  wielding  “  the  sword  of  the  Spirit 
which  is  the  Word  of  God  ”  against  the  open 
assaults  of  Satan,  thrice  resorts  to  Deuteronomy 
for  the  texts  with  which  he  repels  the  tempter. 
Espin. 

The  Lord  of  glory  himself  has  proclaimed 
that  faith  in  his  words  and  in  the  writings  of 
Moses,  his  servant,  stand  and  fall  together. 
Whoever  rejects  Moses  rejects  also  the  words 
of  Christ.  The  Law  given  by  Moses  and  the 
grace  and  truth  which  have  'come  by  Jesus 
.  Christ  form  one  twofold  but  harmonious  mes- 
sage  from  the  Creator,  the  Preserver,  and  the 

Judge  of  mankind.  Birks. - To  assert  that  he 

who  is  the  truth  believed  Deuteronomy  to  be 
the  work  of  Moses,  and  quoted  it  expressly  as 
such,  though  it  was  in  fact  a  forgery  intro¬ 
duced  into  the  world  seven  or  eight  centuries 
after  the  exodus,  is  in  effect  to  impeach  the 
perfection  and  sinlessness  of  his  nature,  and 
seems  thus  to  gainsay  the  first  principles  of 
Cbristianitj\  Espin. 

The  Book  of  Deuteronomy  has  its  truth  and 
genuineness  confirmed  not  only  by  the  voice  of 
our  Lord  and  his  apostles  and  the  consenting 
testimony  of  the  Jewish  people  in  every  age, 
but  by  the  clearest  signs  of  historical  reality  as 
the  parting  words  of  Moses.  Its  moral  earnest¬ 
ness  and  pathos  of  appeal,  its  tone  of  holy  rev¬ 
erence,  its  sublime  and  solemn  grandeur,  both 
in  the  opening  exhortations  and  the  song  and 
blessing  at  the  close,  make  the  view  which  de¬ 
grades  it  into  a  subtle  and  complicated  forgery 
of  some  later  age  incredible,  impossible,  and 
monstrous.  Most  of  the  objections  brought 
against  it  only  turn,  when  fairly  examined,  into 
powerful  evidences  of  its  truth.  The  differ¬ 
ences  in  style  and  diversities  of  statement,  as 
compared  with  the  earlier  books,  are  such  as 
any  later  forger  would  have  been  likely  to  have 


avoided  with  care,  while  they  result  naturally 
from  the  circumstances  of  the  latest  message  of 
the  Lawgiver  before  his  own  death.  To  this 
book  of  the  Law,  even  more  than  the  others, 
the  warning  of  our  Lord  will  clearly  apply.  “  If 
they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets,  neither 
will  they  be  persuaded,  though  one  rose  from 
the  dead.”  Birks. 

Deuteronomy,  with  its  sermons  and  laws  can¬ 
not  have  originated  under  Josiah,  or,  even  earli¬ 
er,  under  Manasseh.  It  is  older  than  Isaiah  ;  for 
not  only  Jeremiah,  but  Isaiah,  Micah,  Hosea, 
and  Amos  rest  on  Deuteronomy  as  a  book  of 
Divine  revelation.  The  assertion  that  the 
prophecy  does  not  imply  the  Law  as  antecedent 
is  one  of  the  greatest  illusions  of  modern  criti¬ 
cism.  This  assertion  is  confusing  even  in  it¬ 
self.  For  the  prophets  of  the  period  of  kings 
themselves  celebrate  Moses  as  a  great  prophet 
(compare  Hos.  12  : 13  with  Is.  63  : 11).  F.  De- 
litzsch. 

Is  this  book  an  imposture  of  Jeremiah,  or 
some  unknown  deceiver  in  Jeremiah’s  time,  or 
the  genuine  writing  of  “  Moses,  the  man  of 
God?”  No  middle  ground  is  possible  in  this 
inquiry.  If  the  discourses  and  parting  words 
of  Moses  were  real  events,  it  seems  certain  that 
they  would  be  recorded  at  once  ;  and  the  Book 
of  Deuteronomy,  received  by  the  Jews  as  a 
Divine  message  for  at  least  twenty-three  cen¬ 
turies,  must  be  that  record.  If  those  discourses 
were  not  real,  but  invented  long  after,  and  as¬ 
cribed  to  Moses  and  to  God  himself  eight  cen¬ 
turies  after  Moses’s  death,  then  the  whole  book 
is  a  successful  forgery  by  which  the  Church  and 
the  world  have  been  long  deceived.  Viewed  as 
history,  it  occupies  only  the  eleventh  month  of 
the  fortieth  year.  But  the  links  are  very  numer¬ 
ous  which  bind  it  to  the  earlier  histories.  These 
are  natural  and  impressive,  when  we  view  it  as 
a  genuine  record  of  the  words  of  Moses.  But 
when  it  is  ascribed  to  some  forger  of  later  date, 
or  even  of  the  age  of  Jeremiah,  the}’  involve 
such  a  combination  of  subtle  invention  with 
reckless  and  deliberate  lying  as  to  degrade  the 
Law  of  God,  the  bright  reflection  of  his  perfect 
holiness,  into  nothing  higher  than  a  frightful 

masterpiece  of  Satanic  falsehood.  Birks. - - 

Accepting  the  rationalistic  hypothesis  of  the 
new  criticism,  Israel  was  either  a  religious  devel¬ 
opment,  an  evolution,  or  it  was  a  religious  de¬ 
cadence,  a  failure.  If  it  was  a  development  up 
from  low  beginnings,  then  Moses  is  one  diffi¬ 
culty.  We  cannot  account  for  him.  If  it  was 
a  national  declension  and  failure,  then  what 
shall  we  do  with  Christ  and  his  words  ?  Our 
Bible  lies  before  us.  What  do  we  find  therein  ? 


634 


SECTION  182.  FIRST  PARTING  ADDRESS. 


Covenant,  law,  gospel  ;  priest,  prophet,  Mes¬ 
siah.  These  stand  in  reciprocal  relation.  That 
relationship  is  not  counter-destructive.  Wed- 
ddl. 


Most  probably  the  addresses  which  form  the 
Book  of  Deuteronomy,  and  which  were  spoken 
to  the  people  at  the  very  close  of  Moses’s  life, 
were  left  by  him  as  separate  documents,  each 
written  on  its  own  roll  of  skin.  And  in  a  sim¬ 
ilar  manner  the  song  of  Moses  and  the  blessing 
of  the  tribes  would  each  be  copied  upon  a  skin 
by  itself.  And  it  is  exceedingly  probable  that 
Joshua,  after  the  conquest  of  Canaan,  gathered 
these  records  together,  and  himself  added  to 
them  the  account  of  the  great  Lawgiver’s  death, 
excepting  the  last  four  verses.  In  them  we  have 
the  solemn  verdict  of  Ezra  and  the  men  of  the 
great  synagogue,  as  to  the  character  and  rank 
of  Moses.  In  the  grand  roll  of  prophets  who 
had  ennobled  their  nation,  not  even  an  Elijah  or 
an  Isaiah  had  equalled  the  great  “  servant  of 
Jehovah,”  with  whom  God  had  spoken  face  to 
face.  When  the  canon  of  Holy  Scripture  closed, 
the  words  of  Moses  in  De.  18  : 15,  18  were,  ac¬ 


cording  to  their  deliberate  judgment,  still  an- 
fulfilled.  11.  P.  S. 

The  books  of  the  Pentateuch  are  to  be  taken 
as  the  memorials  of  the  birth— Jirtit,  of  a,  people, 
and  ihen  —  ot  a  Nation.  No  memorials  alto¬ 
gether  comparable  to  these  have  come  down 
from  ancient  to  modern  times.  In  so  far  as 
these  documents  are  in  analogy  with  parallel 
documents,  they  work  into  adjustment  with  all 
that  we  know  of  Oriental  antiquity,  and  of  hu¬ 
man  nature  everywhere.  Bat  in  so  far  as  they 
differ  from  all  such  instances,  the  difference  is 
a  difference  available  in  proof  of  their  realit}'^ 
their  genuineness,  their  authenticity  :  it  is  so 
by  reason  of  the  gravity  and  exactness  of  the 
matters  at  large,  and  of  the  matters  in  detail. 
A  perusal  of  these  books — the  so-called  Mosaic 
archives — carries,  in  minds  not  debilitated  by 
sophisms,  an  irresistible  conviction  of  truthful¬ 
ness  :  there  is  a  majesty  here,  before  which  we 
bow.  There  is  nothing  in  this  world,  there 
is  nothing  in  all  history  that  is  real,  if  there  is 
not  in  these  books  the  various,  yet  coherent  and 
consecutive  memorials  and  the  authentic  docu¬ 
ments  of  the  birth  of  a  nation,  as  to  its  civil  and 
its  religious  institutions.  I.  T. 


Section  182. 

FIRST  PARTING  ADDRESS  :  EXORDIUM  ;  DISTRICTS  OF  THE  LAND  OF  CANAAN  ; 
EXHORTATIONS  TO  OBEDIENCE,  BASED  UPON  JEHOVAH’S  GRACIOUS  DIS¬ 
CLOSURES  AND  DEALINGS. 

DEUTEPiONt  WY  1  : 1-8  ;  4  : 1-10,  14-40. 

De.  1  1  These  be  the  words  which  Moses  spake  unto  all  Israel  beyond  Jordan  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,  in  the  Arabah  over  against  Suph,  between  Paran,  and  Tophel,  and  Laban,  and  Hazeroth, 

3  and  Di-zahab.  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  fortieth  year,  in  the  eleventh  month,  on  the  first 
day  of  the  month,  that  Moses  spake  unto  the  children  of  Israel,  according  unto  all  that  the 

4  Lord  had  given  him  in  commandment  unto  them  ;  after  he  had  smitten  Sihon  the  king  of  the 
Amorites,  which  dwelt  in  Heshbon,  and  Og  the  king  of  Bashan,  which  dwelt  in  Ashtaroth,  at 

5  Edrei  ;  beyond  Jordan,  in  the  land  of  Moab,  began  Moses  to  declare  this  law,  saying,  The 

6  Lord  our  God  spake  unto  us  in  Horeb,  saying.  Ye  have  dwelt  long  enough  in  this  mountain  : 

7  turn  you,  and  take  your  journey,  and  go  to  the  hill  country  of  the  Amorites,  and  unto  all  Ihe 
places  nigh  thereunto,  in  the  Arabah,  in  the  hill  country,  and  in  the  lowland,  and  in  the 
South,  and  by  the  sea  shore,  the  land  of  the  Canaanites,  and  Lebanon,  as  far  as  the  great 

8  river,  the  river  Euphrates.  Behold,  I  have  set  the  land  before  you  :  go  in  and  possess  the 
land  which  the  Lord  sware  unto  your  fathers,  to  Abraham,  to  Isaac,  and  to  Jacob,  to  give 
unto  them  and  to  their  seed  after  them. 

4  1  And  now,  O  Israel,  hearken  unto  the  statutes  and  unto  the  judgements,  which  I  teach 
you,  for  to  do  them  ;  that  ye  may  live,  and  go  in  and  possess  the  land  which  the  Lord,  the 

2  God  of  your  fathers,  giveth  you.  Ye  shall  not  add  unto  the  word  which  I  command  you, 
neither  shall  ye  diminish  from  it,  that  ye  may  keep  the  commjindments  of  the  Lord  your  God 

3  which  I  command  you.  Your  eyes  have  seen  what  the  Lord  did  because  of  Baal-peor  ;  for 
all  the  men  that  followed  Baal-peor,  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  destroyed  them  from  the  midst  of 

4  thee.  But  ye  that  did  cleave  unto  the  Lord  your  God  are  alive  every  one  of  you  this  day. 


FIRST  PARTING  ADDRESS. 


635 


5  Behold,  I  have  taught  you  statutes  and  judgements,  even  as  the  Lord  my  God  commanded 

6  me,  that  ye  should  do  so  in  the  midst  of  the  land  whither  ye  go  in  to  possess  it.  Keep  there¬ 
fore  and  do  them  ;  for  this  is  your  wisdom  and  your  understanding  in  the  sight  of  the  peoples, 
which  shall  hear  all  these  statutes,  and  say.  Surely  this  great  nation  is  a  wise  and  understand- 

7  ing  people.  For  what  great  nation  is  there,  that  hath  a  god  so  nigh  unto  them,  as  the  Lord 

8  our  God  is  whensoever  we  call  upon  him  ?  And  what  great  nation  is  there,  that  hath  statutes 

9  and  judgements  so  righteous  as  all  this  law,  which  I  set  before  you  this  day  ?  Only  take  heed 
to  thyself,  and  keep  thy  soul  diligently,  lest  thou  forget  the  things  which  thine  eyes  saw,  and 
lest  they  dej)art  from  thy  heart  all  the  days  of  thy  life  ;  but  make  them  known  unto  thy  chil- 

10  dren  and  thy  children’s  children  ;  the  day  that  thou  stoodest  before  the  Lord  thy  God  in 
Horeb,  when  the  Lord  said  unto  me.  Assemble  me  the  people,  and  I  will  make  them  hear  my 
words,  that  they  may  learn  to  fear  me  all  the  days  that  they  live  upon  the  earth,  and  that  they 
may  teach  their  children. 

14  And  the  Lord  commanded  me  at  that  time  to  teach  you  statutes  and  judgements,  that  ye 

15  might  do  them  in  the  land  whither  ye  go  over  to  possess  it.  Take  therefore  good  heed 
unto  yourselves  ;  for  ye  saw  no  manner  of  form  on  the  day  that  the  Lord  spake  unto  you  in 

16  Horeb  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire  ;  lest  ye  corrupt  yourselves,  and  make  you  a  graven  image 

17  in  the  form  of  any  figure,  the  likeness  of  male  or  female,  the  likeness  of  any  beast  that  is  on 

18  the  earth,  the  likeness  of  any  winged  fowl  that  flieth  in  the  heaven,  the  likeness  of  any  thing 

19  that  creepeth  on  the  ground,  the  likeness  of  any  fish  that  is  in  the  water  under  the  earth  :  and 
lest  thou  lift  up  thine  eyes  unto  heaven,  and  when  thou  seest  the  sun  and  the  moon  and  the 
stars,  even  all  the  host  of  heaven,  thou  be  drawn  away  and  worship  them,  and  serve  them, 

20  which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  divided  unto  all  the  peoples  under  the  whole  heaven.  But  the 
Lord  hath  taken  you,  and  brought  you  forth  out  of  the  iron  furnace,  out  of  Egypt,  to  be  unto 

21  him  a  people  of  inheritance,  as  at  this  day.  Furthermore  the  Lord  was  angry  with  me  for 
your  sakes,  and  sware  that  I  should  not  go  over  Jordan,  and  that  I  should  not  go  in  unto  that 

22  good  land,  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee  for  an  inheritance  :  but  I  must  die  in  this 

23  land,  I  must  not  go  over  Jordan  :  but  ye  shall  go  over,  and  possess  that  good  land.  Take 
heed  unto  yourselves,  lest  ye  forget  the  covenant  of  the  Lord  your  God,  which  he  made  with 
you,  and  make  you  a  graven  image  in  the  form  of  any  thing  which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  for 

24  bidden  thee.  For  the  Lord  thy  God  is  a  devouring  fire,  a  jealous  God. 

25  When  thou  shalt  beget  children,  and  children’s  children,  and  ye  shall  have  been  long  in  the 
land,  and  shall  corrupt  jmurselves,  and  make  a  graven  image  in  the  form  of  any  thing,  and 

26  shall  do  that  which  is  evil  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  provoke  him  to  anger  :  I  call 
heaven  and  earth  to  witness  against  jmu  this  day,  that  ye  shall  soon  utterly  perish  from  off  the 
land  whereunto  ye  go  over  Jordan  to  possess  it  ;  ye  shall  not  prolong  your  days  upon  it,  but 

27  shall  utterly  be  destroyed.  And  the  Lord  shall  scatter  you  among  the  peoples,  and  ye  shall 

28  be  left  few  in  number  among  the  nations,  whither  the  Lord  shall  lead  you  awa}'.  And  there 
ye  shall  serve  gods,  the  work  of  men’s  hands,  wood  and  stone,  which  neither  see,  nor  hear, 

29  nor  eat,  nor  smell.  But  if  from  thence  ye  shall  seek  the  Lord  thy  God,  thou  shalt  find  him, 

30  if  thou  search  after  him  with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul.  When  thou  art  in  tribula¬ 
tion,  and  all  these  things  are  come  upon  thee,  in  the  latter  days  thou  shalt  return  to  the  Lord 

31  thy  God,  and  hearken  unto  his  voice :  for  the  Lord  thy  God  is  a  merciful  God  ;  he  will  not 
fail  thee,  neither  destroy  thee,  nor  forget  the  covenant  of  thy  fathers  which  he  sware  unto 

32  them.  For  ask  now  of  the  days  that  are  past,  which  were  before  thee,  since  the  day  that  God 
created  man  upon  the  earth,  and  from  the  one  end  of  heaven  unto  the  other,  whether  there 

33  hath  been  any  swJi  thing  as  this  great  thing  is,  or  hath  been  heard  like  it?  Did  ever  people 

34  hear  the  voice  of  God  speaking  out  of  the  midst  of  the  fire,  as  thou  hast  heard,  and  live  ?  Or 
hath  God  assayed  to  go  and  take  him  a  nation  from  the  midst  of  ayiother  nation,  by  trials,  by 
signs,  and  by  wonders,  and  by  war,  and  by  a  mighty  hand,  and  by  a  stretched  out  arm,  and 
by  great  terrors,  according  to  all  that  the  Lord  your  God  did  for  you  in  Egypt  before  your 

35  eyes?  Unto  thee  it  was  shewed,  that  thou  mightest  know  that  the  Lord  he  is  God  ;  there  is 

36  noue  else  beside  him.  Out  of  heaven  he  made  thee  to  hear  his  voice,  that  he  might  instruct 
thee  :  and  upon  earth  he  made  thee  to  see  his  great  fire  ;  and  thou  heardest  his  words  out  of  ‘ 

37  the  midst  of  the  fire.  And  because  he  loved  thy  fathers,  therefore  he  chose  their  seed  after 

38  them,  and  brought  thee  out  with  his  presence,  with  his  great  power,  out  of  Egypt  ;  to  drive 
out  nations  from  before  thee  greater  and  mightier  than  thou,  to  bring  thee  in,  to  give  thee 


636 


SECTION  182.  FIRST  PARTING  ADDRESS. 


39  their  land  for  an  inheritance,  as  at  this  day.  Know  therefore  Ihis  day,  and  lay  it  to  thine 
heart,  that  the  Lord  he  is  God  in  heaven  above  and  npon  the  earth  beneath  :  there  is  none 

40  else.  And  thou  shalt  keep  his  statutes,  and  his  commandments,  which  I  command  thee  tljis 
day,  that  it  may  go  well  with  thee,  and  with  thy  children  after  thee,  and  that  thou  rfiayest  pro¬ 
long  thy  days  upon  the  land,  which  the  Loud  thy  God  giveth  thee,  for  ever. 


It  is  the  eleventh  month  of  the  fortieth  year.  | 
It  is  the  eleventh  hour  of  the  Mosaic  Eia.  The 
great  Lawgiver  and  Leader  is  about  to  be 
“  gathered  to  his  fathers  yet  ‘‘  his  eye  is  not 
dim,  nor  his  natural  force  abated  and  of  this 
he  gives  abundant  evidence  in  the  three  long 
and  spirited  addresses  which  he  delivers  to  the 
l^eople  as  bis  parting  charge.  In  these  addresses 
he  urges  the  people,  with  all  the  force  of  his 
mighty  nature,  to  be  mindful  of  the  Lord  that 
has  redeemed  them,  to  be  obedient  to  his  Law, 
and  faithful  to  his  covenant.  They  are,  in  fact, 
a  powerful  practical  application  of  the  Law 
which  had  been  given  on  Mount  Sinai.  Hence 
the  name  given  to  the  book  which  records  these 
addresses  :  “  Deuteronomy,”  the  second  Law. 
J.  M.  G. 

fl  :  0-5.  In  these  verses  we  have  the  inscrip¬ 
tion  and  general  introduction  to  the  book,  an¬ 
nouncing  the  contents  of  the  book,  the  author  of 
it,  the  parties  whom  he  addressed,  and  the  time 

and  place  of  his  addresses.  W.  L.  A. - There 

are  abundant,  and  abundantly  satisfactory, 
grounds  for  maintaining  the  literary  and  ma- 
teiial  unity  of  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy.  It  is 
a  remarkable  example  of  it  in  its  outward  form. 
One  might  be  safely  challenged  to  point  to  an. 
other  book  of  the  Bible  that  is  more  so.  The 
few  verses  of  introduction  are  singularly  appro- 
jiriate  (1  : 1-5)  and  so  detailed  as  it  respects  dates 
and  places,  amounting  almost  to  a  species  of 
literary’  triangulation,  that  it  scarcely  offers  a 
choice  between  a  theory  of  honest  history  and 
egregious,  not  to  say  impossible,  invention.  It 
tells  just  where  the  Israelites  were  when  these 
addresses  were  uttered,  fixing  the  spot,  as  I  have 
said,  with  little  less  than  geometric  exactitude 
by  references  to  half  a  dozen  other  places  in  the 
neighborhood.  It  gives  the  year  of  the  wilder¬ 
ness  wanderings,  the  month,  and  even  the  day 
of  the  month,  in  noticeable,  though  clearly  un¬ 
designed,  coincidence  with  other  important 
chronological  data  of  the  history.  The  crossing 
of  the  Jordan  was  on  the  tenth  of  Abib  of  the 
following  year  (Josh.  4  : 19).  The  j^revious 
month  had  been  spent  in  mourning  for  the  de¬ 
parted  chief  (De.  34  :  8).  Hence  ten,  full,  sol¬ 
emn  days  are  left  for  the  delivery  of  the  great 
discourses  of  our  book.  The  whole  is  popular, 
hortatory,  retrospective,  and  spiritually  elevat¬ 
ing,  nowhere  falling  below  the  key  struck  in  the 


opening  announcenmnt  :  “  These  are  the  words 
which  Moses  spake  unto  all  Israel.”  E  C.  B. 

This  exordium  to  Deuteronomy  is  remark¬ 
able.  It  states  that  this  book  is  not,  like  the 
books  of  Exodus,  Leviticu-i,  and  Numbers,  a  di¬ 
rect  narration  or  journal  of  the  various  events 
which  occurred  to  the  Jewish  legislator  and  na¬ 
tion  front  the  commencement  of  their  deliver¬ 
ance  from  Egypt  ;  but  that  it  is  a  recapitulation 
of  everything  which  Moses  thought  it  necessary 
to  notice,  in  addressing  the  people  shortly  be¬ 
fore  his  death,  at  the  close  of  lire  forty  years 
during  which  he  had  acted  as  their  lawgiver 
and  judge.  Graves. 

1.  Beyond  jrordaoi.  The  words  mean, 
taken  by  themselves,  “  at  the  crossing  of  the 
Jordan.”  Used  alone  they  point  neither  to  the 
east  nor  the  west  side.  Just  what  is  meant  in 
any  given  instance  is  a  matter  which  can  be  de¬ 
termined  only  by  the  context.  The  writer  of 
this  book,  in  fact,  employs  the  words  in  the  very 
same  passage,  intelligibly  and  with  clear  inten¬ 
tion,  to  mean  now  the  east,  and  again  the  w'est, 
side  of  the  Jordan  (3  :  8,  20).  Conscious  of  the 
ambiguity  of  the  phrase,  he  uses  it  in  no  single 
case  where  misunderstarrding  might  arise  that 
he  has  not  himself  guarded  against  it.  He  says, 
“  on  this  side  Jordan  in  the  plain  over  against 
the  Red  Sea  or,  “  on  this  side  Jordan  in  the 
land  of  Moab  or,  “toward  the  sunrising;” 
or,  “  by  the  way  where  the  sun  goeth  down.*’ 
Every  passage  (of  ten)  is  thus  rigorously  insured 
against  the  possibility  of  error  by  means  of  an 
added  explanation,  excepting  one  (3  :  20),  which 
does  not  need  it.  How  absurd,  in  these  cir¬ 
cumstances,  the  ado  that  has  been  made,  and 
continues  to  be  made,  over  these  words  bv  crit- 
ics,  learned  and  unlearned,  who  seem  never  to 
have  thoroughly  examined  the  connection  in 
which  they  stand.  E.  C.  B. 

Tlic  wilderness.  This  term  is  used  of  any 
extensive  district  not  occupied  by  inhabitants 
or  subjected  to  culture  ;  hence  of  vast  prairies 
or  pasture-lands,  as  well  as  of  places  properly 
desert  and  desolate.  It  here  denotes  the  grassy 
plains  or  downs  on  the  east  and  southeast  of 
the  Jordan,  in  the  land  of  Moab  (verse  5).  In 
the  plain  ;  in  the  Arabah.  This  is  properly 
the  whole  of  that  remarkable  depression  which 
stretches  from  the  source  of  the  Jordan  on  to 
Akabah,  or  the  Elanitic  Gulf  ;  but  here  it  is 


DISTRICTS  ASSIGNED  IN  CANAAN 


637 


only  that  part  of  it  which  extends  from  the  south 
end  of  the  Dead  Sea.  This  part  still  bears  the 
name  of  the  Arabali,  the  northern  part  being 
known  as  the  Ghor.  W.  L.  A. 

In  the  second  verse,  elsewhere  cited,  Moses 
alludes  to  the  fact  that  only  eleven  days’  journey 
intervened  between  Sinai  and  Kadesh-barnea. 
B, - Their  natural  route,  had  they  been  faith¬ 

ful  and  courageous,  would  have  been  from  Horeb 
to  Kadesh,  close  to  Hormah,  and  not  fnr  from 
Beersheba,  Their  actual  place  was  in  the  plains 
of  Moab  east  of  Jordan.  The  natural  interval 
would  have  been  only  a  fortnight  or  three  weeks 
from  Horeb  to  that  southern  border,  where  they 
would  have  begun  at  once  their  career  of  con¬ 
quest.  The  interval  of  time  actually  spent  had 
been  thirty. nine  years.  How  could  Moses  in¬ 
troduce  this  later  repetition  of  the  Law 
more  impressively  than  by  reminding  them  that 
their  former  rebellion  had  caused  them  nearlj^ 
forty  3’ears  of  fruitless  toil  and  bitter  sorrow? 
What  could  be  a  more  fit  prelude  to  the  cau¬ 
tions.  warnings,  and  exhortations  that  are  to 

follow?  Birk'<. - 3,  4.  Here  is  intimated  the 

iime  when  the  following  addresses  were  deliv¬ 
ered  to  the  people.  It  was  also  after  the  de¬ 
struction  of  Sihon  and  Og.  This  is  significant. 
By  the  destruction  of  these  kings,  who  sought 
to  bar  the  access  of  the  Israelites  to  the  prom¬ 
ised  land,  God  had  given  proof  that  he  would 
indeed  fulfil  his  promise  to  his  people,  and  had 
at  once  laid  them  under  obligations  to  obedi¬ 
ence,  and  given  them  encouragement  to  go  for¬ 
ward  on  the  course  to  which  he  had  called  them. 
The  “  he”  here  is  Moses,  who,  at  the  command 
of  God,  had  led  the  Israelites  against  Sihon  and 
Og,  5.  The  locality  is  again  described  as  be¬ 
yond  Jordan,  and  in  the  land  of  Moab.  This 
designates  the  region  elsewhere  called  Arboth 
Moab — the  plains  of  Moab,  the  region  on  the 
east  of  the  Jordan,  opposite  to  Jericho,  now 
known  as  the  region  of  Kerak.  W,  L.  A. 

The  First  Address. 

The  first  and  introductory  address  of  Moses 
to  the  people  comprises  the  first  chapter  (from 
the  sixth  verse),  the  second  and  third  chapters, 
with  forty  verses  of  the  fourth  chapter.  The 
Jarger  portion  of  this  address,  from  the  ninth 
verse  of  the  first  chapter  to  the  thirteenth  verse 
of  the  fourth  chapter,  is  here  omitted  as  con¬ 
taining  a  recapitulation  of  certain  facts  of  the 
history  which  have  been  embodied  in  their  or¬ 
derly  places  in  the  previous  narrative.  B. 

Disiricts  Assigjied  in  Canaan. 

7,  The  different  districts  of  the  land  of 


Canaan  are  specified  :  The  Arabah  ;  the  hill 
country  of  Judah  ;  the  shephelah,  or  lowland, 
the  country  lying  between  the  mountain  range 
and  the  Mediterranean  Sea  ;  the  negeb,  or  south¬ 
land  (literally,  dryness),  the  district  which  formed 
the  transition  from  the  desert  to  the  cultivated 
land,  extending  from  the  south  of  the  Dead  Sea 
westward  to  Gaza,  a  vast  prairie,  for  the  most 
part  pasture  land  ;  the  seashore,  or  narrow  strip 
of  land  on  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean  from 
Joppa  to  Tyre  (in  the  New  Testament,  “  the 
coast  of  Tyre  and  Sidon”).  The  mention  of 
Lebanon  and  the  Euphrates  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  these  were  included  in  what  God  promised 

to  Abraham  and  his  seed.  W.  L.  A, - In  verse 

10  of  this  chapter  Moses  tells  them,  “  Ye  are 
this  day  as  the  stars  of  heaven  for  multitude.” 
This  was  God’s  promise  to  Abraham  (Gen. 
15  :  5,  6),  and  Moses  affirms  that  it  is  now  ful¬ 
filled.  B. 

Addressing  the  people  on  the  very  threshold 
of  the  promised  land,  Moses  summarily  recalls 
to  them  the  manifold  proofs  they  had  experi¬ 
enced  of  the  care  and  the  faithfulness  of  God 
toward  them,  and  the  manifold  instances  of 
their  own  perverseness  and  rebellion.  These 
their  sins  Had  shut  them  out  during  a  whole 
generation  from  the  inheritance  covenanted  to 

I  be  given  to  their  fathers.  Espin. - Moses 

strives  briefly,  but  very  earnestly,  to  warn  the 
people  against  the  sins  for  which  their  fathers 
failed  to  enter  the  promised  land,  and  to  im¬ 
press  upon  them  the  one  simple  lesson  of  obedi¬ 
ence  ;  that  they  might  in  their  turn  be  ready  to 
enter  into  the  land.  With  this  special  object, 
he  recapitulates  the  chief  events  of  the  last 
forty  years  in  the  wilderness,  and  especially 
those  events  which  had  the  most  immediate 
bearing  on  the  entry  of  the  people  into  the 
promised  land.  P.  S. 

4  :  2.  Not  add  unto  tlic  word, 
iieitSicr  diiiiini§ti  from  it.  The  Law  was 

to  be  kept  as  a  complete  whole  ;  nothing  was  to 
be  taken  from  it  or  added  to  it  ;  it  comprised 
the  commandments  of  Jehovah,  and  therefore 
they  were  not  only  to  do  it  as  what  Moses,  their 
leader  and  Lawgiver,  had  enjoined,  but  to  keep 
it  as  a  sacred  deposit,  not  to  be  altered  or  tam¬ 
pered  with,  and  to  observe  it  as  what  God  their 
Sovereign  had  enacted  for  them.  The  dignity 
and  worth  of  the  Law  are  here  asserted,  and 
also  its  completeness  as  given  by  Moses.  New 
laws  and  institutions  appointed  by  God  would, 
of  course,  have  the  same  authority  as  those 
originally  ordained  by  Moses  ;  and  such,  it  can 
hardly  be  doubted,  were  in  point  of  fact  under 
the  Hebrew  monarchy  introduced  by  the  proph* 


638 


SECTION  182.  FIRST  PARTINO  ADDRESS. 


ets  speaking  in  the  name  of  God.  The  Law, 
nevertheless,  was  kept  substantially  entire. 
Even  under  the  new  dispensation  the  Law  has 
not  been  abolished.  Christ,  as  he  himself  de¬ 
clared,  came  not  to  destroy  the  Law  and  the 

jjrophets,  but  to  fulfil  them.  W.  L.  A. - This 

prohibition  preserved  these  books  from  any  al¬ 
teration  since  the  time  they  were  written.  For 
the  whole  body  of  the  people  acknowledging 
their  Divine  authority,  none  of  them  dared  to 
change  anything  either  by  addition  or  diminu 
tion.  Of  this  there  is  a  wonderful  instance  in 
the  people  that  came  out  of  Assyria,  in  the  room 
of  the  Israelites,  who  were  transported  thither  : 
these  people,  on  coming  to  inhabit  the  country 
of  Samaria,  having  received  the  Law  of  Moses, 
their  posterity  have  kept  it  all  along  to  this  day 
as  uncorrupted  as  the  Jews  themselves  have 
done  ;  although  they  were  their  mortal  enemies, 
and  have  been  exposed  to  all  the  changes  and 
revolutions  that  can  befall  a  nation,  during  the 
long  interval  of  twenty-four  hundred  years. 
AUtx. 

4.  Alive  every  one  of  you  i9ii§ 

day.  Either  these  words  were  uttered  at  the 
time  indicated  by  “  this  day  ”  or  the  statement 
is  a  fiction.  These  allusions  are  so  numerous 
and  precise  that  it  may  with  justice  be  said,  “  If 
Deuteronomy  is  not  the  work  of  Moses,  there 
is  here  the  most  exquisite  of  literary  frauds,  and 
that  in  an  age  which  had  not  as  yet  acquired 
the  art  of  transporting  itself  into  foreign  indi¬ 
vidualities  and  situations”  (Tlengsl.).  W.  L.  A. 

5-§.  1  have  taught  you  statiite§  and 
judg^ment§.  .  .  .  Keep  therefore  and 
do  them.  What  great  nation  hath 
statutes  and  judgment'^  mo  rigliteous  ? 
A  modern  jurist,  a  Frenchman  and  an  infidel, 
observes,  “  Good  right  had  Moses  to  challenge 
his  Israelites.  And  what  nation  hath  statutes 
like  yours  V  a  worship  so  exalted,  laws  so  equi- 
.  table,  a  code  so  complete  ?  Compared  with  all 
the  legislations  of  antiquity,  none  so  thoroughly 
embodies  the  principles  of  everlasting  and  uni¬ 
versal  righteousness.  Lycurgus  wrote  not  for  a 
people  but  for  an  army  ;  it  was  a  barrack  which 
he  erected  not  a  commonwealth  ;  and  sacrificing 
everything  to  the  military  spirit,  he  mutilated 
human  nature  in  order  to  crush  it  into  armor. 
Solon,  on  the  contrary,  could  not  resist  the 
effeminate  and  relaxing  influences  of  his  Athens. 
It  is  in  Moses  alone  that  we  find  a  regard  for 
the  right,  austere  and  incorruptible,  a  morality 
distinct  from  policy,  and  rising  above  regard 
for  times  and  peoples.  The  trumpet  of  Sinai 
still  finds  an  echo  in  the  conscience  of  mankind 
— the  Decalogue  still  binds  us  all.”  {Henne- 


quin.)  Did  the  merit  belong  to  Moses,  in  the 
annals  of  legislation  his  would  be  the  proudest 
of  names,  for  never  before  nor  since  did  a  code 
spring  into  such  sudden  existence  or  conquer 
such  tremendous  difficulties.  As  it  is,  that 
name  stands  out  in  serene  and  saintly  pre-emi¬ 
nence,  as  the  meek,  self  merging  medium 
through  which  heaven  conveyed  to  earth  the 
choicest  of  mercies.  “  Behold,  I  have  taught 
you  statutes  and  judgments,  even  as  the  Lord 
my  God  commanded  me.  For  what  nation  is 
there  so  great,  who  hath  God  so  nigh  unto  them, 
as  the  Lord  our  God  is  in  all  things  that  we  call 
upon  him  for?  And  what  nation  is  there  so 
great,  that  hath  statutes  and  judgments  so  right¬ 
eous  as  all  this  law,  which  I  set  before  you  this 
day?”  It  is  beautiful  to  see  how  God  gets  all 
the  glory,  and  Israel  all  tbe  good  ;  how,  on  the 
one  hand,  mingling  himself  with  the  mass  of 
the  nations,  the  man  Moses  here  speaks  of  Je¬ 
hovah  as  “  owr  God”— their  God  as  much  as 
his  ;  and  how,  on  the  other  hand,  he  tries  to 
lift  their  heai’ts  from  the  midst  of  their  mercies 
to  that  God  who  gave  them  this  mercy  so  sur¬ 
passing,  statutes  and  judgments  so  righteous  ! 
Rimilton. 

Never  were  any  people  so  privileged  in  hear¬ 
ing  from  God,  by  the  statutes  and  judgments 
which  were  set  before  them  ;  this  also  was  the 
grandeur  of  Israel  above  any  people.  No  law 
so  consonant  to  natural  equity  and  the  unprej¬ 
udiced  dictates  of  right  reason,  so  consistent 
with  itself  in  all  the  parts  of  it,  and  so  condu¬ 
cive  to  the  welfare  and  interest  of  mankind,  as 
the  Scripture  Law  is  (Ps.  119  :  128).  The  hav¬ 
ing  of  these  statutes  and  judgments  set  before 
them  is  the  true  and  transcendent  greatness  of 
any  nation  or  people.  It  is  an  honor  to  us  that 
we  have  the  Bible  in  reputation  and  power 
among  us.  It  is  an  evidence  of  a  people’s  being 
high  in  the  favor  of  God,  and  a  means  of  mak¬ 
ing  them  high  among  the  nations.  They  that 
magnify  the  Law  shall  be  magnified  by  it.  H, 

“  What  nation  is  there  so  great,  that  hath 
statutes  and  judgments  so  righteous  as  all  this 
Law  which  I  set  before  you  this  day?”  is  the 
confident  tone  in  which  Moses  claims  the  obedi¬ 
ence  of  his  countrymen  and  the  admiration  of 
the  world.  It  is  a  challenge  which  might  still 
be  made  in  reference  to  the  greater  part  of  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  Moses  had  the  conviction 
that  his  legislation  was  destined  to  exert  a  com¬ 
manding  influence  on  the  progress  cf  govern¬ 
ment  and  civilization.  He  evidently  anticipated 
that  his  laws  would  become  known  and  be  im¬ 
itated  by  other  nations  ;  and  he  employs  this 
expectation  as  an  argument  to  that  end.  ‘  ‘  Keep, 


PLEADINGS  AND  ARGUMENTS  FOR  OBEDIENCE. 


639 


therefore,  and  do  them  (he  says),  for  this  is 
your  wisdom  and  your  understanding  in  the 
sight  of  the  nations,  which  shall  hear  of  these 
statutes,  and  say,  surely  this  great  nation  is  a 
wise  and  understanding  people.”  The  event 
was  in  harmony  with  the  anticipation.  Hardly 
any  historical  fact  rests  upon  a  more  solid 
foundation  than  that  the  most  celebrated  na¬ 
tions  and  lawgivers  of  antiquity  borrowed  many 
of  their  wisest  institutions  from  the  laws  of 
Moses.  We  have  plain  and  certain  proofs  that 
these  laws  w'ere  powerfully  felt  in  modifying 
the  religious  sentiments,  the  philosophical  opin^ 
ions,  the  literary  labors,  the  political  maxims, 
the  civil  institutions,  and  the  moral  judgments 
and  practices  of  mankind.  E.  C.  W. 

4  : 0,  10,  14.  Only  take  liccd  to  tliy- 
§cir,  and  keep  tliy  §oul  dilig^ently, 
le^t  tSiou  forg^et ;  .  .  ,  make  tlieiii 
kno%in  to  tliy  ehildren  and  tliy  eliil- 
dren’s  cliildren.  TeaeSi  you  §tatute$ 
and  jndginentsi,  that  ye  might  do 
tliem.  These  words  of  simple,  direct  appeal, 
uttered  again  and  again  as  a  solemn,  fervent  re¬ 
frain  throughout  all  the  closing  addresses  re 
corded  in  this  entire  book,  express  the  one  bur¬ 
dening  thought  and  yearning  of  his  soul  con¬ 
cerning  his  people.  Their  best  and  most  effective 
comment  will  be  found  in  the  reader's  own  pro 
found  meditation  upon  them.  B 

15-iJO.  As  the  people  had  seen  no  form  or 
figure  when  God  spake  to  them,  so  they  were  to 
beware  for  their  very  lives  of  acting  corruptly 
by  making  any  kind  of  image,  whether  of  man 
or  of  beast,  for  the  purpose  of  worshipping  God 
as  represented  by  it  ;  they  were  also  to  beware 
of  being  so  attracted  by  the  splendor  of  the 
heavenly  bodies  as  to  be  forcibly  seduced  to 
worship  them  and  offer  them  religious  service. 
They  were  not  in  this  respect  to  imitate  the 
heathen  ;  for  God,  who  had  delivered  them  out 
of  the  furnace  of  Egyptian  bondage,  had  taken 
them  for  himself  to  be  his  special  possession  ; 
and  therefore  they  were  to  take  heed  not  to 
forget  the  covenant  of  Jehovah  their  God,  nor 
to  offend  him  by  making  any  image  or  repre- 
senbition  of  him  as  the  object  of  worship. 
Among  the  heathen,  and  especially  in  Egypt, 
images  were  the  very  pillar  and  support  of  re¬ 
ligion  ;  but  in  Israel,  as  God  had  revealed  him¬ 
self  to  them  without  form,  it  was  as  a  spirit  he 
was  to  be  worshipped,  and  not  under  any  out¬ 
ward  representation.  W.  L.  A. 

29.  Dut  tlie  Lord  hath  taken  you. 
Two  powerful  arguments  to  obedience  :  First, 
God’s  great  mercy  in  delivering  them  from  the 
bondage  and  miseries  of  Egypt,  which  is  here 


expressed  by  the  “  iron  furnace,”  or  furnace 
where  iron  is  melted  (Ex.  20  : 2).  Secondly, 
his  taking  them  for  his  peculiar  people  (Ex. 
19  : 5).  Both  of  these  arguments  God  made  use 
of  when  he  gave  them  his  Law.  Bp.  Kidder. 

- God  had  passed  his  people  through  a  hot 

furnace  in  the  terrible  sufferings  they  endured 
in  Egypt,  but  with  the  gracious  purpose  of  ulti¬ 
mately  delivering  them,  and  giving  them  an  in¬ 
heritance  in  Canaan.  We  learn  :  that  God’s  peo¬ 
ple  are  sometimes  subjected  to  sufferings  of  in¬ 
credible  severity.  The  expression  an  “  iron 
furnace” — i.e, ,  a  furnace  for  smelting  iron,  con¬ 
veys  no  weaker  an  idea  ;  and  these  sufferings 
are  appointed  to  serve  disciplinary  ends.  The 
use  of  the  figure  of  a  furnace  implies  a  purpose 
in  the  sufferings.  The  furnace  acts  on  the  hard, 
impure  iron  to  separate  it  from  dross,  and  make 
it  soft  and  workable.  The  severe  sufferings 
through  which  God  passes  believers  make  the 
nature  plastic  to  God’s  will,  and  subdue  it  to 
meekness,  and  so  fit  the  man  thus  sanctified  for 
new  and  higher  uses.  Orr. 

21,  Tlic  Lf^rd  was  angry  wStlli  me. 
Moses  calls  this  to  their  recollection  again, 
though  he  had  mentioned  it  twice  before  (1  :  37  ; 
3  : 26),  that  they  might  be  the  more  sensible  of 
the  danger  of  offending  God,  since  such  a  man 
as  he  was  excluded  from  the  good  land  for  one 
single  fault.  Patrick. 

25-31.  Moses  enforces  the  warning  against 
idolatry,  by  predicting  the  evil  that  should 
come  upon  the  nation  through  the  apostasy  of 
those  who  should  in  after  times  turn  from  Je¬ 
hovah  to  strange  gods.  When  they  should  have 
begotten  children  and  children’s  children,  and 
had  been  long  in  the  land — i.e.,  when  in  after 
years  a  generation  should  arise  that  had  not 
known  the  things  they  had  seen  or  had  forgot¬ 
ten  them,  and  the  nation  should  then  become 
wanton  and  corrujpt  and  fall  into  idolatry  ; 
then  should  they  utterly  perish  from  off  the 
land  of  which  they  were  now  about  to  take  pos¬ 
session.  W.  L.  A. 

39.  Wlieii  tlie§c  tliing§  arc  come 
upon  fkec.  The  history  of  the  Jews  is  an 
unanswerable  argument  in  favor  of  the  truth  of 
prophecy  and  the  reality  of  Divine  revelation. 
The  singularity  of  that  history  is  such  as  can 
only  be  fully  accounted  for  on  the  idea  of  a 
supernatural  Providence  interesting  itself  in 
their  fortunes  ;  but  the  strangest  fact  is  that  in 
their  own  sacred  books  this  wonderful  history 
is  predicted  with  minute  precision.  The  Book 
of  Deuteronomy  furnishes  a  series  of  these  pre¬ 
dictions.  We  may  read  this  passage  first  as  a 
prophecy,  then  as  a  warning.  Orr, 


640 


SECTlOir  188.  SECOND  PARTING  ADDRESS. 


SI.  “  The  Lord  thy  God  is  a  merciful  God  ” 
— I  know  him  ;  I  have  lived  with  him  ;  I  have 
been  closeted  with  him  in  the  secrecy  of  the 
mountain  girded  by  light  and  by  tempest  ;  I 
know  him  ;  he  has  denied  my  desire  to  go  and 
see  the  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey  ;  and 
yet  my  dying  testimony  is — “  The  Lord  thy 
God  is  a  merciful  God  !”  J.  P. 

S2-40.  Still  more  to  enforce  his  warning 
against  apostacy,  and  urge  to  obedience  and 
faithful  adherence  to  the  service  of  Jehovah, 
Moses  appeals  to  what  they  had  already  experi¬ 
enced  of  God’s  grace  in  the  choosing  of  them  to 
be  his  people,  in  his  speaking  to  them  to  in¬ 
struct  them,  and  in  the  miracles  which  he  had 
wrought  for  their  deliverance  and  guidance  ; 
grace  such  as  had  never  been  shov^ed  before  to 
any  nation,  or  heard  of  since  the  creation  of  the 
world,  and  by  which  those  who  had  experienced 
it  were  laid  under  the  deepest  obligations  of 
gratitude  and  duty,  to  love  and  serve  him  by 
whom  it  had  been  showed.  With  this  appeal 
he  closes  his  first  address.  W.  L.  A.. 

32,  The  appeal  of  Christianity  also  is,  “  Ask 
now  of  the  days  that  are  past,  which  were  be¬ 
fore  thee,  since  the  day  that  God  created  man 
upon  the  earth,  and  ask  from  the  one  side  of 
heaven  unto  the  other,”  whether  any  other  re¬ 
ligion  tries  to  make  the  same  kind  of  men  that 
Christianity  makes  ?  It  never  made  one  man 
weak.  Strong  men,  valiant  men,  men  of  the 
keenest  mind,  men  of  the  largest  judgment, 
men  of  the  most  generous  disposition — if  that 
is  the  kind  of  men  Christianity  wants  to  make, 
where  is  the  religion  that  can  excel  or  equal 
Christianity  in  that  purpose  ?  Where  Christi¬ 
anity  has  entered  into  a  life,  what  has  it  done 
with  that  life  ?  Can  it  be  proved  that  Christi¬ 
anity,  fairly  understood  and  thoroughly  re¬ 
ceived,  has  soured  the  temper,  narrowed  the 
sympathies,  dwarfed  the  noble  ambitions  of  the 
soul  ?  Has  Christianity  ever  made  unhappy 
homes,  unrighteous  parents  ?  Let  the  challenge 
be  thoroughly  understood  and  frankly  replied 
to.  J.  P. 

33.  I>id  ever  people  hear  Ihe  voice 

of  God  ?  It  seems  to  have  been  a  general 


belief,  that  if  God  appeared  to  men  it  was  for 
the  purpose  of  destroying  them.  And  indeed 
most  of  the  extraordinary  manifestations  of  God 
were  in  the  way  of  judgment ;  but  here  it  was 
different.  God  did  appear  in  a  sovereign  and 
extraordinary  manner  ;  but  it  was  for  the  deliv¬ 
erance  and  support  of  the  people.  They  heard 
his  voice  speaking  with  them  in  a  distinct  arlic 
ulate  manner.  They  saw  the  fire,  the  symbol 
of  his  presence,  the  appearances  of  which  dem¬ 
onstrated  it  to  be  supernatural.  J^otwithstand- 
ing  God  appeared  so  terrible,  yet  no  person 
was  destroyed,  for  he  came  not  to  destroy,  but 
to  sane. 

34.  From  the  midst  of  anotlier  na¬ 
tion.  This  was  a  most  extraordinary  thing, 
that  a  whole  people,  consisting  of  upward  of  six 
hundred  thousand  effective  men,  besides  women 
and  children,  should,  without  striking  a  blow,  be 
brought  out  of  the  midst  of  a  very  powerful 
nation,  to  the  political  welfare  of  which  their 
services  were  so  essential  ;  that  they  should  be 
brought  out  in  so  open  and  public  a  manner  ; 
that  the  sea  itself  should  be  supernaturally  di¬ 
vided  to  afford  this  mighty  host  a  passage  ;  and 
that  in  a  desert  utterly  unfriendly  to  human  life 
they  should  be  sustained  for  forty  years.  These 
were  such  instances  of  the  almighty  power  and 
goodness  of  God  as  never  could  be  forgotten. 
A.  C. - 35-39.  Moses  would  have  the  Israel¬ 

ites  to  regard  God’s  deliverance  of  them  from 
Egypt  as  a  matter  for  the  most  grateful  admira¬ 
tion.  There  had  been  nothing  like  it  since  the 
beginning  of  the  world.  There  was  direct  and 
immediate  communion  with  God  ;  there  was 
deliverance  of  the  people  from  Egypt  by  unex¬ 
ampled  judgments  ;  and  all  was  to  show  his 
character  as  a  sovereign  and  loving  God.  The 
effect  of  such  a  discipline  should  he  filial  obedi¬ 
ence.  Edgar. 

40.  This  fourth  chapter,  which  comprises  the 
hortatory  portion  of  the  first  address,  closes 
with  the  refrain  of  earnest  appeal  with  which  it 
began,  and  which  all  its  statements  are  designed 
to  enforce  :  “  Keep  his  commandments,  that 
it  may  go  well  with  thee,  and  with  thy  children 
after  thee  !”  B. 


Section  183. 

SECOND  PARTING  ADDRESS  {BEGUN)-.  INTRODUCTION.  REMINDS  OF  THE  COV¬ 
ENANT  AND  LAW  OF  SINAI,  AND  URGES  FAITHFUL  FULFILMENT;  REFERS 
TO  THE  DANGERS  OF  PROSPERITY  ;  WARNS  AGAINST  IDOLATRY  AND  DIS¬ 
REGARD  OF  SPECIFIC  COMMANDS  ;  RECALLS  PROMISES  OF  DIVINE  PROTEC¬ 
TION,  HELP,  AND  BLESSING  TO  THE  OBEDIENT  NATION. 

Deutebonomy  4  : 44-49  ;  5  : 1-3,  32,  33  ;  6  : 1-3,  10-19  ;  7  : 1-26. 


SECOND  ADDRESS  {BEGUN). 


641 


De.  4  44  And  this  is  the  law  whii^h  Moses  set  before  the  children  of  Israel  :  these  are  the 

45  testimonies,  and  the  statutes,  and  the  judgements,  which  Moses  spake  unto  the  children  of 

46  Israel,  when  they  came  forth  out  of  Egypt  ;  beyond  Jordan,  in  the  valley  over  against  Beth- 
peor,  in  tlie  land  of  Sihon  king  of  the  Ainorites,  who  dwelt  at  Heshbon,  whom  Moses  and  the 

47  children  of  Israel  smote,  when  they  came  forth  out  of  Egypt  :  and  they  took  his  land  in  posses¬ 
sion,  and  the  land  of  Og  king  of  Bashan,  the  two  kings  of  the  Amorites,  which  were  beyond 

48  Jordan  toward  the  sunrising  ;  from  Aroer,  which  is  on  the  edge  of  the  valley  of  Arnon,  even 

49  unto  mount  Sion  (the  same  is  Hermon),  and  all  the  Arabah  bej^ond  Jordan  eastward,  even  unto 
the  sea  of  the  Arabah,  under  the  slopes  of  Pisgah. 

5  1  And  Moses  called  unto  all  Israel,  and  said  unto  them,  Hear,  O  Israel,  the  statutes  and 
the  judgements  which  I  speak  in  your  ears  this  da}'',  that  ye  may  learn  them,  and  observe  to 

2  do  them.  The  Lord  our  God  made  a  covenant  with  us  in  Horeb.  The  Lord  made  not  this 

3  covenant  with  our  fathers,  but  with  us,  even  us,  who  are  all  of  us  here  alive  this  day.  Ye 

32  shall  observe  to  do  therefore  as  the  Lord  your  God  hath  commanded  you  :  ye  shall  not  turn 

33  aside  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left.  Ye  shall  walk  in  all  the  way  which  the  Lord  your  God 
hath  commanded  you,  that  ye  may  live,  and  that  it  may  be  well  with  you,  and  that  ye  may  pro¬ 
long  your  days  in  the  land  which  ye  shall  possess. 

6  1  Now  this  is  the  commandment,  the  statutes,  and  the  judgements,  which  the  Lord  your 
God  commanded  to  teach  you,  that  ye  might  do  them  in  the  land  whither  ye  go  over  to  pos- 

2  sess  it  ;  that  thou  mightest  fear  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  keep  all  his  statutes  and  his  command¬ 
ments,  which  I  command  thee,  thou,  and  thy  son.  and  thy  son’s  son,  all  the  days  of  thy  life  ; 

3  and  that  thy  days  may  be  prolonged.  Hear  therefore,  O  Israel,  and  observe  to  do  it  ;  that  ic 
may  he  well  with  thee,  and  that  ye  may  increase  mightily,  as  the  Lord,  the  God  of  thy  fathers, 
hath  promised  unto  thee,  in  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey. 

10  And  it  shall  be,  when  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  bring  thee  into  the  land  which  he  sware  unto 
thy  fathers,  to  Abraham,  to  Isaac,  and  to  Jacob,  to  give  thee  ;  great  and  goodly  cities,  which 

11  thou  buildest  not,  and  houses  full  of  all  good  things,  which  thou  filledst  not,  and  cisterns 
hewn  out,  which  thou  hewedst  not,  vineyards  and  olive  trees,  which  thou  plantedst  not,  and 

12  thou  shiilt  eat  and  be  full  ;  then  beware  lest  thou  forget  the  Lord,  which  brought  thee  forth 

13  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage.  Thou  shalt  fear  the  Lord  thy  God  ; 

14  and  him  shcult  thou  serve,  and  shalt  swear  by  his  name.  Ye  shall  not  go  after  other  gods,  of 

15  the  gods  of  the  peoples  which  are  round  about  you  ;  for  the  Lord  thy  God  in  the  midst  of 
thee  is  a  jealous  God  ;  le.st  the  anger  of  the  Lord  thy  God  be  kindled  against  thee,  and  he 
destroy  thee  from  off  the  face  of  the  earth. 

16  Ye  shall  not  tempt  the  Lord  your  God,  as  ye  tempted  him  in  Massah.  Ye  shall  diligently 

17  keep  the  commandments  of  the  Lord  your  God,  and  his  testimonies,  and  his  statutes,  which 

18  he  hath  commanded  thee.  And  thou  shalt  do  that  which  is  right  and  good  in  the  sight  of  the 
Lord  :  that  it  may  be  well  with  thee,  and  that  thou  mayest  go  in  and  possess  the  good  land 

19  which  the  Lord  sware  unto  thy  fathers,  to  thrust  out  all  thine  enemies  from  before  thee,  as 
the  Lord  hath  spoken. 

7  1  When  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  bring  thee  into  the  land  whither  thou  goest  to  possess  it, 
and  shall  cast  out  many  nations  before  thee,  the  Hittite,  and  the  Girgashite,  and  the  Amorite. 
and  the  C’anaanite,  and  the  Perizzite,  and  the  Hivite,  and  the  Jebusite,  seven  nations  greater  and 

2  mightier  than  thou  ;  and  when  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  deliver  them  up  before  thee,  and  thou 
shalt  smite  them  ;  then  thou  shalt  utterly  destroy  them  ;  thou  shalt  make  no  covenant  with 

3  them,  nor  shew  mercy  unto  them  :  neither  shalt  thou  make  marriages  with  them  ;  thy  daugh- 

4  ter  thou  shalt  not  give  unto  his  son,  nor  his  daughter  shalt  thou  take  unto  thy  son.  For  he 
will  turn  away  thy  son  from  following  me,  that  they  may  serve  other  gods  :  so  will  the  anger 

5  of  the  Lord  be  kindled  against  you,  and  he  will  destroy  thee  quickly.  But  thus  shall  ye  deal 
with  them  ;  ye  shall  break  down  their  altars,  and  dash  in  pieces  their  pillars,  and  hew  down 

6  their  Asherim,  and  burn  their  graven  images  with  fire.  For  thou  art  an  holy  people  unto  the 
Lord  thy  God  ;  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  chosen  thee  to  be  a  peculiar  people  unto  himself, 

7  above  all  peoples  that  are  upon  the  face  of  the  earth.  The  Lord  did  not  set  his  love  upon  you, 
nor  choo><e  you,  because  ye  were  more  in  number  than  any  people  ;  for  ye  were  the  fewest  of 

8  all  peoples  :  but  because  the  Lord  loveth  you,  and  because  he  would  keep  the  oath  which  he 
sware  unto  your  fathers,  hath  the  Lord  brought  you  out  with  a  mighty  hand,  and  redeemed 

9  you  out  of  the  house  of  bondage,  from  the  hand  of  Pharaoh  king  of  Egypt.  ILnow  therefore 

41 


642 


SECTION  183.  SECOND  PARTING  ADDRESS  {BEGUN). 


that  the  Loed  thy  God,  he  is  God  ;  the  faithful  God,  which  keepeth  covenant  and  mercy  with 

10  them  that  love  him  and  keep  his  commandments  to  a  thousand  generations  ;  and  repayeth 
them  that  hate  him  to  their  face,  to  destroy  them  :  he  will  not  be  slack  to  him  that  hateth 

11  him,  he  will  repay  him  to  his  face.  Thou  shalt  therefore  keep  the  commandment,  and  the 
statutes,  and  the  judgements,  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  to  do  them. 

12  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  because  ye  hearken  to  these  judgements,  and  keep,  and  do  them, 
that  the  Loed  thy  God  shall  keep  with  thee  the  covenant  and  the  mercy  which  he  sware  unto 

l.>  thy  fathers  ;  and  he  will  love  thee,  and  bless  thee,  and  multiply  thee  :  he  will  also  bless  the 
fruit  of  thy  body  and  the  fruit  of  thy  ground,  thy  corn  and  thy  wine  and  thine  oil,  the  in¬ 
crease  of  thy  kine  and  the  j'oung  of  thy  flick,  in  the  land  which  he  sware  unto  thy  fathers  to 

11  give  thee.  Thou  shalt  be  blessed  above  all  peoples  :  there  shall  not  be  male  or  female  barren 

15  among  you,  or  among  your  cattle.  And  the  Loed  will  take  away  from  thee  all  sickness  ;  and 
he  will  put  none  of  the  evil  diseases  of  Egypt,  which  thou  knowest,  upon  thee,  but  will  lay 

16  them  upon  all  them  that  hate  thee.  And  thou  shalt  consume  all  the  peoples  which  the  Loed 
thy  God  shall  deliver  unto  thee  ;  thine  eye  shall  not  pity  them  :  neither  shalt  thou  serve  their 

17  gods  ;  for  that  will  be  a  snare  unto  thee.  If  thou  shalt  say  in  thine  heart.  These  nations  are 

18  more  than  I  ;  how  can  I  dispossess  them?  thou  shalt  not  be  afraid  of  them  :  thou  shalt  well 

19  remember  what  the  Loed  thy  God  did  unto  Pharaoh,  and  unto  all  Egypt  ;  the  great  tempta 
tions  which  thine  eyes  saw,  and  the  signs,  and  the  wonders,  and  the  mighty  hand,  and  the 
stretched  out  arm,  whereby  the  Loed  thy  God  brought  thee  out  :  so  shall  the  Lord  thy  God 

20  do  unto  all  the  peoples  of  whom  thou  art  afraid  Moreover  the  Loed  thy  God  will  send  the 
hornet  among  them,  until  they  that  are  left,  and  hide  themselves,  perish  from  before  thee. 

21  Thou  shalt  not  be  affrighted  at  them  :  for  the  Loed  thy  God  is  in  the  midst  of  thee,  a  great 

22  God  and  a  terrible.  And  the  Loed  thy  God  will  cast  out  those  nations  before  thee  b}^  little 
and  little  :  thou  mayest  not  consume  them  at  once,  lest  the  beasts  of  the  field  increase  upon 

23  thee.  But  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  deliver  them  up  before  thee,  and  shall  discomfit  them  with 

24  a  great  discomfiture,  until  they  be  destroyed.  And  he  shall  deliver  their  kings  into  thine 
hand,  and  thou  shalt  make  their  name  to  perish  from  under  heaven  :  there  shall  no  man  be 

25  able  to  stand  before  thee,  until  thou  have  destroyed  them.  The  graven  images  of  their  gods 
shall  ye  burn  with  fire  :  thou  shalt  not  covet  the  silver  or  the  gold  that  is  on  them,  nor  take  it 

26  unto  thee,  lest  thou  be  snared  therein  :  for  it  is  an  abomination  to  the  Lord  thy  God  :  and 
thou  shalt  nob  bring  an  abomination  into  thine  house,  and  become  a  devoted  thing  like  unto 
it  :  thou  shalt  utterly  detest  it,  and  thou  shalt  utterly  abhor  it  ;  for  it  is  a  devoted  thing. 


Moses  did  not  deliver  all  that  is  contained  in 
this  book  in  one  continued  speech.  After  the 
preface  (four  chapters)  it  is  to  be  supposed  that 
he  dismissed  the  people  to  consider  what  he 
had  said.  Some  time  after  he  reassembled 
them,  to  put  them  in  mind  of  the  laws  which 
he  so  earnestly  pressed  them  to  observe.  Pat¬ 
rick. - The  second  discourse  contains  a  recapit¬ 

ulation,  with  some  modifications  and  additions, 
.of  the  Law  already  given  on  Mount  Sinai.  Yet 
it  is  not  bare  recapitulation,  or  naked  enact¬ 
ment,  but  every  word  shows  the  heart  of  the 
lawgiver  full  at  once  of  zeal  for  God  and  of  the 
most  fervent  desire  for  the  welfare  of  his  nation. 
It  is  the  Father  no  less  than  the  Legislator 
who  speaks.  And  while  obedience  and  life  are 
throughout  bound  up  together,  it  is  the  obedi¬ 
ence  of  a  loving  heart,  not  a  service  of  formal 
constraint,  which  is  the  burden  of  his  exhorta¬ 
tions.  P.  S. 

4  :  44-49.  This  second  address  is  introduced 
by  a  general  notice  of  what  is  to  form  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  it — viz.,  the  Law,  with  a  more  especial 
description  of  that  in  its  different  parts,  as  con¬ 


sisting  of  ordinances,  statutes,  and  rights  ;  to¬ 
gether  with  a  reference  to  the  place  and  time 

when  this  address  was  delivered.  W.  L.  A. - 

A  statement  manifestly  introductory  to  the  dis¬ 
course  of  the  succeeding  chapters.  Moses  is 
about  to  declare  the  “  testimonies,”  what  comes 
forth  from  God  to  indicate  his  will  ;  and  the 
“  statutes,”  the  defined  duties  of  moral  obliga¬ 
tion  ;  and  the  “  judgments,”  or  mutual  rights 
of  men.  The  conditions  of  his  speech  are  here 
detailed.  Edgar. 

These  verses  introduce  the  main  bod}'^  of  laws 
in  this  book,  just  as  ch.  29  : 1  marks  their  close, 
and  their  relation  to  God’s  earlier  messages. 
They  leave  no  alternative  open,  except  the  ad¬ 
mission  of  the  genuineness  and  Mosaic  origin 
of  the  record  or  else  the  charge  of  a  very  care¬ 
fully  planned  and  most  deliberate  forgery.  The 
twenty-four  chapters  that  follow  must  be  the 
Law  of  God  by  the  hand  of  his  servant  Moses, 
or  a  gigantic  falsehood  from  first  to  last.  And 
yet  they  contain,  along  with  the  Decalogue,  the 
three  texts  by  which  the  Son  of  God  repelled 
and  overcame  the  temptations  of  Satan,  and 


WARNINGS  CONCERNING  PROSPERITY. 


G43 


that  first  and  great  commandment  which  his 
lips  have  singled  out  from  the  whole  VVord  of 
God  as  pre-eminently  Divine.  Our  Lord’s  own 
question  is  thus  unanswerable  ;  “If  ye  believe 
not  his  w'l’itings,  how  can  ye  believe  my 
words  ?’  ’  The  whole  passage  before  us  has  a 
kind  of  legal  precision,  fixing  exactly  the  time 
and  place  when  and  w’liere  this  crowming  por¬ 
tion  of  God’s  Law  was  given  to  his  people. 
The  comment,  “  bejmnd  Jordan  toward  the  sun- 
rising,”  and  the  name  Sion  given  to  Mount 
Hermon  here  only,  are  further  signs  that  the 
words  were  penned  on  the  eastern  side  of  the 
river,  before  the  name  Hermon,  dating  from  the 
conquest,  had  superseded  other  and  earlier 
names.  Birks. 

5  :  1-55,  Moses  reminds  them  of  the  making 
of  the  covenant  at  Horeb,  and  of  the  revelation 
of  the  fundamental  law  of  the  covenant  there. 
As  he  was  about  to  recapitulate  the  laws  which 
God  their  King  had  enacted,  it  was  fitting  that 
he  should  refer  at  the  outset  to  that  covenant 
relation  between  Jehovah  and  Israel  on  which 
all  the  injunctions  of  the  Law  rested.  W.  L.  A. 

6  :  1-3.  Moses  exhorts,  entreats,  wrestles 
with  men,  that  they  may  be  wise  and  good  ; 
there  is  nothing  wanting  that  is  suggestive  of 
ripeness  of  experience,  depth  and  genuineness 
of  sympathy.  Moses  becomes  shepherd  again, 
only  now  men  and  women  and  children,  more 
wayward  than  any  beasts  of  the  earth,  consti¬ 
tute  his  multitudinous  and  most  trying  flock. 
Mark,  though  the  fire  of  his  eye  is  not  dimmed, 
the  growth  of  the  man  in  the  softening  of  his 
voice,  in  his  pastoral  solicitude  for  the  salvation 
of  Israel.  These  chapters  of  Deuteronomy  are 
full  of  exhortation  and  expostulation.  3.  Who¬ 
ever  observes  and  does  the  commandments  of 
God  shall  enter  into  largeness  of  blessing  and 
immeasurable  depth  of  holy  contentment.  No 
man  can  do  right  in  order  that  it  maj"  be  well 
with  him,  but  no  man  can  do  right  without  its 
being  consequentially  well  with  every  faculty  of 
his  mind,  every  emotion  of  his  spirit,  every  out- 
going  of  his  life,  Moses  is  already  preaching 
the  Sermon  upon  the  Mount  according  to  the 
measure  of  the  light  which  made  up  his  ancient 
day  What  is  he  now  doing  but  saying,  “  Seek 
ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  his  righteous¬ 
ness  ;  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto 
you”?  “  Hear  therefore,  O  Israel,  and  observe 
to  do  the  commandment  of  God  ;  that  it  may  be 
well  with  thee,  and  that  ye  may  increase  might¬ 
ily.  ”  Our  business  is  with  the  “  hearing”  and 
the  “  observing,”  and  God’s  business  is  with 

the  result  of  blessing,  J.  P, - The  forms  in 

which  the  rewards  of  loyalty  to  God  will  show 


themselves  are  very  varied.  The  individual  will 
find  that  godliness  has  “  promise  of  the  life  that 
now  is,  and  of  that  which  is  to  come.”  The 
family  will  find  that  ”  he  blesseth  the  habita¬ 
tion  of  the  just.”  The  city  will  find  that  the 
keeping  of  God’s  commandments  is  among  the 
things  “  which  belong  unto  its  peace.”  And 
“  the  righteous  nation  which  keepeth  the  truth” 
will  find  that  “  salvation  doth  God  appoint  for 
walls  and  bulwarks.”  Mercifully  meeting  us  on 
the  low  ground  on  which  we  too  frequently  stand 
in  looking  out  for  profit,  God  would  raise  us  up 
to  the  higher  platform  of  a  pure,  self-abandon¬ 
ing  self-forgetfulness  and  love,  in  which  we 
are  content  to  be  nothing,  that  God  may  be  all 
in  all.  C.  C. 

10-12.  The  Israelites  were  on  the  point  of 
quitting  a  nomad  life,  in  which  they  had  lived 
in  a  great  degree  aloof  from  other  nations,  for  a 
fixed  and  settled  abode  in  the  midst  of  them  ; 
were  exchanging  a  condition  of  comparative 
poverty,  in  which  they  possessed  nothing  ex¬ 
cept  what  they  carried,  for  “  great  and  goodly 
cities,  houses  full  of  all  good  things,”  etc. 
There  was  then  before  them  a  double  danger  ; 
that  namely  of  a  God-forgetting  worldliness, 
and  that  of  a  false  tolerance  of  the  idolatries 
practised  by  those  about  to  become  their  neigh¬ 
bors.  The  former  error  Moses  strives  to  guard 
against  in  the  verses  before  us.  Espin. 

12.  Beware,  lest  tSioa  forget  tlie 
Lord.  The  enjoyment  of  the  good  things  of 
this  life  which  God  gives  is  accompanied  with 
the  danger  of  forgetting  him,  and  of  clinging  to 
the  gods  of  nature,  as  has  been  the  case  with 
many  heathen  people.  The  remembrance  of 
God’s  benefits  and  chastisements  and  of  His  in¬ 
terference  in  their  history,  was  to  serve  to  the 
people  of  Israel  to  counterbalance  this  danger. 

GerL - We  are  born  into  the  possession  of 

riches.  The  poorest  man  in  the  land  is  an  in¬ 
heritor  of  all  but  infinite  wealth,  in  every  de¬ 
partment  of  civilization.  Men  to-day  enjoy  the 
liberty  for  which  other  men  paid  their  lives. 
Coming  into  a  civilization  so  ripe  and  rich, 
having  everything  made  ready  to  our  bands,  the 
whole  system  of  society  telephoned  so  that  we 
can  communicate  with  distant  friends  and  bring 
them  within  hearing,  the  table  loaded  with 
everything  which  a  health}’'  appetite  can  desire 
— all  these  things  constitute  a  temptation,  if  not 
rightly  received.  Moses  drew  the  picture,  and 
then  said— “  Beware.”  In  the  time  of  prosper¬ 
ity,  and  fulness,  and  overflow — “then  beware 
lest  thou  forget  the  Lord  ”  Ever  hear  this 
word  of  caution— “  beware.”  When  the  harvest 
is  the  best  harvest  that  ever  was  grown  in  our 


G44 


SECTION  183.  SECOND  PARTING  ADDRESS  {BEGUN). 


fields,  then — “beware,”  When  health  is  long-  | 
continued  and  the  doctor  a  stranger  in  the 
house,  then— “  beware.”  When  house  is  added 
to  house  and  land  to  land,  then — “  beware.” 

J.  P. 

13,  In  the  Old  Testament  piety  is  frequently 
named  the  fear  of  the  Lord  ;  perhaps  as  fre¬ 
quently  as  in  the  New  Testament  it  is  named 
love.  Not  that  either  is  peculiar  to  these  parts 
of  Scripture  respectively  ;  but  good  men  are 
oftenest  spoken  of  in  the  Old  Testament  as  fear¬ 
ing,  and  in  the  New  Testament  as  loving.  Good 
men  loved  God  then,  and  good  men  fear  him 
now  ;  but  Old  Testament  love  was  much  like 
fear,  and  New  Testament  fear  is  much  like  love. 
Abraham  and  Moses  fear  while  they  draw  near 
in  filial  belief  ;  but  John,  while  he  reverences, 
rests  upon  the  very  bosom  of  his  God.  J.  W.  A. 

15.  By  the  help  of  natural  reason  we  may 
know  there  is  a  God,  the  first  cause  and  orig¬ 
inal  of  all  things  ;  but  his  essence,  attributes, 
and  will  cannot  be  discerned  by  us  but  through 
faith  in  his  Divine  revelation.  He  that  walks 
without  this  light  walks  in  darkness,  though  he 
may  strike  out  some  faint  and  glimmering 
sparkles  of  his  own.  And  he  that,  out  of  the 
gross  and  wooden  dictates  of  his  natural  reason, 
carves  out  a  religion  to  himself,  is  but  a  more 
refined  idolater  than  those  who  worship  stocks 
and  stones,  hammering  an  idol  out  of  his  fancy 
and  adoring  the  works  of  his  own  imagination. 
For  this  reason  God  is  nowhere  said  to  be  jeal¬ 
ous,  but  upori.  the  account  of  his  worship. 
Bunyan. 

1§,  19.  Whether  our  earthly  circumstances 
are  helps  or  hindrances  to  us  Godward  will  de¬ 
pend  much  more  on  what  webring  to  them  than 
on  what  they  bring  to  us.  And  however,  on  the 
side  of  tliis  life,  things  may  favor  us  and  cir¬ 
cumstances  befriend,  it  is  only  as  they  help  us 
to  serve  God  better  that  they  are  really  bless¬ 
ings  to  us  ;  it  is  “  well  ”  with  us  only  when  God 
is  well  pleased  with  us  So  much  stress  did 
Moses  attach  to  the  maintenance  of  unswerving 
loyalty  to  God,  that  he  intimates  that  the  pos¬ 
session  of  the  laud  is  secured  to  them  only  so 
far  as  they  are  true  to  their  great  Deliverer. 

C  C. 

7  :  S-4,  The  Israelites  were  about  to  enter 
on  a  country  occupied  by  idolaters,  and  they 
are  commanded  not  to  spare  them  or  to  allow 
them  to  continue  in  their  proximity,  or  to  have 
any  friendly  relations  with  them.  The  Lord 
would  cast  out  these  nations,  and  deliver  them, 
though  greater  and  mightier  than  they,  into 
their  hands  ;  and  they  were  to  smite  them  and 
place  them  under  the  ban  ;  they  were  to  make 


no  covenant  with  them  nor  form  any  alliances 
with  them,  lest  they  should  thus  be  drawn  into 
idolatry,  and  so  the  anger  of  the  Lord  be  kindled 
against  them,  and  his  vengeance  brought  upon 
them.  W.  L.  A. 

I -II.  Israel  forewarned  against  a  false  toler¬ 
ation  of  idolatry.  Commerce  with  the  idolatrous 
nations  among  which  they  were  about  to  live 
might  easily  render  them  dangerously  familiar 
with  superstitions  and  abominations,  against 
which  it  was  a  primary  purpose  of  the  whole 
legislation  to  raise  up  a  witness  and  a  protest. 
Hence  the  stringency  of  the  command  given 
verses  2-5,  and  repeated  verses  23-26,  to  ex¬ 
communicate  the  idolatrous  nations  and  all  be¬ 
longing  to  them,  and  to  exterminate  their  de¬ 
graded  worship  with  all  its  appliances.  The 
renewal  of  the  promises  in  verses  12  sqq.  is  but 
set  forth  as  supplying  a  motive  for  the  more 
zealous  and  effectual  execution  of  these  duties  ; 
and  thus  the  destruction  of  idolatry  and  idola¬ 
ters  within  the  sacred  precincts  of  the  chosen 
people  appears  as  the  leading  topic  of  this  part 
of  Moses’  discourse.  The  words  and  phrases 
emploj^ed  will  be  found  parallel  to  various  pas¬ 
sages  of  the  preceding  books.  Espin 

2.  Utterly  destroy  tlieiii.  One  of  the 
chief  reasons  which  made  this  destruction  nec¬ 
essary^  was  the  consideration  that  if  any  of  the 
old  inhabitants  were  left  they  would  prove  a 
snare  to  those  who  succeeded  them  in  the  coun¬ 
try  ;  would  draw  and  seduce  them  by  degrees 
into  the  vices  and  corruptions  which  prevailed 
among  themselves.  Vices  of  all  kinds,  but  vices 
especially  of  the  licentious  kind,  are  astonish¬ 
ingly  infectious.  Paley. 

*  3,  4.  All  care  to  prevent  idolatry  w’ould  prob¬ 

ably  have  been  useless,  without  prohibiting  in¬ 
termarriages  ;  and  putting  a  stop  to  such  inter¬ 
course  and  entertainments  as  would  have  proved 
an  occasion  either  of  intermarriages  or  of  fa¬ 
miliarities  no  less  dangerous.  Lovoman. - The 

people  of  these  abominations  must  not  be  min¬ 
gled  with  the  holy  seed,  lest  they  corrupt  them. 
Better  that  all  these  lives  should  be  lost  from 
the  earth,  than  that  religion  and  the  true  wor¬ 
ship  of  God  should  be  lost  in  Israel.  Thus  we 
must  deal  with  lusts  that  war  against  our  souls  ; 
God  has  delivered  them  into  our  hands  by  that 
promise.  Sin  shall  noi  have  dominion  over  you,  un¬ 
less  it  be  your  own  fault  ;  let  not  us  then  make 
covenants  with  them,  or  show  them  any  mercy, 
but  mortify  and  crucify  them,  and  utterly  de 
stroy  them.  H. 

5-8,  They  were  not  only  to  have  no  fellow¬ 
ship  with  the  idolaters,  but  they  were  to  root 
out  their  idolatry,  everting  their  altars  and  de- 


PLEA  FROM  GOD'S  LOVE  AND  FAITHFULNESS. 


645 


atroying  their  idols  ;  and  this  because  they  were 
a  holy  people,  graciously  chosen  of  God  to  be 
his  special  possession— a  high  privilege  and 
honor  which  they  were  to  be  careful  not  to  cast 
away.  W,  L.  A. 

7.  Set  his  love  upon  you.  The  Hebrew 
verb  meaning  primarily  to  cleave  to,  to  be  at¬ 
tached  to,  is  used  to  express  ardent  and  loving 
affection.  The  fewest  of  all  people.  It  might 
have  been  supposed  that,  in  choosing  a  people  to 
be  his  special  treasure,  the  Almighty  would  have 
selected  some  one  of  the  great  nations  of  the 
World  ;  but,  instead  of  that,  he  had  Chosen  one 
of  the  smallest.  They  had,  indeed,  grown  till 
now  they  were  as  the  stars  for  multitude  ;  but  it 
was  not  in  prospect  of  this  tliat  they  were 
chosen.  The  election  of  Israel  was  purely  of 
grace.  W,  L.  A. 

§.  Because  the  Lt>rd  loved  you.  In¬ 
stead  of  saying,  He  hath  chosen  you  out  of  love 
to  your  fathers,  as  in  ch  4  :  37,  Moses  brings  out 
in  this  place  love  to  the  people  of  Israel  as  the 
Divine  motive,  not  for  choosing  Israel,  but  for 
leading  it  out  and  delivering  it  from  the  slave- 
house  of  Egypt,  by  which  God  had  practically 
carried  out  the  election  of  the  people,  that  he 
might  thereby  allure  the  Israelites  to  a  reciproc¬ 
ity  of  love.  KeiL - The  word  love  is  an  Old 

Testament  word.  The  tenderest  expressions  ever 
used  by  heaven  to  earth  are  reported  not  in  the 
New  Testament,  but  in  the  Old,  That  the  Lord 
loved  Israel  was  shown  by  long-suffering,  by 
hopeful  patience,  by  pouring  down  blessing 
upon  blessing,  notwithstanding  the  ingratitude 

of  the  people.  J.  P. - The  choice  of  Israel 

was  with  a  view  to  their  being  a  holy  people 
and  a  special  people  unto  the  Lord,  Electing 
love  extended  to  a  nation  or  a  people  is  really  a 
Divine  investment.  The  result  is  the  holiness 
and  consecration  of  the  people.  It  is  this  holi¬ 
ness.  this  sense  of  consecration,  which  proves 
the  electing  love  of  God.  And  this  is  all  the 
more  intense  when  it  is  seen  clearly  that  God’s 
love  is  manifested,  not  on  the  ground  of  national 
or  personal  merit,  but  as  a  matter  of  free  grace. 
Edgar. 

9.  The  faitliful  Oocl.  We  read  of  the 
living  God,  the  mighty  God,  the  glorious  Lord 
God.  and  in  the  text  of  the  faithful  God.  The 
Apostle  Paul  is  fond  of  applying  the  word 
“  faithful  ”  to  God  and  to  Jesus  Christ,  thus  : 
“  Faithful  is  he  that  calleth  you,  who  also  will 
do  It,”  “  The  Lord  is  faithful,  who  shall  stab- 
lish  you,  and  keep  you  from  evil.”  “  God  is 
faithful,  who  will  not  suffer  you  to  be  tempted 
above  that  ye  are  able.”  “  God  is  faithful,  by 
whom  ye  were  called  unto  the  fellowship  of  his 


Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.”  The  Apostle  John, 
too,  in  a  remarkable  passage,  avails  himself  of 
the  same  descriptive  term  :  “  If  we  confess  our 
sins,  he  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our 
sins.”  If  God  is  faithful  himself,  he  expects 
faithfulness  in  others.  He  praises  faithfulness 
in  those  who  have  completed  their  course  of  life 
honorably  :  “  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  ser¬ 
vant.”  He  would  see  himself  in  others.  J.  P. 

Keepetlft  covenant.  The  tenor  of  the 
covenant  into  which  they  were  taken  ;  it  was  in 
short  this,  That  as  they  were  to  God,  so  God 
would  be  to  them.  He  is  God,  God  indeed, 
God  alone,  the  faithful  God,  able  and  ready  not 
only  to  fulfil  his  own  promises,  but  to  answer 
all  the  just  expectations  of  his  worshippers,  and 
he  will  certainly  keep  covenant  and  mercy — 
that  is,  ”  show  mercy  according  to  covenant,  to 
them  that  love  him  and  keep  his  commandments" 
(and  in  vain  do  we  pretend  to  love  him,  if  we 
do  not  make  conscience  of  his  commandments) ; 
”  and  this”  (as  is  here  added  for  the  explication 
of  the  promise  in  the  second  commandment), 
“  not  only  to  thousands  of  persons,  but  to  thou¬ 
sands  of  generations.  So  inexhaustible  is  the 
fountain,  so  constant  the  streams  !”  Just  to  his 
enemies,  he  repayeth  them  that  hate  him  (verse  10). 
Wilful  sinners  are  haters  of  God  ;  for  the  carnal 
mind  is  enmity  against  him.  Idolaters  are  so 
in  a  special  manner,  for  they  are  in  league  with 

his  rivals.  H. - The  “  haters  of  God  ”  or  the 

disobedient  were  threatened  with  temporal 
calamities  extending  “  to  the  third  or  fourth 
generation  of  their  children  but  the  “  lovers 
of  God  ”  or  the  obedient,  who  should  keep  these 
his  commandments,  were  encouraged  by  the 
promise  that  God  would  show  mercy  unto  their 
children  to  the  thousandth  generation,  or  to  the 
remotest  ages.  Thus  the  idolatries  of  the  Jew¬ 
ish  nation  drew  down  on  themselves  and  on 
their  children  the  Babylonish  captivity  of  sev¬ 
enty  years,  including  the  third  and  fourth  gen¬ 
eration  of  the  offenders  ;  while  the  righteous 
posterity  of  the  true  Israelites,  in  the  regenera¬ 
tion  will  flourish  till  the  end  of  the  world.  How 
infinitely  does  the  goodness  transcend  the 
severity  of  God  !  Hales. 

13-15.  Godliness  has  promise  of  the  life 
that  now  is.  It  naturally  tends  to  pros  peri  t}’’. 
It  condemns  idleness,  waste,  dishonesty,  and 
the  whole  aeries  of  vices  which  wreck  health, 
squander  property,  and  destroy  confidence. 
Where  religion  prevails,  men  will  be  industri¬ 
ous,  conscientious,  orderly,  and  reliable.  But, 
in  addition  to  this  natural  tendency,  there  rests 
on  the  good  man’s  lot  what  is  distinctively 
spoken  of  as  the  Divine  blessing.  This  will 


646 


SECTION  183.  SECOND  PARTING  ADDRESS  {BEGUN). 


mingle  itself  with  all  lie  has  and  with  all  he 
does.  It  gives  him  favor  in  the  eyes  of  men. 
It  opens  lip  his  way  for  him  (Ps.  37  : 5).  It 
protects  him  from  injury  (Ps.  37  :  33,  39).  It 
overrules  all  events  and  influences,  so  that  they 
work  for  his  good.  This  is  forcibly  illustrated 
in  the  text,  where  blessing  is  represented  as 
descending  on  the  home,  on  the  products  of  the 
land,  on  flocks  and  herds,  and  on  the  bodily 
life.  The  counterpart  of  the  blessing  is  the 
curse  (verse  15).  The  wicked  often  prosper,  but 
it  is  prosperity  unblessed  and  unenduring. 
Orr. 

From  verses  18  to  24  we  have  the 
cheering  voice  of  the  great  lawgiver,  grandly 
uttering,  in  his  hundred  and  twentieth  year, 
words  to  empower  the  heart,  and  showing  Israel, 
in  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  hosts,  how  much 
more  there  is  to  animate  them  than  there  can 
possibly  be  to  discourage  and  depress.  He  re¬ 
minds  them  no  fewer  than  eight  times  of  the 
name  of  the  Lord  their'  God  ;  bids  them  look 
back  to  past  miracles  and  wonders,  and  to  see 
in  them  pledges  of  future  help  ;  shows  them 
how  the  providential  action  of  God,  which  \\ms 
for  them,  would  be  against  their  foes  ;  assures 
them  that  God  would  be  among  them  as  an 
ever-present  Helper  and  Friend  ;  and  points 
out  that,  though  the  process  of  driving  out  the 
Canaanites  might  be  slow,  yet  if  it  ivere  done 
more  rapidly,  it  would  be  attended  with  great 
peril  from  other  and  unexpected  quarters  ; 
that  both  tribes  of  men  and  herds  of  beasts 
would  be  kept  in  abejmnce  for  their  sakes  ;  so 
that,  though  they  were  led  by  a  tedious  route,  it 
would  be  the  safest  way  !  The  whole  passage  is 
full  of  interest  and  instruction  for  our  every-day 
life.  C.  C. 

2S-25.  They  did  not  execute  his  sentence 
by  their  own  power.  Their  commission  rau, 

The  Lord  thy  God  shall  deliver  them  unto 
thee,  and  shall  destroy  them  with  a  mighty  de¬ 
struction.  And  he  shall  deliver  their  kings 
into  thy  hand,  and  thou  shalt  destroy  their  name 
from  under  heaven,”  etc.  It  is  very  evident, 
therefore,  that  the  Israelites  could  not  have 
been  actuated  by  any  of  the  motives  that  usu¬ 
ally  actuate  men  in  war.  At  every  step  they 
were  made  to  feel  that  their  only  hope  was  in 
humble  reliance  upon  Divine  promises  and 
obedience  to  the  Divine  commands.  There 
was  no  temptation  to  avarice,  for  they  were  to 
take  no  spoil,  but  utterly  to  destroy  everything 
captured.  They  could  not.  be  animated  by  feel¬ 
ings  of  vengeance,  for  the  idea  kept  ever  before 
their  minds  as  the  reason  for  the  destruction  is 
that  it  is  the  base  and  hateful  idolatry  that  is  to 


be  destroyed.  The  Law,  indeed,  required  even 
a  Hebrew  city  to  be  utterly  exterminated  when 
given  up  thus  to  idolatry,  just  as  a  Canaanitish 
city.  In  short,  it  is  evident  that  the  reason  fur 
choosing  Israel  as  the  instrument  for  inflicting 
judgment  was  that  Israel  itself  should  be  thor¬ 
oughly  estranged  from  idolatry  and  the  seduc¬ 
tions  of  false  religion.  It  was  with  a  view  to 
put  an  impassable  gulf  between  them  and  tho 
idolatrous  nations.  S.  R. 

*24,  The  depraved  state  of  the  morals  of  the 
Canaanites  is  too  notorious  to  require  any 
proof.  They  were  a  wicked  people  in  the  time 
of  Abraham,  and  even  then  were  devoted  by 
God  to  destruction  ;  but  “  their  iniquity  was 
not  then  full.”  In  the  time  of  Moses  they  were 
idolaters  ;  sacrificers  of  their  own  infants  ;  de- 
vourers  of  human  flesh  ;  addicted  to  unnatural 
lust  ;  immersed  in  the  filthiness  of  all  manner 
of  vice.  It  was  agreeable  to  God’s  moral  jus¬ 
tice  to  exterminate  so  wicked  a  people.  He 
made  the  Israelites  the  executors  of  his  ven¬ 
geance  ;  and  in  doing  this  he  gave  such  an  evi¬ 
dent  and  terrible  proof  of  his  abomination  of 
vice  as  could  not  fail  to  strike  the  surrounding 
nations  wdth  astonishment  and  terror,  and  to 
impress  on  the  minds  of  the  Israelites  what 
they  were  to  expect  if  they  followed  the  example 
of  the  nations  whom  he  commanded  them  to 
cut  off.  The  conduct  of  Moses  toward  the 
Canaanites  would  have  been  wrong  had  he  acted 
by  his  ow'ii  authority  alone  ;  but  it  were  as  rea¬ 
sonable  to  attribute  cruelty  and  murder  to  the 
judge  of  the  land  in  condemning  criminals  to 
death,  as  to  condemn  the  conduct  of  Moses  in 
executing  the  command  of  God.  Bp.  Watson. 

25,  Whatsoever  had  been  employed  in  idol¬ 
atrous  worship  was  so  detestable  to  the  Divine 
majesty,  that  he  would  not  have  it  converted 
to  any  ordinary  use.  but  ^  utterly  destroyed  ; 
therefore  he  commanded  them  not  to  bring  any 
of  the  silver  and  gold  which  had  belonged  to 
idols,  which  he  calls  an  “  aboiuination,”  into 
their  houses  to  be  employed  for  any  private  use 
whatsoever.  If  a  man  did,  he  became  “  an 
accursed  thing  that  is,  was  devoted  to  de- 

.struction,  as  the  thing  itself  was  This  ap¬ 
peared  afterward  in  the  example  of  Achan  (Josh. 
7),  who  took  a  wedge  of  gold  and  a  Babylonish 
garment  for  his  own  private  use  when  it  had 
been  “  accursed  ”  by  God’s  express  command, 
and  therefore  was  stoned  to  death.  Bp.  Patrick. 

26,  Speaking  of  heathen  abomination,  Moses 
says,  “  Thou  shalt  utterly  detest  it,  and  thou 
shalt  utterly  abhor  it.”  There  is  no  middle 
feeling  ;  there  is  no  intermediate  way  of  deal¬ 
ing  with  bad  things.  ‘  ‘  If  thy  right  hand  offend 


SECTION  184.  SECOND  PARTING  ADDRESS  {CONTINUED). 


647 


thee,  oi;t  it  off  ;  '  “  if  thy  right  eye  offend 

thee,  pluck  it  out.”  *'  Abhor  that  which  is 
evil  ;  cleave  to  that  which  is  good.”  Thus  the 
Testaments  are  one  ;  the  moral  tone  is  the 
same  ;  the  stern  law  never  yields  to  time — its 


phrase  changes,  its  words  may  come  and  go,  its 
forms  may  take  upon  them  the  color  of  the 
transient  times,  but  the  inner  spirit  of  right¬ 
eousness  is  the  Spirit  of  God,  without  begin¬ 
ning,  without  measure,  without  end.  J.  P. 


Section  184. 

SECOND  PARTING  ADDRESS  (CONTINUED):  REMEMBRANCE  OF  JEHOVAH^ S  WIL¬ 
DERNESS  DEALINGS,  AND  PROSPECT  OF  THE  GOODLY  CANAAN  INHERITANCE 
PRESSED  AS  MOTIVES  TO  OBEDIENT  SERVICE.  WARNING  AGAINST  FORGET¬ 
FULNESS  OF  GOD  AND  PRIDE  OF  HEART. 

Deuteeonomy  8  : 1-20. 

De.  @  1  All  the  commandment  which  I  command  thee  this  day  shall  ye  observe  to  do,  that 
ye  may  live,  and  multiply,  and  go  in  and  possess  the  land  which  the  Loed  sware  unto  your 

2  fathers.  And  thou  shalt  remember  all  the  way  which  the  Loed  thy  God  hath  led  thee  these 
forty  years  in  the  wilderness,  that  he  might  humble  thee,  to  prove  thee,  to  know  what  was  in 

3  thine  heart,  whether  thou  wouldest  keep  his  commandments,  or  no.  And  lie  humbled  thee, 
and  suffered  thee  to  hunger,  and  fed  thee  with  manna,  which  thou  knewest  not,  neither  did 
thy  fathers  know  ;  that  he  might  make  thee  know  that  man  doth  not  live  by  bread  only,  but 

4  by  every  thing  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Loed  doth  man  live.  Thy  raiment 

5  waxed  not  old  upon  thee,  neither  did  thy  foot  swell,  these  forty  years.  And  thou  shalt  con¬ 
sider  in  thine  heart,  that,  as  a  man  chasteneth  his  son,  so  the  Loed  thy  God  chasteneth  thee. 

6  And  thou  shalt  keep  the  commandments  of  the  Loed  thy  God,  to  walk  in  his  ways,  and  to  fear 

7  him.  For  the  Loed  thy  God  bringeth  thee  into  a  good  land,  a  land  of  brooks  of  water,  of 

8  fountains  and  depths,  springing  forth  in  valleys  and  hills  ;  a  land  of  wheat  and  barley,  and 

9  vines  and  fig  trees  and  pomegranates  ;  a  land  of  oil  olives  and  honey  ;  a  land  wherein  thou 
shalt  eat  bread  without  scarceness,  thou  shalt  not  lack  any  thing  in  it  ;  a  land  whose  stones 

10  are  iron,  and  out  of  whose  hills  thou  mayest  dig  brass.  And  thou  shalt  eat  and  be  full,  and 

11  thou  shalt  bless  the  Loed  thy  God  for  the  good  land  w'hich  he  hath  given  thee.  Beware  lest 
thou  forget  the  Loed  thy  God,  in  not  keeping  his  commandments,  and  his  judgements,  and 

12  his  statutes,  which  I  command  thee  this  day  :  lest  when  thou  hast  eaten  and  art  full,  and  hast 

13  built  goodly  houses,  and  dwelt  therein  ;  and  when  thy  herds  and  thy  flocks  multiply,  and  thy 

14  silver  and  thy  gold  is  multiplied,  and  all  that  thou  hast  is  multiplied  ;  then  thine  heart  be 
lifted  up,  and  thou  forget  the  Loed  thy  God,  which  brought  thee  forth  out  of  the  land  of 

15  Egj'pt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage  ;  who  led  thee  through  the  great  and  terrible  wilderness, 
wherein  were  fiery  serpents  and  scorpions,  and  thirsty  ground  where  was  no  wmter  ;  w^ho 

16  brought  thee  forth  water  out  of  the  rock  of  flint  ;  who  fed  thee  in  the  wilderness  with  manna, 
which  thy  fathers  knew  not  ;  that  he  might  humble  thee,  and  that  he  might  prove  thee,  to  do 

17  thee  good  at  thy  latter  end  :  and  thou  say  in  thine  heart.  My  power  and  the  might  of  mine 

18  hand  hath  gotten  me  this  wealth.  But  thou  shalt  remember  the  Loed  thy  God,  for  it  is  he 
that  giveth  thee  power  to  get  wealth  ;  that  he  may  establish  his  covenant  which  he  sware  unto 

19  thy  fathers,  as  at  this  day.  And  it  shall  be,  if  thou  shalt  forget  the  Loed  thy  God,  and  walk 
after  other  gods,  and  serve  them,  and  worship  them,  I  testify  against  you  this  day  that  ye  shall 

20  surely  perish.  As  the  nations  which  the  Loed  makethto  perish  before  you,  so  shall  ye  perish  ; 
because. ye  would  not  hearken  unto  the  voice  of  the  Loed  your  God. 


S-S,  That  they  might  be  induced  the  more 
faithfully  to  observe  all  the  commandments 
which  had  been  enjoined  upon  them  so  as  to 
go  on  and  prosper,  they  are  called  to  remember 
the  experiences  of  the  forty  years  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,  when  God  guided  them  and  disciplined 
them  for  their  good.  He  humbled  them  that  he 
might  test  the  state  of  their  heart  and  affections 


toward  him,  using  the  distress  and  privations 
to  which  they  were  subjected  as  means  of  bring¬ 
ing  out  what  was  in  them,  and  of  leading  them 
to  feel  their  entire  dependence  on  him  for  help, 
sustenance,  and  guidance.  Not  only  by  com¬ 
mands  difficult  to  be  obeyed  laid  on  men,  and 
by  mighty  works  done  in  their  view,  does  God 
prove  men  ;  but  also  by  afflictions  and  calam- 


648 


SECTION  184.  SECOND  PARTING  ADDRESS  {CONTINUED), 


ities,  as  well  as  by  benefits.  Humbled  so  as  to 
see  Ills  own  weakness,  chastised  out  of  all  self- 
conceit  by  affliction,  man  is  brought  to  submit 
to  God,  to  hear  and  obey  him  ;  and  along  with 
this  the  experience  of  God’s  goodness  tends  to  j 
draw  men,  in  grateful  acknowledgment  of  his  ! 
mercy  and  bounty,  to  yield  themselves  to  him 
and  sincerely  and  lovingly  to  serve  him.  W.  L.  A. 

Their  great  thanksgiving  festivals  ;  their  nu¬ 
merous  thank-otferings  ;  their  vows  ;  their  re¬ 
quired”  tithes— all  concur  in  this  one  idea  -the 
recognition  of  God  as  the  Giver  of  all  blessings, 
their  great  personal  and  national  Benefactor. 
No  pains  was  spared  to  impress  and  enforce 
this  great  truth.  The  long  course  of  God’s  re¬ 
deeming  mercies  toward  their  nation  ;  the  rescue 
from  Egyptian  bondage  ;  the  miraculous  sup¬ 
plies  of  bread  and  water  forty  years  in  the  des¬ 
ert  ;  the  gift  of  the  goodly  land  of  Canaan — 
these  were  the  staple  facts  of  their  history  which 
God  sought  to  engrave  upon  the  national  heart 
and  to  work  into  the  living  thought  of  the 
thousands  of  Israel.  By  every  hopeful  appli¬ 
ance  their  religious  system  was  shaped  to  keep 
alive  and  intensify  these  feelings.  H.  C. 

2,  3,  While  the  whole  period  of  the  wilder¬ 
ness-life  was  strewed  with  tokens  of  goodness 
from  the  hand  of  God,  by  which  he  sought  to 
draw  and  allure  the  people  to  himself,  it  was 
also  the  period  emphatically  of  temptation  and 
trial,  by  which  the  Lord  sought  to  winnow  and 
sift  their  hearts  into  a  state  of  meetness  for  the 
inheritance.  Hence  these  words  of  Moses  ; 
“Thou  shalt  remember  all  the  way  by  which 
the  Lord  thy  God  led  thee  these  forty  years  in 
the  wilderness,  to  humble  thee,  and  to  prove 
thee,  to  know  what  was  in  thine  heart,  whether 
thou  wouldst  keep  his  commandments  or  not. 
And  he  humbled  thee,  and  suffered  thee  to 
hunger,  and  fed  thee  with  manna,  which  thou 
knewest  not,  neither  did  thy  fathers  know  ;  that 
be  might  make  thee  know  that  man  liveth  not 
by  bread  only,  but  by  every  word  that  proceed- 
eth  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  “  This  alter¬ 
nating  process  of  want  and  supply,  of  great  and 
appalling  danger,  ever  ready  to  be  met  by  sud¬ 
den  and  extraordinary  relief,  was  the  grand  test¬ 
ing  process  in  their  history,  by  which  the  latent 
evil  in  their  hearts  was  brought  fully  to  light 
that  it  might  be  condemned  and  purged  out, 
and  by  which  they  were  formed  to  that  humble 
reliance  on  God’s  arm  and  single-hearted  de¬ 
votedness  to  his  fear,  which  alone  could  prepare 
them  for  taking  possession  of  and  permanently 
occupying  the  promised  land.  It  proved  in  the 
issue  too  severe  for  by  far  the  greater  portion  of 
the  original  congregation.  But  for  those  who 


did  enter  and  their  posterity  to  latest  genera¬ 
tions,  it  was  of  the  greatest  moment  to  have 
kept  perpetually  alive  upon  their  minds  the 
peculiar  dealing  of  God  during  that  transition 
j  period  of  their  history,  in  order  to  their  clearly 
!  realizing  the  connection  between  their  continued 
enjoyment  of  the  land,  and  the  refined  and  ele¬ 
vated  state  of  faith  and  love  and  of  firm,  de¬ 
voted  purpose,  to  which  the  training  in  the  wil¬ 
derness  conducted.  P.  F. 

That  the  Israelites  might  be  proved,  purified, 
and  bound  more  and  more  closely  to  God  by 
the  bands  of  love,  of  confidence,  and  of  grati¬ 
tude  ;  that  they  might  be  delivered  from  the 
broken,  cowardly  spirit  which  had  been  engen¬ 
dered  by  a  long-continued  slavery,  and  strength¬ 
ened  till  they  grew  into  a  free,  spirited,  and 
courageous  race — Jehovah  led  his  chosen  pef>ple 
through  the  desert.  There,  amid  the  troubles 
and  calamities,  the  dangers  and  privations  of  a 
desert  life,  they  were  to  receive  continual  proofs 
of  the  mercy  and  faithfulness  of  Jehovah  on 
the  one  hand,  and  of  their  own  uriwnrthiness 
and  natural  obduracy  on  the  other,  But  what 
was  to  have  been  only  a  brief  period  of  trial, 
according  to  the  original  design  and  intention 
of  God,  became,  on  account  of  the  guilt  of  the 
people  and  the  judgment  of  Jehovah,  a  Icng 
period  of  detention  and  j)urification.  Instead 
of  the  two  years’  sojourn  in  the  desert,  which 
would  have  sufficed  for  the  original  purposes, 
forty  years  were  required  to  answer  the  new 
ends  which  had  to  be  accomplished  now.  Thus 
the  period  spent  in  the  wilderness  was  at  tbe 
same  time  one  of  education  and  discipline,  of  iriid 
and  temptation,  of  punishment  and  purijicaiion.  K. 

3.  “  Every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the 
mouth  of  God  ”  is  a  Hebrew  phrase  to  express 
“  everything  that  God  appoints”  or  “  arranges.’  ’ 
It  assumes  that  everj"  appointment  of  God  is 
wise  and  loving  ;  and  asserts  accordingly  that  a 
man’s  life,  that  which  is  his  genuine  and  abid¬ 
ing  life  and  happiness,  cannot  consist  in  oppos¬ 
ing  such  appointments  of  his  Father,  or  in  try¬ 
ing  to  get  free  from  them  as  from  chains  and 
fetters  ;  but  must  consist  in  a  meek  acquies¬ 
cence  in  them,  in  meeting  and  sympathizing 
with  a  Father’s  will  as  revealed  in  them,  and 
thus  by  the  inner  chemistry  of  love  converting 
them  into  food  wherewith  to  nourish  the  life  of 
the  spirit  With  such  life  as  this  in  God,  the 
God  of  grace  and  of  Providence,  the  Governor 
of  the  world,  the  wise  and  loving  Disposer  of 
all  things,  no  man  can  ever  be  in  any  wilder¬ 
ness  where  life  cannot  be  found,  for  God  him¬ 
self,  our  life,  is  there  !  The  universe  thus  be¬ 
comes  an  Eden  to  his  child  !  God  has  so  ad- 


WILDERNESS  TRAINING. 


649 


justed  all  circumstances  with  reference  to  him 
as  a  well-beloved  son  in  Christ,  that  all  things 
appointed  must  prove  the  means  of  perfecting 
his  higher  nature,  enabling  him  to  bring  forth 
more  fruit  to  his  glory.  E.  McLeod. 

4,  The  good  providence  of  God  took  care 
that  the  Israelites  in  the  wilderness  never 
wanted  raiment.  They  were  supplied  partly  by 
the  flocks  and  the  materials  which  they  brought 
out  of  Egypt,  and  partly  by  the  Arabs,  Ishmael- 
ites,  and  neighboring  people  :  so  that  they  had 
change  of  apparel  when  they  stood  in  need  of 
it,  and  were  not  obliged  to  go  barefoot,  ragged, 
and  half-naked  for  want  of  clothes.  God  so 
ordered  the  course  of  things,  that  they  obtained 
whatsoever  was  needful  by  natural  means,  or,  if 
they  failed,  by  a  miraculous  interposition.  Jor- 

iin. - Ordinary  supplies  must  not  lie  shut  out 

of  consideration,  as  regards  the  raiment  of  the 
chosen  people,  as  they  cannot  in  the  similar 
question  regarding  their  victual.  It  may  have 
been  that  these  natural  sources  were  on  occa¬ 
sions  supplemented  by  extraordinary  provi¬ 
dences  of  God,  as  was  undoubtedly  the  case 
with  their  food.  Espin. - As  the  manna  fur¬ 

nished  by  God’s  creative  power  saved  them  from 
hunger,  so  by  God’s  providence  and  care  their 
raiment  was  marvellously  kept  from  deca}",  and 
they  had  not  to  go  barefoot  from  their  sandals 
being  worn  out.  At  the  same  time,  there  is 
no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  Israelites  did  not 
make  use  of  such  supplies  as  were  within  their 
reach  for  purposes  of  clothing,  any  more  than 
that  they  lived  only  on  manna  during  the  forty 
years  of  their  wandering.  W.  L.  A. 

A§i  a  man  clia§teiict]i  lii§  son.  All 
the  afflictions  which  God  had  sent  upon  them, 
he  would  have  them  think  were  not  for  their 
destruction  but  for  their  correction  and  amend¬ 
ment  :  and  therefore  they  ought  to  be  thank¬ 
fully  acknowledged,  as  well  as  his  benefits 

Rdtrick. - God  educated,  disci^jlined,  and 

trained  his  people  as  a  father  does  his  child. 
The  idea  is  not  so  much  that  of  chasiisemerit, 
properly  so  called,  as  that  of  severe  discipline 
and  training.  God  made  them  feel  his  hand 
upon  them,  but  ever  for  their  good  ;  the  end  of 
the  discipline  to  which  they  were  subjected  was 
that  they  might  keep  his  commandments  and 
walk  in  his  ways,  so  as  to  enjoy  his  favor. 

W.  L.  A. - That  which  may  be  said  of  them 

holds  goofl,  in  this  respect,  of  the  life-story  of 
God’s  children  now.  Two  words  would  sum  up 
the  pith  of  their  experience — “  redemption,” 
“  training.”  Redeemed  first,  trained  after- 
ward.  Redeemed,  that  they  might  be  trained  ; 
trained,  that  they  might  become  worthy  of  the 


redemption.  Both  the  redemption  and  the 
training  had  in  Israel’s  case  a  depth  of  meaning 
of  which  the  people  knew  little  at  the  time,  but 
which  Israel’s  God  intended  from  the  first. 
C.  C. 

Let  it  be  deeply  graven  on  our  minds  that 
all  God’s  dealing  with  us,  from  regeneration 
onward,  is  a  discipline,  a  moulding,  a  training, 
an  education.  This  is  sought  by  all  convictions, 
all  applications  of  truth,  all  mercies,  all  chas¬ 
tisements.  His  purpose  is  to  render  us  holy, 
to  raise  us  to  the  perfection  of  our  being,  and 
to  make  us  partakers  of  a  Divine  nature.  The 
work  has  commenced,  and  will  never  cease. 
“  He  that  hath  begun  a  good  work  in  you,  will 
perform  it  until  the  day  of  redemption.”  The 
great  thing  is  the  spiritual  work  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  upon  the  mind  and  heart,  begun  here, 
and  completed,  or  rather  carried  ever  onward 
hereafter.  All  things  are  subsidiary  to  this. 
Whatever  relates  to  our  bodies,  our  friends,  our 
circumstances,  our  temporal  weal  or  woe,  our 
gladness  or  our  tears,  whatever  is  passing  and 
external,  is  subordinate  to  this  great  end  ;  and 
we  miss  the  true  point  of  our  expectations  from 
God  when  we  anxiously  look  to  him  for  any¬ 
thing  short  of  being  made  “  partakers  of  his 
holiness.”  J.  W.  A. 

The  Scriptures  instruct  us  that  all  things  are 
directed  by  God  ;  that  men  are  his  children  ; 
and  that  he  guides  all  events  with  a  paternal 
hand.  Thus  the  aspect  of  things  is  quite 
changed  to  them  that  obey  the  Gospel.  That 
one  feature  in  the  case — that  trials  and  afflic¬ 
tions  are  chastisements,  that  they  spring  not 
from  the  dust,  that  they  rise  not  from  chance 
nor  from  the  passions  of  men,  nor  from  creat¬ 
ures  except  as  instruments  ;  but  that  they  are 
all  previously  ordered,  inflicted  with  design, 
measured  by  wisdom,  controlled  by  power, 
made  subservient  to  holiness — this  one  feature 
alters  the  whole  case  :  all  wears  a  new  and  dif¬ 
ferent  aspect.  The  Christian  knows  that  all 
afflictions  are  part  of  the  paternal  discipline 
which  God  exercises  in  his  family,  and  distinct 
from  those  acts  of  justice  by  which  he  appears 
as  the  governor  of  the  world  and  the  avenger  of 
his  enemies.  “  Whom  the  Lord  loveth  he 
chasteneth,  and  scourgeth  every  son  whom  he 
receiveth.”  Let  none  when  under  affliction 
think  that  they  are  under  God’s  anger,  so  as  to 
have  lost  his  favor  and  forfeited  the  compla¬ 
cency  of  their  Heavenly  Father.  We  should,  in¬ 
deed,  examine  ourselves  to  see  if  there  be  any 
reason  for  particular  calamities,  from  our  pe¬ 
culiar  delinquencies  in  duty  or  from  corruptions 
which  we  have  indulged  ;  and  thus  we  should 


650 


SECTION  184.  SECOND  PARTING  ADDRESS  {CONTINCFED). 


“  turn  unto  him  that  smiteth  us.”  But  we 
should  consider  our  trials  as  springing  from 
love,  as  having  their  origin  in  our  imperfect 
state  of  character,  as  made  necessary  by  our 
sins.  We  should  consider  that  they  are  sent  to 
subdue  in  us  the  inclinations  of  “  the  old  man,” 
and  to  form  in  us  Jesus  Christ,  in  all  his  feat¬ 
ures  of  ”  righteousness  and  true  holiness.”  To 
endure  these  afflictions  and  crosses,  in  some 
way  or  other,  is  an  effect  of  necessity  ;  but  to 
endure  them  as  a  Christian  is  an  act  of  grace. 
The  Christian,  convinced  of  the  design  of  God 
ill  affliction,  yields  himself  into  his  hands.  R. 
Hall. 

7-‘20,  The  land  on  which  they  were  about  to 
enter  is  described  as  a  good  land,  fertile  and 
well  watered,  and  yielding  abundant  produce  to 
its  cultivators  ;  and  they  are  cautioned  against 
forgetting,  in  their  enjoyment  of  the  gift,  the 
bounty  of  the  Giver,  or  congratulating  them¬ 
selves  on  having  achieved  the  conquest  of  such 
a  laud,  instead  of  gratefully  acknowledging  the 
grace  which  had  sustained  them  during  their 
protracted  wandering  in  the  wilderness,  and  by 
which  alone  they  had  been  enabled  to  take  pos¬ 
session  of  that  favored  land.  W.  L.  A. 

7-9,  Moses  enlarges  now  more  frequently 
and  more  fully  than  before  on  the  fertility  and 
excellence  of  the  promised  land.  This  was  nat¬ 
ural  ;  such  a  topic  at  an  earlier  period  would 
have  increased  the  murmurings  and  the  impa¬ 
tience  of  the  people  at  being  detained  in  the 
wilderness  ;  whereas  now  it  encouraged  them 
to  encounter  with  more  cheerfulness  the  oppo¬ 
sition  tney  must  meet  with  from  the  inhabitants 
of  Canaan.  Grams. - These  things  are  men¬ 

tioned,  to  show  the  great  difference  between 
that  wilderness  through  which  God  had  led 
them  and  the  good  land  into  which  he  was 
bringing  them  ;  to  show  what  obligations  they 
lay  under  to  keep  God’s  commandments,  both 
in  gratitude  for  his  favors  to  them  and  from  a 
regard  to  their  own  interest,  that  the  favors 
might  be  continued  ;  and  to  show  what  a  figure 
it  was  of  good  things  to  come.  H. 

In  these  verses  is  implied  a  contrast,  which 
in  the  parallel  passage  11  : 10,  11  (next  section) 
is  expressed,  between  Palestine  and  Egypt. 
The  latter  depends  entirely  on  its  single  river  ; 
without  the  Nile,  and  the  utmost  use  of  the 
waters  of  tlie  Nile,  Egypt  would  be  a  desert. 
But  Palestine  is  well  distinguished  not  merely^ 
as  ”  a  land  of  wheat  and  barley,  and  vines  and 
fig-trees  and  pomegranates,  of  oil  olive  and 
honey,”  but  emphatically  as  “  a  good  land,  a 
land  of  brooks  of  water,  of  fountains  and  depths 
that  spring  out  of  plains  and  mountains  “  not 


as  the  land  of  Egypt,  where  thou  sowedst  thy 
seed,  and  wateredst  it  with  thy  foot,  as  a  garden 
of  herbs,”  but  aland  of  mountains  and  plains 
which  drinketh  water  of  the  rain  of  heaven.” 
This  mountainous  character,  this  abundance  of 
water  both  from  natural  springs  and  from  the 
clouds  of  heaven,  in  contradistinction  to  the 
one  uniform  supply  of  the  great  river,  this 
abundance  of  “milk”  from  its  “cattle  on  a 
thousand  hills,”  of  “  honeys”  from  its  forests 
and  its  thymy  shrubs,  was  absolutely  peculiar 
to  Palestine  among  the  civilized  nations  of  the 
East  E<pin. 

Palestine  was  an  extremely  fertile  country, 
the  glory  of  all  lands  in  the  richness  of  its  soil 
Moses  distinctly  so  represents  it  ;  and  his  rep  ¬ 
resentation  is  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of 
Josephus,  Tacitus,  the  great  Arabian  geographer 
Abulfeda,  and  the  best  modern  travellers.  The 
w'hole  country  was  one  vast  and  busy  worksho]) 
of  rural  industry,  abounding  in  all  the  produc¬ 
tions  of  the  tropical  and  temperate  zones.  It 
was  cultivated  like  a  garden.  The  sides  of  the 
mountains  were  terraced  even  to  their  summits, 
and  the  cold  rocks  were  covered  with  soil  by 
the  hand  of  industry.  No  judgment  can  be 
formed  of  its  pristine  fertility,  from  the  state  to 
which  it  has  been  reduced  by  eighteen  centuries 
of  tyranny  and  devastation.  Yet  even  now  in¬ 
telligent  travellers  represent  the  soil  of  Palestine 
as  unusually  rich  and  productive.  E.  C.  W. 

Our  ride  for  the  last  two  days  around  the 
sources  of  the  Jordan  has  reminded  me  of  the 
w'ords  of  Moses  to  the  children  of  Israel  in  re¬ 
gard  to  this  country  :  The  Lord  thy’’  God  bring- 
eth  thee  into  a  good  land,  a  land  of  brooks  of 
water,  of  fountains  and  depths  that  spring  out 
of  the  valleys  and  hills.  Certainly  this  is  a  good 
land.  I  have  never  seen  a  better  ;  and  none 
where  the  fountains  and  depths  that  spring  out 
of  the  valleys  and  hills  are  so  numerous,  so 
large,  and  so  beautiful.  And  then  remember 
that  this  is  a  climate  almost  tropical,  wdiere 
water  is  fertility  and  life,  and  the  absence  of  it 
sterility  and  death,  and  the  greatness  of  the 
blessing  is  vastly  enhanced.  The  number  of 
these  fountains  and  depths  is  prodigious.  We 
might  go  all  through  Palestine,  on  both  sides 
of  the  Jordan,  and  enumerate  hundreds  of  them 
— powerful  fountains — the  permanent  sources 
of  every  river  in  the  country.  I  have  visited 
them  often,  and  always  with  admiration  and  as¬ 
tonishment.  Nor  need  we  wonder  that  so  much 
is  made  of  them  in  the  Bible  :  they  are  the  glory 
and  the  life  of  the  land,  W.  M.  Thompson, 

10.  “  When  thou  hast  eaten  and  art  full,  then 
thou  shalt bless  the  Lord  thy’  God.”  From  this 


ALL  THINGS  WORK  TOGETHER  FOR  GOOD. 


651 


place  the  Jews  have  made  it  a  general  rule,  or, 
as  they  call  it,  an  affirmative  precept,  that  every 
one  bless  God  at  their  meals— that  is,  give  him 
thanks  for  his  benefits  ;  for  he  blesses  us  when 
he  bestows  good  things  on  us,  and  we  bless  him 
when  we  thankfully  acknowledge  his  goodness 
therein.  Patrick. 

14,  IT,  “  Beware  lest  then  iky  heart  he  lifted 
up.”  When  the  estate  rises,  the  mind  is  apt  to 
rise  with  it,  in  self-conceit,  self-complacency, 
and  self-confidence.  Therefore  strive  to  keep 
the  spirit  low  in  a  high  condition  ;  humility  is 
both  the  ease  and  the  ornament  of  prosperity. 
Take  heed  of  saying,  so  much  as  in  thy  heart, 
that  proud  word.  My  power  and  the  might  of  my 
hand  hath  gotten  me  this  wealth  (verse  17).  We 
must  never  take  the  praise  of  our  prosperity  to 
ourselves  nor  attribute  it  to  our  ingenuity  or 
industry  ;  for  bread  is  not  alwaj’^s  to  the  wise, 
nor  riches  to  men  of  understanding  (Eccl.  9  : 11). 
It  is  spiritual  idolatry  thus  to  sacrifice  to  our  own 
net  (Hab.  1  : 16).  And  ‘‘  take  heed  of  forgetting 
God.”  This  follows  upon  the  lifting  up  of  the 
heart  ;  for  it  is  through  the  pride  of  the  countenance 
that  the  wicked  seeks  not  after  God  (Ps.  10  : 4). 
Those  that  admire  themselves,  despise  God.  H. 

16.  To  do  tlicc  g^ood  at  tliy  latter 
end.  This  is  presented  as  the  result  of  God’s 
dealings.  The  people  had  been  suffered  to 
hunger  (verse  3)  and  fed  with  manna  in  order 
that  God  might  prove  them.  This  trial  was  not 
laid  on  them  arbitrarily,  but  as  a  moral  discip 
line  qualifying  for  the  blessings  which  God  de¬ 
signed  ultimately  to  bestow.  The  “  humbling” 
and  “  proving”  are  exhibited  as  God’s  imrnedi 
ate  purpose — the  “  doing  good  ”  to  Israel  as  the 
eventual  issue.  The  expression  “  at  thy  latter 
end”  conveys  somewhat  more  than  “  at  length,” 
“  in  future.”  The  settlement  of  Israel  in  Canaan 
was  the  end  and  climax  of  the  Mosaic  dispensa¬ 
tion,  to  which  the  sojourn  in  Egypt,  the  wan¬ 
dering  in  the  desert,  and  the  arrangements  of 
the  Law  all  led  up.  “  Thy  latter  end  ”  is  then 
the  later,  and  for  the  purpose  in  hand,  final 
epoch  in  the  national  life  to  which  all  that  had 
gone  before  was  preparatory  and  introductory. 
Espin. 

God’s  discipline  is  meant  to  turn  to  our  ulti¬ 
mate  advantage.  ’*  To  do  thee  good  at  thy  lat¬ 
ter  end.”  The  immediate  object  of  God’s  discip¬ 
line  is  to  form  character;  to  create  and  develop 
love,  trust,  and  obedience  ;  to  uproot  evil  dis¬ 
positions  ;  to  break  down  self-will  and  self- 
dependence.  The  ultimate  end  of  it  is  the  ser¬ 
vice  and  blessedness  of  heaven.  There  may  be 
some  service  which  God  is  preparing  us  for  on 
earth,  some  possession  he  wishes  to  give  us, 


some  trust  he  is  about  to  repose  in  us.  But 
heaven  is  the  goal,  and  the  end  of  God’s  discip¬ 
line  will  not  be  fully  seen  until  the  goal  is 

reached.  Orr. - God  does  not  say.  Rise  up 

and  walk,  and  you  shall  come  to  a  great  desert  ; 
for  if  he  did,  v’^e  should  never  set  out  ;  but  he 
says.  Come  to  the  rest  !  And  when,  in  obedi¬ 
ence  and  faith  and  hope,  we  have  risen  up  and 
lost  ourselves  in  the  desert,  then  he  lets  us 
know  that  it  was  necessary,  before  we  could 
come  to  the  place  of  our  rest,  that  he  should 
lead  us  through  the  wilderness,  to  prove  us  and 
show  us  all  that  was  in  our  hearts,  and  that 
without  such  disciplinary  wanderings  and  dis¬ 
coveries,  we  never  coidd  come  to  the  palace  nor 
be  fitted  to  go  in  at  its  gates.  Oheever. 

If  the  grand  assurance  which  Jesus  Christ  has 
given  to  his  disciples  is  fulfilled,  how  happy 
shall  we  shortly  be — happy,  if  we  are  his  ;  with 
what  delight  shall  we  then  look  back  on  the  way 
he  has  led  us  !  How  sweet  it  will  bo  to  retrace 
the  mysterious  operations  of  his  Providence — 
the  wonderful  way  in  which  God  hath  brought 
us  all  the  journey  through  ;  all  the  trials  and 
afflictions  of  this  life  so  tempered  and  over¬ 
ruled  that  none  could  be  spared,  none  could  be 
wanting  ;  they  are  all  a  part  of  the  Divine  mercy 
toward  us  ;  and  not  only  do  they  not  obstruct 
our  felicity,  but  in  the  hand  of  the  great  Dis¬ 
poser  they  are  made  subservient  to  promoting 
it.  “  These  light  afflictions,  which  are  but  for 
a  moment,  work  for  us  a  far  more  exceeding 
and  eternal  weight  of  glory.”  And  while  com¬ 
mon  salvation  produces  a  common  song  of 
praise,  millions  of  glorious  sjDirits  will  each 
have  a  separate  song,  each  a  separate  theme — 
each  one  will  have  within  him  motives  of  grati¬ 
tude  which  are  peculiar  to  himself.  Eternity 
will  never  cease  to  exhibit  fresh  occasions  of 
wonder  that  he  should  be  brought  from  danger 
and  distress,  and  made  an  heir  with  God  and 
joint-heir  with  Christ.  R.  Hall. 

18.  “  Forget  not  God’s  hand  in  thy  present 
prosperity  (verse  18),  Remember,  it  is  he  that 
givelh  the  power  to  get  wealth."  See  here  how 
God’s  giving  and  our  getting  are  reconciled,  and 
apply  it  to  spiritual  wealth.  It  is  our  duty  to 
get  wisdom,  and  above  all  our  gettings  to  get 
understanding  ;  and  yet  it  is  God’s  grace  that 
gives  wisdom,  and  when  we  have  got  it,  we  must 
not  siiy.  It  was  the  might  of  our  hand  that  got 
it,  but  must  own  it  was  God  that  gave  us  power 
to  get  it,  and  therefore  to  him  we  must  give  the 
praise,  and  consecrate  the  use  of  it.  The  bless¬ 
ing  of  the  Lord  on  the  hand  of  the  diligent,  makes 
rich  both  for  this  world  and  for  the  other.  He 
giveth  thee  power  to  get  wealth,  not  so  much  to 


652 


SECTION  185!  SECOND  DISCOURSE  {CONTINUED). 


gratif}’’  thee,  and  make  thee  easy,  as  that  he  may  ! 
establish  his  coveuaut.  All  God's  gifts  are  in  | 

nursuance  of  his  promises,  H. - A  deep  con-  I 

V lotion  of  this  fact  would  turn  human  history  | 
into  a  sacrament.  Receive  into  the  mind  the  j 
full  impression  of  this  doctrine,  and  you  will  I 
hnd  vourself  working  side  bv  side  with  God.  in 
the  field,  the  warehouse,  the  bank,  the  shop, 
the  office,  the  pulpit.  What  a  blow  this  text 
strikes  at  one  of  the  most  popular  and  mischiev¬ 
ous  fallacies  in  common  life — namely,  that  man 
is  the  maker  of  his  own  money  !  Men  who  can 
see  Godin  the  creation  of  worlds  cannot  see  him 
suggesting  an  idea  in  business,  smiling  on  the  j 
plough,  guiding  the  merchant’s  pen,  and  bring¬ 
ing  summer  into  a  brain  long  winter-bound  and 
barren.  J.  P. 

20.  So  §hall  ye  peri§li.  It  appears  from 
various  passages  in  Scripture  that  God’s  abhor¬ 
rence  and  treatment  of  the  crimes  for  which  he 
destroyed  the  nations  of  Canaan  were  impartial, 
without  distinction,  and  without  respect  of  na¬ 
tions  or  persons.  The  Divine  impartiality  is 


pointed  out  by  such  words  as  these,  in  which 
Moses  w'arns  the  Israelites  against  falling  into 
any  of  the  like  wicked  courses.  The  Jews  are 
sometimes  called  the  chosen  and  favored  people 
of  God  ;  and  in  a  certain  sense  and  for  some 
purposes  they  were  so  ;  yet  is  this  very  people, 
both  in  this  and  in  other  places,  over  and  over 
again  reminded  that  h  they  follow^ed  the  same 
practices  they  must  expect  the  same  fate.  Faiey. 

Disobedience  means  penalty  as  certainly  as 
obedience  means  reward.  Men  should  never 
trifie  with  the  idea  of  the  iDunishinent  of  sin  ;  it 
is  everlasting  punishment  ;  it  is  eternal  pen¬ 
alty  ;  it  is  an  expression  of  the  horror  of  God 
as  his  infinite  holiness  looks  upon  the  abomina¬ 
tion  of  s’u.  “  Be  not  deceived  ;  God  is  not 
mocked  :  for  whatsoever  a  man  soweth,  that 
shall  he  also  reap.”  This  is  not  a  one-sided 
law  ;  it  is  the  impartial  law  which  holds  wdthin 
its  ample  scope  all  that  is  terrible  in  the  idea  of 
perdition  and  all  that  is  sublime  in  the  promise 
of  heaven.  J.  P. 


Section  185. 

SECOND  DISCOURSE  (CONTINUED):  ANOTHER  WARNING  AGAINST  PRIDE  AND 
SELF  -  RIGHTEOUSNESS  ;  REMINDED  OF  THEIR  REPEATED  REBELLIONS  ; 
URGED  TO  LOVE,  OBEDIENCE,  AND  SERVICE,  AS  THE  SCOPE  AND  SUM  OF 
GOD’S  REQUIREMENTS  ;  PAST  DELIVERANCES,  AND  FUTURE  PROSPERITY  IN 
CANAAN,  AGAIN  PRESENTED  AS  MOTIVES  ;  A  BLESSING  AND  A  CURSE  DEFI¬ 
NITELY  SET  BEFORE  THEIR  CHOICE. 

Deuteronomy  9  : 1-8,  22-24  ;  10  : 12-22  ;  11  : 1-17,  22-32. 

Be.  9  1  Hear,  O  Israel  :  thou  art  to  pass  over  Jordan  this  day,  to  go  in  to  possess  nations 

2  greater  and  mightier  than  thyself,  cities  great  and  fenced  up  to  heaven,  a  people  great  and 

3  tall,  the  sons  of  the  Anakim,  whom  thou  knowest,  and  of  whom  thou  hast  heard  say.  Who 
can  stand  before  the  sons  of  Anak  ?  Know  therefore  this  day,  that  the  Lord  thy  God  is  he 

^  i. 

which  goeth  over  before  thee  as  a  devouring  fire  ;  he  shall  destroy  them,  and  he  shall  bring 
them  down  before  thee  :  so  shalt  thou  drive  them  out,  and  make  them  to  perish  quickly,  as 

4  the  Lord  hath  spoken  unto  thee.  Speak  not  thou  in  thine  heart,  after  that  the  Lord  thy  God 
hath  thrust  them  out  from  before  thee,  saying,  For  my  righteousness  the  Lord  hath  brought 
me  in  to  possess  this  land  :  whereas  for  the  wickedness  of  these  nations  the  Lord  doth  drive 

5  them  out  from  before  thee.  Not  for  thy  righteousness,  or  for  the  uprightness  of  thine  heart, 
dost  thou  go  in  to  possess  their  land  :  but  for  the  wickedness  of  these  nations  the  Lord  thy  God 
doth  drive  them  out  from  before  thee,  and  that  he  may  establish  the  word  which  the  Lord 

6  sware  unto  thy  fathers,  to  Abraham,  to  Isaac,  and  to  Jacob.  Know  therefore,  that  the  Lord 
thy  God  giveth  thee  not  this  good  land  to  possess  it  for  thy  righteousness  ;  for  thou  art  a  stiff- 

7  necked  people.  Remember,  forget  thou  not,  how  thou  provokedst  the  Lord  thy  God  to  wrath 
in  the  wdlderness  :  from  the  day  that  thou  wentest  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  until  ye 

8  came  unto  this  place,  ye  have  been  rebellious  against  the  Lord.  Also  in  Horeb  ye  provoked 

22  the  Lord  to  wrath,  and  the  Lord  was  angry  with  you  to  have  destroyed  you.  And  at  Taberah, 

23  and  at  Massah,  and  at  Kibroth-hattaavah,  ye  provoked  the  Lord  to  wrath.  And  when  the 
Lord  sent  you  from  Kadesh-barnea,  saying.  Go  up  and  possess  the  land  w’hich  I  have  given 
you  :  then  ye  rebelled  against  the  commandment  of  the  Lord  your  God,  and  ye  believed  him 


SECOND  DISCOURSE  {CONTINUED).  653 

24  not,  nor  hearkened  to  his  voice.  Ye  have  been  rebellious  against  the  Lokd  from  the  day  that 
I  knew  you. 

10  12  And  now,  Israel,  what  doth  the  Lord  thy  God  require  of  thee,  but  to  fear  the  Lord 
thy  God,  to  walk  in  all  his  ways,  and  to  love  him,  and  to  serve  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 

13  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul,  to  keep  the  commandments  of  the  Lord,  and  his  statutes,  which 

14  I  command  thee  this  day  for  thy  good  ?  Behold,  unto  the  Lord  thy  God  belongeth  the 

15  heaven,  and  the  heaven  of  heavens,  the  earth,  with  all  that  therein  is.  Only  the  Lord  had  a 
delight  in  thy  fathers  to  love  them,  and  he  chose  their  seed  after  them,  even  you  above  all 

16  peoples,  as  at  this  day.  Circumcise  therefore  the  foreskin  of  your  heart,  and  be  no  more  stiff- 

17  necked.  For  the  Lord  your  God,  he  is  God  of  gods,  and  Lord  of  lords,  the  great  God,  the 

18  mighty,  and  the  terrible,  which  regardeth  not  persons,  nor  taketh  reward.  He  doth  execute 
the  judgement  of  the  fatherless  and  widow,  and  loveth  the  stranger,  in  giving  him  food  and 

19  raiment.  Love  ye  therefore  the  stranger  :  for  j'^e  were  strangers  in  the  land  of  Egypt.  Thou 

20  shalt  fear  the  Lord  thy  God  ;  him  shalt  thou  serve  ;  and  to  him  shalt  thou  cleave,  and  by  his 

21  name  shalt  thou  swear.  He  is  thy  praise,  and  he  is  thy  God,  that  hath  done  for  thee  these 

22  great  and  terrible  things,  which  thine  eyes  have  seen.  Thy  fathers  went  down  into  Egypt 
with  threescore  and  ten  persons  ;  and  now  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  made  thee  as  the  stars  of 
heaven  for  multitude. 

ill  Therefore  thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  keep  his  charge,  and  his  statutes,  and 

2  his  judgements,  and  his  commandments  alway.  And  know  ye  this  day  :  for  I  speak  not  with 
your  children  which  have  not  known,  and  wdiich  have  not  seen  the  chastisement  of  the  Lord 

3  your  God,  his  greatness,  his  mighty  hand,  and  his  stretched  out  arm,  and  his  signs,  and  his 
works,  which  he  did  in  the  midst  of  Egypt  unto  Pharaoh  the  king  of  Egypt,  and  unto  all  his 

4  land  ;  and  what  he  did  unto  the  army  of  Egypt,  unto  their  horses,  and  to  their  chariots  ;  how 
he  made  the  water  of  the  Bed  Sea  to  overflow  them  as  they  pursued  after  you,  and  how  the 

5  Lord  hath  destro3"ed  them  unto  this  day  ;  and  wdiat  he  did  unto  3’ou  in  the  wilderness,  until 

6  ye  came  unto  this  place  ;  and  what  he  did  unto  Dathan  and  Abiram,  the  sons  of  Eliab,  the 
son  of  Reuben  ;  how  the  earth  opened  her  mouth,  and  swallowed  them  up,  and  their  house¬ 
holds,  and  their  tents,  and  every  living  thing  that  followed  them,  in  the  midst  of  all  Israel  : 

7  but  your  eyes  have  seen  all  the  great  work  of  the  Lord  which  he  did.  Therefore  shall  ye  keep 

8  all  the  commandment  which  I  command  thee  this  da}^  that  ye  moy  be  strong,  and  go  in  and 

9  possess  the  land,  whither  ye  go  over  to  possess  it  ;  and  that  ye  ina^^  prolong  your  daj^s  upon 
the  land,  which  the  Lord  sware  unto  your  fathers  to  give  unto  them  and  to  their  seed,  a  land 

10  flowing  with  milk  and  honey.  For  the  land,  whither  thou  goest  in  to  possess  it,  is  not  as  the 
land  of  Egypt,  from  whence  je  came  out,  where  thou  sowedst  thy  seed,  and  wateredst  it  with 

11  thy  foot,  as  a  garden  of  herbs  :  but  the  land,  whither  ye  go  over  to  possess  it,  is  a  land  of 

12  hills  and  valleys,  and  drinketh  water  of  the  rain  of  heaven  ;  a  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God 
careth  for  ;  the  eyes  of  the  Lord  thy  God  are  always  upon  it,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
year  even  unto  the  end  of  the  year. 

13  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  if  ye  shall  hearken  diligentlj’^  unto  my  commandments  which  I 
command  you  this  day,  to  love  the  Lord  jmur  God,  and  to  serve  him  with  all  your  heart  and 

14  V7ith  all  your  soul,  that  I  will  give  the  rain  of  your  land  in  its  season,  the  former  rain  and  the 

15  latter  rain,  that  thou  mayest  gather  in  thy  corn,  and  thy  wine,  and  thine  oil.  And  I  will  give 

16  grass  in  thy  fields  for  thy  cattle,  and  thou  shalt  eat  and  be  full.  Take  heed  to  yourselves,  lest 

17  jmur  heart  be  deceived,  and  ye  turn  aside,  and  serve  other  gods,  and  worship  them  ;  and  the 
anger  of  the  Lord  be  kindled  against  you,  and  he  shut  up  the  heaven,  that  there  be  no  rain, 
and  that  the  land  yield  not  her  fruit  ;  and  ye  perish  quicklj’"  from  off  the  good  land  which  the 

22  Lord  giveth  you.  For  if  ye  shall  diligently  keep  all  this  commandment  which  I  command 
you,  to  do  it  ;  to  love  the  Lord  jmur  God,  to  walk  in  all  his  ways,  and  to  cleave  unto  him  ; 

23  then  will  the  Lord  drive  out  all  these  nations  from  before  you,  and  ye  shall  possess  nations 

24  greater  and  mightier  than  yourselves.  Every  place  whereon  the  sole  of  jmur  foot  shall  tread 
shall  be  yours  :  from  the  wilderness,  and  Lebanon,  from  the  river,  the  river  Euphrates,  even 

25  unto  the  hinder  sea  shall  be  your  border.  There  shall  no  man  be  able  to  stand  before  you  : 
the  Lord  your  God  shall  lay  the  fear  of  you  and  the  dread  of  you  upon  all  the  land  that  ye 
shall  tread  upon,  as  he  hath  spoken  unto  you. 

26  Behold,  I  set  before  you  this  day  a  blessing  and  a  curse  :  the  blessing,  if  ye  shall  hearken 

27  unto  the  commandments  of  the  Lord  your  God,  which  I  command  you  this  day  :  and  the 


G54 


SECTION  185.  DISSUA81VE8  FROM  SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS. 


28  curse,  if  ye  shall  not  hearken  unto  the  commandments  of  the  Lokd  your  God,  but  turn  aside 
out  of  the  way  which  I  command  you  this  day,  to  go  after  other  gods,  which  ye  have  not 
known. 

29  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  the  Lokd  thy  God  shall  bring  thee  into  the  land  whither 
thou  goest  to  possess  it,  that  thou  shalt  set  the  blessing  upon  mount  Gerizim,  and  the  curse 

30  upon  mount  Ebal.  Are  they  not  beyond  Jordan,  beliind  the  way  of  the  going  down  of  the 
sun,  in  the  land  of  the  Canaanites  which  dwell  in  the  Arabah,  over  against  Gilgal,  beside  the 

31  oaks  of  Moreh  ?  For  ye  are  to  pass  over  Jordan  to  go  in  to  possess  the  land  which  the 

32  Lokd  your  God  giveth  you,  and  ye  shall  possess  it,  and  dwell  therein.  And  ye  shall  observe 
to  do  all  the  statutes  and  the  judgements  which  I  set  before  you  this  day. 


Dissuasives  from  Self-Eighte')Usness. 

Israel  might  acknowledge  that  it  was  of  God’s 
free  gift  that  they  possessed  the  land  of  Canaan, 
and  yet  might  flatter  themselves  bj'  thinking  it 
was  because  of  their  righteousness  and  good¬ 
ness  that  the  gift  was  bestowed.  To  guard 
against  this,  Moses  tells  them  that  not  because 
of  their  righteousness  would  God  go  before  them 
and  drive  out  the  mighty  peoples  that  then 
occupied  the  land,  but  because  of  the  wicked¬ 
ness  of  these  peoples  themselves  were  they  to 
be  extirpated  (ch.  9  :  1-6).  He  further  reminds 
them  of  their  transgressions  in  the  past,  and 
how  they  thereby  came  under  the  Divine  dis¬ 
pleasure,  and  were  saved  from  desti’uction  only 
through  his  earnest  intercession  (verses  7-24). 
W.  L.  A. 

9  :  1-6.  For  no  merit  of  their  own  but  by 
the  signal  bounty  of  God  they  would  be  heirs 
of  the  land  of  Canaan  ;  and  this  entirely  flowed 
from  the  covenant  and  their  gratuitous  adop¬ 
tion.  They  therefore  should  persevere  in  the 
faithful  observation  of  the  covenant,  and  so 
should  be  the  more  disposed  to  honor  him.  Lest 
they  should  arrogate  anything  to  themselves,  he 
commends  the  greatness  of  God's  power,  in  that 
they  could  not  be  victorious  over  so  man3’’  na¬ 
tions  unless  by  the  miraculous  aid  of  heaven. 

Galv. - It  was  of  great  moment,  and  therefore 

Moses  repeats  it,  that  they  should  understand 
the  true  causes  why  God  expelled  these  nations 
and  gave  their  land  to  the  Israelites  :  (1)  The 
abominable  wickedness  of  the  Canaanites,  for 
which  they  deserved  to  be  rooted  out  (2)  God’s 
gracious  promises  to  the  ancestors  of  the  Israel¬ 
ites,  with  whom  he  had  made  a  covenant  and 
confirmed  it  with  an  oath,  to  plant  them  there 
in  the  room  of  the  former  inhabitants.  Patrick. 
- There  is  scarcely  any  place  in  the  Old  Tes¬ 
tament  which  is  so  utterly  subversive  of  self- 
righteousness  as  this.  As  the  ungodly  are  ex¬ 
cluded  from  the  heavenly  inheritance  by  reason 
of  their  sins  and  the  righteous  are  made  par¬ 
takers  of  it,  even  so  was  it  to  be  the  case  in  ref¬ 
erence  to  Canaan.  The  free  grace  of  the  Lord 


chose  the  fathers  and  brought  out  all  the  good 
that  was  in  Israel  ;  but  yet  it  was  not  this  good¬ 
ness  for  which  the  people  were  preserved,  since 
they  had  a  hundred  times  perverted  all  God’s 
gifts  of  grace.  OerL 

7,  8,  23.  Moses  points  his  admonition 

by  reminding  them  of  their  repeated  rebellions 
in  past  times,  and  dwells  especially  on  their 
apostasy  at  Horeb.  This  was  so  flagrant  that  it 
was  only  his  own  earnest  intercessions  which 
averted  the  destruction  of  the  people,  and  won 
at  length  from  God  a  renewal  of  the  forfeited 
pledges  of  the  covenant.  In  referring  to  these 
circumstances  Moses  here,  as  elsewhere,  has  re¬ 
gard  not  so  much  to  the  order  of  time  as  to 
that  of  subject.  He  inserts  e.g.  mention  of  the 
provocations  at  Taberah,  Massah,  Kibroth-fiat- 
taavah,  and  Kadesh-barnea  (verses  22,  23),  in 
the  very  midst  of  the  narrative  respecting  the 
idolatry  at  Horeb  and  his  own  conduct  in  refer¬ 
ence  thereto. 

10:12-22;  11:1-26.  After  these  em¬ 
phatic  warnings  against  self-righteousness  this 
division  of  the  discourse  is  drawn  to  a  conclu¬ 
sion  in  the  next  two  chapters  by  a  series  of  di¬ 
rect  and  positive  exhortations  to  a  careful  ful¬ 
filment  of  the  duties  prescribed  in  the  first  two 
of  the  ten  words.  Pride  having  been  shown  to 
be  utterly  out  of  place  in  those  who  had  so  often 
provoked  God,  and  who  owed  their  all  to  God’s 
forgiveness  and  Moses’s  entreaties,  it  remains 
for  Israel  to  make  such  return  as  is  possible  for 
j  God’s  undeserved  mercies,  by  loving  and  fear- 
j  ing  him  and  diligently  keeping  his  command¬ 
ments.  Both  for  love  and  fear  of  him  abundant 
cause  is  drawn  from  his  past  dealings  with 
Israel  :  from  his  condescension  to  their  fathers 
and  to  themselves  in  their  distress  ;  and  from 
his  great  acts  for  them  and  against  their  en¬ 
emies.  Finally  Moses  reminds  them  of  the  con¬ 
sequences  which  await  their  conduct  :  prosper¬ 
ity  and  success  if  they  be  faithful,  misfortune 
I  and  sorrow  if  otherwise.  The  alternative  is 
solemnly  and  distinctly  set  before  them,  and 
the  choice  committed  to  themselves.  Espin. 

The  true  principles  of  Christian  obedience,  as 


REASONING,  ENTREATY,  AND  WARNING. 


655 


they  are  everywhere  set  forth  in  Scripture,  are 
the  love  and  fear  of  God  ;  which  are  so  far 
from  being  inconsistent  with  each  other  that 
they  are  really  inseparable  ;  the  one  deterring 
us  from  sin,  the  other  exciting  us  to  virtue  and 
righteousness.  They  are  both  put  together  in 
these  expressive  words,  in  which  Moses  sums 
up  his  exhortations  to  the  Israelites,  Waldo. 

10:9  2-16.  And  now,  Israel,  think  again, 
“  what  doth  the  Lord  thy  God  require  of  thee  ?” 
Could  he  ask  less  consistently  with  his  right¬ 
eousness  and  honor  ?  Are  not  all  his  commands 
vise  and  right  ?  Is  it  not  an  easy  yoke  to  love 
a  God  so  kind,  to  fear  a  God  so  holy,  to  obey  a 
God  so  faithful  and  true?  And  now,  Israel, 
look  at  the  fact  that  all  God's  commands  are  for 
your  good  (verse  13)  !  A  perfect  obedience 
would  insure  perfect  content.  All  the  while 
you  have  been  rebellious  against  the  Lord,  you 
have  been  fighting  against  your  own  highest  in¬ 
terests.  God’s  honor  and  your  happiness  re¬ 
quire  precisely  the  same  course  of  life.  And 
now,  Israel,  do  remember  this,  for  consider  how 
great  is  the  Divine  condescension  in  caring  for 
you  at  all  (verse  14)  :  “  Lo  !  the  heaven  and  the 
heaven  of  heavens  is  the  Lord’s  thy  God,  the 
earth  also  with  all  that  therein  is.”  And  what, 
what  but  infinite  love  should  lead  him  thus  to 
stoop  from  his  high  throne  to  care  for  you  ?  It 
is  not  for  your  righteousness,  for  you  are  a 
stiff-necked  people.  No  account  can  be  given 
why  God  should  care  for  you  so,  save  that  he 
loves  to  do  it.  Then  surely  the  reason  is  over¬ 
whelmingly  strong  for  your  gratitude,  loyalty, 
and  love.  And  now,  Israel,  seeing  these  things 
are  so,  could  you  do  less  for  such  a  God  than 
he  asks  of  you,  even  if  he  did  not  ask  it?  So 
rich  should  be  3’our  joy  in  him,  so  reverent  your 
fear,  so  devout  jmur  love,  that  jmu  would  with 
ready  mind  give  God  all,  even  if  he  did  not  re- 
qtiire  all.  What  he  is  to  you  should  lead  you  to  he 
to  him  all  that  he  would  have  you  be.  How 
much  stronger  ever}'’  one  of  these  points  may 
be  made  from  the  evangelic  standpoint  !  By 
as  much  as  the  love  of  God  in  the  great  re¬ 
demption  in  Christ  Jesus  is  a  grander  disclosure 
than  his  love  as  revealed  in  the  deliverance  from 
Egypt,  by  so  much  should  each  argument  be  the 
more  tender  and  strong.  C.  C. 

13.  Keep  his  commandments  and  his  statutes. 
Having  given  up  ourselves  to  his  service,  we 
must  make  his  revealed  will  our  rule  in  every¬ 
thing  ;  perform  all  he  prescribes  ;  forbear  all 
he  forbids  ;  firmly  believing  that  all  the  statutes 
he  commands  us  are  for  our  good.  Beside  the 
reward  of  obedience,  which  will  be  oiir  unspeak¬ 
able  gain,  there  is  true  honor  and  pleasure  in 


obedience.  It  is  really  for  our  present  good  to 
be  meek  and  humble,  chaste  and  sober,  just  and 
charitable,  patient  and  contented  ;  these  make 
us  easy,  and  safe,  and  pleasant,  and  truly 
great.  H. 

16.  With  all  his  brooding  tenderness  of  feel¬ 
ing,  he  hesitates  not  to  charge  that  favored  peo¬ 
ple  to  their  faces  with  rebellion,  with  weak  de¬ 
fection  and  despicable  cowardice,  with  stiff¬ 
neckedness  and  hard-heartedness  since  he  had 
known  them.  Not  for  their  sakes,  but  for  the 
fathers’  sakes  were  the,y  chosen,  and  in  all  that 
“great  and  terrible  wilderness”  had  there 
been  folded  about  them  the  everlasting  arms. 
E.  C.  B. 

Moses  fitly  follows  up  the  command  “  to  cir¬ 
cumcise  the  heart  ’  ’  with  the  warning  “  to  be  no 
more  stiff-necked.”  His  meaning  is  that  they 
should  laj’  aside  that  obduracy  and  perverse¬ 
ness  toward  God  for  which  he  had  been  reprov¬ 
ing  them,  which  had  led  them  into  so  many 
transgressions  of  the  covenant  and  revolts  from 
God,  and  which  was  especiall}'  the  very  contrary 
of  that  love  and  fear  of  God  required  by  the 
first  two  of  the  Ten  Commandments.  Similarly 
(30  :  6)  circumcision  of  the  heart  is  spoken  of 
as  a  necessary  condition  of  loving  God  ;  and  on 
the  other  hand  the  epithet  “uncircumcised” 
is  applied  to  the  heart,  lips,  etc.  (Lev.  26  : 41  ; 
Jer.  4:4;  Ezek,  44  : 9  ;  Acts  7  :  51,  etc.),  to  de¬ 
note  the  native  incapacity  of  the  members  of 
the  body  for  God's  service.  The  language  asso¬ 
ciated  with  circumcision  in  the  Bible  distin¬ 
guishes  the  use  made  of  this  rite  in  the  Jewish 
religion  from  that  found  among  certain  heathen 
nations.  Espin. 

Circumcise  your  heart.  A  plain  proof 
from  God  himself  that  this  precept  pointed  out 
spiritual  things  :  and  that  the  object  of  the  Di¬ 
vine  commandment  was  the  purification  of  the 
soul ;  without  which  all  forms  and  ceremonies 
are  of  no  avail.  Loving  God  with  all  the  heart, 
soul,  mind,  and  strength,  the  heart  being  cir¬ 
cumcised  to  enable  them  to  do  it,  was  from  the 
beginning  the  end,  design,  and  fulfilment  of  the 

whole  Law.  A,  C. - Wherefore,  the  prophets 

frequently  taunt  the  transgressors  of  the  Law 
by  calling  them  uncircumcised,  although  they 
bore  the  visible  sign  in  their  flesh.  When 
Moses  exhorts  them  to  sanctifv  themselves  to 

V 

God,  he  reasons  from  the  nature  and  use  of  the 
sign,  vdiereby  they  professed  themselves  to  be 
his  chosen  people.  In  the  second  clause  there 
is  an  elegant  metaphor,  of  frequent  occurrence, 
taken  from  oxen  ;  for  since  the  oxen  which 
quietly  offer  their  necks  to  the  j’oke  are  easily 
subdued  to  obedience,  those  are  said  to  be 


656 


SECTION  185.  SECOND  DISCOURSE  {CONTINUED). 


**  stiff-necked  ”  which  are  fierce  and  obstinate 
in  their  nature.  Galv. 

11  :  l-;{i5.  Moses  here  renews  his  exhorta¬ 
tion  to  obedience,  enforced  by  regard  to  their 
experience  of  God’s  dealings  with  them  in 
Egypt  and  in  the  wilderness,  and  by  considera¬ 
tion  of  God’s  promises  and  threatenings.  The 
blessing  and  the  curse  are. set  before  them  con¬ 
sequent  on  the  keeping  or  the  transgressing  of 
the  Law.  W.  L,  A. 

1,  The  representations  of  the  Divine  charac¬ 
ter  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  Bible  are  essentially 
identical  with  those  in  the  later.  Nothing  shows 
this  more  plainly  than  the  fact  that  the  true 
worshippers  of  God  under  *the  Old  Testament 
showed  no  less  confidence  in  him  than  the 
more  privileged  worshippers  under  the  New, 
and  that  the  principle  by  which  this  feeling  was 
elicited  was  identical  in  every  dispensation. 
Throughoat  the  Pentateuch,  especially  in  Deu¬ 
teronomy,  there  is  an  evident  purpose  by  an 
exhibition  of  God’s  love  to  draw  out  love  to  him 
in  return.  It  is  this,  indeed,  which  forms  the 
real  foundation  for  its  oft-repeated  command, 
“  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God,”  which  is 
represented  as  the  fulfilment  of  the  Law  and 

the  sum  of  all  God’s  requirements.  D.  M. - 

Observe  the  connection  of  these  two  :  Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord,  and  keep  Ids  charge  :  since 
love  will  work  in  obedience,  and  that  only  is 
acceptable,  obedience  which  flows  from  a  prin¬ 
ciple  of  love.  H. 

2-6.  There  could  not  be  a  better  way  to  keep 
the  children  of  Israel  in  their  integrity  toward 
God  than  by  frequently  j)utting  them  in  mind 
and  fixing  in  their  memory  the  history  of  all  the 
miracles  which  he  had  wrought  for  them,  from 
the  time  of  their  being  in  Egypt  to  their  being 
in  a  triumphant  condition  in  the  land  of  Canaan  : 
in  which  they  had  been  eye-witnesses  of  more 
and  greater  miracles  than  all  the  world  besides 
had  been  acquainted  with  from  the  time  of  the 
deluge.  All  that  he  expected  from  them  for  all 
his  mercies  was  that  they  would  acknowledge 
him  their  God,  depend  upon  him,  and  not  have 
recourse  to  other  gods.  Clarendon. 

7-9.  Thus  from  what  they  themselves  had 
witnessed  does  Moses  admonish  the  elder  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  congregation,  summoning  them  to 
recognize  in  that  tbe  purpose  of  God  to  discip¬ 
line  and  train  them,  that  so  they  might  keep  his 
commandments  and  be  strengthened  in  soul 
and  purpose  to  go  in  and  possess  the  land,  and 

to  live  long  therein.  W.  L.  A. - The  ednea- 

tivo  process  by  which  God  aimed  at  converting 
the  hordes  who  left  Egypt  into  a  nation  of  brave, 
free.  God-fearing,  self-respecting,  obedient  men 


and  women,  blended  deliverance  with  judgment 
on  their  enemies  ;  loving-kindness  in  the  be¬ 
stowal  of  mercies,  with  severe  chastisements  in 
cases  of  rebellion  ;  attention  to  their  necessities, 
witn  frequent  exposure  to  adversity,  and  conse 
quent  trial  of  their  faith  and  patience.  They 
had  been  put  to  school  with  the  Almighty  as 
their  Teacher  ;  their  l.esson-book  was  the  whole 
extraordinary  series  of  occurrences  in  Egypt  and 
the  desert  ;  the  end  of  the  training  w'as  to  form 
them  to  obedience.  Orr. 

God  meant  much  in  bringing  them  to  pass, 
and  they  should  mean  much  in  the  use  they 
made  of  them  (verses  8,  9).  If  they  laid  them 
to  heart  and  acted  out  the  lessons  they  were 
designed  to  teach,  they  would  continue  in  the 
land  which  God  had  assigned  to  them.  The 
reference  in  the  phrase,  “  that  ye  may  prolong 
your  days  in  the  land.”  is  to  Israel’s  continu¬ 
ance  as  a  nation.  National  conUnuance  dependent 
on  national  obedience,  is  the  one  truth  most  fre¬ 
quently  named  in  the  exhortations  of  Israel’s 
Lawgiver.  All  this  has  a  present-day  applica¬ 
tion  to  the  people  of  God  now.  C.  C. 

10-12.  “  For  the  land,  whither  thou  goest  in 
to  possess  it,  is  not  as  the  land  of  Egypt,  from 
whence  ye  came  out.”  The  physical  features  of 
Palestine  present  a  striking  contrast  to  those  of 
tbe  land  of  bondage.  A  widely  extending  plain 
forms  the  cultivated  portion  of  Egypt,  and  on 
the  greater  part  of  this  low  and  level  country 
rain  never  falls.  This  natural  want  is  supplied 
by  the  annual  overflow  of  the  Nile,  and  by  arti¬ 
ficial  means  from  the  same  source,  when  the 
river  has  receded  within  its  customary  channel. 
The  water  is  distributed  in  small  channels  or 
earthen  conduits,  simple  in  construction, 
worked  by  the  foot,  and  formed  with  a  mattock 
by  the  gardener  who  directs  their  course,  and 
which  are  banked  up  or  opened,  as  occasion 
may  require,  by  pressing  in  the  soil  with  the 
foot.  Thus  was  the  land  watered  in  which  the 
Israelites  had  dwelt  so  long.  Jamieson. 

The  absolute  necessity  of  irrigation,  and  the 
nature  of  the  irrigation,  implied  in  the  expres 
sion,  ”  where  thou  sowedst  thy  seed,  and  water- 
edst  it  with  thy  foot,”  receive  illustration  from 
the  pictures  in  the  tombs,  which  show  us  the 
fields  surrounded  by  broad  canals,  and  inter 
sected  everj'where  by  cuttings  from  them,  con- 
tinuallj'  diminishing  in  size,  until  at  last  the.v 
are  no  more  than  rills  banked  up  with  a  little 
mud,  which  the  hand  or  "  foot  ”  might  readily 
remove  and  replace,  so  turning  the  water  in  any 
direction  that  might  be  required  by  the  cultiva¬ 
tor.  G.  k: 

How  beautifully  exact  is  the  contrast  drawn 


SOIL-FERTILITY  PROMISED  TO  OBEDIENCE. 


by  Moses  between  Palestine  and  Egypt  ;  repre¬ 
senting  the  latter  as  a  flat  countr}^  and  as  a 
country  favored  of  God  only  through  a  portion 
of  the  year — during  the  overflow  of  the  Nile  — 
and  requiring  to  be  laboriously  irrigated  during 
the  rest  of  the  year  ;  whereas  Palestine  is  an  un¬ 
dulating  country,  and  a  country  watched  over 
by  a  perpetual  Providence,  receiving  from  time 
to  time,  as  it  needs,  rain  from  the  skies.  The 
force  of  the  contrast  between  Egypt  and  Pales¬ 
tine  here  described,  and  the  contrast  as  it  must 
have  been  felt  by  those  who  all  their  lives  had 
known  only  the  flat  country  of  Egypt,  can  be 
imagined  b}'^  the  modern  traveller  who  visits 
Palestine  after  Egypt.  Hills  and  valleys  never 
made  such  an  impression  on  me  as  when  I  came 
into  the  holy  land  after  having  been  three 

months  in  Egypt.  N.  C.  B. - It  is  the  Egypt 

of  Sethos  I.,  Kameses  I.  and  II.,  and  of  Menep- 
tah  that  has  left  its  indelible  impression  on  the 
Pentateuch.  The  nearly  two  score  references 
to  it  by  name  in  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy 
alone  are  of  unmistakable  significance.  In 
eleven  only  of  the  thirty-four  chapters  do  we 
fail  to  find  them.  They  abound  equally  in 
every  part — laws  as  well  as  history.  More  than 
half  the  references  are  to  Israel’s  deliverance 
and  the  signal  manner  of  it.  The  next  largest 
number  are  to  the  wonders  wrought  upon  Pha¬ 
raoh.  Others  are  to  the  fact  of  the  hard  servi¬ 
tude,  the  homelessness,  and  the  oppression  of 
Israel.  Four  make  mention  of  what  kind  of  a 
land  Egypt  had  been  found,  its  evil  diseases, 
and  its  methods  of  agriculture.  Could  any¬ 
thing,  f  jr  example,  be  more  true  to  nature  or 
more  picturesque  than  this  :  “  For  the  land  of 
which  thou  goest  to  take  possession  is  not  like 
the  land  of  Egypt,  whence  ye  are  come  out, 
where  thou  sowedst  thy  seed,  and  wateredst  it 
with  thy  foot  as  a  garden  of  herbs”  (11  :  10)  ? 
Two  passages  make  tender  allusion  to  the  cir¬ 
cumstances  that  attended  the  going  of  Jacob 
into  Egypt,  and  two  contain  terrifying  ones  to 
a  possible  future  thraldom  there.  How  abun¬ 
dant  this  testimony,  and  how  inexplicable  on  the 
supposition  that  our  book  was  written  at  any 
time  between  the  reign  of  Jeroboam,  the  son  of 
Nebat  and  the  reforms  of  King  Josiah?  More¬ 
over,  it  is  of  one  uniform  character.  Selected 
out,  a  shred  here  and  a  shred  there,  from  the 
entire  web,  there  is  no  dissimilarity  of  color  or 
texture.  It  is  a  Shemitic  fabric,  woven  thick 
with  threads  of  Egyptian  memories.  E.  C.  B. 

14.  Tlic  rain  in  it§  §eason,  the  for¬ 
mer  rain  and  llie  latter  rain.  By  the 
former  rain  we  are  to  understand  that  which 
fell  in  Judea  about  October,  when  they  sowed 
42 


Go  7 

their  seed  ;  this  served  to  moisten  and  prepare 
the  ground  for  the  vegetation  of  the  seed.  The 
latter  rain  fell  about  April,  when  the  corn  was 
well  grown  up,  and  served  to  fill  the  ears  and 
render  them  perfect.  Rain  rarely  fell  in  Judea 
at  any  other  seasons  than  these.  If  the  former 
rain  were  withheld  or  not  sent  in  due  season, 
there  could  be  no  vegetation  ;  if  the  latter  rain 
were  withheld  or  not  sent  in  its  due  season, 
there  could  be  no  full  corn  in  the  ear,  and  con¬ 
sequently  no  harvest.  Of  what  consequence 
then  was  it  that  they  should  have  their  rain  in 
due  season  /  God,  by  promising  this  provided 
they  were  obedient,  and  threatening  to  withhold 
it  should  they  be  disobedient,  shows  that  the 
very  rain  of  heaven  falls  by  particular  direction, 
and  the  showers  are  regulated  by  an  especial 
Providence.  A.  C. 

15-17.  “I  will  send  grass  in  thy  fields  for  thy 
cattle.”  Undoubtedly  the  special  blessing  of 
the  former  and  the  latter  rain  was  one  principal 
cause  of  the  extraordinary  fertility  of  Canaan  in 
ancient  times.  That  blessing  was  promised  to 
the  Israelites  as  a  temporal  reward  for  their 
fidelity  to  the  national  covenant.  It  was  threat¬ 
ened  to  be  withdrawn  on  their  disobedience  or 
apostasy  ;  and  most  signally  is  the  execution  of 
that  threatening  seen  in  the  present  sterility  of 
Palestine.  Mr.  Lowthian,  an  English  farmer, 
who  was  struck  during  his  journey  from  Joppa 
to  Jerusalem  by  not  seeing  a  blade  of  grass, 
where  even  in  the  poorest  localities  of  Britain 
some  wild  vegetation  is  found,  directed  his  at¬ 
tention  particularly  to  the  subject,  and  pursued 
the  inquiry  during  a  month’s  residence  in  Jeru¬ 
salem.  “Most  clearly,”  says  he,  “did  I  per¬ 
ceive  that  the  barrenness  of  large  portions  of 
the  country  was  owing  to  the  cessation  of  the 
early  and  latter  rain,  and  that  the  absence  of 
grass  and  flowers  made  it  no  longer  the  land 
(verse  9)  flowing  with  milk  and  honey.”  Jamie¬ 
son. 

22-25.  If  they  were  sedulous  to  keep  God’s 
commandments,  and  faithfully  adhered  to  him, 
loving  him  and  walking  in  all  his  ways,  he 
would  drive  out  before  them  the  nations  of  the 
Canaanites,  and  cause  them  to  possess  the  ter¬ 
ritory  of  nations  greater  and  mightier  than 
themselves.  Every  place  on  which  the  soles  of 
their  feet  should  tread  should  be  theirs — i.e., 
they  had  but  to  enter  the  land  to  become  pos¬ 
sessors  of  it.  This  is  more  exactly  defined  as 
restricted  to  the  land  the  boundaries  of  which 
are  given— from  the  Arabian  desert  on  the  south 
to  Lebanon  on  the  north,  and  from  the  river 
Euphrates  on  the  east  to  the  Mediterranean  on 
the  west.  W.  L.  A. - Euphrates,  which  was 


658 


SECTION  186.  ONE  CENTRAL  SANCTUARY. 


on  the  East,  to  the  uttermost  sea,  the  Mediter¬ 
ranean,  which  lay  westward  of  the  promised 
land.  This  promise,  notwithstanding  the  many 
provocations  of  the  Israelites,  M’as  fulfilled  in  the 
time  of  Solomon,  for  “  he  reigned  over  all  the 
kings  from  the  river  (Euphrates)  even  unto  the 
land  of  the  Philistines,  and  to  the  border  of 
Egypt.”  A.  C. 

26-32.  Moses,  in  conclusion,  refers  to  the 
blessing  and  the  curse  consequent  on  the  ob¬ 
servance  or  the  transgression  of  the  Law,  and 
prescribes  that  when  they  had  entered  on  pos¬ 
session  of  the  land  the  blessing  should  be  pro¬ 
claimed  from  Mount  Gerizim,  and  the  curse 
from  Mount  Ebal.  W.  L.  A. 

27,  2§.  A  and  a  curse.  This 

blessing  and  this  curse  are  here  rejiresented  as 
suspended  respectively  upon  the  obedience  and 
disobedience  of  the  people.  And  it  is  observ¬ 
able  that  the  whole  historical  part  of  the  Old 
Testament  witnesses  the  truth  of  this,  that  God 
blessed  or  cursed  them  according  as  they  kept  or 

violated  his  laws.  Patrick. - He  sums  up  all 

his  arguments  for  obedience  in  two  words,  the 
blessing  and  the  curse— that  is,  the  rewards  and 
the  punishments  as  they  stand  in  the  promises 
and  the  threatenings,  which  are  the  great  sanc¬ 
tions  of  the  Law  taking  hold  of  hope  and  fear, 
those  two  handles  of  the  soul  by  which  it  is 
caught,  held,  and  managed.  These  two,  the 
blessing  and  the  curse,  he  explained  that  they 
might  know  them  ;  he  enumerated  the  particu¬ 
lars  contained  both  in  the  blessing  and  in  the 
curse,  that  they  might  see  the  more  fully  how 
desirable  the  blessing  was,  and  how  dreadful 
the  curse.  He  confirmed  them  that  they  might 
believe  them  ;  made  it  evident  to  them  by  the 
proofs  he  produced  of  his  own  commission,  that 
the  blessing  was  not  a  fool’s  paradise,  nor  the 
curse  a  bugbear,  but  that  both  were  real  decla¬ 
rations  of  the  purpose  of  God  concerning  them. 
He  charged  them  to  choose  which  of  these  they 
would  have.  They  and  we  are  plainly  told  on 
what  terms  we  stand  with  Almighty  God.  If 
we  be  obedient  to  his  law's,  we  may  be  sure  of 
•a  blessing.  If  we  be  disobedient,  we  may  be  as 
sure  of  a  curse.  Say  ye  to  the  righte  ms  (for  God 


has  said  it,  and  all  the  world  cannot  unsay  it) 
that  it  shall  be  well  with  them  :  but  woe  to  the  wicked, 
it  shall  be  ill  with  them.  H. 

Proceed  upon  the  line  of  obedience,  and  you 
come  to  blessing  ;  proceed  along  the  line  of  dis¬ 
obedience,  and  a  curse  is  the  inevitable  neces¬ 
sity — not  a  threatening,  not  an  exhibition  of 
fretful  vengeance,  but  a  spiritual  necessity-  :  a 
curse  follow's  evil-doing,  not  as  an  arbitrary 
punishment,  but  as  the  effect,  which  can  never 
be  changed,  of  a  certain,  positive,  operating 

cause.  J.  P. - The  fire  that  does  not  melt, 

hardens.  To  know  God’s  will  and  not  to  do  it, 
inflicts  unspeakable  mischief  upon  the  soul. 
Resistance  of  inward  convictions  begets  callosity 
«f  heart,  darkening  of  the  understanding,  and 
enslavement  of  the  will.  No  blacker  curse  can 

enwrap  a  man  than  this.  D.  D. - The  decision 

to  which  God  summons  us  involves  the  alter¬ 
native  of  a  blessing  and  a  curse.  That  was  what 
it  came  to  then,  and  it  is  the  same  still.  Bless¬ 
ing  or  curse  ;  life  or  death.  Whether  God  is  to 
be  our  God,  blessing  us,  renewing  our  inw'ard 
life,  enriching  us  with  his  Spirit,  bestowing  on 
us  grace  here  and  glory  hereafter  ;  or  w'hether 
we  are  to  live  beneath  his  frown,  withering  up 
under  it  in  body  and  soul,  and  vanishing  at  last 
into  outer  darkness.  The  issue  of  one  is  death, 
of  the  other  life  everlasting.  Orr. 

29,  30.  Thou  shalt  put  the  blessing  ;  thou 
shalt  give  forth,  utter,  announce,  proclaim. 
The  two  mountains  named  stand  opposite  to 
each  other,  with  a  valley  betw'een,  about  two 
hundred  yards  broad  at  the  widest  part,  in 
which  stood  the  towm  of  Shechem,  now  Nablus. 
They  were  selected  for  the  purpose  mentioned, 
doubtless,  because  of  their  relative  position, 
and  probably  also  because  they  stand  in  the 
centre  of  the  land  both  from  north  to  south, 
and  from  east  to  west.  W.  L.  A. 

The  mountains  Gerizim  and  Ebal  rise  in  steep 
walls  of  rock  immediately  out  of  the  valley  of 
Sichem,  the  present  Nablus,  about  eight  hun¬ 
dred  feet  high  on  each  side.  Each  of  the  moun¬ 
tains  has  a  table  land  which  affords  room  to  a 
considerable  number  of  men.  Ctrl. 


Section  186. 

ONE  CENTRAL  SANCTUARY.  LAW  RESPECTING  THE  KING  :  CHOSEN  OF  GOD  AND 
APPROVED  BY  THE  PEOPLE  ;  AN  ISRAELITE,  NOT  A  FOREIGNER  ;  SHALL 
NOT  MULTIPLY  HORSES,  WIVES,  TREASURE  ;  SHALL  READ  AND  OBSERVE 
THE  LAW. 

Deuteronomy  12  : 5-28  ;  17  :  14-20. 

De,  12  5  But  unto  the  place  which  the  Lord  your  God  shall  choose  out  of  all  your  tribes 


LAW  RESPECTING  THE  KING. 


G50 


to  put  his  name  there,  even  unto  his  habitation  shall  ye  seek,  and  thither  thou  shalt  come  : 

6  and  thither  ye  shall  bring  yoar  burnt  olterings,  and  your  sacrifices,  and  your  tithes,  and  the 
heave  offering  of  your  hand,  and  your  vows,  and  your  freewill  offerings,  and  the  firstlings  of 

7  your  herd  and  of  3  0ur  flock  :  and  there  ye  shall  eat  before  the  Lord  your  God,  and  ye  vshall 
rejoice  in  all  that  ye  put  j’our  hand  unto,  ye  and  j^our  households,  wherein  the  Lord  thy  God 

8  hath  blessed  thee.  Ye  shall  not  do  after  all  the  things  that  we  do  here  this  day,  every  man 

9  whatsoever  is  right  in  his  own  e^^es  :  for  ye  are  not  as  yet  come  to  the  rest  and  to  the  inheri- 

10  tance,  which  the  Lord  j^our  God  giveth  thee.  But  when  ye  go  over  Jordan,  and  dwell  in  the 
land  which  the  Lord  j'Our  God  causeth  j’ou  to  inherit,  and  he  giveth  j^ou  rest  from  all  your 

11  enemies  round  about,  so  that  }e  dwell  in  safety  ;  then  it  shall  come  to  pass  that  the  place 
which  the  Lord  jmur  God  shall  choose  to  cause  his  name  to  dwell  there,  thither  shall  ye  bring 
all  that  I  command  you  ;  your  burnt  offerings,  and  j’our  sacrifices,  jmur  tithes,  and  the  heave 

12  offering  of  jmur  hand,  and  all  j'our  choice  vows  which  ye  vow  unto  the  Lord  :  and  ye  shall 
rejoice  before  the  Lord  your  God,  ye,  and  jmur  sons,  and  .your  daughters,  and  jmur  menser- 
vants,  and  your  maidservants,  and  the  Levite  that  is  within  jmur  gates,  forasmuch  as  he  hath 

13  no  portion  nor  inheritance  with  you.  Take  heed  to  thj'self  that  thou  offer  not  thy  burnt  offer- 

14  ings  in  every  place  that  thou  seest  :  but  in  the  place  which  the  Lord  shall  choose  in  one  of 
th.y  tribes,  there  thou  shalt  offer  thy  burnt  offerings,  and  there  thou  shalt  do  all  that  I  com- 

15  mand  thee.  Notwithstanding  thou  mayest  kill  and  eat  flesh  within  all  thj^  g^^tes,  after  all  the 
desire  of  thy  soul,  according  to  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  thy  God  which  he  hath  given  thee  : 

16  the  unclean  and  the  clean  may  eat  thereof,  as  of  the  gazelle,  and  as  of  tne  hart.  Only  ye  shall 

17  not  eat  the  blood  ;  thou  shalt  pour  it  out  upon  the  enrth  as  water.  Thou  mayest  not  eat 
within  thy  gaten  the  tithe  of  thy  corn,  or  of  thy  wine,  or  of  thine  oil,  or  the  firstlings  of  thy 
herd  or  of  thy  flock,  nor  any  of  thy  vows  which  thou  vowest,  nor  thy  freewill  offerings,  nor 

18  the  heave  offering  of  thine  hand  :  but  thou  shalt  eat  them  before  the  Lord  thj"  God  in  the 
place  which  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  choose,  thou,  and  thy  son,  and  thy  daughter,  and  thy 
manservant,  and  thy  maidservant,  and  the  Levite  that  is  within  thj^  gates  :  and  thou  shalt 

19  rejoice  before  the  Lord  thy  God  in  all  that  thou  puttest  thine  hand  unto.  Take  heed  to  thy¬ 
self  that  thou  forsake  not  the  Levite  as  long  as  thou  livest  upon  thy  land. 

20  When  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  enlarge  thy  border,  as  he  hath  promised  thee,  and  thou  shalt 
say,  I  will  eat  flesh,  because  thy  soul  desireth  to  eat  flesh  ;  thou  mayest  eat  flesh,  after  all  the 

21  desire  of  thj'  soul.  If  the  place  which  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  choose  to  put  his  name  there 
be  too  far  from  thee,  then  thou  shalt  kill  of  thy  herd  and  of  thy  flock,  which  the  Lord  hath 
given  thee,  as  I  have  commanded  thee,  and  thou  shalt  eat  within  thy  gates,  after  all  the  desire 

22  of  th}'  soul.  Even  as  the  gazelle  and  as  the  hart  is  eaten,  so  thou  shalt  eat  thereof  :  the  un- 

23  clean  and  the  clean  shall  eat  thereof  alike.  Only  be  sure  that  thou  eat  not  the  blood  ;  for  the 

24  blood  is  the  life  ;  and  thou  shalt  not  eat  the  life  with  the  flesh.  Thou  shalt  not  eat  it  ;  thou 

25  shalt  pour  it  out  upon  the  earth  as  water.  Thou  shalt  not  eat  it  ;  (hat  it  may  go  well  with 
thee,  and  with  thy  children  after  thee,  when  thou  shalt  do  that  which  is  right  in  the  e.yes  of 

26  the  Lord.  Onlj"  thy  holy  things  which  thou  hast,  and  thy  vows,  thou  shalt  take,  and  go  unto 

27  the  place  which  the  Lord  shall  choose  ;  and  thou  shalt  offer  thy  burnt  offerings,  the  flesh  and 
the  blood,  upon  the  altar  of  the  Lord  thy  God  :  and  the  blood  of  thy  sacrifices  shall  be  poured 

28  out  upon  the  altar  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  thou  shalt  eat  the  flesh.  Observe  and  hear  all 
these  words  which  I  command  thee,  that  it  may  go  well  with  thee,  and  with  thy  children  after 
thee  for  ever,  when  thou  doest  that  which  is  good  and  right  in  the  e.ves  of  the  Lord  thy  God. 

17  14  When  thou  art  come  unto  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee,  and  shalt 
possess  it,  and  shalt  dwell  therein  ;  and  shalt  say,  I  will  set  a  king  over  me,  like  as  all  the 

15  nations  that  are  round  about  me  ;  thou  shalt  in  any  wise  set  him  king  over  thee,  whom  the 
Lord  thy  God  shall  choose  :  one  from  among  thy  brethren  shalt  thou  set  king  over  thee  :  thou 

16  mayest  not  put  a  foreigner  over  thee,  which  is  not  Ihj’^  brother.  Only  he  shall  not  multiply 
horses  to  himself,  nor  cause  the  people  to  return  to  Egj^pt,  to  the  end  that  he  should  multiply 
horses  :  forasmuch  as  the  Lord  hath  said  unto  you.  Ye  shall  henceforth  return  no  more  that 

17  way.  Neither  shall  he  multiply  wives  to  himself,  that  his  heart  turn  not  away  :  neither  shall 

18  he  greatly  multiply  to  himself  silver  and  gold.  And  it  shall  be,  when  he  sitteth  upon  the 
throne  of  his  kingdom,  that  he  shall  write  him  a  copy  of  this  law  in  a  book,  out  of  ihaf  which 

19  is’  before  the  priests  the  Levites  :  and  it  shall  be  with  him,  and  he  shall  read  therein  all  the 
days  of  his  life  :  that  he  may  learn  to  fear  the  Lord  his  God,  to  keep  all  the  words  of  this  law 


660 


SECTION  186.  ONE  CENTRAL  SANCTUARY. 


20  and  these  statutes,  to  do  them  :  that  his  heart  be  not  lifted  up  above  his  brethren,  and  that 
he  turn  not  aside  from  the  commandment,  to  the  right  hand,  or  to  the  left  :  to  the  end  that 
lie  may  prolong  his  days  in  his  kingdom,  he  and  his  children,  in  the  midst  of  Israel. 


One  Sanctuary  Enforcing  Unity  of  Worship. 

De.  12  : 5-28. 

The  ecclesiastical  and  national  unity  of  Israel 
was  to  be  maintained  even  when  Israel  should 
be  no  longer  united,  as  they  had  hitherto  been 
in  the  wilderness,  but  should  be  spread  over  ex¬ 
tensive  districts  of  country.  A  particular  place, 
Mdiich  the  Lord  would  choose  for  the  erection 
of  his  sanctuary,  was  to  be  adopted  by  them  as 
the  scene  of  their  common  worship.  This  unity 
of  worship,  for  whose  sake  the  command  had 
gone  forth  to  destroy  all  altars  and  pillars,  and 
whatsoever  was  calculated  to  recall  the  idolatry 
of  the  former  inhabitants,  was  indispensably 
necessary  unless  Israel  were  sooner  or  later  to 
sink  into  the  heathenish  manners  and  customs 

of  the  aborigines.  C.  G.  B. - The  reason  for 

this  command  enforcing  the  unity  of  the  worship 
of  God  was  apparent.  In  the  wilderness,  where 
Israel  formed  one  great  camp  under  definite 
rules,  it  was  not  possible  to  set  up  separate 
places  of  worship,  however  much  idol-worship 
might  be  practised  in  secret.  But  after  the  sep¬ 
aration  of  the  two  tribes  and  a  half  in  the  laud 
east  of  Jordan,  when  the  people  were  now  about 
to  be  scattered  over  a  wide  tract  of  country, 
then  it  was  needful  to  make  this  commandment 
stringent.  Gerl. 

If  Deuteronomy  has  a  single  prominent  fea¬ 
ture,  it  is  the  emphasis  it  lays  on  the  place  of 
worship  for  Israel  — that  it  is  to  be  one,  the  one 
which  the  Lord  their  God  should  choose  for 
them.  Nearly  twenty  times  within  the  space  of 
a  few  chapters  this  matter  is  insisted  on,  with¬ 
out  deviation  in  form  or  relaxation  from  its  iron 
firmness  of  command.  “  Unto  the  place  which 
the  Lord  your  God  shall  choose  out  of  all  your 
tribes  to  put  his  name  there,  unto  his  habita¬ 
tion  shall  ye  seek,  and  thither  shalt  thou  come” 
(12  :  5).  The  cultus  of  God  was  to  be  confined 
to  a  central  shrine.  The  idolatrous  and  deadly 
worship  on  the  '*  heights”  was  to  be  relentlessly 
rooted  out.  E.  C.  B. - In  the  sixteenth  chap¬ 

ter  of  Deuteronomy  the  prohibition  against  ob¬ 
serving  these  great  feasts,  the  three  annual 
epochs  in  the  sacred  year  of  the  Jew,  at  home 
and  in  private,  is  reiterated  in  a  variety  of 
words  no  less  than  six  times  in  the  first  sixteen 
verses.  E'tpin. 

The  great  Lawgiver  speaks  no  longer  in  the 
brief  and  formal  language  of  a  statute,  but  in 
that  of  earnest  exhortation  and  admonition. 


Foreseeing  the  dangers  that  would  arise  from 
their  being  ensnared  .into  attendance  at  the  idol¬ 
atrous  temples  of  the  Canaanites,  he  directs  his 
utmost  urgency  to  this  source  of  their  most  im¬ 
mediate  peril,  reiterating  his  cautions  upon  this 
point  again  and  again,  and  especially  enjoining 
it  upon  them  to  present  all  their  sacrifices  and 
observe  all  their  feasts  at  the  place  which  the 
Lokd  would  choose,  after  he  had  given  them 
rest  in  the  land  which  they  were  going  in  to 

possess.  W.  H.  G. - There  is  not  any  one 

particular  precept  in  all  the  Law  of  Moses  so 
largely  pressed  and  inculcated  as  this,  by  which 
they  are  all  tied  to  bring  their  sacrifices  to  that 
one  altar  which  was  set  up  in  the  court  of  the 
tabernacle,  and  there  to  perform  all  the  rituals 
of  their  religion  ;  for  as  to  moral  services,  then, 
no  doubt,  as  now,  men  might  pray  cver3  where, 
as  they  did  in  their  synagogues.  The  command 
to  do  this,  and  the  prohibition  of  the  contrary, 
are  here  repeated  again  and  again,  as  we  teach 
children  :  and  yet  we  are  sure  that  there  is  in 
Scripture  no  vain  repetition  ;  but  all  this  stress 
is  laid  upon  it  (1)  Because  of  the  strange  prone¬ 
ness  there  was  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  to 
idolatry  and  superstition,  and  the  danger  of 
their  being  seduced  bj^  the  many  temptations 
which  they  would  be  surrounded  with.  (2)  Be¬ 
cause  of  the  great  use  which  the  observance  of 
this  appointment  would  be  of  to  them,  both  to 
prevent  the  introducing  of  corrupt  customs  into 
their  worship,  and  to  preserve  among  them 
unity  and  brotherly  love  ;  that  meeting  all  in 
one  place,  they  might  continue  both  of  one  way 
and  of  one  heart.  (3)  Because  of  the  signifi- 
cancy  of  this  appointment.  They  must  keep  to 
one  place,  in  token  of  their  belief  of  those  two 
great  truths,  which  we  find  together  (1  Tim. 
2  : 5),  That  there  is  one  God,  and  one  Medvdor  be¬ 
tween  God  and  man.  It  not  only  served  to  keep 
up  the  notion  of  the  unity  of  the  Godhead,  but 
was  an  intimation  to  them  (though  they  could 
not  steadfastly  discern  it)  of  the  one  only  way 
of  approach  to  God,  and  communion  with  him, 
in  and  by  the  Messiah.  H. 

5.  The  text  does  not  import  that  God  would 
always  from  the  first  choose  one  and  the  same 
locality  ”  to  put  his  name  there,”  but  that  there 
would  always  be  a  locality  so  chosen  by  him  ; 
and  that  thither  the  people  must  bring  their 
sacrifices,  and  not  offer  them  at  their  pleasure 
or  convenience  elsewhere.  Neither  does  the 
text  forbid  the  offering  of  sacrifices  to  God  at 


now  LONDITIONED  AND  QUALIFIED. 


661 


other  places  than  the  one  chosen  by  him  “  to  | 
pnt  his  name  there'’ on  proper  occasions  and  | 
by  proper  authority.  Moses  himself  (ch.  27  :  5,  | 
G)  enjoins  the  erection  of  a  stone  altar  on  j 
Mount  Ebal  for  burnt-offerings  to  be  offered  on 
the  day  of  comminution  :  and  we  read  of  sacri¬ 
fices  offered  at  various  places  by  judges,  proph¬ 
ets,  kings,  and  others,  and  accepted  by  God. 

E<pin. - The  appointment  of  a  central  place 

tor  national  worship,  where  all  the  sacrifices 
were  usually  to  be  offered,  is  one  main  feature 
of  the  history  from  the  pitching  of  the  taber¬ 
nacle  in  Shiloh  down  to  the  burning  of  the  first 
temple  ;  and  onward,  after  the  captivity,  to  the 
times  of  the  New  Testament.  The  more  indefi¬ 
nite  promise  (Ex,  20  :  24)  was  not  only  given 
before  the  sanctuary  and  its  altar  were  built, 
and  before  the  precept  in  Lev.  17  : 1-7,  but  in 
later  times  it  applied  to  special  and  extraordi¬ 
nary  sacrifices,  as  that  of  Samuel  at  Ebenezer  or 
Gideon  at  Ophrah,  which  were  warranted  bj’^ 
peculiar  circumstances,  or  by  a  direct  command 
of  God.  When  God  recorded  his  name  in  any 
place,  there  sacrifice  might  be  offered,  while 
one  central  place  alone  for  such  sacrifices  was 
the  general  rule.  Birks. 

To  this  place  the  tribes  were  to  come  and 
worship  together.  Thus  the  unity  of  God’s  re¬ 
deemed  people  in  him  would  be  continually 
before  their  eyes.  Though  the  times  in  the 
year  were  not  many  when  the  people  were  thus 
to  meet  as  one  nation  and  commonwealth,  yet 
they  were  frequent  enough  to  insure  their 
thoughts  turning  thereto,  either  by  retrospec¬ 
tion  or  anticipation,  from  one  year’s  end  to  an¬ 
other.  Here  is  the  germ  seed  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  unity  of  God’s  Church.  Many  tribes,  one 
redeemed  people.  And  is  it  not  precisely  this 
principle  which  is  brought  out  in  the  New  Tes¬ 
tament,  only  in  far  grander  form  ?  (See  Rev.  7  ; 
Eph.  2  ;  John  17  ;  Rom.  12).  Is  not  the  Chris¬ 
tian  unity  a  union  of  many  tribes  and  tongues 
in  one  deliverance,  and  one  Deliverer  ?  C.  C. 

6,  7,  The  central  altar  is  to  gather  round  it 
joyful  worshippers.  Burnt-offering,  sacrifice, 
heave-offering,  etc.,  were  to  reach  their  climax 
in  the  eating  before  the  Lord  the  peace-offering, 
and  in  the  joy  which  springs  from  fellowship. 
This  is  the  purpose  of  all  worship.  If  joy  be 
not  reached,  then  the  worshippers  are  living 
below  their  privileges.  Edgnr. 

8-11.  Moses  points  out  that  heretofore  they 
had  not  observed  the  prescribed  order  in  their 
worship,  because  during  their  migratory  life  in 
the  wilderness  it  had  been  impossible  to  do  so. 
The  whole  system  was  imperfectly  acted  upon 
up  to  the  death  of  Moses,  and  important  parts 


of  it  left  altogether  in  abeyance.  This  consid¬ 
eration  must  be  carefully  borne  in  mind  through¬ 
out  Deuteronomy,  It  illustrates  the  necessity 
for  a  repetition  of  very  much  of  the  Sinaitic 
legislation,  and  suggests  the  reason  why  some 
parts  are  so  urgently  reiterated  and  impressed, 
while  others  are  left  unnoticed.  The  speaker 
has  in  view  throughout  the  state  of  religion  and 
its  observances  among  his  hearers.  He  warns 
them  in  the  verses  before  us  that  as  they  were 
now  about  to  quit  their  unsettled  mode  of  life, 
God’s  purpose  of  choosing  for  himself  a  place 
to  set  his  name  there  would  be  executed,  and 
the  whole  of  the  sacred  ritual  would  conse¬ 
quently  become  obligatory.  The  rest  and  safety 
of  Canaan  is  significantly  laid  down  (verses  10, 
11)  as  the  indispensable  condition  and  basis 
for  an  entire  fulfilment  of  the  Law  :  the  per¬ 
fection  of  righteousness  coinciding  thus  with 
the  cessation  of  wanderings,  dangers,  and  toils. 
Espin. 

10.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  the  Law  in  Deuter¬ 
onomy  appointing  the  one  place  for  sacrificial 
worship  is  not  absolute  and  unconditioned.  It 
is  here  expressly  qualified  by  the  condition  of 
the  Lord’s  giving  them  rest  from  all  their  en¬ 
emies  round  about.  Until  this  was  done,  the 
Law  was  in  abeyance  ;  so  that,  if  circumstances 
required,  other  methods  than  that  which  it  pre¬ 
scribed  of  observing  the  primary  and  absolutely 
imperative  ordinance  of  sacrifice  might  be  fol¬ 
lowed.  We  find,  accordiugl}’,  that  it  w'as  only 
as  it  was  considered  that  the  Lord  had  given 
them  rest  from  their  enemies  that  it  W'as  deemed 
fitting  to  fix  upon  a  certain  place  to  which  the 
people  might  repair  as  to  the  dwelling-place  of 
Jehovah,  to  present  their  w^orsb ip  and  offerings. 
Thus,  after  the  occupation  of  the  land  by  the 
Israelites,  it  was  not  until  the  land  was  sub¬ 
dued  before  them,  and  the  Lord  had  given  them 
rest  round  about,  that  the  congregation  of  the 
children  of  Israel  assembled  at  Shiloh,  and  set 
up  the  tent  of  meeting  there  (Josh.  18  : 1  ; 
21  ;  44  ;  22  :4).  The  rest,  however,  wdiicli  w’as 
then  given  to  them  w'as  not  destined  to  be  per¬ 
manent.  Times  of  unsettlement  ensued,  and  at 
length  the  sanctuary  at  Shiloh  was  everted  and 
the  ark  of  the  covenant  carried  away  by  hostile 
invaders  ;  nor  was  it  till  the  time  of  David  that 
it  could  be  said  definitively  that  the  Lord  had 
given  rest  to  his  people  from  all  Iheii  enemies, 
as  he  had  promised.  Then  at  length  the  occa¬ 
sion  had  arrived  when  a  house  might  be  built 
for  the  Lord  to  dwell  in  ;  and  David,  recogniz¬ 
ing  this,  determined,  seeing  “  the  Lord  had 
given  him  rest  round  about  from  all  his  en¬ 
emies,”  to  build  a  house  unto  the  name  of  the 


662 


SECTION  1S6.  ONE  CENTRAL  SANCTUAhT. 


Lord  ;  and  Ibougli  he  was  not  permitted  to 
carry  this  into  effect,  because  of  the  wars  in 
which  he  had  been  engaged  in  the  earlier  j)art 
of  his  reign,  his  purpose  was  approved  of  by 
God  (2  Sam.  7  :  I  ;  1  Kings  8  :  IS).  The  fact 
that  in  the  usages  of  the  nation  there  was  this 
connecting  of  a  time  of  rest  from  all  enemies 
w'ith  the  setting  up  of  a  fixed  jilace  for  the  sanc¬ 
tuary,  is  surely  a  strong  indication  that  the  Law 
of  Deuteronomy  was  all  along  known  and  re¬ 
spected  by  them  ;  and,  at  the  same  time,  we 
may  see  from  this  how  it  was  that,  jiending  the 
arrival  of  the  promised  rest,  good  men  were 
found  offering  worship  and  sacrifices  elsewhere 
than  at  a  central  sanctuary. 

That  the  law  of  Deuteronomy  respecting  the 
offering  of  sacrifice  only  at  the  place  which  the 
Lord  should  appoint  was  known  and  reverenced 
from  the  earliest  times,  is  placed  beyond  doubt, 
not  only  by  the  constant  references,  in  the  early 
historical  books,  to  the  “  house  of  the  Lord” 
as  the  place  where  worship  and  sacrifice  were  to 
be  offered,  but  especially  by  what  is  recorded  in 
Josh.  22.  The  indignation  of  the  people  against 
their  brethren  who  had  erected  an  altar  on  the 
border  of  Jordan  before  they  crossed  it  to  re¬ 
turn  to  their  own  possession  on  the  eastern  side 
of  that  river  ;  the  earnestness  with  which  the 
latter  hastened  to  assure  the  people  that  they 
had  erected  the  altar,  not  to  establish  an  inde¬ 
pendent  worship,  but  rather  that  it  might  stand 
as  a  permanent  witness  that  they  still  adhered 
to  and  claimed  to  have  part  in  Jehovah  as  their 
God  ;  and  the  solemnity  with  which  they  dis¬ 
claimed  any  intention  to  rebel  against  the  Lord 
by  building  an  altar  for  burnt-offerings,  for  meal- 
offerings,  or  for  sacrifices  beside  the  altar  of  the 
Lord  that  was  before  the  tabernacle — all  in¬ 
contestably  show  that  this  Law  was  known  and 
recognized  as  imperative  at  the  time  of  the 
settling  of  the  people  in  the  promised  land. 
W.  L.  A. 

15,  The  Israelites  are  here  prohibited  from 
sacrificing  anywhere  else  than  at  the  central 
sanctuary.  But  with  the  prohibition  a  conces¬ 
sion  is  joined,  specifically  introduced  as  a  con¬ 
cession,  that  they  may  slaughter  animals  for  pri¬ 
vate  use  at  home.  The  concession  points  un¬ 
equivocally  back  to  the  Levitical  form  of  the 
law  (17  : 1-7),  which  had  prohibited  the  killing 
of  animals  at  all,  a-i  might  have  been  expected 
in  the  wilderness,  except  at  the  central  sanctu¬ 
ary.  E.  C.  B. 

1§.  The  worship  of  God  sanctifies  the  com¬ 
mon  meal.  The  recognition  of  God  and  his 
claims  allows  us  to  enjoy  all  the  provision  of 
God  with  thankfulness  and  content.  Every 


meal  reminds  us  of  God,  and  leads  to  fellowship 
with  him.  In  this  state  of  mind  excess  of 
every  kind  becomes  impossible,  and  the  amplest 
enjoyment  is  not  incompatible  with  vigorous 
piet}'. 

The  worship  of  God  was  fruitful,  in 
BLESSING.  The  design  of  God  in  every  particu¬ 
lar  was  solely  the  good  of  families,  that  it  may 
be  well  with  thee,  and  with  thy  children.”  We 
do  well  to  write  this  wdth  a  diamond  pen  on 
memory  and  heart,  that  God’s  claims  and  man’s 
advantage  are  identical  D.  D. 

God  was  not  limited  to  these  established  or¬ 
dinances  in  his  dealings  with  his  people.  His 
grace  is  broader  than  the  channels  through 
which  it  ordinarily  flows.  Special  Divine  influ¬ 
ences  were  not  restricted  to  the  sanctuary  even 
in  the  days  of  Moses  (Nu,  11  :  26-29).  And  no 
exposition  of  the  Levitical  institutions,  which 
places  regularity  of  ritual  observance  upon  a  par 
with  the  Hjiirit  it  was  designed  to  express,  can 
make  them  tally  with  the  history  of  Israel,  the 
devout  breathings  of  the  Psalmists,  or  the  teach¬ 
ings  of  the  prophets,  W.  H.  G. - It  is  cer¬ 

tain  that  the  spiritual  sacrifices  we  are  now  to 
offer  are  not  confined  to  any  one  place.  Our 
Saviour  has  made  this  clear  (John  4  : 21),  and 
the  apostle  (1  Tim.  2  :8),  according  to  the  proph¬ 
ecy,  that  in  everyplace  incense  should  he  offered 
(Mai.  1  : 11),  We  have  now  no  temple  or  altar 
that  sanctifies  the  gift,  nor  does  the  Gospel  unity 
lie  in  on&  pi  ice,  but  in  one  heart,  and  the  unVy 
of  the  spirit.  Christ  is  our  Altar,  and  the  true 
Tabernacle  (Htb.  8:2;  13  : 10)  ;  in  him  God 
dwells  among  us,  and  it  is  in  him  that  our  sac¬ 
rifices  are  acceptable  to  God  and  in  him  only  (1 
Pet.  2  : 5).  To  set  up  other  mediators,  or 
other  altars,  or  other  expiatory  sacrifices,  is  in 
effect  to  set  up  other  gods.  He  is  the  Centre  of 
unity,  in  whom  all  God’s  Israel  meet.  H. 

Law  Kespecting  the  King. 

Be.  17  : 14-20. 

Israel,  being  under  a  theocracy,  did  not  need 
an  earthly  king  ;  but  neither  was  this  thereby 
precluded,  provided  the  king  chosen  by  the 
people  were  one  whom  Jehovah  would  approve 
as  his  vicegerent.  In  case,  then,  of  their  com¬ 
ing  to  desire  to  have  a  king  over  them  like  the 
nations  around  them,  Moses  gives  instructions 
here  as  to  the  choice  of  a  king,  and  as  to  the 
duties  and  obligations  resting  upon  those  who 
might  be  elevated  to  that  office.  The  form  in 
which  these  are  conveyed  clearly  indicates  that, 
at  the  time  this  was  uttered,  the  existence  of  a 
king  in  Israel  was  contemplated  as  only  a  dis¬ 
tant  possibility.  Moses  foresaw  that  the  people 


THE  Kim  A  NATIVE  UEBllEW, 


m 


would  wish  to  be  as  the  nations  around  them — 
governed  by  a  king— and  he  legislates  accord¬ 
ingly,  without  approving  of  that  wish.  W.  L.  A. 
- No  sanction  nor  recommendation  was  indi¬ 
cated  ;  on  the  contrary,  when  the  popular  clamor 
had  effected  that  constitutional  change  on  the 
Theocracy  by  the  appointment  of  a  king,  the 
Divine  disapproval  was  expressed  in  the  most 
unequivocal  terms  (1  Sam.  8  :  7).  Permission  at 
length  was  granted,  God  reserving  to  himself 
the  nomination  of  the  family  and  the  person 
who  sliould  be  elevated  to  the  regal  dignity. 
J'lmieson. 

The  law  of  the  king,  as  we  find  it  recorded 
in  Deuteronomy,  is,  on  its  face,  framed  in  an¬ 
ticipation  of  a  juncture  to  arise.  It  looks  for¬ 
ward  to  a  period  when  the  Canaanites  shall  have 
been  dispossessed,  their  land  apportioned,  and 
Israel  definitely  settled  in  it.  The  demand  for 
a  king  would  then  arise.  It  would  come  from 
the  people.  Permission  is  granted  to  comply 
with  this  demand  conditionally,  and  directions 
given  in  detail  concerning  the  manner  of  the 
sovereign’s  choice,  the  title  he  shall  bear,  the 
government  of  his  household,  his  income,  his 
relative  position  among  his  brethren,  the  suc¬ 
cession,  and  other  matters,  in  a  way  to  set  him 
wholly  apart  from  any  contemporaneous  kings, 
so,  indeed,  as  to  show  that  he  was  to  be  a  king 
under  the  peculiar  conditions  of  a  government 
that  must  still  be  recognized,  as  in  the  end, 
theocratic.  The  law,  in  short,  is  Mosaic  in  the 
finest  shading  of  its  phraseology.  It  is  true 
that  some  temptations  and  evil  practices  of  kings 
in  general — in  the  event  proving  to  be  also  those 
of  later  Israelitish  kings,  like  Solomon — seem 
to  have  been  directly  in  mind  throughout  and 
guarded  against.  With  the  knowledge  of  what 
the  kings  of  Egypt  and  Canaan  were,  what  less 
could  have  been  expected  of  such  a  man  as 
Moses,  to  say  nothing  of  the  fact  that  our  book 
represents  him  as  a  prophet  ?  E.  C.  B. 

The  inspired  foresight  of  this  legislator  con¬ 
templated  the  future  existence  of  a  conslUu'ional 
monarch.  Moses  perceived  that  even  his  perfect 
government  would  weary  the  inconstancy  of 
man,  and  that  mortal  passions  would  corrupt 
even  a  Divine  institution.  Moses,  with  pres¬ 
cient  wisdom,  limited  the  power  intrusted  into 
the  hands  of  royalty,  and  even  prescribed  a 
daily  task  to  the  future  sovereign.  The  legisla¬ 
tor  rendered  the  Jewish  king  the  most  guileless 
man  in  his  dominions. 

The  sovereign  was  to  be  elected  from  among 
their  own  brethren  ;  no  stranger  was  to  sit  on 
the  throne  of  Israel.  A  foreigner  might  change 
the  constitution,  or  raise  up  a  faction  in  direct 


opposition  to  the  national  interest.  The  king 
was  not  to  multiply  horses  ;  a  force  of  cavalry, 
in  a  land  where  horses  are  scarce,  might  become 
a  standing  army  endangering  their  liberties,  or 
might  transfer  the  seat  of  dominion.  It  is  par¬ 
ticularly  specified  that  the  Jewish  monarch  shall 
never  return  with  his  people  into  Egypt  ;  “  Ye 
shall  henceforth  return  no  more  that  way.” 
Egypt,  for  the  Israelites  at  the  Mosaic  period, 
was  their  Father-land  ;  unwilling  exiles,  their 
human  hearts,  at  each  remove  in  the  lone  des¬ 
ert,  but  dragged  a  lengthening  chain,  while  they 
hankered  after  their  home  delights,  “  the  fat 
onions  and  the  flesh  pots.”  Judaism  could 
only  exist  in  a  constant  triumph  over  idolatry. 
The  Jewish  monarch  was  not  to  have  many 
wives,  nor  was  he  to  accumulate  great  treasure  ; 
so  early  were  women  and  wealth  dreaded  as  the 
corrupters  of  royalty.  With  his  own  hand  he 
was  to  transcribe  the  laws  into  a  volume  from 
the  roll  which  was  kept  before  the  priests, 
“  that  his  heart  be  not  lifted  up  among  his 
brethren,  and  that  he  turn  not  aside  from  the 
commandment  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left.” 
There  is  no  instance  of  a  Jewish  king  making  a 
new  law;  “  the  statutes  and  the  judgments,” 
unlike  those  of  other  nations,  were  not  laid  up 
in  the  dusty  archives  of  a  court  of  judicature, 
or  subjected  to  the  caprice  of  the  executive 
power  ;  they  were  deposited  in  the  memories  of 
the  priests  and  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  ;  the 
laws  were  supreme.  Had  the  constitutional 
King  of  Israel  struck  into  the  road  of  arbitrary 
power,  he  would  have  been  arrested  by  the 
written  voice  of  heaven— the  text  placed  before 
his  eyes  ;  for  the  Divine  institution  of  the 
Mosaic  Law  is  the  fundamental  principle  of 
Judaism.  A  tyrant  would  have  been  an  atheist. 
B'  Israeli. 

15.  One  from  anionn^  tliy  t>retlireii. 

The  Hebrew  sovereign  was  to  be  a  native  Hebrew, 
to  be  elected  from  his  brethren.  A  foreigner 
might  ch  inge  the  constitution,  or  raise  up  a 
faction  in  opposition  to  the  national  interest. 
Foreigners,  too,  would  be  inclined  to  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  idolatry. 

16.  The  Hebrew  king  was  not  to  multiply 
horses.  As  the  Israelites  made  no  use  of  horses 
in  agriculture,  and  but  little  as  beasts  of  bur 
den,  employing  for  these  purposes  oxen  an  I 
asses,  and  as  they  made  most  of  their  journeys 
on  foot,  and  of  course  did  not  need  them  for 
travelling,  this  must  be  understood  as  a  prohibir 
tion  against  maintaining  a  strong  force  of  cav 
airy.  For  defence  cavalry  was  unnecessary.  On 
the  west  Palestine  had  the  sea.  On  the  north, 
its  barrier  was  a  range  of  lofty  and  almost  im- 


664 


SECTION  186.  LAW  It  ESP  EC  TING  THE  KINO. 


passable  motlntains,  where  a  mounted  soldiery 
would  be  of  little  use.  To  the  east  and  south 
it  was  bounded  by  vast  deserts.  The  only  ob- 
j‘'ct,  therefore,  for  which  an  Israelitish  sover¬ 
eign  could  desire  to  keep  an)^  considerable  force 
of  this  description,  would  be  to  make  foreign 
conquests.  But  it  was  against  the  whole  scope 
of  the  Mosaic  Law,  nay,  subveisive  of  its  funda¬ 
mental  purpose,  that  the  Hebrews  should  be 
conquerors  of  foreign  countries  and  their  king 
a  universal  monarch.  And  as  the  keeping  of  a 
strong  body  of  horse  could  hardly  fail  to  en¬ 
gender  a  spirit  of  foreign  conquest,  it  was  ex- 
jiressly  interdicted  to  the  head  of  the  State. 
The  fact  that  Moses  forbade  the  use  of  this 
species  of  force  is  a  proof  that  he  designed  his 
people  for  peaceful  pursuits,  and  not  for  mili¬ 
tary  glory.  But  Moses  had  another  motive  for 
his  prohibition  of  cavalry.  The  political  equal¬ 
ity  of  all  the  citizens,  as  we  have  seen  under  a 
former  head,  was  a  darling  object  with  him. 
But  in  all  ancient  nations,  where  cavalry  was 
employed,  the  horsemen,  being  necessaril}^  the 
wealthier  members  of  the  community,  became 
also  the  more  powerful.  The  system  threw  the 
chief  political  powder  into  the  hands  of  a  few 
rich  citizens,  who  could  afford  to  mount  and 
bring  into  the  field  themselves  and  their  de¬ 
pendents.  This  naturally  tended  to  the  estab¬ 
lishment  of  monarchical  and  aristocratical  gov¬ 
ernments.  And  on  this  account,  as  well  as  on 
account  of  his  repugnance  to  an  aggressive  mili¬ 
tary  policy,  Moses  excluded  a  mounted  soldiery 
from  the  forces  of  the  republic.  It  is  remark¬ 
able  how  speedily  the  substitution  of  the  mon¬ 
archical  for  the  republican  form  of  polity  led  to 
the  introduction  and  use  of  cavalry  in  the  Israel¬ 
itish  armies.  E.  C.  W. - Further,  the  multi¬ 

plying  of  horses  is  prohibited,  because  this 
would  bring  Israel  into  intercourse  and  friendly 
relations  with  Egypt,  and  might  tend  to  their 
going  back  to  that  country  from  which  they  had 
been  so  marvellously  delivered  ;  a  prohibition 
which  could  only  have  been  given  at  an  early 
stage  in  the  history  of  the  people,  for  at  a  later 
period,  after  they  had  been  well  established  in 
Canaan,  such  a  prohibition  for  such  a  reason 
would  have  been  simply  ridiculous.  W,  L.  A. 

B6.  Their  dark  experience  of  Egy^ptian  bond¬ 
age  was  never  to  be  repeated.  They  should  re¬ 
turn  that  way  no  more.  The  only  course  open  to 
them  was  to  go  onward  to  the  realization  of 
their  destiny  as  a  free  people,  for  the  gate  be- 
hind  them  was  closed,  never  to  be  opened 
again.  The  text  may  naturally  be  regarded  as 
God’s  voice  to  his  emancipated  host,  saying, 
“  No  retreat!”  C.  C. 


1 7.  The  Israelitish  sovereign  was  still  further 
forbidden  to  marry  many  wives  ;  so  early  w'ere 
women  dreaded  as  the  corrupters  of  royalty.  I 
look  upon  this  law  as  a  prohibition  against  keep¬ 
ing  a  r,nmerous  harem  or  a  state  seraglio—  that 
inseparable  accompaniment  of  eastern  despot¬ 
ism.  Besides  the  inherent  tendency  of  the 
thing  to  render  kings  effeminate,  and  dissolve 
their  hearts  in  indolence  and  pleasure,  there 
was  a  special  reason  against  it  in  the  Israelitish 
polity.  It  is  incident  to  the  keeping  of  a  harem 
as  a  matter  of  royal  state,  that  the  monarch 
seek  out  and  collect  together  the  most  beautiful 
women  of  all  nations.  But  all  other  nations  at 
that  time  were  idolaters.  Moses  dreaded  the 
influence  of  heathen  beauties  upon  the  religious 
principles  and  character  of  the  Hebrew  kings. 
He  feared  that  it  would  lead  to  the  introduction 
and  practice  of  idolatry.  How  reasonable  his 
fears  were,  the  history  of  Solomon  affords  a 
memorable  and  melancholy  proof.  His  harem 
contained  a  thousand  women,  many  of  whom 
were  Moabites,  Ammonites,  Edomites,  Zidoni. 
ans,  and  Hittites,  besides  the  daughter  of  Pha¬ 
raoh  ;  “strange  women.’’  His  vives  turned 
away  his  heart  after  other  gods.  He  appears  to 
have  built  temples  for  them  all,  and  himself 
joined  in  paying  Divine  honors  to  Ashtoreth, 
and  Milcom,  and  Chemosh,  and  Molech.  The 
conduct  of  Solomon  places  in  a  very  striking 
light  the  wisdom  of  this  statute,  at  the  same 
time  that  it  shows  that  none  of  the  laws  of 
Moses  was  less  observed  than  this. 

]\ieillaer  iiinaliiply  silver  ajad  gold. 
The  hoarding  up  of  large  treasures  by  the  sov¬ 
ereign  tends  to  obstruct’  the  circulation  of 
money,  discourage  industry,  and  impoverish  his 
subjects.  The  Israelitish  king,  observes  Lewis, 
“  was  allowed  to  lay  up  monej’’  in  the  treasur}' 
at  the  temple  for  thn  occasions  of  the  State,  but 
was  forbidden  to  fill  his  oWn  coffers  for  his  pri¬ 
vate  interest,  lest  he  should  exact  more  of  his 
subjects  than  they  were  able  to  bear. ’’  There 
is  undoubtedly  a  wide  and  obvious  difference 
between  these  two  sorts  of  treasure.  That  laid 
up  in  the  public  treasury  the  king  could  not 
use  without  the  consent  of  the  other  branches 
of  the  government.  Of  course  he  could  not  per¬ 
vert  it  to  purposes  of  tyranny,  on  pretence  of 
applying  it  to  the  public  service.  E.  C.  W. 

18-20.  He  shall  write  him  a  copy  of  this  Law 
in  a  book.  The  original  scroll  of  the  ancient 
Scriptures  was  deposited  in  the  sanctuary  under 
th-e  strict  custody  of  the  priests  (see  on  ch. 
31  :  26  ;  2  Kings  22  :  8).  Each  monarch  on  his 
accession  w'as  to  be  furnished  with  a  true  and 
faithful  copy,  which  he  was  to  keep  constantly 


THE  KING  MUST  READ  HIS  BIBLE. 


6G5 


beside  him  and  daily  peruse  it,  that  his  charac¬ 
ter  and  sentiments  being  cast  into  its  sanctify¬ 
ing  mould  he  might  discharge  his  royal  func¬ 
tions  in  the  spirit  of  faith  and  piety,  of  humil¬ 
ity  and  a  love  of  righteousness.  Jamieson. - 

Ha  ving  a  Bible  by  him,  he  must  read  therein  all 
the  days  of  his  life  (verse  19).  It  is  not  enough 
to  have  Bibles,  but  we  must  use  them,  use  them 
daily,  as  the  duty  and  necessity  of  every  day  re¬ 
quire:  our  souls  must  have  their  constant  meals 
of  that  manna  ;  and  if  well  digested,  it  will  be 
true  nourishment  and  strength  to  them.  As 
the  body  is  receiving  benefit  by  its  food  contin¬ 
ually,  so  is  the  soul  by  the  Word  of  God,  if  it 
medUate  therein  day  and  night  (Ps.  1  :  2).  And  we 
must  persevere  in  the  use  of  the  written  Word 
of  God  as  long  as  we  live.  Christ’s  scholars 
never  learn  above  their  Bibles,  but  will  have  a 
constant  occasion  for  them,  till  they  come  to 
that  world  where  knowledge  and  love  will  both 
be  made  pei'fect.  H. 

The  Law,  and  not  the  king’s  own  will  and 
pleasure,  was  to  be  the  rule  of  his  administra¬ 
tion.  This  point  was  made  very  prominent  in 
the  statute,  as  the  reader  will  perceive  by  re¬ 
curring  to  it.  The  king  was  required  to  make, 
or  cause  to  be  made,  an  accurate  transcript  of 
the  Law  out  of  the  book,  which  was  before  the 
priests  the  Levites— that  is,  probably,  the  auto¬ 
graph,  kept  in  the  tabernacle.  This  he  must 
have  with  him  continually,  and  read  therein  all 
the  da^'s  of  his  life,  to  the  end  that  he  might 
learn  to  keep  all  the  words  of  this  Law  and  these 
statutes,  to  do  them.  He  might  not  “  turn  aside 
from  the  commandment  (the  constitution  and 
the  laws)  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left.” 
From  this  we  see  that  the  laws  were  supreme. 
The  kings  were  as  much  bound  to  observe  them 
as  the  private  citizens.  They  had  no  power  to 
make  or  repeal  a  single  statute.  We  have  here 
a  perfect  exemplification  of  a  government  of 
laws.  The  constitutional  King  of  Israel  could 
not  assume  and  exercise  arbitrary  power  with¬ 
out  first  trampling  under  foot  the  fundamental 
law  of  the  State.  Moses  made  him  simply  the 
first  citizen.  He  aimed  also  at  making  him  the 
wisest,  the  purest,  and  the  best.  The  king  must 
be  gracious  and  condescending  toward  his  sub¬ 
jects.  His  heart  must  not  be  lifted  up.  He 
must  look  upon  his  people  not  only  as  equals 
but  as  brethren.  We  find  the  best  kings  cher¬ 
ishing  this  sentiment  and  acting  upon  it. 
When  David  addressed  the  States-general,  he 
rose  before  them  and  used  this  affectionate  com- 
pellation  :  “  Hear  me,  my  brethren,  and  my 
people”  (1  Ch.  28  : 2). 

All  the  above  conditions  being  observed  by 


him  whom  the  Israelites  should  choose  for  their 
king,  the  throne  was  to  be  hereditary  in  bis 
family.  This  is  plain  from  the  concluding 
words  of  the  statute  :  “  To  the  end  that  he  may 
prolong  his  days  in  his  kingdom,  he  and  his 
children,  in  the  midst  of  Israel.’"  Moses  en¬ 
joins  it  upon  the  king  to  keep  the  lavvs.  that  he 
and  his  posterity  may  long  fill  the  throne.  But 
it  is  quite  as  important  to  observe  that  although 
the  sceptre  was  hereditary  it  was  not  inalien¬ 
able.  It  might  be  taken  from  one  family  and 
given  to  another  by  the  concurrent  will  of  Je¬ 
hovah  and  the  Hebrew  people.  Nay,  it  certainly 
would  be  thus  transferred  if  the  king  failed  to 
govern  according  to  the  laws.  Thus  we  per¬ 
ceive  that  the  Israelitish  kings  w^ere  not  abso¬ 
lute  and  unlimited  sovereigns  ;  they  were  con¬ 
stitutional  monarchs.  Besides  this  original  and 
fundamental  law,  a  special  capitulation  was 
sworn  to  by  the  kings  of  Israel.  The  compact 
between  Saul  and  the  Hebrew  people,  made 
when  he  was  chosen  to  the  royal  dignity,  was 
drawn  up  by  Samuel.  That  writing,  in  which 
doubtless  were  specified  the  rights  of  the  king, 
was  carefully  deposited  in  the  sanctuary.  Of 
its  contents  the  Bible  does  not  inform  us  ;  but 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  limitations  of 
the  royal  power  fixed  by  it  were  numerous  and 
important.  E.  C.  W. 

The  people  of  Samuel’s  time,  it  is  evident, 
knew  of  the  Law  ;  they  do  not  overlook  the  ad¬ 
vantage  they  have  in  it  in  the  appeal  they  make. 
They  use  its  language  almost  word  for  word  in 
Hebrew,  “  make  us  a  king  to  judge  us  like  all 
the  nations”  (1  Sam.  8  : 5).  And  it  has  been 
noticed  that  the  whole  context  is  saturated  with 
Deuteronomic  expressions  and  ideas.  E.  C  B. 

- The  relationship  between  Samuel's  account 

of  the  choice  of  a  king  and  the  statements  in 
Deuteronomy  is  so  close  that  out  of  one  hun 
dred  verses  in  the  story  told  by  Samuel,  nearly 
one  half  borrow  the  words  and  thoughts  of 
Deuteronomy.  Among  scholars  no  doubt  what¬ 
ever  is  entertained  of  the  indebtedness  of  the 
writer  in  Samuel  to  the  writer  of  Deuteronomy. 
Sime. 

This  Law  given  to  the  kings  of  Israel,  consid¬ 
ered  together  with  the  history  of  the  nation, 
forms  a  very  strong  presumption  for  the  Divine 
original  of  the  Law  of  Moses.  For  supposing 
Moses  to  be  a  mere  human  legislator,  like  Solon 
or  Lycurgus,  what  could  tempt  him  to  forbid 
the  princes  of  his  country  the  use  of  horses  and 
chariots  for  their  defence  ?  Can  it  be  supposed 
that  the  history  of  many  ages,  which  relates  to 
the  affairs  not  only  of  the  princes  of  Israel  but 
of  other  contemporary  kings,  is  all  forged,  and 


66G 


SECTION  187.  THE  PROPHET  LIKE  UNTO  MOSES. 


that  merely  to  show  an  agreement  between  the 
histoiy  and  this  particular  law?  Or  how  shall 
we  account  for  the  conduct  of  the  prophets  who 
saw  the  people  ruined,  and  instead  of  reproach¬ 
ing  them  with  cowardice  and  a  neglect  of  their 
necessary  defence,  reproach  them  with  having 


been  too  strong,  too  powerful  in  horses  and 
horsemen  ?  These  appearances  can  never  be 
accounted  for  by  any  human  contiivance,  and 
they  plainly  show  that  the  hand  of  God  was  in 
this  thing  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  Bp. 
Sherlock. 


Section  187. 

THE  PKOPHET  LIKE  UNTO  MOSES.  INTIMATION  OF  A  SUCCESSION  OF  PROPHETS. 

DIRECTIONS'  CONCERNING  WARFARE. 

Deuteronomy  18  ;  15-22  ;  20  ;  1-4,  8-20. 

De.  I§  15  The  Lord  thy  God  will  laise  up  unto  thee  a  prophet  from  the  midst  of  thee,  of 

16  thy  brethren,  like  unto  me  ;  unto  him  ye  shall  hearken  ;  according  to  all  that  thou  desiredst 
of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  Iloreb  in  the  day  of  the  assembly,  saying,  Let  me  not  hear  again  the 

17  voice  of  the  Lord  mj'^  God,  neither  let  me  see  this  great  tire  any  more,  that  I  die  not.  And 

18  the  Lord  said  unto  me.  They  have  well  said  that  which  they  have  spoken.  I  will  raise  them  up 
a  prophet  from  among  their  brethren,  like  uuto  thee  ;  and  I  will  put  my  words  in  his  mouth, 

19  and  he  shall  speak  unto  them  all  that  I  shall  command  him.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that 
whosoever  will  not  hearken  unto  my  words  which  he  shall  speak  in  my  name,  I  will  require  it 

20  of  him.  But  the  prophet,  which  shall  speak  a  word  presumptuously  in  my  name,  which  I 
have  not  commanded  him  to  speak,  or  that  shall  speak  in  the  name  of  other  gods,  that  same 

21  prophet  shall  die.  And  if  thou  say  in  thine  heart.  How  shall  we  know  the  word  which  the 

22  Lord  hath  not  spoken  ?  When  a  prophet  speaketh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  if  the  thing  fol¬ 
low  not,  nor  come  to  pass,  that  is  the  tliiog  which  the  Lord  hath  not  spoken  :  the  prophet 
hath  spoken  it  presumptuously,  thou  shall  not  be  afraid  of  him. 

20  1  When  thou  goest  forth  to  battle  against  thine  enemies,  and  seest  horses,  and  chariots, 
and  a  people  more  than  thou,  thou  shall  not  be  afraid  of  them  :  for  the  Lord  thy  God  is  with 

2  thee,  wdiich  brought  thee  up  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  And  it  shall  be,  when  ye  draw  nigh 

3  unto  the  battle,  that  the  priest  shall  approach  and  speak  unto  the  people,  and  shall  say  unto 
them.  Hear,  O  Israel,  ye  draw'  nigh  this  day  unto  battle  against  your  enemies  :  let  not  your 

4  heart  faint  ;  fear  not,  nor  tremble,  neither  be  ye  affrighted  at  them  ;  for  the  Lord  your  God 

8  is  he  that  goeth  wdth  you,  to  fight  for  you  against  your  enemies,  to  save  you.  And  the  officers 
shall  speak  farther  unto  the  people,  and  they  shall  say.  What  man  is  there  that  is  fearful  and 
faint  hearted  ?  let  him  go  and  return  unto  his  house,  lest  his  brethren’s  heart  melt  as  his 

9  heart.  And  it  shall  be,  when  the  officers  have  made  an  end  of  speaking  unto  the  people,  that 
they  shall  apjioint  captains  of  hosts  at  the  head  of  the  people. 

10  When  thou  drawest  nigh  unto  a  city  to  fight  against  it,  then  proclaim  peace  unto  it.  And  it 

11  shall  be,  if  it  make  thee  answer  of  peace,  and  open  unto  thee,  then  it  shall  be,  that  all  the 

12  people  that  is  found  therein  shall  become  tributary  unto  thee,  and  shall  serve  thee.  And  if  it 

13  will  make  no  peace  with  thee,  but  will  make  war  against  thee,  then  thou  shall  besiege  it  ;  and 
when  the  Lord  thy  God  delivereth  it  into  thine  hand,  thou  shall  smite  every  male  thereof 

14  wdth  the  edge  of  the  sword  :  but  the  women,  and  the  little  ones,  and  the  cattle,  and  all  that  is 
in  the  city,  even  all  the  spoil  thereof,  shalt  thou  take  for  a  prey  unto  thyself  ;  and  thou  shall 

15  eat  the  spoil  of  thine  enemies,  which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  given  thee.  Thus  shalt  thou  do 
unto  all  the  cities  which  are  very  far  off  from  thee,  which  are  not  of  the  cities  of  these  nations. 

16  But  of  the  cities  of  these  peoples,  w  hich  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee  for  an  inheritance, 

17  thou  shalt  save  alive  nothing  that  breatheth :  but  thou  shalt  utterly  destro}'^  them  ;  the  Hiitite, 
and  the  Amorite,  the  Canaanite,  and  the  Perizzite,  the  Hivite,  and  the  Jebusite  ;  as  the  Lord 

18  thy  God  hath  commanded  thee  ;  that  they  teach  you  not  to  do  after  all  their  abominations, 
which  they  have  done  unto  their  gods  ;  so  should  ye  sin  against  the  Lord  your  God. 

19  When  thou  shalt  besiege  a  city  a  long  time,  in  making  w  ar  against  it  to  take  it,  thou  shalt 
not  destroy  the  trees  thereof  by  wielding  an  axe  against  them  ;  for  thou  mayest  eat  of  them, 


THE  PROPHET  LIKE  UNTO  MOSES. 


667 


and  tliou  slialt  not  cut  them  down  ;  for  is  the  tree  of  the  field  man,  that  it  should  be  besieged 
20  of  thee  ?  Only  the  trees  which  thou  knowest  that  they  be  not  trees  for  meat,  thou  shalt 
destroy  and  cut  them  down  ;  and  thou  shalt  build  bulwarks  against  the  city  that  maketh  war 
with  thee,  until  it  fall. 


The  Prophet  like  unto  Moses. 

Be.  18  : 15-19. 

While  Moses  lived  he  was  one  and  all  in  the 
house  of  Jehovah,  the  mediator  between  Je¬ 
hovah  and  the  people  in  all  respects.  He  was 
commander-in-chief,  deliverer,  lawgiver,  priest, 
teacher,  chastiser,  and  judge.  There  was  no 
function  in  connection  with  the  representation 
of  God,  or  with  the  mediation  of  the  words  and 
acts  of  God,  which  he  had  not  discharged,  or 
was  not  warranted  in  discharging  in  the  highest 
(human)  form.  And  he  was  a  prophet  in  all  this 
and  for  all  this— that  is  to  say,  his  prophetic 
gift  controlled,  pervaded,  inspired,  and  regu¬ 
lated  all  these  functions.  K. 

In  word  and  deed  Moses  showed  himself  an 
instrument  of  the  Lord,  unapproached  by  any 
other.  He  was  the  prophet  without  rival  in  re¬ 
spect  of  his  intercourse  with  God  and  of  what 
the  Lord  did  and  revealed  by  him.  Of  Moses 
it  is  said  more  frequently  than  of  all  other 
prophets  together  :  “  God  talked  with  him,”  or 
“  God  spake  to  him.”  He  is  not  only  called 
“  Servant  of  Jehovah”  most  frequently  of  all  the 
men  of  God  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  ”  Ser¬ 
vant  of  God  ”  (Elohim)  —a  designation  used  of 
him  exclusively —but  he  is  also  called  the  great¬ 
est  among  the  prophets  on  account  of  the  inti¬ 
macy  and  familiarity  of  the  intercourse  he  en¬ 
joyed  with  God,  and  on  account  of  the  clear  di¬ 
rectness  which  distinguished  the  revelation 
given  to  him.  Ortlli. 

Moses  was  indeed  leader,  lawgiver,  and  worker 
of  miracles  to  his  people,  but  all  these  charac¬ 
ters  fade  before  the  primary  one  of  prophet. 
Only  as  a  prophet  was  he  leader,  lawgiver,  and 
worker  of  miracles  ;  and  all  his  greatness  be¬ 
longs  to  him  as  a  prophet  alone.  Ewald. 

lie.  18  :  15-19.  This  Messianic  prophecy 
predicts  another  prophet  like  Moses,  who  will 
fulfil  and  complete  his  legislation  with  Divine 
authority.  It  does  not  recognize  an  order  of 
prophets.  If  this  passage  came  from  the  period 
of  the  kings  and  prophets  there  could  hardly 
fail  to  be  allusions  to  the  prophetic  order  or  to 
other  prophets  of  Jehovah.  We  find  in  Jer. 
and  Is.  53,  where  the  Messianic  prophet  again 
comes  into  prominence  in  the  Messianic  idea, 
such  references  ;  and  we  would  expect  them  in 
this  passage  under  the  same  circumstances. 
Briggs. 


This  is  the  clearest  promise  of  Christ  that  is 
in  all  the  Law  of  Moses.  What  God  promised 
Moses  at  Mount  Sinai  (which  he  relates,  verse 
18)  he  promised  the  people  (verse  15),  in  God’s 
name.  (1)  That  there  should  come  a  prophet  by 
whom  God  would  make  known  himself  and  his 
will  to  the  children  of  men  more  fully  and 
clearly  than  ever  he  had  done  before.  He  is 
the  light  (f  the  world,  as  prophecy  w'as  of  the 
Jewish  Church.  He  is  the  word  by  whom  God 
speaks  to  us.  (2)  That  God  would  raise  him  up 
from  the  midst  of  them.  In  his  birth  he  should 
be  one  of  that  nation,  should  live  among  them, 
and  be  sent  to  them.  In  his  resurrection  he 
should  be  raisedup at  Jerusalem,  and  from  thence 
his  doctrine  should  go  forth  to  all  the  world  : 
thus  God,  having  raised  up  his  Son  Christ  Jesus, 
sent  him  to  bless  us.  (3)  That  he  should  be 
like  unto  Moses.  Moses  was  a  lawgiver  to  Israel 
and  their  deliverer  out  of  Eg^^pt  ;  and  Christ 
not  only  teaches,  but  rules  and  saves  ;  Moses 
was  the  founder  of  a  new  dispensation,  by  signs 
and  wonders  and  mighty  deeds  ;  and  so  was 
Christ,  by  which  he  proved  himself  a  teacher 
come  from  Gad.  (4)  That  God  would  put  his 
words  in  his  mouth  (verse  18).  What  messages 
God  had  to  send  to  the  children  of  men,  he 
would  send  them  by  him,  and  give  him  full  in¬ 
structions  what  to  say  and  do  as  a  prophet. 
Hence  our  Saviour  says.  My  doctrine  is  not  mine 
originall}^  hut  his  that  sent  me.  So  that  this 
great  promise  is  performed  ;  this  prophet  is 
come,  even  Jesus,  it  is  he  that  should  come,  and 
we  are  to  look  for  no  other.  H. 

Christ  alone  was  like  unto  Moses  as  a  prophet, 
for  it  is  written.  There  arose  not  a  prophet  in 
Israel  like  unto  Moses,  whom  the  Lord  knew,  face 
to  face,  in  all  the  signs  and  wonders  which  the  Lord 
sent  him  to  do.  This  can  be  understood  of  Christ 
only  as  the  apostles  expound  it  (Acts  2  :  22-26;. 
Christ  was  like  unto  Moses  in  respect  to  his 
office  of  mediation  between  God  and  his  people, 
but  greater  than  Moses,  as  being  the  medi  dor  of 
a  better  covenant  (or  testament)  which  was  estab¬ 
lished  upon  better  promises.  Christ  was  like  unto 
Moses  in  excellency ;  for  as  Moses  excelled  all 
the  prophets,  in  speaking  to  God  mouth  to  mouth, 
so  Christ  excelled  him  and  all  men,  in  that, 
being  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  he  hath  come 
down  from  heaven,  and  declared  God  unto  us 
(John  1  : 18  and  3  :  13).  Christ  was  like  to 
Moses  in  faithfulness,  but  therein  also  excelling  ; 


GG8 


SECTION  187.  THE  PROPHET  LIKE'  UNTO  MOSES. 


fur  Moses  was  faithful  in  God’s  house  as  a  ser- 
vont,  but  vhrist  as  the  sou  ovti'  his  own  house. 
Christ  was  like  to  Moses  in  shjns  and  wonders, 
wherein  he  also  excelled  il/uses,  as  the  history  of 
the  Gospel  shows.  For  he  was  a  prophet  mvjJity 
in  deed  and  word  h  fore  Cod,  and  all  the  people.  A 
man  approved  of  Cod  among  them,  by  miracles, 
signs,  and  wonders,  which  Cod  did  by  him  in  the 
midst  of  them.  For  he  did  among  them  the 
works  which  no  other  man  did.  Unto  him — that 
is,  not  unto  the  diviners,  wizards,  or  any  such 
like,  but  unto  hi  n,  and  him  only — as,  Hun  thou 
shalt  serve  (De.  G  ;  13),  is  expounded  Him  only 

(Mitt.  4:10).  Ainsworth - He  was  like  to 

Moses  as  a  legislator.  Moses  gave  laws  to  Israel 
by  the  authority  and  commandment  of  God, 
which  the  Jews  have  ever  acknowledged  as  com¬ 
ing  from  the  immediate  inspiration  of  the  Al¬ 
in  ight3^  Christ  gave  a  new  law,  the  Gosjrel 
contained  in  the  four  Evangelists  and  Acts  of 
the  Apostles,  on  which  the  Christian  Church  is 
founded,  and  by  which  all  genuine  Christians 
are  governed,  both  in  heart  and  life.  To  all 
which  may  be  added,  That  God  never  commis¬ 
sioned  any  human  beings  to  give  laws  to  man¬ 
kind,  bat  Moses  and  Christ  :  and  therefore,  as 
a  Lawgiver,  Christ  alone  resembles  Moses  ;  for, 
to  the  present  hour,  none  but  themselves  have 
given  laws  in  the  name  of  God,  which  he  has 
ratified  and  confirmed  by  the  most  indubitable 
and  infallible  signs,  proofs,  and  miracles.  A.  C. 

- Let  us  search  all  the  records  of  universal 

history,  and  see  if  we  can  find  a  man  who  was 
,s-o  like  to  Moses  as  Christ  was,  and  so  like  to 
Chtist  as  Moses  was.  If  we  cannot  find  such  a 
one,  then  have  we  found  HIM,  of  whom  Moses 
in  the  Law  and  the  prophets  did  write,  to  be 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  Son  of  God.  Jordn. 

Christ’s  allusion  to  his  words  as  having  au¬ 
thority  (John  12  ;  48,  49)  seems  to  refer  to  this 
passage  (verses  18,  19),  And  the  voice  from  the 
cloud  at  Christ's  transfiguration,  “  Hear  ye 
him,”  corresponds  to  the  prominent  point  of 
this  prophecy,  “  Unto  him  shall  ye  hearken*’ 
(verse  15).  Moses,  present  at  the  transfigura¬ 
tion,  must  have  recognized  this  identity.  H.  C. 

- The  woman  of  Samaria  says  to  Jesus,  “I 

know  that  Messias  cometh,  which  is  called 
Christ  ;  when  he  is  come,  he  will  tell  us  all 
things.”  As  the  Samaritans  accepted  the  Pen¬ 
tateuch  alone,  the  notion  here  expressed,  that 
the  Messiah  would  be  a  divinely  enlightened 
teacher,  cannot  have  been  derived  from  any 
other  source  than  the  passage  before  us.  The 
words  of  the  woman  bear  a  striking  resemblance 
to  verse  18,  ”  He  shall  speak  unto  them  all  that 
1  shall  command  him.”  Hengs. - When  Philip 


says  to  Nathanael,  “We  have  found  him,  of 
whom  Moses  in  the  Law  did  write,”  he  can  only 
have  thought  of  this  prophecy  ;  for  throughout 
the  entire  Pentateuch  there  is  onlv  one  other 
Messianic  prophec^^  of  a  personal  character— 
namely,  that  of  the  star  and  si  eptre  out  of  Jacob, 
the  predicates  of  which  weie  but  little  adapted  to 
lead  Philip  to  the  opinion  which  he  here  ex¬ 
pressed.  This  is  also  true  of  the  Shiloh  passage 
in  Gen.  49  ;  10,  There  is  also  an  allusion  to  this 
passage  in  John  6  : 14,  where  the  people  say, 
after  the  feeding  of  the  five  thousand,  ‘‘  This  is 
of  a  truth  that  prophet  that  should  come  into 
the  world.”  And  Christ  undoubtedly  had  it  in 
his  mind  when  he  said,  ”  Had  ye  believed  Moses 
ye  would  have  believed  me,  for  he  wrote  of 

me.”  K. - It  is  evident  that  the  Lord  must 

here  have  had  in  view  a  distinct  passage  of  the 
Pentateuch  —a  clear  and  definite  declaration  of 
Moses.  But  if  a  single  declaration  (a  direct 
Messianic  prophecy)  forms  the  question  at  issue, 
this  is  the  only  passage  that  can  possibly  be 
meant  ;  for  it  is  the  only  prophecy  of  Christ 
which  Moses,  on  whose  person  such  stress  is  laid, 
uttered  in  his  own  name — the  only  one  in  which 
Divine  judgments  are  threatened  to  the  despis- 
ers  of  the  Messiah.  Hengs. - The  interpreta¬ 

tion  given  to  our  prophecy  in  the  Jewish  theol¬ 
ogy  of  the  period  subsequent  to  the  captivity  is 
a  proof  that  this  really  was  the  case.  What  the 
later  prophets  proclaimed  respecting  a  new 
covenant  which  Jehovah  wmuld  conclude  with 
his  people,  and  respecting  the  mediator  of  this 
covenant  (the  “angel  of  the  covenant,”  Mai. 
3  ;  1),  rested  upon  this  prophecy,  and  was  but  a 

further  expansion  of  its  interpretation.  K. - 

The  sum  of  the  matter  is  that  Jesus  the  Christ 
is  the  greater  than  Moses — the  prophet  of  proph¬ 
ets,  on  whom  rested,  without  measure,  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  D.  F. 

Intimation  of  a  Succession  of  Peophets  (verses 

20-22). 

The  reference  to  the  discrimination  of 
false  prophets  from  true  prophets  shows  that  a 
multiplicity  and  a  succession  of  prophets  was 
[also]  in  the  view  of  the  speaker  ;  and  as  a  suc¬ 
cession  of  priests,  of  judges,  and  of  kings  was 
contemplated  in  this  part  of  the  Mosaic  legisla¬ 
tion,  the  presumption  is  that  a  succession  also 

of  prophets  was  contemplated.  W.  L.  A. - 

There  is  a  double  reference  in  the  entire  passage 
— viz.,  to  the  Messiah  (verses  15-19)  and  to  the 
line  of  divinely  inspired  prophets  under  the 
Hebrew  Theocracj'^  (verses  20-22).  To  keep  the 
Israelites  from  being  carried  away  by  the  tor¬ 
rent  of  superstition,  which  overflowed  and  cor- 


INT[MATION  OF  PROPHETICAL  8UJCES810N. 


669 


rupted  the  nationfs,  true  religion  was  provided 
with  an  institution,  which  should  really  furnish 
that  knowledge,  which  false  religion  pretended 
to  give.  A  constant  succession  of  true  prophets 
would  be  a  powerful  means  of  weaning  God’s 
people’  from  superstitious  practices,  and  of 
keeping  them  from  consulting  diviners  to  dis¬ 
cover  what  should  befall  them.  Two  tests  only 
of  the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  claim  to  propheti¬ 
cal  inspiration  are  here  recognized — viz  ,  first, 
whether  the  prophet  spoke  in  the  name  of  Je¬ 
hovah  or  of  false  gods  ;  and,  secondly,  whether 
or  not  a  future  event,  foretold  by  him,  hap¬ 
pened  according  to  his  word.  E.  C.  W. 

The  dispensation  was  not  a  final  one.  The 
kingdom  of  God  had  a  future  which  it  was  the 
task  of  prophecy  gradually  to  disclose.  The 
Law  enclosed  innumerable  spiritual  germs, 
which  it  was  the  function  of  prophecy  to  ex¬ 
pand  and  develop.  It  had,  moreover,  underly¬ 
ing  its  ceremonialism  a  spiritual  basis,  which 
it  was  the  business  of  the  prophets  to  bring  to 
light,  and  to  recall  to  people’s  minds  when  they 
appeared  in  danger  of  forgetting  it  Prophecy 
was  thus  a  standing  witness  to  the  life,  fresh¬ 
ness,  and  power  which  lay  in  the  heart  of  a  re¬ 
ligion  largely  wrapped  up  in  legal  forms.  Then 
there  was  the  necessity  for  new  light  and  guid¬ 
ance  under  the  conditions  of  advancing  national 
life,  and  in  times  of  national  emergency.  The 
Law  left  not  a  little  scope  for  extended  applica¬ 
tions  of  its  fundamental  principles,  and  it  lay 
with  the  prophets  to  furnish  the  direction  re¬ 
quired.  All  this,  in  addition  to  their  more  gen¬ 
eral  function  of  rebuking,  warning,  and  testify¬ 
ing.  in  times  of  declension,  which,  with  the 
carrjung  forward  the  development  of  revelation 
in  its  relation  to  Christ  and  his  kingdom,  may 
be  regarded  as  the  chief  part  of  their  work.  It 
was  the  greatness  of  Moses  that  he  was  em¬ 
ployed  by  God  in  inaugurating  a  new  era  in  the 
history  of  his  kingdom — in  introducing  a  new 
order  of  things — in  settling  the  foundations  of 
a  new  economy.  In  this  respect  he  stood  at  the 
head  of  the  Old  Testament  line  of  prophets,  and 
stood  apart  from  them.  “  The  Law  was  given 
by  Moses.”  He  had  the  ordering  and  settling 
of  the  “  house’  ’  of  God  in  the  form  in  which  it 
was  to  last  till  Christ  came,  who,  “  as  a  Son 
over  his  own  house,”  would  revise  its  arrange¬ 
ments  and  reconstitute  it  on  a  new  and  better 
basis  (Heb.  3  : 2-7),  Prophets  subsequent  to 
Moses  stood  within  the  lines  of  the  economy 
already  established.  They  could  enforce  and 
maintain,  but  while  predicting  the  advent  of  a 
new  age  in  which  great  changes  would  be 
wrought,  they  had  no  authority  of  themselves  to 


introduce  such  changes.  It  was  reserved  for 
Christ  to  “  change  times  and  seasons,”  and  so  to 
alter  and  remodel  Mosaic  institutions  or  super¬ 
sede  them  by  new  ones,  or  abolish  them  by  giv¬ 
ing  the  substance  for  the  shadow,  as  to  place 
the  Church  upon  a  permanent  and  moveless 
basis,  and  adapt  it  for  the  reception  of  the  Gen¬ 
tile  nations.  Orr. - There  was  from  time  to 

time  a  line  of  prophets  who  spoke  for  God. 
There  has  come  to  earth  a  prophet  greater  than 
all  beside.  They  always  pointed  onward  to  an¬ 
other  ;  he,  never,  save  as  a  heavenly  gift  from 
him  was  by  him  held  in  reserve,  even  the  gift  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  Thus  God  has  come  into  com¬ 
munion  with  our  race,  to  reveal  his  mind  and 
will.  C.  C. 

Dikections  Concerning  Warfare, 

De.  20  : 1-4,  8-20. 

These  instructions  are  peculiar  to  Deuteron. 
omy.  As  the  people  of  God,  Israel  was  not  a 
warlike  nation  ;  they  were  rather  to  abstain 
from  warfare,  and  as  a  general  rule  to  cultivate 
the  arts  of  peace.  But  they  had  before  them  at 
this  time  the  prospect  of  a  serious  and  pro¬ 
tracted  conflict  before  they  could  occupy  the 
land  which  God  had  assigned  to  them  ;  and 
they  might  in  future  years  have  to  go  to  war  to 
maintain  their  independence  and  repel  aggres¬ 
sion.  In  view  of  this,  instructions  are  here 
given  regarding  the  conducting  of  military  ser¬ 
vice.  W.  L.  A. 

The  following  laws,  which  relate  to  wai's,  rest 
on  two  main  jirinciples.  The  first  is  that  Israel 
is  the  people  of  the  Lord,  and  carries  on  war 
only  in  his  name  ;  therefore  ought  not  to  relv' 
on  fleshly  might,  but  to  allow  freedom  from 
warlike  service  to  all  who  have  either  entered 
on  some  new  relation  of  life,  or  who  through 
fearfulness  of  heart  are  wanting  in  that  courage 
of  faith  which  should  be  the  strength  of  the 
Lord’s  host.  The  second  is  that  God’s  people 
ought  to  love  peace  rather  than  war,  and  may 
never  give  way  to  a  savage  desire  of  extermina¬ 
tion  ;  and  therefore  are  bound,  except  in  the 
execution  of  the  judicial  punishment  com¬ 
manded  by  God,  always  to  offer  peace.  Oerl. 

Preparation  for  Battle. 

De.  20  : 1-4,  8,  9, 

To  possess  and  occupy  Canaan  meant  a  long 
and  bitter  conflict.  It  is  natural,  therefore,  to 
find  no  inconsiderable  part  of  our  code  devoted 
to  military  operations  and  rules  of  war.  How 
captives  are  to  be  treated,  cleanliness  in  camp, 
what  cities  are  to  be  spared  and  what  destroyed, 
the  demolition  of  heathen  shrines — these  are 


670 


SECTION  187.  DIRECTIONS  CONCERNING  WARFARE. 


some  of  the  timely  topics  treated  by  our  Law¬ 
giver  on  the  eve  of  the  conquest.  Of  a  like  na¬ 
ture  is  the  one  regarding  preparation  for  battle. 
It  is  most  unique  in  character,  and  bears  in 
every  part  the  evidence  of  strict  historic  truth¬ 
fulness.  First,  there  is  an  appeal  for  courage 
in  view  of  superior  numbers  and  strength.  He 
who  had  brought  them  out  of  Egypt  would  be 
with  them.  Should  they  see  horses  and  chari¬ 
ots,  they  were  not  to  be  afraid  of  them.  Atraid 
of  horses  and  chariots  !  Childish  admonition  if 
it  be  not  childlike  and  genuine  !  In  Hezekiah’s 
and  in  Josiah’s  time  the  land  alrearly  swarmed 
with  them.  Ahab  alone  was  master  of  a  good 
two  thousand  chariots  of  war. 

Next,  the  very  process  of  entering  on  a  cam¬ 
paign  is  simply  detailed.  It  is  assumed,  in  har¬ 
mony  with  Numbers  (1  :  3),  that  the  whole  male 
population  over  twenty  j^ears  of  age  and  capable 
of  bearing  arms  is  at  the  place  of  muster.  It  is  as¬ 
sumed,  further,  in  accord  with  instructions  of  the 
same  book  (26  :  2),  that  full  lists  of  those  subject 
to  military  duty  are  in  the  hands  of  the  Shoterim 
(“  officers”).  It  is  also  assumed  that  a  priest  spe¬ 
cially  designated  for  the  purpose  “  the  priest,” 
again  in  dependence  on  the  Book  of  Numbers 
(31  :  6),  where  Phinehas  acted  in  this  capacity, 
will  be  present  to  hearten  and  inspire  the  host 
with  his  trumpet  and  his  brave  words.  It  is  as¬ 
sumed  that  the  Shoterim,  who  have  the  muster- 
rolls.  are  empowered,  not  onlj'^  to  address  the  as¬ 
sembled  levies,  retain  or  dismiss  at  will  such  as 
are  found  eligible  or  ineligible  for  active  service 
(with  verse  6,  cf.  Lev.  19  :3  f.),  but  also  to  di 
vide  and  subdivide  them  into  battalions  and 
companies,  set  them  in  battle  array,  and  place 
suitable  leaders  at  their  head.  The  entire  ar¬ 
rangement,  in  short,  is  peculiarly  primitive  and 
appropriate  only  to  the  earliest  periods  of  the 
commonwealth.  After  the  rise  of  king,  court, 
and  mighty  men  of  war,  after  Saul’s  second 
year,  when  three  thousand  chosen  men  were 
made  the  nucleus  of  a  standing  army,  especially 
after  David’s  day,  when  royal  body-guards  were 
customary  and  foreign  mercenaries  began  to  be 
employed,  such  an  arrangement  would  have 
been  antiquated  and  impossible.  E.  C.  B, 

4.  The  righteousness  of  the  cause,  and  not 
the  numbers  in  the  field,  is  to  be  the  foundation 
of  trust.  The  Jews  were  going  into  Palestine 
as  the  Lord’s  host,  and  even  though  a  minority 
sometimes,  they  were  sure  to  win.  “  If  God  be 
for  us,  who  can  be  against  us  ?”  was  to  be  their 
ground  of  confidence.  Edgar. - God’s  pres¬ 

ence  in  battle  outmatches  all  human  forces. 
The  source  of  conquest  is  not  in  the  visible 
material  of  war.  Victory  is  not  on  the  side  of 


the  largest  battalions.  Mere  number  of  com¬ 
batants  have  as  often  hindered  triumph  as 
helped  it.  If  God  be  ranged  on  the  one  side, 
the  issue  is  a  foregone  event.  D.  D. 

Peace  to  he  Offered  to  ForOgn  Cities  only  upon 

Condition  of  Tribute  and  Serrice.  Ganaardies  to 

be  Utterly  Destroyed  {De.  20  •  10-18). 

The  Jewish  writers  frequently  mention  two 
kinds  of  war  :  that  which  was  particularly  com- 
manded  by  God,  as  that  agaiust  the  nations 
which  the  Israelites  were  commanded  to  drive 
out  ;  and  that  which  was  chosen  by  the  Jews  on 
just  provocation,  or  in  their  own  defence  against 
other  people.  These  words,  as  well  as  the  fore¬ 
going,  refer  to  the  latter  of  the  two,  as  appears 
from  verse  15  compared  with  verses  5,  6,  7,  8, 
and  Nu.  32  :  7.  Bp.  Kidder. 

1 0-20.  When  thou  comest  nigh  unto  a  city  to 
fight  against  it,  then  proclaim  peace  unto  it. 
An  important  principle  is  here  introduced  into 
the  war-law  of  Israel  regarding  the  people  they 
fought  against  and  the  cities  they  besieged. 
With  “  the  cities  of  those  people  which  God 
doth  give  thee”  in  Canaan,  it  was  to  be  a  war 
of  utter  extermination  (verses  17,  18).  But  when 
on  a  just  occasion  they  went  against  other  na¬ 
tions,  they  were  first  to  make  a  proclamation  of 
peace,  which  if  allowed  by  a  surrender  the  peo¬ 
ple  would  become  dependent,  and  in  the  rela¬ 
tion  of  tributaries  the  conquered  nations  would 
receive  the  highest  blessings  from  alliance  with 
the  chosen  people  ;  they  would  be  brought  to 
the  knowledge  of  Israel’s  God  and  of  Israel’s 
worship,  as  well  as  a  participation  of  Israel’s 
privileges.  But  if  the  besieged  city  refused  to 
capitulate  and  be  taken,  a  universal  massacre 
was  to  be  made  of  the  males,  while  the  women 
and  children  were  to  be  preserved  and  kindlj’- 
treated  (verses  13, 14).  By  this  means  a  provision 
was  made  for  a  friendly  and-  useful  connection 
being  established  between  the  captors  and  the 
captives  ;  and  Israel,  even  through  her  con¬ 
quests,  would  prove  a  blessing  to  the  nations. 
Jamieson 

The  nations  of  Canaan  are  excepted  from  the 
merciful  provisions  made  by  this  law.  Bem- 
nants  might  be  left  of  the  cities  that  were  very 
far  off  (verse  15),  because  by  them  they  were  not 
in  so  much  danger  of  being  infected  with  idol¬ 
atry,  nor  was  their  country  so  directly  and  im¬ 
mediately  intended  in  the  promise.  But  of  the 
cities  which  were  given  to  Israel  for  an  inheri¬ 
tance,  no  remnants  must  be  left  of  their  inhabi¬ 
tants.  They  will  teach  you  to  do  after  their  abomi¬ 
nations,  to  introduce  their  customs  into  the  wor¬ 
ship  of  the  God  of  Israel,  and  by  degrees  to  for- 


CANAANITES  TO  BE  DESTROYED. 


G71 


sake  him  and  to  worship  false  gods  ;  for  those 
that  dare  violate  the  second  commandment,  will 
not  long  keep  to  the  first.  Strange  worships 
open  the  door  to  strange  deities.  H. 

There  is  nothing  left  but  the  manner  to  be 
objected  to  :  their  wickedness  accounts  for  the 
thing  itself.  To  which  objection  it  may  be  re¬ 
plied,  that  if  the  thing  itself  be  just,  the  man¬ 
ner  is  of  little  signification  ;  of  little  significa¬ 
tion  even  to  the  sufferers  themselves  ;  for  where 
is  the  difference,  even  to  them,  whether  they 
were  destroyed  by  an  earthquake,  a  pestilence, 
a  famine  or  by  the  hands  of  an  enemy?  Where 
is  the  difference,  even  to  our  imperfect  appre¬ 
hensions  of  Divine  justice,  provided  it  be,  and 
is  known  to  be,  for  their  wickedness  that  they 
are  destroyed?  But  this  destruction,  it  may  be 
said,  spared  neither  women  nor  children.  Is 
it  not  the  same  with  all  national  visitations  ? 
•Would  not  an  earthquake,  or  a  fire,  or  a  plague, 
or  a  famine  among  them  have  done  the  same  ? 
Even  in  an  ordinary  and  natural  death  the 
same  thing  happens.  God  takes  away  the  life 
he  lends,  without  regard,  that  we  can  perceive, 
to  age,  or  sex,  or  character.  But  promiscuous 
massacre.s,  the  burning  of  cities,  the  laying 
waste  of  countries,  are  things  dreadful  to  reflect 
upon.  Who  doubts  it?  So  are  all  the  judg¬ 
ments  of  Almighty  God.  The  effect,  in  what¬ 
ever  way  it  shows  itself,  must  necessarily  be 
tremendous,  when  the  Lord,  as  the  Psalmist  ex¬ 
presses  it,  “  moveth  out  of  his  place  to  punish 
the  wicked  ”  But  this  is  the  point  upon  which 
we  ought  to  rest  and  fix  our  attention  ;  that  it 
was  for  excessive,  wilful,  and  forewarned  wick¬ 
edness  that  all  this  befell  them,  and  that  it  is 
all  along  so  declared  in  the  history  which  re¬ 
cites  it.  Further,  the  neighboring  nations  were 
to  be  convinced  of  the  supreme  power  of  the 
God  of  Israel  above  the  pretended  gods  of  other 
nati  )ns  only  by  His  enabling  the  Israelites, 
whose  God  he  was  known  and  acknowledged  to 
be,  to  conquer  under  his  banner,  and  drive  out 
before  them  those  who  resisted  the  execution  of 
that  commission  with  which  the  Israelites  de¬ 
clared  themselves  to  be  invested — namely,  the 
expulsion  and  extermination  of  the  Canaanitish 
nations.  This  convinced  surrounding  coun¬ 
tries,  and  all  who  were  observers  or  spectators 
of  what  passed,  first,  that  the  God  of  Israel  was 
a  real  God  ;  secondly,  that  the  gods  which  other 
nations  worshipped  w’ere  either  no  gods;  or  had 
no  power  against  the  God  of  Israel  ;  and,  thirdly, 
that  it  was  he,  and  he  alone,  who  possessed  both 
the  power  and  the  will  to  punish,  to  destroy, 
and  to  exterminate  from  before  his  face  both 


nations  and  individuals  who  gave  themselves 
up  to  the  crimes  and  wickedness  for  which  the 
Canaanites  were  notorious.  Nothing  of  this 
sort  would  have  appeared,  or  with  the  same  evi¬ 
dence,  from  an  earthquake,  a  plague,  or  any 
natural  calamity.  These  might  not  have  been 
attributed  to  Divine  agency  at  all,  or  not  to  the 
interposition  of  the  God  of  Israel.  Paley. 

Destruction  of  Fruit-  Trees  in  War  Prohibited 
(verses  19,  20). 

In  a  siege,  where  you  want  wood  for  raising 
batteries,  spare  the  fruit-trees  as  much  as  pos¬ 
sibly  jmu  can,  and  make  use  of  others  that  are 
as  fit  for  those  purposes  and  bear  no  fruit.  It 
is  not  fit  to  destroy  things  that  can  do  you  no 
injury,  especiallj^  such  as  are  useful  to  the  sup¬ 
port  of  human  life.  Pyl&. - When  in  war,  no 

wanton  destruction  was  to  be  allowed.  They 
were  to  build  bulwarks  against  invaders,  but 
were  not  to  destroy  the  subsistence  of  a  people 
by  cutting  down  fruit-trees.  How  wonderfully 
humane  and  even  tender  are  these  regulations 
compared  with  the  customs  of  other  nations  at 

that  time  !  C.  C. - It  is  wantonness  that  is 

forbidden.  Trees  that  did  not  bear  fruit  were 
of  course  available  for  war,  but  trees  that  could 
be  used  for  purposes  of  sustaining  human  life 
were  to  be  regarded  as  in  a  sense  sacred  and 
inviolable.  J.  P. 

Leaving  out  of  view  the  work  of  special  judg- 
naent  upon  the  Canaanitish  nations,  the  mili¬ 
tary  code  of  Israel  has  never  been  improved 
upon.  Every  provision  was  made  for  smooth^- 
ing  the  rugged  front  of  bloody  strife.  No  as¬ 
sault  was  allowed  upon  a  foreign  city  until  after 
overtures  for  surrender  had  been  made.  On 
the  acceptance  of  such  overtures,  every  life  was 
to  be  spared,  and  the  nation  made  merely  trib¬ 
utary.  When  taken  even  by  assault,  after  over¬ 
tures  had  been  rejected,  non-combatants  were 
still  to  be  spared,  just  as  under  the  war  code  of 
the  most  enlightened  nations  of  modern  times. 
Who  will  say  that  such  a  law  of  war  does  not 
evince  a  spirit  worthy  of  a  Divine  war  code  ? 
Had  Israel  fully  obeyed  the  Divine  injunction 
and  cast  out  wholly  the  Canaanitish  nations, 
they  would  probably  have  had  no  war.  All  their 
military  arrangements  were  for  defence,  not  for 
defiance  ;  and  but  for  their  unfaithfulness, 
which  kept  them  continually  embroiled  till  the 
time  of  David  with  the  remnants  of  the  people 
whom  they  had  been  commanded  to  destroy, 
they  might  have  seldom,  if  ever,  known  war. 
S.  R. 


(572 


SECTION  188. 


Section  188. 

FELLOWSHIP,  FOKBIDDEN  WITH  AMMONITE  AND  MOABITE,  ALLOWED  WITH 
EDOMITE  AND  EGYPTIAN.  AMALEK  TO  BE  DESTROYED.  THANKSGIVING  AND 
PRAYER  AT  THE  PRESENTATION  OF  FIRST-FRUITS  AND  OF  SECOND  TITHE. 
SUMMARY  OP  ENGAGEMENTS  BETWEEN  JEHOVAH  AND  ISRAEL. 

Deutekonomy  23  : 3-8  ;  25  : 17-19  ;  26  : 1-19. 

De.  23  3  An  Ammonite  cr  a  Moabite  shall  not  enter  into  the  assembly  of  the  Loed  ;  even 
to  the  tenth  generation  shall  none  belonging  to  them  enter  into  the  assembly  of  the  Loed  for 

4  ever  :  because  they  met  you  not  with  bread  and  with  water  in  the  way,  when  ye  came  forth 
out  of  Egypt  ;  and  because  they  hired  against  thee  Balaam  the  son  of  Beor  from  Pethor  of 

5  Mesopotamia,  to  curse  thee.  Nevertheless  the  Loed  thy  God  would  not  hearken  unto  Balaam  ; 
but  the  Loed  thy  God  turned  the  curse  into  a  blessing  unto  thee,  because  the  Loed  thy  God 

6  loved  thee.  Thou  shalt  not  seek  their  peace  nor  their  prosperity  all  thy  days  for  ever. 

7  Thou  shalt  not  abhor  an  Edomite  ;  for  he  is  thy  brother  :  thou  shalt  not  abhor  an  Egy’^p- 

8  tian  ;  because  thou  wast  a  stranger  in  his  land.  The  children  of  the  third  generation  that  are 
born  unto  them  shall  enter  into  the  assembly  of  the  Loed, 

25  17  Remember  what  Amalek  did  unto  thee  by  the  way  as  ye  came  forth  out  of  Egypt  ; 

18  how  he  met  thee  by  the  way,  and  smote  the  hindmost  of  thee,  all  that  were  feeble  behind 

19  thee,  when  thou  wast  faint  and  weary  ;  and  he  feared  not  God.  Therefore  it  shall  be,  when 
the  Loed  thy  God  hath  given  thee  rest  from  all  thine  enemies  round  about,  in  the  land  which 
the  Loed  thy  God  giveth  thee  for  an  inheritance  to  possess  it,  that  thou  shalt  blot  out  the 
remembrance  of  Amalek  from  under  heaven  ;  thou  shalt  not  forget. 

26  1  And  it  shall  be,  when  thou  art  come  in  unto  the  land  which  the  Loed  thy  God  giveth 

2  thee  for  an  inheritance,  and  possessest  it,  and  dvvellest  therein  ;  that  thou  shalt  take  of  the 
first  of  all  the  fruit  of  the  ground,  which  thou  shalt  bring  in  from  thy  land  that  the  Loed  thy 
God  giveth  thee  ;  and  thou  shalt  put  it  in  a  basket,  and  shalt  go  unto  the  place  which  the 

3  Loed  thy  God  shall  choose  to  cause  his  name  to  dwell  there.  And  thou  shalt  come  unto  the 
priest  that  shall  be  in  those  days,  and  say  unto  him,  I  profess  this  day  unto  the  Loed  thy  God, 

4  that  I  am  come  unto  the  land  which  the  Loed  sware  unto  our  fathers  for  to  give  us.  And  the 
priest  shall  take  the  basket  out  of  thine  hand,  and  set  it  down  before  the  altar  of  the  Loed  thy 

,  5  God.  And  thou  shalt  answer  and  say  before  the  Loed  thy  God,  A  Syrian  ready  to  perish  was 
my  father,  and  he  went  down  into  Egypt,  and  sojourned  there,  few  in  number  ;  and  he  became 

6  there  a  nation,  great,  mighty,  and  populous  :  and  the  Egyptians  evil  entreated  us,  and 

7  afflicted  us,  and  laid  upon  us  hard  bondage  :  and  we  cried  unto  the  Loed,  the  God  of  our 
fathers,  and  the  Loed  heard  our  voice,  and  saw  our  affliction,  and  our  toil,  and  our  oppres- 

8  sion  :  and  the  Loed  brought  us  forth  out  of  Egypt  with  a  mighty  hand,  and  with  an  out- 

9  stretched  arm,  and  with  great  terribleness,  and  with  signs,  and  with  wonders  :  and  he  hath 
brought  us  into  this  place,  and  hath  given  us  this  land,  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey. 

10  And  now,  behold,  I  have  brought  the  first  of  the  fruit  of  the  ground,  which  thou,  O  Loed, 
hast  given  me.  And  thou  shalt  set  it  down  before  the  Loed  thy  God,  and  worship  before  the 

11  Loed  thj’^  God  :  and  thou  shalt  rejoice  in  all  the  good  which  the  Loed  thy  God  hath  given 
unto  thee,  and  unto  thine  house,  thou,  and  the  Levite,  and  the  stranger  that  is  in  the  midst 
of  thee. 

12  When  thou  hast  made  an  end  of  tithing  all  the  tithe  of  thine  increase  in  the  third  year, 
which  is  the  year  of  tithing,  then  thou  shalt  give  it  unto  the  Levite,  to  the  stranger,  to  the 

13  fatherless,  and  to  the  widow,  that  they  may  eat  within  thy  gates,  and  be  filled  ;  and  thou  shalt 
say  before  the  Loed  thy  God,  I  have  put  away  the  hallowed  things  out  of  mine  house,  and  aUo 
have  given  them  unto  the  Levite,  and  unto  the  stranger,  to  the  fatherless,  and  to  the  w'idow, 
according  to  all  thy  commandment  which  thou  hast  commanded  me  :  I  have  not  trangressed 

14  any  of  thy  commandments,  neither  have  I  forgotten  them  :  I  have  not  eaten  thereof  in  my 
mourning,  neither  have  I  put  away  thereof,  being  unclean,  nor  given  thereof  for  the  dead  :  I 
Lave  hearkened  to  the  voice  of  the  Loed  my  God,  I  have  done  according  to  all  that  thou  hast 

15  commanded  me.  Look  down  from  thy  holy  habitation,  from  heaven,  and  bless  thy  people 


FORBIDDEN  AND  ALLOWED  FELLOWSHIP. 


673 


Israel,  and  tlie  ground  which  thou  hast  given  us,  as  thou  swarest  unto  our  fathers,  a  land  flow¬ 
ing  with  milk  and  honey. 

IG  This  day  the  Loan  thy  God  commandeth  thee  to  do  these  statutes  and  judgements  :  thou 

17  shalt  therefore  keep  and  do  them  with  all  thine  heart,  and  wdth  all  thy  soul.  Thou  hast 
avouched  the  Lord  this  day  to  he  thy  God,  ^nd  that  thou  shouldest  walk  in  his  ways,  and 
keep  his  statutes,  and  his  commandments,  and  his  judgements,  and  hearken  unto  his  voice  : 

18  and  the  Lord  hath  avouched  thee  this  day  to  be  a  peculiar  people  unto  himself,  as  he  hath 

19  promised  thee,  and  that  thou  shouldest  keep  all  his  commandments  ;  and  to  make  thee  high 
above  all  nations  which  he  hath  made,  in  praise,  and  in  name,  and  in  honour  ;  and  that  thou 
mayest  be  an  holy  j^eople  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  as  he  hath  spoken. 


Fellowship  Forbidden  with  the  Ammonite  and 

Moabite. 

De.  23  : 3-6. 

As  God  had  prohibited  his  people  from  all 
connection  and  alliance  with  the  Canaanitish 
nations,  so  he  now  distinguishes  between  the 
aliens,  and  shows  upon  what  conditions  and 
whom  they  might  admit  into  fellowship.  The 
Moabites  and  Ammonites  he  altogether  rejects  ; 
because  they  not  only  refused  the  common  rites 
of  humanity  to  the  people  but  also  took  arms 
against  them,  and  even  hired  Balaam  to  curse 
them.  They  were  the  descendants  of  Lot,  and 
ought  to  have  embraced  the  children  of  Abra- 
liam  as  brethren.  It  was  inexcusable  in  them 
to  make  a  violent  attack  upon  those  who  had 
voluntarily  offered  them  peace  ;  who  had  prom 
ised  by  their  messengers  that  they  would  make 
their  way  without  injury  or  wrong  ;  and  who 
finally  had  besought  that  a  passage  might  be 
granted  them  provided  thej’’  honestly  paid  the 
price  of  bread  and  water  ,  although  doubtless 
God  took  vengeance  rather  on  their  impiety 
than  their  cruelty,  since  they  had  not  only  en 
deavored  to  make  his  goodness  of  none  effect 
but  also  to  annihilate  his  faithfulness.  Calv. 

- Such  was  the  mark  set  upon  these  people 

for  their  offence  in  the  matter  of  Balaam  ;  and 
Balaam’s  infamy  is  perpetuated  by  the  same 
law,  being  expressly  mentioned  in  it  as  the  man 
who  had  been  “  hired  to  curse  God’s  j)eople.” 
Waterland. 

Ci.  Israel  was  not  to  seek — i.e.,  care  for  and 
use  means  to  promote  the  welfare  of  these 
nations.  Individuals,  however,  of  these  nations 
might  be  naturalized  in  Israel,  and  as  proselytes 
enter  the  congregation,  as  the  case  of  Buth 
proves.  It  was  against  the  nations,  as  such, 
that  this  ban  was  directed,  and  this  they  had 
brought  on  themselves  by  choosing  to  be  ene¬ 
mies  of  Israel  when  they  might  have  been  friends 

and  allies.  W.  L.  A - This  law  forbids  only 

the  naturalization  of  those  against  whom  it  is 
directed.  It  does  not  forbid  their  dwelling  in 
the  land  ;  and  seems  to  refer  rather  to  the  na- 
43 


tions  than  to  individuals.  It  was  not  under¬ 
stood  at  any  rate  to  interdict  marriage  with  a 
Moabitess.  Buth,  however,  and  her  sister  were 
doubtless  proselytes.  Such  a  law  would  cer¬ 
tainly  never  have  suggested  itself  to  the  mind  of 
a  writer  after  the  times  of  David,  whose  great¬ 
grandmother  was  a  Moabitess.  Espin. 

Fellowship  Allowed  with  the  Edomite  and  Egyptian. 

De.  23  :  7,  8. 

The  Edomites  and  Egyptians  have  not  so  deep 
a  mark  of  displeasure  put  upon  them  as  the 
Moabites  and  Ammonites.  If  an  Edomite  or 
Egyptian  turned  proselyte,  his  grandchildren 
should  be  looked  upon  as  members  of  the  con¬ 
gregation  of  the  Lord  to  all  intents  and  pur¬ 
poses.  H. - The  Edomite,  as  descended  from 

Esau,  a  twin  brother  of  Jacob,  and  the  Egyptian, 
as  of  that  nation  which  had  for  long  shown 
hospitality  to  Joseph  and  his  brethren,  were 
not  to  be  objects  of  abhorrence.  The  Edomites 
had  indeed  shown  themselves  unfriendly  to 
Israel  in  refusing  a  passage  through  their  land, 
but  had  not  actively  resisted  them,  and  the  tie 
of  kindred  was  therefore  to  be  respected,  Espin. 
- The  Edomites  remained  free  from  the  gross¬ 
er  kinds  of  idolatry,  while  Lot’s  descendants, 
from  that  impure  connection,  sank  into  the 
more  horrible  idolatrous  abominations.  Gerl. 

In  the  mention  of  nationalities  that  are  eligible 
or  ineligible  to  the  privilege  of  Jewish  citizen¬ 
ship,  the  attitude  assumed  by  our  Lawgiver 
toward  these  nations  does  not  seem  unnatural, 
if  he  be  Moses.  But  no  writer  in  his  senses 
could  have  seriously  taken  it  after  the  time  of 
Solomon.  Because  of  their  treatment  of  Israel 
on  their  march  from  Egypt,  the  Ammonite  and 
Moabite  are  forever  shut  out  from  citizenship 
among  the  chosen  people.  The  Edomite  is  ad¬ 
mitted  to  it  after  a  short  probation  ;  so,  too,  the 
Egyptian — the  former  on  the  ground  of  kindred 
blood,  the  latter  on  that  of  hospitality  to  the 
Hebrew  strangers.  E.  C.  B. 

Amalek  to  be  Destroyed. 

De.  25  : 17-19. 

The  Amalekites  were  a  kindred  people  (Gen. 


674 


SECTION  188.  PRESENTATION  OF  FIRST-FRUITS. 


36  :  15, 16)  ;  and  living  as  they  did  in  the  penin¬ 
sula  of  Sinai,  they  could  not  but  have  well 
known  the  mighty  acts  God  had  done  for  his 
people  in  Egypt  and  the  Red  Sea  ;  yet  they 
manifested  from  the  first  a  persistent  hostility 
to  Israel  (cf.  Ex.  17  : 8  ;  Nu.  14  : 45).  They 
provoked  therefore  the  sentence  here  pro¬ 
nounced,  which  was  executed  at  last  by  Saul. 

Expin.  (See  Section  99.) - The  crime  of  the 

Amalekites  was  falling  upon  the  hindmost,  who 
were  faint  and  weary.  It  was  an  act  of  cruelty 
untempered  by  any  mercy  ;  and  the  decree  of 
God  is  their  extermination  because  they  were 
merciless.  “  For  he  shall  have  judgment  with¬ 
out  mercy,  that  hath  showed  no  mercy”  (Jas. 
2  :  13).  Edgar. 

Thanksgiving  and  Peayer  at  the  Presenta¬ 
tion  OF  First-Fruits  and  Tithe. 

De.  26  : 1-19. 

Of  the  gifts  which  had  to  be  presented  at  the 
sanctuary  there  were  two  specially  connected 
with  the  social  and  domestic  life  of  the  people 
— viz.,  the  first-fruits  and  the  second  tithe.  To 
these  Moses  here  refers  for  the  purpose  of  pre- 
:scribing  certain  forms  with  which  the  presenta¬ 
tion  of  the  gift  was  to  be  accompanied  by  the 
■offerer.  W.  L.  A. 

Moses  puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  people 
prayers  in  reference  to  the  gifts  most  closely 
associated  with  their  temporal  domestic  life  — 
the  first-fruits,  and  the  second  tithes — by  which 
a  lively  consciousness  and  recognition  of  the 
entire  relation  of  Israel  to  their  Lord  and  King 
are  declared.  In  the  first-fruits  is  expressed 
their  continuous  homage,  as  regards  all  earthly 
possession.  While  each  person  acknowledged 
this  by  his  act,  he  was  at  the  same  time,  as 
member  of  the  united  nation,  to  declare  on 
what  gracious  favors  of  God  this  entire  posses- 
;sion  rested.  The  second  tithe  was  designed  to 
-change  every  Israelitish  house  into  a  sanctuary, 
;and  at  the  same  time  to  spread  a  holy,  joyful 
feeling  of  communion  among  the  whole  people, 
with  which  the  continuance  of  the  Divine  bless¬ 
ing  on  his  people  was  closely  connected.  Both 
prayers,  becoming  not  in  letter  but  in  spirit  a 
part  of  the  people’s  customary  devotions,  would 
■contribute  in  no  slight  degree  to  keep  alive  out¬ 
ward  worship,  and  to  sanctify  their  whole  daily 
life.  Oerl. 

I-i  I,  The  dedication  of  the  first-fruits.  A 
beautiful  religious  service  is  here  associated 
with  the  dedication  of  the  first-fruits.  It  was 
to  be  an  act  of  worship.  There  was  to  be  the 
appearance  before  the  priest,  the  acknowledg¬ 
ment  of  God’s  great  bounty  to  the  forefathers 


as  well  as  to  the  worshipper  himseif,  the  presen¬ 
tation  of  the  first-fruits  as  a  return  of  God’s 
gifts  to  him,  the  setting  of  the  basket  before 
God,  and  the  rejoicing  in  the  Divine  presence. 

Edgar. - Of  the  first-fruits  the  Israelite  was  to 

take  a  portion,  and  placing  it  in  a  basket,  to 
bring  it  to  the  place  of  the  sanctuary,  where  it 
was  to  be  received  by  the  attendant  priest.  The 
offerer  was  to  accompany  his  presentation  with 
the  declaration,  “  I  profess  this  day  unto  the 
Lord  thy  God,  that  I  am  come  unto  the  coun¬ 
try  which  the  Lord  sware  unto  our  fathers  for 
to  give  us  ;’  ’  and  the  priest  having  set  the 
basket  down  before  the  altar,  the  offerer  was  to 
make  confession  and  prayer,  gratefully  acknowl¬ 
edging  the  Divine  favor  showed  to  Israel  in 
choosing  them  to  be  a  great  nation,  in  deliver¬ 
ing  them  out  of  Egypt,  and  bringing  them  into 
a  rich  and  fertile  land  ;  and  along  with  this  his 
bounty  to  the  individual  who  now  presented 
the  first  fruits  of  his  land  unto  the  Lord. 
W.  L.  A. 

This  offering,  put  so  impressively  upon  its 
great  historic  grounds  — the  preservations  and 
mercies  with  which  God  had  crowned  their  na¬ 
tion  in  fulfilling  the  promises  made  to  the  na¬ 
tional  fathers,  became  no  unmeaning  service. 
All  is  instinct  with  life.  Those  children  of  the 
old  patriarchs  reposing  under  their  vine  and 
fig-tree  in  the  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey 
had  a  wonderful  history,  and  God  meant  to  have 
their  ritual  of  worship  link  itself  continually 
with  that  history  and  take  quickening  impulses 
from  those  impressive  associations.  H.  C. 

Everything  round  the  Hebrew  in  his  home 
reminded  him  of  the  exuberant  kindness  of  his 
God.  The  land  which  he  possessed  was  land 
which  Jehovah  had  given  him.  The  temple 
was  the  place  which  Jehovah  had  chosen  “to 
place  his  name  there.”  The  priest  was  God’s 
gift.  The  corn  and  fruit  of  the  land  were  prod¬ 
uce  “which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee.” 
Each  man  was  taught  to  look  on  himself  as  be¬ 
longing  unto  God.  Of  everything  the  absolute 
Proprietor  was  God.  Their  historj^  their  de¬ 
liverance,  their  security,  their  renown,  were  all 
due  to  God.  Behind  every  visible  object,  be¬ 
hind  every  visible  event,  they  discerned  God. 
D.  D. 

5.  A  Syrian  ready  to  peri§ta  was  my 
fattier.  The  reference  is  shown  by  the  con¬ 
text  to  be  to  Jacob,  as  the  ancestor  in  whom 
particularly  the  family  of  Abraham  began  to 
develop  into  a  nation.  Jacob  is  called  a  Syrian 
(lit.  Aramasan),  not  only  because  of  his  own 
long  residence  in  Syria  with  Laban,  as  our  Lord 
was  called  a  Nazarene  because  of  his  residence 


A  SERVICE  OF  DEDICATION. 


675 


at  Nazareth,  but  because  he  there  married  and 
had  his  children  ;  and  might  be  said  accord¬ 
ingly  to  belong  to  that  more  than  to  any  other 

land.  Espin. - Jacob  might  properly  be  called 

a  “  Syrian”  as  having  lived  full  twenty  years 
with  Laban  the  S^-rian  in  the  great  Aram  of  the 
East.  The  point  of  his  history  where  he  was 
“  ready  to  perish”  was  that  of  the  great  famine 
in  Canaan  which  drove  him  and  his  household 

into  Egypt  for  bread.  H.  C. - They  do  not 

count  their  origin  from  Abraham,  but  from 
Jacob,  in  whose  person  God’s  grace  shone  forth 
more  brightly  ;  for  being  compelled  to  fly  from 
the  land  of  Canaan  he  had  spent  a  good  part  of 
his  life  in  Syria  (for  he  did  not  return  home 
till  he  was  old),  and  being  again  driven  into 
Eygpt  by  the  famine  he  had  at  length  died 
there.  The  land  had  not,  therefore,  fallen  to 
them  by  hereditary  right  nor  by  their  own 
efforts  ;  their  father  Jacob  not  having  been  per¬ 
mitted  even  to  sojourn  there.  Galv. - The 

sum  of  this  acknowledgment  amounts  to  this  : 
That  their  possession  of  that  land  was  entirely 
owing  to  the  bounty  of  God,  and  was  not  left 
them  by’^  their  ancestors  ;  for  Jacob,  from  whom 
they  had  the  name  of  Israelites,  was  forced  to 
fly  into  Syria  in  a  poor  condition,  and  upon 
his  return  with  his  sons  was  not  able  to  leave 
this  land  to  them  in  possession,  but  was  forced 
into  Egypt,  w'here  his  posterity  was  sorely 
afflicted.  But  by  the  mercy  of  God  they  in¬ 
creased  there,  and  were  by  him  miraculously 
brought  into  this  good  land.  Bp,  Kidder. 

9.  He  hath  given  us  this  land.  He  must  not 
only  give  thanks  for  his  own  lot,  but  for  the 
land  in  general  which  was  given  to  Israel  ;  not 
only  for  this  year’s  profits,  but  for  the  ground 
itself  which  produced  them,  which  God  had 
graciously  granted  to  his  ancestors  and  entailed 
upon  his  posterity.  The  comfort  we  have  in 
our  particular  enjoyments  should  lead  us  to  be 
thankful  for  our  share  in  public  peace  and 
plenty  ;  and  with  present  mercies  we  should 
bless  God  for  the  former  mercies  we  remember, 
and  the  further  mercies  we  expect  and  hope 
for.  H. 

A  Sand  flowing  witli  milic  and 
lioney.  Under  a  good  government,  the  prod¬ 
uce  of  the  Holy  Land  would  exceed  all  calcula¬ 
tion.  Its  perennial  harvests,  the  salubrity  of 
its  climate,  its  matchless  plains,  hills,  and 
vales,  j)rove  it  to  be  a  garden  of  the  Lord. 

Clarke. - Palestine,  in  the  age  of  its  wealth, 

was  a  samplar  of  the  world  ;  it  was  a  museum 
counting  many  lands  in  one.  Every  spring  its 
hill-sides  are  gay  with  the  embroidery  of  flowers 
—the  resplendent  crocus,  the  scented  hyacinth. 


the  anemone,  the  narcissus,  the  daffodil,  the 
florid  poppy,  and  the  ranunculus,  the  tulip,  the 
lily,  and  the  rose.  These  jewels  of  the  spring 
morning,  these  children  of  the  dew,  bedded  in 
divans  of  sweet  thyme,  invite  millions  of  bees, 
and  the  most  showy  of  the  insect  orders  ;  flow¬ 
ers,  perfumes,  butterflies,  birds  of  song— all 
things  humble  and  beautiful  here  flourish,  and 
are  safe  ;  for  man  seldom  intrudes  upon  this 
smiling  wilderness.  1  T. 

10,  How  suitable  is  this  profession  to  the 

offering  of  the  first-fruits  !  Here  is  an  acknowl¬ 
edgment  of  the  goodness  of  God  ;  of  their  own 
unworthiness  to  receive  so  great  goodness  of 
the  truth  of  God’s  promises,  and  God’s  faithful¬ 
ness,  in  fulfilling  his  covenant.  What  useful 
instruction,  what  proper  praise  do  these  few 
words  express  !  “  Now,  behold,  I  have  brought 

the  first-fruits  of  the  land,  which  thou,  O  Lord, 
hast  given  me.”  Lawman. 

The  giving  of  the  first-fruits  to  God  is  a  token 
of  the  sanctification  of  all  we  have  to  right  and 
holy  uses.  There  is  no  better  guarantee  of  a 
wise  and  right  use  of  our  substance  than  the 
conscientious  dedication  of  first-fruits  to  our 
God.  He  who  is  conscientious  enough  in  this 
respect  may  be  safely  relied  on  to  spend  rightly 
the  rest  of  his  gains,  because  the  same  consci¬ 
entiousness  which  marks  his  first  spendings 

will  mark  all  the  others.  C.  C. - Gratitude 

for  God’s  gifts  must  be  practical.  Words  of 
thankfulness  are  cheap,  unless  accompanied  by 
deeds.  Songs  of  praise  are  sweet  minstrelsy  in 
the  ear  of  God,  but  they  must  spring  from  the 
heart  ;  and  if  the  heart  is  grateful,  the  hands 
will  be  full  of  offerings.  The  first-fruits  of  all 
our  increase  belong  to  God  as  a  matter  of  right. 
But  duty  is  delight.  This  requirement  is  rep¬ 
resentative  We  may  not  be  husbandmen  ; 
still  our  first-fruits  are  due.  The  first-fruits  of 
our  time  belong  to  God — the  fresh  dewy  hours 
of  every  da3\  The  first  of  our  gains  belong  to 
God.  Say  not,  “  They  are  mine.”  Nay  !  they 
are  his.  The  first-fruits  of  mental  strength  — 
our  youth  ;  the  best  of  all  we  have  belong  to 
him.  D.  D. 

11,  Tlifiu  shall  rejoice.  God  intends 

that  his  followers  shall  be  happy  ;  that  they 
shall  eat  their  bread  wdth  gladness  and  single¬ 
ness  of  heart,  praising  him.  A.  C. - True  re¬ 

ligion  does  not  frown  on  our  joy.  It  regulates 
but  does  not  seek  to  banish  the  pleasures  of  the 
festive  board,  and  the  flow  of  the  soul  con¬ 
nected  therewith.  The  sanctuary  services  were 
associated  with  feasts,  in  which  religious  mo¬ 
tives  were  expected  to  predominate.  The  eating 

I  was  “  before  the  Lord,”  and  the  guests  were  in- 


SECTION  188.  SECOND  TITHE  SERVICE. 


(37G 

variably  to  include  the  Levite,  the  stranger,  the 
fatherless,  and  the  widow.  Festivities  should 
be  so  conducted  that  God’s  presence  can  be  in¬ 
voked,  and  his  blessing  asked  on  all  that  is  said 
and  done.  Orr. 

When  our  gains  are  received  in  a  right  spirit 
and  spent  in  a  right  way  we  may  rejoice  therein 
before  the  Lord.  God  hath  given  us  “  all  things 
richly  to  enjoy.”  And  men  who  know  nothing 
of  the  Christian  consecration  of  all  things  to 
God  do  not  know  how  to  enjoy  what  they  pos¬ 
sess.  Earthly  good  will  be  enjoj^ed  when  one 
knows  that  God’s  blessing  is  resting  on  him  and 
on  all  he  has.  Rich  as  may  be  his  earthl}’^  good, 
though  he  enjoys  it  while  it  lasts,  yet  he  can 
afford  to  hold  it  with  a  loose  hand,  for  it  is  not 
his  all,  and  he  knows  that  when  he  is  called  to 
part  with  it  he  will  find  richer  treasure  still  laid 
ujD  for  him  in  heaven,  C.  C. 

Through  all  God’s  gifts  his  intention  is  human 
gladness.  This  gladness  is  fostered  and  fed  by 
proportionate  ott’erings.  For  this  habit  of  re¬ 
ligious  offering  will  serve  to  draw  away  our  con¬ 
fidence  from  our  material  possessions,  and  j)lace 
it  in  the  living  God.  This  will  strengthen  and 
establish  joy.  It  is  surely  better  to  trust  the 
fount  than  the  channel — the  source  than  the 
stream.  If  every  man  on  earth  is  not  brimful 
of  joy,  it  is  not  God’s  fault.  To  rejoice  in  God 
is  our  duty  and  our  privilege.  And  this  joy  is 
contagious.  “  Thou  shalt  rejoice,  .  .  .  thou, 
and  the  Levite,  and  the  stranger  that  is  among 
you.”  Joy  makes  men  generous,  and  the  re¬ 
cipients  of  our  generosity  will  share  our  joy. 
There  will  be  joyous  action  and  reaction.  We 
are  to  be  the  channels  through  which  God  will 
pour  his  }oy  into  others’  hearts.  In  return  they 
will  give  us  their  prayers.  D.  D. 

The  great  and  mighty  cause  of  God,  even  that 
of  righteousness,  truth,  and  love,  has  to  be 
maintained  and  spread  in  the  world  by  the 
efforts  and  offerings  of  those  “  put  in  trust 
with  the  Gospel.”  And  it  will  not  be  possible 
to  be  faithful  to  the  claims  of  God  and  the  de¬ 
mands  of  the  times  without  a  conscientious, 
systematic,  proportionate  giving  of  our  gains  to 
the  Lord.  C.  C. 

Protestation  and  Prayer  with  the  Second  Tithe 
Every  Third  Year. 

De.  26  :  12-15. 

Concerning  the  disposal  of  their  tithe  the 
third  year,  we  had  the  Law  before  (De.  14  ;  28, 
29).  The  second  tithe  which  the  other  two  years 
was  to  be  spent  in  extraordinaries  at  the  feasts 
was  to  be  spent  the  third  year  at  home,  in  en- 
tertaining  the  poor.  Now  because  this  was 


done  from  under  the  eye  of  the  priests,  and  a 
great  confidence  was  put  in  the  people’s  honesty 
that  they  would  dispose  of  it  according  to  the 
Law,  to  the  Levite,  the  stranger,  and  the  fatherless 
(verse  12),  it  is  therefore  required  that  when  at 
the  next  feast  after  they  appeared  befm'e  the  Lord, 
they  should  there  testify,  in  a  religious  manner, 
that  they  had  fully  administered  and  been  true 
to  their  trust.  They  must  make  a  solemn  pro¬ 
testation  to  that  purport  (verse  13).  That  no 
hallowed  things  were  hoarded  up,  “  I  have 
brought  them  away  out  of  mine  house,  nothing  now 
remains  there  but  my  own  part.”  That  the 
poor,  and  particularly  poor  ministers,  .poor 
strangers,  and  poor  widows,  had  had  their  part 
according  to  the  commandment.  Then  we  may 
take  the  comfort  of  our  en3oyments,  when  God 
has  thus  had  his  dues  out  of  them.  This  is  a 
commandment  w'hich  must  not  be  transgressed, 
no,  not  with  an  excuse  of  its  being  forgotten.  H. 

14,  This  was  the  strongest  possible  protesta¬ 
tion  that  he  had  dealt  faithfully  in  the  matter 
of  tithing  and  consecrated  things,  and  in  chari¬ 
ties  to  the  poor.  He  had  not  allowed  himself 
to  divert  anything  to  other  uses,  not  even  by 
the  most  pressing  and  unforeseen  emergencies. 
It  is  here  implied  that  times  of  mourning  “  for 
the  dead”  were  expensive,  and  also  that  the 
stern  law  of  custom  obliged  the  bereaved  to 
defray  those  expenses,  however  onerous.  The 
words,  ‘  ‘  nor  given  aught  thereof  for  the  dead,  ” 
are  explained  by  a  curious  custom  still  observed 
with  great  care.  On  certain  days  after  the 
funeral,  large  quantities  of  corn  and  other  food 
are  cooked  in  a  particular  manner,  and  sent  to 
all  the  friends,  however  numerous,  in  the  name 

of  the  dead.  Thompson. - The  obliging  of  them 

to  make  this  solemn  protestation  at  the  three 
years’  end  would  be  an  obligation  upon  them 
to  deal  faithfully,  knowing  that  they  must  be 
called  upon  thus  to  purge  themselves.  It  is  our 
wisdom  to  keep  conscience  clear  at  all  times, 
that  when  we  come  to  give  up  our  account,  we 
may  lift  up  our  face  without  spot.  The  Jews 
say  that  this  protestation  of  their  integrity  was 
to  be  made  with  a  low  voice,  because  it  looked 
like  a  self-commendation  ;  but  that  the  fore¬ 
going  confession  of  God’s  goodness  was  to  be 
made  with  a  loud  voice  to  his  glory.  He  that 
durst  not  make  this  protestation  must  bring 
his  trespass-offering  (Lev.  5  : 15). 

15.  To  this  solemn  protestation  they  must 
add  a  solemn  prayer,  not  for  themselves  but  for 
God's  people  Israel ;  for  in  the  common  peace 
and  prosperity  every  particular  person  prospers 
and  has  peace.  We  must  learn  from  hence  to 
be  public-spirited  in  prayer,  and  to  wrestle  with 


ENGAGEMENTS  BETWEEN  GOD  AND  ISRAEL. 


C77 


God  for  blessings,  for  the  land  and  nation,  and 
for  the  universal  Church,  which  we  are  directed 
to  have  an  eye  to  in  our  prayers,  as  the  Israel 
of  God  (Gal.  6  :  16).  H. 

Summary  of  Divine  Requirements,  and  of  Enjage- 
ments  between  Jehovah  and  his  People. 

De.  26  :  16-19. 

1 6-1 0,  A  brief  and  earnest  exhortation  by  waj’’ 
of  conclusic  n  to  the  second  and  longest  dis¬ 
course  of  the  book.  The  people  are  reminded 
that  their  troth  was  plighted  to  God,  as  God’s 
covenant  was  on  his  part  established  toward 
them.  Moses  entreats  them  therefore  to  be 
faithful,  that  God  too  might  manifest  his  faith¬ 
fulness  in  exalting  them  as  he  had  promised. 

Espin. - As  they  had  entered  into  covenant 

with  God,  and  had  thereby  pledged  themselves 
to  obedience  to  all  that  he  liad  enjoined,  so  he 
on  his  part  had  pledged  himself  to  be  their 
Benefactor,  who  would  fulfil  to  them  all  his 
gracious  promises,  and  would  exalt  them  above 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth.  W.  L.  A. 

10,  Here  are  commandments,  statutes,  and 
judgments  appointed  by  God.  From  beginning 
to  end  this  is  the  di.stinct  declaration  of  Moses 
and  the  postulate  of  the  Hebrew  faith.  That 
the  Law  was  received  from  Sinai  is,  historically, 
indisputable.  This  effort  to  educate  the  people 
in  righteousness  was  then,  and  remains  still, 
the  only  attempt  ever  made  to  start  into  being 
a  new  nation  with  God  alone  for  its  acknowl¬ 
edged  king,  righteousness  alone  for  the  corner¬ 
stone  of  its  polity,  and  a  free  and  holy  brother¬ 
hood  alone  for  its  citizenship.  In  reference  to 
worship,  there  was  the  revealed  law  of  sacrifice 
as  the  ground  of  acceptance.  In  regard  to  life, 
the  rule  was,  “  Love  to  God  and  love  to  man.” 
It  is  precisely  so  now.  Just  as  beneath  the  Law 
there  lay  unrepealed  the  Divine  Abrahamic 
promise,  so  along  with  the  Gospel  there  is  the 
rule  unrepealed,  “  Be  ye  holy,  for  I  am  holy.” 
There  was  a  gospel  with  the  Law  ;  there  is  a  law 
with  the  Gospel,  C.  C. 

17,  Thou  liastavoucBied.  Lit.  “made 
to  say  ’  the  word  occurs  in  this  form  only  in 
this  and  next  verse.  The  sense  is  :  “  Thou  hast 
given  occasion  to  the  Lord  to  say  that  he  is  thy 
God”— i.e.,  by  promising  that  he  shall  be  so. 

Espin. - Thou  hast  caused  Jehovah  this  day  to 

say  to  be  a  Ood  unto  thee — i.e.,  thou  hast  given 
occasion  to  him  to  declare  himself  to  be  thy  God, 
and  (as  a  consequence  of  this)  that  thou  should- 
est  walk  in  his  ways  and  keep  his  command¬ 
ments.  In  declaring  that  he  was  their  God,  he 
virtually  declared  also  that  they  were  to  be 


I  wholly  obedient  to  him.  18.  So,  on  the  other 
hand,  God  had  given  Israel  occasion  to  say  that 
they  were  his  special  people,  his  treasured  pos¬ 
session  (cf.  Ex.  19  : 5,  6),  whose  it  was,  as  such, 
to  keej)  all  his  commandments,  and  to  whom  he 
would  be  faithful  to  fulfil  all  that  he  had  prom¬ 
ised.  W.  L.  A. 

The  Lord  has  avouched,  not  only  taken,  but 
publicly  owned  thee  to  be  his  St^gullah,  his  pe¬ 
culiar  people,  as  he  has  promised  thee — that  is,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  true  intent  and  meaning  of  the 
promise.  Now  their  obedience  was  not  only 
the  condition  of  this  favor  and  of  the  continu¬ 
ance  of  it  (if  they  were  not  obedient,  God  would 
disown  them  and  cast  them  off),  but  it  was  also 
the  principal  design  of  this  favor,  “  He  has 
avouched  thee  on  purpose  that  thou  shouldest  keep 
his  commandments,  that  thou  mightest  have  both 
the  best  directions  and  the  best  encouragements 
in  religion.”  Thus  we  are  elected  to  obedience  (1 
Pet.  1  :  2),  chosen  that  we  should  be  holy  (Eph. 

1  : 4),  purified  a  peculiar  people,  that  we  might 
not  only  do  good  works,  but  be  zealous  in  them 
(Tit.  2  : 14).  Two  things  God  is  here  said  to 
design  in  avouching  them  to  be  his  peculiar 
people  (verse  19).  To  make  them  high,  and 
in  order  to  that  to  make  them  holy  ;  for  holi¬ 
ness  is  true  honor  and  the  only  w'ay  to  everlast¬ 
ing  honor.  To  make  them  high  above  all  na¬ 
tions.  That  they  might  be  a  holy  people,  sep¬ 
arated  for  God,  devoted  to  him,  and  employed 
continually  in  his  service.  This  God  aimed  at 
in  taking  them  to  be  his  people  ;  so  that  if  they 
did  not  keep  his  commandments,  they  received 
all  this  grace  in  vain.  H. 

Covenant  with  God  involves  engagement  to 
obedience.  It  did  so  under  the  Law.  It  does 
so  under  the  Gospel.  “  New  obedience”  is  the 
proof  of  true  discipleship.  Every  real  believer 
will  seek  to  render  it.  It  is  a  condition  of  ulti¬ 
mate  salvation.  Covenant  with  God  involves  a 
relation  of  peculiar  nearness.  God  chooses  us, 
in  Christ,  to  a  relation  of  nearness  so  remark¬ 
able  that  it  has  no  counterpart,  save  in  the  Son’s 
relation  to  the  Father.  The  saints  are  his  pe¬ 
culiar  treasure.  He  is  their  “  Shield,”  and 
their  “  exceeding  Great  Beward.’’  Covenant 
with  God  secures  high  honor  and  blessedness. 
Great  distinction  was  in  store  for  Israel,  should 
it  prove  obedient.  God  says  he  will  make  it 
high  above  all  nations,  “  in  praise,  and  in  name, 
and  in  honor.”  Obedience,  honor,  blessed¬ 
ness,  are  three  ideas  ultimately  ineseparable. 
The  “glory,  honor,  immortality”  of  heaven  are 
for  those  who  persevere  in  well-doing  (Rom. 

2  : 7),  for  ‘‘an  holy  people.”  The  honors  in 
store  for  obedient  Israel,  great  as  they  were, 


678 


SECTION  189.  THE  WRITTEN  LAW,  ON  STONES, 


are  not  to  be  compared  with  the  “  exceeding 
and  eternal  weight  of  glory”  now  revealed  as 
the  inheritance  of  believers,  Orr. 


With  this  solemn  exchange  of  pledges  as  a 
renewal  of  covenant  this  second  and  most  ex¬ 
tended  address  of  Moses  is  closed.  B. 


Section  189. 

STONE  MONUMENTS  INSCKIBED  WITH  THE  LAW  TO  BE  ERECTED  ON  MOUNT 
EBAL.  BLESSINGS  AND  CURSINGS,  AS  SANCTIONS  OF  THE  LAW,  TO  BE  PRO¬ 
CLAIMED  ON  GERIZIM  AND  EBAL.  TWELVE  CURSES  TO  BE  PRONOUNCED  ON 
EBAL. 

Deuteronomy  27  : 1-26. 

De.  27  1  And  Moses  and  the  elders  of  Israel  commanded  the  people,  saying,  Keep  all  the 

2  commandment  which  I  command  you  this  day.  And  it  shall  be  on  the  day  when  ye  shall 
pass  over  Jordan  unto  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee,  that  thou  shalt  set  thee 

3  up  great  stones,  and  plaister  them  with  plaister  :  and  thou  shalt  write  upon  them  all  the 
words  of  this  law,  when  thou  art  passed  over  ;  that  thou  mayest  go  in  unto  the  land  which 
the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee,  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  as  the  Lord,  the  God  of 

4  thy  fathers,  hath  promised  thee.  And  it  shall  be  when  ye  are  passed  over  Jordan,  that  ye 
shall  set  up  these  stones,  which  I  command  you  this  day,  in  mount  Ebal,  and  thou  shalt 

5  plaister  them  with  plaister.  And  there  shalt  thou  build  an  altar  unto  the  Lord  thy  God,  an 

6  altar  of  stones  :  thou  shalt  lift  up  no  iron  tool  upon  them.  Thou  shalt  build  the  altar  of  the 
Lord  thy  God  of  unhewn  stones  :  and  thou  shalt  offer  burnt  offerings  thereon  unto  the  Lord 

7  thy  God  ;  and  thou  shalt  sacrifice  peace  offerings,  and  shalt  eat  there  ;  and  thou  shalt  rejoice 

8  before  the  Lord  thy  God.  And  thou  shalt  write  upon  the  stones  all  the  words  of  this  law 
very  plainly. 

9  And  Moses  and  the  priests  the  Levites  spake  unto  all  Israel,  saying.  Keep  silence,  and 

10  hearken,  O  Israel  ;  this  day  thou  art  become  the  people  of  the  Lord  thy  God.  Thou  shalt 
therefore  obey  the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  do  his  commandments  and  his  statutes, 
which  I  command  thee  this  day. 

11  And  Moses  charged  the  people  the  same  day,  saying.  These  shall  stand  upon  mount  Ger- 

12  izim  to  bless  the  people,  when  ye  are  passed  over  Jordan  ;  Simeon,  and  Levi,  and  Judah,  and 

13  Issachar,  and  Joseph,  and  Benjamin  :  and  these  shall  stand  upon  mount  Ebal  for  the  curse  ; 

14  Reuben,  Gad,  and  Asher,  and  Zebulun,  Dan,  and  Naphtali.  And  the  Levites  shall  answer, 
and  say  unto  all  the  men  of  Israel  with  a  loud  voice, 

15  Cursed  be  the  man  that  maketh  a  graven  or  molten  image,  an  abomination  unto  the  Lord, 
the  work  of  the  hands  of  the  craftsman,  and  setteth  it  up  in  secret.  And  all  the  people  shall 
answer  and  say.  Amen. 

16  Cursed  be  he  that  setteth  light  by  his  father  or  his  mother.  And  all  the  people  shall  say. 
Amen. 

17  Cursed  be  he  that  removeth  his  neighbour’s  landmark.  And  all  the  people  shall  say,  Amen. 

18  Cursed  be  he  that  maketh  the  blind  to  wander  out  of  the  way.  And  all  the  people  shall 

say.  Amen. 

19  Cursed  be  he  that  wresteth  the  judgement  of  the  stranger,  fatherless,  and  widow.  And  all 
the  people  shall  say.  Amen. 

20  Cursed  be  he  that  lieth  with  his  father’s  wife  ;  because  he  hath  uncovered  his  father’s  skirt 
And  all  the  people  shall  say.  Amen. 

21  Cursed  be  he  that  lieth  with  any  manner  of  beast.  And  all  the  people  shall  say.  Amen. 

22  Cursed  be  he  that  lieth  with  his  sister,  the  daughter  of  his  father,  or  the  daughter  of  his 

’  mother.  And  all  the  people  shall  say,  Amen. 

23  Cursed  be  he  that  lieth  with  his  mother  in  law.  And  all  the  people  shall  say.  Amen. 

24  Cursed  be  he  that  smiteth  his  neighbour  in  secret.  And  all  the  people  shall  say,  Amen. 

25  Cursed  be  he  that  taketh  reward  to  slay  an  innocent  person.  And  all  the  people  shall  say. 

Amen. 


TO  BE  SET  UP  ON  EBAL. 


679 


26  Cursed  be  he  that  confirmeth  not  the  words  of  this  law  to  do  them.  And  all  the  people 
shall  say,  Amen. 


Cll.  27.  The  I^aw  having  been  reiterated 
with  special  reference  to  the  circumstances  of 
the  people  when  settled  in  the  promised  land, 
Moses  in  a  third  discourse,  contained  in  chs. 
27-30,  proceeds  more  specially  to  dwell  on  its 
sanctions.  In  these  chapters  he  sets  before 
Israel  in  striking  and  elaborate  detail  the  bless¬ 
ings  which  would  ensue  upon  faithfulness  to 
the  covenant,  and  the  curses  which  disobedi¬ 
ence  would  involve.  The  present  chapter  in¬ 
troduces  this  portion  of  the  book  by  enjoining 
the  erection  of  a  stone  monument  on  which  the 
Law  should  be  inscribed  as  soon  as  the  people 
took  possession  of  the  promised  inheritance. 
Espin. 

Slone  Monuments  Inscribed  with  the  Law  to  be 
Erected  on  Mount  Ebal  (verses  1-10). 

As  the  first  law  had  been  followed  by  a  solemn 
ratification  of  the  covenant  when  the  altar  and 
the  twelve  pillars  were  erected  at  the  base  of 
Sinai,  so  Moses  gave  directions  for  a  still  more 
solemn  ratification  when  they  should  come  into 
the  land.  They  were  to  “  set  up  great  stones, 
and  plaister  them  with  plaister,  and  write  upon 
them  all  the  words  of  this  law.”  These  stones 
were  to  be  ‘‘setup  in  Mount  Ebal,”  and  an 
altar  built  there,  and  burnt-offerings  and  peace- 

offerings  presented.  J.  M.  G. - After  having 

taken  possession  of  the  land  conferred  upon 
them  by  God,  that  they  should  make  monu¬ 
ments  of  stone,  plaster  them,  engrave  upon 
them  “  all  the  words  of  this  law,”  and  erect 
them,  together  with  an  altar  of  unhewn  stones, 
upon  Mount  Ebal,  as  an  enduring  testimony 
against  the  sins  of  the  people,  should  they  ever 
apostatize  from  God.  These  stones  of  memo¬ 
rial,  with  the  altar  for  burnt-offering,  were  to 
be,  on  the  part  of  the  people,  the  sealing  of 
their  covenant  with  the  Lord  ;  and  just  as  by 
the  tables  of  the  Law  deposited  in  the  ark  of 
the  covenant,  but  withdrawn  from  the  popular 
view,  so  here,  by  public  and  ostensible  monu¬ 
ments,  were  Israel  to  avouch  themselves  the 
Lord’s  people,  and  bound  to  obey  his  laws  and 
judgments.  C.  G.  B. 

The  erection  of  the  stones  as  here  prescribed, 
and  the  inscription  of  the  Law  on  those  .stones, 
was  a  symbolical  act  declaring  on  the  part  of  the 
people  that  they  took  possession  of  the  land  by 
virtue  of  their  covenant  with  God,  and  on  con¬ 
dition  of  their  own  faithfulness  thereto.  These 
acts,  as  also  the  preservation  of  the  two  tables 
in  the  ark  of  the  covenant  (cf.  31  : 26),  were 


witness  against  the  people  in  case  they  should 
break  their  vows.  Espin. 

1.  These  instructions  Moses  gives  in  con¬ 
junction  with  the  elders  of  Israel,  who  are  as¬ 
sociated  with  him  here,  because  on  them  would 
devolve  the  obligation  to  see  to  the  fulfilment 
of  what  the  Law  enjoined  after  Moses  had  ceased 
to  be  the  ruler  and  leader  of  the  people. 

2.  On  the  day  when  ye  shall  pass  over  Jordan 
— i.e.,  at  the  time;  “  day”  is  here  used  in  a  wide 
sense.  Thou  shalt  set  thee  up  great  stones,  and 
plaister  them  with  plaister.  The  stones,  the 
number  of  which  is  not  specified,  were  to  be 
large,  because  much  was  to  be  inscribed  upon 
them,  and  thev  were  to  be  covered  with  a  coat- 
ing  of  lime  or  gypsum,  in  order  to  secure  a 
smooth  white  surface  on  which  the  inscription 
might  be  clearly  depicted.  Such  a  mode  of 
publishing  laws  or  edicts  was  common  in  ancient 
times.  Pillars  of  stone  or  metal,  on  which  laws 
were  inscribed,  are  frequently  mentioned  by 

the  classical  writers.  W.  L.  A. - The  stones 

here  named  are  not  those  of  which  the  altar  was 
to  be  built,  but  are  to  serve  as  a  separate  mon¬ 
ument  witnessing  to  the  fact  that  the  people 
took  possession  of  the  land  by  virtue  of  the  Law 
inscribed  on  them  and  with  an  acknowledg¬ 
ment  of  its  obligations,  Espin. - A  careful 

examination  of  ch,  27  : 4,  8,  and  Josh.  8  :  30-32, 
will  lead  to  the  opinion  that  the  Law  was  written 
upon  or  in  the  plaster  with  which  these  pillars 
were  coated.  This  could  easily  be  done,  and 
such  writing  was  common  in  ancient  times.  I 
have  seen  specimens  of  it  certainly  more  than 
two  thousand  years  old,  and  still  as  distinct  as 
when  they  were  first  inscribed  on  the  plaster. 
Thompson. 

4.  The  stones  erected  on  Ebal.  But  wdiy  on 
Ebal,  the  mount  of  cursing?  ’  Had  there  been  a 
law  which  could  have  given  life,  ”  verily,”  Paul 
says,  “  righteousness  should  have  been  by  the 
Law,”  In  that  case,  the  appropriate  place  for 
the  erection  of  the  stones  would  have  been 
Gerizim — the  mount  of  blessing.  But  the  Law 
could  not  give  life  ;  as  requiring  perfect  obedi¬ 
ence  it  could  only  condemn.  Its  principal 
function  was  to  give  ‘‘knowledge  of  sin,” 
Hence  the  appropriate  place  for  the  stones  w^as 
on  the  mount  of  cursing.  Orr. 

5-7.  Besides  the  monumental  stones,  an 
altar  of  whole  stones,  on  w'hich  no  tool  had 
passed,  was  to  be  erected,  and  burnt-offerings 
and  peace-offerings  were  to  be  presented  as  at 
the  establishment  of  the  covenant  at  Sinai,  fol 


680  SECTION  189.  PROCLAMATION  OF  BLESSINGS  ANB  CURSINGS. 


lowed  by  tbe  statutory  festive  entertainment. 

W.  L.  A. - As  the  Law  testified  to  sin,  so  the 

sacrifices  testified  to  grace — to  the  provision  in 
mercy  which  lay  within  the  covenant  for  the 
removal  of  guilt.  Burnt-offerings  and  peace- 
offerings,  as  well  as  the  sin-offerings,  included 
the  idea  of  propitiation.  The  burnt-offerings 
and  peace-offerings  testified — the  one  to  the 
entire  consecration  of  heart  and  life  which  is 
the  condition  of  acceptable  service  ;  the  other, 
to  the  peace  and  fellowship  with  God  which,  on 
the  ground  of  sacrifice,  are  attained  through 
consecration  and  obedience.  Orr. 

Side  by  side  with  the  records  of  a  law  which 
demands  perfect  righteousness,  there  is  the  altar 
and  its  sacrifice  thereon,  speaking  to  the  people 
of  a  Divine  provision  for  forgiving  the  penitent. 
The  penitent  is  set  free  from  the  curse  of  law, 
that  he  may  ever  after  co-operate  with  God  in 
honoring  the  Law  from  whose  curse  he  has  been 
redeemed. 

§.  Write  very  plat se By.  In  the  books 
which  Moses  left  behind  him  there  v'as  a  reve¬ 
lation  of  the  Divine  mind  and  will  so  clear  and 
distinct  that  no  one  reading  even  the  Penta¬ 
teuch  with  a  loval  faith  need  ever  have  been  at 
a  loss  to  know  that  the  ground  of  his  trust  was 
the  forgiving  love  of  God,  and  that  the  duty  of 
life  was  summed  up  in  love  to  God  and  love  to 
man.  Later  teachings  are  given  with  increasing 
clearness  ;  those  of  the  prophets,  of  our  Lord, 
and  of  the  apostles.  In  all,  the  main  teachings 
are  given  “very  plainly.”  The  plainness  of 
Scripture  is  not  of  that  kind  which  men  out¬ 
grow  as  they  get  older.  Those  very  passages 
which  charm  childhood  with  their  simplicity, 
come  to  have  a  fuller  and  deeper  meaning  for 
the  “  old  disciple.”  C.  C. 

9,  lO.  When  Israel  renewed  the  covenant 
with  the  Lord,  by  solemnly  setting  up  the  Law 
in  Canaan,  it  became  thereby  the  nation  of 
God,  and  bound  itself  at  the  same  time  to 
hearken  to  the  voice  of  the  Lord,  and  keej)  his 
commandments,  as  it  had  already  done.  W.  L.  A. 

- They  were  bound  by  what  God  had  done 

for  them,  and  by  the  vows  which  on  different 
occasions  they  had  taken  on  themselves.  They 
were  his  by  covenant  with  the  fathers.  He  had 
made  them  his  by  redemption  from  Egypt.  He 
had  covenanted  with  them  at  Sinai.  The  cov¬ 
enant  being  broken,  he  had  at  Moses’  interces¬ 
sion  graciously  renewed  it.  He  had  kept  cov¬ 
enant  with  the  children,  even  when  rejecting 
the  fathers.  Thirty-eight  years  he  had  led  them 
in  the  wilderness,  and  once  more  had  gathered 
them  together  to  hear  them  renew  their  vows  of 
obedience.  Which  things  remind  us  of  the 


many  bonds  by  which  numbers  of  Christ’s  peo¬ 
ple  are  bound  to  his  covenant.  By  redemption, 
by  dedication  of  parents,  by  personal  choice  of 
the  Saviour,  by  public  profession,  by  repeated 
visits  to  his  table,  by  special  vows.  Orr. 


Blessings  and  Cursings,  as  Sanctions  of  the  Law.  to 
he  Proclaimed  on  (ierizim  and  Ebal  {cer.ses  11-14). 

Having  set  up  the  Law  and  renewed  the  cov¬ 
enant  in  Canaan,  Israel  was  to  proclaim  upon 
the  land  the  blessing  and  the  curse  of  the  Law. 
For  this  purpose  six  tribes  were  to  station 
themselves  on  Mount  Grerizim,  and  six  on  Mount 
Ebal,  the  former  to  pronounce  the  blessing,  the 

latter  the  curse.  W.  L.  A. - Those  rocky  ridges 

lay  in  the  province  of  Samaria,  and  the  peaks 
referred  to  were  near  Shechem  (Nablous),  rising 
in  steep  precipices  to  the  height  of  about  eight 
hundred  feet,  and  separated  by  a  green,  well- 
watered  valley,  of  about  five  hundred  yards 
wide.  The  people  of  Israel  were  here  divided 
into  two  parts.  On  Mount  Gerizim  (now  Jebel- 
I  et-Tur)  were  stationed  the  descendants  of  Bachel 
I  and  Leah,  the  two  principal  wives  of  Jacob,  and 
to  them  was  assigned  the  most  pleasant  and 
*  honorable  office  of  pronouncing  the  benedic- 
!  tions  ;  while  on  the  twin  hill  of  Ebal  (now 
i  Imad-el-Deen)  were  placed  the  posterity  of  the 
two  secondary  wives,  Zilpah  and  Bilhah,  with 
those  of  Beuben,  who'  had  lost  the  primogeni- 
ture,  and  Zebulun,  son  of  Leah,  youngest  son  ; 
to  them  were  committed  the  duty  of  pronounc¬ 
ing  the  maledictions.  The  ceremony  might 
have  taken  place  on  the  lower  spurs  of  the 
mountains,  where  they  approach  more  closely 
to  each  other.  Jamieson. 

To  use  the  historical  form  of  expression,  as 
the  scene  is  described  more  fully  here  than  on 
its  actual  performance  under  Joshua  (8  :  30),  the 
twelve  tribes  were  divided  between  the  two 
hills.  On  Gerizim  stood  Simeon,  Levi,  Judah, 
Issachar,  Joseph,  and  Benjamin,  to  hless  the 
people  ;  on  Ebal,  Beuben,  Gad,  Asher,  Zebulun, 
Dan,  and  Naphtali,  to  utter  the  cur.ses  which  are 

then  fully  recited.  P.  S. - Between  the  two 

stood  “the  Levites”-  i.e.,  in  this  place  the 
priests  ;  since  the  tribe  of  Levi  stands  among 
the  other  tribes.  Here,  where  the  point  at  issue 
was  not  the  division  of  the  land,  but  the  per¬ 
sonal  position  of  the  tribes  to  the  Lord,  Levi  is 
reckoned  among  the  twelve,  and  Joseph  stands 
as  one  tribe.  Gerl. 

Curses  Pronounced  on  Mount  Ebal  (verses  15-26). 

The  curses  to  be  pronounced  were  twelve  in 
number,  probably  to  correspond  with  the  num¬ 
ber  of  the  tribes.  The  blessings  are  not  here 


TWELVE  CURSES  ON  MOUNT  EBAL. 


681 


recorded  ;  but  when  the  injunction  here  given 
was  fulhlled  by  Joshua,  the  blessing  as  well  as 
the  curse  was  pronounced  (Josh.  8:34).  .  .  . 
Each  of  the  first  eleven  curses  is  directed  against 
some  particular  sm  already  denounced  in  the 
Law.  The  twelfth  curse  is  directed  generally 
against  all  breaches  of  the  Law,  against  those 
who  fail  or  refuse  to  set  up  the  whole  Law  and 
follow  it  as  the  rule  of  life  and  conduct.  This 
shows  that  the  sins  specially  denounced  are  se¬ 
lected  by  way  of  specimen,  and  also,  perhaps, 
because  they  are  such  as  could  for  the  most 
part  be  easily  concealed  from  judicial  inspec¬ 
tion.  W.  L.  A. 

There  is  a  larger  place  for  the  curses  than  for 
the  blessing — for  the  Law  in  its  form  and  sub¬ 
stance  was  more  prohibitive  than  injunctive,  as 
its  subjects  were  more  prone  to  transgression 
than  obedience.  All  the  tribes  that  stood  on 
Gerizim  to  bless  were  descended  from  children 
of  Jacob’s  wives.  The  disgraced  Keuben,  Zebu- 
lun,  and  the  sons  of  the  concubines,  were  ap¬ 
pointed  to  pronounce  the  curses.  It  is  well  to 
note  the  sins  thus  specially  stigmatized :  idol¬ 
atry — filial  impiety — rapacity — inhumanity,  and 
more  especially  to  the  helpless — corrupt  judg¬ 
ment-incest — bestialitj^ — violence,  and  special¬ 
ly  in  secrecy  or  guile— murder,  and  specially 
for  gain — and  lastly,  that  which  brings  every 
son  and  daughter  of  Adam  under  the  condem¬ 
nation  and  the  curse,  want  of  conformity  to  the 
Law  in  any  of  its  requirements — a  conformity 
which  one  and  all  of  us  have  so  miserably  fallen 
short  of.  T.  C. 

The  list  is  avowedly  representative  (verse  26), 
but  it  coders  a  large  part  of  the  Decalogue.  The 
first  table  is  fairly  represented  by  the  second 
commandment,  and  a  curse  is  pronounced  on 
the  making  and  worshipping  of  images  (verse 
15).  The  precepts  of  the  second  table  are  in¬ 
volved  in  the  other  verses  — the  fifth  command¬ 
ment  in  the  curse  on  filial  disrespect  (verse  16) ; 
the  sixth  in  the  curse  on  murder  (verse  24)  ;  the 
seventh  in  the  curses  on  the  grosser  forms  of 
uncleanness  (verses  20-23)  ;  the  eighth  in  the 
curse  on  removing  the  landmark  (verse  17)  ; 
the  ninth  in  the  curse  on  slaying  another  for 
reward,  which  may  include  perjury  (verse  25)  ; 
while  verses  18,  19  may  be  viewed  as  forbidding 
breaches  of  the  law  of  love  generally.  Orr. 

16.  What  hath  been  observed  concerning  the 
laws  of  Solon  and  of  Romulus,  the  first  an 
Athenian,  the  other  a  Roman  lawgiver,  is  also 
remarkable  in  the  laws  of  Moses— namely,  that 
no  mention  is  made  of  murderers  of  fathers  or 
mothers  ;  as  if  it  were  impossible  that  any  one 
could  do  so  execrable  a  deed.  But  he  who 


struck,  or  he  who  cursed  his  father  or  mother, 
was  to  be  treated  as  he  who  cursed  God  and 
blasphemed  his  holy  name  ;  he  was  to  be  put  to 
death.  Afterward,  as  iniquity  abounded  in  the 
world,  murderers  of  fathers  and  mother,  as  Paul 
observes,  were  no  uncommon  criminals,  and 
severe  laws  were  enacted  by  the  Romans  and 
by  other  nations  against  such  vile  malefac¬ 
tors. 

1§.  Curiccl  be  lie  that  inaketli  the 
blind  to  wander.  Among  several  heinous 
crimes,  such  as  idolatry,  contempt  of  parents, 
murder,  rapine,  and  the  like,  is  mentioned  this 
of  “  causing  the  blind  to  go  out  of  their  way 
a  wickedness  of  a  singular  nature,  and  which 
one  would  not  expect  to  find  in  this  list  of  vi¬ 
cious  actions.  It  is  a  crime  which  is  seldom  com¬ 
mitted  ;  there  are  few  opportunities  for  it  ; 
there  is  little  temptation  to  it  ;  it  is  doing  mis¬ 
chief  for  mischief’s  sake,  an  enormity  to  which 
few  can  easily  bring  themselves.  Blindness  in 
all  languages  is  put  for  error  and  ignorance  ; 
and  in  the  style  of  the  Scriptures,  ways  and 
jDaths,  and  walking,  running,  going,  w'andering 
astray,  stumbling,  falling,  mean  the  actions  and 
the  behavior  of  men.  These  obvious  observa¬ 
tions  will  lead  us  to  the  moral,  mystical,  spirit¬ 
ual,  and  enlarged  sense  of  the  Law  or  commi- 
nation  :  and  it  is  this.  Cursed  is  he  who  imposeth 
upon  the  simple,  the  credulous,  the  unw'ary, 
the  ignorant,  and  the  helpless  ;  and  either 
hurts,  or  defrauds,  or  deceives,  or  seduces,  or 
misinforms,  or  misleads,  or  perverts,  or  cor¬ 
rupts,  or  spoils  them.  And  if  cursed  be  he  that 
maketh  the  blind  to  wander  out  of  his  waj",  then 
by  the  rule  of  contraries,  blessed  is  he  who  can 
say  with  Job,  “  I  was  eyes  to  the  blind,  and 
feet  was  I  to  the  lame.”  Jorlin. 

26.  Cursed  be  lie  that  coiiiiriiietli 
not.  The  severe  spirit  which  pervades  the 
Law,  as  shown  in  the  numerous  exactions  and 
declaratory  curses  detailed  in  this  book,  was 
consistently  contrived  to  point  out  the  rigorous 
character  of  the  Divine  justice,  w^hich,  in  a  cov¬ 
enant  of  stipulated  observances,  necessarily  re¬ 
quired  punctilious  and  universal  obedience. 
For  though  the  Divine  mercy  might  conij^as- 
sionate  the  weakness  of  human  nature,  and 
therefore  it  prescribed  atonements  not  difficult 
to  be  paid  ;  yet  God  could  not,  in  conformity 
with  his  relation  to  the  Israelites,  overlook  even 
involuntary  deficiencies,  or  casual  defilements. 

Gray. - Such  crimes  are  mentioned  as  might 

escape  the  eyes  even  of  a  watchful  judicature, 
in  order  to  declare  that  God  at  all  events  will 
find  out  such  sinners,  and  to  impress  on  the 
hypocrite  a  horror  of  the  works  of  darkness. 


682 


SECTION  190.  BLESSINGS  PROMISED  TO  OBEDIENCE. 


In  the  last  curse  all  the  rest  are  included. 
Gerl. 


Lessons  from  the  past  alternate  throughout 
with  solemn  admonitions  for  the  future.  The 
Bible  furnishes  few  examples  of  warnings  which 
in  melting  pathos  or  awful  power  equal  those  of 
this  book.  It  does  not  surprise  us  that  the 
rabbins  of  a  later  day  named  it  the  “  Book  of 
Admonitions.”  The  possibility  and  fear,  rising 
in  some  places  to  prophetic  conviction,  that  the 


Israel  of  Red  Sea  deliverances  and  of  Sinai 
would  yet  one  day  lapse  from  its  high  privilege, 
and  lose  sight  for  a  time  of  its  predestined  goal, 
dominate  like  a  trumpet-tone  beginning,  mid¬ 
dle,  and  end  of  this  series  of  discourses.  It  is 
for  this  reason,  among  others,  that  the  fourteen 
chapters  of  legislation  (12-26),  whose  faithful 
observance  was  meant  to  prevent  the  day  of  ca¬ 
lamity,  are  flanked  by  Ebal  and  Gerizim.  That 
imposing  ceremonial  should  be  forever  after¬ 
ward  a  solemn  and  restraining  memory.  E.  C.  B. 


Section  190. 

BLESSINGS  PROMISED  TO  OBEDIENCE  :  1.  THOSE  PRONOUNCED  AT  THE  GIVING 
OF  THE  LAW  ON  SINAI.  2.  THOSE  UTTERED  ON  THE  PLAINS  OF  MOAB, 
THIRTY-NINE  YEARS  LATER. 

Leviticus  26  ;  3-13.  De.  28  : 1-14. 

Lev.  26  3  If  ye  walk  in  my  statutes,  and  keep  my  commandments,  and  do  them  ;  then  I 

4  will  give  your  rains  in  their  season,  and  the  land  shall  yield  her  increase,  and  the  trees  of  the 

5  field  shall  yield  their  fruit.  And  your  threshing  shall  reach  unto  the  vintage,  and  the  vintage 
shall  reach  unto  the  sowing  time  :  and  ye  shall  eat  your  bread  to  the  full,  and  dwell  in  your 

6  land  safely.  And  I  will  give  peace  in  the  land,  and  ye  shall  lie  down,  and  none  shall  make 
you  afraid  :  and  I  will  cause  evil  beasts  to  cease  out  of  the  land,  neither  shall  the  sword  go 

7  through  your  land.  And  ye  shall  chase  your  enemies,  and  they  shall  fall  before  you  by  the 

8  sword.  And  five  of  you  shall  chase  an  hundred,  and  an  hundred  of  you  shall  chase  ten  thou- 

9  sand  :  and  your  enemies  shall  fall  before  you  by  the  sword.  And  I  will  have  respect  unto 
you,  and  make  you  fruitful,  and  multiiily  you  ;  and  will  establish  my  covenant  with  ^mu. 

10  And  ye  shall  eat  old  store  long  kept,  and  ye  shall  bring  forth  the  old  because  of  the  new. 

11  And  I  will  set  my  tabernacle  among  you  :  and  my  soul  shall  not  abhor  you.  And  I  will  walk 

12  among  you,  and  will  be  your  God,  and  ye  shall  be  my  people.  I  am  the  Lokd  your  God, 

13  which  brought  you  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  that  ye  should  not  be  their  bondmen  ;  and 
I  have  broken  the  bars  of  your  yoke,  and  made  you  go  upright. 

De.  2S  1  And  it  shall  come  to  puss,  if  thou  shalt  hearken  diligently  unto  the  voice  of  the 
Lord  th}'’  God,  to  observe  to  do  all  his  commandments  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  that 

2  the  Lord  thy  God  will  set  thee  on  high  above  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  :  and  all  these  bless¬ 
ings  shall  come  upon  thee,  and  overtake  thee,  if  thou  shalt  hearken  unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord 

3  thy  God.  Blessed  shalt  thou  be  in  the  city,  and  blessed  shalt  thou  be  in  the  field.  Blessed 

4  shall  be  the  fruit  of  thy  body,  and  the  fruit  of  thy  ground,  and  the  fruit  of  thy  cattle,  the 

5  increase  of  thy  kine,  and  the  young  of  thy  flock.  Blessed  shall  be  thy  basket  and  thy  knead- 

6  ingtrough.  Blessed  shalt  thou  be  when  thou  comest  in,  and  blessed  shalt  thou  be  when  thou 

7  goest  out.  The  Lord  shall  cause  thine  enemies  that  rise  up  against  thee  to  be  smitten  before 

8  thee  :  they  shall  come  out  against  thee  one  way,  and  shall  flee  before  thee  seven  wa3^s.  The 
Lord  shall  command  the  blessing  upon  thee  in  thy  barns,  and  in  all  that  thou  puttest  thine 

9  hand  unto  ;  and  he  shall  bless  thee  in  the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee.  The 
Lord  shall  establish  thee  for  an  holy  people  unto  himself,  as  he  hath  sworn  unto  thee  ;  if 

10  thou  shalt  keep  the  commandments  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  and  walk  in  his  wa3's.  And  all  the 
peoples  of  the  earth  shall  see  that  thou  art  called  by  the  name  of  the  Lord  ;  and  the3’’  shall  be 

11  afraid  of  thee.  And  the  Lord  shall  make  thee  plenteous  for  good,  in  the  fruit  of  thy  bo(l3', 
and  in  the  fruit  of  thy  cattle,  and  in  the  fruit  of  thy  ground,  in  the  land  which  the  Lord 

12  sware  unto  thy  fathers  to  give  thee.  The  Lord  shall  open  unto  thee  his  good  treasure  the 
heaven  to  give  the  rain  of  thy  land  in  its  season,  and  to  bless  all  the  work  of  thine  hand :  and 

13  thou  shalt  lend  unto  many  nations,  and  thou  shalt  not  borrow.  And  the  Lord  shall  make 


BLESSINGS  FOR  OBEDIENCE. 


683 


thee  the  head,  and  not  the  tail  ;  and  thou  shalt  be  above  only,  and  thou  shalt  not  be  beneath  ; 
if  thou  shalt  hearken  unto  the  commandments  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  which  I  command  thee 
14  this  day,  to  observe  and  to  do  them ;  and  shalt  not  turn  aside  from  any  of  the  words  which  I 
command  you  this  day,  to  the  right  hand,  or  to  the  left,  to  go  after  other  gods  to  serve  them. 


The  blessings  of  Leviticus  were  uttered  by 
Moses  on  Sinai.  They  are  :  provision  for  all  out¬ 
ward  needs  ;  increase  from  all  products  of  the 
soil  ;  peace  in  the  community  and  home  ;  pro¬ 
tection  from  foes  or  victory  over  them  ;  estab¬ 
lishment  of  God’s  covenant  and  his  permanent 
abiding  with  the  nation.  Those  of  Deuteron¬ 
omy  were  spoken  thirty-nine  years  later  on  the 
plains  of  Moab.  They  may  be  comprised  in  :  ex¬ 
altation  as  a  people  ;  blessing  in  the  city  and 
the  field,  upon  the  herd  and  the  flock,  upon  the 
garner,  the  table,  and  the  toil.  Both  in  the 
earlier  statements  of  Leviticus  and  the  later  of 
Deuteronomy  the  blessings  precede  the  curses  ; 
the  promises  go  before  the  threatenings.  And 
sj  it  is  ever.  B. - The  blessings  are  put  be¬ 

fore  the  curses,  to  intimate  that  God  is  slow  to 
anger  but  swift  to  show  mercy  :  he  has  said  it 
and  sworn,  that  he  would  much  rather  we  would 
obey  and  live  than  sin  and  die.  It  is  his  delight 
to  bless.  Though  both  promises  and  threaten¬ 
ings  are  designed  to  bring  and  hold  us  to  our 
duty,  yet  it  is  better  that  we  be  allured  to  that 
which  is  good  by  a  hope  of  God’s  favor  than 
that  we  be  frightened  to  it  by  fear  of  his  wrath. 
That  obedience  pleases  best  which  comes  from 
a  principle  of  delight  in  God’s  goodness.  H. 

Promises  for  Obedience. 

Lev.  26  :  3—13. 

4.  Rain  in  due  §ea§on.  The  periodical 
rains,  on  which  the  fertility  of  the  holy  land  so 
much  depends,  are  here  spoken  of.  There  are 
two  wet  seasons,  called  in  Scripture  the  former 
and  the  latter  rain.  The  former  or  autumn  rain 
commences  after  the  autumnal  equinox  and  falls 
in  heavy  showers  in  November  and  December, 
Then  generally  follows  a  period  with  occasion¬ 
al  light  showers,  and  in  March  the  latter  or 
spring  rain  comes  on,  which  is  precarious  in 
quantity'  and  duration,  and  rarely  lasts  more 
than  two  days.  Clark. 

5.  This  is  a  nervous  and  beautiful  promise  of 

such  entire  plenty  of  corn  and  wine,  that  before 
they  could  have  reaped  and  threshed  out  their 
corn,  the  vintage  should  be  ready  ;  and  before 
they  could  have  pressed  out  their  wine,  it  would 
be  time  to  sow  again.  The  Prophet  Amos  (ch. 
9  : 13)  expresses  the  same  blessing  in  the  same 
manner  :  The  ploughman  shall  overtake  the  reaper 
and  the  treader  of  grapes  him  who  soweth  seed. 
Dodd. - Keaping  is  done  in  April,  May,  and 


June,  and  the  vintage  is  in  September  and  Oc¬ 
tober.  Hence  the  harvest,  according  to  the 
promise,  is  to  be  so  heavy  that  it  will  take  three 
or  four  months  to  tread  out  the  grain.  And 
I  here,  again,  actual  experience  suggested  the 
costume  of  the  prophecy.  In  very  abundant 
seasons  I  have  often  seen  the  threshing  actually 
prolonged  until  October.  Thompson. 

6.  The  blessings  here  promised,  it  will  be 
noticed,  are  set  in  contrast  with  the  main  judg¬ 
ments  which  are  elsewhere  denounced  against 
the  Israelites  (Ezek.  14  :  21),  to  wit,  famine,  war, 
and  evil  blasts. 

7.  Ye  §liall  clia§e  your  ciieniic§. 

That  is,  a  few,  a  mere  handful,  shall  be  more 
than  a  match  for  a  great  multitude,  as  it  proved 
in  the  conquest  of  Canaan  ;  insomuch  that 
Joshua  says,  enlarging  upon  this  promise 
(23  : 10),  “  One  man  of  you  shall  chase  a  thou¬ 
sand.  ”  This  was  signally  fulfilled  in  the  days 
of  Gideon,  who  with  three  men  put  to  flight  a 
vast  army  (Judges  7  :  22).  So  also  in  the  case  of 
David’s  worthies,  of  whom  one  lifted  his  spear 
against  eight  hundred,  and  slew  three  hundred 
at  one  time  (2  Sam.  23  :  8,  18).  Bush. 

De.  ;  1-14.  The  blessing.  As  in  the 
closing  words  of  the  exposition  of  the  Law  (De. 
26  : 19),  so  here,  exaltation  is  promised  to  Israel 
on  condition  of  obedience.  The  condition  is 
very  emphatically  stated  at  the  beginning  (verses 
1,  2),  middle  (verse  9),  and  close  (verses  13,  14) 
of  this  portion  of  the  discourse  ;  and  the  several 
blessings  enumerated  appear  as  directly  conse¬ 
quent  on  its  performance.  The  six  repetitions 
of  the  word  “  blessed”  introduce  the  particular 
forms  which  the  blessing  would  take  in  the 
various  relations  of  life.  Espin. 

1,  Hearken  and  do.  The  condition  of 
all  enjoyment  of  the  Divine  bounty  was  obedi¬ 
ence  on  the  part  of  the  people  to  the  Word  and 
Law  of  Jehovah  their  God.  This  rendered,  the 
blessing  would  come  on  them  rich  and  full,  and 
abide  with  them  (cf.  verses  2,  9,  13, 14).  W.  L.  A. 

Blessings  are  promised  upon  condition  that 
they  diligently  hearken  to  the  voice  cf  God,  speak¬ 
ing  to  them  by  his  word  ;  that  they  observe  and 
do  all  his  commandments,  and  that  thej’  keep  the 
commandments  of  God,  and  walk  in  his  ways. 
Not  only  do  them  for  once,  but  keep  them  for¬ 
ever  ;  not  only  set  out  in  his  ways,  but  walk  in 
them  to  the  end.  Let  them  take  care  to  keep 
up  religion,  both  the  form  and  power  of  it,  in 


684 


SECTION  190.  BLESSINGS  PROMISED  TO  OBEDIENCE. 


their  families  and  nation,  and  God  would  not 
fail  to  bless  them.  H. 

Set  tJjee  IiigBft  iil>»vc  t3ie  iisition§.  If 

a  nation  has  in  it  a  preponderance  of  wise,  true¬ 
hearted,  upright  men.  such  as  fear  God,  love 
righteousness,  and  hate  iniquity,  nothing  can 
prevent  such  a  nation  rising  in  the  scale.  Its 
prosperity  will  be  manifest  in  its  inward  peace, 
in  the  readiness  of  other  nations  to  deal  with  it 
by  opening  up  commercial  relations,  and  in  the 
good  will  of  other  nations  which  it  will  certainly 
share.  It  will  have  the  armor  of  light.  Its  vir¬ 
tue  will  be  a  wall  of  defence.  “  Its  land  wdl 
yield  her  increase  ;  and  God,  even  its  own  God. 
will  bless  it.”  “  Happy  is  the  nation  that  is  in 
such  a  case  ;  yea,  happy  is  that  people  w^hose 
God  is  the  Lord.”  To  such  a  nation  it  may 
well  be  said,  “  Blessed  is  he  that  blesseth  thee, 
and  cursed  is  he  that  curseth  thee’  ’  (Nu.  24  : 5-9). 
C.  C. 

3-7,  The  fulness  of  the  blessing  in  all  the 
relations  of  life,  external  and  internal,  is  pre¬ 
sented  in  six  particulars,  each  introduced  b}’’  the 
word  “  blessed.”  Israel  should  be  blessed  in 
the  house  and  in  the  field,  in  the  fruit  of  the 
body,  in  the  productions  of  the  soil  and  the  in¬ 
crease  of  herd  and  flock,  in  the  store  and  in  the 
use  of  what  nature  provided — in  all  their  under 
takings,  whether  in  peace  or  in  war,  at  home  or 
abroad.  Basket  and  kneading-trough  ;  “  the  bas¬ 
ket  ”  representing  the  store  in  which  the  fruits 
of  the  earth  were  laid  up,  the  “  kneading- 
trough”  the  use  of  these  for  the  supply  of  daily 
needs.  W.  L.  A 

The  blessings  of  God’s  providence  are  cov 
enanted  blessings  to  those  who  trust  in  him. 
God  has  said  that  they  shall  be  provided  for. 
In  their  basket  and  in  their  store  they  shall  be 
blessed  ;  and  whether  the  basket  be  full  or 
empty,  the  blessing  is  equally  sure  ;  the  Provi¬ 
dence  is  a  good  one,  whether  its  shape  bedhat 
of  trial  or  of  mercy  ;  it  is  equally  a  providence 
of  love — a  part  of  God’s  covenant  of  love  ;  so 
that  sorrow  and  poverty  itself,  to  those  who  put 
their  trust  in  him,  is  better,  when  God  sends 
it,  than  thousands  of  gold  and  silver.  Whatever 
God  sends  is  best  for  those  who  trust  God. 
Cheever. 

8.  The  effect  of  the  blessing  should  be  seen 
not  only  in  the  supremacy  of  Israel  over  all  op¬ 
position,  but  in  the  abundance  of  their  posses¬ 
sions,  in  the  success  of  their  undertakings,  and 
in  the  respect  in  which  they  should  be  held  by 
all  nations.  W.  L.  A. - They  should  have  suc¬ 

cess  in  all  their  employments  ;  “  The  Lord  shall 
command  the  blessing  (and  it  is  he  only  that  can 
command  it)  upon  thee,  not  only  in  all  thou 


hast,  but  in  all  thou  doest,  all  that  thou  seftest 
thine  hand  unto.”  This  intimated  that  when  they 
were  rich  they  must  not  be  idle,  but  must  find 
some  good  employment  to  set  their  baud  to, 
and  God  would  own  their  industry  and  bless  the 
work  of  their  hand,  for  that  which  mokes  rich  and 
keeps  so,  is  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  upon  the  hand 
of  the  diligent.  Prom  the  whole  we  learn  (it 
were  well  if  men  would  believe  it)  that  religion 
and  piety  are  the  best  friends  to  outward  pros¬ 
perity.  Though  temporal  blessings  do  not  take 
up  so  much  room  in  the  promises  of  the  New 
Testament  as  they  do  in  those  of  the  Old,  yet 
it  is  enough  that  our  Lord  Jesus  has  given  us 
his  word  (and  sure  we  may  take  his  word)  that 
if  we  seek  first  the  kingdom  <f  God,  and  the  right¬ 
eousness  thereif,  all  other  things  shall  be  added  to 
us,  as  far  as  infinite  wisdom  sees  good,  and  who 
can  desire  it  further  ?  (Matt.  6  :  33).  H. 

Behind  all  forms  of  blessing  a  personal  God 
may  be  seen.  The  material  food  does  not  sus¬ 
tain  bodily  life  ;  it  is  God  acting  through  the 
food.  Neither  fertile  land,  nor  good  husbandry, 
nor  auspicious  weather,  nor  all  combined,  will 
in  themselves  secure  a  copious  harvest  ;  it  is 
God  acting  through  natural  forces.  “  The  Lord 
shall  command  the  blessing.”  However  riches 
may  increase,  if  God  smile  not,  there  will  be  no 
joy.  The  house  may  be  full  of  children  ;  yet 
instead  of  ruddy  health  there  may  be  wasting 
sickness— instead  of  intellectual  vigor,  imbecil¬ 
ity  —instead  of  laughter,  weeping  ;  the  blessing 
of  God  is  wanting.  We  may  possess  substantial 
homes,  y^et  no  security.  True  prosperity  is  a 
Divine  Father’s  benediction.  D.  D. 

Full  storehouses,  without  God’s  blessing,  are 
not  riches.  God  does  not  count  a  man  rich 
further  than  the  good  things  he  has  are  of  real 
and  lasting  benefit  to  him.  Wealth  unblessed 
of  God  is  not  to  be  desired.  Unblessed  good  is  ill 
(Eccl.  5  : 10-15).  It  turns  to  ill  -is  not  enduring 
(Prov.  13  :  22).  takes  wings  and  leaves,  is  a  curse 
to  offspring  (Eccl.  5  : 14,  15  ;  6:2  ;  Jas.  5  : 1,  2). 
God’s  blessing,  without  full  storehouses,  makes 
rich.  It  enriches  the  little  we  have.  It  makes 
adversity  a  means  of  spiritual  enrichment.  It 
is  itself  the  best  of  all  riches.  Orr. 

9,  The  reward  of  goodness  is  its  own  per¬ 
manence.  ”  The  Lord  shall  establish  thee  an 
holy  people.  ”  “And  thou  shalt  not  go  aside 
from  any  of  the  words  which  I  command 
thee.”  In  the  life  of  obedience  “  God  helps 
those  w^ho  help  themselves.”  Separate  acts  be¬ 
come  easier  by  repetition.  They  evolve  into 
habits.  Habits  tend  to  permanence  and  consti¬ 
tute  character  and  foreshadow  destiny.  All 
proceeds  by  virtue  of  an  eternal  law  ;  “  God 


PROMISES  FOR  THE  FAITHFUL. 


685 


helps  those  who  help  themselves,”  It  is  easier 
for  a  good  man  to  resist  temptation  now  than  it 
was  in  the  first  stages  of  his  Christian  life.  De¬ 
votion  has  become  the  natural  outflow  of  his 
soul,  the  fruitage  of  his  new  life,  D,  D, 

10.  Thou  urt  called  l>y  the  name 
of  the  I,<ord  ;  rather,  the  name  of  Jehovah  is 
called  upon  thee.  The  name  of  God  is  God  him¬ 
self  as  revealed  ;  and  this  name  is  called  or 
named  upon  men  when  they  are  adopted  by 
him,  made  wholly  his,  and  transformed  into  his 
likeness.  This  blessing  Israel  enjoyed  as  a 
nation, 

14.  Moses  ends  as  he  began,  by  reminding 
them  that  the  condition  of  enjo;y'ing  the  blessing 
was  obedience  to  the  Divine  Law,  and  steadfast 
adherence  to  the  course  in  which  they  were 

called  to  walk,  W,  L,  A, - The  blessing  is 

viewed  as  pervading  every  department  of  the 
earthly  life.  It  mingles  itself  with  all  the  good 
man  is,  with  all  he  does,  with  the  circumstances 
of  his  lot,  with  the  powers  of  the  natural  world 
which  constitute  his  environment.  It  rests  on 
his  person,  on  his  household,  on  his  posses¬ 
sions,  It  attends  him  in  city  and  field,  in  his 
coming  in  and  going  out,  so  that  whatever  he 
does  prospers  (Ps,  1  ;  3),  These  promises  dem¬ 
onstrate  :  (1)  That  the  providence  of  God,  in 
the  sphere  of  the  outward  life,  is  free,  sovereign, 
all-embracing,  (2)  That  there  is  under  this 
providence  a  connection  between  outward  events 
and  circumstances  and  spiritual  conditions, 
(3)  That,  subordinately  to  higher  ends,  piety 
and  virtue,  under  this  providence,  will  be  re¬ 
warded  by  prosperity',  Orr. 

The  signs  of  God’s  blessing  which  God’s  faith¬ 
ful  ones  enjoy,  even  in  this  life.  They  have 
peace  with  God  through  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
They  have  a  clear  conscience  ;  they  know  that 
the  aim  of  pleasing  God  is  right,  whatever  diffi¬ 
culties  it  may  involve.  They  enjoy  what  they 
have  as  from  God,  and  as  the  loving  gifts  of  a 
Father’s  hand.  If  much  be  given,  they  delight 
to  use  it  for  God,  If  little  be  theirs,  they  know 
that  a  little  that  a  righteous  man  hath  is  better 
than  the  riches  of  many  wicked.  And,  above 
all,  the  supreme  proof  of  God’s  blessing  is  that 
gains  and  losses,  joys  and  cares,  health  and 


sickness,  do  “all  work  together  for  good”  to 
them  ;  they  minister  to  the  growth  of  character, 
and  help  to  make  them  better,  wiser,  and  holier 
men,  C,  C, 

God’s  promises  never  fail  but  through  man’s 
fault.  So  considered,  all  the  Scripture  promises 
are  full  of  instruction,  alike  when  fulfilled  or 
not  fulfilled.  Every  Scripture  promise  not  ful¬ 
filled  speaks  a  solemn  lesson,  God  cannot  lie  ; 
but  his  promises  always  imply  that  we  do  not 
set  ourselves  against  their  accomplishment  ;  he 
will  do  his  part,  the  means  of  grace  shall  be 
given,  the  blessing  is  ready  to  fall  upon  the  use 
of  them  ;  but  still  he  will  not  overrule  man’s 
will  so  that  he  shall  of  necessity  use  them.  And 
if  man  will  not  use  the  means  of  grace,  then  he 
cannot  see  the  fulfilment  of  the  promised  bless¬ 
ing.  And  thus  whenever  the  promised  blessing 
is  wanting,  it  is  the  visible  sign  of  something 
left  undone,  or  done  ill  on  our  parts,  which,  so 
long  as  it  continues,  must  forever,  as  now,  keep 
the  blessing  from  us.  T.  Arnold. 

It  is  a  current  popular  notion  that  God’s 
threatenings  are  more  or  less  serious,  and  may 
carry  with  them  grave  consequences  ;  but  as  to 
his  prorn/'ses —who  should  concern  himself  as  to 
any  danger  from  neglecting  them  ?  If  one  does 
not  choose  to  receive  the  promised  favor,  it  is 
only  to  excuse  himself  or  let  it  go  by  default  ; 
and  it  simply  amounts  to  nothing  ;  it  will  be  all 
the  same  as  if  no  promise  had  ever  reached  his 
ear.  Not  so,  but  far  otherwise  is  God’s  thought 
of  this  !  In  his  view  the  Gospel  promise  lays 
bare  the  very  heart  of  man.  Beyond  possible 
mistake  it  shows  whether  that  sinful  heart  has 
any,  even  the  least  respect  for  God  left  ; 
whether  it  can  be  touched  by  the  presence  and 
pressure  of  God’s  infinite  love  ;  whether  upon 
after  and  second  thought  it  will  entertain  at  all 
the  spirit  of  repentance  and  will  consent  to  con¬ 
sider  its  ways  and  think  of  returning  to  obedi¬ 
ence.  Every  renewal  of  God’s  promise  is  his 
motion  put  to  the  sinner  for  reconsideration; 
and  every  such  refusal  of  the  sinner  to  entertain 
this  motion  is  a  fresh  insult  offered  to  his  lov¬ 
ing  Father  !  Oh,  how  does  it  lay  bare  his  proud, 
unbelieving  heart !  H.  0. 


686 


SECTION  191.  PROPHETIC  CURSES. 


Section  191. 

PEOPHETIC  CUESES:  AS  UTTEEED  FIEST  AT  SINAI;  AS  EEPEATED  AND  AMPLI¬ 
FIED  ON  THE  PLAINS  OF  MOAB.  PEOMISES  OF  EESTOEED  FAVOE  UPON 
EEPENTANCE  AND  EETUEN  UNTO  JEHOVAH. 

Leviticus  26  : 14-46.  De.  28  : 15-68. 

Lev.  26  14  But  if  ye  will  not  hearken  nnto  me,  and  will  not  do  all  these  commandments  ; 

15  and  if  ye  shall  reject  my  statutes,  and  if  your  soul  abhor  my  judgements,  so  that  ye  will  not 

16  do  all  my  commandments,  but  break  my  covenant  ;  I  also  will  do  this  unto  you  ;  I  will  ap¬ 
point  terror  over  you,  even  consumption  and  fever,  that  shall  consume  the  eyes,  and  make  the 

17  soul  to  pine  away  :  and  ye  shall  sow  your  seed  in  vain,  for  your  enemies  shall  eat  it.  And  I 
will  set  my  face  against  you,  and  ye  shall  be  smitten  before  your  enemies  :  they  that  hate  you 

18  shall  rule  over  you  ;  and  ye  .shall  flee  when  none  pursueth  you.  And  if  ye  will  not  yet  for 

19  these  things  hearken  unto  me,  then  I  will  chastise  yon  seven  times  more  for  your  sins.  And 
I  will  break  the  pride  of  your  power  ;  and  I  will  make  your  heaven  as  iron,  and  your  earth  as 

20  brass  :  and  your  strength  shall  be  spent  in  vain  :  for  your  land  shall  not  yield  her  increase, 

21  neither  shall  the  trees  of  the  land  yield  their  fruit.  And  if  ye  walk  contrary  unto  me,  and 
will  not  hearken  unto  me  ;  I  will  bring  seven  times  more  plagues  upon  you  according  to  your 

22  sins.  And  I  will  send  the  beast  of  the  field  among  you,  which  shall  rob  you  of  your  children, 
and  destroy  your  cattle,  and  make  you  few  in  number  ;  and  your  ways  shall  become  desolate. 

23  And  if  by  these  things  ye  will  not  be  reformed  unto  me,  but  will  walk  contrary  unto  me  ;  then 

24  will  I  also  walk  contrary  unto  you  ;  and  I  will  smite  you,  even  I,  seven  times  for  your  sins. 

25  And  I  will  bring  a  sword  upon  jmu,  that  shall  execute  the  vengeance  of  the  covenant  ;  and  ye 
shall  be  gathered  together  within  your  cities  ;  and  I  will  send  the  pestilence  among  you  ;  and 

26  ye  shall  be  delivered  into  the  hand  of  the  enemy.  When  I  break  your  staff  of  bread,  ten 
women  shall  bake  your  bread  in  one  oven,  and  they  shall  deliver  your  bread  again  by  weight  : 
and  ye  shall  eat,  and  not  be  satisfied. 

27  And  if  ye  will  not  for  all  this  hearken  unto  me,  but  walk  contrary  unto  me  ;  then  I  will 

28  walk  contrary  unto  you  in  fury  ;  and  I  also  will  chastise  you  seven  times  for  your  sins.  And 

29  ye  shall  eat  the  flesh  of  your  sons,  and  the  flesh  of  your  daughters  shall  ye  eat.  And  I  will 

30  destroy  your  high  places,  and  cut  down  your  sun-images,  and  cast  your  carcases  upon  the 

31  carcases  of  your  idols  ;  and  my  soul  shall  abhor  you.  And  I  will  make  your  cities  a  waste, 
and  will  bring  your  sanctuaries  unto  desolation,  and  I  will  not  smell  the  savour  of  your  sweet 

32  odours.  And  I  will  bring  the  land  into  desolation  :  and  your  enemies  which  dwell  therein 

33  shall  be  astonished  at  it.  And  you  will  I  scatter  among  the  nations,  and  I  will  draw  out  the 

34  sword  after  you  :  and  your  land  shall  be  a  desolation,  and  your  cities  shall  be  a  waste.  Then 
shall  the  land  enjoy  her  sabbaths,  as  long  as  it  lieth  desolate,  and  ye  be  in  your  enemies’  land  ; 

35  even  then  shall  the  land  rest,  and  enjoy  her  sabbaths.  As  long  as  it  lieth  desolate  it  shall 

36  have  rest  ;  even  the  rest  which  it  had  not  in  your  sabbaths,  when  ye  dwelt  upon  it.  And  as 
for  them  that  are  left  of  you,  I  will  send  a  faintness  into  their  heart  in  the  lands  of  their 
enemies  :  and  the  sound  of  a  driven  leaf  shall  chase  them  ;  and  they  shall  flee,  as  one  fleeth 

37  from  the  sword  ;  and  they  shall  fall  when  none  pursueth.  And  they  shall  stumble  one  upon 
m  another,  as  it  were  before  the  sword,  when  none  pursueth  :  and  ye  shall  have  no  power  to 

38  stand  before  your  enemies.  And  ye  shall  perish  among  the  nations,  and  the  land  of  your 

39  enemies  shall  eat  you  up.  And  they  that  are  left  of  you  shall  pine  away  in  their  iniquity  in 
your  enemies’  lands  ;  and  also  in  the  iniquities  of  their  fathers  shall  they  pine  away  with 
them. 

De.  28  15  But  it  shall  come  to  pass,  if  thou  wilt  not  hearken  unto  the  voice  of  the  Loed 
thy  God,  to  observe  to  do  all  his  commandments  and  his  statutes  which  I  command  thee  this 

16  day  ;  that  all  these  curses  shall  come  upon  thee,  and  overtake  thee.  Cursed  shalt  thou  be  in 

17  the  city,  and  cursed  shalt  thou  be  in  the  field.  Cursed  shall  be  thy  basket  and  thy  kneading- 

18  trough.  Cursed  shall  be  the  fruit  of  thy  body,  and  the  fruit  of  thy  ground,  the  increase  of 

19  thy  kine,  and  the  young  of  thy  flock.  Cursed  shalt  thou  be  when  thou  comest  in,  and  cursed 

20  shalt  thou  be  when  thou  goest  out.  The  Lord  shall  send  upon  thee  cursing,  discomfiture, 


PROPHETIC  CURSES. 


687 


and  rebuke,  in  all  that  thou  puttest  thine  hand  unto  for  to  do,  until  thou  be  destroyed,  and 
until  thou  perish  quickly  ;  because  of  the  evil  of  thy  doings,  whereby  thou  hast  forsaken  me. 

21  The  Lord  shall  make  the  pestilence  cleave  unto  thee,  until  he  have  consumed  thee  from  off 

22  the  land,  whither  thou  goest  in  to  possess  it.  The  Lord  shall  smite  thee  with  consumption, 
and  with  fever,  and  with  inflammation,  and  with  fiery  heat,  and  with  the  sword,  and  with 

23  blasting,  and  with  mildew  ;  and  they  shall  pursue  thee  until  thou  nerish.  And  thy  heaven 

24  that  is  over  thy  head  shall  be  brass,  and  the  earth  that  is  under  thee  shall  be  iron.  The  Lord 
shall  make  the  rain  of  thy  land  powder  and  dust  :  from  heaven  shall  it  come  down  upon  thee, 

25  until  thou  be  destroyed.  The  Lord  shall  cause  thee  to  be  smitten  before  thine  enemies  :  thou 
shalt  go  out  one  way  against  them,  and  shalt  flee  seven  ways  before  them  :  and  thou  shalt  be 

2G  tossed  to  and  fro  among  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth.  And  thy  carcase  shall  be  meat  unto 
all  fowls  of  the  air,  and  unto  the  beasts  of  the  earth,  and  there  shall  be  none  to  fray  them 

27  away.  The  Lord  shall  smite  thee  with  the  boil  of  Egj^pt,  and  with  the  emerods,  and  with  the 

28  scurvy,  and  with  the  itch,  whereof  thou  canst  not  be  healed.  The  Lord  shall  smite  thee 

29  with  madness,  and  with  blindness,  and  with  astonishment  of  heart  :  and  thou  shalt  grope  at 
noonday,  as  the  blind  gropeth  in  diirkness,  and  thou  shalt  not  prosper  in  thy  ways  :  and  thou 

30  shalt  be  only  oppressed  and  spoiled  alway,  and  there  shall  be  none  to  save  thee.  Thou  shalt 
betroth  a  wife,  and  another  man  shall  lie  with  her  :  thou  shalt  build  an  house,  and  thou  shalt 

31  not  dwell  therein  :  thou  shalt  plant  a  vineyard,  and  shalt  not  use  the  fruit  thereof.  Thine  ox 
shall  be  slain  before  thine  eyes,  and  thou  shalt  not  eat  thereof  :  thine  ass  shall  be  violently 
taken  away  from  before  thy  face,  and  shall  not  be  restored  to  thee  :  thy  sheep  shall  be  given 

32  unto  thine  enemies,  and  thou  shalt  have  none  to  save  thee.  Thy  sons  and  thy  daughters  shall 
be  given  unto  another  people,  and  thine  eyes  shall  look,  and  fail  with  longing  for  them  all  the 

33  day  :  and  there  shall  be  nought  in  the  power  of  thine  hand.  The  fruit  of  thy  ground,  and  all 
thy  labours,  shall  a  nation  which  thou  knowest  not  eat  up  ;  and  thou  shalt  be  only  oppressed 

34  and  crushed  alway  :  so  that  thou  shalt  be  mad  for  the  sight  of  thine  eyes  which  thou  shalt  see. 

35  The  Lord  shall  smite  thee  in  the  knees,  and  in  the  legs,  witJi  a  sore  boil,  whereof  thou  canst 

36  not  be  healed,  from  the  sole  of  thy  foot  unto  the  crown  of  thy  head.  The  Lord  shall  bring 
thee,  and  thy  king  which  thou  shalt  set  over  thee,  unto  a  nation  which  thou  hast  not  known, 

37  thou  nor  thy  fathers  ;  and  there  shalt  thou  serve  other  gods,  wood  and  stone.  And  thou  shalt 
become  an  astonishment,  a  proverb,  and  a  by-word,  among  all  the  peoples  whither  the  Lord 

38  shall  lead  thee  away.  Thou  shalt  carry  much  seed  out  into  the  field,  and  shalt  gather  little 

39  in  ;  for  the  locust  shall  consume  it.  Thou  shalt  j^lant  vineyards  and  dress  them,  but  thou 

40  shalt  neither  drink  of  the  wine,  nor  gather  the  grapes  ;  for  the  worm  shall  eat  them.  Thou 
shalt  have  olive  trees  throughout  all  thy  borders,  but  thou  shalt  not  anoint  thyself  with  the 

41  oil  ;  for  thine  olive  shall  cast  Us  fruH.  Thou  shalt  beget  sons  and  daughters,  but  they  shall 

42  not  be  thine  ;  for  they  shall  go  into  captivity.  All  thy  trees  and  the  fruit  of  thy  ground  shall 

43  the  locust  possess.  The  stranger  that  is  in  the  midst  of  thee  shall  mount  up  above  thee 

44  higher  and  higher  ;  and  thou  shalt  come  down  lower  and  lower.  He  shall  lend  to  thee,  and 

45  thou  shalt  not  lend  to  him  :  he  shall  be  the  head,  and  thou  shalt  be  the  tail.  And  all  these 
curses  shall  come  upon  thee,  and  shall  pursue  thee,  and  overtake  thee,  till  thou  be  destroyed  ; 
because  thou  hearkenedst  not  unto  the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  keep  his  commandments 

46  and  his  statutes  which  he  commanded  thee  :  and  they  shall  be  upon  thee  for  a  sign  and  for  a 

47  wonder,  and  upon  thy  seed  for  ever  :  because  thou  servedst  not  the  Lord  thy  God  with  joy- 

48  fulness,  and  with  gladness  of  heart,  by  reason  of  the  abundance  of  all  things  :  therefore  shalt 
thou  serve  thine  enemies  which  the  Lord  shall  send  against  thee,  in  hunger,  and  in  thirst, 
and  in  nakedness,  and  in  want  of  all  things  :  and  he  shall  put  a  yoke  of  iron  upon  thy  neck, 

49  until  he  have  destroyed  thee.  The  Lord  shall  bring  a  nation  against  thee  from  far,  from  the 

50  end  of  the  earth,  as  the  eagle  flieth  ;  a  nation  whose  tongue  thou  shalt  not  understand  ;  a 
nation  of  fierce  countenance,  which  shall  not  regard  the  person  of  the  old,  nor  shew  favour  to 

51  the  young  :  and  he  shall  eat  the  fruit  of  thy  cattle,  and  the  fruit  of  thy  ground,  until  thou  be 
destroyed  :  which  also  shall  not  leave  thee  corn,  wine,  or  oil,  the  increase  of  thy  kine,  or  the 

52  young  of  thy  flock,  until  he  have  caused  thee  to  perish.  And  he  shall  besiege  thee  in  all  thy 
gates,  until  thy  high  and  fenced  walls  come  down,  wherein  thou  trustedst,  throughout  all  thy 
land  :  and  he  shall  besiege  thee  in  all  thy  gates  throughout  all  thy  land,  which  the  Lord  thy 

53  God  hath  given  thee.  And  thou  shalt  eat  the  fruit  of  thine  own  body,  the  flesh  of  thy  sons 
and  of  thy  daughters  which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  given  thee  ;  in  the  siege  and  in  the  strait- 


688 


SECTION  191.  PROPUETIG  CURSES. 


54  ness,  wherewith  thine  enemies  shall  straiten  thee.  The  man  that  is  tender  among  you,  and 
very  delicate,  his  eye  shall  be  evil  toward  his  brother,  and  toward  the  wife  of  his  bosom,  and 

55  toward  the  remnant  of  his  children  which  he  hath  remaining  :  so  that  he  will  not  give  to  any 
of  them  of  the  flesh  of  his  children  whom  he  shall  eat,  because  he  hath  nothing  left  him  ;  in 
the  siege  and  in  the  straitness,  wherewith  thine  enemy  shall  straiten  thee  in  all  thy  gates, 

56  The  tender  and  delicate  woman  among  you,  which  would  not  adventure  to  set  the  sole  of  her 
foot  upon  the  ground  for  delicateness  and  tenderness,  her  eye  shall  be  evil  toward  the  husband 

57  of  her  bosom,  and  toward  her  son,  and  toward  her  daughter  ;  and  toward  her  young  one  that 
cometh  out  from  between  her  feet,  and  toward  her  children  which  she  shall  bear  ;  for  she 
shall  eat  them  for  want  of  all  things  secretly  :  in  the  siege  and  in  the  straitness,  wherewith 

58  thine  enemy  shall  straiten  thee  in  thy  gates.  If  thou  wilt  not  observe  to  do  all  the  words  of 
this  law  that  are  written  in  this  book,  that  thou  mayest  fear  this  glorious  and  fearful  name, 

59  THE  LOED  THY  GOD  ;  then  the  Lord  will  make  thy  plagues  wonderful,  and  the  plagues  of  thy 
seed,  even  great  plagues,  and  of  long  continuance,  and  sore  sicknesses,  and  of  long  continu- 

60  ance  And  he  will  bring  upon  thee  again  all  the  diseases  of  Egypt,  which  thou  wast  afraid  of  ; 

61  and  they  shall  cleave  unto  thee.  Also  every  sickness,  and  every  plague,  which  is  not  written 

62  in  the  book  of  this  law,  them  will  the  Loed  bring  upon  thee,  until  thou  be  destroyed.  And  ye 
shall  be  left  few  in  number,  whereas  ye  were  as  the  stars  of  heaven  for  multitude  ;  because 

63  thou  didst  not  hearken  unto  the  voice  of  the  Loed  thy  God,  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  that 
as  the  Lord  rejoiced  over  you  to  do  you  good,  and  to  multiply  j’ou  ;  so  the  Lord  will  rejoice 
over  you  to  cause  you  to  perish,  and  to  destroy  you  ;  and  ye  shall  be  plucked  from  off  the  land 

64  whither  thou  goest  in  to  possess  it.  And  the  Lord  shall  scatter  thee  among  all  peoples,  from 
the  one  end  of  the  earth  even  unto  the  other  end  of  the  earth  ;  and  there  thou  shalt  serve 

65  other  gods,  which  thou  hast  not  known,  thou  nor  thy  fathers,  even  wood  and  stone.  And 

among  these  nations  shalt  thou  And  no  ease,  and  there  shall  be  no  rest  for  the  sole  of  thy 
foot  :  but  the  Loed  shall  give  thee  there  a  trembling  heart,  and  failing  of  eyes,  and  pining  of 

66  soul  :  and  thy  life  shall  hang  in  doubt  before  thee  ;  and  thou  shalt  fear  night  and  day,  and 

67  shalt  have  none  assurance  of  thy  life  :  in  the  morning  thou  shalt  say,  Would  God  it  were 

even  !  and  at  even  thou  shalt  say,  Would  God  it  were  morning  !  for  the  fear  of  thine  heart 

68  which  thou  shalt  fear,  and  for  the  sight  of  thine  eyes  which  thou  shalt  see.  And  the  Lord 
shall  bring  thee  into  Egypt  again  with  ships,  by  the  way  whereof  I  said  unto  thee.  Thou  shalt 
see  it  no  more  again  ;  and  there  ye  shall  sell  yourselves  unto  your  enemies  for  bondmen  and 
for  bondwomen,  and  no  man  shall  buy  3mu. 

Lev.  40  xind  they  shall  confess  their  iniquity,  and  the  iniquity  of  their  fathers,  in  their 
trespass  which  they  trespassed  against  me,  and  also  that  because  they  have  walked  contrary 

41  unto  me,  I  also  walked  contrary  unto  them,  and  brought  them  into  the  land  of  their  enemies  : 
if  then  their  uncircumcised  heart  be  humbled,  and  they  then  accept  of  the  punishment  of 

42  their  iniquity  ;  then  will  I  remember  my  covenant  with  Jacob  ;  and  also  my  covenant  with 
Isaac,  and  also  my  covenant  with  Abraham  will  I  remember  ;  and  I  will  remember  the  land, 

43  The  land  also  shall  be  left  of  them,  and  shall  enjoy  her  sabbaths,  while  she  lieth  desolate 
without  them  ;  and  they  shall  accept  of  the  punishment  of  their  iniquity  :  because,  even  be- 

44  cause  they  rejected  my  judgements,  and  their  soul  abhorred  my  statutes.  And  yet  for  all  that, 
when  they  be  in  the  land  of  their  enemies,  I  will  not  reject  them,  neither  will  I  abhor  them, 

45  to  destroj’  them  utterlj'^,  and  to  break  my  covenant  with  them  :  for  I  am  the  Lord  their  God  : 
but  I  will  for  their  sakes  remember  the  covenant  of  their  ancestors,  w'hom  I  brought  forth  out 
of  the  land  of  Egypt  in  the  sight  of  the  nations,  that  I  might  be  their  God  :  I  am  the  Lord. 

46  These  are  the  statutes  and  judgements  and  laws,  which  the  Lord  made  between  him  and 
the  children  of  Israel  in  mount  Sinai  b}’^  the  hand  of  Moses. 


Prophetic  Curses  Uttered  at  Sinai. 

Lev.  26  : 14-39. 

Having  enjoined  the  proclamations  of  the 
blessing  and  the  curse  on  their  entering  into 
possession  ‘of  Canaan,  Moses,  for  the  sake  of 
impressing  on  the  minds  of  the  people  both  the 
blessing  and  the  curse,  proceeds  to  dilate  upon 


both,  dwelling  especially  upon  the  latter  as  that 
which  the  people  the  more  needed  to  have 
brought  home  to  them.  As  he  proceeds,  the 
language  of  terrible  denunciation  passes  into 
that  of  no  less  terrible  prediction,  in  which  the 
calamities  that  should  come  upon  the  na'tion 
because  of  their  apostasy  and  rebellion  are 
clearlj'  and  pointedly  foretold.  W.  L.  A. 


PROPHETIC  CURSES. 


689 


The  blessings  tind  the  cnrses  rise  one  above 
the  other  in  regular  gradation  ;  on  the  one  side, 
rain,  abundance,  peace,  deliverance,  victory,  in¬ 
crease  in  numbers,  communion  with  God  ;  now, 
on  the  other  side,  horror,  wasting,  and  the 
burning  fever,  hostile  spoiling  of  the  fields,  de¬ 
feat,  and  causeless  flight  ;  the  heaven  iron,  and 
the  earth  brass,  failure  of  crops  and  fruits  in 
spite  of  labor  spent  upon  them  ;  wild  beasts  for 
the  destruction  of  cattle,  children,  and  men, 
desolation  of  the  highways  ;  the  sword,  pesti¬ 
lence,  and  famine  ;  cannibalism,  overthrow  of 
their  heathen  idols  and  of  God’s  own  house  and 
worship,  destruction  of  their  cities,  utter  deso¬ 
lation  of  their  lands,  and  their  captivity  among 
the  heathen.  And  even  yet  the  full  measure  of 
their  misery  is  not  accomplished,  for  while  the 
land  enjoys  her  Sabbaths,  the  captives,  if  unre¬ 
pentant,  are  to  fall  from  one  misery  to  tCnother, 
till  they  pine  away  and  are  consumed.  Each  of 
these  grades  is  described  as  being  symbolically 
seven  times  worse  —that  is,  incomparably  worse, 
than  that  which  has  gone  before.  Because  these 
plagues  would  come,  and  in  fact  did  come,  upon 
them  as  the  immediate  result  of  physical  or 
moral  causes  that  could  be  traced,  they  are  none 
the  less  the  effect  of  God’s  wrath  upon  his  apos¬ 
tate  people,  F.  M, - The  blessing  and  the 

curse  touched  every  interest  and  relationship 
of  Jewish  life — religion,  home,  societj^  govern¬ 
ment,  The  curse  was  invoked  upon  idolatry, 
undutifulness,  avarice,  oppression,  unchastity, 
insubordination.  It  began  in  the  inner  chamber 
of  the  heart,  and  extended  to  the  outermost 
circle  of  the  social  system,  D,  D, 

The  prophecies  of  Moses  may  be  considered 
as  supplementary  to  those  of  Jacob  and  Balaam  : 
furnishing  a  more  detailed  account  of  the  for¬ 
tunes  of  the  Israelites,  and  afterward  of  the 
Jews.  His  predictions  of  the  corruptions  of  his 
people  after  his  death  ;  of  their  subsequent 
calamities  under  the  judicial  and  regal  States  ; 
of  the  horrors  of  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian, 
and  afterward  of  the  Roman  captivity  ;  are  de¬ 
livered  with  such  plainness  and  precision,  that 
they  seem  rather  to  be  historical  narratives  of 
past  transactions  than  prophecies  of  future.  In 
this  respect  they  differ  from  all  others,  excepting 
those  of  our  Lord  himself  ;  the  predictions  of 
the  rest  being  generally  delivered  in  a  figurative 
and  highly  poetical  style,  very  concise  and  very 

obscure.  Dr.  Hales. - It  is  only  necessary  to 

be  acquainted  with  the  history  of  the  second 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  subsequent 
fortunes  of  the  Jewish  nation,  to  perceive  how 
truly  and  correctly  the  ej’e  of  the  prophet  Moses 
had  penetrated  through  thirty-three  centuries 
44 


of  the  future  history  of  his  people.  For  the  rest, 
what  Hosea  (ch,  3)  beholds  in  spirit,  and  adds 
at  verse  4,  to  complete  the  history  of  the  king¬ 
dom  of  God,  must  be  here  compared.  C,  G.  B. 

The  promises  of  God  are  prophecies  of  good  ; 
so  are  his  threatening  prophecies  of  evil  ;  they 
give  no  countenance  to  fatalism  since  made  to 
depend  upon  conditions.  God  may,  therefore, 
repent  him  of  evils  threatened  when  sinners  re¬ 
pent  of  the  sin  that  provoked  him.  So  long  as 
the  Hebrews  were  faithful  to  their  God  they 
found  him  faithful  in  mercy  ;  when  they  re¬ 
belled  they  found  him  no  less  faithful  in  judg¬ 
ment.  What  a  commentary  upon  the  verses  be¬ 
fore  us  is  the  history  of  the  Israelites  !  J.  A.  M. 

What  an  accumulation  of  penalties  and  curses 
are  we  j)resented  with  here — marking  the  intol¬ 
erance  of  God  for  sin,  and  how  much  it  is  the 
object  of  his  abomination.  It  reminds  one  of 
the  expression,  God  casting  the  fury  of  his 
wrath  and  raining  it  upon  them  (Job  20  : 23)— 
also,  “Upon  the  wicked  he  shall  rain  snares, 
fire  and  brimstoue,  and  an  horrible  tempest” 
(Ps.  11  : 6).  It  is  thus  that  he  who  hateth  in¬ 
iquity  heapeth  all  sorts  of  calamity  on  the  rebel¬ 
lious  Israelites  ;  pestilence  within  their  borders, 
violence  and  invasion  from  without,  diseases  of 
all  kinds  both  on  themselves  and  on  the  fruits 
of  the  earth — fever  and  inflammation  to  the 
former,  blasting  and  mildew  to  the  latter.  The 
very  elements  were  made  to  conspire  against 
them.  Mark  the  strength  of  the  expressions — 
the  heaven  brass,  the  earth  iron.  The  rain  of 
powder  and  dust  indicates  the  extreme  drought, 
in  that  these  were  blown  from  the  highway  on 
the  fields— a  most  severe  visitation  in  a  hot  cli¬ 
mate  ;  and  then  there  w^ere  the  fell  discom¬ 
fitures  which  they  received  at  the  hand  of  their 
enemies,  and  the  appalling  effect  of  these.  How 
fearfully  and  with  what  graphic  truth  of  fulfil¬ 
ment  have  these  threats  been  all  realized  !  The 
curses  are  so  many  predictions  ;  and  this  whole 
chapter  forms  a  most  striking  prophecy,  deliv- 
ered  hundreds  of  years  before  its  final  accom¬ 
plishment.  T.  C. 

The  sublimity  of  his  denunciations  surpasses 
anything  in  the  oratory  or  the  poetry  of  the 
whole  world.  Nature  is  exhausted  in  furnish¬ 
ing  terrific  images  ;  nothing,  except  the  real 
horrors  of  Jewish  history,  the  miseries  of  their 
sieges,  the  cruelty,  the  contempt,  the  oppres¬ 
sions,  the  persecutions,  which  for  ages  this  scat¬ 
tered  and  despised  nation  have  endured,  can 
approach  the  tremendous  maledictions  which 
warned  them  against  the  violation  of  their  law. 
Milman. 

L(.CY,  The  language  is  singularly 


690 


SECTION  191.  PBOPHETIC  CURSES. 


bold  and  striking.  Terror,  consumption,  and 
the  burning  ague  are  personified,  and  made  the 
keepers  of  the  disobedient  and  apostate  Israel¬ 
ites.  They  haunt  their  steps  wherever  they  go, 
and  keep  them  continually  under  the  influence 
of  dismay,  feeling  indiscribable  evils,  and  fear¬ 
ing  worse.  IS,  Then  will  I  punish  you  seven 
ibnes  more  for  your  sins.  A  definite  for  an  in¬ 
definite  number.  The  import  is  plainly  that 
of  a  great  increase  of  their  plagues  by  reason  of 
their  continued  provocations  from  age  to  age, 
as  history  proves  to  have  been  the  case.  Bash. 

25.  He  constantly  declares  by  the  prophets 
that  He  was  the  Leader  of  the  people’s  enemies, 
and  that  the  Assyrians  and  Chaldeans  both 
fought  under  him.  He  calls  the  Assyrian  his 
axe,  and  the  rod  of  his  anger  which  he  wields 
in  his  hand  and  Nebuchadnezzar  his  hired  sol- 
dier.  He  says  that  he  will  call  the  Egyptians 
with  a  hiss,  and  will  arouse  the  Chaldeans  by 
the  sound  of  his  trumpet.  Calv. 

26.  Bread  a^ain  by  weig^ht.  No  Ian 
guage  could  be  more  expressive  of  the  extremi¬ 
ties  to  which  they  should  be  reduced  In  allu¬ 
sion  to  this  it  is  threatened  again  (Ezek,  4  : 16, 
17),  “I  will  break*  the  staff  of  bread  in  Jeru¬ 
salem,  and  they  shall  eat  bread  b}”-  weight,  and 
with  care,  and  they  shall  drink  water  by  meas¬ 
ure,  and  with  astonishment  ;  that  they  may 
want  bread  and  water,  and  be  astonied  one 
with  another,  and  consume  away  for  their  in¬ 
iquity.” 

29.  Ye  §ball  eat  tlie  flesh  of  your 
sons.  This  was  literally  fulfilled  at  the  siege 
•of  Samaria  (2  Kings  6  : 29),  in  the  days  of  Je- 
horam,  and  in  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  under 
Titus.  The  fearful  accomplishment  of  the 
■threatened  punishment  is  thus  bewailed  bj’^ 
-Jeremiah  (Lam.  4  : 10),  “  The  hands  of  the  piti¬ 
ful  women  have  sodden  their  own  children  ; 
they  were  their  meat  in  the  destruction  of  the 
daughter  of  mj’^  people.”  Bush. 

32.  The  land  wonderfully  fulfilled  two  con¬ 
ditions  :  first,  as  a  place  of  training  and  dis¬ 
cipline,  a  land  where  they  might  be  hidden 
away  till  prepared  to  take  their  proper  place 
among  the  nations  ;  second,  as  a  land  where 
they  could  bear  their  witness  to  Jehovah,  when 
his  time  had  come.  As  midway  between  Egypt 
and  Chaldea,  and  adjacent  to  Asia  Minor,  the 
name  of  Jehovah  might  be  made  known  through 
them  to  the  peoples  of  the  East  and  of  the  W est. 
Of  this  land  Jehovah  gave  to  his  people  posses¬ 
sion,  but  not  ownership.  “  The  land  is  mine, 
for  ye  are  pilgrims  and  sojourners  with  me.” 
He  was  the  sole  owner,  and  they  only  tenants 
at  will,  whose  possession  was  conditioned  upon 


the  fulfilment  of  their  covenant  obligations.  If 
faithful  to  him,  he  would  defend  them  from  the 
invasion  of  enemies  ;  their  land  should  not  be 
visited  by  drought  nor  by  devastating  insects  ; 
there  should  not  be  pestilence  or  famine,  but 
the  rain  should  fall  in  its  season  and  the  land 
be  filled  with  plenty.  But  if  unfaithful,  he 
would  visit  them  with  judgments  until  he  had 
brought  the  land  to  desolation,  and  scattered 
the  people  among  the  heathen.  .  .  .  This  re¬ 
lation  of  the  Jews  to  their  land,  through  Je¬ 
hovah,  was  a  most  important  element  in  their 
history.  To  be  thrust  out  of  it  and  scattered 
among  the  nations,  was  the  heaviest  punish¬ 
ment  that  could  be  inflicted  upon  them,  since  it 
was  inflicted  by  their  King,  and  was  the  proof 
to  all  the  world  of  their  rebellion.  Andrews. 

34.  Then  shall  the  land  enjoy  her 
Sabbaths  as  longf  as  it  lieth  desolate. 
This  is  shown  by  Houbigant  to  be  a  historical 
fact.  From  Saul  to  the  Babylonish  captivity 
are  numbered  about  four  hundred  and  ninety 
years,  during  which  period  there  w’ere  of  course 
seventy  Sabbaths  of  years.  Now  the  Babylon¬ 
ish  captivit}’’  lasted  seventy  years,  and  during 
that  time  the  land  of  Israel  rested.  Therefore 
the  land  rested  just  as  many  years  in  the  Baby¬ 
lonish  captivity  as  it  should  have  rested  Sab¬ 
baths,  if  the  Jews  had  observed  the  law  rela¬ 
tive  to  the  Sabbatic  years.  Bush. 

38,  39.  This  is  the  concluding  threat,  It  is 
conditional  in  its  nature,  and  the  condition 
having  been  fulfilled,  it  has  been  accomplished. 
Those  of  the  ten  tribes  who  did  not  find  their 
way  to  Babylon,  and  so  became  absorbed  in  the 
body  which  returned  to  Jerusalem,  have  been 
eafen  up  hy  ihe  land  of  their  enemies,  and  have 
pined  away  in  their  enemies'  lands.  Neither  they 
nor  their  descendants  are  to  be  found  in  any 
part  of  the  globe,  however  much  investigation 
may  employ  itself  in  searching  for  them.  They 
have  been  absorbed  by  the  populations  among 
which  they  were  scattered.  F.  M, 

Pkophetic  Cueses  Bepeated  and  Amplified  on 
THE  Plains  of  Moab. 

Be.  28  : 15-68. 

Moses  here  resumes  and  amplifies  the  threats 
already  set  forth  in  the  earlier  records  of  the 
Law,  The  blessings  are  declared  in  fourteen 
verses  ;  the  curses  require  nearly  four  times  as 
many.  Thus  here  again  the  curse  is  the  more 
conspicuous  feature  in  the  Law.  The  language 
rises  in  this  chapter  to  the  sublimest  strains, 
especially  in  the  latter  part  of  it ;  and  the  proph¬ 
ecies  respecting  the  dispersion  and  degradation 
of  the  Jewish  nation  in  its  later  days  are  among 


LATER  PROPHETIC  CURSES. 


691 


the  most  remarkable  in  Scripture.  They  are 
plain,  precise,  and  circumstantial  ;  and  the  ful¬ 
filment  of  them  has  been  literal,  complete,  and 
undeniable.  Espin. 

B5,  20.  God  seeks  not  occasion  against  us, 
nor  is  he  apt  to  quarrel  with  us.  That  which 
is  here  mentioned  as  bringing  the  curse  is  (1) 
despising  God  ;  refusing  to  hearken  io  his  voice 
(verse  15),  which  speaks  the  highest  contempt 
imaginable,  as  if  what  he  said  were  not  worth 
the  heeding  or  we  were  not  under  any  obligation 
to  him.  (2)  Disobeying  him  ;  not  doing  his  C‘>m- 
mandments  or  not  observing  to  do  them.  None 
fall  under  his  curse  but  those  that  rebel  against 
his  command.  (3)  Deserting  him,  “  It  is  be¬ 
cause  of  the  wickednpss  of  thy  doings,  not  only 
whereby  thou  hast  slighted  me,  but  lohereby  ihoii 
hast  forsaken  me”  (verse  20).  God  never  casts 
us  off  till  we  first  cast  him  off.  It  intimates 
that  their  idolatry,  by  which  they  forsook  the 
true  God  for  false  gods,  would  be  their  destroy¬ 
ing  sin,  more  than  any  other.  H. - These 

threatenings  are  against  evil-doers,  and  while  as 
terrible  as  they  are  just  they  have  no  taint  of 
bitterness.  They  are  never  vindictive.  They 
proceed  from  a  heart  of  infinite  pity— the  heart 
of  “  the  Almighty  Father."  Dr.  J.  P.  T honipson. 

16-19,  As  the  blessing  was  set  forth  in  six 
announcements  (verses  3-6),  the  curse  is  pro¬ 
claimed  in  form  and  number  corresponding. 
The  curse  thus  appears  as  the  exact  counterpart 
of  the  blessing.  The  different  forms  in  which 
the  threatened  curse  should  break  forth  are 
then  detailed  (verses  20-68).  W.  L.  A. 

The  equity  of  these  curses.  (1)  Disobedience 
under  such  circumstances  of  privilege  was  em¬ 
inently  base  and  blameworthy.  Disloyalty  had  no 
excuse.  To  refuse  to  hearken  was  sheer  ob¬ 
stinacy  which  could  plead  no  extenuation.  (2) 
It  was  perjury.  They  bad  sworn  to  be  loyal  sub¬ 
jects.  They  had  acknowledged  the  just  terms 
of  the  covenant,  and  had  entered  Canaan  on  the 
terms  of  pledged  obedience,  (3)  It  was  rebellion 
against  their  accepted.  King.  If  such  flagrant  re¬ 
bellion  escaped  with  impunit}^  God  would  be 
dishonored  in  the  eyes  of  the  universe.  (4)  The 
curses  were  their  own  choice.  They  knew  clearly 
what  the  fruits  of  disobedience  were.  They  had 
seen  the  fruits  in  others’  fate — in  the  Egyptians, 
in  their  brethren,  in  the  Canaanites.  If  they 
should  choose  other  gods  they  should  be  led 
into  captivity,  and  there  they  should  “  serve  other 
gods,  wood  and  stone.”  (5)  The  curses  were  the 
na'ural  evolution  of  their  crimes.  Sin  is  the  seed 
of  which  penalty  is  the  fruit.  If  they  forsook 
God,  God  would  forsake  them.  What  could  be 
more  equitable  ?  Men  say,  “  Depart  from  me  ; 


I  desire  not  the  knowledge  of  thy  waj^s.”  God 
says,  “  Depart  from  me  ;  I  never  knew  you.” 
D.  D. 

25,  26,  Utter  defeat  in  battle  (the  opposite 
of  the  blessing  promised,  verse  7)  and  disper¬ 
sion  among  the  nations  are  threatened,  with  the 
utmost  indignity  to  those  who  were  slain,  in 
their  bodies  being  left  unburied  to  be  devoured 
bj'’  birds  of  pre}^  and  wild  beasts  (cf.  1  Kings 
14  :  11).  Shalt  be  removed  into  all  the  king¬ 
doms  of  the  earth  ;  literally,  nhalt  be  a  tossing  to 
and  fro  to  all  the  kingdoms,  etc.  ;  “  a  ball  for  all 
the  kingdoms  to  play  with.” 

28,  29.  Besides  bodily  ailments,  mental  dis¬ 
eases  should  come  upon  them — insanity,  inca¬ 
pacity,  confusion  of  mind,  so  that  even  at  mid¬ 
day  they  should  grope  as  a  blind  man  gropes — • 
i.e.,  under  the  most  favorable  circumstances 
they  should  be  unable  to  find  the  right  path,  to 
hit  on  the  right  and  safe  course.  It  is  of  men¬ 
tal  blindness  that  the  word  is  here  used.  W.  L.  A. 
- They  should  be  infatuated  in  all  their  coun¬ 
sels,  so  as  not  to  discern  their  own  interest,  nor 
bring  anything  to  pass  for  the  public  good.  The 
Lord  shall  S'liite  thee  with  midness  and  blindness. 
Note,  God’s  judgments  can  reach  the  minds  of 
men,  to  fill  them  with  darkness  and  horror,  as 
well  as  their  bodies  and  estates  ;  and  those  are 
the  sorest  of  all  judgments  which  make  men  a 
terror  to  themselves,  and  their  own  destroy¬ 
ers.  H. 

J50-34.  The  spoliation  of  them  should  be 
utter.  All  most  dear  and  precious  to  them 
should  be  the  prey  of  their  enemies.  Wife, 
house,  vineyard,  herd,  and  flock  should  be  ruth¬ 
lessly  taken  from  them  ;  sons  and  daughters 
should  be  carried  into  captivity,  and  their  eyes 
should  look  for  them  in  vain,  with  constant  and 
wasting  longing.  W.  L.  A. 

32-48.  Lev.  26  :  23-39.  These  passages 
are  remarkably  descriptive  of  the  captivities  of 
the  ten  tribes  carried  away  by  the  Assyrians, 
and  transplanted  into  the  remotest  parts  of  the 
empire,  and  of  the  two  remaining  tribes  of 
Judah  and  Benjamin,  by  the  Babylonians.  Their 
true  meaning  is  determined  by  the  Prophet  Jer¬ 
emiah  in  the  following  summary  :  “  Lo,  I  bring 
a  nation  upon  you  fi'omfar,  O  house  of  Israel, 
saith  the  Lord  :  it  is  a  mighty  nation,  it  is  an 
ancient  nation,  a  nation  whose  language  thou 
knowest  not,  neither  understandest  what  they 
say.  Their  quiver  is  an  open  sepulchre,  they 
are  all  mighty  men.  And  they  shall  eat  up 
thine  harvest.”  The  remoteness  of  the  Baby¬ 
lonians  is  noticed  (Is.  5  ;  26),  and  the  antiquity 
of  “the  land  of  Nimrod”  (Mic.  5:6).  The 
Syriac  language  was  not  understood  by  the  Jews 


SECTION  191.  PROPHEITC  CURSES. 


C9^ 


(2  Kings  18  :  26),  and  their  arms  were  chiefly 
bows  and  arrows  (Jer.  6  :  23).  Hales. 

T9iobi  §lialt  l>e  only  oppressed 
mid  eruslied  alway.  They  should  not  be 
quite  rooted  out  and  destroyed,  as  the  Amale- 
kitesand  Canaanites  were,  of  whom  no  footsteps 
now  remain  ;  but  be  scattered  and  tossed  about 
through  other  nations,  remaining  still  as  a  testi¬ 
mony  to  the  truth  of  God’s  revealed  religion  ; 
and  there  only  oppressed,  crushed,  and  en¬ 
slaved,  Pifle. 

^6.  Tlie  l^ord  sliall  bring  tlice,  and 
tliy  iiing.  This  was  fulfilled  literally,  whenJe- 
hoiachin  was  carried  captive  to  Babylon  (2 
Kings  24  : 15),  and  afterward  Zedekiah  (25  :  7  ; 
Jer.  39  :  7  ;  52  :  11),  Bp.  Patrick. - It  is  a  cir¬ 

cumstance  which  must  strike  every  unpreju¬ 
diced  person,  that  this  prophetic  threat  was  de¬ 
livered  at  a  time  when  the  Jews  had  not  a  king, 
nor  were  yet  constituted  as  a  nation.  Bryant. 

37.  The  Hebrew  people  have  survived  their 
metropolis,  their  kingdom,  and  their  code  ;  and 
a  terrible  interval  of  more  than  fifteen  centuries 
of  merciless  persecutions,  of  heroic  struggles,  of 
blasting  calumnies,  of  martyrdoms,  and  of  ex¬ 
pulsions,  constitute  the  modern  history  of  the 
Hebrews.  Exiles  even  in  their  birthplace  ; 
struck  out  of  the  number  of  nations,  yet  still  a 
nation  ;  the  chosen  of  God,  and  the  persecuted 
of  man  ;  looked  on  as  sacred,  and  held  as  con¬ 
temptible.  Stigmatized  or  proscribed,  their 
very  name  has  entailed  on  them  a  proverbial 
odium,  and  they  are  still  enduring  the  anathema 
of  their  immortal  legislator  ;  “  Thou  shalt  be¬ 
come  an  astonishment,  a  proverb,  and  a  by- word 
among  all  the  peoples  whither  the  Lord  shall 
lead  tliee  away.’  ’  D'  Israeli. 

4B.  TllOii  §]i<ilt  beget  $oll§.  The  ca¬ 
lamity  here  threatened  was  threatened  also  in 
many  places  of  the  prophets,  and  fulfilled  in 
several  invasions  of  their  neighbors  :  for  the 
Syrians,  no  doubt,  carried  captive  more  than 
one  “  little  maid,”  like  her  who  waited  on  Naa- 
man’s  wife  (2  Kings  5  :  2),  and  in  other  in¬ 
roads  upon  them,  till  the  captivity  of  the  whole 
land  ;  we  may^  be  confident  that  this  was  a  fre¬ 
quent  calamity  (2  Kings  14  : 26  ;  15  : 37).  Bp. 
Patrick. 

4f>,  50,  The  description  here  given  of  the 
enemy  to  whom  Israel  was  to  be  subjected,  ap¬ 
plies  more  or  leas  closely  to  all  the  nations 
whom  God  I’aised  up  from  time  to  time,  to  in¬ 
vade  Israel  and  chastise  the  people  for  their  re¬ 
bellion— the  Chaldeans  (cf,  Jer.  48  : 40  ;  49  : 22  ; 
Ezek.  17  :  5-7  ;  Hab.  1  : 6),  the  Assyrians  (cf.  Is. 
5  : 26  ;  38  : 11),  the  Medes  (Is.  13  : 17,  18)  ;  but 
there  are  features  in  the  description  which  ap¬ 


ply  especially  to  the  Romans  ;  and  the  horrors 
delineated  in  the  latter  part  of  the  section 
(verses  52-57)  carry  one’s  thoughts  immediately 
to  the  terrible  scenes  which  transpired  during 
the  wars  of  Vespasian  and  Titus  with  the  Jews 
as  narrated  by  Josephus.  W,  L.  A. 

The  minute  and  circumstantial  prophecy  con¬ 
tained  from  the  forty-ninth  to  the  sixty-eighth 
verse  was  exactly  fulfilled  in  all  its  branches  by 
the  Roman  captivity,  and  is  still  fulfilling  at 
this  very  day.  Its  accomplishment  indeed  is 
for  “  a  sign”  of  their  rebellion  against  God,  and 
for  “a  wonder”  of  their  preservation  amid  all 
those  dreadful  calamities  which  they  have  suf¬ 
fered  for  so  many  hundred  years.  Hales. - If 

we  consider  what  providential  reasons  may  be 
assigned  for  the  present  condition  of  the  Jews, 
we  shall  find  that  their  numbers,  dispersion, 
and  adherence  to  their  religion  have  furnished 
every  age  and  every  nation  of  the  world  with 
the  strongest  arguments  for  the  Christian  faith  ; 
not  only  as  these  very  particulars  are  foretold 
of  them,  but  as  they  themselves  are  the  deposi¬ 
tories  of  these  and  all  the  other  prophecies, 
which  tend  to  their  own  confusion.  Their 
number  furnishes  us  with  a  suflScient  cloud  of 
witnesses  that  attest  the  truth  of  the  Old  Testa¬ 
ment.  Their  dispersion  spreads  these  witnesses 
through  all  parts  of  the  world.  The  adherence 
to  their  religion  makes  their  testimony  unques¬ 
tionable.  Addison. 

49,  50.  A  nation  from  far —namely,  the  Ro¬ 
mans,  as  swift  as  the  eagle,  hastening  to  the 
prey  ;  our  Saviour  makes  use  of  this  similitude, 
in  foretelling  this  destruction,  that  where  the 
carcase  is,  there  will  the  eagles  be  gathered  together 
(Matt.  24  : 28).  And  Bishop  Patrick  observes 
(to  make  the  accomplishment  the  more  remark¬ 
able)  that  the  ensign  of  the  Roman  armies  was 
an  eagle.  This  nation  is  said  to  be  of  a  fierce 
countenance,  an  indication  -of  a  fierce  nature, 
stern  and  severe,  that  would  not  pity  the  weak¬ 
ness  and  infirmity  either  of  little  children  or  of 

old  people.  H. - The  Romans  are  here  de 

scribed  with  the  most  characteristic  precision, 
above  eight  hundred  years  before  their  exist¬ 
ence  as  a  nation.  First,  by  their  couidry ; 
“  far”  to  the  westward  of  Palestine  ;  from  “  the 
end  of  the  earth,”  or  shores  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  ;  and  it  is  remarkable  that  the  armies  of 
Titus  and  Adrian  were  principally  composed  of 
Gauls,  Britons,  and  Spaniards.  (Vespasian  and 
Adrian,  the  two  great  conquerors  and  destroy¬ 
ers  of  the  Jews,  both  came  from  commanding 
here  in  Britain.  Bp.  Newton.)  (2)  By  the  rapid- 
ity  of  their  marches,  “  swift  as  the  eagle  flieth 
and  their  ensigns  too  were  eagles,  expressive 


LATER  PROPHETIC  CURSES. 


693 


thereof.  (3)  By  their  language,  Latin,  which 
was  not  understood  by  the  Jews,  though  Greek 
was,  from  the  time  of  Alexander’s  conquests  in 
Asia.  (4)  By  their  “  fierce  countenance,”  for 
which  the  Romans  were  distinguished  from  the 
early  periods  of  their  republic.  And  (5)  By 
their  ferocity,  or  merciless  disposition  in  war. 

Of  fierce  eoiiiiteiiaiiee.  How  singu¬ 
larly  applicable  this  characteristic  was  of  the 
Romans,  may  appear  from  the  following  in¬ 
stance  out  of  manv.  In  a  war  which  broke  oat 
between  the  Romans  and  Samnites  (year  of 
Rome  412),  the  latter  attributed  their  defeat 
after  a  long  and  obstinate  engagement  to  the 
fierce  looks  of  the  Romans.  They  said  that 

the  eyes  of  the  Romans  seemed  to  be  on  fire, 
their  countenances  were  wild,  and  their  looks 
furious  ;  and  that  this  excited  more  terror  in 
them  than  anything  else.” 

5  D .  Josephus,  whose  “  Jewish  war”  is  the  best 
commentary  on  this  prophecy,  relates  the  dev¬ 
astation  of  the  country  by  the  Romans,  that 
“  in  their  rage  they  ceased  not  day  nor  night 
from  ravaging  the  lands,  plundering  the  goods, 
slaying  all  that  were  of  military  age,  and  taking 
the  weaker  captives.”  He  relates  the  sieges  of 
the  princijial  towns  taken  by  the  Romans,  Jota- 
pata,  Gadara,  Joppa,  Tiberias,  Tarichea,  and 
Gadala  ;  at  which  last  town  in  particular,  after 
a  Hng  and  obstinate  defence,  “  above  five  thou¬ 
sand  persons  precipitated  themselves  from  the 
walls  into  a  deep  valley  beneath  ;  and  the  Ro¬ 
mans  spared  not  even  the  infants,  but  slung 
them  in  numbers  from  the  citadel.”  Hales. 

- When  Vespasian  entered  Gadara,  Josephus 

says,  that  “  he  slew  all,  man  by  man,  the  Ro¬ 
mans  showing  mercy  to  no  age.”  Such  had 
been  the  Chaldeans,  as  the  sacred  history  re¬ 
lates  expressly  (2  Ch.  36  : 17). 

52.  And  lie  shall  hesiese  thee.  The 
Romans  demolished  several  fortified  places  be¬ 
fore  they  besieged  and  destroyed  Jerusalem. 
And  the  Jews  may  very  well  be  said  to  have 
”  trusted  in  their  high  and  fenced  walls,”  for 
they  seldom  ventured  a  battle  in  the  open  field. 
Jerusalem  was  a  very  strong  place,  and  wonder- 
fally  fortified  both  by  nature  and  by  art,  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  description  of  Tacitus,  as  well  as  of 
Josephus.  Bp.  Newton. 

For  a  minute  recital  of  the  fulfilment  of  these 
remarkable  predictions,  read  pages  647-650  of 
New  Testament,  Vol.  I.  B. 

57.  Lev.  26  :  29.  This  prediction  was  ful¬ 
filled  about  six  hundred  years  after,  when  Sa¬ 
maria  was  besieged  by  the  King  of  Syria  (2  Kings 
6  : 28,  29),  It  was  fulfilled  again  about  nine 
hundred  years  after  in  the  siege  of  Jerusalem 


before  the  Babylonish  captivity  (Jer.  4  ;  10  ; 
Bar,  2  : 1).  Again  it  was  fulfilled  about  fifteen 
hundred  years  after  in  the  last  siege  of  Jeru¬ 
salem  by  Titus.  At  so  many  different  times 
and  distant  periods  hath  this  prophecy  been 
fulfilled  :  and  one  would  have  thought  that  such 
distress  and  horror  had  almost  transcended  im¬ 
agination,  and  much  less  that  any  person  could 
certainly  have  foreseen  and  foretold  it.  Bp. 
Newton. 

5S-68.  Even  these  fearful  calamities  would 
not  be  the  consummation  of  their  punishment. 
If  they  should  be  obstinate  in  their  rebellion  ; 
if  they  would  not  observe  to  do  all  that  the  Law 
delivered  by  Moses  enjoined  on  them  ;  if  they 
ceased  to  reverence  and  obey  Jehovah,  their 
God — then  should  come  upon  them  the  curse 
in  full  measure,  and  long-continued  chastise¬ 
ment  should  show  how  grievous  had  been  their 
sin. 

58.  This  booM,  Not  the  Book  of  Deuter¬ 
onomy,  which  was  not  then  written,  but  the 
Book  of  the  Law,  the  Torah,  delivered  by  Moses 
to  Israel  from  God  ;  and  of  which  he  had  been, 
in  his  addresses  to  the  people,  recapitulating 
some  of  the  principal  points  (cf.  verses  60,  61). 
W.  L.  A. 

If  the  fulfilment  of  these  predictions  teaches 
anything,  it  is  that  God  will  not  shrink  from  the 
punishment  of  sin.  We  shudder  as  we  read  the 
details  of  these  curses — “  plagues  wonderful, 
.  .  .  great  plagues,  and  of  long  continuance, 
and  sore  sicknesses,  and  of  long  continuance” 
(verse  59),  and  ask  ourselves.  Can  God  really 
tolerate  the  sight  of,  not  to  say  inflict,  such  in¬ 
credible  suft’erings?  Yet  we  find  that  not  one 
of  these  curses  failed  of  its  accomplishment. 
So  solemn  a  fact  bids  the  sinner  pause  and  pon¬ 
der  his  chance  of  escaping  in  the  great  “  day  of 
wrath,  and  revelation  of  the  righteous  judgment 
of  God.”  Orr. 

62.  And  ye  §1ian  be  left  few  in 
number.  Josephus  reckons  that  eleven  hun¬ 
dred  thousand  souls  perished  during  the  siege 
of  Jerusalem  by  the  sword,  pestilence,  or  fam¬ 
ine,  beside  ninet^’-seven  thousand  whom  they 
took  captives.  The  greater  part  of  these  were 
of  the  same  nation,  but  not  of  the  same  coun¬ 
try.  For  they  had  assembled  from  all  parts  to 
celebrate  the  feast  of  the  passover,  and  w'ere 
suddenly  surrounded  by  the  Romans  ;  and  the 
whole  of  this  vast  multitude,  composing  the 
w^hole  nation,  shut  up  as  it  were  in  an  enclosure 
by  destiny.  In  the  ensuing  rebellion,  excited 
by  the  impostor  Barchocab,  signifying  “  son  of 
the  star,”  or  Christ,  so  denominated  in  Ba¬ 
laam’s  prophecies,  Julius  Severus,  the  general 


694 


SECTION  191.  PROPIIETIG  CURSES. 


of  Adrian,  according  to  Dio,  destroyed  five  liun- 
dred  and  eighty  thousand  Jews  in  the  public 
combats,  beside  an  innumerable  multitude 
which  perished  by  famine,  misery,  and  fire  :  so 
that  very  tew  of  them  escaped  this  war  ;  in 
which  were  plundered  and  burned  fifty  fortified 
castles  and  nine  hundred  and  eighty -five  towns, 
fiourishing  and  populous  ;  and  so  general  was 
.the  massacre  of  the  inhabitants,  that  all  Judea 
was  in  some  measure  left  desolate,  and  con¬ 
verted  into  a  desert.  Hales. 

63.  That  is  a  terrible  word.  As  the  Lord  re¬ 
joiced  over  you  to-  do  you  good,  so  he  will  rejoice 
over  you  to  destroy  you.  Behold  here,  the  goodness 
and  severity  of  God  :  mercy  here  shines  bright  in 
the  pleasure  God  takes  in  doing  good,  yet  jus¬ 
tice  here  appears  no  less  illustrious  in  the  pleas¬ 
ure  he  takes  in  destroying  the  impenitent  ;  not 
as  it  is  the  making  of  his  creatures  miserable, 
but  as  it  is  the  asserting  of  his  own  honor  and 
the  securing  of  the  ends  of  his  government.  See 
what  a  malignant  mischievous  thing  sirr  is, 
which  makes  it  necessary  for  the  God  of  infinite 
goodness  to  rejoice  in  the  destruction  of  his 
own  creatures,  even  those  that  had  been  favor¬ 
ites,  H. 

Ye  shall  be  plucked  from  cff  tlie 

land.  They  were  so  when  the  ten  tribes  were 
carried  captive  into  Assyria  ;  and  when  the  two 
other  tribes  were  carried  captive  to  Babylon, 
They  were  so  again  when  “  the  Bomans  took 
away  their  place  and  nation.”  Afterward,  when 
the  Emperor  Adrian  had  subdued  the  rebellious 
Jews,  he  published  an  edict  forbidding  them 
upon  pain  of  death  to  set  foot  in  Jerusalem  or 
even  to  approach  the  country  round  about  it. 
From  that  time  to  this  their  country  hath  been 
in  the  possession  of  foreign  masters,  few  of  the 
Jews  dwelling  in  it  and  those  only  of  a  low  ser¬ 
vile  condition.  In  the  twelfth  century  Jerusa¬ 
lem  was  almost  entirely  abandoned  by  the  Jews, 
not  above  two  hundred  living  there  who  were 
for  the  most  part  dyers  of  wool.  The  rest  of 
the  holy  land  was  still  more  depopulated, 
bandys  says,  “  It  is  for  the  most  i)art  now  in¬ 
habited  by  Moors  and  Arabians  ;  those  possess¬ 
ing  the  valleys,  and  these  the  mountains. 
Turks  there  be  few  :  but  many  Greeks  with 
other  Christians  of  all  sects  and  nations,  such 
as  impute  to  the  place  an  adherent  holiness. 
Here  be  also  some  Jews  ;  yet  inherit  they  no 
part  of  the  land,  but  in  their  own  country  do 
live  as  aliens.”  Bp.  Newlon. 

61.  And  llie  Yord  §liall  scatter  tbee 
aiiieiBg'  alS  people.  This  gives  the  last 
stroke  to  the  picture.  1  will  scatter  you  among 
the  nations  (Lev.  26  :  33).  While  their  land  lies 


w^aste  and  their  cities  in  ruins,  they  themselves 
are  dispersed  among  the  nations  and  the  sword 
unsheathed  against  them.  More  than  once  has 
this  description  been  realized  in  the  history  of 
this  people.  They  were  carried  away  into  cap¬ 
tivity  in  part  by  Tiglath-pileser  (2  Kings  15  :  29), 
by  Shalmaneser  (2  Kings  18  : 29),  and  by  Neb¬ 
uchadnezzar  on  three  several  occasions.  Re¬ 
turning  after  seventy  years  of  captivit}^  they  re¬ 
mained  in  their  own  country  with  various  for¬ 
tune  until  the  siege  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus,  which 
terminated  in  the  raising  of  the  walls  and  the 
burning  of  the  temple.  For  eighteen  centuries 
from  that  event  they  have  been  without  a  coun- 
tr3%  and  are  at  this  day  scattered  among  the  na¬ 
tions.  The  prophetic  picture,  melancholy 
though  it  is,  has  been  fully  borne  out  by  the 

reality.  M. - Nehemiah  confesseth  that  these 

words  were  fulfilled  in  the  Babylonish  captivity 
(1  : 8,  9),  but  they  have  more  amply  been  ful¬ 
filled  since  the  great  dispersion  of  the  Jews  by 
the  Romans.  What  people  indeed  have  been 
scattered  so  far  and  wide  as  they  ?  and  where 
is  the  nation  which  is  a  stranger  to  them  or  to 
which  they  are  strangers  ?  They  swarm  in  many 
parts  of  the  East,  are  spread  through  most  of 
the  countries  of  Europe  and  Africa,  and  there 
are  several  families  of  them  in  the  West  Indies. 
They  circulate  through  all  parts  where  trade 
and  money  circulate  ;  and  are,  as  I  may  say, 
the  brokers  of  the  world.  Bp.  Newton. 

65-67.  And  among^  tlie§e  nations 
slialt  tliou  find  no  ease.  Since  their  ex¬ 
pulsion  from  their  native  territory,  the  Jews 
have  wandered  over  every  portion  of  the  globe, 
without  national  possessions,  an  acknowledged 
constitution,  or  independent  laws.  Though 
generally  submissive  to  the  laws  and  strangers 
to  political  intrigue,  they  have  frequently  been 
exposed  to  persecution  and  plunder,  even  with 
the  connivance  of  governments,  which  in  all 
other  instances  have  guarded  as  sacred  the  prop¬ 
erty  of  individuals.  Though  abundantly  pos¬ 
sessed  of  riches,  which  usually  command  the 
respect  of  mankind  and  ennoble  even  ignorance 
and  folly,  they  have  been  generally  treated  with 
contempt  by  the  powerful,  and  sometimes  even 
followed  with  insult  by  the  populace.  They 
have  been  driven  from  city  to  city,  from  coun¬ 
try  to  country.  Richards. 

67.  Would  Ciiod  it  were  evcEn!  For 
each  of  us,  if  we  do  fail  of  the  grace  of  God, 
there  is  reserved  a  misery  of  which  indeed  the 
words  of  the  text  are  no  more  than  a  feeble 
picture.  There  is  a  state  in  which  they  who 
are  condemned  to  it  shall  forever  say  in  the 
morning.  Would  God  it  were  even  !  and  at  ’even, 


FA  von  RESTORED  UPON  REPENTANCE, 


695 


"Wonkl  God  it  were  morning  !  for  the  fear  of 
their  heart  wherewith  they  shall  fear,  and  the 
sight  of  their  ej’es  which  they  shall  see.  Arnold. 

Briii^  llice  into  Egypt.  Of  the  cap¬ 
tives  taken  at  the  siege  of  Jerusalem,  above  sev¬ 
enteen  years  of  age,  some  were  sent  to  Egypt  in 
chains  to  work  in  the  mines,  the  greater  part 
were  distributed  through  the  provinces  to  be 
destroyed  in  the  theatres  by  the  sword  and  by 
wild  beasts :  the  rest  under  seventeen  were 
sold  for  slaves  ;  and  that  for  a  trifling  sum,  on 
account  of  the  numbers  to  be  sold  and  the 
scarcitj’^  of  buyers.  So  that  at  length  the  proph¬ 
ecy  of  Moses  was  fulfilled,  “and  no  man  shall 

buy,”  Hales. - It  is  related  both  by  Aristeas 

and  Josephus,  that  in  the  time  of  Ptolemy  Phil- 
adelphus  there  were  vast  numbers  of  Hebrew 
slaves  in  Egypt,  and  that  the  king  himself 
bought  above  one  hundred  thousand  of  them 
from  their  masters  and  set  them  free.  Egypt, 
indeed,  was  the  great  slave-mart  of  ancient 
times  ;  and  several  of  the  conquerors  and  op¬ 
pressors  of  the  Jews  sent  at  least  a  portion  of 
their  captives  thither  to  be  sold.  Titus  had 
ninety  thousand  captives  after  Jerusalem  was 
taken.  Those  above  seventeen  years  of  age 
were  sent  to  different  parts  of  the  Eoman  Em¬ 
pire  to  labor  on  the  public  works,  besides  great 
numbers  who  perished  in  compulsory  combats 
with  wild  beasts.  Those  under  seventeen  were 
doomed  to  be  sold  for  slaves  ;  but  in  such  deep 
contempt  and  detestation  was  the  nation  held, 
that  few  were  willing  to  buy  them  ;  and  the 
Jews  who  remained  at  large  were  too  few  and 
poor  to  be  able  to  redeem  their  brethren.  The 
market  was  also  glutted  with  their  numbers,  so 
that  they  were  sold  at  a  mere  nominal  price — 
sometimes  thirty  for  a  small  piece  of  money. 
Those  who  remained  unpurchased  were  sent 
into  confinement,  where  they  perished  by  hun¬ 
dreds  and  by  thousands  together,  from  neglect 
and  hunger.  Egypt  received  a  large  proportion 
of  these  slaves,  who  were  probably  sent  thither 
in  ships,  as  the  Komans  had  a  fleet  in  the  Medi¬ 
terranean,  and  this  was  a  much  easier  and  safer 
way  of  transporting  them  than  by  land  across 
the  desert.  The  same  things  precisely  took 
place  on  the  final  desolation  of  Israel  by  Ha¬ 
drian,  who  may  be  said  to  have  consummated 
their  doom  by  decreeing,  with  the  concurrence 
of  the  Eoman  Senate,  that  no  Jew  should  ever, 
on  pain  of  death,  enter  the  land  of  his  fathers. 
Kit. 

The  dispersion  of  the  Jews  into  all  countries 
from  the  rising  to  the  setting  sun,  and  “  the 
very  long  continuance  of  their  plagues”  or  suf¬ 
ferings  in  this  captivity,  intimated  in  the  repe¬ 


tition  (verse  59),  and  now  subsisting  upward  of 
seventeen  hundred  years,  during  which  they 
have  still  been  preserved  a  distinct  people, 
though  everywhere  despised  and  persecuted, 
exhibits  a  standing  miracle  and  fulfilment  of 
prophecy  the  most  extraordinary  and  convinc¬ 
ing.  Dr.  Hales. 

PnoMisES  OF  Eestoked  Favor  upon  Eepentance. 

Lev.  26  : 40-45. 

Confession  of  sin,  recognition  of  God’s  provi¬ 
dence  in  all  that  had  happened  to  them,  humil¬ 
ity,  and  acquiescence  in  their  punishment, 
would  restore  them  to  their  forfeited  covenant 
relation.  Then  God  would  “  not  abhor  them  to 
destroy  them  utterly,"  but  would  ^'remember  the 
covenant  of  their  fathers."  Thus  it  was  that  God 
brought  them  back  after  the  Babylonish  captiv¬ 
ity.  F.  M. - The  history  of  the  nation  con¬ 

firms  the  truth  of  these  promises  no  less  clearly 
than  it  does  of  the  threatenings  recorded  above. 
Never  did  Israel  repent  and  seek  the  face  of 
their  God  in  vain.  Whenever  they  returned  to 
him  in  penitence  and  prayer,  putting  away  their 
idols  and  renewing  their  obedience,  he  returned 
also  to  them  in  the  various  tokens  of  his  mercy, 
delivering  them  from  their  enemies,  restoring  to 
them  the  years  which  the  canker-worm  had 
eaten,  and  blessing  them  with  peace  and  plenty. 
A  most  striking  specimen  of  the  humble  con¬ 
fession  and  fervent  prayer  here  alluded  to  is  to 
be  found  in  the  ninth  cha23ters  respectively  of 
Daniel,  of  Ezra,  and  in  the  first  of  Nehemiah. 
We  there  see  which  kind  of  humiliation  is  ac¬ 
ceptable  before  God,  and  what  gracious  expres¬ 
sions  of  kindness  it  meets  with.  Bush. 

40.  The  forgiveness  of  God  is  dependent  on 
the  fulfilment  of  declared  conditions.  “  If  they 
shall  confess  “  if  their  uncircumcised  heart 
be  humbled.”  Spirituality  of  religion  was 
maintained  from  the  beginning.  The  purpose 
and  end  of  all  Divine  chastisements  is  to  pro¬ 
duce  an  acceptable  state  of  heart.  The  true 
penitence  was  the  true  circumcision,  in  other 
words,  it  was  a  renewal  of  the  covenant,  there¬ 
fore  included  faith  and  acceptance  of  the  Divine 
revelation  and  ordinances.  Eepentance  and 
faith  are  one  in  the  higher  light  of  the  Gospel, 
for  they  are  both  “  toward  "  the  covenant  in 
Christ  Jesus.  E.  A.  E, 

43.  Beeaisse,  even  because  they 
despised  my  judgments.  The  particle  is 
here  doubled,  to  give  intensity  to  the  alleged 
reason  of  their  calamities,  and  to  intimate  that 
it  was  nothing  else  than  their  deliberate  rejection 
of  the  Divine  laws  which  had  procured  them. 
Bush. 


69(5  SECTION  191.  PROMISED  RESTORATION  UPON  REPENTANCE. 


44.  It  shows  that  the  relation  of  the  Lord  to 
his  people  is  one  which  does  not  cease  even 
through  that  people’s  apostasy.  Even  in  his 
punishment,  which  never  entirely  destroys  the 
hope  of  the  people  being  received  back  again, 
the  liord  shows  himself  as  the  covenant  God  of 

Israel.  Geri. - 1  wiBI  not  cast  tBiCiii 

away.  Here  the  restoration  of  the  Jews  to 
their  own  country  is  predicted  at  the  destined 
end  of  their  captivit}^  ;  which  prediction  is  more 

fully  expressed  at  De.  30  rl.  JIaks. - Though 

God  has  literally  fulfilled  all  his  threatenings 
upon  this  people,  in  dispossessing  them  of  their 
land,  destroying  their  polity,  overturning  their 
city,  demolishing  their  temple,  and  scattering^ 
themselves  over  the  face  of  the  whole  earth  ; 
yet  he  has  in  his  providence  strangely  preserved 
them  as  a  distinct  people  and  in  very  consider¬ 
able  numbers  also  !  He  still  remembers  the 
covenant  of  their  ancestors,  and  in  his  providence 
and  grace  he  has  some  very  important  design  in 
their  favor.  All  Israel  shall  yet  be  saved  :  and 
with  the  Gentiles  they  shall  all  be  restored  to 
his  favor,  and  under  Christ  Jesus,  the  great 
Shepherd,  become  with  them  one  grand  ever¬ 
lasting  fold  !  A.  C. 

In  these  chapters  the  prophet  looks  forward 
and  declares  how  God  would  deal  with  his  peo¬ 
ple  ;  which  should  be  according  to  the  way  in 
which  they  should  act.  In  2  Ch.  36  : 14-21,  the 
chronicler  looks  back,  and  shows  how  God  had 
dealt  with  them  ;  which  had  been  according  to 
the  way  in  which  they  had  acted.  In  spite  of 
the  rough,  wdld  times  of  the  judges,  and  of  the 
apostasy  of  Saul,  the  heart  of  the  nation  was  on 
the  whole  loyal  to  Jehovah  till  the  end  of  the 
days  of  Solomon.  And  till  that  time  there  was 
an  upward  growth  in  the  flourishing  estate  of 
the  people — their  wealth,  their  power,  their 
prosperity,  their  happiness.  In  the  latter  days 
of  Solomon,  outwardly  glorious  as  they  were, 
decay  and  corruption  began.  King  and  people 
were  alike  affected  by  the  splendid  despotism 
which  one  wielded  and  under  which  the  other 
flourished  in  material  prosperity.  In  that  pros¬ 
perity  they  forgot  the  source  of  it.  The  king 
himself  pushed  his  tolerance  for  foreign  habits 
into  idolatry,  “  His  wives  turned  away  his  heart 
after  other  gods  :  and  his  heart  was  not  perfect 
with  the  Lord  his  God,  as  was  the  heart  of 
David  his  father.  And  the  Lord  was  angry  with 
Solomon,  because  his  heart  was  turned  from  the 
Lord  God  of  Israel”  (1  Kings  11  :4-9).  Like 
prince,  like  people  ;  a  general  relaxation  of 
moral  fibre  and  religious  zeal  ensued  through¬ 
out  the  kingdom.  Its  culminating  point  had 
been  reached,  and  now  there  followed  the  rapid 


I  descent  and  fall  which  resulted  from  disobedi- 
1  ence.  The  first  step  to  ruin  was  the  great 

I  schism,  from  the  effects  of  which  neither  the 
northern  nor  the  southern  kingdom  ever  recov¬ 
ered.  Then  followed  the  various  apostasies  and 
i:  punishments.  The  transgressions  of  the  north- 
i  ern  kingdom  were  greater  than  those  of  the 
I  southern  kingdom,  and  their  final  punishment, 
therefore,  fell  upon  them  earlier.  “  For  so  it 
I  was,  that  the  children  of  Israel  had  sinned 
I  against  the  Lord  their  God,  and  walked  in  the 
'  statutes  of  the  heathen,  for  thej’’  served  idols, 
whereof  the  Lord  had  said  unto  them.  Ye  shall 
not  do  this  thing.  And  they  rejected  his  stat¬ 
utes,  and  his  covenant  that  he  made  with  their 
fathers.  Therefore  the  Lord  was  very  angi3% 
and  removed  them  out  of  his  sight  ”  (2  Kings 
17  :  7-18).  This  occurred  in  the  reign  of  Hosea, 
and  in  the  ease  of  the  ten  tribes  we  find  no 
symptoms  of  repentance  under  suffering.  The 
two  tribes  produced  a  Daniel  ;  and  his  prayer 
for  the  forgiveness  of  his  people  (9  :3-19)  illus¬ 
trates  the  feelings  of  the  better  of  his  fellow- 
captives  ;  and  therefore,  according  to  the  prom¬ 
ise  of  Lev.  26  : 40-42,  God  remembered  his  cov¬ 
enant  and  raised  up  Zerubbabel,  Ezra,  and  Ne- 
herniah  to  effect  the  restoration  ;  w'hile  the  ten 
tribes  pined  away  in  the  land  of  their  captivity. 
Thus  Moses’s  prediction  was  fulfilled.  F.  IiL 


The  Hebrews  are  the  only  people  in  Europe 
whose  present  history  and  existing  character 
are  influenced  by  an  origin  which  does  not  enter 
into  the  annals  of  mankind,  and  by  causes  re¬ 
corded  in  the  most  primeval  period  of  society. 
To  comprehend  what  is  passing,  even  in  the 
scope  of  our  own  experience,  we  must  consult  a 
code  of  legislation  and  a  ritual  which  governed 
them  in  a  very  different  state  of  society,  and  in 
an  Oriental  climate.  Their  code,  their  creed, 
and  themselves  as  a  people  are  now  existing  as 
they  always  existed.  With  the  Israelite  every¬ 
thing  is  ancient,  but  nothing  is  obsolete. 

The  Hebrew,  a  vagrant  or  a  captive  amid  the 
famed  cities  of  Greece  or  Eome,  could  hardly, 
even  in  the  luxuriant  hope  of  the  Israelitisli 
faith,  have  imagined  that,  when  their  pomp  and 
glories  should  be  covered  with  sand  and  grass, 
the  laws  of  Moses  should  govern  races  unborn, 
and  in  climates  unknown.  And  now  two  thou¬ 
sand  years  have  passed  away,  yet  the  lone  house 
of  Jacob  endureth,  as  the  kindled  bush  where 
God  lay,  “  burning  with  fire,  but  not  con¬ 
sumed.”  D' Israeli. 

The  Jew  in  his 'entirety,  ancient  and  modern, 
past  and  present,  shows  such  characteristics. 


SECTION  192. 


697 


largely  the  result  of  greatness  in  moral  concep¬ 
tions,  as  to  challenge  attention.  Natural  selec¬ 
tion  does  not  seem  to  have  made  him,  and  in 
spite  of  his  dispersion  and  the  harshest  antag. 
onisni  of  surrounding  conditions,  it  has  not  yet 
unmade  him.  Though  sometimes  a  “  hissing 
and  a  reproach,”  he  is  often  “an  astonish¬ 
ment,  “  not  less  by  the  solidity  of  his  qualities 


than  by  the  splendor  of  his  success.  In  poli¬ 
tics,  in  business,  in  music,  in  philosophy,  in 
scholarship,  in  literature,  the  Hebrew  race  can 
point  to  many  of  the  lore  most  men  of  modern 
times.  Disraeli,  Lasker,  Cr6mieux,  Lasalle, 
Kothschild,  Mendelssohn,  Neander,  Oppert, 
Heine,  Spinoza,  are  a  sample  of  the  names  of 
which  the  modern  Jew  can  boast.  Carter. 


-  Section  192. 

FOURTH  ADDRESS,  IN  CONNECTION  WITH  SOLEMN  RENEWAL  OF  THE  COVENANT 
ON  THE  PLAINS  OF  MOAB  :  APPEAL  TO  PAST  MERCIES  ;  SUMMONS  TO  ENTER 
ANEW  INTO  JEHOVAH’S  PROFFERED  COVENANT  ;  RENEWED  WARNING  OF 
TERRIBLE  PUNISHMENT  IN  CASE  OF  APOSTASY. 

Detjtekonomy  29  : 1-28. 

Be.  29  1  These  are  the  words  of  the  covenant  which  the  Loed  commanded  Moses  to  make 
with  the  children  of  Israel  in  the  land  of  Moab,  beside  the  covenant  which  he  made  with  them 
in  Horeb. 

2  And  Moses  called  unto  all  Israel,  and  said  unto  them.  Ye  have  seen  all  that  the  Loed  did 
before  your  eyes  in  the  land  of  Egypt  unto  Pharaoh,  and  unto  all  his  servants,  and  unto  all 

3  his  land  ;  the  great  temptations  which  thine  eyes  saw,  the  signs,  and  those  great  wonders  : 

4  but  the  Loed  hath  not  given  you  an  heart  to  know,  and  eyes  to  see,  and  ears  to  hear,  unto 

5  this  day.  And  I  have  led  you  forty  years  in  the  wilderness  :  your  clothes  are  not  waxen  old 

6  upon  you,  and  thy  shoe  is  not  waxen  old  upon  thy  foot.  Ye  have  not  eaten  bread,  neither 

7  have  ye  drunk  wine  or  strong  drink  :  that  ye  might  know  that  I  am  the  Loed  your  God.  And 
when  ye  came  unto  this  place,  Sihon  the  king  of  Heshbon,  and  Og  the  king  of  Bashan,  came 

8  out  against  us  unto  battle,  and  we  smote  them  :  and  we  took  their  land,  and  gave  it  for  an 
inheritance  unto  the  Reubenites,  and  to  the  Gadites,  and  to  the  half  tribe  of  the  Manassites. 

9  Keep  therefore  the  words  of  this  covenant,  and  do  them,  that  ye  may  prosper  in  all  that  ye  do. 

10  Ye  stand  this  day  all  of  you  before  the  Loed  your  God  ;  your  heads,  your  tribes,  your 

11  elders,  and  your  officers,  even  all  the  men  of  Israel,  your  little  ones,  your  wives,  and  thy 
stranger  that  is  in  the  midst  of  thy  camps,  from  the  hewer  of  thy  wood  unto  the  drawer  of 

12  thy  water  :  that  thou  shouldest  enter  into  the  covenant  of  the  Loed  thy  God,  and  into  his 

13  oath,  which  the  Loed  thy  God  maketh  with  thee  this  day  :  that  he  may  establish  thee  this  day 
unto  himself  for  a  people,  and  that  he  may  be  unto  thee  a  God,  as  he  spake  unto  thee,  and  as 

14  he  s ware  unto  thy  fathers,  to  Abraham,  to  Isaac,  and  to  Jacob.  Neither  with  you  only  do  I 

15  make  this  covenant  and  this  oath  :  but  with  him  that  standeth  here  with  us  this  dav  before 

16  the  Loed  our  God,  and  also  with  him  that  is  not  here  with  us  this  day  ;  (for  ye  know  how  we 
dwelt  in  the  land  of  Egypt  ;  and  how  we  came  through  the  midst  of  the  nations  through 

17  which  ye  passed  ;  and  ye  have  seen  their  abominations,  and  their  idols,  wood  and  stone,  silver 

18  and  gold,  which  were  among  them  :)  lest  there  shoiild  be  among  you  man,  or  woman,  or 
family,  or  tribe,  whose  heart  turneth  away  this  day  from  the  Loed  our  God,  to  go  to  serve  the 
gods  of  those  nations  ;  lest  there  should  be  among  you  a  root  that  beareth  gall  and  wormwood  ; 

19  and  it  come  to  pass,  when  he  heareth  the  words  of  this  curse,  that  he  bless  himself  in  his 
heart,  saying,  I  shall  have  peace,  though  I  walk  in  the  stubbornness  of  mine  heart,  to  destroy 

20  the  moist  with  the  dry  :  the  Loed  will  not  pardon  him,  but  then  the  anger  of  the  Loed  and  his 
jealousy  shall  smoke  against  that  man,  and  all  the  curse  that  is  written  in  this  book  shall  lie 

21  upon  him,  and  the  Loed  shall  blot  out  his. name  from  under  heaven.  And  the  Loed  shall  sep¬ 
arate  him  unto  evil  out  of  all  the  tribes  of  Israel,  according  to  all  the  curses  of  the  covenant 

22  that  is  written  in  this  book  of  the  law.  And  the  generation  to  come,  your  children  that  shall 
rise  up  after  you,  and  the  foreigner  that  shall  come  from  a  far  land,  shall  say,  (when  they  see 


698 


SECTION  192.  RENEWAL  OF  COVENANT. 


23  the  plagues  o£  that  land,  and  the  sicknesses  wherewith  the  Loed  hath  made  it  sick  ;  and  that 
the  whole  land  thereof  is  brimstone,  and  salt,  and  a  burning,  lhat  it  is  not  sown,  nor  beareth, 
nor  any  grass  groweth  therein,  like  the  overthrow  of  Sddom  and  Gomorrah,  Admah  and 

24  Zeboiim,  which  the  Loed  overthrew  in  his  anger,  and  in  his  wrath,)  even  all  the  nations  shall 
say,  Wherefore  hath  the  Loed  done  thus  unto  this  land?  what  meaneth  the  heat  of  this  great 

25  anger?  Then  men  shall  say.  Because  the}’’  forsook  the  covenant  of  the  Loed,  the  God  of  their 

26  fathers,  which  he  made  with  them  when  he  brought  them  forth  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  ;  and 
went  and  served  other  gods,  and  worshipped  them,  gods  whom  they  knew  not,  and  whom  ho 

27  had  not  given  unto  them  ;  therefore  the  anger  of  the  Loed  was  kindled  against  this  land,  to 

28  bring  upon  it  all  the  curse  that  is  written  in  this  book  :  and  the  Loed  rooted  them  out  of  their 
land  in  anger,  and  in  wrath,  and  in  great  indignation,  and  cast  them  into  another  land,  as  at 
this  day. 


The  threefold  division  of  the  addresses  of 
Moses  has  been  thus  far  recognized  in  these 
pages,  because  generally  accepted.  It  would 
seem,  however,  from  the  introductory  words  of 
this  twenty-ninth  chapter,  that  the  address  (in¬ 
cluding  ch.  30)  accompanying  this  final  renewal 
of  the  covenant  “  in  the  land  of  Moab”  was  a 
fourth  and  entirely  distinct  address,  summariz¬ 
ing  and  completing  the  series  of  reminders  and 
pleadings,  so  as  to  give  intenser  emphasis  and 
force  to  the  covenanting  act.  B. 

The  twenty-ninth  and  thirtieth  chapters  con¬ 
tain  the  address  of  Moses  to  the  people  on  the 
solemn  renewal  of  the  covenant.  The  people 
were  now  on  the  borders  of  the  promised  land, 
ready  to  enter  in  and  take  possession  of  that 
which  God  on  his  side  had  stipulated.  It  was 
fitting  therefore  that  in  doing  so  they  should 
once  more  on  their  side  recognize  the  obliga¬ 
tions  under  which  they  were  laid.  The  renewal 
of  the  covenant  in  the  land  of  Moab  did  not 
consist  in  any  revision  or  alteration  of  stipula¬ 
tions,  nor  in  a  repetition  of  the  sacrifices  and 
the  blood  sprinkling  with  which  the  compact 
was  ratified  at  Sinai.  These  acts  remained  still 
valid,  and  all  that  was  necessary  was  a  declara¬ 
tion  on  the  part  of  God  that  his  promises  and 
purposes  toward  them  still  continued  in  force  ; 
and  on  the  pait  of  the  people  a  new  and  solemn 
profession  of  their  duties,  and  a  vow  to  dis¬ 
charge  them.  This  it  was  the  more  incumbent 
on  them  to  make,  and  on  Moses  to  require,  be¬ 
cause  thus  far,  as  Moses  had  reminded  them, 
they  had  repeatedly  broken  their  engagements 
to  God. 

After  making  appeal  to  God’s  past  mercies 
(verses  1-9),  Moses  summons  the  j)eople  to 
pledge  themselves  anew  to  the  covenant  (verses 
10-15),  denouncing  once  more  rejection  of  them 
by  God  in  case  of  their  apostasy  (verses  16-28)  ; 
but  promising  restoration  upon  their  repentance 
(30  :  1-10).  Finally  he  solemnly  sets  before 
them  the  blessing  and  the  curse,  and  adjures 
them  to  seek  the  blessing.  Espin. - In  these 


two  chapters  Moses  seems  to  gather  up  all  the 
moral  forces  of  the  nation’s  history  into  one 
fervent  appeal  to  induce  obedience  and  to  press 
the  people  to  most  earnest  consecration  to  the 
Lord  their  God.  The  great  mercies  of  God 
upon  them  and  their  fathers  on  the  one  hand 
coupled  with  largest  promises  of  good  here¬ 
after  ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  fearful  curses  im¬ 
pending  over  disobedience,  are  spread  out  to 
their  view  :  life  on  the  one  hand,  death  on  the 
other,  awaiting  their  choice,  pending  upon  tbeir 
decision,  sure  to  come  according  to  their  free 
election  of  the  one  course  or  the  other.  How 
are  these  moral  forces  made  to  culminate  and 
press  upon  the  conscience  of  the  whole  people  ! 
H.  C. 

The  covenant  which  the  Lord  had  made  with 
Israel  in  Horeb  is  now  solemnly  renewed  or 
confirmed  ;  and  thereby  the  new  generation, 
about  to  enter  Canaan,  placed  in  a  similar  posi¬ 
tion  with  the  old,  to  whom  that  duty  had  first 
been  committed.  But  as  the  words  of  Moses 
refer  entirely  to  the  covenant  already  made, 
there  is  no  need  of  any  further  sacrifices,  or  of 
any  renewal  of  promises  on  the  part  of  the  peo¬ 
ple,  but  only  a  solemn  confirmation  of  the 
Lord’s  blessing  on  the  obedient,  and  his  curse 
on  the  disobedient.  Oerl. — ^God  invites  them 
to  a  renewal  of  the  sacred  covenant.  Another 
chance  was  given  them  for  spiritual  reforma¬ 
tion.  Here  was  the  commencement  of  a  new 
epoch.  Again,  as  in  Horeb,  God  bids  for  man’s 
allegiance.  He  renews  his  pledge  to  be  in 
Canaan  what  he  had  been  in  the  desert— their 
special  Friend,  their  God.  In  this  compact  all 
the  resources  of  God  were  secured  to  Israel. 
His  power,  his  glory,  his  life,  his  home,  were 
conveyed  to  them..  All  was  to  be  theirs  ;  but 
on  one  condition — and  that  condition  was  a 
necessity —that  they  should  be  loyal  and  true  to 
him.  What  a  splendid  opportunity  was  there 
for  a  new  beginning — for  a  fresh  departure  ! 
B.  D. 

1,  Beside  the  covenant  Which  he  made  with 


SINAI  COVENANT  RENEWED. 


699 


them  in  Horeb.  This  was  not  a  new  covenant 
in  addition  to  that  made  at  Sinai,  but  simply  a 
renewal  and  reaf&rmation  of  that  covenant.  At 
Sinai  the  covenant  was,  properly  speaking, 
made;  sacrifices  were  then  ottered,  and  the  peo¬ 
ple  were  sprinkled  with  the  sacrificial  blood, 
whereby  the  covenant  was  ratified  (Ex.  24  ;  cf. 
P.S.  50  :  5)  ;  but  on  the  occasion  here  referred  to 
no  sacrifices  were  offered,  for  this  w'as  merely 
the  recognition  of  the  covenant  formerly  made 
as  still  subsisting. 

2-9.  Moses  addresses  the  nation  as  such,  and 
reminds  them  of  their  dulness  to  apprehend  the 
manifestations  of  God’s  grace  which  had  been 
so  abundantly  afforded  in  their  past  history,  in 
order  that  he  may  arouse  them  to  a  better  state 
of  mind,  and  stimulate  them  to  hearken  to  the 
voice  of  God  in  the  future.  \V.  L.  A. 

10-15.  Here  we  have  what  Lowman  calls  the 
original  contract  of  the  Hebrew  government. 
Two  principles  constitute  the  sum  of  it — viz. : 
(1)  The  maintenance  of  the  worship  of  one  God, 
in  opposition  to  the  prevailing  polytheism  of 
the  times  ;  and  (2)  as  conducive  to  this  main 
end,  the  separation  of  the  Israelites  from  other 
nations,  so  as  to  prevent  the  formation  of  dan¬ 
gerous  and  corrupting  alliances.  The  general 
sense  of  the  transaction  is  plainly  to  this  effect: 
If  the  Hebrews  would  voluntarily  receive  Je¬ 
hovah  for  their  king  and  would  honor  and 
worship  him  as  the  one  true  God,  in  opposition 
to  all  idolatry,  then,  though  God  as  sovereign 
of  the  world  rules  over  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  he  would  govern  the  Hebrew  nation  by 
laws  of  his  own  framing,  and  would  bless  it 
with  a  more  particular  and  immediate  protec¬ 
tion.  E.  C.  W. 

The  covenant  was  a  national  engagement,  and 
as  such  included  not  only  the  adults  and  exist¬ 
ing  generation,  but  the  little  ones,  the  strangers 
resident  in  Israel,  the  lowest  menial  servants — 
that  is,  all  the  elements  of  which  the  nation 
was  composed,  as  well  as  their  posterity  in  com¬ 
ing  generations.  12.  “  That  thou  shouldest 
enter  into  covenant.”  The  expression  in  the 
Hebrew  is  a  strong  one,  indicating  not  a  mere 
formal  engagement,  but  a  going  thoroughly  into 
the  covenant.  W.  L.  A. 

13.  They  should  be  appointed,  raised  up, 
esfahlished,  for  a  people  to  him,  to  observe  and 
obey  him,  to  be  devoted  to  him  and  dependent 
on  him,  and  that  he  should  be  to  them  a  God, 
according  to  the  tenor  of  the  covenant  made 
with  their  fathers,  to  make  them  holj^  high,  and 
happy.  Their  fathers  are  here  named,  Abraham, 
Isaac,  and  Jacob,  as  examples  of  piety,  which 
those  were  to  set  themselv^es  to  imitate  who  ex¬ 


pected  any  benefit  from  the  covenant  made  with 
them.  A  due  consideration  of  the  relation  we 
stand  in  to  God  as  our  God,  and  the  obligation 
we  lie  under  as  a  people  to  him,  is  enough  to 
bring  us  to  all  the  duties  and  all  the  comforts 
of  the  covenant.  H. 

15,  A  citizen  of  an  empire  cannot  demean 
himself  as  he  please.  He  is  bound  to  consider 
the  well  being  of  the  body  politic.  Hence 
Moses  affirmed  that  the  covenant  made  with 
the  elders  and  officers  present  was  a  covenant 
also  made  with  those  not  present.  Whoever 
elected  to  share  in  the  security  and  triumphs 
of  the  nation  was  bound  to  share  in  its  obliga¬ 
tions.  We  cannot  belong  to  society  and  claim 
exemption  from  its  laws  The  individual  is 
bound  by  the  decisions  of  the  nation.  D.  D. 

Renewed  Warning  of  Punishment  in  Case  of  Apos¬ 
tasy  {verses  16-28). 

Verses  16  and  17  are  not  a  parenthesis.  There 
should  be  a  full  stop  at  the  end  of  verse  15. 
Verse  18  is  connected  with  verse  17.  W.  L.  A. 

- The  sense  of  the  whole  passage  from  verse  16 

onward  to  verse  20  may  be  exhibited  thus  : 
“  Ye  have  seen  the  abominations  of  idolatry 
among  the  heathen.  Do  you  therefore  look  dil¬ 
igently  that  there  be  no  secret  idolater  among 
5^ou  ;  a  root  of  bitterness  to  all  about  him.  Let 
there  be  no  one,  who  when  he  hears  the  curses 
of  the  Law  against  this  sin,  flatters  himself,  say¬ 
ing  within  himself,  ‘  All  will  be  well,  for  I  walk 
unmolested  in  my  own  self  chosen  path  and 
thus  acting,  not  only  takes  his  own  fill  of  sin, 
but  destroys  likewise  every  tempted  brother 
within  his  reach  ;  for  the  Lobd  will  not  spare 
him,”  etc.  Espin. 

How  dire  were  the  perversities  and  impeni¬ 
tence  of  the  Israelites,  and  this  in  the  face  of 
all  the  mercies  which  they  had  experienced  and 
all  the  miracles  which  had  passed  before  them. 
On  the  strength  of  these  does  Moses  renew  his 
solemn  charge  on  the  people  for  their  obedi¬ 
ence,  and  his  threatenings  against  them  should 
they  transgress  the  covenant  of  their  God — a 
covenant  not  confined  to  those  who  heard  him 
but  extending  to  posterity,  and  so  to  those  who 
were  not  with  him  on  that  day.  Their  obstinate 
inclination  to  the  idolatries  of  the  heathen  was 
the  root  of  bitterness,  a  poison  both  of  deceit 
and  destruction,  which  first  beguiled  and  led 
away  the  nation  and  then  ruined  them.  Against 
this  he  holds  out  both  his  menaces  and  his 
warnings.  T.  C. 

1 8,  The  sinner  is  here  described  as  one  whose 
heart  tarns  away  from  his  God ;  there  the  mis- 


700 


SECTION  192.  RENEWED  WARNINGS. 


chief  begins,  in  the  evil  heart  of  unbelief  which 
inclines  men  to  deport  from  the  living  God.  H. 

- 19,  The  transgressor  is  intensely  selfish. 

He  plots  for  himself,  and  thinks  only  of  his 
comfort.  “  I  shall  have  peace.”  The  trans¬ 
gressor  is  essentially  blind.  He  imagines  that 
although  all  others  ma}’’  be  detected,  he  shall 
escape.  He  sees  no  immediate  danger.  He 
vainly  fancies  that  his  evil  course  is  sagacious, 
and  will  bring  prompt  returns  of  advantage. 
He  leaves  God  out  of  the  calculation.  He  lays 
his  plans  and  carries  them  as  if  there  were  no 

God.  D.  D. - He  blesses  himself  in  his  heart, 

and  says,  “  I  will  have  peace,”  at  the  very  time 
that  God's  curses  are  being  read  out  to  him. 
Yet  his  case  is  not  a  solitary  one.  He  does  no 
more  than  men  do  every  day  in  the  teeth  of  the 
threatenings  of  the  Bible.  Want  of  considera¬ 
tion  and  the  force  of  self-will  account  for  this 

self-deceit.  Orr. - There  are  many  who  are 

under  the  curse  of  God,  and  yet  bless  them¬ 
selves  ;  but  it  will  soon  be  found  that  in  bless¬ 
ing  themselves,  they  do  but  deceive  themselves. 
Those  are  ripe  for  ruin,  and  there  is  little  hope 
of  their  repentance,  who  have  made  themselves 
believe  that  the^^  shall  have  peace  though  they 
go  on  in  a  sinful  way. 

t20,  21.  God’s  just  severity  is  here  denounced 
against  such  a  sinner  for  his  impious  affront,  in 
saying  he  should  have  peace  though  he  went 
on,  so  giving  the  lie  to  eternal  truth.  There  is 
scarcely  a  threatening  in  all  the  book  of  God 
that  sounds  more  dreadful  than  this.  The  Lord 
sh(dl  not  pardon  him.  The  days  of  his  reprieve 
which  he  abuses  will  be  shortened,  and  no 
mercj'^  remembered  in  the  midst  of  judgment. 
The  anger  of  the  Lord,  and  his  jealousy,  which  is 
the  fiercest  anger,  shall  smoke  against  him,  like 
the  smoke  of  a  furnace.  The  curses  written  shall 
lie  upon  him,  not  onlj’-  light  upon  him  to  terrify 
him,  but  abide  upon  him  to  sink  him  to  the  low¬ 
est  hell  (John  3  : 36).  His  name  shall  be  blotted 
that  is,  he  himself  shall  be  cut  off,  and  his 
memory  shall  perish  with  him.  He  shall  be 
separated  unto  evil,  he  shall  be  cut  off  from  all 
happiness  and  all  hope  of  it,  and  marked  out 
for  misery  without  remedy.  And  all  this  accord- 
ing  to  the  curses  of  the  covenant,  which  are  the 
most  fearful  curses,  being  the  just  revenges  of 
abused  grace.  H. 

How  profound  is  the  subtlety  of  the  sinful 
heart  ;  how  perfect  is  that  terrible  science  of 
self-deceit  by  which,  from  the  dawn  of  reason 
to  the  hour  of  death,  we  learn  to  reconcile  our 
worse  and  our  better  natures  !  Surely  the 

tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  ”  might 
well  be  to  us  a  forbidden  tree  ;  for  the  knowl¬ 


edge  of  sin  has  only  driven  us  upon  the  art  of 
excusing  it— the  wretched  art  of  supplying 
apologies  for  predetermined  crime— the  fatal 
power  of  preserving  ourselves  in  an  unbroken 
dream  of  imaginary  safetj'^  from  that  wrath  of 
Ged  which  yet  we  cannot  deny  to  be  expressly 
“revealed  against  all  ungodliness’’ — of  invest¬ 
ing  a  perilous  folly  with  the  air  of  innocent 
playfulness— of  glossing  over  darker  deeds  with 
the  poor  pretences  of  passion  anti  hastiness. 
W.  A.  B. 

23.  The  description  here  is  taken  from  the 
country  around  the  Dead  Sea,  to  which  there 
is  an  express  allusion  in  the  close  of  the  verse 
(cf.  Gen.  19  : 23,  etc.).  As  this  country,  which 
before  had  been  as  the  garden  of  the  Lord,  be¬ 
came,  when  the  wrath  of  God  was  poured  upon 
it,  utterly  desolate  and  waste  ;  so  should  it  be 
with  the  land  of  Israel  when  the  plagues  and 
sicknesses  threatened  were  laid  on  it  by  the 
Lord. 

24.  What  meaneth  the  heat  of  this  great 
anger  ?  The  reply  to  this  question  comes  in 
what  follows  (verses  25-28).  It  is  evident  from 
this  that  Moses  contemplates,  and  in  fact  here 
predicts,  a  defection,  not  of  individuals  or  fam¬ 
ilies  merely,  but  of  the  nation  as  a  whole  from 
the  Lord,  and  the  punishment  which  came  in 
consequence  upon  the  nation.  The  words  from 
“  when  they  see’’  (verse  22)  to  “  w^rath’’  (verse 
23)  are  a  parenthesis,  in  which  a  reason  for  the 
main  thought  is  given  in  a  circumstantial 
clause  ;  and  the  “  say”  cf  verse  22  is  resumed 
by  the  “  say’’  of  verse  24.  W.  L.  A. 

25-28.  How  MANIFESTLY,  IN  THE  DESOLATION 
OF  THE  Holy  Land,  is  seen  the  effect  of  the 
WKATH  OF  God  !  To  this  even  Volney  bears  wit¬ 
ness.  He  asks,  “  From  whence  proceed  such 
melancholy  revolutions  ?  For  what  cause  is  the 
fortune  of  these  countries  so  strikingly  changed  ? 
Why  are  so  many  cities  destroyed  ?  Why  is  not 
that  ancient  population  reproduced  and  perpet¬ 
uated  ?  A  mysterious  God  exercises  his  incom- 
prehensible  judgments.  He  has  doubtless  pro¬ 
nounced  a  secret  curse  against  the  land.  He 
has  struck  with  a  curse  the  iiresent  race  of  men 
in  revenge  of  past  generations.’’  It  is  of  no 
use  for  men  to  declaim  against  the  possibility 
of  miracles,  when  there  is  the  standing  miracle 
before  our  eye,  of  some  superhuman  knowledge 
having  forecast  three  thousand  years  ago  pre¬ 
cisely  the  line  along  which  Hebrew  history 
would  move,  down  till  the  present  day.  And  as 
long  as  our  present  historical  records  stand,  so 
long  will  there  re-main  the  confirmation  of  the 
precision  with  which  Israel’s  Lawgiver,  speak¬ 
ing  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  laid  down  before- 


SECTION  193. 


701 


hand  the  lines  along  which  the  Jewish  nation 
should  move  tor  thousands  of  years.  When  we 
put  together  the  land  and  the  Book,  the  work 


and  the  Word,  and  see  the  correspondence  be¬ 
tween  them,  we  cannot  but  say,  “  This  is  the 
finger  of  God.’'  C.  C. 


Section  193. 


GEE.A.T  TKUTHS  PEETAINIKG  TO  THE  DIVINE  EEVELATION  :  THINGS  UNEE- 
VEALED  BELONG  TO  GOD,  THINGS  EEVEALED  TO  MAN.  THE  NEAENESS, 
CLEAENESS,  AND  SUFFIv'^IENCY  OF  EEVELATION.  THE  DIVINE  WOED  TO  BE 
EECEIVED,  PONDEEED,  AND  OBEYED  BY  THE  HEAET.  BLESSED  EESULTS  OF 
THOUGHTFUL,  HEAETFELT  EECEPTION  AND  OBEDIENCE. 

Deuteronomy  29  :  29  ;  30  :  11-14  ;  32  :  46^  47. 


De.  29  29  The  secret  things  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God  :  but  the  things 
that  are  revealed  belong  unto  us  and  to  our  children  for  ever,  that  we  may  do 
all  the  words  of  this  law. 

11  For  this  commandment  which  I  command  thee  this  day,  it  is  not  too 

12  hard  for  thee,  neither  is  it  far  oft.  It  is  not  in  heaven,  that  thou  shouldest  say. 
Who  shall  go  up  for  us  to  heaven,  and  bring  it  unto  us,  and  make  us  to  hear  it, 

13  that  we  may  do  it  ?  Neither  is  it  beyond  the  sea,  that  thou  shouldest  say.  Who 
shall  go  over  the  sea  for  us,  and  bring  it  unto  us,  and  make  us  to  hear  it,  that 

14  we  may  do  it  ?  But  the  word  is  very  nigh  unto  thee,  in  thy  mouth,  and  in  thy 
heart,  that  thou  mayest  do  it. 

32  46  And  he  said  unto  them.  Set  your  heart  unto  all  the  words  which  I 
testify  unto  you  this  day  ;  which  ye  shall  command  your  children  to  observe  to 

47  do  all  the  words  of  this  law.  For  it  is  no  vain  thing  for  you,  because  it  is  your 
life  ;  and  through  this  thing  ye  shall  prolong  your  days  upon  the  land,  whither 
ye  go  over  Jordan  to  possess  it. 


As  an  appropriate  and  emphatic  application 
of  all  the  preceding  addresses  of  Moses,  these 
three  passages  are  taken  from  among  his  very 
last  words  to  Israel.  They  present  certain  fun¬ 
damental  and  vital  truths  pertaining  to  the  re¬ 
vealed  Word  of  God.  B. 

“  Seceet  Things  Belong  unto  God.” 

De.  29  : 29. 

In  every  realm  of  thought  and  fact,  and  on 
every  side,  we  are  surrounded  by  things  unre¬ 
vealed.  Strange,  inscrutable  mysteries  pervade 
the  spiritual  and  material  universe.  There  are 
profound  insoluble  problems  in  the  being  and 
character  of  God,  and  in  all  the  modes  and  pro¬ 
cesses  and  motives  of  his  diverse  working.  The 
original  and  essence  of  all  created  being,  the 
principle  of  physical  life  and  transmutation, 
the  vicissitudes  of  human  interests  and  events, 
the  reasons  of  the  Divine  conduct  in  His  specific 
dealings  throughout  the  wide  realms  of  Provi¬ 
dence  and  grace,  are  all  alike  inscrutable.  But 


it  is  also  a  truth  that  the  character  of  God  and 
his  relations  to  the  universe  require  the  exist¬ 
ence  of  mysteries.  They  are  in  consonance 
with  his  character  and  essential  to  his  exaltation 
and  government,  since  they  imply  and  reveal 
superior  power  and  wisdom.  Without  them  we 
, could  not  have  the  evidence  of  his  supremacy 
and  right  to  rule.  Without  them,  therefore. 
He  could  not  reasonably  demand  our  worship, 
obedience,  and  confidence.  For  these  reasons 
mysteries  exist.  Their  necessity  is  founded  in 
the  nature  and  relations  of  God  and  man.  They 
are  required  to  exalt  His  character,  to  reveal  His 
perfections,  to  sustain  his  throne,  to  justify  and 
exact  our  worship  and  submission  to  his  will,  to 
attract  and  give  scope  to  our  faith,  and  hold  us 
upon  the  path  of  holy  obedience  and  endeavor. 
By  propriety  and  by  right,  therefore,  “  secret 
things  belong  unto  the  Lord  our  God  !”  B. 

God  cannot,  on  account  of  his  incomparable 
greatness  and  excellence,  bring  his  plans  and 
operations  within  the  comprehension  of  his 


702 


SECTION  193.  SECRET  THINGS. 


creatures.  The  finite  cannot  take  in  the  infi¬ 
nite.  We  only  know  in  part.  But  we  know. 
To  doubt  the  possibility  of  knowing  God  would 
lead  us  straight  to  universal  scepticism.  Agnos¬ 
ticism  has  no  logical  halting-ground  on  this  side 
of  universal  doubt.  Hence  we  venture  not  be- 
jmnd  the  assigned  limits  of  the  knowable.  We 
take  all  that  God  gives  and  use  it  reverentially. 
At  the  same  time,  we  recognize  a  world  beyond 
our  ken,  of  essence  and  of  purpose  and  of  per¬ 
ception,  which  is  God’s  alone.  Edgar. 

The  existence  of  unsolved  difficulties  acts  as 
Cl  moral  test,  and  aids  the  development  of  faith 
—  faith,  viz.,  as  a  practical  principle,  believing 
and  trusting  in  God  on  the  strength  of  what  is 
revealed,  difficulties  notwithst?inding  (John 
20  ;  29).  This  gives  the  key  to  our  dut}^,  in  pres¬ 
ence  of  these  difficulties.  We  do  not  forget  : 
(1)  That  things  once  kept  secret  are  now  re¬ 
vealed  (Col.  1  ;  26).  (2)  That  in  the  course  of 

ages  God  is  ever  making  his  counsels  clearer. 
(3)  That  it  is  the  privilege  and  duty  of  the 
Church  to  be  always  making  progress  in  the 
knowledge  of  God’s  will,  as  far  as  he  has  chosen 
to  reveal  it.  Orr. 

The  class  of  “  secret  things’  ’  is  in  God’s  keep¬ 
ing.  Such  confidence  have  we  in  the  benignity 
of  the  Most  High,  that  we  anticipate  further 
revelations,  yea,  an  unending  series  of  disclos¬ 
ures  ;  but  the  time  and  method  of  these  gradual 
unveilings  God  has  wisely  reserved  unto  himself. 
One  thing  inspires  a  hope  of  increased  knowl¬ 
edge  :  we  have  a  Divine  promise  that  what  we 
know  not  now  we  shall  know  hereafter.  Com¬ 
pared  with  the  unknown,  the  known  is  a  speck, 
an  atom,  an  alphabet  only.  The  universe  of 
knowledge  is  still  beyond  us,  enticing  our  in¬ 
quiry.  D.  D. 

Difficulties  of  Scripture  and  theology  all  arise 
from  our  ignorance,  and  our  inability  to  fathom 
the  mysteries  of  the  Divine  nature.  We  ought 
to  humble  our  minds  before  the  general  consid¬ 
eration,  that  Divine  reasons  of  state  are  beyond 
our  ken  ;  that  some  of  God’s  attributes  may  de¬ 
mand  a  course  of  government  beyond  all  our 
expectation  ;  that  his  wisdom  is  infallible  as 
his  love  is  immense  ;  and  that  whatever  he  or¬ 
dains  or  allows  is  agreeable  to  the  concord  of 
those  perfections  which  we  revere  and  worship 
J.  W.  A. 

I  believe  in  God  and  adore  him,  without  at¬ 
tempting  to  comprehend  him.  I  see  him  pres¬ 
ent  and  acting  not  only  in  the  permanent  gov¬ 
ernment  of  the  universe  and  in  the  innermost 
life  of  men’s  souls,  but  in  the  history  of  human 
societies,  especially  in  the  Old  and  New  Testa¬ 
ments—  monuments  of  the  Divine  revelation  and 


action  by  the  mediation  and  sacrifice  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  the  salvation  of  the  human 
races.  I  bow  before  the  mysteries  of  the  Bible 
and  the  Gospel,  and  I  hold  aloof  from  scientific 
discussion  and  solutions  by  which  men  have  at¬ 
tempted  to  explain  them.  Guizot— — As  there 
is  a  foolish  wisdom,  so  there  is  a  wise  ignorance 
in  not  Jurying  into  God’s  ark  -  not  inquiring  into 
things  not  revealed.  I  would  fain  know  all  that 
I  need,  and  all  that  I  may  ;  I  leave  God’s  secrets 
to  himself.  It  is  happy  for  me  that  God  makes 
me  of  his  court,  though  not  of  his  council. 
Bp.  11 

A  revelation  having  nothing  to  reveal  beyond 
the  scope  of  man’s  knowledge  and  science, 
would  cease  to  be  a  Divine  revelation.  Its  mas¬ 
teries  are  witnesses  of  its  divinity’,  and  I  should 
cease  to  believe  in  revelation  were  the  mysteries 
not  there.  They  have,  as  in  the  great  book  of 
nature,  a  clear  and  a  dark  page.  Frederick  III. 

- He  laboreth  in  vain  who  shall  endeavor  to 

draw  down  heavenly  mysteries  to  human  rea¬ 
son  ;  it  rather  becomes  us  to  bring  our  reason 
to  the  adorable  throne  of  Divine  truth.  Bacon. 

In  the  concerns  of  human  life  there  is  a  path 
that  is  secret,  and  a  path  that  is  revealed.  Life 
may  be  considered  either  as  a  series  of  events 
and  circumstances  ordained  and  managed  by 
infinite  wisdom,  or  as  a  course  of  actions  left  to 
the  determination  of  human  choice.  Consid¬ 
ered  in  the  first  point  of  view  there  is  nothing 
more  obscure,  nothing  more  hidden  from  our 
knowledge,  than  human  life  ;  but  in  the  other, 
as  a  set  of  actions  and  a  course  of  behavior, 
there  is  nothing  more  plain,  for  we  have  rules 
and  motives  that  on  every  occasion  ought  to  in¬ 
fluence  us.  The  matter  of  life  is  obscure  ;  but 
the  morality  of  life  is  plain  and  intelligible. 
Nothing  is  more  profound  than  that  darkness 
which  covers  every  step  of  our  path.  We  know 
not  what  a  day  will  bring  forth,  nor  the  conse¬ 
quences  of  our  actions  ;  for  it  is  said,  “  In  the 
morning  sow  thy  seed,  and  in  the  evening  withhold  not 
thine  hand,  for  thou  knowest  not  which  shall  pros¬ 
per,  this  or  that."  Providence  is  showing  us 
that  there  is  an  unseen  hand  that  changes  the 
scene  and  darkens  the  theatre  at  his  pleasure  ; 
and  thus  there  is  a  secret  path  which  belongs  to 
God,  while  the  conduct  of  life  belongs  to  us. 
The  rules  of  duty  are  plain  and  clear  ;  the  issue 
of  events  is  in  the  hand  of  God,  because  he 
alone  knows  them.  You  know  not  the  time  of 
your  death,  nor  the  manner  of  your  death — 
whether  in  the  midst  of  life  and  happiness,  or 
when  sunk  under  a  burden  of  agony  and  infirm¬ 
ity— whether  it  will  be  among  your  friends,  or 
alone  in  the  wilderness.  These  things  are  all 


BELONG  UNTO  GOD. 


703 


sealed  up  under  the  hand  of  God,  and  placed 
among  his  darkest  secrets.  But  you  know  how 
to  make  your  death  happy  ;  you  know  what 
course  of  life  will  leave  you  little  to  dread  ;  you 
know  the  prospect  beyond  the  grave  ;  and  you 
know  that  Christ  says  to  his  disciples,  “  lam  the 
Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life.  ”  Thus  the  Christian 
knows,  in  the  midst  of  all  the  obscurity  of  his 
path,  whither  he  goes,  “  and  the  Way  he  knows.'' 
R  Hall 

Mysterj"  is  the  seal  of  the  infinite,  yet  benev¬ 
olence  is  perpetually  present  in  the  Providence 
wfiich  guides  human  life.  We  read  the  love 
through  the  mystery,  rather  than  the  mystery 
through  the  love.  Does  God  keep  to  himself 
the  secret  of  germination  ?  On  the  other  hand, 
he  gives  us  the  revelation  of  golden  harvests  ; 
the  spring  kept  the  secret  in  her  heart,  but  au¬ 
tumn  has  filled  our  barns  with  plenty.  Thus, 
enough  is  kept  back  to  prove  the  power,  and 
enough  is  given  to  establish  the  mercy.  To  the 
countless  mercies  we  must  recur  with  thankful 
hearts  when  the  mysteries  dazzle  and  bewilder 
our  helpless  reason.  Our  own  home-life  shall 
witness  gratefully  to  the  goodness  of  God. 
Thus,  while  the  mysteries  hide  themselves  in 
light  unapproachable,  the  mercies  shall  sing  to 
us  by  day  and  night,  and  be  unto  us  as  glad 
promises  of  still  better  things  to  come.  J.  P. 

The  Gospel  would  be  a  departure  from  the 
analogy  which  exists  among  all  the  works  of  our 
God,  did  it  only  reyeal  what  man  had  previously 
conjectured,  and  were  faith  employed  merely  to 
endorse  and  register,  in  silent  acquiescence,  the 
rescripts  which  had  been  prepared  for  her  by 
human  reason.  And  even  in  the  sciences  of 
this  world,  narrow  and  near  as  is  the  field  of 
their  labors,  there  are  the  same  inscrutable  yet 
inevitable  difficulties,  of  which  the  sceptic  com¬ 
plains  in  religion.  We  expect  it  of  a  cultivated 
and  advanced  science,  that  it  should  assail  and 
overturn  many  opinions,  which  to  the  first 
.  glance  of  ignorant  presumption  seem  indispu¬ 
table  truths.  Though  the  eye  sees  no  motion, 
and  the  foot  feels  no  unsteadiness,  and  no  jar¬ 
ring  is  perceived  within  or  around  us,  astron¬ 
omy  comes  back  to  the  inquirer  with  the  start¬ 
ling  assurance,  that,  notwithstanding  all  these 
seeming  evidences  to  the  contrary,  the  earth  on 
which  he  reposes  is  ceaselessly  and  most  rapidly 
whirling  along  its  trackless  path  in  the  heavens  ; 
and  that,  moment  by  moment,  he  is  borne  along 
through  the  fields  of  space  with  a  fearful  and 
inconceivable  velocity.  And  when,  from  further 
wanderings,  but  on  better  testimony— when 
from  a  higher  and  stranger  world,  but  with 
fuller  evidence  and  with  more  indubitable 


tokens  of  her  veracity,  faith  comes  back,  bring¬ 
ing  assurances  that  tally  not  in  all  things  with 
our  preconceived  conjectures,  shall  she  be  chid¬ 
den  and  blasphemed  for  the  difficulties  that 
arise  from  our  own  ignorance  ?  Without  the 
mysteries  of  the  Gospel,  revelation  would  be  un¬ 
like  all  the  other  provinces  of  human  knowledge, 
and  the  domains  of  faith  would  be  dissimilar 
from  all  the  rest  of  the  handiwork  of  God, 
W.  R.  Williams. 

This  Gospel  of  the  Christ  stands  apart,  to  our 
thought,  from  every  scheme  of  philosophy  or 
ethics,  from  any  human  scheme  of  religion. 
We  accept  it  as  coming  from  the  mind  and  will 
which  fashioned  the  heavens,  and  which  here 
have  interposed  to  give  direct  and  inestimable 
light  on  matters  of  immortal  concern.  If  any 
one  asks,  “  Do  you  fully  comprehend  the  mar¬ 
vellous  facts  which  you  thus  affirm  ?”  we  cheer¬ 
fully  answer,  “  Certainly  not  ;  any  more  than 
we  understand  life,  or  mind,  the  power  of  the 
will,  or  the  secret  of  sunbeams  ;  but  we  gladly 
accept  them,  on  what  to  us  is  the  clear  and  sure 
witness  of  God.”  If  anyone  asks,  “  Are  you 
not  staggered,  in  the  faculty  of  believing,  by 
the  story  of  miracles?”  our  reply  is  immediate, 
“  Certainly  not  :  since  we  recognize  in  them  a 
Divine  power,  intervening  in  history,  on  an 
adequate  occasion,  for  a  purpose  as  sublime  as 
are  the  amazing  means  employed  ;  and  we  can 
no  more  set  limits  to  that  power  than  we  can 
count  the  moments  of  eternity.”  Miracles,  from 
God,  are  intrinsically  as  credible  as  is  the  poem 
or  the  picture  to  which  genius  gives  birth,  but 
which  we  cannot  rival.  The  only  questions 
which  appear  to  us  pertinent  concern  the  ends 
which  they  subserve,  with  the  testimony  offered 
for  them.  Or,  if  we  are  asked,  “  How  the  Father 
can  be  Divine,  the  Son  Divine,  and  the  Siuiit 
Divine,  and  yet  but  one  God  fill  the  immensi¬ 
ties?”  our  answer  is,  that  the  mystery  only  en¬ 
hances  to  our  thought  the  infinite  glory,  and 
opens  into  brighter  depths  the  wonders  of  that 
exalted  state  where  what  we  cannot  know  on 
earth  shall  be  revealed  to  illuminated  minds  and 
purified  hearts.  The  mystery  in  any  of  the 
truths  of  the  Gospel  is  not  for  us  a  bar  to  be¬ 
lieving.  It  is  rather  an  encouragement  to  such 
belief  ;  since  we  do  not  expect  to  comprehend 
God,  or  to  learn  from  him  what  is  simply  com¬ 
monplace.  In  accepting  such  truths  we  are 
gratefully  conscious  of  an  immediate  intellect¬ 
ual  contact  with  the  spiritual  sphere.  From 
realms  inaccessible  to  lenses  or  calculations  de¬ 
scend  upon  our  minds  these  high  instructions. 
We  seem  to  ourselves  to  communicate  with  the 
soul  from  which  ours  have  sprung,  and  before 


704  SECTION'  193.  NEARNESS  AND  CLEARNESS  OF  REVELATION 


wliicli  extend  the  shining  expanses  of  truth  and 
of  life.  The  earth  becomes  sacred,  because  such 
re^relations  have  opened  above  it  celestial  pros¬ 
pects.  The  order  of  history  takes  its  vivid  in- 
teri^retation  from  the  Divine  mission  central  in 
it  ;  while  the  premonitions  of  glory  or  of  gloom 
which  are  shot  upon  responsive  spirits  from  the 
coming  iinmortalit}^  add  solemnity  to  our  wor¬ 
ship,  and  the  supreme  intensity  to  our  life. 
Slorrs. 

‘  ‘  Things  Revealed  Belong  to  us  and  our  Chil¬ 
dren”  (verse  29). 

The  “  things  revealed  ”  include  all  that  is  es¬ 
sential  to  direct  and  control  our  conduct  so  as 
to  secure  present  peace  and  ultimate  happiness. 
They  comprise  everything  we  need  to  know  con 
cerning  our  relations  to  God,  to  his  Law,  his 
providence,  and  his  giace,  in  the  life  that  now 
is  and  the  life  that  is  to  come.  Especially  (and 
this  is  their  pre-eminent  aim  and  value)  the 
whole  truth  touching  our  moral  alienation  from 
God,  the  Divine  provisions  for  our  recovery 
from  sin  in  its  penalty,  impurity,  and  power, 
and  our  restoration  to  the  likeness,  the  favor, 
and  the  fellowship  of  God — all  this  needful  dis¬ 
closure  is  written  by  infinite  love  in  lines  of 
light  upon  the  pages  of  the  Word  Revealed. 
These  hopeful,  helpful,  inspiring  truths  are  un- 
folded  to  our  faith  simply  as  fads,  which  rest 
upon  the  clearest,  most  conclusive  evidence. 
With  whatever  lies  behind  these  facts  neither 
reason  nor  faith  has  aught  to  do,  save  reverently 
and  submissively  to  bow.  B. 

Those  things  which  God  has  revealed  to  us 
we  may  know,  because  God  has  discovered 
them  to  us  ;  and  we  are  hound,  with  all  dili¬ 
gence,  to  search  after  the  knowledge  of  them, 
because  they  are  proposed  to  us  as  the  rule  of 
our  life,  and  the  condition  of  our  happiness. 
More  than  God  has  made  known  to  us  of  this 
kind  we  cannot  discover.  Only  in  general,  this 
one  thing  we  may  depend  upon  as  certain,  that 
no  secret  counsel  or  purpose  of  God  can  be  con¬ 
trary  to  his  will  revealed  in  his  Word.  Upon 
what  conditions  God  has  appointed  that  men 
should  be  happy  or  miserable,  he  has  clearly 
and  fully  revealed  to  us  in  his  Holy  Scriptures  ; 
and  more  than  this  it  is  neither  necessary  nor 
possible  for  us  to  know.  S.  Clarke. 

The  purpose  of  revelation  is  not  to  gratify 
curiosity,  but  to  secure  obedience  in  the  succes¬ 
sive  generations.  In  other  words,  it  is  not 
speculative,  but  practical.  The  objections  urged 
against  revelation  largely  consist  in  the  dlsap- 
pohdmenis  of  speculaliue  curiosity.  Because  God 
did  not  inform  man  scientifically  about  the  cre¬ 


ation  of  the  world  ;  because  he  did  not  deliver 
an  articulated  theological  system  ;  because  he 
did  not  compose  a  philosophical  text-book — 
therefore  this  popular,  miscellaneous,  and  dis¬ 
cursive  book  cannot  be  Divine.  But  so  far  from 
such  arguments  being  valid,  they  go  to  substan 
tiate  the  Divine  character  of  the  book.  For  it 
is  an  intensely  practical  hook.  It  takes  up  man 
in  the  family,  and  urges  him  to  obey  God  and 
try  to  get  his  children  to  obey  Him.  It  reveals 
God  as  a  Father  seeking  the  obedience  and  trust 
of  his  human  children,  and  inviting  them  to  the 
heaven  of  obedience  to  his  commandments.  It 
makes  man  understand  sufficient  about  God  to 
know  the  duty  and  the  blessedness  of  obeying 
him.  Edgar. 

We  see  here  the  maxim  that  ought  to  regulate 
our  zeal  with  respect  to  religious  truth — namely, 
to  direct  it  to  those  things  that  are  revealed, 
and  in  proportion  to  the  plainness  with  which 
they  are  revealed.  The  want  of  this  distinction 
has  been  a  fruitful  source  of  dispute  among 
Christians,  and  has  furnished  much  food  for 

hurtful  speculation.  R.  Hall. - And  this 

further  shows  how  unreasonably  men  object 
against  the  mysterious  wisdom  of  the  Gospel  ; 
since  all  that  the  Gospel  prescribes  to  us  as  our 
duty  is  plain  and  evident  :  all  that  is  m3^steri- 
ous  is  on  God'S  part  and  relates  entirely  to  the 
surprising  acts  of  Divine  wisdom  and  mercj’^  in 
the  redemption  of  the  world.  As  a  rule  of  ac¬ 
tion,  no  religion  was  ever  so  plain,  so  calculated 
upon  the  principles  of  reason  and  nature  ;  so 
that  natural  religion  itself  had  never  more  nat¬ 
ural  religion  in  it.  If  we  consider  the  end  pro¬ 
posed  to  us,  and  the  means  used  to  entitle  us  to 
the  benefit  of  it,  it  grows  mysterious,  and  soars 
above  the  reach  of  human  reason  ;  for  God  has 
done  more  for  us  than  reason  could  teach  us  to 
exjiect,  or  can  now  teach  us  to  comprehend. 
Let  us  then  do  our  part,  wffirch  we  plainl}^  un¬ 
derstand,  and  let  us  trust  in  God  that  he  will 
do  his,  though  it  exceeds  the  strength  of  human 
wisdom  to  comprehend  the  length  and  depth 
and  breadth  of  that  wisdom  and  mercy  which 
God  has  manifested,  to  the  world  through  his 
Son  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  Sherlock. 

The  Nearness,  Clearness,  and  Sufficiency  of 
THE  Divine  Revelation. 

De.  30  : 11-14. 

This  cominaBidiiieiit  is  not  liicldcii, 
neither  far  off.  The  law  of  loving  and 
obeying  God,  which  was  the  subject  of  Moses’s 
discourse,  w^as  well  known  to  the  Israelites. 
They  could  not  plead  ignorance  of  its  existence 


FITNESS  AND  SUFFICIENCY  OF  REVELATION 


705 


and  requirements.  It  was  not  concealed  as  an 
impenetrable  mystery  in  heaven,  for  it  had  been 
revealed  ;  nor  was  it  carefully  withheld  from 
the  people  as  a  dangerous  discovery  ;  for  the 
youngest  and  humblest  of  them  were  instructed 
in  those  truths,  which  were  subjects  of  earnest 
study  and  research  among  the  wisest  and  great¬ 
est  of  other  nations.  They  were  not  under  a 
necessity  of  undertaking  long  journeys  or  dis¬ 
tant  voyages,  as  many  ancient  sages  did  in  quest 
of  knowledge.  They  enjoyed  the  peculiar  priv¬ 
ilege  of  a  familiar  acquaintance  with  it.  It  was 
with  them  a  subject  of  common  conversation, 
engraven  on  their  memories,  and  frequently  Ex¬ 
plained  and  inculcated  on  their  hearts.  Jamie¬ 
son. 

The  things  revealed  are  not  “  hidden” — that 
is,  abstruse  and  hard  to  be  understood  ;  nor 
“  far  off” — that  is,  out  of  thy  reach,  so  that 
thou  canst  pretend  thou  canst  not  attain  to 
them.  They  are  not  “  in  heaven”  — that  is, 
locked  up  there  as  a  secret,  but  revealed  from 
thence  ;  nor  beyond  the  sea” — that  is,  at  such 
a  distance  as  will  expose  men  to  great  danger  to 
arrive  at  them.  But  they  are  “  very  nigh”  thee 
indeed,  as  that  which  thou  ownest  with  “thy 
mouth,”  and  dost  with  “  thy  mind  ”  assent  to. 

Bp.  Kidder. - The  word  was  brought  “  verj^ 

nigh  unto  them,”  even  to  their  very  doors,  by 
Moses  the  servant  of  God,  who  now  delivered 
to  them  the  Divine  will  ;  as  the  Son  of  God 
himself  did  afterward,  when  he  came  and  dwelt 
among  them  ;  and  it  was  made  so  familiar  to 
them,  that  they  might  always  have  it  in  their 
common  discourse,  to  teach  it  their  children  ; 
and  it  had  now  been  so  often  repeated,  that  it 
might  well  be  laid  up  in  their  memory,  never 

to  be  forgotten.  Bp.  Patrick. - Since  God 

himself  pronounces  his  “  commandment  ”  so 
easy  to  be  observed,  because  it  was  “  not  hidden 
from  them,  neither  far  off,”  it  must  liave  been 
the  Israelites’  own  inexcusable  fault,  and  a  vol¬ 
untary  rejection,  if,  having  life  and  death  set 
before  them,  they  would  not  choose  life,  it  being 
absolutely  in  their  own  choice  :  and  our  task  is 
yet  so  much  more  easy  than  theirs  was,  besides 
our  being  freed  from  the  ceremonial  law,  in 
that  we  have  no  temptation  to  that  crying  sin 
of  idolatry,  which  was  their  destruction.  Lord 
Clarendon. 

II,  God's  Woed  is  a “  commandment.”  It 
comes  to  men  with  all  the  character  of  a  law. 
It  is  not  possible  that  we  should  treat  it  as  we 
please.  We  are  not  permitted  to  mutilate  or 
dismember  it— not  permitted  to  accept  a  part 
and  reject  a  part.  As  in  a  tree  the  living  sap 
runs  into  every  branch  and  twig  and  leaf,  so 
45 


that  we  cannot  pluck  the  tiniest  part  without 
breaking  the  vital  current  ;  so  every  part  of 
God's  Scripture  is  instinct  with  high  authority, 
nor  can  we  neglect  the  least  commandment  with¬ 
out  defying  the  majesty  of  heaven.  We  are 
bound  to  bow  our  wills  to  it  ;  it  will,  in  no  de¬ 
gree,  bend  its  requirements  to  suit  our  tastes, 
D.  D. 

14,  On  the  part  of  scriptural  truth,  there  is 
an  exquisite  fitness  to  meet  the  capacity  of 
men’s  minds  and  the  needs  of  their  souls. 
“  The  word  is  nigh  thee  ;  yea,  in  thy  very 
heart.”  There  is  perfect  accord  between  the 
constitution  of  the  man  and  the  contents  of  rev¬ 
elation.  The  Bible  is  the  counterpart  and  com¬ 
plement  of  conscience.  It  is  obvious  that  the 
Lord  of  conscience  is  Lord  of  Scripture  also. 
The  Bible  says,  “  Thou  hast  sinned  ;”  and  con¬ 
science  admits  the  fact.  The  Bible  says, 
“  Thou  art  helpless  to  save  thyself  ’  and  con¬ 
science  knows  it  true.  The  Bible  declares  that 
happiness  is  inseparable  from  obedience  ;  and 
conscience  feels  that  it  is  so.  There  is  a  living 
witness  in  every  man  (until  gagged  by  sin)  which 
testifies  to  the  authority  and  necessity  and  rea¬ 
sonableness  of  God’s  Law.  D.  D. 

God  came  down  to  Mount  Sinai,  and  spoke  to 
the  people  directly.  The  trouble  then  was  that 
he  was  too  near  ;  they  wished  him  farther 
away.  Then  prophets  came,  and  for  fifteen 
hundred  years  the  word  was  brought  very  nigh 
to  men.  At  last  God’s  Son  became  incarnate, 
and  brought  the  message  so  close  to  men  that 
only  the  proud  escaped  it.  The  whole  genius 
of  revelation  is  contained  in  the  remarkable 
words,  “  I  thank  thee,  0  Father,  Lord  of  heaven 
and  earth,  because  thou  hast  hid  these  things 
from  the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed 
them  unto  babes.  Even  so.  Father  :  for  so  it 
seemed  good  in  thy  sight.”  The  revelation  is 
for  babes  ;  for  men  of  a  childlike— not  a  child¬ 
ish — spirit  ;  for  men  who  have  laid  aside  their 
pride  and  presumption,  and  can  take  truth 
trustfully  from  the  Infinite  Father.  The  idea  is 
surely  monstrous  that  God  cannot  break  his 
Divine  bread  small  enough  for  his  human  chil¬ 
dren  ;  that  none  but  men  of  a  certain  mental 
calibre  can  get  hold  of  the  food  or  digest  it.  It 
is  surely  a  diviner  plan  to  bring  the  truth  so 
plainl}’-  home  that  none  have  any  excuse  for  re¬ 
jecting  it.  We  must  humble  ourselves,  and 
recognize  the  truth  brought  in  Jesus  Christ  to 
our  very  door.  If  we  required  terrific  effort  to 
reach  the  truth,  we  would  boast  that  we  had 
succeeded  through  that  effort.  If  it  depended 
on  great  mental  powers  and  struggle,  we  would 
take  credit  for  both.  But  the  fact  is,  it  is 


706 


SECTION  193.  SIMPLICITY  OF  THE  REVELATION 


brought  so  near  to  each  of  us,  and  so  plainly 
home,  that  not  one  of  us  can  boast  of  our  dis¬ 
covery,  but  only  chide  ourselves  that  it  was  so 
long  near  us  and  so  long  overlooked  !  Elgar. 

Its  essential  truths  are  within  the  compass  of 
every  mind.  Every  man  knows  what  it  is  to 
love  ;  that  love  is  due  from  each  man  to  his 
Maker.  Every  child  knows  what  obedience 
means  :  ihat  obedience  is  dae  to  the  Father  of 
our  spirits.  Truly,  some  facts  concerning  the 
eternal  world  are  so  profound  that,  like  ocean- 
depths,  human  reason  cannot  fathom  them. 
But  these  are  not  the  facts  whch  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  man’s  safety  and  hope.  The 
practical  duties  which  appertain  to  virtue  and 
well-being  are  so  plain  that  even  a  child  may 
understand.  Whatever  difficulty  lies  in  the  way 
of  human  obedience,  it  does  not  lie  in  the  haze 
or  uncertain  meaning  of  the  revelation.  The 
difficulty  is  within  a  man,  not  without  him. 
The  objects  of  faith  are  clearly  revealed  ;  we 
want  only  an  eye  to  discern  them.  D.  D. 

The  Apostle  Paul  (Komans  10  :  6-8)  has  ap¬ 
plied  this  passage  to  the  Gospel,  for  the  Law  of 
Christ  is  substantially  the  same  as  that  of 
Moses,  only  exhibited  more  clearlj^  in  its  spirit¬ 
ual  nature  and  extensive  application,  and,  ac¬ 
companied  with  the  advantages  of  Gospel  grace, 

is  practicable  and  easy.  Jamieson. - Paul  not 

merely  adopts  the  language  of  Moses,  but  pur¬ 
sues  the  line  of  his  deepest  thought.  The 
prophet  anticipated  a  time  when  Israel  would 
incur  Divine  wrath  by  disobedience,  and  in- 
:structed  them  to  turn  with  all  their  hearts  to 
God  himself,  whose  word  was  very  nigh.  The 
apostle  in  his  time  saw  Israel  going  astray  from 
God  and  his  righteousness  by  misuse  of  the 
very  Law  of  Moses,  and  about  to  incur  that 
penalty  of  dispersion  which  lies  on  them  unto 
this  day.  Accordingly  he  labored  to  teach  them 
the  contrast  between  righteousness  which  is  of 
the  Law  and  righteousness  which  is  of  God  by 
faith,  and  in  order  to  this,  used  the  language 
originally  employed  by  Moses  for  recalling 
Israel  to  God  ;  the  distinction,  however,  being 
made,  that,  whereas  Moses  spoke  of  the  revela¬ 
tion  of  God  as  their  beneficent  Euler  made  to 
Israel,  Paul  spoke  of  the  fuller  revelation  of  the 
«ame  God  in  his  Son,  and  the  grace  and  truth 
that  have  come  by  Jesus  Christ.  This  Gospel¬ 
teaching,  too,  the  apostle  so  gave  as  to  enlighten 
the  Gentiles  as  well  as  the  Jews,  because  he 
was  a  preacher  of  the  Gospel  of  the  grace  of 
God  to  every  creature.  D.  F. 

God’s  commandment  under  the  Gospel  is  that 
we  believe  in  the  name  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  If 
we  ask,  as  the  blind  man  did.  Lord,  who  is  he  ? 


or  where  is  he,  that  we  may  believe  on  him.? 
this  Scripture  gives  an  answer.  We  need  not 
go  up  to  heaven  to  fetch  him  thence,  for  he  is 
come  down  from  thence  in  his  incarnation  ;  nor 
down  to  the  deep  to  fetch  him  thence,  for  thence 
he  is  come  up  in  his  resurrection.  But  the 
word  is  nigh  us  and  Christ  in  that  word  ;  so  that 
if  we  believe  with  the  heart  that  the  promises 
of  the  incarnation  and  resurrection  of  the  . Mes¬ 
siah  are  fulfilled  in  our  Lord  Jesus,  and  receive 
him  accordingly  and  confess  him  with  our 
mouth,  we  have  then  Christ  with  us,  and  we 
shall  be  saved.  He  is  near,  very  near,  that  jus¬ 
tifies  us.  The  Law  was  plain  and  easy,  but  the 
Gospel  much  more  so.  H. 

God  had  written  to  Israel  the  great  things  of 
his  Law.  He  had  made  known  his  name,  his 
precepts,  the  conditions  of  acceptable  service, 
the  way  of  life  ;  had  given  that  people  a  reve¬ 
lation,  full,  clear,  adequate,  adapted  to  their 
mental  stature,  and  to  their  condition  as  sin¬ 
ners.  And  it  is  this  evangelical  element  in 
Moses’s  “  commandment  ”  which  comes  clearly 
to  light  in  Christ,  and  which  is  embodied  in 
Paul  s  doctrine  of  the  “  righteousness  of  faith.” 
The  words  of  this  passage  apply  with  increased 
force  to  the  historical  revelation  of  the  Saviour. 
They  strikingly  suggest  :  That  man  needs  a 
revelation.  That  he  instinctively  craves  for 
one.  That  he  would  sometimes  make  great  sac¬ 
rifices  in  order  to  get  one.  But  the  revelation 
which  man  needs  most  of  all  is  the  revelation 
of  a  Saviour.  He  wants  to  know  how  he  can 
escape  from  sin,  from  guilt,  from  wrath,  from 
bondage  ;  how  he  can  be  restored  to  holiness, 
to  peace,  to  blessedness.  The  “  command¬ 
ment, ”‘in  its  wider  sense,  gave  him  this  knowl¬ 
edge  in  part  ;  the  full  discovery  is  in  the  Gos¬ 
pel.  The  Word,  in  the  preaching  of  this  Gospel, 
as  well  as  in  the  circulation  of  copies  of  the 
Scriptures,  and  the  innumerable  opportunities 
enjoyed  in  Christian  lands  of  getting  acquainted 
with  the  way  of  life,  has  now  come  very  nigh  to 
us.  It  is  in  our  mouths  and  in  our  hearts, 
while  the  salvation  which  the  Word  makes  known 
is  as  readily  available  as  the  Word  itself  is  sim¬ 
ple  and  intelligible.  Orr. 

Eeligion  is  here  affirmed  to  be  a  very  simple 
thing.  These  farewell  words  of  Moses  touch 
the  high-w^ater  mark  of  his  doctrinal  teaching, 
and  they  are  repeated  by  the  Apostle  Paul,  in 
the  tenth  chapter  of  his  Epistle  to  the  Eomans, 
as  descriptive  of  the  Gospel  which  he  preached. 
Moses  and  Paul  are  in  perfect  agreement  in  their 
conception  of  what  God  requires  of  man.  He 
does  not  demand  impossible  things  at  our 
hands.  He  places  the  truth  beyond  no  earnest 


OBEDIENCE  DEMANDED.  ITS  BLESSED  RESULT. 


707 


man’s  reach.  We  are  not  required  to  scale  the 
heavens,  nor  to  fathom  the  abysses,  nor  to  cross 
the  seas,  in  order  to  secure  the  priceless  treas¬ 
ure.  It  has  a  lodgment  in  every  man’s  heart, 
and  it  springs  unbidden  to  his  lips.  It  simply 
waits  for  his  confession  and  obedience.  Kelig- 
ion  is  a  very  simple  thing,  and  its  simplicity 
constitutes  the  living  unity  between  the  Old 
Covenant  and  the  New.  Peter  sums  it  up  in 
fearing  God,  and  working  righteousness  ;  rever¬ 
ence  and  obedience  are  its  cardinal  virtues. 
Paul  defines  it  as  believing  in  the  heart  that 
God  raised  Christ  from  the  dead,  and  confessing 
him  with  the  mouth  ;  trust  and  obedience  are 
its  essential  qualities.  Elsewhere  these  are 
called  faith  and  repentance,  a  change  of  life 
based  upon  reverence  and  trust.  Nor  is  this  a 
new  version,  introduced  by  Christ  and  bis 
apostles.  Fifteen  hundred  years  before  Moses 
described  it  in  the  same  wa3^  Two  things  are 
emphasized,  and  only  two  ;  turning  to  the  Lord 
with  all  the  heart,  and  keejDing  his  command¬ 
ments.  Faith  and  obedience  were  the  cardinal 
virtues  of  the  Old  Testament  religion,  as  they 
are  of  the  New  The  difference  between  the 
two  is  not  essential,  but  formal.  It  is  the  dif¬ 
ference  betw’^een  promise  and  fulfilment.  The 
ground  of  Abraham’s  faith  w^as  in  what  God 
would  do  ;  the  ground  of  our  faith  is  in  w^hat 
God  has  done  ;  and  in  both  cases  obedience 
springs  from  the  same  loyal,  trustful  temper  of 
heart.  So  far  as  true  religion  consists  in  in¬ 
ward  and  personal  dispositions,  and  in  habits 
of  action  growing  out  of  these,  it  has  always 
been  the  same,  and  it  has  alw^ays  been  very 
simple.  A  little  child  is  its  best  illustration  ; 
for  it  is  essentially  a  life  of  glad  and  voluntary 
trust,  and  of  j)rompt  obedience  to  him  on  whom 
we  depend.  This  conception  of  piety  domi¬ 
nates  the  entire  Old  Testament.  David  did  not 
deceive  himself  on  this  matter,  but  knew  that 
a  broken  heart  and  a  contrite  spirit  were  God’s 
only  acceptable  sacrifices,  Samuel  rebuked 
Saul  wdien  the  latter  presumed  to  cover  his  dis¬ 
obedience  by  an  offering  upon  God’s  altar.  The 
prophets  never  imagined  that  observance  of  the 
elaborate  ancient  ritual  constituted  piety. 
Micah’s  w'ords  are  the  kejuiote  of  the  ancient 
religion  :  “  What  doth  the  Lord  require  of 
thee,  0  man,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy, 
and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God  ?”  Twenty- 
five  hundred  years  ago  those  words  rang  through 
Samaria  and  Judah  ;  and  not  even  Paul  uttered 
anything  more  Christian.  The  two  covenants 
are  one  at  heart  ;  though  we  speak  of  one  as 
the  Law,  and  of  the  other  as  the  Gospel. 
Behrends. 


Last  Words  of  Moses  to  the  People. 

De.  32  : 46,  47. 

This  brief  final  charge  of  Moses,  spoken  after 
his  song  and  before  his  blessing,  is  placed  here 
because  of  its  fitness  as  a  repetition  and  com¬ 
pletion  of  the  truths  here  considered.  B. 

46.  Set  your  heart  unto  all  the 
word§  :  ye  shall  eoinmand  your  eliih 
dreii  to  observe  to  do  all  the  words 
ol'this  law\  Parallel  expretisions  above  :  Verse 
29,  “  That  we  may  do  all  the  words  of  this  law.” 
Verse  14,  ”  The  word  is  nigh  thee,  that  thou 
mayest  do  it.”  These  words  state  plainly 

The  Practical  Purpose  and  the  Bight  Use  of  the 
Divine  Revelation. 

The  first  fundamental  requisite  for  the  proper 
and  effective  use  of  the  Word  of  God  is  the  set¬ 
ting  of  mind  and  heart  upon  its  study  and  aj)- 
prehension,  in  order  to  the  deep  and  permanent 
lodgment  of  its  forceful  and  quickening  truths 
in  the  thoughtful  spiritual  nature.  Then  wdll 
follow  the  second  and  ultimate  purpose  and  use 
of  the  word  ;  the  desire  and  endeavor  to  obey 
its  requirements,  “  to  do  all  the  words  of  this  law." 
The  leading  utterance  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New  is  one  :  Keep  my  commandments  !  The 
one  purpose  for  which  the  Old  and  New  Testa¬ 
ment  are  given,  for  which  all  ‘‘  the  things  re¬ 
vealed  ”  alike  in  both  are  disclosed  from  heaven, 
is  to  invite  and  prompt  and  help  us  to  this 
obedience.  By  our  obedience,  then,  by  our 
reverent  believing  reception  of  the  Divine  com¬ 
mands,  by  our  grateful  trust  in  the  Divine 
promises,  by  a  hearty  surrender  of  will  and  con¬ 
secration  of  life  to  do  the  will  of  God,  and  by 
these  only  may  we  (and  “  our  children  forever”) 
wisely,  rightly,  and  savingly  use  the  priceless 
treasure  of  Divine  revelation.  B. 

The  Sublime  and  Blessed  Result  of  a  Believing, 

Obedient  Reception  of  the  Revealed  Word  {verse 
47). 

For  it  i§  no  vain  tiling  for  you,  be¬ 
cause  it  is  your  life.  Life  is  more  than 
the  sum  of  personal  enjoyments  and  pains 
through  which  it  finds  expression  ;  more  than 
the  length  of  days  in  which  it  is  visible  to  hu¬ 
man  eyes  ;  more  than  the  fulness  of  means 
which  reveals  'to  us  its  power.  All  these  pass 
away,  but  in  the  process  of  their  vanishing  a 
spiritual  result  has  been  fulfilled.  The  soul  of 
the  man  has  been  brought  into  fellowship— a 
fellowship  welcomed  or  disregarded — with  men 
and  with  the  world  and  with  God.  It  has  con- 


708 


SECTION  194.  FOURTH  ADDRESS  CONCLUDED. 


sciously  or  unconsciously  learnt  much  and  done 
much.  It  has  shaped  a  character  for  itself  ;  it 
has  helped  to  shape  a  character  for  others.  It 
is  at  the  end — most  solemn  thought  !— as  it  has 
been  used.  then,  we  can  see,  consists  not  in 

abundance,  in  the  overflowing  richness  of  unem- 
jiloyed  resources  ;  it  springs  not  spontaneously 
from  the  things  ichich  we  possess,  from  our  orig¬ 
inal  endowments,  as  the  necessary  product  of 
natural  gifts.  It  is  the  opportunity  of  the  in¬ 
dividual  to  win  for  God,  by  God’s  help,  that 
which  lies  within  his  reach  ;  to  accomplish  on 
a  scale  little  or  great  the  destiny  of  humanity 
as  It  has  been  committed  to  him  ;  to  consecrate, 
it  may  be,  splendid  wealth  to  copimon  service  ; 
to  transfigure  sordid  cares  by  a  Divine  vision  ; 
to  rise  to  the  truth  of  the  incarnation  as  the 
revelation  of  the  purpose  of  the  Father  for  the 
world  which  he  made.  Westcoit. 

The  doing  or  not  doing  of  God’s  will,  the 
obeying  or  not  obeying  of  God’s  Word,  is  a 
matter  of  life  and  death  to  us.  This  is  the 
simple,  solemn,  uniform  testimony  of  Scripture 
from  its  first  page  to  its  last.  The  Gospel,  with 
its  revelation  of  “life  and  immortality, ’’ only 
heightens  the  solemnity  of  the  alternative.  In¬ 
stead  of  bare  “  life,”  it  is  now  “  eternal  life” 
which  is  proposed  for  our  acceptance,  and  which 
is  lost  or  forfeited  by  sin.  If  “  life’’  is  the 
promise,  the  counter-alternative  is  death,  and 
“  death’’  accordingly  is  denounced  against  the 
sinner  in  Gospel  as  in  Law.  Death  is  the  loss 
of  all  that  makes  existence  a  boon  ;  the  extinc¬ 
tion  in  the  soul  of  holiness,  happiness,  and  love. 
Whatever  the  final  state  of  the  lost  may  be, 
whether  one  of  active  torment  or  not,  it  will  be 
true  death.  The  man  loses  his  “  soul  ” — his 
“  life’’ — “  himself.’’  Oh,  that  men  were  wise. 


that  they  understood  these  things,  and  acted  on 
their  choice  as  wise  men  should  !  Orr. 

All  that  can  give  fullest  value  to  this  life  and 
joy  to  the  next  depends  on  how  we  treat  this 
message  from  God.  “  It  is  not  a  vain  thing  for 
you  ;  it  is  your  life.’’  Apart  from  the  accept¬ 
ance  of  Jesus  Christ  by  faith,  and  a  life  of  loy¬ 
alty  to  God,  there  is  not  a  gleam  of  light  or  hope 
for  the  next  life.  If  God  did  not  allow  his 
message  through  Moses  to  be  slighted  with  im¬ 
punity,  certainly  he  will  not  suffer  men  to 
“  trample  under  foot  the  Son  of  God,”  and  then 
leave  them  unpunished  !  What  dread,  what 
awful  possibilities  as  to  the  fate  of  immortal 
souls  are  trembling  in  the  balance,  while  they 
refrain  from  “  yielding  themselves  unto  God”  ! 
How  earnestly  and  frequently  may  we  with  rea¬ 
son  reiterate  the  words,  ‘‘It  is  your  life”/  All 
that  ensures  life  here  and  hereafter  being  a 
blessing,  depends  on  the  w’ay  men  treat  Jesus 
Christ  and  his  salvation.  C.  C. 


They  will  know  most  of  the  mystery  who  have 
done  most  of  the  Law.  If  we  are  waiting  for 
the  solution  of  the  mystery  before  we  begin  obe¬ 
dience  to  the  Law,  the  mystery  will  never  be 
revealed  to  us  other  than  in  clouds  and  storms 
of  judgment.  We  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight. 
Jesus  said  unto  one  of  his  disciples,  “  Thomas, 
because  thou  hast  seen  me,  thou  hast  believed  : 
blessed  are  they  that  have  not  seen,  and  yet 
have  believed.”  This  is  the  Christian’s  law  of 
action.  He  acknowledges  the  mystery  ;  he  has 
no  reply  whatever  to  many  an  enigma  ;  but  he 
is  sure  that  in  doing  justice,  loving  mercy,  and 
walking  humbly  with  God,  he  is  preparing  him¬ 
self  for  those  great  revelations  which  are  prom¬ 
ised  to  faith,  obedience,  and  love.  J.  P. 


Section  194. 

FOUETH  ADDRESS  CONCLUDED.  GREAT  PROMISES  OF  PARDON,  RESTORATION, 
AND  BLESSING  UPON  SUBSEQUENT  REPENTANCE.  LIFE  AND  DEATH,  BLESS¬ 
ING  AND  CURSING.  GOOD  AND  EVIL  SOLEMNLY  SET  BEFORE  ISRAEL  AS  THE 
FINAL  WORD  OF  THIS  ADDRESS. 

Deutekonomy  30  :  1-10,  15-20. 

De.  30  1  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  when  all  these  things  are  come  upon  thee,  the  blessing 
and  the  curse,  which  I  have  set  before  thee,  and  thou  shalt  call  them  to  mind  among  all  the 

2  nations,  whither  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  driven  thee,  and  shalt  return  unto  the  Lord  thy  God, 
and  shalt  obev  his  voice  according  to  all  that  I  command  thee  this  day,  thou  and  thy  chil- 

3  dren,  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul  ;  that  then  the  Lord  thy  God  will  turn  thy 
captivity,  and  have  compassion  upon  thee,  and  will  return  and  gather  thee  from  all  the  peo- 


PROMISES  UPON  SUBSEQUENT  REPENTANCE. 


709 


4  pies,  whither  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  scattered  thee.  If  any  of  thine  outcasts  be  in  the  utter¬ 
most  i^arts  of  heaven,  from  thence  will  the  Lord  thy  God  gather  thee,  and  from  thence  will  he 

5  fetch  thee  :  and  the  Lord  thy  God  will  bring  thee  into  the  land  which  thy  fatheis  possessed, 
and  thou  shalt  possess  it  ;  and  he  will  do  thee  good,  and  multiply  thee  above  thy  fathers. 

G  And  the  Lord  thy  God  will  circumcise  thine  heart,  and  the  heart  of  thy  seed,  to  love  the  Lord 

7  thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  that  thou  mayest  live.  And  the  Lord  thy 
God  will  put  all  these  curses  upon  thine  enemies,  and  on  them  that  hate  thee,  which  perse- 

8  cuted  thee.  And  thou  shalt  return  and  obey  the  voice  of  the  Lord,  and  do  all  his  command- 

9  ments  which  I  command  thee  this  day.  And  the  Lord  thy  God  will  make  thee  plenteous  in 
all  the  work  of  thine  hand,  in  the  fruit  of  thy  body,  and  in  the  fiuit  of  thy  cattle,  and  in  the 
fruit  of  thy  ground,  for  good  :  for  the  Lord  will  again  rejoice  over  thee  for  good,  as  he  rejoiced 

10  over  thy  fathers  :  if  thou  shalt  obey  the  voice  of  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  keep  his  command, 
ments  and  his  statutes  which  are  written  in  this  book  of  the  law  ;  if  thou  tarn  unto  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thine  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul. 

15  See,  I  have  set  before  thee  this  day  life  and  good,  and  death  and  evil  ;  in  that  I  command 

16  thee  this  day  to  love  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  walk  in  his  ways,  and  to  keep  his  commandments 
and  his  statutes  and  his  judgements,  that  thou  mayest  live  and  multiply,  and  that  the  Lord 

17  thy  God  may  bless  thee  in  the  land  whither  thou  goest  in  to  possess  it.  But  if  thine  heart 
turn  away,  and  thou  wilt  not  hear,  but  shalt  be  drawn  away,  and  worship  other  gods,  and 

18  serve  them  ;  I  denounce  unto  you  this  daj’,  that  j’e  shall  surely  perish  ;  ye  shall  not  jirolong 

19  your  days  upon  the  land,  whither  thou  passest  over  Jordan  to  go  in  to  possess  it.  I  call 
heaven  and  earth  to  witness  against  you  this  daj",  that  I  have  set  before  thee  life  and  death, 
the  blessing  and  the  curse  :  therefore  choose  life,  that  thou  mayest  live,  thou  and  thy  seed  ; 

20  to  love  the  Lord  thy  God,  to  obey  his  voice,  and  to  cleave  unto  him  :  for  he  is  thy  life,  and 
the  length  of  thy  days  :  that  thou  mayest  dwell  in  the  land  which  the  Lord  sware  unto  thy 
fathers,  to  Abraham,  to  Isaac,  and  to  Jacob,  to  give  them. 


30  :  1-10.  It  is  very  comforting  to  pass  from 
so  gloomy  a  chapter  as  the  twenty-eighth  to 
such  a  paragraf)h  as  this.  In  this  thirtieth 
chapter,  the  onlook  and  outlook  of  Moses  are 
much  more  extended  than  before.  So  distantly 
is  his  eye  cast  now,  that  he  sees  in  the  horizon 

a  belt  of  glory  bounding  his  view,  C.  C. - 

The  thirtieth  chapter  foresees  the  tribes  of  Israel 
under  punishment  and  expelled  from  their 
home,  or  taken  captive  by  other  nations.  Then 
follows  the  preaching  of  repentance,  so  power¬ 
fully  carried  out  by  Jeremiah,  Hosea,  Ezekiel, 
and  other  prophets  of  a  later  time.  Turning  to 
God  with  the  heart  and  hearkening  again  to  his 
voice,  the  people  were  to  be  restored  to  their 
land  and  to  his  favor.  Of  this,  Moses  was  per¬ 
mitted  to  give  them  early  assurance  ;  and  thus 
with  a  breadth  of  mercy  and  hope  ended  his 
weighty  discourse  to  the  people.  Think  of  the 
aged  prophet  thus  foreseeing  the  mischief  that 
would  come  on  a  rebellious  people  !  D.  F. 

These  promises  had  no  doubt  their  partial  ful¬ 
filments  in  the  days  of  the  Judges  ;  but  the  fact 
that  various  important  features  of  them  are  re¬ 
peated  in  Jer.  32  :  37  f^qq.,  and  in  Ezek.  11  : 19 
sqq.,  34  : 13  sqq.,  36  :  24  sqq.,  shows  that  none 
of  these  was  regarded  as  exhausting  the  prom¬ 
ises,  In  full  analogy  with  the  scheme  of  proph¬ 
ecy  we  may  add  that  the  return  from  the  Baby¬ 
lonian  captivity  has  not  exhausted  their  depth. 


The  New  Testament  takes  up  the  strain  (e.g.. 
Bom,  11),  and  foretells  the  restoration  of  Israel 
to  the  covenanted  mercies  of  God.  True,  these 
•mercies  shall  not  be,  as  before,  confined  to  that 
nation.  The  “  turning  again  of  the  captivity” 
will  be  when  Israel  is  converted  to  him  in  whom 
the  Law  was  fulfilled,  and  who.  died  “not 
for  that  nation  only,”  but  also  that  he  might 
“  gather  together  in  one  the  children  of  God 
that  were  scattered  abroad  ”  (John  11 :  51,  52), 
Then  shall  there  be  “  one  fold  and  one  shep¬ 
herd  ”  (John  10  : 16).  But  whether  the  general 
conversion  of  the  Jews  shall  be  accompanied 
with  any  national  restoration,  any  recovery  of 
their  ancient  prerogatives  as  the  chosen  peo¬ 
ple  ;  and  further,  whether  there  shall  be  any 
local  replacement  of  them  in  the  land  of  their 
fathers,  may  be  regarded  as  of  “  the  secret 
things”  which  belong  unto  God  ;  and  so  indeed 
our  Lord  himself  teaches  us  (Acts  1  ;  G,  7).  The 
letter  of  the  verses  before  us  and  of  the  parallel 
passages  seems  indeed  to  point  to  both  a  na¬ 
tional  and  a  local  return  of  Israel.  On  the  other 
hand,  in  this  very  passage  verse  G  seems  plainly 
to  intimate  that  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Messiah 
the  ceremonies  and  ordinances  at  any  rate  shall 
reach  that  accomplishment  in  which  the  out¬ 
ward  sign  shall  be  superseded  by  the  thing  sig¬ 
nified  (cf.  Bom.  2:29).  And  God’s  purpose 
may  be  similar  as  regards  the  promises.  The 


710 


SECTION  194.  FOURTH  ADDRESS  CONCLUDED. 


restoration  here  foretold  may  be  realized,  and 
the  promises  to  Abraham  most  abundantly  ful¬ 
filled  to  Israel,  yet  not  to  the  Israel  “  according 
to  the  flesh”  merely,  but  to  that  spiritual  Israel 
■whose  land  is  not  narrowed  to  an 

earthly  Canaan.  To  us  however  the  exact  im¬ 
port  of  the  prophecies  respecting  the  future  of 
the  Jews  must  remain  as  yet,  as  was  the  similar 
inquiry  respecting  the  Messianic  prophecies  in 
pre-Messianic  days,  matter  of  reverent  search 
and  discussion  onlj^  Espln. 

The  hopes  of  the  Hebrew  people  are  ardentl}' 
directed  to  these  promises,  and  they  confidently 
expect  that  God,  commiserating  their  forlorn 
and  fallen  condition,  will  yet  rescue  them  from 
all  the  evils  of  their  long  dispersion.  They  do 
not  consider  the  promise  as  fulfilled  by  their 
restoration  from  the  captivity  in  Bab;\lon,  for 
Israel  was  not  then  scattered  in  the  manner  here 
described — “among  all  the  nations,”  “unto 
the  utmost  parts  of  heaven”  (verse  4)  ;  and 
when  God  recalled  them  from  that  bondage,  all 
the  Israelites  were  not  brought  back,  they  were 
not  multiplied  above  their  fathers  (verse  5), 
nor  were  their  hearts  and  those  of  their  chil¬ 
dren  circumcised  to  love  the  Lord  (verse  6).  It 
is  not,  therefore,  of  the  Babylonish  captivity 
that  Moses  was  speaking  in  this  passage  ;  it 
must  be  of  the  dispersed  state  to  which  they 
have  been  doomed  for  eighteen  hundred  years. 
This  prediction  may  have  been  partiall}'  accom¬ 
plished  on  the  return  of  the  Israelites  from 
Babylon  ;  for,  according  to  the  structure  and 
design  of  Scripture  prophecy,  it  may  have 
pointed  to  several  similar  eras  in  their  national 
history  ;  and  this  view  is  sanctioned  b}^  the 
prayer  of  Nehemiah  (Neh.  1  : 8,  9).  But  un¬ 
doubtedly  it  will  receive  its  full  and  complete 
accomplishment  in  the  conversion  of  the  Jews  to 
the  Gospel  of  Christ.  At  the  restoration  from 
the  Babylonish  captivity,  that  people  were 
changed  in  many  respects  for  the  better.  They 
were  completely  weaned  from  sensible  idolatry  ; 
and  this  outward  reformation  was  a  prelude  to 
the  higher  attainments  they  are  destined  to 
reach  in  the  age  of  Messiah,  “  when  the  Lord 
God  will  circumcise  their  hearts  and  the  hearts 
of  their  seed  to  love  the  Lord.”  The  course 
pointed  out  seems  clearly  to  be  this  :  that  the 
hearts  of  the  Hebrew  people  shall  be  circum¬ 
cised  (Col.  2:2);  in  other  words,  by  the  com¬ 
bined  influences  of  the  Word  and  Spirit  of  God, 
their  hearts  will  be  touched  and  purified  from 
all  their  superstition  and  unbelief  ;  they  will  be 
converted  to  the  faith  of  Jesus  Christ  as  their 
Messiah — a  spiritual  deliverer,  and  the  effect  of 
their  conversion  will  be  that  they  will  return 


and  obey  the  voice  (the  Gospel,  the  evangelical 
law)  of  the  Lord.  The  words  may  be  inter¬ 
preted  either  wholly  in  a  .spiritual  sense  (John 
11  ;  51,  52),  or,  as  many  think,  in  a  literal  sense 
also  (Rom.  11).  Jamieson. 

Their  conversion  to  Christ  is  to  be  the  pre¬ 
liminary  condition  of  their  acceptance  with 
God  ;  for  so  long  as  their  nation  continues  in  a 
state  of  rebellion  against  Christ,  they  are  not  fit 
to  be  redeemed.  And,  in  conformity  with 
Moses,  our  Lord  declared  to  the  unbelieving 
Jews,  “  Behold  your  house”  of  the  Lord“  is  left 
unto  you  desolate  :  for  I  say  unto  you.  Ye  shall 
not  see  me  henceforth,  till  ye  shall  say,”  with 
hearty  repentance  and  true  faith,  Blessed  is 
he  that  cometh  in  the  name  of  the  Lord”  (Matt. 
23  :  38,  39).  Dr.  Hales. 

I.  These  thing;s  are  eome  upon 
thee.  Amid  multiplied  instances  of  oppres¬ 
sion,  misery,  and  contempt,  the  Jews  have  reso¬ 
lutely  continued  through  eighteen  hundred 
years  a  separate  and  distinct  people.  Their 
God  hath  not  cast  them  away,  nor  abhorred 
them,  “  to  destroy  them  utterly  ;”  their  great 
and  wonderful  plagues,  which  were  to  be  “  of 
long  continuance,”  still  remain  ;  the  curses  are 
yet  upon  them,  which,  in  the  strong  language 
of  Scripture,  were  to  be  “  for  a  sign  and  for 
a  wonder”  upon  them  and  their  seed  forever 
(De.  28  : 46,  59).  Not  mingled  and  lost  among 
the  kingdoms  over  which  they  have  been  scat¬ 
tered,  they  retain  the  means,  upon  their  return¬ 
ing  obedience,  of  beholding  “  their  captivity 
turned,”  and  of  being  “  gathered  from  the  na¬ 
tions”  and  restored  to  “  the  land  of  their 
fathers.”  No  cause  but  the  Divine  interposi¬ 
tion  can  satisfactorily  explain  this  extraordinary 

condition  of  a  whole  people.  Richards. - 

CuH  to  liliiacl.  The  repentance  described, 
which  is  the  condition  of  these  promises,  begins 
in  strious  consideration,  “  Thou  shalt  call  to 
mind  that  which  thou  hadst  forgotten,  or  not 
regarded.”  Consideration  is  the  first  step  tow¬ 
ard  conversion  (Is.  46  :  8),  Bring  to  mind,  0  ye 
transgressors.  The  prodigal  son  came  to  him¬ 
self  first,  and  then  to  his  father.  But  that 
which  is  the  life  and  soul  of  repentance,  and 
without  which  the  most  passionate  expressions 
are  but  a  jest,  is,  returning  to  the  Lord  our  God 

with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  soiil.  H. - 

When  Israel  in  his  banishment  brings  back  the 
Word  of  the  Lord  to  his  heart,  and  thus  returns 
to  the  Lord,  then  the  Lord  returns  to  his  mercy 
— i.e.,  to  his  people  languishing  in  trouble  ;  and 
this  return  is  shown  by  his  collecting  them 
again. 

5,  This  is  the  first  of  the  many  prophecies 


FA  VOR  RESTORED  UPON  REPENTANCE. 


711 


which  represents  the  restoration  of  the  people 
of  Israel  as  a  return  unto  their  land,  while  Lev. 
26  ;  45  only  speaks  of  the  continuance  of  the 
covenant.  But  it  by  no  means  follows,  that  be¬ 
cause  their  expulsion  from  their  land  is  to  be 
understood  literally,  therefore  the  return  must 
be  taken  literally  likewise.  Rather,  it  is  an  es¬ 
sential  characteristic  of  the  whole  work  of  re¬ 
demption,  that  it  not  merely  restores  what  was 
forfeited,  but  gives  in  its  place  something  higher 
and  more  glorious.  The  redemption  through 
Christ  does  not  put  man  in  the  position  of 
Adam’s  innocence,  and  reinstate  him  in  para¬ 
dise,  but  the  earthly  paradise  is  a  tj’^pe  of  the 
heavenly  (Luke  23  :  44),  to  which  Christ  admits 
his  redeemed.  He  who  for  Christ’s  sake  leaves 
all  that  he  has,  does  not  receive  a  literal,  but  a 
far  more  glorious  compensation,  in  this  world  ; 
and  so  the  restitution  of  earthly  losses  is  a  type 
of  the  reward  of  believers.  Just  as  little  were 
the  promises  of  seeing  Christ  again  (John 
14:19;  16:16)  fulfilled  in  what  took  place 
after  the  resurrection  ;  and  in  like  manner  this 
and  similar  predictions  were  not  fulfilled  in 
Israel’s  return  after  the  Babylonish  captivity. 
A  literal  restoration  of  the  people  of  Israel  would 
have  renewed  the  old  mode  of  life  with  all  its 
deficiencies,  and  would  have  been  of  no  moment 
to  the  kingdom  of  God  under  the  New  Cov¬ 
enant.  Paul  explains  the  true  sense  of  this 
prophecy  (Rom.  11),  and  refers  its  fulfilment 
partly  to  the  going  forth  of  the  elect  into  the 
new  church,  partly  to  the  conversion  of  the 
whole  people  still  to  come,  which  shall  pour 
fresh  life  into  the  whole  kingdom  of  God  on 
earth,  the  precursor  of  their  entrance  into  the 
heavenly  Canaan.  Gerl, 

The  prophecies  of  the  Hebrew  ScrijDtures  do 
not  outrun  their  historic  relations.  They  take 
the  definite  and  accurate  form  of  the  Hebrew 
polity.  They  are  history  pushed  forward  and 
perfected  in  the  future.  The  reign  of  one  king 
is  made  the  promise  of  another  king  who  is 
greater.  The  services  of  one  high-priest  are 
made  the  type  of  another  transcending  all  his 
predecessors.  The  holy  of  holies  and  the  blood 
of  sprinkling  all  promise  a  better  sacrifice  in  a 
better  tabernacle.  A  national  deliverance  from 
foreign  subjugation  is  made  to  foreshadow  a 
larger  and  worthier  redemption  ;  and  so  through¬ 
out  the  whole  structure  of  the  Hebrew  prophe¬ 
cies.  They  take  the  form,  the  well-defined 
form,  of  those  historic  objects  and  events  from 
which  they  sprung.  History  and  prophecy  are 
joined  together  in  all  the  progress  of  revelation. 
Men  may  reason,  conjecture,  imagine  what  will 
come  to  pass  ;  and  events  may  justify  the  pre¬ 


diction.  But  the  peculiarity  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets  was  that,  springing  out  of  a  historic 
present,  they  described  a  historic  future.  They 
promise  another  Zion,  another  King,  another 
Prophet,  another  Priest,  another  Redeemer,  in 
the  use  of  language  which  actual  history  had 
formed  and  made  intelligible  ;  so  that,  as  a 
whole,  they  pledge  the  coming  of  a  living  person, 
and  the  rise  of  an  actual  state  of  things  which 
may  best  be  represented  by  all  of  dignity,  and 
honor,  and  power,  and  dominion— by  all  of 
purity,  and  gladness,  and  greatness,  which  had 
already  been  associated  with  Jewish  history. 
Our  religion  is  not  composed  of  mere  ideas,  but 
oi facts.  And  that  future  which  is  made  bright 
by  the  Hebrew  prophets  is  not  like  the  aurora 
of  the  northern  pole,  flashing  its  formless  brill¬ 
iancy  in  vacancy  ;  it  promises  the  advent  of  a 
living  Being,  who  is  to  proclaim  truth,  deliver 
from  wrong,  and  establish  a  perpetual  and  uni¬ 
versal  reign  of  righteousness,  love,  and  joy. 
H.  B.  S. 

“  Ood  hath  not  cast  away  his  people.''  Concern¬ 
ing  them  there  is  a  twofold  promise  :  of  their 
conversion  to  God,  and  of  their  restoration  to 
their  land.  Both  are  certain.  Both  will  be  ful¬ 
filled.  The  first,  in  their  conversion  to  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  The  second,  in  whatever 
sense  the  Holy  Ghost  used  the  words,  but  what 
that  sense  is  is  not  so  clear.  When  Israel  is  thus 
restored,  it  will  be  like  “  life  from  the  dead  ” 
(Rom.  11  : 15).  When  the  long-lost  nation  is 
regathered,  when  it  returns  with  weeping  and 
supplication  to  the  Saviour,  and,  saved  by  him, 
sings  the  songs  of  Zion,  then  will  it  become  by 
its  evangelistic  zeil  what  it  now  is  by  its  sacred 
literature — a  priesthood  for  the  world  !  Con¬ 
cerning  all  this,  the  fulfilment  of  past  prophecy 
is  a  prophecy  of  future  fulfilment  !  Let  us, 
then,  ever  hold  the  Hebrew  race  in  high  honor. 
“  Salvation  is  of  the  Jews.”  Let  us  bear  them 
on  oiir  hearts  in  prajmr.  C.  C. 

6.  Repentance  leads  to  entire  renewal  of  a 
man’s  nature.  The  Lord  thy  God  will  cir¬ 
cumcise  thine  heart,  and  the  heart  of  thy  seed.” 
Honest  endeavors  after  a  righteous  life  shows  to 
us  a  corrupt  heart -a  heart  prone  to  love  evil. 
The  man  who  begins  to  pray  for  pardon  soon 
learns  to  pray  for  purity.  Nothing  will  satisfy 
the  mind  (when  divinely  illumined)  short  of 
complete  regeneration.  The  repentant  Jew  dis¬ 
covered  that  the  circumcision  of  the  flesh  ef¬ 
fected  nothing  to  deter  from  sin  ;  now  he  per¬ 
ceives  that  circumcision  of  heart  is  the  only 
real  safeguard.  At  a  later  day,  this  inward 
change  was  more  clearly  pictured  :  “  I  will  take 
away  the  stony  heart  out  of  your  flesh.  ”  To 


712 


SECTION  194.  FINAL  APPEAL:  DEATH  OR  LIFE? 


the  same  effect  Jesus  promised  :  “  If  ye  keep 
my  commandments,  I  will  send  you  another 
Comforter,  even  the  Spirit  of  truth,  who  dwelleth 
with  you,  and  shall  be  in  jmu.”  D.  D. 

7.  Will  put  all  tliesie  curses  upon 
tllhic  cuctiiies.  We  have  examples  of  this 
in  Nebuchadnezzar,  in  Belshazzar,  and  in  Anti- 
ochus  Epiphanes,  who  were  the  three  most  re¬ 
markable  opioressors  of  the  Jewish  nation. 

Pyle. - Jacob,  in  his  prophecy,  figuratively 

foretold  the  retaliation  of  Divine  vengeauce 
upon  the  persecutors  of  the  Jews  (Gen.  49  : 11). 
Balaam  concisely  foretold  it  in  hislast  prophecy 
(Nu.  24  :  24),  and  Moses  more  plainly  in  this 
passage  ;  but  it  was  reserved  for  the  ensuing 
ode  to  describe  these  judgments  in  all  their 
terrors.  (See  next  section.)  hales. 

9,  Repentance  in  men  awakens  purest  joy  in 
God.  “  The  Lord  will  again  rejoice  over  thee 
for  good."  So  Jesus  himself  affirmed  ;  “  There 
is  joy  in  heaven  over  one  sinner  that  repent- 
eth.”  Union  of  nature  and  of  interest  between 
man  and  God  is  intimate.  “  His  glory  is  great 
in  our  salvation.”  “  He  will  rejoice  over  us 
with  singing.”  The  gladness  of  Jehovah  at  the 
comjjleteness  and  beauty  of  creation  was  great  ; 
a  hundred  fold  greater  will  be  his  joy  at  the  final 
success  of  redemption.  Messiah  will  “  see  of 
the  travail  of  his  soul,  and  shall  be  satisfied.’* 

D.  D. - In  a  wider  regard,  this  whole  2Dassage 

teaches  that  to  the  penitent  there  is  :  Forgive¬ 
ness,  with  reversal  of  sentence  of  rejection 
(verse  3).  Redemption  from  bondage  (verses 
3,  4  ;  Col.  1  : 13).  Restoration  to  inheritance 
(verse  5  ;  Eph.  1  : 14).  A  new  heart  and  spirit 
(verse  6).  Deliverance  from  enemies  (verse  7  ; 
2  Thess.  1  ;5,  6).  Untold  blessings  (verse  9  ; 
Eph.  1  ;  3).  Orr. 

Final  Impassioned  Appeal  of  Moses  (verses 

15-20). 

The  mightiest  of  legislators,  preparatory  to 
his  death,  invoked  heaven  and  earth  to  record 
that  he  had  placed  before  his  people  life  and 
death,  and  had  sent  forth  his  benedictions  and 
his  curses  to  his  children  of  Israel  ;  he  had 
warned  them,  that  by  the  strict  observance  of 
this  law,  without  addition  or  diminution,  their 
existence  depended  as  ”  a  holy”  and  “  a  pecul¬ 
iar  peojile.”  Nevermore  than  on  that  solemn 
farewell  were  this  people  of  children  stricken 
by  terror  and  projohecy.  The  last  appearance 
of  Moses  among  his  people  is  an  incident  at 
once  awful  and  pathetic  ;  and  the  prescient  im¬ 
precations,  eloquent  and  terrible,  present  alto¬ 
gether  a  scene  without  a  parallel  in  profane  his¬ 
tory.  D'Israeli. 


The  intense  eagerness  of  Moses  for  the  peo¬ 
ple’s  weal  is  a  sublime  spectacle  of  generous 
devotement — an  unjiaralleled  instance  of  ardent 
alfection.  Calling  up  all  his  powers  of  persua¬ 
sive  and  passionate  appeal,  he  makes  a  hual 
eliort  to  win  the  tribes  for  God.  D.  D. 

Death  and  Vfe  set  before  the  people.  In 
this  earnest  word  Moses  is  summing  U2>  his  de¬ 
liverance.  It  has  been  called  by  Havernick”  the 
classic  passage”  upon  the  subject  of  death  and 
life  as  understood  in  Old  Testament  times. 
“Shut  out  from  the  true  community  of  life,” 
says  Havernick,  “  the  sinner  puts  in  only  a  pre¬ 
tended  life,  without  God,  enduring  and  jiromot- 
ing  ruin  in  himself,  until  death  physical,  with 
its  terrors,  overtakes  him.  The  Divine  penalty 
manifests  itself  to  the  sinner  as  death.”  As  wo 
love  God  with  all  our  heart,  and  soul,  and 
mind,  and  strength,  we  find  that  we  have  begun 
to  live.  On  the  other  hand,  the  loveless  life  is 
only  a  pretended  life,  and  carries  w'ithin  itself 
the  “  Anathema  Maran-atha.  ”  Love  gives  birth 
to  new  obedience,  and  obedience  strengthens 
the  sioiritual  life. 

Separation  from  the  source  of  life  is  death  indeed. 
In  this  striking  jjassage,  while  “good”  and 
”  life  ”  go  together,  so  do  “  death”  and  “  evil.” 
The  idea  in  death  is  not  cessation  of  existence, 
but  sej>aration  from  God.  Adam  and  Eve  died 
the  day  the^’  doubted  God’s  love  and  ate  the 
fruit.  They  ceased  not  to  exist  that  day,  but 
died  out  of  fellowshij;)  with  God.  Hence  we  are 
not  to  associate  an  annihvaiion,  view  with  the 
biblical  idea  of  death.  Men  die  when  they  are 
separated  from  God  as  really  as  the  branch 
broken  from  the  stem.  Sin  is  the  mother  of 
death  (Jas.  1  : 15)  It  brings  it  forth,  because  it 
separates  the  soul  from  him  who  is  the  Fountain 

of  life.  Elgar. - AVords  cannot  paint  sin.  It 

is  only  in  the  light  of  the  great  while  throne,  or 
by  the  flames  of  hell,  or  in  the  revealing  light 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  any  one  can  see  the  real 
character  of  sin.  It  is  the  enemy  of  God.  It 
is  the  transgressor,  of  his  law.  It  is  the  great 
soul-poison  and  heart-plague.  It  is  the  only 
thing  which  really  defiles  or  deforms  the  man. 
It  is  pollution,  misery,  guilt,  incipient  hell.  It 
is  the  only  thing  to  which  we  can  give,  in  its 
fullest  sense,  the  emphatic  name  of  evil.  II im- 
ilton. 

“  Life”  is  more  than  existence — it  is  holy  and 
happy  existence.  ”  Death”  is  not  equivalent  to 
non-existence.  As  respects  the  natural  life,  it 
is  the  separation  of  the  living,  thinking  prin¬ 
ciple  from  the  body,  and  is  compatible  with  the 
survival  of  the  soul  in  a  future  state.  As  re¬ 
spects,  the  spiritual  life— that  life  which  the 


THE  ONLY  ALTERNATIVES. 


713 


believer  has,  and  the  unbeliever  has  not,  even 
now  while  yet  both  have  conscious  being — death 
is  the  cessation  in  the  soul  of  all  holy,  spiritual 
functions,  implying  a  state  of  moral  ruin  and 
disorganization,  but  by  no  means  the  wiping 
out  of  consciousness.  “  Death,”  in  verse  15,  is 
deemed  compatible  with  experience  of  “evil.” 
How  strange  that  between  sitc/i  alternatives  there 
should  be  a  moment’s  hesitation  !  Orr. 

Alternative  lines  of  conduct.  All  possible 
courses  of  life  are  reduced  to  two— one  of  which 
every  man  must  take  ;  a  third  course  is  ex¬ 
cluded.  The  two  are  separately  described.  (1) 
The  course  of  loyalty  is  described  by  the  man’s 
state  of  heart,  “  To  love  the  Lord  thy  God.” 
This  determines  all  that  follows — the  root  out 
of  which  all  flowers  and  fruits  of  obedience 
spring.  This  love  arises  from  a  right  appreci¬ 
ation  of  God.  “  He  is  thy  life,”  yea,  the  life  of 
thy  life.  The  life  promised  is  nothing  less  than 
the  life'of  God.  “  We  shall  be  like  him.”  (2) 
The  course  of  disloyalty  is  defined  as  a  dislike 
of  God  :  “If  thine  heart  turn  away.”  The  des¬ 
tiny  of  disloyalty  is  destruction  :  “  Ye  shall 
surely  perish.” 

16,  Every  element  of  needed  informa¬ 
tion  is  furnished  ;  and  personal  examination  of 
spiritual  facts  is  expected.  Every  man  is  bound 
to.  investigate,  to  ponder,  to  judge.  There  is 
nuihoritaliue  command.  “  I  command  thee.” 
On  the  side  of  righteous  precept  there  is  su¬ 
preme  authority.  Every  appeal  of  God  is  an  ap¬ 
peal  to  the  noblest  part  of  our  nature — to  con¬ 
science.  Every  solicitation  of  the  tempter  is  an 
appeal  to  appetite  and  passion.  There  is  tender 
entreaiy.  To  the  activities  of  wisdom  and  au¬ 
thority  is  added  the  impulse  of  love.  If  man’s 
benevolent  love  prompt  him  to  use  all  measures 
to  turn  the  disloyal  unto  God  ;  how  much  deeper 
must  be  the  love  of  God,  of  which  man’s  affec¬ 
tion  is  but  a  faint  adumbration  !  With  all  the 
pathos  which  human  sympathy  can  lend  to  en¬ 
treaty  Moses  pleads,  “therefore  choose  life.’’ 
D.  D. 

19.  dl00§C.  To  force  his  will  were  to  de¬ 
stroy  the  nature  of  his  creature,  which  grace  is 
not  designed  to  do,  but  only  to  heal  and  assist 
it  ;  and,  therefore,  God  deals  with  man  as  a  free 
agent,  by  instructions  and  commands,  by  prom¬ 
ises  and  threatenings,  by  allurements  and  re¬ 
proofs,  by  rewards  and  punishments.  So  true 
is  the  saying  of  Tertullian,  “  No  man  is  made 

good  against  his  will.’’  Bp.  Womack. - 

“  Therefore  choose  life.”  Choice  or  moral  de¬ 
termination  underlies  our  salvation.  Choice 
underlies  the  possibility  of  love  to  God.  One 
deep  choice  in  the  heart’s  centre  underlies  all  { 


the  separate  acts  of  choice  involved  in  a  life  of 
obedience.  The  choice  God  wishes  involves 
the  choosing  of  Himself,  with  a  view  to  lo\e 
him,  to  obey  him,  and  to  cleave  to  him.  The 
choice  of  God  is  the  choice  of  life,  and  carries 
all  lesser  good  with  it.  Orr. 

Here  is  jaresented  a  series  of  considerations, 
cumulative  in  their  force,  which  should  be 
deeply  pondered  in  strict  order  of  progress. 
(1)  Here  is  a  great  mass  of  truth  sU  bt^fore  men's 
consciences  and  hearts.  There  are  few  words  and 
phrases  here  given,  in  form  most  short  and 
simple,  yet  in  meaning  how  august  !  how  deep  ! 
how  high  !  They  are  such  as  these-- God — the 
Lord  thy  God— good — evil — life— death — bless¬ 
ing — cursing.  “  Dread  words  !  whose  meaning 
has  no  end,  no  bound.”  There  are  immeasur- 
ble,  yea,  infinite  realities  behind  them.  And 
having  once  been  lodged  in  the  conscience  with 
the  significance  which  is  theirs,  no  power  can 
dislodge  them,  nor  can  any  one  cause  it  to  be  to 
the  man  as  if  he  had  never  heard  them.  (2)  A 
great  duty  presses  on  men  with  whom  this  tridh  is 
deposited.  To  love  the  Lord,  to  obey  him,  to 
cleave  to  him,  to  walk  in  his  ways,  and  to  keep 
his  commandments,  and  his  statutes,  and  judg¬ 
ments — this  is  obviously  the  right  course  for 
men  to  follow.  The  Lord  God  is  holy,  and  all 
his  commandments  are  so  too  ;  and  it  is  intrin¬ 
sically  and  manifestly  right  to  follow  what  is 
holy.  As  our  Maker  and  Preserver,  God  has 
supreme  claims  on  our  loyalty  of  heart  and  life. 
As  our  Lawgiver,  he  has  the  infinite  right  to  re¬ 
quire  our  obedience.  As  'our  Infinite  Bene¬ 
factor,  having  commended  his  love  toward  us, 
having  bought  us  with  a  price,  he  has  a  claim 
of  love  as  well  as  a  right  of  law.  And  it  is  not 
possible  for  a  man  to  dispute  this  claim  unless 
his  nature  is  becoming  so  perverted  that  he  be¬ 
gins  to  call  evil  good,  or  good  evil.  (3)  A 
great  blessing  will  follow  loyalty  and  obedience. 
This  is  so  under  the  Gospel,  as  really  as  under 
the  Law.  For  the  Law  rested  on  a  basis  of  gos¬ 
pel,  and  the  Gospel  brings  with  it  its  own  law. 
The  Gospel  call  is,  “Repent,  believe,  obe3^’' 
This  is  the  precise  and  immutable  order.  The 
grace  of  God  teaches  us  that  “  we  should  live 
soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  in  this  present 
world,  looking  for  that  blessed  hope,”  etc.  And 
we  know  what  is  the  promised  issue  :  “  Godli¬ 
ness  .  .  .  hath  premise  of  the  life  that  now  is, 
and  of  that  which  is  to  come.”  “  For  God  is 
our  life  and  the  length  of  our  days.”  Peace, 
joy,  hope,  and  all  joyful  graces  and  blessings 
attend  on  a  life  which  is  in  accordance  with 
God’s  will.  (4)  It  is  not  possible  that  opposite 
moral  courses  should  have  like  issues.  If  to  love 


714 


SECTION'  194.  CHOOSE  LIFE! 


and  obey  God  be  good  and  tends  to  good,  then 
the  reverse  must  be  evil,  and  can  work  nothing 
but  evil.  And  such  ill  effects  must,  for  aught 
we  know,  go  on  forever  and*  ever  unless  some¬ 
thing  or  some  being  interposes.  The  outlook 
for  the  despisers  of  Christ  in  the  next  life  is 
darkness  without  a  gleam  of  the  light  of  hope 
in  the  distant  horizon.  And  even  in  this  life 
nothing  but  woe  can  possibly  be  to  him  who 
striveth  with  his  Maker.  (5)  There  are  witnesses 
that  we  have  not  been  left  'undirected  and  unwarned. 
Compare  with  this  solemn  adjuration  of  Moses 
that  of  Paul  in  Acts  20  :  2G,  27  ;  Phil.  1  : 8. 
“  Heaven”  was  witness.  For  every  warning 
given  to  men  in  God’s  name  is  known  and  re¬ 
ceived  on  high.  ”  Earth”  is  witness,  for  the 
record  of  the  warning  is  published  to  the  world. 
C.  C. 

The  Bible,  all  through,  presses  men  with 
threatenings  of  punishment,  and  holds  out  to 
them  promises  of  happiness  to  lead  them  to  a 
new  life.  But  this  is  to  be  remembered,  that 
it  begins  its  work  with  men  who  are  sunk  in 
sin,  and  that  the  essence  of  sin  is  selfishness. 
It  must  arrest  and  raise  them  by  motives  adapted 
to  their  condition,  provided  that  these  motives 
are  not  wrong,  and  enlightened  self-interest — 
that  is,  self  interest  which  is  consistent  with  the 
good  of  others,  is  not  wrong.  The  Bible  is  too 
broad  and  human  not  to  bring  all  fair  motives 
into  exercise.  It  is  too  philosophical  to  lose 
itself  in  the  over-refinements  of  some  modern 
philosophies  which  touch  fallen  human  nature 
as  a  needle  might  a  coat  of  mail.  It  has  its  still 
small  voice,  but  it  has  its  thunder  before  it. 
The  sleeper  must  be  roused  to  listen  ;  and  be¬ 
fore  the  Gospel,  and  even  icith  it,  we  must  have 
Sinai’s  word,  “  The  soul  that  sinneth  it  shall 
die.”  All  through,  in  the  Old  Testament  and 
also  in  the  New,  we  have  the  principle,  “  If 
thou  art  wise  thou  shalt  be  wise  for^th^^self.  ” 
“  Behold  I  have  set  before  thee  death  and  life.” 
But  the  Bible  is  constantly  advancing  from  the 
domain  of  threatening  and  outward  promise  to 
that  of  free  and  unselfish  love.  Its  strength  of 
appeal  from  the  very  beginning  lies  in  the 
mercy  of  God  pardoning  unconditionally— a 
mercy  which,  when  the  clouds  are  severed,  is 
seen  to  be  the  face  of  the  Son  of  God  and  the 
Man  of  Sorrows  devoting  himself  fo.r  those  who 
had  no  claim  on  him  but  that  of  guilt  and  mis¬ 
ery.  He  comes  from  a  throne  to  a  cross  for 
them,  and  v^e  see  written  on  it,  “  Herein  is  love, 
not  that  we  loved  God,  but  that  God  loved  us.” 
This  love  comes  from  a  Divine  fountain  through 
a  human  heart,  that  human  hearts  may  feel  the 
responsive  throb,  “  We  love  him  who  first  loved 


us.”  When  his  law  is  inculcated,  it  is  not  that 
punishment  may  be  escaped,  but  affection  mani¬ 
fested.  If  heaven  is  promised,  it  is  not  a  con¬ 
ditional  reward,  but  a  free  and  godlike  gift  ;  and 
this  heaven  in  its  essence  is  not  a  world  of  ex¬ 
ternal  delight,  but  of  inward  joy  in  the  love  and 
likeness  of  God,  and  deliverance  from  that  sin 
and  fyrant  self,  which  are  now  cur  prison  and 
our  pain.  As  a  man  rises  into  the  knowledge 
of  the  Divine  plan  he  seeks  and  serves  God,  not 
from  the  hope  of  what  he  is  to  receive //om  him, 
but  from  the  delight  which  he  finds  in  him— in 
the  true,  the  pure,  the  loving  that  dwell  in  the 
Father  of  Lights,  and  that  in  their  present  pos¬ 
session  contain  the  pledge  of  eternal  inheri¬ 
tance.  Ker. 

As  there  is  but  one  alternative  hereafter — 
heaven  for  the  holy,  and  hell  for  the  unholy — 
so  on  earth  there  is  either  confession  or  denial 
of  God.  They  who  do  not  deny  him  confess 
him :  those  who  do  not  confess,  deny  him. 
Surely  this  is  an  awful  thought  !  Where  then 
are — not  the  undoubted,  bold,  and  rebellious 
sinners,  but  the  easy,  quiet,  jjeaceful  people  ? 
those  who  live  like  their  neighbors,  and  do  not 
desire  or  pretend  to  be  singularly  holy  ?  those 
who  do  as  much  as  in  men  s  judgments  wilt  do, 
and  spare  themselves  further  trouble '?  those 
whom  unpopularity  affrights,  and  opposition 
makes  so  cautious,  that  they  do  nothing?  Can 
they  believe  themselves  to  be  confessors —brave, 
earnest,  and  invincible  confessors — before  men, 
whose  confession  will,  through  God’s  mercy  in 
Christ,  earn  his  confession  in  the  day  of  judg¬ 
ment  ?  Can  they  imagine  this  ?  And  if  they  be 
not  confessors,  what  are  thej^  ?  G.  M. 

Ardor  must  be  matched  with  consistency. 
You  are  not  to  be  carried  to  heaven  by  a  fitful 
religion,  periodically  raised  from  the  dead  at 
seasons  of  social  exhilaration  ;  not  by  a  re¬ 
ligion  alive  at  church,  but  stagnant  in  the  streets 
and  in  the  market-places  ;  not  by  a  religion 
kindling  at  some  favored  hour  of  sentimental 
meditation,  only  to  sink  and  flicker  in  the 
drudgery  of  common  work.  It  is  to  little  imr- 
pose  that  we  read  and  circulate  and  preach  the 
Bible,  except  all  our  reading  and  all  our  living 
gain  thereby  a  more  Biblical  tone.  And  it  is 
quite  futile  that  our  breasts  glow  with  some 
fugitive  feeling  in  the  house  of  God,  unless  that 
feeling  dedicates  our  common  dwellings  to  bo 
all  houses  of  God.  There  must  be  prayer  to 
hallow  labor.  There  must  be  faith  to  consecrate 
enterprise.  There  must  be  holiness  to  sanctify 
business.  There  must  be  a  cordial  “  Thy  will 
be  done,”  uttered  to  a  personal  God,  to  inter¬ 
pret  suffering.  F.  D.  H. 


715 


SECTION  195. 


Religion  is  no  dry  morality  ;  no  slavish  punc¬ 
tilious  conforming  of  actions  to  a  hard  law. 
Religion  is  not  right  thinking  alone,  nor  right 
emotion  alone,  nor  right  action  alone.  Religion 
IS  still  less  the  semblance  of  these  in  formal 
profession,  or  simulated  feeling,  or  apparent  rec¬ 
titude.  Religion  is  not  nominal  connection 
with  the  Christian  community,  nor  participa¬ 
tion  in  its  ordinances  and  its  worship.  But  to 
be  godly  is  to  be  Godlike.  The  full  accord  of 
all  the  soul  with  His  character,  in  whom,  as 
their  native  home,  dwell  “  whatsoever  things 
are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are  lovely,”  and  the 
full  glad  conformity  of  the  will  to  hi^  sovereign 
will,  who  is  the  life  of  our  lives — this,  and  noth¬ 


ing  shallower,  nothing  narrower,  is  religion  in 
its  perfection  ;  and  the  measure  in  which  we 
have  attained  to  this  harmony  with  God,  is  the 
measure  in  which  we  are  Christians,  If  we  look 
backward  from  character  and  deed  to  motive, 
this  harmony  with  God  results  from  lore  hecominy 
the  ruling  power  of  our  lives.  The  love  revealed 
is  the  perfect  law,  and  the  love  evoked  is  the 
fulfilling  of  the  Law.  And  this  is  the  might 
and  nobleness  of  the  Christian  love  to  God  ; 
that  it  is  no  idle  emotion  or  lazy  rapture,  no 
vague  sentiment,  but  the  root  of  all  practical 
goodness,  of  all  strenuous  effort,  of  all  virtue, 
and  of  all  praise.  A.  M. 


Section  195.  .  . 

SPECIAL  MESSAGES:  ENCOURAGING  ASSURANCES  TO  THE  PEOPLE.  INSPIRING 
CHARGE  TO  JOSHUA.  PRIESTS  AND  ELDERS  TO  PRESERVE  AND  PUBLICLY 
READ  THE  WRITTEN  LAW.  PUBLIC  SUMMONS  OF  MOSES  AND  JOSHUA  TO 
THE  TABERNACLE.  DIVINE  ANNOUNCEMENT  AND  SPECIAL  COMMAND  TO 
MOSES.  JEHOVAH’S  CHARGE  TO  JOSHUA.  THE  LAW  COMPLETED  AND  PLACED 
BY  THE  ARK. 

Deutekonomy  31  : 1-29. 

De.  311  And  Moses  went  and  spake  these  words  unto  all  Israel.  And  he  said  unto  them, 

2  I  am  an  hundred  and  twenty  years  old  this  day  ;  I  can  no  more  go  out  and  come  in  :  and  the 

3  Lord  hath  said  unto  me.  Thou  shalt  not  go  over  this  Jordan.  The  Lord  thy  God,  he  will  go 
over  before  thee  ;  he  will  destroy  these  nations  from  before  thee,  and  thou  shalt  possess 

4  them  :  and  Joshua,  he  shall  go  over  before  thee,  as  the  Lord  hath  spoken.  And  the  Lord 
shall  do  unto  them  as  he  did  to  Sihon  and  to  Og,  the  kings  of  the  Amorites,  and  unto  their 

5  land  ;  whom  he  destroyed.  And  the  Lord  shall  deliver  them  uj)  before  you,  and  ye  shall  do 

6  unto  them  according  unto  all  the  commandment  which  I  have  commanded  you.  Be  strong 
and  of  a  good  courage,  fear  not,  nor  be  affrighted  at  them  ;  for  the  Lord  thy  God,  he  it  is  that 

7  doth  go  with  thee  ;  he  will  not  fail  thee,  nor  forsake  thee.  And  Moses  called  unto  Joshua, 
and  said  unto  him  in  the  sight  of  all  Israel,  Be  strong  and  of  a  good  courage  ;  for  thou  shalt 
go  with  this  people  into  the  land  which  the  Lord  hath  sworn  unto  their  fathers  to  give  them  ; 

8  and  thou  shalt  cause  them  to  inherit  it.  And  the  Lord,  he  it  is  that  doth  go  before  thee  ;  he 
will  be  with  thee,  he  will  not  fail  thee,  neither  forsake  thee  ;  fear  not,  neither  be  dismayed. 

9  And  Moses  wrote  this  law,  and  delivered  it  unto  the  priests  the  sons  of  Levi,  which  bare 

10  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord,  and  unto  all  the  elders  of  Israel.  And  Moses  commanded 

11  them,  saying.  At  the  end  of  every  seven  3"ears,  in  the  set  time  of  the  j’ear  of  release,  in  the 
feast  of  tabernacles,  when  all  Israel  is  come  to  appear  before  the  Lord  thy  God  in  the  place 

12  which  he  shall  choose,  thou  shalt  read  this  law  before  all  Israel  in  their  hearing.  Assemble 
the  people,  the  men  and  the  women  and  the  little  ones,  and  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thj^ 
gates,  that  they  may  hear,  and  that  they  may  learn,  and  fear  the  Lord  your  God,  and  observe 

13  to  do  all  the  words  of  this  law  ;  and  that  their  children,  which  have  not  known,  may  hear, 
and  learn  to  fear  the  Lord  your  God,  as  long  as  j’^e  live  in  the  land  whither  ye  go  over  Jordan 
to  possess  it. 

14  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Beholrl,  thy  days  approach  that  thou  must  die  :  call  J  .^uu.i, 
and  present  yourselves  in  the  tent  of  meeting,  that  I  may  give  him  a  charge.  And  Moses  and 

15  Joshua  went,  and  presented  themselves  in  the  ter^t  of  meeting.  And  the  Lord  appeared  in 

16  the  Tent  in  a  pillar  of  cloud  :  and  the  pillar  of  cloud  stood  over  the  door  of  the  Tent.  And 
the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Behold,  thou  shalt  sleep  with  thy  fathers  ;  and  this  people  will 


71G 


SECTION  195.  SPECIAL  MESSAGES. 


rise  up,  and  go  a  whoring  after  the  strange  gods  of  the  land,  whither  they  go  to  be  among 

17  them,  and  will  forsake  me,  and  break  my  covenant  which  I  have  made  with  them.  Then  my 
anger  shall  be  kindled  against  them  in  that  day,  and  I  will  forsake  them,  and  I  will  hide  my 
face  from  them,  and  they  shall  be  devoured,  and  many  evils  and  troubles  shall  come  upon 
them  ;  so  that  they  will  say  in  that  day,  Are  not  these  evils  come  upon  us  because  our  God  is 

18  not  among  us?  And  I  will  surely  hide  my  face  in  that  day  for  all  the  esil  which  they  shall 

19  have  wrought,  in  that  thej'  are  turned  unto  other  gods.  Now"  theietore  write  ye  this  song  for 
you,  and  teach  thou  it  the  children  of  Israel :  put  it  in  their  mouths,  that  this  song  may  be  a 

20  witness  for  me  against  the  children  of  Israel.  For  when  I  shall  have  brought  them  into  the 
land  which  I  sware  unto  their  fathers,  flowing  with  milk  and  honej"  ;  and  they  shall  have  eaten 
and  filled  themselves,  and  waxen  fat  ;  then  will  they  turn  unto  other  gods,  and  serve  them, 

21  and  despise  me,  and  break  my  covenant.  And  it  shall  come  to  pass,  wdien  many  evils  and 
troubles  are  come  upon  them,  that  this  song  shall  testify  lefore  them  as  a  witness  ;  for  it  shall 
not  be  forgotten  out  of  the  mouths  of  their  seed  :  for  J  know  their  imaginaiion  which  they 

22  go  about,  even  now%  before  I  have  brought  them  into  the  land  which  I  sware.  (So  Moses 

23  wrote  this  song  the  same  day,  and  taught  it  the  children  of  Israel.)  And  he  gave  Joshua  the 
son  of  Nun  a  charge,  and  said.  Be  strong  and  of  a  good  courage  :  for  thou  shall  bring  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  Israel  into  the  land  which  I  sware  unto  them  :  and  I  will  be  with  thee 

24  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  Moses  had  made  an  end  of  writing  the  words  of  this  law  in  a 

25  book,  until  they  were  finished,  that  Moses  commanded  the  Levites,  which  bare  the  ark  of  the 

26  covenant  of  the  Lord,  saying.  Take  this  book  of  the  law,  and  put  it  by  the  side  of  the  ark  of 

27  the  covenant  of  the  Lord  your  God,  that  it  may  be  there  for  a  w"itness  against  thee.  For  I 
know  thy  rebellion,  and  thy  stiff  neck  :  behold,  while  I  am  yet  alive  with  you  this  day,  ye 

28  have  been  rebellious  against  the  Lord  ;  and  how  much  more  after  my  death  ?  Assemble  unto 
me  all  the  elders  of  your  tribes,  and  your  officers,  that  I  may  speak  these  words  in  their  ears, 

29  and  call  heaven  and  earth  to  witness  against  them.  For  I  know  that  after  my  death  ye  will 
utterly  corrupt  yourselves,  and  turn  aside  from  the  "way  which  I  have  commanded  you  ;  and 
evil  will  befall  you  in  the  latter  days  ;  because  3"e  will  do  that  which  is  evil  in  the  sight  of  the 
Lord,  to  provoke  him  to  anger  through  the  work  of  j’our  hands. 


In  this  chapter  the  grand  old  man,  with  a 
touching  allusion  to  his  infirmities  and  ap¬ 
proaching  death,  in  the  presence  of  the  people 
impressively  passes  over  into  the  hands  of  his 
successor  his  great  trust,  and  at  the  same  time 
delivers  with  suitable  instructions  to  the  priests 
a  copy  of  what  he  calls  “  this  Law.”  Uj}  to  this 
point  what  could  be  more  obvious  than  a  com¬ 
plete  oneness  of  design  and  representation 
throughout  the  Book  of  Deuteronomy?  The  be¬ 
ginning  (1  :  3,  5)  looks  forward  to  the  end  ;  and 
the  end  while  taking  up  the  very  epithets  and 
phrases  of  the  beginning  carries  on  its  thought 
to  the  only  possible  climax.  It  is,  in  short,  the 
unity  of  nature,  of  inward  logical  dependence 
and  sequence,  and  no  uniformity  forced  upon 
it  from  without.  To  this  unity  the  two  follow¬ 
ing  chapters  containing  Moses’s  song  and 
Moses’s  blessing  makes  certainly  no  interrup¬ 
tion.  They  rather  grow  out  of  the  circum¬ 
stances  that  go  before,  as  the  flower  from  its 
bud.  They  are  strictly  Deuteronomic  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  word  and  fittingly  crown  the 
work  ;  and  both  are  documentarily  claimed  as 
utterances  of  Moses  just  prior  to  hisclim))ing  of 

Nebo  on  his  way  to  the  better  Canaan.  E.  C.  B. 

» 

“  God  buries  his  ministers,  but  he  carries  on 


his  work.”  Hence  Moses  first  addresses  all  the 
people  ;  then  he  turns  to. Joshua,  confirming 
him  as  the  future  leader  (verses  7,  8)  ;  and 
finally  to  the  priests,  who  are  to  be  henceforth 
the  custodians  and  guardians  of  the  holy  Law. 
Having  thus  handed  over  the  leadership  of  an 
army,  and  the  conservation  of  a  faith,  Moses 
has  little  else  to  do  but  to  go  up  and  die.  C.  C. 

- Had  Moses  lived  longer,  he  could  never 

have  been  greater  than  he  is.  He  might  have 
seemed  less.  Joshua  must  increase,  he  must 
decrease.  Fitlj",  therefore,  is  he  removed  be¬ 
fore  the  decline  of  his  influence  begins.  The 
great  thing  is  to  have  done  one’s  work — to  have 
fulfilled  the  ends  for  which  life  was  given. 
That  done,  removal  is  in  no  case  a  loss,  and  in 
most  cases  a  boon  in  disguise.  Orr. 

Encouraging  Assurances  io  the  People  (verses  3-6). 

Though  Moses  was  no  longer  to  be  their 
leader,  he  assures  them  that  the  Lord  would 
fulfil  his  engagement  to  conduct  them  to  the 
possession  of  Canaan,  even  as  he  had  already 
given  them  the  territory  of  the  kings  of  the 
Amorites  ;  and  he  therefore  exhorts  them  to  be 
of  good  courage  and  fearlessly  go  forward  to  the 
conquest  of  the  land.  W.  L.  A. 


MOSES  CHARGES  JOSHUA,  AND  THE  PRIESTS  AND  ELDERS. 


717 


C,  God  can  never  fail  the  man  of  faith.  Hav¬ 
ing  pledged  his  presence,  we  are  well  insured. 
For  him  to  forsake  his  friends  is  an  impossibil- 
it}’.  “  The  mountains  may  depart,  and  the  hills 

be  removed  ;  but  never  shall  the  covenant  of 
his  faithfulness  fail.”  D.  D. 

Charge  of  Mo^es  to  Joshua  in  Publicly  Transfer¬ 
ring  the  Leadership  {verses  7,  8). 

This  stimulating  and  encouraging  charge  is 
replete  with  assurances  of  Jehovah’s  presence 
and  help,  and  thus  of  Joshua’s  certain  success 
in  his  great  mission  as  leader  of  the  host  of 
Go(i.  B. 

There  is  something  wonderfully  pathetic  in 
the  great  leader,  whose  eye  is  yet  undimmed, 
laying  down  his  trust  beside  the  Jordan.  He  is 
a  hundred  and  twenty  years  old,  but  tbe  Lord 
hath  denied  him  the  privilege  of  entering  the 
land  of  promise.  He  now  resigns  his  command 
to  Joshua  as  his  successor.  It  might  have  dis 
coiii'Hged  the  peop’e,  the  loss  of  their  great 
leader  ;  but  he  points  them  upward  to  the  Lord 
their  God,  who  had  been  the  real  Leader  in  tbe 
exodus  and  pilgrimage,  and  who  was  going  at 
their  head  across  tbe  Jordan.  Tbeir  faith  in 
the  invisible  Leader  is  to  be  strengthened  now 
that  the  visible  and  human  leader  is  to  be  taken 
away  from  them.  Besides,  they  are  to  have 
Joshua  as  the  captain  of  the  host.  Moses  had 
received  a  wondrous  preparation,  first  at  his 
mother’s  knee,  next  in  the  palace  of  Pharaoh, 
and  next  in  the  solitudes  of  Midian.  And 
Joshua,  who  is  to  succeed  him  as  leader,  though 
not  as  lawgiver,  has  also  received  important 
preparation.  He  is  first  associated  with  Moses 
in  the  mount,  as  he  is  receiving  the  Law.  He 
is  thus  trained  to  firm  faith  in  the  invisible 
King,  and  accustomed  to  his  wonders.  He  is 
next  exercised  in  battle,  leading  the  Israelites 
against  Amalek  and  proving  himself  skilful  in 
the  field  He  had  also,  as  a  spy,  become  mi¬ 
nutely  acquainted  with  the  land  of  promise,  and 
brought  up  with  Caleb  an  encouraging  report. 
None  was  so  fitted  as  he  for  high  command.  As 
the  twelve  were  carefully  trained  to  be  the  apos¬ 
tles  of  the  Church,  so  was  Joshua  trained,  and 
so  is  every  one  selected  for  important  work. 
Edgar. 

Priests  and  Elders  to  Keep  and  to  Read  the  Law 
(verses  9-13). 

Moses  turns  next  to  the  priests  and  the  elders, 
and  to  them  he  commits  the  custody  of  the 
Law,  with  the  injunction  to  read  it  to  the  peo¬ 
ple  at  the  end  of  every  seven  years  during  the 
festival  of  the  year  of  release — viz.,  at  the  Feast 


of  Tabernacles,  when  they  appeared  before  the 
Lord.  The  Law  was  committed  to  the  priests 
and  elders,  not  merely  to  preserve  it  in  safe 
keeping,  but  that  they  might  see  to  its  being 
observed  by  the  people.  W.  L.  A. 

Moses  was  not  only  the  leader  of  the  people, 
but  also  the  receiver,  transcriber,  and  guardian 
of  the  Law.  As  the  nation  became  consoli¬ 
dated,  this  double  work  could  certainly  become 
too  heavy  for  one  man  to  discharge.  Hence  he 
commissions  one  man  to  bo  the  leader  of  an 
army,  and  another  set  of  men  to  be  the  conser¬ 
vators  of  the  truth.  Joshua  is  leader.  The 
priests  are  to  be  the  keepers  and  teachers  of  the 
Law.  C.  C. 

9.  Moles  wrote  this  L.aAV.  The  Scrip¬ 
ture  calls  all  that  is  contained  in  these  five 
books  by  the  name  of  the  Law.  Paul  quotes 
from  Genesis,  Nehemiah  from  Exodus,  Josiah 
from  Leviticus,  Hezekiah  from  Numbers,  and 
Joshua  from  Deuteronomy  ;  yet  each  speaks  of 

the  Law.  Bp.  Kidder. - It  is  clear  from  this 

passage,  as  it  is  from  verses  24-26,  that  Moses 
is  the  author  of  all  the  five  books  of  Scripture 
which  bear  his  name.  AinI  delivered  it. 
This  solemn  delivery  of  the  written  Law  to  the 
priests  and  elders  was  to  be  to  them  both  a 
token  of  the  close  connection  betvveen  the  eccle¬ 
siastical  and  civil  constitution  of  Israel,  and  of 
the  incompetence  of  either  the  Levites  or  the 
elders  properly  to  fulfil  their  office  without  the 
Law  of  God.  Another  object  of  this  delivering 
up  of  the  Law  was  to  lay  them  under  obligation 
to  read  it  in  public  every  seven  years  (verse  10), 
that  it  might  remain  sacred  and  inviolable  to 
the  children  and  posterity  of  Israel,  and  to  the 
strangers  within  their  gates.  A  second  delivery 
of  it  to  the  Levites,  at  which  neither  the  elders 
nor  the  people  were  present,  occurs  afterward 
at  verses  24-26.  This  shows  that,  after  the  first 
and  solemn  delivery,  which  was  intended  to  im 
pose  a  special  obligation,  the  book  of  the  Law 
was  taken  back,  and  what  is  contained  from 
verses  14-23  subsequently  appended  to  it. 
0.  G.  B. 

10.  In  the  year  of  relea§e.  The  sev¬ 
enth  year  was  chosen  for  this  purpose,  because 
all,  both  males  and  females,  might  then  assemble 
at  Jerusalem  without  detriment  to  their  private 
interests,  for  there  was  a  cessation  from  all 
labor  ;  they  neither  sowed  nor  reaped,  and  agri¬ 
culture  was  altogether  at  a  standstill.  There 
was  therefore  no  business  to  prevent  them  from 
celebrating  that  festival,  whereby  God  repre¬ 
sented  to  them  in  a  lively  manner  how  miracu¬ 
lously  he  had  preserved  their  fathers  in  the 
desert.  The  Law  indeed  commanded  them  to 


718 


SECTION  195.  JEHOVAH  CALLS  AIOSES  AND  JOSHUA, 


go  forth  from  their  houses  every  year,  and  to 
pass  seven  days  under  the  boughs  of  trees  ;  but 
in  the  Sabbatical  year,  when  all  was  at  rest  at 
home,  it  was  more  convenient  for  them  to  go  up 
to  Jerusalem  from  all  quarters,  that  by  their 
very  multitude  they  might  the  better  testify 
their  gratitude.  Therefore  it  is  added,  “  when 
all  Israel  is  come,”  etc.  Calvi. 

As  the  reading  was  to  be  only  once  in  seven 
years,  it  may  be  concluded  that  it  was  not  so 
much  for  the  information  of  the  people  that  this 
was  done,  as  for  the  purpose  of  publicly  declar¬ 
ing  and  by  a  solemn  ceremony  impressing  on 
their  minds  the  condition  on  which  they  held 
their  position  and  privileges  as  the  chosen  peo¬ 
ple  of  the  Lord.  The  Feast  of  Tabernacles  was 
appointed  as  the  season  for  the  reading,  doubt¬ 
less  because  there  was  a  connection  between  the 
end  for  which  the  Law  was  read  and  the  spirit 
and  meaning  of  that  festival  as  a  festival  of  re¬ 
joicing  because  of  their  deliverance  from  the 
wilderness  state.  W.  L.  A. 

It  must  be  thus  solemnly  read  that  the  pres¬ 
ent  generation  might  hereby  keep  up  their  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  the  Law  of  God  (vqrse  12). 
They  must  hear,  that  they  may  learn,  and  fear 
Cod,  and  observe  to  do  their  duty.  See  here  what 
we  are  to  aim  at  in  hearing  the  Word  ;  we  must 
hear,  that  we  may  learn  and  grow  in  knowledge  ; 
and  every  time  we  read  the  Scriptures,  w^e  shall 
find  that  there  is  still  more  and  more  to  be 
learned  out  of  them.  We  must  learn,  that  w’e 
may  fear  God— that  is,  that  we  may  be  duly 
affected  wdth  Divine  things  ;  and  must  fear 
God,  that  we  may  observe  and  do  the  words  of  his 
taw ;  for  in  vain  do  we  pretend  to  fear  him,  if 
we  do  not  obey  him.  H. 

9,  24-27.  The  written  Word.  The  Law  here 
put  in  w^riting  and  solemnly  deposited  in  the  side 
of  the  ark,  is  the  foundation  of  our  present 
Bible.  All  Scripture  is  built  up  upon  it.  The 
Law  was  first  given,  thereafter  recorded.  Reve¬ 
lation  precedes  the  record  of  it.  The  record  is 
inspired  (1  Tim.  3  : 16),  and  is  to  us  the  reve¬ 
lation  of  the  wdll  of  God.  It  is,  as  well  as  con¬ 
tains,  the  Word  of  God.  The  line  must  not  be 
drawn  too  finely :  (1)  Between  revelation  and  its 
history.  The  threads  of  revelation  cannot  bo 
picked  out  from  the  texture  of  its  history,  and 
exhibited  apart.  They  constitute  one  whole  ; 
the  record  embraces  both.  (2)  Between  revela¬ 
tion  and  inspired  prophetical  discourses — with 
psalms,  poems,  wisdom  literature,  which  unfold 
the  principles  of  revelation,  apply  and  enforce 
them,  turn  them  into  subjects  of  praise,  or  deal 
with  them  reflectively.  For  discourses,  psalms, 
didactic  literature,  add  to  revelation  as  well  as 


unfold  its  meaning.  (3)  Between  revelation  and 
the  written  Word  For  that  is  the  revelation  to 
us.  It  is  clothed  with  its  own  authority  as  in¬ 
spired — an  authority  the  nature  and  degree  of 
which  is  a  study  by  itself — and  it  is  clothed  with 
the  authoritativeness  (objective)  inherent  in  the 
revelations  of  which  records  are  preserved. 
Orr. 

Substance  of  Paragraph  {verses  14-23). 

Jehovah  next  summons  Moses  and  Joshua  to 
the  tabernacle,  and  makes  a  special  manifesta¬ 
tion  of  his  glory  in  the  cloud  to  the  people 
without  and  to  the  two  leaders  within  (verses 
14,  15).  Then  God  announces  (in  the  hearing 
of  Joshua)  the  future  apostasy  of  the  people  and 
the  punishment  that  shall  be  visited  upon  them 
(verses  16-18).  He  commands  Moses  (with  the 
help  of  Joshua,  probably  as  amanuensis)  to 
write  a  song  that  shall  abide  as  a  witness  against 
Israel  in  the  future  (verses  19-21).  Verse  22  is 
a  parenthetical  statement  that  the  song  was 
written.  Then  follows  (verse  23)  the  charge  of 
Jehovah  (not  Moses)  to  Joshua,  identical  in  sub¬ 
stance  with  that  of  Moses  in  verses  7,  8.  B. 

The  transaction  recorded  in  these  verses  may 
be  regarded  as  the  solemn  inauguration  of  Joshua 
to  the  office  to  which  he  had  some  time  before 
(Nu.  27  :  23  sqq  )  been  called,  and  his  recogni¬ 
tion  in  it  by  God,  which  were  manifested  by  his 
being  summoned  into  the  tabernacle  with  Moses 
while  the  Lord  appeared  in  the  pillar  of  cloud. 
E^pin. 

No  authority  was  vested  by  the  Mosaic  con¬ 
stitution  in  any  one  man  or  body  of  men,  nor 
even  in  the  whole  nation  assembled,  to  make 
new  laws  or  alter  old  ones  ;  their  sovereign  Je¬ 
hovah  reserving  this  power  exclusively  to  him- 
self.  On  the  same  grounds  the  Hebrew  consti¬ 
tution  recognized  no  one  hereditary  chief  mag. 
istrate,  nor  gave  any  power,  even  to  the  whole 
nation,  to  elect  a  supreme  governor.  It  was  the 
especial  prerogative  of  Jehovah  to  apjjoint 
whomsoever  he  pleased  to  preside  over  the  peo¬ 
ple  as  his  own  immediate  vicegerent.  And  after¬ 
ward  such  men,  under  the  title  of  judge,  were 
from  time  to  time  raised  up  as  the  exigencies  of 
the  State  required  them,  and  under  a  special 
commission  from  heaven  wrought  signal  deliv¬ 
erances  for  their  countrymen.  Bush. 

14.  Tliy  days  approach  that  thou 
must  die.  Stretch  thy  fancy  to  devise  an 
earthly  happiness.  Give  thee  a  time  of  the 
calmest  peace,  not  an  air  of  trouble  stirring  ; 
put  thee  where  thou  wilt,  far  off  from  fear  of 
sword  and  pestilence,  and  encompass  thee  with 
children,  friends,  and  possessions,  and  honors, 
and  comfort,  and  health  to  enjoy  all  these  ;  yet 


DIRECTS  WRITING  OF  THE  SONG;  REPEATS  CHARGE  TO  JOSHUA.  719 


one  thing  thou  must  admit  in  the  midst  of  them 
all,  within  a  w’hile  thou  must  die  ;  and  if  thou 
hast  no  real  portion  in  Christ,  thou  sinkest 
through  that  death  into  another  death  far  more 
terrible.  Of  all  thou  enjoyest,  nothing  goes 
along  with  thee  but  unpardoned  sin,  and  that 
delivers  thee  up  to  endless  sorrow.  Oh^  that 
you  were  wise  and  would  consider  your  latter  end  ! 
Leighton.  • 

10.  Sleep  witli  tliy  fathers.  The  words 
are  literally,  “  lie  down  with  thy  fathers.”  and 
in  this  connection  are  surely  significant.  They 
point  assuredly  to  fellowshij)  and  rest  with  the 
fathers  in  another  life.  They  cannot  refer  to 
any  depositing  of  the  remains  of  Moses  in  the 
same  tomb  as  his  fathers.  His  sepulchre  was 
solitar3"  and  sacred  ;  his  lying  down  wdth  his 
fathers,  therefore,  can  only  refer  to  the  fellow- 
slii^j  in  a  future  life.  This  is  the  only  place  in 
the  Pentateuch  where  this  particular  expression 
occurs,  although  we  meet  it  in  the  Books  of  the 
Kings  no  less  than  tw'enty-six  times.  It  was 
undoubtedly  an  intimation  to  Moses  that  he 
was  about  to  enter  into  restful  fellowship  with 
his  fathers,  and  was  most  welcome  consolation 
at  this  peculiarly  trying  time.  Edgar. 

It  is  man  only  who,  dying,  falls  asleep.  And 
the  beautiful  phrase  is  too  often  repeated  in  the 
Scriptures  to  be  set  aside  as  a  casual  metaphor. 
Hebrew  worthies  are  said  to  sleep  with  their 
fathers.  The  Psalmist,  filled  with  anticipations 
of  awakening,  cries  :  “  Then  shall  I  be  satisfied, 
when  I  awake  with  thy  likeness.”  Nor  could 
human  language  furnish  us  a  more  sweet  and 
tranquillizing  emblem.  It  invests  the  dying 
form  with  a  promise  of  restitution  ;  enlightens 
the  darkened  chamber  ;  hangs  a  garland  upon 
the  sepulchre.  We  stand  by  the  couch  where  a 
beloved  friend  has  closed  his  eyes.  The  doors 
of  sense  are  shut  ;  the  outer  world  is  excluded  ; 
but  the  greater,  lovelier,  more  awful  inner  world 
is  there.  The  marble  brow  ;  the  serene,  un¬ 
moving  features  ;  the  settled  smile  of  lips  which 
were  late  so  eloquent  ;  all  speak  of  deep  slum¬ 
ber.  But  Christianity  tells  me  to  dismiss  my 
fears  ;  for  Jesus  comes  to  awake  him  out  of 
sleep.  J,  W.  A. 

10,  God  announces  to  Moses  the  future  apos¬ 
tasy  of  the  people.  This  is  done  in  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  Joshua  that  the  latter  might  be  fully 
aware  of  the  danger  and  strive  in  his  day  to 
avert  it.  This  he  faithfully  did  (cf.  Josh.  24  : 31)  ; 
but  we  find  him  in  his  own  last  address  to  Israel 
repeating  (Josh.  23  : 15,  16)  the  self-same  predic¬ 
tion  and  warning.  Espin, 

19.  Write  ye  this  §on^.  This  refers  to 
the  song  which  follows  in  next  chapter.  Moses 


and  Joshua  were  both  to  write  this  song,  Moses 
probably  as  the  author,  Joshua  as  his  amanuen¬ 
sis,  because  both  of  them  were  to  do  their  en¬ 
deavor  to  keep  the  people  from  that  apostasy 
which  God  had  foretold.  W.  L,  A. 

‘20,  21.  Yet  more  definitely  the  Lord  gave 
Moses  some  of  the  inducing  causes  of  this  apos- 
tas}'' — viz  ,  fulness  of  bread  ;  the  absence  of 
want  and  trial  ;  coming  into  a  land  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey.  Filling  themselves  and  wax¬ 
ing  fat,  they  will  become  sensual,  pleasure- 
loving,  and  lost  to  the  fear  of  God.  So  they 
will  turn  to  other  gods.  Hence  the  occasion  for 
this  witnessing  song,  of  solemn  forewarning, 
pregnant  with  moral  forces  against  apostasy  and 
rich  in  suggestions  of  untold  value  for  those 
apostate  generations  to  whom  it  would  specially 
apply.  H.  C. 

Poetic  forms  will  live  when  prose  is  quite  for¬ 
gotten.  God  condescends  to  every  method  by 
which  a  sense  of  religious  duty  might  be  pre¬ 
served  and  perpetuated.  The  song  would  live 
by  the  action  of  known  law,  when  the  full  sense 
would  be  ignored.  Thus  the  song  of  Moses, 
“  familiar  in  their  mouths  as  a  household  word,” 
would  be  an  abiding  witness  against  them. 
Said  God,  “It  shall  not  be  forgotten.”  By 
such  gracious  methods  the  Most  High  would 
win  men  unto  obedience  and  life.  The  mighti¬ 
est  power  is  in  gentleness.  If  this  fails,  all 

fails.  D.  D. - The  words  of  this  song  would 

be  a  constant  and  silent  witness  against  them 
for  departing  from  the  ways  of  the  Lord.  That 
very  book,  which  if  rightly  used  is  “  a  lamp” 
to  the  feet  and  ”  a  light”  to  the  path,  becomes, 
if  neglected,  a  perpetual  and  silent  accuser. 
That  self-same  purpose  which  was  answered  by 
securing  permanent  records  of  the  Mosaic  legis 
lation,  is  also  answered  by  permanent  records 
of  the  Christian  redemption.  C.  C. 

23,  God’s  charge  and  Moses’s  charge  were 
one,  “  Be  strong  and  of  a  good  courage.”  What 
God  commands,  God  first  gives.  He  says  to 
men,  “  Here  is  my  intrusted  strength  :  use  it 
well !  More  is  ready  as  soon  as  it  is  needed.” 
Best  of  all,  he  adds,  “  I  will  be  with  thee.” 
D.  D. 

Verse§  24-29,  After  the  installation  of 
Joshua,  only  one  thing  remained  for  Moses  to 
do  that  all  things  might  be  set  in  order  before 
his  departure.  This  was  the  finishing  of  the 
writing  of  the  book  of  the  Law,  and  the  com¬ 
mitting  it  finally  to  the  priests,  to  be  by  them 
placed  by  the  ark  of  the  covenant,  that  it  might 
be  kept  for  all  future  generations  as  a  witness 
against  the  people,  whose  apostasy  and  rebel¬ 
lion  were  foreseen.  Whether  this  section  is  to 


720 


SECTION  195.  THE  WRITTEN  LAW  COMPLETED. 


be  regarded  as  wholly  written  by  Moses  himself,  j 
or  as  an  appendix'  to  his  writing  added  by  some  , 
other  writer,  has  been  made  matter  of  question. 
It  is  qiiite  possible,  however,  that  Moses  him¬ 
self,  ere  he  laid  down  the  pen,  may  have  re¬ 
corded  what  he  said  when  delivering  the  book 
of  the  Law  to  the  priests,  and  there  is  nothing 
in  the  mannor  or  stjde  of  the  record  to  render 
it  probable  that  it  was  added  by  another.  What 
follows  from  verse  30  to  the  end  of  the  book  was 
probably  added  to  the  writing  of  Moses  by  some 
one  after  his  death,  though,  of  course,  both  the 
song  and  the  blessing  are  the  composition  of 
Moses.  W.  L.  A. 

24.  Eeligion  would  have  been  corrupted  in 
a  thousand  ways,  had  not  its  rule  been  diligently 
written  down  for  posterit3^  Moreover,  since 
the  books  of  Moses  were  for  a  long  time  buried 
through  the  carelessness  of  the  people  and  the 
priests,  what  darkness  of  error  would  have  over¬ 
spread  the  minds  of  all,  if  nothing  had  been 

written  down  !  Calv. - The  Bible  is  the  true 

conductor  of  all  the  holy  influences  the  world 
has  contained  since  the  dawn  of  creation.  From 
it  the  Jewish  Church  received  in  a  concentrated 
form  all  that  had  distinguished  the  preceding 
economies,  from  the  giving  of  the  first  promise 
to  its  own  establishment  in  Judea.  In  that 
Church  it  may  be  truly  said,  Abel,  though  dead, 
was  ever  speaking  ;  and  “  Enoch,  the  seventh 
from  Adam,”  was  ever  prophesying  of  the  com¬ 
ing  of  the  Lord.  There  the  patriarchs  came  and 
lived  again  for  their  posterity.  There  the  rod 
of  Aaron  was  ever  blooming  ;  the  manna  ever 
fresh  ;  the  rod  of  Moses  ever  working  and  re¬ 
peating  its  wonders.  There  Sinai  reared  its 
awful  head,  and  from  its  thundering  top  the 
Law  was  ever  demanding  for  God  the  heart  of 
the  world,  and  demanding  from  every  man  the 
love  of  all  the  rest.  J.  H, 

26-29.  The  Pentateuch,  in  its  tremendous 
charges  and  indictments  against  mankind,  is  in 
unison  with  the  rest  of  the  Word.  It  is  a  sus¬ 
tained  witness  against  the  human  race,  ‘  ‘  Others 
may  perhaps  suspect,”  says  Henry  Eogers, 
“that  Jewish  vanity  led  the  writers  thus  to 
ignore  or  treat  lightly  the  affairs  of  all  nations 
except  their  own.  The  answer  is  concise,  but 
conclusive.  Let  Jewish  vanity  in  general  be 


what  the  reader  pleases,  these  writers  would 
seem  to  have  had  none  of  it.  If  they  have 
passed  by  the  glorious  achievements  of  secular 
history,  they  have  recorded  all  the  infamies  of 
their  own  nation  ;  and,  indeed,  their  principal 
references  to  other  nations  are  as  ‘  scourges  ’  of 
their  own— scourges  justly  sent,  they  confess 
and  avow,  for  apostasies  which  had  wearied  out 
the  patience  of  Heaven  !”  The  marvel  is  that 
Jews  and  Christians  should  conspire  to  preserve 
what  is  a  most  humiliating  account  of  the  race. 
Edgar. 

The  modern  rationalist  regards  it  as  a  ”  most 
unnatural  supposition*'  that  the  Pentateuch 
was  written  during  the  passage  of  the  Israelites 
through  the  wilderness  ;  but  this  is  what  every 
unprejudiced  reader  gathers  from  the  Penta¬ 
teuch  itself,  which  tells  us  that  God  commanded 
Moses  to  “write”  the  discomfiture  of  Amalek 
“  in  a  book  that  Moses  “  wrote  all  the  words 
of  the  Law,”  and  ”  took  the  book  of  the  cov¬ 
enant,  and  read  it  in  the  audience  of  the  peo¬ 
ple,  ”  and  “  wrote  the  goings  out  of  the  people 
of  Israel  according  to  their  journeys,  by  the 
commandment  of  the  Lord  ;'*  and,  finally, 
“  made  an  end  of  writing  the  words  of  the  Law 
in  a  book,  until  they  were  finished  and  bade 
the  Levites,  who  bare  the  ark  of  the  covenant, 
“  take  that  book  of  the  Law,  and  put  it  in  the 
side  of  the  ark  of  the  covenant  of  the  Lord, 
that  it  might  be  there  for  a  witness  against  the 
people.”  A  book,  therefore— a  “  book  of  the 
covenant” — a  book  out  of  which  he  could  read 
the  whole  Law  —  was  certainly  w'ritten  by 
Moses  ;  and  this  book  was  deposited  by  the  ark 
of  the  covenant,  and  given  into  the  special  cus¬ 
tody  of  the  priests,  the  Levites,  with  the  stern 
injunction  still  ringing  in  their  ears,  “  Ye  shall 
not  add  unto  the  Word  neither  diminish  aught 
from  it  ”  (4:2);  and  they  were  charged  “  at  the 
end  of  every  seven  years,  in  the  year  of  release, 
in  the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  to  read  it  before  all 
Israel  in  their  hearing”  (31  : 10)  ;  and,  further, 
a  command  was  given,  that  when  the  Israelites 
should  have  kings,  each  king  should  ”  write 
him  a  copj’’  of  the  Law  in  a  book,  out  of  that 
which  was  before  the  priests,  the  Levites,  that 
he  might  read  therein  all  the  daj^s  of  his  life.’’ 
G.  R. 


SECTION  196. 


721 


Section  196. 

THE  DYING  SONG  OF  MOSES. 
Deutekonomy  31  :  30  ;  32  : 1-45. 


De.  31  30  And  Moses  spake  in  the  ears  of 
all  the  assembly  of  Israel  the  words  of  this 
song,  until  they  were  finished. 

32  1  Give  ear,  ye  heavens,  and  I  will 
speak  ; 

And  let  the  earth  hear  the  words  of  my 
mouth  ; 

2  My  doctrine  shall  drop  as  the  rain, 

My  speech  shall  distil  as  the  dew  ; 

As  the  small  rain  upon  the  tender  grass, 
And  as  the  showers  upon  the  herb  : 

3  For  I  will  proclaim  the  name  of  the  Lokd  : 
Ascribe  ye  greatness  unto  our  God. 

4  The  Kock,  his  work  is  perfect  ; 

For  all  his  ways  are  judgement : 

A  God  of  faithfulness  and  without  iniquity. 
Just  and  right  is  he. 

5  They  have  dealt  corruptly  with  him,  they 

are  not  his  children,  it  is  their  blemish  ; 
They  are  a  perverse  and  crooked  generation. 

6  Do  ye  thus  requite  the  Lord, 

O  foolish  people  and  unwise  ? 

Is  not  he  thy  father  that  hath  bought 
thee  ? 

He  hath  made  thee,  and  established  thee. 

7  Eemember  the  days  of  old. 

Consider  the  years  of  many  generations  : 
Ask  thy  father,  and  he  will  shew  thee  ; 
Thine  elders,  and  they  will  tell  thee. 

8  When  the  Most  High  gave  to  the  nations 

their  inheritance, 

When  he  separated  the  children  of  men. 
He  set  the  bounds  of  the  peoples 
According  to  the  number  of  the  children 
of  Israel. 

9  For  the  Lord’s  portion  is  his  people  ; 
Jacob  is  the  lot  of  his  inheritance. 

10  He  found  him  in  a  desert  land, 

And  in  the  waste  howling  wilderness  ; 

He  compassed  him  about,  he  cared  for  him, 
He  kept  him  as  the  apple  of  his  eye : 

11  As  an  eagle  that  stirreth  up  her  nest, 

That  fluttereth  over  her  young, 

He  spread  abroad  his  wings,  he  took  them. 
He  bare  them  on  his  pinions  : 

12  The  Lord  alone  did  lead  him, 

And  there  was  no  strange  god  with  him. 

13  He  made  him  ride  on  the  high  places  of 

the  earth. 

And  be  did  eat  the  increase  of  the  field  ; 

46 


And  he  made  him  to  suck  honey  out  of  the 
rock. 

And  oil  out  of  the  flinty  rock  ; 

14  Butter  of  kine,  and  milk  of  sheep, 

With  fat  of  lambs. 

And  rams  of  the  breed  of  Bashan,  and 
goats. 

With  the  fat  of  kidneys  of  wheat  ; 

And  of  the  blood  of  the  grape  thou  drank- 
est  wine. 

15  But  Jeshurun  waxed  fat,  and  kicked  : 
Thou  art  waxen  fat,  thou  art  grown  thick, 

thou  art  become  sleek  : 

Then  he  forsook  God  which  made  him. 
And  lightly  esteemed  the  Rock  of  his  sal¬ 
vation. 

16  They  moved  him  to  jealousy  with  strange 

gods, 

With  abominations  provoked  they  him  to 
anger. 

17  They  sacrificed  unto  demons,  which  were 

no  God, 

To  gods  whom  they  knew  not. 

To  new  gods  that  came  up  of  late. 

Whom  your  fathers  dreaded  not. 

18  Of  the  Rock  that  begat  thee  thou  art  un¬ 

mindful. 

And  hast  forgotten  God  that  gave  thee  birth, 
j  19  And  the  Lord  saw  if-,  and  abhorred  them. 
Because  of  the  provocation  of  his  sons  and 
his  daughters. 

20  And  he  said,  I  will  hide  my  face  from 

them, 

I  will  see  what  their  end  shall  be  : 

For  they  are  a  very  froward  generation, 
Children  in  whom  is  no  faith. 

21  They  have  moved  me  to  jealousy  with  that 

which  is  not  God  ; 

They  have  provoked  me  to  anger  with  their 
vanities  : 

And  I  will  move  them  to  jealousy  with 
those  which  are  not  a  people  ; 

I  will  provoke  them  to  anger  with  a  foolish 
nation. 

22  For  a  fire  is  kindled  in  mine  anger. 

And  burneth  unto  the  lowest  pit. 

And  devoureth  the  earth  with  her  increase 
And  setteth  on  fire  the  foundations  of  the 
mountains. 

23  I  will  heap  mischiefs  upon  them  ; 


722 


SECTION  196.  THE  DYING  SONG  OF  MOSES. 


1  will  spend  mine  arrows  upon  them  : 

84  They  shall,  be  wasted  with  hunger,  and  de¬ 
voured  with  burning  heat 
And  bitter  destruction  ; 

And  the  teeth  of  beasts  will  I  send  upon 
them, 

With  the  poison  of  crawling  things  of  the 
dust. 

25  Without  shall  the  sword  bereave, 

And  in  the  chambers  terror  ; 

Ji  shall  destroy  both  young  man  and  virgin, 
The  suckling  with  the  man  of  gray  hairs. 

26  I  said,  I  would  scatter  them  afar, 

I  would  make  the  remembrance  of  them  to 
cease  from  among  men  : 

27  Were  it  not  that  I  feared  the  provocation 

of  the  enemy, 

Lest  their  adversaries  should  misdeem, 
Lest  they  should  say,  Our  hand  is  exalted. 
And  the  Loed  hath  not  done  all  this. 

28  For  they  are  a  nation  void  of  counsel, 

And  there  is  no  understanding  in  them. 

29  Oh  that  they  were  wise,  that  they  under¬ 

stood  this,  , 

That  they  would  consider  th^ir  latter  end  ! 
.30  How  should  one  chase  a  thousand. 

And  two  put  ten  thousand  to  flight. 
Except  their  Eock  had  sold  them. 

And  the  Loed  had  delivered  them  up  ? 

;31  For  their  rock  is  not  as  our  Eock, 

Even  our  enemies  themselves  being  judges. 
.32  For  their  vine  is  of  the  vine  of  Sodom, 
And  of  the  fields  of  Gomorrah  : 

Their  grapes  are  grapes  of  gall, 

Their  clusters  are  bitter  : 

'33  Their  wine  is  the  poison  of  dragons, 

And  the  cruel  venom  of  asps. 

34  Is  not  this  laid  up  in  store  with  me, 

Sealed  up  among  my  treasures  ? 

.35  Vengeance  is  mine,  and  recompense. 

At  the  time  when  their  foot  shall  slide  : 
For  the  day  of  their  calamity  is  at  hand, 
And  the  things  that  are  to  come  upon  them 
shall  make  haste. 

In  accordance  with  the  Divine  injunction, 
Moses  composed  an  ode,  which  he  recited  in 
the  hearing  of  the  people,  and  committed  to 
writing,  to  remain  with  them  as  a  witness  for 
God  against  them.  With  this  end  in  view,  the 
ode  is  directed  principally  to  a  contrasting  of 
the  unchanging  faithfulness  of  the  Almighty 
with  the  anticipated  perversity  and  unfaithful¬ 
ness  of  his  people.  The  poem  may  be  divided 
into  six  parts.  (1)  An  introduction  (verses  1-3), 
in  which  the  importance  of  the  doctrine  to  be 
delivered  is  announced.  (2)  The  blamelessness 


36  For  the  Loed  shall  judge  his  people, 

And  repent  himself  for  his  servants  ; 
When  he  seeth  that  their  power  is  gone, 
And  there  is  none  remaining,  shut  up  or 

left  at  large. 

37  And  he  shall  say.  Where  are  their  gods. 
The  rock  in  which  they  trusted  ; 

38  Which  did  eat  the  fat  of  their  sacrifices. 

And  drank  the  wine  of  their  drink  offer¬ 
ing? 

Let  them  rise  up  and  help  you, 

Let  them  be  your  protection. 

39  See  now  that  I,  even  I,  am  he, 

And  there  is  no  god  with  me  : 

I  kill,  and  I  make  alive  ; 

I  have  wounded,  and  I  heal  : 

And  there  is  none  that  can  deliver  out  of 
my  hand. 

40  For  I  lift  up  my  hand  to  heaven. 

And  say.  As  I  live  for  ever, 

41  If  I  whet  my  glittering  sword. 

And  mine  hand  take  hold  on  judgement  ; 

I  will  render  vengeance  to  mine  adver¬ 
saries. 

And  will  recompense  them  that  hate  me. 

42  I  will  make  mine  arrows  drunk  with 

blood, 

And  my  sword  shall  devour  flesh  ; 

With  the  blood  of  the  slain  and  the  cap¬ 
tives, 

From  the  head  of  the  leaders  of  the  en- 
em5\ 

43  Eejoice,  O  ye  nations,  with  his  people  : 
For  he  will  avenge  the  blood  of  his  ser¬ 
vants, 

And  will  render  vengeance  to  his  adver¬ 
saries. 

And  will  make  expiation  for  his  land,  for 
his  people. 

44  And  Moses  came  and  spake  all  the  w^ords 
of  this  song  in  the  ears  of  the  people,  he, 

45  and  Hoshea  the  son  of  Nun.  And  Moses 
made  an  end  of  speaking  all  these  w^ords  to 
all  Israel. 

and  excellency  of  Jehovah  are  placed  in  contrast 
with  the  corruptness  and  perversity  of  Israel 
(verses  4,  5).  (3)  The  folly  and  ingratitude  of 

the  rebellious  people  is  dwelt  upon  (verses 
7-18).  (4)  The  purpose  of  God  to  punish  and 

reject  the  rebellious  generation  is  declared 
(verses  19-23).  (5)  The  fulfilment  of  this  pur¬ 

pose  in  the  judgments  which  should  come  upon 
the  rebels,  while  mercy  and  favor  should  be 
showed  to  those  that  repented  and  were  humbled 
under  the  hand  of  God  (verses  24-34).  (6)  And 

finally,  the  judgment  which  God  would  execute 


THE  FOUNDATION  OF  AFTER  PROPHECIES. 


723 


on  the  enemies  of  Israel,  and  the  mercy  he 
would  show  to  his  servants  (verses  35-43).  In 
this  ode  Moses  displays  the  genius  of  <he  poet, 
as  in  the  other  parts  of  this  book  he  has  showed 
the  sagacity  of  the  legislator  and  the  skill  of  the 
orator.  Vigor  of  diction,  elevation  of  senti¬ 
ment,  vivacity  of  representation,  beauty  and 
sublimity  of  imagery,  characterize  this  ode 
throughout.  Nor  is  the  piety  less  noticeable 
than  the  poetry  ;  zeal  for  God,  earnest  desire 
for  his  honor,  and  devout  reverence  of  his  maj¬ 
esty  pervade  and  inspire  the  whole,  W.  L.  A. 

The  magnificence  of  the  exordium,  the  gran¬ 
deur  of  the  theme,  the  frequent  and  sudden  tran¬ 
sitions,  the  elevated  strain  of  the  sentiments  and 
language,  entitle  this  song  to  be  ranked  among 
the  noblest  specimens  of  poetry  to  be  found  in 
the  Scriptures.  It  has  been  beautifully  styled 
“  the  Song  of  the  Dying  Swan,”  (Lowth.)  It 
w'as  designed  to  be  a  national  anthem,  which  it 
should  be  the  duty  and  care  of  magistrates  to 
make  well  known  by  frequent  repetition,  to  ani¬ 
mate  the  people  to  right  sentiments  toward  a 
steadfast  adherence  to  his  service.  Jamieaon. 
- This  prophetical  ode  or  song  of  Moses  con¬ 
tains  a  defence  of  God  against  the  Israelites, 
and  unfolds  the  method  of  the  Divine  judg 
ments.  Its  opening  is  singularly  elegant  and 
magnificent  ;  its  whole  arrangement  and  struc¬ 
ture  is  regular,  easy,  and  adapted  to  the  nature 
of  the  subject,  in  an  order  nearly  historical.  It 
embraces  an  incredible  variety  of  the  most  im¬ 
portant  topics  :  the  truth  and  justice  of  God, 
his  fatherly  affection  and  most  unwearied  loving 
kindness  toward  his  chosen  people  ;  the  un¬ 
grateful  and  rebellious  disposition  of  that  peo¬ 
ple  in  return  ;  then  the  heat  of  the  Divine  dis¬ 
pleasure,  and  its  most  alarming  menaces,  de¬ 
livered  in  a  noble  personification,  equal  in 
grandeur  to  anything  which  exists  in  the  choicest 
treasures  of  poetry  ;  at  the  same  time  it  repre¬ 
sents  these  verj’^  tides  of  indignation  occasionally 
moderated  by  mildness  and  compassion,  and 
terminated  at  length  in  promises  and  in  conso¬ 
lation.  Not  to  dwell  on  the  loftiness  of  the 
sentiments,  the  impetuosity  of  the  passions,  and 
the  force  of  the  figures  and  the  language,  such 
is  the  nature  of  the  subject  that  it  imitates 
much  of  the  style  and  coloring  of  the  propheti¬ 
cal  poetry,  so  that  to  all  the  vigor  and  anima¬ 
tion  and  spirited  boldness  of  the  ode  it  unites 
that  distinguished  variety  and  grandeur  of  im¬ 
agery  which  is  peculiar  to  the  prophetical  man¬ 
ner.  Bp.  Lowth. 

The  blessings  annexed  in  the  song  to  faithful¬ 
ness,  whether  named  as  promises  or  perform¬ 
ances,  are  those  which  recur  commonly  in  Deu¬ 


teronomy,  and  which  must  have  been  in  the 
closing  months  of  Moses’s  life  perpetually  in 
his  mind  ;  those  namely  connected  with  the 
promised  land.  Exhibiting  as  it  does  in  series 
God’s  preventing  mercies,  his  people’s  faithless¬ 
ness  and  ingratitude,  God’s  consequent  judg¬ 
ments,  and  the  final  and  complete  triumph  of 
the  Divine  counsels  of  grace,  it  forms  the  sum¬ 
mary  of  all  later  Old  Testament  prophecies,  and 
gives  as  it  were  the  framework  upon  which  they 
are  laid  out.  Here  as  elsewdiere  the  Pentateuch 
presents  itself  as  the  foundation  of  the  religious 

life  of  Israel  in  after  times.  Espin. - This 

song  is  the  foundation  of  all  after- prophecies, 
in  which  we  find  the  same  range  of  ideas,  be¬ 
cause  in  fact  they  represent  the  history  of  the 
ancient  covenant  of  God.  Although  the  greater 
part  of  the  song  is  a  stern  threatening,  a  solemn 
declaration  of  condemnation,  j^et  we  may  under¬ 
stand  from  the  main  idea  and  end  of  the  whole 
—  viz.,  the  glorifying  of  the  grace  and  truth  of 
the  eternal,  faithful  covenant-God,  how  these 
his  words  could  appear  in  the  eyes  of  Moses 
under  the  image,  so  especially  delectable  in  the 
wilderness,  of  a  rain  trickling  down  on  the  ten¬ 
der  grass.  We  here  see  the  man  of  God  with 
the  awful  brightness  of  the  Divine  holiness  on 
his  countenance,  in  whom  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
was  mirrored  with  unveiled  face,  and  who  is 
thereby  glorified  into  the  same  image.  Kefreshed 
and  strengthened  by  his  grace,  he  is  still  more 
firmly  built  upon  the  rock  of  his  salvation.  Gerl. 

Into  this  most  remarkable  of  all  his  produc¬ 
tions  Moses  condensed  the  substance  of  all  his 
warnings  and  entreaties,  and  along  with  them 
poured  his  own  soul.  Than  “  the  song  of 
Moses”  Scripture  recognizes  nothing  as  more 
sublime  except  one  other  composition,  and  with 
that  other  they  are  acquainted  who  have  received 
a  harp  of  gold,  and  along  with  “  the  song  of 
Moses,  the  servant  of  God,”  sing  ”  the  song  of 
the  Lamb.”  It  has  been  well  termed  “  the 
Magna  Charta  of  j^rophecy,”  and  in  its  histori¬ 
cal  recollections  and  premonitory  warnings,  in 
its  remonstrances  and  exhortations,  its  entrea¬ 
ties  and  regrets,  and,  above  all,  in  its  loyalty  to 
Jehovah,  it  supplies  the  key-note,  which  we 
find  constantly  recurring  in  Isaiah,  Jeremiah, 
and  the  prophets  who  come  after  Hamilton. 

It  is  the  compendious  anticipatory  sketch  and 
the  common  watchword  of  all  prophecy,  and 
stands  related  to  it  as  fundamentally  as  the 
Decalogue  to  all  laws,  and  the  Lord’s  Prayer  to 
all  prayers  The  legislator  has  here  condensed 
in  a  song  the  prophetic  contents  of  his  last  ad¬ 
dress,  wherewith  he  lives  on  in  the  memory  and 
mouth  of  the  people.  He  here  sets  before  them 


724 


SECTION  196.  THE  DYING  SONG  OF  MOSES. 


their  whole  histor}’^  to  the  end  of  the  days.  In 
tliis  ode  each  age  of  Israel  has  a  mirror  of  its 
present  condition  and  future  fate.  This  mirror 
prophecy  holds  up  before  its  contemporaries, 
Ddiizsch. 

1,  This  majestic  vindication  of  the  tutelar 
God  of  Israel  with  his  chosen  people,  and  with 
their  persecutors,  opens  with  an  animated  sum¬ 
mons  to  the  inhabitants  of  heaven  and  earth,  to 
angels  and  men,  or  the  whole  rational  creation, 
to  listen  to  the  prophet’s  wholesome  and  re¬ 
freshing  discourse,  contrasting  the  veracity  and 
justice  of  God  with  the  iniquity  and  ingratitude 
of  his  people.  Hales. 

He  feels  that  the  message  which  burns  in  his 
heart  is  so  momentous  to  his  people  that  all 
nature  — above  and  beneath — may  fitly  be  sum¬ 
moned  to  hear.  It  is  his  strongest  way  of  say¬ 
ing — Let  all  people  of  this  and  future  genera¬ 
tions  give  ear  and  heart  to  these  messages  from 
the  God  of  heaven  and  earth.  The  poet-proph¬ 
ets  of  Israel  in  later  days  adopt  the  same  form 
of  address  (Is.  1  : 2,  and  Jer.  2  :  12,  and  6  : 19). 
2,  ‘‘  My  doctrine” — the  truths  I  teach shall 
drop  as  the  rain  good  for  the  soul  as  rain  for 
the  grass  ;  refreshing,  fraught  with  real  life  and 
the  beauty  of  holiness  : — the  reason  of  its  great 
value  being,  ”  Because  I  am  to  proclaim  the 
name  of  the  Lord  ” — i  e.,  his  name  as  significant 
of  his  nature.  H.  C. 

as  tlie  dew.  What  process  in  na¬ 
ture  can  be  more  exquisitely  beautiful  than 
this  ;  more  salutary  in  its  results,  more  illustra¬ 
tive  of  the  goodness  and  grace  of  our  Heavenly 
Father  ?  Accordingly,  this  process  is  chosen 
as  the  sweetest  and  most  perfect  image  of  the 
gift  of  God’s  refreshing  word  from  heaven,  and 
of  its  reviving,  life-giving  power  to  the  soul. 
It  is  in  the  still  night,  when  the  sky  is  clear, 
when  the  wind  is  sleeping  beneath  the  spark¬ 
ling  stars,  in  serenity,  in  repose,  in  silence,  that 
the  dew  abundantly  distils  its  moisture  ;  and 
so,  in  the  calm,  attentive,  quiet  hour,  when  the 
glare  of  the  noon  of  life  passes  into  the  even¬ 
ing,  and  the  throbbing  jiulses  of  the  world  are 
still,  God’s  precious  word  settles  into  the  soul. 
Beautifully  is  the  dew  classed  among  “  the  pre¬ 
cious  things  of  heaven  even,”  in  Joseph’s  bless¬ 
ing  ;  and  God  himself  says,  “  I  will  be  as  the  dew 
unto  Israel  ;  he  shall  grow  as  the  lily,  and  cast 
forth  his  roots  as  Lebanon.”  When  God  descends 
as  the  dew,  it  is  his  truth  and  his  Spirit  on  the 
nation  and  the  soul,  and  everything  holy  and 
XJrecious  grows  and  prospers.  Cheever. 

The  dew  and  rain  are  emblems  of  the  teach¬ 
ing  most  likely  to  prove  effective.  Their  action 
is  gentle,  silent,  pervasive,  kindly  ;  yet  it  is  in¬ 


vigorative,  powerful,  deep-reaching.  They  act  on 
plants  by  watering  their  roots.  It  is  not  the  best 
kind  of  teaching  which  is  loud  and  violent, 
which  tries  io  force  men’s  convictions.  Convic¬ 
tions  must  have  time  to  grow.  Teaching  must 
be  loving.  The  earthquake,  the  whirlwind,  the 
fire,  have  their  own  j)lace,  but  “  the  still  small 
voice”  is  needed  to  succeed  them.  The  Lord 
is  peculiarly  in  that.  Angry  scolding,  petulant 
rebuke,  biting  censure,  clever  satire,  seldom 
do  much  good.  Love  alone  wins  the  day.  Orr. 

4.  file  is  tlie  Rock.  Think  of  the  light 
and  the  strength  there  are  in  this  thought,  which 
is  repeated  again  and  again  and  again  in  this 
dying  song  of  Moses.  What  a  history  there  is 
in  this  single  thought  !  Here  we  have  the 
original  of  all  those  noble  passages  in  psalms 
and  hymns  of  believing  Israelites  in  ancient 
times,  and  believing  Gentiles  of  all  nations  in 
these  later  days,  which  represent  Jehovah  as 
“  the  Bock,”  “  the  Bock  of  Ages,”  “  the  BoCk 

of  our  Salvation.”  J.  M.  G. - The  name  must 

in  the  first  instance  have  been  suggested  by  the 
desert-wanderings.  Nine  times  in  the  course 
of  this  single  hymn  is  repeated  this  most  ex¬ 
pressive  figure,  taken  from  the  granite  crags  of 
Sinai,  and  carried  thence,  through  psalms  and 
hymns  of  all  nations,  like  one  of  the  huge  frag¬ 
ments  which  it  represents,  to  regions  as  remote 
in  aspect  as  in  distance,  from  its  original  birth- 
I)lace.  Stanley. 

Up  to  this  time  the  figure  had  not  been  ap¬ 
plied  to  God.  The  Israelites  have,  indeed,  from 
the  hard  and  flinty  rock,  had  refreshing  streams  ; 
the  rock  was  to  them  a  fountain  of  waters  ;  and 
doubtless  when  here  the  figure  is  for  the  first 
time  apjilied  to  God,  they  would  find  it  delight¬ 
ful  to  associate  refreshment  and  shelter  with 
him.  Then  in  course  of  time  it  became  a  favor.- 
ite  figure,  as  the  Psalms  in  many  passages  show, 

Edgar - The  resemblances  between  Ps.  90  and 

De.  32  have  been  rightly  regarded  as  important, 
especially  the  expression  “  the  Bock.”  Tlie 
manner  and  turn  of  thought  of  the  psalm  are 
certainly  also  similar  to  those  of  the  song. 
Bleek,  remarking  on  the  superscription  of  the  * 
psalm,  which  calls  it  “  A  Prayer  of  Moses,” 
saj^s  :  “  There  is  no  authentic  reason  for  deny¬ 
ing  to  the  Lawgiver  the  authorship  of  thi.s 
psalm,  and  at  all  events  it  bears  the  stamp  of 
very  great  antiquity.”  Ewald  also  grants  the 
last  part  of  this  statement.  Espin. 

God  is  the  rock,  for  he  is  in  himself  immu¬ 
table  and  immovable,  and  he  is  to  all  that  seek 
him  and  fly  to  him  an  impenetrable  shelter,  and 
to  all  that  trust  in  him  an  everlasting  founda¬ 
tion.  H. - The  image  is  not  an  arbitrary  one. 


GOD'S  FAITHFULNESS  AND  FATHERHOOD. 


79 

4  /V 


0 


Nature  abounds  in  shadows  of  the  spiritual.  It 
is  what  the  mind  puts  into  the  objects  of  its 
survey  which  makes  them  what  they  are.  “  The 
Alps  and  Andes  are  but  millions  of  ^atoms  till 
thought  combines  them  and  stamps  on  them 
the  conception  of  the  everlasting  hills.  Niagara 
is  a  gush  of  water  drops  till  the  soul  puts  into 
it  that  sweep  of  resistless  power  which  the  be¬ 
holder  feels.  The  ocean,  wave  behind  wave,  is 
only  great  when  the  spirit  has  breathed  into  it 
the  idea  of  immensity.  If  we  analyze  our  feel¬ 
ings,  we  shall  find  that  thought  meets  us  wher¬ 
ever  we  turn.  The  real  grandeur  of  the  world 
is  in  the  soul  which  looks  on  it,  which  sees  some 
conception  of  its  own  reflected  from  the  mirror 
around  it  ;  for  mind  is  not  only  living,  but  life- 
giving,  and  has  received  from  its  Maker  a  por¬ 
tion  of  his  own  creative  power  ’  (John  Ker). 
Rock  is  thus  more  than  rock— its  awfulness, 
grandeur,  immovability,  everlastingness, 
strength,  are  born  of  spiritual  conceptions. 
Orr. 

A  €rocl  of  faitlifuliie§i$,  and  witliont 
iniquity:  just  and  ri^lit  is  lie!  The 

changes  of  time  and  creatures  are  but  the  trifling 
waves  which  keep  up  their  noisy  flow  at  the  base 
of  this  Eternal  Rock.  He  was  infinitely  true 
to  himself  before  time  began  ;  such  will  he  be 
when  time  shall  be  no  more.  Every  one  of 
those  adorable  perfections  remains  in  pleni¬ 
tude  of  majesty,  and  all  in  blissful  concord  with 
each  other.  “  Just  and  right  is  he  !”  He  can¬ 
not  deny  himself.  Be  this  our  anchor,  when  in 
regard  to  our  own  little  personal  affairs,  the  bil¬ 
lows  threaten  to  overwhelm  us.  They  cannot 
reach  the  throne  of  our  God,  nor  change  the 
settled  purposes  of  his  love.  Clouds  and  dark¬ 
ness  are  round  about  him,  but  righteousness 
and  justice  are  the  habitation  of  his  throne.  If 
we  could  look  into  his  heart,  we  should  discern 
paternal  compassion  behind  the  lifted  rod.  Let 
us  rejoice  that  he  is,  and  such  as  he  is.  Let  us 
glory  that  he  changeth  not.  Let  us  summon 
our  thoughts  away  from  all  creatures  and  all 
second  causes,  to  dwell  on  the  throne  that  can¬ 
not  be  moved.  Though  all  else  fail,  it  is  well 
with  us  if  God  remains  See  to  it  that  he  is 
yours.  Hazard  not  the  consequences  of  being 
found  in  the  way  of  his  advancing  vengeance. 
His  covenant  of  grace  is  sure,  but  his  justice  is 
as  irrevocable  as  his  love  is  fathomless.  Now, 
in  this  temporal  state,  the  offer  is  made,  to 
change  our  relation,  and  from  enemies  to  become 
friends.  But  presently  a  trumpet  shall  sound, 
to  tell  that  parley  is  over,  and  that  what  remains 
is  arrest,  adjudication,  doom  !  J.  W.  A. 

6,  7,  To  bring  more  forcibly  to  their  view 


the  ingratitude  and  folly  of  their  conduct,  Moses 
dwells  upon  what  God  was  and  had  been  to  the 
nation  :  their  Father,  in  that  he  had,  in  his 
love,  chosen  them  to  be  his  people  (cf.  Is. 
63  : 16  ;  64  :  7  ;  Mai.  2  ;  10}  ;  their  Purchaser, 
who  had  acquired  possession  of  them  by  deliv¬ 
ering  them  out  of  Egypt  (cf.  Ps.  74  :  2)  ;  their 
Maker,  who  had  constituted  them  a  nation  ; 
and  their  Establisher,  by  whom  they  had  been 
conducted  through  the  wilderness  and  settled 
in  Canaan.  W.  L.  A. 

In  this  first  section  of  the  Divine  song,  the 
predominating  idea  is  God  s  fatherhood.  It 
comes  out  in  verse  6  in  express  terms  ;  it  is  im¬ 
plied  in  the  care  that  is  attributed  to  him  for 
his  children  of  Israel  ;  it  passes  into  the  still 
tenderer  idea  of  motherhoood  in  the  illustration 
of  the  eagle  (verse  11)  ;  and  may  fairly  be  taken 
as  the  idea  dominating  the  whole.  It  has  been 
thought  that  the  fatherhood  of  God  is  almost 
altogether  a  New  Testament  idea  ;  but  we  have 
it  here  exj^ressly  stated,  and  it  underlies  many 
portions  of  the  Old  Testament.  This  whole 
song  is,  in  fact,  a  paternal  expostulation  Avith 
children  that  have  been  wayward  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness,  and  will  be  more  wayward  still  in  the  land 
of  ]Aromise.  Edgar. 

7,  Is  not  the  God  whom  ye  have  forsaken  the 
very  same  who  hath  bought  thee  from  bond¬ 
age  ;  redeemed  thee  for  himself  ;  made  thee  a 
prosperous  and  happy  nation,  and  established 
thee  in  permanent  strength  ?  Go  back  over  the 
grand  ages  of  your  national  history  ;  ask  the 
fathers  for  their  testimony  to  the  great  works 
of  your  God  in  vmur  behalf.  H.  C. - Remem¬ 

ber  ihe  days  of  old — that  is,  “  Keep  in  remem¬ 
brance  the  history  of  those  days,  and  of  the 
wonderful  providences  of  God  concerning  the 
old  word,  and  concerning  your  ancestors  Abra¬ 
ham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob  ;  you  will  find  a  constant 
series  of  mercies  attending  them,  and  how  long 
since  things  were  working  toward  that  which  is 
now  come  to  pass.”  H. 

8-  9  4.  Wli'ii  Israel  owes  io  God.  Here  the  great 
things  which  God  had  done  for  them  are  brought 
out  in  a  few  bold  delineations,  mingling  strength 
and  pathos  in  a  marvellous  degree.  He  shows 
how  from  the  beginning  God  had  set  his  re¬ 
gardful  eyes  upon  them,  how  he  ha’d  guided  the 
histor}’’  of  all  other  nations  in  a  manner  subser¬ 
vient  to  their  welfare,  making  them  and  their 
development  the  historic  centre  of  the  ancient 
world  ;  how  he  had  found  them  poor,  helpless 
wanderers  in  the  wilderness,  had  formed  them 
into  a  people  there— his  own  people,  wdiom  he 
had  fed  and  led  and  trained  as  a  tender  mother 
might — and  at  last  brought  into  the  goodly  land 


72G 


SECTION  196.  THE  DYING  SONG  OF  MOSES. 


he  had  promised  them,  exalting  them  high 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth,  and  giving  them 
all  things  richly  to  enjoy.  J.  M.  G. 

8,  Once  admit  the  goal  of  history  to  be 
the  establishment  on  earth  of  a  universal  spirit¬ 
ual  kingdom — a  gathering  together  in  one  of  all 
things  with  Christ  as  head  (Eph.  1  : 10),  and  it 
is  certain  that  herein  must  lie  the  key  to  all 
historical  developments,  the  explanation  of  all 
arrangements  and  movements  of  Divine  provi¬ 
dence.  The  centre  of  interest  must  always  be 
that  portion  of  the  race  with  which  for  the  time 
being  the  kingdom  of  God  is  identified.  Orr. 

- Just  as,  in  tracing  the  course  of  a  stream, 

not  the  huge  morasses  nor  the  vast  stagnant 
pools  on  either  side  would  delay  us  :  we  should 
not,  because  of  their  extent,  count  them  the 
river,  but  recognize  that  as  such,  though  it  were 
the  slenderest  thread,  in  which  an  onward  move¬ 
ment  might  be  discerned;  so  is  it  here.  Egypt 
and  Assyria  and  Babylon  were  but  the  vast  stag¬ 
nant  morasses  on  either  side  of  the  river  ;  the 
man  in  whose  seed  the  whole  earth  should  be 
blessed,  he  and  his  family  were  the  little  stream 
in  which  the  life  and  onward  movement  of  the 
world  were  to  be  traced.  They  belong  not  to 
history,  least  of  all  to  sacred  history,  those 
Babels,  those  cities  of  confusion,  those  huge 
pens  into  which  by  force  and  fraud  the  early 
hunters  of  men,  the  Nimrods  and  Sesostrises, 
drove  and  compelled  their  fellows,  where  no  faith 
existed  but  in  the  blind  powers  of  nature  and 
the  brute  forces  of  the  natural  man.  Trench. 

10.  He /own d  him  in  a  desert  land.  This  re¬ 
fers  to  the  wilderness  through  which  God 
brought  them  to  Canaan,  and  in  which  he  took 
so  much  pains  with  them  ;  it  is  called  the  church 
in  the  wilden'ness  (Acts  7  :  38).  There  it  was  born, 
and  nursed,  and  educated,  that  all  might  appear 
to  be  Divine  and  from  heaven,  since  they  had 
there  no  communication  with  any  part  of  this 
earth,  either  for  food  or  learning.  H. 

11.  A§  an  eagle,  Cte.  This  admirable 
similitude,  so  sublimely  beautiful  and  yet  so 
simple  and  natural,  of  the  parent  eagle  training 
her  young  nestlings  to  fly  ;  first,  “  stirring  them 
up,”  or  rousing  them  from  the  nest  ;  then 
‘'hovering  about  them,”  to  watch  and  encour¬ 
age  their  timid  efforts  ;  “  spreading  abroad  her 
wings,”  to  receive  them  when  drooping  ;  “  tak¬ 
ing  them  up,  carrying  them,  to  ease  them 
when  wearied  and  exhausted  by  unusual  efforts  : 
is  probably  painted  from  the  life,  with  so  much 
circumstantial  imagery,  from  the  scenes  which 
Moses  might  often  have  witnessed  in  the  deserts 
of  Arabia  Petraea.  God  himself  had  been  pleased 
to  employ  this  comparison,  “  I  bare  you  on 


eagles’  wings.”  Hales. - Two  different  acts 

of  the  eagle  are  described  :  in  the  first  two  sen¬ 
tences,  her  warming,  nourishing,  and  protect¬ 
ing  care,  when  she  spreads  her  wdngs  over  the 
nest  ;  in  the  last  two,  her  care  when  she  takes 
the  young  abroad,  teaches  them  to  fly,  and 
guards  them  against  ever}’'  mischance  The 
first  part  of  the  figure  refers  to  the  protection 
of  the  still  weak,  helpless  people  which  w'as 
afforded  to  it  by  the  cloudy  pillar,  which  cov¬ 
ered  and  guided  it  ;  the  second  part,  to  the 
awakening  and  strengthening  of  the  people  in 
the  wilderness,  until  it  attained  some  degree  of 
self-reliance  and  dependence  on  God’s  care  amid 
the  dangers  and  privations  of  the  desert.  That 
“  he  alone”  (verse  12)  did  it,  was  meant  to  re¬ 
mind  the  unthankful  people  that  God’s  help 
had  always  been  found  all-sufficient,  and  every 
trial  of  the  strange  help  of  self-made  gods  al¬ 
ways  fraught  with  mischief.  The  angel  who 
went  before  them  was  God  himself.  Ger'l. 

The  song  introduces  the  figure  of  the  eagle, 
and  the  motherly  discipline  to  which  she  sub¬ 
jects  her  brood.  “  Naturalists  tell  us  that  when 
her  young  are  old  enough  to  fly,  the  eagle  breaks 
her  nest  in  pieces,  in  order  to  compel  them  to 
use  their  powers  of  flight  ;  fluttering  over  them, 
that  by  imitation  they  may  learn  how  to  em¬ 
ploy  their  wings,  but,  when  unwilling  to  fl}', 
spreading  abroad  her  wings,  she  bears  them  up¬ 
ward  in  the  air,  and  then  shaking  them  off, 
compels  them  to  use  their  own  exertions.” 
From  this  Mr.  Hull  deduces  the  truth  that  ”  the 
Divine  discipline  of  life  is  designed  to  awaken 
man  to  the  development  of  his  own  powers.” 
We  see  thus  the  kindness  of  the  parental  dis¬ 
cipline,  and  that  it  takes  motherhood  as  well  as 
fatherhood  to  illustrate  the  Divine  relation  (cf. 
Is,  49  : 15).  Edgar. - 1  once  saw  a  very  inter¬ 

esting  sight  above  one  of  the  crags  of  Ben  Nevis, 
as  I  was  going  in  pursuit  of  black  game.  Two 
parent  eagles  were  teaching  their  offspring,  two 
young  birds,  the  manoeuvres  of  flight.  They 
began  by  rising  from  the  top  of  a  mountain,  in 
the  eye  of  the  sun— it  was  about  midday,  and 
bright  for  this  climate.  They  at  first  made 
small  circles,  and  the  young  imitated  them  ; 
they  paused  on  their  wings,  waiting  till  they 
had  made  their  first  flight,  holding  them  on 
their  expanded  wiugs  when  they  appeared  ex¬ 
hausted,  and  then  took  a  second  and  larger 
gyration,  always  rising  toward  the  sun,  and  en¬ 
larging  their  circle  of  flight,  so  as  to  make  a 
gradually  ascending  spiral.  Davy. 

12.  The  Lord  alone,  he  and  none  other,  did 
lead  Israel.  There  was  no  strange  god  there. 
In  all  his  wilderness  training  of  forty  most 


EFFECTS  OF  UNSANCTIFIED  PliOSPERITT, 


727 


eventful  years,  that  tender  youth-time  of  Israel, 
there  was  not  the  least  help  from  Baal  or  Ash- 
toreth.  But  the  hand  of  his  own  God  was  every¬ 
where  ;  in  his  daily  bread  ;  in  his  rock-gushing 
W’aters  ;  in  his  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire  ;  in  his 
victories  over  Amalek,  Arad,  and  Midian.  H,  C. 

15.  The  sudden  and  frequent  change  of  per¬ 
sons  in  this  ode  is  remarkable.  Moses  cele¬ 
brates  the  truth  and  justice  of  God,  then  in¬ 
veighs  against  the  perfidy  and  wickedness  of 
the  people.  Jle  first  speaks  of  them  as  if  they 
were  absent,  “  They  have  corrujjted  them¬ 
selves.  ”  Then  he  addresses  them ;  ‘  ‘  Do  ye 
thus  requite  the  Lord,  O  foolish  people  and  un¬ 
wise  ?”  Afterward  he  beautifully  amplifies 
God’s  indulgence  and  more  than  fatherly  affec¬ 
tion  toward  the  Israelites,  in  words  not  directed 
to  them  ;  whence,  again  filled  with  indignation 
at  the  stupidity  of  this  ungrateful  and  impious 
people,  he  thus  breaks  forth  :  “But  Jeshurun 
waxed  fat,  and  kicked  :  ihou  art  waxen  fat,  thou 
art  grown  thick,  thou  art  covered  with  fatness  ; 
then  he  forsook  God  which  made  him”  (verse 
15).  In  this  short  sentence;  the  discourse  being 
abruptly  turned  to  the  Israelites  and  then  im¬ 
mediately  from  them,  has  great  force.  It  is 
fervid,  vehement,  pointed,  and  full  of  indig¬ 
nation.  The  Hebrew  poetry  abounds  with  in¬ 
stances  of  this  sudden  change  of  persons,  which 
often  adds  great  beauty,  and  is  always  to  be 
carefully  observed.  Bp.  Lowih. 

Jesliiiriiii.  This  name  designates  Israel  as 
chosen  to  be  a  righteous  nation  ;  and  in  the  use 
of  it  here  lies  the  keenest  reproach  of  apostate 
Israel,  as  fallen  into  a  state  the  opposite  of  that 
to  which  it  was  destined.  “  By  using  the  name 
righteous  in  place  of  Israely  Moses  ironically  cen¬ 
sures  those  Vi^ho  had  swerved  from  rectitude  ; 
by  recalling  to  memory  with  what  dignity  they 
had  been  endowed,  he  the  more  sharply  rebukes 
the  perfidy  which  was  their  crime”  (Calv.). 
This  name  appears  also  in  ch.  33  : 5,  26,  and  in 
Is.  44  : 2  ;  but  in  these  places  without  any  im¬ 
plied  censure.  W.  L.  A. 

15-1  §.  Jeshurun  comes  from  a  word  that 
signifies  upright;  and  it  is  evidently  put  for 
Israel,  who  were  under  great  obligations  to  be 
upright ;  but  instead  of  that,  in  their  prosperity 
they  rebelled  against  God,  as  a  pampered  horse 

kicks.  Bp.  Kidder. - Here  is  the  sad  moral 

result  of  being  over-fed,  over-tempted.  “Jeshu¬ 
run,’’  the  upright  one,  had  bound  himself  by 
covenant  to  walk  uprightly  with  God.  The  He¬ 
brews  constantly  associate  fatness  with  moral 
obtuseness,  insensibility,  and  consequent  ob¬ 
liquity.  The  ceremonial  distinctions  of  things 
clean  and  unclean  assumed  this  —swine  being 


utterly  unclean,  and  the  fatty  portions  of  sacri' 
ficed  animals  being  accounted  good  only  for 
burning  on  the  altar.  Hence  the  figure — Jeshu¬ 
run,  too  fat  for  self-control  and  self-denial  ;  too 
fat  for  the  worshij)  of  the  pure  and  holy  One  ; 
and  consequently  he  forsook  the  God  who  made 
and  blessed  him.  The  verb  for  “  lightly  es¬ 
teemed  ”  means  to  regard  as  dried  up  ;  with¬ 
ered  ;  of  faded  beauty.  So  Israel  tlioiight  of 
their  God  though  he  had  been  to  them  the  rock 
of  their  salvation.  The  sad  fact  of  their  fall 
into  idol-worship  is  reiterated  and  made  im¬ 
pressively  emphatic.  They  provoked  God  to 
jealousy  ;  for  how  could  he  be  otherwise  than 
jealous  when  they  cast  him  off  and  gave  their 
hearts’  homage  to  devils  ;  to  new  gods,  unknown 
to  their  fathers  ;  gods  that  were  no  gods  at  all  ! 
The  Hebrew  word  here  for  “  devils”  means 
primarily  Zords —mighty  ones.  The  Septuagint 
and  Vulgate  give  it  demons— true  to  the  ultimate 
idea,  for  all  idol-worship  is  equivalent  to  the 
worship  of  the  devil,  being  real  obedience  to  his 
will.  The  blackness  of  this  guilt  lies  in  its  for¬ 
getting,  disowning  God,  our  great  Benefactor  ; 
our  only  real  Friend.  H,  C. 

Here  is  a  picture  of  spiritual  degeneration  in 
the  midst  of  worldly  prosperity.  Prosperity 
generates  wilfulness,  and  a  resistance  to  the 
Divine  claims.  The  restraints  of  duty,  con¬ 
science,  God,  will  be  irksome,  and  will  provoke 
to  resistance.  The  irritation  which  was  at  first 
felt  w'ill  subside,  and  insensibility  will  steal 
over  the  soul.  Stubborn  obstinacy  without  the 
former  stings  of  conscience.  “  Past  feeling.” 
There  sets  in  a  thinking  lightly  of  God  alto¬ 
gether,  and  a  forsaking  of  him.  To  this  suc¬ 
ceeds  not  only  neglect  of  God,  but  the  substitu¬ 
tion  of  other  gods  (verses  16,  17) !  The  heart  of 
man  must  have  a  supreme  object  of  love  ;  and 
if  God  be  not  enthroned  in  the  heart,  some 
rival  will  be  seated  there.  To  sum  up.  Worldly 
prosperity,  if  not  sanctified  to  God  and  by  him 
will  engender,  first  resistance,  then  deadness, 
then  estrangement,  then  idolatry  !  This  is  the 
sure  and  certain  effect  of  an  accumulation  of 
worldly  good,  when  its  possessor  is  not  led  by 
Divine  grace  to  use  it  wisely.  C.  C. 

B9-25.  The  fourth  part,  to  the  end  of  the 
twenty-fifth  verse,  expresses  the  indignation  of 
the  Lord,  and  his  denunciations  that  he  would 
reject  apostate  Israel,  and  adopt  in  their  room 
the  believing  Gentiles  ;  according  to  the  inter¬ 
pretation  of  Paul  (Rom.  10  : 19),  citing  verse  21 
and  the  parallel  prophecy  of  Is.  65  : 1,  2.  This 
part  describes  also,  in  the  glowing  colors  of  the 
preceding  prophecies,  all  the  calamities  of  th© 
Babylonian  and  Roman  captivities.  Hales. 


728 


SECTION  196.  THE  DYING  SONG  OF  MOSES. 


19.  Tlic  proTocatioii  of  lii§ 
and  of  liii  daughters.  For  such  they  were 
till  they  corrupted  themselves,  and  thereby 
highly  incensed  him  against  them.  For  noth¬ 
ing  can  be  so  provoking  as  the  rebellion  of  chil¬ 
dren  against  a  most  indulgent  jjarent.  Dp, 

Patrick. - The  “  daughters”  are  here  expressly 

named,  because  the  women  were .  notoriously 
guilty  of  provoking  God  by  their  idolatr5^  (See 
Jer.  7  : 18  ;  44  : 15  ;  Ezek.  8  : 14.)  Bp.  Kidder. 

The  epithets  “  not  a  people,”  and  “fool¬ 
ish  nation,”  represent  very  faithfully  the  esti¬ 
mation  in  which  the  Jews  held  all  others  than 
themselves.  When  therefore  Paul  asserts  that 
Israel  in  this  passage  had  forewarning  of  the 
call  of  the  Gentiles,  he  is  assuredly  only  declar¬ 
ing  its  real  import.  God  announces  his  resolve 
to  repay  the  faithlessness  of  the  Jews  by  with¬ 
drawing  their  privileges,  and  conferring  them 
on  those  wdiom  the  Jews  despised.  The  ulti¬ 
mate  result,  that  by  the  call  of  the  Gentiles 
Israel  should  be  provoked  to  emulation  and  so 
eventually  be  saved  also,  is  not  here  brought  for¬ 
ward.  It  lies  among  those  mj^steries  of  the  dis¬ 
tant  future  wdiich  the  Gospel  w^as  to  bring  l  o 
light.  Espin, 

22.  (Cf.  Jer.  15  : 14  ;  17  :  4  ;  Lam.  4  : 11.) 
The  lowest  heSO ;  die  lowest  sheol,  the  utter¬ 
most  depth  of  the  under-world.  The  Hebrew 
sheol  answering  to  the  Greek  q5r]Q,  by  which 

it  is  usually  rendered  by  the  LXX.,  is  a  general 
designation  of  the  unseen  state,  the  place  of 
the  dead.  Probably  it  is  from  a  root  signifying 
to  excavate,  to  hollow,  and,  like  the  German 
hdlle,  means  primarily  a  hollow  place  or  cavern. 
The  Divine  wrath  kindles  a  consuming  fire,  that 
burns  down  to  the  lowest  depths— to  the  deep¬ 
est  part  of  s/<eoZ— consumes  the  earth’s  produce, 
and  sets  on  fire  the  foundations  of  the  moun¬ 
tains.  This  does  not  refer  to  any  particular 
judgment  that  was  to  befall  the  national  Israel, 
but  is  a  general  description  of  the  effects  of  the 
Divine  w^rath  when  that  is  jDoured  forth  in  judg¬ 
ments  on  men.  W.  L.  A. 

He  compares  his  anger  to  a  burning  fire, 
wEich  should  penetrate  to  the  deepest  abysses, 
and  should  utterly  consume  their  land  so  as  not 
to  spare  the  very  roots  of  the  mountains.  This 
metaphor  is  of  frequent  occurrence  ;  but  here 
more  is  expressed  by  it  than  in  other  passages, 
since,  wdien  his  implacable  anger  is  once 
aroused,  there  are  no  bounds  to  his  severity. 

Calv. - So  the  Gospel  preached  by  Jesus  is  no 

monotone  of  “love,”  “love!”  It  is  a  many¬ 
voiced  strain  to  fill  the  mighty  compass  of  that 
great  organ,  the  human  soul;  to  sweep  its  infi¬ 
nite  diapason,  and  awaken,  alike,  the  deep 


thunder  tones  of  an  accusing  conscience  ;  the 
loud  wails  of  penitential  sorrow  ;  the  subdued 
tones  of  loving  but  trembling  faith  ;  and  the 
lofty  notes  of  the  holy  ecstasy  of  “  joy  unspeak¬ 
able  and  full  of  glory  !”  It  is  the  same  Jesus 
Christ  wdio  W’ept  over  sinners  that  proclaims 
“  the  terrors  of  the  Lord  ”  and  flings  “  the  ar¬ 
rows  of  the  Almighty.”  S  R. 

“  Instead  of  beiug  shocked  at  the  thought 
that  God  is  wrathful,  wo  should  rather  ask,  With 
whom}  and  Eor  ichcd?  A  God  without  wrath, 
and  a  God  who  is  wnathful  on  other  accounts 
than  for  sin,  is  not  a  God,  but  an  idol  ”  [Ileng- 
stenberg).  It  is  only,  as  this  wn’iter  observes, 
when  “  man  himself  is  not  displeased  with  sin, 
wdien  it  assumes  to  him  the  appearance  of  a 
bagatelle,”  that  he  no  longer  perceives  why  God 
should  feel  wrath  at  it.  But  man  is  by  no  means 
disposed  to  treat  lightly  sins  against  himself.  He 
never  feels  that  he  does  not  “  do  well  to  be 
angry”  on  account  of  these  or  against  the  per¬ 
son  wdio  does  them.  A  very  slight  wound  to 
his  honor  makes  him  clamor  for  satisfaction. 
A  God  wdio  is  incapable  of  moral  indignation 
would  be  equallj'  incapable  of  moral  love,  and 
could  not,  with  truth,  be  spoken  of  as  dispens¬ 
ing  mercy.  Wrath  and  love  are  opposite  poles  ’ 
of  one  affection.  Where  there  is  no  offence, 
there  needs  no  forgiveness.  And  wdiat  provokes 
this  wrath  in  God  ?  Sin— sin  only.  Most  espe¬ 
cially  the  sins  of  his  owm  people.  “  No  faith” 
— w^ant  of  fidelity  to  vows.  “  Frowardness”  — 
persistence  in  sin  (verse  20).  Those  wdio  have 
stood  in  nearest  relations  to  him,  wdio  have  en¬ 
joyed  most  favors,  are  those  who  will  be  most 
severely  punished  (Amos  3  : 2).  Wrath  in  God 
is  in  this  life  not  divorced  from  mercy.  Not  at 
least  so  long  as  hope  of  recovery  remains.  He 
w'ould  fain  make  punishment  subservient  to 
conversion.  This  is  the  thought  in  verse  21. 
Israel  is  not  cast  off  forever.  God  is  seeking  to 
provoke  it  to  jealousy  hy  a  transference  of  his 
regard  to  the  Gentiles.  His  retaliation  has  a 
merciful  as  well  as  a  wrathful  design.  Mercy 
w'aits  on  every  sinner,  courting  his  repentance. 
Orr. 

26-35.  The  fifth  part  to  the  end  of  verse  35 
states  the  reasons  of  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews 
into  all  lands,  both  for  their  preservation  from 
their  Assyrian  conquerors,  and  to  prevent  the 
boasts  of  the  latter.  Hides. - After  many  ter¬ 

rible  threatenings  of  deserved  wrath  and  ven¬ 
geance,  w'e  have  here  surprising  intimations  of 
mercy,  undeserved  mercy,  which  rejoices  against 
judgment,  and  by  w^hich  it  appears  that  God 
has  no  plea  sure  in  the  death  of  sinners,  but  would 
rather  they  should  iitrn  and  live.  H. 


JEHOVAH'S  PLEA  FOR  WISE  CONSIDERATION. 


720 


27.  Were  it  not  that  I  feared.  He 

that  is  Omnipotent  is  not  capable  of  fearing 
anything  ;  but  he  speaks  in  our  language,  and 
gives  this  reason  why  he  did  not  make  them 
cease  to  be  a  nation,  because  he  would  not  have 
their  enemies  insult  and  use  insolent  language 
even  against  himself.  Of  this  we  have  an  in¬ 
stance,  Is,  37  :  28,  29.  Bp.  Patrick. 

28.  The  cause  of  Israel’s  rejection  was  that 
they  were  a  people  utterl}'^  destitute  of  counsel 
and  without  understanding.  Had  they  been 
wise,  they  would  have  looked  to  the  end,  and 
acted  in  a  way  conducive  to  their  own  welfare, 
instead  of  rushing  upon  ruin.  If  Israel  were 
wise,  they  could  easily  overcome  ail  their  foes 
through  the  help  of  the  Almighty  ;  but  having 
forsaken  him,  they  were  left  by  him,  and  so 
came  under  the  power  of  the  enemy.  W.  L.  A. 

29-31.  How  does  the  tenderness  of  a  loving 
Father’s  heart  pour  itself  out  in  these  matchless 
words  !  Oh,  if  my  people  were  only  wise  ;  wise 
to  know  and  appreciate  their  great  Benefactor  ! 
Wise  to  render  him  the  homage,  the  trust,  and 
the  love  of  their  heart  !  How  would  one  of 
them  chase  a  thousand  of  their  foes  if  only  their 
God  were  on  their  side  ;  if  he  who  is  their  Eock 
and  Strength  had  not  sold  and  disowned  them  ! 
Expressively  Moses  adds,  “  For  their  Eock  is 
not  as  our  Eock  their  gods  were  never  like 
our  God.  Moses  did  not  say  this  without  aii- 
thority.  He  remembered  how  the  Egyptian 
hosts  in  the  Eed  Sea  cried  out,  “  Let  us  flee 
from  the  face  of  Israel,  for  the  Lord  flghteth  for 
them  against  the  Eg3'ptians”  (Ex.  14  :  25).  The 
testimony  of  Balaam  was  still  fresh  :  “  The  Lord 
his  God  is  with  him,  and  the  shout  of  a  king  is 
among  them.  God  brought  them  out  of  Egj^pt  ; 
he  hath  as  it  were  the  strength  of  a  unicorn. 
Surel}'  there  is  no  enchantment  against  Jacob, 
nor  any  divination  against  Israel.  Behold,  the 
people  shall  rise  up  as  a  great  lion”  (Nu. 
23:20-24).  The  fame  of  God’s  wonders  for 
Israel  was  already  abroad  among  all  the  adja¬ 
cent  nations,  as  may  be  seen  in  the  words  of 
Eahab  (Josh.  2  :  9-11).  H.  C. 

29.  Oil,  that  they  were  wi§e,  that 
they  would  eon§ider  their  latter 
end  !  It  is  here  meant  particularly  of  that 
which  God  by  Moses  had  foretold  concerning 
this  people  in  the  latter  days  ;  but  it  may  be 
applied  more  generally.  We  ought  to  under¬ 
stand  and  consider  the  latter  end  of  life,  and 
the  future  state  of  the  soul  ;  and  to  think  of 
death  as  our  removal  from  a  world  of  sense  to  a 
world  of  spirits  ;  as  the  final  period  of  our  state 
of  trial  and  probation,  and  our  entrance  upon 
an  unchangeable  state  of  recompense  and  retri¬ 


bution.  H. - Yet  we  see  business,  pleasure, 

and  even  sin,  are  prosecuted  with  an  earnestness 
and  systematic  pertinacity,  not  in  the  least  de¬ 
gree  checked  or  mitigated  by  any  thought  of 
death  ;  hardly  checked,  even  when  associates  or 
rivals  are  seized  and  carried  awaj'  !  Even  the 
old  age  of  a  person  previously  thoughtless 
seems  not  necessarily  to  bring  am^  serious  re¬ 
flections  on  this  subject.  A  very  large  part  of 
the  time  of  most  persons  passes  wholly  clear 
from  aoy  monitory  interference  of  the  thought 
of  their  mortalit3\  There  even  are  some  on 
whom  the  very  thought  itself  does  not,  prob¬ 
ably,  once  intrude  in  long  spaces  of  time — dur¬ 
ing  many  weeks  or  months,  knowing  themselves 
infallibly  appointed  to  die,  and  yet  advancing 
toward  that  event  in  the  miraculous  fatuity  of 
never  being  disturbed  by  any  thought  of  the 
subject  !  Foster. 

30.  The  prophet  here  states  the  true  rea¬ 
son  of  the  timidity  of  the  Israelites,  so  that  a 
thousand  would  flee  from  one  enemy  ;  as  God 
had  warned  them  repeatedly  before  in  even 
stronger  terms.  (See  Lev.  26  :  17-36  ;  Be. 
28  :25.)  31.  This  is  a  parenthetical  observa¬ 

tion  of  Moses  himself,  introduced  incidentall,y 
into  the  Divine  speech,  stating  the  superiority 
of  the  God  of  Israel  over  the  gods  of  their  en¬ 
emies,  even  by  their  own  confession.  Thus 
Jethro  acknowledged  it  (Ex.  18  : 11),  the  Egyp¬ 
tians  confessed  it  (Ex.  14:25),  Balaam  (Nu. 
23  : 19-23),  the  Canaanites  (Josh.  2  :  11),  the 
Gibeonites  (Josh.  9  :  9-24),  the  Philistines  (1 
Sam.  4  :  7),  Nebuchadnezzar,  the  haughty  King 
of  Babylon  (Dan.  3  : 29  ;  4  : 37),  Darius  the 
Mede  (Dan.  6  : 26,  27),  Cyrus,  King  of  Persia 
(Ezra  1  :  3),  Artaxerxes  Longirnanus  (Ezra  7  :  23). 
lilies. - That  the  heathen  should  thus  be  con¬ 

strained  to  bear  witness  to  the  supremacy  of 
Israel’s  God  heightens  the  folly  of  Israel’s  ajDos- 
tasy.  Espin. 

32.  Why,  then,  if  Israel’s  Eock  is  so  mighty, 
does  not  Israel  live  and  triumph  in  perpetual 
victory  and  prosperity  ?  Because  they  are  cor¬ 
rupt  like  Sodom  ;  their  “  vine”  being  put  poet- 
icalty  for  themselves  morally  considered.  Their 
heart  and  life  are  altogether  rotten.  H.  C. 

35-43.  The  sixth  and  last  part  of  the  song 
rehearses  the  consolation  of  Israel,  and  signal 
punishment  of  their  foes.  It  begins  with  God’s 
expostulation  with  his  people  when  reduced  to 
their  lowest  state  of  desolation,  referring  them 
for  relief,  ironically,  to  the  vain  idols  in  which 
they  had  trusted  and  to  which  they  had  sacri¬ 
ficed  ;  and  by  an  admirable  contrast  describing 
his  own  self-existence,  as  “  living  for  ever¬ 
more  and  his  sole  and  exclusive  power  “  to 


730 


SECTION.  196.  THE  DYING  SONG  OF  MOSES. 


kill  ”  and  “  to  make  alive,”  to  “  wound  ”  and 
to  “  heal.”  Hence  the  captivity  is  called  the 
wound  of  Israel,  which  is  to  be  healed  at  the  res¬ 
toration  of  Israel  (Is.  30  ;  26),  while  his  power 
to  “  kill  ”  or  destroy  his  adversaries,  as  a  mighty 
warrior,  with  “  sword  and  arrows,”  or  the  mis¬ 
eries  of  war,  forms  the  conclusion  of  it.  Hales. 

S5.  The  foot  of  his  enemies  shall  slide  in 
due  time,  and  his  work  of  vengeance,  like  all 
his  other  woik,  prove  perfect.  As  God  refuses 
to  exercise  “unprincipled  mercy,”  so  will  he 
refuse  to  execute  random  wrath.  The  idea 
should  surely  be  got  rid  of  that  there  is  any  dif¬ 
ference  in  principle  between  the  Old  Testament 
and  the  New.  The  prerogative  of  vengeance  so 
powerfully  asserted  in  this  song  of  the  Lord, 
put  into  the  mouth  of  Moses,  has  not  been  re¬ 
nounced  nor  laid  down  for  an  instant.  The 
Lord  still  claims  it,  as  Horn.  12  : 19,  Heb. 
10  :  30,  and  other  passages  show.  Edgar. 

40.  For  I  Bift  up  my  liand.  In  Scrip¬ 
ture  there  are  two  ceremonies  mentioned  of 
swearing.  One,  of  putting  the  hand  under  the 
thigh  of  him  to  whom  the  oath  was  made  (Gen. 
24  :  2  and  47  :  29).  The  other  was  by  lifting  up 
the  hand  to  heaven  (Gen.  14  ;  22).  Thus  God, 
condescending  to  the  manner  of  men,  expresses 
himself  in  this  place.  In  allusion  to  this  cus¬ 
tom  the  Psalmist  describes  the  perjured  person, 

whose  mouth  speaketh  vanity,  and  whose 
right  hand  is  a  right  hand  of  falsehood  ”  (Ps. 
144  :  8).  Ahp.  Tillotson. 

40,  41.  These  verses  should  be  read  contin¬ 
uously  :  “  For  I  lift  up  my  hand  to  heaven,  and 
say.  As  I  live  forever,  if  I  whet  my  glittering 
sword,  and  if  my  hand  take  hold  on  judgment  ; 
I  will  render  vengeance  to  mine  enemies,”  etc. 
W.  L.  A.  • 

43.  As  this  song  commenced  with  an  appeal 
to  heaven  and  earth  to  give  glory  to  the  Lord 
(verses  1-3),  so  it  very  suitably  closes  with  an 
appeal  to  the  heathen  to  rejoice  with  his  peo¬ 
ple  on  account  of  the  acts  of  the  Lord.  Keil. 

- The  song  has  reached,  through  along  series 

of  Divine  interpositions,  the  grandest  theme  for 
praise  in  this  call  to  the  Gentiles,  now  heathen 
no  more,  to  rejoice  over  God’s  restored  people, 
the  Jews.  Espin. 

Rejoice,  O  ye  nations,  with  liis 
people.  This  last  verse  terminates  the  whole 
song  with  the  joint  exultation  of  the  Gentile 
with  the  Jewish  converts  to  Christianity,  aris¬ 
ing  from  the  prospect  of  the  approaching  judg¬ 
ments  of  God  to  be  inflicted  both  upon  his  ad¬ 
versaries  and  the  persecutors  of  his  servants. 
Paul  has  cited  this  verse  to  prove  the  future 


conversion  of  the  Jews  and  of  the  Gentiles  to 
Christ  (Rom.  15  : 10-12),  supported  by  the  par¬ 
allel  prophecies  of  Ps.  117  :  1,  Is.  11  :  1-10. 
Theodoret  has  well  paraphrased  this  verse  : 
“  The  Gentiles  and  the  Jews,  the  people  of 
God,  might  well  rejoice  together  ;  for  even 
among  the  Jews  there  were  many  who  believed 
in  Christ,  as  well  as  a  great  part  of  the  Gentile 
world.  But  the  heathens  were  indebted  to  the 
Jewish  believers  for  their  knowledge,  and  re¬ 
ceived  the  Christian  religion  solely  from  them. 
The  prophet,  therefore,  enjoying  a  clear  view  of 
this  great  period,  exults,  “  Rejoice,  0  ye  na¬ 
tions,  with  his  people,”  the  converted  heathens 
with  the  believing  Jews.  Such  was  the  exten¬ 
sive  range  of  prophetic  vision  vouchsafed  to  the 
great  Lawgiver  of  the  Jews,  comprising  the 
whole  fortunes  of  their  state,  from  the  first  re¬ 
demption  after  the  Egyptian  bondage,  until  the 
last,  which  the  succeeding  prophets  under  the 
former  dispensation,  and  our  Lord  and  his 
apostles  under  the  New,  unfold  more  explicitly 

and  circumstantially.  Hales. - It  would  be 

endless  to  quote  the  various  passages  in  the  Old 
Testament  in  which  the  Gentiles  are  called 
upon  to  glorify  God  for  his  mercy.  The  proph¬ 
ecy  of  Isaiah  is  full  of  them  ;  and  the  Psalmist, 
in  many  of  his  divine  hymns,  no  less  clearly 
declares  those  “  glad  tidings  of  great  joy  which 
shall  be  to  all  people.”  “  Rejoice  in  the  Lord” 
is  the  language  of  the  inspired  writings  through¬ 
out.  Waldo. 

This  closing  strain  brings  out  in  unmistakable 
terms  the  idea  which  seems  to  have  been  im¬ 
plied  since  verse  36 — viz.,  that  these  great  judg¬ 
ments  on  Israel  will  not  ultimately  break  down 
God’s  cause  and  kingdom,  but  will  only  cut  off 
the  hopelessly  reprobate  and  really  bring  deliv¬ 
erance,  purity,  salvation,  to  Zion.  Therefore 
let  all  the  nations  rejoice  with  his  people.  They 
have  a  deeper  interest  than  they  are  yet  aware 
of  in  this  purifying  process  for  the  ultimate  re¬ 
demption  pf  Zion.  The  prophetic  eye  of  Moses 
sees  through  to  the  glorious  ingathering  of  tbe 
Gentiles  to  Christ,  and  seems  to  trace  the  con¬ 
nection  of  this  ingathering  with  the  judgments 
sent  on  apostate  Israel  in  the  first  Christian  age. 
The  outcome  of  this  song  is  therefore  ultimately 
hopeful  to  the  real  Zion.  It  gives  a  fearfully 
dark  view  of  the  guilty  apostasies  of  Israel  — 
those  which  culminated  first  in  the  captivity  to 
Babylon  ;  last  in  the  fall  of  their  city  before  the 
Romans.  In  the  result  God  vindicates  his  great 
name  ;  purifies  his  people,  and  spreads  the 
glory  of  his  name  far  abroad  among  the  nations. 
H.  C. 


SECTION  197. 


731 


Section  197. 

BLESSING  OF  THE  TRIBES  BY  MOSES. 

Deuteronomy  33  : 1-29. 

De.  33  1  And  this  is  the  blessing,  wherewith  Moses  the  man  of  God  blessed  the  children  of 


2  Israel  before  his  death.  And  he  said, 

The  Lord  came  from  Sinai, 

And  rose  from  Seir  unto  them  ; 

He  shined  forth  from  mount  Paran, 

And  he  came  from  the  ten  thousands  of 
holy  ones  ; 

At  his  right  hand  was  a  fiery  law  unto 
them. 

3  Yea,  he  loveth  the  peoples  ; 

All  his  saints  are  in  thy  hand : 

And  they  sat  down  at  thy  feet  ; 

Every  one  shall  receive  of  thy  words. 

4  Moses  commanded  us  a  law, 

An  inheritance  for  the  assembly  of  Jacob. 

5  And  he  was  king  in  Jeshurun, 

When  the  heads  of  the  people  were  gath¬ 
ered. 

All  the  tribes  of  Israel  together. 

6  Let  Reuben  live,  and  not  die  ; 

Y’^et  let  his  men  be  few. 

7  And  this  is  ihe  blessing  of  Judah  ;  and  he 

sai  d. 

Hear,  Lord,  the  voice  of  Judah, 

And  bring  him  in  unto  his  people  : 

With  his  hands  he  contended  for  himself  ; 
And  thou  shalt  be  an  help  against  his  ad¬ 
versaries. 

8  And  of  Levi  he  said. 

Thy  Thummim  and  thy  Urim  are  with  thy 
godly  one, 

Whom  thou  didst  prove  at  Massah, 

With  whom  thou  didst  strive  at  the  waters 
of  Meribah  ; 

9  Who  said  of  his  father,  and  of  his  mother, 

I  have  not  seen  him  ; 

Neither  did  he  acknowledge  his  brethren. 
Nor  knew  he  his  own  children  : 

For  they  have  observed  thy  word. 

And  keep  thy  covenant. 

10  They  shall  teach  Jacob  thy  judgements, 
And  Israel  thy  law  : 

They  shall  put  incense  before  thee, 

And  whole  burnt  offering  upon  thine  altar. 

11  Bless,  Lord,  his  substance, 

And  accept  the  work  of  his  hands  : 

Smite  through  the  loins  of  them  that  rise 
up  against  him, 

And  of  them  that  hate  him,  that  they  rise 
not  again. 


12  Of  Benjamin  he  said. 

The  beloved  of  the  Lord  shall  dwell  in 
safety  by  him  ; 

He  covereth  him  all  the  day  long. 

And  he  dwelleth  between  his  shoulders. 

13  And  of  Joseph  he  said. 

Blessed  of  the  Lord  be  his  land  ; 

For  the  precious  things  of  heaven,  for  the 
dew. 

And  for  the  deep  that  coucheth  beneath, 

14  And  for  the  precious  things  of  the  fruits 

of  the  sun. 

And  for  the  precious  things  of  the  growth 
of  the  moons, 

15  And  for  the  chief  things  of  the  ancient 

mountains, 

And  for  the  precious  things  of  the  ever¬ 
lasting  hills, 

16  And  for  the  precious  things  of  the  earth 

and  the  fulness  thereof, 

And  the  good  will  of  him  that  dwelt  in  the 
bush  : 

Let  the  blessing  come  upon  the  head  of 
Joseph, 

And  upon  the  crown  of  the  head  of  him 
that  was  separate  from  his  brethren. 

17  The  firstling  of  his  bullock,  majesty  is  his  ; 
And  his  horns  are  the  horns  of  the  wild-ox  : 
With  them  he  shall  push  the  peoples  all  of 

them,  even  the  ends  of  the  earth  : 

And  they  are  the  ten  thousands  of  Ephraim 
And  they  are  the  thousands  of  Manasseh. 

18  And  of  Zebulun  he  said, 

Rejoice,  Zebulun,  in  thy  going  out  ; 

And,  Issachar,  in  thy  tents. 

19  They  shall  call  the  peoples  unto  the  moun¬ 

tain  ; 

There  shall  they  offer  sacrifices  of  right¬ 
eousness  ; 

For  they  shall  suck  the  abundance  of  the 
seas. 

And  the  hidden  treasures  of  the  sand. 

20  And  of  Gad  he  said, 

Blessed  be  he  that  enlargeth  Gad  : 

He  dwelleth  as  a  lioness, 

And  teareth  the  arm,  yea,  the  crown  of  the 
head. 

21  And  he  provided  the  first  part  for  himself. 


732 


SECTION  197.  BLESSING  OF  THE  TlilBES  BT  MCSES. 


For  there  was  the  lawgiver’s  portion  re¬ 
served  ;  I 

And  he  came  wiUi  the  heads  of  the  people, 
He  executed  the  justice  of  the  Lord, 

And  his  judgements  with  Israel. 

22  And  of  Dan  he  said, 

Dan  is  a  lion’s  whelp, 

That  leapeth  forth  from  Bashan, 

23  And  of  Naphtali  he  said, 

O  Naphtali,  satisfied  with  favour. 

And  full  with  the  blessing  of  the  Lord  : 
Possess  thou  the  west  and  the  south. 

24  And  of  Asher  he  said. 

Blessed  be  Asher  with  children  ; 

Let  him  be  acceptable  unto  his  brethren, 
And  let  him  dip  his  foot  in  oil. 

25  Thy  bars  shall  be  iron  and  brass  ; 

And  as  thy  days,  so  shall  thy  strength  be. 

26  There  is  none  like  unto  God,  O  Jesh- 

urun. 

Before  ascending  Mount  Nebo,  to  take  a  view 
of  the  land  he  w^as  not  permitted  to  enter  and 
then  to  die,  Moses  took  farewell  of  the  j^eople 
he  had  so  long  guided  and  ruled,  b}^  pronounc¬ 
ing  on  them  a  blessing  in  their  several  tribes. 
This  blessing  was  probably  spoken  on  the  same 
day  as  the  song  recorded  in  the  preceding  chap¬ 
ter,  and  to  the  same  assembl3\  The  one  may 
be  regarded  as  the  counterpart  of  the  other.  In 
the  song,  Moses  dwells  chiefly  on  the  calamities 
that  were  to  befall  the  people  because  of  their 
ai)ostasy  ;  in  the  blessing,  he  depicts  the  ben¬ 
efits  that  were  to  be  enjoyed  by  them  through 
the  Divine  favor.  The  tone  of  the  one  is  sombre 
and  minatory  ;  the  tone  of  the  other  is  serene 
and  cheering.  The  one  presents  the  darker 
side,  the  other  the  brighter  side,  of  Israel’s  for¬ 
tunes.  Both  were  fitting  utterances  for  the 
occasion  ;  the  one  the  farewell  w^arning,  the 
other  the  farewell  benediction,  of  him  who  had 
so  long  proved  them  and  known  their  ways  ; 
wdio,  while  he  desired  their  welfare,  feared  they 
might  forfeit  this  by  their  folly  and  sin  ;  and 
who  sought,  both  by  warning  and  by  blessing, 
to  encourage  them  to  pursue  that  course  by 
w'hich  alone  prosperity  and  happiness  could  be 
secured.  W.  L.  A. 

This  blessing  follows  the  impulses  of  the  great 
heart  of  Moses,  now  a  patriarch  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  years,  who  had  long  outlived  the 
associates  of  his  earlier  days  ;  who  had  suffered 
and  borne  everything  for  his  people  and  had 
labored  for  them  more  than  a  father  for  his  sons 
and  daughters.  While  the  “  Song”  is  largely  in 
the  minor  strain— a  sad  prophetic  vision  of  the 
nation’s  future  apostasies  and  consequent  ca- 


Who  rideth  upon  the  heaven  for  thy  help. 

And  in  his  excellency  on  the  skies. 

27  The  eternal  God  is  thy  dwelling  place. 

And  underneath  are  the  everlasting  arms  : 

And  he  thrust  out  the  enemy  from  before 

thee, 

And  said,  Destroy. 

28  And  Israel  dwelleth  in  safety, 

The  fountain  of  Jacob  alone, 

In  a  land  of  corn  and  wine  ; 

Yea,  his  heavens  drop  down  dew. 

29  Happy  art  thou,  O  Israel  ; 

Who  is  like  unto  thee,  a  people  saved  by 
the  Lord, 

The  shield  of  thy  help, 

And  that  is  the  sword  of  thy  excellency  ! 

And  thine  enemies  shall  submit  them¬ 
selves  unto  thee  ; 

And  thou  shalt  tread  ujron  their  high 
places. 

lamities,  this  chapter  is  purehmediclion — the  out¬ 
pouring  of  hopeful  prayers  and  heartfelt  good 
wishes,  with  no  shade  of  anticipated  disaster, 

no  foreseen  calamities,  11.  C. - Like  the 

blessing  of  Jacob  (Gen.  49),  to  which  it  has  an 
intimate  though  independent  correspondence 
throughout,  it  is  the  solemn  farewell  of  the 
earthly  head  of  the  race.  A  comparison  will 
show  how  the  blessings  uttered  by  Moses  over 
the  several  tribes  partly  repeat,  partly  enlarge 
and  supplement,  and  sometimes  modify  or  even 
reverse,  the  predictions  of  the  dying  Jacob. 
The  characteristics  of  the  blessing  are  such  as 
distinctly  suit  the  place  w'hich  it  occupies  in 
the  Pentateuch,  both  as  to  time  and  circum¬ 
stance.  The  total  absence  of  warning  and  re¬ 
proof  has  been  rightly  noted  as  indicating  that 
Moses  is  here  speaking  of  the  ideal  Israel,  of 
the  people  of  God  as  they  might  and  would 
have  been  but  for  their  perv^erseness,  rather 
than  foretelling  what  would  in  fact  be  the  fate 
and  fortunes  of  the  twelve  tribes.  As  then  the 
song  sets  forth  the  calamities  with  which  God’s 
justice  will  visit  Israel’s  fall,  so  does  the  bless¬ 
ing  describe  the  glory  and  greatness  which 
would  from  his  mercy  crown  Israel’s  faithful¬ 
ness.  The  song  and  the  blessing  are  therefore 
correspondent,  and  mutually  supplementary. 
The  form  into  which  the  blessing  is  thrown  ex- 
hibits  the  several  tribes  co-operating,  each  ac¬ 
cording  to  its  peculiar  characteristics  aud  cir¬ 
cumstances,  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  na¬ 
tional  mission.  Moses  when  he  spoke  it  had  no 
doubt  his  coadjutor  and  successor  Joshua  by  his 
side,  who  also  shared  in  the  prophetic  spirit  by 
which  the  blessing  was  dictated.  Espin. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  BLESSING. 


733 


The  blessing  contains  an  introduction  (verses 
1-5)  ;  the  benedictions  pronounced  on  the  tribes 
individually  (verses  0-25)  ;  a  conclusion  (verses 
26-29). 

1-5.  Inirodurtion.  The  blessing  opens  with 
an  allusion  to  the  making  of  the  covenant  and 
the  giving  of  the  Law  at  Sinai,  when  the  Lord 
revealed  himself  in  glorj’’  and  majesty  as  the 
King  of  Israel,  in  order  at  the  outset  to  fix  the 
minds  of  the  people  on  the  source  whence  alone 
blessing  could  come  to  them.  God’s  love  to 
Israel  is  celebrated,  and  the  intention  and  end 
of  his  choice  and  elevation  of  Israel  to  be  his 
people  is  declared. 

1.  itioses  the  man  of  Ood.  This  ap¬ 
pellation  is  applied  to  Moses  only  here  and  in 
Josh.  14  :  6  and  the  heading  of  Ps.  90.  The 
phrase,  “man  of  God,  ”  indicates  one  favored 
with  Divine  communications,  and  employed  as 
God’s  messenger  to  men  (cf.  1  Sam.  9  ;  6  ;  1 
Kings  12  : 22).  In  this  heading,  the  author  of 
the  blessiug  is  clearly  distinguished  from  the 
person  by  whom  it  was  inserted  iii  this  place. 
By  describing  Moses  as  “  the  man  of  GoJ,”  the 
author  of  this  heading  clearly  distinguishes 
himself  from  Moses,  and  applies  to  him  a  phrase 
by  which,  apparently,  it  was  customary  at  a 
later  period  to  designate  him  (compare  Josh. 
14  ;  6  ;  Ps.  90  ;  1).  Moses  must  be  accredited 
with  the  authorship  of  it  ;  and  if  he  was  the 
author  of  it,  he  probably  also  committed  it  to 
writing — else  how  could  it  have  been  preserved  ? 
W.  L.  A. 

.  Tlie  blessing  Avliercwitli  Moses  the 
moil  of  Oocl  blessed  the  eliildreii  of 
Israel  before  liis  death.  Like  the  dying 
song,  it  is  rich  in  poetry  and  full  of  majesty. 
It  may  be  regarded  as  the  crown  of  the  Mosaic 
theology.  The  theology  of  the  Pentateuch  is 
marvellously  comprehensive  and  complete.  We 
are  so  accustomed  to  look  upon  the  five  books 
of  Moses  as  but  a  small  part  of  the  Bible,  that 
we  often  fail  to  realize  how  complete  a  revela¬ 
tion  it  is  in  itself.  J.  M.  G. 

Here  begin  the  words  of  Moses.  He  com¬ 
mences  by  depicting  the  majesty  of  Jehovah  as 
he  appeared  to  Israel  when  he  came  to  make  the 
covenant  with  them  and  give  them  his  Law. 
The  Lord  came  from  Sinai,  and  ro§c 
from  Seir  unto  tliem.  Seir  is  the  moun¬ 
tain  land  of  Edom  to  the  east  of  Sinai.  Mount 
Paran  is  probably  the  range  of  lofty  hills  which 
form  the  southern  boundary  of  the  promised 
land  to  the  north  of  the  desert  of  Et-T5h,  These 
places  are  not  mentioned  as  scenes  of  different 
manifestations  of  the  DivinS  glory,  but  as  indi¬ 
cating  the  extent  to  which  the  one  manifesta¬ 


tion  given  at  Sinai  reached.  The  light  of  the 
Divine  glory  that  rested  on  Sinai  w'as  reflected 
also  from  the  mountains  of  Seir  and  Paran  (cf. 
Hab.  3:3;  Judges  5  : 4).  W.  L.  A. 

Under  a  beautiful  metaphor,  borrowed  from 
the  dawn  and  progressive  splendor  of  the  sun, 
the  majesty  of  God  is  sublimely  described  as  a 
Divine  light  which  appeared  in  Sinai,  and  scat¬ 
tered  its  beams  on  all  the  adjoining  region  in 
directing  Israel’s  march  to  Canaan.  In  these 
descriptions  of  a  iheuphania,  God  is  represented 
as  coming  from  the  south,  and  the  allusion  is 
in  general  to  the  thunderings  and  lightnings  of 
Sinai  ;  but  other  mountains  in  the  same  direc¬ 
tion  are  mentioned  with  it.  Jamieson. 

Heart  and  soul,  Moses  was  a  legislator.  He 
saw  the  grandeur,  the  eternity,  the  utility  of 
law.  The  “  ruling  passion  was  strong  in  death.” 
The  splendid  manifestation  of  God’s  majesty  at 
Sinai  again  passed  before  the  eye  of  memory. 
All  those  splendors  of  royal  state  were  destined 
to  illustrate  the  intrinsic  majesty  of  law.  That 
entire  epiphany  of  God  culminated  in  this  sig¬ 
nificant  act  :  “  from  his  right  hand  went  a  fiery 
law” — a  Divine  force  to  soften,  melt,  purify, 
and  consume.  3,  To  reveal  to  men  his  law  is  a 
Divine  equivalent  for  largest  blessing.  God’s 
Law  is  the  outcome  of  his  love.  The  spring 
and  motive  of  this  stately  display  of  law  is  decq? 
and  generous  love.  “  Yea,  he  loved  the  peef- 
ple.”  D.  D. 

5.  The  gathering  together  refers  to  the  assem¬ 
bling  of  the  people  at  Sinai,  when  Jehovah 
came  forth  as  their  King  to  give  them  his  Law. 

Blessings  on  the  Teibes  Individually. 

Verses  6-25. 

With  these  may  be  compared  the  blessing 
which  Jacob  pronounced  on  his  sons  as  repre¬ 
senting  the  tribes  of  which  they  were  the  heads. 
The  two  resemble  each  other  in  many  points  ; 
the  differences  are  such  as  naturally  arose  from 
the  different  relations  of  the  speakers  to  the  ob¬ 
jects  of  their  address,  and  the  changes  in  the 
condition  and  prospects  of  the  tribes  which 
during  the  lapse  of  centuries  had  come  to  pass. 

4»,  Reuben.  Though  the  rights  of  primogeni¬ 
ture  had  been  withdrawn  from  Reuben,  and  Jacob 
had  declared  that  he  should  not  excel,  Moses 
here  assures  the  tribe  of  continuance,  and  even 
prosperity.  Their  number  was  not  to  be  small  ; 
which  was,  perhaps,  said  to  comfort  them,  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  their  numbers  had  greatly 
diminished  in  the  course  of  their  wanderings  in 
the  desert..  W.  L.  A. - The  tribe  had  de¬ 

creased  since  the  Exodus,  and  in  later  times  its 
numbers,  even  when  counted  with  the  Gadites 


734 


SECTION  197.  BLESSING  OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  TRIBES. 


and  the  half  of  Manasseh,  were  fewer  than  that 
of  the  Keubenites  alone  at  the  census  of  Nu,  1. 
They  took  possession  of  a  large  and  fertile  dis¬ 
trict  east  of  Jordan,  Occupied  with  their  flocks 
and  herds,  they  appear  soon  after  the  days  of 
Joshua  to  have  lost  their  early  energy  ;  they 
could  not  be  roused  to  take  part  in  the  national 
rising  against  Jabin  (Judges  5  : 15,  16).  They 
do  not  seem  to  have  cared  to  complete  the  con¬ 
quest  of  their  own  territory  ;  and  even  the  cities 
assigned  them  were  wrested  from  them  by  the 
Moabites.  From  this  tribe  no  judge,  prophet, 
or  national  hero  arose. 

The  tribe  of  Simeon,  which  would  according 
to  the  order  of  birth  come  next,  though  of 
course  comprehended  in  the  genera]  blessing 
bestowed  upon  the  whole  people,  is  not  here 
named.  This  omission  is  explained  by  refer¬ 
ence  to  the  words  of  Jacob  concerning  Simeon 
(Gen.  49  :  7).  This  tribe  with  Levi  was  to  be 

scattered  in  Israel.”  The  fulfilment  of  this 
i:)rediction  was  in  the  case  of  Levi  so  ordered 
as  to  carry  with  it  honor  and  blessing  ;  but  no 
such  reversal  of  punishment  is  granted  to  Sim¬ 
eon.  Lather  had  this  latter  tribe  added  new 
sins  to  those  which  Jacob  denounced  (Nu.  25). 
Accordingly,  though  very  numerous  at  the  Ex¬ 
odus,  it  had  surprisingly  diminished  before  the 
death  of  Moses  ;  and  found  eventually  an  ade¬ 
quate  territory  within  the  limits  of  Judah.  The 
tribe  is  mentioned  as  making  certain  conquests 
along  with  Judah  (Judges  1  : 17)  ;  and  is  prob¬ 
ably  “  the  remnant  of  the  people”  spoken  of  (1 
Kings  12  ;  23)  as  constituting,  together  with 
Judah  and  Benjamin,  the  forces  of  Behoboam. 
E'ipiyi. 

T.  The  blessing  on  Judah  is  in  the  form  of 
prayer  to  Jehovah.  As  Jacob  had  promised  to 
Judah  supremacy  over  his  brethren  and  success 
in  war,  so  Moses  here  names  him  next  after 
Beuben,  whose  pre-eminence  he  had  assumed, 
and  prays  for  him  that,  going  forth  at  the  head 
of  the  tribes,  he  might  return  in  triumph,  being 
helped  of  the  Lord.  W.  L.  A. 

8-1 1.  Moses  is  large  in  blessing  the  tribe  of 
Levi,  not  so  much  because  it  was  his  own  tribe 
(for  he  takes  no  notice  of  his  relation  to  it),  as 

because  it  was  God's  tribe.  H - The  tribe 

of  Levi  as  a  whole  became  in  a  sense  God’s 
“  IIolj’  One,”  bearing  in  the  person  of  Aaron 
these  insignia.  God  had  proved  them  atMassah 
and  Meribah  where  the  people  murmured  against 
Moses  and  Aaron.  It  was  especially  in  the 
scenes  of  the  calf-worship  (Ex.  32)  and  of  the 
Midianites  (Nu.  25)  that  the  tribe  of  Levi,  and 
particularly  Phineas,  proved  themselves  true  to 
God,  with  higher  regard  for  him  and  his  honor 


than  for  father,  mother,  brethren,  or  children  ; 
for  they  remembered  and  honored  God’s  Word 
and  covenant.  Let  them  therefore  have  the 
functions  of  the  priesthood,  to  teach  Jacob  thy 
Law  and  to  minister  at  tbe  national  altar.  H.  C. 

- The  Levites  were  not  only  commissioned  to 

instruct  the  people  in  the  Law  of  Moses,  but 
were  also  appointed  by  that  law  to  be  judges 
and  interpreters  of  it  in  civil  as  well  as  in  relig¬ 
ious  cases.  They  actually  enjoA^ed  this  power 
in  its  full  extent  for  many  centuries.  Durell. 

Joseph,  including  Ephraim  and 
Manasseh.  The  resemblance  of  this  blessing  to 
that  pronounced  on  the  same  tribes  by  Jacob  is 
obvious  both  in  thoughts  and  words  ;  and  in 
both  the  exuberant  fertility  of  the  large  dis¬ 
tricts  allotted  to  the  descendants  of  Joseph  is  a 
leading  feature.  Yet  the  words  of  Moses  are 
far  from  being  a  mere  reproduction  of  Jacob’s. 
The  patriarch  dwells  with  emphasis  on  the  se¬ 
vere  conflicts  which  these  tribes  would  undergo  ; 
the  Lawgiver  seems  to  look  beyond,  and  to  be¬ 
hold  the  two  tribes  triumphant  and  established 
in  their  power.  Espin. 

16.  Dwelt  ill  llie  bu^li.  Many  a  time 
God  had  appeared  to  Moses,  but  now  that  he  is 
dying,  he  remembers  that  time  when  his  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  the  visions  of  the  Almighty 
first  began,  and  his  correspondence  with  heaven 
was  first  settled  ;  that  was  a  time  of  love  never 
to  be  forgotten.  It  was  at  the  bush  that  God 
declared  himself  ihe  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  and  so  confirmed  the  promise  made  to 
the  fathers,  that  promise  which  reached  as  far 
as  the  resurrection  of  the  body  and  eternal  life, 
as  appears  by  our  Saviour’s  argument  from  it 
(Luke  20  : 37).  So  that  when  he  prays  for  the 
good  will  of  him  that  dwelt  in  ihe  bush,  he  has  an 
eye  to  the  covenant  then  and  there  renewed,  on 
which  all  our  hopes  of  God’s  favor  must  be 
bottomed.  H. 

18,  19.  Zebulun  and  Issachar.  Like  Jacob, 
Moses  places  first  the  younger  of  the  two  tribes. 
Zebulun  possessed  a  commodious  seashore,  and 
the  fisheries  of  the  lake  of  Tiberias  ;  and  was 
therefore  to  thrive  by  commerce,  and  to  rejoice 
in  his  “  going  out  i.e.,  in  his  mercantile  en¬ 
terprises.  Issachar  possessed  a  fertile  inland 
district,  and  would  therefore  dwell  at  home  and 

prosper  in  agriculture.  Espin. - These  two 

are,  respectively,  commercial  (“  going  out  ”)  and 
agricultural  (“tents”)  tribes.  They  possess 
great  wealth,  present  the  most  costly  gifts  upon 
the  holy  hill,  and  furnish  the  other  tribes  with 
the  commodities  of  foreign  nations.  C.  G.  B. 

20,  21.  The  territory  of  Gad  lay  in  the  east 
of  the  Jordan.  It  included  several  cities  re- 


BLESSINGS  UPON  THE  SEVERAL  TRIBES. 


735 


markable  in  the  history  of  the  patriarchs  and  of 
the  judges,  as  Mahanuim,  Ramoth,  Mizpeh, 
Saccoth,  and  Peniel  ;  but  it  was  pre-eminently 
remarkable  because  it  contained  the  grave  of 
Moses— a  fact  which  so  decidedly  invested  the 
province  with  a  character  of  holiness  that, 
though  situated  on  the  east  of  the  river,  it  was 
regarded  as  one  of  the  most  honored  parts  of 
the  promised  land,  from  which  the  leaders  of 
the  people  might  legitimately  arise.  Kalisch. 

- The  blessing  of  Moses,  like  that  of  Jacob, 

upon  Gad,  has  a  warlike  ring  about  it.  He  is 
spoken  of  here  as  lionlike  in  courage  and 
strength,  and  also  as  being  charged  with  the 
execution  of  the  justice  of  the  Lord  and  his  or¬ 
dinances  with  Israel.  The  character  of  this 
tribe  is  described  with  remarkable  vividness  in 
the  Book  of  Chronicles.  It  was  strong,  hardy, 
fierce,  warlike,  magnificent  in  heroism,  invalu¬ 
able  to  friends,  terrible  to  foes.  Among  them 
were  “  strong  men  of  might,  men  of  war  for  the 
battle,  that  could  handle  shield  and  buckler, 
their  faces  the  faces  of  lions,  and  like  roes  upon 
the  mountain  for  swiftness  “  the  least  of 
them  more  than  equal  to  a  hundred,  and  the 
greatest  to  a  thousand  ”  (1  Ch.  12  ;  8,  14).  And 
amid  all  the  conflicts  which  were  inevitable 
to  the  Hebrews  with  the  nations  round  about, 
such  lionlike  courage  and  hardiness  would  be 
invaluable  in  leading  them  on  to  victory,  and  in 
helping  them  through  great  crises  of  their  politi¬ 
cal  and  military  history.  C.  C. 

*22,  Jacob  compared  Dan  to  a  serpent  that 
suddenly  springs  forth  by  the  way,  and  bites 
the  heels  of  a  horse  so  that  the  rider  falls  back¬ 
ward.  Moses  here  compares  the  tribe  to  a 
young  lion  that  suddenly  leaps  from  its  lair  in 
Bashan  on  the  object  of  its  attack.  Both  simil¬ 
itudes  relate  to  the  vigor  and  force  which  the 
tribe  should  display  in  conflict. 

23,  In  Jacob’s  blessing,  Naphtali  appears  in¬ 
vested  with  the  attributes  of  freedom,  graceful¬ 
ness,  and  graciousness  ;  here  Moses  assures  that 
tribe  of  the  Divine  grace  and  blessing,  and 
promises  to  it  prosperity  and  felicity.  As  the 
territory  of  Naphtali  lay  in  the  north  of  Canaan, 
and  was  far  from  the  sea,  the  blessing  here 
pronounced  upon  him  must  be  understood  gen¬ 
erally  of  prosperity  and  felicity.  He  was  to  pos¬ 
sess  riches  as  of  the  sea,  and  genial  and  fructi¬ 
fying  warmth  as  of  the  south, 

•  24.  25,  Asher,  the  prosperous  one,  as  his 
name  implies,  was  to  be  rich,  and  honored,  and 

strong,  and  peaceful.  W.  L.  A. - The  record 

proves  how  he  was  blessed  with  children  ;  the 
olive-yards  on  the  southwestern  shores  of  Leb¬ 
anon  are,  to  this  day,  the  most  extensive  in 


the  country  ;  and  in  the  foundries  and  copper 
and  bronze  work  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  were  the 
iron  and  brass  for  his  shoes.  The  consequence 
of  this  mingling  among  the  heathen  is  soon  evi¬ 
dent  in  the  subsequent  history.  First,  there  is 
the  long  catalogue  of  cities  (Judges  1:31)  from 
which  Asher  did  not  drive  out  the  inhabitants  ; 
but  whereas,  in  the  case  of  most  of  the  other 
tribes  which  did  not  gain  complete  possession 
of  their  cities,  we  are  told  either  that  they  could 
not  drive  them,  or  that  they  put  them  to  trib¬ 
ute  ;  of  Asher  alone  we  have  the  significant  re¬ 
mark,  “  The  Asherites  dwelt  among  the  Caiiaan- 
ites,  the  inhabitants  of  the  land,  for  they  did 
not  drive  them  out”  (Judges  1  :  32).  One  name 
only  of  the  tribe  of  Asher  shines  out  of  the  gen¬ 
eral  obscurity — the  aged  widow  “Anna,  the 
daughter  of  Phanuel,  of  the  tribe  of  Aser,”  who, 
in  the  very  close  of  the  Jewish  history,  “  de¬ 
parted  not  from  the  temple,  but  served  God 
with  fastings  and  prayers  night  and  day,”  till  at 
the  age  of  eighty  four  she  W'as  rewarded  with 
the  sight  of  the  infant  Messiah.  H.  B.  T. 

25.  A§  lily  days,  so  shall  lliy 
strength  be.  The  original  here  has  two 
words  only,  of  which  the  latter  is  not  found 
elsewhere.  The  sense  is,  “  Thy  strength  shall 
be  continued  to  thee  as  long  as  thou  shalt  live  ; 
thou  shalt  never  know  feebleness  and  decay.” 

Espin. - The  day  is  often  in  Scripture  put  for 

the  events  of  the  day  ;  and  taking  it  so  here,* it 
is  a  promise  that  God  would  graciously  support 
them  under  their  trials  and  troubles,  whatever 
they  were.  And  so  it  is  a  promise  sure  to  all 
the  spiritual  seed  of  Abraham,  that  God  will 
wisely  proportion  their  graces  and  comforts  to 
the  services  and  sufferings  he  appoints.  H. 

- All  seasonable  succor  and  support  shall  be 

equal  to  the  trials  and  exigencies  of  every  day^ 
And  believers  have  found  this  to  be  the  case 
through  all  generations.  They  have  had  their 
days  of  persecution,  days  of  affliction,  days  of 
want.  They  have  had  seasons  of  temptation, 
of  darkness,  and  of  duty  ;  but  seasonable  and 
suitable  strength  has  been  received  ;  their 
strength  has  been  in  proportion  to  their  day  ; 
so  that  they  have  not  really  been  in  want  of 
anything  for  their  good.  So  it  is  with  the 
Christian  now.  R.  Hall. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  promise  of  God’s  Word 
which  has  more  deeply  touched  the  hearts  of 
his  people,  or  more  frequently  proved  itself  a 
balm  in  care,  than  this  one.  There  is  a  distinct 
promise  made  to  Joshua,  “  I  will  not  fail  thee, 
nor  forsake  thee  but  yet  the  writer  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  bids  the  people  whom 
he  is  addressing  to  make  that  promise  their  own. 


SECTION  197.  BLESSING  OF  THE  TRIBES  BY  MOSES. 


73  G 

And  so  assuredly  may  tlie  people  of  God  in 
every  age  and  land  do  with  the  promise  before 
us.  They  have  done  so  hitherto,  and  will  do 

so  till  the  end.  C.  C. - A  precious  promise 

this  of  universal  application.  Our  days  are 
under  Divine  insj^ection  ;  our  circumstances 
are  under  Divine  control.  It  is  better  for  the 
man  every  way  that  his  strength  should  be  in¬ 
creased  than  that  the  trial  should  be  abated. 
The  outcome  is  that  the  man  emerges  stronger, 
nobler,  more  highly  developed.  The  supply  is 
always  adjusted  to  the  particular  need.  D.  D. 

26.  The  points  and  accents  direct  that  this 
should  be  read,  There  is  none  like  God,  0  Jesfiu- 
run;  and  though  all  the  ancient  versions  read 
ns  does  the  Authorized  Version,  the  Masoretic 
punctuation  is  vindicated  here  by  the  following 
tliy  Iielp,  which  shows  that  Israel  is  here  ad¬ 
dressed.  W  L.  A. 

The  glories  of  Sinai  are  still  in  his  mind 
when  he  speaks  of  God’s  “  riding  upon  the 
heaven,  and  in  his  excellency  on  the  sky.”  But 
observe  in  what  character  the  majesty  of  God 
presents  itself  to  him.  It  is  not  as  a  dreadful 
thing.  Not  at  all  :  “  who  rideth  upon  the  heav¬ 
en  in  thy  help.  ”  Moses  is  a  true  believer .  He 
knows  that  even  that  fiery  grandeur  of  Sinai 
was  in  his  people’s  help,  and  the  same  thought 
rises  in  his  soul  as  sprung  up  afterward  before 
the  rapt  spirit  of  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gen¬ 
tiles,  “  If  God  be  for  us,  who  can  be  against 
us  ?”  Sinai  has  no  terrors  for  the  aged  believer, 
whose  feet  are  firmly  planted  on  “  the  Kock  of 
Ages.”  J.  M.  G. 

26-29.  Conclusion.  God’s  glory  and  power, 
and  the  consequent  safety  and  prosperity  of 
God’s  people,  form  the  climax,  as  they  do  the 
basis,  of  the  blessing  which  the  lawgiver  has 
to  pronounce.  Espin. - These  words  of  un¬ 

surpassed  sublimity  and  most  exquisite  poetry 
set  forth  the  glories  of  the  God  of  Israel  and  the 
blessedness  of  the  people  who  enjoy  such  a 
Father  and  live  under  such  a  Protector.  Per¬ 
haps  we  cannot  give  them  higher  praise  than 
to  say  they  are  worthy  of  the  pen  of  Moses — 
worthy  even  to  be  his  last  words— the  noblest 
utterances  of  one  who  above  any  other  mere 
man  had  communed  with  God  face  to  face  as 
man  does  with  his  dearest  friend.  The  English 
translation  is  almost  faultless,  constituting  one 
of  the  grandest  passages  to  be  found  in  English 
literature.  In  the  last  clause  of  verse  27,  the 
high  behest  of  Jehovah,  hurling  the  enemy 
forth  from  the  land  of  his  people,  is  best  ex¬ 
pressed  in  the  emphatic  word,  Destroy  .t  H.  C. 

Two  great  thoughts  quite  fill  his  lofty  soul  in 
its  last  momenta.  The  first  of  them  is  this  : 


There  is  none  like  unto  the  God  of  Israel 
and  the  second  is  like  unto  it :  “  There  is  none 
like  unto  the  Israel  of  God.”  Israel’s  God  and 
God’s  Israel  ;  the  Saviour  and  the  saved  ;  are 
not  these  the  two  great  factors  of  the  Mosaic 
era  ?  The  great  doings  of  God  “  when  Israel 
was  a  child  ”  make  the  grandest  picture  which 
the  Old  Testament  affords  us  of  the  great  salva¬ 
tion.  How  appropriate,  then,  that  we  should 
find  at  the  close  of  these  records  of  the  times 
of  Israel’s  childhood  so  lovely  a  miniature,  set¬ 
ting  forth  so  beautifully  the  glory  of  Israel’s  re¬ 
deeming  God  and  the  blessedness  of  his  re¬ 
deemed  people.  J.  M.  G. - In  this  magnifi¬ 

cent  concluding  passage  it  is  the  ideal  not  the 
actual  Israel  which  stands  before  the  great  law¬ 
giver’s  eye,  and  the  language  applies  to  the 
actual  only  in  so  far  as  it  was  also  the  ideal 
people  of  Jehovah.  Its  full  application  is  to 
the  Church  of  Christ— the  Church  catholic  and 
invisible.  Orr. 

27.  God  is  the  Eefuge  or  Dwelling-place  of  his 
people,  their  protection  amid  the  storms  of  life, 
and  the  unfailing  Source  of  comfort  and  bless¬ 
ing  to  them  in  their  pilgrimage  state.  Over 
them  is  his  sheltering  protection,  and  under¬ 
neath  them  the  support  of  his  everlasting  arms. 
VV.  L.  A. 

We  need  to  have  our  eyes  opened,  thought 
set  to  work,  faith  made  more  real.  If  that  were 
given,  then  should  we  know,  as  we  had  never 
known  before,  how  wonderful,  how  sublime, 
how  infinitely  grand  a  thing  it  was  to  have  this 
God  as  our  refuge,  and  to  know  that  underneath 
us  were  these  everlasting  arms  !  Orr. 

Every  Israelite  indeed  is  at  home  in  God  ;  the 
soul  returns  to  him,  and  reposes  in  him  as  its 
resting-place  (Ps.  116  : 7),  its  hiding-place  (Ps. 
32  :  7).  And  they  that  make  him  their  habita¬ 
tion  shall  have  all  the  comforts  and  benefits  of 
a  habitation  in  him  (Ps.  ^1  : 1).  Though  they 
may  be  oppressed,  they  shall  not  be  over¬ 
whelmed  by  any  trouble.  How  low  soever  the 
people  of  God  are  at  any  time  brought,  ever¬ 
lasting  arms  are  underneath  them  to  keep  the 
spirit  from  sinking,  from  fainting,  and  the  faith 
from  failing,  even  w^hen  they  are  pressed  above 
measure.  The  everlasting  covenant,  and  the 
everlasting  consolations  that  flow  from  it,  are 
indeed  everlasting  arms,  with  which  believers 
have  been  wonderfully  sustained,  and  kept 
cheerful  in  the  worst  of  times  ;  Divine  grace  is 
sufficient  for  them  (2  Cor.  12  ;  9).  H. 

With  this  promise  of  the  unparalleled  friend¬ 
ship,  the  continual  shelter,  the  unceasing  stream 
of  w'ealth,  the  defence  of  God,  the  final  triumph 
over  all  enemies,  does  Moses  conclude  his  bless- 


SECTION  198. 


737 


ing.  This  blessing  will  only  be  rightly  under- 
stood  by  connecting  it  with  the  foregoing  pro¬ 
phetic  song  ;  and  we  draw  the  conclusion,  that 
the  people  of  Israel,  which  has  these  eternal 
promises,  is  the  new  covenant-people  which 
comes  forth  from  the  old.  Oerl. 

It  was  due  to  the  standpoint  of  Moses,  look¬ 
ing  forth  across  the  Jordan  upon  the  earthly 
Canaan,  beholding  the  earthly  Israel  just  then 
entering  there  ;  Jehovah  the  shield  of  their 
help,  the  sword  of  their  excellency,  the  scourge 
of  their  foes — this  mighty  God  riding  sublimely 
upon  the  heavens  for  their  help,  his  everlasting 
arms  underneath  them  forevermore— that  this 
view  should  be  primarily  of  scenes  in  the  present 
life  and  not  in  the  future  ;  of  earthly  and  material 
relations  rather  than  of  spiritual.  Yet  the  man¬ 
ifestations  of  God  in  blessings  of  earthly  sort 
foreshadow  like  manifestations  in  the  spiritual 
life.  The  God  who  saves  his  people  here  in 
things  of  earth,  in  ways  so  grand,  with  power 
so  transcendent,  in  a  spirit  so  parental  and  so 
tender,  may  surely  be  trusted  to  save  and  shield 
and  bless  with  his  own  God  like  wisdom  and 
power  against  spiritual  foes  and  for  the  other 
world  no  less  than  for  this.  Surely  there  is 
none  like  the  God  of  Jeshurun  who  comes  in 
the  tenderness  of  infinite  pity  to  wipe  away  the 
penitent  tear  ;  to  bind  up  hearts  broken  for  sin  ; 
to  place  underneath  all  feeble  souls  his  own 


everlasting  arms  ;  to  bid  away  every  spiritual 
foe  with  the  mandate  Destroy;  and  to  gather 
home  his  redeemed  in  his  own  best  time  to  his 
Canaan  above,  of  which  that  ancient  land  of 
promise  gives  us  only  some  poetic  images  and 
some  illustrations  of  God's  faithfulness  and 
love.  It  is  quite  well,  therefore,  to  exchange 
the  earthly  sense  of  this  sublime  passage  for  its 
spiritual  significance  and  transfer  its  imagery 
to  that  world  whose  glories  are  worthy  of  sub 
limer  strains  than  even  these.  H.  C. 

With  these  grand  poems  Moses  closed  his 
long  administration  of  Israel’s  government.  For 
forty  years  he  had  been  “  king  in  Jeshurun,” 
and  the  time  had  now  come  for  his  departure. 
With  wistful,  gazing  eyes  he  soon  afterward  sur¬ 
veyed  from  the  summit  of  Pisgah  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  promised  land,  and  then  calmly 
died.  It  was  a  grand  mysterious  death,  such 
as  well  became  one  of  the  greatest  among  the 
master  spirits  whom  God  from  time  to  time 
raises  up  to  fashion  the  destinies  of  mankind, 
and  who  in  the  truest  sense  are  his  “  servants,” 

sent  to  do  his  will.  K.  P.  S. - The  life  of 

Moses — the  whole  choice  and  purpose  and  labor 
of  a  life  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  years,  wit¬ 
ness  to  his  full  and  glorious  faith  in  the  future 
life.  The  men  who  deny  to  him  this  faith  stul¬ 
tify  not  Moses,  but  themselves.  H.  C. 


Section  198. 

COMMAND  TO  ASCEND  NEBO,  THERE  TO  DIE.  THE  ASCENT.  THE  VISION  FROM 
THE  TOP  OF  PISGAH.  THE  DEATH,  THE  BURIAL,  AND  THE  ENCOMIUM  OF 
MOSES. 

Deuteronomy  32  : 48-52  ;  34  :  1—12. 

De.  32  48  And  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses  that  selfsame  day,  saying,  Get  thee  up  into  this 

49  mountain  of  Abarim,  unto  mount  Nebo,  which  is  in  the  land  of  Moab,  that  is  over  against  Jericho  ; 

50  and  behold  the  land  of  Canaan,  which  I  give  unto  the  children  of  Israel  for  a  possession  :  and  die 
in  the  mount  whither  thou  goest  up,  and  be  gathered  unto  thy  people  ;  as  Aaron  thy  brother 

51  died  in  mount  Hor,  and  was  gathered  unto  his  people  :  because  ye  trespassed  against  me  in 
the  midst  of  the  children  of  Israel  at  the  waters  of  Meribah  of  Kadesh,  in  the  wilderness  of 

52  Zin  ;  because  ye  sanctified  me  not  in  the  midst  of  the  children  of  Israel.  For  thou  shalt  see 
the  land  before  thee  ;  but  thou  shalt  not  go  thither  into  the  land  which  I  give  the  children  of 
Israel. 

De.  34  1  And  Moses  went  up  from  the  plains  of  Moab  unto  mount  Nebo,  to  the  top  of 
Pisgah,  that  is  over  against  Jericho.  And  the  Lord  shewed  him  all  the  land  of  Gilead,  unto 

2  Dan  ;  and  all  Naphtali,  and  the  land  of  Ephraim  and  Manasseh,  and  all  the  land  of  Judah, 

3  unto  the  hinder  sea  ;  and  the  South,  and  the  Plain  of  the  valley  of  Jericho  the  city  of  palm 

4  trees,  unto  Zoar.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  him.  This  is  the  land  which  I  sware  unto  Abra¬ 
ham,  unto  Isaac,  and  unto  Jacob,  saying,  I  will  give  it  unto  thy  seed  :  I  have  caused  thee  to 

6  see  it  with  thine  eyes,  but  thou  shalt  not  go  oyer  thither.  So  Moses  the  servant  of  the  Lord 

47 


738 


SECTION  198.  COMMAND  TO  ASCEND  NEBO. 


6  died  there  in  the  land  of  Moab,  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord.  And  he  buried  him  in 
the  valley  in  the  land  of  Moab  over  against  Beth-peor  :  but  no  man  knoweth  of  his  sepulchre 

7  unto  this  day.  And  Moses  was  an  hundred  and  twenty  years  old  when  he  died  :  his  eye  was 

8  not  dim,  nor  his  natural  force  abated.  And  the  children  of  Israel  wept  for  Moses  in  the 
plains  of  Moab  thirtj’’  days  :  so  the  days  of  weeping  in  the  mourning  for  Moses  were  ended. 

9  And  Joshua  the  son  of  Nun  was  full  of  the  spirit  of  wisdom  ;  for  Moses  had  laid  his  hands 
upon  him  :  and  the  children  of  Israel  hearkened  unto  him,  and  did  as  the  Lord  commanded 

10  Moses,  And  there  hath  not  arisen  a  prophet  since  in  Israel  like  unto  Moses,  whom  the  Lord 

11  knew  face  to  face  ;  in  all  the  signs  and  the  w^onders,  which  the  Lord  sent  him  to  do  in  the 

12  land  of  Egypt,  to  Pharaoh,  and  to  all  his  servants,  and  to  all  his  land  ;  and  in  all  the  mighty 
hand,  and  in  all  the  great  terror,  which  Moses  wrought  in  the  sight  of  all  Israel. 


Command  to  Moses  to  Ascend  Nebo  to  Die. 

De.  32  : 48-52. 

After  many  painful  and  perilous  enterprises 
Moses  hath  brought  his  Israelites  from  Egypt, 
through  the  sea  and  wilderness,  within  the  sight 
of  their  promised  land  ;  and  now  himself  must 
take  possession  of  that  land  whereof  Canaan 
was  but  a  type.  When  we  have  done  that  we 
came  for  it  is  time  for  us  to  be  gone.  This 
earth  is  only  made  for  action,  not  for  fruition. 

49,  50,  Moses  must  go  up  to  Mount  Nebo, 
and  die.  The  time,  the  place,  and  every  cir¬ 
cumstance  of  his  dissolution  is  determined. 
That  one  dies  in  the  field,  another  in  his  bed, 
another  on  the  sea,  one  in  a  foreign  nation,  an¬ 
other  in  his  own,  is  foredecreed  in  heaven. 
And  though  we  hear  it  not  vocally,  yet  God 
hath  called  every  man  by  his  name,  and  saith, 
“  Die  thou  there.”  One  man  seems  to  die  cas- 
uall}’,  another  by  an  unexpected  violence  ;  both 
fall  by  a  destiny,  and  all  is  set  dovm  to  us  by 
an  eternal  decree.  He  that  brought  us  into 
the  world  will  carry  us  out  according  to  his 
own  purposes.  Moses  must  ascend  up  to  the 
hill  to  die.  He  received  his  charge  for  Israel 
upon  the  hill  of  Sinai,  and  now  he  delivers  up 
his  charge  on  the  hill  of  Nebo.  Bp.  II. 

Moses  was  the  loneliest  of  men  :  lonelj’^  in  his 
flight  from  Egypt — lonely  while  herding  his  flock 
in  the  wilderness— lonely  throughout  his  long 
life  of  patient  fidelity — lonely  in  his  death  and 
burial.  Even  while  mingling  with  the  multi¬ 
tudes  of  Israel,  he  remained  secluded  and  alone. 
As  the  glory  which  shone  on  his  face  insulated 
him  for  a  time  from  men,  so  did  all  his  life  his 
majestic  nature.  He  was  among  men,  but  not 
of  them.  Gilfillan. 

The  summons  to  that  solitary  mountain,  every 
friend  and  companion  left  behind,  alone  with 
God  in  that  awful  solitude,  all  this  is  his  and 
no  other’s.  And  yet  look  at  it  in  another  point 
of  view,  and  what  was  it  but  the  solitude  of 
every  death-bed  ?  ‘  ‘  We  shall  die  alone  these 
were  the  words  of  the  great  Pascal  ;  and  they 


are  true  of  every  man.  We  may  live  with  others, 
but  we  must  die  by  ourselves.  Millions  may 
have  gone  before  us,  and  millions  may  follow 
after  ;  but  each  one  of  us  must  gird  himself  for 
that  tremendous  journey  alone  ;  not  Moses  more 
lonely  on  the  peak  of  Nebo  ;  nor  of  all  those 
weeping  ones  that  stand  around  our  couch,  can 
one,  even  if  he  would,  take  a  single  step  of  that 
journey  with  us  ;  alone,  unless  One  be  with  us, 
a  conqueror  of  Hades,  a  Prince  of  Life,  who 
with  his  rod  and  staff  can  comfort  those  who 
pass  even  through  the  darkest  valley  of  the 
shadow  of  death.  Trench. 

Tliou  Shalt  be  g^athercd  unto  thy 
people.  This  Divine  assurance  suggests  ono 
of  the  charms  of  heaven.  Next  to  the  ecstasy 
which  God's  presence  shall  inspire,  is  the  rap¬ 
ture  of  reunion  with  departed  friends.  No  ques¬ 
tion  need  distress  us  touching  mutual  recogni¬ 
tion.  Moses  and  Elijah  were  recognized  as  such 
when  they  came  down  in  glorified  state,  and 
conversed  with  Jesus  on  the  mount.  Not  a 
faculty  shall  be  wanting  there  which  we  possess¬ 
ed  here,  “Then  shall  we  know,  even  as  also 
we  are  known.”  D.  D. 

51.  Because  ye  trespassed  ag^ainst 
me.  Perhaps  the  life  of  no  man  in  the  Bible 
has  the  same  rounded  fulness  as  the  life  of 
Moses,  It  had  so  little  of  any  flaw  in  the  char¬ 
acter,  and  it  accomplished  so  much  for  the  cause 
of  God  and  man.  But  there  was  one  part  where 
the  character  broke  down,  and  one  at  which  the 
life  fell  short.  On  a  great  occasion  his  temper 
failed  him,  and  human  passion  marred  the  tone 
of  his  mission.  The  penalty  was  that  Moses  did 
not  enjoy  what  his  heart  was  set  upon  — the  view 
of  the  close  of  all  his  labors,  and  the  entrance 
of  his  nation  into  the  home  God  had  chosen  for 
them.  It  seems  very  hard  that  so  great  a  pun¬ 
ishment  should  follow  a  single  offence,  and  yet 
it  is  not  uncommon  in  the  life  of  a  good  man  to 
see  one  false  step  or  one  pause  in  self-control 
bring  with  it  irreparable  loss.  Ker. 

Death,  though  it  were  to  Moses  an  entrance 
into  glory,  yet  was  also  a  chastisement  of  his 


TUE  ASCENT  OF  MOSES,  ALONE. 


739 


infidelity.  How  many  noble  proofs  bad  be 
given  of  bis  courage  and  strength  of  faitb  !  How 
many  gracious  services  bad  be  done  to  bis  Mas¬ 
ter  !  All  our  acts  of  obedience  cannot  bear  out 
one  sin  against  God.  How  vainly  shall  we  hope 
to  make  amends  to  God  for  our  former  tres¬ 
passes  by  our  better  behavior  when  Moses  bath 
this  one  sin  laid  to  bis  charge,  after  so  man}^ 
and  worthy  testimonies  of  bis  fidelity  !  When 
we  have  forgotten  our  sins,  God  remembers 
them  ;  and  although  not  in  anger,  yet  be  calls  for 
payment.  Alas,  what  shall  become  of  ihem  with 
whom  God  bath  ten  thousand  times  greater 
quarrels  ;  who,  among  many  millions  of  sins, 
have  scattered  some  few  acts  of  formal  services  ! 
If  Moses  must  die  the  first  death  for  one  fault, 
how  shall  the}''  escape  the  second  for  sinning  al¬ 
ways  ?  Bp.  H. 

In  the  sight  of  the  people  the  leader  and 
lawgiver  of  the  nation  was  visited  with  a  pun¬ 
ishment,  which  must  have  convinced  them  far 
more  strongly  of  the  unsparing  character  of  the 
judicial  severity  of  God  than  the  most  powerful 
admonition  could  possibly  have  done  ;  but,  at 
the  same  time,  “though  punished,  he  received 
due  honor  in  their  sight,’’  that  they  might  see 
the  sun  of  mercy  bursting  through  the  storm  of 
the  judgments  of  God.  As  an  example  of  jus¬ 
tice,  Jehovah  caused  him  to  die  before  the  peo¬ 
ple  entered  the  land  of  rest  and  promise  ;  but 
as  an  example  of  grace,  he  prepared  for  him  an 
entrance  into  another,  as  yet  unknown,  land  of 

promise  and  of  rest.  K. - A  hundred  words, 

presented  in  the  form  of  law  and  calculated  to 
impress  them  with  a  sense  of  God’s  unspotted 
holiness,  cannot  exert  so  great  an  influence 
upon  their  minds  as  this  one  fact,  that  even 
Moses  for  his  sins  must  die,  no  less  than  Korah 
or  Dathan,  outside  of  Canaan.  And  what  a 
cause  of  shame  to  those  who  had  made  Moses 
sin,  and  thus  to  forfeit  in  one  fatal  hour  the 
fruit  which  he  had  earned  so  well  through  years 
of  toil  !  And  what  a  warning,  too  !  Van  0. 


Chapter  34.  As  ch.  31  contains  the  conclu¬ 
sion  of  the  work,  where  Moses  designates  himself 
as  the  author  of  the  preceding  matter,  as  well  as 
of  the  song  (ch.  32),  to  which  belongs  also  the 
blessing  of  ch.  33,  and  thus  the  whole,  as  far  as 
ch.  33  is  represented  as  complete  in  itself,  it 
follows  that  ch,  34  is  a  distinct  section,  plainly 
separated  from  the  foregoing.  Besides,  this 
section  is  so  closely  connected  with  Joshua, 
ch.  1,  as  to  give  force  to  the  opinion  that  De. 
34  does  not  properly  belong  to  the  Pentateuch, 
and  that  it  should  be  regarded  as  being  the 
transition  to  the  Book  of  Joshua,  written  by 


one  and  the  same  author.  Chapter  34  should 
accordingly  bo  viewed  as  an  appendix  to  Deuter¬ 
onomy.  Ilavernick. - The  account  of  the 

death  and  burial  of  Moses,  and  other  j^articulars 
described  in  this  chapter,  may  have  been  in¬ 
serted  by  Joshua,  to  complete  the  history  of 
this  illustrious  prophet  ;  or  were  afterward 
added  by  Samuel,  or  some  prophet  who  suc¬ 
ceeded  him.  The}’’  were  admitted  by  Ezra  as 
authentic,  and  we  have  no  reason  to  question 

the  fidelity  of  the  account.  Dr.  Gray. - This 

closing  section  of  the  book  (34),  by  some  other 
sympathetic  hand,  that  tells  how  Moses  died 
and  was  buried  according  to  the  Word  of  the 
Lord,  and  how  the  people  mourned  for  him,  and 
what  they  thought  of  him,  forms  a  conclusion 
for  the  whole  that  is  as  fitting  as  it  is  moving 
and  beautiful.  E.  C.  B. 

Ascent  to  Pisgah,  and  the  Vision  Thence  {verses 

1-4). 

1.  And  Moses  went  up  to  the  top 
of  Pisgcili.  Moses  went  up  alone  to  the  top 
of  Pisgah,  alone  wi'hout  help ;  a  sign  that  his  nat¬ 
ural  force  was  not  abated  ;  alone  without  com¬ 
pany when  he  had  made  an  end  of  blessing 
Israel,  he  solemnly  took  leave  of  Joshua  and 
Eleazar  and  the  rest  of  his  friends,  who  prob- 
abl}^  brought  him  to  the  foot  of  the  hill,  but 
then  he  gave  them  such  a  charge  as  Abraham 
gave  to  his  servants,  at  the  foot  of  another  hill  ; 
Tarry  ye  here  while  I  go  yonder  and  die :  they 
must  not  see  him  die,  because  they  must  not 
know  of  his  sepulchre.  H. 

Its  Location.  After  testing  repeatedly  every 
view  in  the  neighborhood,  I  am  perfectly  satis¬ 
fied  that  there  is  none  which  equals  in  extent 
that  from  Nebo — i.e.,  from  the  flat  ridge  which 
rises  slightly  about  half  a  mile  behind  the  ruined 
city  (Nebbeh),  and  which  I  take  to  be  the  true 
“  field  of  Zophim,  the  top  of  Pisgah.’’  The  al¬ 
titude  of  this  brow  cannot  be  less  than  four 
thousand  feet  above  the  Ghor,  so  completely 
does  it  overlook  the  heights  of  Hebron  and  of 
Central  Judea.  On  these  brows  overlooking 
the  mouth  of  the  Jordan,  over  against  Jericho, 
every  condition  is  met  both  for  the  Pisgah  of 
Balaam  and  of  Moses.  H.  B.  T. 

The  admirable  fitness  of  such  a  position,  for 
the  purpose  had  in  view,  is  evident  to  the  mod¬ 
ern  traveller,  from  the  fact  that,  wherever  he 
goes,  in  central  and  southern  Palestine,  the 
mountains  of  Moab  are  constantly  rising  on  his 
sight,  as  one  of  the  most  prominent  features  in 
the  landscape.  N.  C.  B. 

2,  3.  Thus  minutely  does  the  supplement  to 
the  Book  of  Deuteronomy  describe  the  scene 


740 


SECTION  198,  VISION  OF  CANAAN  FROM  PISGAH. 


which  lay  open  before  Moses,  when  he  was 
alone  with  God  upon  the  sacred  mountain  of 
the  Moabites  ;  embracing  the  four  great  masses 
of  the  inheritance  on  the  east,  the  north,  the 
centre,  and  the  south,  with  the  jjlain  that  lay  at 

his  feet.  P.  S. - Py  anticipation  the  terms  of 

the  description  are  taken  from  the  time,  then 
future,  when  the  land  should  have  been  allotted 
to  the  several  tribes  of  Israel.  A  glance  at  the 
map  will  show  that  this  enumeration  of  districts 
and  localities  is  no  chance  one,  but  entirely  reg¬ 
ular,  and  as  an  outline  complete.  The  prophet 
stands  facing  the  west  ;  the  plain  of  Jericho 
being  directly  in  front,  at  his  feet  ;  the  sea  of 
Galilee,  in  the  distance,  at  his  right  hand  ;  the 
Dead  Sea,  near  by,  at  his  left.  The  entire  cen¬ 
tral  i^lateau  of  Ephraim,  Benjamin,  and  Judah 
is  within  easy  view  before  him,  across  the  J or- 
dan  ;  while  on  the  limits  of  vision,  to  the  right» 
lie  snowy  Hermon  and  Lebanon  and  the  Gali¬ 
lean  hills  ;  and  afar,  to  the  left,  the  elevations 
which  embosom  Hebron — loftiest  of  the  cities 
of  Palestine — slope  downward,  and  fade  in  the 
haze  of  the  great  southern  deserts.  The  lan¬ 
guage  indicates  a  view  by  the  prophet,  begin¬ 
ning  at  the  north,  and  sweeping  round  west¬ 
ward  to  the  south.  First  is  “  all  the  land  of 
Gilead,”  the  country  of  “  spicery  and  balm  and 
myrrh,”  eastward  of  the  Jordan,  to  be  inhabited 
by  the  tribe  of  Gad  and  the  half-tribe  of  Ma- 
nasseh.  He  looks  in  this  direction  “  unto  Dan,” 
the  northernmost  city  of  Palestine.  Next,  a 
little  to  the  west  of  north,  he  beholds,  in  the 
distance,  “  all  Naphtali,”  rising  from  the  north¬ 
western  shore  of  the  Sea  of  Galilee,  and  spread¬ 
ing  around  the  head-waters  of  the  Jordan. 
Turning  farther  westward,  he  sees  the  broad 
region  of  the  favored  son  of  Joseph,  “  the  land 
of  Ephraim,”  with  the  territory  of  the  other 
half-tribe  of  “Manasseh,”  lying  nearly  in  line 
beyond  it.  Next,  his  eye,  glancing  southward, 
and  not  pausing  upon  little  Benjamin,  beholds 
great  “  Judah,”  extending  by  promise  to  the 
shore  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  to  the  limits  of 
the  southern  deserts— “  unto  the  utmost  sea 

t 

and  the  south.”  And  last  is  the  view  directly 
beneath  of  “  the  plain  of  the  valley  of  Jericho.” 
N.  C.  B. 

As  the  eye  turns  southward  the  peak  of  Jebel 
Shihan  first  stands  out  behind  Jebel  Attarus. 
Beyond  and  behind  these  sharply  rise  mounts 
Hor  and  Seir,  and  the  red  granite  peaks  of 
Arabia.  Still  turning  westward,  the  landscape 
sinks  in  two  or  three  lines  of  gigantic  terraces 
as  it  descends  to  the  Dead  Sea,  which  lies  be¬ 
neath,  like  a  strip  of  molten  metal.  Far  beyond 
it  the  ridge  of  Hebron  can  be  traced.  North¬ 


ward  lies  the  deep  bed  of  the  river  Jordan,  with 
the  site  of  Israel’s  last  camp.  Beyond  the  river 
rises  the  top  of  Gerizim,  and,  farther  still,  the 
plain  of  Esdraelon  opens,  and  the  shoulder  of 
Carmel,  or  some  other  intervening  height,  shows 
to  the  right  of  Gerizim.  Northward  again  the 
eye  catches  the  outline  of  Tabor  and  Gilboa. 
Snowy  Hermon,  mantled  with  cloud,  and  the 
highest  range  of  Lebanon  behind  it,  looks  down 
over  all  ;  and  to  the  north-east  the  vast  Hauran 
stretches  out  till  it  joins  the  uplands  of  Moab 
and  Ammon.  Tristram. 

Beneath  him  lay  the  tents  of  Israel  ;  and 
‘  ‘  over  against  ”  them,  distinctly^  visible  in  its 
grove  of  jDalm  trees,  the  stately  Jericho,  key  of 
the  land  of  promise.  Beyond  was  spread  out 
the  whole  range  of  the  mountains  of  Palestine, 
in  its  fourfold  masses  ;  “  all  Gilead,  with  Her¬ 
mon  and  Lebanon  in  the  east  and  north  ;  the 
hills  of  Galilee,  overhanging  the  lake  of  Gen- 
nesareth  ;  the  wdde  opening  where  lay  the  plain 
of  Esdraelon,  the  future  battle-field  of  thejia- 
tions  ;  the  rounded  summits  of  Ebal  and  Geriz¬ 
im  ;  immediately  in  front  of  him  the  hills  of 
Judea,  and,  amid  them,  seen  distinctly  through 
the  rents  in  their  rocky  walls,  Bethlehem  on 
its  narrow  ridge,  and  the  invincible  fortress  of 
Jebus.  To  him,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  charm  of 
that  view — pronounced  by  the  few  modern  trav¬ 
ellers  who  have  seen  it  to  be  unequalled  of  its 
kind— lay  in  the  assurance  that  this  was  the 
land  promised  to  Abraham,  to  Isaac,  and  to 
Jacob,  and  to  their  seed,  the  inheritance—  with 
all  its  varied  features  of  rock  and  pasture,  and 
forest  and  desert — for  the  sake  of  which  he  had 
borne  so  many  years  of  toil  and  danger,  in  the 
midst  of  which  the  fortunes  of  his  people  would 
be  unfolded  worthily  of  that  great  beginning. 
To  us,  as  we  place  ourselves  by  his  side,  the 
view  swells  into  colossal  proportions,  as  we 
think  how  the  proud  city  of  palm-trees  is  to  fall 
before  the  hosts  of  Israel  ;  how  the  spear  of 
Joshua  is  to  be  planted  on  height  after  height 
of  those  hostile  mountains  ;  what  series  of 
events,  wonderful  beyond  any  that  had  been 
witnessed  in  Egypt  or  in  Sinai,  would  in  after¬ 
ages  be  enacted  on  the  narrow  crest  of  Bethle¬ 
hem,  in  the  deep  basin  of  the  Galilean  lake, 
beneath  the  walls  of  “  Jebus,  which  is  Jerasa- 
lem.”  Stanley. 

That  Moses' s  view  of  the  promised  land  from  the 
heights  of  Nebo  was  a  view  with  the  bodily  and 
not  with  the  inward  eye,  that  he  saw  it  in  a 
state  of  perfect  consciousness,  and  not  in  an 
ecstaiie  vision,  is  evident  from  the  circum¬ 
stances,  as  well  as  from  the  expression.  There 
is  not  a  word  about  ecstasy  here.  The  antithe* 


A  WIDER  SPIRITUAL  VISION  REALIZED  IN  DEATH 


741 


sis  contained  in  the  announcement,  that  he 
should  not  tread  with  his  feet  the  land  of  prom¬ 
ise,  but  should  see  it  with  his  eyes,  compels  us 
to  think  of  the  bodily  eye.  We  have  only  to 
read  the  words  of  Jehovah  in  ch.  34  : 4,  “I  have 
caused  thee  to  see  it  with  ddne  eyes,  but  thou 
shalt  not  go  over  thither,”  and  the  statement, 
which  follows  almost  directly  afterward,  that 
though  Moses  was  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years  old  when  he  died,  yet  his  eye  was  not 
dim.  At  the  same  time,  the  distinct  and  em 
phatic  account  of  what  he  saw  (verses  1-3),  and 
the  expression,  “  Jehosah  showed  him  the  land,” 
force  us  to  the  conclusion,  that  his  natural 
power  of  vision  was  in  some  way  or  other  mir¬ 
aculously  increased.  The  very  unnecessary  ques¬ 
tion  —Where  did  the  author  of  De.  34  learn  all 
this?— may  be  very  simply  answered.  He  was 
acquainted  with  the  commands  and  promises 
of  Jehovah  in  Nu.  27  :  12,  13  and  De.  32  : 49 
sqq.,  and  the  Spirit  of  God,  under  whose  teach¬ 
ing  the  whole  was  written,  assured  him  that  the 
announcements  contained  in  these  words  were 
actually  fulfilled,  K. 

4.  From  Nebo  he  looked  down  on  the  palm- 
trees  of  Jericho,  close  under  his  feet,  and  from 
the  deep  warm  valley  through  which  the  Jordan 
was  gleaming  far  across  to  yon  boundless  sea  ; 
from  Jezreel,  with  its  waving  corn,  to  Eshcol, 
with  its  luxuriant  vines  ;  from  Bashan,  with  its 
kine,  to  Carmel,  with  its  rocks  dropping  honey  ; 
from  Lebanon,  with  its  rampart  of  snow,  south 
again  to  the  dim  edge  of  the  desert  ;  and  as  he 
feasted  his  eyes  on  what  had  so  long  been  the 
land  very  far  off ;  as  the  splendid  domain  spread 
out,  hill  and  valley,  field  and  forest,  in  the 
bright  garb  of  spring,  the  Lord  said,  “  This  is 
the  land  !”  “  This  is  the  land  which  I  sware 
unto  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  saying,  I  will 
give  it  to  thy  seed.”  But  beautiful  and  over¬ 
whelming  as  it  was,  just  then  there  began  to  rise 
on  Moses’s  sight  a  still  more  wondrous  scene.  It 
was  no  longer  the  Jordan,  with  its  palms,  but  a 
river  of  water  clear  as  crystal,  and  on  either 
Bide  of  it  a  tree  of  life  o’ercanopying.  It  was 
no  longer  Nebo’s  rocky  summit,  but  a  great 
while  throne,  and  round  it  light  inaccessible. 
He  is  in  abetter  land  than  the  land  of  promise  ! 
Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,  for  they  shall  see 
that  sight.  Blessed  are  the  meek,  for  they  shall 
inherit  that  better  land.  Hamilton. 

Enough,  doubtless,  of  the  full  purpose  of  God 
toward  his  people,  and  toward  the  world,  was 
revealed  to  the  prophet,  to  remove  all  feeling  of 
disappointment  that  he  should  not  be  permit¬ 
ted  to  cross  the  Jordan  and  set  foot  on  the 
shore  of  Canaan.  Enough  was  revealed  to  ab¬ 


sorb  what  was  merely  personal  into  the  Divine 
glory.  Ay,  and  methinks  that  such  a  view  of 
the  glories  of  the  heavenly  Canaan  was  lifted 
upon  the  prospect  of  the  earthly  land  of  prom¬ 
ise,  that  the  meek  though  mighty  saint  of  God, 
now  ripe  for  the  heavenly  inheritance,  was 
ready  to  forego  the  rest  from  wandering  as¬ 
sured  to  his  people  in  the  land  before  them  for 
”  the  rest  which  remaineth  to  the  people  of 
God.”  N.  C.  B. 

As  he  saw  it,  and  understood,  if  not  all,  yet 
much  of  the  significance  of  that  land  for  all  the 
after-history  of  mankind,  how  it  should  be  in¬ 
deed  a  holy  land,  for  it  should  be  once  trodden 
by  the  feet  of  One,  a  prophet  like  unto  him, 
and  greater  than  him,  for  he  should  be  Moses 
and  Joshua  in  one,  and  far  more  than  either, 
far  more  than  both  ;  as  he  saw  this  good  land, 
may  we  not  believe  that  he  was  comforted  for 
all,  felt  that  it  was  glory  enough  for  a  sinful 
man  to  have  been  used  by  God  to  bring  his 
people  thus  far  even  to  the  verge  and  border  of 
this  land  of  inheritance  ?  May  we  not  be  sure 
that  with  him  was  not  merely  a  perfect  acqui¬ 
escence  in  the  will  of  God,  so  that  he  accepted 
that  will  without  murmuring  or  repining  ;  but 
that  he  felt  goodness  and  mercy  to  have  fol¬ 
lowed  him  from  the  first  to  the  last,  and  that  no 
good  thing  had  been  withholden  from  him  I  and 
that  so,  looking  in  that  supreme  hour  before 
and  after,  looking  back  to  .all  the  way  by  which 
the  Lord  had  led  him,  and  looking  forward  to  a 
land  of  inheritance,  fairer,  richer,  brighter  even 
than  that  which  he  now  saw,  but  must  never 
tread,  the  weary,  much-enduring  man  yielded 
his  spirit  to  his  God  ;  God,  as  the  Jewish  rabbis 
assure  us,  drawing  out  that  spirit  with  a  kiss  ; 
they  meaning  by  this  to  express  their  sense  of 
the  serene  composure,  the  painless  peace  of  his 

departure.  Trench. - Who  shall  say  what 

sweet  communion  passes  between  the  servant 
and  the  Lord  when  not  a  word  is  spoken  ? 
There  was  but  one  speaker  and  one  auditor. 
The  auditor  who  had  talked  so  much,  with  so 
noble  a  voice,  with  so  positive  and  royal  an  elo¬ 
quence,  spoke  nothing,  but  died  in  the  embrace 
of  his  Lord.  Who  can  say  what  the  measure  of 
that  reward  was  ?  We  cannot  enter  into  these 
mysteries  ;  we  can  be  drawn  upward  by  them, 
impelled  in  noble  directions  by  their  influence. 
J.  P. 

5.  So  Moses  the  servant  of  the  Lord 
died  there.  6.  And  He  hnried  him. 

In  silence  and  solitude,  at  the  top  of  Pisgah, 
alone  with  God,  the  great  lawgiver,  prophet, 
leader,  passed  away— passed  to  the  rest  which 
he  had  so  well  earned,  not  smitten  by  any  pain- 


743 


SECTION  198.  DEATH  AND  BURIAL  OT  MOSES. 


fill  disease,  nor  worn  out  by  gradual  decay — 
but  still  in  the  full  possession  of  his  powers, 
still  with  none  of  his  natural  force  abated,  he 
sank  to  rest — he  “  was  not,  for  God  took  him” 
(Gen.  5  : 24).  The  soul  fled  ;  the  body  re¬ 
mained,  and  was  buried  in  some  strange  and 
mysterious  way — not  b}’^  Eleazar,  not  by  Joshua 
— in  a  ravine  of  the  mountain  ;  but  exactly 
where  no  man  knew.  He  had  no  funeral  rites, 
no  obsequies,  no  monument  ;  and  hence  there 
could  be  no  after-growth  of  loving  pilgrimages, 
no  superstitious  reverence  of  a  holy  spot,  no 
local  commemorative  ceremonies.  The  grave 
on  Mount  Nebo  was,  as  is  the  grave  of  Gol¬ 
gotha,  shrouded  in  thick  darkness,  to  after-ages 
an  unknown  locality.  G.  K. 

How  faithfully  to  men,  and  also  how  kindly, 
would  all  our  work  be  done,  if  we  had  our  ac¬ 
count,  not  to  them,  but  to  God,  ever  in  our  eye  ! 
Moses  ascends  the  mount  to  learn  God’s  will, 
and  when  he  has  finished  his  work  he  goes  to 
him  to  die,  and  to  find  from  him  his  sepulchre. 
He,  whose  servant  he  is,  takes  him  back  into 
his  keeping,  in  the  spirit  of  that  grand  old 
psalm  which  comes  down  to  us  as  “  the  prayer 
of  Moses  the  man  of  God  ”  (Psalm  90) — Lord, 
thou  hast  been  our  dwelling-place  in  all  gener¬ 
ations.”  Ker. 

God  buried  him.  The  penalty  of  Moses’s  sin 
W'as  full}'^  paid  by  his  death  ;  and  this  signal 
honor  conferred  on  him  after  death  was,  doubt¬ 
less,  designed  to  sustain  the  Lawgiver’s  author¬ 
ity,  which  without  it  might  have  been  impaired 
with  the  people  in  consequence  of  his  punish¬ 
ment.  Ulo  man  knowetli  of  bis  sep¬ 
ulchre.  Bearing  in  mind  the  appearance  of 
Moses  at  the  Transfiguration,  and  what  is  said 
by  Jude  (verse  9),  we  may  conjecture  that  Moses 
after  death  passed  into  the  same  state  with 
Enoch  and  Elijah  ;  and  that  his  sepulchre  could 
not  be  found  because  he  was  shortly  translated 

from  it.  Espin. - We  gather  from  the  New 

Testament  that  Michael,  an  high  prince  with 
God,  angel-protector  of  the  house  of  Israel, 
guarded  the  prophet’s  body,  and  rebuked  Satan, 
who  resisted  its  resurrection.  That  it  was 
raised  is  inferred,  from  the  appearance  of  Moses 
in  a  glorified  body  with  Elias,  on  the  mount  of 

our  Lord’s  transfiguration.  D.  F. - He  whom 

God  buried,  according  to  all  likelihood  did  not 
see  corruption,  and  was  probably  raised  from  his 
grave  as  soon  as  laid  there  ;  only  just  tasting 
the  penalty  of  death,  and  then  that  j)enalty  re¬ 
moved  ;  as  would  all  seem  indicated  and  im 
plied  by  the  apparition  of  Moses,  with  Elijah, 
in  a  glorified  body  upon  the  Mount  of  Trans¬ 
figuration.  Trench, 


His  death  was  announced  by  the  Lord  him¬ 
self  to  Joshua,  “  Moses  my  servant  is  dead” 
(Josh.  1  :  2).  So  that  there  was  no  human  wit¬ 
ness  of  his  decease  ;  the  account  of  which  was 

added  from  revelation.  Hales. - He  that  took 

charge  of  his  birth  and  preservation  in  the 
reeds  takes  charge  of  his  carriage  out  of  the 
world  :  the  care  of  God  ceaseth  not  over  his 
own,  either  in  death  or  after  it.  How  justly  do 
we  take  care  of  the  comely  burials  of  our 
friends,  when  God  himself  gives  us  this  ex¬ 
ample  !  If  the  ministry  of  man  had  been  used 
in  this  grave  of  Moses,  the  place  might  have 
been  known  to  the  Israelites  ;  but  God  pur 
posely  conceals  this  treasure,  both  from  men 
and  devils,  that  so  he  might  both  cross  their 
curiosity,  and  prevent  their  superstition.  If 
God  had  loved  the  adoration  of  his  servants’ 
relics,  he  could  never  have  had  a  fitter  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  this  devotion  than  in  the  body  of 
Moses.  It  is  folly  to  place  religion  in  those 
things  which  God  hides  on  purpose  from  us  ; 
it  is  not  the  property  of  the  Almighty  to  re¬ 
strain  us  from  good.  Bp.  H. 

“  The  Lord  buried  him.”  There  is  a  higher 
honor  conferred  on  him  than  if  all  Israel  had 
met  to  weep  and  lament,  or  the  world  assembled 
to  his  obsequies.  God  takes  away  the  grave  of 
Moses,  that  they  maj’  have  before  them,  in  full 
and  undisturbed  relief,  the  man  himself.  His 
words  living  and  dying,  his  walk  with  God  till 
God  took  him,  all  that  he  was  to  God  and  to 
them,  in  self-devotion  and  affection— these  sur¬ 
vive  him  and  can  never  die.  If  they  came  to 
his  grave,  they  approached  the  creature  and  its 
fleeting  part  ;  but  in  coming  to  his  words  and 
his  life,  they  come  to  Moses  himself  and  to  God. 
And  may  we  not  see  a  similar  lesson  in  this 
that  the  sepulchre  of  the  greater  prophet  than 
Moses  is  equally  unknown,  and  may  we  not 
wonder  that  Christians,  under  a  system  of  spirit 
and  life,  have  been  more  slow  than  Jews  to 
learn  the  lesson  ?  Once,  and  once  only,  were 
men  invited  “  to  see  the  place  where  the  Lord 
lay,’  ’  that  they  might  be  assured  it  was  empty, 
and  refrain  any  more  from  seeking  the  living 
among  the  dead.  If  research  the  most  patient 
has  hitherto  done  aught,  it  has  been  to  show 
that  the  spot  has  left  no  trace  upon  our  earth. 
God  has  made  the  march  of  armies  and  the  des¬ 
olation  of  centuries  do  for  the  sepulchre  of 
Christ  what  his  own  hand  did  for  the  grave  of 
Moses.  He  could  scarcely  have  condemned  more 
strikingly,  in  history,  that  idolatry  of  place  and 
form  which  has  usurped  so  long  the  worship  of 
the  spirit.  The  Christian  Church,  no  less  than 
the  Jewish,  is  taught  to  look  to  the  life  and 


THE  DEAD  ARE  THE  LIVING. 


743 


doctrine  of  its  great  Lawgiver  with  this  distinc¬ 
tion,  that  we  know  most  surely  where  he  is,  to 
draw  souls  to  himself,  and  whence  he  shall 
come  “  to  change  these  vile  bodies,  and  fashion, 
them  like  unto  his  own  glorious  body.”  Ker. 

Nebo,  too,  proclaims  that  the  existence  of 
God’s  servants  does  not  terminate,  but  still 
goes  on— nay,  properly  begins  only  at  death  ; 
and  the  whole  history  of  those  who  fall  asleep 
in  Christ  admits  of  being  summarized  in  these 
five  words,  “  for  all  live  unto  God.”  Moses 
and  Aaron — they  and  such  as  they  still  live  ! 
The  Joshuas  and  Davids— they  still  live  !  The 
Daniels  and  Isaiahs  —they  still  live  !  Your  godly 
friends  that  fell  asleep,  some  early  and  some 
late  —they  are  not  dead,  but  they  still  live  !  He 
who  gave  Moses  burial  shall  one  day  bring  again 
with  him,  in  glory,  all  those  who  have  fallen 
asleep  in  Jesus  Christ.  Then  shall  they  all  be 
perfected— those  who  have  been  redeemed  in 
early  and  in  later  days  of  grace — when  Christ, 
who  is  their  life,  has  been  revealed.  Van  0. 

- “  The  dead  ”  and  “  the  living”  are  not 

names  of  two  classes  which  exclude  each  other. 
Much  rather,  there  are  none  who  are  dead.  The 
dead  are  the  living  who  have  died.  While  they 
were  dying  they  lived,  and  after  they  were  dead 
they  lived  more  fully.  All  live  unto  God. 
‘  ‘  God  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the 
living.”  Oh,  how  solemnly  sometimes  that 
thought  comes  up  before  us,  that  all  those  past 
generations  which  have  stormed  across  this 
earth  of  ours,  and  then  have  fallen  into  still 
forgetfulness,  live  yet.  Somewhere  at  this  very 
instant  they  now  verily  are !  We  say,  they 
were,  they  have  been.  There  are  no  have  beens  ! 
Life  is  life  forever.  To  be  is  eternal  being. 
Every  man  that  has  died  is  at  this  instant  in 
the  full  possession  of  all  his  faculties,  in  the 
intensest  exercise  of  all  his  capacities,  standing 
somewhere  in  God’s  great  universe,  ringed  with 
the  sense  of  God’s  presence,  and  feeling  in 
every  fibre  of  his  being  that  life,  which  comes 
after  death,  is  not  less  real,  but  more  real,  not 
less  great,  but  more  great,  not  less  full  or  in¬ 
tense,  but  more  full  and  intense,  than  the  min¬ 
gled  life  which,  lived  here  on  earth,  was  a  centre 
of  life  surrounded  with  a  crust  and  circumfer¬ 
ence  of  mortality.  The  dead  are  the  living. 
They  lived  while  they  died  ;  and  after  they  die, 
they  live  on  forever  !  A.  M. 

§.  Moses’s  memory  is  carried  with  the  Israel¬ 
ites,  as  something  sacred,  from  the  wilderness 
into  the  promised  land,  now  opened  for  their 
entering.  His  mighty  spirit  animates  the  words 
and  deeds  of  Joshua  ;  and  when  the  latter,  in 
his  turn,  forsakes  the  great  arena  here  below,  it 


is  not  till  the  people  have  anew  been  bound,  by 
the  most  sacred  oaths,  to  the  observance  of  the 
whole  Mosaic  Law.  And  soon  his  image  is 
found  hovering  before  the  minds  of  all  those 
judges,  kings,  and  prophets  who  were  faithful 
to  the  Lord  ;  the  book  of  Moses’s  Law  remains 
the  basis  of  religious  teaching  and  the  record 
of  God’s  ancient  revelation  throughout  many 
ages  afterward.  Of  all  the  seers  who  come  tread¬ 
ing  in  his  footprints,  which  are  ineffaceable, 
there  is  no  single  one  in  Israel  that  reaches  such 
a  height  ;  of  all  the  legislators  who  are  still  the 
pride  of  ancient  heathendom,  there  is  no  single 
one  that  can  compare  with  him.  Where  are 
they  all  — the  Dracos,  Numas,  Solons,  and  Lycur- 
guses,  and  all  those  who  succeeded  them? 
Their  work  has  perished  with  them  ;  that  of 
Moses  is  as  permanent  as  Israel — eternal  as  the 
God  of  Israel  himself.  To  the  whole  of  Chris¬ 
tendom  on  earth,  his  word  comes  as  a  message 
sent  from  God  ;  the  history  he  writes  is  like  a 
mine  of  gold  ;  his  life  and  death  become  a  rev¬ 
elation  of  God’s  glory  ;  and  in  heaven  the  songs 
of  Moses  and  the  Lamb  still  mingle  on  the  lii3s 
of  the  redeemed.  Van  0. 

9.  And  Jo§1iua  was  full  of  the  spirit 
of  wisdom,  for  Ifloses  had  laid  his 
hands  on  him.  Although  dead,  Moses  still 
ruled.  His  spirit  reappeared  in  his  successor. 
The  principles  of  Moses  had  been  planted  in 
the  nature  of  Joshua  :  these  had  flourished  and 
come  to  maturity.  The  memory  of  Moses  was 
still  a  mighty  power  in  Israel,  and  they  “  did,” 
all  though  the  days  of  Joshua,  “  as  the  Lord 
commanded  Moses.  ”  The  legislator  had  mould¬ 
ed  and  trained  the  warrior.  Moses  was  pro¬ 
moted  to  higher  honor,  because  Joshua  was  bet¬ 
ter  qualified  for  this  new  work — the  realization 
of  Israel’s  destiny.  D.  D. 

Moses  brought  Israel  to  the  borders  of  Canaan 
and  then  died  and  left  them,  to  signify  that  the 
Law  made  nothing  perfect  (Heb.  7  : 19).  It  brings 
men  into  a  wilderness  of  conviction,  but  not 
into  the  Canaan  of  rest  and  settled  peace.  It  is 
an  honor  reserved  for  Joshua  (our  Lord  Jesus, 
of  whom  Joshua  was  a  type)  to  do  that  for  us 
which  the  Law  could  not  do  in  that  it  was  weak 
through  the  flesh  (Rom.  8  ;  3).  Through  him  we 
enter  into  rest  ;  the  spiritual  rest  of  conscience 
and  eternal  rest  in  heaven.  H. 

It  was  essential  to  the  typical  meaning  and 
purpose  of  this  history  that  Moses  should  not 
cross  the  river,  for  he  was  the  representative 
man  of  the  Law,  and  the  Law  brings  no  one  into 
rest.  For  himself,  too,  it  was  better  to  dejjart. 
He  got  something  nobler  far  than  an  entrance 
into  Canaan — a  home  with  God  and  the  departed 


744 


SECTION  198.  DIVINE  ENCOMIUM  OF  M08E8. 


worthies.  Yet  there  is  something  very  touching 
in  his  death,  on  the  very  edge  of  the  promised 
land.  An  end  like  his  has  been  not  infrequent 
among  great  leaders  of  intellectual  or  religious 
life.  They  labor  and  see  not,  or,  if  they  fore¬ 
see,  enjoy  not  the  fruit  of  their  labors.  A  hero 
falls  in  the  very  arms  of  victory,  a  scientific 
genius  surrenders  to  others  the  advantage  of  his 
discoveries,  reformers  and  missionaries  of  truth 
and  progress  often  die  on  the  threshold  of  suc¬ 
cess,  leaving  it  to  others  to  accomplish  what 
they  could  not  continue,  “  by  reason  of  death.” 
A  striking  precedent  there  is  in  the  death  of 
Moses,  the  man  of  God.  A  lesson,  too,  of  sub¬ 
mission  and  contentment.  D.  F. 

Divine  Encomium  of  Moses  (verses  10-12). 

God  buried  Moses.  It  was  fitting,  therefore, 
that  he  too  should  write  his  epitaph.  Here  it 
is,  given  by  his  inspiration,  and,  though  written 
only  in  a  book,  having  a  permanence  as  great  as 
if  it  had  been  graven  with  an  iron  pen  in  the 
rock  forever.  “  And  there  arose  not  a  prophet 
since  in  Israel  like  unto  Moses,  whom  the  Lord 
knew  face  to  face,  in  all  the  signs  and  the  won¬ 
ders  which  the  Lord  sent  him  to  do  in  the  land 
of  Egypt,  to  Pharaoh,  and  to  all  his  servants, 
and  to  all  his  land,  and  in  all  that  mightv  hand, 
and  in  all  the  great  terror  which  Moses  showed 
in  the  sight  of  all  Israel.”  ^Y.  M.  T. 

10.  There  hath  aiot  arisen  a  |!>rophet 
siiiee  in  Israel.  Words  like  these  can  only 
have  been  written  some  time,  but  not  necessa¬ 
rily  a  long  lime,  after  the  death  of  Moses.  They 
refer  more  particularly  to  the  wonders  wrought 
by  the  hand  of  Moses  at  the  exodus  and  in  the 
desert  ;  and  do  but  re-echo  the  declaration  of 

God  himself  (Nu.  12  :  G).  Espin. - This  eulogy 

seems  to  have  been  added  that  the  children  of 
Abraham  might  place  dependence  on  Moses 
until  the  manifestation  of  Christ  ;  for  although 
prophets  were  from  time  to  time  raised  up,  the 
superiority  should  remain  with  Moses,  lest  they 
decline  from  the  rule  of  the  Law.  Two  signs 
of  his  excellency  are  here  recorded,  his  familiar 
acquaintance  with  God  and  the  glory  of  his 

miracles.  Galv. - Moses  was  the  founder  and 

mediator  of  the  Old  Covenant.  As  long  as  this 
covenant  was  to  last,  no  prophet  could  arise  in 
Israel  like  unto  Moses.  There  is  but  One  who 
is  worthy  of  greater  honor  than  Moses — namely, 
the  Apostle  and  High-Priest  of  our  profession, 
who  is  placed  as  a  Son  over  all  the  house  of 
God,  in  which  Moses  was  found  faithful  as  a 
servant  (compare  Heb,  3  : 2-6  with  Nu.  12  :  7), 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Founder  and  Mediator  of  the 
new  and  everlasting  covenant.  Keil, 


Wlioin  tlte  LiOrd  knew  face  to  face. 

Others  saw  visions  and  dreamed  dreams  ;  he 
spoke  face  to  face  with  God  and  was  deemed 
worthy  of  honors  never  claimed  for  an  Amos  or 
an  Isaiah.  Somebody  adds  here,  There  arose 
not  a  prophet  since  in  Israel  like  unto  Moses.” 
On  its  face  it  is  a  later  addition,  like  the  rest  of 
the  chapter.  But  it  is  the  amen”  that  con¬ 
firms  the  letter  of  the  history  or  the  self-praise 
that  seals  the  counterfeit.  E.  C.  B. 

Moses  was  the  first  to  disclose  the  glorious 
nature  of  God  and  his  gracious  relationships  to 
our  race,  as  the  corner-stone  of  a  great  common¬ 
wealth.  He  was  the  first  to  proclaim,  by  his 
sacrificial  institutes  and  teachings,  the  one 
principle  that  “  without  shedding  of  blood  is  no 
remission.”  He  was  the  first  to  proclaim  the 
elementary  principles  and  the  true  basis  of  the 
noblest  human  ethics  :  “  Be  ye  holy  :  for  I  am 
holy.”  He  was  the  first  to  require  of  a  people 
love  to  God  as  the  spring  of  all  obedience,  and 
to  assign  as  the  reason  for  their  love  the  care  of 
God  to  them.  He  was  the  first  who  made  pro¬ 
vision  for  the  education  of  a  whole  people  in 
the  things  of  God  ;  with  virtue  and  piety  for  its 
lessons,  and  the  home  for  its  training-school. 
He  was  the  first  who  aimed  at  educating  a  peo¬ 
ple  to  self-government.  Others  might  follow  on 
in  all  these  respects,  but  no  one  else  ever  could 
be  like  Moses  in  starting  all  this  new  national 
life,  thought,  and  virtue,  in  organized  form. 
And  yet  how  much  more  than  one  like  Moses 
do  we  need  for  a  world’s  regeneration  and  a 
Church’s  education  !  “  If  there  had  been  a  Law 
given  which  should  have  given  life,  verily  right¬ 
eousness  should  have  been  by  the  Law.  ”  But 
“what  the  Law  could  not  do”  God  has  done 
through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Moses  can  give 
rules.  Only  the  Lord  the  Spirit  can  give  life. 
A  Greater  than  Moses  has  come,  and  has  created 
by  his  power  a  new  commonwealth,  whose  citi¬ 
zenship  is  in  the  heavens.  In  this  “  new  Jeru¬ 
salem,  which  oometh  down  from  God  out  of 
heaven,”  lo  !  “  all  things  are  made  new.”  C.  G. 

Ilis  Influence  upon  Human  History. 

Calm  and  colossal,  not  so  much  distinguished 
by  his  individual  features  as  by  the  mighty 
deeds  with  which  he  is  identified,  stands  out 
the  figure  of  that  Hebrew  lawgiver  ;  and  be¬ 
twixt  the  romantic  incidents  of  his  birth  and 
upbringing,  his  unparalleled  achievements  as 
the  conductor  of  a  national  exodus,  and  his  ex¬ 
alted  function  as  the  founder  of  the  Hebrew 
commonwealth  and  the  father  of  a  new  dispen¬ 
sation,  no  mere  man  has  exerted  a  larger  or 
more  enduring  inflaence  in  human  historyc 


HIS  INFLVENCE  UPON  HUMAN  HISTOBY. 


745 


Hamilton. - Of  all  the  great  men  who  have 

plaj'ed  their  part  on  the  broad  theatre  of  hu¬ 
man  action,  Moses  is  the  one  who  has  exerted 
the  most  pregnant  influence  on  the  destinies  of 
mankind  and  on  the  direction  and  progress  of 
civilization.  His  lofty  intellect,  his  greatness 
of  soul,  his  pre-eminent  virtue,  and  his  un¬ 
equalled  services  in  the  cause  of  true  religion 
and  of  republican  constitutional  liberty,  place 
him  at  the  head  of  those  illustrious  benefactors 
of  mankind  who  here  and  there,  though  at  in¬ 
tervals  too  distant  from  each  other,  embellish 

the  canvass  of  history.  E.  C.  W. - Nor  was 

his  memory  confined  to  the  single  people  which 
under  his  auspices  became  a  great  nation. 
Manetho,  the  Egyptian,  spoke  of  him  as  the 
founder  of  the  Jewish  polity  and  the  author  of 
the  Jewish  laws  ;  the  Greeks  became  acquainted 
with  his  name  about  the  time  of  Herodotus,  and 
unanimously  attributed  to  him  the  peculiar 
customs  which  marked  out  from  all  others  the 
Jewish  people.  Historians  of  Egypt  with  one 
voice  proclaimed  that  it  was  he  who  led  the 
Jews  from  Eg5’^pt  to  the  Holy  Land.  From 
Greece  his  fame  passed  to  Rome,  where  atten¬ 
tion  was  first  drawn  to  him  by  Cornelius  Alex¬ 
ander  in  the  time  of  Sulla,  and  where  he  soon 
became  known  as  the  Jewish  legislator,”  and 
attracted  the  notice  of  Apollonius  Niolo,  Trogus 
Pompeius,  Strabo,  Thallus,  the  freedman  of 
Tiberius,  Tacitus,  Juvenal,  Longinus,  and 
others.  Longinus  called  him  “no  common 
man  Numenius,  the  Pythagorean  philosopher, 
said  that  he  was  “very  powerful  with  God 
through  prayer.”  Hecataeus  of  Abdera  praised 
his  courage  and  practical  wisdom.  G.  R. 

The  Hebrew  lawgiver,  considered  merely  in 
an  historical  light  and  without  reference  to  his 
Divine  inspiration,  has  exercised  a  more  exten¬ 
sive  and  permanent  influence  over  the  destinies 
of  his  own  nation  and  mankind  at  large  than 
any  other  individual  recorded  in  the  annals  of 
the  world.  Christianity  and  Mohammedanism 
alike  respect,  and,  in  different  degrees,  derive 
their  origin  from  the  Mosaic  institutes.  Thus, 
throughout  Europe,  with  all  its  American  de¬ 
scendants,  the  larger  part  of  Asia  and  the  north 
of  Africa,  the  opinions,  the  usages,  the  civil  as 
well  as  religious  ordinances,  retain  deep  and 
indelible  traces  of  their  descent  from  the  He¬ 
brew  polity.  To  his  own  nation  Moses  was 
chieftain,  historian,  poet,  lawgiver.  He  was 
more  than  all  these — he  was  the  author  of  their 
civil  existence.  Other  founders  of  republics 
and  distinguished  legislators  have  been,  like 
Numa,  already  at  the  head  of  a  settled  and  or¬ 
ganized  community  ;  or  have  been  voluntarily 


invested  with  legislatorial  authority,  like  Cha- 
rondas,  Lycurgus,  and  Solon,  by  a  people  suffer¬ 
ing  the  inconveniences  of  anarchy.  Moses  had 
first  to  form  his  people,  and  bestow  on  them  a 
country  of  their  own,  before  he  could  create  his 
commonwealth.  The  Hebrews  would  either 
have  been  absorbed  in  the  population  of  Eg^'pt, 
or  remained  a  wretched  Pariah  caste,  had  Moses 
never  lived,  or  never  received  his  Divine  com¬ 
mission.  In  this  condition  he  took  them  up, 
rescued  them  from  captivity  ;  finding  them  unfit 
for  his  purpose,  he  kept  them  for  forty  years 
under  the  severe  discipline  of  the  desert  ;  then 
led  them  as  conquerors  to  take  permanent  pos¬ 
session  of  a  most  fruitful  region.  Yet  with 
singular  disregard  to  his  own  fame,  though  with 
great  advantage  to  his  design,  Moses  uniformly 
referred  to  an  earlier  and  more  remote  person¬ 
age  the  dignity  of  parent  of  his  people.  The 
Jews  were  children  of  Abraham,  not  of  Moses  ; 
they  were  a  distinguished  nation  as  descendants 
of  the  patriarch,  not  as  compatriots  of  the  law¬ 
giver.  The  virtue  of  pure  and  disinterested 
patriotism  never  shone  forth  more  unclouded. 
He  nobly  declined  the  offer  made  to  him  by  the 
Almighty,  to  substitute  his  own  family  for  the 
offending  race  of  Israel.  The  permanent  hap¬ 
piness  of  the  whole  people  was  the  one  great 
object  to  which  the  life  of  Moses  was  devoted  ; 
so  that,  if  we  could  for  an  instant  suspect  that 
he  made  use  of  religion  for  a  political  purpose, 
still  that  purpose  would  entitle  him  to  the  high¬ 
est  rank  among  the  benefactors  of  mankind,  as 
having  been  the  first  who  attempted  to  regulate 
society  by  an  equal  written  law.  If  God  was 
not  the  sovereign  of  the  Jewish  State,  the  Law 
was  :  the  best  and  only  safe  vicegerent  of  Al¬ 
mighty  Providence,  to  which  the  welfare  of 
human  communities  can  be  intrusted.  If  the 
Hebrew  commonwealth  was  not  a  theocracy,  it 
was  a  nomocracy.  On  the  other  hand,  if,  as  we 
suppose  in  the  Mosaic  polity,  the  civil  was  sub¬ 
ordinate  to  the  religious  end,  still  the  imme¬ 
diate  well-being  of  the  community  was  not  sacri¬ 
ficed  to  the  more  remote  object.  Independent 
of  the  temporal  blessings  promised  to  the  main¬ 
tenance  of  the  Law,  the  Hebrew  commonwealth 
was  so  constituted  as  to  produce  (all  circum¬ 
stances  of  the  times,  the  situation  and  character 
of  the  people  considered)  as  much  or  more  real 
happiness  and  independence  than  any  existing 
or  imaginary  government  of  ancient  times.  Let 
Moses,  as  contrasted  with  human  legislators,  be 
judged  accor(iing  to  his  age  ;  he  will  appear, 
not  merely  the  first  who  founded  a  common¬ 
wealth  on  just  principles,  but  a  lawgiver  who 
advanced  political  society  to  as  high  a  degree  of 


746 


SECTION  198.  HIS  MORAL  AND  SPIRITUAL  CHARACTER. 


perfection  as  the  state  of  civilization  which  his 
people  had  attained,  or  were  capable  of  attain¬ 
ing,  could  possibly  admit.  But  if  such  be  the 
benign,  the  prematurely  wise,  and  original 
character  of  the  Mosaic  institutions,  the  faith 
of  the  Jew  and  the  Christian  in  the  Divine  com¬ 
mission  of  the  great  legislator  is  the  more 
strongly  established  and  confirmed.  Milman. 

Moral  and  Spiritual  Points  of  Character. 

The  noblest  trait  in  his  moral  character  was 
his  patriotic  disinterestedness.  He  twice  re¬ 
fused  the  tempting  offer  of  the  aggrandizement 
of  his  own  family,  when  God  threatened  to  re¬ 
ject  the  Israelites  for  their  rebellions,  and  make 
of  him  “  a  great  nation”  in  their  stead.  And 
he  left  his  sons,  without  rank  or  patrimony,  as 
private  Levites,  to  subsist  on  the  national 
bounty,  in  common  with  their  brethren  !  Hales. 

- On  the  conquest  of  Canaan,  Joshua  receives 

large  landed  estates,  but  for  the  sons  of  Moses 
there  was  nothing  more  than  their  share  of  the 
Levitical  offerings.  Even  the  headship  of  the 
tribe  of  Levi  belonged  to  Aaron,  the  elder 
brother  of  Moses  ;  and  upon  him  and  his  de¬ 
scendants  the  high-priesthood  was  conferred. 
They  did  consequently  hold  a  grand  position  ; 
but  as  for  Moses  himself,  in  1  Ch.  6,  after  he 
has  been  barely  mentioned,  his  race  drops  en¬ 
tirely  out  of  the  genealogy,  while  the  family  of 
Aaron  is  carefully  described.  K.  P.  S. 

He  had  great  privileges  ;  but  he  had  also  great 
responsibilities  and  trying  ordeals.  Heaven 
honored  his  intercessions  with  signal  deliver¬ 
ances  ;  but  heaven  punished  his  sin  with  a  vis¬ 
itation  so  severe  that  nothing  could  better  serve 
to  magnify  the  Law  and  make  it  honorable. 
The  promised  land  he  might  not  set  his  foot 
upon  ;  and  yet  God  comforted  him  and  God 
buried  him.  A  paradox  truly,  but  only  on  the 
hypothesis  of  unreality.  Without  an  army, 
without  the  restraints  of  established  customs 
and  regular  occupations,  by  the  sheer  force  of 
his  goodness,  his  disinterestedness,  his  supreme 
patience,  and  the  favor  of  God,  he  led,  as  a 
father,  for  forty  years,  the  most  intractable  and 
obstinate  of  peoples.  The  intrigues  of  his  own 
family  neither  disheartened  nor  angered  him. 
Alive  as  few  others  to  the  demands  of  even- 
handed  justice,  having  for  his  great  task  the 
training  of  a  people  in  the  arts  of  war  as  well  as 
of  peace  in  a  rude  age,  it  is  still  the  law  of  love 
to  God  as  a  rule  of  conduct  on  which  he  every¬ 
where  chiefly  insists.  Five  several  times  he  re¬ 
turns  to  it  (De.  6  : 4  f .  ;  10  : 12  ;  11  :  13  ;  30  :  6, 
20)  with  emphatic  reiteration.  E.  C.  B. 

All  the  great  men  of  sacred  as  well  as  of  pro¬ 


fane  history  possessed  some  prominent  virtue 
or  quality  which  stood  out  in  bolder  relief  than 
their  other  perfections.  We  think  of  the  faith 
of  Abraham,  of  the  conscientiousness  cf  Joseph, 
of  the  contrition  of  David,  of  the  generosity  of 
Jonathan,  of  the  zeal  of  Elijah — but  what  do 
we  regard  as  the  dominant  quality  of  Moses? 
The  mind  is  perplexed  in  the  attempt  to  fix  on 
any.  It  is  not  firmness,  it  is  not  perseverance, 
it  is  not  disinterestedness,  it  is  not  patriotism, 
it  is  not  confidence  in  God,  it  is  not  meekness, 
it  is  not  humility,  it  is  not  forgetfulness  of  self. 
It  is  not  any  one  of  these.  It  is  all  of  them. 
His  virtues,  his  graces,  were  all  equal  to  each 
other  ;  and  it  was  their  beautifully  harmonious 
operation  and  development  which  constituted 
his  noble  and  all  but  perfect  character.  Kit. 

His  faith  is  something  marvellous,  something 
almost  without  a  parallel.  It  takes  him  to  God 
at  every  moment  ;  it  sustains  him  under  every 
trial  and  disappointment  ;  in  a  lifetime  of  a 
hundred  and  twenty  years  it  fails  him  perhaps 
three  or  four  times,  otherwise  it  is  a  constant 
support  and  stay.  To  the  last  he  has  the  eter¬ 
nal  God  for  his  refuge,  and  feels  underneath 
him  the  everlasting  arms  (De.  33  : 27).  Not.  even 
Abraham,  “  the  father  of  the  faithful,”  is  more 
a  man  of  faith  than  he.  G.  B. - ‘  ‘  He  en¬ 

dured,”  says  the  inspired  penman,  “  as  seeing 
him  who  is  invisible.”  Ho  had  a  vivid  and  con¬ 
stant  sense  of  the  presence  of  God,  and  a  cor¬ 
rect  estimate  of  the  relative  importance  of 
things  seen  and  temporal,  as  compared  wuth 
those  which  are  unseen  and  eternal.  This  kept 
him  from  contamination  during  his  early  edu¬ 
cation,  and  while  yet  he  was  in  the  palace  of 
the  Pharaohs  ;  and  when  the  day  came  when  he 
must  take  the  one  side  or  the  other  in  that  con¬ 
flict  which  has  continued  through  all  the  ages, 
he  did  not  hesitate  or  attempt  to  temporize,  but 
“  esteemed  the  reproach  of  Christ  greater  riches 
than  the  treasures  in  Egypt.”  Never  nu  re  al¬ 
luring  prospects  opened  up  before  any  man  than 
those  which  the  world  held  out  to  him.  The 
throne  of  the  greatest  monarchy  of  his  age 
was  within  his  reach.  All  that  wealth  could 
procure,  or  pleasure  bestow,  or  the  greatest 
earthly  power  command,  was  easily  at  his  call. 
But  the  glory  of  these  things  paled  in  his  view 
before  the  more  excellent  character  of  those  in¬ 
visible  honors  which  God  set  before  him  ;  and 
so,  without  a  sigh  of  regret  or  a  thought  of  sac¬ 
rifice,  he  turned  his  back  upon  n  position  which 
he  could  occupy  only  by  proving  false  to  hi  i 
countrymen  and  di.sloyal  to  his  Lord.  This 
faith  sustained  him  in  the  solitudes  of  Midian, 
and  animated  him  amid  all  the  conflict  attend- 


CLOSE  OF  THE  PENTATEUCH. 


747 


ant  on  the  Exodus,  and  all  the  difficulties  that 
confronted  him  in  the  wilderness.  From  the 
moment  when  he  heard  the  promise,  ‘  ‘  Certainly 
I  will  be  with  thee,”  on  till  the  day  when  he 
set  out  for  Pisgah,  he  was  seldom  visited  with 
misgiving.  His  intercourse  with  God  was  of  the 
closest  and  most  confidential  character,  Je¬ 
hovah,  to  him,  was  a  living  person,  as  real  to 
him  as  was  his  brother  Aaron,  and  more  helpful 
to  him  than  any  human  friend  could  be.  This 
faith  gave  him  courage  in  the  hour  of  danger, 
and  calmness  in  the  time  of  trial.  Whether  he 
was  called  to  go  in  before  the  angry  Pharaoh,  or 
to  face  the  mutiny  of  the  murmuring  tribes,  he 
was  equally  sustained  by  the  sight  of  the  in¬ 
visible  God  ;  and  when  at  length  he  passed  in 
within  the  veil,  he  went  only  into  a  higher  and 
closer  fellowship  with  one  whom  he  had  long 
known  and  loved.  W.  M.  T. 


While  busy  with  codes  and  their  proper  dis¬ 
tribution  among  the  centuries,  the  critics  have 
strangely  overlooked  the  lawgiver  himself,  and 
have  completely  failed  to  account  for  the  con¬ 
ception  of  such  a  character  as  that  of  Moses,  and 
the  unique  portrayal  of  it  in  the  Pentateuch. 
Perfect  it  is  not,  for  then  it  would  be  other  than 
human; — but  from  that  first  sweet  picture  of  the 
little  child  nestling  in  its  cradle  of  papyrus 
leaves,  among  the  reeds  of  the  Nile,  to  that  last, 
solemn  journey  to  the  top  of  Nebo,  to  get  one 
glimpse  of  the  dear  land  which,  because  of  sin, 
he  might  not  set  his  foot  upon— unique,  and  to 
the  final  stroke  beyond  the  possible  reach  of  in¬ 
vention.  Conjured  into  the  history  he  was  not, 
and  could  not  have  been  ;  and  just  as  little  can 
he  be  conjured  out  of  it.  But  in  it,  and  of  it, 
then  the  miracle,  if  miracle  it  be,  is  God’s,  and 
cannot  be  overthrown.  And  with  the  overshad¬ 
owing  personality  of  a  Moses,  indisputably  fixed 
in  the  age  of  Moses,  you  have  not  only  a  sure 
and  steadfast  anchor  for  the  documents  that 
bear  his  name,  but  also  a  sufficient  pledge  of 
their  genuineness  and  order. 

The  material  universe  during  these  cycles  of 
time  since  the  exodus  has  been  slowly  under¬ 
going  change.  The  “everlasting  hills,”  of 
which  the  Psalmist  speaks,  have  taken  on  other 
shapes,  gradually  yielding  to  the  touch  of  time. 
But  this  sublime  figure  of  the  ancient  books, 
and  those  first  great  truths  be  uttered  so  long 
ago,  remain  unchanged.  Our  critics  may  suc¬ 
ceed  in  obscuring,  for  some  and  for  a  time,  the 
image  and  its  historic  setting  ;  but  to  efface  or 
greatly  alter  it  were  impossible.  Like  the  pa¬ 
limpsest  of  the  Gospel,  it  may  be  written  over 
and  over  with  other  thoughts.  But  there  will 


•  also  be  happy  discoverers  in  the  good  time  to 
come.  The  human  will  fade  out  at  last,  and 
the  Divine  shine  through.  E.  C.  B. 


God’s  work-day  is  eternity.  His  plan  runs 
from  the  beginning  of  days  to  the  end  of  years. 
Every  sigh  and  groan  of  anguish  comes  up  into 
remembrance  before  him,  and  every  oppression 
and  cruelty  survives  for  judgment.  The  bur¬ 
dens  of  humanity  grow  already  lighter,  not 
heavier.  The  justice  of  the  Almighty  is  not 
foiled.  The  year  of  his  redeemed  shall  come. 
There  is  a  future,  and  it  belongs  to  Christian¬ 
ity  ;  and  there  waits  the  redressing  of  every 
wrong.  It  is  an  inspiring  lesson  of  faith  the 
Scriptures  teach  us,  when  they  show  us  the  old 
Jewish  prophets  and  kings  bending  forward  as 
if  to  catch  some  note  of  the  Bethlehem  wel¬ 
come,  waiting  to  see  their  Messiah’s  day,  and 
yet  dying  in  faith  ”  without  the  sight.”  There 
are  two  vivid  scenes  in  the  life  of  the  great 
Hebrew  lawgiver,  not  often  brought  forward 
among  the  wonders  of  his  mission,  which  are 
affecting  disclosures  of  that  indwelling  faith, 
which  was  the  hiding  of  all  his  power  :  one, 
where  he  stood  on  the  top  of  the  mountain,  not 
afraid,  with  a  tranquil  expectation,  amid  thun¬ 
ders  and  lightnings,  and  clouds  and  darkness, 
waiting  confidently  for  the  Lord  God  to  speak 
at  the  beginning  of  his  great  work  ;  the  other, 
when,  at  the  end  of  his  trials  and  his  life,  he 
went  up  to  look  off  from  the  top  of  another 
mountain,  over  the  Canaan  he  could  not  enter, 
and  then  walked  firmly  down,  without  murmur¬ 
ing,  to  die.  To  us  the  Lord  God  always  speaks 
by  his  Son,  if  we  will  listen  ;  and  to  us  the 
whole  future  is  a  land  of  promise,  and  every 
hour  an  outlook  from  Nebo,  if  only  we  have 
that  unshaken  faith  that  is  ready  to  wait  or  to 
work,  and  asks  only  to  be  led.  E,  D,  H. 

Christianity  has  been  advancing  for  centuries 
through  martyrdoms  and  defections,  and  great 
stones  rolled  to  its  sepulchre,  and  prophecies 
of  extinction.  But  still  it  lives  and  moves  for¬ 
ward  to  the  throne  its  Author  and  Lord  has  al¬ 
ready  reached.  The  corn  of  wheat  which  dies 
and  rises  to  the  harvest  is  its  symbol,  and  we 
must  take  it  for  that  of  our  personal  life.  If 
we  wish  present  success  we  may  go  seek  it  else¬ 
where,  but  if  we  desire  the  strength  and  peace 
which  make  a  man  independent  of  everything 
but  God,  we  must  find  these  in  God  himself, 
and  in  making  heart  and  life  submissive  to  his 
will.  In  such  a  life  failure  is  impossible  unless 
God  himself  can  fail  and  his  moral  universe 
prove  itself  a  dream.  Should  he  give  us  length 
of  days  in  the  world,  as  he  did  to  Moses,  and 


748 


SECTION  199.  SUPPLE3fENTARY. 


usefulness  and  honor,  leaving  but  one  break,  as 
break  there  must  be,  at  the  close,  let  us  take  it 
thanktully  ;  but  if,  as  he  appointed  to  his  Son, 
he  send  us  defeat  and  disappointment,  and 
forms  of  death,  all  through,  let  us  take  it  hoj^e- 
fully.  There  is  full  compensation  for  failure 
in  every  true  life,  and  the  highest  where  the 
struggle  and  the  loss  have  been  the  deepest. 
Most  comforting  of  all,  there  is  reversal  of  the 
consequences  of  sin  when,  in  humble  contrition 


and  faith,  the  heart  has  been  put  into  the  hand 
of  the  great  Healer.  The  shadow  on  earth’s 
dial-plate  is  turned  back  when  eternal  life  is 
gained,  and  the  sun  shall  go  down  no  more. 
We  shall  be  waked  up  from  our  grave,  like 
Moses,  to  have  our  heart’s  desire,  to  look  on  the 
land  and  on  him  who  is  the  glory  in  the  midst 
of  it  ;  nay,  better  still,  to  share  it  with  him,  and 
to  know  that  “  if  we  suffer  with  Christ  it  is  that 
we  may  be  also  glorified  together.”  Ker. 


Section  199. 

GENEALOGICAL  OUTLINE  OF  THE  TKIBES  OF  ISKAEL,  INCLUDING  SUBDIVISIONS 
OF  FAMILIES  AND  BRIEF  NOTES  RESPECTING  PROMINENT  INDIVIDUALS. 

1  Chronicles,  Chapters  2  to  8  inclusive. 

Note. — These  chapters,  in  great  part,  helong  chronologically  to  the  period 
of  the  history  considered  in  this  volume,  and  contain  detailed  information 
respecting  the  family  and  tribal  connections  of  individuals  named  upon  these 
pages.  Obviously  it  is  impracticable,  icith  our  limited  space,  to  do  more  than 
note  these  points  as  a  helpful  reference  to  the  student-reader . — B. 


TABLE  TO  FIND  ANY  VERSE 


IN  EXODUS. 


CHAP. 

VERSES. 

SECTION. 

CHAP. 

VEP.SES. 

SECTION. 

CHAP. 

VERSES. 

SECTION 

XII. 

15-23 

uo 

XXII. 

16,  17 

152 

XXIX. 

. 

1-37 

127 

37-43 

02 

18 

153 

38-43 

139 

43-19 

140 

19 

152 

44-46 

12^ 

50,  51 

92 

20 

153 

XXX 

1-10 

122 

XIII. 

1,  3 

147 

21-27 

159 

11-16 

123 

3,4 

92 

23 

156 

17-21 

124 

5-13 

140 

29,  33 

147 

22-38 

123 

11-16 

147 

31 

148 

XXXI. 

1-11 

120 

17-22 

91 

XXIII. 

1-3 

156 

12-17 

139 

XIV. 

1-9 

93 

4,  5 

160 

18 

116 

10-31 

94 

6-8 

156 

XXXII. 

1-6 

115 

XV. 

1-21 

95 

9 

159 

7-29 

116 

22-27 

96 

10,  11 

144 

30-35 

117 

xvr. 

1-36 

37 

12 

139 

XXXIII. 

1-18 

117 

XVII. 

1-16 

99 

13 

153 

19-23 

118 

XVIII. 

1-27 

155 

14-17 

138 

XXXIV. 

1-9 

118 

XIX. 

1,  2 

130 

18 

140 

10-35 

119 

3-9 

10 1 

19 

147 

XXXV. 

1-3 

139 

10-25 

104 

19 

169 

4-35 

120 

XX. 

1 

105 

23-33 

113 

XXXVI. 

1-7 

120 

2-6 

101 

XXIV. 

1,  3 

1  5 

8-38 

1  1 

7-11 

107 

3-8 

114 

XXXVII. 

1-23 

122 

12-14 

108 

9-18 

115 

29 

123 

15-17 

109 

XXV. 

1-9 

1.0 

XXXVIII. 

1-23 

124 

18-21 

112 

10-43 

122 

21-31 

120 

22-26 

113 

XXVI. 

1-33 

121 

XXXIX. 

1-31 

125 

XXI. 

1 

113 

34,  35 

122 

33-43 

126 

2-11 

145 

36,  37 

121 

XL. 

1-11 

126 

13-14 

158 

XXVII. 

1-19 

124 

12-15 

127 

15-36 

157 

33,  21 

123 

16-35 

126 

XXII. 

1-15 

157 

XXVIII. 

1-43 

125 

36-38 

164 

TABLE  TO  FIND  ANY  VERSE 

IN  LEVITICUS. 

h 


CHAP, 

VERSES. 

SECTION. 

CHAP. 

VERSES. 

SECTION.  I 

I  CHAP. 

VERSES. 

SECTION. 

I. 

1-17 

183 

XVIII. 

21 

153 

XX. 

27 

153 

II. 

1.-16 

134 

22-30 

152 

XXI. 

1-24 

129 

III. 

1-17 

135 

XIX. 

1,3 

110 

XXII. 

1-16 

129 

IV. 

1-35 

136 

3,4 

161 

17-33 

132 

V. 

1-13 

13fi 

5-8 

135 

XXIII. 

1,  2 

138 

14-19 

137 

9,  10 

159 

O 

o 

139 

VI. 

1-7 

137 

11,  12 

161 

4 

138 

8-13  . 

133 

13 

159 

5-14 

140 

14-18 

134 

14 

161 

15-21 

141 

19-23 

127 

15 

156 

22 

159 

24-30 

136 

16-18 

161 

23-25 

141 

VII. 

1-6 

137 

18 

110 

26-32 

142 

7-10 

129 

19 

161 

33  44 

143 

11-21 

135 

20-22 

152 

XXIV. 

1-9 

123 

22-27 

148 

23-25 

147 

10-21 

157 

28-30 

135 

26 

148 

17,  21 

158 

31-38 

129 

27,  28 

161 

22 

159 

VIII. 

1-36 

127 

29 

152 

23 

157 

IX. 

1-24 

128 

30 

161 

XXV. 

1-34 

144 

X. 

1-20 

163 

31 

153 

35-38 

159 

XI. 

1-47 

148 

32 

161 

39-55 

145 

XII. 

1-8 

150 

33,  34 

159 

XXVI. 

1 

153 

XIIL 

1-59 

149 

35-37 

161 

2 

161 

XIV. 

1-57 

149 

XX. 

1-6 

153 

3-13 

190 

XV. 

1-33 

150 

7,8 

110 

14-46 

191 

XVI. 

1-34 

142 

9 

157 

XXVII. 

1-29 

146 

XVII. 

1-16 

132 

10-24 

152 

30-34 

147 

XVIII. 

1-20 

152 

24-26 

148 

TABLE  TO  FIND  ANY  VERSE 

IN  NUMBERS. 


CHAP. 

VERSES. 

SECTIOTSr. 

CHAP. 

VERSES. 

SECTION. 

CHAP. 

VERSES. 

SECTION. 

I. 

1-54 

165 

XV. 

1-16 

134 

XXVIII. 

26-31 

141 

11. 

1-34 

165 

. 

17-21 

147 

XXIX. 

1-6 

141 

III. 

1-4 

165 

22-31 

136 

1 

7-11 

142 

5-13 

130 

32-36 

157 

12-40 

143 

14-51 

165 

37-41 

111 

XXX. 

1-16 

146 

IV. 

1-49 

165 

XVI. 

1-50 

171 

XXXI. 

1-54 

178 

V. 

1-4 

149 

XVII. 

1-13 

171 

XXXII. 

1-42 

179 

5-8 

137 

XVIII. 

1-5 

129 

XXXIII. 

1,  2 

170 

9,  10 

129 

6 

130 

3-5 

92 

11-31 

152 

7-20 

129 

6,  7 

93 

VI. 

1-21 

146 

21-24 

130 

8 

94 

22-27 

128 

25-32 

129 

8-10 

96 

VII. 

1-89 

126 

XIX. 

1-22 

150 

11 

97 

VIII. 

1-4 

122 

XX. 

1-13 

172 

12-14 

99 

5-26 

130 

14-29 

173 

15 

100 

IX. 

1-14 

164 

XXI. 

1-10 

173 

16 

166 

15,  16 

126 

11-18 

174 

17 

168 

17-23 

164 

19-35 

175 

18 

169 

X. 

1-10 

122 

XXII. 

1-41 

176 

19-36 

170 

11-28 

166 

XXIII. 

1-10 

176 

37-43 

173 

29-32 

164 

11-30 

177 

44 

174 

33-36 

166 

XXIV. 

1-25 

177 

45-49 

175 

XI. 

1-34 

167 

XXV. 

1-18 

178 

50-56 

179 

35 

168 

XXVI. 

1-62 

179 

XXXIV. 

1-29 

179 

XII. 

1-15 

168 

63-65 

180 

XXXV. 

1-8 

180 

16 

169 

XXVII. 

1-23 

180 

9-34 

158 

XIII. 

1-33 

169 

XXVIII. 

1-15 

139 

XXXVI. 

1-13 

180 

XIV. 

1-45 

169 

16-25 

140 

TABLE  TO  FIND  ANY  YEBSE 


IN  DEUTERONOMY. 


CHAP.  VERSES. 

SECTION 

CHAP.  VERSES 

SECTION. 

CHAP. 

VKRSES. 

SECTION. 

CHAP.  VERSES. 

SECTION. 

1.  1 

183 

IX.  1-8 

1*5 

XVI. 

21,  22 

153 

XXIV.  5 

ICO 

2 

170 

$ 

9 

115 

XVII. 

1 

132 

6 

159 

3-8 

183 

10-17 

116 

2-5 

153 

7 

157 

9-15 

155 

18-20 

118 

6-13 

156 

8,  9 

149 

16-18 

15G 

21 

118 

14-20 

186 

10-15 

159 

19 

170 

22-24 

185 

XVIII. 

1,  2 

130 

16 

i:6 

20-45 

169 

25-29 

118 

3-5 

129 

17-22 

159 

46 

170 

X.  1-3 

118 

6-8 

130 

XXV.  1-3 

156 

II.  1-25 

174 

4,5 

119 

9-14 

153 

4 

160 

26-37 

175 

6,  7 

173 

15-22 

187 

5-12 

152 

III.  1-11 

175 

8,  9 

130 

XIX. 

1-13 

158 

13-16 

161 

12-20 

179 

10 

118 

14 

161 

17-19 

188 

21-29 

180 

11 

166 

15-20 

156 

XXVI.  1-19 

188 

IV.  1-10 

182 

12-22 

186 

21 

157 

XXVII.  1-26 

189 

11-13 

105 

18,  19 

159 

XX. 

1-4 

187 

XXVIII.  1-14 

190 

14-40 

182 

XL  1-17 

185 

5-7 

160 

15-68 

191 

41-43 

ISO 

18-21 

111 

8-20 

187 

XXIX.  1-28 

192 

44-49 

183 

22-32 

185 

XXI. 

1-9 

158 

29 

193 

V.  1-3 

183 

Xll.  1-4 

153 

10-17 

160 

XXX.  1-10 

194 

4,  5 

112 

5-23 

186 

18-23 

157 

11-14 

193 

6-10 

103 

0^5  oo 

153 

XXII. 

1-4 

160 

15-20 

194 

11-15 

107 

XIII.  1-18 

153 

5 

161 

XXXI.  1-29 

195 

16-18 

103 

XIV.  1,  2 

lUl 

6-8 

160 

30 

196 

19-21 

199 

3-21 

118 

9-12 

161 

XXXII.  1-44 

190 

22 

105 

21 

160 

13-30 

152 

45  -47 

193 

23-31 

112 

22-29 

117 

XXIII. 

1,  2 

161 

48-52 

198 

32,  33 

183 

XV.  1-11 

144 

3-8 

18  5 

XXXIII.  1-29 

197 

YL  1-3 

183 

12-18 

145 

9-14 

150 

XXXIV.  1-12 

198 

4,  5 

110 

19-23 

147 

15,  16 

145 

1  Chronicles, 

S-9 

111 

XVI.  1-8 

140 

17,  18 

152 

Chapters  11. , 

10-19 

183 

9-12 

141 

19,  20 

159 

IV.,  V.,  VI., 

20-25 

111 

13-15 

143 

21-23 

146 

VII  ,VIIL,199. 

VII.  1-26 

183 

16,  17 

138 

24,  25 

159 

VIII.  1-20 

18  ^ 

18-20 

156 

XXIV. 

1-4 

152 

I 


AUTHORS  CITED,  AND  KEY  TO  ABBREYIATIONS. 

[The  titles  and  publishers  of  leading  works,  additional  to  those  given  in  previous  volumes, 
are  here  appended  to  the  names  of  authors.  A  helpful  service  in  the  interest  of  readers  and 
writers  is  thus  subserved.] 


J.  W.  A. 
J.  A.  A. 

W.  L.  A 
ALf. 


An. 


William  Adams,  D.D. 

Joseph  Addison. 

Rev.  A.  S.  Aglen. 

Henry  Ainsworth,  D.D.  d.  1603. 
Jas.  W.  Alexander,  D.D. 

J.  Addison  Alexander,  D.D. 

Wm.  L.  Alexander,  D.D. 

Pul.  Corn.  Deni. 

Henry  Alford,  D.D. 

Peter  Allix,  D.D.  d.  1717. 

S.  J.  Andrews,  D.D. 

Joseph  Angus,  D.D. 

An  Unknown  Writer. 

Thomas  Arnold,  D.D. 

Wm.  Ashmore,  D.D. 

C.  A.  Auberlen,  D.D. 

Augustine,  d.  430. 


N.  C.  B. 


W.  A.  B. 

B. 


Calv. 


€.  G.  B. 
S.  C.  B. 


E.  C.  B. 


W.  G.  B. 


Lord  Bacon,  d.  1626. 

Prof.  W.  F.  Bahr. 

Rev.  Albert  Barnes. 

C.  G.  Barth,  D.D. 

Sam’l  C.  Bartlett,  D.D. 

From  Egypt  to  Palestine  (Harpers,  N.  Y.) 
Wm.  Bates,  D.D. 

M.  Baumgarten,  D.D. 

Wm.  J.  Beecher,  D.D. 

A.  J.  F.  Behrends,  D.D. 

Bp.  Wm,  Beveridge,  d.  1708. 

Wm.  Binnie,  D.D. 

Pul.  Com.  Num. 

T.  R.  Birks,  D.D. 

Edwin  C.  Bissell,  D.D. 

The  Pentateuch :  Its  Origin  and  Struc¬ 
ture.  (Scribners,  N.  Y.) 

Analysis  of  Codes.  (Funk  &  Wagnalls.) 

Sir  Wm.  Blackstone. 

Wm.  G.  Blaikie,  D.D. 

Rev.  J.  J.  Blunt. 

F.  Bovet. 

Rev.  Chas.  Bradley. 

Thomas  Brainerd,  D.D. 

Chas.  A.  Briggs,  D.D. 


T.  C. 


A.  C. 


W.  C. 
C.  C. 


Thomas  Brooks,  d,  1680. 
Jacob  Bryant,  D.D.,  d.  1804. 
John  Bunyan,  d.  1688. 

J.  L.  Burckhardt. 

N.  C.  Burt,  D.D. 

George  Bush,  D.D. 

Com.  Exod.  Lev..,  etc. 

Horace  Bushnell,  D.D. 

Bp.  Joseph  Butler,  d.  1753. 
Wm.  Archer  Butler,  D.D. 

J.  Glentworth  Butler,  D.D. 


John  Caird,  D.D. 

John  Cairns  D.D. 

Augustine  Calmet,  d.  1757. 
John  Calvin,  d.  1574. 

W.  H.  Campbell,  D.D. 
Franklin  Carter,  D.D. 

Joseph  Caryl,  d.  1673. 

Alfred  Cave,  D.D. 

Sacrificial  System ;  Pul.  Com.  Lev. 
Thomas  Chalmers,  D.D. 

T.  W.  Chambers,  D.D. 
Stephen  Charnoch,  d.  1680. 

G.  B.  Cheever,  D.D. 

Theodore  Christlieb,  D.D. 
Chrysostom,  d.  458. 

R.  W.  Church,  D.D. 

Lord  Clarendon. 

Adam  Clarke,  D.D. 

Commentary. 

Samuel  Clark,  D.D, 

Bih.  Com.  Exod.  Lev. 

Rev.  Wm.  Clarkson. 

Pul.  Com.  Lev. 

Rev.  C.  Clemance. 

Pul.  Com.Deut. 

B.  F.  Cocker,  D.D. 

Lyman  Coleman,  D.D. 

Rev.  R.  Collins. 

Pul.  Com.  Lev. 

Eustace  R.  Conder,  D.D. 


754 


AUTHORS  CITED,  AND  KEY  TO  ABBREVIATIONS. 


H.  C. 


J.  C. 


D.  D. 


Die.  B. 


A.  E. 


B.  B.  E. 

Enc.  Met. 


P.  E. 


G.  P.  F. 
J.  F. 

D.  F. 


F.  C.  Cook,  D.D, 

Bib.  Com.  Exod. 

Henry  Cowles,  D.D.  ‘ 

Heb.  History  ;  Pentateuch. 

Rev.  Samuel  Cox. 

Howard  Crosby,  D.D. 

The  Decalogue. 

John  Cumming,  D.D. 
Samuel  Ives  Curtiss,  D.D. 
Levitical  Priests.  (Clark,  Edin.) 


R.  W.  Dale,  D.D. 

Ten  Commandments.  (Hodder  &  Co., 
Lon.) 

C.  Daubeny,  D.D.,  d.  1827. 

Rev.  D.  Davies. 

Pxd.  Com.  Pent. 

Sir  Humphrey  Davy. 

Sir  William  Dawson, LL.D. 

Rev.  G.  Deane. 

Franz  Delitsch,  D.D. 

Commentary,  etc. 

F.  B.  Denio,  D.D. 

John  DeWitt,  D.D. 

Dictionary  of  the  Bible. 

(Wm.  Smith.) 

Dieterici. 

Isaac  D’Israeli. 

Genius  of  Judaism. 

Prof.  H,  Drummond. 

Alex.  Duff,  D.D. 

John  W.  Dulles,  D.D. 

JohnP.  Durbin,  D.D. 

David  Durell,  D.D.,  d.  1775. 
Timothy  Dwight,  D.D.,  d.  1817. 

J.  Oswald  Dykes,  D.D. 

Law  of  Ten  Words. 


Prof.  Geo.  Ebers. 

Alfred  Edersheim,  D.D. 

Exodus  and  Wanderings.  (Rel.  Tr. 
Soc.,  Lon.) 

Rev.  R.  M.  Edgar. 

Pul.  Com.  Lev.  Num. 

Jonathan  Edwards,  D.D. 

B.  B.  Edwards,  D.D. 
Encyclopaedia  Metropolitana. 

C.  Elliott,  D.D. 

T.  E.  Espin,  D.D. 

Bib.  Com.  Num.  Deut. 

G.  H.  A.  Ewald,  D.D. 


Rev.  F.  W.  Faber. 

Patrick  Fairbairn,  D.D. 
Fred’k  W.  Farrar,  D.D. 
Fastidius. 

Henry  M.  Field,  D.D. 

On  the  Desert.  (Scribners,  N.  Y.) 

Geo.  P.  Fisher,  D.D. 

John  Foster. 

Donald  Fraser,  D.D. 

Wm.  Fraser,  D.D. 

Andrew  Fuller,  d.  1815. 


Oerl. 

J.  M.  G. 


E.  M.  G. 

W.  H.  G. 


Fred’k  Gardiner,  D.D. 

Heb.  Rel.  Not  a  Development.  (Punk  & 
Wagnalls,  N.  Y.) 

F.  A.  Gast,  D.D. 

Cunningham  Geikie,  D.D. 

Otto  vonGerlach,  D.D. 

Com.  on  Pentateuch. 

J.  Monro  Gibson,  D.D. 

Mosaic  Era.  (Randolph,  N.  Y.) 

Rev,  C.  R.  Gillett. 

William  Gilpin,  D.D.,  d.  1807. 

C.  D.  Ginsburg,  D.D. 

F.  Godet,  D.D. 

E.  M.  Goulburn,  D.D. 

Bp.  Robert  Gray,  d.  1834. 

Richard  Graves,  D.D.,  d,  1829. 

Wm.  H.  Green,  D.D. 

W.  A.  Greenhill,  M.D. 

Rev.  George  S.  Grey,  d.  1885. 

Eight  Studies  on  Lord's  Day.  (Hough¬ 
ton,  N,  Y.) 

F.  Guizot. 

Thomas  Guthrie,  D.D. 


William  Hales,  D.D.,  d.  1819. 

Bp.  H.  Bp.  Joseph  Hall,  d.  1656. 

Contemplations  on  0.  T. 

Robert  Hall,  D.D. 

James  Hamilton,  D.D. 

Moses,  the  Man  of  God.  (Nesbit,  Lon.)i 

Hardwick. 

Prof.  W.  R.  Harper, 

Old  Test.  Student. 

J.  H.  John  Harris,  D.D. 

H.  A.  Havernick,  D.D. 

F.  E.  Hawks,  D.D. 

Hengst.  E.  W.  Hengstenberg,  D.D. 

H.  Matthew  Henry,  D.D.,  d.  1714. 

J.  G.  Herder. 

G.  F.  Herrick,  D.D. 

Roswell  D.  Hitchcock,  D.D. 

Rev.  F.  W.  Holland. 

Horn.  Rev.  Homiletic  Review,  New  York. 

Richard  Hooker,  D.D.,  d.  1600. 

M.  H.  Mark  Hopkins,  D.D. 

Law  of  Love. 

T.  H.  Horne,  D.D. 

Introd.  to  0.  T. 


Bp.  Samuel  Horsley,  d.  1806. 
John  Howe,  D.D.,  d.  1705. 
Prof.  Edward  Hull,  Mount  Seir. 

F.  D.  H.  Bp.  F.  D.  Huntington. 

E.  P.  Humphrey,  D.D. 


Robert  Jamieson,  D.D. 

Commentary. 

Jews  Letters. 

Jos.  Jones,  D.D. 

Wm.  Jones,  of  Nuyland,  d.  1800.. 
John  Jortin,  D.D.,  d.  1770. 
Flavius  Josephus,  d.  93. 


AUTHORS  CITED,  AND  KEY  TO  ABBREVIATIONS. 


755 


Kit. 

K. 


M.  M.  Kalisch. 

J.  F.  Keil,  D.D. 

Benj.  Kennicott,  D.D.,  d.  1783. 
John  Ker,  D.D. 

Bp.  Richard  Kidder,  d.  1703. 
John  Kitto,  D.D. 

Daily  Bible  Ulus.  (Carters,  N.  Y.) 
J.  H.  Kurtz,  D.D. 

Hist.  Old  Covenant.  (Clark,  Edin.) 


O. 


T.  L. 

H.  P.  L. 


Archbp.  Robert  Deighton,  d.  1684. 
John  Leighton,  D.D. 

Jewish  Altar.  (Punk  AWagnalls.) 
John  Leland,  D.D.,  d  1766. 

Tayler  Leivis,  LL.D. 

Thomas  Lewis,  1724. 

H.  P.  Liddon,  D.D. 

John  Lightfoot,  D.D.,  d.  1675. 

E.  A.  Litton,  D.D. 

Moses  Lowman,  D.D. 

Bp.  Robert  Lowth,  d.  1787. 

Martin  Luther,  d.  1546. 


J.  P. 

Tic.  Bib. 


J.  L.  P. 


James  McCosh,  D.D. 

D.  M.  Donald  Macdonald,  D.D. 

Introd.  to  Pent. 

Rev.  J.  A.  Macdonald. 

Pul.  Com.  Lev. 

Norman  McLeod,  D.D. 

Rev.  Alex.  MacWhorter. 

A.  M.  Alex.  Maclaren,  D.D. 

Archbp.  Wm.  Magee,  d.  1831. 
Bp.  W.  C.  Magee. 
Maimonides. 

K.  M.  Erskine  Mason,  D.D. 

Geo.  Matheson,  D.D. 
Meilziner. 

Henry  Melville,  D.D. 

Selah  Merrill,  D.D. 

F.  Meyrick,  D.D., 

Pul.  Com.  Lev. 

J.  D.  Michaelis,  d.  1791. 
Samuel  Miller,  D.D. 

Wm.  Milligan,  D.D. 

H.  H.  Milman,  D.D. 

History  of  Jews . 

Bp.  George  Moberly. 

Baron  Montesquieu,  d.  1755. 
Prof.  A.  D.  Morse. 

J.  B.  Mozley,  D.D. 

M.  Jas.  G.  Murphy,  D.D. 

Commentary. 


Edouard  Naville. 

Goshen.  (Trubner,  Lon.) 

J.  H.  Newman,  D.D. 

Bp.  Thos.  Newton,  d.  1782. 
Richard  Newton,  D.D. 
Damascenus  Nicolas. 

B.  G.  Niebuhr. 

J.  P.  N.  Rev.  J.  P.  Norris. 


G.  R. 

R.  A.  R. 


F.  W.  R. 
S.  R. 


H.  B.  S. 
R.  P.  S. 

P.  S. 


R.  S.  S. 


I.  T. 


G.  F.  Oehler,  D.D. 

C.  Von  Orelli,  D.D. 

Rev.  J.  Orr. 

Pul.  Com.  Deut. 

John  Owen,  D.D.,  d.  1683. 
Oxford  Catechism. 


Prof.  E.  H.  Palmer. 

Desert  of  the  Exodus,  etc. 

Wm.  Paley,  D.D.,  d.  1805. 

Bp.  Symon  Patrick,  d.  1707. 

Joseph  Parker,  D.D. 

People's  Bible.  (Funk  &  Wagnalls,  N.Y.) 
Pictorial  Bible. 

A.  T.  Pierson,  D.D. 

R.  S.  Poole. 

E.  R.  Pope,  D.D. 

W.  B.  Pojje,  D.D. 

J.  L.  Porter,  D.D. 

Giant  Cities  of  Bashan,  etc. 

Bp.  B.  Porteous,  d.  1808. 

Rev.  Geo.  E.  Post,  M.D. 

Rev.  E.  S.  Prout. 

Pul.  Com.  Num. 

Rev.  Philip  Pyle,  d.  1799. 


Leopold  Ranke. 

George  Rawlinson,  D.D. 

Rev.  R.  A.  Redford. 

Pul.  Com.  Lev. 

Carl  Ritter. 

Fred’k  W.  Robertson,  D.D. 

Edward  Robinson,  D.D. 

Stuart  Robinson,  D.D. 

Unpublished  Lectures  on  0.  T.  sent  by 
the  author  for  these  volumes. 

Prof.  Henry  Rogers. 

Rev.  A.  J.  Rowland. 


Francis  de  Sales. 

Adolph  Saphir,  D.D. 

Rev.  A.  H.  Sayce. 

Philip  Scliafl’,  D.D. 

George  H.  Schodde,  D.D. 
Archbp.  Seeker,  d.  1768. 

Jas.  Scott,  D.D. 

Bp.  Thos.  Sherlock,  d.  1761. 

Jas.  Sime. 

Henry  B.  Smith,  D.D. 

R.  Payne  Smith,  D.D. 

Philip  Smith. 

0.  T.  History.  (Harpers,  N.  Y.) 
Thos.  Stackhouse,  D.D.,  d.  1752. 
James  Stacy,  D.D. 

The  Day  of  Rest. 

A.  P.  Stanley,  D.D.  * 

Geo.  B.  Stevens,  D.D. 

R.  S.  Storrs,  D.D. 

George  Swinnock,  d.  1673. 


Isaac  Taylor. 

Bp.  Jeremy  Taylor,  d.  1667. 


756 


AUTHORS  CITED,  AND  KEY  TO  ABBREVIATIONS. 


W.  M.  T. 

J.  P.  T. 

S.  S.  T. 

H.  B.  T. 

H.  C.  T. 

Ydn  0. 

E.  V. 


William  M.  Taylor,  D.D. 

Moses,  the  Law-Giver.  (.Harpers,  N.  Y.) 

Bp.  Fred’k  Temple. 

A.  Tholuck,  D.D. 

Joseph  P.  Thompson,  D.D. 

Wm.  M.  Thompson,  D.D. 

J.  H.  Thornvvell,  D.D. 

Archbishop  Tillotson,  d.  1694. 

Sunday-School  Times,  Phila. 

London  Times. 

L.  T.  Townsend,  D.D. 

John  Trapp,  D.D.,  d.  1669. 

Archbp.  R.  C.  Trench. 

H.  B.  Tristam,  D.D. 

Land  of  Israel;  Land  of  Moab;  Bible 
Places  ;  Nat.  Hist  '.  Bib. 

H.  Clay  Trumbull,  D.D. 

Kadesh-Barnea.  (Scribners,  N.  Y.) 

Tuch. 

Rev.  Rich’d  Tudor. 

Decalogue. 


Henry  Van  Dyke,  D.D. 

J.  J.  Van  Oosterzee,  D.D. 

Life  of  Moses.  (Clark,  Edin.) 
Edmund  Venables,  D.D. 
Daniel  Veysie,  1795. 
Alexander  Vinet,  D.D. 

C.  Vitringa.  d.  1722. 


Arehbp.  Wm.  Wake,  d.  1737. 

Robt.  Walker,  D.D.,  d.  1783. 

Rev.  Richard  Warner,  1823. 

H.  W.  Warren,  D.D. 

Daniel  Waterland,  D.D.,  d.  1740. 

Bp.  Richard  Watson,  d.  1816. 

Thomas  Watson,  d.  1689. 

Edward  Wells,  D.D.,  d.  1727. 

B.  r.  Westcott,  D.D. 

Social  Aspects  of  Christianity.  (Mac 
millan,  N.  Y.) 

A.  M.  Weston,  D.D. 

Rev.  J.  T.  Wheeler. 

Thomas  WhitelaAV,  D.D. 

Pul.  Com. 

Wm.  C.  Wilkinson,  D.D. 

Wm.  R.  Williams,  D.D. 

Sir  Chas.  Wilson. 

E.  C.  Wines,  D.D. 

Laws  of  Anc.  Hebrews.  (Pres.  Bd.,  Phila.) 

Rev.  R.  Winterbotham. 

Pul.  Com.  Num. 

J.  L.  Withrow,  D.D. 

Bp.  Lawrence  Womock,  d.  1685. 
T.  D.  Woolsey,  D.D. 


Rev.  D.  Young. 

Pul.  Com.  Num, 


E.  C.  W. 
R.  W. 


